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?
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