To Be Admitted Into The Government Palaces Was A
Matter Of Favour, And Here Also Fees Were Required.[32] Here
In the Louvre
there is no introduction required; no court to be paid to major-domos, no
favour; it is
Open to all classes, high and low, without exception, and no
money is allowed to be given.
But there are some people, in their ridiculous fury against the French
Revolution, who would fain persuade us that before that epoch there was a
golden age on the earth, that there were no acts of violence committed, no
frauds practised, no property injured, no individuals ill-used; that every
Prince governed like Numa; that every noble was a Bayard, and every priest
like a primitive apostle. Why I need go no further than the Seven Years'
war to show that in that war, during the height of European civilisation,
and carried on between the most polished nations in Europe, there were much
more acts of violence and rapine carried on than ever were done by the
French republicans. I by no means wish to excuse or even palliate the acts
of ferocity which took place at that epoch of the French Revolution called
the reign of Terror, which were executed by a people wrought up to frenzy
by a recollection of their wrongs; and I know too well that many virtuous
individuals fell victims to their indiscriminating fury; but I do believe
and aver that much more clamour was made at the execution of a handful of
corrupt courtiers, intriguing and profligate women of quality and worthless
priests, than all the rest put together.
To return to the Seven Years' war (I may be permitted to take this
retrospect, I hope, since it is the fashion, and those who differ with me
in opinions go much farther back than I do), let the French royalists and
emigrants recollect the confiscation of property and barbarity exercised by
Marshall Richelieu in Hanover, where many families were reduced to beggary.
They may not chuse to recollect this; but the Hanoverians do and they have
not forgotten the Pavillon de Hanovre, so called by the wits of the time
from its having been built by the Marshall with money arising from the
spoils of Hanover; will they recollect also the harsh treatment inflicted
on the burghers and citizens of a town in Germany, who were shut up in a
room and kept without food or drink for nearly three days because they
would not consent to fix a heavy and unwarrantable contribution on their
fellow citizens; when these unhappy but virtuous men were only allowed to
go out for the necessities of nature attended by sentries, and on the third
day, when fainting with hunger, a little bread and water was given to them,
with an assurance that in future they were not to expect such luxuries.
Have they forgot the devastation committed in Berlin by the Austrians in
the Seven Years' war, when they pillaged, burned or destroyed all the
valuable property of the royal Palaces, the most valuable works of art,
vases, statues of antiquity, the loss of which could never be replaced;
when they lopped off the heads, arms and legs of the statues? Have they
forgot the conduct of the belligerent powers at the siege of Dresden at the
same epoch, when whole families, among whom were helpless old men and women
with children at the breast, were compelled to leave Dresden in the middle
of a most rigorous winter and were driven to take refuge in the fields
where the most of them perished with hunger and cold; and where many
individuals lost their reason and became insane from the treatment they
received? Have they forgotten the merciless barbarities inflicted by the
Russians in the same war on the inhabitants of the Prussian territory?
their ripping up and burning men, women, and children? and the dreadful
retaliation inflicted on them at the battle of Zorndorff, when the
Prussians, exasperated at the idea of those horrors so fresh in their
memory, on being ordered to bury the Russian dead, threw the wounded men
also belonging to that nation into the graves dug for the dead, to be thus
buried alive, and hastily filled them up with earth, as if fearful that
they might relent, did they give themselves time for reflection? These are
not exaggerations; they are given by an author celebrated for his
impartiality and deep research and who was an eye-witness of many of these
proceedings; I mean Archenholz in his admirable history of the Seven Years'
war.[33]
Then again in the war of American Independence (and here my countrymen must
excuse me if I point out the acts of injustice committed by them, when
acting in obedience to an unprincipled and arbitrary government and in a
cause hostile to freedom), who does not recollect the private property
wantonly destroyed and confiscated by the English? their employing the
Indian tribes, those merciless savages of the forest, to scalp, etc., which
called forth the indignation of a Chatham? and the grossly unjust pillage
and confiscation of property which took place at St Eustatius by the
commanders of a religious and gracious King?[34] Again, who does not
recollect the gentle but deep reproof given by the American General
Schuyler to the English General Burgoyne, when the latter was made prisoner
by the Americans under Gates? General Schuyler's valuable house, barns,
etc., had been burned by the express order of Burgoyne. Nevertheless,
Schuyler received him with dignified politeness, magnanimously stifled the
recollection of the injury he had received, and obtained for him a good
quarter, merely remarking, "General, had my house and farms not been
burned, I could have offered you a more comfortable abode." How Burgoyne
must have felt this reproof! yet he was not by nature a harsh man, but he
had the orders of his government to exercise severities; he was educated in
Tory principles, and passive obedience is their motto.
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