Part 28

The following autumn he joined the American army as _aide-de-camp_ to General Green, and in 1777 he was appointed by Congress Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs; after two years he was dismissed, under the accusation of indiscretion as to diplomatic secrets. In 1781 he accompanied Colonel Laurence, whom Congress had commissioned to try and raise a loan, to France. This mission was a complete success. Louis XVI. lent six millions of francs, and guaranteed another ten millions promised by Holland.

Peace having been declared, Paine returned to America. As a return for his services, Congress voted him 5500 dollars in two separate sums, and gave him a grant of 300 acres of land and a house.

Paine proceeded to work out various scientific and mechanical problems, by which he hoped to realise a large fortune, his favourite dream being to throw an iron bridge over the Schuykill. Want of capital, and the impossibility of getting iron properly wrought or cast in America, caused his return to Europe. He proposed to present the model of his bridge to the French Academy of Science, Franklin giving him letters of introduction: the Academy received him well, and their committee made a favourable report. But politics, and not science, were in the air, and no one could be persuaded to put money into the venture. Paine then went to London in hopes of better luck; a Yorkshire ironmaster took up the invention, and an American merchant advanced the money; but the expenses proved far heavier than had been anticipated, the ironmaster went bankrupt, and his creditors arrested Paine, who only obtained his liberty at the sacrifice of most of his little fortune.

The Revolution had now broken out in France, and the English Whig party, which had at first shown much sympathy with the movement, became alarmed and shocked at the excesses and disorders it entailed. In 1790 Burke published his celebrated treatise, “Thoughts on the French Revolution,” which Paine answered by his equally well-known work, “The Rights of Man.” This book excited immense indignation in England among the general public, and its author was burnt in effigy in the streets. The second part of the “Rights of Man,” which was published in February 1792, was still more violent, containing direct personal attacks upon George III. These books delighted the extremists, and were immediately translated into French. The British Ministry issued a royal proclamation forbidding seditious writings, and summoned Paine before the Court of King’s Bench.

At the same time a deputation of electors arrived from France to inform Paine that he had been elected a Member of the Convention; flattered by this distinction, he started at once for France, and an hour after he had sailed the order for his arrest arrived. He was tried by default, and his sentence was banishment for life from Great Britain and Ireland. As he could not speak French, he was unable to take part in the debates of the Convention; but when the King’s trial took place he fought courageously against the death sentence, and caused the following expression of his opinions to be read aloud by one of his fellow members:

To kill Louis would not only be a gross act of inhumanity, but also of insane folly. His death would augment the number of your enemies. If I could speak French I would now descend and appear as a humble suppliant before your bar, imploring you in the name of my generous American brethren not to send Louis to execution.

This generous action on the part of Paine completely destroyed his credit with the Jacobins, and also in a great measure his general popularity in France. The governing party were from that time his open enemies; Robespierre erased his name from the list of members of the Convention, as “a foreigner who was an enemy to Liberty and Equality.” He was arrested and imprisoned in the Luxemburg.

Thomas Paine remained for more than a year in prison in daily expectation of death. It was only by a mistake on the part of his gaoler in reading out the names of the condemned that he escaped execution. Even the fall of Robespierre did not give him freedom; and he was at length liberated in November 1794, by the influence of Monroe, the American Minister, who claimed him as a citizen of the United States.

He attempted to obtain a seat in the Assembly, but was not elected. The long imprisonment had not only affected his health but also his intelligence. He published a work entitled the “Age of Reason”--a violent attack upon Christianity, which aroused a sensation in England, and evoked much energetic refutation of its teaching. It made Paine a vast number of enemies in the United States, and he rendered the situation still more impossible by publishing in 1797 a letter, full of bitterness and ill-nature, criticising the character and administration of Washington.

He did not leave France until the autumn of 1802, when he returned to America, where he found he had lost the consideration and respect which he formerly enjoyed in the United States.

His last years were spent in loneliness and neglect. He was thought by his enemies to be avaricious, dirty and careless of his appearance, and to indulge in intemperate habits. He died, almost forgotten, in New York in 1809, aged seventy-one, and was buried upon his farm at New Rochelle. In 1837 Cobbett transported the remains to England, where they were reverently received by the Radicals and Chartists of the day.

PIUS VI., GIOVANNI ANGELO, COUNT DE BRASCHI.

Born, December 27, 1717; died at Valence, August 29, 1799.

He was the only child of Count More Aurelius Braschi, the head of one of the oldest families in the Romagna. To his parents’ grief he insisted upon taking holy orders, and was appointed secretary to his maternal uncle, Cardinal Ruffio, Legate at Ferrara. Later Braschi became auditor to the Bishoprics of Ostia and Velletri; while in the latter city, in 1744, when there was an encounter between the Austrians and Neapolitans (the latter commanded by King Charles III. of Spain, then King of Naples), Braschi was able by his presence of mind to save the Neapolitan archives. This circumstance brought him to the notice of the King of Naples, who promised him his protection: shortly afterwards he successfully conducted a mission from the Pope to the King of Naples, and was appointed _Camariere Segreto_ and Canon of St. Peter’s. In 1758 he became a Prelate, and Treasurer-General of the Apostolic Chamber. Clement XIV. created him a Cardinal in 1773, and in 1775 he was elected Pope, under the title of Pius VI.

His reign inaugurated an era of reform; he issued many rules and regulations as to the dress and general conduct of the clergy, which at the time, owing to the indifference and weakness of his immediate predecessor’s administration, left much to be desired.

His position as treasurer had given him an insight into the abuses prevailing in the financial department of the Papal Government, and a reduction or suppression of a number of dishonestly obtained pensions took place. He published various laws for the protection of farmers and corn-dealers, and offered substantial pecuniary rewards to industrious and intelligent peasant farmers. A Congregation of Cardinals was called together to pass regulations to put a stop to the grave disorders occasioned by idleness, mendicity, and too low wages; the system of weights and measures was thoroughly investigated, and one contractor in particular, who had received 900,000 crowns from the Apostolic See during the famine of 1771–72 to buy grain for the assistance of ruined farmers, was forced to restore 280,000 crowns of this money to the Treasury. Pius VI. ordered the drainage of the Pontine Marshes, and employed for this purpose the celebrated engineer, Louis Benck; and although the work was not finished, owing to the Revolution, 12,000 acres were reclaimed. He also cleared the Appian Way, then impassable owing to the vast multitude of stone heaps from ruined buildings by which it was encumbered. Pius VI. embellished, completed, arranged, and classified the “Museo Clementino.” Combined with these reforms he gave great attention to charitable institutions, initiated those schools of the Christian Brothers which are now spread all over the world, and erected many orphanages and refuges for poor children of both sexes.

Pius’s serious troubles began with the accession of that misguided but well-meaning monarch, Joseph II. of Austria. This Emperor’s intentions were excellent, nor was he impious or irreligious, yet by his exorbitant pretensions to sovereignty in every department of the State, and his avowed intention to re-organise on his own responsibility the spiritual affairs of his Empire, he was a powerful agent to the enemies of Christianity. After having continued for some time a correspondence with the Emperor which led to no satisfactory understanding on either side, Pius VI. determined to seek a personal interview with him. Leaving on February 27, 1782, he arrived on March 22 at Vienna. The Emperor received the Pope with the utmost courtesy, but remained inflexible, and Pius VI. soon perceived that his long journey had been in vain. However, Joseph II. treated the Pope with the greatest outward magnificence, and endeavoured to appease him by offering the brevet of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire to Count Louis Braschi, the Pontiff’s nephew and heir. This the Pope refused, saying: “We are not occupied with the advancement or grandeur of our family, our interests are concentrated on those of the Church.” The following year Joseph II. returned the Pope’s visit, but on his way to Rome he appointed a new Archbishop of Milan without consulting the Holy See; but gave way, however, on this point later, and the result of the visit was the signature of a Concordat between the Pope and Austria, which put an end to the principal misunderstandings, although, until his death, Joseph never ceased to be a source of anxiety and annoyance to his Holiness.

The French Revolution brought more trouble to Pius VI. After the measures taken against the clergy, attacks began to be levelled at the Roman Curia. The Assembly introduced the “Constitution Civile du Clergé,” which, by abolishing the various hierarchical degrees, destroyed the ancient Gallican Church; and Avignon, a part of the Papal States since mediæval times, was formally united to France. The Pope was powerless, and the storm of war began to descend on Italy: Savoy and Nice were invaded, the clergy compelled to fly before the persecutions of the Republic, and the States of the Church were crowded by destitute ecclesiastics of every condition, who were hospitably entertained by the Pope, whose own turn of misfortune was at hand; the French Government accused him of being “an enemy of the changes in the French Government”; they invaded the Pontifical territory, and Pius signed in 1797 the treaty of Tolentio, by which he gave up Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna, and renounced all claims to the sovereignty over Avignon.

Throughout these reverses Pius VI. showed courage, self-control and prudence. The Directorate were determined to drive him from Rome; they therefore excited a riot in the city, and under pretence of quelling it, despatched an army, commanded by General Berthier, which camped under the walls of Rome, January 29, 1798. (As Bonaparte was at that time in Egypt, and did not return until after the death of the Pope, he took no part in the events which followed.)

On February 15, the French general threw off the mask, entered Rome, and the robbery and sacrilege commenced. Five days later the Swiss Haller, the corrupt treasurer of the French army, seized the person of the Pontiff, flung him by force into a post-chaise, and, without attendants, luggage or any conveniences for a winter’s journey, carried this infirm old man of eighty into exile. He was first taken to Siena, then to the Benedictine mountain fortress of San Cassiano, to Florence, to Parma, to Piacenza, to Turin; at length, worn out and half paralysed, he arrived at Valence on July 14, after enduring five months’ imprisonment, privation and misery, during which time no pity had been shown him, although his physical condition was most pitiful, for he had suffered a paralytic stroke, and from sheer weakness his body had become covered with ulcers. He was incarcerated in the ordinary prison of the citadel at Valence and kept in solitary confinement; but by this time he was indifferent to earthly affairs, and his time spent entirely in prayer. He retained his faculties to the last, and, as a special favour, permitted to receive the last Sacraments at the hands of a fellow prisoner, Mgr. Spina, Archbishop of Corinth.

Pius VI. died on August 26, 1799, at one o’clock in the morning, aged eighty-one years and eight months. His body was buried without any ceremony in the desecrated chapel of the citadel; but after the establishment of the Concordat it was, by the orders of the First Consul, removed to Rome, and now lies there in the Church of St. Peter. He was Pope for more than twenty-four years.

PELLETIER, JACQUES.

Born, 1760; died, 1839.

A rich landed proprietor who adopted revolutionary principles, represented the Department of Cher in the Convention, and voted for Louis XVI.’s death, subject to an appeal to the people. After the 9th Thermidor, he was sent to administer Languedoc, showed firmness, justice and moderation, and in 1795 was one of the Commissioners for the Directorate.

Banished as a regicide in 1816, he was allowed to return to France in 1819, and the last twenty years of his life were uneventful.

PRIEUR, CLAUDE ANTOINE DUVERNOIS.

Born, 1763; died, 1832.

The son of a receiver of taxes at Auxonne, Prieur was an officer in the Engineers at the time of the Revolution, which he joined from its outset. Elected by the _Côte d’Or_ to the Assembly, the Convention, and finally to the Council of the Five Hundred, he sat in all these Assemblies from 1791 to 1793, and distinguished himself by his genuine Republicanism, was for a short time President of the Convention, but after August 10 joined the Army of the Rhine.

At the King’s trial he voted for the immediate execution of the accused. Three months later the Convention sent him to Normandy to put down the counter revolutionary projects of the Girondins, who succeeded in arresting Prieur and his brother commissionary, and they remained fifty-one days in the prisons of Caen. On his return to Paris, Prieur became a member of the Committee of Public Safety (August 1793). At the time of the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Prieur was once more with the army, acting as a colonel in the Engineers, but being too republican to serve the First Consul, he in 1800 retired from military service.

He was one of those few among the revolutionists who was an admirable organiser and a practical man. He worked heart and soul for the re-establishment of Public Instruction, and together with Mouge helped to found the _École Polytechnique_. Prieur was the author of the great reform in the metric system.

PRONY, GASPARD CLAIR FRANÇAIS MARIE RICHE DE.

Born, 1755; died, 1839.

One of the greatest engineers of France. In 1787 he commenced the bridge, first called _Pont Louis XVI._, and now _Pont de la Concorde_, which was completed in 1791, when Prony was appointed chief engineer of France. The same year he undertook the composition of new tables of trigonometry adapted to the decimal division of the circle. Prony completed his work in three years, and in 1798 became the Director of the _École des Ponts et des Chaussées_ and professor of mechanics and mathematics at the _École Polytechnique_. Bonaparte made every effort to induce Prony to abandon this appointment and accompany him to Egypt, but was unsuccessful. During the Consulate and Empire, Prony’s word was considered law in all that concerned civil engineering in France, and after the restoration he retained his post at the _École Polytechnique_. In 1818 he was sent to Italy to carry out improvements in the Ports of Genoa, Pola, and Ancona, and to give an opinion upon the possible regularisation of the course of the Po, and in 1827 he carried out works which successfully stopped the annual floods in the Rhone valley, for which service Charles X. created him a Baron.

He died at the age of eighty-four.

LA REVEILLIÈRE, LOUIS MARIE.

Born, 1753; died, 1824.

One of the five Directors, and at the time of the dissolution of the Directorate their President. Unlike Barras and his co-directors, la Reveillière was an honest man and a sincere Republican. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon as First Consul or Emperor, and retired into private life after the events of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 1799).

REGNIER, DUC DE MASSA, CLAUDE AMBROISE.

Born, 1736; died, June 24, 1814.

He was at the time of the Revolution one of the most distinguished lawyers in Nancy. He pronounced violently in favour of the new doctrines, and was elected by the _Tiers État_ of his native town as their representative at the States-General. He took a considerable part in the debates of the Assembly, and defended Nancy against the attacks of the Jacobins. When the Convention took extreme measures, Regnier disappeared from Paris until the events of the 9th Thermidor were concluded. In 1795 he joined the Council of the Ancients, and became first Secretary to and then President of the Council. He opposed the return of the exiled _émigrés_ and caused the transportation of many priests (February 1796). He was re-elected in 1799, but as he was persuaded, by this time, that the Directorate could neither serve the peace nor the aggrandisement of France, he took an active part in arranging the _coup d’état_ of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 1799). It was in his house that the conspirators met the day before this event took place. When he was appointed a member of the _Conseil d’État_, he catalogued and investigated all details with regard to the National Domains. He was the principal author of that code of laws known as the _Code Napoleon_, still the law of France. In 1802 he became Minister of Justice and also Chief Judge of France; he held these offices until 1813. He was created Duc de Massa by the Emperor in 1805. In 1813, after resigning the portfolio of Minister of Justice, Regnier became President of the Corps Législatif. After the first abdication of Napoleon Regnier hoped to retain his position, but he was doomed to be disappointed, a misfortune which, together with the fall of the Emperor, to whom he was personally attached, probably hastened his death, which occurred two months later, at the age of seventy-eight.

ROBESPIERRE, MAXIMILIEN MARIE ISIDORE DE.

Born at Arras, May 6, 1756; died in Paris, July 1794.

The public history of Robespierre is so well known that it is unnecessary to give it here. A short description of his early life, previous to becoming a Deputy to the States-General in 1789, may, however, be of interest, as but little is known.

Robespierre’s father, a lawyer, was a man of eccentric habits and peculiar disposition, who after the death of his wife left his native town, and, it is believed, went to England and America. Nothing was again seen of him in France, nor did he ever communicate with his family. He left behind him three young children, Augustus, Maximilien, and a daughter Margaret. Of these Maximilien was adopted by two maiden aunts, who sent him to the College at Arras, and defrayed the expenses of his education. The religious circle in which his aunts lived brought the boy in contact with the wealthy and influential clergy of the town; a canon of the Cathedral of Arras took him under his immediate protection, and obtained for him, when twelve years of age, a _bourse_ or scholarship at the College of Louis le Grand, Paris. Robespierre, during his six years’ stay at this College, was studious, obedient, and intelligent, and took a first prize in the class of rhetoric. Among his schoolfellows were Camille, Desmoulins, and Fréron. On leaving college, Robespierre, who was very poor, studied law. A letter addressed by him to the Abbé Proyart, is still extant, in which he begs for a little help towards purchasing a decent suit of clothes in which to present himself before the Bishop of Arras, one of his protectors then in Paris. At this time (1778) Robespierre was twenty years of age. After completing his legal studies, he returned to his native town and exercised his profession as lawyer. His reputation had preceded him, and he soon obtained many clients, unfortunately for him most of them poorer than himself. Many reports of his pleadings remain--they are (most of them) mere declamations or speeches upon political and social questions; full of tirades against the “ignorance, prejudice, and those passions which form a redoubtable league against all men of genius--in order to punish these men for the services they render to humanity.” These speeches produced a great sensation. Robespierre invariably interlarded his discourses with the most fulsome eulogies of the King. In one speech he speaks of “that beloved and sacred head, the head of the Prince who is the delight and glory of France.” He occupied his spare time in literary pursuits, and wrote a great deal of indifferent poetry. He was in 1783 elected member of the Academy of Arras. His reputation for eloquence and intellect was now such that when the States-General assembled he was immediately chosen one of the sixteen representatives for the province of Artois. He was then so poor that he was obliged to borrow ten louis and a travelling trunk in order to be able to proceed to Paris. The inventory of the contents of his trunk is preserved, viz.: “six shirts, six neckcloths, and six pocket handkerchiefs, of which the greater portion are in good order.”

ROCHEFOUCAULT, FRANÇOIS ALEXANDRE FREDERIC, DUKE DE LA (_Liancourt_.) Born, 1737; died, 1827, aged eighty.