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Part 11

A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792 · Richard Twiss — chapter 11 of 12 · ~1,441 words · public domain

EXTENT, POPULATION, &C. OF FRANCE.

THE authorities for a great part of what follows are Mr. Rabaut's History of the Revolution, 1792; Mr. du Laure's Paris, 1791, Geographie de France, 1792, second edition, and Voyage dans les Departemens de la France, 1792.

France is a country which extends nine degrees from North to South, and between ten and eleven from East to West, making six and twenty thousand square leagues, and containing twenty-seven millions of people. In 1790, "There were four millions of armed men in France; three of these millions wore the uniform of the nation." The number of warriors, or fighting men is very considerably increased since that time.

"In this immense population is found at least three millions of individuals of different religions, whom the present catholicks look upon with brotherly eyes. The protestant and the catholick now embrace each other on the threshold where Coligni was murdered; and the disciples of Calvin invoke the Eternal after their manner, within a few paces of the balcony from whence Charles IX. shot at his subjects."

All the church lands are reverted to the nation.

In a speech which the Abbe Maury made in the National Assembly, about two years ago, he estimated the value of the property belonging to ecclesiasticks in France at two thousand two hundred millions of livres, (Deux milliards deux cens millions) near ninety-two millions sterling, the interest or produce of which, at 3-1/4 per cent. per annum, amounts to the three millions beforementioned.

France suffices to itself; it contains all the indigenous productions of Europe.

The French hope, that the number of foreigners who will resort to their country, after it shall be more settled, will abundantly compensate the loss of the emigrants.]

The capital, when compared to London, for extent is as 264 to 195, (nearly as 7 to 5) that is to say, according to the calculation beforementioned (p. 28) Paris stands on 6-99/121 square miles of ground, and London on 5-35/968.

It contains a million and 130 thousand inhabitants, which is fifty thousand more than it did two years ago; these formerly inhabited Versailles, and left it at the time the court did.

Lyon contains 160 thousand persons.

Marseille, the most populous, in proportion to the size, of any city in Europe, contains, in a spot of little more than three miles in circumference, 120 thousand persons, which includes about 30,000 mariners on board of the ships in the harbour.

Bordeaux, 100,000. The population of many more cities is given in a note, besides which there are others, the number of whose inhabitants I cannot learn, such as Toulouse, Toulon, Brest, Orange, Blois, Avignon, &c.

The nation gains five millions sterling per annum by the reduction of its expences, and by not having any unnecessary clergymen to maintain, and the forfeited estates of the emigrants are estimated at immense sums.

The heavy taxes on salt (la gabelle) and on Tobacco are suppressed, and those two articles are allowed to be objects of commerce.

"No city in the world can offer such a spectacle as that of Paris, agitated by some great passion, because in no other the communication is so speedy, and the spirits so active. Paris contains citizens from all the provinces, and these various characters blended together compose the national character, which is distinguished by a wonderful impetuosity. Whatever they will do is done." Witness the taking of the Bastille in a single day, which had formerly withstood the siege of a whole army during three and twenty days. And witness the 10th of August.

I have been frequently told by persons in England, that a regular and disciplined army may easily crush a herd of raw and inexperienced rabble, such as they supposed the French were, although ten times more numerous. This may possibly be the event in small numbers, but if we state the case with large numbers, for instance fifty thousand men of the greatest courage, and of the most perfect discipline, and who are fighting for pay, without any personal motive, against five hundred thousand men, whom we shall suppose utterly ignorant of the art of war, but who conceive they are fighting for their liberty and their country, for their families and their property, and then reflect on the courage and bravery of these very men, on their impetuosity, their acharnement, or desperate violence in fight, which may be compared to the irresistible force of water-spouts, and of whirlwinds, it may not appear too partial to conjecture, that such persons may perceive some little reason for suspending, if not for altering, their opinion, and may now estimate the degree of danger this nation may apprehend from the attacks of extraneous powers, provided its own people are unanimous.

The French writers themselves say, "In all popular commotions the women have always shown the greatest boldness."]

EMENDATIONS AND ADDITIONS. RETURN TO CALAIS.

THE paragraph at the bottom of page 11, is intended to be merely descriptive, but not ludicrous, so that the reader is requested to expunge the word night.

In the enumeration of the Bishopricks (page 14) I unaccountably omitted the ten metropolitan sees, which are those of Paris, Lyon, Bourdeaux, Rouen, Reims, Besancon, Bourges, Rennes, Aix and Toulouse: Thus there are eighty-three bishopricks, or one for each department.

After what is said (in page 89) relative to the division of the country, there should, in justice, be added: "To the confused medley of Bailiwicks, Seneschal-jurisdictions, Elections, Generalities, Dioceses, Parliaments, Governments, &c. there succeeded a simple and uniform division; there were no longer any provinces, but only one family, one nation: France was the nation of eighty-three departments." Notwithstanding this, I regret the ancient names of the provinces. The old Atlas of France is become useless, as the whole of its geography is altered. The land is at present divided into nine regions, and each of these into nine departments; Paris and the country about ten miles around (24 square leagues) forms one, and the Island of Corsica another department. In the modern Atlas, after every new name, is put ci-devant, and then the old name, thus: Region du Levant, departement de la cote d'or, ci-devant Bourgogne. I called one day, after dining in a tavern, for a bottle of wine of the Departement de l'Aube, Region des Sources, the landlord consulted his Atlas, and then brought the bottle of Champagne I required. It will be some time before foreigners are sufficiently familiarized to the new phrases which must be used for Gascon, Normand, Breton, Provencal, Picard, &c.

The following paragraphs are taken from the new Voyage de France.

"During fourteen hundred years, priority in follies, in superstition, in ignorance, in fanaticism, and in slavery, was the picture of France. It was just, therefore, that priority in philosophy, and in knowledge, should succeed to so many odious pre-eminences."

"The French people, to whom liberty is now new, are like the waves of the sea, which roll long after the tempest has ceased: and of which the agitation is necessary to depose on the shores the scum which covers them."

"The confusion inseparable from a new order of things, has necessarily caused Paris to swarm with vagabonds; so that far from being surprized that some crimes have been committed, we ought rather to wonder that they are not more frequent."

"When Louis XVI. was brought back to Paris (25 June, 1791) the inhabitants of fauxbourgs pasted a placard (advertisement) against the walls, saying, 'Whoever applauds him shall be cudgelled, whoever attacks him shall be hanged.' An awful silence was observed."

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