Part 29

This distinguished nobleman was the son of the Duke d’Estissac and of Marie, daughter and heiress of the Duke Alexandre de la Rochefoucault, from whom he inherited his title. He joined the regiment of Carabineers when a mere lad, and married at the age of seventeen. His father was Grand Master of the King’s _Garderobe_, this appointment being hereditary in the family. The young Duke of Liancourt, as he was then called, did not find favour with Madame du Barry. He left Court in 1769, and paid a long visit to England. On his return he put into practice, upon his estate at Liancourt, the industrial and agricultural improvements he had observed upon his journey; amongst other undertakings he started a model farm, and brought cattle from Switzerland and Germany, to improve the breed of cows. He founded an industrial school at Liancourt for the education and instruction of the children of poor soldiers. In 1786 de la Rochefoucault accompanied Louis XVI. on a progress through Normandy, and showed the King the various industrial and agricultural establishments of that province, then in a very prosperous condition. When the States-General assembled, the Duke de Liancourt was elected Deputy by the nobility of Clermont. His position in the Assembly was that of a defender of Royalty, and also of public liberty. On July 12, 1789, the Duke de Liancourt, who, though no courtier, was one of the few sincere friends of Louis XVI., for whom he had a personal regard, appeared at Versailles and gave a true and succinct account of the agitation which was pervading the capital. “It is a revolt,” said the astonished monarch. “Sire,” replied the Duke, “it is a _Revolution_.” The Bastille fell two days later. On July 18 the Duke was invested with the Presidency of the Assembly. After the session of the Assembly had concluded, he returned to Liancourt, where he continued his industrial experiments, and founded in 1790 work-rooms for spinning and weaving cotton and wool under a new process. As a lieutenant-general, his rank in the army, he commanded a military division in Normandy, and, when the first excesses of the Revolution began, implored the King and Royal Family to take refuge at Rouen. Had this proposal been accepted much trouble might have been averted. Upon the King’s refusal of his offer the Duke generously put at his disposal the sum of 150,000 livres (£6000). The horrors of August 10 decided the Duke to fly from France, and pass into England. In exile he was almost without resources. An old maiden lady, in whom--although she had never seen him--he inspired a romantic interest, left him her whole fortune, some £50,000. He refused to accept any part of the legacy, and handed the money to her legal heirs. The death of Louis XVI. induced the Duke de la Rochefoucault (since the massacre of his cousin in 1793, he had assumed this title) to leave Europe and spend several years in America, devoting his time to scientific studies, and observations of the Government and character of the people of the United States, and even of the Indians in Canada. Louis XVIII. sent him in 1798 an imperious message, commanding him to join him and take up his duties as Grand Master of the royal household, an order which the Duke respectfully declined; Louis XVIII. never forgave him, and there is little doubt the neglect and quasi-disgrace with which la Rochefoucault was treated after the Restoration arose mainly from this unforgotten incident.

In 1799 Rochefoucault returned to France, and dwelt for some time ignored in Paris; he was still, however, conferring benefits upon humanity. As soon as his name was erased from the list of _émigrés_ he started a committee for vaccination in Paris, and opened a dispensary for the purpose of making this remedy known among the people. When he was allowed to return to Liancourt, he found to his delight that notwithstanding the storms of the Revolution, every succeeding Government since his departure had respected the institutions he had created. The Emperor Napoleon bestowed upon him the legion of honour, but affected to treat him as a manufacturer, and did not offer him a peerage. The Duke lived entirely at Liancourt. In 1809 when Napoleon restored his title, and gave him the right of grand entry to the Imperial Court, la Rochefoucault did not take advantage of this favour, and remained in retirement until the Restoration. Louis XVIII. treated him with marked coldness and disfavour, and did not appoint him to any office at Court. Rochefoucault, nevertheless, was a member of the House of Peers as a Duke of France. In 1816 he was elected member of the general council of the hospitals of Paris. The Duke de la Rochefoucault inaugurated the “Society of Christian Morals” in 1821, and soon afterwards became President of the school of _Arts et Métiers_, founded by him at Liancourt, now transferred to Châlons, and member of the Councils of Agriculture, Hospitals and Prisons. In 1823 the reactionist Ministry, who disapproved of his political views, relieved him of all his public but strictly honourable functions, on the ground of his age (76). Not daring to deprive him of his Presidency of the Committee on vaccination, they suppressed this Committee altogether. On March 21, 1827, whilst the Duke was speaking in the Chamber of Peers, he was suddenly seized with a fit, and expired four days later.

On the day of his funeral, a number of old students of his school of _Arts et Métiers_ came to the church, with the intention of carrying his coffin; when they attempted to do so, they were suddenly charged by a troop of mounted _gens d’armes_ in the Rue St. Honoré, and the Duke’s coffin fell in the mud, his coronet and other symbols of the peerage being trampled under foot.

ROEDERER, PIERRE LOUIS, COMTE DE.

Born 1654 at Metz; died in 1735.

His father, a lawyer at Strasbourg, compelled his son, who was an ardent disciple of Jean Jacques Rousseau, to follow the parental profession, much against his will.

Roederer began his political life in 1788, by publishing a pamphlet on the “Deputation to the States-General,” when he also became a journalist. Sent by the electors of Metz to the States-General, as a representative of the _Tiers État_, he took an important part in the debates, proposing the new law reforms, the institution of trial by jury, the abolition of religious orders and of titles of nobility, and demanding also liberty for the press and equality in political rights for every citizen. He showed great financial ability, compiled the new stamp and patent laws, inventing a new system of taxation. He was a member of the Jacobin Society until June 20, 1792, after which date (the day of the first invasion of the Tuileries) he seceded from the club, and from that period the extreme party were his mortal enemies. On August 10 he, together with Merlin, conducted the Royal Family to the Assembly, and protected, helped, and comforted them to the best of his power.

The following day he was denounced by the Jacobins, but not arrested, and he prudently disappeared from the Assembly, and devoted himself entirely to the sub-editorship of the _Journal de Paris_. An article in this paper, dated January 6, 1793, in which Roederer denied the right of the Convention to try the King, brought him into immediate danger; however, he fled from Paris, and did not reappear there until after the 9th Thermidor (July 28, 1794).

In 1795 he became editor of the _Journal de Paris_. He was threatened with transportation to Guienne during the Directorate, and only saved by the direct intervention of Talleyrand. He was now satisfied that a firm and stable government was the sole means of the regenerating of France, and was therefore an active agent for what he termed the “generous and patriotic conspiracy” of the 18th Brumaire. He wrote the “Address to the Parisians,” which was placarded upon the walls of Paris on that eventful morning.

Bonaparte made him Councillor of State on 25th December, 1799, and in 1802 he was named Director of _L’Esprit Public_, a position which gave him control of all the theatres and of public instruction. In 1806 he was sent to Naples, of which Joseph Bonaparte had just been created King, and by Napoleon’s orders undertook the duty of Neapolitan Finance Minister, which post he continued to hold under Murat. In 1810 he was appointed administrator to the Grand Duchy of Berg. When the Bourbons returned, he quitted political life and retired to his country seat, the Château of Bois Roussel, devoting himself until 1830 to literary pursuits.

After the accession of Louis Philippe he was again summoned to the Chamber of Peers, and, notwithstanding his advanced age, took a considerable part in debate, publishing a pamphlet, _Lettre aux Constitutionnels_, which caused a violent excitement all over Paris. In it he attacked the doctrine that “The King reigns, but does not govern.”

Roederer died from an accident at the age of eighty-one, when still in the enjoyment of good health and spirits.

DE SADE, MARQUIS ALPHONSE FRANÇOIS.

Born in Paris 1740; died in the madhouse at Charenton, 1814.

De Sade, a man of noble family and high position, being Lieutenant-General of Bresse and Valroney, appears at the age of twenty-six to have been seized with a form of insanity which only showed itself in the use of obscene language, writings, and deeds.

He was arrested at Marseilles in 1772 for a terrible offence against public morality, and from that time, under a _lettre de cachet_, was imprisoned in various fortresses, amongst others Vincennes and the Bastille. During this imprisonment he wrote those notoriously obscene books which have rendered his name infamously famous. He was liberated in 1790 by the decree which released all prisoners imprisoned under _lettres de cachet_.

His wife obtained a separation from him, and for the next ten years he continued to publish books and plays of the most appalling immorality. When Bonaparte returned from Egypt, De Sade sent him copies of his two novels, “Juliette” and “Justine,” illustrated by himself, and with a dedication to the First Consul. Napoleon, filled with disgust, had the books burned, and De Sade arrested as a dangerous lunatic, and incarcerated in the madhouse at Charenton, where he died fourteen years later.

Those who visited him there describe him as a venerable looking old man, with beautiful features and abundant snow-white hair, exquisite manners and an amiable expression; but as soon as he opened his mouth, every word he spoke was either indecent or profane.

SANTERRE, ANTOINE JOSEPH, GENERAL.

Born, 1752, in Paris; died in 1809.

Son of a Flemish brewer who had established himself in the Faubourg St. Antoine, he continued to follow his father’s trade. He was rich, and had an excellent reputation among the working classes for the generosity and kindness he showed his employées. Santerre was one of those electors of Paris who met on July 14, 1789, at the Hôtel de Ville; he commanded the National Guard of his district, and for the next three years the brewery and beerhouse of Santerre were a _rendezvous_ for all the agitators of the Faubourg, indeed it was here that the attack upon the Tuileries of June 20, 1792, was agreed upon.

Upon that day Santerre marched at the head of the crowd which invaded the National Assembly, and standing at the foot of the tribune he directed the march of the people through the Chamber. After thanking the Deputies for the marks of friendship they had shown to the inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, he presented them with a flag, and then went out to join his men upon the Place Carousel, from whence he led them to the Tuileries. He also took a prominent part in the second attack upon August 10, and the Commune afterwards created him commander-in-chief of the National Guard of Paris, a command originally held by the Marquis of Lafayette (!) in which capacity he conducted Louis XVI. and his family to the Temple. On January 21, 1793, he was in command of the troops who surrounded the scaffold, and it was at his signal that the drums were beaten to drown the dying speech of King Louis.

In April of the same year, Santerre obtained a release from the debt of 40,500 francs which he owed to the State for taxes he should have paid upon malt and beer, the reason for the remission of this debt being “that the beer in question had all been consumed by patriots.”

Santerre, who was raised to the rank of a general of division, in July 1793, expressed a desire to show his prowess in the field, and asking for employment in the army, was sent to fight the Royalists in La Vendée. He met with nothing but disaster, owing to his complete ignorance of military tactics, and after being defeated at Corow on September 3, was recalled to Paris. Shortly afterwards he was arrested, and remained in prison until the death of Robespierre.

In July 1794, he was deprived of his rank as general and returned to private life; but his business had perished, and he was entirely ruined. He addressed petitions to various authorities, and finally, in January 1800, appealed to the First Consul for employment in the army or “any post by which I can live.”

Bonaparte did not employ him, but he placed his name on the list of retired generals, by which means Santerre enjoyed a pension for the rest of his life. Santerre has been quoted as a monster of ferocity, no doubt owing to the part he played on January 21, 1793: but he was in reality neither brutal nor cruel, and constantly sought to calm the ardour of his partisans, and saved the lives of persons whose opinions were opposed to his own. He was, however, a man without either capacity or originality, whom the irony of fate placed for a short time in a prominent and powerful situation.

SIEYÈS, EMMANUEL JOSEPH, COMTE DE.

Born, 1748 at Fréjus; died in Paris, 1836.

Being the youngest of seven children his father insisted upon his embarking in an ecclesiastical career. Sieyès remained for ten years at the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris, until he had, at the age of twenty-four, received priest’s orders. While at college he devoted himself to the study of metaphysics, Locke being his favourite author.

He was made Canon of Trégnier in Brittany in 1775, and in 1780 transferred to a Canonry at Chârtres, united to the posts of Vicar-General and Chancellor.

The revolutionary period approached, and Provincial Assemblies were called together, Sieyès being a member of the Assembly at Orleans in 1787. He published a succession of pamphlets in the course of the next two years, which added greatly to his literary and political reputation.

The electors of Paris sent him as the twentieth member for their town to the States-General, where he represented the _Tiers d’État_ and not the clergy. He took a prominent part as soon as he entered this assembly; it was he who promoted the meeting of the Orders, framed the oath administered in the Tennis Court; and the division of France into Departments was entirely his work. His influence in the Assembly was so great that Mirabeau gave him the nickname of “Mahomet.” In February 1791 he was offered the Constitutional Bishopric of Paris, which he refused. He was elected member of the Convention in 1792, and appointed to the leadership of the Committee _D’Instruction Publique_. Sieyès was too prudent and, possibly, too humane to take any prominent part in that noisy and ill-regulated assembly; but at the trial of Louis XVI. he voted for death, without adding a single word beyond recording his vote; indeed, with the exception of the occasion when he publicly abjured his religious faith and declared he had ceased to be a priest, Sieyès never made a speech in the Convention, though he recorded his vote in favour of every revolutionary measure.

He was asked, in later life, what he had done during the Terror. He replied significantly, “I lived.”

In 1795 he went to Holland, and while in that country was offered a place in the Directorate, which he refused, but the _coup d’état_ of Vendemaire brought him out of his retreat, and he was named President of the Five Hundred (November 25, 1797).

The following year he went as Ambassador to Berlin, and on May 16, 1799, he returned to Paris and replaced Rewbell in the Directorate. On June 19 he undertook the Presidency of the disorganised Government, his object being to make an end of Republicanism, and he joined forces with Bonaparte.

During the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Sieyès showed great ability and coolness, and Napoleon appointed him one of the three provisionary Consuls. He was soon succeeded by le Brun, after which his active political life may be said to have concluded, for Bonaparte, supported by the army, easily effaced his rival. The constitution planned by Sieyès was not even discussed, and Napoleon entirely destroyed his public influence by creating him a Senator, and bestowing upon him as a national gift the fine estate and château of Crosne.

In later years Sieyès was given the Presidency of the Senate, the grand cross of the legion of honour, and created a Count. After the second restoration the law of 1816 exiled him as a regicide, and he retired to Brussels until 1830, dying at Paris six years later, aged eighty-eight.

SICARD, ROCH AMBROISE, ABBÉ.

Born, 1742; died, 1822. Ordained priest at Toulouse and joined the Congregation _de la Doctrine Chrétienne_.

In 1784, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who intended to open an asylum and school for the deaf and dumb in his cathedral town, sent the Abbé Sicard to Paris, that he might study the method of instructing deaf mutes invented by the Abbé l’Epée. He returned to Bordeaux two years later, and the school was immediately opened, the Abbé Sicard proving extraordinarily successful, many of his pupils making rapid and even astonishing progress. The Abbé l’Epée died in 1789, and Sicard was appointed to succeed him in Paris.

Sicard adopted the principles of the Revolution, and although he did not take the civil or constitutional clerical oath, he took that of fidelity to liberty, equality and fraternity. On August 26, 1792, he was arrested as a suspect; his pupils addressed a touching petition to the Assembly in favour of their master, but it was disregarded, and on September 2 he was conveyed with other priests to the Abbaye. Nearly all of his companions were slaughtered as soon as they reached the prison, but Sicard’s life was saved by a watchmaker, Mounet. Sicard remained for some time in prison expecting immediate death, but was eventually liberated and returned to his Institution.

When the “Institute” was created in 1795, he was one of its first members, but writing some offensive articles in a publication entitled _Les Annales Réligieuses_, he was arrested and condemned to transportation; he escaped this fate, but was not replaced in his functions at the deaf and dumb asylum until after the 18th Brumaire, 1799. He found an ardent protector in Choptal, the Minister of the Interior, who caused a printing press to be erected, at the Abbé’s request, at the Institution.

For some unknown reason Napoleon always detested the Abbé Sicard, and refused to ratify his appointment as Canon at Nôtre Dame; nor would he give him the legion of honour; but he was more fortunate under the Restoration, when he received the coveted decoration, a canonry, and other honourable and well-paid appointments.

Abbé Sicard wrote a number of books on the deaf and dumb, and even some for their use.

SAINT FARGEON, LOUIS MICHEL LE PELLETIER, DE.

Born, 1760; assassinated, 1793.

He was the great grandson of the celebrated Comte de Saint Fargeon, Minister of Finance from 1726 to 1730; at the outbreak of the Revolution he possessed an annual income of 600,000 francs (£24,000). He was chosen as one of the ten Deputies to represent the nobility of Paris in the States-General; of these only two, the Count de Mirepoix and himself, joined the _Tiers État_, and from that time they became the most democratic among the Deputies. Saint Fargeon said, “If one has 600,000 francs a year one must either be at Coblentz or join the Jacobins.”

In January 1790, as Member for Criminal Jurisprudence, he first proposed the abolition of the death penalty, the galleys, and branding or flogging, and in June the same year he succeeded in passing a decree replacing hanging by decapitation. In the same month he proposed a motion, which was adopted, abolishing all titles, and took the name of le Pelletier instead of Fargeon.

At the trial of Louis XVI. he declared his intention of voting against the death penalty; but when the time came he pronounced in favour of immediate execution, saying:

If we decide the fate of Louis Capet in a way which is contrary to the conscience and intimate feelings of the French people, would it be against the prisoner in the Temple that the people would have a right to execute their vengeance? No, for in his case treason is unarmed and vanquished. It would be against her unfaithful representatives that the nation would have a right to rise, because in such a case they would find treason and power united.

This speech persuaded a number of Deputies who were wavering to vote for the death penalty, and thus decided a majority in its favour.

A former soldier of the King’s body guard swore to revenge the death of Louis XVI. upon one of his judges. Le Pelletier, de Saint Fargeon, like the Duke of Orleans and many other persons of high rank, voted the death penalty in order to save his own life and fortune, and for this very reason he excited the bitterest hatred among the Royalists. On the evening of the King’s trial he went to dine at Feorier’s, the restaurant in the Palais Royale, and was pointed out to the soldier in question as he was sitting at table. The young man, wrapped in a cloak under which he concealed a sword, came forward and said; “Is it thou, infamous le Pelletier, who has just voted for the death of thy King?” Le Pelletier answered: “Yes, but I am not infamous, I voted according ‘to my conscience.’” The soldier, whose name was Paris, replied: “Here is thy recompense,” and drawing the sword, thrust Saint Fargeon through the body; he fell mortally wounded and was carried to his _hôtel_, where he expired. The Convention buried him in the Pantheon, and his daughter, aged eight, was formally adopted by the Republic.

The soldier Paris escaped at the time, but when about to be arrested a few days later, he blew out his brains.

SHEARES, JOHN.

Born, 1766; executed, 1798.

This young Irish patriot, who is described by Yorke as having been the fervent admirer of and even suitor for the hand of Théroigne de Mirecourt, was the fourth son of Henry Sheares, of Whiterock (who was a connection of the then Earl of Shannon). This gentleman was a member of the Irish Parliament from 1761 to 1767, and was eventually appointed to a well-paid Governmental sinecure office. When his father died, John Sheares, a student in Trinity College, Dublin, inherited £3000. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1790.

In 1792 he and his brother Henry visited France and he became a convert to the views of the most revolutionary party in that country. He was a member of the Convention, voted for the death of Louis XVI., and was present at his execution. He was obliged to fly from France, as his views were considered too moderate by the leaders of the Jacobin Club. He returned to Dublin and there led a retired and literary life, following at the same time his profession as a barrister, when unfortunately for himself he began to take a leading part in Irish politics.

When the “Press,” an anti-Governmental organ, was started by Arthur O’Connor in 1797, Sheares wrote several leading articles for it; and one of these, a violent attack upon Lord Clare, caused the total suppression of that newspaper in March 1798.