23] after consultation with a person named Rouget, the
peasants of the Marquis de Chaila "determine to make no further
payments to him, and to divide amongst themselves the product of the
wood-cuttings." In his paper "the lawyer states that all the communities
of the province have decided to do the same thing. . . His consultation
is diffused to such an extent around the country that many of the
communities are satisfied that they owe nothing more to the king nor to
the seigniors. M. de Marnesia, deputy to the (National) Assembly, has
arrived (here) to pass a few days at home on account of his health. He
has been treated in the rudest and most scandalous manner; it was even
proposed to conduct him back to Paris under guard. After his departure
his chateau was attacked, the doors burst open and the walls of his
garden pulled down. (And yet) no gentleman has done more for the people
on his domain the M. le Marquis de Marnesia. . . Excesses of every kind
are on the increase; I have constant complaints of the abuse which
the national militia make of their arms, and which I cannot remedy."
According to an utterance in the National Assembly the police imagines
that it is to be disbanded and has therefore no desire to make enemies
for itself. "The baillages are as timid as the police-forces; I send
them business constantly, but no culprit is punished."--"No nation
enjoys liberty so indefinite and so disastrous to honest people; it is
absolutely against the rights of man to see oneself constantly liable
to have his throat cut by the scoundrels who daily confound liberty with
license."--In other words, the passions utilize the theory to justify
themselves, and the theory appeal to passion to be carried out. For
example, near Liancourt, the Duc de Larochefoucauld possessed
an uncultivated area of ground; "at the commencement of the
revolution,[5424] the poor of the town declare that, as they form a part
of the nation, untilled lands being national property, this belongs to
them," and "with no other formality" they take possession of it, divide
it up, plant hedges and clear it off. "This, says Arthur Young, shows
the general disposition. . . . Pushed a little farther the consequences
would not be slight for properties in this kingdom." Already, in the
preceding year, near Rouen, the marauders, who cut down and sell the
forests, declare, that "the people have the right to take whatever they
require for their necessities." They have h