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Paris As It Was and As It Is

F >> Francis W. Blagdon >> Paris As It Was and As It Is




"These odious researches poisoned social life, deprived men of
pleasures the most innocent, and transformed citizens into enemies
who trembled to unbosom themselves to each other.

"One fourth of the servants in Paris serve as spies; and the secrets
of families, which are thought the most concealed, come to the
knowledge of those interested in being acquainted with them.

"Independently of the spies of the police, ministers have spies
belonging to themselves, and keep them in pay: these are the most
dangerous of all, because they are less suspected than others, and it
is more difficult to know them. By these means, ministers know what
is said of them; yet, of this they avail themselves but little. They
are more intent to ruin their enemies, and thwart their adversaries,
than to derive a prudent advantage from the free and ingenuous hints
given them by the multitude.

"It is entertaining enough to consider that, in proper time and
place, spies are watching him who, at his pleasure, sets spies to
watch other citizens. Thus, the links which connect mankind in
political order are really incomprehensible. He who does not admire
the manner in which society exists, and is supported by the
simultaneous reaction of its members, and who sees not the serpent's
_tail_ entering its _mouth_, is not born for reflection.

"But the secrets of courts are not revealed through spies; they get
wind by means of certain people who are not in the least mistrusted;
in like manner the best built ships leak through an imperceptible
chink, which cannot be discovered.

"What is interesting in courts, and particularly so in ours," says
MERCIER, "is that there is a degree of obscurity spread over all its
proceedings. We wish to penetrate what is concealed, we endeavour to
know till we learn; thus it is that the most ingenious machine
preserves its highest value only till we have seen the springs which
set it in motion.

"After having considered the different parts which form the police of
the capital, we still perceive all the radii reaching from the centre
to the circumference. How many ramifications issue from the same
stem! How far the branches extend! What an impulse does not Paris
give to other neighbouring cities!

"The police of Paris has an intimate correspondence with that of
Lyons and other provincial cities: for it is evident that it would be
imperfect, if it could not follow the disturber of public order, and
if the distance of a few leagues skreened him from researches.

"The correspondence of the Parisian police is not therefore limited
to its walls; it extends much farther; and it is in towns where
imprudent or rash persons would imagine that they might give their
tongue greater freedom, that the vigilant magistrate pries into
conversation, and keeps a watchful eye over those who would measure
their audacity by the degree of distance from the capital.

"Thus the police of Paris, after having embraced France, penetrates
also into Switzerland, Italy, Holland, and Germany;[3] and when
occasion requires, its eye is open on all sides to what can interest
the government. When it wishes to know any fact, it is informed of it
to a certainty; when it wishes to strike a serious blow, it seldom
misses its aim.

"It may easily be conceived that the machine would be incomplete, and
that its play would fail in the desired effect, did it not embrace a
certain extent. It costs but little to give to the lever the
necessary length. Whether the spy be kept in pay at Paris, or a
hundred leagues off, the expense is the same, and the utility becomes
greater.

"Experience has shewn that these observations admit of essential
differences in the branches of the police. Weights and measures must
be changed, according to time, place, persons, and circumstances.
There are no fixed rules; they must be created at the instant, and
the most versatile actions are not destitute of wisdom and reason.

"Of this wholesale legislators are not aware: it is reserved for
practitioners to seize these shades of distinction. There must be a
customary, and, as it were, every-day policy, in order to decide well
without precipitation, without weakness, and without rigour. What
would be a serious fault at Paris, would be a simple imprudence at
Lyons, an indifferent thing elsewhere, and so on reciprocally.

"Now this science has not only its details and its niceties, it has
also its variations, and sometimes even its oppositions. Ministers
must have a steady eye and great local experience, in order to be
able to strike true, and strike opportunely, without espousing
imaginary terrors; which, in matters of police, is the greatest fault
that can be committed.[4]

"LYCURGUS, SOLON, LOCKE, and PENN! you have made very fine and
majestic laws; but would you have divined these? Although secret,
they exist; they have their wisdom, and even their depth. The
distance of a few leagues gives to matters of police two colours,
which bear to each other no resemblance; and there is no principal
town which is not obliged, in modeling its police on that of Paris,
to introduce into it the greatest modifications. The motto of every
Minister of Police ought to be this: _The letter of the law kills,
its spirit gives life._

"The safety of Paris, during the night, is owing to the guard[5] and
two or three hundred _mouchards_, who trot about the streets, and
recognize and follow suspected persons. It is chiefly by night that
the police makes its captions."

The manner in which these captions are made is humorously, gravely,
feelingly, and philosophically described by the ingenious MERCIER.
Long as this letter already is, I am confident that you will not
regret its being still lengthened by another extract or two relative
to this interesting point; thus I shall terminate the only
elucidation that you are likely to obtain on a subject which has so
strongly excited your curiosity.

"The comic," says our lively author, "is here blended with the
serious. The fulminating order, which is going to crush you, is in
the pocket of the _exempt_, who feels a degree of pleasure in the
exercise of his dreadful functions. He enjoys a secret pride in being
bearer of the thunder; he fancies himself the eagle of Jove: but his
motion is like that of a serpent. He glides along, dodges you,
crouches before you, approaches your ear, and with down-cast eyes and
a soft-toned voice, says to you, at the same time shrugging his
shoulders: '_Je suis au désespoir, Monsieur; mais j'ai un ordre,
Monsieur, qui vous arrête, Monsieur; de la part de la police,
Monsieur_.'----'_Moi, Monsieur_?'----'_Vous-même, Monsieur_.'----You
waver an instant between anger and indignation, ready to vent all
sorts of imprecations. You see only a polite, respectful, well-bred
man, bowing to you, mild in his speech, and civil in his manners.
Were you the most furious of mankind, your wrath would be instantly
disarmed. Had you pistols, you would discharge them in the air, and
never against the affable _exempt_. Presently you return him his
bows: there even arises between you a contest of politeness and good
breeding. It is a reciprocity of obliging words and compliments, till
the moment when the resounding bolts separate you from the polite
man, who goes to make a report of his mission, and whose employment,
by no means an unprofitable one, is to imprison people with all
possible gentleness, urbanity, and grace.

"I am walking quietly in the street; before me is a young man
decently dressed. All at once four fellows seize on him, collar him,
push him against the wall, and drag him away. Natural instinct
commands me to go to his assistance; a tranquil witness says to me
coolly: 'Don't interfere; 'tis nothing, sir, but a caption made by
the police.' The young man is handcuffed, and he disappears.

"I wish to enter a narrow street, a man belonging to the guard is
posted there as a sentinel: I perceive several of the populace
looking out of the windows. 'What's the matter, sir?' say I.----
'Nothing,' replies he; 'they are only taking up thirty girls of the
town at one cast of the net.' Presently the girls, with top-knots of
all colours, file off, led by the soldiers of the guard, who lead
them gallantly by the hand, with their muskets clubbed.

"It is eleven o'clock at night, or five in the morning, there is a
knock at your door; your servant opens it; in a moment your room is
filled with a squad of satellites. The order is precise, resistance
is vain; every thing that might serve as a weapon is put out of your
reach; and the _exempt_, who will not, on that account, boast the
less of his bravery even takes your brass pocket-inkstand for a
pistol.

"The next day, a neighbour, who has heard a noise in the house, asks
what it might be: 'Nothing, 'tis only a man taken up by the police.'
----'What has he done?'----'No one can tell; he has, perhaps,
committed a murder, or sold a suspicious pamphlet.'----'But, sir,
there's some difference between those two crimes.'----'May be so; but
he is carried off.'

"You have been apprehended; but you have not been shewn the order;
you have been put into a carriage closely shut up; you know not
whither you are going to be taken; but you may be certain that you
will visit the wards or dungeons of some prison.

"Whence proceeds the decree of proscription? You cannot rightly
guess.

"It is not necessary to write a thick volume against arbitrary
arrests. When one has said, _it is an arbitrary act_, one may,
without any difficulty, infer every possible consequence. But all
captions are not equally unjust: there are a multitude of secret and
dangerous crimes which it would be impossible for the ordinary course
of the law to take cognizance of, to put a stop to, and punish. When
the minister is neither seduced nor deceived, when he yields not to
private passion, to blind prepossession, to misplaced severity, his
object is frequently to get rid of a disturber of the public peace;
and the police, in the manner in which the machine is set up, could
not proceed, at the present day, without this quick, active, and
repressive power.

"It were only to be wished that there should be afterwards a
particular tribunal, which should weigh in an exact scale the motives
of each caption, in order that imprudence and guilt, the pen and the
poniard, the book and the libel, might not be confounded.

"The inspectors of police determine on their part a great many
subaltern captions; as they are generally believed on their word, and
as they strike only the lowest class of the people, the chief readily
concedes to them the details of this authority.

"Some yield to their peevishness; others, to their caprice: but who
knows whether avarice has not also a share in their proceedings, and
whether they do not often favour him who pays at the expense of him
who does not pay? Thus the liberty of the distressed and lowest
citizens would have a tarif; and this strange tax would bear hard on
the very numerous portion of _prostitutes_, _professed gamblers_,
_quacks_, _hawkers_, _swindlers_, and _adventurers_, all people who
do mischief, and whom it is necessary to punish; but who do more
mischief when they are obliged to pay, and purchase, during a certain
time, the privilege of their irregularities.

"We have imitated from the English their Vauxhall, their Ranelagh,
their whist, their punch, their hats, their horse-races, their
jockies, their betting; but," concludes MERCIER, "when shall we copy
from them something more important, for instance, that bulwark of
liberty, the law of _habeas corpus_?"

[Footnote 1: The office of Minister of the Police has since been
abolished. M. FOUCHÉ is now a Senator, and the machine of which he
was said to be so expert a manager, is confided to the direction of
the Prefect of Police, who exercises his functions under the
immediate authority of the Ministers, and corresponds with them
concerning matters which relate to their respective departments. The
higher duties of the Police are at present vested in the _Grand
Juge_, who is also Minister of Justice. The former office is of
recent creation.]

[Footnote 2: Voltaire thought otherwise; and he was not mistaken.]

[Footnote 3: I shall exemplify this truth by two remarkable facts.
About the year 1775, when M. DE SARTINE was Minister of the Police,
several forgeries were committed on the Bank of Vienna; Count DE
MERCY, then Austrian ambassador at Paris, was directed to make a
formal application for the delinquent to be delivered up to justice.
What was his astonishment on receiving, a few hours after, a note
from M. DE SARTINE, informing him that the author of the said
forgeries had never been in Paris; but resided in Vienna, at the same
time mentioning the street, the number of the house, and other
interesting particulars!

A circumstance which occurred in 1796, proves that, since the
revolution, the system of the Parisian police continues to extend to
foreign countries. The English Commissary for prisoners of war was
requested by a friend to make inquiry, on his arrival in Paris,
whether a French lady of the name of BEAUFORT was living, and in what
part of France she resided. He did so; and the following day, the
card, on which he had written the lady's name, was returned to him,
with this addition: "She lives at No. 47, East-street,
Manchester-square, London."]

[Footnote 4: The same principle holds good in politics.]

[Footnote 5: The municipal guard of Paris at present consists of 2334
men. The privates must be above 30 and under 45 years of age.]



LETTER LXXII.

_Paris, February 26, 1802._

Referring to an expression made use of in my letter of the 16th of
December last,[1] you ask me "What the sciences, or rather the
_savans_ or men of science, have done for this people?" With the
assistance of a young Professor in the _Collège de France_, who bids
fair to eclipse all his competitors, it will not be difficult for me
to answer your question.

Let me premise, however, that the _savans_ to whom I allude, must not
be confounded with the philosophers, called _Encyclopædists_, from
their having been the first to conceive and execute the plan of the
_Encyclopædia_. These _savans_ were DIDEROT, D'ALEMBERT, and
VOLTAIRE, all professed atheists, who, by the dissemination of their
pernicious doctrine, introduced into France an absolute contempt for
all religion. This infidelity, dissolving every social tie, every
principle between man and man, between the governing and the
governed, in the sequel, produced anarchy, rapine, and all their
attendant horrors.

At the beginning of the revolution, every mind being turned towards
politics, the Sciences were suddenly abandoned: they could have no
weight in the struggle which then occupied every imagination.
Presently their existence was completely forgotten. Liberty formed
the subject of every writing and every discourse: it seemed that
orators alone possessed the power of serving her; and this error was
partly the cause of the calamities which afterwards overwhelmed
France. The greater part of the _savans_ remained simple spectators
of the events which were preparing: not one of them openly took part
against the revolution. Some involved themselves in it. Those men
were urged by great views, and hoped to find, in the renewal of
social organization, a mean of applying and realizing their theories.
They thought to master the revolution, and were carried away by its
torrent; but at that time the most sanguine hopes were indulged. If
the love of liberty be no more than a phantom of the brain, if the
wish to render men better and happier be no more than a matter of
doubt, such errors may be pardoned in those who have paid for them
with their life.

It is in the recollection of every one that the National Convention
consisted of two parties, which, under the same exterior, were
hastening to contrary ends: the one, composed of ignorant and
ferocious men, ruled by force; the other, more enlightened,
maintained its ground by address. The former, restless possessors of
absolute power, and determined to grasp at every thing for preserving
it, strove to annihilate the talents and knowledge which made them
sensible of their humiliating inferiority. The others, holding the
same language, acted in an opposite direction. But being obliged, in
order to preserve their influence, never to shew themselves openly,
they employed their means with an extreme reserve, and this
similarity at once explains the good they did, the evil they
prevented, and the calamities which they were unable to avert.

At that time, France was on the very brink of ruin. _Landrecies_, _Le
Quesnoy_, _Condé_ and _Valenciennes_ were in the power of her
enemies. _Toulon_ had been given up to the English, whose numerous
fleets held the dominion of the seas, and occasionally effected
debarkations. This country was a prey to famine and terror; _La
Vendée_, _Lyons_, and _Marseilles_ were in a state of insurrection.
No arms, no powder; no ally that could or would furnish any; and its
only resource lay in an anarchical government without either plan or
means of defence, and skilful only in persecution. In a word, every
thing announced that the Republic would perish, before it could enjoy
a year's existence.

In this extremity, two new members were called to the Committee of
Public Welfare. These two men organized the armies, conceived plans
of campaign, and prepared supplies.

It was necessary to arm nine hundred thousand men; and what was most
difficult, it was necessary to persuade a mistrustful people, ever
ready to cry out "treason!" of the possibility of such a prodigy. For
this purpose, the old manufactories were comparatively nothing;
several of them, situated on the frontiers, were invaded by the
enemy. They were revived every where with an activity till then
unexampled. _Savans_ or men of science were charged to describe and
simplify the necessary proceedings. The melting of the church-bells
yielded all the necessary metal.[2] Steel was wanting; none could be
obtained from abroad, the art of making it was unknown. The _Savans_
were asked to create it; they succeeded, and this part of the public
defence thus became independent of foreign countries.

The exigencies of the war had rendered more glaring the urgent
necessity of having good topographical maps, and the insufficiency of
those in use became every day more evident. The geographical
engineers, which corps had been suppressed by the Constituent
Assembly, were recalled to the armies, and although they could not,
in these first moments, give to their labours the necessary extent
and detail, they nevertheless paved the way to the great results
since obtained in this branch of the art military. Nothing is more
easy than to destroy; nothing is so difficult, and, above all, so
tedious as to reconstruct.

The persons then in power had likewise had the prudence to preserve
in their functions such pupils and engineers in the civil line as
were of an age to come under the requisition. Whatever might be the
want of defenders, it was felt that it requires ten years' study to
form an engineer; while health and courage suffice for making a
soldier. This disastrous period affords instances of foresight and
skill which have not always been imitated in times more tranquil.

The Sciences had just rendered great services to the country. They
were calumniated; those who had made use of them were compelled to
defend them, and did so with courage. A circumstance, equally
singular and unforeseen, occasioned complete recourse to be had to
their assistance.

An officer arrived at the Committee of Public Welfare: he announced
that the republican armies were in presence of the enemy; but that
the French generals durst not march their soldiers to battle, because
the brandies were poisoned, and that the sick in the hospitals,
having drunk some, had died. He requested the Committee to cause them
to be examined, asked for orders on this subject, and wished to set
off again immediately.

The most skilful chymists were instantly assembled: they were ordered
to analyze the brandies, and to indicate, in the course of the day,
the poison and the remedy.

These _savans_ laboured without intermission, trusting only to
themselves for the most minute details. Scarcely was time allowed
them to finish their operations, when they were summoned to appear
before the Committee of Public Welfare, over which ROBESPIERRE
presided.

They announced that the brandies were not poisoned, and that water
only had been added to them, in which was slate in suspension, so
that it was sufficient to filter them, in order to deprive them of
their hurtful quality.

ROBESPIERRE, who hoped to discover a treason, asked the Commissioners
if they were perfectly sure of what they had just advanced. As a
satisfactory answer to the question, one of them took a strainer,
poured the liquor through it, and drank it without hesitation. All
the others followed his example. "What!" said ROBESPIERRE to him, "do
you dare to drink these poisoned brandies?"----"I durst do much
more," answered he, "when I put my name to the Report."

This service, though in itself of little importance, impressed the
public mind with a conception of the utility of the _savans_, a
greater number of whom were called into the Committee of Public
Welfare. There they were secure from subaltern informers, with which
France abounded. Having concerns only with the members charged with
the military department, who were endeavouring to save them, they
might, by keeping silence, escape the suspicious looks of the tyrants
of the day. There was then but one resource for men of merit and
virtue, namely, to conceal their existence, and cause themselves to
be forgotten.

In the midst of this sanguinary persecution, all the means of defence
employed by France, issued from the obscure retreat where the genius
of the Sciences had taken refuge.

Powder was the article for which there was the most urgent occasion.
The soldiers were on the point of wanting it. The magazines were
empty. The administrators of the powder-mills were assembled to know
what they could do. They declared that the annual produce amounted to
three millions of pounds only, that the basis of it was saltpetre
drawn from India, that extraordinary encouragements might raise them
to five millions; but that no hopes ought to be entertained of
exceeding that quantity. When the members of the Committee of Public
Welfare announced to the administrators that they must manufacture
seventeen millions of pounds of powder in the space of a few months,
the latter remained stupified. "If you succeed in doing this," said
they, "you must have a method of making powder of which we are
ignorant."

This, however, was the only mean of saving the country. As the French
were almost excluded from the sea, it was impossible to think of
procuring saltpetre from India. The _savans_ offered to extract all
from the soil of the Republic. A general requisition called to this
labour the whole mass of the people. Short and simple directions,
spread with inconceivable activity, made, of a difficult art, a
common process. All the abodes of men and animals were explored.
Saltpetre was sought for even in the ruins of Lyons; and soda,
collected from among the ashes of the forests of La Vendée.

The results of this grand movement would have been useless, had not
the Sciences been seconded by new efforts. Native saltpetre is not
fit for making powder; it is mixed with salts and earths which render
it moist, and diminish its activity. The process employed for
purifying it demanded considerable time. The construction of
powder-mills alone would have required several months, and before
that period, France might have been subjugated. Chymistry invented
new methods for refining and drying saltpetre in a few days. As a
substitute for mills, pulverized charcoal, sulphur, and saltpetre
were mixed, with copper balls, in casks which were turned round by
hand. By these means, powder was made in twelve hours; and thus was
verified that bold assertion of a member of the Committee of Public
Welfare: "Earth impregnated with saltpetre shall be produced," said
he, "and, in five days after, your cannon shall be loaded."

Circumstances were favourable for fixing, in all their perfection,
the only arts which occupied France. Persons from all the departments
were sent to Paris, in order to be instructed in the manufacture of
arms and saltpetre. Rapid courses of lectures were given on this
subject. They contributed little to the general movement, which had
saved the Republic, but they had an effect no less important, that of
bringing to light the astonishing facility of the French for
acquiring the arts and sciences; a happy gift which forms one of the
finest features in the character of the nation.

Notwithstanding so many services rendered by the Sciences, the
learned were not less persecuted; the most celebrated among them were
the most exposed. The venerable DAUBENTON, the co-operator in the
labours of BUFFON, escaped persecution only because he had written a
work on the improvement of sheep, and was taken for a simple
shepherd. COUSIN was not so fortunate; yet, in his confinement, he
had the stoicism to compose works of geometry, and give lessons of
physics to his companions of misfortune.

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