[The Origins of Contemporary France<br> Volume 5 (of 6) by Hippolyte A. Taine]@TWC D-Link book
The Origins of Contemporary France
Volume 5 (of 6)

CHAPTER I
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Besides these, "all individuals inscribed collectively and without individual denomination," those already struck off, but provisionally, by local administrations; also still other classes.

Moreover, a good many emigrants, yet standing on the lists, steal back one by one into France, and the government tolerates them.[3124] Finally, eighteen months later, after the peace of Amiens and the Concord at,[3125] a senatus-consulte ends the great operation; an amnesty relieves all who are not yet struck off, except the declared leaders of the militant emigration, its notables, and who are not to exceed one thousand; the rest may come back and enjoy their civic rights; only, they must promise "loyalty to the government established under the constitution and not maintain directly or indirectly any connection or correspondence with the enemies of the State." On this condition the doors of France are thrown open to them and they return in crowds.
But their bodily presence is not of itself sufficient; it is moreover essential that they should not be absent in feeling, as strangers and merely domiciliated in the new society.

Were these mutilated fragments of old France, these human shreds put back in their old places, simply attached or placed in juxtaposition to modern France, they would prove useless, troublesome and even mischievous.

Let us strive, then, to have them grafted on afresh through adherence or complete fusion; and first, to effect this, they must not be allowed to die of inanition; they must take root physically and be able to live.

In private life, how can former proprietors, the noblesse, the parliamentarians, the upper bourgeoisie, support themselves, especially those without a profession or pursuit, and who, before 1789, maintained themselves, not by their labor, but by their income?
Once at home, they can no longer earn their living as they did abroad; they can no longer give lessons in French, in dancing, or in fencing .-- There is no doubt but that the senatus-consulte which amnesties them restores to them a part of their unsold possessions;[3126] but most of these are sold and, on the other hand, the First Consul, who is not disposed to re-establish large fortunes for royalists,[3127] retains and maintains the largest portion of what they have been despoiled of in the national domain: all woods and forests of 300 arpents[3128] and over, their stock and property rights in the great canals, and their personal property already devoted to the public service.


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