Chapter 6

"No city in the world can offer such a spectacle as that of Paris, agitated by some great passion, because in no other the communication is so speedy, and the spirits so active. Paris contains citizens from all the provinces, and these various characters blended together compose the national character, which is distinguished by a wonderful impetuosity. Whatever they will do is done." Witness the taking of the _Bastille_ in a single day, which had formerly withstood the siege of a whole army during three and twenty days. And witness the 10th of August.

I have been frequently told by persons in England, that a regular and disciplined army may easily crush a herd of raw and inexperienced rabble, such as they supposed the French were, although ten times more numerous. This may possibly be the event in small numbers, but if we state the case with large numbers, for instance fifty thousand men of the greatest courage, and of the most perfect discipline, and who are fighting for pay, without any personal motive, against five hundred thousand men, whom we shall suppose utterly ignorant of the art of war, but who conceive they are fighting for their liberty and their country, for their families and their property, and then reflect on the courage and bravery of these very men, on their impetuosity, their _acharnement_, or desperate violence in fight, which may be compared to the irresistible force of water-spouts, and of whirlwinds, it may not appear too partial to conjecture, that such persons may perceive some little reason for suspending, if not for altering, their opinion,[41] and may now estimate the degree of danger this nation may apprehend from the attacks of extraneous powers, _provided its own people are unanimous_.

[Note 41: I saw many thousands of these men (from my windows) on their way to the _Tuileries_, early on _the_ Friday morning; their march was at the rate of perhaps five miles an hour, without running or looking aside; and this was the pace they used when they carried heads upon pikes, and when they were in pursuit of important business, rushing along the streets like a torrent, and attending wholly and solely to the object they had in view. On such occasions, when I saw them approaching, I turned into some cross street till they were passed, not that I had any thing to apprehend, but the being swept along with the crowd, and perhaps trampled upon. I cannot express what I felt on seeing such immense bodies of men so vigorously actuated by the same principle. I saw also many thousands of volunteers going to join the armies at the frontiers, marching along the _Boulevarts_, almost at the same pace, accompanied as far as the Barriers by their women, who were carrying their muskets for them; some with large sausages, pieces of cold meat, and loaves of bread, stuck on the bayonets, and all laughing, or singing _ça ira_.

The French writers themselves say, "In all popular commotions the women have always shown the greatest boldness."]

EMENDATIONS AND ADDITIONS. RETURN TO CALAIS.

THE paragraph at the bottom of page 11, is intended to be merely descriptive, but not ludicrous, so that the reader is requested to expunge the word _night_.

In the enumeration of the Bishopricks (page 14) I unaccountably omitted the ten metropolitan sees, which are those of _Paris, Lyon, Bourdeaux, Rouen, Reims, Besançon, Bourges, Rennes, Aix_ and _Toulouse_: Thus there are eighty-three bishopricks, or one for each department.

After what is said (in page 89) relative to the division of the country, there should, in justice, be added: "To the confused medley of _Bailiwicks, Seneschal-jurisdictions, Elections, Generalities, Dioceses, Parliaments, Governments, &c._ there succeeded a simple and uniform division; there were no longer any provinces, but only one family, one nation: France was the nation of eighty-three departments." Notwithstanding this, I regret the ancient _names_ of the provinces. The old _Atlas_ of France is become useless, as the whole of its geography is altered. The land is at present divided into nine regions, and each of these into nine departments; Paris and the country about ten miles around (24 square leagues) forms one, and the Island of _Corsica_ another department. In the modern _Atlas_, after every new name, is put _ci-devant_, and then the old name, thus: _Region du Levant, departement de la côte d'or, ci-devant Bourgogne_. I called one day, after dining in a tavern, for a bottle of wine of the _Departement de l'Aube, Region des Sources,_ the landlord consulted his _Atlas_, and then brought the bottle of _Champagne_ I required. It will be some time before foreigners are sufficiently familiarized to the new phrases which must be used for _Gascon, Normand, Breton, Provençal, Picard, &c._[42]

[Note 42: The author of the _Voyage de France_ says, "The actual division of France may appear to geographers as defective as the ancient one. Perhaps artists should have been more consulted. Then there would not have been shown in it so much of the spirit of party, which, in great assemblies, too often smothers the voice of reason, nor so many effects of the ignorance of political measurers, who lightly stride over barriers which nature has opposed to them, and who appear to have forgotten the necessity of communications."]

The following paragraphs are taken from the new _Voyage de France_.

"During fourteen hundred years, priority in follies, in superstition, in ignorance, in fanaticism, and in slavery, was the picture of France. It was just, therefore, that priority in philosophy, and in knowledge, should succeed to so many odious pre-eminences."

"The French people, to whom liberty is now new, are like the waves of the sea, which roll long after the tempest has ceased: and of which the agitation is necessary to depose on the shores the scum which covers them."

"The confusion inseparable from a new order of things, has necessarily caused Paris to swarm with vagabonds; so that far from being surprized that some crimes have been committed, we ought rather to wonder that they are not more frequent."

"When _Louis XVI._ was brought back to Paris (25 June, 1791) the inhabitants of _fauxbourgs_ pasted a placard (advertisement) against the walls, saying, 'Whoever applauds him shall be cudgelled, whoever attacks him shall be hanged.' An awful silence was observed."

After the account of the Pantheon (p. 28) should be added: In April, 1791, the body or _Mirabeau_ was deposited here; and in July following that of _Voltaire_. Soon after this it was decreed, that _Rousseau_ had merited the honours due to great men, but that his ashes should remain where they were.

To the lift of engravings of the _Maiden_ must be added another, prefixed to a little tract, called _Gibbet-Law_.

By _premier An de l'Egalité_,(first year of Equality) it is not to be understood that every person in France is equal, but that as they have no sovereign, no person is above, but every person is equally under the protection of the law. This matter has been both misunderstood and misrepresented in England.

On the 18th I was out of the barriers of Paris by three in the afternoon, and proceeded to _Chantilly_, where we[43] arrived at nine, and remained for the night. We were informed that two hundred _Sans-culottes_ and _Marseillois_ had walk'd here from Paris, (28 miles) two or three days before, had pulled down an equestrian statue, (probably that of the Constable _de Montmorenci_) cut off a man's head, carried it about the streets on a pike, _à la mode de Paris_, caught and eat most of the carp which had been swimming in the ponds which surround the palace above a hundred years, were then in the stables and intended to return to Paris the next day. They did no other damage to the building than breaking the _Condé_ arms, which were carved in stone.

[Note 43: The Gentleman who came with me, an English and an Irish Gentleman, with their Ladies, in their own chaises.

There is an octavo Description of _Chantilly_ just published, with a map, and twenty _mezzotinto_ views of the gardens.]

The night of the next day we passed at _Flixcourt_, and that of the Monday at the Post-house, at the foot of the hill on which _Boulogne_ is situated.

On Tuesday the 21st we arrived at Calais in the morning; the wind was so violent and unfavorable that we were detained here till the 24th, when we failed, and had a passage of seven hours to Dover.

There was nothing to remark on the road from Paris to Calais, except that the harvest was not yet got in, for want of hands, that the corn was _lodged_, and sowing itself again; that every person and thing was as quiet as if nothing had happened in Paris, and that no one knew the particulars of what _had_ happened.

At Calais many person wore trowsers, after the fashion of the _Sans-culottes_.

EPILOGUE.

SOON after my return to London the two following paragraphs appeared in the newspapers.

"T. has been over to France, botanizing, and has gotten what he went to seek."

"I'll tell you, my Lord Fool, From this Nettle danger we pluck the _Flower_ safety."

This I insert merely on account of the Bêtise of the quotation. The Dutch inscription on sticks of sealing-wax would have been as applicable.

"T. the Tourist was the first to fly from Paris on the prospect of the tumults of the 10th of August. He is now writing a History of the Bloody Murders which distinguished that day."

I suspect that the ingenious Genius who wrote this knew he was mistaking as to the former part of this paragraph. He may say _Trippist_ now.

I should not have seen either of these, had they not been pointed out to me by some of my "damned good-natured friends." I am in hopes of seeing a number of very pretty criticisms on the foregoing pages; many passages were written purposely to catch critics, as honey catches gnats; if just, they shall be attended to, should there be another edition; and if they are merely absurd, they shall be collected, and faithfully presented to the gentle reader. I have told the truth, and have not "set down aught in malice."

THE END.

*** There are a few trifling typographical errors in the foregoing sheets, which I shall leave to the correction of the reader, as not one of them affects the sense.