If the deputies who, on the 1st of October, 1791, so solemnly and
enthusiastically swore to the Constitution, had been willing to open
their eyes, they would have seen this Constitution constantly violated,
both in its letter and spirit, over the entire territory. As usual, and
through the vanity of authorship, M. Thouret, the last president of
the Constituent Assembly, had, in his final report, hidden disagreeable
truth underneath pompous and delusive phrases; but it was only necessary
to look over the monthly record to see whether, as guaranteed by him,
"the decrees were faithfully executed in all parts of the empire."--"
Where is this faithful execution to be found?" inquires Mallet du
Pan.[2301] "Is it at Toulon, in the midst of the dead and wounded, shot
in the very face of the amazed municipality and Directory? Is it at
Marseilles, where two private individuals are knocked down and massacred
as aristocrats," under the pretext "that they sold to children poisoned
sugar-plums with which to begin a counter-revolution?" Is it at Arles,
"against which 4,000 men from Marseilles, dispatched by the club, are at
this moment marching?" Is it at Bayeux, "where the sieur Fauchet
against whom a warrant for arrest is out, besides being under the ban
of political disability, has just been elected deputy to the Legislative
Assembly?" Is it at Blois, "where the commandant, doomed to death for
having tried to execute these decrees, is forced to send away a loyal
regiment and submit to licentious troops?" Is it at Nîmes, "where the
Dauphiny regiment, on leaving the town by the Minister's orders,
is ordered by the people" and the club "to disobey the Minister and
remain?" Is it in those regiments whose officers, with pistols at their
breasts, are obliged to leave and give place to amateurs? Is it at
Toulouse, "where, at the end of August, the administrative authorities
order all unsworn priests to leave the town in three days, and withdraw
to a distance of four leagues?" Is it in the outskirts of Toulouse,
"where, on the 28th of August, a municipal officer is hung at a
street-lamp after an affray with guns?" Is it at Paris, where, on
the 25th of September, the Irish college, vainly protected by an
international treaty, has just been assailed by the mob; where
Catholics, listening to the orthodox mass, are driven out and dragged
to the authorized mass in the vicinity; where one woman is torn from the
confessional, and another flogged with all their might?[2302]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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