CXFCRC
PAPERBACKS
I
GEuRGE RUDE
HISTORY
How were the crowds composed that stormed the Bastille, march�d to Versail...
356 downloads
2891 Views
41MB Size
Report
This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below!
Report copyright / DMCA form
CXFCRC
PAPERBACKS
I
GEuRGE RUDE
HISTORY
How were the crowds composed that stormed the Bastille, march�d to Versailles to fetch the King and Queen to the capital in October,
overthrew the monarchy in August 1792, or silently witnessed the downfall of Robespierre in Thermidor? Who led them or influenced
them? What were the motives that prompted them? Here a first attempt is made, with the aid of poli:e records and other research materials, to bring the Parisian revolutiona:)' crowds of 1787 to 1795 to life, by identifying the various social groups that
composed them and the ideas and motives that prompted ar,d i,,· spired them.
'It may seem incredible that in a century and a hall of massive studies nobody before Dr. Rude ever tried to lind out systematically who actually stormed the Bast ille, but it is a fact. ... This is in every respect an excellent book, and an important contribution to the
history 01 the R evolution.'
E. J. Hobsbawm, New Statesman.
'Dr. Rude holds the reader's interest by a masterly handling of a mass of material, and by making the Parisian crowds live again.' The Times Literary Supplement. George Rude is Professor 01 History in the University of Adelaide.
His social study of 1763 to 1773, Wilkes and Liberty, is also avail· able in Oxford Paperbacks.
The engraving used In the cover design is at the march of the
women of Versailles, 5 October 1789. It is reproduced, with permission,
tram the Mansell Collection, London. OXFORD PAPERBACK NO. 129
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS (885014/6/67)
- :. net
U.K. ONLY
THE CROWD
IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION BY
GEORGE RUDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ,
LONDON
OXFORD
NEW YORK
THE CROWD
IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION BY
GEORGE RUDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ,
LONDON
OXFORD
NEW YORK
C Olfford Uttionril,1 hus 1959
TO GEORGES LEFEBVRE
I
FIIGT PUBUSIIED BY TilE C....RENDON .. PRESS
1959
FIRST ISSUED AS AN OXFORD U NIVERSITY PRF.SS PAI'ERIiACI> PRINTED IN TilE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1967
C Olfford Uttionril,1 hus 1959
TO GEORGES LEFEBVRE
I
FIIGT PUBUSIIED BY TilE C....RENDON .. PRESS
1959
FIRST ISSUED AS AN OXFORD U NIVERSITY PRF.SS PAI'ERIiACI> PRINTED IN TilE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1967
HIS
PREFACE
book is the outcome of frequent visits to Paris and to Parisian archives and libraries during the past nine years. I should like, therefore, to express my warmest apprecia tion to the archivists and staff of the Archives Nationales, Archives de la Prefecture de Police, the departmental archives of the Seine, Seine-et-Oise, and Sdne-et-Mame, and of the Bibliotheque Nationale and Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville
T
de Paris for their never-failing co-operation, sympathetic inter· est, good humour, and goodwill. More particularly my thanks arc due to my friends and
I
collaborators, Richard Cobb and Albert Sohoul, who have always been lavish with ideas, advice, and information and generous in putting at my disposal the fruits of their own re searches. Our collaboration has, indeed, been so close in recent years that it is difficult to determine precisely, in the present instance, where their particular contribution ends and my own begins. In a real sense, therefore, this book is an expression of collective, rather than of purely individual, enterprise. And by no means least has been the contribution made to it by Professor Georges Lefebvre, whose example, wi� counsel, and friendly encouragement have placed me, as countless other students of the French Revolution, deeply in his debt. I also wish to thank Professor Alfred Cobban for his help and guidance over a number of years, and Mr. Alun Davies for much helpful advice and for sharing with me the ungrateful task of proof-reading. And finally, my special gratitude is due to my wife, whose patience, understanding, and concern for my well being have made the writing of this book a pleasure rather than
a burden.
G.R.
HIS
PREFACE
book is the outcome of frequent visits to Paris and to Parisian archives and libraries during the past nine years. I should like, therefore, to express my warmest apprecia tion to the archivists and staff of the Archives Nationales, Archives de la Prefecture de Police, the departmental archives of the Seine, Seine-et-Oise, and Sdne-et-Mame, and of the Bibliotheque Nationale and Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville
T
de Paris for their never-failing co-operation, sympathetic inter· est, good humour, and goodwill. More particularly my thanks arc due to my friends and
I
collaborators, Richard Cobb and Albert Sohoul, who have always been lavish with ideas, advice, and information and generous in putting at my disposal the fruits of their own re searches. Our collaboration has, indeed, been so close in recent years that it is difficult to determine precisely, in the present instance, where their particular contribution ends and my own begins. In a real sense, therefore, this book is an expression of collective, rather than of purely individual, enterprise. And by no means least has been the contribution made to it by Professor Georges Lefebvre, whose example, wi� counsel, and friendly encouragement have placed me, as countless other students of the French Revolution, deeply in his debt. I also wish to thank Professor Alfred Cobban for his help and guidance over a number of years, and Mr. Alun Davies for much helpful advice and for sharing with me the ungrateful task of proof-reading. And finally, my special gratitude is due to my wife, whose patience, understanding, and concern for my well being have made the writing of this book a pleasure rather than
a burden.
G.R.
CONTENTS PART 1
Introduction I. INTRODUCTION II. PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
IO
PART 11
The Revolutionary Crowd in Action III. PRELUDE. TO REVOLUTION
'7
IV. JULY 1789
45
V. THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES VI. THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS VII. THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
6, 80 95
VIII. THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
,
IX. THERMIDOR X. GERMiNAL·PRAIRIAL XI. VENDtMIAIRE
PART III
Tlu Anatomy of the Revolutionary Crowd XII. THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS, t 787-95
178
Xlii. THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
191
XIV. THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY , ACTIVITY
2 10
XV. THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN HISTORY
232
CONTENTS PART 1
Introduction I. INTRODUCTION II. PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
IO
PART 11
The Revolutionary Crowd in Action III. PRELUDE. TO REVOLUTION
'7
IV. JULY 1789
45
V. THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES VI. THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS VII. THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
6, 80 95
VIII. THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
,
IX. THERMIDOR X. GERMiNAL·PRAIRIAL XI. VENDtMIAIRE
PART III
Tlu Anatomy of the Revolutionary Crowd XII. THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS, t 787-95
178
Xlii. THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
191
XIV. THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY , ACTIVITY
2 10
XV. THE 'REVOLUTIONARY CROWD' IN HISTORY
232
CONTENTS
•
Paris Sections
APPEN DIXES I. II.
The
of 1790-5
population of the Paris Seclions in 1791-5
III. Paris Sections and Insurgents of 1787--95 IV.
Paris Trades and Insurgents of 1787--95
VI.
The Revolutionary
v. Parisian Insurgents and Rioters of 1775--95
VII.
Calendar
Prices and Wages in Paris '789--93
'4' '44
Introduction
'46 '49 '50
I
'5'
GLOSSARY
'53
BIBLIOGRAPHY
'58
INDEX MAP OF REVOLUTIONARY PARIS
PART I
'4'
at end
NE
O
I N T R O D UCTI O N aspect of the French Revolution that has been largely
neglected by historians is the nature of the revolutionary crowd. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
Revolution was not only a political, but a profound social up heaval, to the course and outcome of which masses of ordinary Frenchmen, both in the towns and countryside, contributed. Not
least in Paris; and, in the history of revolutionary Paris, a parti cular importance has beenjustly ascribed to the greatjournitS, or popular insurrections and demonstrations, which, breaking out
intermittently between I789 and I795, profoundly affected the relations of political parties and groups and drew many thousands of Parisians into activity.
So much is common knowledge and has long been commonly
accepted. But how were the crowds composed that stormed the
Bastille in July 1789, marched to Versailles to fetch the king and queen to the capital in October, that overthrew the monarchy in August 1792, or silently witnessed the downfall of Robespierre
on 9 Thermidor? Who led them or influenced them? What were the motives that prompted them? What was the particular significance and outcome of their intervention? It is not
suggested that the great historians of the Revolution have had no answers to these questions: far from it; but, for lack of more precise inquiry, they have tended to answer them according to their own social ideals, political sympathies, or ideological
preoccupations. In this respect we may distinguish between
those writers who, like Burke and Taine, adopted a distinctly hostile attitude to the Revolution and everything that it stood
for; Republican historians like Michelet and Aulard, for whom
CONTENTS
•
Paris Sections
APPEN DIXES I. II.
The
of 1790-5
population of the Paris Seclions in 1791-5
III. Paris Sections and Insurgents of 1787--95 IV.
Paris Trades and Insurgents of 1787--95
VI.
The Revolutionary
v. Parisian Insurgents and Rioters of 1775--95
VII.
Calendar
Prices and Wages in Paris '789--93
'4' '44
Introduction
'46 '49 '50
I
'5'
GLOSSARY
'53
BIBLIOGRAPHY
'58
INDEX MAP OF REVOLUTIONARY PARIS
PART I
'4'
at end
NE
O
I N T R O D UCTI O N aspect of the French Revolution that has been largely
neglected by historians is the nature of the revolutionary crowd. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
Revolution was not only a political, but a profound social up heaval, to the course and outcome of which masses of ordinary Frenchmen, both in the towns and countryside, contributed. Not
least in Paris; and, in the history of revolutionary Paris, a parti cular importance has beenjustly ascribed to the greatjournitS, or popular insurrections and demonstrations, which, breaking out
intermittently between I789 and I795, profoundly affected the relations of political parties and groups and drew many thousands of Parisians into activity.
So much is common knowledge and has long been commonly
accepted. But how were the crowds composed that stormed the
Bastille in July 1789, marched to Versailles to fetch the king and queen to the capital in October, that overthrew the monarchy in August 1792, or silently witnessed the downfall of Robespierre
on 9 Thermidor? Who led them or influenced them? What were the motives that prompted them? What was the particular significance and outcome of their intervention? It is not
suggested that the great historians of the Revolution have had no answers to these questions: far from it; but, for lack of more precise inquiry, they have tended to answer them according to their own social ideals, political sympathies, or ideological
preoccupations. In this respect we may distinguish between
those writers who, like Burke and Taine, adopted a distinctly hostile attitude to the Revolution and everything that it stood
for; Republican historians like Michelet and Aulard, for whom
INTRODUCTION
great regenerative upsurge of the the: RevaI·' UuOn marked. a · like CarI yIe Wh0, a RomanUc again, h people; and, F Sansculottic World', 'Nether the to sympathetic broadly w was toen between admiration for its 'heroism' and fascinated •
�r;
horror at the 'World-Bedlam' or 'anarchy' that it appeared to unleash. To Burke the revolutionary crowd was purely destructive and
presumed to be composed of the most undesirable social de
menu: the crowds that invaded the ,MuGU of Versailles in
October 1789 are 'a band of cruel ruffians and assassins, reeking with ...blood'; and the royal family, on their return journey
to Paris, are escorted by 'all the unutterable abominations of the funes of hell in the abased shape of the vilest of women'.
The National
ksembly, having transferred
to the capital, is
compelled to deliberate: 'amidst the tumultuous cries of a mixed mob of ferocious men, and of women lost to shame'.l Yet Burke's invective is far outmatched by Taine, the former Liberal of 1848, soured by his experiences of 1871, whose vocabulary of expletives has served the conservative historians of the Revolution ever since. The provincial insurgents of the early summer of 1789 are presented as 'contre·bandiers, faux· 3auniers, braconniers, vagabonds, mendiants, repris de jU!tice'. The Paris revolutionaries and the captors of the Bastille are the lowest social scum:
La lie de la societe monte a la surface ... la capitale ilemble livrec a la derniere plebe et aux bandits Vagabonds, deguenilles, plwieun 'presque nw', la plupart annes comme des sauva �, d'une physionomie effrayante, ils sont 'de ceux qu'on ne se souvlcnt . • .
pas d'avoir renconues au grand jour'.
The market women and others who marched to Versailles in October are thus described:
Les filles du Palais Royal ... ajoutez des blanchWeuses, des
mendiants, des femmes sans soulien, des poissardes raccolecs depuis plusieurs jours a prix d'argent ...Ia troupe s'incorpore les femmes qu'elle rencontre, portieres, couturieres, femmes de menage, et mcme des bourgeoises.Joignez a cela des gens sans aveu, des
rOdeurs de rue, des bandits, des voleurs, toute cette lie qui s'est entassee a Paris et qui !urnage a chaque secousse Voila la fange qui, en arriere, en avant, roule avec Ie Aeuve populaire. . • .
, E. Burke, &jlldi#ms_ 1M Rnt!lut..." ill. F,IIIIU
(London,
1951), pp. 66-6g.
•
INTRODUCTION
August 1792, who drove Louis XVI from The insurgents of the Tuileries, become:
10
Presque tous de la derniere plebe, ou entre tenus par des metiers in· fames, spadassins et sUppOts de mauvais lieux, accoutumes au sang . . . des aventurien intrepides et teroces de toute provenance, Marseillais et etrangen, Savoyards, Italiens, Espagnols, chasses de leur pays.'
Following Taine, such terms as 'la canaille', 'Ia derniere plebe', 'bandits', and 'brigands' have been commonly applied to the participants in these and similar events up to the present day.l On the other hand, Michelet and the upholders of the Re· publican tradition have presented the revolutionary crowd in entirely different terms.Whenever it advanced, or appeared to advance, the aims of the revolutionary
bourgeouei , it has been
presented as the embodiment of all the popular and Republican
virtues. To Michelet the Bastille ceased to be a fortress that had to be reduced by force of arms: it became the personification of evil, over which virtue (in the shape of the People) inevitably triumphs: 'La Bastille ne fut pas prise ... elle se livra. Sa mauvaise conscience la troubla, la rendit folie et lui fit perdre l'esprit.' And who captured it? 'I.e peuple, Ie peuple tout entier.' Similarly, on 5 October, while the revolutionary leaden are groping for a solution to the crisis: 'Le peuple seul trouve un remecle: il va chercher Ie Roi.' The role of the women takes on
a more than merely casual significance: 'Ce qu'it y a dans Ie peuple de plus peuple, je veux dire de plus instinctif, de plus inspire, ce sont,
a coup sur, les femmes.'l Louis Blanc, though
lacking Michelet's exaltation, follows him c1osely;4 and Aulard, the Radical professor of the Sorbonne, for all his sobriety of Ian· guage and wealth of documentary learning, is in the same tradi· tion: 'Paris se leva, tout entier, s'arma, s'empara de la Bastille.'5 , H. Taine, Lu
18]6),
a,itiM. th. u. F,allU umWnfJ4>ttJw. LA RlDDlIOlu."
i. 18,53·54,'30,272.
(3
vob., PariJ,
• See, for example, L. Madelin, who fre.c:ly uses the temu 'bandits' and 'brigandi' in rdation to Ihe Pari, iruurgents ofJuly 178g (JA RJuo/uJiM (Paru, '9'4), pp. 60, 66,68); and P. Gaxotte, fA RJI,)/lI�limaj,lUIftJiu (Pam, 19f8), p.usim. 'J. Michelet, Us RJUDJoaiottj'lUOftJi. (9 vob., Pam, 1868-1900), i. 248, 377-9. The original edtion i dates from 1847 to 18S3. • L. Blanc, Hu",;" de u. RJ!JtIluJu."j,tJ"ftJu, (Ill VOI,., Paris, ,868-70), ii. 352-3; iii. '14. The fint edition is dated 184,-62. , A. Auiard, Hu"';" poIil'l i '" de III RJDOIoaitt"fiUlfllis, {q8g--/&l41 (Pam, I 90S), P· 37·
INTRODUCTION
great regenerative upsurge of the the: RevaI·' UuOn marked. a · like CarI yIe Wh0, a RomanUc again, h people; and, F Sansculottic World', 'Nether the to sympathetic broadly w was toen between admiration for its 'heroism' and fascinated •
�r;
horror at the 'World-Bedlam' or 'anarchy' that it appeared to unleash. To Burke the revolutionary crowd was purely destructive and
presumed to be composed of the most undesirable social de
menu: the crowds that invaded the ,MuGU of Versailles in
October 1789 are 'a band of cruel ruffians and assassins, reeking with ...blood'; and the royal family, on their return journey
to Paris, are escorted by 'all the unutterable abominations of the funes of hell in the abased shape of the vilest of women'.
The National
ksembly, having transferred
to the capital, is
compelled to deliberate: 'amidst the tumultuous cries of a mixed mob of ferocious men, and of women lost to shame'.l Yet Burke's invective is far outmatched by Taine, the former Liberal of 1848, soured by his experiences of 1871, whose vocabulary of expletives has served the conservative historians of the Revolution ever since. The provincial insurgents of the early summer of 1789 are presented as 'contre·bandiers, faux· 3auniers, braconniers, vagabonds, mendiants, repris de jU!tice'. The Paris revolutionaries and the captors of the Bastille are the lowest social scum:
La lie de la societe monte a la surface ... la capitale ilemble livrec a la derniere plebe et aux bandits Vagabonds, deguenilles, plwieun 'presque nw', la plupart annes comme des sauva �, d'une physionomie effrayante, ils sont 'de ceux qu'on ne se souvlcnt . • .
pas d'avoir renconues au grand jour'.
The market women and others who marched to Versailles in October are thus described:
Les filles du Palais Royal ... ajoutez des blanchWeuses, des
mendiants, des femmes sans soulien, des poissardes raccolecs depuis plusieurs jours a prix d'argent ...Ia troupe s'incorpore les femmes qu'elle rencontre, portieres, couturieres, femmes de menage, et mcme des bourgeoises.Joignez a cela des gens sans aveu, des
rOdeurs de rue, des bandits, des voleurs, toute cette lie qui s'est entassee a Paris et qui !urnage a chaque secousse Voila la fange qui, en arriere, en avant, roule avec Ie Aeuve populaire. . • .
, E. Burke, &jlldi#ms_ 1M Rnt!lut..." ill. F,IIIIU
(London,
1951), pp. 66-6g.
•
INTRODUCTION
August 1792, who drove Louis XVI from The insurgents of the Tuileries, become:
10
Presque tous de la derniere plebe, ou entre tenus par des metiers in· fames, spadassins et sUppOts de mauvais lieux, accoutumes au sang . . . des aventurien intrepides et teroces de toute provenance, Marseillais et etrangen, Savoyards, Italiens, Espagnols, chasses de leur pays.'
Following Taine, such terms as 'la canaille', 'Ia derniere plebe', 'bandits', and 'brigands' have been commonly applied to the participants in these and similar events up to the present day.l On the other hand, Michelet and the upholders of the Re· publican tradition have presented the revolutionary crowd in entirely different terms.Whenever it advanced, or appeared to advance, the aims of the revolutionary
bourgeouei , it has been
presented as the embodiment of all the popular and Republican
virtues. To Michelet the Bastille ceased to be a fortress that had to be reduced by force of arms: it became the personification of evil, over which virtue (in the shape of the People) inevitably triumphs: 'La Bastille ne fut pas prise ... elle se livra. Sa mauvaise conscience la troubla, la rendit folie et lui fit perdre l'esprit.' And who captured it? 'I.e peuple, Ie peuple tout entier.' Similarly, on 5 October, while the revolutionary leaden are groping for a solution to the crisis: 'Le peuple seul trouve un remecle: il va chercher Ie Roi.' The role of the women takes on
a more than merely casual significance: 'Ce qu'it y a dans Ie peuple de plus peuple, je veux dire de plus instinctif, de plus inspire, ce sont,
a coup sur, les femmes.'l Louis Blanc, though
lacking Michelet's exaltation, follows him c1osely;4 and Aulard, the Radical professor of the Sorbonne, for all his sobriety of Ian· guage and wealth of documentary learning, is in the same tradi· tion: 'Paris se leva, tout entier, s'arma, s'empara de la Bastille.'5 , H. Taine, Lu
18]6),
a,itiM. th. u. F,allU umWnfJ4>ttJw. LA RlDDlIOlu."
i. 18,53·54,'30,272.
(3
vob., PariJ,
• See, for example, L. Madelin, who fre.c:ly uses the temu 'bandits' and 'brigandi' in rdation to Ihe Pari, iruurgents ofJuly 178g (JA RJuo/uJiM (Paru, '9'4), pp. 60, 66,68); and P. Gaxotte, fA RJI,)/lI�limaj,lUIftJiu (Pam, 19f8), p.usim. 'J. Michelet, Us RJUDJoaiottj'lUOftJi. (9 vob., Pam, 1868-1900), i. 248, 377-9. The original edtion i dates from 1847 to 18S3. • L. Blanc, Hu",;" de u. RJ!JtIluJu."j,tJ"ftJu, (Ill VOI,., Paris, ,868-70), ii. 352-3; iii. '14. The fint edition is dated 184,-62. , A. Auiard, Hu"';" poIil'l i '" de III RJDOIoaitt"fiUlfllis, {q8g--/&l41 (Pam, I 90S), P· 37·
•
,5
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
schools on Great as has been the influence of these two rival France, in n Revolutio the historiography and teaching of the been has influence greater even an in this country perhaps textbook and teachers, students, of generations exerted on
_that is, from the elevation of the committee room of the Committee of Public Safety, of the rostrum of the National Assembly or Jacobin Club, or of the columns of the revolu tionary press. This being the case, the revolutionary crowd,
writers by the striking imagery of Carlyle. The social forces unleashed by the Revolution and composing the active elements in each one of its decisive phases are variously described as an 'enraged National Tiger'; 'the World Chimera, bearing fire'; 'Victorious Anarchy'; and 'the funeral flame, enveloping all things ... the Death·Bird of a World'. With all this, it is
perhaps not surprising that he should gravely warn his readers against attempting a more precise analysis: 'But to gauge and measure this immeasurable Thing, and what is called account for it, and reduce it to a dead logic-formula, attempt not.'1 f rent as these interpretations arc and the Yet, widely dife influences they have exerted, there is one common thread run ning through them all: whether the revolutionary crowd is rep resented as 'Ia canaille' or 'swinish multitude' by Taine and Burke; as 'Victorious Anarchy' by Carlyle; or as 'Ie peuple' or 'tout Paris' by Michelet and Aulard-it has been treated by one and all as a disembodied abstraction and the personifica tion of good or evil, according to the particular fancy or preju dice of the writer. This should perhaps not surprise us as, in the nineteenth century, to which most of these writers belonged, the debate on the French Revolution was conducted almost exclusively in political or ideological terms. This applied equally to constitutional monarchists like Mignet and Thiers in the 1820'S; to those, like Michelet and Louis Blanc, who drew their inspiration from the events of February 1848; to a dis gruntled Liberal like Taine in the 1870's; and even, though less
obviously, to a Radical of the Third Republic like Aulard. f ring profoundly in their attitude to the revolu Though dife tionary tradition and in their hostility or reverence for the leaders or victims of the great Revolution, they have all been inclined to view these events and their participants 'from above':
• T. C&rlyle, TM F,ettU. &vD/wiDn (, volll., London, 186g), i. 226, 2,58, 264...(; ' fint edition of 1831 bore the mb 303. II is oflome interett to note that Carlyle. title 'A Hillory of Sansculottism'. • The phrase has been frequently used in this connexion by Georgetl Lefcbvr.., molt recently in hU prefaee to W. Markov and A. Soboul, Di. Sanscu/.ollm """ PIJrn (Berlin, 19,57), p. viii.
whose voice was seldom refl«:ted in the speeches of the politicians or the writings of the pamphleteers and journalists, tended to be
lost sight of as a thing of flesh and blood and to assume whatever complexion accorded with the interests, opinions, Or ideals of the revolutionary leaders, their critics, or adherents. During the past half·century, however, the work of a number of eminent historians hall made it possible to approach the subject in a mOre detached, or scientific, spirit. It is not so much that they have unearthed new archival materials that were unknown or inaccessible to their predecessors, This has some times been so, though, in the case of Paris, at least, rather the opposite is true: important materials that were available to Michelet and Mortimer-Ternaux, the historian of the Terror, have subsequently been destroyed, It is rather that the new social patterns and problems of the twentieth century have prompted historians to seek answers to new questions and, as the result of these considerations, to view the history of the Revolu tion from a new angle. An important consequence of their
inquiries has been that the popular elements composing the
Jans-culotw-the peasants, craftsmen,journeymen, and labourers -have begun to appear as social groups with their own dis tinctive identity, interests, and aspirations, whose actions and attitudes can no longer be treated as mere echoes or reflections of the ideas, speeches, and decrees of the journalists, lawyers, orators, and politicians established in the capital.This new conception of the Revolution-seen as it were from below was first given expression by Jaures in his Histoire sociaiiste tit ia
Revolution frllllfaise which, in spite of its tendentious titie, won
the unstinting praise of Aulard, then holding the chair of French Revolution studies at the Sorbonne.1 During the next fifty years this field of inquiry has been enonnously widened by Albert Mathiez's work on the Parisian social movements of 1792-94,: Professor Labrousse's researches on prices and wages
Jaurtl, L'His/oire s«ialisle th fa Rlw/uliQlljra"faist (4 volt" Pari., 1901-4. ReviKa e diton, 8 vols., '922-4), i • A, Mathiez, La V.. ,hir, If U IIICIIU.'tmIIII s«uu sow la Tmlll1' (Paris, 1927)'
'�.
•
,5
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
schools on Great as has been the influence of these two rival France, in n Revolutio the historiography and teaching of the been has influence greater even an in this country perhaps textbook and teachers, students, of generations exerted on
_that is, from the elevation of the committee room of the Committee of Public Safety, of the rostrum of the National Assembly or Jacobin Club, or of the columns of the revolu tionary press. This being the case, the revolutionary crowd,
writers by the striking imagery of Carlyle. The social forces unleashed by the Revolution and composing the active elements in each one of its decisive phases are variously described as an 'enraged National Tiger'; 'the World Chimera, bearing fire'; 'Victorious Anarchy'; and 'the funeral flame, enveloping all things ... the Death·Bird of a World'. With all this, it is
perhaps not surprising that he should gravely warn his readers against attempting a more precise analysis: 'But to gauge and measure this immeasurable Thing, and what is called account for it, and reduce it to a dead logic-formula, attempt not.'1 f rent as these interpretations arc and the Yet, widely dife influences they have exerted, there is one common thread run ning through them all: whether the revolutionary crowd is rep resented as 'Ia canaille' or 'swinish multitude' by Taine and Burke; as 'Victorious Anarchy' by Carlyle; or as 'Ie peuple' or 'tout Paris' by Michelet and Aulard-it has been treated by one and all as a disembodied abstraction and the personifica tion of good or evil, according to the particular fancy or preju dice of the writer. This should perhaps not surprise us as, in the nineteenth century, to which most of these writers belonged, the debate on the French Revolution was conducted almost exclusively in political or ideological terms. This applied equally to constitutional monarchists like Mignet and Thiers in the 1820'S; to those, like Michelet and Louis Blanc, who drew their inspiration from the events of February 1848; to a dis gruntled Liberal like Taine in the 1870's; and even, though less
obviously, to a Radical of the Third Republic like Aulard. f ring profoundly in their attitude to the revolu Though dife tionary tradition and in their hostility or reverence for the leaders or victims of the great Revolution, they have all been inclined to view these events and their participants 'from above':
• T. C&rlyle, TM F,ettU. &vD/wiDn (, volll., London, 186g), i. 226, 2,58, 264...(; ' fint edition of 1831 bore the mb 303. II is oflome interett to note that Carlyle. title 'A Hillory of Sansculottism'. • The phrase has been frequently used in this connexion by Georgetl Lefcbvr.., molt recently in hU prefaee to W. Markov and A. Soboul, Di. Sanscu/.ollm """ PIJrn (Berlin, 19,57), p. viii.
whose voice was seldom refl«:ted in the speeches of the politicians or the writings of the pamphleteers and journalists, tended to be
lost sight of as a thing of flesh and blood and to assume whatever complexion accorded with the interests, opinions, Or ideals of the revolutionary leaders, their critics, or adherents. During the past half·century, however, the work of a number of eminent historians hall made it possible to approach the subject in a mOre detached, or scientific, spirit. It is not so much that they have unearthed new archival materials that were unknown or inaccessible to their predecessors, This has some times been so, though, in the case of Paris, at least, rather the opposite is true: important materials that were available to Michelet and Mortimer-Ternaux, the historian of the Terror, have subsequently been destroyed, It is rather that the new social patterns and problems of the twentieth century have prompted historians to seek answers to new questions and, as the result of these considerations, to view the history of the Revolu tion from a new angle. An important consequence of their
inquiries has been that the popular elements composing the
Jans-culotw-the peasants, craftsmen,journeymen, and labourers -have begun to appear as social groups with their own dis tinctive identity, interests, and aspirations, whose actions and attitudes can no longer be treated as mere echoes or reflections of the ideas, speeches, and decrees of the journalists, lawyers, orators, and politicians established in the capital.This new conception of the Revolution-seen as it were from below was first given expression by Jaures in his Histoire sociaiiste tit ia
Revolution frllllfaise which, in spite of its tendentious titie, won
the unstinting praise of Aulard, then holding the chair of French Revolution studies at the Sorbonne.1 During the next fifty years this field of inquiry has been enonnously widened by Albert Mathiez's work on the Parisian social movements of 1792-94,: Professor Labrousse's researches on prices and wages
Jaurtl, L'His/oire s«ialisle th fa Rlw/uliQlljra"faist (4 volt" Pari., 1901-4. ReviKa e diton, 8 vols., '922-4), i • A, Mathiez, La V.. ,hir, If U IIICIIU.'tmIIII s«uu sow la Tmlll1' (Paris, 1927)'
'�.
•
,
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
during the eighteenth century,' and, above all, by Professor Georges Lefebvre's studies on the peasantry, the psychology of revolutionary crowds, and on the revolutionary panics of 1789.1 Without the new direction and stimulus that such work has given to French Revolution studies, the present volume might never have been attempted. Another determining factor has been, of course, the availability of suitable documentation. It is evident that the mass of participants in the great popular movements of the Revolution have, unlike the journalisu and politicians, left few permanent records of their activities and aspirations in the form of letters, pamphlets, speeches, or committee minutes. In the case of Paris, too, a valuable source has been removed by the destruction by fire in 187' of the great bulk of municipal and fiscal records, whose survival might have yielded valuable information on the incomes, tax-assess ments, and working capital of the craftsmen and shopkeepers, from whom the most militant elements among the Parisian sans-culottes were to be drawn. Yet an important source, perhaps even more valuable for the present purpose, remains to us the police records of the Archives Nationales and the Paris Prefecture de Police; these have setved as the main documen tary basis for this volume. The French police system of the eighteenth century was far more developed than that of this country and has consequently left far more substantial archives, In �ddition the method of cross-examination conducted by the police, with its recording in the traditional protts-uerbal, provides the historian with detailed information regarding a prisoner's occupation, address, province of origin, age, and his degree of literacy and previous criminal record. Already fifty years ago Alexandre Tuetey and Marcel Rouff', in a number of studies, illustrated the great value of such records as a source for social history,l Yet, unaccountably, they were neg-
lected by Mathiez and his pupils,l and it is only in recent years that historians have begun to turn to them again. In the present instance, I have drawn largely on the proch-uerbaux drawn up by the commwaires de police of the Paris Chatelet for 1787-go: and of theParis Sections for 1790-5,3 and-to a lesser extent on the equivalent reports of the Committee of General Security of 1793-5,'4 These documents help to throw a new light on several of the popular movements arising on the eve of, and during, the Revolution in Paris, often inadequately treated by previous historians; and, above all, they make it possible to present a fuller and more accurate picture of the varying social elements that took part in them, While, of course, they relate
• C.-K Labrol,USe, EsqllisM all _"",tnt au pI/au rtmIW m Fr(UfU till XYIII' siJd. (� vols., Paris, '933); u. Criu d. l'Iwnomufrtu/flliu .! lafin ddanrim rl,iwutt till "bill a� til RIvollltiOtl (Paris, 19+4). • G. u e bvre, UI Pa,Y11UIS all Nttra pmdtJ1tI ill R/voIutiM frallfaise (Parit-Lille, '924); 'Foulel' livolutionnaira', AnMlu /rislDriql4s d, I.. Rkolutilm fra1l{aise, xi (1934), 1-26; LtJ Grand, />tUT d� 1789 (Paris, 1932).
f
lits SOurcel m41IUJa'ita dl j'/risloi'l Ik Ptuispmdmd ill RJwiu/iMJ'IllIf«iu (II vola., Paris,
•
See, for example, A. Tue,cy's Introduction
to volume I of his RlpntoiTf ,InIr.,J
only to a small minority of the participants-those arrested, killed, or wounded, or against whom information is laid with the police-the samples thus provided are often sufficiently large to allow one to draw general conclusions from them, For the participants in the major revolutionary movements of the period, however-those of July 1789, August 1792, May-June 1793, and the revolts ofPrairial of the Year ]II and Vendc:miaire of the Year IV (1795}-it has been found necessary to tum to other, additional, sources: to the lists of the uainquturs de iaBtlJtille,J to those of the claimants for pensions in August 17926 and for compensation for time lost under arms in June 1793,7 and to the records of the military tribunals set up to judge the insurgents of Prairial and Vendemiaire.8 While the composition of revolutionary crowds may emerge, more or less clearly, from such records, it is, perhaps not surprisingly, more difficult to determine the motives that drew
18g0-1914); also M. Rouff, 'Le Penonnel des prcmi�res bneutes de '8g il Paris', LtJ RkDlulu", F'lUIflliu, Ivii (Igog), �13-31. I Thus, even a great work of tocial history lk i e u. V04 drJr, tI Ie ""'U� soritJ IOIU U. Terrtur is based almost entirely on reports of spea::hes in the National Con. vention, the Paris Commune, and thcJacobin Club. • Archives National"", series Y: archives du Chitde! dc Paris; series Z: juridic_ tion, '¢eiales ct ordinaires. • Auhives dc la P1if«tun: dc Police, series AJ..: sections dc Paris. Prods. verbaux de, commisuira de police. • Arehives National"", series F> (police gtntrale). , The most useful of these is the list of 662 NinqlJ.tll1S d, la BIIS/iU, among the Cuelin papen o f thc Archives Nationalel', ICries T 514(1). • Arch. Nat., F" 3267-74; F" 4426. • Arch. Nat., BB'60. I Auh. Nat., W �6-8, 556-8.
•
,
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
during the eighteenth century,' and, above all, by Professor Georges Lefebvre's studies on the peasantry, the psychology of revolutionary crowds, and on the revolutionary panics of 1789.1 Without the new direction and stimulus that such work has given to French Revolution studies, the present volume might never have been attempted. Another determining factor has been, of course, the availability of suitable documentation. It is evident that the mass of participants in the great popular movements of the Revolution have, unlike the journalisu and politicians, left few permanent records of their activities and aspirations in the form of letters, pamphlets, speeches, or committee minutes. In the case of Paris, too, a valuable source has been removed by the destruction by fire in 187' of the great bulk of municipal and fiscal records, whose survival might have yielded valuable information on the incomes, tax-assess ments, and working capital of the craftsmen and shopkeepers, from whom the most militant elements among the Parisian sans-culottes were to be drawn. Yet an important source, perhaps even more valuable for the present purpose, remains to us the police records of the Archives Nationales and the Paris Prefecture de Police; these have setved as the main documen tary basis for this volume. The French police system of the eighteenth century was far more developed than that of this country and has consequently left far more substantial archives, In �ddition the method of cross-examination conducted by the police, with its recording in the traditional protts-uerbal, provides the historian with detailed information regarding a prisoner's occupation, address, province of origin, age, and his degree of literacy and previous criminal record. Already fifty years ago Alexandre Tuetey and Marcel Rouff', in a number of studies, illustrated the great value of such records as a source for social history,l Yet, unaccountably, they were neg-
lected by Mathiez and his pupils,l and it is only in recent years that historians have begun to turn to them again. In the present instance, I have drawn largely on the proch-uerbaux drawn up by the commwaires de police of the Paris Chatelet for 1787-go: and of theParis Sections for 1790-5,3 and-to a lesser extent on the equivalent reports of the Committee of General Security of 1793-5,'4 These documents help to throw a new light on several of the popular movements arising on the eve of, and during, the Revolution in Paris, often inadequately treated by previous historians; and, above all, they make it possible to present a fuller and more accurate picture of the varying social elements that took part in them, While, of course, they relate
• C.-K Labrol,USe, EsqllisM all _"",tnt au pI/au rtmIW m Fr(UfU till XYIII' siJd. (� vols., Paris, '933); u. Criu d. l'Iwnomufrtu/flliu .! lafin ddanrim rl,iwutt till "bill a� til RIvollltiOtl (Paris, 19+4). • G. u e bvre, UI Pa,Y11UIS all Nttra pmdtJ1tI ill R/voIutiM frallfaise (Parit-Lille, '924); 'Foulel' livolutionnaira', AnMlu /rislDriql4s d, I.. Rkolutilm fra1l{aise, xi (1934), 1-26; LtJ Grand, />tUT d� 1789 (Paris, 1932).
f
lits SOurcel m41IUJa'ita dl j'/risloi'l Ik Ptuispmdmd ill RJwiu/iMJ'IllIf«iu (II vola., Paris,
•
See, for example, A. Tue,cy's Introduction
to volume I of his RlpntoiTf ,InIr.,J
only to a small minority of the participants-those arrested, killed, or wounded, or against whom information is laid with the police-the samples thus provided are often sufficiently large to allow one to draw general conclusions from them, For the participants in the major revolutionary movements of the period, however-those of July 1789, August 1792, May-June 1793, and the revolts ofPrairial of the Year ]II and Vendc:miaire of the Year IV (1795}-it has been found necessary to tum to other, additional, sources: to the lists of the uainquturs de iaBtlJtille,J to those of the claimants for pensions in August 17926 and for compensation for time lost under arms in June 1793,7 and to the records of the military tribunals set up to judge the insurgents of Prairial and Vendemiaire.8 While the composition of revolutionary crowds may emerge, more or less clearly, from such records, it is, perhaps not surprisingly, more difficult to determine the motives that drew
18g0-1914); also M. Rouff, 'Le Penonnel des prcmi�res bneutes de '8g il Paris', LtJ RkDlulu", F'lUIflliu, Ivii (Igog), �13-31. I Thus, even a great work of tocial history lk i e u. V04 drJr, tI Ie ""'U� soritJ IOIU U. Terrtur is based almost entirely on reports of spea::hes in the National Con. vention, the Paris Commune, and thcJacobin Club. • Archives National"", series Y: archives du Chitde! dc Paris; series Z: juridic_ tion, '¢eiales ct ordinaires. • Auhives dc la P1if«tun: dc Police, series AJ..: sections dc Paris. Prods. verbaux de, commisuira de police. • Arehives National"", series F> (police gtntrale). , The most useful of these is the list of 662 NinqlJ.tll1S d, la BIIS/iU, among the Cuelin papen o f thc Archives Nationalel', ICries T 514(1). • Arch. Nat., F" 3267-74; F" 4426. • Arch. Nat., BB'60. I Auh. Nat., W �6-8, 556-8.
8
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
•
them together and led thousands of Parisians to participate in
Revolution in Paris singularly unmarked by mass political
these movements. For this purpose, too, the police records have
In the present volume, while dealing in the main with the revolutionary movements of 1789-95, I have attempted to bring into the picture the popular movements of the years 1787 and 1788 which, th� ugh precedi� g the outbr� ak of 1789, . ferment were a significant expresSion of the SOCial and pohtlcal
been a far more fruitful source than the usually tendentious i ts, deputies, and government accounts of memorialists, journals reporters. In addition to the police archivesjust cited, a valuable source is provided by the collections of rapports, or public-opinion surveys, of police agents of the Paris Commune, the Central Bureau oCPelice and the Ministry of the Interior, variously com piled by Schmidt, Caron, and Aulard for the period 1792 to 1795.' These reports are a mine of information on the reactions of small property-owners and wage-earners, in particular, to the events of these years, For the earlier years, there is no exact equivalent,
though Hardy's manuscript Journal is more than an adequate
substitute for the eve and outbreak of the Revolution.1
The police surveys are, besides, a useful source for the move ments of prices and wages, which play a considerable part in the present volume. The main source for these, however, are the various statistical lists and occasional data found in series Fu and Fil of the Archives Nationales.l
disturbance.
out of which the Revolution arose. Earlier historians, while appreciating the role of � he rivoltt nobiliairt of those � ears as a . curtain-raiser (if not an mtegral part) of the Revolution Itself, have tended to neglect these movements-as they have tended, a t the other end of the story, to neglect that of Vendemiaire of the Year IV (October 1795) which, though essentially a rising of middle-class property-owners, yet provoked a significant response from the Parisian sans-culottes. The present study may therefore p�rhaps claim to be original in so far as it attempts to present the Parisian revolutionary crowd (in its broadest sense) throughout the period 787-95-showing how it behaved, how it was composed, how it was drawn into activity, what it set
I
It may perhaps seem surprising that fuller use has not been
out to achieve, and how far its aims were realized. To do this
'Year II') used to such good advantage by Albert Soboul.. But it must be remembered that the sans-culottes, from whom the great bulk of rioters and insurgents were drawn, had little
in which a decisive factor was the mass intervention, in streets
made of the callin's de doliancts of 1789 and of the papers of the Paris Sections of 1790-5. which have been listed and (for the
to say in the drafting of the cahitrs-least of all in Paris. Again, they played little or no part in the general assemblies or com mittees of the Sections until after August 1792 and a pre dominant part only during the brief period June 1793 to July
1794; and this, being a period of strong government, was, with the single exception of September 1793, a phase of the
, A. Schmidt, TdktlllZ t4 u. RllIIIlldion /rmrtoiu (4 vob., Leipzig, 1867-71); P. Caron, Puis jJeIIdmIl u. TurWT. &P/I«ts du oKmU J«r.1s d", MiN,I,.,u flllllri,..,. (4 vob., Paris, 1910-49); A. Aulard, Pflris pnu/4rrJ u. """'ion tJrmnidtw,mn. It JtlIlS U Dim/Qi,. (5 vob., Pam, 18g8-190'), • S. Hardy, /I{os lam,l, �",jMmusI d',r:InnnmJ.s his q",'iis /HJnMnNnl d mtl ((mM.-ssone< (MS.in8YOu.,Paris, 1"£4-8g.BibliolhtqueNationale, fonds fran�ail, nOl. 6680-7). , For a fuller record o{lOurces ICC Bibliography. 4 A. Soboul, Lu Ptlpins dos s.cliDIII,u Ptlris (I7!JCH1" IV) (Pari., '9�); Ln $/IJU_ CuIDI/'S parisiens ttl I'an fl. lI[ou Even more variegated were the 14,000 inmates of the hOpiltlJJX and alms�houses,7 soon to be
the common labourers from such highly organized as formed by the forts
reinforced by the many thousands of workless peasants, small tradesmen, and country-workers who flocked into the capital on the eve of revolution and were herded into the ateliers de chan'U on the hill of Montmartre and elsewhere.s It is, in fact, only
I F. Fund,-Brentana, 'La Ql.Iestion ouvriere soW! l'Ancien R�me', JUuw • Arch. Nat., T 5'4 ('). l For this and other categories ofwockeC$ in Paris at this time I« PIJrisilJ1l WIJgt_ £amm, ii. 1177-80 (Appendix A). • G. Mauco, La Afigral;olU ou.,. • i/ruell FrtlllCe au dlbw du X/){I file/, (Paris, 19311), pp. la9-3'· , J..J. Letrait, 'La Communaut� dr:s maitre! ma�ons de Paris au XVII" et au XVIII· sitele', JU/JUI his/Qr;tpa d. droit /rDrlfais II /tranger, '94:', pp. 1156-7; ' 948, pp. 1 13-' 7· • For the latter, see M. Rouff, 'Une GN:ve de gagne-denieC$ en 1786 a Paria', RtvUl hisloriq..., ev (1910), 3311-48. None of the,e categories of workers appear in the returna of '791 analysed by Braesch. ;. This is the figure far 179' (C. Bloch and A. Tuetey, Pr��s'lJIf/uJ.wc II rapports du cam,l/ de mnrdiril/ d. la Co..s/;tumI1e, 17!JfrlJ9r (Paris, 1911), p. ¥Jla). I Lafayette estimated the number of 'brangers OU gens sans aveu' in Paris in 1he wetk following the eaptun: of the Ba�nil!e at 'over 30,000'; yet thia may have been exaggerated for partisan enw (MbN;;rts, rorrtspondana II 1/IlUUI.UT;ls du GmirIJ/ La/aft/Ie (6 vok, Paris, 1837), i. la7la-3). rllTo.pecl;w, xvii ( 1 8911). l-la4.
19
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
census of 1792 1 we find that the wage-earners and their families
for their living on a wage, still rented their frames from their employers and worked in their own homes; 1 and, in August
.8
accounted for some two-thirds of the resident population in seven northern and north-central Sectionsz and for nearly half the population in four Sections of the central market area,J while accounting for only one-third to one-half the population of the Faubourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marcel.4 But, even when they formed a majority of the local popula
1789, we shall find a substantial body of hairdressers' journey
men in Paris insisting on their right to set up in business on their own irrespective of their masters' wishes.1
About one-third of all the wage-earners recorded in the 1791
return were in the building trades ;l they were largely composed
tion, the wage-earners lacked the attributes of a distinctive
of seasonal workers or recent immigrants from the Creuse and
social class. In eighteenth-century France, the term ournin- might
barely furnished rooms in the rue Mouffetard or the city centre.4
be applied as readily to independent craftsmen, small work shop masters--or even, on occasion, to substantial manu facturers-as to ordinary wage-earners; in its most frequent use itwas synonymous with artisan.s Such usage corresponded to the social realities of the time, when the wage-earner had as yet no defined and distinctive status as a producer and there were often numerous intermediate stages between workman and employer. The typical unit of production was still the small workshop, which generally employed but a small number of journeymen and apprentices. Even in Paris, where the propor� rion of workers to employers was larger and the restrictions imposed by the guild-system had become more relaxed than
elsewhere,6 the journeyman still often ate at his master's table
and slept under his roof.' The distinction between a wage earning journeyman and an independent craftsman, or even a
workshop master, was ill defined: the 2,000 Parisian stocking� weavers who struck against wage-cuts in 1724, while depending , N. Karf:iev, op. cit., pp. '4-15.
These a.n:: Bcaubourg, Gravillicn, Ponttau, Mauoonseil, Bonne Nouvelle, PoiDonnim, Faubourg Saini-Denis. 1 The,e are: Louvre, Oratoire, March9 des Innocents (later Hailes), Lombards. • See Paririatc Wap-EameTs, i. 52-53, 1I17-80 (Appendix A). I The D;dimrMi" de j'A,tldlmu. FrlUlflJiu (17711 ed.) defines an 1JIUlIi" as 'ttlui qui travaille de la main et fait que1que ouvrage'; and Diderot'l Encydopidu explains that the term 'se dit en genual de tout artisan qui travaille de que1que �tier que i df rArodimu which defines the term tt lOit'. The earliest edition of the DietimuuJu in ib modem sense of a wage-eamer is that of 1935. For a recent discus&on of the difficulties of definition in the Itudy of $OCial history see Alfred Cobban, 'The Vocabulary ofSocial History', Polilid &imt;. QUII,lerg, Ixxi ( 1956), 14. • A. Franklin, La VU privle d'tlul,ifDil; WIII1mTI/ on d'!!mil;1 pa1roII (Paris, 1889), pp. 1I8'-4· 7 Besides the evidence of the poliee rl:COnh we find the assertion in a Motion .us arlislls, artis/IIU 1/ ouurins du dislrid .us WpuriM tU Itl Ciliuml, d'Allti.. of July 178g: 'Nolr Even more variegated were the 14,000 inmates of the hOpiltlJJX and alms�houses,7 soon to be
the common labourers from such highly organized as formed by the forts
reinforced by the many thousands of workless peasants, small tradesmen, and country-workers who flocked into the capital on the eve of revolution and were herded into the ateliers de chan'U on the hill of Montmartre and elsewhere.s It is, in fact, only
I F. Fund,-Brentana, 'La Ql.Iestion ouvriere soW! l'Ancien R�me', JUuw • Arch. Nat., T 5'4 ('). l For this and other categories ofwockeC$ in Paris at this time I« PIJrisilJ1l WIJgt_ £amm, ii. 1177-80 (Appendix A). • G. Mauco, La Afigral;olU ou.,. • i/ruell FrtlllCe au dlbw du X/){I file/, (Paris, 19311), pp. la9-3'· , J..J. Letrait, 'La Communaut� dr:s maitre! ma�ons de Paris au XVII" et au XVIII· sitele', JU/JUI his/Qr;tpa d. droit /rDrlfais II /tranger, '94:', pp. 1156-7; ' 948, pp. 1 13-' 7· • For the latter, see M. Rouff, 'Une GN:ve de gagne-denieC$ en 1786 a Paria', RtvUl hisloriq..., ev (1910), 3311-48. None of the,e categories of workers appear in the returna of '791 analysed by Braesch. ;. This is the figure far 179' (C. Bloch and A. Tuetey, Pr��s'lJIf/uJ.wc II rapports du cam,l/ de mnrdiril/ d. la Co..s/;tumI1e, 17!JfrlJ9r (Paris, 1911), p. ¥Jla). I Lafayette estimated the number of 'brangers OU gens sans aveu' in Paris in 1he wetk following the eaptun: of the Ba�nil!e at 'over 30,000'; yet thia may have been exaggerated for partisan enw (MbN;;rts, rorrtspondana II 1/IlUUI.UT;ls du GmirIJ/ La/aft/Ie (6 vok, Paris, 1837), i. la7la-3). rllTo.pecl;w, xvii ( 1 8911). l-la4.
INTRODUCTION
PARIS ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
among the workers in the new textile manufactories of the
argued with Lenoir, the lieutenant of police, and others had marched in search of the king at the chiiteau de Bounoy.1 The following year, Sebastien Hardy, the bookseller-diarist, reported
.0
northemfaubourgs, who may have amounted to a quarter or a
fifth of the total working population, I that we begin to find the distinctive characteristics of a modem industrial working class; but, as we shall see, unlike the small craftsmen andjourneymen, they were to play a relatively minor role in the events of the Revolution. Yet, for all their lack of cohesion as a social class, the Parisian
journeymen and labourers had long since learned to express their particular economic demanrls-often by violent means.
With the break-down in the purposes and organization of the old medieval guild, the journeyman had found himself reduced to the status of a wage-earner with nothing but the slenderest chance of ever becoming a master.1 This gradual divergence in the material interests of masters and journeymen is reflected
"
a far wider movement embracing carpenters, farriers, lock smiths, bakers, and stonemasons;1 and, the same year, striking parten and carriers, protesting against a rival monopoly set up by court favourites, marched to Versailles to petition the king and aroused widespread popular sympathy) In June 1789. on the very eve of the Paris revolution, there was a further
strike ofhatters-this time over rivaljourneymen's associations.4 Such movements may, as Marcel Rouff has suggested, have contributed to the revolutionary temper of 1 789;5 but they were
not decisive. In the conditions of the time conflicts between capital and labour were generally of secondary importance and the wage�earner was usually more concerned with the price of
in the increasingly bitter strikes and social movements of the
food-particularly of bread-than with the amount of his
century, becoming aU the more bitter as prices tended pro
earnings. This was partly due to the absence of large-scale
gressively to outstrip wages.l To take a few examples. In 17'24 there was a strike of stocking-frame weavers against a reduction
of wages, which was broken by the arrest of their leaders.4 In 1737 the journeymen weavers rebelled against the new regula
t.:...ns governing, and restricting. entry to the maitrise.5 In 1 749 the journeymen hatters were forbidden by an arTlt of the Paris
Par/emenl
to interfere with their employers' freedom to hire
labour;6 and, in 1765, a similar arrlt forbade these workers to carry swords and hunting-knives.' In 1776 there was a feneral strike among bookbinders for a fourteen-hour day.' In 1 785
workers in the building trades, striking against a wage-cut
imposed by the cont�actors. won a notable victory: the Parle
menl declared in their favour after several hundred of them had , PMi.tillll
W�g....Eanrns, i. 58, and nOle 83.
Profeuor ubrowae h.u .hown that whereas the prices 01 food and other eatentiaJ. of popular eoruumption increased by 6� per ccnt. betwccn the periods '7�6-4' and 177,-8g, nomina.! waga increased by only �� IX'r cent. between the .ame periodt (C.·E. ubrowae, EslJuisu tIu mollMllflll du prix II Ju "lit"'" 0/1 Fr4IIU _.. XVlIl' Si�e/I, ii. 597-&8). • Routl', op. cit., p. 333. • Funek.BN:ntano, cp. cit. 6 A. Franklin, DiJ:IWMiJi,. JIS lITis, milins II P"'flSSions until JaIlS P.ris J,pui.t II ' Ibid., p. 573· XliI' .iull (Paria, '(06). p. 37�. I S. Hardy, Mu wi.tirs, oujounuJ J'IMwmmls .uts qu'iis plUllimNm a /II
"
fore, that they tended to think in terms of cheaper and more plentiful bread-rather than in terms of higher wages and better workshop conditions; and, with rare exceptions, this continued to be the case during the Revolution as wel!.1 In consequence it was the food riot rather than the strike that was still the traditional and typical form of popular protest; and in this not only journeymen, labourers, and city poor, but small shopkeepers, craftsmen, and workshop masters joined in com mon opposition to farmers, millers, bakers, hoarders, grain merchants, and city authorities. This basic identityofinterest was to prove one of the most solid of the links that bound together the social groups forming the sans-culottes of the Revolution. Paris, like other big cities, had, throughout the century, been continually threatened with such outbreaks. To avert them an elaborate system had been devised to ensure the regular and adequate supply of wheat to suburban millers and flour to the Paris bakers-often at the expense of the supplying areas them selves, or at the reputed expense of the villages lying on the rivers and roads along which food-convoys bound for the capital travelled.1 But the margin ofsafety was rarely sufficient to withstand the onslaught or vagaries of bad harvests, drought, hail, frost, poor communications, or the peculations of grain monopolists and speculators. In such cases the system broke down and panic-buying led to steep rises in the price of bread and outbursts of anger and violence by the Parisian menu peuple.
In the great famine year of '709 the break-down had been so nearly complete and so protracted that hundreds had died of
starvation.' In August 1 725 the Marquis d'Argenson recorded
, Thil lendeney it cleuly rdla:ted in lhe few provincial win. tit dOUllJlt# of wage_urnen; that have come down to us. In Pam .here ;s no such evidcnce, in view of the special regulations drawn up to exclude wage�amcn and small properly-ownen from the Parisian preliminary �mblics (ChUllin, op. cit. i.
• L. Cahen, 'La Quotion du pain a Paris a l a fin du XVIII" si�cJe', Cahi"s tit la RllltJlulioq/rllllfaUt, no. t (1934), pp. 51-76. For the Parisian supply-routo and Ihe frequent attacks on Paris-hound convO)'ll by road and river in the period t75�119, tee R. C. Cobb, 'Lea DiRtto de \'an II et de I'an III dans Ie district de Manta et la yall�e de la Basse-Seine', Mtmhim dt la fUtmliOll dts soci/lis Ju'swriquts 1/ DrelrJologiqtJtlS d, Pllris tI dt 1'f1t-d._Franu, iii (1954), pp. 227-:J:J. ) A. de Boi,lille, 'Le Grand Hiver et la di3eue de 1709', R,vld dtS quutiDJU historiqllU, luiii (June '!/OJ), 44l1-509; IxxiY (Da:embc:r 19(3), 486-54�.
373�)·
'3
serieuses') M. d'Ombreval, the minister responsible, had been relieved of his post.1 In September 1 740 the price of the 4-lb.
loaf rose to 20 SOIlS (equivalent to the daily wage of an unskilled
worker) ; the king was assailed with cries of 'Misere! du pain! du pain !'; Cardinal Fleury was mobbed by a crowd of angry women; and fifty prisoners at Bicetre were shot dead after rioting in protest against a reduction in their bread-ration.� In December 1752 bread riots were coupled with angry demon
strations against the Archbishop of Paris who had refused the sacrament to a dying nun suspected ofJansenism;l six months later the price of bread was still abnormally high and seditious leaflets were circulated, bearing the inscription, 'Vive Ie Parle ment! meurent Ie Roi et Ies eveques!'4 It was the same king Louis XV-who was popularly believed to have devised the sinister pacte defamine.s More widespread and even more alarming to the authorities were the food riots that broke out in Paris and its adjoining
provinces in the spring of 1775. Turgot had been appointed
Comptroller-General in August 1774. He started with no
particular record of unpopularity as far as the common people were concerned: in fact, his predecessor and most vocal oppo nent, the abbe Terray, was, soon after his appointment, burned in effigy in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.' Yet, to the delight of his enemies at court, he was soon to lose any sem blance of popular favour by his over-haste in applying Physio cratic doctrine to the grain-trade : an
arrll
of
'3 September
, }tnn'IUll d mImoirtJ du Marquis d'ArpIUOJI (9 vol,., Pari., ,859), i. 54. According to another memonali3t, the lawyer Barbier, the price of the 4-1b. loaf had risen to the almost fantastic sum of lIB-:!lI SlItIS (E. J. F. Barbier, ]IIIITfW hutorif{W �I a1l«dotiqut du rtgM de lAuis XV (4 vois., Paris, ,847), i. �24-5). • D'A�nson, op. cit. iii. 169-73. 1 Ibid. vii. 353, 3::'7. • Ibid. viii. 35. , L. Biollay, u PDi:� dtfami". ti ltS ophll/iDJU Sur lu ,rai"s (Pari., ,885), 6 M
These riots gave a remarkable foretaste of certain episodes of the Revolution-notably of popular price-control, or laxa tion populajre, of essential commodities, which became a regular . feature of the years 1789 to 1793. Yet they were far from belng . directed against the existing order: they were rather a massIVe protest against the new-fangled principle ofallowi�g food-prices to find their natural or market level, Instead ofbemg regulated by considerations of social justice. It is perhaps hardly sur
�
prising that the movement yielded no tangi le results. I � was illage essentially a movement of wage-earners, artisans, and V and city poor : neither the bourgeoisie nor the bulk ofthe peasantry played any part. However, it gave a severe jolt to the govern ment and 'respectable' classes : twelve years later, Hardy, w o
�
had witnessed the invasion of markets and bakers' shops In • G. Rud�, 'La Taxation populaire de m:ai 1775 a Pari. et danl la rtgion 1956, pp. lI39-79.
l -June p arUienne',ANIllles hutoriquu
I &e p. 16 above.
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
death·roll of only twenty-five and for twenty-two wounded survivors. I These figures are almost certainly incomplete,
remarks attributed to Reveillon had a significance in no way peculiar to the ftwbourg, it proved an easy matter to recruit
,8
Yet, despite these deficiencies, these reports help us to establish
support from neighbouring parishes-yet it remained a local affair and its repercussions were not as widespread as those of the previous August and September.
rioters came from outside the Faubourg Saint-Antoine;l while
tion in that they represent an insurrectionary movement of wage-earners. In them alone, of all the insurrections during the period under review, the wage-earners clearly predominate and
of Saint-Marcel.3 Collot's contention is supported by
Guerin, one of the accused, who, under cross-examination, told
an appeal is made, however confusedly, to the wage-earners as a social group. The Revolution in Paris was to witness more than one concerted wages movement of different trades-as in
occasionne ce tumulte·lil, qu'il l'a entendu dire a son frere et
tionary form. We should certainly hesitate, after the warnings voiced in the last chapter, to assume that the use of the term
though we have no means of correcting them.
both the nature of the rioters and the districts most directly involved in the disturbances. Historians have not been able to agree on the latter point. Jaures thought the majority of the a more recent writer, J. Collot, has claimed that ,the main stimulus to them came from the other traditionally turbulent
fau.bourg
the police : 'Ce 50nt des gens du faubourg Marcel qui ant
autres,'
I &e p. 16 above.
,0
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
What drove these journeymen, labourers, and petty crafts
men to such violent outbursts of anger and to behave with such reckless courage? The immediate cause of the disturbance is, of course, not in doubt: it flowed directly from the 'inconsiderate' remarks attributed to Reveillon and Henriot concerning the high level of wages. Whether they actually advocated a reduc tion, as was widely believed; or whether they merely regretted the passing of happier days, as some of their apologists main tained ;' or whether, as they themselves insisted, they never made the reported remarks at a1l2 does not really make mU'ch difference. What is important is what they were believed to
41
Courtes rlflexions sur l' ivinnnent du .28 auril, points to an aristocratic or clerical plot
in which
un grand nombre d'ouvrien de differcntes professions ont tte con i trants, Ics uns par argent, les autres par violence, a suivre cette troupe de (arcenes.
1.
The reports ofall the investigating commissioners show the same preoccupation with outside agents; and, having failed to obtain satisfaction on this score from any of the existing prisoners, the police proceeded to arrest on 3 May the abbe Roy, a man who
have said by the wage-earners of the faubourg and the effect it
had already been publicly denounced as a government agent
had on them. Some of the more coherent of the accused ad� mitted under cross-examination that it was the veiled threat to their wages that had made them join in the riots. For example. the harness-maker, Le Blanc, who confessed to having entered
and a personal enemy of ReveilJon. But he proved a disappoint
for when one ofthe defendants, the paper-worker Sirier, claimed
Reveillon's house and thrown furniture out of the window, explained his reasons for joining the demonstrators as follows :
to have been given money in the rue Saint-Honore some days after the riots, he was asked 'si ce n'etait point un abbe ou
Qu'il y a ete par curio!ite et parce qu'il y a ete entraine par la multitude, qu'il avait aimi que les autres ouvriers du faubourg de I'humeur contre Ie sr. Revdllon parce qu'il avait dit dans I'assem
,
PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
brigands' ;I and the author of the pamphlet,
blee du tien etat a Ste. Margueri te que les ouvrien pouvaient vivre avec quinze sols par jour, qu'il avait chez lui des ouvrien qui gagnaient vingt sols par jour et avaient la montre dans Ie gousset et qu'ils scraient bient6t plw riches que lui.
And he added, perhaps significantly, that it was his own em� player, Olivier, a well-known porcelain manufacturer of the rue de la Raquette, who had told him so.) Taking place when they did, at a time of intense political ferment, these riots were bound to appear to the authorities as something more than a mere spontaneous outbreak over wages.
As none of the arrested workers appeared to be a leader, who
then had incited them by bribery, or other means? Hardy refers to the rioters as '(des) ouvriers . . . souleves par des , Arch. Nat., KK 6.p, fol. , 6. 1 &/IOJ'JWliJicalif""lI1" k ,uur lYvri/Jon and &poslJWliJictl/if""1I1" Ie linn- H,lUiol (Paris, I 18g). Bib. Nat., L'> 39 16,8--' 9. 1 Arch. Nat., Y 13319. Similar lIatemenli w 39 16,8--' 9. 1 Arch. Nat., Y 13319. Similar lIatemenli w. 107-98; J. M. Thompaon, Th# r R�lJD/lillOn (Oxford, '943), pp. 45-59. Documentary lOurCei are separaleiy iFndi cate .
•
i. 94il. Hardy, vii
) Ibid. viii. 36il.
..
JULY 1789
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
de Ville in the heart of the capital. These two bodies were In the early days, however, it was the Palais Royal alone
in the course of which more than eighty witnesses were heard, we learn that no less than forty of the fifty·four customs posts were destroyed by fire in the course offour days' rioting.1 The destruction was systematic: documents, registers, and customs
play distinctive, yet complementary, parts in the events ofJuly.
gave a positive direction to the popular movement. Whereas
Hotd de Ville contented itself with drafting paper schemes for
the institution of a milice
bourgeoise,
or citizens' militia, the
receipts were burned, iron railings were pulled down, offices and furniture were fired, and the customs officers-where they had not already taken flight-were forcibly expelled. Many, taken
PaJais Royal took effective measures, by public agitation and liberal expenditure, to win over the Gardes Franc;aises from their loyalty to the court. On 30 June crowds directed from the Palais Royal forcibly released from the Abbaye prison eleven guardsmen who had been jailed for refusing to fire on the people at Versailles on the night Of22-23]um:.I Tracts support· iog the standpoint of the Third Estate were distributed among
the Paris garrisons: on 8 July a newsvendor was arrested for trying to sell such materials to officers and men encamped at the Champ de Mars.Z On 10 July eighty artillerymen, who had broken out of their barracks in the Hotel des Invalides, were publicly feted in the Palais Royal and the Champs Elysees. Reacting to these developments, the Court Party attempted a show·down: on 1 1 July Necker was sent into exile and re·
placed by the Baron de Breteuil. This proved to be the spark that touched off the insurrection in Paris. The news reached the
capital at noon on the 12th. During the afternoon Parisians
,
..
scene offre�uent disturbance and attempted smuggling.1 From the proceedings opened against the raiders nine months later,
flocked to the Palais Royal, where orators-the young Camille Desmoulins among them-gave the call to arms. Groups of marchers quickly formed ; the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans, the heroes of the hour, were paraded on the boule· vards; theatres were compelled to close as a sign of mourning; in the Place Louis XV demonstrators clashed with cavalry commanded by the Prince de Lambesc, who had been ordered to clear the TuiJeries gardens. Besenval, commander of the Paris garrison, withdrew to the Champ de Mars; the capital was in the hands of the people. As the tocsin pealed-soon to become a frequent and familiar
sound to Parisians-bands of insurgents joined those who, twO days earlier, had begun to burn down the hated barrieres, whose exactions were bitterly resented by shopkeepers, wine·mer chants, and small consumers and which had already been the , JUlalwn th " qui lutfu:sli d l'Ahbaye St. Gmnain (Pam, 17Bg). Bib. Nat. Lb • Arch. Nat., Y IS818. 188�; Hardy, viii. 373, 383.
j
by surprise, had no time to remove their personal belongings and suffered considerable loss : one official of the barriere du Trone later claimed for the loss of property valued at 25,413
firJTts, including 8,1 00 liurlS in cash ; another for losses amount· ing to 27,470 livres, fO sous.) Yet looting was not part of the
plan as conceived by its organizers : at the barriere S�int. Martin, a looter was thus reprimanded by a fellow rioter: 'Bnilons, s'il Ie faut, puisque ceJa nous est ordonne, mais ne volons (pas), puisque cela nous est defendu.' From such and even more specific evidence it is clear that the Palais Royal had a hand in the affair: it is no doubt significant that two posts said to belong to the Duke of Orleans were deliberately spared by the incendiaries. It does not appear that the main purpose of 'the extreme revolutionary party' was so much to give free entry of consumers' goods into the capital-though this inevit· ably followed-as to destroy the monopoly of the Farmers General and to control the entry and exit of arms and penons. the people carrying out their orders-and often acting mdependcntly of them-had their own accounts to settle with
�ut
an institution that added substantially to the cost of wine, fi�ewood, eggs, and livestock: they were the petty traders, wm,:-merchants, barrel and building workers, dockers, water· earners, labourers, and workers employed on public-works schem�, who, the documents tell us, played a large part in this operation and, no doubt, affected its outcome. That same night, teo, armed civilians, Gardes Fran'Yaises and local poor broke into the monastery of the Saint-Lazare
, On 1 May ten smuggle.. had been alTClted at Ihe barrihe Saint·Denis and
�nat.,6 May, two othe.. for causing a dinurbance and in,ulling the officials (Arch� 1'"
Y 18795, pp. 446-7 ; (8763).
..
Arch. Nat., Y 1 '9117. 15403.
Ar� . Nac, Z'" 886. (See apedally Ihe document entitled in/l#malitJn fMt;muml
'IIC.Nf"d Barribts. "9"",rl, IJ9Qtlj$UTUuili<J1\l.)
1
..
JULY 1789
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
de Ville in the heart of the capital. These two bodies were In the early days, however, it was the Palais Royal alone
in the course of which more than eighty witnesses were heard, we learn that no less than forty of the fifty·four customs posts were destroyed by fire in the course offour days' rioting.1 The destruction was systematic: documents, registers, and customs
play distinctive, yet complementary, parts in the events ofJuly.
gave a positive direction to the popular movement. Whereas
Hotd de Ville contented itself with drafting paper schemes for
the institution of a milice
bourgeoise,
or citizens' militia, the
receipts were burned, iron railings were pulled down, offices and furniture were fired, and the customs officers-where they had not already taken flight-were forcibly expelled. Many, taken
PaJais Royal took effective measures, by public agitation and liberal expenditure, to win over the Gardes Franc;aises from their loyalty to the court. On 30 June crowds directed from the Palais Royal forcibly released from the Abbaye prison eleven guardsmen who had been jailed for refusing to fire on the people at Versailles on the night Of22-23]um:.I Tracts support· iog the standpoint of the Third Estate were distributed among
the Paris garrisons: on 8 July a newsvendor was arrested for trying to sell such materials to officers and men encamped at the Champ de Mars.Z On 10 July eighty artillerymen, who had broken out of their barracks in the Hotel des Invalides, were publicly feted in the Palais Royal and the Champs Elysees. Reacting to these developments, the Court Party attempted a show·down: on 1 1 July Necker was sent into exile and re·
placed by the Baron de Breteuil. This proved to be the spark that touched off the insurrection in Paris. The news reached the
capital at noon on the 12th. During the afternoon Parisians
,
..
scene offre�uent disturbance and attempted smuggling.1 From the proceedings opened against the raiders nine months later,
flocked to the Palais Royal, where orators-the young Camille Desmoulins among them-gave the call to arms. Groups of marchers quickly formed ; the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans, the heroes of the hour, were paraded on the boule· vards; theatres were compelled to close as a sign of mourning; in the Place Louis XV demonstrators clashed with cavalry commanded by the Prince de Lambesc, who had been ordered to clear the TuiJeries gardens. Besenval, commander of the Paris garrison, withdrew to the Champ de Mars; the capital was in the hands of the people. As the tocsin pealed-soon to become a frequent and familiar
sound to Parisians-bands of insurgents joined those who, twO days earlier, had begun to burn down the hated barrieres, whose exactions were bitterly resented by shopkeepers, wine·mer chants, and small consumers and which had already been the , JUlalwn th " qui lutfu:sli d l'Ahbaye St. Gmnain (Pam, 17Bg). Bib. Nat. Lb • Arch. Nat., Y IS818. 188�; Hardy, viii. 373, 383.
j
by surprise, had no time to remove their personal belongings and suffered considerable loss : one official of the barriere du Trone later claimed for the loss of property valued at 25,413
firJTts, including 8,1 00 liurlS in cash ; another for losses amount· ing to 27,470 livres, fO sous.) Yet looting was not part of the
plan as conceived by its organizers : at the barriere S�int. Martin, a looter was thus reprimanded by a fellow rioter: 'Bnilons, s'il Ie faut, puisque ceJa nous est ordonne, mais ne volons (pas), puisque cela nous est defendu.' From such and even more specific evidence it is clear that the Palais Royal had a hand in the affair: it is no doubt significant that two posts said to belong to the Duke of Orleans were deliberately spared by the incendiaries. It does not appear that the main purpose of 'the extreme revolutionary party' was so much to give free entry of consumers' goods into the capital-though this inevit· ably followed-as to destroy the monopoly of the Farmers General and to control the entry and exit of arms and penons. the people carrying out their orders-and often acting mdependcntly of them-had their own accounts to settle with
�ut
an institution that added substantially to the cost of wine, fi�ewood, eggs, and livestock: they were the petty traders, wm,:-merchants, barrel and building workers, dockers, water· earners, labourers, and workers employed on public-works schem�, who, the documents tell us, played a large part in this operation and, no doubt, affected its outcome. That same night, teo, armed civilians, Gardes Fran'Yaises and local poor broke into the monastery of the Saint-Lazare
, On 1 May ten smuggle.. had been alTClted at Ihe barrihe Saint·Denis and
�nat.,6 May, two othe.. for causing a dinurbance and in,ulling the officials (Arch� 1'"
Y 18795, pp. 446-7 ; (8763).
..
Arch. Nat., Y 1 '9117. 15403.
Ar� . Nac, Z'" 886. (See apedally Ihe document entitled in/l#malitJn fMt;muml
'IIC.Nf"d Barribts. "9"",rl, IJ9Qtlj$UTUuili<J1\l.)
1
�o
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
brotherhood on the northern fringe of the city, searched it for arms, released prisoners, and removed fifty-two cartloads of grain and Rour to the central grain market.I The search for grain was the main object of the visit. An unemployed carter, who was later traced to Charolles in Burgundy, where he had escaped with 700 louis picked up in the monastery, described how he had been brought there 'par des gens qui avaient l'air comme it faut . . . pour conduire les grains qui y etaient a la Halle'.l Another carter, when questioned by the police, spoke of making �wo such trip� for .which he was paid at the rate of 40 sow per Journey.l While th iS part of the proceedings was directed by the I Palais Royal, the monastery was also completely ransacked by the local unemployed and menu peuple-the records speak of porters and labourers, rarely of workshop journeymen-for money, food, silver, and hidden treasure. Every conceivable object of real or imaginary value was pilfered: a butcher's boy, later convicted for theft, admitted removing a dried ram's head ; and one zealot even came away with a skeleton which he dra ."ed up five flights to his room! Such activities provided the police and the newly fonned militia with a ready excuse for . rounding up large numbers of suspects, mainly unemployed workers and vagrants, many of whom were later charged with . participation in this affair." But the main feature ofthe night of 12-13July was the search for arms : religious houses were visited and gunsmiths, armourers, and harness-makers were raided in different parts of the capital. A number ofstatements drawn up in support of their claims for compensation have come down to w. Thus, Marcel Arlot, master gunsmith of the rue Greneta in the parish of Saint-Leu reported that his shop was broken into at 2 a.m. by a crowd headed by a journeyman armourer of the rue Jean Robert; . muskets, putals, sabres, and swords to the value of 24,000 livres were removed. A harness-maker of the Pont Saint-Michel reported the theft of belts and shoulder-straps to the value of 390 livres. Brun, master gunsmith and sword-cuder of the rue Bar-du-Bec, parish of Saint-Jean-en-Greve, in submitting a • i,y lmftlltitm el llI r�qtJlu '" 1'rowtaafi=l ill BlliJlW.l� t4 SI. �(J", �illi/"' 11B!;. Arch. Nat., Z' 469 •. • Arch. Nat., Z' 4691. • Arch. Sa6ne-et·Loire, B. 705. • The name. of about fifty .uch perJOm appear n i Arch. Nat., Y 106'4, fol. 149i 10649, foil. '7-2' i .8,95, fol. 46�i 1 151B; I�.,oai 1��IBi 14�40; 15101; '568,.
JULY 1.789
,. claim for 4.348 livres, stated that his shop had been broken into no less than thirty times, in the course of which 150 swords, 4 gross of sword-blades, 58 hunting-knives, lO brace of pistols, and 8 muskets had been removed; while another sword-cutler of the parish of Saint-Severin complained that his shop had been invaded several times on both the 1 2 and 13 July and that a very considerable number of sabres, swords, and unmounted blades had been taken by persons who refused to pay fOrlhem on the ground 'that they would serve for the defence of the capital' ; his losses amounted to 6,684 livres. The total losses eventuallysub mitted to the National Assembly by the Parisian gunsmiths amo�nted t� 1 15,IIB livres. As far as we can tell, they never received their money: they were among the minor victims of the Revolution.' Of considerable interest, too, is the eye-witness account of the events of that first night of the July revolution given by Jean-Nicolas Pepin, a tallow-chandler's labourer• who• as a subpoenaed witness in the Saint-Lazare affair, later told the story of how he was caught up in the milling throngs ofcivilians and Gardes �ran(jaises that, all night long, surged through the streets, shoutmg the newly learned patriotic slogans, ringing the tocsin, and searching for grain and arms. From his account too it is doubly clear that, at this time, the guiding centre of th� revolutionary movement lay in the Palais Royal to which, rather than to the Hotel de Ville the angry, bewildered, but elated, citizens looked for leadership and guidance.z On the morning of the 13th, however. the Electors made a firm bid to gain control of the silUation. They formed a Per manent Committee to act as a provisional government of the city and detennined to put a stop to the indiscriminate arming ?f the whole population. They had been alarmed by the burn Ing of the barneres and the sacking of the monastery of Saint Lazare. To them the bands of unemployed and homeless, who had played some part in these operations, were as great a m,:nace to the security and properties of the citizens as the . pnvlleged orders conspiring at Versailles.l Accordingly the • Arch. Nat., Y u�18, 116gB; C " 4, doss. B, pike Ui D VI 6, no. 39, piece 19.
I TheK wen:': soon to be increucd by the rc\elUe ofpn.onen from the Force and Bicclrc! *Ome of these, however, not appreciating their freedom, lurrendered. to o
Arch. Nat., Z' 4691.
the police the next day (Arch. Nat., Y 13454).
�o
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
brotherhood on the northern fringe of the city, searched it for arms, released prisoners, and removed fifty-two cartloads of grain and Rour to the central grain market.I The search for grain was the main object of the visit. An unemployed carter, who was later traced to Charolles in Burgundy, where he had escaped with 700 louis picked up in the monastery, described how he had been brought there 'par des gens qui avaient l'air comme it faut . . . pour conduire les grains qui y etaient a la Halle'.l Another carter, when questioned by the police, spoke of making �wo such trip� for .which he was paid at the rate of 40 sow per Journey.l While th iS part of the proceedings was directed by the I Palais Royal, the monastery was also completely ransacked by the local unemployed and menu peuple-the records speak of porters and labourers, rarely of workshop journeymen-for money, food, silver, and hidden treasure. Every conceivable object of real or imaginary value was pilfered: a butcher's boy, later convicted for theft, admitted removing a dried ram's head ; and one zealot even came away with a skeleton which he dra ."ed up five flights to his room! Such activities provided the police and the newly fonned militia with a ready excuse for . rounding up large numbers of suspects, mainly unemployed workers and vagrants, many of whom were later charged with . participation in this affair." But the main feature ofthe night of 12-13July was the search for arms : religious houses were visited and gunsmiths, armourers, and harness-makers were raided in different parts of the capital. A number ofstatements drawn up in support of their claims for compensation have come down to w. Thus, Marcel Arlot, master gunsmith of the rue Greneta in the parish of Saint-Leu reported that his shop was broken into at 2 a.m. by a crowd headed by a journeyman armourer of the rue Jean Robert; . muskets, putals, sabres, and swords to the value of 24,000 livres were removed. A harness-maker of the Pont Saint-Michel reported the theft of belts and shoulder-straps to the value of 390 livres. Brun, master gunsmith and sword-cuder of the rue Bar-du-Bec, parish of Saint-Jean-en-Greve, in submitting a • i,y lmftlltitm el llI r�qtJlu '" 1'rowtaafi=l ill BlliJlW.l� t4 SI. �(J", �illi/"' 11B!;. Arch. Nat., Z' 469 •. • Arch. Nat., Z' 4691. • Arch. Sa6ne-et·Loire, B. 705. • The name. of about fifty .uch perJOm appear n i Arch. Nat., Y 106'4, fol. 149i 10649, foil. '7-2' i .8,95, fol. 46�i 1 151B; I�.,oai 1��IBi 14�40; 15101; '568,.
JULY 1.789
,. claim for 4.348 livres, stated that his shop had been broken into no less than thirty times, in the course of which 150 swords, 4 gross of sword-blades, 58 hunting-knives, lO brace of pistols, and 8 muskets had been removed; while another sword-cutler of the parish of Saint-Severin complained that his shop had been invaded several times on both the 1 2 and 13 July and that a very considerable number of sabres, swords, and unmounted blades had been taken by persons who refused to pay fOrlhem on the ground 'that they would serve for the defence of the capital' ; his losses amounted to 6,684 livres. The total losses eventuallysub mitted to the National Assembly by the Parisian gunsmiths amo�nted t� 1 15,IIB livres. As far as we can tell, they never received their money: they were among the minor victims of the Revolution.' Of considerable interest, too, is the eye-witness account of the events of that first night of the July revolution given by Jean-Nicolas Pepin, a tallow-chandler's labourer• who• as a subpoenaed witness in the Saint-Lazare affair, later told the story of how he was caught up in the milling throngs ofcivilians and Gardes �ran(jaises that, all night long, surged through the streets, shoutmg the newly learned patriotic slogans, ringing the tocsin, and searching for grain and arms. From his account too it is doubly clear that, at this time, the guiding centre of th� revolutionary movement lay in the Palais Royal to which, rather than to the Hotel de Ville the angry, bewildered, but elated, citizens looked for leadership and guidance.z On the morning of the 13th, however. the Electors made a firm bid to gain control of the silUation. They formed a Per manent Committee to act as a provisional government of the city and detennined to put a stop to the indiscriminate arming ?f the whole population. They had been alarmed by the burn Ing of the barneres and the sacking of the monastery of Saint Lazare. To them the bands of unemployed and homeless, who had played some part in these operations, were as great a m,:nace to the security and properties of the citizens as the . pnvlleged orders conspiring at Versailles.l Accordingly the • Arch. Nat., Y u�18, 116gB; C " 4, doss. B, pike Ui D VI 6, no. 39, piece 19.
I TheK wen:': soon to be increucd by the rc\elUe ofpn.onen from the Force and Bicclrc! *Ome of these, however, not appreciating their freedom, lurrendered. to o
Arch. Nat., Z' 4691.
the police the next day (Arch. Nat., Y 13454).
,.
plan to establish a regular citizens' militia, or milice bourgeoise.
was hastily adopted with the dual object of defending the capital from the military threat without and from the danger of 'anarchy' within: it needs hardly be said that it was on the latter score alone that the king was persuaded to give his con sent the next day.1 Householders were summoned to meetings in the sixty Electoral Districts : each District was to contribute 200 (later 800) men. The same day, wrote Barnave, 13,200 citizens were registered and equipped ;! two days later, he was happy to claim :
La plus grande partie de la milice de Paris est bonne bourgeoise, et e'est ce qui la rend aussi sure pour I'ordre public que formidable pour la tyrannic.] In fact, while each District drew up its own condition9 of en· rolment, in most cases property and residential qualifications even employers' certificates of good character-were imposed that virtually debarred a large part of the wage-earning popula tion; certainly all unemployed and vagrants were excluded.•
All vagabonds, genssans aveu, and other 'irregulars' were to be im
mediately disarmed. An English observer, Dr. Rigby, recorded t",\l this operation had already been largely carried through by the evening of the same day, 'at which time {he wrote) the regularly armed citizens almost exclusively occupied the streets'.S The point is ofinteresl as it illustrates thc degree of authority quickly asserted by the Electors; yet it is doubtful if the process of disarming went so far as suggested by Dr. Rigby as long as the insurrection lasted. Even after its completion, the new city authorities fell compelled to invite the Paris workers and craftsmen to surrendcr their arms in return for a payment of
9 [;vres per headj6 and, between 22 July and 3 August, the , MImoirn d, B4i/ly (li vou. Paris, ,821), i. 267.
, Arch. Nat., W 12, fols. 197-9 (leiter of 15 July '789)· On 14 July Hardy recordm thai 30,000 had bc:c:n enrolled (]
ncn
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
85 or go in other occupations, I There was one woman among them-Marie Charpentier,femme Hauserne, a laundress of the parish of Saint·Hippolyte in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. These were the survivors ; we know less about the ninety eight said to have been killed during the siege. Jaures, quoting the journalist Loustaiot, wrote : 'Plus de trentc: laissaient leur femme et leun enfanu dans un tel etat de detresse que des secoun immediats Curent necessaires.'1 There is further evidence to suggest that those killed included wage-earners and city poor. Hardy reports a burial service for Charles Dusson, aged 31, a journeyman edge-toolmaker of the rue de la Huchette,
JULY 1 7 8 9
"
the Gros CaiJIou. near the Champ de Mars. And all of these, whether from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine or elsewhere, far from being vagrants or down-and-outs, were men of settled abode and occupation. More surprisingly perhaps, the over
whelming majority of its captors went to the Bastille under arms as enrolled members of their local units of the newly formed mili a bourgeoise, or Parisian National Guard.' This, of course, not only serves further to disprove the legend that the captors were vagrants or social riff-raff-such elements were, of course, rigorously excluded from the ranks of the militia
in the church of Saint-Severin on 18 Juiy.J Again, Jean-Marie Silvain Gorny, aged 17. one of Santerre's brewers, was last seen
but it also suggests that the operation may have been a far less spontaneous affair than has usually been claimed. Yet, in a wider sense, we may agree with Michelet that the
alive when he set out for the Bastille under arms on the after noon of 14 July.4 Five further corpses of civilians were brought
capture of the Bastille was not just the affair of those few hundred citizens of the Saint-Antoine quarter who were most immediately involved, but of the people of Paris as a whole. At
unclaimed and unidentified.s
the peak of the insurrection there may have been a quarter of a million Parisians-some thought more-under arms;l and, taking an even broader view, we should not ignore the part
to the Chatelet for identification : they included a journeyman 5hoe-maker of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and a street-lighter of the rue des Noyers, off the Place Maubert; the rest remained Of the survivors, at least, the great majority were citizens of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Four hundred, it is true, of the 635 whose origins have been traced, were of provincial birth;6 yet most of them had become settled inhabitants of the jtJJJ bourg: no less than 425, out of 602 whose addresses are given, lived in one or other of its parishes.7 Of the remainder, 60 came from Saint-�rvais, Saint-Paul, and other districts adjoining the Bastille from the west, 30 from the central markets,' perhaps a dozen from the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. Very few came from more than a mile or two from the Bastille: among them were a locksmith from the Faubourg Saint-Honore and a tin5mith from (7-9). cobblers ($), print and paper worlr.en (4), atocking-weaven (4), pun workel1 (n), porten (17), riverside worlr.en and bargemen (8), .hipyard worken ($), coachmen (4), Itonemasons ($). stonecutters (4). ribbon weavcn (3)· ' Hardy, viii. 388. • Jaurb, op. cit. i. 303. I Arch. Nat., Y 10634, fol. l$Oi 11I6g8; 10$g8. • Arch. Nat., Y '4" 9. • J . Duricux, Us Vain.q1ll1lN tit. Us B<Jilil/, (Pari., 19.1), pp. 261 ff. • Most ofthac were from the streets adjoining theB:;utille-the rue du Fauboul'I Saint.Antoine and adjacent streets (1I4�), ruede Lappe ($3), rue de Chll.r�:nton (44). rue de Scrcy (Ill), rue de Montreuil (7). I Fournier l'Am�ricain'l claim, therefore, to have led 400 of hiJ band of 800 followel1 from the Saint-Eustaehe District to the siege mUJ! n(>t be taken too liter ally (/l-flmoim stcr,l3 u C. FOJlf7lin', Amlricaill, Arch. Nat., P 6$04). • The largest categories arc: cabim:t·m.akcn (8-10), joinen (8), locbmitbl
• • •
played by the great mass of Parisian petty craftsmen, tradesmen, and wage-earners, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and else where, whose revolutionary temper had been moulded over many months by the rise in living costs and, as the crisis deepened, by the growing conviction that the great hopes raised
by the States General were being thwarted by an aristocratic plot. Though of little military imponance the capture of the Bastille had far-reaching political consequences. The National Assem� bly was saved and received royal recognition. The Court Pany
began to disintegrate and the Comte d'Anois went into volun tary exile. In the capital, power passed into the hands of the Committee of Electors, who set up a City Council with Bailly as mayor and Lafayette as commander-in-chief of its National Guard. On 1 7 July the king himself made the journey to Paris,
, In the c:;ue of6 out ofevery 7 civilians on Maillard', list the name ofthc com_ pany and/or battalion of the National Guard il indicated. I have asaumed that the remainin� t in 7 (they include a boy of '4, another of 16 and a woman) were not enroUed In the milic,. 1 �icolas de BonneviUe, the original promoter of the milin bowglOise, later wrote th�t, on '4 July, Pari. had 300,000 mcn under arms (So Lacroix, op. cit., ::nd lenCl, v. 31); Barnavc, on tSJuly, wrote of 180,000 (Arch. Nat., W I il, fol. tO�).
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
85 or go in other occupations, I There was one woman among them-Marie Charpentier,femme Hauserne, a laundress of the parish of Saint·Hippolyte in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. These were the survivors ; we know less about the ninety eight said to have been killed during the siege. Jaures, quoting the journalist Loustaiot, wrote : 'Plus de trentc: laissaient leur femme et leun enfanu dans un tel etat de detresse que des secoun immediats Curent necessaires.'1 There is further evidence to suggest that those killed included wage-earners and city poor. Hardy reports a burial service for Charles Dusson, aged 31, a journeyman edge-toolmaker of the rue de la Huchette,
JULY 1 7 8 9
"
the Gros CaiJIou. near the Champ de Mars. And all of these, whether from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine or elsewhere, far from being vagrants or down-and-outs, were men of settled abode and occupation. More surprisingly perhaps, the over
whelming majority of its captors went to the Bastille under arms as enrolled members of their local units of the newly formed mili a bourgeoise, or Parisian National Guard.' This, of course, not only serves further to disprove the legend that the captors were vagrants or social riff-raff-such elements were, of course, rigorously excluded from the ranks of the militia
in the church of Saint-Severin on 18 Juiy.J Again, Jean-Marie Silvain Gorny, aged 17. one of Santerre's brewers, was last seen
but it also suggests that the operation may have been a far less spontaneous affair than has usually been claimed. Yet, in a wider sense, we may agree with Michelet that the
alive when he set out for the Bastille under arms on the after noon of 14 July.4 Five further corpses of civilians were brought
capture of the Bastille was not just the affair of those few hundred citizens of the Saint-Antoine quarter who were most immediately involved, but of the people of Paris as a whole. At
unclaimed and unidentified.s
the peak of the insurrection there may have been a quarter of a million Parisians-some thought more-under arms;l and, taking an even broader view, we should not ignore the part
to the Chatelet for identification : they included a journeyman 5hoe-maker of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and a street-lighter of the rue des Noyers, off the Place Maubert; the rest remained Of the survivors, at least, the great majority were citizens of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Four hundred, it is true, of the 635 whose origins have been traced, were of provincial birth;6 yet most of them had become settled inhabitants of the jtJJJ bourg: no less than 425, out of 602 whose addresses are given, lived in one or other of its parishes.7 Of the remainder, 60 came from Saint-�rvais, Saint-Paul, and other districts adjoining the Bastille from the west, 30 from the central markets,' perhaps a dozen from the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. Very few came from more than a mile or two from the Bastille: among them were a locksmith from the Faubourg Saint-Honore and a tin5mith from (7-9). cobblers ($), print and paper worlr.en (4), atocking-weaven (4), pun workel1 (n), porten (17), riverside worlr.en and bargemen (8), .hipyard worken ($), coachmen (4), Itonemasons ($). stonecutters (4). ribbon weavcn (3)· ' Hardy, viii. 388. • Jaurb, op. cit. i. 303. I Arch. Nat., Y 10634, fol. l$Oi 11I6g8; 10$g8. • Arch. Nat., Y '4" 9. • J . Duricux, Us Vain.q1ll1lN tit. Us B<Jilil/, (Pari., 19.1), pp. 261 ff. • Most ofthac were from the streets adjoining theB:;utille-the rue du Fauboul'I Saint.Antoine and adjacent streets (1I4�), ruede Lappe ($3), rue de Chll.r�:nton (44). rue de Scrcy (Ill), rue de Montreuil (7). I Fournier l'Am�ricain'l claim, therefore, to have led 400 of hiJ band of 800 followel1 from the Saint-Eustaehe District to the siege mUJ! n(>t be taken too liter ally (/l-flmoim stcr,l3 u C. FOJlf7lin', Amlricaill, Arch. Nat., P 6$04). • The largest categories arc: cabim:t·m.akcn (8-10), joinen (8), locbmitbl
• • •
played by the great mass of Parisian petty craftsmen, tradesmen, and wage-earners, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and else where, whose revolutionary temper had been moulded over many months by the rise in living costs and, as the crisis deepened, by the growing conviction that the great hopes raised
by the States General were being thwarted by an aristocratic plot. Though of little military imponance the capture of the Bastille had far-reaching political consequences. The National Assem� bly was saved and received royal recognition. The Court Pany
began to disintegrate and the Comte d'Anois went into volun tary exile. In the capital, power passed into the hands of the Committee of Electors, who set up a City Council with Bailly as mayor and Lafayette as commander-in-chief of its National Guard. On 1 7 July the king himself made the journey to Paris,
, In the c:;ue of6 out ofevery 7 civilians on Maillard', list the name ofthc com_ pany and/or battalion of the National Guard il indicated. I have asaumed that the remainin� t in 7 (they include a boy of '4, another of 16 and a woman) were not enroUed In the milic,. 1 �icolas de BonneviUe, the original promoter of the milin bowglOise, later wrote th�t, on '4 July, Pari. had 300,000 mcn under arms (So Lacroix, op. cit., ::nd lenCl, v. 31); Barnavc, on tSJuly, wrote of 180,000 (Arch. Nat., W I il, fol. tO�).
60
TH E REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
was received at the H6tel de Ville by the victors and, in token ofacquiescence in the turn ofevents, donned the red, white, and blue cockade of the Revolution. Though to Hardy the 14th had I seemed 'une triste journee', it was a week of public rejoicing
and fraternal embraces. Yet it proved short·lived. Though a decisive step had been taken, the Revolution was far from com pleted; and the festivities and rejoicing soon gave way to a new round of solemn and tragic events. I
Hardy, viii. 3go.
V T H E M A R C H TO V E R S A I L L E S
HE
march to Versailles on 5 October, by ending in the king's return to the capital, completed the Paris revolution of July. As long as court and king remained at Versailles and an active minority of deputies were able, in alliance with
T
the court, to frustrate the constitutional programme of the Assembly, effective power still remained divided between the revolutionary bourgeoisie (supported by a minority of liberal aristocrats) and the adherents of the old regime. The king's refusal to give his assent to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and to the Assembly's famous resolution of 4- August, which eventually led to the abolition ofthe feudal system ofland tenure, the long struggle over the 'veto', and the constant intrigues to abduct the king to a safe distance from Paris, showed how precarious as yet were the gains of the July revolution. The October insurrection was to consolidate these gains. By placing the king under the watchful eye of the majority in the National Assembly, the Paris city government, and Districts and by destroying the influence of the conservative 'English Party' within the Assembly, it established the ascendancy of the constitutional monarchists which, in Paris, found its reflection in the long rule of Bailly as mayor and of Lafayette as com mander-in-chief of the National Guard. It must, of course, be added that by placing the Assembly itself under the equally watchful eye of the Parisian menu pmple, whose more active elements began to crowd the tribunes and, often, to influence its debates, it opened the way for further developments that were neither foreseen, nor in the event welcomed, by the
victors of October; but this, of course, lay still in the future.
Yet the constitutional monarchists, who were clearly the immediate beneficiaries of the insurrection, were not eager to boast of their successes or to show the world how they were achieved. When the Chatelet inquiry into the events of 6 October was published in March 1790,' it was with the full
I Ft"'Iaure crimilllll. du CMlllot Bib. Nat., L< 119 980.
. . .
a. Pdf;' fUl' Idjouml. aU 6 «/o.r, (Paru, '790).
60
TH E REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
was received at the H6tel de Ville by the victors and, in token ofacquiescence in the turn ofevents, donned the red, white, and blue cockade of the Revolution. Though to Hardy the 14th had I seemed 'une triste journee', it was a week of public rejoicing
and fraternal embraces. Yet it proved short·lived. Though a decisive step had been taken, the Revolution was far from com pleted; and the festivities and rejoicing soon gave way to a new round of solemn and tragic events. I
Hardy, viii. 3go.
V T H E M A R C H TO V E R S A I L L E S
HE
march to Versailles on 5 October, by ending in the king's return to the capital, completed the Paris revolution of July. As long as court and king remained at Versailles and an active minority of deputies were able, in alliance with
T
the court, to frustrate the constitutional programme of the Assembly, effective power still remained divided between the revolutionary bourgeoisie (supported by a minority of liberal aristocrats) and the adherents of the old regime. The king's refusal to give his assent to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and to the Assembly's famous resolution of 4- August, which eventually led to the abolition ofthe feudal system ofland tenure, the long struggle over the 'veto', and the constant intrigues to abduct the king to a safe distance from Paris, showed how precarious as yet were the gains of the July revolution. The October insurrection was to consolidate these gains. By placing the king under the watchful eye of the majority in the National Assembly, the Paris city government, and Districts and by destroying the influence of the conservative 'English Party' within the Assembly, it established the ascendancy of the constitutional monarchists which, in Paris, found its reflection in the long rule of Bailly as mayor and of Lafayette as com mander-in-chief of the National Guard. It must, of course, be added that by placing the Assembly itself under the equally watchful eye of the Parisian menu pmple, whose more active elements began to crowd the tribunes and, often, to influence its debates, it opened the way for further developments that were neither foreseen, nor in the event welcomed, by the
victors of October; but this, of course, lay still in the future.
Yet the constitutional monarchists, who were clearly the immediate beneficiaries of the insurrection, were not eager to boast of their successes or to show the world how they were achieved. When the Chatelet inquiry into the events of 6 October was published in March 1790,' it was with the full
I Ft"'Iaure crimilllll. du CMlllot Bib. Nat., L< 119 980.
. . .
a. Pdf;' fUl' Idjouml. aU 6 «/o.r, (Paru, '790).
0,
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
consent of the Assembly's majority; yet, far from throwing a bright light into dark corners, it served effectively as a smoke screen to divert attention from the real authors of the October 'days'. It suited the court, the police, the Paris administ�atjon. and the dominant party in the Assembly to present the violence and haste with which the king had been hustled to Paris as the outcome of a vaguely definro Orleanist plot or of the sinister machinations of the discredited Mirabeau; it would have been impolitic to reveal it as the execution of plans long nurtured by the respectable bourgeois and liberal aristocrats who controlled the Assembly and Paris city government. Mystery undoubtedly attaches to the exact part played by Mirabeau, Orleans, or even Lafayette-a mystery which the Chatelet inquiry succeeded in deepening. It is not the purpose of the present chapter to seek to throw a fresh light on the respective guilt, or responsi bility, of the various parties concerned: this has .already been attempted, with remarkable success under the clf.cumstances, by Albert Mathiez,1 Suffice it here to say �hat It would be strange indeed if those who benefited most dlfectly from these events did not have at least as effective a control of the October insurrection as they had of the Paris revolution ofJuly. With�n certain limits they would no more hesitate in October t�an 10 July to turn to their advantage the anger and revolutlO.n.ary energies of the menu prople in order to achieve d�fined political objectives, Had not Academician Dussaulx, a highly respected member of the Centre party in the Assembly, told Farmer General Augeart already on 26 August that the king must be brought to Paris-by violence if need be?: A".d did not �a�ave's letters written after the event explain to hiS Dauphmols con stituents the necessity for the insurrection-however distasteful certain ofits features undoubtedly were-and praise the city of Paris for once more saving 'la liberte publique'?3 So much, in brief, for the main political results and �espon sibilities for the October days; but the menu plUple of Pans were • A. Malhia, '£t\lde eritique sur les joum�es des S el 6 octobre 1789', RlfJ. hist. bvii (18gB), 241--th; Ixviii (1899). 2�; bix (IBgg). 41---6.6 I have made eonsiderable usc or this study in puparing this chapter. • Quoted by Mathiez. op. cil. Ixvii. 249· I Arch. Nat., W 13, foJ•. 317--18. He, ne"erthdcss, spoke ofil as '�e mouvement been for terrible', which, he coruidered, might have ended in disaster, had II not the p;m played by Wayelle and the Aucmbly (Arch. Nat W 12, fols. 200-1), .•
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
0,
no more helpless accessories, willing to stage an insurrection for the sole benefit ofthe constitutional monarchists in October, than they had been for the Palais Royal or the Paris Electors in July. While they might share the general alarm of all 'patriots' at the neW 'conspiracies' hatching at Versailles, they also had their own particular preoccupations. Barnave, who often showed a deeper understanding of social realities than most of his colleagues, drew attention to this division of interest when he wrote to his constituents that while, in October, bourgeoisie and ptuple acted together in a common cause, the former were actuated solely by the desire to defeat the plots of the aristo cracy, whereas the latter, while sharing this desire, were equally concerned with the scarcityofbread. 1 This duality ofinterest was by no meanspeculiarto the events ofOctober; but to be aware of it is to begin, at least, to understand an episode which, in some re spects, is more shrouded in mystery than any othersimilareventof the Revolution. It will perhaps emerge more clearlyifwe first try to trace the origins of these separate trends, follow their develop ment and see how they merged in common action on 5 October. Again, as in July, it was the menu propie rather than the bourgeoisi� that was first involved in active protest; nor was their movement to cease with the realization of the immediate political objectives. For them the calm following the July revolution was short-lived. In terms of the political movement, the events ofJuly and October, though linked by common ties, are clearly defined and distinctive episodes; in terms of the popular-social movement however, it would perhaps be more correct to speak of an almost continuous agitation, springing up in April or May, rising to a climax in July and again in October, but not finally subsiding until the early days of November. In this movement the problem of bread was uppermost, dominated �U other considerations, and drew together the largest numbers In common protest. Yet there were other elements which, though affecting smaller groups, added to the general unrest and, therefore, must have contributed to the volume of anger and to the numbers of demonstrators on 5 October. '. ' Ar�h. Nal., W 12, foil. 200-1. Thepassage rum: 'Pendant que nousd�li�rioru,
I 'mpa .ence des Parisierll l'�tait portee a I'excb; � la bourgeoisie el Ie peuple, les UIlI �n'rnb uniquemenl conlU la dernil:rc c(lnduile du gouvernemcnl el de I'arilto crahe, tlus aul,tsy 1IIIItmJ I'inllr/l du pain 'lui CtImmfll(ail d II,. rart, sc sont a.sacmblb dans IOUli les districts' (my italics).
0,
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
consent of the Assembly's majority; yet, far from throwing a bright light into dark corners, it served effectively as a smoke screen to divert attention from the real authors of the October 'days'. It suited the court, the police, the Paris administ�atjon. and the dominant party in the Assembly to present the violence and haste with which the king had been hustled to Paris as the outcome of a vaguely definro Orleanist plot or of the sinister machinations of the discredited Mirabeau; it would have been impolitic to reveal it as the execution of plans long nurtured by the respectable bourgeois and liberal aristocrats who controlled the Assembly and Paris city government. Mystery undoubtedly attaches to the exact part played by Mirabeau, Orleans, or even Lafayette-a mystery which the Chatelet inquiry succeeded in deepening. It is not the purpose of the present chapter to seek to throw a fresh light on the respective guilt, or responsi bility, of the various parties concerned: this has .already been attempted, with remarkable success under the clf.cumstances, by Albert Mathiez,1 Suffice it here to say �hat It would be strange indeed if those who benefited most dlfectly from these events did not have at least as effective a control of the October insurrection as they had of the Paris revolution ofJuly. With�n certain limits they would no more hesitate in October t�an 10 July to turn to their advantage the anger and revolutlO.n.ary energies of the menu prople in order to achieve d�fined political objectives, Had not Academician Dussaulx, a highly respected member of the Centre party in the Assembly, told Farmer General Augeart already on 26 August that the king must be brought to Paris-by violence if need be?: A".d did not �a�ave's letters written after the event explain to hiS Dauphmols con stituents the necessity for the insurrection-however distasteful certain ofits features undoubtedly were-and praise the city of Paris for once more saving 'la liberte publique'?3 So much, in brief, for the main political results and �espon sibilities for the October days; but the menu plUple of Pans were • A. Malhia, '£t\lde eritique sur les joum�es des S el 6 octobre 1789', RlfJ. hist. bvii (18gB), 241--th; Ixviii (1899). 2�; bix (IBgg). 41---6.6 I have made eonsiderable usc or this study in puparing this chapter. • Quoted by Mathiez. op. cil. Ixvii. 249· I Arch. Nat., W 13, foJ•. 317--18. He, ne"erthdcss, spoke ofil as '�e mouvement been for terrible', which, he coruidered, might have ended in disaster, had II not the p;m played by Wayelle and the Aucmbly (Arch. Nat W 12, fols. 200-1), .•
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
0,
no more helpless accessories, willing to stage an insurrection for the sole benefit ofthe constitutional monarchists in October, than they had been for the Palais Royal or the Paris Electors in July. While they might share the general alarm of all 'patriots' at the neW 'conspiracies' hatching at Versailles, they also had their own particular preoccupations. Barnave, who often showed a deeper understanding of social realities than most of his colleagues, drew attention to this division of interest when he wrote to his constituents that while, in October, bourgeoisie and ptuple acted together in a common cause, the former were actuated solely by the desire to defeat the plots of the aristo cracy, whereas the latter, while sharing this desire, were equally concerned with the scarcityofbread. 1 This duality ofinterest was by no meanspeculiarto the events ofOctober; but to be aware of it is to begin, at least, to understand an episode which, in some re spects, is more shrouded in mystery than any othersimilareventof the Revolution. It will perhaps emerge more clearlyifwe first try to trace the origins of these separate trends, follow their develop ment and see how they merged in common action on 5 October. Again, as in July, it was the menu propie rather than the bourgeoisi� that was first involved in active protest; nor was their movement to cease with the realization of the immediate political objectives. For them the calm following the July revolution was short-lived. In terms of the political movement, the events ofJuly and October, though linked by common ties, are clearly defined and distinctive episodes; in terms of the popular-social movement however, it would perhaps be more correct to speak of an almost continuous agitation, springing up in April or May, rising to a climax in July and again in October, but not finally subsiding until the early days of November. In this movement the problem of bread was uppermost, dominated �U other considerations, and drew together the largest numbers In common protest. Yet there were other elements which, though affecting smaller groups, added to the general unrest and, therefore, must have contributed to the volume of anger and to the numbers of demonstrators on 5 October. '. ' Ar�h. Nal., W 12, foil. 200-1. Thepassage rum: 'Pendant que nousd�li�rioru,
I 'mpa .ence des Parisierll l'�tait portee a I'excb; � la bourgeoisie el Ie peuple, les UIlI �n'rnb uniquemenl conlU la dernil:rc c(lnduile du gouvernemcnl el de I'arilto crahe, tlus aul,tsy 1IIIItmJ I'inllr/l du pain 'lui CtImmfll(ail d II,. rart, sc sont a.sacmblb dans IOUli les districts' (my italics).
..
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
ployed .engaged �? In the first place, there were the unem aulllrs de chanti. the in public-works schemes or merely herded st, there were Augu in Their numbers were rising sharply and, 18,000 were which of , shops already 22 000 in the public work part in the in certa a d playe had at Montm rtre alone.' They le,�. but to Bastil the at even and m July revolution, at the barrie alhes. So lcome unwe were they aries ution the bourgeois revol a that .when number touchy were the authorities on their score outside the Duke of of new recruits to Montmartre gathered st, waiting for a clerk Orleans's estate at Monceaux on 9 Augu ed for forming an to bring them work or pay, fifteen were arrest a pamphlet by red appea illegal assembly.l Shortly after there Montmartre the that ng allegi the Chevalier de Beaurepaire, ry on the artille ng traini for tions workers were building fortifica of Petit ct Distri the from ation deput g city.4 Although a visitin ring repo�t,S reassu a in tions allega the d denie Saint-Antoine the workshop. The city a demand was raised for the closure of st, and Lafayette was authorities agreed to do so on t 2 Augu ers on the subject on deputed to address the Montmartre work ly b �cause the possib ed, the 15th. He was not well receiv s.' Dlst�rbances wage their e reduc Assembly had just decided to e navvles were martr Mont two h mont followed: later in the ger; and ten mana hop works their kill to jailed for threatening n, were arrested by Bastille workers, including three wome martre uneI?plo�ed Santerre for creating a disorder.' The Mont back �o their ��llVe were duly disbanded, and the majority sent BastIlle (a mlhtary ia de provinces, with the aid of the lJoiontaires but other work ;8 ueurs) vain the q force not to be confused with sec, perme�ted shall we as e, becam shops remained open and to Versailles. march the ded prece that ion by the political agitat t.est the good to ed decid had trades of er numb a , Meanwhile by puttmg forward faith of the new municipal authorities tions. These included claims for bener wages and working condi . I MlmtJiTu u Baill.1, ii. 257. i includes four panici�tsfrom thepublle • Maillard'l lill ofIIfIUlqunuI U 1lt>ll oo=Vr II plJriJ pmdtW la RivDlwi4t
:
I For thiI and (Maillard). . . I Thts wnlon,
much that rollow. ICe Prod,,," uimiNlk " ' , witnes s no. 81 Hardy, viii. 5�. based on Maillard'.cvidcnoe befon: the Chltelct, u thai followed by M. L. Batiffol, Lt.s JtnImiu du 5 II 6 IIdlJIm '78tJ .. VmaiJkJ (Paris, III!}I), pp. '5-
• ,llIkrrt)ta/Qir� du NI &llllHrt. 6 &" r;8tJ. Arch. Scine.et·Oise, series 8. Prt\'Ot
while not mentioning Vaugi. rard, also maintained that the womcn divided into two separate contingents taking M:pa�ale routes: 'Ies unes avaient pau� par Saint·Cloud; les autrCl avaicnl prilla rOUle de Sev�' (no. xiii, 3-10 Octob '789, er p. 15). • Hardy, viii. 506.
"
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
workers nearby; the workers, doubtless remembering that the same force had forcibly dispersed their comrades at Montmartre a few weeks earlier, were inclined to be truculent; but Maillard (so he tells us) was able to persuade them to disperse without bloodshed. ' From these beginnings the women now converged on the Hotel de Ville.l Their first object was bread, the second probably arms and ammunition for their men. A �erchant
draper, passing by the old market hall at half put eight, saw
groups of women stopping strangers in the streets and co�pell ing them to go with them to e Town Hall, 'oil l'or� devrut aller . pour se faire donner du pam . The guards wer� disarmed and their arms handed to the men who followed behmd the women and urged them on. Another eyewitness, a cashier in the Hotel
�
de Ville, described how, about half past nine, larg� numbers of women, with men amongst them, rushed up the strurs and broke into all the offices of the building. One witneS! said they bore sticks and pikes, while another itlSisted they were armed with : axes, crowbars, bludgeons. and muskets. A cuhler, wh h�d , the temerity to remonstrate with the invaders, was told qu I1s
?
etaient les maitres et maitresses dud. Hotel de Ville'. In their search for arms and powder the demonstrators tore up docu ments and ledgers. and a wad of a hundred I,ooo-liures notes �f
the Caisse des Comptes disappeared from a cabinet. But their
object was neither money nor loot: the City Treasurer later told the police that something over 3 i million livm in cash and notes were left untouched; and the �issing banknotes we:e
returned intact a few weeks later. HavlOg sounded the tocslO from the steeple. the demonstrators retired to the Place de Greve outside at about I I o'c1ock.l
It was at this stage that Maillard and his voiontaires arrived.on the scene. According to his account, tile women were threaterung the lives of Bailly and Lafayette. Whether it was to avert such a disaster or merely to promote the political aims of the 'patriots', Maillard let himself be persuade to lead t em on . the twelve-miles march to Versailles to pelltlon the kmg and
�
�
, Ibid., witneu no. 8. (Stanishu Maillard). Hardy, however, describes it mer�ly as 'une insu�rcc��?n de femmes des Hailes et de diff
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
" the Assembly to provide bread for Paris.' As they set out, in the early afternoon. they removed the cannon from the Chatelet and (wrote Hardy) compelled every son and condition of woman that they met-'m€me des femmes a chape au'-to join them.l Thus reinforced, the contingents crossed the river to the Cite followed the quai des Orfevres to the Pont Neuf. crossed ove again to the Louvre. passed through the Tuileries Garde ns and halted, 6.000 or 7.000 strong. in the Place Louis XV. At the Place des Armes in the Champs �lysees. Maillard tells us, the women agreed to go on unarmed. According to the traditional account. the marchers then continued along the Right Bank to ChaiIlot, and so to Shrres, Viroflay, and Versailles.l However. it would seem from other evidence that, while the main body of mar�hers accompanied Maillard through Chaill ot. another contmgent may have broken off at the Place des Armes and followed the southern route via Vaugirard. This is suggested. at least, by the statement made to the Versailles police by Bernard Salabert. a mill-worker at the �cole Milita ire and one of two wage-earners arrested for looting sword s and other weapons at the Hotel des Gardes du Corps at Versailles. From this it appears that Salabert was picked up at Vaugi rard. where he was having his dinner. by a band of 3.000 or 4.000 women who compelled him to join them on the march .4 Arriving at Versailles in the early evenin g, the marchers made straight for the meeting of the Assembly. crowded into the benches alongside the stanled deputies and, with swords and hunting-knives slung from their skirts,5 waited for Maillard to present their petition. In his speech, Mailla rd quoted liberally from the new popular pamphlet Q.uand aurons-nous du pain? In which the authorities rather than the bakers were held
:
I For thiI and (Maillard). . . I Thts wnlon,
much that rollow. ICe Prod,,," uimiNlk " ' , witnes s no. 81 Hardy, viii. 5�. based on Maillard'.cvidcnoe befon: the Chltelct, u thai followed by M. L. Batiffol, Lt.s JtnImiu du 5 II 6 IIdlJIm '78tJ .. VmaiJkJ (Paris, III!}I), pp. '5-
• ,llIkrrt)ta/Qir� du NI &llllHrt. 6 &" r;8tJ. Arch. Scine.et·Oise, series 8. Prt\'Ot
while not mentioning Vaugi. rard, also maintained that the womcn divided into two separate contingents taking M:pa�ale routes: 'Ies unes avaient pau� par Saint·Cloud; les autrCl avaicnl prilla rOUle de Sev�' (no. xiii, 3-10 Octob '789, er p. 15). • Hardy, viii. 506.
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
re5ponsible for the shortage. I He ended with twO demands-the provision of bread for the capital and �he punishment of the . ganus du corps who had insulted the nauonal cockade. Vanous deputies gave reassuring replies. There were angry shouts of 'A bas la calotte!' at the clergy; but Robespierre was heard in respectful silence, and there were calls for 'notre petite �ere. Mirabeau'.z A deputation of six women were elected to walt on the king-the Marquis de Paroy considered two of them 'assez bien'J-and the meeting broke up in more or less orderly fashion. Meanwhile, in Paris, the National Guard, summoned by
�e
tocsin, had crowded into the place de Greve. There were cnes of 'To Versailles!' The intentions of Lafayette in this episode are obscure. It seems that he hesitated for many hours to put him self at the head of what was only too clearly an armed insurrec tion; he temporized and, according to Fournier, made long speeches; but in the end, in response to popular clamour, he gave the order to march.� The forces that entered Versailles that night, between ten and midnight, consisted of three com panies of grenadiers, one company of fuseliers, with three can non, 20,000 National Guards of e Paris Distri�t.s, and a �otley
�
band of 700 to 800 men armed With muskets, sucks, and pikes. Early next morning there was a clash between the Parisians
and the garties du corps guarding the palace. Some demon strators had managed to enter the chtitlau and penetrated as far as the antechamber to the queen's apartments. In the course of this incident, a garde du corps, from a window, shot dead Jer6me Lheritier, a 17-year-old volunteer and journeyman cabinet-maker of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, who was in the courtyard below.s Provoked to anger, the crowd slaughtered two of the gardts du corps and cut off their heads.6 Order was restored by the Parisian National Guard, while great crowds
I Bib. Nat. L" 39 113+4; Mathiez, op. cit. lxix. 411-43' • Prrtddun critni..nu . . . , witness no. 81; Taine, op. cit. i. , Rnrw dt 1,. RJv«�litm, i (1B83), 1-7. • Mimoim
fol. 1101).
urn/s
,, I. Sec d, Foltmilr, A""",iI
13t.
alJo Barnavc (AN;h.
Nat., W ill,
o B. PrMu! de I'H6tei du Roi, Greffe, 178g· Lh�ritier'l burial, U well u that of the two ,IJfdtl tiu _P', il recorded m Ihe 1U,ulro ties /UIeJ til sipwlllf' tie I,. p,.nXsJ# &Y/JI, " IIDI•• DdtrU ti, VlrsdiUes, fol. 811 l itary (Arch. S.-CI'O., series E). Of the three, LMritier alone ra:cived full mi honoun.
• Arch. Scine-ct·Oise, seri 6
77
surged outside the chateau. awaiting a solution. To the National Guard-to the tradesmen, small masters, and journeymen at
least, who had lost a day's work to accompany Lafayette to Versailles-there could only be one solution: the king must be made to come back to Paris, whether their commander-in chief was willing or not.1 So much appears, too, from the evidence of Elizabeth Girard, 'bourgeoise de Paris', who later told the Chatelet qu'A Versailles tout Ie peuple indistinctement, et principalement des compagnons serruriers au grand nombre, disaient qu'ils avaient perdu leur jou:nee ; que si Ie roi ne venait pas a Paris, et les gardes du corps n'etalent pas tues, it fa1lait mettre la tete de Lafayette au bout d'une pique.' The women may have needed more persuading. At any rate, F�urn er thought it necessary to indoctrinate a group of fish
�
WJves to the language that he thought they would most readily understand: 'Sac . . . B . . . esses, vous ne voyes pas que Lafayette et Ie Roi vous couillonnent. . . . II faut emmener a Paris toute
la sacree boutique.') However that may be, when the king, queen, and Lafayette appeared on the palace balcony, there was a great shout of 'To Paris !' A few hours later the royal . family, escorted by the Parisian National Guard and the march ing women, made their triumphal return to the capital.
I Mathia! op. cit. lxix. "�-46. In 'hit ropect, it would be of great interetl !O know the 1OC\.&1 or occupatI.onal compolilion ofthe Parisian National Guard .1.1 this . ome; but unforlUnately only a handful ortists have IUrvived to enlighten UI. The . battaholl& of the Faubourg Saint_Anloine and of the central market Districts who were probably the main promoten of the anned iruumxtion of the Naliona i Cuard on 5 Oclober, appear 10 have included a fair sprinkling of journeymen, ponen, and labouren as well as a majorilY of Ihopkeepen and masten or indc pend��t (:raftsmen. We know, for example, that the journeyman cabinet.maker Lho!nuer wu a volunteer of the Sainte_Marguerite District and that Edm� Farey, a journeyman goldsmith, abo arrested for pillaging the H61e1 des Gardea du Corps, was a volu�lteer of the neighbouring Dittricl of Saint·Gervais. Bc:sidea, the enrolments m �e In AUluJl 178g 10 the Battalion of Sainte-Opportune, inthe central markets, >Deluded, together with a host of small mUle... and tra domt:/l �6 men::h�t'l derks, .. tIImtn� and .. mployls, II market·pone..., a journeym� �Iler, a JOUrneym..an gunsmIth, and ajourneymangilder (Bril. Mus.,F. 830 (6)). By way of oontnut, of 10� grenadiers �ruited to the Baualion ofLes Filla S.int. Thomas, ne,ar the Bounc, in November 178g, II� were 'bourgeois' (usually applied to a man ofIndependent means), 119civiJ servants,6lawyen 7 merchants 'l banken and 3 Itock exchange jobbers, while only 16 were ttad�men-and �ot one or th� wage·earne... (Arch. Nat., W 357, no. 750, 1st part, pi�ce 100). h(J(:Irillft crimilllih . . . , witnell no. go. , M'"",i"s sIDe/s " FDurrUtr. A�u..
THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
re5ponsible for the shortage. I He ended with twO demands-the provision of bread for the capital and �he punishment of the . ganus du corps who had insulted the nauonal cockade. Vanous deputies gave reassuring replies. There were angry shouts of 'A bas la calotte!' at the clergy; but Robespierre was heard in respectful silence, and there were calls for 'notre petite �ere. Mirabeau'.z A deputation of six women were elected to walt on the king-the Marquis de Paroy considered two of them 'assez bien'J-and the meeting broke up in more or less orderly fashion. Meanwhile, in Paris, the National Guard, summoned by
�e
tocsin, had crowded into the place de Greve. There were cnes of 'To Versailles!' The intentions of Lafayette in this episode are obscure. It seems that he hesitated for many hours to put him self at the head of what was only too clearly an armed insurrec tion; he temporized and, according to Fournier, made long speeches; but in the end, in response to popular clamour, he gave the order to march.� The forces that entered Versailles that night, between ten and midnight, consisted of three com panies of grenadiers, one company of fuseliers, with three can non, 20,000 National Guards of e Paris Distri�t.s, and a �otley
�
band of 700 to 800 men armed With muskets, sucks, and pikes. Early next morning there was a clash between the Parisians
and the garties du corps guarding the palace. Some demon strators had managed to enter the chtitlau and penetrated as far as the antechamber to the queen's apartments. In the course of this incident, a garde du corps, from a window, shot dead Jer6me Lheritier, a 17-year-old volunteer and journeyman cabinet-maker of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, who was in the courtyard below.s Provoked to anger, the crowd slaughtered two of the gardts du corps and cut off their heads.6 Order was restored by the Parisian National Guard, while great crowds
I Bib. Nat. L" 39 113+4; Mathiez, op. cit. lxix. 411-43' • Prrtddun critni..nu . . . , witness no. 81; Taine, op. cit. i. , Rnrw dt 1,. RJv«�litm, i (1B83), 1-7. • Mimoim
fol. 1101).
urn/s
,, I. Sec d, Foltmilr, A""",iI
13t.
alJo Barnavc (AN;h.
Nat., W ill,
o B. PrMu! de I'H6tei du Roi, Greffe, 178g· Lh�ritier'l burial, U well u that of the two ,IJfdtl tiu _P', il recorded m Ihe 1U,ulro ties /UIeJ til sipwlllf' tie I,. p,.nXsJ# &Y/JI, " IIDI•• DdtrU ti, VlrsdiUes, fol. 811 l itary (Arch. S.-CI'O., series E). Of the three, LMritier alone ra:cived full mi honoun.
• Arch. Scine-ct·Oise, seri 6
77
surged outside the chateau. awaiting a solution. To the National Guard-to the tradesmen, small masters, and journeymen at
least, who had lost a day's work to accompany Lafayette to Versailles-there could only be one solution: the king must be made to come back to Paris, whether their commander-in chief was willing or not.1 So much appears, too, from the evidence of Elizabeth Girard, 'bourgeoise de Paris', who later told the Chatelet qu'A Versailles tout Ie peuple indistinctement, et principalement des compagnons serruriers au grand nombre, disaient qu'ils avaient perdu leur jou:nee ; que si Ie roi ne venait pas a Paris, et les gardes du corps n'etalent pas tues, it fa1lait mettre la tete de Lafayette au bout d'une pique.' The women may have needed more persuading. At any rate, F�urn er thought it necessary to indoctrinate a group of fish
�
WJves to the language that he thought they would most readily understand: 'Sac . . . B . . . esses, vous ne voyes pas que Lafayette et Ie Roi vous couillonnent. . . . II faut emmener a Paris toute
la sacree boutique.') However that may be, when the king, queen, and Lafayette appeared on the palace balcony, there was a great shout of 'To Paris !' A few hours later the royal . family, escorted by the Parisian National Guard and the march ing women, made their triumphal return to the capital.
I Mathia! op. cit. lxix. "�-46. In 'hit ropect, it would be of great interetl !O know the 1OC\.&1 or occupatI.onal compolilion ofthe Parisian National Guard .1.1 this . ome; but unforlUnately only a handful ortists have IUrvived to enlighten UI. The . battaholl& of the Faubourg Saint_Anloine and of the central market Districts who were probably the main promoten of the anned iruumxtion of the Naliona i Cuard on 5 Oclober, appear 10 have included a fair sprinkling of journeymen, ponen, and labouren as well as a majorilY of Ihopkeepen and masten or indc pend��t (:raftsmen. We know, for example, that the journeyman cabinet.maker Lho!nuer wu a volunteer of the Sainte_Marguerite District and that Edm� Farey, a journeyman goldsmith, abo arrested for pillaging the H61e1 des Gardea du Corps, was a volu�lteer of the neighbouring Dittricl of Saint·Gervais. Bc:sidea, the enrolments m �e In AUluJl 178g 10 the Battalion of Sainte-Opportune, inthe central markets, >Deluded, together with a host of small mUle... and tra domt:/l �6 men::h�t'l derks, .. tIImtn� and .. mployls, II market·pone..., a journeym� �Iler, a JOUrneym..an gunsmIth, and ajourneymangilder (Bril. Mus.,F. 830 (6)). By way of oontnut, of 10� grenadiers �ruited to the Baualion ofLes Filla S.int. Thomas, ne,ar the Bounc, in November 178g, II� were 'bourgeois' (usually applied to a man ofIndependent means), 119civiJ servants,6lawyen 7 merchants 'l banken and 3 Itock exchange jobbers, while only 16 were ttad�men-and �ot one or th� wage·earne... (Arch. Nat., W 357, no. 750, 1st part, pi�ce 100). h(J(:Irillft crimilllih . . . , witnell no. go. , M'"",i"s sIDe/s " FDurrUtr. A�u..
,8
' THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
The traditional account of the women's march to Versailles has it that, as they marched, the women chanted, 'Allons chercher Ie boulanger, la boulangere et Ie petit mitron!' It was
supposed that the king would, by his very presence among his
subjects, ensure a plentiful supply of bread. These hopes were not immediately realized: the bread crisis continued for another month. The day after the royal family's return, crowds of women invaded the corn-market and dumped
150
barrels of
rotten flour into the river after samples had been shown to the
king.1 On 2 1 October, during a bread riot in the Hotel de Ville area, the baker Fran�ois was hanged from the notorious lamp post on the Place de Greve ; for his murder, F. Blin, a market porter, was sentenced to death and]. Advenel, a metal-gilder, to nine years' prison.l The next day in the rue Thibault-au-de, off the central markets, women caused a riot by insisting on searching a house for hidden grain and fiour.l On 2 November Bailly had to order military protection for a baker in the Marche Saint-Germain;4 the next day a woman was arrested for causing a disturbance outside a baker's shop in the rue des Cordeliers.5 Finally, ten days later, Nicolas Billon, a mill worker, was arrested on a charge of creating riots and threaten ing to hang the baker at the Ecole Militaire on two occasions in October and November.6 But the majority in the Assembly, having driven out the 'moderates' and established itself in the capital, had no further use for the insurrectionary energies of the menu peuple : these had served their purpose. Accordingly, on 2 1 October new measures were introduced to curb social disorder and the agitation con
ducted by Marat's du peuple: they included the death penalty for 'rebellion', a press censorship and martial law. The first victim of these restraints on liberty, Michel Adrien, a
Ami
Bastille labourer, was hanged the same day for attempting to stir up a 'sedition' in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.7
But, simultaneously, energetic measures were taken by both Commune and Assembly to solve the food crisis. Though the
price of bread remained at 12 sous for many months to come, I Hardy, viii. 505. I Arch. Nat., Y ,lljn (17 August 1791). Brk Mus., r. �9· (18).
I Des B,b. Nat., nouv. �. f�., no. 26�6 fob. 1�g-62 (account of day'l evenu by � mottes, La f ay
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
I for the first time since early 1788, to its nonnal level oCS sow. It was not to rise appreciably again until August 1791-a month after the Champ de Man affray. In this case at least
VI
HE
the price or supply of bread was to play no great
THE T H E 'M A S S A C R E' O F CHAMP DE MARS
e on the C amp de •• violent affray that too plac tru 1e lmportant stage 10 the , in July 179 1 marked an tional mo�archists� for power between co�titu . bourgeotIU a?d r ral hbe een . and Jacobins. betw ly directly to the eclipse of Bail democrats. In Paris it led n t, ye ; tio tr inis he city adm � � . s Lafayette as the leaders aft . lIst a tlon stltu con eat of the . National Assembly, the def and was not completed u�tll war of reak outb the by delayed al . ust 1792 In terms of the SOCi fall of the monarchy in Aug ese�ted repr both ir affa rs Ma tory of Paris the Champ de Third Estate-the growmg first bloody clash within the l the � aDd already been noted-" sians within which have l c al upheaval and . tion of several months of soci d in nize a or ts ch the democra � agitation, at the end of whi l...den bs appear as the u �dlsputed Jacobin and CordtHers Clu nt eme mov thiS of se cour In the of the Parisian sam-culottes. ,., eD i ·ge cap the f s rner e-ea � . tradesmen, artisans, and wag In which the malO protagomsts more clearly as elements afford to ignore ..nd whose ot struggle for power cann . at least, must affect to . the revolutionary democrats, s demonstr�uon Mar de mp Cha the , then In this sense, ion ofa process and, as tn the should be seen as the culminat , treated in the context of the of the October insurrection nt that pr�cede it. social and political moveme d, wtth mmor en,pljOl". u The period of social calm laste . . ha Q90 the pnce of the spring of 1 7 9 1 . InJune e s were removed and the pnc to I I sow; soon after, control
T
�
�
e�:�:.���:t� i,
�
:;��: :�:���� t�l
,;�:�:: �
�
�
pitc: plus ardente It I In Jaure.' worm: 'En obligeant la faction bour iJun�e �ormidable du p I e contr ui d'app � point un dans Ie pwple geoiSIe �randusalent �e rMe des bourgeois, les divisiom de la bour en�alent i apparaltrlljn (17 August 1791). Brk Mus., r. �9· (18).
I Des B,b. Nat., nouv. �. f�., no. 26�6 fob. 1�g-62 (account of day'l evenu by � mottes, La f ay
82
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHA MP DE MARS
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
democrats in the course of the spring and summer of 1791
indoctrinate and to win the allegiance of the small tn,d'''n''''. craftsmen, and employed and unemployed workers of � capital. This agitation was to culminate in the great m'ot,;nl! o'n
17 July, when people gathered from all parts of the city for
purely political purpose of signing a petition drawn up by Cordeliers Club.! Among the many persons arrested in Paris during this
period, one is struck by the large number ofunemployed, ",,«01 of them from the public workshops maintained by the
cipality, arrested and imprisoned for their declared hostility . the city administration and the National Guard. both the development ofa certain political consciousness the wage-earners and the growth of unemployment in a
:��:�
1;:
of trades : one finds, among such persons, former sculptors, tailors, barbers, domestic servants, jewell�"' and basket-makers.1 Meanwhile the numbers of those to the public workshops were continually increasing: i�
Bailly put their number at 24,000 ; by June it had risen
3 1 ,000.3 Apart from the expense of their maintenance were seen as a constant threat to the newly established
they were widely believed to be the ready tools of coun'Ie'· revolutionary intrigue (even extreme democrats like
shared this view);4 they were frequently involved in ,ki"ni"h. with customs officials at the barritres, which the authorities hoped to keep in being;S and such episodes as the march of
Bastille workers to Vincennes did little to allay public di','q"iet In brief the administration did not need much persuasion decide on their dispersal : on 8 May Bailly announced
decision to close down the Bastille workshop, where , For the bat detailed acoount of thi, process
COrt/tUtTl /HM allt
A. M. " hi, 'C,
r,��;,���t�£:�:��r{if�'�� ;;.i�,::,'�
la ,rise de
Ie:, op. cit., p'. . 53
88
Y CROWD IN ACT ION THE REVOLUTIONAR
h could, � yet, hope to ?nd guarded in expressing views whic . certamly there IS little little support among the menu ion among th� fiftee� or tw�nty trace of such a body of opin . for expressmg sedillous viewS persons arrested in the Sections king's flight and ignominious during the week following the
ptuple:
return from Varennes.1 not slow to react to the new But the Club was certainly on the Assembly to delay a developments: on 2 1 June it call I the Departments had been decision on the king's future untJ. nteen similar petitions by the eonsulted ; this, the first of seve Three ays l�ter there fo lowed e1ub, was posted all over Paris.1 30,000 WhiCh, accordmg to the so-called 'Petition of the d by the Faubourg Saint.An Madame Roland, was supporte the agitati0r;t co�tinued ! but, toine in full strength.) DuringJuly sembly, WIth Its Feutllant ent on the 15th, the Constitu well alone and of renewed tJ.ng oflet r . majority, declared in favou head of the executIve power. confidence in Louis XVI as the the ranks of the democrats. The decision led to a breach in for in a petition drafte by lh A protest demonstration, called oved by theJacobln Cl�b . Cordeliers Club on I6July, was appr re's initiative, the J�coblns but the same evening, on Robespier s. now face with the elier withdrew their support .• The Cord . or of gomg ahead atIon onstr alternative of cancelling the dem result was t e The se. cour r latte the on their own, decided on c; is Robert and �ouched 10 petition of 17 July, drafted by Fran ? fically demandmg a Re more radical tenru : while not speCl 'de convoquer un nouveau public it called on the Assembly rem lace�ent et a 1'0r corps onstituant pour procede� au exec� b .5 Signatures were ganisation d'un nouveau pouvOlr e1ubs were SOCletJ.es an immediately canvassed;6 and the . 01Oe at -Ant Salnt Porte the at invited to muster in full strength to march from there to the ten or eleven in the moming,7 and demonstration. eful peac a Champ de Mars to hold 172, 182, 206, 2'5' 167, , Mh. prtr. Pol., Aa 74,84, 134, 157, (1923), '7-18. • F. Bracsch, 'w P.!titions du Champ de Mars', &!J. hut. exliii 1 Mathia, op. cit., p. 52. • Ibid., pp. ' 18-20. . • Ln R/lJ(!lutilms d, Paris, no. cvi, .6-23 July '79', pp. 60-6• member of the Soei�t� da Hailes ct • A. E. Primery, a raney.ware worker and Faubourg Saint-Antoine thc ,ame day for de Ja Libert.!, was arrested in the rue du fol. 142). collecling ,ignatulU (Arch. Pr.!r. Pol., Aa 220, • Ibid., Ln RIIJ(!Iwilms de Paris, no. cvi, p. 157.
c:d
�
�
�
�
�
�
p �
�
�
�
89
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
Unfortunately for the petitioners, before their arrival, a curious incident took place that morning in the Champ de
Mars that, in the tense political atmosphere prevailing, pro vided the authorities with a pretext for intervention. Two individuals who had hidden under the 'autd de la patrie' possibly with the intention ofgetting a better view of the ladies'
ankles-were pulled out by suspicious bystanders and uncere
moniously hanged from a nearby window. During the afternoon a peaceful demonstration of 50,000 citizens gathered according
to plan;' of these, over 6,000 had signed the petition before the troops arrived.1 Meanwhile Bailly had been alerted of what was going on by his municipal officers and put into operation a plan that appears to have been premeditated.l Martial law was declared, the red flag of executive violence was unfurled and 10,000 Guardsmen, under the command of Lafayette, advanced on the demonstrators.• Accounts of what followed vary; but it appears that stones were thrown at the Guards (including Lafayette himself), and that perhaps fifty persons were killed and a dozen wounded.! In the words of a tailor, arrested two days later in the Henri IV Section for protesting at the Guard's conduct: 'on tirait sur les ouvriers comme de la volaille'.' Many arrests were made: only a dozen in the Champ de Mars itself; but maybe another 200 in the Sections, includ. I�g a handful of Cordeliers Club members and other supposed nngleaders, and a far greater number of ordinary petitioners who presumed to criticize the administration or the Guard for their behaviour.' Many of these were released within a month . the rest were discharged under a general amnesty of
l;
September.8 Such was the demonstration and 'massacre' of the Champ de Mars.
r Ibid., pp. 53 fr. (F. Robert's ac�:�::
, UI RioolulWns tk Ptuis, loc. dt. , U BdiUarIl, no. xxxvi, 19July
4 Arch. Nat.. W !l94. no. !l3.5.
• Buchez ct Roux, op. cit., xi. 113· 1791, p. 4. ' Arch. PrH. Poi., N 85, rol. 768.
91
by name.1 Of thuse arrested in the Sections after the demon_ . strauon, the only five who admitted having been in the Champ de Mars that afternoon were a cook, a tailo' " a J'ourneyman cab'met-maker, a cafe-waiter, and an unemployed boot-black.' . O� these the boot-black descnbed the resistance offered to the . , �tary by tow les ouvriers perruquiers et autres'; and the m taI lor, as we alrea�y �w, claimed 'qu'on tirait sur les ouvriers llle . Further evidence of the attendance of comme de la vola wa�e-earners at the Champ de Man is suggested by u report that po!1-workers had visited journeymen in their lodgmgs !o bring them along to the demonstra �or�hops an� l bon, and B� rette-Vemeres, when accwed of inciting OUmlerS assemble In the champ de Mars, replied 'qu'it est laux ' . . .
BaMI
lard.r (0
parce que ceux auxquels iI aurait preche (?) etaient prets a y entrer'.4 . We have,. besid�, the far more considerable, though largely clrcumstantlal, e Vldence of the police commissionen' re rts and the prison register of the Hotel de la Force, relating
k all
to �me penons arrested for political offences in the Paris Sectlons 10 the months preceding and following the ChamP d Mars demonstration.s Admittedly these cannot furnish an
�50
;
cle�� proofofattendance or ofwillingness to sign the Cordeliers' peuuon; but they provide a rich source for the study of the popular move�ent of the period and of the classes ofpeople and parts of the �apl�al that were drawn into the political movement I that had as ts climax the petition and demonstration of 1 7 July
Onl� a handful of these persons were arrested for remarh �ha� �ght, even remotely, be construed as counter-revolution_ ry? �� nearly every case they were charged with abusing or �nt1C1zmg the administration, the National Guard or Lafoay'tte ID person 10 . terms whic • ' fluence exerted h reveal the m by the dlemocrats and popular societies on the small tradesmen, craftsIl en, and wage-earners of Paris during this period. Thus, of , Arch. Prff. Pot. Ab 3!1ot. p. 60. ""r, "°l., Ab 3!14. pp. 33, 38; A. 148, fol. 30; !l1.5, fol. ,"". IS!I , fol ..Y.;J. 312 ' 'h' N.l.t T (, !l14' ' u BdiUlITII, no. xxxvi, 19 July 1191. Arch. Nat F' 4623, rol. lot. Arch. Pr6. Pol' A. 56 7!1, 74, 76 A. 85, 134, '37, l.a. 1.53, 155. 157. 166. ,' �' 167, 17!1, 173. 18!1 I" , !lOS. !lIS, !II , !llg, !120, 2!14, !l39'' Ab ..., pp . � • �. . ,. A few .... " CIUCt appalt in Arch Nat., ...., dlIl.ona W !l94, no. !l35 (Bailly papcn) ; . T �14� (prvn.,..... Bern ani'. papcn), and DXXIXb, nos. 34 and 36 (Comit� I
:
�
,
52 •
•
••
.•
•
d� R�bcrcbQ).
go
THE 'MASSACRE' OF THE CHAMP DE MARS
WD IN ACT ION THE REVOLUTIONARY CRO
to qualify these peaceful peti Perhaps we should hesitate the d'. Yet, in a wider sense, tioners as a 'revolutionary crow inly of interest to our present certa is term is apposite; and it composed and from which study to inquire how they were e. The direct evidence on this parts of the capital they cam than in the case of the October point, though more plentiful ng the 6,000 signatures col insurrection, is rather slight. Amo military, the organizers claimed lected before the arrival of the municipal were those of that more than Roux, and ez Buch , hand r othe officers, and e1ectors.1 On the fire in by n uctio destr its re befo ion who saw the completed petit qui gens de est tures signa des e mass r871 , maintained that 'la en cont ted, in support of their savaient a peine lire'. and poin ts.a shee ion aring on the petit tion, to the many crosses appe y mar custo with wrote of the demonstrators Again, Lt s�ait ne , crois je un, . . . pas venom : 'Parmi tous ces hommes
2,000
gardn naJionaux,
Babillard
lire.'l in the highly partisan Even if we aUow for exaggeration the uncertainty of the and account presented by u s, we should perhaps si analy l socia literacy test as a guide to ence that the demonstrators accept Buchez's and Roux's infer er sections ofthe Parisian were composed in the main ofthe poor rmed by the few surviving population. Such a picture is confi h directly relate to par documents in the Paris archives whic instance the report ticipants in the demonstration. For killed in the, �� :�; those on pared by municipal officer Filleul Caillou � i Gros the in de Mars and examined by him corpses, ed identifi nine of Hospital nearby reveals that, 'a skirt with an wom a of one n, eyme were of workshop journ of a were s other while s', piece many of many colours and of two saddler, a wine-merchant's son, and of the Paris ts repor e polic The eois.4 bourg dressed a cobbler of the mention only one corpse, that of issariat of the Palais Section brought to the police comm . n register of the Hotel de priso on 17 July S Unfortunately the one of the twelve, only of Force gives the occupation : he was an abbi, I itself Mars de p arrested in the Cham
Babillard
�
>�:�::
, UI RioolulWns tk Ptuis, loc. dt. , U BdiUarIl, no. xxxvi, 19July
4 Arch. Nat.. W !l94. no. !l3.5.
• Buchez ct Roux, op. cit., xi. 113· 1791, p. 4. ' Arch. PrH. Poi., N 85, rol. 768.
91
by name.1 Of thuse arrested in the Sections after the demon_ . strauon, the only five who admitted having been in the Champ de Mars that afternoon were a cook, a tailo' " a J'ourneyman cab'met-maker, a cafe-waiter, and an unemployed boot-black.' . O� these the boot-black descnbed the resistance offered to the . , �tary by tow les ouvriers perruquiers et autres'; and the m taI lor, as we alrea�y �w, claimed 'qu'on tirait sur les ouvriers llle . Further evidence of the attendance of comme de la vola wa�e-earners at the Champ de Man is suggested by u report that po!1-workers had visited journeymen in their lodgmgs !o bring them along to the demonstra �or�hops an� l bon, and B� rette-Vemeres, when accwed of inciting OUmlerS assemble In the champ de Mars, replied 'qu'it est laux ' . . .
BaMI
lard.r (0
parce que ceux auxquels iI aurait preche (?) etaient prets a y entrer'.4 . We have,. besid�, the far more considerable, though largely clrcumstantlal, e Vldence of the police commissionen' re rts and the prison register of the Hotel de la Force, relating
k all
to �me penons arrested for political offences in the Paris Sectlons 10 the months preceding and following the ChamP d Mars demonstration.s Admittedly these cannot furnish an
�50
;
cle�� proofofattendance or ofwillingness to sign the Cordeliers' peuuon; but they provide a rich source for the study of the popular move�ent of the period and of the classes ofpeople and parts of the �apl�al that were drawn into the political movement I that had as ts climax the petition and demonstration of 1 7 July
Onl� a handful of these persons were arrested for remarh �ha� �ght, even remotely, be construed as counter-revolution_ ry? �� nearly every case they were charged with abusing or �nt1C1zmg the administration, the National Guard or Lafoay'tte ID person 10 . terms whic • ' fluence exerted h reveal the m by the dlemocrats and popular societies on the small tradesmen, craftsIl en, and wage-earners of Paris during this period. Thus, of , Arch. Prff. Pot. Ab 3!1ot. p. 60. ""r, "°l., Ab 3!14. pp. 33, 38; A. 148, fol. 30; !l1.5, fol. ,"". IS!I , fol ..Y.;J. 312 ' 'h' N.l.t T (, !l14' ' u BdiUlITII, no. xxxvi, 19 July 1191. Arch. Nat F' 4623, rol. lot. Arch. Pr6. Pol' A. 56 7!1, 74, 76 A. 85, 134, '37, l.a. 1.53, 155. 157. 166. ,' �' 167, 17!1, 173. 18!1 I" , !lOS. !lIS, !II , !llg, !120, 2!14, !l39'' Ab ..., pp . � • �. . ,. A few .... " CIUCt appalt in Arch Nat., ...., dlIl.ona W !l94, no. !l35 (Bailly papcn) ; . T �14� (prvn.,..... Bern ani'. papcn), and DXXIXb, nos. 34 and 36 (Comit� I
:
�
,
52 •
•
••
.•
•
d� R�bcrcbQ).
9:1
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
persons arrested between 14 April and 15 July 1 791, and for whom details ofoccupation are available, 34 were �age.eame.rs. both employed and unemployed; the rest were, In the mam, shopkeepers, workshop masters, or independent craftsmen. Of another 186 persons arrested between 16July and 15 November (the great majority for criticizing the Na�onal Guard or the administration for the violence used against the Champ de Mars petitioners), were wage-earners; while the rest were petty employers, craftsmen, an other small property-own�rs. This evidence, indirect though It be, seems to support th� W!W already suggested by a perusal of the docume?� directly relating to the Champs de Mars affair, that the peuuoners and demonstrators of 1 7 July were typical of the mmu peuplt-trades men, craftsmen, and wage_earners-that made up th� b k of lStncts of the population of theJaubou s and crowded central d the city. . ' tho Which parts of the capital were, in fact, I�VO1ved In � movement? k far as the Champ de M�rs rally IS con�erned It was certainly the intention of the orgamz�rs to mak� It an all Paris affair. While the Cordeliers Club Itself was In the rue Dauphine on the Left Bank, the rallying-point for the and societies was the Porte Saint-Antoine, and the pe?tlon of 16 July, which issued the first call to a dem?ostratlon, was canvassed in places as widely apart as the rue Samt�Honon� th � Porte Saint-Martin, and the rue du Faubourg SalOt-Antome. How far this object was realized it is hard to tell from the com paratively few documents directly relating to attcndance at the Champ de Mars. Yet, evenfrom these, one stri ng fact emerges: the poor response given to the demonstratlon by the F�u bourg Saint-Antoine. Lafayette had filled the Pla.ce d� la Bastll e with troops, and this may well be why FourDier l'! found so few people assembled there early that . e. but Primery, the commissioner appointed by the S Halles, not only found a poor attendance at the rallymg-pelOt, when he tned to but met with little response in the arouse interest.l The distance from the Champ de . three and a half miles, as the crow flies, from the Porte Samt-
102
�
�l
rg
c1�?,
�
�
����;��� �u!t ,
faubourg
I Arch. Pr
I Crinus de L4 FaftlU tot Franc t (printed telll, 1791). Arch. Nat. , F' 6504.
h
9:1
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
persons arrested between 14 April and 15 July 1 791, and for whom details ofoccupation are available, 34 were �age.eame.rs. both employed and unemployed; the rest were, In the mam, shopkeepers, workshop masters, or independent craftsmen. Of another 186 persons arrested between 16July and 15 November (the great majority for criticizing the Na�onal Guard or the administration for the violence used against the Champ de Mars petitioners), were wage-earners; while the rest were petty employers, craftsmen, an other small property-own�rs. This evidence, indirect though It be, seems to support th� W!W already suggested by a perusal of the docume?� directly relating to the Champs de Mars affair, that the peuuoners and demonstrators of 1 7 July were typical of the mmu peuplt-trades men, craftsmen, and wage_earners-that made up th� b k of lStncts of the population of theJaubou s and crowded central d the city. . ' tho Which parts of the capital were, in fact, I�VO1ved In � movement? k far as the Champ de M�rs rally IS con�erned It was certainly the intention of the orgamz�rs to mak� It an all Paris affair. While the Cordeliers Club Itself was In the rue Dauphine on the Left Bank, the rallying-point for the and societies was the Porte Saint-Antoine, and the pe?tlon of 16 July, which issued the first call to a dem?ostratlon, was canvassed in places as widely apart as the rue Samt�Honon� th � Porte Saint-Martin, and the rue du Faubourg SalOt-Antome. How far this object was realized it is hard to tell from the com paratively few documents directly relating to attcndance at the Champ de Mars. Yet, evenfrom these, one stri ng fact emerges: the poor response given to the demonstratlon by the F�u bourg Saint-Antoine. Lafayette had filled the Pla.ce d� la Bastll e with troops, and this may well be why FourDier l'! found so few people assembled there early that . e. but Primery, the commissioner appointed by the S Halles, not only found a poor attendance at the rallymg-pelOt, when he tned to but met with little response in the arouse interest.l The distance from the Champ de . three and a half miles, as the crow flies, from the Porte Samt-
102
�
�l
rg
c1�?,
�
�
����;��� �u!t ,
faubourg
I Arch. Pr
I Crinus de L4 FaftlU tot Franc t (printed telll, 1791). Arch. Nat. , F' 6504.
h
D IN ACTION TIONARY CROW TH E REVOLU
9-t.
r interest appeal; but what is of greate more than a purely local po rg Saint ou ub cal scene of the Fa bourg is the emergence on the sliti tJau tha of s before, the citizen ini Marcel. Only a few monthparti adm city the praise by ar cul for out d gle sin n had bee r since the l and orderly behaviour eveer stration for their peacefuon to be re nev s wa n tio is reputa Th ,' uti vol Re the of eak tbr ou to remain Faubourg Saint-Marcel wasper iod, gained: from now on, the po litical commotion of the can have in the forefront in every sup and price of bread rs We have seen that the ply Ma de p am ting support for the Ch ocrats, It played little part in stimula dem cal activities of the had petition or for the other politi er the political movementgon aft e e only reappeared as an issu d ha or ed est ders had been arr d an st been crushed and its leaho rve ha d ba a to wever, owing an abroad, In mid-August, ur, the price of the 4-1b. loaf beg fio of d che the bakers' shortage s, by September, to have rea fJOlu once more to rise and appear Rl la urnal de l On 7 September Le Jostil at ion 1 2 SOlIS, or even more, ept rec iny had been given a ho e' eand forced to non reported that Ba d with 'la lantern the corn_market, threatenePin , a button-maker, was arrestt ed to withdraw) The next day, ingche the central markets, and sen ou s sol in the Mail Secllon, adjoin x deu a is ns:a fra t Ie pain the Force for saying: 'II nous fau ce, se battre.'4 cal movement had spent itsstafor a ge But by this time the politiriti uld that the poor wo re we and the fears of the authothe es ter ugh Champ de Mars sla May or spectacular vengeance forthe bre ad crisis appeared in not to be realized,S Had otherwise and the :ssue of the Champ June, it might have been decisive, As it was, the police agent de Man affair been more ort to the Assembly's Comite des Delaborde was able to rep jouit toujours d'un grand Recherches on 9 August: 'Paris calme.'6 1 I'ordre e't a la sion d'l.ppll.udirdam �ilit , . . cette occa l'.!tenduc du • 'Le Corps municipal ion olut R.!v II. uis dep nt cas
ilsUIt,�U �;"j'���'_��-bari;"�' """�"�' '�O fi�":'"�"��,\;��;��; �; ...�''/:;:::,::
Church lancb, the Revolution and were " " I. , Mathie>:, Lc Vii tilt 'The Collapse or the French
he became t T N'
Mathiez, • For a general account ofthe dislurbanees ICe those in the Faubourg Saint_Marcel in dre menu des m�moires de Charles-Alexis Alexan April-June 19.5', pp, 148-6,· de 1191 e1 '79�', ,4"", hist, RJu.j,f>.1!f" no. 1::6,
(1916), pp. 300-14,
�::t.:�:��:j::;��:1�E�:;::::�
�
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
pi'IIage and bum their shops. Madame Commard h ' �ve ' had the resource to offer them money which theY 109 Y accepted as compensation for time lost " l b· bi �:�te�e � d part � acefulJy.' Three days later ' s op 0 a t y, a merchant grocer of the rue Sainte-Marguente , off the rue du Faubourg Samt-Anto ine, and compelled him to . seII the� sugar a� 2!> sour a pound; they explained to Dumont ' the pohce-commlsslOner of the Montreuil Sec·' ...on, que la subite augmentation du sucre les avait . d,ans la necCSSl'te , nus fair d' . r de faire cette demarche pou en e lI11muer e prIX et faire punir les accapareun. ' �e�nwhile. half a dozen grocers in the same Section had mi1a �y bee� m�lIed to sell sugar at a reduced price before I e National Guard, who cleared their pri a sh Another wave �f rioting broke out in February: in the Fau . bourg Samt-Antome, on the morning of the 14th the P r ere at first overwheimed-'l'insurr�ction e � a d e da g n a e ans e faubourg'-and over twenty grocers in the �e u Faubourg Saint-Antoine alone were threatened with mvas .on; several were forced to sell their sugar at 20 sow a e rd could be restored. At night cartloads of . Lyons were held up by crowds as the e ha un ror ed hr�ugh thefauhourg, and the authorities had to appe e at.lOn Guard to overcome their reluctance to protect t e merchants property.' a wh an ev:n more explosive situation had developed in au urg Samt-Marcel. Since the previous November two dyers, ;\uger and Monnery, of the Gobelins Section who had cog lz�d the potentialities of the rising market in ;ugar had en aytng up large stocks-it was said, 80,000 Ib -in � arehouse 1,0 the rue Saint-Hippolyte. In January a . rotest e o stratlon had been easily dispersed; but matters c me to a a when, �n 14 February, the rumour spread that the StDCks were gomg to be distributed all over Paris Crowds r. m d ea ly in the morning, seized the first loads of sugar as t y cfit t e warehouse under military escort, and sold them in
� ;i �
':���
�� r
! : ���
:� � � �: �� ::: :'����
� l � �� � � !:�� ����; � � f�� � � � �� � ::
;
� �� J
� �
;:: �
.
i
�� � � : Zen. ch.
PrH, Pol., Aa 72, foJ. 54. PrM: Poi., Aa 173, foJ. 39,
• Ibid.
goG
\
WD IN ACTION THE REV OLU TION ARY CRO
exchange-rate of the the tzSsignat' had begun to decline and the ad. Selling at 70 abro French liure had begun to faU heavily June 1791 , the in don Lon per cent. of its nominal value in s, the assignat, Pari in ch; Mar in livre had fallen to 50 per cent. er 1791 , had emb Nov in e valu inal from 82 per cent. of its nom . in June cent per 57 to and 3ry Janu in declined to 63 pCT cent. outbreak of renewed 1 792.1 Yet the more immediate cause oflhe of sugar, and certain disturbance in the capital was a shortage civil war that had other colonial products, arising from the es in the West broken out between the planters and nativ few days from a in Indies. In January the price of sugar rose broke out in riots and d;l 22-25 sous to g litn'ts or 31 liures a poun t-Denis, Sain and rcel, t-Ma the Faubourg! Saint-Antoine, Sain g. The bour Beau and s illier Grav and in the central Sections of n for reaso real the that cejusti rioters, believing-with some by the merchants the shortage was the withholding of supplies xt rather than the and that colonial disturbance was the prete of some of the large cause, broke into the shops and warehouses sugar be sold at its wholesalers and dealers and demanded that d; while, in some former price of �o, ��, 24, or 26 sous a poun meat, wine, and d, brea districts, extending their operations to of roxatwn popu t emen mov other wares.• It was the first great 775· 1 of laire in the capital since the riots or January The police reports of the Paris Sections f the Section In ts. even these on light February throw some dozen women Beaubourg we learn that, on 20 January, a ent vetues' 'ayant l'air de femmes de marche, passablem r, in the Senio entered the shop of a wholesaler, Commard h were whic on list a Cloitre de Saint-Merry, and displayed rs esale whol and rs entered the names of certain deale rise in the the people held particularly responsible for the cd, was claim they dy, reme only of sugar and coffe e: the , Originally
ilsUIt,�U �;"j'���'_��-bari;"�' """�"�' '�O fi�":'"�"��,\;��;��; �; ...�''/:;:::,::
Church lancb, the Revolution and were " " I. , Mathie>:, Lc Vii tilt 'The Collapse or the French
he became t T N'
Mathiez, • For a general account ofthe dislurbanees ICe those in the Faubourg Saint_Marcel in dre menu des m�moires de Charles-Alexis Alexan April-June 19.5', pp, 148-6,· de 1191 e1 '79�', ,4"", hist, RJu.j,f>.1!f" no. 1::6,
(1916), pp. 300-14,
�::t.:�:��:j::;��:1�E�:;::::�
�
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY
pi'IIage and bum their shops. Madame Commard h ' �ve ' had the resource to offer them money which theY 109 Y accepted as compensation for time lost " l b· bi �:�te�e � d part � acefulJy.' Three days later ' s op 0 a t y, a merchant grocer of the rue Sainte-Marguente , off the rue du Faubourg Samt-Anto ine, and compelled him to . seII the� sugar a� 2!> sour a pound; they explained to Dumont ' the pohce-commlsslOner of the Montreuil Sec·' ...on, que la subite augmentation du sucre les avait . d,ans la necCSSl'te , nus fair d' . r de faire cette demarche pou en e lI11muer e prIX et faire punir les accapareun. ' �e�nwhile. half a dozen grocers in the same Section had mi1a �y bee� m�lIed to sell sugar at a reduced price before I e National Guard, who cleared their pri a sh Another wave �f rioting broke out in February: in the Fau . bourg Samt-Antome, on the morning of the 14th the P r ere at first overwheimed-'l'insurr�ction e � a d e da g n a e ans e faubourg'-and over twenty grocers in the �e u Faubourg Saint-Antoine alone were threatened with mvas .on; several were forced to sell their sugar at 20 sow a e rd could be restored. At night cartloads of . Lyons were held up by crowds as the e ha un ror ed hr�ugh thefauhourg, and the authorities had to appe e at.lOn Guard to overcome their reluctance to protect t e merchants property.' a wh an ev:n more explosive situation had developed in au urg Samt-Marcel. Since the previous November two dyers, ;\uger and Monnery, of the Gobelins Section who had cog lz�d the potentialities of the rising market in ;ugar had en aytng up large stocks-it was said, 80,000 Ib -in � arehouse 1,0 the rue Saint-Hippolyte. In January a . rotest e o stratlon had been easily dispersed; but matters c me to a a when, �n 14 February, the rumour spread that the StDCks were gomg to be distributed all over Paris Crowds r. m d ea ly in the morning, seized the first loads of sugar as t y cfit t e warehouse under military escort, and sold them in
� ;i �
':���
�� r
! : ���
:� � � �: �� ::: :'����
� l � �� � � !:�� ����; � � f�� � � � �� � ::
;
� �� J
� �
;:: �
.
i
�� � � : Zen. ch.
PrH, Pol., Aa 72, foJ. 54. PrM: Poi., Aa 173, foJ. 39,
• Ibid.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
g8
the street at 25 or 30 SQUS a pound,' This was f�llowed, �e ne.: day by attempts to break into the warehouse ltSelf, which w gua�ded, somewhat unwillingly, by a detachment of the local National Guard, Women, laundresses amo?g ,them, sounded the tocsin in the church of Saint-Marcel. ,ThlS, 10 tur?, had the effect ofstirring the Municipality into act.lOn, �nd Peuo�, newly elected mayor of Paris, arrived on the scene with a consl�erable armed force, which cleared the streets and too� pnsone�. Details of these and of other persons arrested dunng the dlS turbances appear in the police records: in January fourteen persons committed to the Conciergerie prison were composed mainly of craftsmen, journeymen, and labourers of the central Sections; in February five persons-ofwhom th�ee or fou: were women-were sent to the Conciergerie for takin� part m the events of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel.l The I:'�ners co� manded considerable local sympathy: a petition for thelr release' sent to the Legislative Assembly on 26 February, con tained the names of 150 local citizens, two of them clencs.3 It was the citizens of the twojaubourgs again who were to �lay the leading part in the next great popular demonstraUon, which took place at the Tuileries on 20 Ju�e the same year,· Ostensibly it was a purely political �ffair-Its pu�se w� to compel the king to accede to the WIShes �f �e .Pans Secbons . grow and Jacobin Club-yet it may well be that IrntaUon With ing economic hardship added to t�e numbers of �emonst�ato� that, on this occasion, filed menacmgly past LOUIS XVI m hIS own palace. Yet this is supposition. There we�e other, even . for discontent and dlsqUlet: the succes-more tangible, . the king's refusal to assent to the sion of military and providing for the 13 June the dismissal of the whom h� had been compelled, much against his will, to in Dumouriez's war government. This last act provided pretext for the demonstration of 20 June. On the �6th . received a request, signed by a small number of cluzens Gobelins Section, but purporting to represent the co:ll"oti,� So: Godechol, op. cil., pp. 1¥J-61. Arch. PrH. Po\., Aa 9 (arrestatioru), fob. 103 37, 1I00-�: ; • For a detailed account, sec: Laura B. Pfeiffer, The UprIsIng ofJune 20, Uniu.-sily $tuditJ �ftM Univ. QfN66raWJ (Lincoln), XII, 3 (July '912), pp. I
�
TH E FALL OF THE MONARCHY
99 wishc:s. of the Faubourgs Saint-Marcel and Sain t-A the Cltlzens of the twofauhourgs to be allowed to ntoine, for arms on the 20th, which marked the anniversary parade under Court Oath �f 1 789, in order to plant a tree of of the Tenni! liberty and to . to the Assembly prese�� a �eUtlOn and the king,l Neither the MUDlClpahty nor the Department Paris, to whom Petion forwarded the request, was willing of to cou nten anc e an armed demonstration; yet there were precedents: less tha n before, 2,000 inhabitants of the Saint-Marce three weeks l district had p�raded before the Assembly bearing an assortm � pitchforks, and firearms.l Pebon, himself a Gir ent of pikes, ondin trie to �emporize: while formally ur�ing the organizers to gi�e updthe Idea of an armed demonstratIon, he was anxious not to lose his �pularity in thef'!"hourgs. He therefore proposed as a com pro mIse, that the Nauonal Guard in the twofaubo urgs be allowed to parade arme� under �heir company comman ders-though not before the king ; their figh . t to bear arms shou ce?ed, as th� comm�nders had expressed the fearld be con might otherwl�e walk IOtO a trap.l As expected, the that they ment Ratly rejected the proposal; but it was nowParis Depart too late and the Gobelins Section, at least, refused to take any At 5 o'clock in the morning the call to arms had notice of it. in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and, all along been sounded the Boulevard de J'Hopital, from the comer of the rue Mouff'et throng of citizens assembled, both members ard a motley Guard and others, men and women: accordin of th� National g to Petion's own account, 'Invalides, Gardes-Nationales, Piquiers , hommes non armes, femmes, enfants' Charles-Alexis Alexandre, the commander of the Gobelins battalion, which played � prominen t part in the day's events, . ructed by hIS had been Inst Sect to join forces with the Fau bourg Saint-Antoine contingention commanded by Santerre. He accordingly marched his men acro the Ite-Saint-Louis over the Pont �e la Toumel!e and the Ponsst Ma rie and linked up with Santerre to the rue Samt-Antoine. From here , under Santerre's : Arch. Nat. F' 4774'·, (o(s. 472-600 (P�tion papel"l) . .•
Godechot, op. cit., p. ,64. ' 'lJ, ttmoignent des d�fianca et des crainla de marcher .am arma' (Arch DU" ' 7 ; Piit:e. "/QlilJd d I'"",,, ,, ,, ,,," au l/Ojliin 17fp). Alexandre claimed creeli; Ih:' prOpoQl (Godcchol, pp. '712). • RIb. Nat ., nou... acq. fra",.., no. 2667 , fob. 4&-53.
(0:1., N
.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
g8
the street at 25 or 30 SQUS a pound,' This was f�llowed, �e ne.: day by attempts to break into the warehouse ltSelf, which w gua�ded, somewhat unwillingly, by a detachment of the local National Guard, Women, laundresses amo?g ,them, sounded the tocsin in the church of Saint-Marcel. ,ThlS, 10 tur?, had the effect ofstirring the Municipality into act.lOn, �nd Peuo�, newly elected mayor of Paris, arrived on the scene with a consl�erable armed force, which cleared the streets and too� pnsone�. Details of these and of other persons arrested dunng the dlS turbances appear in the police records: in January fourteen persons committed to the Conciergerie prison were composed mainly of craftsmen, journeymen, and labourers of the central Sections; in February five persons-ofwhom th�ee or fou: were women-were sent to the Conciergerie for takin� part m the events of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel.l The I:'�ners co� manded considerable local sympathy: a petition for thelr release' sent to the Legislative Assembly on 26 February, con tained the names of 150 local citizens, two of them clencs.3 It was the citizens of the twojaubourgs again who were to �lay the leading part in the next great popular demonstraUon, which took place at the Tuileries on 20 Ju�e the same year,· Ostensibly it was a purely political �ffair-Its pu�se w� to compel the king to accede to the WIShes �f �e .Pans Secbons . grow and Jacobin Club-yet it may well be that IrntaUon With ing economic hardship added to t�e numbers of �emonst�ato� that, on this occasion, filed menacmgly past LOUIS XVI m hIS own palace. Yet this is supposition. There we�e other, even . for discontent and dlsqUlet: the succes-more tangible, . the king's refusal to assent to the sion of military and providing for the 13 June the dismissal of the whom h� had been compelled, much against his will, to in Dumouriez's war government. This last act provided pretext for the demonstration of 20 June. On the �6th . received a request, signed by a small number of cluzens Gobelins Section, but purporting to represent the co:ll"oti,� So: Godechol, op. cil., pp. 1¥J-61. Arch. PrH. Po\., Aa 9 (arrestatioru), fob. 103 37, 1I00-�: ; • For a detailed account, sec: Laura B. Pfeiffer, The UprIsIng ofJune 20, Uniu.-sily $tuditJ �ftM Univ. QfN66raWJ (Lincoln), XII, 3 (July '912), pp. I
�
TH E FALL OF THE MONARCHY
99 wishc:s. of the Faubourgs Saint-Marcel and Sain t-A the Cltlzens of the twofauhourgs to be allowed to ntoine, for arms on the 20th, which marked the anniversary parade under Court Oath �f 1 789, in order to plant a tree of of the Tenni! liberty and to . to the Assembly prese�� a �eUtlOn and the king,l Neither the MUDlClpahty nor the Department Paris, to whom Petion forwarded the request, was willing of to cou nten anc e an armed demonstration; yet there were precedents: less tha n before, 2,000 inhabitants of the Saint-Marce three weeks l district had p�raded before the Assembly bearing an assortm � pitchforks, and firearms.l Pebon, himself a Gir ent of pikes, ondin trie to �emporize: while formally ur�ing the organizers to gi�e updthe Idea of an armed demonstratIon, he was anxious not to lose his �pularity in thef'!"hourgs. He therefore proposed as a com pro mIse, that the Nauonal Guard in the twofaubo urgs be allowed to parade arme� under �heir company comman ders-though not before the king ; their figh . t to bear arms shou ce?ed, as th� comm�nders had expressed the fearld be con might otherwl�e walk IOtO a trap.l As expected, the that they ment Ratly rejected the proposal; but it was nowParis Depart too late and the Gobelins Section, at least, refused to take any At 5 o'clock in the morning the call to arms had notice of it. in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and, all along been sounded the Boulevard de J'Hopital, from the comer of the rue Mouff'et throng of citizens assembled, both members ard a motley Guard and others, men and women: accordin of th� National g to Petion's own account, 'Invalides, Gardes-Nationales, Piquiers , hommes non armes, femmes, enfants' Charles-Alexis Alexandre, the commander of the Gobelins battalion, which played � prominen t part in the day's events, . ructed by hIS had been Inst Sect to join forces with the Fau bourg Saint-Antoine contingention commanded by Santerre. He accordingly marched his men acro the Ite-Saint-Louis over the Pont �e la Toumel!e and the Ponsst Ma rie and linked up with Santerre to the rue Samt-Antoine. From here , under Santerre's : Arch. Nat. F' 4774'·, (o(s. 472-600 (P�tion papel"l) . .•
Godechot, op. cit., p. ,64. ' 'lJ, ttmoignent des d�fianca et des crainla de marcher .am arma' (Arch DU" ' 7 ; Piit:e. "/QlilJd d I'"",,, ,, ,, ,,," au l/Ojliin 17fp). Alexandre claimed creeli; Ih:' prOpoQl (Godcchol, pp. '712). • RIb. Nat ., nou... acq. fra",.., no. 2667 , fob. 4&-53.
(0:1., N
.
100
THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD IN ACTION
force marched, witho�t encounten g command . a' the combined h the rue de la Verrene, the rue ;e5 o ������ :�� �; :Je Saint Hooore t.O the la n h ' g ts halted and awalted thPe ��s�� !:�:� � :�b;Y� ���; �ere invited to prese t their petition, and paraded befor� the deputies�nd;��rms�� pl ce that afternoon and The. more . notous scenes at evenlOg 10 the Tuileries have often been tald.l It appears that the Porte R yalei a �::::����o�h��;Ia had unaccounlr h ��is breach that the ably been Ie�t u o � � �emonstrato�, ea�ed by the citizens ofSaint-Antoine. strea.med lOto the Toya ap�rtments.3 And so until eight or ten at mght, a constant proceSSiOn fmen and w�men filed past the king who, having donned the �ap Of L"b l erty, was compelled to listen to the endlessly repeated sl�gan�,of the ur . 'A bas Ie veto!', 'Rappel des ministres patnotes. '. prob��IY intersPersed with . more homely or chaIIen.g�ng eplthets such as 'Gros Louis' d 'T mblez tyrans., VOICI les Sans-Culottes .1'4 Petion arrived II s a �: full :unicipa.1 regalia and m � though no promises 0f redressha� �:::��;, �h;��;�����:to� dis �Jee c f !I ��� :� � :�t knowledge of the in urge for lack of police reports or I�. ts of �em�ers :r;! �a���:� the. most Guard we have for ou.r )mpresslon of the . .too rely, �� ::;; to Junify o s The Pans Department, n np I d enera u � � oUf P�tion from office a fortnight later, thought fit Its suspension . the Nabona ' I Guard as to describe those not organized lD d t des hommes pour la plupart inconn� et sans etat de rebellion ouverte . . . et pann� iesquds,a:i:i q�: .i'���n�� . ment l'a demontre, it existait des bngands et des meies de femmes et d'enfants.s e o But this description, quite apart from i ob � s purpose, does not take us any further t�an ;e�i��rs �;� :;�n�� tion of them as 'polqUl'ers hommes non-armes, femmes et . , Godechot, op. CIt., 1 Arch. Nat., F' 4474'·, fol,. 47�-600· pp. I 73_�' . ., . . an ent'"" In .1 dated 20 June , The pollce rcglstc.r f the Seclion des Twenes, notes Ihe ,dfractlollll connatees a. luaieurl paries de l'appartement �u Pnnce 179�, Royal, ... celie de l'appartcment de Jad. fille du Roy el It. demo: armoIres danl l'intl!ricur dud;! app.artcment' (Arch. Prtr Pol Aa 26� fol. 31). • Godcchot, op. Cit., p. 176. ·Arch. Nat., F' 4774", foil. 47�-600. .
assasms s .
.
•
0
•
•
" enfants' that we noted earlier.1 From other accounts, howeve' r, it would appear that the mai impetus to the demonstration was given by the shopkeepers,nwor kshop masters, and artisans of the fauDourgs, with the full suppor of the journeymen and working women. In the Faubourg Saint t-A ntoine, for example, shOps and workshops remained closed for nea rly a week;1 and, in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, it si evident from xandre's detailed relation of events that the main driving forcAle e was vided by the active citizens organized in the National Guapro from which most wage-earners and smaller property-ownerd, were at this time excluded. At the same time Alexandre rela rs an incident that both sho the active interest taken in tes cvent by the working womws en of the f(wDourg and provides the an interesting link with the grocery s of the previous February: when an order was sent out for hisriot arrest in connexion with the demonstration, the bearer wasown nea rly ched and he was saved from arrest by some of the same womlyn en inst whom, a few months previously, he had defended the proaga per ties ofAuger and Monnery.3 It is simple enough, in rctrospect, to present the eve of 1 0 August, when the Tuileri es Was captured by armed nts forc and the king suspended from offi ce, as the logical and inevitablee outcome of the humiliation inflicte d on the monarchy in June. In one sense it is true enough : the ant i-royalist agitation in the fauDourgs persisted and, in the course of July, both gained local momentum and spread to the other Section s: by the end of the month, forty-seven of them had declared for abdication. Be sides, the dignity ofthe king's office, despite his per lay of courage, had bee y undermined; the fedsoneraall disp vol un teers, too, who werentosevplaerel a prominent part in the attack on the Tuileries, had alreadyy bee ited to the capital ; and, perhaps even more important, na inv sma ll group of determined Republicans had long decided to follow skirmish of20June with a more decisive, andup the preliminary final, blow when a , Oth THE FAL L OF THE MO NA RCH Y
er accounts refer to 'un fort de la halle. arm� d'un sabre' BB" '7) and (Arch. Nat., to 'un homme couvert d'un hab it d�ch;r�' (Godcchot, loe. cit.) t�', " , ofCOUTSluliml, pp. 297-8. • S. E. Harris, TIw AuigMu (Harvard Univ. P«:ss, 1930), p. [02. , For a detailed account, mainly billCd on the police reports ofthe rari, ScctionJ in the archiva of the PrtrCClure de Polic'> ...,' good e pn' ces of all co h t on to ible ed lac imposs b� � Section it is bey?nd his own any played hIS 10fluence spread evidence that he there IS no rea1 say ,' and anvway ever. " th'IS affair whatso Bureau de direct part 10 , med'late esults .' a report of the po leeof The riots had no lIl the that insisted e of '27 ebrua hc po la de e nc same at the Surveilla d s et remained leather, s the oppor. sugar, cofree, oil, took ne , t e Commu ore , bef as el lev nt ita t '2 , 'exorb the A lb loaf at to fix the pnce f 0 tumty, on 4: March' 1 . s ite of the increase 1 at th leve , in Yet, and maintamed It ubsidies to baker.;.4 0 w:ages, b ties consumer.;' goods and authori show the the commg we s , ' e to come, anotlnel police reports for e tIm som for ct, exp to d an � tinued to fear populalft.5 outbreak of taxatio� the agitation. crept in to sloke up But soon other Issues , there bread' of e hortag as a temporary s mid-Apn' l there lle and Vi de tel Ho arch to the protest s n me wo a of k ore tal the rue Saint-Hon a baker s Shop in Convention; and i$, . -1799 80 voll., Par ·
·Ilie-
0
li
�
�
.
·
�
;-v
(ut i AfClti.'Cs jl<JT/lmelllafeJ
.
: r;; ���t� � �
:n
senes,
0
I 789
;
'1"- .
,
Mathia, op. cit., pp.
. r. 0 . Arch. Nat., AF I Henceforth, the pnee lll la .ffrtU';' -1 9 n • P. Caron Pans fnnda 7 5 ..; Chapt"r X below). c� 10 be an wu�: ntil l h (C w\n�c� t 4 7, 18 March 1793)· l .pO rcpor or " I Arch. Nat., t\F L
272-4.
•
,
V I
1470.
; 9
(
f
THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOUNTAIN
119
invaded and most of its contenu pillaged b y angry women, In April and May there were reporu that market-women and
others were preparing for a new prison massacre ; and, from
this time on, Marat, the arch-advocate ofspeedy revolutionary justice, becomes the hero of the mnw peupu. On May a
10,000
2
unarmed citizens of the Faubourg Saint deputation of Antoine paraded before the Convention and demanded that
prices be controlled in the interesu of the small consumers ; and women from Ver.;ailles rioted in the Convention and refused to leave the building,' It was against this background that the Convention, with considerable reluctance, voted the .6r.;t law of the Maximum which controlled the price of bread and
flour throughout the country.z And now, as so often in the past, the party contending for power began to turn this movement to its own advantage and
to guide it into channels that accorded with its own political interests. The struggle between Gironde and Mountain had reached a point of open breach, and it is evident from the
Girondin's attempt to incriminate Danton over the treachery of Dumouriez and their subsequent arrest of Marat and his summons before the Revolutionary Tribunal tha.t, had the Mountain not struck when the occasion arose, they would themselves have fallen a victim to their opponenu.
At fir.;t, however, it was not the Mountain or the Jacobin
Club, but the extreme revolutionary group of Enrages, whose leader.; were Jean Varlet and Jacques Roux, that did the
running and tried to push the Paris Commune and Sections into a premature insurrection. Varlet's speeches on the Terrasse
des Feuillants, within earshot of the Tuileries. drew great crowds of supporters ; but the attempt made by Varlet's insurrectional Committee to stage a popular joumie on 10 March with the object of settling accounts with the Girondin leader.;, Roland and Brissot, and of introducing the death penalty for hoarders
and speculators, proved still-born: the resolute opposition of the Jacobin Club, the Commune, and the Faubourg Saint-Antoine doomed it to failure,' Yet the Enrages continued to have a follOwing and there was talk, for several weeks to come, of the
I Ibid. (report. ror '5-16 April, 4 April, '4 May, .s-$ April, 2-3 May). • A,rIInIUz . is based, more particularly. 011 Unh'enilY of Oslo, 1959)' J'he praent chapter populaire de 1.1. Ri!volul1On " R. Cobb and G. Rud!!, 'Le Demier mouvelmc:nl IUQ14 hi�/Qriql#, Oc:10� III', an prairia de el l na i m r g e de s Pam: Ic:s joum« on polLee records, Whl� w:ly extensi draws taue, The 1. 25()-8 December 1955, pp. uding I�e �publl� -inel period Ihis during e re u lQ il . form a parlic::ularly rruiul IMmudarinw, .J. .llIdJon III l peM"n (Paris opinion' bulktins edited by A. Aulard al Se
PART THREE
The Anatomy of the Revolutionary Crowd XII THE COMPOSITION OF R E V O L U T I O N A RY C R O W D S
OR
design, all their diversity of scope, organization, and u revol us does a common thread run through the vario � prece he l in . tionary commotions and joumies described cert a IS there �� ing pages? In the first place, it is. evident th.a� n of the paruCl 10 the social compositIO rn patte of ty ormi unif exc�ption. of the pants in these movement s: with the single n 10 their over draw were armed rebels of Vendemiaire, they ottes-from the l cu sa1ISian Paris whelming majority from the e�pers•. �nd shopk ers, -earn wage men, workshop masters, crafts ongms, SOCial of ct respe in , Thus al. capit petty traders of the o� demonstrat?n a sharp division is revealed between the m� or making and insurgents and the political leaders directmg, Electors of Paris political capital out of, these operations-the rs ofthe leade the May-July 1789, the revolutionary journalists! bly, of Assem nal Nabo Paris Commune, or the members of the y few rkabl rema with e, Thes s. the Cordeliers and Jacobin Club the oisie, hourge ercial comm the exceptions, were drawn from how . later see shall We ' cracy aristo l l professions, or the ibera
F
eh laser lights .. -as were ofMarquis noblet tleandwere, Waye u and Mirabe:a g i�ts R�bcsp e. uru Saint·H de the tlix Saint-F de et n i Musqu weN: former ,,_.IU; Damoulins. Brisso., and Htbc:rt were)O Urnah. Danton and Jacques Roux were priests,· l menSieyb tllmo:
I
See Appendixes Ill-IV and pp. 58-!)9 above.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONAR Y CR OW DS
181 among whom wi . rchants and alJegedly professio glen were muchne-inmeeVI nal e but also wo king hOusewsmug_ . water-carriers buildi g 'denc lves d b from the neighbourin� a��iers ��;!a:�::� emPIOYed ; �edSu� . amt_ monastery, too the ' g and destruction seeLmsazare the main, to h�ve bewoe rk of I. �tIn , in out b small tradesmen, em played and unemploye� �:��rers! by craftsmen and joume en. h san� local poor rather than i �as, of course, unlike the two other episodes a ur�� lOC: T1 aff part in it were al'm!t allY;:1�e �nlr and the persons taking junction of the rue � an a.rea adjoining the � mtdu FaU Faubourg Saint-Lazare on theU��� m Do erus. and the rue du In the case of the �h to�ersal��les UlSkiru of the city,: on 5 October, which brought Louis XVI mar b o cap ita l, participants to enIight:� u� and the !here are no lists of arrested and killed are f: t ' Iie . police reports on those c u ns�:r:�::� : � �e�:����:!,� �a���� j7ur�e::� : � tes tIm on y vanous other re porters and es that t e Women ofofthe rkets both initiated the witness wh vem t f�r bread in Sepmatem October and plaole ber and � :; a t art in yed the o first P � great c ntingent that set out ;o;�e����es, but we ha ve als . o that no " the WOmen mar c h ' ers Iuded in addit. ion t0 the petted pn.vl·1eged stall-holders fishmc ty, -w " work ng d women ar , of .�n the kets, it� i h m well-dressed ourgto ( es flmmes a ch apeau', as Hardy called them) other women a;various social And Hardy in re ' and sses J e sight presentedcla by women cro�ding korti':fe�eencs�ang es of the Assembly at Veth� sailles, observed: r[Que) cet etrange spectacl d e l'e e:talt encore plus par ie piusieun; d'elles qui costume de avec v de femmes assez 'daisaient pendre sur leurs /::pponste�ents es Couteaux de chasseeieougam ernj sabres.. des, We know great deal less about th e 20,000 gardes naJioTU1llx that paraded inathe P la-, ... e G ' rev e tha d t �pparently reluctant Lafayette to mo�'ng and com�elled the d t e� to Versailles later In the evening in the wake 0f thIeeama rchmg women-but it , Arch. �at. Z'. ... r
��: ;
.
. • See pp . 73-7.5 above. '
•
• An:h : . Nat.,
Z' 4691.
Hillfdy, JmtmD/., viii. ,506.
180
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
by the threats that Reveillon had, either by implication or design, uttered against the workers' living standards at a time of acute shortage and high price of bread.I In a very real sense it may be claimed that the Paris revolu tion ofJuly 1789 was the work of a great part of the population as a whole: those under arms, may, as we have seen, have numbered as many as a quarter of a million. Yet the most active elements in the main episodes of that great upsurge were far fewer and are reasonably well known to us. The immediate a��ailants of the Bastille, most of whom were members of the newly formed National Guard, were only a few hundred in number. While a handful of these were prosperous merchanu or other bourgtois, the great majority were craftsmen, shop keepers, and journeymen, drawn from a wide variety of trades and occupations, though predominantly from the building, furnishing, and luxurycrafts of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and its adjoining districts.z At the Bastille, the unemployed country workers, whose influx into the capital had been one of the more striking manifestations of the economic crisis which heralded the Revolution, played little or no part j and wage-earners in general, even workshop journeymen, appear to have been in a distinct minority. Quite different was the composition of the crowds that burned down the customs posts between I I and 14 July and raided and sacked the monastery of the Saint Lazare brotherhood. on the 13th. At the bambu, as at the Bastille, there was a small number of bourgtois--even of nobles among the most prominent of the insurgents. The aristocratic adventurer, Musquinet de Saint-Felix, was seen at two of the hamtrts on the approaches to the Faubourg Saint-Marcel Among the incendiaries of two of the northern bamJres 'i1 y ell avait deux assez bien Vttus'. The leader ofthe rioters at champ 'avait l'air d'un seigneur'; at Passy, 'il etait vetu redingote blanche'. Among eighty persons for whose writs were subsequently issued by the Procureur-General, described as wearing 'un habit bleu et canne a pomme and another as being 'monte sur un cheval blanc'. Yet were exceptional and the description most often given of rioters by eyewitnesses was of roughly dressed men and of the people-local tradesmen, craftsmen and w"."·,,,""" , Sec pp. 3S If. above.
I
See Appendixes Ill-IV and pp. 58-!)9 above.
THE COMPOSITION OF REVOLUTIONAR Y CR OW DS
181 among whom wi . rchants and alJegedly professio glen were muchne-inmeeVI nal e but also wo king hOusewsmug_ . water-carriers buildi g 'denc lves d b from the neighbourin� a��iers ��;!a:�::� emPIOYed ; �edSu� . amt_ monastery, too the ' g and destruction seeLmsazare the main, to h�ve bewoe rk of I. �tIn , in out b small tradesmen, em played and unemploye� �:��rers! by craftsmen and joume en. h san� local poor rather than i �as, of course, unlike the two other episodes a ur�� lOC: T1 aff part in it were al'm!t allY;:1�e �nlr and the persons taking junction of the rue � an a.rea adjoining the � mtdu FaU Faubourg Saint-Lazare on theU��� m Do erus. and the rue du In the case of the �h to�ersal��les UlSkiru of the city,: on 5 October, which brought Louis XVI mar b o cap ita l, participants to enIight:� u� and the !here are no lists of arrested and killed are f: t ' Iie . police reports on those c u ns�:r:�::� : � �e�:����:!,� �a���� j7ur�e::� : � tes tIm on y vanous other re porters and es that t e Women ofofthe rkets both initiated the witness wh vem t f�r bread in Sepmatem October and plaole ber and � :; a t art in yed the o first P � great c ntingent that set out ;o;�e����es, but we ha ve als . o that no " the WOmen mar c h ' ers Iuded in addit. ion t0 the petted pn.vl·1eged stall-holders fishmc ty, -w " work ng d women ar , of .�n the kets, it� i h m well-dressed ourgto ( es flmmes a ch apeau', as Hardy called them) other women a;various social And Hardy in re ' and sses J e sight presentedcla by women cro�ding korti':fe�eencs�ang es of the Assembly at Veth� sailles, observed: r[Que) cet etrange spectacl d e l'e e:talt encore plus par ie piusieun; d'elles qui costume de avec v de femmes assez 'daisaient pendre sur leurs /::pponste�ents es Couteaux de chasseeieougam ernj sabres.. des, We know great deal less about th e 20,000 gardes naJioTU1llx that paraded inathe P la-, ... e G ' rev e tha d t �pparently reluctant Lafayette to mo�'ng and com�elled the d t e� to Versailles later In the evening in the wake 0f thIeeama rchmg women-but it , Arch. �at. Z'. ... r
��: ;
.
. • See pp . 73-7.5 above. '
•
• An:h : . Nat.,
Z' 4691.
Hillfdy, JmtmD/., viii. ,506.
VO LU TI ON Y OF THE RE TH E AN AT OM
AR Y CROWD .
Pa s .1 . witnesses before the n evidence g Ve bY that VCr5ailles appears from tl:te ests made at o l u handf the from rs, cra . Ch:itelet and e workshop maste rc composcd o and Its they were once mo ine Saint.Anto en of t� Fa bourg n, un· occasio men, and j�ur�eym o Place on this t 1 Yet tral cen n adjoining dlstnc s. the of ves wi stal -h �de� and shin nt doubtedly goes to the eve r ila sim er any oth ent, more t an n the ld he markets . In this ev and t par g din men played t e lea the Revolution, wo . ou g ou thr centre of the stage that the popular Iu 0 1790 we saw After the prolonged . , democrats and the agItation f the movement, "ed by the . the spring of 1791. This slarted �p agal. l every Cordeliers Club. nvolving probably re wldespre � form. al politic t time it became mo. ly n a distinc S, and �oo in lrie pa one of the Paris SectIOn la de d d the aul the meetmg roun le op pe 0 Its culmination was 00 50 en 79 1 wh ' Mars on 1 7 ' the Champ de b the Cordeliers Club, . . 'pet�t1on dra s gathered to sign a Of the 6,000 person lon of Louis cal h ab the for declared g c callin was t". re martial law d the. petition bclo · who h ad slgne number couId great a fire llonale opencd . .' studded and the Garde Na on sheets were . n·le and the petiti v: r ind irect neither read no the From tures.1 ofsigna s In the pIace persona with circled crosse m that of some 250 lice reports we I.ea po the n autum evidence of and er 'umm lh... � ' aI charges dunng itself, a arrested on porllic stration demon the ded or k.illed 'm mainly self months, or woun the rest being , ers earn ge· wa re we lf ha r with a ove little nd petty traders n, shopke�pers, me fts cra clerks; yed plo em sional men, an s, bourgeoIS, pr es sprinkling of renlier y were v:o�en. lh'" ,,.. about one in twent ust 1 2 was like Tuil�nes iD Au g the on and The assault affair l mi i ary . rs earher, a �rg the Bastille twO yea . the Parisian atta e er carried out by orgamz . ingents from a numb vlsltmg C by d rte po sup , Guard been virtually wag�·earners had provincial cities. As reviously and a a ntll a few d from the Paris militi � nroned, we should . eptIOnal cases XI. would only in exc • Bucha Ct Roux, , See p. 77 abo...". 2 abo...c. For a fullcr V and pp. 90 my j ) Sec Ap�ndixeo IV_ . rioters of 1789-9' see . nlll the msurg� tiM. hlSf. . social composition of de t789 a 1791',
18.:1
�
�
�
�
� �
�
;;�
;
fi
�
0
� � �
J:� �
:'vl.
d
�;
�?
in,urr
_
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
193
vate� purely by their desire for cheaper coffee, sugar, or soap; and, lO the reports drawn up by police agents, there are various r�fer�nc� to men and women carrying bundles of assignats or dlS�nbutlng handfuls of gold and silver.' In Prairial, too, it was c�all�ned y the police n �he testimony of their agents 'qu'on � . ete d lStnbue des assignats dans Ie faubourg dlSaJ.� qu Ii avalt . Antome pour fomenter la rebellion'.z In the case of persons arrested, wounded, or killed in such . . dlSturbances, the autho��ies ha�, of course, a ready-ta-hand me�hod ?f not only vOICIng their suspicions but of checking . th�r valIdity. �� their approach to this problem the French polic� and mumclpal o� government committees of the day were no different from their counterparts in Britain or elsewhere w�en faced with a challenge to the existing order by 'the in fenor set of people': the venality of the masses was taken for granted �nd the remedy for popular insurrection was sought in the trackmg down of presumed conspirators rather than in the removal of social grievances. Thus, after the Reveillon riots, the arreste,d and wounded are asked in their cross-examination by the polIce commissioners whether they have any knowledge o� the pay,,?ent of money to instigate disturbances,J Jean N�colas PepI�, tallow-porter, when questioned in connexion WIth the lootlng of Saint-Lazare and the general events of 1 2 to July at the Palais Royal and elsewhere is asked 's'il a rec;u �e l·argent de ces particuliers'.• Michel 'Adden, Bastille . worker, later hanged for provoking a 'sedition' in the demohtlon int-Antoine, is asked 'si avant ou depuis Ie 1 2 � �ubo� rg a JUl I �et II n a rec;u de l'argent de differentes personneS pour exciter �es tumultes a Paris'.5 Franc;ois Billon, charged with . threatenmg to hang a baker at the Ecole MTt ' 10 the I I alre . mal �utu �n 0f 1 789� 15 asked 's'i! a ete excite acela par quelques . ". . en lUi remettant 1Otenuonnes quo au·•..· •nt cherche"a Ie ScuUlre de I 'argent•.6 And so we can go on-with those arrested in the
�
J4
�
• �8 • February , Arch. Nat.' AFIV I470 (reporu ,or 2
Be:uva11et on , May '7Bg (Arch. Nat., Y • ,033). Arqh. Nal., Z' 469' (29 July 1 78g). , Arch. Nat., Y .8768 (2. October '78g). • Arch. Nat., Y .8769 (16 November 1789).
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
19+ THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD summer and autumn of 1791, with those questioned in con nexion with the grocery riots, and those summoned to appear before the Military Commission or the Committee of Gen:ral Security in Prairial of the Year 1IJ.l Usually the answer
a
flat denial; but sometimes it is of greater interest. In 1791, for . example, we find a domestic servant of the Vend6me SectlOn replying to the familiar question with the unexpc:cted re�ort . that, far from receiving money for taking part m politIcal affairs, it has cost him 24
sow in the past four months to do
15
so-
apparently a reference to his subscription to the Jacobin Club ofwhich he was a member.1 In Prairial a Quinze Vingts gunner,
when asked if he knows of any distribution of money in the
flWhourg, answers 'no'; though he adds that 'he has he�rd sevtr� people say that money and two pounds of bread were given out to stir up rebellion.' But in no single instance do we find a
straightforward admission that a prisoner or other witness has
personally been present at su�h a transaction. . Moreover the police had the far more effecttve course of searching their prisoners and had every motive for making public the discovery of any suspicious objects or sums of money found on them. In nearly every case for which we have records the results of such searches are purely negative. It is true that a paper-worker, arrested after the Reveillon riots, was found in
liurtS
possession of 4 which he admitted having received from two individuals whom he had met at the Palais Royal-but this
happened a full week after the riots were over.4 This seerns a pretty shaky foundation on which to base the charges of mass bribery proffered by Besenval and Montjoie, and repeated by writers in the Again, one of four young workers arrested at the Barriere Saint-Denis on 14 July 1789 was found with 157 iiurtS, 1 2 in silver in his pockets; but this sum had quite evidently either been stolen at the or
RtllUt dts questions historiques, sow
ham'irts
(as the prisoner insisted) been picked up in the raid on the Saint Lazare monastery,S And even Hardy, who was usually a reliable
, Arch. Prtf. Pol., Kriet Aa; Arch. Nal., W 546, F" (ltrie alphabethiq\le). • Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa 206, rob. 366-7. , Arch. Nal., F" 473!i, dou. 4 (my ilalia) . • Arch. Nat., Y 14119 (5-6 May 17Sg). See also the examination by Commis sioner Odenl of 18 COI'pICI, which had been brought 10 the Monlro\lge cemelery for identification (Arch. Nat., Y 15019), and pp. 41-42 above. J Arch. Nat., Y 10634, fol. '49; 15683.
195
�
witness, appears to have been completely misled by reports t at
the Versailles bread-rioters of September 1789 were found with considerable sums in their purses : the police reporu relating to
the case are completely silent on the matter,' As for the far more substantial charges ofbribery made in the course of the C ate1et
�
inquiry into the events of October, for lack of other eVidence we must largely discount them owing to the vagueness of the assertions and thedubious natureofthe majority ofthe witnesses,1 While, therefore, the evidence of widespread bribery is
negligible, we cannot discount so readily the desire for loot as a stimulus to participation in revolutionary activities. Yet, even
so, it has been greatly exaggerated and there is little sign at any stage of indiscriminate pillage. We have se�n that a nu�b�r of . food-shops were pillaged during the Reveillon nots-lD Itself significant of the underlying cause of those disturbances,l At
the
harritrts, too, there was looting of the personal effects and
savings of customs officials, though it did not reach great pro portions,. Looting played a far more substantial pa�t in thc raid on the Saint-Lazare monastery; yet even here It was a by-product of the main operation, which was to cart grain to the central corn market.! It played some part again, though a
journitS
minor one, in the grocery riots of 1793.6 ]n the other of the Revolution it played no significant part at all. Yet we have noted that one historian ascribed this motive to the assailants of
the Tuileries in August 1 792. Considerable looting, it is true, followed the fall of the tluittlW; in fact, we have the record of 134 persons detained in the Hotel de la Force between 10 August and 2 September of that year for pilfering, or being suspected of pilfering, a wide variety of objects;7 and several others were arrested on such charges in the Sections'--though not one of these appears to have been among the armed attackers. What is more remarkable is that many humble citizens, wage
earners among them, went out of their way to deposit valuables found at the Tuileries for safe-keeping with their Sections;9 • Arch. s"ine-eI·O;,.-" seri"" B. PrMI� de I'HOlei du Roi. Proc�dur"" 11Sg,
• s"e p. 49· ' See p. 43. • See pp. 72-13. ' Bib. Nat., Lb" 6'4U. • 5«: p. 116, Arch. Prtr. PoL, Aa 88, fob. !i14-44; 1!i3, (01. 48; 1!i7. rol. 200; 173, fob. 43-
roll. 7-21.
• See p. !i0. I
• Arch. Pdf. Pol., Aa 88, rob. ,546-7' ; �'9, Sagnac, La ChuJI: it /Q fOJH"'ll, pp. 291-8.
44; �6�, fols. *0-42.
rol.
32; 262, fob. 42-44. Sre alo.o
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
19+ THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD summer and autumn of 1791, with those questioned in con nexion with the grocery riots, and those summoned to appear before the Military Commission or the Committee of Gen:ral Security in Prairial of the Year 1IJ.l Usually the answer
a
flat denial; but sometimes it is of greater interest. In 1791, for . example, we find a domestic servant of the Vend6me SectlOn replying to the familiar question with the unexpc:cted re�ort . that, far from receiving money for taking part m politIcal affairs, it has cost him 24
sow in the past four months to do
15
so-
apparently a reference to his subscription to the Jacobin Club ofwhich he was a member.1 In Prairial a Quinze Vingts gunner,
when asked if he knows of any distribution of money in the
flWhourg, answers 'no'; though he adds that 'he has he�rd sevtr� people say that money and two pounds of bread were given out to stir up rebellion.' But in no single instance do we find a
straightforward admission that a prisoner or other witness has
personally been present at su�h a transaction. . Moreover the police had the far more effecttve course of searching their prisoners and had every motive for making public the discovery of any suspicious objects or sums of money found on them. In nearly every case for which we have records the results of such searches are purely negative. It is true that a paper-worker, arrested after the Reveillon riots, was found in
liurtS
possession of 4 which he admitted having received from two individuals whom he had met at the Palais Royal-but this
happened a full week after the riots were over.4 This seerns a pretty shaky foundation on which to base the charges of mass bribery proffered by Besenval and Montjoie, and repeated by writers in the Again, one of four young workers arrested at the Barriere Saint-Denis on 14 July 1789 was found with 157 iiurtS, 1 2 in silver in his pockets; but this sum had quite evidently either been stolen at the or
RtllUt dts questions historiques, sow
ham'irts
(as the prisoner insisted) been picked up in the raid on the Saint Lazare monastery,S And even Hardy, who was usually a reliable
, Arch. Prtf. Pol., Kriet Aa; Arch. Nal., W 546, F" (ltrie alphabethiq\le). • Arch. Prtf. Pol., Aa 206, rob. 366-7. , Arch. Nal., F" 473!i, dou. 4 (my ilalia) . • Arch. Nat., Y 14119 (5-6 May 17Sg). See also the examination by Commis sioner Odenl of 18 COI'pICI, which had been brought 10 the Monlro\lge cemelery for identification (Arch. Nat., Y 15019), and pp. 41-42 above. J Arch. Nat., Y 10634, fol. '49; 15683.
195
�
witness, appears to have been completely misled by reports t at
the Versailles bread-rioters of September 1789 were found with considerable sums in their purses : the police reporu relating to
the case are completely silent on the matter,' As for the far more substantial charges ofbribery made in the course of the C ate1et
�
inquiry into the events of October, for lack of other eVidence we must largely discount them owing to the vagueness of the assertions and thedubious natureofthe majority ofthe witnesses,1 While, therefore, the evidence of widespread bribery is
negligible, we cannot discount so readily the desire for loot as a stimulus to participation in revolutionary activities. Yet, even
so, it has been greatly exaggerated and there is little sign at any stage of indiscriminate pillage. We have se�n that a nu�b�r of . food-shops were pillaged during the Reveillon nots-lD Itself significant of the underlying cause of those disturbances,l At
the
harritrts, too, there was looting of the personal effects and
savings of customs officials, though it did not reach great pro portions,. Looting played a far more substantial pa�t in thc raid on the Saint-Lazare monastery; yet even here It was a by-product of the main operation, which was to cart grain to the central corn market.! It played some part again, though a
journitS
minor one, in the grocery riots of 1793.6 ]n the other of the Revolution it played no significant part at all. Yet we have noted that one historian ascribed this motive to the assailants of
the Tuileries in August 1 792. Considerable looting, it is true, followed the fall of the tluittlW; in fact, we have the record of 134 persons detained in the Hotel de la Force between 10 August and 2 September of that year for pilfering, or being suspected of pilfering, a wide variety of objects;7 and several others were arrested on such charges in the Sections'--though not one of these appears to have been among the armed attackers. What is more remarkable is that many humble citizens, wage
earners among them, went out of their way to deposit valuables found at the Tuileries for safe-keeping with their Sections;9 • Arch. s"ine-eI·O;,.-" seri"" B. PrMI� de I'HOlei du Roi. Proc�dur"" 11Sg,
• s"e p. 49· ' See p. 43. • See pp. 72-13. ' Bib. Nat., Lb" 6'4U. • 5«: p. 116, Arch. Prtr. PoL, Aa 88, fob. !i14-44; 1!i3, (01. 48; 1!i7. rol. 200; 173, fob. 43-
roll. 7-21.
• See p. !i0. I
• Arch. Pdf. Pol., Aa 88, rob. ,546-7' ; �'9, Sagnac, La ChuJI: it /Q fOJH"'ll, pp. 291-8.
44; �6�, fols. *0-42.
rol.
32; 262, fob. 42-44. Sre alo.o
196 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
197
of Lafayette, supporting his claim to a fair hearing with an appeal to 'Ie droit de I'homme'. 1 In the following weeks, as the
and that even bitterly hostile witnesses felt compelled to admit that the armed battalions, far from condoning or taking part in
pillage, summarily executed those weaker brethren among
rift developed in the National Assembly between the constitu
same fate befell many who tried to pillage during the September
the Parisian menu peuple openly championed the former against
tional monarchists and the Court Party over the royal veto,
their unarmed supporters who attempted to engage in it.1 The
the latter, and we have seen that unemployed workers of the
massacres.1 In response to what motives, then, did the Parisian sans
Ecole Militaire and wage-earners and soldiers in the Place de
how far did they differ from the aims of those who promoted or
days before the actual event, to go and fetch the royal family
culottes participate in such large numbers in these events? And initiated them? In the first place, it is evident that revolutionary
crowds, far from being mere passive instruments, absorbed
and adapted the slogans and ideas of the political groups contending for power both on the eve and in the course of the
Revolution. During the rivolte nobiliaire, for example, we saw
Greve and the Palais Royal expressed their readiness, several
"
back to Paris_1 Another feature of this period was, of course, the
adoption by demonstrators and rioters of anti-clerical slogans;
and, at Versailles, the marchers treated the deputies of the
clergy with scant respect and greeted them with shouts of 'A bas la calotte!' l In the midst of the social calm of the year 1790 Parisians
how the rioting crowds of clerks and journeymen on the Pont Neufburned Lamoignon, the unpopular garde in effigy
rallied in tens of thousands, at the call ofthe National Assembly,
popularity had already switched to the Third Estate, shortly to
political ideas of the democrats and Republicans were begin
to have been incited by royalist agents) shouted the revolu
sans-culottes. The results of this indoctrination were clearly
Ie Tiers Etat!'4 The same political rallying cry of 'Tiers Etat'
called by the Cordeliers Club with a purely political object
des sceaux,
and chanted the slogans of the parltmentairts, 'A bas Lamoignon !' and 'Vive Henri IV!') Later, during the Reveillon riots, when
meet at Versailles, the demonstrators (though widely believed tionary slogans of the day: 'Vive Ie Roi ! Vive M, Necker! Vive
was voiced by crowds who burned down the bamires and sacked
the monastery of the Saint-Lazare brotherhood in July5-
though, on occasion, its meaning appears to have been trans
formed into a call to action of the poor against the rich.6 The
to the Champ de Mars to celebrate the first anniversary of the Revolution; but, before many months had passed, the social and ning to find a 'response among the more active, at least, of the
evident in the Champ de Mars demonstration of July 1 7 9 1 ,
to sign a petition questioning the king's right to continue in office after his flight to Varennes. Among the 6,000 who had time to sign the petition or scratch their crosses on it before the arrival of the National Guard, there may have been many who
new ideas of 'liberty' and 'the rights of man' were also gaining
did so without a clear understanding of its contents; yet the cook, Constance Evrard, at least, clearly stated under cross
, Sagnac, op. cit., pp. 136, 195. Sagnac quotes the MiITw;res of the royali,t Madame de Tound: 'II est remarquable que eelle annte de bandits ,'ttail interdit Ie wI aux Tuileries el mettait impitoyablement a mort ceux qu'elle surprenait s'appropriant qudque chose du chateau.' Caron, op. cit., p. [ I I . Roederer told Napoleon: 'Les massacreurs ne pil leren! pas'. , Hardy, op. cit., viii. 4g--68. For a large part of what follows in this chapter � G. Rud�, 'The Motives of Popular In.mrrection in Paris during the French Revolution', Brdltlin of 1M 11tS11M' of Hi.r;lmical iWtMCh, xxvi (1953). 53-74. • Hardy, op. cit. viii. 299; An:h. Nat., KK 641, foJ. 17. • Arch. Nat., Z'· 886; Z' 469 1. • Arthur Young, too, is inclined to identify 'tiers �tat' with 'the poor' (tec, e.g., TraVtls in Franct and Italy (Everyman edition), pp. 1711-3). See also p. 43 above.
organiser autrement Ie pouvoir executif' ; and of nearly 130
ground among the menu peuplt, and we find ajourneyman gun smith, arrested at Versailles in August for speaking slightingly
•
examination that she believed its purposes were 'it faire
persons sent to the Force prison in connexion with the demon
stration, the grea� majority had been arrested for expressing
[ An:h. Nat., Y 18,&>. The examiningpolice commissioner's retort is not without interest: 'Qu'il parle souvent du mot de libert� et des droits de I'homme, ce qui annonce assez qu'il a I'esprit dispos� it. la sMition.' • See pp. 7'-7'1.. , See pp. 65-66. How far the anti-clerical movement ofthe Revolution and tbe later 'deehristianization' movement sprang from the deeper feelings and experiences of the mtlJU peuple itself, and how far they owed their origins to non-popular sources ouch as the professional classes or liberal aristocracy, are still matters for debate. The evidence in favour of the latter theory seems fairly .trong.
196 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
197
of Lafayette, supporting his claim to a fair hearing with an appeal to 'Ie droit de I'homme'. 1 In the following weeks, as the
and that even bitterly hostile witnesses felt compelled to admit that the armed battalions, far from condoning or taking part in
pillage, summarily executed those weaker brethren among
rift developed in the National Assembly between the constitu
same fate befell many who tried to pillage during the September
the Parisian menu peuple openly championed the former against
tional monarchists and the Court Party over the royal veto,
their unarmed supporters who attempted to engage in it.1 The
the latter, and we have seen that unemployed workers of the
massacres.1 In response to what motives, then, did the Parisian sans
Ecole Militaire and wage-earners and soldiers in the Place de
how far did they differ from the aims of those who promoted or
days before the actual event, to go and fetch the royal family
culottes participate in such large numbers in these events? And initiated them? In the first place, it is evident that revolutionary
crowds, far from being mere passive instruments, absorbed
and adapted the slogans and ideas of the political groups contending for power both on the eve and in the course of the
Revolution. During the rivolte nobiliaire, for example, we saw
Greve and the Palais Royal expressed their readiness, several
"
back to Paris_1 Another feature of this period was, of course, the
adoption by demonstrators and rioters of anti-clerical slogans;
and, at Versailles, the marchers treated the deputies of the
clergy with scant respect and greeted them with shouts of 'A bas la calotte!' l In the midst of the social calm of the year 1790 Parisians
how the rioting crowds of clerks and journeymen on the Pont Neufburned Lamoignon, the unpopular garde in effigy
rallied in tens of thousands, at the call ofthe National Assembly,
popularity had already switched to the Third Estate, shortly to
political ideas of the democrats and Republicans were begin
to have been incited by royalist agents) shouted the revolu
sans-culottes. The results of this indoctrination were clearly
Ie Tiers Etat!'4 The same political rallying cry of 'Tiers Etat'
called by the Cordeliers Club with a purely political object
des sceaux,
and chanted the slogans of the parltmentairts, 'A bas Lamoignon !' and 'Vive Henri IV!') Later, during the Reveillon riots, when
meet at Versailles, the demonstrators (though widely believed tionary slogans of the day: 'Vive Ie Roi ! Vive M, Necker! Vive
was voiced by crowds who burned down the bamires and sacked
the monastery of the Saint-Lazare brotherhood in July5-
though, on occasion, its meaning appears to have been trans
formed into a call to action of the poor against the rich.6 The
to the Champ de Mars to celebrate the first anniversary of the Revolution; but, before many months had passed, the social and ning to find a 'response among the more active, at least, of the
evident in the Champ de Mars demonstration of July 1 7 9 1 ,
to sign a petition questioning the king's right to continue in office after his flight to Varennes. Among the 6,000 who had time to sign the petition or scratch their crosses on it before the arrival of the National Guard, there may have been many who
new ideas of 'liberty' and 'the rights of man' were also gaining
did so without a clear understanding of its contents; yet the cook, Constance Evrard, at least, clearly stated under cross
, Sagnac, op. cit., pp. 136, 195. Sagnac quotes the MiITw;res of the royali,t Madame de Tound: 'II est remarquable que eelle annte de bandits ,'ttail interdit Ie wI aux Tuileries el mettait impitoyablement a mort ceux qu'elle surprenait s'appropriant qudque chose du chateau.' Caron, op. cit., p. [ I I . Roederer told Napoleon: 'Les massacreurs ne pil leren! pas'. , Hardy, op. cit., viii. 4g--68. For a large part of what follows in this chapter � G. Rud�, 'The Motives of Popular In.mrrection in Paris during the French Revolution', Brdltlin of 1M 11tS11M' of Hi.r;lmical iWtMCh, xxvi (1953). 53-74. • Hardy, op. cit. viii. 299; An:h. Nat., KK 641, foJ. 17. • Arch. Nat., Z'· 886; Z' 469 1. • Arthur Young, too, is inclined to identify 'tiers �tat' with 'the poor' (tec, e.g., TraVtls in Franct and Italy (Everyman edition), pp. 1711-3). See also p. 43 above.
organiser autrement Ie pouvoir executif' ; and of nearly 130
ground among the menu peuplt, and we find ajourneyman gun smith, arrested at Versailles in August for speaking slightingly
•
examination that she believed its purposes were 'it faire
persons sent to the Force prison in connexion with the demon
stration, the grea� majority had been arrested for expressing
[ An:h. Nat., Y 18,&>. The examiningpolice commissioner's retort is not without interest: 'Qu'il parle souvent du mot de libert� et des droits de I'homme, ce qui annonce assez qu'il a I'esprit dispos� it. la sMition.' • See pp. 7'-7'1.. , See pp. 65-66. How far the anti-clerical movement ofthe Revolution and tbe later 'deehristianization' movement sprang from the deeper feelings and experiences of the mtlJU peuple itself, and how far they owed their origins to non-popular sources ouch as the professional classes or liberal aristocracy, are still matters for debate. The evidence in favour of the latter theory seems fairly .trong.
LUTIONARY CRO WD ,g8 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVO
the city ad political opposition to the ���onal Assembly, ministration, or the armed nulitla.' ar, evidence It is not possible to produce the same document : 10 August rchy mona in the case of the armed overthrow of the J Mayi �ne 1793 ; 1792 and the expulsion of the Girondins � of an tlons re Insur wer � � yet this is hardly surprising, as these on not tion, execu their for dent entirely different order depen on but ds, crow ary ution revol ed) unarmed (or largely unarm the orcef d arme d iz organ ally centr ,:, the deployment of a former case by Parisian National Guard, supplemented 10 the . Yet these armed units from Marseilles, Brest, and other cities hs of mont actions, too, marked the culmination of many were ulotus saru-c political preparation in which the Parisian cam the w nt eleme � thoroughly involved. An important new utl nary war paign, initiated by the Brissotins, for a . revol � was Immensely against the crowned head� of �u,:,pe, wh�ch stages: we find g openm Its iO f popular-as was the war Itsel craftsmen, and rers, labou of lists evidence of this in the long I1 fronti the man to teered � in the autumn journeymen that volun hops and of 1 79',: and in the great numbers ofworkers 10 works . . tlques, patrw manufactories who sent their contributions, or dons s of armie the of to the Assembly for the feeding and equipment the of re captu the to 1 792.J Again, we see a curtain-raiser when , June 20 on e palac Tuileries in the mass invasion of the �Antoine man", thousands of citizens of the Faubourgs Saint nted a prese ed, unarm and d arme and Saint-Marcel, both s slogan nt curre the ed �f the shout and petition to the king of ution revol the e befor days our f only was it 'patriots' ; and Mars de mp 10 August that a vast assembly ofcitizens in the C�� prepara� demanded the king's abdication.4 The same pohtIcal • 5« pp. 86-87, 9"
• Chassin and Hennet, W YoI""",;". ..alionaux
pnuJdnJ Id Rlw/lilldl< .
b rols..,
Paris, 1899-'9(4), i. ,6-136. , ':V>3-2�, 17F-g· Th� , A. Tuetey, Ripnl11i" ,11Ihg!, vol. iv, not. 2aS-392 .II, d, PIIT1S, _.,.,.., tU I. V appeared, it is true, in March '79\1, an Adruu. U. men (the Jailer �.n a.sm� Journey and en, crafUm pers, shopkee 2.'10 about by signed and !o the agtl�t,on 1ft minority), which Wall frankly hostile to the Revolution .., 'l.'lo-' (10 MS.): Bib. Nat., 249b fols. .'I, " no. 284, C Nat., favour of war {Arch. There teems lillie dou�t Lb" 1 1 162 (printed copy with significant variations)). of 1792, though ,t autumn the afier r popula less that the waT became progressively documentary lOurcCl. would be difficult to illustrate the point adequately from • See pp. '00, '04·
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
'99
tion preceded the revolution of May-June 1 793. Already in March of that year the reports ofpolice agents revea1ed that the need for a new insurrection to purge the Convention was being openly canvassed in the clubs and markets '· in April, as we saw. �e . Jacobl.ns �ecided to give this movement a precise and . l ,e and, follo ing their lead, countless deputa· I�mtted obJec �,: � tlons �nd petlnons demandmg the expulsion of the Girondin deputJ.es preceded the actual outbreak.' Finally, in the riots of Germinal and Prairial of the Year III the crowds that burst into the Convention d�manded suppo� for the political pro g�amme of e Mountam and the release ofJacobin prisoners; ptnned to their caps and blouses they wore, side by side with the word 'bre �d', the politi�al slogan, 'The Constitution of 1 793'.1 There 1S t�er�fore httle doubt that these revolutionary �rowds enthUSiastically supported and assimilated the objects, Ideas, and slogans of the political groups in the National Assembly, Cordeliers, and Jacobin Clubs whose leadership they ,,:cknowledged and in whose interest they demonstrated, peti. tloned, or took up arms. These were the objects, ideas, and . slogans of the hberal, democratic, and republican bourgeoisie . (accord tng to the stage reached by the Revolution as it moved leftwards), which the active elements among the Parisian nunu peuple, from whom the great bulk of these insurgents and demon strators were drawn, adopted as their own, because they appeared to correspond to their own interests in the fight to destroy the old regime and to safeguard the RepUblic. Yet they cannot be regarded as the particular demands of wage-earners, small shopkeepers, and workshop masters as such.l Therefore while acknowledging, against the opinion of Taine and hi� followers, the part played by the political ideas of the leaders in stimulating �ass revolu�onary activity, we can accept this only .as a partial explanatIOn. It does little to explain such non pohtJ.cal movements as the Reveillon riots, the social unrest that
�
. ... � -
- � ,� , � . . �
' not suggested that the SdlU-cJlllII/ts-particularly the Ihopkeepers, work_ ' It IS
lhop m�lers, and �Iher small proprietors among them-had, at no Itage, any . political .deall of ,he" own. In the period June 1793-July '794 when all we have .H:e�,. luch dements were very active in the Paris Scclionl, there we:e numerous pellllons and resolutionl that expressed their particular lOCial and political claima (1«=�arkov and Soboul, Dil $alUkW/Ollell 3-2�, 17F-g· Th� , A. Tuetey, Ripnl11i" ,11Ihg!, vol. iv, not. 2aS-392 .II, d, PIIT1S, _.,.,.., tU I. V appeared, it is true, in March '79\1, an Adruu. U. men (the Jailer �.n a.sm� Journey and en, crafUm pers, shopkee 2.'10 about by signed and !o the agtl�t,on 1ft minority), which Wall frankly hostile to the Revolution .., 'l.'lo-' (10 MS.): Bib. Nat., 249b fols. .'I, " no. 284, C Nat., favour of war {Arch. There teems lillie dou�t Lb" 1 1 162 (printed copy with significant variations)). of 1792, though ,t autumn the afier r popula less that the waT became progressively documentary lOurcCl. would be difficult to illustrate the point adequately from • See pp. '00, '04·
THE MOTIVES OF REVOLUTIONARY CROWDS
'99
tion preceded the revolution of May-June 1 793. Already in March of that year the reports ofpolice agents revea1ed that the need for a new insurrection to purge the Convention was being openly canvassed in the clubs and markets '· in April, as we saw. �e . Jacobl.ns �ecided to give this movement a precise and . l ,e and, follo ing their lead, countless deputa· I�mtted obJec �,: � tlons �nd petlnons demandmg the expulsion of the Girondin deputJ.es preceded the actual outbreak.' Finally, in the riots of Germinal and Prairial of the Year III the crowds that burst into the Convention d�manded suppo� for the political pro g�amme of e Mountam and the release ofJacobin prisoners; ptnned to their caps and blouses they wore, side by side with the word 'bre �d', the politi�al slogan, 'The Constitution of 1 793'.1 There 1S t�er�fore httle doubt that these revolutionary �rowds enthUSiastically supported and assimilated the objects, Ideas, and slogans of the political groups in the National Assembly, Cordeliers, and Jacobin Clubs whose leadership they ,,:cknowledged and in whose interest they demonstrated, peti. tloned, or took up arms. These were the objects, ideas, and . slogans of the hberal, democratic, and republican bourgeoisie . (accord tng to the stage reached by the Revolution as it moved leftwards), which the active elements among the Parisian nunu peuple, from whom the great bulk of these insurgents and demon strators were drawn, adopted as their own, because they appeared to correspond to their own interests in the fight to destroy the old regime and to safeguard the RepUblic. Yet they cannot be regarded as the particular demands of wage-earners, small shopkeepers, and workshop masters as such.l Therefore while acknowledging, against the opinion of Taine and hi� followers, the part played by the political ideas of the leaders in stimulating �ass revolu�onary activity, we can accept this only .as a partial explanatIOn. It does little to explain such non pohtJ.cal movements as the Reveillon riots, the social unrest that
�
. ... � -
- � ,� , � . . �
' not suggested that the SdlU-cJlllII/ts-particularly the Ihopkeepers, work_ ' It IS
lhop m�lers, and �Iher small proprietors among them-had, at no Itage, any . political .deall of ,he" own. In the period June 1793-July '794 when all we have .H:e�,. luch dements were very active in the Paris Scclionl, there we:e numerous pellllons and resolutionl that expressed their particular lOCial and political claima (1«=�arkov and Soboul, Dil $alUkW/Ollell gl; Z'· 886.
,
•
202
THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
consumption rose from about 50 per cent. in August 1788 to . over 80 per cent. between February andJul� 1 789 [ It is, therefore, not surprising that the pnce and supply of bread should emerge so clearly from contemporary documents as a constant source of popular disquiet during the insurrec
tionary movements of 1788 and the early yean of the Revolu tion. We saw, for instance, that the movement launched by the Palau clerks in the Place Dauphine and on the Pont Neuf to celebrate the recall of the Parlemmt in August 1788 coincided with a sudden sharp rise in the price of bread-and that, a few days later, th menu ptIJple of the faubourgs :"nd markets joined
�
the riots and changed their character. Agam, the fact that the riots, after a fortnight's respite, started up again wi�h renew�d vigour may have been due as much to the further 1Ocreas� 10 the price of bread in early September as to the. enthUSiasm aroused by the dismissal of Lamoignon.1 Further mes followed in November and December and, by the time of the Reveillon riots in April, the price of the 4-lb. loaf had already, for thr�e
whole months stood at the unusually high level of 141 sow; 10 fact, as we ha e seen, it was this high cost and scarcity ofbrea that served as the prime cause of the disturbances, thoug It was not their immediate pretext.l Apart from other suppor�ng evidence, the point is underlined by a report �ent to t e king by the lieutenant of police, Thiroux e Cros�e, 10 t � Illiddle of
�
�
�
?
�
�
the riots: 'Quoique la sedition paralsse touJ�u� dl?gee cont�e Ie sr Reveillon: on demande vivement la dlmmutIon du pnx du pain.'4 Afer this temporary erup on the br�ad motive . appears almost continuously as the malO stImulus m the pr.o tracted popular movement which sprang up �t the end of May,
�
rose to a climax in the days of 12-J4July, again on 5-6 October, and did not visibly subside until the early days of November, when the first stage of the political revolution, which placed
power firmly in the hands of the constitutional monarchists, was already long completed. . . ' In the weeks preceding theJuly revolution, which culmmated in the seizure of the Bastille, Hardy vividly illustrates in his Journal the popular mood and the authorities' constant fear of an outbreak on a larger and more violent scale than that which , See Ap�ndix VII, Table . . • See pp. 42-43.
• Sec pp. 31-32; Hardy, op. gl; Z'· 886.
,
•
110+ THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD women and their spokesman, Maillard, urged the National Assembly to feed the people of Paris,1 The Champ de Mars demonstration, on t e othe: and, although widely supported by the menu peuple 10 a maJonty of
?
�
the Paris Sections, was, in many respects, the most purely
political of the great Parisian joumtts, By early November 1789 the protracted social movement of the first months of the Revolution had been brought to an end as the result of the energetic measures taken by the National
�embly and Com·
mune to supply Paris with cheap and plenuful b,read and to , curb public disorder, The particular prob ems armng from th , , collapse of the assignat and war·ume IOflauon were yet to �ome,
�
�
so it came about that the Champ de Mars demonstrauon, of July 1791 was the only one ofth� great Parisianjoumles which was not associated in any way With a popular d�mand for �he control of bread or of any other commodity of pnme n:cesslty, � conslderab e
�
The demonstration was, it is true, preceded by
wages movement, involving many thousa�ds ofJourneymen 10 , a variety of trades, and by months of agttaUon among the un· employed, threatened with starvation by the closure of the
ateliers de chariti, Yet these movements, though taken under the
c,o
protective wing of the rdeliers Club and its affiliates, can�ot be directly connected With the Champ de Mars demonst�auon itself, and the demands of these workers are not reflected 10 the cross.examination of the numerous wage·earners, shopkee�ers, and workshop masters arrested during this period in the vano� Paris Sections,: In this respect the Champ de Mars affair appears to fall outside the general pattern of social disturbance , that is here emerging, The parucular dem�nds of the commo . people are, in this case, rarely expressed 10 econonuc terms, • See Part n, Chap. v.
�
.
See Part II, Chap. VI. Despite the political importance of these Independent movements ofwage-camen-particularly thO$e of 179' and 179;4:- ey o not . appear to have played any significant part in stimulaung p�rt1c,patlon 'n the . jolllrllu of this period (unlCII, of count:, we include the worken demonstra?on at . the H6tel de Ville on 9 Thcnnidor). The economic motive most frcqumtly ,mpel· ling the wage-earncn was ofmunc the one that they Ihared with e mmu as awhole-the need for cheap and plmtiful b«ad. [For a more dewled mauon ice my article ill the BoJkti� oJlhe I.H.R. (cited n i nOle 3, p. 19Ei above), pp. 71-H·] , There was, however, the lady who, when accu.ted ofinsultin �ayetle and the National Guard, retorted thaI her aCC\lJCr would not be 10 w ll hng 10 aasun;e their defence: 'Ii Ie comparanl avail aUlant de mill que Ics aUlrcs a gagner Ie pa,n qu'il mange' (Arch. Pr8". Pol., � '53, fol. 7); and the kitchen·maid who, when
� �
S
� �
��
exam
THE MOTIVES OF REVO LUTIO NARY CROWDS
20:; Their demands or protests assum e, rather, a political form as witness the numerous insults hurled at the National Guard and the complaints against the Assem bly and citygovernment by those arrested in the course of the move ment. In a sense, there· fore, the Champ de Mars affair and the popular movement of the spring and summer of t 791 mark an important stage in the development of the Parisian sans.r:uloties as a force in the Revolu tion. With the split in the revolutionar y bou geoisie and the determined attempts of the democrats and Republicans to win a firm basis of support among the peopl e, they are beginning to play a more independent part: not only are they voicing the particular programme of the more radical section of the bourgeoisie, but they are beginning, however hesita tingly, to express their own social grievances in a political form. With the spring of t 792 the Revolution entered on a new stage which was to give a new intensity and a new direction to the popular movement. The fall in the value of the tl.fsignat had already begun to react on prices in the autumn of 1791, but it was the outbreak of war that ushered in a long period of catastrophic inflation, during which the attention of the sans culottes was almost continuously riveted to the probl em of prices, food shortage, and the compelling need to force measures of control in the price and supply of the necess ities of life on un· willing authorities. From the point ofview ofthe social historian the whole period is dominated by this preoccupation, It was only by degrees, however, that the Parisi an sans-culottes, with the assistance of the Hebertists and, even more, of the Enrages, found a programme of social demands that corresponded to their particular needs and which they were eventually to force for a brief period on theJacobin Convention in the shape of the Maximum General. In the first place their anger was directed against grocers, as it had previously been directed against bakers and millers, and found expression in attempts by revolu tionary crowds to compel provision merch ants (particularly the more substantial among them) to sell their wares at pre-Revolu tion prices. The first of these move ments-that of January February 1 792-was limited to a few north -central districts and
r
""ked to'explain her hOitility to the National Guard, said me found difficulty in buying bn:ad owing to the baken' lack of small changIITCIIT.
1'.1,000
IB
• Sec
!>ItS
q
coone
aa
•
this
dt
sec
..
months pp.
ed
O.
betw«n
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY
l li l
distributed free of charge to army units by the Ministry of War in 1793,1 served a similar purpose in the barrack�room; and we
are told that the Constitution of 1791 was read aloud and dis- cussed at meetings of outnitrs and others before its adoption by the Assembly,l
XIV F THE G E N ERATION O CTIVITY REVOLUTI ONARY A
�
�
ay we remain, to some of w ich . £ T other questions still eas 1 ry ona olu rev � wece the attem t an answer. How o w did the particular atm Ho ? tted smi tran ns and oga , d ark at t , oISm her or � � e, audacity, sphere of tension, violenc ous )oumteS elop ? How were th� va revolutionary crowds, dev Wh t we prepared and orgaruzed. : crthc Revolution in Paris r ten o ers and the crowds that . the links between the lead nt were t elT to action? To what exte s call r thei to e ons resp in . . . ' actions spontaneous? f e t popular OpiniOn It is evident, of course, tha u o re y ". , fonned the main those who as individuals ulded Y t C direct mo t, par e larg in as. cr wds-w tiona o ans h�ve ottts themselves. Some hl5t � ex e nce of the sans-cul reac� theu of gh nou we have already said c: de ied this,, but to p .. e " hav .. .... to not ts pnc rising food to economiC cnsls and to ' h Wit ed e we are mainly concer� the Oint further, Yet her a ved that the mtnU peupu den thos ideas and slogans , as we sa , ch, whi and ups gro al , assimilated from other soci them mto tical voc�bula and drew , , , both gave them a new poli on sts and poI � clans lutionary Journali action as allies of the revo con eas I e the: e olution, How wer , eracy was the reat 'ournitS of the Rev lllit re whe t, villages �t leas con e e to them? In the n largelY municauon must have bee com such ral ene almos where ns, tow ket mar and s capital oral '! a d eve in provincial rep rts dearth of newspapers,l the Art ur Young found such a alo rd Estate of 1789 were read of the dcputies of the Thi , To � a the ide outs or re squa n their constituents in the mai lCh w t Hebert's PiTt Duchtsru, w We may assume, tOO, tha
Y
l
Z
�
?
� � � rr;: 0
�
� i i � h
0rmaD}0 0
� ?
�
:
,
Yet it would be wrong to assume that the Parisian sans culottts at least had no direct access to the writings of the political
�
r::
�
�
� � �� � I�
, cy at th"IS ume sec E Champion pc:apnt(Pariilhter:a t O ; ..nd D. Momet, � '7119 l, (Paris,pp.1933), pp. 4�pp.o-�·174, J7�, 18�, I8!j-6 iN FrlJ/tU , TrlWtU A, Young 17�, pp. 83-3.j.· , G. Lefebvre, La Grand. Ptur
1 FOf" 19�1 ), coJrinl de l RI,«)/wioltjrlll'\fllisr d. .. 1
og-
lIM JlIlly, til
.
..A
FrlVlt. d'""," Ed , La «I,ulld
S ''nk/J " us 0"l·nt '
thinkers and journalists, In the capital the degree of literacy appears to have been considerably higher than in the provinces :
this is attested by both contemporary observers and police records, Restif de la Bretonne no doubt exaggerated when he wrote in 1789:
Depuis quelque temps, les ouvriers de la capitale sont devenw: intraitables parce qu'ils ont lu, dans nos livres, une verilt� trop forte pour eux : que l'ouvrier est un homme precieux,)
But the police reports of the Chatelet and the Sections on those arrested in riots in this period suggest that the great majority of the small workshop masters and tradesmen, and a large propor tion of the adult male wage-eamers-the journeymen, in particular-could at least sign their names,4 While we may perhaps take it for granted that no considerable body of sans culottes read Rousseau or any other philosopht first-hand,s there is ample evidence that some pamphleteers and political writers addressed themselves directly to them, their women-folk in cluded, This is suggested by the large number of pamphlets not only purporting to reflect the views oftheJauhourgs and markets, but written in popular language, Hebert's Pht Duchtsm is an
obvious case in point ; and it is interesting to note the remark attributed to a market-woman in a tract of 1789, Premitr dialogut of
, Thedainumber ordered by'793the(Tuetcy, Ministry was increased from 8,000 to ly as fromcopiesScplember RlpnlOirt, vol. lI, no. �'.I2'), naJional II Ilfll",", no, viii, 23 April 1791, , Reatifop.detil.,la Brelmlne, iflSl7ijlliDtu. ]tnaMJ illlinu, p. 130; uot by �Iornet, p. 426. lI V. Theandincidence of lileracy orbetweenvaried widely one typeAppend; of wage-catn« another--cvc n more one type of Satu..culDlu an d anOlher. It was considerably higher, wc should expecl, among maste" than amongjourncymen; higher amongjourneymen than mongworuhop 'general' or workersmalein manufacture; considerably higher among men than among workers workers, lowell among the many unemployed worken and women; ¥Id, of P-t':uanu who fillnl. Ihe Dltiirrs ,/will in the early of the Revolution, For a diac1.lDion of quealion Mornct, op. cit., �BI, 449. • !>IITCIIT.
1'.1,000
IB
• Sec
!>ItS
q
coone
aa
•
this
dt
sec
..
months pp.
ed
O.
betw«n
212
CRO WD E REV OL UT ION AR Y THE ANATOMY OF TH
, la halle: 'Dame! j'savons lire entre une poissarde et un fort de ch rea to orts in 179 1 made special eff j'espere !'L The democrats le pub ion : Marat's Ami du prop
the wage-earning populat kers j1 en cobblers and building wor lished letters from journeym c1asse 'Ia of ent cribing the enrolm and Louise Robert, in des May in s ietie Soc al on' in Fratern la moins eclairee de la nati ient ava lui ils s: plu nt ne lui suffisaie 179 1, wrote : 'Lesjournaux the ng amo too, e, enc evid is 'l There inspire Ie desir de s'instruire. rs Ma de mp Cha the with nexion police reports drawn up in con , tion ch suggests that a fair propor affair of the same year, whi the mcn and other workers read at least, of the active journey cook, Constance Evrard, told the revolutionary press. Thus Section the Fontaine de Crenelle the police commissioner of Des ille Cam Marat, Audouin, 'qu'elle lisait Prudhomme, cco toba a j4 ateur du Peuple' moulins et tres souvent l'Or du mi L'A of n found in possessio worker, when arrested, was from s view his ve deri med to peuplej a commercial traveller clai neyman cobbler asserted jour a and e; mm dho Pru Marat and tic through reading the democra that his opinions were formed sted arre ons pers 250 the of , that press.s It is perhaps significant l charges during this period, tica poli on ions Sect is Par in the phlets accused of distributing pam twelve were news-vendors, with case customers.6 If this is the and newspapers among such o dem the t can only assume tha the active wage-earners, we k wor ll sma the e widely among cratic press circulated far mor r thei than ate liter e were mor shop masters and tradesmen, who s. their view journeymen and often moulded the journals and pamphlets that e, efor ther ly, like s It seem the shaping popular opinion on played an important part in t, day and, on occasion at leas in main political questions of the ctly for the great revolutionary preparing such opinion dire seen the part played by the events in the capital. We have of deliers Club in the agitation democratic press and the Cor and ts chan mer nst tement agai 1 7 9 ' ; and Marat's ferocious inci y '793 no doubt contributed ruar Feb 5 eof'2 icist Publ grocers in Lt
7577, p. 16. June 1791, pp. 1-5' no. 468, 24 May 1791, p. 7; no. 487, 12 p. 376. 1791, May 10 no. xxiv, f, 'trang. d l }'I.rI. "isl. Riv.JrtUIf. xi (1934), 1-26; reprinted in Ehuus s.... /" RIlXJlwWn/rlUlf"is, (Pans, '954), pp. �7.-87. Although Lefebvre's Itudy is concerned mainly with the year • 789, his condUlio!l$ are generally applicable to the whole period 1,87"""95. I am largely indebted to him for the ideas diKuaed in the present chapter. • Ibid., p. 11711. • Iu., for example, in the early Slagel of the Champ de Mars demorutration, when IWO unknown individuals were found hiding under Ihe 'aule! de ta patrie' (Jtt p. 8t), and the 'treachery' of the Swiu guards who, On 10 August 1792, unexpeetedly opened fire on the Marseillais (see p. '04). Both n i cidenta led to paniea and provoked masucra.
218
D THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROW
nts than a grain of truth in hi� asse.rtion tha� many of the assail� Salnt 0e of hops WIne-s the lD ted of the Bastille were recnu Antoine quarter.' Certainly the marble-dealer,Josep� Cha�ot, who was injured by a falling tile during the RtvC;lllon nots, admitted being picked up by an itinerant band of noters as he sat drinking in a wine-shop; other pe�ns arrestc;d on that occ� s er chandl a sion told a similar tale.1 AndJean-Nicolas Pepm, tallow-bearer, related, in the course of a detailed �c�ount of his experiences during the July revolution, how he ��med .the insurgents on the night of the 12th near the B�n:ere Samt mg 'chez Ie m Martin, after spending the evening drinking and d F:ance'.J lle Nouve la a d'Or Sr Chevet Md de vin au Soleil s centres of obviou e mo n ev were s : Food-shops and market � ers becam,e tem pnces high and e shortag of agitation. In days � butchers , , grocers at formed that queues the in easily frayed , y, t�e ofHard ce eviden the on seen have We shops. . and bakers' 10 ances precautions taken by the Government to keep disturb lu Rev the o. check during the weeks preceding the outbreak of tion in Paris by drafting troops into the marke� and posung guards at the door of bakers' shops; and how, dunng the follow ing summer and autumn, when such measures �ere no I�n�er possible, bakers became, on more than one occ�lOn, the VlctUns of popular violence." Although there was ?o further .resort to 'Ia lanterne' after 1 789. bakers' and grocers shops conunue.d, lS as has been amply illustrated, to be common centr:s of d that turbance and starting-points for popular demonstratIons often assumed insurrectionary proportions. . . . How then from such comparatively small begmrungs 10 marke�, bak;rs', and wine-shops did gatherings of cra�men, wage-earners, and housewives devel�p int� great revoluuo�ary crowds with all the attendant mamfestatIons of fear, herOIsm, or destructive violence? Historians have shown a certain reluc tance to deal with such questions, believing that they �lo�g more particularly to the province of the sociologist or s�ecl�hst in crowd psychology.5 Yet the specialist, for lack of histoncal
day in the anti-Cirondin revolution) was abo a Sunday; 1 0 August 17�, on the other hand, was a Friday. , G. Bord, 'La Co!l$piration m�onnique de 1789·, U (A,.,.,npondtml .0 and • Arch. Nat., Y 11033, 15'01. 2.5 May ' gOO, pp. 52'-44, 7.57-fJ7. • Sec pp. 67-6g, 78. J Arch. Nat., Z' 46gJ. J See Caron, Lu M4JS4lTIS Ik s'iJnlllm, p. vi.
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY
2'9
perspective or exact documentation, may just as easily go astray, as was the case with Gustave Lebon, the author of a number of books on this subject. According to Lebon revolu tionary crowds tended to be formed of criminal elements, degenerates, and persons with destructive instincts, who re� sponded more or less passively to the call of 'leaders" -which suggests both that the author had fed on a surfeit of Taine and that his generalized conception of revolutionary crowds would be equally appropriate to all times and to all places. Georges Lefebvre, on the other hand, has argued that the revolutionary crowd is not an abstraction but a social phenomenon which, though responding to certain general laws of development, arises in particular historical circumstances and as the result of particular social pressures and ideas; so it was in the case of the French Revolution.: In this respect it is of course necessary to distinguish from the rest those occasions when crowds collected in direct response to the call of leaders-for such demonstrations, for instance, as that in the Champ de Mars on 1 7 July '791, or such organized military operations as the armed assault on the Tuileries in August 1792 and the expulsion of the Girondin deputies on 2 June 1 793. In such cases as these the participants have already been won over, both in general and in particular, to the objects ofthe demonstration, the collective mentality ofthe crowd corresponds closely to that of the groups of individuals forming it, and there is no sharp mutation from one state of mind to anotherJ-unless, of course, some new and unexpected factor intervenes to upset the balance.' A demonstration like that of 20 June 1792 belongs to a somewhat different category: on this occasion, the break-through into the Tuileries
I G. Lebon, 1.G Rivolwu. fiattftU-u It III psydtoiogU iUs r/DD/uJUms (Paris, '912), pp. 55-fJ., 6g-g3· By the same author: pqdtolQtie iUs/QrJn (Paria, .8g5). • G. Lefebvn:, 'Foulet �volutionnairea', AJI>I. "isl. Riv.JrtUIf. xi (1934), 1-26; reprinted in Ehuus s.... /" RIlXJlwWn/rlUlf"is, (Pans, '954), pp. �7.-87. Although Lefebvre's Itudy is concerned mainly with the year • 789, his condUlio!l$ are generally applicable to the whole period 1,87"""95. I am largely indebted to him for the ideas diKuaed in the present chapter. • Ibid., p. 11711. • Iu., for example, in the early Slagel of the Champ de Mars demorutration, when IWO unknown individuals were found hiding under Ihe 'aule! de ta patrie' (Jtt p. 8t), and the 'treachery' of the Swiu guards who, On 10 August 1792, unexpeetedly opened fire on the Marseillais (see p. '04). Both n i cidenta led to paniea and provoked masucra.
�20
CROW D THE ANATOMY OF THE REVO LUTIO NARY
transformed a (which may have been purely spontaneous� acknowledg�d peaceful procession of citizens, headed by thetr to the authonty leaders, into a riotous and spontaneous challenge of the king in person.1 on that It is in fact this element of mutauon or transformatJ ' such ormf l typica most marks the rev lutionary crowd in its the of stages g openin the in tly as it appeared most frequen the and Guard al Nation the of n Revolution I before the creatio the challenge Sections h d provided a framework �ithin which. zed. We saw, orgam aucally system more be to authority might ons of the jubilati s harmles less or more the that le, for examp were trans� 1788 August in ymen journe Cite and clerks Palais entry of formed into riots of insurrectionary proportions by the and �arkets; the small masters and journeymen of the . . Insidious the by about t and this transformation was not brough believe). agitation of leaders (as Taine or Lebon would have us in the rise sudden the of er consum but by the effect on the small in place took tion m transfor abrupt such � price of bread.l No were causes utory contnb whose riots, n Revcillo the of the course their already in being after Rev-eillon and Hanriot had made ed offending speeches on 23 April. But nevertheless they develop and ps from murmuring groups in wine�shops and worksho into marching bands parading through adjoining djstric� . the m bulletsto lStance r orgies of destruction-and heroic � the here 28th: the of mght the on Faubourg Saint�Antoine m�ch so not d develope tion insurrec the of r tempo and characte through the intervention of external factors as by the 5welhng of the numbers of demonstrators by recruitment and the pre •
•
�
:
faubourgs
vailing atmosphere of nervous excitement engendered by the approach of the meeting of the Sta�es General.4 . tnd of transformatJon are The classic examples of thiS k afforded by the two great Parisian insurrections of the summer •
and autumn of 1789. In the first a more or less peacefully disposed Sunday crowd of strollers in the Palais Royal was g�l� vanized into revolutionary vigour by the news of Necker's dIS missal and the call to arms issued by orators of the entourage of the Duke of Orleans. From this followed a sequence of events that could not possibly have been planned or foreseen in detail , Set: p. 1 00. S See PP. 31-32.
I
Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 279. .. Set: pp. 34-36.
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY �UI
by even the most astute and determined ofthe court's opponents:
the parades on the boulevards with the busts ofNecker and the
Duke of Orleans; the assaults on the
barrieres and the Saint
Lazare monastery; the search for arms in gunsmiths' shops, re
ligious houses, and arsenals; the massive demonstrations outside the Hotel de Ville, where the new city government was in the
process of formation ; the storming of the Invalides in search of
weapons to arm the newly created
mili,e bourgtoise; and finally
(partly planned, but mainly the outcome of a whole series of
fortuitous events) the frontal assault on the Bastille and the
murders of de Launay and de FlesseUes.1 In October we have a
similar pattern of growth and development, though the final
stages of the insurrection bear the mark of a more conscious political direction. Certainly, to the majority of the housewives
and market-women demonstrating for cheaper and more plentiful bread in the early morning of 5 October, as to the casual obselVer, the opening shots of the uprising must have
seemed no more than a continuation of a whole series of similar
demonstrations during September. Even the mass invasion of the Hotel de Ville was but a repetition on a larger and more violent scale of similar forms of protest in preceding weeks. Yet
the diversion of the women to Versailles (partly the outcome of
weeks ofagitation by the 'patriots' and partly ofthe intervention
of Maillard and his gave an entirely new, political content to their demonstration. From this point,
volontaires de la Bastille)
although still professing mainly economic aims, it merged with
the political insurrection launched by the 'patriots' and sup ported by the marching contingents of the Parisian National Guard.l We have seen that the transformation in the nature and
activities of revolutionary crowds may result from the interven
tion of widely varying factors. Leaders are undoubtedly an important element, though they do not play the outstanding
part assigned to them by Taine and Gustave Lebon; we shall return to them later. But one factor should be noted here, though it is by no means peculiar to the events of the French Revolution and may be, in fact, one of the most constant elements contributing to certain states of collective mentality at all times and in all places. This is the element of panic�fear, �
See pp. 7 3 ft'.
�20
CROW D THE ANATOMY OF THE REVO LUTIO NARY
transformed a (which may have been purely spontaneous� acknowledg�d peaceful procession of citizens, headed by thetr to the authonty leaders, into a riotous and spontaneous challenge of the king in person.1 on that It is in fact this element of mutauon or transformatJ ' such ormf l typica most marks the rev lutionary crowd in its the of stages g openin the in tly as it appeared most frequen the and Guard al Nation the of n Revolution I before the creatio the challenge Sections h d provided a framework �ithin which. zed. We saw, orgam aucally system more be to authority might ons of the jubilati s harmles less or more the that le, for examp were trans� 1788 August in ymen journe Cite and clerks Palais entry of formed into riots of insurrectionary proportions by the and �arkets; the small masters and journeymen of the . . Insidious the by about t and this transformation was not brough believe). agitation of leaders (as Taine or Lebon would have us in the rise sudden the of er consum but by the effect on the small in place took tion m transfor abrupt such � price of bread.l No were causes utory contnb whose riots, n Revcillo the of the course their already in being after Rev-eillon and Hanriot had made ed offending speeches on 23 April. But nevertheless they develop and ps from murmuring groups in wine�shops and worksho into marching bands parading through adjoining djstric� . the m bulletsto lStance r orgies of destruction-and heroic � the here 28th: the of mght the on Faubourg Saint�Antoine m�ch so not d develope tion insurrec the of r tempo and characte through the intervention of external factors as by the 5welhng of the numbers of demonstrators by recruitment and the pre •
•
�
:
faubourgs
vailing atmosphere of nervous excitement engendered by the approach of the meeting of the Sta�es General.4 . tnd of transformatJon are The classic examples of thiS k afforded by the two great Parisian insurrections of the summer •
and autumn of 1789. In the first a more or less peacefully disposed Sunday crowd of strollers in the Palais Royal was g�l� vanized into revolutionary vigour by the news of Necker's dIS missal and the call to arms issued by orators of the entourage of the Duke of Orleans. From this followed a sequence of events that could not possibly have been planned or foreseen in detail , Set: p. 1 00. S See PP. 31-32.
I
Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 279. .. Set: pp. 34-36.
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY �UI
by even the most astute and determined ofthe court's opponents:
the parades on the boulevards with the busts ofNecker and the
Duke of Orleans; the assaults on the
barrieres and the Saint
Lazare monastery; the search for arms in gunsmiths' shops, re
ligious houses, and arsenals; the massive demonstrations outside the Hotel de Ville, where the new city government was in the
process of formation ; the storming of the Invalides in search of
weapons to arm the newly created
mili,e bourgtoise; and finally
(partly planned, but mainly the outcome of a whole series of
fortuitous events) the frontal assault on the Bastille and the
murders of de Launay and de FlesseUes.1 In October we have a
similar pattern of growth and development, though the final
stages of the insurrection bear the mark of a more conscious political direction. Certainly, to the majority of the housewives
and market-women demonstrating for cheaper and more plentiful bread in the early morning of 5 October, as to the casual obselVer, the opening shots of the uprising must have
seemed no more than a continuation of a whole series of similar
demonstrations during September. Even the mass invasion of the Hotel de Ville was but a repetition on a larger and more violent scale of similar forms of protest in preceding weeks. Yet
the diversion of the women to Versailles (partly the outcome of
weeks ofagitation by the 'patriots' and partly ofthe intervention
of Maillard and his gave an entirely new, political content to their demonstration. From this point,
volontaires de la Bastille)
although still professing mainly economic aims, it merged with
the political insurrection launched by the 'patriots' and sup ported by the marching contingents of the Parisian National Guard.l We have seen that the transformation in the nature and
activities of revolutionary crowds may result from the interven
tion of widely varying factors. Leaders are undoubtedly an important element, though they do not play the outstanding
part assigned to them by Taine and Gustave Lebon; we shall return to them later. But one factor should be noted here, though it is by no means peculiar to the events of the French Revolution and may be, in fact, one of the most constant elements contributing to certain states of collective mentality at all times and in all places. This is the element of panic�fear, �
See pp. 7 3 ft'.
2��
T H E ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
expression, however, was the panic that seized large parts of the
propagated by rumour-particularly liable to develop where . communications are scaree and news 18 slow and hard to come by. Whatever its immediate origins in other circunutances,
countryside and affected Paris itself in the summer of 178g-- the episode known to historians as 'la Grande Peur'. It had its
here it arose from the threat, real or imaginary, to three matters ofvital moment-to property, life, and the means of subsistence.
arising from the economic crisis of 1787-9, with the widespread
In various forms we find such panics arising intermittently during the revolutionary years-both in towns and country side-and becoming more frequent with the outbreak of war in April 1792. The latter years of the old regime were haunt� by the ptuk dt famine, according to which the king and .his
ministers were credited with the deliberate intention of seeking to starve the people by creating an artificial scarcity of bread.
A similar notion gained credence-though this time associated with Turgol and not with the king-at the time ofthe grain ri� ts
origins in the combination ofrural unemployment and vagrancy. belief that the privileged orders were about to shatter the hopes and illusions aroused by the summoning of the States General. Thus the vagrants of the countryside-the errants or brigands were seen as the agents of a complot aristocratique, whose assault on small rural properties was hourly expected and aroused widespread panic. In the villages, where the peasants armed to meet a danger that proved illusory, their defensive units soon transformed themselves into aggressive bands that fired chdteaux and destroyed manorial rolls.' In Paris, which felt its back wash, the presence of several thousands of rural unemployed,
tence.1 During the Revolution, the new authorities, and some times millers and bakers, were cparged with similar designs : we
many of them herded into the ateliers de chariti on the hill of
see it in the fermentation in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in the
terrors. This was, of course, in part the background to the
of 1 775, and probably contributed to their scope and penlS
Montmartre, while others roamed the streets, inspired similar
weeks following the Reveillon riots, in the persistent outcries
creation of the Parisian milice bourgeoise, set up to meet the
against accapareurs, in the violent assaults on millers and bakers and on Chatel, mayor's lieutenant of Saint-Derus; and the
double danger of an attack on property by the dreaded gens sans
notion is almost continuously present, though diverted tempo rarily by the 'patriots', in the insurrection of 5-6 October. It reappears in the invasions of grocers' shops in 1792 and 1793; again in Prairial and on the eve ofVendemiaire; and the R.evo lutionary Government of the Year II was able to turn It to
at Versailles : Hardy echoes these terrors in his relation of events on the morrow of the fall of the Bastille.1 The theme recurs in
aveu and a military coup against the capital by the Court Party
the spring of 1791 and, particularly. in the weeks following the king's flight to Varennes: to the Parisian municipal authorities and the majority in the Constituent Assembly, the unemployed,
good advantage in its indictment of Hebert and his associates
soon to be finally disbanded from the ateliers de chante, seemed
who, in the spring of 1794, were charged, along with other crimes, with the design of creating disorders in order to starve
the actual or potential agenu of the imigris at Coblenz-'ces gens soudoyes par les seditieux·. as I.e Babillard called them.3 Some democrats inclined to this view : the radical journalist
the capital of supplies.1 The panic-fear of an attack on property, another recurrent theme, particularly affected the bourgeoisie, substantial farmers,
•
THE GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY �23
1.oustalot equated the 'proIetaires' with 'tollS les citoyens susceptibles d'etre facilement corrompus'; and even Maral, for
and peasant proprietors, but it also vitally concerned the small
all his deep compassion for the poor, feared that the inmates of
property-owners among the sans-culottes. We see it graphicall� illustrated in the constant repetition of the scare of 'Ia 10l agraire', used with telling effect to weaken the resolve of
the public workshops might become the ready tools of counter-
Jacobin and other bourgeois democrats, who might threaten to effect even a partial distribution of property. Its most famous • Arch. Nat., W 76, 78; Tuetey, Ri�loiTl, vol. xi, nos. '-'71.
, See pp. 23-24.
, G. Lcl'ebvn:, lA Cr/llllU p,,,, a, 178g. • 'Le complot infemalqui avail Cxisl� de rai� cntrer, dam la nuil du 14 au '5, 30.0(10 hommsl: an II', Puis tI fINl.-F,lllln, l • R. C. Cobb, 'Le Complot miitaire vii (1956), lilli-SO. , Sec pp. t 7o-� above. The panie or the property-ownen tngendered, in turn, a panie among the prison population, who feam! a repetition ofScptcmUcr 179� (let: p. 173). 7 Sec p. 219. n. 4, above. • Sec pp. 55-56.
THE GENERAT ION OF REVOLUT IONARY ACTIVITY �1I 5
�
But t ese panics were momentary and, though affecting the behaVIour of the besiegers and their supporters, did little to alter t e �ourse of events. On a far greater scale and more . drastiC m It� consequenc was the panic that developed in the � days followmg the expulSion of Louis XVI from the Tuileries when the departure of the volunteers for the frontiers w
�
�
ac�o�panied by the rumour that the inmates ofthe prisons were walung to break loose and to slaughter the women children ' , and aged : thus was created the atmosphere of mass hysteria that led to the September massacres,l Such defensive reactions were typical of the response of sans �lotte:, small proprietors, and even bourgeois, to many of the SituatIOns that developed on the eve and in the course of the French Revolution. It is the failure to recognize this fact that has led so many historians and writers from Burke onwards to represent the Revolution as a sort of unbroken chain ofinnova tions or � the systematic unfolding of the long-conceived plans ofthe phllosophes by the devotees of 'political messianism'.: Quite apart from its other fallacies such a conception once more
?
reduces t e role of the sans-culoues to that of passive instruments --:-unless It. can be shown, ofcourse, that they, too, were imbued with a deSire for 'total renovation'. The opposite is, indeed, the case. At every important stage of the Revolution the sans
culottes intervened, not to renovate society or to remodel it after a new patter�, but to reclaim traditional rights and to uphold s�andards v.:h �ch they believed to be imperilled by the innova
bons of numsters, capitalists, speculators, agricultural 'im provers', or city authorities. This defensive reaction to events is a characteristic feature of each one ofthe greatjournies that led up to or marked the progress of the Revolution. The clerks and journeymen who rioted in August-October 1 788 hailed Henri IV and acclaimed the Par/tment as the custodian of 'ancient li erties· against the innovations of the king's ministers. The . . Reveillon nots arose as a defensive action by Saint-Antoine
�
, Sec pp. t08-IO.
. ' �, e.g., J. L. T�lm�n, The Ori,itU of ToIJJi/Mitut lJrmDao.q (London, 19511). to wh ch the Re\ oluuon IS repr�nted
I as lhe iogieal outcome of the thought of ' ROllSSCa1;l Mablr, Mordly, &c., and the thought and deed. of their disciples ' (RobCJpterre, S:unt-Jwt, and olhen)_men 'impelled by a revolutionary impetw of total renovauon, and by lhe idea of a lOCiecy rec:orutrueted ddiberately wilh a view to a logical and final pamm' (po 63).
��4 THE ANATOMY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY CROWD
revolution. I On the eve of the demonstration of July 1791 there was a report of a plot to abduct the royal family and to set fire to the capital with the aid of 40,000 men mainly recruited from the unemployed,l and it was widely believed that the poor would stage a spectacular revenge on the propertied classes for
the 'massacre' of the Champ de Mars.J Such fears might arouse a militant response both among revolutionary democrats and among the conservative elements of the western districts. We find examples of the former tendency in the frequent paniC!! stirred up by rumours of imminent prison outbreaks-the various complols des primns-and the lesser-known episode of the
of the spring of 1 794.4 We have seen a classic example of the second in the panic that swept the Paris Sections on the eve of Vendemiaire, when shopkeepers, civil servants,
complot militaire
and proprietors sprang to arms in order to defend their proper ties and lives against the dreaded terrorists or buoeurs de sang, who were presumed to be letting loose on them the familiar
brigands
and scum of the prison population. In this case, of
course, it was the royalists who turned the panic to their ad vantage by converting it into an anned rebellion against the Convention.5 The third type of panic-arising from a threat to life-is, of course, closely related to the last, and sometimes, as we have seen, they appear together. We saw it in the siege of the Bastille, when de Launay's folly in opening fire on the assembled crowds led to the cry of treachery and the massacre of the Gover nor and a number of his garrison.' An almost identical situa
tion arose during the assault on the T�ileries in August 1792.7
' Jaura, HiJwi'f $l)CiaJisu, iii. 366; L'A.mi Ju/JIupu, no. 4211, 7 April '791, p. 6. There il eertainly ample evidence that attempts were made by counter.revolu tionaria in thoe early yean to stir up diseonlent-with the Revolution and the new autho.ritia-amng the wage-eamcn of lhe fo.ul.tturls and. particularly, among the unemployed in the public worluhops; but, allhough taken ICriowly by the authorities and the democrats, they met with surprisingly little lueeos. (Sec E. Tarl�, 'La Cluse ouvri�re et Ie parti eontre.r4!voh.tionnaire SOul la Con· Itituante', Lo. Rivolutitmfill1l(o.iu, lvii (1909), 304-26, 38S-404; and my PaliJilUl W.,f-£o.mm, i. �60-9.) • Areh. Nat., DXXIX' 33, 00. 3¥'. rot 26. , Ibid., no. 347, fols. 9-to. de vent:: 46. ObiervalOire 47. Jardin del Plantes .f8. Gobelins 39.
40. 41. 42. 43.
TOlals
Wagf-unorrS iff 179"
_On,
EmpJ..�tl ,as 2,310 2,207 ' ,'" 1,061 1,'39 2,'36 1,'33 1,6g5 ."
-,
No. oj "
' .. '"
8;
,,8 " '"
55 66 ,8
],776 62,743 (41 Sections)
'Ik,w,,'
ntiuv
'79"
i.
" goo ',000
2,100 1,551 2,100 "� 2,762 - ,,... 2,178 1,200
P...-. Jncsity PopuWiort: ill
,,...
10,878 21,516 16,600 17,600 '7,000 140490 112,645 19.907 16,000 12,741
,,,,'
12,55-4 21,&>1 14,.fOG 16,7'" 17,633 12,394 24,977 '3,193 15,185 1 1 ,775
.---
82,270 6]5,504 636,772
,800 :
iM4bs.
ll i
"' ,''1. _Ins' 86
" . •
'75 .,
" " , ,,, "
...
"
..
I Names of Sc:ctiolll as in 1790"'1. (For later changes Ice Appendix I.) • J.'rom F. Braesch, 'Un Euai de natillique de la population ou"ri�re de Paris ven
1791', La Rlv. ftO"f. lxiii (July-Dee. 1912), 289-321. For a dilCws;on of the gaps ll i M, B,..esch'l ligures see my Parisia" Wagf-EarlllTs, i. 46-5 1 . 1 From E. Charavay, Alumbll� oIode,au.u Paris (3 VOII., pam., ,8g0-S), vol. ii, pp. \/-vii. • From N, Kamev, La Dnui/l .u /4 population .us dill""II" udWtu til Paris /JtftdtuIt In JU""'�lion, pp. 14-15. I Arch. Nat., F' 3688\ doss. 1 (Jaouary 179S). , Kareiev, loe. cit.
,,,
APPENDIX I I
APPENDIX I I The PopuilJtion :: 46. ObiervalOire 47. Jardin del Plantes .f8. Gobelins 39.
40. 41. 42. 43.
TOlals
Wagf-unorrS iff 179"
_On,
EmpJ..�tl ,as 2,310 2,207 ' ,'" 1,061 1,'39 2,'36 1,'33 1,6g5 ."
-,
No. oj "
' .. '"
8;
,,8 " '"
55 66 ,8
],776 62,743 (41 Sections)
'Ik,w,,'
ntiuv
'79"
i.
" goo ',000
2,100 1,551 2,100 "� 2,762 - ,,... 2,178 1,200
P...-. Jncsity PopuWiort: ill
,,...
10,878 21,516 16,600 17,600 '7,000 140490 112,645 19.907 16,000 12,741
,,,,'
12,55-4 21,&>1 14,.fOG 16,7'" 17,633 12,394 24,977 '3,193 15,185 1 1 ,775
.---
82,270 6]5,504 636,772
,800 :
iM4bs.
ll i
"' ,''1. _Ins' 86
" . •
'75 .,
" " , ,,, "
...
"
..
I Names of Sc:ctiolll as in 1790"'1. (For later changes Ice Appendix I.) • J.'rom F. Braesch, 'Un Euai de natillique de la population ou"ri�re de Paris ven
1791', La Rlv. ftO"f. lxiii (July-Dee. 1912), 289-321. For a dilCws;on of the gaps ll i M, B,..esch'l ligures see my Parisia" Wagf-EarlllTs, i. 46-5 1 . 1 From E. Charavay, Alumbll� oIode,au.u Paris (3 VOII., pam., ,8g0-S), vol. ii, pp. \/-vii. • From N, Kamev, La Dnui/l .u /4 population .us dill""II" udWtu til Paris /JtftdtuIt In JU""'�lion, pp. 14-15. I Arch. Nat., F' 3688\ doss. 1 (Jaouary 179S). , Kareiev, loe. cit.
,.J
APPENDIX III 40. Quatre Nations ·s"".... .
Paris Sections and Insurgents tif q87-95
(Numben arrated, killed, wounded, or participants injoumkf)
',J
C�) ,,110 C,)
RlotiJ.
0 $ame Henri IV Invalida Funtaine de Grcndle .
.
•
�
Ri." 8..,,11< (JO, ,,#]4 � U,,/JI '111') ...
.. .. ..
,
..
,
..
. .
, ,
..
.. .. ..
• • ,
.. .. • ..
.
.
,
, ..
,
, ,
.. .. .. .. . .
.
,
..
•
,
..
, " "
.. .. ..
.. ,
, ,
.. ..
6 ,
,
,
.
.
,
..
,
6
,
,
,
.. ..
•
5 .
, ,
5
,
,
8
,
,
..
,
5
,
,
,
•
,
5
, , , , , ,
6
5' '5
,
6
5
,
, , ,
,6
,
• 5
,
'7
•
,
,. , , ,
,8 '7
5 ,
..
,
7
5
•
..
,
5
"
,
,
,
, -,
'm
.
, .
..
..
, " ,,, , ,, ,
,�
M.�
,
•
•
C.o�
, ,
,
,
,,,
,
8
•
.
..
,
•
. .
5 •
'.
,
.
, ,
'"
,
,
,
.
.
,
A.,.""
,�
•
,
,
,
,
I.
,
,
. ..
..
,
,
,
..
.. .. ,
..
.
,
.. .. .. .. ..
.
..
,
..
.
M••
',J
,
..
, ,
5
,
,
•
, ,
,
,
..
.. , ,
,
.. ..
.. ..
.. ..
,
,
..
,
.. .. .. .. ..
,
.. .. ,
..
..
J_
68
660
..
",
,OJ
I'r.rn.J .;.u, ,.. '.0
,,-
",
"
..
.. ..
,
•
,
5 ,
33' 59 5"
,
6 6
" , .,
" 5
..
, ,
" ,
.. .. .
.
1,400
.. .. ..
' ..
•...38
• ..
, ,
6
" .
..
" ,
..
700.
',8 "
1,3.'iU
'!)O.
.
5
8"
66, 97' :1.946 2,39 /,451
,
"
5
, " ,
, ,
..
,
, 5
..
,
..
,
..
Names orSectionl are as in '790-1. For later changes see Appendix 1. ,
,
'oJ
,
,
,
,
.. .. .. .. .. .. .
.
. .
. .
.. .. ..
,
.
.
..
,
.. .. ..
,
..
,
.
.
,
.. ..
6 ,
• .. .. .. ..
Th
(%1
33
'5
60
?
9
23 29 ?
62 ?
'3 ?
'3
,
,. 3'
80
3
"
7
" ,6
"
"
Vendbniaire
Year IV
b'
"'P....... _......... �...
,
..
B�) r.;;".',,!:..,. 1 .... �_t u.
--!!L..� 37' 80
31
_
66 ?
6, 7°
10 ?
"
"
'7
.,
7°
,�
For Com Riots of 1775 see G . Rud�, 'La Taulion popula.ire de mai dam la region parisienne', A"". hUt. rllI.filUlf., 1956, p. 239(Other sourCfldix,," Ill-IV.]
1775 & Pari. et
, In the case of those relidf;Jlt n i Paris it _ ¢ per cmt.
1
0'
b
(. ,
P ...... .. .
,....
..... ......
LardU-. ... medicine)
."'..
.. ..
..
w,
.......
�' '1::e. T..., . . Trades (om-IL) �.
•• .. ..
Ann "
•
II)
•
poIi«. N.,..,..al C'd: (0) 0fS«t0r,. N.CO.• ou.....
''''''
..
" (d)
(.,
RIMiI-
.,.., .. 10 Appod... Ill. '
Arc". .
"
.�
:t
..
, I,)
..
• •
•
sil)' ..
.. • &e
4 (.)
.
.
..
;i,)
"
.. ..
b.) n t")
1'1' N.,., Z" 8861 Y ,06f� 4 Arch N.\., Z· ,.&p,; Y '4'40,
s-,,"
()
APPENDIX IV
("
w·
,....
4-
"" ..
,I,) .. ..
.. ..
,
.. ..
....�
..
10(') . .
..
�(,) •
..
(0)
'"
• M••
'-' ..'
"'•
,
.. ..
,
.. ..
I •
..
ii.) ..
..
37(,,) 6h (lf'.l) • ..a ( ..8) "3 {�1) "
..
CO,
(0'
J::J,.
c.-, I'r.tn.l .... .� ,,m " ._, .. ..
.. .. ,'i,) ..
..
• •
•
,
, (0)
.. •
0 ..
•
.
APPENDIX V
.
Parisian Insurgents and Rioters of 1775-95 Age, leX, literacy, ongu"
' I')
,
.. ..
(., No.
..
, . iotsof'775 -C ::� ._ _ 139 I. ComR
b'
(0'
"'-
,to. _ _
:·'-"·"'-:'·: I_'·"'-I '· � 102 I'_"'"" 18 �W"'_"'· I 30
•
�B(") tlI6(4' 10(.) ,
(.,
....lkl. Wq._ U..._
previous convie:Uoru, .!te:.
..
2. Riots of 1787-8 . 3. R�vCllon Riots . 4. BIUT;;m
,o6tv; An::h. 5&_ et Loire, B 70). Sou.- eo. noo. (,)-(.), bl-{,o)
5. Saint·Lazare affair
6. Bastille 7. Champ de Mars 9. Gro«ry Riots or 1792-3 .
8. 10 August t792 .
II.
10. Prainal Year III
55 68 77
28 52 26
? 8 ?
37 662
'49 ".
33
..
248 u3 58 tB6
,.
" ,6
'4
I I
$mur:n:
3'
14
,,>
(%1
33
'5
60
?
9
23 29 ?
62 ?
'3 ?
'3
,
,. 3'
80
3
"
7
" ,6
"
"
Vendbniaire
Year IV
b'
"'P....... _......... �...
,
..
B�) r.;;".',,!:..,. 1 .... �_t u.
--!!L..� 37' 80
31
_
66 ?
6, 7°
10 ?
"
"
'7
.,
7°
,�
For Com Riots of 1775 see G . Rud�, 'La Taulion popula.ire de mai dam la region parisienne', A"". hUt. rllI.filUlf., 1956, p. 239(Other sourCfldix,," Ill-IV.]
1775 & Pari. et
, In the case of those relidf;Jlt n i Paris it _ ¢ per cmt.
1
0'
APPENDIX VI
A P PENDIX VII
The Revolutionary Cakndar'
Pn'ces and Wages in Paris, IJ89-93
I� H I� ��� I i
R� . .. . " , .. . " , ,, , ., , ., ' " ". .. • " • " , ., • .. , ., , " , ., , ., • .. .. .. " " " .. . . .. .. .. ., .. . , .. · , " ., .. ., .... ,. . .
. ..
..
. .,
. . " , ,, , ,,
p' ' "
•
•
� . .. · ..
' " . .. , .. , .. ' "
• ••
30 10 " " • " • ".
, ..
.g
" ., .. " ., ., ., ••
.. " .. ..
•
.1
..
, ., • .. , " , ., , " , .,
•
.. " " ., •• .. .. .. .. . , " "
•1
. . . . . , '
•
•
, . "
.
..
, " • .. , " , ., , " •
•• • .. .. .. " .. " ., . , .. . .
••
" .. "
.. ., ..
" .. " .. ., .. " " "
•• • • •1
.. " .. " .. ,. .. ,. .. ,.
..
..
., ..
�
. ..
. ..
, .
. ' , •• . ., , ,. .. " • .. • ., , .. • " , ., , ., , •• , " • .. .. " " .. . . .. . . .. .. .. .. .. ., " " •• •• .. ., ,.
., .. "
� 1. ,
' "
::: .;: . ., .. .. .,
.. , .. . .. , " , ,, , " ' ., , .. ..
" 30 "
.. .. oO
., ., •
•
.. " • .. , .. • ., , " , •• , •• , .. • " . . .. " ., " .. .. " .. .. .. . , ., •• " .. ., ,.
,.
•
, •
, , , ,
" •
! I "i � �, d �
t
j' � .. , .,
• ••
•
. , , . , .. " " " .. ., ., " .,
••
. .. " . . .. .. " . . .. .. .. ., .. ., " .
., .. ., .. .. ,. " •
•
, •
, , , , , .. " .. " .. ., ., .,
. .. • .. .. ..
, . , ' , ' . .. " " " .. .. ., " ., ., .. .. .. " .. .. ., .,
.. " ,, " ., .. ,.
• •
, •
, , , , , ..
"
..
..
.. .. ., •• .1 •• " • " ., 1 " . 1 .. ,. " ,. ••
n 11
. .. . .. , .. . ., . .. ' " , ,, ' " . ., .... " ,. " " ., • .. • ., , ., • " , ., , ., , .. , .. , .. .. .. " .. " .. .. ., .. " ., ., ., .. . , ,. .,
. " . .. , .. . .. , .. ' " , .. . .. . "
1 1 �tt H� !H
•
. . , . , '
. "
. .,
' oO
., " ., ., .. " .. .. .. .. .. "
•
, , , ,
•
.. " " .. ••
30 '3 3'
., ., .,
••
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. "
.. .1 . , .1 .. . , .. ,. .1 ,.
•
"
. ., • ., , " . .. , .. ---
p. ' "
t o 28 10 .8 10 " .g " 2g " I, I, ., " • " •• • .. • '4 . ., • ., , ,
30
., " .. " ..
. " .. , .. .. . . ., ' " , ..
, ., ., , ., , " , .. I " • .. .. .. " .. " .. . , oO .. " . , ., . , .. . , ,.
.8 '7 'V
• •
,. "
, •
, , ,
• ,
.. "
" .,
••
[Reproduced
TADLE I ,
from The £CoMmie History Rnriew, PP· 248-55]
vol. vi,
1954>
no.
3.
Percentage of ineome spent on bread by PariJian workers in 17/Jg
...
"-"" Labour... in �'. f.o.clOo'y
Builckt', labourer Journeyman muon loum 117, 34, 45. 61. 73, 17S and n. 1, 180. Aritloeratic revolt, 1tt ,1wlU Mbililli,t. Arm ,/Nlll1ilnwsirt, IlI7, 13l1, 154, 156, lIOO. lI30. Artoia, Comte d', 13, 47,59. Assi,MU. 17 n. 4, gfi and n. I, IllS. 130. 1311. 1-«. 1611. 193. 1104, lI07. Alllitn M ,1uuUJ. 19. 64. 811-3, 181, 188, 1911, :HI4. 11113· Audouin, Pierre-Jean (journalist), 87,
IIll1.
Augeart, Farmer General, 611. Auger and Monnery (dyers), 97, 101. Aulard. Alphonse. 3, 4, �" 8.
Babeuf, Gracchus, 147. Bailly, jean.Sylvain, 59, 61. 69, 711, 74, 78. 8l1, ag, 94, 19'2. Balire de Vieuuc, Bertrand, 118, 128 n. I, 1311, 136, 140. 1 50. Barnave, Pierre.Joseph. 511 and n. 2, 611, 63, ']0, 72, 1110, 1113, 1132. Barru, Paul.jean, 1 7Z-3. 173 n. 2, 175· B/JITihu (customs polo"'). 10-11, 14, 16, liS, 48. 49 n. 1. 64> 82, 1103, 2170 I« aUt. Revolut ionary 'days': B/I"
ribu.
II, 3. 10. I I, I II n. 7. 14. IS, 19 n. 8, 26 and n. II, 117. 35, 53 If., 64, 73, 81, 811, 83, 104. 108, lilli, 176; I« IJlu Revolutkm�· 'days' ; &ulilh. Bc:aurepaire, Chevalier de, (4, 11113 n. II. Bernard, ab�, 70. 71. Bc:rlhier de Sauvigny, 56, 1103, !t27· Bo:senval, Marquis de, 191�, 194· Billaud.Yarenne, jean.Nicolas, 1118. .",. Biron, Man!chal de, 311. Blanc, Louis, 3. 4. BoiSiSYJd'Anglas, Fran�ois-Antoine, 149. Bonaparle. Napol�n, 173 and n. II, 177, Igfi n. II.
Bastille, I,
Bord. GUitave, 57 n. 5, 1117-18. BoUJobolle, Pierre, 155 n. I. Bourdnn, Uonard, 150. &.u,His, Mr,toisW, 9, III, 14, 24, 27, 118, SO, 33. 34, ,57, 61, 62, 63, 50, 83.
86. 90, 117, 138. 143, 1s8-9. 160. 163. 166,1']0, 17,5--6, 177. 178, 180-1, 1st. 186, 1100, 1105, 11l1li, 11119, 1132, 1135· BfllC:K:h. F., 17. Brienne. Lomtnie de, 2S--::Z9. 30, 31. BriMOt de Warville,Jacqua-Pierre, 95, 1'9, 178 n. I, 19B. Brunswick, !hike of, 103, log, 112. Buchez and Roux, go. Buirelle-Yerri�rCl, 81, 91. Burke, Edmund, I. II, 4, 11115. BU1.ot, Fran�oia-NicolaJ, 1110. Cahen, L., III. C4hitrs th doli/lTlUS, 112 n. 1 , 46, 54, 70. Calonne, C.-A. de, I I , 28, 30. Calvet, Henri, 1114. Carlyle, Thorn.., II, 4. CarnOI, ware, IIiB n. I . Caron, Pierre, 8, III, 190, 2117.
CMmhns ,omia, IIC'C: non.Jtmtuiliis.
Denil), 67, lag, (mayor',
lieutenant, Saint1122. Chilekt, !hIc duo 36. Chaumelle, Anuagorat, 1116, 1106. Cobb, Richard C., 1114 n. 7. CoIbert, j.-B.,16. CoIlo! d'Herboia,jean·Marie, 1118, 136, ',0. CoI�,j., 3B. Cornmard (merchant-grocer). gfi, 97· Committee otCeneral Stt1,u-ily. 7, 137. 1411 n. I, 143, '45, 147. 161 n. I, 194. 1130.
Child
Committee of Public Safety, 5, 1118, 134. '36, '37, '43, 145. 161 n. 2. Commune, Pari! Commune, 8, 17. 70, 78, 84, ag, 94 n. 4. 99, 103, 105, "4: and the grocery riolS of 1793, 117-18; and the Enragb, II�O, 1114, 1�6; and Ihe sall1-t1tiD1lu, 130-1, 13! n. II; and H�berl, 132-3 ; and the 17141'i1ll�1II titS sa/aifts, 134--6; 2nd 9-
gB,
INDEX Alexandre, Chula-Alc:xis, 99 and n. 3,
Amar, Andn!, 150. 101, 103·
ArgelUOn, Marquis d'. lIlI�3.
Aristocracy, Il1-14> 117, 34, 45. 61. 73, 17S and n. 1, 180. Aritloeratic revolt, 1tt ,1wlU Mbililli,t. Arm ,/Nlll1ilnwsirt, IlI7, 13l1, 154, 156, lIOO. lI30. Artoia, Comte d', 13, 47,59. Assi,MU. 17 n. 4, gfi and n. I, IllS. 130. 1311. 1-«. 1611. 193. 1104, lI07. Alllitn M ,1uuUJ. 19. 64. 811-3, 181, 188, 1911, :HI4. 11113· Audouin, Pierre-Jean (journalist), 87,
IIll1.
Augeart, Farmer General, 611. Auger and Monnery (dyers), 97, 101. Aulard. Alphonse. 3, 4, �" 8.
Babeuf, Gracchus, 147. Bailly, jean.Sylvain, 59, 61. 69, 711, 74, 78. 8l1, ag, 94, 19'2. Balire de Vieuuc, Bertrand, 118, 128 n. I, 1311, 136, 140. 1 50. Barnave, Pierre.Joseph. 511 and n. 2, 611, 63, ']0, 72, 1110, 1113, 1132. Barru, Paul.jean, 1 7Z-3. 173 n. 2, 175· B/JITihu (customs polo"'). 10-11, 14, 16, liS, 48. 49 n. 1. 64> 82, 1103, 2170 I« aUt. Revolut ionary 'days': B/I"
ribu.
II, 3. 10. I I, I II n. 7. 14. IS, 19 n. 8, 26 and n. II, 117. 35, 53 If., 64, 73, 81, 811, 83, 104. 108, lilli, 176; I« IJlu Revolutkm�· 'days' ; &ulilh. Bc:aurepaire, Chevalier de, (4, 11113 n. II. Bernard, ab�, 70. 71. Bc:rlhier de Sauvigny, 56, 1103, !t27· Bo:senval, Marquis de, 191�, 194· Billaud.Yarenne, jean.Nicolas, 1118. .",. Biron, Man!chal de, 311. Blanc, Louis, 3. 4. BoiSiSYJd'Anglas, Fran�ois-Antoine, 149. Bonaparle. Napol�n, 173 and n. II, 177, Igfi n. II.
Bastille, I,
Bord. GUitave, 57 n. 5, 1117-18. BoUJobolle, Pierre, 155 n. I. Bourdnn, Uonard, 150. &.u,His, Mr,toisW, 9, III, 14, 24, 27, 118, SO, 33. 34, ,57, 61, 62, 63, 50, 83.
86. 90, 117, 138. 143, 1s8-9. 160. 163. 166,1']0, 17,5--6, 177. 178, 180-1, 1st. 186, 1100, 1105, 11l1li, 11119, 1132, 1135· BfllC:K:h. F., 17. Brienne. Lomtnie de, 2S--::Z9. 30, 31. BriMOt de Warville,Jacqua-Pierre, 95, 1'9, 178 n. I, 19B. Brunswick, !hike of, 103, log, 112. Buchez and Roux, go. Buirelle-Yerri�rCl, 81, 91. Burke, Edmund, I. II, 4, 11115. BU1.ot, Fran�oia-NicolaJ, 1110. Cahen, L., III. C4hitrs th doli/lTlUS, 112 n. 1 , 46, 54, 70. Calonne, C.-A. de, I I , 28, 30. Calvet, Henri, 1114. Carlyle, Thorn.., II, 4. CarnOI, ware, IIiB n. I . Caron, Pierre, 8, III, 190, 2117.
CMmhns ,omia, IIC'C: non.Jtmtuiliis.
Denil), 67, lag, (mayor',
lieutenant, Saint1122. Chilekt, !hIc duo 36. Chaumelle, Anuagorat, 1116, 1106. Cobb, Richard C., 1114 n. 7. CoIbert, j.-B.,16. CoIlo! d'Herboia,jean·Marie, 1118, 136, ',0. CoI�,j., 3B. Cornmard (merchant-grocer). gfi, 97· Committee otCeneral Stt1,u-ily. 7, 137. 1411 n. I, 143, '45, 147. 161 n. I, 194. 1130.
Child
Committee of Public Safety, 5, 1118, 134. '36, '37, '43, 145. 161 n. 2. Commune, Pari! Commune, 8, 17. 70, 78, 84, ag, 94 n. 4. 99, 103, 105, "4: and the grocery riolS of 1793, 117-18; and the Enragb, II�O, 1114, 1�6; and Ihe sall1-t1tiD1lu, 130-1, 13! n. II; and H�berl, 132-3 ; and the 17141'i1ll�1II titS sa/aifts, 134--6; 2nd 9-
gB,
,50
INDEX
Commune, Paris Commune, Comt. 10 Tbermidor, l�n-4 ' ; abolished,
Csmp/¢ Mit1otr4llifw. ,,6,
'43; 1�6 and D. II, 19o, 'lI04. 1106, 'lI14. !jg. 11113
Col1ltitutional monarchitta, 6 1
n.II, u6.
and
fr.,
78.
Conti, Prince de, 47. Corddien Club, Cordc:lien, 711, 80; and 80, 197.201.
the agitation of'pring-summa '791, 83-88; and the Champ de Man petition, 88-8g, 9', 93. 120, 1116, 11I8, 1811, 197. '99. 'lI04. IIIII, 21,. Couthon, Geof(CS. 128. Daniean, General, 172, Danton, Georga.jacquCII, 6g, 72, 113, 119, 178 n. l•
Decrees
of the 'Two-Thirdi', 161-l1, 163, 165�, 167, 168-g, 170, 171De Launay, Matquis, 54 fr., 221, 224, 226. Democrats, 80-88, 91, 93, 100, 212, 2�2, 228. Delmouliru, Camille, oj.8, 69, 70, 72, 83,87, 106, 176 n. I, 212, 216. Dubois, Chevalitt, 32. DuboiJ, Geo_I, 154. Dumouriea:, CharICi-Fran�oU, 98, 1 ' 9 . Duport, Adrien, 6g, 70. Duqueanoy, EmCIII.Dominique, 155 n. I.
Duroy, Jean.Miehd, 155 n. I. Dussaulx, Aeademieian, 55 n. 1 , 62, 70. En.-ap, "9-111 , 205.
Fabre d'tglantine. I I I . Fanners General, I I .
Faubourp, 12, '4-17, 24-li15, 30-31, 47, 67, 91, 101, 151, 157, 166, 170, 200, 20'l, 215, 217. 220, 224 n. I. -Saint-Antoine, 10, 15-18, 2�, 31, 3339,54, 56, 58-59, 67, 73, 76, 77 n. I, 76, 81, 83, 88; aod the Champ de Man affair, 9�'il3i and the grocery riotJ of 1792, 96-97; and 20 june '792, 99, [ 0 1 ; and the overthrow of the monarchy, 103�; log, "4, 123, 138; and Germinal.Prairial, 146-55, '58, 164, 167, 168; and iruurrection, or 1787'i15, 185�, 192, 203, 206, 218, 222, 226,234,
INDEX
- SainI-Denis, 10, 16, 96.
- Saint_Germain, 10, 32 n. 2, 33. - Saint.Ho�. 13. 58.
- Saint.JacqUC$, 10, 16, '7. ItS, 149. - Saint-Laurent, 16. - Saint-Mum, 10, 16-18, 35..,6, 38.
5B, 8 1 n. 3; and the Champ de Man affair, 93-94; and the grocery nou
101, 10:1; and the overthrow of the monarchy, 106, log, 115, 1!l3.
of 17911,
g6-g8; and 20 June '792,
99.
'33; and 9"""1 0 Thermidor, 138-9; and G