THE cRmiNoioav: SIV EDITED/BT DOUGLAS MORRISON L.PRO^L ■ '1/ , fyxuM ^mmxi]^ | IWXM^ BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henrg W, Sage 1 891 A'/zi^^^i m^ii DATE DUE N-i i -t- r — -) o..:^ -r-; 1 CAVL.ORD HV6301 .P9 6'"l8M """ '" rary Political crime, Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030315935 THE CRIMINOLOGY SERIES EDITED BY W. DOUGLAS MORRISON IV POLITICAL CRIME Cbe Criminoldgy Series. EDITED BY W. DOUGLAS MORRISON. Each, x2ino, cloth, $1.50. POLITICAL CRIME. By Louis Proal. With an Introduction by Prof. F. H. Giddings, of Columbia University. *• At times the author's numerous illustrations, taken from various countries and ages, show that the difficulty of maintaining absolute rectitude in public affairs equals that of the rich man in his efforts to enter the kingdom of heaven. But, on the other hand, his ultimate conclusion is that, as the art of governing is one of the most noble, so the actual exercise of the art is compatible with the loftiest standard of integrity." — London Spectator. THE FEMALE OFFENDER. By Prof. C^sar Lom- BROSo and William Ferrero. Illustrated, " There is no book of recent issue that bears such important rela- tion to the great subject of criminology as this book." — Neiv Haven Leader. CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY. By Prof. E. Ferri. "A most excellent and instructive work. ... It will well repay perusal by all who have dealings of any nature with criminal classes, and is of great importance to those who desire to inform themselves on what is one of the great problems of the age," — Detroit Free Press. OUR JUVENILE OFFENDERS. By W. Douglas Morrison, author of ** Jews under the Romans," etc. In this volume Mr. Morrison deals with the extent and character of juvenile crime. He shows the effect of sex and age on criminal tendencies, and describes the geographical distribution of the juvenile criminal population. Mr. Morrison has a vast amount of personal ex- perience behind him, and his work derives additional interest from the fact that he is dealing with a subject which he knows at first hand. In preparation. CRIME A SOCIAL STUDY. By Professor Joly. D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. POLITICAL CRIME BY LOUIS _PROAL WITH AN INTRODUCTION By Prof. FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Copyright, 1898, bt d. applkton and company. INTRODUCTION. Monsieur Louis Proal, a judge of the Court of Appeal at Aix, is a recognised authority on the theory of crime and punishment. His first impor- tant work, " Le Crime et La Peine," published at Paris in 1892, was crowned by the Institute. Offer- ing an interpretation of increasing crime different from that which had been forced upon public atten- tion by criminal anthropologists, it insisted upon the reality of moral responsibility and the duty of the state to punish the evil-doer. It was marked throughout by a sincere ethical spirit as well as by scientific carefulness, and was a much-needed cor- rective of the more extreme " anthropological " views of the Italian school. In 1895 appeared the work here translated, " La Criminality Politique." The term "political crime" has two meanings. Perhaps the more familiar one is that of crimes against governments, such as treason, insurrection, and rebellion. The phrase is used in this sense by the Italian writers Lombroso and Laschi in their work " II delitto politico e le rivoluzioni in rapporto al diritto, all antropologia criminale ed alia scienza di governo" (Political Crime and Revolutions). The other meaning is that of crimes perpetrated by governments for alleged reasons of state, and by vi INTRODUCTION. politicians for alleged reasons of expediency or for political advantage. It is this latter sort of political crime that M. Proal chiefly deals with in the present volnme. Beginning with the history of Machiavel- lisnij he takes up in order assassination, anarchy, political hatreds, political hypocrisy, political spolia- tion, the corruption of politicians, electoral corrup- tion, the corruption of law and justice by politics, and the corruption of manners. All of these topics he considers at length and with much detail of historical fact. The teachings of political leaders, churchmen, and moralists in regard to them he sub- jects to a critical examination ; and he tries to ana- lyze the general opinion or sentiment of society upon them as it has been historically manifested at differ- ent times and places. The book may therefore be described as a first attempt conceived in the modern scientific spirit, to establish as a true induction the ancient conviction that "righteousness exalteth a nation." The American edition of this book appears at an opportune moment. Both the scholar and " the plain man " are giving to the critical examination of ac- tual politics an amount of time and effort compara- ble only to the time and effort that were bestowed upon political theories a century ago. This is true not only in Europe, where liberal government is yet on trial, but also in the United States, where an unprecedented campaign has recently been fought through to a remarkable triumph on the single ques- tion whether common honesty shall be the corner- stone of our financial policy. Everywhere men are acknowledging the duty so impressively emphasized by President Cleveland at the Princeton University INTRODUCTION. vn sesquicentennial ceremonies, of that attention to politics which has iu the past been regarded too much as a privilege. Moreover, this awakening is quite as distinctly ethical as intellectual. The pres- ent age has cared for science rather than for con- science, and in politics it has valued intellectual clearness more than devotion to principle. There are multiplying signs that conscience is again assert- ing its authority, and that the masses of the people intend, in the near future, to demand integrity no less than clearness and strength in the management of political affairs. The more thoughtful of our people are quite prepared to take to heart the admo- nition of Rabelais with which M. Proal so effectively concludes his argument, that science without con- science is the ruin of the soul, and that politics with- out morality are the ruin of society. Most of the historical facts and illustrations that M. Proal has marshalled he has very naturally drawn from European chronicles. American history fur- nishes others that, if less sensational, horrible, or dramatic, are not less impressive. We have no long record of assassinations instigated by monarchs, like the murder of William of Orange by the will of Philip of Spain, or of infamous wars waged for trivial dynastic reasons, for ambition, for glory, or even for revenge ; and yet, even of unjustifiable war our hands are not stainless. While conscien- tious and competent historians will continue to differ about the necessity of the Mexican War, there can be no such difference as to a long series of aggres- sions upon our native Indian tribes. When that noble-minded and gifted woman of letters, Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, turned aside from her original yijj INTRODUCTION. literary aims to tell the story of our Indian wars in the West, she brought together a mass of historical materials which fully justified the title of her book, " A Century of Dishonour." The United States has been comparatively free, too, from crimes of theft or embezzlement by public officials. The stealings of the Tweed ring in New York city, and of Bardsley in Philadelphia, startled the people quite as much because of their unusual character as because of their enormity. Such crimes happily have been most infrequent in our State and national governments. It has been in various forms of aggression, intimi- dation, and venal corruption that American political crime and immorality have most frequently been manifested. The " spoils system," whose first in- famous advocate and sponsor in American politics was Aaron Burr, has consisted of a series of acts a very large proportion of which have been not mere- ly political immoralities, but political crimes at posi- tive law, and punishable as such by penalties of fine or imprisonment. Many of the acts of carpet-bag governments during the period of reconstruction were political crimes of the most high-handed de- scription. Yet worse were the crimes of ballot-box stufiing and of intimidation at the polls which so frequently occurred in South Carolina, Mississippi, and other Southern States in 1875 and 1876. Whether or not the alleged " counting out " of Mr. Tilden, in the electoral canvass of 1876, was " the great fraud " which for years a prominent New York newspaper continued to call it, no historian will ever be able to deny that many specific official acts of that famous campaign and subsequent contest were technically INTRODUCTION. Jj. and morally criminal. The people of New York have not yet fully forgotten, and we may hope they never will forget, the outrages perpetrated upon in- nocent individuals by the magistrates' courts and a black-mailing police, which were disclosed by the Lexow investigation. Even more numerous than acts of wanton aggres- sion have been acts of venal corruption. It is un- pleasant to recall the " CrMit mobilier " scandal, the "story of Erie," the Indiana "blocks of five," the extensive bribery of the Massachusetts Legislature in the interests of West End rapid transit, and the crime of the Broadway franchise in New York city. Yet it is very necessary that from time to time we should recall these things, and soberly ask our- selves whether we are gradually diminishing their frequency, or permitting them to multiply until they shall threaten to destroy the reality of popular gov- ernment. To review these incidents of our history as we read M. Proal's argument, is necessarily sobering, but not by any means necessarily discouraging. And here I can not do better than conclude this intro- duction by repeating what I said in a review of M. Proal's volume when it first appeared in France. Two unpleasant conclusions must be accepted as the starting points of our endeavours to make things better. The first is, that the active politician, the world over, continues to believe in the maxim that in politics, if not in individual conduct, the end jus- tifies the means. The second is that, although the practical consequences of this maxim are invariably disastrous, they are often so involved or so long de- layed that a presentation of the facts is more like- X INTRODUCTION. ly to confuse than to enlighten the average voter. The great value of M. Proal's work lies, first, in the success with which he has overcome this difficulty by extending his survey over a long period of time and by carefully attending to his perspective, and, secondly, in the skill with which he has exposed the essential sophistry of some of the more plausible disguises under which the maxim conceals itself. One of these is the dictum that the public safety, rather than reason, honour, or principle, is the su- preme law ; as if the very question of what the pub- lic safety requires could be answered if men forget principle and sneer at reason. Another is the con- tention that deceit is legitimate in party warfare, and lying in diplomacy. Among the strongest pages of M. Proal's volume are those which expose the imbe- cility, not to mention the peril, of diplomatic lying. Yet another sophism is the belief that stealing, defa- mation of character, and other iniquities are justifi- able if they are in the order of " manifest destiny," or are contributory to a " cause." The defence which the "practical" man always sets up for his evil maxim is that in a finite world ethical rules after all are, like truth, purely relative. Accepting this idea without analyzing it, the practical man soon begins to sneer at " absolute " morality and at ideals, and to talk ponderously about the horrors that men of ideals and absolute standards, like Eousseau and Danton, have brought upon mankind. The plain truth of the matter, however, is that it is exactly this type of the practical man who is of all men the most abstract in his thinking, and whose ethics, such as he has, are of the most absolute sort. The doctrine that the end justifies the means is absolut- INTRODUCTION. ^i ism unqualified. It ignores the relativity of ends. The man who really understands that morality is relative, and who feels it as well, always remembers the relativity of the end in view not less than the relativity of the means that may be employed to its attainment, and he insists that the first comparison instituted shall be one between the ethical value of the end sought and that of the means chosen. More- over, such a man will guard himself against an over- valuation of the desired end which would insidiously lead him to underrate the importance of choosing un- questionable means ; and he will hold himself ready to make sacrifices or to endure suffering before adopt- ing means that he would under other circumstances pronounce evil. Finally, it is only such a man who can really appreciate the great truth, which Burke so clearly and fully demonstrated, that in politics ends and means must be not only ethically but also his- torically right, as natural incidents in the normal and coutinuous evolution of a people. Franklin H. Giddings. Columbia Univeesity, April, 1898. PREFACE. The art of governing, that noble and impor- tant art, has been disfigured by a great number of false maxims, which have made of it the art of lying and deceiving, the art of proscribing and despoiling, under a cloak of legality. It is these sophisms that I propose to combat. Side by side with the politicians who have governed in the national interest there are others who have only sought in the exercise of authority the satisfaction of their passions. It is these passions that I wish to study. Humanity has had for its governors slaughterers, fanatics, robbers, false coiners, bankrupts, mad- men, men who have been corrupt, and men who have sown corruption. Immense is the responsi- bility of these men, who, endowed with authority that they might enlighten and moralise the peoples over whom they were set, have depraved and degraded them by bad laws and a bad example. There are no greater malefactors than the political malefactors who foment divisions and hatreds by their ambition, ciipidity, and rivalries. Ordi- nary evil-doers who are judged hj the courts XIV PREFACE. are only guilty of killing or robbing some few individuals; the number of their victims is re- stricted. Political malefactors, on the contrary, count their victims by the thousand; they corrupt and ruin entire nations. Civilisation has accoiiiplished improvements in every direction except in that of politics, which continue a field for the display of deceit, intrigue, and contempt for right and liberty. Contemporary society, which is so proud of its industrial pro- gress and scientific discoveries, has less reason to plume itself when it takes stock of its political and financial customs. It may be able to show marvellous machines at exhibitions, but that great political machine, called the Government, is still very imperfect, and those who have charge of it are not always among the wisest or the most enlightened. "With us," as Littr^ re- marked, "everything prospers with the exception of our political organisation, which, blundering, bad or senseless, robs us periodically of all our advantages." In relating the crimes committed by political systems, based on craft and violence, my object has been to prove by facts that a loyal and honest policy is the only great policy; that politics, where they part company with morality, are de- meaned to begin with, and degenerate as well into a matter of adventures and shifts ; and finally, as Tacitus has said, that "there are no better instruments of good government than good men." Vir bonus, discendi peritus was Ciceros' PREFACE. XV definitio of orator. May not a statesman, if he is a true one, be defined as Vir probusdgendi peritus ? 4. The political question, just as the social ques- tion, is above all a moral question. The true aim of politics should be to render men more enlightened, more moral, more united, and happier. The best policy is, in consequence, that which accomplishes a little good, lessens unmerited suffering, appeases hatreds, encourages merit and labour, and develops the moral sense of the people. Political quarrels that turn upon questions of words or persons, merely agitate the country without being the cause of any progress. It is not ministerial combinations, ordinances decrees, or ill-considered, changeable, and multi- farious laws that bring about the progress of society, but the sterling sentiments, the great thoughts, that come straight from the heart ; the good example set by those in authority. It is for this reason, that without going so far as to say with Plato, that States can only be governed by philosophers, I believe that power can only be wielded worthily by those who have some inkling of philosophy, and who possess principles inspired by some form of religious belief. A sin- cere spiritualism is the salt that keeps societies from corruption. Unfortunately this salt has, of late years, lost much of its efficacy in Europe. I am aware that the passions will always play their part in politics. Still it is permissible to hope that politics may become more moral. XVI PREFACE. Human reason has brought about the disappear- ance of slavery and serfdom, of the privileges and omnipotence of kings. Why should it not succeed in introducing into politics a little more moderation and loyalty; a little more justice and humanity ? CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGB Machiaveiism 1 Machiavelli not the inventor of Machiaveiism — De- moralising effect of political power — The early years of tyrants show that it is power which demoralises them — Men in power are unscrupulous — Immorality of political maxims — The theory of two moralities — This theory held by the ancients — Cicero on political justice — Politics in the Middle Ages was the art of deceit and assassination — In modern times politics are not regulated by justice, but by reasons of State — • Diplomacy a school of deceit — Machiavelli on the duties of ambassadors — Montaigne and the sixteenth century moralists on political deceit — Political assassi- nations: St. Bartholomew — Christian moralists and Machiaveiism — Views of Bossuet, Fenelon, Massillon, ^Machiaveiism in the eighteenth century — Machi- aveiism and the French Revolution — Political doctrines of Mirabeau — Political doctrines of- the principal Revolutionists : Danton — The Reign of Terror a practical application of Machiaveiism — Robespierre a disciple of Machiavelli — Marat — Politics of Napoleon — Political crime is not justified by its results — Examples of this fact — The political blunders of Louis XIV. and Napoleon were also moral errors — A moral policy is the most successful policy. CHAPTER II. Political Assassination and Tyrannicide 2S The bloodthirstiness of political passion — Political assassins — Murder of children on political grounds — Reasons of State urged to justify every 2 xvii XVm CONTENTS. pAca possible crime — The massacre of prisoners during the French Revolution — Greek ideas regarding political assassination — Roman ideas regarding political assassination — Ideas of the Middle Ages regarding political assassination — Protestant and Catholic ideas regarding political assassination — The French Protestants and political assassination — Milton on tyrannicide — Catherine ot Russia on tyrannicide — Views of the Jacobins and Emigrants — Political assassination in the nineteenth century— The assassination of tyrants does not destroy tyranny — The doctrine of regicide. CHAPTER III. Anarchism .... , . 49 Anarchism adopts the doctrine of tyrannicide— Re- semblance between the Anarchists and Terrorists — the Nihilists — Kropotkine — Proudhon — The Ishmael- ites — Anarchists and Capitalists — Jacobin and Anarchist theories — Babeuf's doctrine of Anarchy — Diderot and Rousseau on Equality — Social Equality is the aim of modern Anarchism — Proudhon the father of Anarchism — Anarchist views on property — Property and Crime — "Robbery is Restitution" — Equality and Liberty — Revolutions reveal the black side of human nature — Saint Simon on Capitalists — The social theories of Lammenais — Elisje Rectus on Equality — Anarchist programme — Anarchists and Militarism — Lammenais on Crime — Jonathan Swift on political corruption — Sentimentalism at the root of attacks on the Social system — Louis Blanc — Kropotkine's senti- mentalism — Sentimentalism of the F'rench Revo- lutionists — The Anarchist substitutes himself for the State — Anarchist view of human rights — Vanity and Fanaticism among Anarchists — The apologists of revolutionary crimes make Anarchists — Thiers on the Revolutionary Tribunal — The victims of books — Duties of the historian — The effects of the Revolution on France — Philosophical Materialism and Anarch- ism — Vaillant — Ravachol — Effects of philosophical materialism — The doctrine that society is responsible for all social miseries — Anarchists assert that they are the victims of society — Marat's hatred ot society — The chief end of life according to Anarchism — The Christian view of wealth — Patriotism and Anarchism i°S CONTENTS. Xix PAGB — The aim of Anarchism and Socialism is to divide wealth— Revolutionary ideas and materialist theories — Nietzche's teaching— Christian morality and Anarch- ism — The classes who despise morality — The young Anarchists — Instruction without morals — The Anarchist Henry — Science cannot assure happiness — Intellectual poisons — Political Anarchy is the con- sequence of moral Anarchy — Views of Auguste Corate — Venal politicians and the unworthy rich are largely responsible for the growth of Anarchism. chapter iv. Political Hatreds The range of human hatred — War has been the normal condition of the human race — Causes of war — In international relations might is right — Man hates whatever differs from himself — Racehatreds — States- men Inflame international animosities — Repub- licanism and war — Class animosities — Conflicts of classes in history — Contemporary class hatreds — Party hatreds — The fate of moderate men — Political calumny — Temporary reconciliation of political parties Political executions — Political persecutions — The mob in politics — Political riots — Political excesses of the mob — Political vengeance — Political reaction — Political apathy — Political ferocity. chapter v. Political Hypocrisy . . . . . .132 Devices of the political hypocrite — Religion used as a cloak for political hypocrisy — Political ambition — Personal greed of politicians — The dissimulation of politicians — Politicians conceal their ambition under the cloalc of hypocrisy — Cromwell's hypocrisy — Mendacities of politicians — Political persecutors — Demagogues always speak in the name of the people — Timidity of moderate politicians — The in- fluence of fear in politics — Cowardice of the Convention — Politicians follow the crowd — Politicians as flatterers of the people — Gullibility of the people — Washing- ton on the "Friends of the People" — The politician and the courtier — Abuse of the word Libei t ' — The Satanic principle — The desire for true liberty is rare ^The misleading character of party names — The false- hood of official statements — Charlatanism of political parties — Criminals in revolutionary times — Goethe on the apostles of liberty. ^^ CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER VI. Political Spoliation i73 Wars made for purposes of robbery — Enslavement of the vanquished — Labour degrading, but pillage honourable — The Romans converted war into an instrument of pillage — Militarism a means of getting rich — The feudal system was the exploitation of the conquered — Pillaging expeditions — The English in Ireland — Armies and plunder — The right of shipwreck ^The old regime a form of spoliation — Confiscation and Civil wars — Material interests and revolutions — The Roman Republic fell from economic causes — The Reformation partly a movement to despoil the Church — Confiscations of Louis XIV. — Rapacity of courtiers — Spoliation during the French Revolution — A revolution means a transference of property — ■ Civil wars and pillage — Politicians in alliance with financiers — Politics and finance in ancient Rome — The difficulty of convicting politicians of peculation — Politicians and financiers corrupt the Press — Deputies sell their votes to financiers — Progress in spite of corruption — Socialist charges against the middle class — Social equality. chapter vii. Corruption amongst Politicians . . . 206 (I.) Political corruption in Rome — Corruption may prevail under any form of Government — Bribery in Rome — Venality of demagogues — Responsibility does not necessarily moralise politicians — Peculation in Rome — Corruption of judges among the Romans — Political corruption in Athens — Alcibiades — Pericles — Aristophanes on Demagogues. — (II.) Political corrup- tion in England — Lord Bacon — Corruption among members of parliament — Louis XIV. as a corrupter of foreign politicians — Corruption in England after the Revolution — Walpole's methods of corruption — Corrup- tion as practised by George III. — Purchase of seats in Parliament. — (III.) Political corruption in France — Richelieu's Views — Peculation under Louis XIV. — Xx)uis XIV. on the necessity for watching govern- ment officials — La Bruyfere on the financiers of the 18th century — The nobility and the financiers — Peculation in the 18th century — Political corruption CONTENTS. xxi PACK under Louis XV. — Corruption during the Revolutionary period — Political morality under the Empire — Venality of Talleyrand— Political morality during the Restora- tion — Political corruption under the July monarchy — Deputies as directors of public companies — Heine on corruption in France.— (IV.) The causes of political corruption — Levity of life among politicians — Instances from ancient Rome — Influence of women in politics —Love of luxury and display among politicians — Sim- plicity of life the best safeguard against political corruption. CHAPTER VIII. Electoral Corruption ..... 259 Corruption under universal suffrage — How votes are purchased — A wirepuller's manual — Cicero on the way to win votes — Political condottieri — Corruption of electorate by rich candidates — Electoral returns — Demagogues in political assemblies — Aristotle and Montesquieu on democracy — Democracy and merit — Political apathy of honest citizens — Evils of political indifference — Cato on public duty — La Bruyire on public life. CHAPTER IXi The Corruption OF Law AND Justice BY Politics . 279 The law as an instrument of injustice — English penal laws against Irish Catholics — Laws are made to favour the party in power — Exceptional laws are political laws — Lawyers find plausible reasons for bad laws — It is independent thinkers and not lawyers who improve law — Political assemblies often pass unjust laws — Laws are often passed under the in- fluence of political passion — Characteristics of inen irt masses — In assemblies the violent often intimidate the moderate — Crude legislation and useful reforms — The corruption of justice by politics — Judicial murders — The calumniation of political opponents — Servility of judges to governments — Servility in the old English courts of justice — Juries and justice^ French magistrates under the old regime — Govern- ments dislike an independent magistracy — Indepen- dence of character essential to a good judge — Dangers of special commissions — The French Revo- lutionaryTribunal — Military men as judges — The police in politics — Judges should not be politicians. XXU CONTENTS. PACK chapter x. The Corruption of Public Morals by Politics . 3'^ The character of the government affects the character of the nation — Evil results of frequent changes of government — Politicians of the Talleyrand and Fouche type — Fortunes made in politics — Political upstarts — Political ambition — Place hunters — Bureaucracies in democracy — Aristocracy in the nineteenth century — The two ruling passions among men are the desire for honour and wealth — Thiers on political corruption^ The administrative services in France — The relation between moral and political corruption — Bentham on the French character — Comparison between France and Rome — A nation must not always be judged by the character of its politicians. chapter xl Conclusion . . ... 340 Politics are not above the moral law — Machiavelli's doctrines are immoral rather than profound — An immoral policy is unworthy of modern society — The moral standard of politicians is determined by public opinion — Moral beliefs are the only remedy for political corruption — Modern society is suffering from moral disease — The principles of international politics — The true field of international rivalry — International arbitration — Politics without morality mean the ruin of society. CHAPTER I. MACHIAVELISM. Machiavelli not the inventor of Machiavelism — Demoralising effect of political power — The early years of tyrants show that it is power which demoralises them — Men in power are unscrupulous — Immorality of political maxims — The theory of two moralities — This theory held by the ancients — Cicero on political justice — Politics in the Middle Ages was the art of deceit and assassination — In modern times politics not regulated by justice, but by reasons of State — Diplomacy a school of deceit — Machiavelli on the duties of ambassadors —Montaigne and the sixteenth century moralists on politi- cal deceit — Political assassinations: St. Bartholomew — Christian moralists and Machiavelism — Views of Bossuet, Ftoelon, Massillon — Machiavelism in the eighteenth century — Machiavelism and the French Revolution — Political doctrines of Mirabeau — Political doctrines of the principal Revolutionists: Danton — The Reign of Terror a, practical application of Machiavelism — Robespierre a disciple of Machiavelli — Marat — Politics of Napoleon — Political crime is not justified by its results — Examples of this fact — The political blunders of Louis XIV. and Napoleon were also moral errors — A moral policy is the most success- ful policy. Machiavelism does not date from Machiavelli. It was not he who invented it, and all he did was to relate what he saw being done by the politi- cians of his time. His only crime — and it is a grave one — is to have explained without blam- ing it a policy based on violence and trickery, and to have shown how cruelty and craftiness 2 POLITICAL CRIME. may be turned to account to acquire and keep authority. Politics did not await the advent of Machla- velli to become shifty, violent, and sanguinary. Statesmen did not need the lessons of the Italian writer to teach them to lie, to proscribe their ad- versaries, and to confiscate their belongings. The desire to rule and the exercise of authority teach fraud and violence.^ It is difficult to wield power with equity and, moderation. Tacitus, when he Avishes to explain the cruelties of Tiberius, writes that he had been led away and transformed by his tenure of power: " Vi domination is convulsus et mutatus." Power is an agent of corruption. Sylla in his youth, says Plutarch, was of a good disposition, "liking to laugh, inclined to pity to the point of weeping easily, and yet, in the end, he too, having grown cruel, spoke ill of and condemned great accession of power and honours on the ground of their being the cause of men's habits not remaining as they were in the beginning, but undergoing a change resulting for some in madness and making others vain, cruel, and inhuman." Honores mutant mores, runs a Latin proverb. It is so rare for power not to corrupt that Tacitus writes of. Vespasian at the opening of his career, that he was the only man who, passing from private to public life, had become more virtuous.^ ' Ut nemo doceat fraudis et sceleris vias, Regnum docebit.— (Seneca.) " Tacitus, " Historise,"!. I., §50. See also Aristotle, "Politics," III., cli. xi., § 4. Cicero, " De Amicitia," § 15. MACHIAVELISM. 3 The earlier years of Nero, of Charles IX., and of a great number of other princes, did not fore- shadow the crimes they were to commit. The Chancellor de I'Hopital, astonished at the change that had come over the character of Charles IX., wrote to one of his friends: "I have attained to old age, and I regret my long life be- cause I have seen a generous character deformed, a king develop into a tyrant. Nobody would have made me, — the witness of his early years, — believe this." Intoxicated by flattery, and blinded by pride, princes, whose power is great, end by losing their heads. The rules of morality seem to them to apply no longer to their case. Napoleon, on his death bed, looking back on his career, declared: " Power affects the intelligence of men." In order to attain their aims, the men who exer- cise authority are in general but little scrupu- lous in the choice of means. They are fond of saying that the end justifies the means, and that when morality is opposed to a useful measure, one must be prepared to sacrifice it for State reasons and in the interest of the public safety. Politics warp the conscience. It is politics that is responsible for the putting in practice of those baleful maxims : " Might is stronger than right ; " "The end justifies the means;" "The safety of the people is the supreme law." There is no crime that politics has not sought to justify on the score of State reasons. There is little that is reasonable about these reasons of State. They 4 POLITICAL CRIME. have served as a pretext for wreaking revenge, for proscribing the innocent, for laying hands on the possessions of others, and for pursuing self- aggrandisement in defiance of all justice. Politi- cians use this expression as a cloak for every iniquity. It is in the name of State reasons that Socrates was condemned to drink henilock, that the Christians were persecuted by the Roman Emperors, and that the Protestants were mas- sacred by Charles IX. and banished by Louis XIV. It was on the pretext of the interest of the State that Nero obtained the justification of the mur- der of his mother, etc., etc. ^ The Machiavelian theory is already to be found in the "Phoenissae" of Euripides where these words of Eteocles occur: "If it be needful to resort to injustice to attain to power, let us have re- course thereto; but under all other circumstances let us be- honest." This is the theory of two moralities,, one for private, and one for political life. Men who in private life are respectful of justice, allow themselves every license in politics. Thucydides relates that the Athenians were wont to say of the Lacedaemonians: "Amongst them- selves and in their national institutions they observe in general the dictates of virtue, but in the case of their foreign relations it is different. "Where these are concerned, they regard what is agreeaVjle as honest, and what is useful as just, more openly than other people with whom we are acquainted."^ 1 Thucydides, 1. V., § 105. MACHIAVELISM. 5 The politics of the Athenians did not differ greatly from that of the Lacedaemonians. The Roman Senate also put in practice a Machiavel- lian policy when it invoked the interest and the safety of the Republic. Injustice is cloaked as a rule in politics by lying pretexts. Occasionally, however, ambitious men who are free from scruples make a barefaced avowal of their contempt for justice. For example, a deputation hailing from Corinth stated : " No- body has ever refused out of considerations of justice to utilize an opportunity of achieving aggrandisement by force." Among the ancients, Cicero refuted the false maxim that it is impossible to govern in accord ance Avith justice, and that the interest of the State authorises the enaployment of every expe- dient. He blamed the statesmen who advocated unjust measures, alleging that "the interest of the State is a paramount consideration." "Not only," adds Cicero, " is it false to say that men cannot be governed without violating justice, but the truth is, in fact, this: it is by absolute justice, and by justice alone, that it is possible to govern States." Cicero developed his conten- tion by setting forth in a series of noble reflec- tions the relations between what is upright and what is useful.^ While philosophy was demonstrating that justice is the most solid foundation for human societies, politics, under the Roman Emperors 1 " De Officiis," 1. III., § 21, 32. 6 POLITICAL CRIME. and during the Middle Ages, continued its work of oppression, corruption, and injustice. The Italian princes in particular made of politics the art of deceiving, assassinating, and poisoning. Christianity was in perpetual conflict with Machia- velisni, but could not succeed in effecting its extirpation. In Spain, England, Germany, and France, among the most civilised nations, politics were regulated by reasons of State. It was for State reasons that Ferdinand and Isabella ex- pelled the Jews from Spain, and that the Kings of England committed so many acts contrary to justice. The English, essentially a utilitarian people, are given to confounding what is useful with what is just, and their statesmen have often proposed unjust measures because they were demanded in their opinion by the safety of the State. ^ The best French kings, Avith the exception of Saint Louis, and the greatest French Ministers, Ilichelieu and Mazarin, gave their adhesion to the doctrine that proclaims the all-importance of reasons of State. Henry IV. himself advised Queen Elizabeth to order the carryingoutof the sentence of death pronounced against Mary Stuart. 1 This contusion between what is useful and what is upright may be traced in the speeches of the most illustrious English statesmen. When Canning, for example, in 1821, was combat- ting the exclusion of the Catholics from Parliament, he admitted that their exclusion would be just if it were necessary, and to prove that it was not just he maintained that it was unneces- sary. Recalling the unjust laws promulgated against the Catholics under James I., Caftning adds: " Unjust as these stipulations were, the safety of the State rendered them necessary." MACHIA VELISM. / In private life the man who resorts to deceit is despised; in politics equivocation, cunning, and every means of dissembling the truth, form part of the science of the diplomatist. Diplomacy furnishes pretexts for every sort of aggression, and veils ambition and greed under high-sound- ing words. Politics in ancient times, the politics of the Greeks, the Carthaginians and the Romans were not characterised by good faith. The Punic faith, yides puiiica, has remained a by-word. De-i ception and audacity were the principal means by which the Romans achieved their aggrandise- ment. Among modern nations politics have just as little been a school of good faith and equity. When Mazarin desired to employ Marshal de Faber in a negotiation of dubious sincerity, the latter begged to be relieved of the task in these terms: "Allow me. Sire, to refuse to deceive the Duke of Savoy, and the more so in that the matter at issue is of slight importance. It is of common knowledge that I am an honourable man. In consequence keep my honesty in reserve for an occasion when the salvation of France is at stake." During the 15th and 16th centuries underhand dealing in politics carried with it no stigma, but was considered a proof of ability deserving of praise. Brantome qualifies as "good tricks" the stratagems of Louis XL, to which Comines refers as "fine lies." When, in 1494, the Ambassadors from Milan swore to Comines that their Duke had no hand in the league formed against France, O POLITICAL CRIME. Sanuto, a Venetian, declared they had acted "as men skilled in the affairs of State ought to act, assuring their enemies that their intention is to act in one way and acting afterwards in a way entirely contrary." Machiavelli maintained that an Ambassador should be capable of lying ^ and of breaking his word, while to enable him the better to deceive he should earn a reputation for uprightniess. His contemporaries were not re- volted by these immoral maxims. The false maxim that the end justifies the means was allowed by the majority of the moral- ists of the 16th century, and in particular by Montaigne and Charron. In the Essays of Mon- taigne a strong repulsion is noticeable for the cruel and treacherous acts which were of so fre- quent occurrence during the religious and politi- cal struggles of his time.^ And yet Montaigne writes that "the weakness of our case often drives us to the necessity of employing reprehen- sible means to a worthy end." ^ ' Plato in this matter is of the same opinion as Machiavelli: " It seems to me that our magistrates will often be obliged to have recourse to lying and deceit in the interest of their fellow- citizens, and we have declared elsewhere that a lie is useful when it is employed as a remedy — and rightly so." — /<«s tuhliea V. Priezac, a king's councillor, in a discourse upon the " Politics " of Aristotle, published in 1652, declared that craft, where politics are concerned, is blameless because it is useful. " See- ing," he wrote, " that painting is never so esteemed as when it deceives the eye by its lights and shades, . who can account it strange that in politics, the mistress, that is, of the arts and sciences, it should be allowable to make use of sophisms to a nobler and more spacious end 1" - Montaigne, Bk. I., ch. xxx. ^ Ibid., Bk. I., 1. ii., ch. xxxiii. MACHIAVEUSM. Q Charron is of the same opinion. "One is often constrained," he says, " to resort to and employ reprehensible means to avoid or escape from a greater evil or to achieve a good end. And to such a degree is this the case that it is sometimes necessary to hold legitimate and to authorise things that not only are not good but are posi- tively bad."^ In his treatise on wisdom this moralist authorises dissimulation and violence when they are useful to the State. "Dissimulation," he writes, " which is a vice in private persons, is most necessary to princes, who, without it, would be incapable of reigning or of exercising command to advantage The simple and open, Avhose thoughts, as it is said, can be read on their faces, are in no sort fitted for this profession of commanding." - Further, according to Charron, " the prudent and wise prince should not only be capable of governing in accordance with the law, but of im- posing his authority upon the laws themselves if necessity demand it." "Finally," he says, "so as to be just in great matters, it is sometimes necessary to be less just in small matters ; so as to do the right when great interests are con- 1 Charron, " De la Sagesse," Bk. I., § 86. 2 Ibid.,Bk. III., § 7. This idea that a prince should be capable of lying is still widely entertained even to-day. An illustrious historian of high character, M. Mignet, talking with one of my friends of the events in Italy that followed the Treaty of Villafranca, said of Napoleon III., whom he did not like: "I admit, however, that this prince has two important qualities- he knows when to stop and how to lie." lO POLITICAL CRIME. cerned, it is allowable to do wrong on occasions of lesser import." ^ Necessity is an excuse for everything: "It is impossible that good princes should not commit some injustice." These acts of injustice are excvisable if they are useful to the State. Princes should resign themselves to perpetrate them, " regretfully and with sighs." Gabriel Naude, the librarian of Mazarin, in his volume entitled "A Politic "View of Coups d'Etat" goes still further than Charron in his contempt for justice in politics and in the theory of the two moralities. "Common justice," he says, "is exacting, and in consequence a source of incon- venience in the conduct of affairs. It is there- fore needful to adapt it to the necessities of poli- tics. In the interest of the State a prince should resign himself to measures that strict justice would condemn, and should be content to follow the example of his compeers. He writes: "The justice, virtue, and probity of a sovereign have a somewhat different carriage than when private individuals are concerned; they have an ampler and a freer gait." The sovereign, no doubt, should make an effort not to separate the useful from the honourable, but where this union is impossible, it suffices that he should deviate from the right as little as may be. Naude defines coups d'etat as " bold and exceptional acts which princes are constrained to commit in difficult and despe- rate cases without regard to equity, or even respect ' Charron, " De la Sagesse," Bk. III., § 10. MA CHI A VELISM. \ \ for any shape or form of justice, but risking the interest of the individual for the public good." Princes, Naude declares, should only resort to coups dJetat in extreme cases; they are powerful remedies which ought to be reserved for grave diseases. However, when a cowp d'etat is neces- sary, action should be prompt; a well-combined coup d'etat should strike like lightning before the thunder is heard. According to Naude, assassination is allowable when the prince acts for the public good, or for his own, which is inseparable from the former. Naude approves of the Saint Bartholomew mas- sacres and finds them deserving of praise. He justifies this effusion of blood by saying that it did not equal that at Coutras or Montcontour, that Charles IX. made fewer victims than other kings, that Caesar caused the death of "one mil- lion one hundred and ninety-two thousand men in his foreign wars, Pompey that of a still greater number, while Quintus Fabius, in the colonies, dispatched one hundred thousand Gauls into the other world, and Caius Marius two hundred thousand Cimbrians. . . . Whoever considers these bloody tragedies . . . will have suffi- cient cause to be taken aback at so many bar- barities, and to esteem further, that that of Saint Bartholomew was not among the greatest, although it was among the most just and necessary." Naude has only one fault to find with the mas- sacres of Saint Bartholomew, and it is that they were incomplete and were only accomplished by 3 12 POLITICAL CRIME. halves. If "all the heretics had been included in the slaughter, there would remain nobody to blame it, at least in France." In coming to Paris, Coligny and his Iriends were guilty of such grave imprudence "that it would have been an equal fault on our part to have let them escape." In other words, when a political adversary gives you a chance of dispatching him, it would be a fault not to take his life. According to this rea- soning, when Luther betook himself to Augsburg, Charles V. ought to have had him assassinated for the good of humanity. By this murder he would have prevented the wars of religion. Mo- rality forbids murder, but politics permit it when it is called for by the good of the State: such in a word is the doctrine of Mazarin's librarian. The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz may also be considered as a course of political immorality. The Cardinal openly enforces all the principles of Machiavelism in this work, whereas in his ser- mons he condemns them. The immoral theory of the paramount impor- tance of reasons of State has been put in prac- tice by all Governments, by monarchies as well as by republics. No Government put it in prac- tice with more cruelty than the Council of Ten in Venice, which got rid of all its political adver- saries by poison or drowning. "We act more than we talk," wrote a Venetian ambassador in Rome, in a despatch dated 27th April, 1566. " We do not have recourse to fire and sword, but we see to it that those who deserve their fate are secretly MA CHI A VELISM. 1 3 done to death." The Venetians were in the habit of saying: "We are Venetians in the first place and Christians in the second." The Christian morahsts who wrote upon poH- tics in the 17th and 18th centuries, Bossuet, Fenelon,Massillon, Condillac or Mably, combatted Machiavelism, and endeavoured, but in vain, to assure the triumph of principles inspired by a political morality. Bossuet in his " Politique tiree de I'Ecriture Sainte," and Fenelon in " Telemaqvie" and his "Instructions pour la Conscience d'un Hoi," taught the Dauphin and the Duke of Bur- gundy to dispense with violence and bad faith, to avoid false cunning, and not to separate politics from justice. " Telemaque " sets forth a system of Christian politics. The politics of Bossuet are drawn from the Bible, those of Fenelon from the New Testament. Christendom, in the opinion of the Bishop of Cambrai, is a vast family, a sort of universal republic, and each nation is a member of this vast family. Fenelon is desirous that war, if it be inevitable, should always be conducted with good faith and without cruelty: those who are at enmity are none the less men and brothers. He instructed the Duke of Burgundy not to con- found his personal pretensions, his wish for glory, and his ambitions with State necessities and State needs. He taught him that politics did not relieve him of the duty of being just, sincere and compassionate, and did not raise him above the ordinary laws of justice and humanity. Massillon and Condillac continued during the 14 POLITICAL CRIME. 18th century the work of Bossuet and Fenelon, by impressing, the former upon Louis XV., the latter upon the Duke of Parma, the union that exists between politics and morality. In his "Etudes de I'Histoire " Condillac combatted the false maxims that dishonour politics, "a medley of pettinesses, ruses, subtilties, and absurdities, which, he says, " people would have you admire," and which he calls political charlatanism. But while the Christian moralists and some philosophers such as Holbach,' Barbeyrac, and Mably were refuting Machiavelism, the Regent, Dubois, Louis XV., Frederic IL, and Catherine of Russia were continu^ing in the 18th century a policy bereft of principle and morality. The Minister Terray thought to justify bankruptcy by saying: "Necessity justifies everything." In France, as Avas the case with the other European •nations, politics remained Machiavelian and re- sorted to every expedient to insure success; — to ruse, to deceit, to intrigues with the feminine favourites of sovereigns and ministers, to secret ^ Holbach combatted Machiavelism in a book entitled " Sys- tSme Social," that is not without merit, but is little known. This book is a, development of the conception that politics by right should be the application of morality to the government of States. Barbeyrac attempted to unmask that political hypo- crisy which under the cloak of religion, and the public good, resorts to illegality and violence. The illusions, he said, ought to be dissipated in the name of which dust is thrown in people's eyes by the use of certain high-sounding expressions and big words which have no meaning (" De la Liberte de Conscience"). Mably in his " Entretiens de Phocion " set himself the task of proving that politics cannot compass the welfare of society except so far as they do not deviate from the strictest rules of morality. MA CHI A VELISM. I 5 agents and to corruption. "The interest of the State as guiding principle and goal, and intrigue as the means, such," M. Sorel rightly says, "was the beginning and end of politics in the 18th century."^ The notion that the interest of the State is the supreme law in politics found general acceptance. It is even to be noted in the writings of the Abbe de Saint Pierre, who asserted that a sovereign is not bound to keep his word: " The law that declares that the pledged word must not be broken is a law subordinate to that other law: Salus populi sui^rema lex " (" Les Reves d'un Homme de Bien," p. 50). The diplomacy of the time was unscrupulous. The philosophers admired and overwhelmed with flattery Frede- rick II. and Catherine of Russia, who were the disciples of Machiavelli. The King of Prussia, who in his youth had refuted "The Prince," set to work as soon as he had assumed power to put in practice the immoral maxims of the Italian author. He did not hesitate to write in the preface to his " History of My Time " that a sovereign should break his word and disregard treaties when he considered that to do so was useful. He forgot that he had himself stigmatised such perfidy in the following verses : When politics, resorting to sophisms, Draws its inspiration from the treacherous doctrine of Machiavelli, The spectacle afforded is that of rogues, deceivers, and liars. Of ministers tricked and of ministers who are tricksters; These false maxims did away with probity, And the art of governing was a school for crimes. ' Sorel, " L'Europe et la Ri5volution Fianyaise," Vol. I., p. 89. 1 6 POLITICAL CRIME. When the French Revolution was brought about in the name of the great principles of justice and humanity, it seemed reasonable to hope that poli- tics would cease to be conducted on immoral lines. Sieyes, in his famous pamphlet, " Qu'est- ce que le Tiers Etat?" (ch. v.), protested against those "who hold just and natural methods of little account in social concerns, and who only esteem those artificial expedients which, more or less iniquitous, and more or less shifty, establish, everywhere, the reputation of statesmen and great politicians." Unfortunately these optimistic expectations were not destined to be realised; the (Revolution severed itself from morality and was accomplished by dint of a series of coups d'etat. Some years previously, Montesquieu had said in "L'Esprit des Lois": "A beginning has been made in the matter of curing ourselves of Machiavelism, and this cure will be proceeded Avith day by day. . . . What were called formerly coups d'etat would to-day, apart from the horror that attaches to them, be mere acts of imprudence."^ Events gave the lie to this optimism in cruel fashion. The Revolution begun in the name of justice was carried through by force. How many dates, such as 15th October, 2nd' September, 20th .June, 10th August, 21st January, 1793, 31st May, 2nd June, 1793, March and April, 1794, 9th Thermidor, 13th Vendemaire, 18th Fructidor, and 18th Brumaire, how many dates, we say, recall the triumph of force. ' " Esprit des Lois," Bk. XXI., ch. xvi. MA CHI A VELISM. 1 7 The Revolution was nothing else but a series of cowps d'etat: 20th June, 10th August, coups d'dtat against the monarchy ; 31st May, 2nd June, coups d'dtat against the Girondins ; 2nd April, 1794, coup d'dtat against Danton ; 9th Thermidor, coup d'etat against Robespierre ; 18th Fructidor, coup d'etat against the moderate Republicans and the Royal- ists ; 18th Brumaire, coup d'dtat against the Direc- tory. During the Terror, people were massacred and guillotined in Paris, drowned at Nantes, and shot at Lyons and Toulon. Under the Directory the victims were transported, and on the occasion of the 18th Brumaire they were exiled. These mas- sacres, drownings, shootings, and transportations became a system of government at the time that the political programme was based on the three great principles of Liberty, Equality, and Fra ternity. Almost all the politicians of the Revolution, from Mirabeau to Bonaparte, practised Machia- velism. Mirabeau was inspired by Machiavelli when he said : "Petty morality is fatal to the highest morality." In the memoir he drew up for the use of the Court, he gave the king Machiavelian advice; he recommended him to ruin the authority of the Assembly by a series of dishonest manoeu- vres, to lay traps for that body, to put obstacles in its path, to egg it on to usurp all authority. "This procedure," he said, "will disorganise the kingdom more and more, and will add to the anarchy, but for this very reason it will pave the way for a crisis, and the evils from which the I 1 8 POLITICAL CRIME. kingdom suffers enduring and growing more acute, there will soon be nothing left for it but to have recourse to the royal authority." This policy, which Mirabeau counselled Loviis XVI. to adopt, was immoral, because it consisted in augmenting the evil, in the very problematical hope of thereby producing good.^ Mirabeau also urged the Court to conciliate the party leaders by any means. "If flattering their ambition," he said, "is insufficient to win them over, it is by other means — and I make no excep- tion of any kind^that a greater measure of suc- cess must be scored." It was on the pressing recommendation of Mirabeau that Mdme. Mont- morin distributed seven millions amongst the popular party. The policy of the other principal actors in the Revolution was a mere servile imitation of the immoral policy of the old regime. It was a policy of expedients, of ruse, and of violence, a policy that had recourse to force, to rioting, and to coups d'etat. In its turn it resorted to arbitrary arrests, massacres, the inquisition, the proscription of suspected persons, and confiscation. It sought its inspiration in the doctrine of the interest of the State, it borrowed the principles of absolute governments, such as the all-importance of the goal and contempt for the individual, and it out- did the violence of Henry VIII. , Philip II., and the Duke of Alba. ^ " Les Mirabeau," by Louis de Lomenie, Vol. V., p. 23o. - Rivarol, in his "Lettres a Necker," which date from the same period, counselled an identical policy. MA CHI A VELISM. 1 9 The Athenian Assembly refused to listen to the reading of a law of which Aristides had said that it was useful but unjust. The Legislative Assem- bly and the Convention were not biirdened with such scruples; they voted a number of laws be- cause they thought them useful but while know- ing them to be unjust. Michelet, who is so indul- gent for the men of the Revolution, admits "that on coming to the head of aflairs they made no difficulty about accepting the very false doctrine that there are two moralities, one private, the other public, and that the first in case of need may be overlooked by the second. This was the theory of all the politicians of the period. They imagined that in this respect they were the descendants of Brutus, whereas their real ancestor was Machiavelli.'^ In their eyes the end justifies the means. They esteemed every measure allowable that was directed against the "aristocrats." "You have a serious failing," a revolutionary declared to Garat ; " it is that you will not lend yourself to a bad action, although it be demanded by the public good." Basire maintained from the tribune that all means are acceptable when employed against the enemies of the nation. Leclerc exclaimed: "A Machiavelism for the use of the people must be founded." Danton allowed that he would no;t stop short at crime when he judged it necessary. He provoked the September massacres with a view according to his own expression, to put a Michelet, " Histoire de la Revolution Franyaise," Vol. VI., p. 9. 20 POLITICAL CRIME. river of blood between the Parisians and the Emigrants.^ When the Paris Commune, after the September massacres, urged the provinces to follow the example of Paris, Danton, at the time Minister of Justice, let this abominable incite- ment to massacre be dispatched with his ministerial seal appended to it.^ The Terror was an application of the false doctrines of Machiavelli. The Italian author had said: "When a State undergoes a revolution, whether it be that a republic becomes a tyranny, or that a tyranny is replaced by a republic, it is necessary that a terrible example should strike fear into the hearts of the enemies of the new order of things."* Machiavelli had added that it was fitting to be prompt and audacious in the extermination of political adversaries.'' The word audacity was for ever on the lips of the Terrorists. On the occasion of the September massacres, Danton exclaimed: " Be bold ! be bold ! always be bold ! " The motto of Saint Just was the same as that of Danton. "To dare," he said, "constitutes the whole secret of revolutions." The men of the Terror darfed greatly. Robespierre, in his speeches, combatted ^ The participation of Danton in the September massacres has been contested, but it has, nevertheless, been proved by MM. Wallon, Taine, Mortimer-Ternaux, and Louis Blanc. Michelet himself admits it in spite of his admiration lor the political genius of Danton. 2 E. Quinet, "La Revolution," Vol. I., p. 351. ^ Machiavelli, "Discourses upon Livy," Bk. IIL, ch. viii. * Machiavelli, " II Principe," ch. viii. MA CHfA VELISM. 2 1 Machiavelism, but resorted to it in his acts. "The art of governing," he declared, "has, up till now, been the art of deceiving, and corrupting men. It ought to be nothing else than the art of en- lightening them and making them better." And yet his behaviour was always that of a disciple of Machiavelli. He invoked the interest of the State as an excuse for suppressing his enemies, and he considered that proscriptions were neces- sary to establish liberty, equality, and fraternity. Machiavelli had said: "In every case where a measure has to be debated on which the safety of the State depends entirely, one must not be stopped by any consideration of justice or of injustice, of humanity or of cruelty, of glory or of ignominy." ^ The Terrorists repeated the same idea when they cried: "Let our memory perish so long as the country is saved! " Marat wrote in the J. mi d-w Pevuple for February 28th, 1791: "The safety of the people is at stake. Before this supreme law all other laws should be as naught. To save the country all means are good, all means are just, all means are meritorious." As did Marat, very many Jacobins thought to justify the proscrip- tions on the ground of the greatness of the end in view and of the safety of the republic. It will be seen from these comparisons between sundry passages from Machiavelli and the doc- trines of the Terrorists that these statesmen who gave out that they were inaugurating a new policy were merely copying and even exaggerating the 1 Machiavelli, "Discourses upon Livy," Bk. III., ch. xli. 22 POLITICAL CRIME. old policy of despotic Governments. They had no comprehension of the new principles introduced by the French Revolution. They lacked the sentiment of liberty, equality, and fraternity. In- ^ stead of being pioneers in the field of politics, all they did was to copy the old Machiavelian policy. They employed in defending the cause of the people the criminal means that had been resorted to before them by the defenders of an absolute monarchy. The Directory kept up the Machiavelian tradi- tions. It only retained the reins of power by craft and force, and by violating on the 18th Tructidor the rights of the representation of the nation. The 18th Fructidor, which was the work of three audacious Directors and of Augereau, an un- scrupulous soldier, speedily brought about another covjp d'dtat, the 18th Brumaire, accomplished by another general, whose moral sense was not on a par with his genius. This coup d'dtat, the exe- cution of the Due d'Enghien, the abduction of the Pope, and the Bayonne ambuscade, make it impossible to admit that the policy of Napoleon I. was always loyal and just. The name of "Great" may be allotted Napoleon I., since history, taking count of intellectual rather than of moral great- ness, gives the nanie of " Great " to all conquerors, to Alexander, Caesar, Louis XIV., and Frederick II., but he cannot be called either the wise or the just, since he did not hesitate to violate justice on the plea of serving the interest of the State. " The interest of the State," he declared, " has taken MACHIAVEUSM. 23 the place in modern times of the fatalism of the ancients. Corneille is the only one of the French tragic authors who has appreciated this truth. Had he lived in my time I should have made him my Prime Minister."^ To conclude this chapter I would wish to examine whether the advantages of an immoralv policy are as great as is thought. It appears to me that the advantages of a Machiavelian policy are exaggerated because, as a rule, only the im mediate advantages are taken into consideration, and the remoter consequences are neglected. Human life being very short, a man may profit by a crime and die before he has been punished. The life of nations being much longer, a political crime, after resulting in momentary advantages, is always expiated in the end. The triumph of cunning and force is often transitory, and if a lengthy period be examined, one is struck in a general way by the fact that failure attends an immoral policy. A politician face to face with a serious difficulty, thinks recourse to an unjust expedient of immediate utility the simplest mode of escape from it, but the future is not slow to teach him the drawbacks of injustice. Cunning and injustice do not always result in advantage, but have more than once cost those who resorted to them dearly. The examples of ' It is a fact that the theory ol the interest of the State is to be found in Corneille. His development of the hateful doctrine is not, liowever, the expression of his own thoughts, but is con- tained in words which lie puts in the mouth of Pliotin, the Minister of Piolcmy. 24 POrjTlCAL CRIME. political perfidy and cruelty which Machiavelli cites as specimens of adroitness turn to his con- fusion, for the princes whose elaborate treachery he admires did not long enjoy the fruit of their crimes. His hero, Caesar Borgia, did not bask in the smiles of fortune. Machiavelli himself, in spite of his genius, was an unsuccessful man, a man who, absorbed by the desire to make his way, achieved nothing. Political, like other crimes, are not committed with impunity. The disciples of Machiavelli who, out of political considerations, have caused the death of innocent persons, have often come themselves to a tragic end. Those who have proscribed others are themselves proscribed in turn. The Girondin,s, who were responsible for the events of the 21st January, were the victims of the .31st May. The Dantonists, who accused the Girondins of moderation, were themselves pro- scribed as moderates. Robespierre and his friends, who sent so many victims to the guillotine, were guillotined in their turn. The principal Jacobins to whose initiative was due the establishment of the revolutionary tribunal perished the victims of that tribunal. The members of the Long Parlia- ment, who had Charles I. executed and who pro- scribed a great many of their colleagues, were themselves driven ignominiously from their seats by Cromwell, who said to them as he expelled them : "As for you, you are a drunkard, and you a debaucher, and you an adulterer, and you a thief." The faults that endanger the prosperity of a MACHIA VELISM. 2 5 nation often have their origin in the failure to recognise what is just. • The great political mis- takes of Louis XIV. and Napoleon I. were at the same time mistakes from a moral point of view. Louis XIV. thought to strengthen the State when he revoked the Edict of Nantes : in point of fact, he weakened it. When the wife of the First Consul, on learning the abduction of the Due d'Enghien, implored her husband with tears not to spill his blood, Bonaparte replied to her: "You are a woman. My policy is beyond your comprehension. Your part is to keep silent."^ He fancied that he would derive great advan- tages from this iniquitous act, whereas the real outcome of this violation of justice was to arouse the indignation of all good men in France and throughout Europe, and to cause him to lose the support of Prussia, of which he stood in need at the time, a circvimstance that was favourable to the aims of England. The man who exclaimed on being told of the execution of the Due d'Eng- hien, " It is worse than a crime; it is a blunder," gave utterance to an immoral remark, since a crime seemed to him le^s serious than a political mistake; but he was not wrong in describing the act as a mistake. The sensitive woman had had a better intuition of the truth than the politician of genius. The intelligence, acting alone, is apt to make mistakes. Even in politics the feelings may dictate a reasonable course, which would never be suggested by reasons of State, and attain 1 Thiers, " Histoire du Consulat et de rEmpire," Bk. XVIII. 26 POLITICAL CRIME. to a lucidity that would not result from calcula- tion. Politics severed from the emotions are deprived of a fruitful source of inspiration. Napoleon I., when he took away the crown of Spain from Charles IV. and his son Ferdinand, attempted to excuse his violence and trickery on the score of political necessity. "From a certain point of view," he said, " what I am doing is not right, but politics have their exigencies and are inevitably rigorous. . . Politics, politics," he said, " ought to direct all the actions of such a man as myself."^ He thought to excuse this political crime by the greatness of the end he had in view, which was the regeneration of Spain. He failed, however, to attain this end, and his attempt upon the inde- pendence of the Spanish nation was productive of results disastrous to himself. How false is the Machiavelian maxim that the end justifies the means will be seen from these examples. It is not even certain in politics that an advantageous end may be gained by repre- hensible means. Napoleon by his attack upon the independence of Spain no more attained the end he had in view than Louis XIV. by the revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes achieved the reli- gious unity at which he aimed. Genius comes under the law that ordains the punishment, sooner or later, of political as of other crimes. Had Napoleon, instead of seizing upon the power by force, awaited till he was ' Thiers, "Histoire du Consiilat et de rEiiipire," Bk. XXX. MA CHI A VEUSM. 2 / legally intrusted with it, he would have accom- plished the great acts that have made his name illustrious, while the check that would have been imposed upon his ambition would have preserved him from the follies that proved his perdition and involved France in his ruin. The greatest genius of modern times having erred in his political cal- culations, it is permissible to hold that the surest policy is a moral policy. ^ The stumbling block of the cause of the French Revolution has been Machiavelism. The unrest with which the country has been afflicted for a hundred years past, which is not yet at an end, has resulted from the fact that the men entrusted with the application of the new political principles have ignored morality. It is not these principles themselves that have caused the trouble but the culpable means by which they have been put in practice. The employment of force, organised rebellion, proscriptions, the revolutionary tribunal and the scaffold have delayed the realisation of political liberty and the union of all Frenchmen. CHAPTER II. POLITICAL ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. The bloodthirstiness of political passion — Political assassins — Murder of children on political grounds — Reasons of State urged to justify every possible criiue — The massacre of prisoners during the French Revolution — Greek ideas regarding political assassination — Roman ideas regarding political assassination — Ideas of the Middle Ages regarding political assassination — Protestant and Catholic ideas regarding political assassination — The French Protestants and political assassination — Milton on tyrannicide — Catherine of Russia on tyrannicide — Views of the Jacobins and Emigrants — Political assassination in the nineteenth century — The assassination of tyrants does not destroy tyranny — The doctrine of regicide. When studying the history of proscriptions, one is appalled at the acts of cruelty it offers. Bossuet was indeed in the right when he wrote : " There is nothing more brutal or sanguinary than man" — especially when he is animated by political passion. Turn about, the patricians have pro- scribed the plebeians, the plebeians have pro- scribed the patricians, kings have decimated the people, and the people have slaughtered kings. Political passions have bathed the earth in blood; kings, emperors, aristocracies, democracies, ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. 29 republics, all governments have resorted to murder out of political considerations, these from love of power, those from hatred of royalty and aristo- cracy, in one case from fear, in another from fanaticism. Pagan emperors had thousands of men done to death because they were Christians; later on Christian princes persecuted those of their subjects who were Jews; Catholic kings have slaughtered Protestants, Protestant princes have slaughtered Catholics. Famous kings and illustrious emperors have not hesitated to be guilty of murder: Alexander slew Clitus and Parmenion; Titus caused Coc- cina to be killed as he was leaving a banquet to which he had invited him ; Charles V. had Rincon slain and Philip II. the Prince of Orange; Charles IX. was responsible for the murder of Coligny; Henry III. for that of the Duke of Guise; Ferdinand II. for that of Wallenstein, etc., etc. The Roman emperors^ and the Italian princes, when disputing the power between them, had recourse to assassins. Venice offered rewards to those who should murder its adversaries. During the wars of religion the kings and the party leaders had assassins in their pay. During the Fronde Cardinal de Retz caused the proposition to be made to the Queen that Condi should be assassinated. The Due d'Orleans came to the Parliament to ask that the sum ' Tacitus, " Historiae," Bk. I., § 75. " Then Otho and Vitellius dispatched assassins." 30 POLITICAL CRIME. destined to recompense whoever should take the life of Mazarin should be made up to 150,000 livres. A few years previously an attempt had been made to assassinate Richelieu. The Cardi- nal de Retz relates in his Memoirs that he had himself formed the project of killing Cardinal Richelieu during the ceremony of the baptism of the Queen's daughter. He is not afraid to write: " I decided on the crime, which seemed to me sanctioned by great examples, and justified and honoured by great perils." The scheme came to nothing, owing to the ceremony not taking place. Retz adds: "This enterprise would have covered us with glory if it had been successful." During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries the spectacle is offered of queens and empresses committing murders, or allowing them to be com- mitted. Mary Stuart let Darnley be slain ; Chris- tina of Sweden had Monaldesky assassinated; Catherine of Russia did away with her husband. When Charles II. sent assassins in pursuit of Sidney and other English patriots, it was his sister, Queen Henrietta, the sister-in-law of Louis XIV., who was charged with giving the orders and with paying the murderers their wages. There are cases of a political murder having been rewarded by a patent of nobility. Philip II. ennobled the murderer of the Prince of Orange. ^It is due to politics that the slaughter of the children after the murder of the parents was long accepted as a maxim of government. "One must be mad," said a Greek proverb, " to let the children ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. 3 I live after having slain the father."^ Philip, King of Macedon, was in the habit of quoting this horrible maxim, and of putting it in practice. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus,^ the Greeks invariably put to death the chil- dren of tyrants. The Romans were at first less cruel. When Cassius was sentenced to death for having aspired to be a tyrant, the question was debated whether his children should suf!er the same fate; they were not condemned to any penalty.* However, under the Roman emperors the slaughtering of children became a govern- mental practice. Mucins, for instance, put to death the son of Vitellius, with a view, as he said, to stamp out the seeds of war. It is commonly known that under the Frank kings, vengeance was wreaked on the son as well as on the father, and that the desire to get rid of pretenders to the crown was often the cause of the slaughter of children. The two sons of Clovis, Childebert and Clother, slew two of the children of their brother, Clodomir. The Italian princes con- tinued this barbarous practice. Caesar Borgia caused the extermination of the entire stock of the noblemen whom he had despoiled.'' After recalling this cruel proceeding, Machia- velli adds, that not only does he see nothing to blame in the conduct of the Due de Valentinois, but that in his opinion this personage might be ' Aristotle, Rhetoric, Bk. I., ch. xx. '^ Dionysii, Halicarn, " Antiquitates Romanee," Bk. VIII. • Montesquieu, "Esprit des Lois," Bk. XXII., ch. xviii. ■* Machiavelli, " U Principe," Part I., ch. viii. 32 POLITICAL CRIME. offered as an example. "When Louis XL had the Due de Nemours beheaded in 1477, he did not kill his children, but he subjected them to a still more atrocious torment: he had them placed under the scaffold, so that they were bathed in their father's blood. He then handed over the eldest son of the duke to one of the judges who had received a portion of the condemned man's inheritance; it was not long before the child died. During the Terror, when all the atrocities of the Machiavelian policy of the 16th century were revised, there were wholesale drownings of chil- dren. In 1793 the Nantes revolutionary commit- tee caused three hundred Vendean children to be drowned, alleging that " from the viper the viper is bred. "1 In Belgium recently, at the time of the glass workers' strike, a rioter was heard to cry: "Shoot down the capitalists ; do not spare the children, who are seedling capitalists." The thirst for power excites such violent pas- sions in the human soul that fathers have been seen to put their children to death, children to slay their father and their mother, and brothers to kill each other. Clother put to death his son Oramime; Nero, his mother, Agrippina. "The wife of Tarquin the Younger, the daughter of Servius, consumed by this passion (the passion of reigning), and trampling upon all filial tenderness, excited ' Michelet, " Histoire de la Revolution Fran(;aise," Vol. VIII, p. 323. ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. 33 her husband to rob her father of both his throne and his life, to such a point did she attach greater price to being queen than to being daughter of a king.^ On the score of the interest of the State, of the safety of the commonwealth, politics have caused the perpetration of every possible crime. The* considerations in question have occasionally been invoked by fanatics, Avho thought to save the people by political crimes; but they have as often been advanced by the ambitious, by politi- cal informers, and by courtiers. When Marcellus, in the intention of being agreeable to Nero, asked the Senate to order the execution of Thraseas, he made out that the safety of the State was at stake.^ The massacres of prisoners that have taken place on various occasions in French history, and have been sometimes attributed to explosion of popular fury, have been desired and brought about in reality by designing politicians.*^ The September massacres were debated and advocated by several sections. Danton desired them, Robes- pierre accepted them. Danton admitted to Louis Philippe, who was serving at the time in the army of Dumouriez, that he had wished for the masi,acres,^as he was of the opinion that he could only govern by inspiring fear. The General Council of the Commune was informed of the massacre, ' Machiavelli, " Discourses upon Livy," Bk. III., ch. v. ^ Tacitus, "Annales," Bk. XVI., § 28. • Wallon, " Journal des Savants," March, 1894, p. 133. 34 POLITICAL CRIME. and did not interfere. For three days the slaughter proceeded of the prisoners at the Carmes, the Abbaye, the Conciergerie, and the Force. " There might be ground for surprise," says M. Mignet, "that a crime so stupendous and spread over so long a period should have been conceived, carried out, and permitted were it not known to what lengths politics or party fanaticism will go, and what people will submit to under the influ- ence of fear."i At the prison of the Force mem- bers of the Commune, bearing their insignia of office, were present to give the massacres an air of legality. Marat glorified these execrable crimes and advised their imitation. The authors of the September massacres were unquestionably paid assassins, for several of them put in a claim for the salary due to them, and some of the receipts they gave are to-day in existence. When the Orleans prisoners were transferred to Paris, the band of assassins that had got together hastened out to Versailles to slaughter them. "In the twinkling of an eye," relates M. Thiers, "the rumour spread that fresh massacres were about to be perpetrated. The President of the Criminal Tribunal hurried to Paris to warn the minister Danton of the danger the prisoners ran. 'These men are very guilty,' was the only reply he obtained to his representations. 'That may be so,' insisted President Alquin, 'but they must be judged according to the law.' 'Do you not understand,' retorted Danton, in a terrible voice, ' Mignet," Histoire de la Revolution Fran9aise," ch. viil. ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. 35 * that I should already have answered you in a different manner had I been able? What are these prisoners to you ? Go back to your duties and cease to concern yourself with theni.'"^ When on the 5th Floreal, 1795, seventy or eighty prisoners, alleged to be Terrorists, were massa- cred at Lyons, the massacre was inspired by the societies known as the Soleil and the Jehu. When the men of Burgundy conquered the Arniagnacs, who were in possession of Paris, the prisoners were mas.sacred without the Duke of Burgundy making any effort to stay the slaughter. In twenty-four hours 1,600 prisoners were done to death. A few days later, at the instigation of the University, the massacres of prisoners began again : the Duke of Burgundy did not intervene. ' After the perpetration of political niassacres it may often be observed that the parties take the assassins under their protection. In the arrest of certain of the authors of the September massa- cres, the party of the mountain contrived that their trial should not be proceeded with. The Girondins themselves showed leniency to the Avignon murderers. In 1792 the Legislative Assembly proclaimed an amnesty in favour of those who had committed crimes arising out of the Revolution, and in particular in favour of Jourdan, known as " Cut-head," the chief of the Avignon assassins. How often since 1871 have we seen Deputies demand amnesty in favour of 1 Thiers, Vol. III., p. 135 36 POLITICAL CRIME. the incendiaries of the Commune and of the murderers of Watrin. Tyrannicide. Politics pervert the conscience to such a degree that from ancient times down to the present day the assassination of a tyrant has been presented as a lawful and even a glorious act. Amongst the Greeks it was a duty to slay a tyrant. The teaching of the moralists was to this effect. " Plu- tarch, in his treatise on Destiny, cites the murder of a tyrant as an act of civic virtue. Tinioleon, when he acquired the conviction that his brother was arriving at the establishment of a tyranny, made it his duty to put him to death. A monu- ment Avas erected in honour of iEmodius and Aristogiton, who had designed to murder Hippias. And yet it was not the love of liberty that had induced Aristogiton to act as he did. Having remarked that jEmodius, for whom he entertained a profound affection, was also beloved by Hip- parchus, he conceived a violent hatred against the latter, " and fearing lest his rival should resort to force, he thereupon decided to leave no stone unturned to destroy the tyranny."-' The Romans also excused and admired tj'ran- nicide. Plutarch relates that Cato, at the age of fourteen, had wished to kill Scylla. Cicero did not blame the murder of Caesar,^ and he I Thucydides, Bk. VI., § 54. = " De Officiis," Bk. 11., § 7. ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. 37 expressed admiration for the assassination of , Tiberius Gracchus. In the eyes of Brutus and Cassius the murder of Csesar was merely a noble action. The murders of tyrants were so numerous in ancient times that Juvenal could say with reason: "Few tyrants die a natural death." -The belief that it is allowable to kill a tyrant for the good of the State was still prevalent in the Middle Ages, notably at the time of the assassi- nation of the Marshals of Champagne and Normandy, and later at the epoch of the struggle between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. Etienne Marcel, after the murder of the Marshals of Champagne and Normandy, invoking the right to slay tyrants, addressed these words to the populace from a window of the town hall: " What has been done is for the good and profit of the kingdom." The people made answer: " AVe admit the act and it has our support." The following day Etienne Marcel assembled the citi- zens and deputies of the towns, who were present in Paris, and obtained their approbation of the murder just committed. When the Duke of Orleans was killed by the Duke of Burgundy, a doctor of the Sorbonne, the monk Jean Petit, took pains to prove in a long harangue that the Duke of Orleans had been slain in the interest of God, because the Duke of Orleans was the enemy of God; in the interest of the King, because the Duke of Orleans was a traitorous vassal; and in the interest of the Commonwealth, because the Duke of Orleans was a tyrant. " He who slew him," 38 POLITICAL CRIME. he said, " watching him cunningly and craftily to save the life of the King . . did not commit a crime." The popularity of John the Fearless was not lessened by the murder of the Duke of Orleans. ^In the 16th century the right to kill a tyrant was taught by theologians, Protestants, pastors, and jurists. Althurius, a German jurist and a Protestant, who wrote a book on politics, defined the doctrine of tyrannicide. George Buchanan, in his book de jure regni, classed the tyrant among ferocious beasts, and wrote that he should be treated as such. Bodin, in his bookc^e la Republique (Bk. II., ch. xiv.), maintained that it is justifiable to kill a tyrant even after the tyranny has been ratified by the people, "for," he says, " what tyrants extort from the people deprived of their power cannot be called consent." La Beetle approved the murder of Hipparchus. ^ At the period of the wars of religion, both Catho- lics and Protestants proclaimed the right to kill a tyrant. Jacques Clement prepared himself by religious observances for the assassination of Henri III. He imagined that he saw an angel appear to him in a dream and say : " I am the juessenger of Almighty God, and am come to assure you that you ought to put to death the tyrant of France; think, then, of your state and make you ready, just as the martyr's crown is ready for you." Although tyrannicide had been condemned by the Council of Constance, the murderer of Henri III. was honoured as a saint by ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. 39 numerous fanatics. Cardinal de Retz relates in his memoirs that even in his time he had seen an officer wearing a gorget, " on which was engraved the portrait of the Jacobin who slew Henri III. It was in silver gilt, and bore the inscription: St. Jacques Clement." When Jean Chastel, who made an attempt upon the life of Henry IV., was questioned upon the motive of his crime, he answered that " he had heard it said on several occasions that it must be accounted a true maxim that it was rightful to kill the King, and that those who spoke thus called him a tyrant. Asked if this talk of killing the King was not common with the Jesuits, he said he had heard them say that it was possible to kill the King; that he was outside the Church, and that he was not to be obeyed or held to be king until he had been recognized by the Pope." Put to the torture and urged, when called upon to make his apology, to say that he repented of his crime and asked pardon of God, Chastel answered " that he cried to God for mercy for the sins he had committed in the course of his life, and in particular to forgive him for that he had failed in his endeavour to rid the world of the worst enemy of the Church to-day on the earth." ^ The Huguenots, for their part, regarded the leaders of the Catholic party as tyrants, and con- sidered that the Old Testament contained a glori- fication of tyrannicide (Judith, Joel). The Duke of Guise escaped from several attempts to assas- sinate him before he was murdered by Poltrot de 40 POLITICAL CRIME. Mere.i Poltrot resorted to prayer to prepare him- self for the murder of the Duke of Guise. Theodore de Beze relates that he prayed God "most ardently that He would graciously change his intention, if what he ptirported doing were not agreeable to Him, or else that He would endow him with firmness and force enough to kill the tyrant " Coligny and Theodore de Beze have been accused of having egged on Poltrot to commit this murder. It is certain that they did not blame the assas- sination and that they considered it justifiable. Theodore de Beze declared that Poltrot's act was a just judgment of God. Coligny asserted that Poltrot and other Huguenots had apprised him ol their homicidal projects, and that while he had not encouraged them to proceed to their execution he had not deterred them. Poltrot, when under examination accused Coligny several times of having encouraged his project, and he persisted in this accusation until the hour of his execution. He said that it was in concert with the admiral that he betook himself to the camp of the Duke of Guise, under the pretext of making his submis- sion; that when starting on his enterprise he "went so far as to say to him that it wovild be easy to kill the Lord of Guise; that the admiral did not utter a word to dissuade him, but that, on the contrary, although he was aware of his ' An account of one of these attempts at assassination is to be found in Montaigne (Bk. I., ch. xxiii.), who had been told of it by Amyot. ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. 4 1 design, he gave him twenty crowns on one occa- sion and a hundred crowns on another." ^ It is also certain that the Protestant ministers pictured the Dul?;e of Guise as an implacable persecutor of the Protestants, and gave public expression to the wish that God would deliver the world of him. It was these utterances that aroused the desire in Poltrot to serve as an instru- ment of Providence in the interest of the Reforma- tion, a desire that he manifested on several occasions, and in particular at the siege of Rouen at which the King of Navarre was killed. The death of this prince being under discussion, Pol- trot exclaimed, "It is not enough; a still greater victim must be sacrificed," and when he was asked who this victim was, he answered, "The great Guise;" at the same time uplifting his right arm he said: "Behold the arm that will strike the blow and will put an end to our trouble ! " D'Aubigne relates that everybody in the Protes- tant party knew and hoped that Poltrot would commit the murder. When it had been perpe- trated "the joy found expression even in the guise of services in the churches, and in such universal delight that one saw plainly that everybody, far from abhorring the act — an idea that occurred to nobody — would rather have considered it an honour to have accom- plished it." ^ At the time of the English revolution tyrannicide > Bossuet, " Histoire des Variations," Bk. X., § 54. » Bossuet, " Cinquiime Avertissement aux Protestants." 42 POLITICAL CRIME, was declared legitimate by numerous political writers, and in particular by Milton. ' - It was an Empress of Russia who, in the 18th century, defended the legitimacy of tyrannicide with the greatest boldness. When Catherine caused her husband Peter III. to be murdered, in excuse of her crime she published a mani- festo that would not be disowned by theorists of regicide and anarchism. She maintained that Peter III. was the enemy of the nation and of religion, and that the courageous men who had rid Russia of him were to be congratulated. During the Revolution the Jacobins asserted their right to kill a tyrant. The right was also upheld by the Emigrants, who hired assassins to dispatch the First Consul. An Emigrant of the name of Pelletier, in a newspaper that he issued in London, alleged that an usurper had not the right to live, and that it was justifiable to kill him. The First Consul caused him to be prosecuted, and Pelletier was judged by the English courts and condemned. Georges Cadoudal's attempt upon the life of Bonaparte was admired by the fanatical Royalists, and the Revolutionists who did not participate in this crime regretted that it had not been committed by their party, so glorious did it appear to them. The Chancellor Pasquier relates in his recently published memoirs (Vol. II.) that the plan to assassinate Napoleon devised by Maubreuil, seems to have been coun- tenanced by the Coalition and by Talleyrand. Under the Restoration, under Louis Philippe, ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. 43 and under Napoleon III., there were numerous attempts upon the lives of the sovereigns and of the princes of the Royal family. Six attempts were made by fanatics upon the life of Louis Philippe. The Dukes of Aumale and of Nemours were the object of a seventh attempt. The most abominable of all was that of Fieschi, who to reach the King killed and wounded forty-two persons.^ ' Hatred of society, vanity, the reading of revolu- tionary publications, and especially of the works of Saint Just,^ and the incitements of the news- papers, which were perpetually calumniating Louis Philippe, were the principal causes of these attempts. Alibaud maintained before the Court of Peers " that regicide is the right of the man who can only obtain justice by his own hand, and that he was as much in the right in what he had done against Louis Philippe as was Brutus in slaying Caesar." Quenisset, one of the authors of the attempt upon the Dukes of Aumale and Nemours, admitted that he had been educated in the doc- trine of regicide by the secret societies. " He had been moulded," he said, so as to make of him a man of action.' It was the society known as the " Working Men ' The infernal machine that Georges Cadoudal had exploded in front of the carriage of the First Consul had also caused the death of a great number of persons. ^ The works of Saint Just were found at the dwellings of Pepin and Alibaud. ^ It being easier to " mould " the young than men of mature age, it is especially to the young that the leading spirits of secret societies turn their attention in their efforts to proselytise. 44 POLITICAL CRIME. Partisans of Equality " that incited Darmes to regi- cide. In the case of this latter, the hatred of the middle class went side by side Avith the hatred of royalty. Darmes referred to the bourgeoisie in the same terms as are employed by the Anarchists of to-day. "The middle class," he said, "is solely composed of those who were freed in 1789, and who, after robbing the nobility, their masters, have become the enemies of the masses, whom they are oppressing in their turn." ^ In the case of the regicides of this period, as in that of the present-day Anarchists, political fanati- cism was often brought to a pitch by vanity. Fieschi admitted that the desire for celebrity had been the principal motive of his attempt. Henri, the last of the fanatics who attempted the life of Louis Philippe, declared that, disgusted with ex- istence, he had committed the attempt in order that his death might attract wide attention. Pride, too, was one of the principal motives of the crime of Louvel, who corupared himself to Char- lotte Corday, and sought to derive glory from his exploit. Vaillant declared, after his crime, that by this notable act he had placed himself among the ranks of the benefactors of modern society, and that his name was henceforth immortal. Attempts on the life of the sovereign were also very numerous under the Second Empire. Maz- zini never ceased to advocate the assassination ' " La Repression P^nale," by B(Srenger. " Sciences et Travaux de rAcad^mie des Sciences, Morales, et Politiques," August and September, 1855. ASSASS/NA TION AND TYRANNICIDE. 45 of the Emperor, and to dispatch Sectaries to Paris to effect it. Felix Pyat, at the time a refugee in London, exclaimed: "What need is there to discuss any longer the legitimacy of regicide? To do so would be superfluous in the country of Charles I. The sons of the men who guillotined a Capet have nothing new to say on this subject to the descendants of the executioners of a Stuart." The European revolutionary committee, which held its sittings in London, endeavoured, on several occasions, in 1853 and in 1855, to bring about the assassination of Napoleon III. by Italian Sectaries. The attempt that was made on the 14th January, 1858, by Orsini and his accomplices, resulted in the wounding of 156 persons, of whom eight succumbed, and yet Orsini, in the course of his cross-examination, pretended that his prin- ciples did not admit of assassination, and Pieri maintained that he was not so overweening as to constitute himself the judge of kings. Orsini's counsel, Jules Favre, pronounced an eloquent condemnation of tyrannicide. " My beliefs," he said, " have not as symbol assassina- tion and the dagger. I abhor violence, and I condemn force when it is not employed in the service of the right. Were a nation unhappy enough to fall into the hands of a despot, it would not be a dagger that would break its chains. The hours of a despot are measured by God, who counts them. He has in store for them catas- trophes more inevitable than theinfernal machines 46 POLITICAL CRIME. of conspirators." Jules Favre was right: the death of the tyrant does not do away with the tyranny. When a country is ripe for servitude, the tyrant who is slain is soon replaced by another ; the murder of Caesar did not re-establish liberty in Rome. Under the Roman Empire a great number of princes were put to death, but they were replaced by others who were no better. ' What would become of States if it were admitted that a citizen is entitled to decide that a prince is a tyrant, and that he has the right to kill him on his own private authority, without a trial, for the good of the State and of religion, or for the salva- tion of the people? What, to repeat, would they become "unless it be a slaughter-house, and the perpetual and ever blood-stained theatre of civil wars"?^ A Catholic writer, who after the trial of Jean Chastel issued an apology for his crime, remarked that there was no difference between Protestants and Catholics, " except in respect to the determining who is a tyrant and who is not." In the eyes of the Protestants the Duke of Guise was a tyrant; in the eyes of the Catholics the tyrant was Coligny or Henry III., or even Henry IV. The most easy-going kings, Louis XVI. or Louis Philippe, for example, have been held to be tyrants by demagogues. Why should not the members of a Parliament be considered tyrants? The truth is, that what Bossuet said of the principle set up by Jurien is applicable to tyrannicide. " His prin- ciple is just as much an attack on any other ^ Bossuet, " Cinquif'me Avertissement aux Protestants." ASSASSINATION AND TYRANNICIDE. 47 public authority, sovereign or subordinate, what- ever be its name, and in whatever form it be exercised. For what is lawful against kings will, in consequence, be lawful against a Senate, against the entire body of magistrates, against States, against a Parliament, when these institu- tions or persons shall make laws that are con- trary or are held to be contrary to religion and the safety of the subject." ■" The regicide affirms that his action is justified by the end he has in view, which is the saving of his country. The reply may be made him that the murder of a defenceless man is not a certain means of saving his country, and further, that the lawfulness of the end in view does not justify the employment of reprehensible expedients. The duty of saving one's country does not do away with the duty respecting human life. To save one's country, one has the right to sacrifice one's life, but not the right of disposing of the lives of others. The interest of the country does not authorise assassination. ^Were it sufficient that a Catholic should declare a Protestant leader to be a tyrant or that a demagogue should accuse a sovereign of tyranny for them to have the right to slay, it would be necessary to say with Bos suet, that society would become a slaughter-house. ~'It is no more allowable to kill a tyrant to save one's country than to burn a heretic with a view to being agreeable to God. Did the end justify the means, there would be no such thing as duty, andevery descriptionof crime would be permissible. 48 POLITICAL CRIME. Good intentions do not justify a criminal action. Murder is still crime, even when it is held to be expedient.^ To slay a man unjudged, whether king or bourgeois, wholn one has set down as a tyrant, on one's own private authority, is to be a tyrant oneself. CHAPTER III. ANARCHISM. Anarchism adopts the doctrine of tyrannicide — Resemblance between the Anarchists and Terrorists — The Nihilists — Kropotkine — Proudhon — The Ishmaelites — Anarchists and Capitalists — Jacobin and Anarchist theories — Babeuf's doctrine of Anarchy — Diderot and Rousseau on Equality — Social Equality is the aim of modern Anarchism — Proudhon the father of Anarchism — Anarchist views on property — Property and Crime — "Robbery is Restitution" — Equality and luiberty — Revolutions reveal the black side of human nature — Saint Simon on Capitalists — The social theories of Lamennais — Elisee Reclus on Equality — Anarchist pro- gramme — Anarchists and Militarism — Lamennais on Crime — Jonathan Swift on political corruption — Sentimentalism at the root of attacks on Social system — Louis Blanc — Kropotkine's sentimentalism — Sentimentalism of the French Revolutionists — The Anarchist substitutes himself for the State — Anarchist view of human rights — Vanity and Fanati- cism among Anarchists — The apologists of revolutionary crimes make Anarchists — Thiers on the Revolutionary Tribunal — The victims of books — Duties of the historian — The effects of the Revolution on France — Philosophical Materialism and Anarchism — Vaillant — Ravachol — Effects of philosophical materialism — The doctrine that society is responsible for all social miseries — Anarchists assert that they are the victims of society — Marat's hatred of society — The chief end of life according to Anarchism — The Christian view of wealth — Patriotism and Anarchism — The aim of Anarchism and Socialism is to divide wealth — Revolutionary ideas and materialist theories — Nietzche's teaching — Christian morality and Anarchism — The classes who de- spise morality — The young Anarchists — Instruction without morals — The Anarchist Henry — Science cannot assure happiness — Intellectual poisons — Political Anarchy is the consequence of moral Anarchy — Views of Auguste Comte — Venal politicians and the unworthy rich are largely respon sible for the growth of Anarchism. > The disappearance of the monarchical system of government does not put an end to attempts upon the person of the Chief of the State. The spirit of revolt manifests itself under a republic, 50 POLITICAL CRIME. as well as under a monarchy; against the presi- dents of republics and legislative assemblies, as well as against sovereigns. Anarchism is merely an adaptation of tyranni- cide, a consequence of the false maxim that a political crime may find its excuse in the end in view; that it is lawful to kill in order to secure the triumph of a cause. "' " Death to the tyrant ! " cry the regicides. " Death to the well-to-do classes ! " re-echo the Anarchists. The theory of the latter is the same as that of the Leaguers and the Terrorists, who declared: "The end justifies the means, and assassination is excusable when it is resorted to to assure the triumph of religion or the safety of the country." A journalist recently intimated to the Anarchist M. his astonishment at finding that he admired the crime committed by Vaillant. " I fancied," was the Anarchist's answer, " that the bourgeois republicans admired regicide, that of 1793 for example, by which they profited. Very well: the proletarian Vaillant committed an act of regicide when he directed his bomb against the ' kings of the republic' " In order to justify his outrage, Vaillant main- tained that his attitude towards the well-to-do class was that of a man who acts in self-defence. "Are we not defending ourselves," he said, " when we strike out in response to the blows that are dealt us from above ?"^ Here we have the sophism by which the regicide thought to ' " Gazette des Tribuiiaux," 11th January, 1894. ANARCHISM. 5 1 excuse his crime. The citizen, he argued, has the same rights against a tyrant as against an enemy: he acts in self-defence. The author of the apology for Jean Chastel invoked this right, "and the more so," as he explained, " because the tyrant is unjustly at war with the entire people, in general and individually, while the community, on the contrary, is justly at war with him, and in consequence may attempt against his person whatever is allowed by the rules of war against a real enemy." '^ The Terrorists, like the Anarchists of to-day, prided themselves on their crimes. They boasted of the priests they had drowned and of the aris- tocrats they had shot down. Neither Saint Just, Robespierre, Couthon, Collot d'Herbois, nor Bil- laud-Varennes experienced any remorse. They believed that the drownings, shootings, and mas- sacres in which they had had a hand, were justified by the end they had had in view. They held that these blood-lettings - purified the social organism. The Anarchists who throw bombs to terrorise society, plead the end they have in view in excuse of their abominable outrages. They are not 1 Bayle's Dictionary. V. Chastel. Grotius admitted this right of war against a tyrant. (Bk. I., ch. iv., § 17.) He invokes the authority of TertuUian, who declared that every man is by birth a soldier, with a mission to combat criminals guilty of high treason or public enemies. 2 The Spanish " sa«s-cA'-»»««e«," like the s««s-«(/o«cs, maintain that "a good blood-letting, short but abundant," is needful. ' The rotten branches must be cut away from the social tree in order to allow it to develop." 52 POLITICAL CRIME. ashamed of their exploits, because they aim at realising the welfare of humanity by the aid of dynamite, just as the Jacobins served themselves with the scaffold to effect the same purpose. After Robespierre had put to death the Giron- dins and Dantonists, he exclaimed: "Now that we have got rid of the conspirators, there are no longer any obstacles to prevent us assuring the happiness of the people." He imagined that he had laboured for the welfare of the people by cutting off the heads of the moderate republicans. What difference is there between his doctrine and that of the Anarchists who, for their part, wish to destroy the capitalist class so as to do away with the obstacle which stands in the way of the welfare of the people ? ' The Anarchists wish to frighten the capitalists, just as the Terrorists wished to frighten the aris- tocrats. "We wish to spread terror so as to reign," an Anarchist remarked recently. The Russian Nihilists called themselves "Terrorists." They laid claim to this name when brought to trial, and declared that their object was to terrorise the Government. In this they were successful, since for several years Russia was terrorised by a series of the most audacious outrages. In a pro- gramme of the Russian Nihilists, seized at Koenigsburg, the following passage was to be read: "As to the assassination of certain persons, we should be guided solely by considerations of the comparative profit that would ensue. . Death should strike them unexpectedly, should ANARCHISM. 53 perturb the Government, and should spread abroad a tragic terror." The aims of the French Anarchists are identical: they would terrorise the Government, the magistracy, and juries. The bomb that was exploded in the restaurant Very had a further object than the killing of the cour- ageous citizens who denounced Ravachol; it was meant to terrorise the jury who were to try him. Like the Terrorists of 1793, the Anarchists have adopted the motto of Danton : " Be bold ! be bold ! always be bold ! " Danton is their model. "Brave men," says Kropotkine, "are aware that to be successful it is necessary to be daring."^ Let there be no pity, no hesitation, no half- measures ; the danger is still there where Danton detected it, when he cried to France: "Audacity, audacity, and still audacity! What is wanted above all is intellectual audacity, which will not fail to bring in its train, and that at once, the faculty of willing with audacity."^ This theory of Danton's, which was also the theory of Machiavelli, has always been that of the revolutionaries. It is the maxim that Proudhon put forward in 1848. "Recall," he exclaimed, " the words of Danton on the morrow of the 10th August, when France, in rebellion, demanded of its citizens a counsel that might save the country. ' It is needful,' cried Danton with an exterminatory gesture, ' it is needful to > "Paroles d'un R(5volW," p. 285. * Kropotkine, " La Conquete du Pain,'' p. 97. 54 POLITICAL CRIME, strike terror into the hearts of the aristocrats.' "^ Similarly, when committing their monstrous outrages, the Anarchists declare: "The capital- ists must be terrified." They know that they are in a minority, but they count upon the cowardice of honest folk, upon the audacity of their adher- ents and upon the contagiousness of example. " It is by arfiou," writes Kropotkine, "that minori- ties succeed in awaking that sentiment of inde- pendence and that fever of audacity in the absence of which it is impossible that a revolution should be accomplished." Audacity must be awakened by setting an example: the spirit of sacrifice is contagious. "By dint of incidents that force themselves upon the general attention, the new idea filters into men's minds and wins proselytes. An act may do more in a few days to spread the doctrine than thousands of pam- phlets. Above all it awakes the spirit of revolt, it breeds audacity. . . There have been auda- cious acts that have sufficed to put the entire governmental machine out of gear for several days and that have shaken the colossus. The masses perceive that the monster is not so terrible as they imagined, . . they foresee the vic- tory, their audacity grows." "Moreover," adds the theorist of Anarchism, " when the passions of the populace are at fever heat, repression is powerless to damp the energy of those in revolt; it produces the contrary efi'ect: calls forth fresh acts of revolt, . . . and step by step these ' Proudhon. " Avertissement aux Proprietaires,'' p. 10. ANAKCHISM. 55 acts spread from class to cIjism, bcctmic f^cncral, and atlain (licir full dcvclopiiicn i," ' This tluMny ol" (he, virtuiis of auilacHy, li(^f()r(- it was iiK ulcaLcd by tlui AiiaicluHls and Llic .lacii- bilis, hud bciMi (Mill ii(ia(('(^t of the Ishriiaclilcs who flourished in Asia in llic IKli (("iitury and were, th(^ Icrror of thai, continent for four hundred years. " To b(^- li(^V(^ ill nothing and to venture everythiiif,' " was the main doi;ina of this sect, which laughl that all actions ar(> a matter of indiU'erence, and allej^cd that to rencneralc llui world recourses to inurder was necessary. This sect of assassins even founded a kinndoin, " vvhicii held its own for four centuries, in hostility, not merely with the iialioiis that surrounded it, but with all humanity." Hassan ben Sabah, who was (he ( hief of these assassins, "was no iiu>re vulvar l)rifiand, but a theoloniaii, a j)hiloso|ilier and a writer.'"' "The safely of the people," declared Daiiton, on another occasion, when forcing;' a voL(^ from the r(^volul-i(nlary tribunal, "demands extreme means and terrible nu^asures." Th(^ Terrorists of 171).'! said, wh(Mi tln^y order(^d the puilloliniiiL; of the tiirondins: "The llepublic is in daiit^er; to save it tiu^ (Jironde must perisii." 1'he A narcliists repeat the sanu! sophism when they aClirm: "Society is disi-ast^d; to heal it the capitalist class must disai>pear." I'or the Jact)bins, the killing of an 1 " I'.irolcH d'un IfovolW," pp. 284 LVM7. » Philari'Ui tHiusli^M, "Voyages d'un C'rili(|Me (Orient)," pp. 310-,112. 56 POLITICAL CRIME. aristocrat, the guillotining of a Girondin, the drowning of a priest, were steps towards the sal- vation of the people, the preliminaries of the reign of fraternity. To assure the welfare of liumanity, Marat, in his journal, proposed daily the cutting off now of 50,000, now of 270,000 heads. The Anarchists, in their turn, would bring about the welfare of humanity by the extermination of the capitalist class. "It is the capitalist class," they say, " that stands in the way of the happiness of the people; in consequence let it be done away with." The Terrorists of '93 were in the habit of saying: "Among the aristocrats none are innocent." To- day the Anarchists declare: "There are none in- nocent among the capitalists." In the declara- tion that the Anarchist Emile Henry read in the court of assizes the following paSsage occurs: " For a moment, the accusation that had been made against Ravachol crossed my mind: what of the innocent victims ? However, the problem did not long embarrass me. The building in which the offices of the Carmaux Company were situated was exclusively inhabited by members of the caj)italist class. In consequence, there would he no innocent victims." The political methods of the Anarchist theorists are the same as those of the Jacobins of 1793, btit it is only right to recognise that the ideas of the two parties with regard to property and govern- ment are different. The Anarchists wish to destroy these institutions, whereas the Jacobins ANARCHISM. 57 desired their maintenance. Still, in 17y3, the hatred of the rich and the thirst for pleasures had already inspired certain of the Jacobins with theories that bordered on Anarchism. Chaumette remarked: "We have got rid of the nobility and the Capets, but we have still an aristocracy to overthrow: that of the rich." Tallien deinanded absolute equality, and termed the possessors of property " public robbers." Before Proudhon, Brissot had written in his " Recherches Philoso- phiques sur la Propriete et sur le Vol ": " The rob- ber is the rich man ; exclusive property is a ' robbery."^ It is a question, too, whether such men as Marat and Saint Just may not be con- sidered Anarchists : Marat, who incited the masses to massacre and pillage, and Saint Just, who demanded the confiscation of the property of con- spirators, and who said: "Our only enemies are the rich and the vicious; we must needs make a new city." "■ The hatred of the rich, the scorning to serve in the army, the ardent longing for absolute equality, the thirst for material satisfaction, the belief that the end justifies the means, and that it is lawful to risk for the welfare of society in the massacre of those in authority — all these revolu- tionary passions and all these sophisms, which make up the doctrine of Anarchism, are to be found in the theories of Babeuf, who, under the Directory, had declared against society a war to 1 Already in ancient times the Athenian demagogues had maintained that property is a robbery. 58 POLITICAL CRIME. the knife. The Sectarian followers of Babeuf had taken the name of the " Society of Equals."^ Like Kropotkine at the present day, they aimed at founding a republic of equals. Their profession of faith, drawn up by Sylvain Mar- chal, author of the " Dictionnaire des Athees," contained the following passages: "... We desire a real equality or death, . . . and we will have this real equality at no matter what cost. Woe to those who stand between us and it ! . . . The people have made short work of kings and priests. They will treat in the same way the new tyrants, the neAV hypocrites, who have taken the places of the old. , . . What Ave want is not merely that there should be men- tion of equality among the Rights of Man, . . . we want it in our midst, beneath the roofs of our houses. . . . The sole purpose of our sacred enterprise is to put an end to civil dissensions and public misery. . . . Let those who are for justice and the common welfare organise them- selves with equality as their cry. The hour has come to found the republic of the equals. . . . The day of restitution has dawned. . . . Let there be an end to the revolting distinctions be- tween rich and poor, the great and the humble, masters and servants, those who govern and those who are governed. For the future, let the only differences between men be those of age and sex. Since all have the same faculties and the ' Babeuf when writing to his accomplices addressed them: " My dear equal." ANARCHISM. 59 same needs, let them henceiorth be educated alike and fed alike." Babeuf, too, like the contemporary Anarchists, had endeavoured to deprive the soldiers of their love of country, and of their sentiments of duty and obedience. "Your blood is spilled," he said to them, " in useless and disastrous con- flicts. In the meantime, your mothers and wives are allowed to die of hunger; the people are lean from privations. . . . You are treated like automatons that may be disposed of at will; you will be sold like the vile herd that its master sends to the pasture or the slaughter-house." Babeuf and his accomplices wished to secure the triumph of their doctrine by the extermination of the governing class. They were resolved to put to death "all civil or military agents, all functionaries and magistrates. . . . All oppo- sition will be overcome at once by force. Those who resist will be exterminated." The standard of the insurrection was to bear the words: Liberty, Equality, the Common Welfare. During their trial, Babeuf and his accomplices endeavoured to intimidate the jury. Their atti- tude was insolent and overweening, and they insulted their judges. Babeuf, when he had been condemned to death, compared himself to Jesus Christ, asserted that he died a martyr to a noble cause, and consoled himself by the thought that upright and compassionate men would say of him: "He was supremely virtuous." He had adopted the same overweening tone in the letters 6 60 POLITICAL CRIME. he had addressed to the Directory, while the case against him was in preparation. He proposed to treat with the Government on a footing of equality, and delivered himself of the following utterance: " My scaffold will figure gloriously side by side with that of Barneveld and of Sidney. On the morrow of my execution altars will be raised in my honour." The writings of Mably and Diderot, and in particular the discourse of J. J. Rousseau upon " inequality," were the sources whence Babeuf and his fellow-Anarchists had drawn their fana- tical ideas. Germain, one of the band, confessed this in these terms : " I strengthened my courage against the oppressors of humanity by reading Mably, Rousseau, and Diderot." The truth is that Mably, in his "Traite de la Legislation," at- tempted to prove that nature intended the fortune and social status of citizens to be equal, that it teaches men to hold their possessions in common, and that where equality is absent, there are oppressors and oppressed. This theory is pre- cisely that of the present-day Anarchists, whose object is not moral and political equality, but social equality and equality in respect to well- being and material satisfactions. "We ought," writes Elisee Reclus, " to be able to assure to every one the complete satisfaction of his wants and desires."^ Since society, as at present constituted, tole- 1 The preface by Elisi5e Reclus to Kropotkine's "Conquete du Pain," p. vii. ANARCHISM. 6 1 rates inequality, extreme opulence, and extreme destitution, it must be destroyed and replaced by a new order of things, which will insure for everyone his share of happiness. The Anar- chists even mean eating and drinking just like the capitalists.^ AVhen they are confronted with the objection that the capitalist pays for what he consumes, they answer that he pays with money he has stolen. Proudhon, whom Kropotkine styles "the im- mortal father of Anarchism," has been the con- tinuator in our time of Babeuf. He too demands equality in respect to social functions and fortune. As he says himself, his love of equality amounted to an intoxication : " Owners of property, enriched by the sweat of our brows . . . the enthu- siasm that possesses us, the enthusiasm for equality is unknown to you ;" it is an intoxication more potent than life, more thrilling than love."^ It is Proudhon who has endowed revolutionary socialism and anarchism with the two mottoes : " Property is robbery" and " Catholicism is the foe." Convinced that social and religious in- 1 L^authier, before committing his crime, ordered in a well- known restaurant an excellent luncheon, which he washed down with champagne and did not pay for. When it was remarked to him that people do not drink champagne when they are unable to pay for it, he retorted: "The well-to-do drink it .all the same." Recently, at the Aix assizes, we judged another Anarchist who had ordered a dinner, costing some six shillings, and including a bottle of champagne. When asked why, being without money, he had drunk champagne, he replied: " I drank champagne so that there might be so much the less for those who drink too much of it." ^ Proudhon, "Avertissement aux Proprietaires," p. 98. 62 POLITICAL CRIME. stitutions are a mistake, Proudhon suggested "anarchy," the doing away, that is, with religion and courts of justice. "Begin," he cried, "by sending back to Heaven the Eternal Father. His presence amongst us hangs by a single thread, the budget. Cut the cord; you will know what the Revolution should put in the place of God. .... The Revolution can come to no terms with the Divinity .... there lies the enemy.'"' I am not aware whether the contemporary Anarchists are still in the habit of reading Mably, but I have had occasion to judge, at the Bouches- du-Rh6ne assizes, an individual accused of theft, who had made J. J. Rousseau's discourse on inequality his habitual reading. This discourse is, indeed, a compendium of Anarchism. It is with a view to establishing social equality that the Anarchists desire to put an end to indi- vidual property, to expropriate the capitalists, to burn everything in the shape of bonds or financial scrip, and to make an auto-da-fi of all the laws that guarantee the rights of property. Property in their eyes is as humiliating an institution as slavery or serfdom, and they regard the suppres- sion of individual property, the restitution to the community of the totality of wealth, as the only means of doing away with social distinctions. Kropotkine, addressing himself to the working classes, says: "Lay hands on the belongings of 1 " Id^e G^n^rale de la Revolution au XIX' Sifecle," pp. 286 29' 294, 30i. ANARCHISM. 63 the rich, instal yourselves in their palaces and private dwellings, and make a bonfire of the piles of bricks and worm-eaten wood that served you as hovels in the past.'- Private property is a robbery accomplished at the expense of the fortune of the community ; ... all products, the sum total of the savings and appurtenances of humanity, are the outcome of the mutual labour of all, and have but one proprietor — humanity.'" The suppression of property, the Anarchists add, will have the further advantage of bringing about the almost entire disappearance of crimi- nality. "As for what are called 'crimes' — outrages upon the person — it is known that two-thirds and often three-quarters of these 'crimes' are inspired by the desire of obtaining possession of wealth belonging to another, -^his vast category of so- called ' crimes ' will be abolished the day that private property has ceased to exist." ^ Diderot, before Kropotkine, had made this discovery. "I think," he said, "that it will not be con- tested that if private property did not exist, there would be an end to the existence of all its pernicious consequences." '^ In other words, the only reason why there are thieves is because there are owners of property: do away with pro- perty arid you do away with robbery. By a similar reasoning it might be said that adultery is only committed because marriage exists, and, there- fore, that to do away with adultery, marriage ' " Paroles d'un RevoltiS," p. 342. = Ibid., p 241. 64 POLITICAL CRIME. should be abolished. Diderot, like the Anarch- ists, desired that property should be held in com- mon in order to realise social equality. Babeuf spoke of him as "our principal forerunner, our Diderot." Property being a robbery, according to the Anarchists, they are led logically to the corollary: robbery is only a restitution. I have had to try for theft an Anarchist, who said to me: "I am not a thief, but the author of a restitution." It is not merely in the course of the last few years that people of this persuasion have been met with. At the Seine assizes, in 1847, there was tried a band of ten criminals, who proposed, by means of pillage and incendiarism, to force the well-to-do to make restitution. They belonged to an asso- ciation known as the "Materialist Communists." Perverted by the reading of revolutionary and socialist newspapers, they had formed the project of destroying society with a view to suppressing property. Pamphlets and songs were found in their possession similar to those that are found to-day in the possession of the Anarchists. It should not cause astonishment that the wild desire for absolute equality in the matter of material satisfactions should result in so firm a hatred against owners of property, masters, and capitalists. Already, during the Revolution, the spectacle was afforded of the principle of equality, ill understood, breeding hatred of distinctions of every sort, hatred of wealth, hatred of the nobil- ity, hatred of education, hatred of virtue, and ANARCHISM. 65 hatred of politeness. By dint of developing the principle of equality to extremes, the revolution- ary spirit caused people to address each other in the second person singular, and abolished the use of conventional expressions of politeness. The judges of Marie Antoinette addressed her in the second person singular, and called her the "woman Capet." The Jacobins did away with the expressions " Monsieur " and " Madame," and replaced them by that of citizen. The Constitu- ent Assembly not only forbade the use of titles of nobility, but decreed penalties against those who should dress their servants in livery. (Decree of the 21st October, 1791.) The Convention ordered the confiscation, within a week, of all parks, gardens, enclosures, houses, and buildings where armorial bearings were exhibited. (Decree of the 1st August, 1793.) ^ Equality, ill understood, becomes the enemy of liberty, talent, and virtue, and gives birth to a desire to reduce to the same level whatever surpasses the average. Everything excites jealousy: intellectual superiority, moral worth, knowledge, even physical advantages. During the Revolution, Fourcroy, the chemist, who was a member of the Convention, was re- proached with devoting too much time to science. Fourcroy, alarmed, excused himself by saying: " I have only been seen three times in the uni- versity buildings, and my presence on these occasions was due to my desire to propagate revolutionary principles." Men of worth are often persecuted solely because people are 66 POLITICAL CRUJE. annoyed at hearing their virtues extolled. The Roman soldiers clamovired for the punishment of Celsus, because " his integrity and worth irri- tated them as if they had been crimes. . . . Even glory and virtue are looked askance at, since they seem, when too near at hand, to imply the condemnation of what does not re- semble them." ^^ The Anarchists desire that there shall be no differences of instruction or educa- tion; they demand that the obligation of manual labour shall be incumbent upon everybody, and that everybody shall receive a like bringing-up and education. During the Terror people made a show of coarse manners, so as to escape t!iie reproach of being aristocrats. The Jacobins discovered aris- tocrats at every turn and corner, and the sans- culottes put down shop-keepers and lawyers' clerks as aristocrats. A delicate skin was more than once considered as a sign of aristocracy sufficient to call for the penalty of death. The appellation "Mr. Delicate Skin"^ was equiva- lent to a sentence of death. When the murdered Duchesse de Lamballe was exhibited naked in the Rue Saint-Antoine, the whiteness of her skin aroused the fury of her slaughterers. "Look," cried one of them, infuri- ated, "look how white she was. Do you see her beautiful skin ? " iTacitus, "Historiae," Bk. I., § 45. "Annales," Bk. IV., § 33. 2 Michelet. "Histoire de la Revolution Franfaise," Vol. V., p. 07. ANARCHISM. 6/ ~ The history of revolutions throws a terrible light upon the ugly side of human nature. Envy and the desire to abuse are the ruling passions of the revolutionary. In England, as in France, there have been "Levellers." To-day these Level- lers go by the name of Anarchists ; the majority of them are at bottom mere envious individuals who are jealous of those who occupy a higher social station. They mask their greed under the cloak of a theory when they demand the expropriation of the capitalists, the suppression of the " capitalist privileges," and the triumph of the fourth estate. Socialists and demagogues have been inflam- ing for a century past that hatred of the well-to- do class which to-day incites the Anarchists to perpetrate so many outrages. In the " Catechisme Politique des Industriels" which he published in 1824, Saint-Simon addressed the very same re- proaches to the capitalists that the Anarchists are now repeating. He alleged that the middle classes carried through the revolution solely in their own interest, and with a view to exploit the masses (page 8). On the morrow of the revolu- tion of 1830 the demagogues denounced the middle class as an oppressive aristocracy that it was the duty of the masses to abolish. ^ During the reign of Louis Philippe imprudent ^ De Salvandy, " Seize Mois, ou la Revolution et les Rcvo- lutionnaires,"p. 322. In 1793 the middle class had already been pointed to as a proper object of the hatred of the masses. Durand de Maillane relates that at the time of the election of the Depu- ties to the Convention, an elector at Avignon proposed " to bring the guilty middle class to reason." ("Memoires," p. 32.) 68 POLITICAL CRIME. writers inspired the poor with hatred of the rich by exaggerating the delights that accrue to wealth, and by drawing a sombre picture of the situation of the poor. Numerous are- the books in which employers of labour are represented as vampires battening upon the people, and in which the workers are depicted as the victims of oppression and reduced to a state that is worse than slavery. ^' Among the writers who have stirred up feelings of hatred and vengeance in the hearts of the people, there is one who specially deserves to be cited on account of his great talent that bordered on genius, and of the considerable influence he exerted. The writer in question is Laniennais, who, after preaching with rare eloquence peace, concord, and union, launched out into furious anathemas against society, exciting the masses against kings and priests, the poor against the rich,^ the workers against their masters, and even the soldiers against their chiefs. All the sophisms of Anarchism are to be found in the "Paroles d'un Croyant," which might be styled with more justice the " Paroles d'un llevolte;" the wish for absolute equality, the hatred of authority, the hatred of the rich, incitement to violence, provocation to military indiscipline. In his eighth chapter Laniennais describes what he terms the exploitation of the workers by the employers of labour, who, he says, 1 It was Lamennais who said: "The paradise of the ricli is made of the hell of the poor." ANARCHISM. 69 are continually increasing the hours of labour and diminishing the wage; they cause the death of the workers by depriving them of absolute necessaries ; they are disciples of Satan, more cruel than the masters who owned slaves ; there is no name for them but in hell. In chapter vi. he compares man to a bee, who is only entitled to the portion of honey necessary to his subsistence, and he asserts that whoever gathers more than he needs is an unjust man.. This theory is that of socialism and of anarchism: "To each according to his needs." In chapter vii. the believer affirms that God created neither great nor humble, neither masters nor slaves, neither poor nor rich, neither kings nor subjects: "He made all men equal." Here again it is im- possible not to be struck by the resemblance between these ideas of Lamennais and those of Babeuf, who wrote in his scheme of declaration: "Article 7. — In a properly constituted society there should be neither rich nor poor. Article 8. — The rich who will not abandon their superfluous possessions in favour of the indigent are the enemies of the people. Article 10. — The aim of the revolution is to do away with inequality and to re-establish universal happiness."^ In 1 Boireau, the accomplice of Fieschl, also declared that God had made neither kings nor subjects, nor masters nor slaves. " If God," he added, " had wished men to be slaves, He would have caused them to be born with a saddle or a pack-saddle upon their backs." The prison chaplain to whom Boireau expounded his ideas replied to him with these words of Vol- taire : " Raise an outcry against law and authority, and you 70 POLITICAL CRIME. chapter xix. and chapter xxxvii., the believer reverts to the idea of absokite liberty, and main- tains that liberty only exists wh&n there is nobody to dominate. "You have," he says, "but one Father, who is God, and but one Master, who is Christ. All are born equal. None comes into the world bearing with him the right to command" (ch. xix.). Elisee Reclus gives expression to the same thought, and takes his stand, like Lamennais, on the same passage of the New Testament, when he says : "It is not in the choice of new masters that salvation lies. Is it needful that we Anarchists, the enemies of Christianity, should remind an entire society that claims to be Christian of these words of a man of whom it has made a God : ' Call no man master ! master ! ' Let everyone remain his own master."^ The Anarchists would have neither masters, kings, nor elected representatives of the people. Up till now, they say, the sole object of the middle classes in overthrowing a Government has been to possess themselves of the vacant places. To-day we aim at suppressing all government, and all authority, in order to give mankind have every idle fellow on your side. And when you have these fellows at your beck and call there will not be wanting shrewd persons who will fit them with saddle and bridle, and who, mounting them, will proceed to overthrow thrones and empires." Boireau reflected a, moment and then said: "After all it is very possible you are right." (M. Berenger's "Report on Penal Repression.") ' Kropotkine, " Paroles d'un R^volte." Preface by Elisee Reclus, p. X. ANARCHISM. 7 1 liberty. The watchwords of the new revolution should be: No more laws ! no more criminal codes ! no more barracks ! no more prisons ! no more judges ! no more police ! For some time past the number of books at- tacking the army have been on the increase. The Anarchists advise the soldiers to refuse obedience, and adjure the conscripts to decline to perform their military service. A few years ago, at the Bouches-du-Rhone assizes, I was called upon to try Sebastien Faure on the charge of inciting to military indiscipline. I remarked that his system of defence was identical with the ideas developed by Lamennais in the 35th chap- ter of the " Paroles d'un Croyant," where he excites the soldiers against their chiefs and represents military service to be a diabolical invention. " The oppressors of nations," says Lamennais, "invented military service solely with a view to keep men in a state of servitude. Satan suggested to them an infernal ruse, in giving them the idea to assert that obedience is glorious, and that honour and fidelity are virtues. '1 will persuade them,' said Satan, 'that it is a glorious action / will make theTn two idols, which they shall call Honour and Fidelity, and a law which shall be called passive obedience. And they shall worship these idols ! ' If Honour, Fidelity, and Obedience be idols, the conclusion is obvious: for the good of humanity these idols Qiust be broken." The pages written by Lamennais in condemnation 72 POLITICAL CRIME. of violence and crime have never been sur- passed. " The holiest cause," he wrote, " becomes an impious and execrable cause when crime is employed in its support." And yet a feAV pages further on, by one of those astonishing contra- dictions that were common with him, he advises the oppressed to resort, if necessary, to violence, to shatter the tyranny of their oppressors. "If at first," he tells them, "victory seems to elude your grasp, it is only a trial, and your day will come, for your blood will be as the blood of Abel, whom Cain slew, and your death as that of the martyrs " (ch. xii.). Thus it is that Lamennais excites the poor against the rich, and urges them to do themselves justice and to conquer their share of happiness by violence. He would have property restricted to what is necessary, and material satisfactions equalised. He inculcates to citizens the contempt for authority and to soldiers the hatred of their chiefs, telling them that honour and fidelity are idols. Does this not amount to expounding the theories of Anarchism ? Such is the violence of language to which a writer of genius allows himself to be drawn on, when he is unable to restrain the warmth of his feelings and the vivacity of his imagination. His reason wanders, and his judgment is troubled to such a degree that he no longer sees things as they are. Whichever way he looked, Lamennais thought he saw the weak suffering oppression, the just begging their bread, rogues covered with honours and abounding in riches, and the ANARCHISM. 73 innocent condemned by iniquitous judges. On one occasion he entered court and heard the trial of a vagrancy case. To convict a person of this offence the law demands that three conditions shall be fulfilled. A vagrant is a person who has no fixed domicile, no means of existence, and ivho habitually exercises no trade or profession. The not possessing a domicile and the lack of means of existence are not punishable, unless they be accompanied by the failure to exercise a trade or profession. The law demands that every man who is without resources shall work, a wandering life without means and without work being a danger to society. Blinded by his preju- dices against society, Lamennais imagined that the man whom he saw on his trial was punished because he was poor, and he left the court cursing the judges and society.^ He had not even heard accurately the words of the presiding judge, or understood the drift of the measures for the prevention of vagrancy. If on returning to his study he had but consulted the criminal code, he would have seen that the judge had punished, not poverty, but habitual laziness. Almost all the writers who have violently at- tacked society in pamphlets, novels, or plays, and have furnished Anarchism with weapons, are men who have been led astray by morbid 1 Lamennais, " Amschaspands et Dasvands," third edition, p. 232. Moreover in "Paroles d'un Croyant" Lamennais says: " Tiiere are scarcely any other than bad laws in the world. Sons of Adam, these mill-stones are the laws of those who govern you, and it is you whom they crush." (Ch. xxviii.) 74 POLITICAL CRIME. sensibility and a disordered imagination. They suffer at the spectacle of human misery to such a degree that they rail against God or society: their sensibility makes of them Socialists or Atheists, or even madmen. The sufferings of Ireland filled Swift with a consuming anger. " Do not the corruption and wickedness of men devour your being?" he said to one of his friends. "Do they not make your blood boil?" His friend having answered him in the negative, Swift angrily ob- served to him : " How is it you can contain your- self ? " ^ An Anarchist, whom I tried, told me that he could not support the spectacle of the suffering and iniquity he saw in the world: to escape the sight he wished to commit suicide. It is acute sensibility, joined to a disordered imagination, that has driven so many writers to make violent attacks on society. Their pity for the workers makes them imjust, cruel, and piti- less for the employers of labour, and suggests to them words of anger that incite the masses to civil war. Louis Blanc, for example, by calling upon the people to avenge the " tyranny of the middle class," was responsible in no small measure for the events of June, 1848. He incurred respon- sibility, too, by inditing such phrases as the following : " When a man demands to live by serving society, or is fatally reduced to attacking it under penalty of succumbing, it conies about that his apparent aggression is resorted to ' "Recollections of Jonathan Swift," by Walter Scott, Vol. II., p. 50. ANARCHISM. 75 in self-defence, and the society that condemns him is not his judge, b'ut his murderer." ^ The same combination of morbid sensibility and cruelty is found in the writings of Kropotkine. His heart overflows with tenderness for working men and peasants, even when they are thieves and murderers, and he is thrilled with joy at the thought of the destructions, expropriations, and exterminations that he calls down upon the heads and belongings of the capitalists. "Let us treat as a brother," he writes, "the man who in a fit of passion has injured his fellow; . . . the greatest criminals are merely the ignoble pro- ducts of the idleness of the well-to-do."^ When, however, it is a question of expropriating the capitalists to satisfy the needs of the people, he becomes implacable. "This expropria- tion," he says, "must be accomplished on a vast scale. On a small scale it would have the ap- pearance of mere vulgar pillaging ; resorted to wholesale, it is the beginning of the reorganisa- tion of society."^ It is with enthusiasm that he recalls the exploits of the Paris Commune, unhappily put a stop to by " the murders of the Versaillais."'' The Terrorists of 1793, Marat, Robespierre, were all "sensitive" men who dreamed of realising the happiness of humanity by the extermination of the aristocrats. "Whoever is aglow with love of ' " Organisation du Travail," p. 26. 2 " Paroles d'un Revolts," p. 244. » Ibid., p. 337. - Ibid., p. 125. 7 76 POLITICAL CRIME. his country," said Robespierre, "should hail with transport the meanS of striking its enemies a blow." Fouche, at the same time that he was shedding torrents of blood at Lyons, shed tears of joy over the happiness he was procuring humanity. " I have just had two hundred heads cut off," he wrote to the Convention. "I propose to have as many cut off every day. Tears of joy and virtue, the effect of a holy sensibility, well up into my eyes. Let us take nature for our example in dealing out justice. Let us strike like the lightning, and may even the ashes of our enemies disappear from the soil of liberty." At the period just referred to, every time that a Jacobin had an act of cruelty in view, he finished up his appeal in favour of proscription Avith a tirade upon his love of humanity. The execu- tioners made a great show of sensibility. The death sentences pronounced by the revolutionary tribunal were often accompanied by sentimental allocutions. Recently, at the Seine Court of Assizes, the Anarchist Leauthier concluded his defence b}' saying: "Let me tell you that I would tremble at a lizard, but that men will not make me tremble; that I would weep before a child, but that I will smile at the guillotine." The man who would tremble at a lizard did not tremble when he thrust a knife into the breast of the Servian Minister. ^ 1 This morbid sensibility, which so readily goes hand in hand with cruelty, is another legacy from the 18th century. It was brought into fashion by Rousseau and the Romantic school. ANARCHISM. yy The death of a butterfly caused him to shed tears, but the death of a capitalist made him smile. At the international congress of students held at Liege in 1865, one of those present declared that his love " for the human community" caused him to desire the destruction of the well-to-do classes. "If property withstands the Revolution," he cried, "it must be abolished by the decrees of the people, and if the capitalist class resists, the capitalist class must be killed off. . . . The capitalists are murderers and robbers. . . . Allusion has been made to the guillotine; our sole object is to clear the way of obstacles. If a hundred thousand heads constitute an obstacle, let them fall; our love is exclusively confined to the human collectivity." Among the innumerable sophisms that spur on the Anarchist to action must also be noted the false idea that the citizen is entitled to substitute himself for the State when it is a question of avenging offences or of preventing iniquitous acts. The Anarchist constitutes himself a dis- penser of justice and proclaims himself the avenger of the oppressed. To revenge himself on the magistrates Avho sentence his companions, he blows up their dwellings ; he explodes a bomb in the restaurant where the courageous citizens who denounced one of his accomplices are to be found; he would kill the directors of a company that, in his opinion, oppresses its workmen. Finally, if an Anarchist is condemned to death, his friends plan to revenge him by fresh outrages. 7^ POLITICAL CRIME. Novelists and dramatic authors have proposed to complete the " Rights of Man and Woman " by proclaiming that free love and adultery are rights, and poets have claimed that the right to be sup- plied with food may be enforced against society. Materialist philosophers have maintained the "right to happiness and material satisfactions," the Socialists the "right to work," and the revolu- tionaries the "right of insurrection." All these rights, the right to free love and adultery, the right to be supplied with food, the right to happi- ness and material satisfactions, the right to work, and of insurrection, are claimed by the Anarchists, who complete them by upholding the "right to rob and murder." Previously the au- thors of crimes, of which passion was the motive, had taken justice into their own hands and en- forced their rights by recourse to vitriol and the revolver. The Anarchists claim the right to employ dynamite. When they commit murder they affirm they are accomplishing an act of justice, just as when they steal they are effect- ing a restitution. The thieves, according to them, are the owners of property who have been robbed ; the murderers of the people are the capitalists whom they murder. Astonishment has been expressed at the auda- city of the Anarchists, at their tranquillity of mind during the proceedings in court, and at their firmness at the hour of their execution. Some writers have even compared them to the early Christians. Bayle, anticipating this tendency, ANARCHISM. 'jg had alleged a resemblance between the regicides and the martyrs. He wrote: "It is to be deplored that assassins of this kind evince as much firm- ness as the most illustrious martyrs of the primi- tive Church." i If the Anarchists display firmness at their exe- cution, the explanation is to be sought in the fanaticism that animates them and in the vanity by which they are eaten up. All fanaticism, however execrable its motive may be, conduces to exaltation and, in consequence, to courage. They are also sustained by vanity. All the An- archists are vain. They know that the public has its eyes upon them, and that the papers publish every detail that concerns them. This sort of celebrity, of which they are greedy, affords them a kind of pleasure that intoxicates them.2 In reality, however, they are so far from re- garding death with indifference that they make every effort to escape it. Their outrage commit- ted, they are seen to take to their heels, to accuse the innocent so as to mislead justice, to use their revolvers on the police who try to arrest them, to ' " Dictionnaire de Bayle," V. Chastel. 2 L(5authier, in announcing to S^bastien Faure his intention to kill a capitalist, wrote to him : " I count on you to tal£e in hand my defence against the begowned barristers, and it will be given to both of us to pass a joyous moment exposing, at the trial, the reasons that induced me to act." The Vienna magistrates, to avoid giving the Anarchists this satisfaction, judged them in camera. The newspapers should refrain from Ifeeping the public informed of what the accused do and say, and from publishing their portraits and waxing pathetic over their fate. 80 POLITICAL CRIME. conceal their identity, and to furnish false explan- ations with a view to lessen their responsibility. Vaillant affirmed that when he exploded a bomb in the Chamber of Deputies it was not his object to kill anybody. Leauthier, who thrust his cob- bler's knife into the breast of the Servian Minis- ter, made out that he only intended to wound him. Whereas the Christian martyrs submitted to be slaughtered like lambs, and pardoned their exe- cutioners, the Anarchists, heaping crime on crime, are like wild beasts that revel in blood and destruction. What is there in common between tigers that kill and steal and lambs that submit to being killed and despoiled ? Among the causes that have perverted the public conscience and have contributed to create the state of mind of the theorists of Anarchism, I must further point out the glorification by a great number of historians of the crimes of the Revolu- tion, and the negation of moral ideas by contem- porary materialist doctrines. The most popular histories of the Revolution have been a school of political crime and revolu- tionary fanaticism for the people. They have taught the masses the paramount importance of the end in view, the lawfulness of rebellion, and even of slaughter in the interest of society; they have made them believe that a social upheaval is a factor of civilisation, that terrorism is an in- strument of Government, and that progress is only to be achieved by violence. Buchez and Roux ANARCHISM. 8 1 attempted the justification of revolutionary crimes. They wrote that terror may be a system of government, that it is sometimes obligatory, that it is a method that is to be judged by the end in view.i The September massacres seem to them nothing more than " a measure of public safety," accomplishing "a useful function."^ H. Marest and Dupont de Bussac have termed these massacres a great act of popular justice. M. Thiers, who has insisted so forcibly in his admirable " Histoire dvi Consulat et de I'Empire " on the dangers and follies of a military dictator- ship, is full of indulgence in his "Histoire de la Revolution " for the illegality and even for the cruelties that marked the popular dictatorship. He terms the 18th Fructidor a sad but unavoidable necessity. "Legality," he writes, "was an illu- sion on the morrow of such a. revolution as ours."* The same historian appears, too, to excuse the creation of the revolutionary tribunal when he says that it was necessary to establish this for- midable machine so as to withstand enemies of every kind. "Why," he writes, "had terrible cir- cumstances obliged the creation of a government 1 This is precisely the doctrine of MachiaveUi, who remarked in connection with the murder of Remus by his brother: "The wise will not condemn a man of a superior order because, in the important matter of establishing a monarchy or founding a republic, he has resorted to an unusual expedient. The act may accuse him, but the end in view should be his excuse. The excellence of the result always justifies the act." (" Dis- course upon Livy.") 2 Buchez and Roux, " Histoire Parlementaire de la Revolution Franpaise," Vol. XX. Preface, p. vii ^ Fourth Edition, Vol. IX., p. 320. 82 POLITICAL CRIME. of death, which would neither reign nor vanquish them by the aid of death ?^ Louis Blanc praises Robespierre and Saint Just for having "exhausted terror "and for having risen " superior to remorse." Lamartine, as well, in his " Histoire des Giron- dins," has committed the error of flattering the Terrorists and of attributing fortunate conse- quences to the crimes of the Revolution. After- wards, however, in his "Entretiens sur la Littera- ture " he nobly confessed his mistake, saying: "The historian, who furnishes crime with an excuse, and cruelty with a fallacious pretext, paves the way, unawares, for future indulgence towards the imitators of these crimes. . . This is an unpardonable error of which I have myself been guilty. Shame upon myself for this com- plaisance ! I wished to amnesty the apologists for the Revolution, and it was on myself that I passed condemnation."^ By glorifying the Terrorists, he gave them successors. J. Valles, in an essay on the victims of books, has admitted that his head was turned by the "Histoire des Girondins." Kropotkine is perfectly justified when he scoffs at the theorists of the Revolution for being aston- ished that their books should breed a spirit of revolt in those who read them. To excuse vio- lence is to invite a return to its employment. The historians who have admired the Revolution with- out reservation, have largely contributed to the 1 Thiers, "Histoire de la Revolution Franfaise," Vol. VI pp 371, 372. - Lamartine, "Entretiens," Bk. XXIII., p. 63. ANARCHISM. 83 progress of the revolutionary spirit and of Anarch- ism by this indulgent attitvide towards crime and their glorification of the Terror. Every incident of the French Revolution does not merit admira- tion: it was a time of great virtues and great crimes, of patriots and of fanatics, of heroes and of scoundrels. The duty of the historian is to judge each party, each man, according to their works, to honour the victims and to brand their butchers, to admire the heroes and to stigmatise the false patriots. It is possible to extol the principles of 1789, and at the same time to inspire hatred for the crimes that have been committed in their name. This duty has not been fulfilled by the historians who, from party spirit or love of popularity, have extolled the works of the Revolu- tion, without reservation, forgetting that wholesale admiration of a work in which good is mingled with evil, is a justification of the evil and, in consequence, a lesson in immorality for the reader.^ They have lent credit to the false pro- position that " force is the only means of pro- ceeding with the economic renovation of society," ^ that progress can only result from a cataclysm, 1 These injudicious admirers of every act of the Revolution go further in their worship of the Revolution than the members of the Committee of Public Safety. Here, for instance, is what Carnot, one of the members of the Committee, said of the Revo- lution: "The French Revolution was a combination of heroism, of cruelty, of sublime Incidents, and of monstrous disorders. . . . There are people who are terrified at the mere name of liberty, because they judge it by the standard of the Revolution, over- Uioliing that this lUoolition, on the contrary, wws one continual despotism.'' (Ibid., pp. 28, 35.) 2 G. Deville,' "Aper9u sur le Socialisme Scientifique,"p. 56, 84 POLITICAL CRIME. and that the situation of the working class can only be improved by a fresh revolution. " If the middle classes," Vaillant declared in his de- fence, "had not massacred or caused massacres during the Revolution, it is probable that they would still be vmder the yoke of the nobility." In the course of the last hundred years France has undergone so many Revolutions that the dis- contented are always hoping for the breaking out of yet another. To provoke it they stop short at no expedient, now that they have seen the mur- derers and incendiaries of the Commune amnestied by the Legislature, and in some instances pro- vided with public functions by the Government. The public conscience has been corrupted by this indulgence shown to incendiarism, robbery, and murder, resorted to to serve political ends. The trials of Ravachol and Vaillant proved that their intellectual depravation was on a par with the perversity of their sentiments, and that it was due, in a great measure, to the sophisms of the materialist philosophers. All Atheists and all Materialists are not Anarchists, but all Anarch- ists are Atheists and Materialists. "We are Materialists and Atheists," declared Bakounine, "and we glory in the fact."^ The Communists also were Materialists and Atheists. Vaillant told the jurymen that they were mere "atoms lost amid matter," and that the history of humanity "is in truth but the perpetual 1 Bakounine, " La Th^ologie Politique de Mazzini et I'lnter- nationale," p. 7. ANARCHISM. 85 play of the cosmic forces for ever renewing them- selves and passing through infinite transforma- tions." He stated that he had taken his ideas from Dr. Buchner, and from supporters of the theory of fatalist evolution. Emile Henry also made a materialist profession of faith. The pro- gress of Anarchism is one of the consequences of a materialist education. Without religious or philosophic faith humanity becomes uncharitable, malevolent, and ferocious. It is true that a few Anarchists, notably Sebastien Faure, have been brought up on religious principles, but, having lost their faith, they cease to be able to under- stand sorrow and suffering, which are inexplicable without hope in another life, and, rebelling against destiny, they rail against society, it being impos- sible for them to wreak their wrath upon nature. The cross-examination of Ravachol showed with what rapidity the theories of the naturalist philosophers have spread among working men, who would apply to human societies the zoologi- cal laws of selection and the struggle for life, since man for them is merely an animal. The president of the Loire assizes reminded Ravachol that he had said to the examining judge: "I wish to reach my goal and to triumph over all obstacles. The hermit was an obstacle; I did away with him." Ravachol answered: "Yes, sir; that is quite right." Query: "A few days after the 26th June you saw this coachman again, and once more you hired his carriage. What did you propose doing ? " Answer: "I wished to see whether he had made S6 POLITICAL CRIME. any communication to the police. If he had spoken, I had a dagger, I had a revolver. My in- tention was to make away with him." Query: " Then you make away in this ready fashion with the persons who stand in your way ? " Answer: " Yes, for us it is a necessity, it is a necessity of life, and it is the same for everybody." How often have the terrible words, "Persons who are in our way must be got rid of," been uttered by politicians ! Ravachol also tried to excuse his crime by saying: "If I have committed murder, it was to satisfy my personal needs." His personal needs were numerous ; they included excellent food, little work, and the luxury of several mistresses. This Anarchist put in practice the famous.Socialist theory which may be thus summed up : " To each according to his needs." The Socialist writers, who make out that people have a right to what they want, are themselves the successors of the sensualist philosophers of the 18th century. It is well known that Helvetius makes the desire of being happy the basis of law, Destutt de Tracy the need, Volney the instinct of preservation, and d'Holbach utility. Contemporary Material- ists serve up afresh as something novel these definitions of law, which amount to its negation, and their sophisms speedily stifle the conscience of the working class and prepare it for crime. False philosophical systems reach the masses, nowadays, with terrible rapidity by such chan- nels as pamphlets, public meetings, and cheap newspapers. A swarm of journalists and politi- ANARCHISM. 87 clans, who flatter the people so as to live at its expense, poison it by propagating the most un- wholesome doctrines. It is the fashion, at present, to make society responsible for all evils, all vices, all suffering, and even all crimes. A great number of contem- porary writers repeat the unjust accusations of J. J. Rousseau,^ d'Holbach, and Diderot. They pretend that " all vices are the fault and the crime of society."^ "The poor man," writes Dr. Btlchner, one of the favourite authors of Vaillant, "knows no other way of escape from his plight but crime. He is the victim of his situation."^ All these sophisms are to be met with in the examinations of Anarchists on their trial. The President of Assizes having remarked to Ravachol, "You commit murder to satisfy your passions; what can society expect of a man who mani- fests such sentiments ? " " It is I," replied the accused, " who have something to expect of society. It is its duty to support me, and it is not surprising that one employs every means to be happy, since society neglects its members. . . All that has happened, I tell you, is the fault of society! It is a phenomenon that comes to pass, and is the result of the situation of the workers, '"Man is born good," said Rousseau. "Society depraves him." " Society," wrote d'Holbach, "is a harsh step-mother for the people, who avenge themselves by robbery and murder." (" Syst^me de la Nature," Part I., ch. xii.) 2 Cabet, "Voyage en Icarie," fifth edition, p. 391. ' Dr. Buchner," Force et Matiire," p. 498. S5 POLITICAL CRIME. who die of hunger amid the wealth they have produced." 1 The " phenomenon " to which the accused re- ferred was the murder of a poor old man, a crime he related in the following terms : " I put my hand on his mouth. Death did not follow quickly enough. I forced my handkerchief between his teeth. . . . Then, as he still struggled, I pressed my knee on his chest. He was soon dead." The "phenomenon" of murder had come to pass, because Ravachol needed to kill to effect ■ a robbery. It was not he who was guilty, it was the fault of society that had not made him rich and happy. When this Anarchist was condemned to death his companions protested indignantly against his sentence, and maintained that it was the jury who were guilty, and that the execution of the murderer would be a crime of the capitalist class. Nor did Vaillant omit to make out that the responsibility for the crimes he had committed lay with society. " You have been sentenced several times," the Presi- dent said to him. "Yes, sir," he answered, "thanks to society." Query: "You allege that there is no such thing as crime or criminals, that everything is merely the consequence of the influ- ence of the environment, and again, that it is the fault of the organisation of society. You left for America after the proceedings against the Russian Anarchists, and so as to rid yourself of your wife." Answer: "Yes, sir." 1 " Gazette des Tribunaux," 11th January, 1894. ANARCHISM. 89 The Anarchists allege that they are victims of society, and they make society responsible for everything. If an Anarchist working-man dis- satisfies his employer by his laziness or is dis- missed because of his insolence, he lays the blame on the organization of society, and considers his employer a task-master, who ought to be sup- pressed. Another working-man, being unable to satisfy his wants, blames society for making an unequal division of wealth. "Society," declared Leauthier, "is bound to assure my existence. As it does not do so, it treats me badly, and I de- cided to revenge myself upon the first capitalist I met." The man with a university degree, who fails to obtain in society the brilliant situation and the material satisfaction on which he had counted, proceeds to curse society. Persons who occupy a social rank for which they were not intended, those who have failed in life, the incapable, and those whose ambitions have been disappointed detest society, because it does not offer them a situation in keeping with their demands. The fury of Marat, during the Revolution, is to be ascribed, in great measure, to the deceptions he experienced prior to 1789. The day that the Academy of Sciences declined to examine his pretended discoveries, touching the nature of light, Marat vented his rage in violent terms. An attempt having been made to console him, by the assurance that with his talents he would, sooner or later, effect his purpose, he answered, grinding his teeth: "My purpose! I 90 POLITICAL CRIME. would like all humanity to be contained in a bomb, to which I would set fire so as to explode it."i To revenge himself for the disdain of the Academy, he afterwards denounced it as a hot-bed of aristocrats. Other Anarchists make society re- sponsible for the inequalities of rank of fortune that exist amongst men, shutting their eyes to the fact that social inequalities are determined by physical, moral, and intellectual inequalities, and that it is nature, and not society, that makes men unequal in respect to health, intelligence, and strength of will, and, in consequence, of un- equal wealth. The violent hatred against society that ani- mates the Anarchists must not be attributed to poverty, but rather to the belief that happiness is the final object in life, that it consists in enjoy- ment, and that society is bound to procure them happiness. Previous to 1789 statesmen, in general, only allowed that the masses had duties, spoke to them solely of their obligations, and consoled them for their sufferings by holding out the hope of happiness in another world, the privileged classes in the meanwhile being careful not to neglect the pleasures offered by this world. The democrats have gone to the other extreme : they omit to remind the masses of their duties, and call their attention exclusively to their rights. Assuredly they are right in wishing to improve the material situation of the raasses, and in not ' " M^moires de Brissot," Vol. I., p. 349. ANARCHISM. 9 1 putting off until another world their hope of a measure of happiness. Christianity does not content itself with promising happiness in another life, for it says : " Seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and the rest, that is to say happiness, will be given you in addition." The rich, who neglect neither their interests nor their pleasures, would show bad grace in accusing of egoism the working-men and peasants who desire a measure of well-being ; they cannot de- mand a renunciation which they do not practise themselves. Still, though it be absurd to invite the masses to think only of heaven, and to despise the good things of this world, it is dangerous to shut them off from heaven, and to keep their eyes fixed on the earth, by telling them that happiness is the one object in life and that it is given by riches. No doubt, the quest of happiness and wealth is most legitimate when the intention is only to obtain them by dint of work and thrift. Still it is criminal to speak to the working class of nothing but pleasures to be had and wealth to be shared; ardent covetousness and the hatred of the rich are kindled by these words. To tell them that poverty is abject^ is to inspire them with the desire to acquire wealth at once and at all cost, so as to deliver themselves from the suffering and shame attendant on poverty. Christianity, on the contrary, taught the poor calmness and ^ It was Darwin who said that poverty is abject. (" Descent of Man.") 8 92 POLITICAL CRIME. patience, speaking to them of their dignity/ and honouring them as the favoured friends of God. Moreover it is this exclusive concern for well- being that destroys patriotism. Why is it that the love of their country has become a feeling un- known to the Anarchists ? It is because they say: "One's country is where one is well off, where one enjoys well-being." The man who has ceased to believe that merit attaches to suffering, who does not look to Divine justice to repay him in another life for what he has endured, and who concentrates all his thoughts on his quest for a happiness that eludes him (for there is no para- dise on this earth even for the rich), experiences before long acute deceptions and great irritation against society. He desires happiness at all cost, and he therefore demands the liquidation of society by petroleum or by dynamite. Every- where, in Italy, in France, in Spain, the aim of the Anarchists, Internationalists, and Collectiv- ists is the same: the division of wealth, and happiness and enjoyment claimed as a right. In the manifesto of the Anarchists of La Pouille, issued in August, 1878, may be read: "The end to be reached is to assure mankind the most com- plete happiness possible. . . . Love ought to be free and delivered from codes and rituals." As far back as 1873 the Spanish Internationalists also declared that their aim was to assure to everybody his share of happiness. "If we lack 1 One of the most beautiful of Bossuet's sermons runs upon this thought: "The exceeding dignity of the poor." ANARCHISM. 93 the power," they added, " to achieve our end, which is to sit down in our turn at the banquet of life, then will appear on the scene petroleum, the avenger whom the privileged classes dread, not only to accomplish the work of destruction, but to execute an act of sound and sovereign justice. A levelling down, if need be by fire and sword, is what is demanded by the dignity, so long trodden under foot, of the proletarian." This furious desire to taste the pleasures of life is further stimulated by the materialist theories that always accompany revolutionary socialism and anarchism, and that teach the glorification of the passions and the rehabilitation of the flesh. "We desire," said the Saint-Simonians, "that humanity shall cease to be crucified, and morti- fied in the flesh." ^ The passions are of Divine origin; why desire to correct the work of God? The passions should be emancipated and nature left to develop itself to the full. Morality is a false and pedantic science that for three thousand years has made a pretence of leading men to virtue and good morals, with its absurd dogmas of moderation and the repression of the passions.^ If, said Fourier, there still be moralists who teach that the passions are not inevitable and legitimate, " it is because the majority of them are of an age when one ceases to enjoy the favour of women." ^ 1 The works of Saint-Simon and Enfantin. " Predications," Part III., p. 363. 2 Victor Considerant, "Destin^e Sociale," Vol. I., p. 52. ^ Fourier, " Th^orie des Quatres Mouvements," p. 175. 94 POLITICAL CRIME. Naturalist and sceptical philosophers are to be found at the present day, who raise the negation of morality to the dignity of a system, who extol egoism, and who proclaim the right of enjoyment. According to the German philosophers Max Stirner and Frederick Nietzche, who boldly take the title of "immoralist philosophers," one must be a simpleton to believe in moral obligation: "There is nothing sillier than the idea of morality. A moral nation is almost always a nation without intelligence; it creates nothing, it does not progress. The desires, the aspiration to enjoy, and the intense senti- ment of enjoyment without heed of moral scruples, are the soil in which the most delicate flowers of the mind grow up and bloom." Duty being suppressed, and the quest of pleasure beconring man's sole motive, it is understandable that the contemporary sensu- alist philosophers, like their predecessors of the 18th century, teach "the art of enjoyment," and that the Anarchists desire to put it in prac- tice. The fact that Christianity sees something divine in suffering and disciplines the passions is the reason why it is to-day the object of a savage hatred on the part of the theorists who deify enjoyment. Fourier violently attacks it because he says, "its dogmas are hostile to pleasure." ^ Saint-Simon reproaches the Christian morality with teaching exclusive love and indissoluble * Fourier, "Theorie des Quatre Mouvements," p. 207. ANARCHISM. 95 The Anarchists maintain that Chris- tianity, by inculcating asceticism, deceives the oppressed so as to assure the security of the oppressors. This hatred of religion and contempt for moral- ity are also fostered by the conviction that " science alone can improve the unhappy plight of humanity." 2 M. Renan and the writers who, following his lead, would rid humanity of what they call super- stition, admit that moral abasement will be the result of the loss of religious beliefs, but they console themselves with the thought that immo- rality is to be preferred to fanaticism. " It is better," says M. Renan, "that a people should be immoral than that it should be fanatical; for immoral multitudes are not troublesome, whereas fanatical multitudes make the world more stupid, and a world condemned to stupidity ceases to offer any reason why I should interest myself in it: I would as lief see it perish."^ This contempt for morality has produced in the upper strata of society a class of "intellectual men, who care for nothing but success, cleverness, and pleasure, and in a lower rank of life another class of men, impatient to possess their share of happiness and very decided to conquer it by all means. The most implacable Anarchists belong to the I Works of Saint-Simon and Enfantin, " PrMications," Part III., p. 365. ' Renan, "L'Avenir de la Science." Preface, p. ix. 3 Ibid., p. X. g6 POLITICAL CRIME. new generation that has been brought up in the negation of spiritual beliefs. In this case, the beast that lurks in every man, being freed from all scruples and all beliefs that can keep it under restraint, rushes into every excess to satisfy its appetites. The new theories of "the struggle for life " and the inevitableness of evolution have introduced a further leaven of egoism and hatred into the hearts of the young Anarchists. They have taught them to consider themselves mere animals and to imitate the animals who struggle for existence heedless of right and justice. Is it astonishing, in consequence, that men should come to resemble wild beasts, and should dream of nothing but destruction and extermination ? ^ No longer believing in anything, neither in God, nor the soul, nor moral obligations, nor a future life, impatient to satisfy their appetites, and no longer hoping for compensation in another world, the Anarchists demand to slake their thirst for pleasure at once, and if society does not render them happy, they do not hesitate to accord them- selves the right to destroy it. "Man," said Vail- lant, " comes to an end where the tomb begins ; . . . in consequence, he should satisfy his desires to the fullest possible extent, and there is no reason for the existence of society unless it finally completes his well-being" {Journal des Debats, 6th January, 1894). Instruction, xmaccompanied by a moral educa- 1 According to the Anarchist Vaillant the animal appetites were to be the sole law of the new society of his dreams. ("Gazette des Tribunaux," 11th January, 1894.) ANARCHISM. 97 tion, cannot inculcate wisdom and the spirit of justice: it merely develops pride and the desire to enjoy. The Anarchist Henry retorted to a Paris Municipal Councillor, who had said at a public meeting that working-men demanded work, that he and those who thought with him de- manded pleasures. The instruction we have received, he said, "has opened the minds of a certain number, and they have asked themselves whether they have not as good a right as anybody else to the satisfactions that civilisation offers to those who have the means to pay for them. In consequence of the organisation of society young men find that they earn very little or nothing at all by utilising the instruction they have re- ceived; . . . there is no chance for these young men, as, indeed, for all those who suffer, but in a complete upheaval, which will permit them (they think so at least) to establish a society that will provide for everyone according to his needs. And these needs are not confined to the needs of the belly. . . . This is why it is that for some time past young men starting in life without a clearly defined social station, and not resigned to their lot, force themselves into notice wherever they can, and this disposition will, per- force, go on increasing until the final smash up."^ The philosophers who believed that an immoral multitude is not troublesome because it is not fanatical should be beginning to see that im- morality does not exclude fanaticism, and that 1 "Journal des D<5bats," 27th March, 1894- gS POLITICAL CRIME. the men who explode bombs in churches are more "troublesome" than those who resort to them to pray. On the day that the pupil of the man of science who prides himself on being the enemy of Chris- tianity threw his bomb in the Chamber of Depu- ties, the politicians who are in the habit of exclaiming " It is Christianity that is the enemy " must have thought that society has, perhaps, a more redoubtable enemy than religion, which teaches the respect of human life, and of pro- perty, saying to man: "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal." Finally, it is impossible for men of science, intoxicated by their chemical discoveries, not to recognise to-day the insufficiency of science to assure the happiness of humanity when they see the most redoubtable criminals demand of science the means of destroying society. The Vendome Criminal Court recently condemned to three years' imprisonment an ex-schoolmaster who furnished Anarchists with directions for the manufacture of explosive engines, aiad who wrote to his clients : " Violent means are alone efficacious. Hurrah for dynamite, milenite, panclastite, the dagger, and the revolver." This same schoolmaster declared that Ravachol (a thief and a murderer) was his Christ. Men of science, such as Paul and Elisee Reclus, approve the outrages of the Anarch- ists, and literary men encourage them. Emile Henry was a bachelor of science and was admis- ANARCHISM. 99 sible to the Ecole Polytechnique; Sebastien Faure has been through the entire classical course, etc., etc. G. Deville, in his "Apercu sur la Social- isme Scientifiqiie," invites the revolutionaries to " utilise all the resources that science puts within the reach of those who have something to de- stroy." Already, in his "Lettres Persanes," Montesquieu had given utterance to the fears inspired in him by " the progress of chemistry." " I have not been in Europe long," Rhedi remarks to Usbeck, " but I have heard sensible people talk of the ravages of chemistry. ... I tremble, lest in the end people arrive at discovering some secret which will furnish a quicker way of causing men to perish and of destroying entire peoples and nations."^ In the study I have just made of the causes of iVnarchism I have striven to make clear the share of responsibility that rests with writers. This responsibility is enormous. In general, writers do not care to have their responsibility talked about; they are fond of pretending that doctrines are without influence upon actions. I believe, on the contrary, that disordered ideas produce moral disorder, that a false thesis may call forth an infinite number of bad actions, that a sophism is often more dangerous to society than a crime. J. J. Rousseau, who has done so much harm with his political sophisms, says himself that bad maxims are often more odious than bad actions. ^ 1 " Lettres Persanes," Letter cv. 2 "La Nouvelle H^loise," Part I., Letter xxx lOO POLITICAL CRIME. It is the sophisms spread abroad by writers on property, religion, government, and capital that have produced the theory of Anarchism, and put weapons into the hands of the Anarchists. The writer who puts unwholesome theories into circu- lation in society explodes bombs in its midst. The propaganda by ideas always precedes the propaganda by deeds. Men, and especially young men, pass rapidly from the idea to action. Intel- lectual disorder produces moral disorder. The world is guided by ideas. If they be sound, they conduce to wisdom and tranquillity, but if they be unhealthy they engender disorder and crime. Recently, at the Aix assizes, we tried and sentenced, for the manufacture of an explosive powder, an Anarchist, aged thirty-three, who, since the age of seventeen, had been noted among all his employers for his assiduity at his work, the regularity of his conduct, and the kindness of his character. The only reproach his foreman had ever made him was that of working on his own account during his leisure hours at the discovery of a mechanical invention. Upon a salary of a trifle over three shillings a day, this excellent, hard-working, sober, and devoted workman kept his wife, two children, and his aged father, whom he had taken into his house- hold. Since his sentence he cannot think with- out tears of his wife and children, and he implores to be given work that he may send them assist- ance. What made an Anarchist of this unhappy man? It was neither laziness, nor intemperance, ANARCHISM. lOI nor cupidity: it was the sophism. His room Avas found to be full of Anarchist newspapers and pamphlets ; they had turned his head. There are poisons foi the mind just as there are poisons for the body. Certain doctrines are veritable poisons for the soul; false maxims induce death as surely as venomous substances. The number of intellectual poisons is as great as that of physical poisons. There are doctrines which, like haschich, lull remorse and stupefy the conscience. There are others that may be compared to explosive substances; they fill the hearts of the people with virulent passions, whose aliment is destruction, expropriation, and exter- mination. Again, are there not newspapers that, like corrosive acids, destroy all they touch, and speeches that, like alcohol, inflame the blood, agitate the nerves, sear the brain, and dry up the heart ? These intellectual poisons are to-day on offer everywhere, in the booksellers' shops, at the newspaper stalls, in places of refreshment, and in the public streets. At the shops where drink is sold, and the number of them increases every day, poisons are also on sale — the literary matter to be found there is as adulterated as the drinks. The hapless people are poisoned in every manner, in mind as well as in body. It is be- cause society is literally poisoned by the sophists that it is diseased. When I note the evident influence of sophisms upon the crimes of the Anarchists there is no limit to my surprise when I hear it said that no I02 POLITICAL CRIME. guilt attaches to opinions, that words do not con- stitute a danger, that pure thought is harmless (Renan). A writer with the best intentions may do a great deal of harm. To avert the danger with which society is threatened by the Anarchist passions, the public institutions mtist not be solely relied upon. Above everything else, it is necessary to reform the intelligences that soph- ism have led astray, to re-establish in the public conscience the beliefs that bring peace, to remind the working-man that he is not a mere animal, subject to no other law than the satisfaction of his instincts; it is necessary, in a word, to teach the people that they have their personal duties and responsibilities. The mischievous doctrines that lend the Anarchists their strength are more efficaciously combatted by salutary doctrine than by the scaffold, the necessity for which, however, I do not contest. Political anarchy is the consequence oi moral anarchy, which, in turn, results from intel- lectual anarchy. "The great political and moral crisis which societies are traversing," says Auguste Comte, "is the outcome, when traced to its final source, of intellectual anarchy." 1 He hoped that the triumph of Positivism would put an end to this anarchy; he was of opinion that the old spiritual beliefs were unsuited to modern democracy and were only good enough for the men of the Middle Ages. The truth is a 1 A. Comte, " Cours de Philosophie Positive," Vol. I., p. 40. ANARCHISir. 103 democracy stands in greater need than any other society of spiritual beliefs, and that free thought inculcated to working-men and students makes Anarchists of them and partisans of revolt. So- ciety is diseased, and to restore it to health it must be re-endowed with moral beliefs. AVhen the Anarchist R mounted the scaffold, he re- pulsed the priest, declaring that he did not believe in God, and adding that had he believed in Him he would not have committed the crimes for which he had been sentenced. The real remedy for the crisis we are traversing is a return to Christianity. Since the false philosophical, poli- tical, and economic systems are making a joint attack upon the foundations of society, the duty of every good citizen is to contribute to their defence to the extent that he is able. Those who do not defend society betray it. To the prose- lytism of evil must be opposed the proselytism of good. It is the strict duty of all those who have the good fortune to hold salutary beliefs, derived from their education, their family, or their studies, to propagate them, and not to allow sophisms to pass without challenge. It is cowardice to remain indifferent in face of the monstrous sophisms that turn out thieves and murderers. When the house is on fire, the citizen who does not aid in extinguishing the flames incurs responsibility for the disaster. Attacked by such numbers of the idle and dissolute, of the ambitious and fana- tical, the object of the onslaughts of so many sophists and revolutionaries, how can society I04 POLITICAL CRIME. escape the storm that is brewing if it be only lukewarmly defended by honest men ? Moreover, men of authority and fortune can do much to re-establish order in public life and in men's minds if they decide to set a good example. The parliamentary scandals which have cropped up in recent years in France and Italy have done more for the progress of revolutionary Socialism and Anarchism than twenty years of propaganda. Fortunes ill acquired and ill employed scandal- ise and irritate the poor. The politicians who are guilty of venality and the rich who do not deserve respect are largely responsible for the progress of Anarchism. CHAPTER lY. POLITICAL HATREDS. The range of human hatred — War has been the normal condi- tion of the human race — Causes of war — In international relations might is right — Man hates whatever differs from himself — Race hatreds — Statesmen inflame international animosities — Republicanism and war — Class animosities — • — Party hatreds — Political persecutions — Conflicts of classes in history — Contemporary class hatreds — The fate of moderate men — Political calumny — Temporary reconciliation of political parties — Political executions — The mob in politics — Political riots — Political excesses of the mob — Political vengeance — Political reaction — Political apathy — Political ferocity. "When God made the heart of man," says Bossviet, " the innermost feelings of man, He placed there first of all kindness, after the pat- tern of His own character, and to be, as it were, the sign-manual of the beneficent hand that fashioned us." Is it indeed kindliness that lies at the bottom of the heart of man ? One is in- clined to have doubts on the point when one observes the numerous hatreds that subsist between men : religious hatreds, theological hatreds, national hatreds, social hatreds, the mutual hatreds of the patricians against the ple- beians, of the plebeians against the patricians, of the rich against the poor, of the poor against the I06 POLITICAL CRIME. rich; and racial hatreds caused by differences oJ ideas, of sentiments, and of colour. Wolves do not devour each other, but as much cannot be said for men ! They kill each other in the name of religion, in the name of liberty, in the name of fraternity, in the name of equality. The noblest religious and philosophical ideas, falsely interpreted, have given rise to hatreds. In the name of a religion that enjoins love priests have burned men at the stake. In the name of doc- trines whose watchword is liberty, philosophers have been persecuted. In the name of fraternity, philanthropists have been guillotined. Heretics have been burned on religious principles ; women and children have been slaughtered out of pa- triotism; noblemen, priests, and working-men have been guillotined by their fellow-citizens. Every animal has an enemy in the shape of another animal of a different species, but man's worst enemy is man. The history of humanity is a mere succession of wars : foreign wars, civil wars, racial wars, class wars. Wars are on record that have lasted seven years, thirty years, and even a hundred years. The wars of the Eevolution and of the First Empire lasted nearly twenty-five years. Commercial peoples, such as the Carthaginians, Venetians, and the English, engaged in commer- cial wars, with a view to enforce treaties and tributes, and to acquire pecuniary advantages. Ambitious peoples engage in wars of conquest to extend their rule. The nation that sees another HATREDS. 107 nation growing up beside it takes umbrage at its strength, and endeavours to shatter it. When Carthage became a rival to Rome, the Romans declared it must be destroyed: Delenda Carthago. Holland, in the 17th century, having become a rival power to England, England at once endea- voured to weaken it. Sovereigns kindle wars be- tween their neighbours to weaken them, and to play the part of arbiters. Others seek in war a diversion from interior difficulties.^ Political parties urge on war to supplant their adversaries or to propagate their principles. In international relations it is might that pre- vails. At the present day nations resort to spe- cious pretexts to cloak their hatred and cupidity. Among the ancients the superiority of might over right was openly proclaimed. For example, when the inhabitants of Milos refused to yield obedience to the Athenians, these latter urged that being the stronger they had the right to lord it over them. "We demand," they said, "that each shall regu- late his pretensions upon his strength. . . We are well aware, you and we, that amongst men, there is no question of the claims of justice except when the power to act is equal between the two parties, and that those that have the advantage in strength exact everything they can, 1 Charles V. said to Francois I.; "We rule, you and I, peoples so hot-blooded, so proud and tumultuous, that if to amuse them ani to take the edge off their bellicose impetuosity we do not wage war from time to time, our own subjects would make war on us, which would be much worse." (Bayle, " Dictionnaire," Charles -Quint.) I08 POLITICAL CRIME. and that the weak accord them whatever ia exacted of them. . . . Men have ever been determined, as if by a natural necessity, to rule wherever they have, the power.i The various peoples of Greece were perpetually at war. Athenians, Lacedemonians, Thebans, lonians, Dorians, Acheans, Messinians, Etolians, and Corinthians were for ever in conflict, signing provisional treaties, breaking these treaties on the first favourable occasion, recommencing the war, devastating the country, pillaging the towns. The smaller peoples, too weak to resist, put them- selves under the protection of a stronger State, that took care to fleece them. The Athenians and the Spartans put a heavy price on their protection. Man hates Avhoever differs from himself; his favour is reserved for those who resemble him. The white detests the black, the black detests the white; the North American persecutes the Indian and despises the nigger. Reason, and above all Christianity, have revealed the senti- ment of fraternity to some minds, but this senti- ment is not general. Separated by race, climate, beliefs, institutions, and colour, men have a diffi- culty in considering themselves members of the same family. The hatred and contempt that the Greeks entertained for foreigners is well known. Foreigners in their eyes were barbarians. Aris- totle advised Alexander to treat them as he would plants or animals ; advice that is astonishing in 1 Thucydides, " Bellum Peloponnesiacum," Bk. V., § 89, 105. HATREDS. 109 the mouth of a philosopher, and that Alexander had the wisdom not to follow. International law did not exist among the ancient peoples. Foreigners were without rights. In the East they considered them to be unclean beings. (Hero- dotus, Bk. 11., sec. 41; Manon, XII., 43.) At the present day the different races still mutually detest and despise each other. The war of 1870 showed that the Germans are animated by a savage hatred against the French; they were seen to be greedy of vengeance, and glad to be able to ravage with fire and sword. A Prussian magistrate, who died in 1887 in Berlin, where he was Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice, and whose letters have been published recently, wrote during the war that such was his racial hatred agjiinst us that he revelled in all the destruction and all the slaughter the German armies were committing in France. AVe are still far removed from international fraternity and racial solidarity. By this mistaken policy states- men have created deep-lying hatreds between France and Germany. Instead of calming the hatreds that arise be- tween nations, statesmen, carried away by their own passions, foster international jealousies and rivalries, and cause the breaking out of wars that might have been averted. How many nations, under the guidance of ambitious sovereigns and ministers, have slaughtered each other without serious motives ! Of how many wars might be said what Frederick II. himself said of the war no POLITICAL CRIME. between Prussia, Austria, and Saxony: . • • In some ways this war caused a useless efiusion of blood. . . . What advantage did Prussia, Austria, and Saxony derive from this war, carried on with so much determination and animosity ? None biit the mutual ruin of vast provinces, the slaughter of thousands of men, who, differently employed, might have been useful to their country. Moreover, the events that were fatal to so many private individuals were useless to those who initiated the conflict. . . . Europe," added Frederick II., "is a veritable cockpit." Sanguin- ary struggles are everywhere in progress; it might bethought that the kings had resolved to depopu- late the earth. . . . Should the acquisition of two or three frontier strongholds, of a small strip of territory, a boundary of more or less extension be regarded as advantages when the excessive cost of the war is taken into account, and it is remembered how heavily the taxes that have produced these immense sums have Aveighed upon the people, and, above all, at the cost of the blood of how many thousands of men these con- quests have been purchased ?^ AVars do not last nowadays as long as they ^Frederick II., "Histoirede Mon Temps." The princes that have caused the most blood to be shed, Louis XIV. and Napo- leon I., have regretted, like Frederick II., the wars they have carried on. " I have been too fond of war," said Louis XIV. on his death-bed. Napoleon I., after the disastrous Russian cam- paign, repeated the words of Louis XIV. : " I am not afraid to confess it," he exclaimed, " I have been too fond of war. I have conceived great enterprises, that were out of proportion to the strength of the nation." (" Vie et Travaux Diplomatiques du HA TREDS. I r 1 used to do. They are finished in a few months, but the number of victims they make in a few days is greater than it used to be in several years, because entire peoples join in the struggle. Republics are somewhat less warlike than monarchies. Still, wars between peoples take the place of wars between kings. The ancient repub- lics and the Italian republics were fond of war. The South American republics attack each other as savagely as did the empires of former days. Nations, like individuals, are subject to the pas- sions that make for war. Occasionally even, like women with a turn for romance, who are wearied by a quiet life, they tire of jDeace. Such under Louis Philippe was the condition of France. It regretted the Napoleonic wars, and it had recourse to a fresh revolution, which procured it civil war and prepared the way for the wars of the Second Empire. Human nature is so fertile in sentiments of hatred that on occasion a nation must needs apprehend the hostility of a neighbour it has aided for the very reason that it has rendered a service. To render service to a people is often a means of making an enemy of it. The remem- Comte d'Hauterive," p. 319.) Carnot relates that when he was alone with Napoleon I. he had often heard him deplore that " mania for conquests that had led him to commit such fatal mistakes." (" Exposi5 de la Conduite Politique de M. Carnot," p. 23.) Louis Philippe, on the contrary, increased the strengtli of France by maintaining peace. At the end of his reign the Russian Chancellor, Count Nesselrode, wrote to the Russian Ambassador in London : " France has gained more by peace thaa it would have obtained by war." 112 POLITICAL CRIME. brance of Magenta and Solferino has something to do with the hostility of Italy towards France.^ Hatred of the foreigner, even Avhen it leads to war, is less odious than class and party struggles. In the ancient societies, when slavery was in force, the class that held the power often treated the inferior classes with the most horrible cruelty. Thucydides narrates that the Spartans were in the habit of decimating the Helots when they became too numerous. On one occasion, so as to be sure that the bravest should be among the victims, they employed the following subterfuge : they promised liberty to those who should be pointed out by their comrades as the bravest. Two thousand were pointed out in this way, " but shortly afterwards they disappeared, without there being even an inkling of the manner in which they had been put to death. ^ Down to the French Revolution class struggles form the substance of the interior history of the different peoples. The history of the Roman republic resolves itself into the history of the struggle between patricians and plebeians. The patricians treat the plebeians as a conquered race, and arrogate to themselves all privileges and dignities; they refuse the plebeians, as far as possible, any share in the government, so as to 1 Machiavelli, noting this hatred of the person who has re- ceived a favour for his benefactor, has remarked: "A prince who desires to preserve himself from conspiracies should stand in much greater fear of those whom he has loaded with benefits than of those on whom he has heaped injuries." (" Discourse upon Livy," Bk. III., ch. iv.) 2 Thucydides, Bk. IV., § 80. HATREDS. 113 keep for themselves the benefits of the exercise of authority. In ancient France there were three mutually hostile orders. The kings, instead of endeavouring to bring the classes together, sought to breed division between them. The history of France is the history of the struggle between those with privileges and those withovit privileges. The Throne supported and raised the status of the people. The abolition of privileges and the conquest of equality were the principal objects of the French Revolution. It was the obstinacy with which the nobility and the clergy clung to their privileges that made the revolution neces- sary. It would seem that class hatreds should no longer exist since the Revolution, which suppressed privileges, and in consequence the classes that divided the nation against itself. Nevertheless the nobility and the middle class continued to detest each other under the Restoration and the July Monarchy, and to-day, although all French citizens have the same civil and political rights. Socialism is there to revive class hatreds on the pretext that "the working class "is oppressed by "the governing classes." The Socialist congress that was held at Brussels in August, 1891, "taking as its standpoint the struggle between the classes, and convinced that there can be no question of the emancipation of the Avorking class so long as there shall be governing classes, . . . advises the wage-earners of the entire Avorld to league themselves against the domination of the 114 POLITICAL CRIME. i-apitalists." The capitalists are pointed to by the Socialist leaders as being the enemies of the workmen. The workmen of the various countries are called upon to stand elbow to elbow in a struggle against them. These social hatreds are fatal to patriotism. Formerly in civil wars the contending parties called the foreigner to their assistance. The Duke of Guise allied himself with Philip II., while the I'rotestant chiefs were in alliance with the German princes. At the time of Richelieu, the Protestants implored the aid of Germany. The Huguenot emigrants returned to La Rochelle on board English vessels, to defend the town against Richelieu. During the Fronde, Conde put himself in the hands of Spain, sought the support of Cromwell, and invited the troops of the Duke of Lorraine to enter French territory. Turenne in- vaded Champagne at the head of a Spanish army. During the French Revolution the Emigrants contracted foreign alliances. Toulon was deliv- ered up to the English. After Waterloo the Royal- ists, wild with joy, received the allies with enthu- siasm.'- Since this date, up till 1871, the political parties did not dare to ally themselves with the foreigners. Since the Commune, however, anti- 1 De Viel-Castel, "Histoire de lalJestauration," Vol. III., p. 444. In 1814 the Royalists were even desirous of taking down the Statue o£ Napoleon I. from the VendOme column. A number of young men presented the Emperor of Russia with an address in which they termed Napoleon I. a monster. There were French- men who formed the project of assassinating him at the moment he was engaged in fighting the allies. ("Memoirs of Chancellor Piisquier," Vol. II.. pp. 264, 276, 283.) HA TREDS. 1 1 5 social passions have acquired such violence that thay have stifled patriotism. On the morrow of Sedan the demagogues and their followers over- threw the Vend5me column and fraternised with the Prussians. Daring the siege of Paris, the same persons took advantage of our disasters to stir up riots and to aggravate the situation. The revolutionary Socialists and the Anarchists nourish a savage hatred against the army because it is the defender of order and of the fatherland. Colonel Billet, who had commanded a regiment of cuirassiers at Reischoffen, and who had crowned himself with glory by charging the Prussians at the head of his regiment, his two sons at his side, was killed in broad daylight, in time of peace, in the street at Limoges by a Frenchman animated by this hatred of the army. The revolutionary Socialists and the Anarchists do not admit a fatherland, and calumniate the army that defends it. They dare to represent it as a school of egoism, immorality, and brutality; whereas it is a school of abnegation and sacri- fice. They protested against the Franco-Russian fetes: an Anarchist working-man even fired a revolver at the crowd that was acclaiming the Russian sailors. In times of revolution the struggle between classes has reached such a pitch as to be accom- panied by the destruction of the houses of the rich, of public monuments, and even of towns. At Lyons, in 1793, the Jacobins caused 20,000 private houses to be destroyed. The convention Il6 POLITICAL CRIME. issued a decree that ran as follows : " The town of Lyons shall be destroyed, all the habitations* of the rich shall be demolished." Some of the most beautiful monuments of Paris were burned by the Commune in 1871. By the side of these class hatreds, which hold terrible disturbances in store for contemporary society, must be ranged party hatreds. Reason and religion say to man : " Every fellow-citizen is your brother; you must love him;" but politics cry to him : " This fellow-citizen is your adversary, you must hate him and persecute him." As the result, these savage cries are heard, according to the regime: "The aristocrary is the enemy, the Liberal is the enemy, the ecclesiastic is the enemy ! " And " the enemy "is combatted by street riots and by unjust laws, by decrees and with the rifle. Man is so constituted that he detests who- ever does not resemble him, or whoever refuses to share his political passions. The violent hate the moderate; in their eyes moderation is treason. ^ The efforts of L'Hopital to reconcile the Catho- lics and the Protestants were worthy of all admi- ration, and what can be sadder than the spectacle of his powerlessness to still the hatreds between the two parties. A Catholic himself, he- was regarded with suspicion by the Catholics, who 1 Theramenes, one of the thirty tyrants, having proposed to inflict a moderate punishment on a Spartan whom his col- leagues wished to put to death, was himself condemned to drink the hemlock. Mdme. de Staiil, having displayed pity for the victims of the coup d'etat of the 18th Fructidor, was accused of treason, and was obliged to make a hasty escape from Paris. HA TREDS. I 1 7 were inclined to look npon him as a heretic, and who were wont to say that it was well to beware of the Chancellor's mass. The Protes- tants for their part were unable to admit that it is possible to be tolerant out of love of moderation and justice. At the time of the Bordeaux insur- rection against the King and Mazarin, the mode- rate members of the Fronde were looked upon with suspicion by the violent party that denounced them as traitors and partisans of Mazarin. Dur- ing the French Revolution, the moderates were the object of the suspicion of all parties. The Constitutionists who were banished from France met with a very bad reception at the hands of the out-and-out Royalists, and were looked at askance by the European Governments. "Scaffolds were erected for them on the frontier of their country, and persecu^tions of every kind awaited them on foreign soil."-'^ The Jacobins detested the moderate Republi- cans even more than they did the Royalists. The Girondins were proscribed as moderates, the Dantonists on the ground that they were too dispo.sed to indulgence, and even the indifferent were outlawed. Carnot, although he was a Re- publican to the core, was proscribed on the 18th Fructidor as a Royalist and protector of Emigrants because he desired that the laws should be inter- preted as much as possible in their favour where it was proved that they had not borne arms 1 Mdme. de Stael, " Considerations sur la Revolution Fran- 9aise." Il8 POLITICAL CRIME. against their country. This moderation caused him to be proscribed. Lanjuinais, who showed such great courage at the Convention and at the Congress of the Five Hundred, was denounced by the ultras of the Restoration who had remained in hiding during the storm, and who now reappeared and asked to be rewarded for a devotion that had cost them nothing. This hatred of the violent for the moderate has been observed at all periods of history. " The most moderate men," wrote Thucydides, "perish the victims of factions."^ The English patriots, Sidney, Harrison, and Hutchinson, after being the butt of Cromwell, were banished by Charles II. It is more particularly the struggles of the Revo- lution that give the measure of the intensity of political hatreds. The parties slaughtered each other like gladiators in a circus. The orators' speeches were full of vindictiveness, fury, and rage. The members of the Committee of Public Safety mutually detested each other. Carnot re- lates that his expulsion was proposed in his presence by Saint Just, just as some time before that of Herault de Sechelles had been proposed, a measure that had promptly brought him to the scaffold. "I replied coldly to Saint Just," adds Carnot, " that he would leave the Committee before me, and the whole triumvirate with him, and the Committee, stupefied, remained silent."^ Before proscribing each other the parties resorted 1 Thucydides, Bk. III., § 82. " " Expose de la Conduite Politique de M. Carnot," p. 33. HA TREDS. I 1 9 to mutual calumny, and accused each oilier in turn of plots and intrigue. Robespierre never ceased accusing his adversaries of being traitors and conspirators; his speeches are a mere tissue of calumnies. Calumny was the favourite wea]ion of the Jacobins against the Girondins; it served their purpose. "There is not a department," said Buzot, "not a town, not a trumpery club that does not dub us Royalists and Federalists." ^ C. Desmoulins' book, entitled "Histoire des Brissotins," contributed by its false allegations to the proscribing of the Girondins. When he heard their condemnation he could not prevent hiinselli exclaiming: "The unhappy men ! It is my book that has killed them." From the outset of the Revolution the adversa- ries of the Throne attacked it by spreading abroail a host of calumnies against the King and Queen. Kropotkine highly approves of these tactics, and advises the Anarchists to employ them against the capitalists. "Calumniate, calumniate," the Jacobins^ used to say, as the Anarchists say to-day, "it will always have some effect." Tliey were aware that the most absurd imputation, if repeated at large, is, in the end, accepted as true. To excite the people against Louis XVI. this easy- going king was accused of contemplating the massacre of the Parisians. At a later period, in order to prepare public opinion for the 1 " M^moires," Buzot, p. 47. 2 Danton declared from the tribune that it was lawful lo calum- niate the enemies of liberty. 120 POLITICAL CRIME, massacre of the nobility and clergy, the latter were accused by the demagogues of plotting a mas- sacre of patriots. A few days before the September massacres the rumour was spread that a plot had been hatched in the prison. ^ It was by false accusations against the Consti- tuent Assembly that the demagogues excited the fury of the populace in June, 1848. On the third day of the insurrection, representatives of the working-nren came to the legislative body to obtain an assurance that the Constituent Assem- bly did not intend reducing the people to star- vation, with a view to making it abhor the Repub- lic. The Deputies who received them showing astonishment at their questions, the working-men responded: "You see when people are undergoing every sort of hardship they are ill-disposed. Be- sides, we do not see what is going on, we only know by the newspapers. It is the newspapers that have excited us."^ When political parties seem to become recon- ciled and to drop their sentiment of hatred, all that has happened in reality is that they have coalesced against another party that they detest still more. A common hatred has reconciled them for a moment, but once the victory has been 1 After the massacre of Saint Bartholomew the victims were calumniated. Royal letters were sent to the provinces announc- ing that " the execution at Paris" had been carried out merely to nip in the bud a plot contrived by the Protestants. The King ordered the Parliament to take proceedings against Coligny and his friends, and two notable Protestants, who had C3ca.ped massacre, were condemned. - Corbon, " Le Secret du Peuple," p. 19 HA TREDS. 1 2 I obtained over the enemy they will start attack- ing each other afresh. The Girondins combined with the Jacobins against the Throne, but after they had overthrown it they fell upon one another. The hatred of the Jacobins against the Giron- dins was heightened by jealousy. The Jacobins, jealous of the talent of the Girondins, proscribed them to avenge themselves for this superiority. Danton joined with Eobespierre against the Girondins, and then fell in his turn beneath the onslaught of his accomplices. Political hatreds are so intense that the pro- scription of an adversary' becomes a pleasure. The man who hates experiences a sense of enjoyment when he sees his victim suffer. ^ In 1793 the Jacobins found a pleasure in the spec- tacle of the death of the nobles and priests ; they occasionally invited the executioner to be their guest. History records that there have been several emperors who took pleasure in regarding the heads of those whom they put to death. When Sylla was killed by order of Nero, " his head was carried to Nero, who remarked jokingly that it was disfigured at too early an age by white hairs." ^ The head of Plantus was also brought to Nero, who took pleasure in the sight. Otho was overjoyed to gaze upon the head of Piso ; "it is said that he never cast more eager looks upon any head."^ 1 Ennius has quite truthfully remarked: "One would like to see the man whom one hates dead." (Cicero, " De Offlciis," Bk. II., § 7.) 2 Tacitus, "Annales," Bk. I., § 57. ^ ibid., § 44. 122 POLITICAL CRIME. It was a king who remarked in the presence of the lifeless body of an adversary whom he had had put to death : " The corpse of an enemy always has a pleasant odoiir." Political hatreds are not quenched by persecu- tion. Men pardon more easily the injuries that are done them than those they inflict. The party that has had recourse to persecution, wishes to continue to persecute. Victims occasionally pardon their executioners, but the executioners never pardon their victims, whose firmness and resignation irritate them; they are even irritated against their victims when death does not super- vene quickly enough. The butchers who in 1793 slaughtered children at Nantes were furious when the poor children were too long in dying. The political party that has begun to persecute its adversaries continues to oppress them from the fear that they should retaliate; it supposes that the oppressed will desire to revenge them- selves in turn ; and from fear of the reaction to bring its persecutions to a close. Political hatreds respect nothing, not even tombs. In 1793 the ashes of the kings were scat- tered to the winds, and outrages were committed upon dead bodies. In England, in 1661, the bodies of Admiral Blake and of the mother and daughter of Cromwell were removed from Westminster. It is by enlisting the support of the dregs of the population that the violent, in times of revolution, are always successful in vanquishing the mode- rate. "I am well aware," said Danton on the eve HATREDS. 123 of the 31st May, "that we are in a minority in the Assembly; all we have to rely upon is a crowd of rascals, who are only patriots when they are drunk. We are a pack of ignoramuses. Marat is a mere yelper; Legendreis only fit to cut up meat; and the others only know how to vote by keeping their seats or rising to their feet. "VVe are far inferior in talent to the Girondins, but if we are beaten they will reproach us with the September massacres, with the death of Capet, and with the 10th August, in which events they sided with us. In consequence, we must attack them. They are fine speakers, who deliberate and feel their waj^ We have more audacity than they have, and the dregs of the populace (canaille) are at our order's." The Jacobins subsidised the rough element so as to have it at their beck and call. The men lender the command of Henriot, who surrounded the Convention on the 2nd June, were individuals whose services had been bought several days before. An assignat of the value of five livres was even distributed to each of them on the scene of action. "On the 2nd June," says Lan- juinais, "I saw as signats distributed publicly to the chief of the hundred and one thousand men.^ Buzot, wishing to explain the ruin of his party, remarks : " We could only employ honourable means, and they were of no avail. Gold, gold, that was what was bound to assure success, and what did assure it. Were not emissaries seen 1 Lanjuinais, " Fragment Hi-storique sur le 31 Mai." The Mayor, Pache," adds Lanjuinais, " had furnished for this occa- sion 150,000 francs, destined to the Saint Domingo Colonists." 10 124 POLITICAL CRIME. everywhere with money, sometimes openly, as in the case of the two miUions accorded the people of Bordeaux, and more often in secret? Money was necessary and we had none.''^ The Commune of Paris allowed every working-man under arms forty sous a day until the re-estab- lishment of public tranquillity. Danton caused the voting of the decree that raised an army of paid sans-culottes in every large town, and of the decree that awarded two francs a sitting to the patriots who were present at the sectional assemblies. The Jacobins were not the only party ^ that enrolled the rough element. The Girondins also had rioters in their pay. From the opening days of the Revolution the riots were systematically organized. " The poor creatures who figure in them," says Chancellor Pasquier, "knew neither what they wanted not what they were doing, and it was clear that their fury had been paid for."^^ Philippe Egalite, the Duke of Orleans, expended considerable sums for riots. To supplant Louis XVI. he promoted the insurrection of the 5th October. According to two Deputies of the Right, Durand de Maillane and Lanjuinais, the adver- saries of the Revolution also provoked disturb- ances with a view to bring it into discredit.'* 1 Buzot, "Memoires, " p. 140. 2 Etienne Marcel had sent as far as Avignon to recruit ruffians. 2 Chancellor Pasquier, " Memoires," Vol. I., p. 49. * " Histoire de la Convention Nationale," by Durand de Mail- lane, p. 47. " Fragraent Historique sur le 31 Mai," by Lanjuinais, p. 296. HATREDS. 125 A great number of popular movements, that appear spontaneous, are, in reality, mere organ- ized affairs, got up, or at least turned to account, by political parties. Riots are seldom due to sudden explosions of popular anger; they are often ordered by ambitious agitators. The events of the 20th June were arranged for by the Girondins, who wished to force the King to take them as ministers; those of the 31st May and the 2nd June were the work of Robespierre and Danton. When the people are let loose, an outlet is given to a torrent that cannot be stemmed. When the masses have once been allowed a taste of rioting, blood, and pillage, it becomes very difificult to keep them under restraint. " When the people have laid criminal hands on a just king, and have tasted the blood of the best citizens, when the Republic is a mere litter beneath the feet of the trampling throng, then, assuredly, there is no storm or con- flagration that may not be more easily allayed than the transports of a maddened multitude." ^ The Girondins underwent this experience; after hounding on the crowd against the Throne, they saw the same crowd turn against themselves. A riot once begun, there is no knowing where it will stop. A spark often gives rise to a vast confla- gration that it is difficult to extinguish. During the struggle between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, the master butchers, at the instiga- tion of the University, sent into the fray their assistants and slaughterers ; they hoped to be ' Cicero, "De Republica," Bk. I., § 42. 126 POLITICAL CRIME. able to keep them in hand, but this proved beyond their power. When, under Henry III., the Duke of Guise let loose the Parisian populace, he was begged by the King to appease the sedition, but he was obliged to confess that he had no hold over "these escaped bulls." During the Fronde, after the combat in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, on the 4th July, 1652, Monsieur and Conde had recourse to M. de Beaufort, merely with the inten- tion of frightening the municipal authorities, but the unbridled crowd went further than was de- sired, and slew several magistrates. Popular hatreds are so blind that the people often mas- sacre their best friends during riots. On the occasion of the revolutionary scenes that took place at the Hotel de Ville, on the 4th July, 1652, magistrates hostile to Mazarinwere massacred on the ground that they were his partisans. During the troubles of the Fronde, it was fatal to be called a partisan of Mazarin, just as later, in 1793, to be termed an aristocrat was to risk being hanged on a lamp-post. The best friends of liberty have often been slain as its enemies. In times of violent political crises, the people, led astray by the demagogues, see traitors everywhere. Generals have been denounced as traitors and slain. Whether revolutionary or anti-revolutionary, the mob that has been freed from restraint perpe- trates the most abominable excesses. The Sep- tember massacrers were insatiable of slaughter. After massacring priests and nobles they hewed HA TREDS. I 27 down old men, women, children, and sick persons at the Salpetriere and at Bicetre. They killed and violated young girls in their dormitories, and slew the boys shut up in the prison for juveniles. During periods of reaction, after the 9th Thermidor and in 1815, the anti-revolutionary mobs in the South of France, carried away by the passion of vengeance, imitated the fury of the revolutionaries, without equalling it, however. ^ Men who have been persecuted are desirous of having their revenge and of causing those who oppressed them to suffer in their turn. A party that has been decimated is eager to retaliate, and even moderate men become violent when ani- mated by the spirit of vengeance. Thucydides has described this craving for vengeance, which constrains those who have suffered to every ex- cess. " Corcyres," he says, " was, then, the first to offer the spectacle of every excess. It was seen to what extremes the unfortunates can go in pur- suit of vengeance who have long been governed with tyrannical insolence instead of being treated with moderation ; what infractions of the law can be committed by hapless creatures who desire to deliver themselves from indigence, and who, led astray by their passion, are solely concerned with laying hands on the wealth of others without regard for justice; in short, what atrocities and 1 After the fall of Robespierre, " the reaction of those who were termed aristocrats against the patriots was without bounds throughout the South of France. The patriots were killed there like thrushes in the fields wherever they were met with." (Durand de Maillane, op. cit., 277.) 128 POLITICAL CRIME. acts of fury can be perpetrated by men who, propelled less by greed than by the desire to uphold political equality, go from excess to ex- cess, taking counsel only of their ignorance and of the insensate fury that inspires them." (Bk. III., § 84.) The peasants of the Jacquerie in the Middle Ages, and in the 18th century the negroes of Saint Domingo, returned outrage for outrage. Atrocities were committed on the side of the nobles and on the side of the peasants, on the side of the slave-owners, and on the side of the slaves. The peasants burned down castles, the nobles set fire to villages. The carnage on both sides was horrible. The Irish, so odiously op- pressed by the English, also committed shocking excesses on the various occasions on which they revolted. The reactions against epochs of violence are always violent. After overthrowing the Terror, the 9th Thermidor continued the system of the Terror, and later on the White Terror i succeeded to the Red Terror. The reactionaries in their thirst for vengeance begin over again the crimes of which they were the sufferers. It is the apathy of law-abiding citizens that constitutes the strength of the violent in times of revolution. This apathy has been observed at every epoch of history. Tacitus, saddened by 1 It is right to recognize that the White Terror caused far fewer victims than the Red Terror. " Paris, during a single day of the September massacres, was the scene of more slaughter than the entire South of France during the summer and autumn of 1815." (Viel Castel, " Histoire de la Restauration.") HA TREDS. 1 29 the cruelty of the tyrants and by the cowardice of the victims, drops his pen in disgust, as he says: " This servile resignation and so much blood spilled in time of peace weary and afllict the soul."i The "Ormee," that spread terror in Bordeaux during the Fronde, counted only 500 members. During the Revolution, the inhabitants of •Bor- deaux allowed themselves to be oppressed by Tallien and the 1,800 fanatics that constituted his following. At Marseilles the Jacobins were masters of only five sections out of thirty-two. Ronsin, the commander of the revolutionary army at Lyons, declared that there were not 1,500 Jacobins in the town. Paris submitted to be terrorised by a handful of assassins. It looks at first sight as if the savage hatreds that have caused the shedding of so mxich blood belong to history, and as if contemporary societies Avould not witness again the excesses of 1793. The words fraternity, humanity, and pity are on all lips, but they have not penetrated as yet into all hearts. There are barbarians aniongst us who are without ideas, who know of nothing but hatred, and who wish to destroy society. These barbarians who lurk in the purlieus of great cities are more ferocious than the barbarians who dwell in forests. It would be a mistake to lull ourselves into a false security on the score that the enemies of society are in a minority, and that the immense mass of the people is not animated 1 Tacitus, "Annales," Bk. XVI., § 16. 130 POLITICAL CRIME. l)y revolutionary sentiments. All revolutions have been accomplished by an audacious minor- ity. The number of the violent is small, but that of the cowardly is great ! In 1871 we witnessed a revival of the Terror. The excesses of 1793 were surpassed by those of the Commune, and Avere a fresh revolution to break out to-morrow, the acts of vandalism and cruelty of 1871 would be sur- passed by the acts of barbarity of the revolution- ary Socialists and Anarchists, who nourish a savage hatred against the employers of labour, the middle class, the clergy, and the army, and who desire to compass the destruction of society by every means, by the dagger, by petroleum, by dynamite, and by incendiarism. I have been called upon to try a certain number of Anarchists, and I ha^-e noted in their words and writings an intensity of hatred that is frightful. One of them gave servants the advice to avenge themselves on their masters by depraving their children. After the outrage in the Barcelona theatre, when an engineer belonging to Aix was among the killed, an Anarchist paper wrote: "Would not each one of you feel a thrill of feverish intensity in his heart if he heard the sputtering of capitalist fat and the howls of this mass of meat strviggling in the midst of the immense fabric of fire ? " Unhappily the energy of respectable people diminishes in proportion as the audacity and hate of the enemies of society augment. "We somewhat resemble persons who, when the house HA TREDS. I 3 I has been set on fire, occupy themselves in admir- ing the torch and the enjoying aspect of the incen- diary."^ As the result of a foolish hyper-senti- mentality we have readmitted amongst us the incendiaries of the Commune, and they refuse us the pardon we have accorded them. The Anarchists, who commit the most abominable outrages, are sometimes accorded extenuating circumstances: the juries who accord them seem to be asking for them for themselves. » Joubert, "Pens(Ses," Vol. II., p. 222. CHAPTER V. POLITICAL HYPOCRISY. Devices of the political hypocrite — Religion used as a cloak for political hypocrisy — Political ambition — Personal greed of politicians — The dissimulation of politicians — Politicians conceal their ambition under the cloak of hypocrisy — Cromwell's hypocrisy — Mendacities of politicians — Political persecutors — Demagogues always speak in the name of the people — Timidity of moderate politicians — The influence of fear in politics — Cowardice of the Convention — Politicians follow the crowd — Politicians as flatterers of the people — Gullibility of the people — Washington on the " Friends of the People " — The politician and the courtier — Abuse of the word Liberty — The Satanic principle — The desire for true liberty is rare — The misleading character of party names — The falsehood of official statements — Charlatanism of political parties — Criminals in revolutionary times — Goethe on the apostles of liberty. Politics, like religion, has its hypocrites, who mask their ambition beneath big words. Moliere has pilloried religious hypocrisy in an immortal masterpiece, but political hypocrisy still awaits the artist who shall unmask it. Ambitious politicians always invoke the public good and the interest of the State. They are incessantly talking of their devotion to the Com- monwealth, Avhile, in reality, their object is power. It often happens that the minister who is for ever insisting on his concern for the safety of the HYPOCRISY. 133 State is solely pre-occupied in his heart of hearts with the safety of his official position, and that he who is incessantly invoking the interest of the State has above all in view his own personal interests. The Government of which the am- bitious politician does not form part is always a bad Government that must be overthrown — in the public interest. A policy that does not offer tan- gible profits is a bad policy. The good policy is the policy that procures power and pecuniary advantages. Rigid members of the Convention, who had voted the abolition of titles, finished up Barons and Counts of the Empire, zealous champions of liberty voted the establishment of the Empire, and regicides cried " Long live the King " in 1815. Implacable adversaries of Louis Philippe, who complained of the lack of liberty under his reign, became high functionaries under Napoleon IIL Just as some of the regicides of 1793 became prefects and State councillors during the First Empire, so some of the Socialists of 1848 were appointed prefects and State councillors by the Second Empire. Amid a few statesmen who are sincerely anxious for the public good, how many there are who conceal their egoistic pre- occupations beneath high-sounding words ! When the Duke of Berriand the Comtede Charo- lais rebelled against Louis XL, they declared that they took the field for the good of the com- munity. Louis XL, however, despatched letters patent throughout the kingdom, in which he revealed the true causes of the rebellion, and 134 POLITICAL CRIME. explained that if he had consented to increase the pensions of the great, these latter Avould never have bethought themselves of the public good. The chapter of the " Memoirs of Commines " which is devoted to the narration of the revolt of the Comte de Charolais, is preceded by the fol- lowing summary: " How the Comte de Charolais, with several great Lords of France, put on foot an army against King Louis XI. under colour of tlte public good." A great number of ambitious politicians have used religion as a cloak for their designs. "The pretext of religion," said the Duke de Nevers,^ is no new thing and many princes have availed themselves of it, thinking to attain their end." The Duke of Guise made use of religion as a means to procure him the throne. The public interest was the pretext alleged for the Amboise conspiracy, whereas its principal cause was the Prince of Conde's hatred of the Guise family. During the wars of religion, the principal Protes- tant leaders were more concerned with their per- sonal ambitions than with the interests of Protes- tantism. Religion was merely the pretext for the insurrection at La Rochelle in 1627, which was the outcome, in reality, of the ambition of the Rohan family, who did not shrink from seeking the support of England against the King. Charles V. concealed his ambition under the cloak of religion. " Charles," remarked Francis L, 1 In his discourse upon affairs of State, printed in 1590, and dedicated to Pope Sixtus V. HYPOCRISY. 135 "wishes to encroach upon the States under colour of religion." Philip II. also used the pretext of religion for political purposes. It was from political ambition and not in the interest of the State that, during the Fronde, the great lords posed as popular champions. Chateau- neuf, one of the leaders of the Fronde, stipu- lated that he should be Prime Minister in all the treaties that were projected between Mazarin and his party. Another of the leaders, the Marquis de Vieuville, demanded that he should be Super- intendent of the Finances, another, de Retz, the cardinal's hat, and still others places at Court and hereditary governments. When the Duke de la Rochefoucauld (the moralist) made his peace with Mazarin, he had himself allotted the respectable pension of 8,000 francs. When Conde negotiated with the Court, he demanded for his friends commissions as marshals of France, provincial governments, honours and pensions, and even a large pension for Madame de Chatil- lon. The tribunes of the people were just as little oblivious of their own interests. At Bor- deaux, Villars, one of the chiefs of the "Ormee," demanded 30,000 crowns for himself. It is clear that the aristocracy, who incited the people to rebel against Mazarin, were pvirsuing their own selfish ends. This has always been the case. The greater part of the disturbances and civil wars that ravaged France previous to 1789 were provoked by the ambition and greed of the great nobles, Avho were repeatedly seen to enter into 'O 6 POLITICAL CRIME. close relations with the lower classes and to flatter and excite them with a view to induce them to fly to arms. What can be more con- temptible, for instance, than the conduct of Conde during the troubles of the Fronde? When, at Bordeaux, the Fronde separated into two factions, one, the lesser Fronde, composed of moderate and enlightened men, the other, called the Ormee, composed of violent and passionate men of low rank, when the schism occurred, and was followed by sanguinary struggles between the two factions, Conde, the great Conde, wrote to Lenet : " If it be impossible by negotiations or craft, or otherwise, to force the Ormee to moderate its action, it will be best to range ourselves on its side. ... I still persist in the idea that all of us shall join ourselves with those of the Ormee, since this party is much stronger than the other." ^ When the Ormee expelled several members of the Parlia- ment who had been friends of Conde, the latter approved these acts of violence, because he thought them necessary. He even went further: he did not shrink from deceitfully throwing the responsibility upon the Prince de Conti and the Duchesse de Longueville. "I should be glad," he wrote to Lenet, " if the acts of violence of which the Parliament is to be the object could be at- tributed to the Prince de Conti or to Madame de Longueville."^ When the hero of Rocroy, led aAvay by political ' Cousin, " Madame de Longueville pendant la Fronde," p. 270, = Ibid., p. 318. HYPOCRISY. 137 passion, is seen to descend to cunning, cowardice, and hypocrisy, can one be astonished at meeting with so little straightforwardness and sincerity in the political world ? Princes, Kings, Emperors, Ministers, Deputies, and popular tribunes are almost all in the habit of employing words to dis- guise their thoughts : they make of lying a custom, a principle of government. " He who does not know how to dissimulate does not know how to reign," remarked Louis XI. Even to-day there are historians who invite the young student to admire the crafty devices of Louis XL It has been said of several sovereigns that they lied even when they were not speaking. Hypocrisy, next to cruelty, is the dominant characteristic of almost all the Roman Emperors. Augustus con- cealed absolute power beneath the semblance of a republic. It is notorious what a hypocrite Tiberius was: he was always repeating that the law must be obeyed, exercendas leges esse. Nero was wont to dissemble his hatred beneath treach- erous caresses ;i he sought to exonerate all his crimes on the plea that they were committed in the interest of the State. To justify the murder of Agrippina he caused false accusations to be made against her; when he put to death two excellent citizens, Plautus and Sylla, he accused them falsely of being seditious spirits, and wrote to the Senate that he was watching carefully over the safety of the Republic.^ 1 Tacitus, " Annales," XIV., § 56. 2 Ibid., § 59. 138 POLITICAL CRIME. All the ambitious men who have aspired to rule have been hypocrites, alleging that they were devoid of ambition. Plutarch relates that Pisis- tratus gave himself out to be a man "of no en- croaching disposition, content with his own, without aspiring further, hating those who might attempt to change the present state of the com- monwealth, or might be plotting some new thing. "^ It was in vain that Solon, who saw through the deceit of Pisistratus, warned the people and im- plored them not to allow liberty to perish ; in vain that he reproached the Athenians with "their foolishness and cowardice of heart;" he was unable to convince anybody, so entirely had the Athenians been lulled into a false security by the hypocrisy of Pisistratus. Was there ever a greater hypocrite than Cromwell ? He, too, hid his ambition beneath an affected humility, filling his speeches with quotations from the Bible, and with mystical effusions, often accompanied by tears, declar- ing that he would have been happier had he lived in the shade of his little wood and tended his flock of sheep instead of taking over the burden of government;^ but he added that it was his duty to accept this burden in order to save the nation and in obedience to the will of Grod. He never spoke haughtily, like a man who makes a show of his authority, but as "an obedient colleague in the service of the people;" ^ Plutarch, "Life of Solon." 2 Villemain, " Histoire de Cromwell," Vol. VI., p. 263. HYPOCRISY. 139 he declared himself the servant of the people. He disguised his rule under the title of Protector, just as Napoleon adopted the title of First Consul to the same end. I cannot attempt to cite all the cruel and crafty acts of Cromwell, so shall confine myself to recalling how he took the town of Drog- heda. He promised those who should capitulate their lives ; the besieged, deceived by this pro- mise, surrendered, and Cromwell caused them all to be massacred. Gustave de Beaumiont relates in his book on Ireland, that visiting the country two centuries after these events, he found the districts which Cromwell had traversed still full of the terror of his name. Cromwell, like so many other ambitious politician s,-'- was in the habit of slandering those who resisted him, before im- prisoning them or putting them to death; he caused pamphleteers in his pay to denounce them as abominably factious characters and as men capable of every crime. The ambitious who wish to acquire or to keep power always have their pamphleteers, their "reptiles," who slander their adversaries and dissimulate their projects. The man who pro- poses to confiscate liberty, vaunts liberty and declares himself ready to combat despotism. While Monk was paving the way for the return of the Stuarts, he said to Ludlow, "One ought to ' Caesar was perpetually slandering Cato of Utica, accusing him of avarice and of being a man of bad morals. Yet Plu- tarch says that " Hercules might as well be accused of cowardice as Cato of avarice and of greed of gain." (Life of Cato of Utica.) 11 I40 POLITICAL CRIME. live and die for the Republic," and he swore to oppose the restoration of the Stuarts. The words of the Bible, Omnis homo mendax, are more especially applicable to the politician. The con- queror who oppresses a conquered country is fond of styling himself its liberator. The prince who governs in defiance of the wishes of a nation does not fail to declare that he is the people's mandatory, and the executor of the national will. The King or the Minister who is making prepa- rations for war announces peace. Should he declare war, he endeavours by false declarations to sow division in the country he is attacking, to create a breach between the Government and the nation. Leopold declared in the manifesto he addressed to all the Powers in 1791, that he merely wished " to suppress those petty legisla- tors of the National Assembly who, after attack- ing the throne and the altar, would infallibly dis- turb the peace of Europe." He added: "I declare to the French nation that it is not against it that I shall lead my troops." The King of Prussia resorted to the same manoeuvre in 1870, declaring that he was making war upon Napoleon III., and not upon the French nation, and yet, when Napo- leon III. had been made prisoner, Prussia con- tinued to make war against the nation. The violent affirm that order reigns when they have silenced their victims; they declare they have established peace where they have made a solitude, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. When one nation oppresses another, it does not HYPOCRISY. 141 fail to inform it that it is the bearer of the bene- fits of civilisation, and that it is acting in the interest of the oppressed. When the Athenians summoned the Melians to submit, they said to them hypocritically: "We speak to you at the same time in the interest of your republic. We Avish to spare you a resistance that will be fatal, and to preserve you in your interest and . . . in our own."^ Cicero, attempting to justify the enormous tributes that the Romans exacted from conquered peoples, maintained that the Roman rule was established in their interest. The truth is that the peoples in question were robbed and pillaged with boundless greed and cruelty. The Span- iards pillaged the New World under the pretence of civilising it. Persecutors always prate of humanity and fra- ternity when they are sending their victims to the scaffold. If they wish to suppress religion, it is in the name of the liberty of worship and of the liberty of conscience that they put impediments in the way of religious observances and of the recruiting of the clergy. After the 9th Thermidor the Convention proclaimed the liberty of creeds, and at the same time forbade the priests to cele- brate religious services. Irreligious fanaticism is, in general, hypocritical and cruel. During the Terror it caused the murder of priests, the clos- ing of churches, and the destruction of altars in the name of philosophy. The murderers of the ' Thucydides. 142 POLITICAL CRIME. priests styled themselves patriots and philoso- phers, and gave the name of fanatics to their vic- tims : later on the persecution was conducted in the name of legality. When persecution cannot attain its end by violence, it hypocritically as- sumes legal forms. AVhen England saw that it was powerless to suppress Catholicism in Ireland by force, it authorised the exercise of that .creed, but at the same time it banished the bishops so as to hinder the recruiting of the clergy. In France, the most cruel Terrorists had recourse to violence and ruse in turn to root out Christianity. Carrier, who was instrumental in drowning so many priests, and who, at his trial, declared that these drownings had seemed to him very natural,^ also advocated the employment of ruse as an indirect means of destroying Christianity, though all the while he was proclaiming the liberty of public worship. Confiscation, during the Eevolution, was de- nominated at the outside sequestration or admin- istration by the Government. The name of the Consolidated Third was given to the public debt after it had been arbitrarily reduced to a third of its value. The Convention, after the 9th Thermidor, declared that property was inviolable, and yet de- clared the families of the Emigrants incapable of holding property, and maintained the confiscation of their estates. The majority of the speeches of the revolution- ary period abounded in falsehoods. While the ^ Wallon, " Les Repr^sentants en Mission," Vol. I., p. 68. HYPOCRISY. 143 Convention was deliberating, on the 2nd June, under menace of the guns and cannon of the Com- mune, Couthon spoke of the independence it enjoyed. "Now that you are reassured as to your liberty," he said, "I ask that justice be done the people, that the Deputies who have conspired be arrested." What a hypocrite Robespierre was, how all his speeches are impregnated with craft and treachery ! He is the type of the political Tartufie. His language is always artificial and shifty; he boasts of his frankness, he affects abnegation and the absence of ambition, he pro- nounces devoutly the words humanity and liberty when he is proposing acts of proscription. Jeal- ous of his adversaries who have more talent than himself, he slanders and proscribes them in the interest of the Republic, and sacrifices them in reality to his private grudges. To make himself popular he lodges with a joiner and takes his meals with the family. Another Machiavelian expedient employed by the Governments that wish to destroy a religion consists in discrediting the clergy by choosing them badly. The Russian G-overnment, with a view to suppress Catholicism in Poland, ap- pointed drunken and debauched Catholic bishops. The demagogues who wish to oppress the ma- jority, in the name of an infinitesimal minority, always speak in the name of the people, although they represent but the least enlightened and least respectable portion of the people. It was in the name of the " people " that thej- demanded the 144 POLITICAL CRIME. execution of the King, the proscription of the Girondins, and the creation of the revolutionary tribunal. The very judges who formed part of this tribunal were given to invoking the people. . . . " The people, Avho knows the conspirators, desires their punishment," they said. "Inform the peo- ple that the Convention wishes to join with it in saving the Eepublic.''^ Factious minorities ahvays invoke the will of the people. During the Revolution the pretended delegates of the 48 sections of Paris alleged that they alone represented the sovereign people. It has been affirmed that the 48 sections were instituted to overthrow the monarchy. The fact is that in the night of the 9th to 10th August, many of the commissaries were only elected by an infinitesimal minority. In the section of the Arsenal, which comprehended 1,400 active citizens, the election of these delegates was carried out by the members. How often, since, has the same fiction accompanied the formation of political committees and the nomination of delegates, who give themselves out to be the representatives of the majority, and who turn to account a mandate they have not received ? It is thanks to manoeu- vres of this kind that France at times allows itself to be governed by a minority which is not the eliU of the country. The true figures are falsified or juggled with. The minority, giving itself the appearance of being the majority, acts 1 " Histoire de la Convention Nationale," by Durand de Mail- lane, p. 66. HYPOCRISY. 145 upon public opinion and, speaking in the name of the people, directs it. The authors of despotic or popular coii'ps ditat never fail to invoke the sovereignty of the people as their excuse for outraging this sove- reignty. The only sovereignty that interests them is their own sovereignty. While declaring the people to be stjvereign, they impose their will upon it and treat it as their slave; they make a pre- tence of consulting the country, and dictate to it, in reality, the answers they demand. At revolutionary epochs France abounds in persons who attribute to themselves the right of representing the country. If they invade the representative Assembly their object is to acquaint it with the will of the people. At the sitting of the 1st Prairial, An III., the Convention having been invaded by a seditious mob, "an individual in the costume of a gunner mounts the tribune, where, surrounded by fusiliers, he reads, in a most insolent tone, a printed mani- festo, which contains, he says, the will of the sovereign people in whose name he speaks." ^ While the violent hide their projects under a swarm of pretexts, such as the public good, the safety of the republic and the will of the people, the moderate in turn conceal their weakness and fear beneath sophisms and falsehoods. They only yield, they declare, in order to avoid still greater evils, and to terminate a dangerous crisis. 1 Durand de Maillane, " Histoire de la Convention Nationale," p. 361. 146 POLITICAL CRIME. They excuse themselves for accepting the violent measures they are asked to countenance by pleading that they only vote them in the interest of those against whom they are directed. When the Jacobins, on the 2nd June, demanded the pro- scription of the Girondins, the Deputies of the Plain conceded the point, declaring "that after all the Deputies kept under arrest in their own houses were not much to be pitied, and that it was necessary to put an end to a terrible crisis."^ Barrere, entrusted with drawing up a report in the name of the Committee of Public Safety, made a hypocritical appeal to the patriotism and gene- rosity of the accused members, and asked them to consent voluntarily to the suspension of their privileges on the pretext that this was the only way of putting an end to the divisions that afflicted the Republic. The same hypocrisy was to the fore when the list of the proscribed was put to the vote: the members of the Centre, to hide their weakness, refused to vote, saying that they were not free. Their abstention allowed the Mountain to decree that the Girondins should be brought to trial. At the present day it is fear that drives so many men of moderate opinions to howl with the ex- tremists and Socialists ; it was fear that, during the Re vokition, added incessantly to the number of the Jacobins, who were at first in a minority in the Convention, and it was the same motive that -Thiers, "Histoire de la Revolution Franvaise,'' Vol. IV., p. 2S7. HYPOCRISY. 147 led the Duke of Orleans to take his place with the Men of the Mountain, and to adopt the sobriquet of'Egalite." Fear, which makes hypocrites of men, also makes them cruel. To save themselves, they cause the ruin of others ; cowardice, says Mon- taigne, is the mother of cruelty. Numerous were the Deputies who voted the death of Louis XVI., and of the Girondins, out of fear. How many acted as did Saint-Fargeau, the former President of the Parliament of Paris ! After exhibiting great hostility to the revolution he voted the condemnation of Louis XV'L, and canvassed for votes in its favour. The Girondins did not desire the death of Louis XVI., but they voted for it from fear of being accused of royalism.^ Vergniaud, who, to begin with, pronounced himself openly against the death of Louis XVI., finished by voting for it, on the pretence that it was indispen- sable to sacrifice one man's life to avert civil war. Many of the Deputies allowed themselves to be intimidated by the clamours of those in the public tribunes, who were murmuring against those who did not vote the death sentence. The Men of the Mountain only obtained the condemnation by the aid of audacity and terror. It was fear that, in turn, caused the Girondins to be delivered over to Danton.and Robespierre, and afterwards, Dan- ton to Robespierre. The majority in the Conven- tion was not animated by cruel sentiments. "The 1 This cowardliness did not save them. The Men of the Mountain accused them later ol having purposed saving tha tyrant. 148 POLITICAL CRIME. majority was always sound," M. de Sevre re- marked at a later date ; " but it was always cow- ardly. It was in no sort the courage of the majority that brought the dictatorship of Robes- pierre to an end : it was the fear of becoming his victims that decided Tallien, Bourdon de I'Oise, Legendre, and Lecointre to attack Robespierre — they pulled him down to save themselves. Bar- rere, questioned afterwards upon the acts of the Committee of Public Safety, replied: "We had but one sentiment, that of self-preservation, but one desire, that of preserving our existence, which each of us thought to be threatened. One had one's neighbour guillotined to prevent oneself being guillotined by one's neighbour." To save their own heads, the Deputies sent their colleagues to the scaffold. When Sieyes was asked, after the Terror, what he did during the tempest, he replied: "I lived." Many moderate members of the Convention did as he did: their sole thought was to save their lives by keeping silent and lying low in the "marsh." A Deputy of the Right, Durand de Maillane, has explained his attitude in the Con- vention in the following terms: "Robespierre's party saw no hope for the safety of the Republic and for its own security except in recourse to atrocious measures, and if resolved to rid itself of its adversaries by the sword and by assassination. Under a republic, patriotic zeal is sometimes made to serve as an excellent cloak for these iorrors. For my part, deeply impressed by these HYPOCRISY. 149 shameful scenes and still more by the misfortunes they seemed to foretell, / at once viacle up mij mind to keep aloof and to trust for safety to my silence and insignificance: ... by my silence I did not provoke, the anger of any member of the Left. I kept carefully present to my memory the opinion that Bodin emits in his ' Republic : ' ' When one has good reasons not to declare openly in favour of the people, when it is in a state of ebullition, it is prudent, even neces- sary, for one's safety, not to run counter to it. . . It is wiser,' he adds, ' to yelp with the wolves.' "^ To yelp with the wolves is, in fact, the motto of a great number of moderate men, who, though they abhor extreme ideas, refrain from conabating them and even pretend sometimes to hold them, li they are Senators or Deputies they vote laws that are repugnant to them^, painful though it be to them to act in such fashion. The majority of politicians follow the crowd instead of guiding it; the number of those who have the courage to state their opinions and to resist the current is very small. From fear of involving themselves in trouble, people range themselves on the side that seems in the ascendant; they make a hypocritical show of extreme opinions and follow the current so as to retain popularity.^ 1 " Histoire de la Convention Nationale," pp. 39, 57, 33. '■' A district councillor told me recently that he had gone to the chief town of the department to take part in a senatorial election, intending to vote for the moderate Republican candi- date; " but," he added, " 1 nnw on my arrival that the current I50 POLITICAL CRIME. A great many politicians stop short at no false- hood to acquire or keep popularity. They follow with docility all the passions of the crowd. They change their ideas and programmes as public opinion veers; they defend what they used to combat, and combat what they used to defend. They are of the current opinion. If Moderation and Liberalism are in fashion they are Moderates and Liberals, but if the spirit of justice and liberty should expose them to losing their popularity, they are quick to become violent, unjust, and tyrannical, in order not to allow themselves to be surpassed in violence by their rivals. If the crowd clamour for religious persecution, they will per- secute religion; if it demand iniquitous taxes, they will vote them; if it insist upon a policy of plunder, they will hasten to satisfy every form of greed and envy; even if the crowd would have blood, they will let blood flow, and will slander the victims. And yet the moment soon arrives when they lose this popularity so dearly bought, did not set in his direction, and I voted for his adversary." " You are a profound politician," I answered him, expressing my irony in the form of a compliment ; " you always follow the current." The councillor hesitated a moment, in doubt whether my compliment was ironical or sincere. He looked at me anxiously to see whether I was not smiling, but I managed to keep serious. Thereupon, reassured as to my intentions, and flattered at my appreciation of him, he made me this memor- able answer: "Yes, sir, I always follow the current." The majority of politicians follow the current, like this district councillor, and like Alcibiades, who said : " Athens being ruled b.v a popular government, it is necessary to follow the impul- s.on of circumstances." (Thucydides, Bk. VI., § 89.) HYPOCRISY. 151 for the people is not long in breaking its idols. ' It was to retain their popularity that the Girondins voted the death of Louis XVI. against their conscience. What Mdme. de Maintenon and the mother of the Regent said of the Court world may be applied to the political world: "These surround- ings are terrible, and there is no head they do not turn," said Mdme. de Maintenon. "Be on your guard against all that you most esteem. I am at the fountain head, and the result is that I witness one act of treachery after the other. The very best are transformed by the Court. "^ Politics, also, transform the best characters. Again, the mother of the Regent said : " Since I have been here, I have been accustomed to see such abomi- nable things, that if ever I were to find myself in a place where dissimulation was not the reigning quality, or where lying was not favoured and approved of, I should believe I had come upon a paradise." The courtiers did not seek to enlighten the king; they merely wished to please him and to 1 D'Epreminil, who was so popular in 1789, was in 1791 roughly handled by the populace, who wished to put him to death. Delivered from his murderers, he said to Petion, who had come to visit him, these words, which should be weighed by ambi- tious politicians : " I, too, have been carried in triumph by the people." In spite of the inconstancy of the people, popularity- hunting is the ruling passion of politicians. When Benjamin Constant was on his deathbed he was heard in his wanderings to murmur these words : "After twelve years of popularity justly won, justly deserved." He was bewailing the loss of his popu- larity. 2 Letter of Mdme. de Maintenon, dated 15th November, 1695. 152 POLITICAL CRIME. secure his good graces by flattery. The king, m their eyes, was an idol. For politicians the people has become another idol, which they flatter and worship in order to push their fortunes, humoviring all its passions and applauding all its prejudices. "How great art thou, people!" they declaim, "how noble, how gentle! All thou desirest is just ! " The flatterers of the people, like the flatterers of kings, to justify its passions, give its vices the names of the contrasting virtues ; they call its intolerance love of liberty, its violence love of tranquillity. They tell it that it promotes public order when it treats the representatives of authority with violence, that by interfering with the liberty of labour it upholds liberty, that by striking down the capitalist it establishes the reign of fraternity. They persuade it that by ruining the employers of labour, and by bringing about its own ruin, it enriches the country, and that by undoing itself and the manufacturers it conduces to the prosperity of the nation. Sovereigns are sometimes sickened by the flatteries of which thej^ are the object. Tiberius himself, every time that he came away from the Senate, could not refrain from exclaiming in Greek : " men created for servitude ! " He kept within bounds the senators who descended to excessive flattery. 1 It is rare that the people is thus disgusted by the hypocritical and gross flattery that is 1 Tacitus, "Annales,"Bk. 11., § 87; Bk. IV., § 6. The Emperor Claudius declined the title of Father of the Senate, because he considered this flattery excessive. (Tacitus "Annales," Bk. XI , § 25.) HYPOCRISY. 153 lavished upon it. It almost always yields to the seduction/ and especially so if the demagogues indulge as well in abuse of the rich, saying: "They are overflowing in riches, . . we are lacking in even the necessities of life; they own two or several palaces, while we have nowhere a resting place." ^ Poor people ! It likes to be flattered, and does not even perceive that its flatterers live at its expense. To excite the working-man against his emjiloyer, the soldier against his chiefs, to stir up the jealousy of the poor against the rich, to make him promises that are unrealisable, to demand the confiscation of the property of the rich, such are the habitual tactics of demagogues.' How is it possible for the good sense of the people to resist such culpable excitations, especially when their authors (as has happened more than once in France) are those in authority ? " Workers in towns and factories," said the Minister of the Interior on the 28th March, 1848, "it is essential that you should be conscious of your sufferings, your rights, and your just pretensions. Publish them abroad. . . Working-men, declare what you have sufiered, . . . declare that your life has been a martyrdom, . . . reveal these horrors to an appalled world ; relate that your daughters of tender age had no choice between suicide and prostitution; relate that aged men ' "The people is gullible." Aristophanes made this remark. 2 Salluste, "Catilina," § 20. 3 "To-day," said Aristotle, "to please the people the dema- gogues make the tribunals order vast confiscations." ("Politica," Bk. VII., ch. iii., § 2.) 154 POLITICAL CRIME. were abandoned to their fate when death struck you down before them, and that women have been seen stretched on the stones of the mortuary, their own corpse clutched by the corpse of their child. . . . Martyrs of labour, rise and speak. Tell how the food and remedies ordered you in the hospitals by the doctors were made the occasion of pilfering speculation ! . . . Tell how fraud was everywhere, what poisons were mingled by speculation with the bitter bread you ate. . . Society owes it to you henceforth to probe your wounds and to provide the remedies. It owes it to you to see to the preservation of your life, your health, your intelligence, your dignity. It owes 2/Ott wor/Cj/oocZ, instruction, honour, air, light ! . . You are about to have a hand in the fashioning of society. Working-men, this is an edifice that you are about to construct for society; do not permit that it be raised for the advantage of only a few, while humanity remains outside, naked, a-hungered, debased and desperate." How redolent of hypocrisy is this rhetoric, now bland, now incendiary, of the flatterers of the people ! What an infinity of promises made in bad faith ! 1 Recently, at a public meeting, a Radical Deputy from the South of France declared that all peasants and working-men ought to receive at the age of fifty a pension from the State of 400 francs. At the close of the meeting, the mayor, who had been present, talking privately with the Deputy, observed to him that what he had promised was impossible. " I am quite aware of it," answered the Deputy, "but these proJiLses always give them pleasure." The leaders of the Babeut conspiracy wrote to their partisans: "Do not be sparing of promises; it will always be possible to elude fulfilling them, according to circum- stances." (De Barante, "Histoiredu Directoire," Vol. I., p. 257.) HYPOCRISY. 155 When will the people understand that every flatterer lives at the expense of whoever listens to him, and that "the name of friend of the people, of good Republican, is within the reach of everybody ? Anybody can acquire it, but the keenest to make use of it are those who deserve it the least." ^ How many are there among those noisy friends of the people whose affection for the people is real, whose desire to improve its situation is sincere, and who prove their devotion otherwise than by words ? Unfor- tunately in certain electoral districts it is suffi- cient for a person of dubious social status to cry " Hurrah for the Commune ! " to wear a blouse, to slander the priests who bring up the people's children, and the Sisters of Mercy who devote their lives to tending the sick — this is sufficient to induce the belief that he is a friend of the people, the champion of the working-man, the protector of the widow and orphan and the pro- moter of social reforms. These pretended friends of the people are its greatest enemies. Washing- ton stood in greater dread of these than of the English. "I shed tears of blood," he said, "over the future of my country, if the wisdom of the American people does not keep it out of the hands of such men. They are compromising all that we have accomplished. They are establish- ing a government of perpetual agitation, and of demagogic societies in opposition to the National Congress. Irwperiwm, in vm/perio ! And what ' Machines, " Discourse upon the Crown." 12 156 POLITICAL CRIME. manner of government? The government of the most audacious, the most impudent, and the most perverted." Fenelon, discussing the profession of Courtier, said that " the narrowest and most corrupted minds are those that acquire this unworthy pro- fession the best."^ This observation is applic- able to those who court the people. In Paris, as in Athens, " it is the most ignorant and the most perverted who are the most skilful in charming the multitude."^ Like courtiers, the flatterers of the people worship the rising and turn their back on the setting sun.' Just as the courtiers of a king readily become the sycophants of the people in time of revolution, so on the morrow of a cowp d'etat or of a monarchical restoration the flat- terers of the people are sure to become the cour- tiers of kings;* Jacobins under the Terror, they are Senators under the Empire, Legitimists under the Restoration, whereas moderate men, who have flattered neither the mob nor kings, are looked at askance by all parties. "Ambition coupled with idleness, meanness coupled with pride, the desire to grow rich without working, dislike of truth, flattery, treachery, perfidy, the breaking of all pledges, contempt for ' Fenelon, "Direction pour la Conscience d'un Roi." ^ Aristotle, "Rhetorica," Bk. II., ch. xxii. s Tacitus, " Annales," Bk. VX. * When Etienne Marcel was assassinated, says a contempo- rary chronicler, his friends concealed their red hoods and, crying louder than tlie others, rushed to meet the Dauphin. HYPOCRISY. 157 the duties of the citizen . . . form, I think," says Montesquieu, "the character of the majority of courtiers."^ This portrait is as applicable to the flatterers of the people as it is to the flatterers of kings. Courtiers whisper to young princes: " Free yourselves from all tutelage, from the state of dependency in which you are kept, listen to nobody, that is to nobody except us." The flatterers of the people address the people in identical language. They excite its sus- picions against those who might enlighten it ; they calumniate the true friends of the people. Courtiers, the better to obtain a hold over young princes, endeavour to deprave them. The flatterers of the people follow the same course; they distribute among the working classes printed matter to which they apply the epithet literary, but which is, in reality, pornographic. The reason is that they are aware that by corrupting the workmen they will the more easily inoculate them with revolutionary passions. There is a close connection between actions and ideas, a mutual action of the one upon the other. A working-man who leads a steady life is, in general, refractory to anti-social passions. A dissolute working-man, on the contrary, is an easy prey for the demagogues. Whoever creates himself numerous needs and who works but little is very inclined to say, " To each according to his needs." The sober and laborious man 1 Montesquieu, "Esprit des Lois," Bk. III., ch. v. 158 POLITICAL CRIME. understands that the true doctrine is, " To each according to his works." It is with a view, too, to perverting the people that its flatterers make of irfeligion a means of government. As religion enjoins obedience and respect for authority, those whose aim is revolt and the uijheaval of society endeavour hypo- critically to wean the people from religion so as to be able to incite it to rebellion the more easily.^ The flatterers of the people, who scoff inwardly at liberty and the public good, always agitate these great words as they might a banner. ^ The love of liberty and its comprehension presuppose respect and love for others. However, those Avho talk the most of liberty desire liberty for them- selves, but do not admit it for others. Their view is that liberty is a high-sounding word that it is well to pronounce incessantly as a means to popularity, though they nourish the while in their hearts the hatred of religion, the hatred of social superiorities, the hatred of authority, and the hatred of property. The love of liberty is not composed of this plenitude of hatreds. How many men are there who truly love liberty? For the ^ Robespierre was less intolerant, for he said: " Every institu- tion, every doctrine that consoles and that elevates men's minds, should be welcomed. ... In the eyes of the legis- lator whatever is of use to the world, and in practice excellent, is the truth. The idea of a Supreme Being and of the immor- tality of the soul is a constant reminder of justice ; it is there- fore social and republican. . " ^Commines relates that on arriving in Florence he found the town in insurrection. The factions were shouting, " Liberty, liberty !" and " The people, the people I " words they thought likely to induce the people to embrace their party. HYPOCRISY. 159 one, liberty is hatred of the nobility, for another, hatred of religion and of priests ; in 1793, for cer- tain Jacobins, it was love for the estates con- fiscated by the nation and hatred of aristocrats and priests; in 1830, for some of the July conquerors, it was the love of place, for others the hatred of social superiorities. The spirit of envy masquer- ades as the love of liberty. One man loves liberty because of the oratorical bouts and the emotions it serves to procure him ;^ another because he sees in it a means of arriving at power and fortune ; another, fascinated by the romance of the history of the Revolution, dreams of being a Robespierre, and yet another, of being a Danton. Young people believe they love liberty because they love noise, change, and revolt. Subordination wearies them, tranquillity bores them, stability irritates them. What more tedious than order, what more insipid than absolute calm ? Commotion is life ; a little disorder breaks the monotony of existence. One feels oneself live when one breaks a few street lamps and a few shop windows; there is some emotion to be had breaking the heads of policemen. Many working-men, for their part, confound liberty with the vociferations of public meetings. Restless spirits imagine they love liberty because all authority is repugnant to them, and they often hate the Government because they have been summoned for some trifling breach of 1 The passion for gambling that is often found in politicians comes from the thirst for emotions they have contracted from taeir experience of party conflicts. l60 POLITICAL CRIME. the police regulations. The spirit of opposition to the Government is general: it is found even in those who solicit favours of the Government. The citizen who misconducts his business or who has a bad harvest vents his spite upon the Govern- ment. The man who has not been rendered wiser by experience and family duties has an inborn antipathy to discipline and lack of respect for authority. It is because Anarchism glorifies revolt that it takes the favour of so many young men.^ "What we, for our part, call liberty," says Bakounine, " is something very different ; it is the Satanic principle and the natural fact that is termed revolt, that sacred and noble thing, revolt.' . . . " There is a sort of intoxication in the way in which Anarchism exalts revolt and brings out its Satanic character. Satan is not, as a foolish people imagines, the personification of evil and egoism. "Satan," says the Anarchist theorist, " is in no way an egoist ; he did not rebel in his own interest, but in that of all humanity, and he sacrificed himself ill the most real manner, since rather than ronoimce the principle of revolt, which is to emancipate the human world, he let himself ' I have seen students, who had come out of mere curiosity to the Bouches-du-Rhone assizes to hear Sebastien Faure speak in lais own defence, leave the court troubled and unsettled by the revolutionary language of the Anarchist and half won over to Anarchism. 2 Bakounine, " La Thdologie Politique de Mazzini et I'lnter- nationale," p. 50. HYPOCRISY. l6l be condemned to eternal torture, if the Holy Scriptures are to be believed." '^ In a general way politicians and political parties understand by liberty the right of doing what they wish and of imposing their will vipon others. Under aristocratic Governments the preservation of privileges is styled liberty: under demagogues this name is given to license and to the oppres- sion of the majority by the minority. It would seem that local tyrannies should not exist in a democratic society, but in point of fact the government that is styled free has nothing free about it but the name; all that has happened is that the oppression is exercised from a different quarter. Nobody wishes to be oppressed, but everybody wants to be the oppressor; or, at any rate, the number of those who desire liberty for all is inconsiderable — people desire liberty for themselves and their friends. All parties endeav- our to seize on power to oppress their adversaries. Those who cry the loudest against oppression when they are in opposition forget their principles as soon as they are in power: after having been the anvil they wish to be the hammer in their turn. An assembly can be as tyrannical as a 1 The first number of the " Revue Anarchiste " contains some verses by Clovis Hugues on Satan, in which the following lines occur : " We love thee, we offer thee the incense of our prayers, We worship the flame that flashes in thy eyes, O! magnificent Demon, Ol heavenly Titan, We cast at thy feet laurels and roses. And we respect thee in thy metamorphoses Whether thou be Vasouki ! Prometheus ! or Satan I " 1 62 POLITICAL CRIME. military dictatorship. The transfer of all power from a sovereign to an assembly means not the establishment of liberty, but the displacement of a despotism. Whenever political parties wish to persecute their adversaries, they invoke the public safety, satisfying their private grudges under pretext of the security of the people. By what they term the "public good" they mean their own personal good, and by a law providing for the public safety they understand a law that assures the safety of their domination. They are given to confounding their own interests with those of society, which are quite different, and they detect a national peril where it is merely their ambition that is in danger. Politics almost always wear a mask. Each party wishes to destroy its adversary, and hides its ambition and greed under high-sounding pre- texts. Thucydides has described this party hypocrisy. "Those who in each town," he wrote, " held the first rank, decorating with honourable names the authority they had usurped and proclaiming themselves the defenders, these of political equality — the boon of popular govern- ment — the others of a well-balanced aristocracy, were all agreed in pretending that the state of things they were in favour of was the reward of their deplorable struggles. Leaving no stone unturned to supplant each other, their audacity stopped short at no excess. Their quarrels were the outcome of HYPOCRISY. 163 their desire to rule, a desire inspired by ambition and cupidity, principles that are the source of the ardour of all men, whom rivalry pits against each other." ^ If it be wise not to judge men by their appear- ance, it is no less prudent not to judge political parties by the label they give themselves. Men whose aim is to make society return to the bar- barity of the primitive ages style themselves "Progressists." Others, who are ignorant that society can only be preserved by successive ameliorations, give themselves the name of Con- servatives, although incapable of being the guardians of anything whatever. In the language of the revolutionaries, the working-men who do not work are called the " workers." The assassins of the Commune spoke of the soldiers who were fighting on the side of order as assassins, and represented themselves as the victims of middle class tyranny. The September massacrers and the revolutionaries who passed their time in orgies arrogated to themselves the epithet "virtuous." Henriot, and his accomplices, who lived by pillage, declared that they only aspired to he rich in good morals, virtues, and love of their country. The extremists, who are always crying out against functionarism, are the first to demand the creation of public functions they are inca- pable of filling, and to denounce capable and honest officials in the hope of taking their places. The Directory, a corrupt and violent Government, was 1 Thucydides, Bk. III., § 82. 164 POLITICAL CRIME. ahvays prating of virtue, humanity, and legality, even on the morrow of the 18th Fructidor. When the transportation law was voted, its seconder pretended that it was in accordance with justice and hiimanity; he called attention to the fact that not a drop of blood was to be shed, and that the enemies of liberty Avere being got rid of in a humane manner. In the eyes of the authors of proscriptions, the friends of liberty are always the enemies of liberty. Men who have no love for anybody style themselves the friends of the people ; others, who do not love their country, pre- tend to an ardent affection for humanity. The Anarchists allege that they renounce their coun- try the better to serve humanity.^ In politics, to secure the voting of " laws of excep- tion," they are declared to be temporary, but when they are once voted, the attempt is made to convert these temporary laws into permanent laws. Political parties too often get laws of excep- tion passed by agitating the spectre of a con- spiracy 'or some other imaginary danger. They count upon fear to get them voted. The real reason for the passing of a law should not always be looked for in the reasons given officially when the measure was introduced: the apparent reasons are not always the true reasons. Saint Evremond, in a witty comedy, entitled " Sir Poli- tick," in which he satirises the deceit practised 1 Diderot had already raised the question whether it was not better to serve the human race, "which will last for ever," than a country " which is destined to come to an end." (" Vie de Siin^que.") HYPOCRISY. 165 in politics, makes one of his personages remark: "Never say what you think in your speeches, and believe what is said to you just as little." What a number of speeches, proclamations, and official discourses are a mere tissue of falsehoods. "The Moniteur " itself has been falsified on several occasions, and has published accounts intention- ally untrue.^ Statesmen are given to saying that the people likes to be deceived; "it is neces- sary that princes or their ministers should study to direct it and persuade it by fine Avords, to seduce and deceive it by appearances, . . by means of clever pens, that turn out clandestine books, manifestoes, apologies, and artistically concocted declarations, so as to lead it by the nose, and to make it approve or condemn without its knowing what it approves or condemns."'^ Fourier wrote a pamphlet to denounce "the traps and the charlatanism of the sects of Saint Simon and Owen;" they are the blind leading the blind, he said, false brethren whose only aim is " to have a finger in the government, the finances, and the estates of private persons." I should require a large volume to point out the charlatan- ism of all the political parties. I shall confine myself to presenting a few more short reflections upon this inexhaustible subject, paying more particular attention to the present time. What is to be thought of the sincerity of politi- cians who vote Radical laws while declaring 1 Vide Mortimer-Ternaux, Vol. III., p. 215. 3 Gabriel Naude, " Les Coups d'Etat," ch. iv. 1 66 POLITICAL CRIME. themselves to be Moderates ? If there be any- thing moderate about them it is above all their courage and sincerity. AVhat is to be thought of the good faith of those who, called upon to judge the Communists, do not dare to approve them for fear of incurring public contempt nor to disapprove them for fear of losing a profitable clientele ? Are the Socialists very sincere when they declare they have nothing in common with the Anarchists, whom they, nevertheless, make their allies, protesting, too, against the measures of repression of which they are the object ? Is it in absolute good faith that Radical journalists and Deputies attribute bomb explosions to the police, the middle class and the clergy ? Do they not act in this way so as to misdirect public indignation ? Again may it not be argued that the clamouring of the Socialist party against clericalism is merely a skilful mancEuvre ? The stratagem serves to divert attention from the Socialist peril which is alone to be feared. In the same way is it not with a view to discredit the moderate Republicans that the Radicals and Socialists brand them Reactionaries and Cleri- calists the moment they find them combating revolutionary intrigues ? Is it solely to their tenderness of heart that is to be attributed the sombre picture they draw of the misery of the people, contrasted, in order to heighten the efiect, with the exaggerated hap- piness of the rich? Is not this antithesis a HYPOCRISY. 167 manoeuvre to stir up popular anger? Catiline had already resorted to it when he said: "While they are raising the level of the sea and reducing the height of mountains, we are at a loss for a shel- ter. . . ." The politicians who exaggerate the good fortune of the rich augment the envy of the poor and give greater acuteness to their suffering. Can it be held that the different language in which the Socialist addresses the peasants and the working-men respectively is a model of good faith ? They promise the former that they will protect and respect small properties, while they offer the latter free trade and the destruction of property. Are they entirely sincere when they promise the suppression of social inequalities, of suffering and poverty, riches and happiness for everybody, the transformation of the earth, that "vale of tears," into a paradise, where men will all be angels, and laws, courts of justice, and prisons will have become useless ? Would it not be proper to apply to these lying promises this passage of Tacitus: "There are words that are seductive and specious: they carry with them a shadow of liberty and they pave the way for a fall into the worst slavery" ?i Is it in reality solely with the interests of the people that these makers of fine promises who are so greedy of personal advertisement are pre- occupied ? The most elated among them frequently cause to be written or write themselves the most laudatory articles in their own favour, thus putting ' Tacitus, "Annales," Bk. I., § 81. 1 68 POLITICAL CRIME. in practice the recommendations of Bacon, who advised those who desire to make their way to resort to advertisement. "In the absence of merit," he said, "make a show of its appearances. In consequence, vaunt your virtues, your talents, even your fortune. It is with ostentation as with calumny; it always leaves some impression on the mind, and the esteem of the multitude atones for the contempt of the wise, a detestable maxim where morality is concerned, but useful in politics." Do they really hope to prepare the reign of fraternity by inciting the different classes against each other, and to lead the country to peace and union by getting ready all the elements of a new civil war ? Are the demagogues whose sole occu- pation is the fomenting of disturbances and strikes really animated by a sincere love of the people ? The agitators keep clear of the danger when a riot breaks out; they do not throw bombs, they get them thrown by others. They imitate those revolutionaries who lie low during the insurrections they have provoked, and await in safety the termination of the conflict. To spur the crowd to action, the agitators always avail themselves of a pretext, of sensational cries. During the revolution, a number of riots took place amid cries of "Bread and the Constitution !" Those who clamoured for bread did not always need it. For instance, when the Convention was invaded on the Prairial, An III., by men and women demanding bread, the pockets of the first HYPOCRISY. 169 rioter arrested were found to be full of bread. ^ Fear of hunger, which has been the cause of many insurrections, has also been often but a mere pretext. Insurrections are always organized in the same way: women, children, and idle sight- seers are sent to the front, followed by an immense gathering that surrounds the assembly it is desired to invade, or the soldiers it is wished to hem in. To quicken the excitement the ring- leaders take care to hare a few shots fired, and if the soldiers kill an insurgent in self-defence, the ringleaders have the corpse carried through the streets, and declare that the Government is assassinating the people. They also press into their service the criminals that abound in great cities, and especially in Paris, or who hasten there in the hope of pillage when a riot is brewing. Criminals take advantage of disturbed times to rob and kill under pretext of the public interest. During the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, "a number of Catholics,'' says Naude, "were victims of the tempest." There were individuals who took advantage of the disorder to kill their enemies under colour of religion. During the Revolution, acts of vengeance, due to private enmities, were committed in the name of liberty. Under the Directory, men who had taken part in the rioting and the popular insurrections left the towns to commit new crimes in the name of the reaction on the high roads. In the South of France especi- ally, giving a political tinge to their acts of 1 Thiers, Vol. VII., p. 405. I/O POLITICAL CRIME. brigandage, "they mvirdered on the pretence of hunting down the Jacobins with a view to robbery those who had acquired the estates confiscated by the nation, . . . they attempted to possess themselves of the deposits of public funds, and betook them to the very tax-gatherers to seize upon the State moneys, under pretext of combat- ing the Government." 1 Again, in times of trouble, debtors have been seen to denounce their creditors out of patriotism, or to search their dwellings with a view to removing the proofs of their indebtedness. In 1793 there were debtors who wiped off their debts by getting their credi- tors arrested as aristocrats. To provoke insurrections the ringleaders some- times hold out the bait of pillage. The leaders of the Babeuf conspiracy adopted this course. "To set the soldiers to work," they wrote to their partisans, " magnificent and long speeches are unnecessary; wine and the hope of pillage suffice. . . . " ^ One would say that they had read the passage of Tacitus: "Nothing tends to incite the multitude to civil war more than rioting and pillage."' C. Desmoulins, to rouse the people to revolt, promised them that "40,000 private houses, palaces, and country seats, two-thirds of the property in France, would be the reward of their valour" (France Libre, August, 1789). 1 Thiers, "Histoire du Consulat et de TEmpire," Vol. VIII. 2 De Barante, "Histoire du Directoire," Vol. I., p. 257. 2 Tacitus,"Historise,"Bk. !.,§ 83. ri^iealso Bk. III., § 83. Plato also had remarked that " to keep their hold on the people . the demagogues are wont to promise them the spoils of the rich." "Res Publica," Bk. VII.) HYPOCRISY. 171 The hypocrisy of the Communists has not attracted sufficient attention. In their proclama- tions to the people they never ceased to accuse the " Versaillais " of having started the conflict, and to spread false news. Delescluze^Yas always lying. ^ During the siege of Paris the men who were afterwards the authors of the Commune professed the most violent hatred for the Prussians, but in point of fact they abstained from fighting. They only proclaimed war dj outrance so as to possess themselves of the artillery. The reason General Clement Thomas was assassinated bv them was that he had dared to denounce their hypocrisy.^ The spectacle was then afforded of those who had been the loudest in their outcry against the despotism of the Empire, practising themselves the most abominable tyranny. Our time is fertile in men who, in opposition, talk of liberty in order to overthrow the Govern- ment, and who, having acquired power by these tactics, refuse liberty to others."' Those who have been foremost in clamouring against tyranny themselves become veritable tyrants, and those who have been the loudest in denouncing the abuses of authority, themselves perpetrate these abuses, and others still worse. Goethe remarked of these hypocritical apostles of liberty: "I have always had an antipathy for the apostles of ' Dauban, "Le Fond de la SocWt^ sous la Commune," p. 355. 2 Trochu, " Une Page d'Histolre Contemporaine," p. 148. ' " To overthrow the Government they talk ot liberty. The Government overthrown, they attack liberty themselves." ( Tacitus, " Annales," Bk. XVI., § 22.) 13 172 POLITICAL CRIME. liberty : the final object they always have in view is the right for themselves to act arbitrarily." It is only when the man, arrived at power, puts in practice the liberal principles he pro- fessed when in opposition, that it is possible to believe in the sincerity of his liberalism. CHAPTER VI. POLITICAL SPOLIATION. Wars made for purposes of robbery — Enslavement of the vanquished — Labour degrading, but pillage honourable — The Romans converted war into an instrument of pillage — Militarism a means of getting rich — The feudal system was the exploitation of the conquered — Pillaging expeditions — The English in Ireland — Armies and plunder — The right of shipwreck — The old regime a form of spoliation — Confisca- tion and Civil wars — Material interests and revolutions — The Roman Republic fell from economic causes — The Reformation partly a movement to despoil the Church — Confiscations of Louis XIV. — Rapacity of courtiers — Spoliation during the French Revolution — A revolution means a transference of property — Civil wars and pillage — Politicians in alliance with financiers — Politics and finance in ancient Rome — The difficulty of convicting politicians of peculation — Politicians and financiers corrupt the press — Deputies sell their votes to financiers — Progress in spite of corruption — Socialist charges against the middle class — Social equality. While conscience and religion said to man, " Thou shalt not take what belongs to another, thou shalt earn thy bread in the sweat of thy brow," cupidity, the frenzied desire for pleasures, and laziness cried to him, "It is pleasant to pillage the possessions of others; it is agreeable to live by the labour of others." For the ancient peoples war was a means of growing rich at the expense of the vanquished. Is not this still often the case with modern nations? "It is a maxim that has held good I7J 174 POLITICAL CRIME. everywhere and of all time," said Cyrus to his soldiers, "that in a town taken from the enemy during hostilities, everything, whether persons or property, belongs to the conqueror ! "^ In the "Iliad" Achilles recounts that he has ravaged twelve cities, and that in all of them he seized upon a great quantity of booty. When he quar- rels with Agamemnon,, he threatens to depart, and to carry away with him all the plunder that had fallen to his share, "the gold, the ruddy bronze, the gleaming iron, the beautiful girdled women." ^ Achilles is always complaining of the greediness of Agamemnon; he calls him "the most insatiable of men, a man abounding in impudence and eager of gain." He is incessantly reproaching him with gorging himself with riches, and with allotting himself the lion's share of the booty. "At the division of the spoils," he says to him, "your share is far superior to mine, and as for me, I have to content myself with carrying in my vessels an inconsiderable portion, after wearying myself on the battlefield. . . This great king," he exclaims with bitterness, "distributed a small part of the plunder to the soldiers, kept the best part for himself, and gave the remainder to the kings and the chiefs of the army."* Conquerors do not merely divide among them- selves the wealth of the vanquished: they also take their Avomen. Agamemnon took Chryseis, whom he preferred to Clytemnestra, and Achilles ' Xenophon, " Cyropeedia," Bk. VII., ch. v. - Homer, "Iliad," ch. ix. • " Ibid., ch. ix., v. 330, etc. SPOLIATION. 175 Briseis of the beautiful cheeks. When a town was taken the victors burned it, slew the men, and carried away the women and children. Fre- quently, again, instead of killing the men, they made themslaves.^ When Alexander took Thebes he destroyed the town and sold the inhabitants to the number of 30,000. In the East, the van- quished were relegated to inferior castes. All the reasons that have been urged in justifi- cation of slavery have been mere pretexts to hide the monstrous wish to transform men into beasts of burden with a view to take from them the product of their labour. The victors forced the conquered, whom they had reduced to slavery, to support them. The philosophers and statesmen of antiquity declared it to be needful that citizens should have leisure to occupy themselves with public affairs, and that it was requisite that they should relegate to slaves the material pre-occupa- tions of existence. Even in Sparta, where there was no luxury, every citizen had several helots in his service.^ It is notorious how considerable was the number of slaves in Rome.^ ' The ancient peoples regarded the slavery of the vanquished as so legitimate that the Romans considered as slaves their fellow-citizens who had been made prisoners, and refused to ransom them. (Livy, XXII., 59-61.) If the prisoners came back they found their social status lowered on their return to Rome. - When the Ephorians sent 5,000 Spartans to assist the Athe- nians against Mardonious, each Spartan was accompanied by seven helots. (Plutartih, " Life of Aristides.") ■* After the war conducted by LucuUus in the Pontus the num- ber of slaves became so considerable that the price of a slavei fell to 4 drachmas, or about 2s. 9d. (Wallon, " Histoire do 'Esclavage," \o\. II., p. 36.) 176 POLITICAL CRIME. The ancients esteemed manual labour to be servile. "It is fitting that men should be victori- ous in war," says a personage of Menander; "to cultivate the soil is the work of a slave." The most illustrious Grecian philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon, professed the utmost contempt for manual labour. "Nature," says Plato, " has created neither shoemakers nor blacksmiths ; such occupations degrade the per- sons who exercise them." ^ The poet Hesiod, and Solon, the sage, are alone in praising labour. In Rome only agriculture was honoured: all the other industrial professions were despised. "All the workers, of whatever trade they may be," says Cicero, "form a base class and are unworthy of being citizens."^ The ancients who saw something shameful in manual labour, saw nothing of the kind in pillage. They considered it quite natural that the stronger people should seize upon the possessions of a weaker nation. Their statesmen founded colo- nies by expelling the vanquished from their territory, and repeopling it with their fellow-citi- zens, among whom they divided the houses and the land. After a victorious expedition against the Persians, a Grecian general is found saying to those of his compatriots who had not accom- panied him " that if they live in poverty it is their own fault," and informing them " that thev ' Plato, " Republic," Bk. V. See also Aristotle, "Politica," and Xenophon, "O^conomicus." 2 Cicero, " De Officiis." s Diodorus, Bk. XII. spoLiA tion: I •]■] could send their fellow-citizens who were without fortune, and they would speedily see them in the utmost opulence, for all these possessions are the prizes that await the conqueror."^ The philosophers expressed no indignation at these acts of pillage. Plato only blamed them when they had been committed by one Grecian city at the expense of another. ^ War, too, was an industry for a great number of barbarous peoples. "You will never succeed," says Tacitus, "in convincing men that it is better to till the soil and to await the harvest than to raise up enemies and to seek for wounds ; they go so far as to believe that to acquire by labour what can be obtained by bloodshed is to give evidence of sluggishness and cowardice." Taci- tus expresses his astonishment at the customs of these peoples, and yet the Romans had con- verted war into an instrument of pillage since they took possession of the territories of the con- quered peoples. They confiscated the countries they overcame in virtue of the right of conquest, and created the ager publicius. This land was either sold for the profit of the State or conceded on a lease or for purposes of colonisation. Under pretext of providing neighbouring peoples with laws, the Romans sought for wealth by pillage, and they overwhelmed with taxes the provinces they conquered. "Our provinces groan," says Cicero, "free peoples are loud in their complaints; 1 Xenophon, "Anabasis." 2 Plato, "Republic," Bk. V. 1/8 POLITICAL CRIME. kings cry out against our greed and injustice. As far as the distant shores of the ocean there is no spot so obscure, so hidden though it be, to which the exorbitant pretensions and the iniquit- ous doings of our fellow-citizens have not pene- trated." When Appius left Cilicia, Cicero found the province ravaged to such a degree that " it might have been thought that a wild beast and not a man had traversed it." Appointed gover- nor of the province ruined in this way, Cicero was still able to drain from it in one year two million two hundred thousand sesterces, salvia legihus. In ancient times, booty taken from the enemy was sent to Rome or sold by the Generals, who paid in the proceeds to the public treasury.^ When a soldier joined the army he was made to swear not to steal more than one " object a day of greater value than a silver piece." ^ Soon, however, the Roman Generals took to distributing a portion of the booty amongst the soldiers. When Macedonia was conquered Paulus jEmil- ius handed over a portion of the spoils to the soldiery, but without satisfying their greed; the army, considering the share that had fallen to it too small, endeavoured to have iEmilius refused a triumph. With LucuUus these habits of pillage became general. When Mithridates was pursued by the army of Lucullus, he made good his escape by leaving behind him on the passage of ' Plutarch, "Life of Fabius Maximus." 2 " Aulus Gallius," Bk. XVI., ch. iv. SPOUA TION. 1 79 his pursuers the mule that carried his gold; the Roman soldiers abandoned the pursuit to seize upon the money.^ On the occasion of his triumph Lucullus caused a register to be borne in the procession, setting forth that he had made a gift of 950 drachmas to every soldier. Military service had become a means of acqviiring wealth by pillage. The soldiers complained when the Generals treated with towns instead of taking them by storm. The soldiers of Lucullus, Plu- tarch recites, " complained of their captain, because he negotiated capitulations with all the towns, and took none of them by force, and gave them no opportunity of enriching themselves by pillage." They bitterly compared their lot with that of the soldiers of Pompey, who, they said, " were already reposing in their homes with their wives and children, possessed of good estates, and living in tine towns like important and rich citizens." During the last years of the Republic the Generals encouraged the greed of the soldiery in order to render themselves popular, endeavouring by their munificence to attach the soldiers to their person. Sylla allowed them to plunder both private individuals and the State.^ Pompey dis- tributed money amongst them. Caesar enriched them ; " he subdued the Gauls by the arms of iho Romans, and won over the Romans with the money of the Gauls." He was particularly liberal 1 Plutarch, "Life of Lucullus." Cicero, "Pro Lege Manilia," § X, 2 Sallust, " Catilina " 5 xi. l8o POLITICAL CRIME. in his gifts to the Spanish and German soldiers that formed his escort. It was by conciliating the soldiers h'.' means of liberal gifts and the multitude by distributions of wheat that Augus- tus was su^ccessful in concentrating the entire authority in his own hands. ^ The successors of Augustus became dependent upon the Pretorians, who ended by putting the empire up to aiiction. For example, in 193 A.D., they disposed of it to Didius Julianus at the price of 6,250 drachmas per soldier. The Romans have not been alone in pillaging the world under pretext of civilising it. How numerous are the peoples that other peoples have treated as their prey ! How many thousands of men have been expelled their country, slain, or reduced to slavery by other men ! The needy peoples of the North made their way to the South in search of a richer country. War has been a means of expropriation and of appropriation. When the Normans, for instance, invaded England, they took possession of the soil and of the conquered men, whom they called "subjects," that is those who had been svibjugated. The vanquished were obliged to labour for the benefit of their conquerors, and political writers affirmed that the conquerors had the right to own the conquered. 1 Tacitus, "Annales," Bk. I., § 2. When Napoleon invaded Lombardy in 1796 he followed the example of Csesar and Augus- tus when he issued the following proclamation to his soldiers . " Soldiers, you are badly fed and almost naked. . . '. I am going to lead you into the most fertile plains of the world. You will find there great cities and rich provinces; you will find there honour, glory, and riches " SPOLIATION. l8l The feudal system, at bottom, was merely the organisation of a victory, the exploitation of a conquest. The serfs were the vanquished, who were obliged to cultivate the soil for the benefit of their conquerors.^ Just as the Old World was pillaged by the Romans, so the New has been ravaged by the Spaniards and Portuguese; India by the Moguls, the Afghans, and the English ; Italy by the Germans, Austrians, French, and Spaniards ; Ireland by the English, etc., etc. How often have European nations made war upon the peoples of Asia, Africa, and America with a view to forcing upon them their wares, their clothing stuffs, and their alcohols ! It is this spirit of greed evinced by the European peoples in their dealings with the peoples of other parts of the world, that has checked and often entirely put a stop to the civilising work of missionaries. The struggles between England and Ireland have always ended in confiscations. Elizabeth distributed 200,000 acres to colonists of English birth. James I. confiscated another 500,000 acres, and allowed the Scotch concurrently with the English a share in the confiscated land. Under Charles I. Lord Strafford stripped of their estates the inhabitants of Connaught and Galway. Ire- land having revolted in 1641, one of the Lord Justices, Sir William Parsons, fomented the revolt and connected as many people with the movement as possible, " in order that, the 1 The serfs were even obliged to pay tribute. 1 82 POLITICAL CRIME. number of the guilty increasing, the harvest of confiscations that would follow the war might be the more fertile." (G. de Beaumont, "L'Irlande," Vol. I., p. 67.) When England paled oft the Irish Catholics in one of the fotir Irish provinces, their estates were divided between Cromwell's soldiers and the speculators who had advanced funds to the English Government. The owners of these confiscated estates were alarmed when the Restoration took place, but they were confirmed in the possession of their domains by Charles II. The Irish did not obtain justice, and the King himself appropriated a part of the spoil. Armies have almost always claimed a share in the plunder of conquered peoples. Neither the English during the Hundred Years' War, nor the Germans, French, and Spaniards during the wars in Italy^ and Germany, nor the armies of Louis XIV., of Frederick II., and of Napoleon, nor the allied armies in 1815, nor the German armies in 1870, distinguished themselves by much respect for private or public property. The armies of the First Republic exhibited splendid heroism, but their disinterestedness was not always equally remarkable. "In 1793, in the Deux-Ponts coun- try," says M.Arthur Chuquet, "Hoche,^ admirably aided and seconded by the orderly commissary Achier, who bled the district to the last drop, 1 When Rome was pillaged, in 1527, by the army of the Con- stable of Bourbon, the Spaniards and Germans, of which the army was composed, committed the greatest atrocities. For an account of this pillage see Guicciardini. 2 Arthur Chuquet, " Les G'uerres de la Revolution." SPOLIATION. 183 despatched to the interior mirrors, clocks, mat- tresses, furniture, bells, and other valuables. 'Were the wretched " sans-culottes " to labour for ever without profit ? ' he wrote to Bouchotte. ' No, they should have, besides liberty, velvet knee-breeches, satin waistcoats, and the large-sleeved coats of the aristocrats.'" In 1814 the Cossacks came to Paris to sell the objects they had stolen from the country folk.^ In 1815 the foreign armies seized in a number of towns upon the public coffers, and committed numerous acts of pillage. In former times armies were not content with pillaging the foreigner, but plundered their fellow- countrymen as well. "The men-at-arms," says Commines, "are not content with a modest life and with what they get from the peasants and that is paid for; on the contrary, they belabour and assault the poor folk, compelling them to procure them bread, wine, and victuals from elsewhere, and if the good man have a pretty wife or daughter, he will do well to keep close watch over her." During the Vendean war, several Republican generals pillaged the Ven- deans. The Conventionalist Lequinis, despatched on a mission by the Convention, recognised that pillage was preached to the utmost possible extent, and that the generals encouraged the practice in their soldiers, so as to hide their own achievements in the same field. (Wallon, "Les Representants en Mission," Vol. I., p. 255.) The ancient peoples were not content with ' " M(5moires du Chancelier Pasquier," Vol. II., p. 274. I 84 POLITICAL CRIME. saying " Woe to the vanquished ! " they also said " "Woe to the shipwrecked ! " Side by side with the right of conquest, they created a still more odious right, the right of shipwreck. In virtue of this pretended right, the vessels that were stranded on the coasts were confiscated, and the crews and passengers reduced to slavery. This singu- lar mode of spoliation, transformed into a right by politicians and jurists, has existed among most maritime peoples, who took advantage of the rocks on their coast to enrich themselves at the expense of the shipwrecked; among the English, for instance, the inhabitants of Brittany, the Sicilians, the Greeks, the Danes, and the Vene- tians. Barbeyrac, who annotated Grotius, affirms that this barbarous custom existed even in his time in certain countries.^ The right of "aubaine," like the right of ship- wreck, was a spoliation. The Treasury seized upon the property that a foreigner left behind him when he died. This right was still in exist- ence at the time that Vattel was writing. ^ The nations have disputed the possession of the sea in the same way as that of the land, endeavouring to secure themselves a monopoly to the detriment of other nations. After the discovery of America, Spain laid claim to the exclusive ownership of the ocean. Portugal claimed the sole right to the Indian trade. Eng- land, again, attempted to accord itself exclusive 1 Note to Grotius by Barbeyrac, Bk. II., ch. vii. - Vattel, "Le Droit des Gens," Bk. II., ch. viii. SPOLIATION. 185 domination over the seas between the coasts of Great Britain and the United States. France demanded the liberty of the seas and eqiiality of rights for all nations. Several centuries have been necessary to secure the recognition of these elementary principles. The social organisation of the old regime was nothing more nor less than a form of spoliation, since the nobility and clergy exonerated them- selves from taxes, the burden of which they threw upon the "third estate." The peasants in particular were bowed down by taxes, and politi- cians rejoiced in their poverty, which they re- garded as a guarantee of their obedience. "If the people were well off," says Richelieu, in his Political Testament, "they would with difficulty keep within bounds."^ To keep the plebeians in their dependence the Roman patricians maintained them in a state of poverty. Confiscation has always been at the bottom of civil wars. Proscriptions are not solely inspired by political hatreds and rivalries ; greed is a further motive for them. The authors of pro- scriptions yearn for the wealth of their victims as well as for their blood; they do not always kill for the sake of killing; they often kill for the sake of robbery. Plutarch, narrating the proscriptions of Sylla, says: "Men were slain to secure their property, and those who killed them might pro- ' Properly indignant at this hateful policy, F^nelon refuted it in his " Instructions pour la Conscience d'un Roi." 1 86 POLITICAL CRIME. perly have said: "His fine house is the cause of this man's death, his fine garden of the death of this other." The utterance of Quintus Aurelius is well known. Never having taken part in political struggles and thinking he had nothing to fear, he went out to scan the list of the pro- scribed; to his profound astonishment he saw his name upon the list, whereupon he exclaimed : "My house at Alba is the cause of my death." As a general rule political agitators are poor, and seek fortune by the overthrow of the estab- lished order of things: this boldness comes of the fact that they have nothing to lose. " Syllu, inops," says Tacitus, "unde 2->'f(!Bcipua audacia;"'^ they are still more audacious if they are loaded with debts and athirst for pleasures and power. Ruined rakes have need of a revolution to pay their debts and re-establish their fortune. I will not say with the First Napoleon that the belly governs the world — the statement is too absolute, for ideas also govern the world — but it is the truth that the appetites and material interests exert as great an influence as ideas upon revolutions. Conflicts concerning ideas are often conflicts of pride and ambition for the leaders and for the people, conflicts in which the stomach is primarily involved. While a few desire the triumph of ideas, without personal pre- occupations, others far more numerous seek in re- volutions a means of self-aggrandisement, domina- tion, or of revenging and enriching themselves. 1 Tacitus, "Annales," Bk. XIV. spoliation: 187 The struggles that took place in Rome between the patricians and plebeians in connection with the agrarian laws bore upon a question of pro- perty. The republic had become an association of some hundreds of families, who had usurped the immense domains of the State, and reduced the people to poverty.! The patricians stood out against the agrarian laws, whose object was to set a limit upon their immense possessions, and to create small proprietors. The republic perished because it did not effect the reforms proposed by the G-racchi. The Empire was accepted because it assured the triumph of the small proprietor. The wealth of the Jews was one of the princi- pal causes of the persecutions they underwent during the Middle Ages. The kings and nobles, who were in debt to the Jews, resorted to pro- scriptions to free themselves from their obligation. Again, it was to possess himself of their wealth that Philip the Handsome, a king who was a false coiner, caused the slaughter of the Templars. The E-eformation was not solely due to a reli- gious sentiment. A great number of German princes embraced the reformed faith merely with a view to seizing upon the property of the Church. In England, the primary cause of the Reformatioii was the desire of Henry VHI. to repudiate his wife and marry another woman ; the King only quarrelled with Rome because the Pope refused to approve his divorce. However, the rupture ' Fustel de Coulanges, " Les Origines du Systfime Ftodal," pp. 80, 92. 14 1 88 POLITICAL CRIME. between Henry VIII. and the Pope was due in part to a desire to appropriate the wealth of the monasteries. The nobility hastened to approve the move, to secure their share of the spoil. Confiscation was never left out of sight in the edicts of the Kings of France against the Protes- tants. "AVe will and intend," said Louis XIV., when he revoked the Edict of Nantes, "that the possessions of those who within a space of four months do not return to our kingdom, or to countries and lands under our sway, that the possessions they shall have abandoned be con- fiscated in consequence of our declaration of the 20th August." A portion of the confiscated posses- sions was given to the courtiers. The greed of the courtiers was so great that it was on the score of the danger that threatened them from this source, to which he called the attention of the Minister of Henry II., that President Seguier, in the name of the Parliament, opposed the registration of the edict ordering the establishment in France of the tribunal of the Inquisition. "As soon as your enemies," he said to them, " shall be sure of obtaining from the King the confiscation of your possessions, it will be sufficient to make sure of an Inquisition and of two witnesses, and though you be saints you will be burned as heretics." The report which Necker, at the time Director- General of Finances, presented to Louis XVI., in 1781, contains the most melancholy details touch- ing the greed of the courtiers and the enormous SPOLIA TION. 1 89 sums they cost the Treasury. The pensions amounted to twenty-ei^ht millions a year. "I doubt," said Necker, "whether all the sovereigns of Europe together pay away more than half such a sum in pensions." Favours emanating froni the Throne had become "the universal resource. The acquisition of remunerative posts, marriage, and educational projects, unexpected losses, un- fulfilled hopes, all these occurrences had become an excuse for recourse to the munificence of the sovereign. It might have been thought that it was incumbent upon the Royal treasury to con- ciliate all interests, to smooth away all difficulties, and to make good all disappointments. Moreover, since the method of pensions, although developed to the utmost, was insufficient to satisfy these pretensions and to serve the turn, to the extent desired, of this shameful greediness, other expe- dients had been devised and were being invented every day: interests in farms, in Government takings, in posting stations, in many financial posts, in the supply of provisions, in contracts of every kind, and even in the supplying of the hospitals, everything was good enough, everything had become worth the attention of persons who often by their position had least to do with such matters." The courtiers even demanded the cession of forests they pretended were abandoned. When Calonne negotiated a loan of one hundred millions, three-quarters of the sum was distributed among the King's brothers, the friends of the Queen, people in favour, and noblemen deeply in debt. 190 POLITICAL CRIME. During the Revolution the spoliation continued, but in the opposite direction. Instead of content- ing themselves with the abolition of privileges, and the establishment of equality, the covetous caused a third of the country to be confiscated and sold as national property.^ To gain adherents to the Revolution the leaders of the movement gave away estates or sold them far below their value. By this means they won over to the movement those who acquired these properties, these persons being interested in the mainten- ance of the new order of things, and having become the enemies of the despoiled proprietors. A law of the 9th February, 1792, confiscated the estates of the Emigrants. Extraordinary taxes were imposed upon the fathers and mothers of Emigrants. (Decree of the 12th September, 1792.) The persons who did not leave within twenty-four hours Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Caen, and the towns that had risen in arms against the Constitution were accounted Emigrants. The priests, too, who had refused to pledge their submission to the Constitution were considered as Emigrants, and their parents were taxed on the same footing as those of the Emigrants. To hasten the sale of the estates of the Emigrants the Convention, on the 11th September, 1793, decreed the following provisions: "The administrators who shall refuse under any pretext whatever to proceed with the . sale of the estates of the ' L^once de Lavergne, " Economie Rurale dela France depuis 1789," p. 20. SPOLIATION. 191 Emigrants, and of the other national domains, in the fortnight allotted for the making of tenders for the said estates, shall be punished with ten years' imprisonment in chains." Again,on the 19th March, 1793, the estates were confiscated of persons condemned for crimes against the Revolution. On the 1st August, 1793, the penalty of confiscation was pronounced against those who had been outlawed, and later against those who had allowed any indications of the old monarchical order of things to subsist upon their properties. Confis- cation following upon condemnation, fathers of families were seen to kill themselves in the earlier period so as to be able to leave their pos- sessions to their children. To avert this danger the Convention voted the law of the 29th Brumaire, An II., by which confiscation is made to date from the accusation. By the 73rd article of the decree of March 28th, 1793, the Convention allotted a reward to infor- mers, according the tenth part to the citizen who should reveal the possessions of Emigrants that had been overlooked or concealed. It thus returned to the hateful practices of the Roman Emperors, who allowed informers to enrich themselves and even to attain to positions of dignity. The famous passage of Tacitvis is well known in which he speaks of "the informers, encouraged by rewards as odious as their mis- deeds, sharing the spoil amongst themselves, some taking priestly offices and consulships, others the governments of provinces, or posts of 192 POLITICAL CRIME. authority at home, laying hands upon Avhatever came their way."i The two principal informers against Thrasias and Soranus received a reward of five millions of sesterces, and an accomplice one million two hundred thousand sesterces and the insignia of the questorship.^ "By whatever high-sounding terms of liberty, equality, or fraternity a revolution announces itself, it is essentially," says M. Taine, "a trans- ference of property."' I am of opinion that there is some exaggeration in this statement, for the love of equality, the hatred of privileges, and the desire to secure liberty of conscience and politi- cal liberty were the principal motives of the Revolution. Still, the French Revolution, like all revolutions, was marked by a transference of property. All the confiscations decreed by the State turned to the profit of private individuals, who purchased the confiscated estates for much less than their real value. In any case, the Revolu- tionaries considered that the object of the Revolu- tion was the despoiling of the rich and the enrich- ing of the poor. The revolutionary committees of Bordeaux, Lyons, and Marseilles practised extortions upon the rich, selling their possessions, ransacking their dwellings, and even their cellars,'' ' Tacitus, " Historise," Bk. I., § 2. 2 Ibid., " Annales," Bk. XVI., § 33. 3 Taine, " La Bevolution," Vol. I., p. 386. * Revolutionaries never omit a visit to the cellars. In 187t the cellars of the archbishop's palace were rifled by the Com- munists. In 1793, at Lyons, Albittc and Colot requisitioned 700 bottles of good wine for their own table. SPOLIATION. 193 on the pretext of searching for the arms of the aristocrats, and declaring that "the superfluous belongings of every private person are the patri- mony of the 'sans-culottes,' and that everything he detains beyond what is strictly necessary constitutes a theft that he commits to the detri- ment of the nation."^ Danton was responsible for the decree ordering those domiciliary visits which gave the sans- culottes the opportunity of appropriating the furniture, jewels, and wine of the aristocrats. The Paris Commune seized the plate belonging to the churches and the furniture of the Emigrants. Even the belongings of the prisoners who perished in the September massacres Avere stolen. Each of the members of the Watch Committee chose himself a watch. ^ One of the principal slaughter- ers, who had committed the most impudent robberies, complained later, on the 31st May, that there had been no pillaging, saying: "On such a day as this I ought to have had as my share at least fifty houses."^ Similar scenes of pillage have always accom- panied civil wars. At the time of the struggles between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, when Paris was delivered over to the latter, the great nobles of Burgundy mingled with the pillagers in order to secure what they could. According to Brantome, several of his friends, of 1 Taine, " La R(5volution," Vol. III., p. 50. 3 Michelet, "Histoire de la Revolution Franijaise,'' Vol. VI., p. 128. ^ Ibid., Vol. v., p. 88. 194 POLITICAL CRIME. good birth, were the richer by ten thousand crowns after the night of the massacre of Saint Bartholo- mew. In connection with all proscriptions, these words of the Bible may be applied to their authors : "And they covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away ; and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heri- tage."^ Agitators have recourse to specious pre- texts to stir up the people, but as a rule their only aim is the satisfaction of their appetites. This summary study of political spoliations would be incomplete were I to omit to touch upon the spoliations committed in the past by courtiers and at the present day by politicians in league with financiers. In the preceding chapter, de- voted to political hypocrisy, I have already called attention to the numerous jaoints of resemblance between the flatterers of kings and the flatterers of the masses. It remains for me to prove that the latter are every whit as greedy as the former. When Fenelon indited his examination of con- science concerning the duties of royalty, he put the following question: "HaTS you not been too indulgent to the courtiers who, under pretext of sparing your purse, have proposed to you what is termed a stroke of business when asking you for rewards ? " Courtiers are fond of these " strokes of business," and politicians have a weakness for them as well. To support themselves those who till the soil are obliged to sow, to weed, to ' Micah, ch. ii., v. 2. SPOLIATION. 195 harvest, to thrash the wheat, and to carry it to the mill. Politicians, like courtiers, neither sow nor weed, nor harvest, nor fill barns: politics afford them their living. Working-men, from morning till evening, or from evening till morning, hammer iron, shape wood, melt lead, dig the earth, or erect buildings at the price of their lives ; they spin and Aveave stuffs. Politicians, like courtiers, do not fashion either iron or wood; they knead the electorate, as dough is kneaded, and instead of mixing with it, good yeast, they ferment it with the leaven of civil war, with sophisms and lying promises, with calumnies and unwhole- some theories ; they neither spin nor weave, and yet they are better clad, better fed, and better housed than those who labour. Like courtiers, politicians have a keen eye to all posts that become vacant, to concessions and monopolies. If the fortunes of politicians before and after their arrival at power be examined, it is found that they were poor before they entered office and that they leave it rich. Might not the question which Cicero put to Antony be addressed to them: "Through what prodigy have you, who owed four million sesterces at the Ides of March, come to owe nothing whatever at the Kalends of April?"! At every period, politicians have been seen to ally themselves with shady financiers. A race of civilised brigands has been formed, who, proceeding with their spoliations on cunning ^ Second Philippic, § 37. 196 POLITICAL CRIME. lines, plunder the State and strip the public. As far back as 1868 Father Gratry quoted with indig- nant eloquence a passage of the "Moniteur" for March, 186fi, where it was stated that "in eighteen months more than forty companies had been called upon to render an account to justice (that had shown itself, and properly so, severe) of more than eighty millions cast away in the abyss of guilty speculation."^ This figure of eighty millions, of which the public had been lightened, has since been far surpassed in con- nection with the gigantic swindles that have been perpetrated in recent years. A single company has been successful, thanks to the connivance of certain politicians and by dint of false state- ments respecting the time required for construc- tion, the amount of the expenses and the possible profits, in getting 1,300 millions paid into its coffers, three-quarters of which sum has been lost. According to M. Leon Say, the financial crisis of 1882 cost France several milliards, a drain equal to that imposed by the Germans. More than a milliard has been lost in connection with the Uruguay, Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Greek loans.^ Two passages of the Bible maybe applied to the financiers, who have become the world's masters, and to their accomplices the politicians : " Mercatores tui erant principes terrce,^ principes vestri socii furum." 1 p. Gratry, " La Morale et la Loi de I'Histoire," Vol. I., p. 120. 2" Sciences et Travaux de I'Acadi^mie des Sciences Morales," December, 1893. ^ Revelation xviii. 23. SPOLIA TION. 1 97 This alliance between financiers and politicians, which exists at the present day throughout Europe as it does in America, in France as in Italy and England, existed also in Rome, in Florence, and in the France of former days. At Rome the consuls, pretors, and knights engaged in vast financial operations. The men who farmed the taxes gave them an interest in this undertaking in order to gain their support. Atti- cus was interested in the operations of those who exploited Cilicia. Cicero himself had business relations with the farmers of taxes. He specu- lated in financial affairs and won large sums of money. In the year in which he was appointed augur he was a poor man in February, while in October he had suddenly become wealthy.^ The governors who pillaged the provinces had a secret understanding with the tax farmers, with whom they divided the spoils of the allies. The power of these tax farmers was great. When governors like LucuUus wished to prevent their exactions, they went to Rome to complain, and silenced their adversaries by the aid of orators in their pay, "which it was the easier for them to do, inasmuch as they were careful to have a hold upon those who negotiated business operations in Rome." ^ On more than one occasion they were successful in procuring the recall of governors who wereopposedtotheirfraudulentpractices. Asarule, however, they were in league with the governors. 1 Deloume, " Les Manieurs d'Argent a Rome," p. 88. 2 Plutarch, "Life of LucuUus." igS POLITICAL CHIME. Verres, for example, did everything he could to be agreeable to the company that farmed the custom-house duties and the rights of pasturage, and decreed whatever was demanded of him by Carpinatius, the vice-director of the company. In exchange for their services the company had the letters destroyed which had been written by the employes of Verres with a view to call atten- tion to his extortions and to the frauds he had committed at the expense of the custom-house. By referring to copies of letters Cicero lighted upon "an account relating to payments extending over many months, which had been inscribed in the name of Verres withoutcorresponding receipts." By searching the registers of the company he was able to trace the frauds of Verres, despite the fact that numerous entries had been deleted in the registers. He discovered in the same way that Verres had had business relations with the company under the fictitious name of Caius Verratius. It is difficult to convict politicians of peculation. The guilty party does not sign a receipt; the sum is handed him directly or by intermediaries,^ by men of straw, by secretaries, in which case he defends himself by saying: "Personally, I have 1 In the advice he gives his son, Louis XIV. alludes to the employment of intermediaries as one of the underhand methods resorted to by corrupt Ministers to enrich themselves. (Louis XIV, "Memoires," Dreyss' edition, Vol. I., p. 163.) "Very few corrupt Ministers," he says, "have the audacity to rifle their master openly, and to seize without subterfuge upon the pos- sessions with whose administration he has entrusted them, because to do so would be a crime of which it would be easy to SPOLIATION. 199 received nothing." This was the system of defence of Verres when he was accused of having pocketed 40 million sesterces. It was demolished by Cicero, who admitted that not a single piece of money had been paid into the hands of the Pretor, but added : " Your hands were your pre- fects, your scribes; ... all that has been pocketed by each one of them has not only been remitted to you, but has been paid into your hands: it is impossible to take any other view. Judges! the truth is, if you allow this defence, 'Verres has received nothing in person,' you do away with all trials for peculation. No accused or guilty person wilL ever be brought before you to whom it is not open to avail himself of this mode of defence."^ At the present day, as in Rome, politicians are seen to put their influence at the service of shady financial companies. The companies that give politicians a seat upon their board of directors do not do so in order to profit by their business ability, but with a view to being able to rely, if necessary, upon their support and to inspire the shareholders with confidence. In the hands of politicians and financiers the newspaper press has become an instrument of convict them. The mode of robbery they find the easiest and esteem the most likely to escape future researches, is to appro- priate in the name of another what they intend shall profit themselves. The crafty devices they make use of to this end are of so many different kinds, that I shall not attempt to ex- plain them in detail, and shall merely say that they always augment the theft they are intended to hide." ' Cicero, " 3ecunda Oratio in Verrem," Bk. II., § 10. 200 POLITICAL CRIME. spoliation. Great financial companies are not content Avith purchasing merely the advertise- ment newspapers can give them. They also pay the papers to praise their undertakings so as to deceive the public; they even make the papers fixed payments at regular intervals. According to the report of M. Machard, Inspector of Finances, the Credit Foncier, from 1877 to 1890, spent 116,102,513 francs in expenses of emission. ("Gazette des Tribunaux," 27th January, 1893.) Charles de Lesseps has admitted having expended a hundred millions of francs in advertise- ment and kindred expenses. The articles in praise of the Panama Canal, published by the papers, were written by the directors of the Company. When stock is to be issued, the board of direc- tors places an important sum at the disposal of the directors with which to purchase the support, or at any rate the neutrality, of the Press, so that in the case of journalists it is literally true that speech is silvern and silence golden. When the proprietor of a paper is a politician it receives larger sums from the financial companies than would otherwise be the case. As soon as a financial undertaking is announced the journal- ists are found demanding money, and threaten- ing the company with their hostility if it be not granted them. The men who call themselves the friends of the people are not behindhand in trafficking in newspaper articles that deceive the j^eople, and contribute to its being fleeced. SPOLIATION. 20 1 Again, deputies, senators, and ministers are found to sell their votes to financial companies. They resort to the most crafty tactics to make sure that their influence shall be bought. In a case of recent occurrence, being called upon to examine a scheme in which a great company was interested, they did not reject it, but they ad- journed it to allow the company to come to terms with them in the interval with respect to the sums demanded. The sums changed hands directly, or through the medium of middle-men, or under the guise of an interest in guarantee syndicates. These fictitious syndicates were merely a surrep- titious mode of rewarding a criminal complicity, for the members of the syndicates ran no risks whatever. Seven millions of francs were allotted a single banker to purchase the parliamentary support of which the company stood in need. It is on record that a Minister of Public Works replied to a company that was asking for the authorisation to issue lottery bonds, that the scheme would not be introduced unless he was presented with a million. A first payment of 375,000 francs was made him the day the Bill was laid before the House, and he only failed to receive the remainder of the million because the measure had to be withdrawn in face of the hostile attitude of the Chamber. Thousands of families have been ruined by the gigantic swindles of financiers and politicians. The director of the Dynamite Company, who was sentenced at the Seine Assizes, was an ex- 202 POLITICAL CRIME. prefect, an ex-deputy, an ex-senator, and an ex-Director of Departmental and Commercial Affairs at the Ministry of the Interior. In spite of fortunes acquired with scandalous rapidity by means of Stock Exchange specula- tions, fraudulent artifices, and political transac- tions, contemporary society has realised immense progress as compared with the ancient peoples and the old regime which lived on spoliations. Slavery and serfdom have disappeared from the civilised world. The spectacle is no longer afforded of a handful of citizens oppressing a great number of slaves, or of a small number of men living on the labours of the great majority. Labour is free and held in honour.^ Privileges have been abolished. All citizens are equal before the law. Privileged persons have ceased to impose the burden of taxation upon the people and to receive honours and dignities for them- selves. The French Revolution has caused the disappearance of these social iniquities. While it is necessary to point out the errors and crimes that have been committed in the name of the Revolution, one should not tire of recalling the immense social progress it has brought about. The Socialists deceive the people when they declare that all the Revolution has done has been to substitute the privileges of the middle class for those of the nobility, and that the people is oppressed by the middle classes in the same way 1 An edict of Henry III. contains this abominable declaration: The right to work ia a royal right and that attaches to the domain. SPOLIA TION. 203 as it was oppressed by the nobility prior to 1789. The middle classes have no privileges; they do not constitute a closed caste; they cannot be compared to the nobility of the old regime — they despoil nobody ; on the contrary, they enable a great number of working-men and employes to live by the work and wages with which they furnish them. The men whom the Socialists denounce as privileged individuals have attained to fortune by dint of labour, intelligence, and thrift. Where does the middle class end, where does the people begin ? Every day men hailing from the lowest ranks of society raise themselves to the highest and become members of the " classes," while idle and spendthrift members of the classes fall back into the lowest ranks of society. Are not the small tradesmen, the foremen, and the working- men, who establish themselves on their own account, members of the middle class ? Does not the business man, the contractor, the barrister, the doctor, or the manufacturer belong to the people, and do they enjoy special privileges ? It is difficult to see in consequence how the founda- tion of society can be changed, unless the system of privileges is to be re-established for the benefit of the working-men. Absolute social equality is an unrealisable dream, ^ because men are unequal, 1 Marshal Bugeaud, wishing, in 1842, to found a. number of villages in the vicinity of Algiers, divided the land in equal parts between the soldiers of the 48th Regiment of the line. When he visited the country in 1845 he found there were colonists in the possession of from five to six thousand francs, worth of cattle, while there were others that had not even been able to keep the live stock that had originally been allotted 15 204 POLITICAL CRIME. and because the idle, the debauched, and the unskilful will never be able to acquire or keep the same fortune as laborious, thrifty, and intel- ligent men. "For each estate Jupiter dressed two tables; the dexterous, the alert, and the strong take their seats at the first, and petty folk eat what they leave at the second."^ Still, although absolute social equality is a dream, there is nothing Utopian in the wish to raise the social level and to lessen inequality. These desiderata are realised progressively by the action of economic laws, by the increasing dearness of labour, by the lowering of the rate of interest, by the spread of education, and the development of the spirit of solidarity. The great differences that existed in the past between the rich and the poor in respect to dress, educa- tion, and habits are steadily lessening. ^ It is becoming more and more difficult every day to live without working. them. (Marshal Bugeaud, " Les Socialistes et le Travail en Commun," p. 24.) The fact that equality is destroyed by the force of circumstances is the reason why Rousseau does not hesitate to demand that the State shall intervene to re-establish it. (" Contrat Social," Bk. II., ch. xi.) 1 La Fontaine. 2 Especially in the South of France. In Provence the peasants obtain possession of the land by the nature of things. Only the peasants who own the land they till can make agriculture pay in the district in question. I am acquainted with a num- ber of these cultivators, who are richer than many members of the middle class. On a recent occasion I asked one of these men why it was that the peasants declined to purchase the land which middle-class owners in straitened circumstances were anxious to sell them. I obtained the reply: "We possess more land than we can cultivate." SPOLIATION. 205 There still exist iniquities for which individuals are responsible, spoliations which come under the criminal law, but the iniquitous organisation of society is a thing of the past, and it would be possible, by a stern application of justice, to put an end to the swindles of shady financial com- panies and politicians. Doubtless much remains to be done in the way of improving the situation of the poor, but these improvements can be accomplished without violence. The new revolution, desired by the Socialist, Avould be a fresh spoliation and the most disastrous of all. CHAPTER VII CORRUPTION AMONGST POLITICIANS. Political Corruption in Rome. (I.) Political corruption in Rome — Corruption may prevail under any form of Government — Bribery in Rome — Venality of demagogues — Responsibility does not necessarily moral- ise politicians — Peculation in Rome — Corruption of judg«s among the Romans — Political corruption in Athens — Alci- biades — Pericles — Aristophanes on demagogues. — (II.) Poli- tical corruption in England — Lord Bacon — Corruption among Members of Parliament — Louis XIV. as a corrupter of foreign politicians — Corruption in England after the Revolution — Walpole's methods of corruption — Corruption as practised by George III. — Purchase of seats in Parliament — (III) Political corruption in France — Richelieu's views — Pecula- tion under Louis XIV. — Louis XIV. on the necessity for watching Government officials — La Bruy^re on the finan- ciers of the 17th century — The nobility and the financiers — Peculation in the 18th century — Political corruption under Louis XV. — Corruption during the Revolutionary period — Political morality under the Empire — Venality of Talleyrand — Political morality during the Restoration — Political corruption under the July monarchy — Deputies as directors of public companies — Heine on corruption in France. — (IV.) The causes of political corruption — Levity of life among politicians — Instances from Ancient Rome — Influence of women in jiolitics — liOve of luxury and display among politicians — Simplicity of life the best safeguard against political corruption. Lord Brougham has affirmed that " sobriety, in- tegrity, love of the public good, and disinterested- ness, virtues foreign to a court, spring up natu- 206 CORRUPTION. 207 rally on a democratic soil."^ Virtues never spring up naturally ; it is only vices that spring up Avith- out effort as weeds do; virtues, like useful plants, reqviire to be cultivated if they are to spring up on democratic soil. Corruption is prevalent under all forms of government. Tribunes of the people are corruptible as well as senators. During the last years of the Roman Republic they showed them- selves every whit as greedy as the patricians for the gold of Jugurtha. The King of Numidia made grants to begin with to all those whose influence 1 Lord Brougham, " De la Democratie et des Gouvernements Mixtes," p. 143. This passage of Lord Brougham's seems to be borrowed from Sidney's book on Government, the 19th section of which is accompanied by the following summary: "Corruption and venality, which are so common in the courts of sovereign princes, and in their States, are rarely found in Republics and mixed governments." Montesquieu, wishing to establish that virtue is not the mainspring of a, monarchical Government, adduces a passage from Richelieu's political testament. " Should there be found," he says, "amongst the people some hapless honest man. Cardinal Richelieu insinuates in his political testament that the monarch will do well not to have recourse to his services ; so true is it that virtue is not the mainspring of this form of government." ("Esprit des Lois," LIIL, ch. v.) Robespierre expressed the same thought when he said: "You are acquainted with the ingenuous utterance of Cardinal Richelieu, contained in his political testament, and to the efTect that kings should carefully abstain from making use of men of probity, since their services would be unprofitable." (Report drawn up in the name of the Committee of Public Safety, upon the relations between religious and moral ideas and republican principles.) Montesquieu and Robespierre have misinterpreted the passage from Richelieu's political testament ; it runs as follows. "These officers," he says, referring to magistrates, "are chosen from amongst the best and most enlightened men of the States, and, if the republics be well ordered, the richest are usually preferred to the poor, and nobles to those of low birth, because it is supposed that they are more virtuous and more enlightened, and that, in consequence, they are less capable o( certain base actions, to which necessity and absence of breed- 208 POLITICAL CRIME. in the Senate was great ;i the moment his emis- saries made gold to gleam before their eyes, the senators M'ere fascinated by the huge sums offered them. Jugurtha, however, did not overlook the tribunes of the people, for he had advised his emissaries "to try the effect of gold upon all consciences." Babius, a tribune of the people, was no more incorruptible than Calpurnius or Scaurus. All, patricians and plebeians alike, were glad to be bribed, and Jugurtha, on leaving Rome, disgusted at so much greed, could not refrain from exclaiming: "Venal city, that will speedily perish if it finds a buyer." Aristophanes in his admirable comedies has scourged not only the impudence of demagogues, but their venality as well. A pork-butcher, addressing Cleon, says to him: " You resemble those who fish for eels ; in clear water they catch nothing, but if they only stir up the mud they make a good haul; in the same way it is only in ing might incline them." (Ch. viii.) Richelieu is of opinion that it is more difficult for a poor than for a rich functionary to remain honest; he advises the King to choose rich magistrates, because he considers them hkely to be more virtuous and inde- pendent. This opinion had already been expressed in ancient times by statesmen, who had made it a rule of government even under constitutions that were not monarchical. The Cartha- ginians were persuaded " that a poor citizen is unable to leave his affairs and conduct those of the State with honesty." (Aristotle, "Politica," Bk. 11., ch. viii., § 5.) 1 Sallust, "Jugurtha," § 12. " Men invested with this magis- trature have been seen," says Aristotle again, " to be accessible to corruption and to sacriace the interests of the State to private consideration." ("Politica," Bk. II., ch. vi.) The Swiss and Dutch Deputies accepted pensions from Louis XI. and Louis XIV. as eagerly as did the great noblemen of England and Poland. CORRUPTION. 209 times of trouble that you line your pockets. . ." The people: "Ah ! rogue, so this is how you rob me, I who loaded you with crowns and presents." Cleon : " / stole in the ptublic interest.'' The people : "Quickly return me that crown." Cleon : "Good-bye, crown; ... so another is going to possess you; assuredly he will not be a greater thief, but perhaps he will be luckier. ... I admit that I am a thief. Do you allow that you are another ? " Cleon s rival has no scruples in making the admis- sion; he hastens to add that he has been guilty of perjury as well, and that, being the greater rogue of the two, he deserves to come off best. "To steal, to commit perjury," he says, "that is the way to reach a high position." These being his principles, a brilliant future had been predicted him while he was young. "There is the stuff of a statesman in him." It would seem that when a man is called upon to take part in the conduct of public affairs the sentiment of his responsibility and his concern for the public good should raise him morally to the level required by his situation. Unhappily, considered closely, many great politicians from the moral standpoint are very petty; their lives often offer the spectacle of irregularities and vices that create astonishment, and that contrast with the fine sentiments with which they adorn their speeches. Disinterestedness is not, as a rule, a virtue of statesmen. But there have been politicians who have become famous solely because they were honest. 2IO POLITICAL CRIME. At Rome, during a long period, politicians were conspicuous for their disinterestedness. Paulus /Emilius brought back to Rome all the treasures of Macedonia without keeping back any portion. Scipio Africanus "returned home enipty-handed, after having destroyed Carthage." ^ However, from the time of Sylla onwards, the public men ])reyed upon the Republic. "To prey upon the Republic, " exclaimed Cicero, " is not merely shameful, but an abominable crime." The crime became general. The crime of peculation became so frequent that Menenius said: "It is held of no account since we have made a practice of it, . . . so ])rofoundly has avarice, like a contagious plague, affected men's souls." ^ Cato exclaimed in his indignation at the impunity accorded those guilty of peculation: "Those who rob j)rivate persons pass their lives in chains; robbers of the public live resplendent in gold and purple."' The Romans passed numerous laws to suppress corruption: the Cornelian law, the Calpurnian law, the Tullian law, the Aufodian law, the Licenian law. All these laws, however, did not suffice to sup- press the evil, because the judges themselves were open to corruption. According to Cicero, "in the space of nearly fifty years, during which the order of knights was charged with dispensing justice, not the least suspicion ever arose of a Roman knight having 1 Cicero, " De Officiis," Bk. II., § 22. 2 Sallust, ".Tugurtha," §§ 31, 32. 3 Aulus Gellius, Bk. XI., ch. xviii. CORRUPTION. 211 received money to render a judgment," whereas " during the ten years that justice has been in the hands of the Senate" it is impossible to con- ceive " all the vile and infamous acts that have marked the administration of justice." Cicero affirms that when Clodius was acquitted, thirty judges out of fifty-five had accepted money from the accused. "Do you wish to know," Cicero Avrote to Atticus, "how the acquittal was pro- cured ? It was through the poverty and infamy of the judges." 1 When the Senator Septimius was convicted of the crime of peculation, the fine he had to pay was regulated by the sums he had received while a judge. Cicero says further that " a case is known of a senator who, while judge, accepted money during the same trial on the one hand from the accused to be distributed to the other judges, and on the other from the accuser to condemn the accused." The governors who pillaged the provinces set aside a portion of their ill-gotten gain for the judges before whom they would have to appear to answer for their crimes. Verres declared that he had distributed in this fashion what three years of his Sicilian pretorship had brought him in; that he considered himself fortunate if the product of a single year remained for himself, and that he had reserved for his judges that of the third year, the best and the most fruitful .^ According to 1 Cicero's " Letters to Atticus," No. 23. Seneca, " Letters to Lucilius," XCII. Plutarch, " Life of Cicero." 2 Cicero, "First Speecii m Ferrem," § 14. 212 POLITICAL CRIME. Cicero it would have been to the advantage of the plundered provinces not to prosecute those Avho had preyed iipon them; the reason being " that ii there were no trial in prospect, each governor would merely strip the provinces of what seemed to him sufficient for himself and his children, while as it is, with the courts of justice consti- tuted as they are, each governor carries aAvay with him what he requires to satisfy himself, his protectors, his legal counsel, the pretor, and his judges. Under these conditions there is no limit to the exactions. It is possible to satisfy the cupidity of the most avaricious of men, but not to make the cost of a trial more disastrous than all possible acts of pillage." Cicero in his corre- spondence allows his indignation against these corrupt judges to find vent at every turn in the most vigorous language. "No gambling hell," he exclaims, "ever saw such a company gathered together; tarnished senators, knights in rags, tribunes, guardians of the treasury, as burdened with debts as they are light of money What a sore this man is ! What rogues !" ^ He alleges that Antony had introduced acrobats and musicians into the third decury of judges. "What a tribunal, ye gods ! A Cretan has a seat in it, and the worst of them all. . . . Can he even speak Latin ? " Political ConRUFnox i.\ Athens. Political corruption also existed \\\ Athens and ' Ciccio, '• Letters to .Atliciis," .No. IZ. CORRUPTION. 213 even at the most glorious period of its history, the century of Pericles. Politicians -were wont " to occupy themselves with the conduct of public affairs with the intention of making money out of their posts and of pushing their own inter* sts."i The orators Stratocles and Democlides "used to invite each other to proceed to their golden har- vest, referring mockingly in these terms to the rostrum whence they addressed the people." JEschines and Demosthenes jnutually accused each other of venality. Demosthenes was con- victed of malversation." The Grecian historians record a number of piquant details touching tlic venality of the politicians of this period.^ Tho conquest of Greece by Philip of Macedon was effected as much by his gold as by arms. AVisli- ing, on one occasion, to capture a stronght)ld, Philip told off a number of his soldiers to recon- noitre the place; the men declared upon their return that it Avas impregnable. He then asked them if it was so inaccessible that an ass laden with gold would be unable to approach it, for he had often easily acquired possession by gold of places he was unable to reduce by force of arms.' ' Plutarch. '-Plutarch. Aulus Gellius (Bk. XI., ch. ix.) also relates tliat Demosthenes received money to keep silent, and that he ap- peared in the Assembly, his neck wrapped up in wool, because he was suffering, he said, from a quinsy. " Say rather from .1 ' silver malady,' " cried some one in the crowd. •'■ Plutarch, " Life of Phocion." * It would seem that Horace had this historical incident in his* mind when he wrote in Ode XVI. of his third Book: Aurum per medios ire .s.ilalliti'.s Et perumpere anial .•s.ixa, potius Ictu fulmineo. 214 POLITICAL CRIME. Alcibiades appears to have been a most typical example of the sceptical politician who is at once a man of pleasure and a man of business; ambi- tious and unscrupulous, a fascinating speaker, of supple and shifty character, he played all parts and assumed all masks, varying his lan- guage according to circumstances, "for ever trans- forming his appearance, and with more ease than does a chameleon." To attain to power he did not rely solely upon his talent as an orator, or his numerous connections, but made himself popular by flattering the people, offering them games and even horse races. "The sums he expended in keeping horses to run in races were much talked about." Not content with owning racehorses, he indulged in amatory escapades and neglected his wife for courtesans. He was fond of scofifinfif at religious ceremonies and of scandalising serious people by his freedom of speech. A clever and very agreeable talker, he was versed in the art of making witty remarks. On one occasion he went to visit Pericles, who sent him word that he could not see him, as he was busy considering how he should render his accounts to the Athenians. "Would it not be better," was Alcibiades' answer, " that he should consider how he might manage to render no accounts at all ? " ^ His death was worthy of his life; he died a violent death in the house of a courtesan, leaving a daughter, who became the celebrated Lais. The politicians of the period kept up their 1 Plutarch, " Life of Alcibiades." CORRUPTION. 215 popularity by gifts to the people; corrupt them- selves, they were the corrupters of others. Peri- cles himself, as the author of the measiire by which those who attended the public deliberations, the public games, and even the fetes received payment, introduced corrupt habits into Athens, which, in the end, caused the democracy to degenerate into a demagogy. 1 The people kept honest citizens out of the public functions, reserving them for the demagogues who flattered them and made them distributions of money. Aristophanes has drawn a portrait of these flatterers of the people that has remained so true a likeness that it is worth while to recall it. AVhen the pork-butcher, whose political education had been obtained in kitchens and slaughter- houses, vies with Cleon for the popular favour, he begins by invoking the gods of rogues and boasters, the gods of simpletons, lick-spittles, and insolent fellows. "Give me," he begs, "boundless audacity, an inexhaustible gift of the gab, an impudent voice. . . . Cleon: Let my dear lies hasten to my aid. I will crush you or I will lose my reputation. ... I will drag you before the people ; they will settle your pretensions. The porlc-butcher : I, too, will drag you before the people and I will surpass you in slanders. Cleon: Poor fool ! The people have no faith in you, while I 1 Aristotle, " Politica," Bk. 11., ch. ix., §§ 3, 4. Already in Xeno- phon's time it used to be said: " Witli money mucli can be accomplished in Athens." (" De Republica Atheniensium," ch. iii.) 2l6 POLITICAL CRIME. make sport of them as I please. Tlie pork-hutcher : So the people belong to you, are yours to do what you will with. Cleon: The reason is that I know the words that please them. Oh ! youiuill not get the better of me in abject flattery." This last thrust recalls the saying of a minister and cour- tier; "My enemies can do what they will, they will not efiect my overthrow. Thank Heaven, I have not my better at the court as a valet." Political Corruption in England. England also has traversed periods of corrup- tion. The most precise details are found in the Memoirs of Commines, touching the venality of the chief personages in England under the reign of Edward. Louis XL paid " some sixteen thou- sand pensions to ministers, great persons, and courtiers." Lord Hastings, the Lord Chamberlain, let himself be bought like so many others by the King of France; "he raised great diflticulties before he would become a pensioner of the King," because he was already in receipt of a pension of a thousand crowns from the Duke of Burgundy, but yielding to the pressure brought to bear upon him by Commines, he was induced to accept tlie offers of Louis XL, who had him offered double what the Duke of Burgundy was giving him. Louis XL ordered Pierre Claret, his steward, to remit him two thousand crowns, and to demand a receipt, " so that in the time to come it should be patent and known how the Lord Chamberlain, CORRUPTION. 217 Chancellor, Admiral and Equerry of England, with many others, had been the pensioners of the King of France." Pierre Claret had an interview with the Lord Chamberlain in private. "After having said to him what was necessary on the part of the King, he handed him the two thousand crowns in gold, for money was never given great foreign personages in any other form." The emissary of Louis XL asked Lord Hastings for a receipt, or at least for a brief letter, so that he might not be suspected by his master of having kept the money for himself. The Lord Chamber- lain, however, replied: "This gift comes to me of the good pleasure of the King, your master, and not at my request; if you wish me to take it, you will place it here in my sleeve, and there will be no letter or witnesses, for I do not wish that by my fault it shall be said, ' The Lord Chamber- lain of England has been the pensioner of the King of France,' nor that my receipts be found in his office of accounts." ^ Chancellor Bacon was also guilty of peculation, and was a corrupt magistrate. Brought up before the House of Lords, he confessed his errors in these terms: "After examination of the accusa- tion made against me, sounding my conscience, and recalling my conduct as far back as I am able, I confess fully and sincerely that J have been guilty of corruption. I renounce any attempt to defend myself, and abandon myself to the clemency and mercy of your Lordships." A 1 Commines, " M^moires," Bk. VI., ch. ii. 2l8 POLITICAL CRIME. commission of the House of Lords waited upon Bacon to inquire whether he was really the author of the letter containing these confessions, which he then renewed, saying : " My Lords, I am indeed the author of this letter in which I accuse myself. The letter is my work, the work of my hand and of my heart. I implore your Lordships to be full of pity for a poor broken reed." Several Kings of England bought the votes of Members of Parliament at the price of a pension. This expedient, says Voltaire, shortens difficul- ties and averts conflicts; it was extensively resorted to by Charles II. "The second Parlia- ment, summoned in 1679, started proceedings against eighteen members of the House of Com- mons in the preceding Parliament . . . they were accused of having received pensions. How- ever, as there was no law forbidding the accept- ance of gratuities from the Sovereign, it was impossible to bring them to trial!" ^ The court of Charles II. was most corrupt. Louis XIV. says in his "Mdmoires,"^ that "it is a court at which much may be done with the help of money, and ' Voltaire, " Essai sur les Mosurs." England under Charles II. 2 " Mi5moires de Louis XIV.," Vol. II., p. 448. He failed, however, in his attempts to bribe Chancellor Hyde, whose support he was anxious to have for his scheme of a marriage between Charles II. and the Infanta of Portugal. Louis XIV. gives the following account of this endeavour to corrupt Hyde : " I entered in private upon the most secret negotiations with him, negotiations of which even my Ambassador in England was ignorant, and I sent him a clever man, who had with him, ostensibly in order to purchase lead for my ships, letters of credit to the value of 500,000 francs, which he offered the Minister from me, merely asking him for his friendship. He refused my offers." (" M^moires de Louis XIV.," Vol. II., p. 448.) CORRUPTION. 219 the Ministers of this nation have very often been suspected of being the pensioners of Spain." In his negotiations with the court of Charles II., as in those with the other European sovereigns, Louis XIV. was in the habit of showing himself exceedingly liberal to Ministers, Kings and Queens. He expended large sums in pensions to foreign Princes and Ministers. The Dutch Deputies and the great Polish nobles were no more incorruptible than were the Ministers. "Amongst the Dutch," says Louis XIV., "there were several Deputies to whom I caused pensions to be paid. I gave considerable pensions, too, to several Polish nobles, in order that I might dispose of their votes at the election which was in prospect. I had pensioners in Ireland, whose work was to stir up the Catholics against the English. I was further in treaty with certain refugees from England, to whom I pro- mised important sums, that they might revive the activity of what remained of the Cromwell faction. I gave the King of Denmark one hundred thou- sand crowns to induce him to join the league against the King of England, and later I pre- sented the Queen, his wife, with a necklace of pearls; I gave another necklace to the Electress of Brandenburg, and made the Queen of Sweden an important present, having no doubt but that these princesses, overlooking the general inte- rests of their States, would feel themselves honoured in their own persons by the pains I took to secure their friendship. Being aware of the 16 220 POLITICAL CRIME. influence enjoyed in Sweden by the Chancellor, and that the Prince of Anhalt and the Count of Schwerin had the ear of the Elector of Branden- burg, it was my wish to secure their good offices by my liberality." ^ It is clear that Louis XIV. spared no expense to procure himself allies in the foreign courts. "It often happens," he says, "that moderate sums, dispensed opportunely and with judgment, keep States from incompara- bly greater outlays and losses. In the absence of support it was possible to acquire at small cost, it is sometimes necessary to raise great armies. A neighbour, who might have been made our friend with a slight expenditure, some- times costs us very dearly when he becomes our enemy." When engaged in a negotiation with the House of Austria, in the interest of the Duke d'Enghien, he purchased the good offices of a high functionary attached to the person of the Emperor for 100,000 crowns.^ Corruption continued to be prevalent in England after the revolution of 1688. Numerous scandals cropped up in the course of 1695; the Speaker, Trevor, was convicted of having accepted a thou- sand guineas from the City of London to procure the passing of a Bill. "In the same year, Mr. Grey, Secretary of the Treasury, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for having accepted a bribe of two hundred guineas, while Mr. Hunger- ford was expelled for having received twenty 1 Louis XI\'., "Memoires," Vol., U , pp. 174-17t). 2 Ibid., p. 163. CORRUPTION. 221 guineas in return for services rendered when he was chairman of a committee." ^ William III., in order to gain the support of Members of Parliament, gave them posts whose emoluments were paid out of the Civil List. Parliament protested, and demanded the exclu- sion of functionaries in receipt of a salary or a pension from the Crown. In 1707, after a long discussion, only the functionaries appointed since 1705 were deprived of their seats, those who had entered upon their posts prior to 1705 being compelled to seek re-election. Under Queen Anne, under George I., and more especially under George II., the Crown continued to award pensions to Members of Parliament. The writings of the period abound in strong protests against the intrigues of Ministers and the habits of corruption that had been introduced thereby into Parliament and thence throughout the country.^ The cynical manner in which Robert Walpole purchased the consciences of Members of Parlia- ment and boasted that he had the tariff at his fingers' ends is notorious. Macaulay, none the less, judges his conduct Avith surprising indul- gence. "Walpole governed by corruption because in his time," he says, "it was impossible to govern otherwise The House of Com- mons was in that situation in which assemblies must be managed by corruption or cannot be managed at all. The fault was in the constitution 1 De Franqueville, " Le Gouvernement et le Parlement Britan- nique," Vol. Ill , p. 352 ; Vol. II., p. 2. ■J Conclillac, " De I'Etiide de I'Histoire," Part III., ch. i. 222 POLITICAL CRIME. of the Legislature, and to blame those Ministers who managed the Legislature in the only way m whichit could be managed is gross injustice. They submittedto extortion because they could not help themiselves. We might as well accuse the Low- land farmers who paid blackmail to Rob Roy of corrupting the virtue of the Highlanders as accuse Sir Robert Walpole of corrupting the virtue of Par- liament. His crime was merely this, that he employed his money more dexterously, and got more support in return for it, than any of those who preceded or followed him." Lord John Russell admits political corruption to be a political necessity. During the Ministry of Lord North, George HI. formed, by dint of corruption, a party that was called the "party of the King's friends" ; its members regarded politics solely as a means to satisfy their covetousness. A new mode of corruption, which has since been widely practised in France as well as in England, was added to the old by the Court; it consisted in granting Members of Parliament lucrative contracts. Fox attacked the corrupt influence of the Court and demanded the exclusion of Members of Parlia- ment interested in contracts. The struggle be- tween the Court and the opposition was keeh. A Ministry would purchase votes in the interval between two sittings of the House. Fox^ got ^ Fox's integrity has not been suspected in spite of the irregu- larity of his private life, of his passion for gambling, and of his want of scruples. " At a period when numerous and striking examples seemed to authorise politicians to have an eye to their CORRUPTION. 223 wind of the fact, and denounced the traffic in a speech. "Around me," he exclaimed, "are contemptible creatures, who have betrayed their faith. Let them rise and leave the ranks of my friends and seat themselves in the ranks of my enemies." Lord North's Ministry was overthrown and replaced by Lord Rockingham's Ministry, which passed the Bill excluding from Parliament members interested in contracts. The English Members of Parliament who sold their votes paid heavily for their seats. Lord Chesterfield wrote to his son (letter of the 19th December, 1767) that he had entered into negotia- tions with an agent for the sale of rotten boroughs for the purchase of a seat in Parliament, and that he had offered him £2,500, but had received the reply that it was no longer possible to find a borough at the price, the rich Indian merchants having bought up all that were in the market at much higher prices. The purchase of a borough was a speculation ; seats were bought that votes might be sold.i The electioneering agents " even attempted to procure a quotation for seats on the Stock Exchange, and it actually came about that a tariff was established for certain boroughs." own interests, he refrained from seeking wealth, and constantly abstained from taking those recognised precautions against poverty (what a euphemism!) to which, thanks to the abuses prevalent at the time, it was possible to have recourse without loss of reputation." ("R^musat I'Angleterre i XVIII" Si^cle," Vol. II., p. 482.) Fox, when he was in Paris, in 1776, astonished Mdme. du Defiand by his scepticism. "He is not a bad man at bottom," she wrote to Walpole, " but he has no sort of principle, and he looks with pity upon those who have." 1 De Franqueville, op. cit., Vol. II., p. 468. 224 POLITICAL CRIME. The spectacle was witnessed of boroughs offering themselves to the candidate who bid the most. Oxford offered to elect the candidate who would pay the debts of the town, and concluded the bar- gain with the Duke of Marlborough. According to Lord John Russell £5,000 was paid for a seat in Parliament during the early j'ears of the 19th century. AVilberforce admitted that his elections had cost him £8,000. The rotten boroughs were suppressed in 1832. Electoral and political corruption have since diminished, but they have not disappeared. In 1878, two English men of business boasted in public that they possessed infallible means of influencing the members of a committee entrusted with the examination of a Bill. Political Corruption in France. Numerous were the Ministers who were con- victed of peculation under the old regime. Nu- merous, too, were the courts of justice instituted with the object of forcing the financiers to disgorge the money of which they had robbed the Treasury with the connivance of the Superintendents of Finance. Enguerrand de Marigny, Minister of Philip the Handsome, was accused, during the reign of Louis X., of having ruined the finances, and was hanged on the gibbet of Mont- faucon, which he had himself constructed. Girard de la Guette, who had been Superintend- ent of Finances under Philip the Tall, was hunted down under Philip the Handsome, and arrested CORRUPTION. 225 for depredations ; he was questioned under tor ture, which was inflicted so severely that he died while undergoing it; his body was dragged through the streets and exposed in Paris on a gibbet.i On 25th April, 1328, Pierre Remi, prin- cipal treasurer to Charles the Handsome, was hanged, under Philip of Valois, for malversations committed in Guyenne and for "great thefts of royal moneys"; in a few years he had amassed one million two hundred thousand francs, which represents twenty millions of modern French money. He was hanged on the gibbet of Mont- faucon, which he caused 10 be reconstructed, and the King regained possession by confiscation of what he had been robbed.^ In 1409 Jean de Montague, who had enriched himself in the financial administration, was condemned to be beheaded. During the reign of Charles VII., Jean de Xaintoings, Receiver -General of Finances, was arrested "for having dissipated and wrongly employed the moneys of the King, extensive sums of which it was proven he had stolen." He was also declared guilty of forgery. Still he was only condemned to a few years' imprisonment and to the confiscation of all his possessions. He was soon released from prison, after paying over to the King sixty 1 Jousse, "Traits de la Justice Criminelle," Vol. IV., p. 34. 2 Peculation, says Montesquieu, being a common crime in des- potic States, confiscations are useful in such States. "By their means consolation is afforded the people; the money they bring in represents a considerable tribute which the prince would raise with difficulty from semi-ruined subjects." (" Esprit des Lois," Bk. v., ch. xv.) 226 POLITICAL CRIME. thousand crowns. In 1453 took place the trial of Jacques Coeur, who was the victim of the jealousy of the great nobles, who were his debt- ors, and of the envy of people, who did not believe it was possible to grow rich without peculation and recourse to the magical arts. The son of a furrier of Bourges, Jacques Coeur had made an immense fortune in commerce: he had estab- lished branch houses at Montpelier, Marseilles, Lyons, Tours, and factories in Africa and Asia. On several occasions he advanced considerable sums to the King for war expenditure ; he entered the King's Council as treasurer, but with the authorisation to continue his commerce. The land he acquired and the castles and houses he built excited the jealousy of the great nobles and of the officers of the royal household, and they persuaded Charles VII. to have him arrested. He was at first accused unjustly of having poisoned Agnes Sorel, and, when this accusation had been shown to be baseless, of alleged extortions. His enemies, charged with judging him, declared him guilty of peculation and of exporting money out of the kingdom. By the sentence passed by the King, from his Bed of Justice, he was condemned to apologise and to pay a fine of one hundred thousand crowns. His possessions were confis- cated and a portion of his estates were distri- buted amongst his accusers. In the 16th century, in the reign of Francis L, occurred the trial of the Superintendent of Fi- nances, Samblancay, Avho died a victim of the CORRUPTION. 227 greed and perfidy of the Queen Mother, Louise of Savoy. Having been denounced to the King by Samblan5ay, for having appropriated 400,000 gold crowns intended for Lautres, Governor of the Milanese, the Queen Mother swore to revenge herself. In 1527, during the absence of Francis 1., she had the superintendent brought up on a trumped-up charge of malversation before a com- mission of judges arbitrarily chosen by Chancellor Duprat. Although innocent, Saniblancay was sentenced to death and hanged. Some time afterwards his innocence was recognised; when the Queen Mother died 1,500,000 gold crowns were found in her coffers, including the 400,000 crowns destined for Lautres. In 1527 .Jean de Porch er, who had administered the King's finances, was accused of pecula- tion, and condemned to be hanged. The same sentence was passed in 1536, on Rene Gentil, President of Appeals. The same year Admiral Chabot was tried for embezzlement of the royal moneys, stripped of all his honours, sentenced to a fine, and banished. By a decree dated the 23rd April, 1545, Chancellor Poget was condemned for the crime of peculation and other malversations to a fine of one hundred thousand francs, to be degraded from his office, and to five years' banishment. Marshal de Biez was accused of having appropriated a part of the money destined for the payment of his company of gendarmes ; declared unworthy to occupy his post, he was condemned by a decree of the Parliament of 228 POLITICAL CRIME. Toulouse to make restitution, to be suspended from his functions of Marshal of France for five years, and to be banished from court. In 1565 Francois AUamant, President of the Audit Office, was pronounced guilty of peculation and con- demned to pay a fine of sixty thousand francs. By decree of the Parliament of Paris, dated May 29th, 1583, Jean Poisle, counsellor of the Parliament, -was sentenced "for peculation and corruption, double dealing, extortion, and violence." It was in the 16th century that the commissions instituted to judge persons accused of peculation took the name of "Chambers of Justice." Rigor- ous regulations were passed in 1532, 1545, 1557, and 1559 to repress this crime, which had become frequent. Chambers of justice were also insti- tuted in 1566, 1578, 1584, 1593, 1601, 1607, 1624, 1645, and 1652. When L'Hopital was present at Bordeaux with Charles IX., he protested, at the Bed of Justice that was held there, against the peculation of certain magistrates and the venality of the cour- tiers. "Gentlemen," he said, "I fear that there is avarice in our midst, for I have been told that some there are who take money to grant an audience, and when they are blamed, they reply it is much worse at the Court, for there it is that the great rogues are; but it is not well, neither here nor there." When Sully became Minister, "disorder and brigandage were everywhere. . . . The CORRUPTION. 229 friends of the King took their part of the product of the farms, and of the contracts made with the purveyors. The Treasury was administered by dishonest persons; those who should have kept the accounts kept no accounts whatever." ^ Francois d'O, Superintendent of the Finances under Henry III., was, says Henri Martin, the great robber, the chief of all the robbers. Sully restored order to the finances, and put a stop to the exactions of the military governors. Marshal de Marillac, sentenced to death under Richelieu for peculation, could not understand such severity. "A man of my station condemned to death for peculation ! " he cried. Richelieu showed himself pitiless. He considered "the art of finance as one of the principal parts of politics; it is the more indispensable in a State," he adds, "in that money is the soul of all affairs. A commonwealth is only strong in proportion to the richness of the public treasury." ^ Mazarin was far less severe tipon those guilty of pecula- tion: it is known that he was not above reproach himself, and that he left behind him after his death a fortune of 50 millions, which would represent 200 millions to-day. The commencement of the reign of Louis XIV. 1 " Les Chambres de Justice," by Petit- Jean, Procureur-General at the Audit Office. 2 "Testament Politique de Richelieu," ch. x. "The King," he says, "receives a great deal of money from the tax upon salt, but the people pay far more than they should do over and above what enters the royal coffers." Richelieu accuses those who farmed the salt tax of drawing up false reports and of Dillaging and ruining poor private persons. 230 POLITICAL CRIME. was marked by the Chamber of Justice of 1661, which tried Fouquet and a great niimber of finan- ciers guilty of peculation. Over five hvmdred persons were convicted; according to the Procurevir- General Petit-Jean the total fines and confisca- tions amounted to one hundred and ten millions. M. Cousin has written that the fortune of Colbert was no better acquired than that of Fouquet, for to all appearance, he said, "he did not manage to provide the three duchesses, his daughters, with dowries, and to build his magni- ficent house at Sceaux out of what he saved out of his salary."! M. Cousin forgets, however, that under the old monarchy the Kings made liberal presents to their Ministers. "Just as those who remain for some time in the sun are warmed by its heat," says G. Naude, "so it is necessary that he whom a prince or a sovereign places near his person shall feel the effects of his power and of the friendship he bears him in the shape of the recompense due for the services rendered."^ The Kings said to their Ministers, "Look after my interests and I will look after yours," in order, Naude adds, "that being no longer the prey of that horrible monster poverty, they may bring a jnind entirely free and liberated from all passions to the conduct of affairs." Still the memoirs of Louis XIV. leave the impres- sion that Fouquet was not the only Minister who declined to be content with the royal liberality. 1 Cousin, " Madame de Longueville pendant la Fronde," p. 216. - G. Naude, "Considerations Politiques sur les Coups d'Etat," ch. V. CORRUP TION. 2 3 I Thus the King, in the advice he gives his son, insists at length upon the necessity of keeping a watch upon the Ministers; one must not, he says, " be content with examining men before appointing them to a post, because the majority easilj'' adopt a disguise for a time, in their passion to acquire the authority that is the object of their ambition." On the contrary, he adds, it is necessary "to observe them still more carefully when they are actually entrusted with the conduct of affairs, because, being then in possession of what they had desired, they often follow the more freely their evil inclinations."^ It would seem that when a Minister has been convicted of dishonourable conduct, the only step to take is to dismiss and punish him. Louis XIV. is less severe ; he counsels his son to reclaim an unfaith- ful Minister by good advice, to keep him if he has qualities that make it worth while to put up with him, taking precautions the while against the harm his avarice might cause affairs, and only to dismiss him if he is incorrigible.^ We also learn from the journal and memoirs of Louis XIV. that "in certain provinces the people were tormented by certain persons who abused the title of governor to practise unjust exactions." " I instal men everywhere," says Louis XIV., "expressly that I maybe the more surely informed of their peculations, so as then to punish them if they deserve it." The "Great Days" that were held in Auvergne » "Mimoires de Louis XIV.," Vol. I., p. 165. ^ Ibid., p. 166. 232 POLITICAL CRIME. in 16G5 pronounced a large number of condemna- tions for peculation.! "The court in its ardour," writes Flechier, "took note of the crimes and had scarcely time to consider the station of the per- sons judged, whence it resulted that M. de la Tour was sentenced in the first instance to be hanged; however, Avhen it was learnt that he was of excellent birth he Avas accorded the honour that was his due, and was condemned to be nobly heheaded." A nejDhew of Turenne, the Marquis de Malause, was sentenced to a substan- tial fine aiid to make restitution of a sum of 18,000 francs. Boutdaloue declared, at a rather later period: "A man who handles public money absolutely without reproach, and who retires from certain posts with absolutely clean hands, is at present almost a prodigy." — (" Sermon sur la lleligion et la Probite.") In the preamble^ to the decree announcing the institution of the Chamber of Justice of 1661, the King declared : " In these recent times, a small number of persons have built up rapid and pro- digious fortunes by illegitimate means. Their immense acquisitions, their insolent pomp, their boundless opulence, offer an example calculated to corrupt all the maxims of public honesty." The persons referred to in the preamble of this edict were the financiers, who occupied a promi- nent jiosition in the society of the 17th century. La Bruyere depicts them buying titles of nobility ' Fli!chier, " Les Grands Jours d'Auvergne." - This preamble was written by Colbert. CORR UP TION. 233 and marrying their daughters to courtiers. "If a financier is unsuccessful the courtiers say of him he is a commoner, a nobody, a vulgar fellow; if he is successful they demand the hand of his daughter. ... A very rich man may . . introduce a duke into his family and make a nobleman of his son. . . . Thanks to his money, Sylvain has acquired breeding and another name. He is lord in the parish where his ances- tors paid tithes; formerly he could not have entered the house of Cleobule in the capacity of page, and he is his son-in-law. . . . After wearing livery, Sosie has made his way from a petty post in the finances to one of considerable importance; and by peculation, violence, and abusing his powers, he has at last attained to rank at the cost of the ruin of several families; become ennobled by tenure of office, it only remained for him to be able to pose as a good man ; he is now a churchwarden, and the prodigy is realised." 1 The spectacle of the nobility manoeuvring to be invited to the houses of financiers is not peculiar to our own time. The greatest names of the nobility were found under the roof of Samuel Bernard, the celebrated farmer of the revenue, who occupied a most prominent position in the reign of Louis XIV. ; the attractions were suppers, gambling, and fetes. President Henault, describ- ing the revenue farmer's establishment, says: "It was a house where one gambled and dined 1 La Bruy^re, "Des Biens de la Fortune." 234 POLITICAL CRIME. well, and that was the meeting-place of the best company There were to be seen the Cardinal de Rohan, to whom nattire had accorded all external talents ; the Prince de Rohan, his brother; Mdme. de Montbusson, whom they disputed between them; Dessorts, since Controller- General; Mdme. Turgot, M. d'Aumont, Mdme. Martel. . . . Marshal Villeroi, attracted by Mdme. de Sagonne, the daughter of Bernard, and Avhowas the object of the most delicate attentions Avith a view to inducing him to shut his eyes to what had passed at Lyons, where Bernard had gone bankrupt for 32 millions." A new and very severe decree against pecula- tion was issued in 1701; it ordained that those convicted of this crime should suffer the death penalty. Nevertheless the depredations of the financiers continued. At the death of Louis XIV. public opinion again demanded the repression of the abuses committed by the financiers. A new Chamber of Justice was instituted in March, 1716.^ It gave the judges who were to compose the chamber power to pass capital and penal sentences, and to impose fines. It was authorised, too, to take proceedings against persons of every kind, 1 Montesquieu refers to it in his"LettresPersanes": "What is termed a chamber of justice," he says, "has just been estab- lished. It is so called because its object is to strip them of all they possess. It is impossible for them to dispose fraudulently of or to hide their belongings, for they are made to declare them accurately under pain of death; in this way they are made to traverse a very narrow pass — to choose, I mean, between their life and their money." (Letter XCVIL, Usbeck to Isben.) CORRUPTION. 23 s of whatever birth and station, who should have been guilty of peculation. These severe dispositions did not last, and a decree dated September 18th of the same year, 1716, per- mitted capital and penal sentences to be trans- muted into fines. In the end the Chamber of Justice concerned itself with decreeing taxes rather than with anything else. According to the Procureur- General Petit- Jean, out of the 812 millions of property it left the owners in possession of 412 millions, deducting therefrom 219 millions svipposed to represent taxes, but which were never entirely paid. On the 22nd March, 1717, d'Aguesseau, who had just replaced the Chancellor Voisin, announced the suppression of the Chamber of Justice; it was the last. On this occasion the new Chancellor made an observation with respect to the character of the French people the justice of which has recently been instanced in connection with the Panama scandals; the people passed from the keenest indignation to the most absolute indiffer- ence, and from hatred to compassion. The people, said d'Aguesseau, always subject to incon- stancy, "likes to witness a prompt and rigorous punishment, but the matter must not be allowed to drag, or, allowing its initial indignation against the guilty to cool, it accustoms itself to believe them innocent when it has seen them for long in a state of misfortune. The history of the Chambers of Justice comes to an end here, but the history of crimes of cor- 17 236 POLITICAL CRIME. ruption does not terminate with it. On the contrary, under the Regent with Law and the Cardinal Dubois, and under Louis XV., corruption continues on a growing scale. The King himself speculated in wheat, and was one of the share- holders in the notorious company of the " compact of famine," which brought . about the artificial famines of 1768 and 1769. The corrupt practices of this period are so generally known that I consider it useless to relate them over again. It is easier for a people to carry through a political revolution than a moral revolution, to change its regime than to change its conscience. During the Revolution the politicians continued to make money, and the financiers did not cease to league themselves with the politicians. The most passionate demagogues combined business with politics. Hebert was on terms of close intimacy with the banker Koch, who was stis- pected of being in the pay of the foreigner. Morris, who represented the United States in Paris in 1789, expresses himself in the following terms when speaking ofNarbonne, de Choiseul, and the Abbe de Perigord : " They are three young men of good family and of parts, who lead a life of plea- sure. They were, all three of them, fast friends, and all three of them while following their ambi- tions have been primarily concerned with restoring their dilapidated fortunes." Montmorin admitted to Alexandre de Lameth that " in a short space of time he had expended seven millions in buying Jacobins and corrupting CORRUPTION. 237 Avrlters and orators." 1 Theodore de Lameth went to see Danton in the hope of saving Louis XYI. Danton answered him: "I consent to attempt to save the King, but 1 require a million to purchase the necessary votes. ... I warn you, that if I cannot procure him his life, I shall vote for his death. I am willing to save his head, but not to lose my own."^ Mirabeau, anxious to limit the opprobrium attaching to the bargain he had driven with the Court, declared that he had been paid, but that he had not sold himself. It was at this period that Fouquet laid the foundation by dubious means of his large fortune. Other Deputies contrived to have rich estates adjudged them for a handful of "assignats." Some, entrusted with missions, committed embezzle- ments. Ronsin and his friends pillaged Vendee. The Deputy Perrin was sentenced to the hulks for robbery. Chabot, a former monk, became suddenly rich and married the daughter of a banker. At the trial of Fabre d'Eglantine for forgery in favour of the French East India Com- pany, Chabot declared "that a hundred thousand francs had been remitted him for the purpose of corrupting Fabre, but he added that he had not dared to speak to him of the matter: he discreetly kept the money." '^ Pillage was rife at the War Office while Pache was in authority there. Several members of the Committee of General Safety compromised them- 1 Michelet, "Histoire de la Revolution FraiKjaise,'' Vol. II., p. 338. •^ Taine, Vol. III., p. 177, note 3. ' Michelet, Vol. VIII., p. 285. 238 POLITICAL CRIME. selves in financial affairs. The Paris Commune never rendered its accounts, although frequently summoned to do so by Cambon. The Convention was never able to secure the production of the accounts and the punishment of the dishonest, who had powerful protectors in the Assembly. On September 25, 1793, Thuriot bemoaned before the Convention the fate of the Republic, which had become the prey of the most despicable of men. "Can it be," he said, "that we have struggled as we have to give the power to robbers, and to men upon whom is the stain of blood ? We drag royalty from its throne and put up roguery in its place." ^ A certain number of the Jacobin Deputies were worthless and debauched men, gamblers who speculated in "assignats" and the State properties. Amongst them were men who divided their time between murder and loose living. Rossignol, for instance, and Carrier, who ordered massacres without interrupting their orgies. Henriot had himself allotted 8,000 francs " to cover his expenses incurred in watching the anti-revolutionary massacres," and afterwards another sum of 300,000 francs, that were to serve "to frustrate plots and to assure the triumph of liberty." It was Henriot, again, who invited his friends to join in the quest for spoil in a resolution worded as follows : " I am glad to inform my brothers-in-arms that all posts are in the gift of the Government. The present Government, which is revolutionary, . . . searches even the 1 Michelet, op. cit., Vol. VIII., p. 112. CORRUPTION. 239 attics for virtuous men, ... for poor and pure sans-culottes." The poor and pure sans-culottes did not always wait until search was made for them in their attics, which they hastened to leave to devote themselves to place-hunting; they joined, too, the revolutionary committees which appropriated enormous sums of money. "The three or four millions of gold and silver extorted before the close of 1783, the hundreds of millions extorted in 1793 and 1794 — in a word, almost the entire product of all the extraordinary taxes, were swallowed up on the spot by the sans- culottes." (Taine, op. cit., p. 346.) To rehabilitate these demagogues it has been stated that many of them died poor, but this poverty is no proof of their morality. They died poor because they dissipated their ill-acquired riches; their hands were empty but not clean; their pockets were emptied as soon as they were filled.i Corruption under the Directory attained still further development. The type of the politicians of this period is Barras, an avaricious, unprin- cipled rake, who pledged himself to all parties and had a finger in every conspiracy. Bonaparte called him the most corrupt of the corrupt. After the 18th Fructidor, those condemned to transpor- tation were conveyed in iron cages to the ports where they were to be embarked, and the com- mand of the escort was given to General Dutertre, who two years before had been sentenced to the 1 Taine, op. cit., Vol. III., p. 280. 240 POLITICAL CRLME. galleys for acts of pillage committed in Vendee. (De Barante, "Histoire du Directoire," Vol. II., p. 415.) Political morality improved under the Empire and the Restoration. The passion for military glory, the reawakening of the religious sentiment, and later the love of political liberty raised the moral level. Devotion to the national flag silenced the love of riches ; the feelings uppermost in the minds of the soldiers of the Empire were esteem for courage and the sentiment of honour; con- sideration and honours were the reward of military virtues. Napoleon I., as M. Thiers remarks, had a liking for honest men.^ Still he more than once endeavoured to corrupt men, ^ and he took for his Ministers men of dubious honesty, such as Fouche and Talleyrand. At the close of 1 Thiers, op. cit., Bk, LXII. 2 Here is an instance of which Mdme. de Stael was a witness. Wishing to render unpopular the Duke de Melzi, a former vice- president of the cis-alpine Repubhc, Napoleon, in 1805, appeared in person before the Legislative Assembly of Lombardy, and announced his intention of granting the Duke de Melzi an important estate in return for his services. " Being at Milan at the time," says Mdme. de Stael, " I saw M. de Melzi in the evening and found him absolutely in despair at the treacherous trick Napoleon had played him without a word of warning ; but as Bonaparte would have shown himself vexed at a refusal, I ad- vised M. de Melzi to at once devote the income forced upon him to some public establishment. He followed my advice, and the following day, while out walking with the Emperor, told him that such was his intention. Bonaparte seized him by the arm, and said: 'I wager that what you just said was suggested to you by Mdme. de Stael. But, believe me, you had far better have nothing to do with such 18th century romantic philanthropy. There is only one thing to be done in this world, and that is to be for ever acquiring more money and more power; all else is a dream." ("Considerations sur la Revolution Fran^aise," Part IV., ch. sviii.) CORRUPTION. 241 his reign he regretted his action and said : " For the future I wish to have none but honest men about me."' Thanks to the writings of Governor Morris, United States Minister in Paris in 1789, and to the revelations of Count de Senfit, the Saxon Minister in Paris in 180G, it has long been known that Talleyrand had the keenest possible passion for money, and was always trying to add to his fortune by speculation and the presents he received from the Powers. The Saxon Minister relates that during the negotiations which pre- ceded the Treaty of Posen in ISOfi Talleyrand was presented with a million by the Saxon plenipoten- tiary, and that several German princes obtained their admission to the Rhine Confederation by dint of money remitted to Talleyrand by M. de Gagern, Minister of the Duke of Nassau. The Pasquier Memoirs, which appeared recently, ofiter confirmation of the venality of the former Minister for Foreign Affairs. They show that Talleyrand took advantage of the treaties he was preparing, to enrich himself. "That of Luneville, in which it vras stipulated that Austria should take up tlie paper it had issued in Belgium, gave him an opportunity of making enormous profits by buy- ing the paper before anybody was aware of the stipulation." The Vienna Cabinet was particu- larly generous to Talleyrand in order to be sure of his good offices in connection with the treaties he was negotiating. " The secularisation of Germany 1 "Vie du Comte d'Hauterive," p. 320. 242 POLITICAL CRIME. and all the arrangements in that country con- nected with the portioning out of territory were a fresh source of profits that considerably sur- passed the first. "I have heard them estimated," writes Chancellor Pasquier, "by well-informed people at at least ten millions. This justice must be rendered M. de Talleyrand, that he did not keep the proceeds of his venality entirely to himself. He felt the necessity of allowing a good number of those who had assisted him to share in the spoil. The method was an excellent one for creating useful and devoted instrviments.'" Napoleon did not ignore the venality of his Minister. Questioning him one day upon the origin of his fortune, he suddenly put to him this query: " Monsieur de Talleyrand, what have you done to become so rich?" "Sire," the Minister cunningly replied, "the means are very simple. I bought Government stock on the eve of the 18th Brumaire and sold it immediately afterwards." In 1S07, when Talleyrand requested that he might be granted, in return for his services, the dignity of Vice-Grand Elector, which would have brought about his retirement from the Ministry, the Emperor, much annoyed at this resolution, said to him : " I do not understand your impatience to 1 "Memoires du Chancelier Pasquier," Vol. I., p. 249, 339. The Vienna Cabinet, in buying the good offices of Talleyrand, con- tinued the traditions of the old diplomacy, which always endea- voured to bribe the Ministers of foreign Governments. The Ver- sailles Cabinet frequently paid pensions to English, Austrian, and other Ministers. "Thugut, who succeeded Kaunitz In Austria and who preceded Metternich during the Revolution, drew a pension from f'rance since 1768." (Wallon, "Journal des LSavants," December, 1893, p. 742.) CORRUPTION. 243 become a great dignitary, and to leave a post to which you owe your reputation, and from which, as lam av/are, you have reaped great advantages." Talleyrand's successor was M. de Champagny, whose honesty Napoleon thus vaunted: "I am sure of never finding him mixed up in any monev- making affair." ^ Finally, when the Emperor, informed of the reconciliation of Talleyrand and Fouche, and of their plots against him, returned from Spain to foil them, he addressed Talleyrand, in the presence of several Ministers, in the most violent terms, covered him with insvilts, and called him a thief. ^ Loviis XVIII. allowed a great many of the cour tiers of Napoleon to keep their seats in the Senate, and accepted Fouche for Minister. Chateau- briand, seeing Talleyrand enter the King's apartment leaning on the arm of Fouche, remarked: "There goes vice supported by crime." With a few rare exceptions, however, the Ministers of the Restoration were honest, and, speaking generally, they governed by honest means. Baron d'Haussez, Minister of Marine in the Polignac Cabinet, alleges in his recently pub- lished Memoirs that the Government of the Restoration was too honest, and only fell because it would not create itself a majority by recourse to bribery, and by purchasing a small number of votes that were certainly on sale. "And yet but 1 "Vie du Comte d'Hauterive," p. 217. 8 "Memoires du Chancelier Pasquier." 244 POLITICAL CRIME. a slight effort was necessary," he says, "to detach from the Opposition the small number of votes on which the majority depended. A few posts or little money would have sufficed, . . . we were in possession of the tariff of consciences; it was not high, each member being put down at barely more than he was worth. On the Opposi- tion benches, among the men who, from sheer love of the people, were so ardently opposed to the Legitimist cause, there were not wanting specu- lators who offered to drive a bargain. Had they been brought face to face with each other one could doubtless have obtained a reduction in terms. The King and the Dauphin rejected the suggestion Avithout awaiting that the Council should express its opinion." Baron d'Haussez proposed to them to have recourse to the Civil List for the money required to secure the twenty votes that were wanted. The Dauphin refused. " The Civil List was not encroached upon," adds the Minister of Marine, "but two months after this session the King was on the road to Cherbourg."^ On the morrow of the Revolution of 1830, the greed of the .July conquerors inspired Barbier to write the celebrated verses entitled "The Quarry" and "Popularity." Some years later there was played at the Theatre Franij'ais C. Delavigne's comedy " La Popularite," in which political corruption, which was making headway at the time to a disquieting extent, is scourged 1 "Mjmoires du Baron d'Haussez." CORRUPTION. 245 in fine verse. One of the personages of the comedy is made to utter the following lines: To what a pass has corruption come ? All my actions are pure, and my life is known: Two men visited me this morning, One to sell himself to me, the other to buy me. You desire, you say, to establish republican laws. And on what ? On morals ? Where are our Roman morals ? This man who decries an abuse, grows tat on an abuse still greater ; Votes, turned to base uses, are to be bought at current prices; Infamy, with the aid of gold, transforms itself into glory ; He who builds thereon, builds on mire. —(Act IV.) Already, in 1838, M. de Tocqueville expressed the disgust he felt at the sight of public men trafficking in their influence. '^ It was then that financial companies began to induce Princes, Dukes, Marquises, Counts, and politicians to figure on their Council Boards.^ Procureur-General Dupin strongly blamed the participation of public men in undertakings upon which the Chambers would be called upon to vote, and declared that the shares distributed to the Deputies served as a screen to prevent their consciences being touched by considerations of right, truth, and justice. In a speech on March 17, 1846, and in a letter of July of the same year, addressed to his electors, M.Thiers points out the progress of corruption, and deplores the spectacle of the bartering of electoral 1 Tocqueville, " OSuvres et Correspondance In^dites," Vol. II., p. 85. - Heine, noticing the number of naval officers who were mem- bers of the council boards of financial societies, jokingly asked whether their presence was not a precaution on the part ©f the companies, taken in view of their coming one day into collisioni with justice and being sentenced to the galleys. ("Lutice," p. 209.) 246 POLITICAL CRIME. influence. When Rothschild's firm, already all- powerful, tendered for the Northern Railway concession, there were Deputies who hurried to their offices with the request that they should be allotted at par shares which were already several hundred francs above par: in granting their demands the Rotlischilds simply made them a present. " But everybody is begging of him at present," wrote Heine at the time.^ The low moral tone of the political world had become so patent that several years prior to 1848 de Tocque- ville, Heine, and a few other clear-sighted men saw in the fact the premonitory symptoms of a new revolution.^ In 1847 General Desbans- Cubieres, peer of France, ex-Minister of War, was convicted of having paid over, in concert with the director of the Gouhenam mines, 100,000 francs to Teste, Minister of Public AVorks, with a view to obtain a concession. Malversations were proved to have been committed at the Toulon, Rochefort, and Cherbourg arsenals. These scandals, by bringing the authorities into disrepute, contributed to the fall of Louis Philippe. This discredit, that ought only to have overtaken the guilty, attached itself at last to an honest sovereign, who was ' Heine, op. cit., p. 330. 2 Tocqueville, op. cit., Vol. 11., p. 133. Heine, who, like all great poets, was often more perspicacious than statesmen, had announced in 1841 the new revolution that was preparing. " The day is not far off," he wrote, "when the entire middle-class comedy in France, with its heroes and lesser actors, will come to a terrible end amid hisses and hootings, and be followed by the playing of an epilogue entitled "The Reign of the Communists." C'Luikca," p. 209.) CORRUPTION. 247 unfortiinate enough to have faithless servants and dishonourable Ministers. In order to leave this book the impartial charac- ter oJ an historical study, I shall abstain from recounting the progress made by political corrup- tion under the Second Empire and the Third Re- public, and shall conclude this chapter, already rather long, with an examination of the principal causes of corruption. The Causes of Political Corruption. It is particularly in the case of politicians that it must be said: Seek for the woman, and you will have the explanation of their corruption. They often prefer the foyer of the opera to their homes. ^ At Rome, towards the close of the Republic, the politician lived in the intimacy of women of bad reputation, whose number had become considerable. Then, as now, women let themselves be carried away by the frenzied love of luxury and pleasures. Roman ladies of illus- trious birth led the lives of women of bad rejjuta- tion, frequented, the waters of Baia, and gave sumptuous banquets to which they invited wits, writers, and politicians. In several contemporary comedies there have figured among the personages politicians and financiers of humble birth, who, to give their pleasures the added zest that comes 1 Mirabeau preferred Coulon, the dancer, to his wife; the Giron- dins and Jacobins were assiduous frequenters of the foyers of the theatres, even during the struggles of the Revolution. 248 POLITJCAL CRIME. from satisfied vanity, pay highly for the favours of great ladies, whom debts and their need of luxury make accessible to plebeians.^ This craze was common in Home. It was for this reason that Fausta, the daughter of Sylla and the wife of Milo, was much courted ; " men attached themselves to her because it flattered their vanity to be on good terms with a woman of such high rank, and to have the honour of being in their turn the son-in-law of the Dictator." Sallust, who wrote history from the point of view of the austere moralist, was surprised with the noble patrician by Milo, her husband, and well beaten with leather strajDS.^ This adventure left him for the futvire less infatuated with women of qualitj', and induced him to content himself with women of a lower class, with whom he did not run the same risk. The case of Sallust is that of a great number of his contemporaries: fond of pleasures, passing whole nights at table, greedy for money, he entered public life to satisfy his wants. "I sought," he says," like others, to raise myself to State dignities. I encountered many dangers. Impudence, in- trigue, and corruption had taken the place of modesty, merit, and integrity. In my heart I despised these odious practices; but youth is imprudent, and ambition cannot resign itself to renouncing the struggle." The -truth is that Sallust, incited by that thirst for power and ' See " Le Depute Levreau," by Jules Lemaitre. s Aulus Gellius, Bk. XVII., § 18. CORRUPTION. 249 riches which he blames in others, played every part according to his interest at the moment; now a flatterer of the people, now one of Cajsar's courtiers, he achieved dignities by intrigue and corruption, and took advantage of his position to enrich himself. He pillaged Numidia, where he was appointed Governor, returned to Rome, built himself a sumptuous palace with gardens and magnificent baths, and continued in his writings to wax indignant over the despicable actions which politicians are induced to commit through ambition and cupidity. He would not be the type of the corrupt politician unless he had added hypocrisy to his vices. Then, as now, divorce made it extremely easy to exchange one wife for another. The politicians made extensive use of this method. After repudi- ating his wife Antustia, Pompey married Emilia, and then Mutia, whom he in turn repudiated to marry Julia. LucuUus repudiated Clodia, married Servilia, sister of Cato,^ and then repudiated her. Caesar, a veritable Don Juan, married four wives in succession, without counting the considerable number of his concubines, among whom there were women from the provinces and Queens.^ The dissoluteness of Antony is notoriovis; he 1 Cato had two sisters. One was the wife repudiated by Lu- cuUus, the other was seduced by Csesar. The conduct of his wife, Attilia, was so bad that he was obliged to divorce her, although he had two children by her. He then married Martia, whom he afterwards lent to his friend Hortensius. (Plutarch, " Life of Cato of Utica. ") Plutarch cites as exceptional the case of Lelius, the friend of Cicero, who had only one wife. 2 Suetonius, §§ 47-49. 250 POLITICAL CRIME. travelled through Italy accompanied by his wife and the actress Cytharis, with whom Cicero and Atticus dined on one occasion. Cicero himself divorced his wife Tertullia, married at the age of sixty-three, to pay his debts, a rich young girl, and contracted a liaison with a woman of bad reputation of the name of Cerillia.^ Cicero's wife, after her divorce, was married by Sallust. Ambitious men frequently owe their advance- ment to women. "When Cethegus was all-powerful in Rome the authority was, in reality, in the hands of the courtesan Procia. It was solely due to the influence of Procia, who ruled Cethegus, that Lucullus obtained the goveriiorship of Cilicia and the command of the expedition against Mithridates. All the other means that he had tried having failed, Lucullus "set to work to win her to his cause, and to insinuate himself into her good graces by presents and every sort of 1 Cicero, said Montesquieu, "had a fine genius but a vulgar soul." ("Grandeur et Decadence des Romains," ch. xii.) His finer feelings had been blunted by politics. By ambition, love of popularity, interest, and to be agreeable to his political allies, Cicero gave his support to bad causes; he admits that he did so in his twenty-second letter to Atticus. Referring to a demand for annulment made by the persons who had tendered for the Asiatic tributes, he writes: "The fact is the demand was inde- fensible. Still I supported it and succeeded in giving it a sem- blance of justification; . a dirty business, a humiliating step. . . " In another letter to Atticus, the twenty-sixth, he adds: "The claim of the farmers of the tributes to annul their engage- ments was of unparalleled impudence," and yet he supports it. On another occasion Cicero is found supporting before the Senate a plea introduced by the knights, who felt themselves injured because proceedings had been taken against judges who had accepted bribes. In his pleadings he attached small importance to truth; he was wont to throw dust in the eyes of the judges. CORRUPTION. 251 flattery he could devise, apart from the fact that it was already a very great satisfaction to a proud and ambitious woman, as she was, to find herself necessary to and sought after by such a great personage as Lucullus."^ The Grecian courtesans also exerted a great in- fluence over politicians. At the time of Pericles, Aspasia " had entangled in her toils the principal men who were then concerned in the conduct of public affairs." Pericles was one of her assiduous visitors, and he separated from his legitimate wife; to such an extent was he under her influ- ence that at her request he decided upon the Samian war in favour of Miletus. The Kings of Persia, who were aware of the influence of the Greek courtesans upon the politicians, had recourse to them more than once to gain the latter to their cause. ^ I believe I have said sufficient to prove that Avhen politicians embark upon dishonourable Munatius, whom he had caused to be acquitted, having insti- tuted proceedings against a friend of Cicero's, the latter, much annoyed, reproached him with his ingratitude, saying to him: " You know very well, Munatius, that on a recent occasion you were not absolved because of your innocence, but because I threw dust in the eyes of the judges, and to such good purpose that they were unable to perceive the reality of your misdeeds." (Plutarch, "Life of Cicero.") ' Plutarch, "Life of Lucullus." ''Plutarch, "Life of Pericles." Epaminondas having caused a man of humble station to be thrown into prison for a slight fault he had committed, his friend Pelopidas came to beg him to give him his liberty; "this he refused to do, but shortly after- wards a woman with whom he was intimate made him the same request, and he yielded to her demand, saying that these were the kind of favours that should be granted women friends and concubihes, but not to captains." 18 252 POLITICAL CRIME. courses, it is often in order to satisfy the desire for luxury of their wives and mistresses. Politi- cal corruption has, however, other causes. It often happens that the politician who is guilty of peculation is a collector of artistic treasures, antiquities, statues, and pictures. The Protor Licinius, when hunting for art treasures, used to be borne through the streets on a litter strewn with roses. Verres, a man of revolting licentious- ness, also entertained a passion for statues. " Statues " is the title of Cicero's ninth speech against Verres (Bk. IV.) ; it is entirely taken up by an enumeration of the artistic treasures stolen by the dishonest pro-consul. It is possible to be fond of statues and yet to lead a regular life, although it has been said: "Statues and good morals do not go together ! " It is certain that artistic tastes can go hand in hand with great corruption. It Avould seem that in the heat of political strife the love of pleasure should abate, and that ambition should stifle sensuality. History shows, however, that politicians are given to pursuing their pleasures simultaneously with their luore serious concerns, that they do not renounce enjoying themselves even during civil war, that orgies often accompany proscriptions, and that war, whether civil or foreign, is a further zest to their pleasure. ^ When Antony was preparing to make war against Caesar he was engaged in every description of orgy in the isle of Samos, while "the entire compass of the habit- ' Tacitus, "Historise," Bk. III., § 83. CORRUPTION. 253 able globe was in lamentation, groans, aiid tears." ^ Even after his defeat at Actium Antony resumed his life of debauch. The period that extends between Pharsalia and Actium was marked by fetes that recall those that were given in Paris, on the morrow of the disastrous war of 1870 and the crimes of the Commune. At the fetes in question persons of considerable standing appeared disguised as animals. "An important politician, the Consul Plancus," says M.Boissier, "was then seen to adapt the tail of a fish to his ]}erson, to paint himself sea-blue, and, his head crowned with reeds, to execute the dance of the sea god Glaiicus at a dinner given by Cleopatra."' Montaigne cites a King of Naples "who made the satisfaction of his passions the chief object of his ambition.'' (Bk. II., ch. xxxiii.) As much may be said of a great number of poli- ticians, who regard politics merely as a means of procuring themselves pleasures and of exciting their thirst for enjoyments. Public calamities, such as wars and civil strife, do not recall corrupt and cynical men to serious thoughts; often, on the contrary, they merely excite their consuming thirst for pleasure. During the plague the Athenians gave them- selves over to the quest of pleasure with a verit- able fury: "with no prospect beyond short-li'ved joys, holding their lives and possessions to be ephemeral they considired it meet to devote all 1 Plutarch, "Life of Antony." 2 G. Boissier, " Revue des Deux-Mondes," December 1, 1872. 254 POLITICAL CRIME. their thoughts to pleasure."^ During the Terror, "with the executions going on, the theatres were as full as usual." ^ Dancing went on at the Court of Charles VI., while the Cabochiens were slaughter- ing the King's friends. At the Court of Henri III. duels and assassinations alternated with the balls and fetes. Under Charles II. of England orgies followed executions. During the wars of religion habits at once cruel and licentious pre- Yailed. Catherine of Medicis surrounded herself with ladies-in-waiting in order to gain the party leaders. At all periods of political corruption luxury in the matter of eating becomes excessive. " The luxury of the table," says Tacitus, "was the cause of unheard-of prodigalities during the hundred years that intervened between the battle of Actium and the conflicts that gave Galba the Empire." Unbridled gluttony was ceaselessly searching to " create new dishes, to procure fresh delights to the taste." The sums paid for a good cook were very considerable. Sallust paid a hundred thousand sesterces for a cook. Antony presented a cook Avith the house of a citizen of Magnesia because he had prepared his supper to his liking. His house was always full of "clowns, buffoons, jugglers, and jesters, besotting them- selves and making good cheer." ^ During his con- sulship Pompey "amused himself with re\^els and festivities." One day as he was having his ' Thucydides, Bk. II., § 53. - Mdme. de Stael, op. cit., Part III., ch. xvi. s Plutarch, " Life of Antony." CORR UPTION. 255 bath, and was about to sitdoAvn to table, Hypteus, a man of consular rank, approached him to request his assistance. Pompey "passed proudly by him, without making him any other answer than that he was spoiling his supper." The banquets of Lucullus have remained famous. An improvised repast which he offered Cicero and Pompey cost him 50,000 silver drachmas. ^ Sylla also was of most intemperate habits ; Avhen his wife Metella died, "he comforted himself in his mourning by indulging in his usual festivities, which included every form, of enjoyment and dissoluteness." A few months after the death of his wife he met Valeria, the widow of Hortensius the orator, at the theatre, and married her, but he none the less continued to entertain in his house "women musicians and dancers, . . gay jesters, singers, and minstrels, in whose company he drank and besotted himself the daylong on little low beds." ^ "Crates the philosopher," says Plutarch, "es- teeming that civil strife and tyrannies are brought about in towns as much as a luxury or as pleasure as for any other cause whatever, was wont to say, as he played according to his custom: 'Be careful not to engage us in civil strife by increasing the meat in place of the lentils, that is by spending more than your income admits of; everybody ought to exercise control over himself.'"^ The ' Plutarch, "Life of Lucullus." = Plutarch, " Life of Sylla." BiSranger in one of his political songs makes a Deputy of the Restoration say: " What dinners, what dinners the Ministers gave us I " 3 Plutarch. 2S6 POLITICAL CRIME. Chancellor de L'Hopital made the same observa- tion at the time of the wars of religion; he had remarked that the love of pleasure, extravagant expenses, and in particular excessive luxury in connection with the pleasures of the table, pro- moted civil wars. He promulgated sumptuary laws, which, like all such laws, were without effect. He himself set the example of extreme simplicity at his repasts. Brantome relates that he dined at L'Hopital's table off "boiled meat only" ; in the place of dishes there were "' many fine speeches and fine phrases," and occasionally "witty say- ings that raised a laugh." Simple and modest tastes, a regular life and sobriety are the best preservatives against politi- cal corruption. When the emissaries of the Samnites sought out Marcus Curius to offer him a large quantity of gold, they found him eating a frugal repast, and when they urged him to accept their present he replied to them, that the man who was content with such a supper had no need for gold.^ Epaminondas, talking of his table, which was most frugal, remarked : " Such a repast is never visited by treachery."^ Alexander having sent Xenocrates a present of 50 talents, the latter invited the ambassadors to supper, and had them served a frugal repast; the next day, when they wished to hand over to him the 50 talents, he said to them: "What ! was it not clear to you yesterday from the frugality of my table that money is Plutarch, " Life of Cato" ^ Ibid., " Life of Lycurgus." CORRUPTION. 257 useless to me?"i Helvetius relates that an English Minister on visiting a member of the Opposition with the intention of purchasing his vote, fovuid him taking his meal, Avhich consisted of a little mutton and water. "I should have thought," retorted the member of the House of Commons, "that the simplicity of my meal would have protected me against the insult of your offers." Saint Paul uttered the truth when he said: "Be sober." Sobriety, seemingly a modest virtue, has a considerable influence in reality upon men's conduct. If Mirabeau had practised it, if he had been less fond of pleasures, those of the table included, he would not have accepted from the King four bills of 250,000 francs, a pension of 6,000 francs a month, and the payment of his debts. Unfortunately, even when he was overwhelmed with debts, he could not get on without a cook, a valet, a coachman, horses, and the luxury of several mistresses.^ Danton paid his debts with the money (53,000 francs) given him by Marie Antoinette, because he was fond of pleasures, women, and high living.' It is well known what an important part the pleasures of the table played in the life of Talley- rand and other contemporary politicians. The explanation of political corruption is to be i Cicero, "Tusculanes," Bk. V., § 32. 2 " Correspondance de Lamarck avec Mirabeau," Vol. I., p. 171. See, too, in the"MemoiresdeBrissot, " Vol. II., p. 392, the causes of Mirabeau's death. Mirabeau killed himself by the abuse of pleasure. He might have said, like Danton: " I have enjoyed myself to the top of my bent, it is time to sleep." ■* Taine, " La Conquete Jaoobine," p. 258. 258 POLITICAL CRIME. soLiglit most often in intemperate and luxurious habits and in the love of pleasure. Machiavelli wrote " The Prince " to jjlease the Medici who had imprisoned him and subjected him to torture; he sought to obtain a post from them by recourse to base flatteries and by abandoning his old convic- tions, because he was needy and dissolute. He liiniself admitted that he had contracted the habit of extravagance, and that he was unable to force liiinself to exercise economy. It was in order to pay for his dissolute pleasures that Louis XV. speculated in wheat and became a shareholder in the association known as the " Compact of Famine Company." Despans-Cubiere and Teste were men of pleasure. CHAPTER VIII. ELECTORAL CORRUPTION. Corruption under universal suffrage — How votes are pur- chased — A wire-puller's manual — Cicero on the way to win votes — Political condottieri — Corruption of electorate by rich candidates — Electoral returns — Demagogues in political assemblies — Aristotle and Montesquieu on democracy — Democracy and merit — Political apathy of honest citizens — Evils of political indifference — Cato on public duty — La Bruyere on public life. Machiavelli's counsel to Leo X. was: "Leave the people its elections in appearance, but tam- per with the results, if they are not as you would wish, by buying votes or altering them during the poll." How many princes, ministers, and village Machiavellis have put this advice in practice in order to raise themselves to power or to maintain their hold upon it ! When Francis I. and Charles V. were disputing the title of Emperor of Germany, it was with purses full of gold that they fought each other. The issue was long uncertain, since four electors were perpetually selling and reselling themselves. And yet the Imperial Crown was in the gift of only seven electors, all of them high dignitaries of the 259 26o POLITICAL CRIME. Empire. Charles V. gained the day because at the last moment he distribute When he was still merely the King of Navarre, he declared with justifiable pride in a proclamation: "Who can reproach the King of Navarre with having ever broken his word ? " 344 POLITICAL CRIME. the habit of resorting to falsehood ceases to inspire confidence and at once loses the greater part of his authority. A policy based upon immorality is antiquated and unworthy of modern society; it pre-supposes contempt for humanity, and an antagonism that ought not to exist belween those who govern and those who are governed. The policy of free peoples ought not to resemble the policy of abso- lute sovereigns: it is founded upon the respect of legality. AV'halever the sceptics may say, craft and violence are not necessities of politics. As society becomes more enlightened, politics may attain to greater perfection. Corruption is not an indispen- sable method of government; liberty can exist without license, it is allowable to hope for a state of things in which the administration will be impartial, the legislation equitable, the elec- tions sincere, and in which industry and merit will be rewarded. The European Governments show better faith in respect to their financial engagements at the present day than in the past ; they are conscious tha-t it is to their interest not to tamper with their coinage, and not to go bank- rupt, and for the reason that public confidence in their credit is their principal force. Why should they not arrive at understanding that they ought to have the same respect for liberty and human life as for the public debt: The progress of public reasonableness is most of all to be counted upon to render politics more & CONCLUSION. 345 straightforward and more in accordance with equity. Politicians, assemblies, and sovereigns, knowing that they will be called upon to give an exact account of their conduct before the tribunal of public opinion, will become more circumspect in the employment of expedients of a kind to arouse public indignation. Politics should serve an educational purpose as well as maintain order and protect material interests. Men are governed by ideas and sentiments as well as by appeals to their interests and to force. A lofty sentiment does not spoil politics. The great advances made in the sphere of politics have been advances of a philosophical order and have been due to an applicaiion of Christian philosophy. Unprincipled politics are Pagan politics, and their result is not the progress of society. The true policy consists in an application of reason to the affairs of the State. Scepticism has brought into existence at the present day a generation of politicians who set more store upon palpable realities than upon principles. A policy of expedients and of vulgar satisfactions is the outcome of scepticism. The change that has taken place in our political morals has deep and remote causes. A people that used to be chivalrous, that despised money, that was fired with ardour for noble causes, now for political liberty, now for military glory, does not become positively sceptical, indifferent to principles, and attached to material interests in a day. This change of character is the result of 346 Political crime. the numerous deceptions it has experienced, of the frequent revolutions it has undergone, but also of the weakening of spiiitual beliefs. "When a republic is corrupt," says Montes- quieu, "none of the evils that crop up can be remedied, except by removing the corruption and reinstating principles; any other corrective is useless or a fresh evil."^ The suppression of the parliamentary regime would not be a remedy, the establishment of a dictatorship would be a fresh evil and a worse evil. The true remedy consists in a return to principles. Politics, like human life, need to be spiritualised unless they are to fall into the mire and to remain there. To change the persons composing the political world would be insufficient, unless a moral reform be effected at the same time. Clearly if the new politicians were as devoid of principles as the old, all that would have been done would have been to exchange fat for lean Jdne, who in turn would wisli to wax fal.. Between fatted sceptics and lean sceptics the difference is but slight, or if there be any difference it is rather in favour of the former. Obviously satiated sceptics are less dangerous than sceptics whose appetites are keen, because it maybe hoped that, having looked after their own interests, they will at last look after those of the country. This, according to Saint Simon, was the cynical remark made by Maison when the direction of the finances was taken from him. "They are making a mistake," 1 "Esprit des Lois," Bk. VIII., ch. xii. CONCLUSION. 347 he exclaimed, "for I had looked after my owa interesis and was going to look after theirs." A return to principles and nroral beliefs and the substitution of ideas for appetites are, in conse- quence, the true remedies for that hideous malady political corruption. It is only in the power of great passions to drive petty passions from the field. As long as noble sentiments, love of country and of liberty and purifying beliefs, are not revived in a country the parliamentary atmosphere will remain vitiated. Doubtless to exercise authority it is not suffi- cient to be above reproach; a clear intellect, tact, and experience are necessary. Talent, however, without morality is insufficient, and mere intelli- gence is no preservative against moral back- slidings. Nobody would entrust his daughters or his fortune to the care of a clever but dissolute and extravagant man. Why then confide the country and the public fortune to the care of men of pleasure, who easily develop into men whose sole concern is money? When a money- and pleasure-loving man declares himself a friend of the people, who can believe in his sincerity? Affection Ls not proved by words, but by acts. The true sentiments of politicians are not to be judged by their professions of faith or their humani- tarian speeches, but by their character and their habitual conduct. The probity expected of the head of a Government involves not only his own personal integrity, but the choice on his part of men of integiity for his Ministeis. "If we 24 348 POLITICAL CRIME. would pass for men of integrity," says Cicero, "we should not only display probity ourselves, but exact it of those about us!"^ Statesmen would avoid many political errors if they were more respectful of justice; their politi- cal errors are often moral errors ; their good sense and their skilfulness suffer in proportion as they swerve from the dictates of equity; they abandon themselves to passions that cloud their intelligence. Just ideas and wise resolutions are inspired by an upright conscience, whose quali- ties influence the intelligence. To be a man of good sense it is sufficient to be an honest man. By again becoming moral, politics would be brought back into unison with common-sense, and would be cured of two serious diseases called the Socialist madness and the Anarchist madness that are the result of the sophisms by which we are inundated, and of the letting loose of evil passions. We lack reasonableness at the present day; our brains are disordered; our good sense, a quality that used to be particularly distinctive of the French, has been affected by innumerable philosophical, economical, and polilical sophisms that reach us from Germany, Italy, England, the iilast, and even from India. Good sense has ceased to guide our thoughts and actions since we have adopted German pessimism and social- ism, English evolutionism, Italian scepticism, Russian Nihilism, and Asiatic Buddhism. Let us become Frenchmen again and Christians, ' "Second Speech against Verres," Bk. II., § 10. CONCLUSION. 349 let us return to the school of good sense and morality. The malady from which contemporary society suffers is a moral disease rather than a political or economical disease. It is doubtless useful to improve institutions and to reform abuses, but how much more necessary it is to reform morals and to give lone to men's minds by healthy ideas and moral beliefs. If society is to be saved from the corruption by which it is invaded, and from the revolutionary barbarism by which it is threatened, spiritualist teachings must be restored to the place they formerly occupied in men's minds and in politics; this is the only way to save them from the clutches of envy and hatred. The sentiment of duty and of personal respon sibilitymust be re-established in the public mind and in the education of the young. It is neces- sary to fight against the sophisms which lead to the absorption of the individual by the State, and to the conversion of. every citizen into a part of a colossal machine that produces wealth and dis- tributes it according to each man's needs. The true remedy for the crises we are traversing is a return to the old morality, which teaches that working-men in common with their employers are intended to do their duty, and to labour, and have their responsibilities. What other doctrine will teach the rich the spirit of sacrifice, and the voluntary renunciation of what is superfluous, and the poor the obligation of personal effort, the merit of patience, and respect for legality ? 3 so POLITICAL CRIME. It is not by encouraging atheism and malerial- ism that a Government eHects an improvement in morals, that it stills passions and relieves wretchedness. Hostility to religion is contrary to sound politics. Meiely from the utilitarian point of view the blindness and perversity are incom- parable of those incredulous fanatics who would rob their fellows of the beliefs in which they find consolation. Who can deny that the religious sentiment conduces to morality? The more religious citizens there are in a State, the fewer are the restless spirits, the Socialists and the Anarchists. In a period of scepticism, material- ism, positivism, evolutionism, and nihilism, who can dream of denying the immense services ren- dered by Christianity in inculcating the dignity of human nature and the obligatory character of duty, and in opposing the worship of an ideal to the worship of the golden calf ? In a society in which there is talk of nothing else but of the struggle for life, of the rights conferred by might, of the elimination of the weak, of the disgrace of poverty, of the all-powerfulness of wealth, religion teaches self-sacrifice, respect, and love for the poor, and responsibility before God and before the conscience. At a period in which Socialism, grown more and more threatening, demands that the State should be omnipotent, Christianity again periorms a useful work in standing out for the rights of the human being and the rights of the conscience, and in setting limits to the action of the State. If spiritual beliefs were not regaining CONCLUSION. 351 their hold over men's minds one would be forced to tremble for the future of society, for "there comes a day when truths that have been scorned announce themselves by thunder-claps."^ Nations, too, in their mutual relations, have every interest not to separate politics from moral- ity. A sound policy, no less than morality, dic- tates to them justice and charitableness, which are alone capable of preserving peace and with it the benefits it carries in its train. The policy that teaches nations that they should envy, hate, and injure each other, that their conduct should be solely guided by their interests, and that the difficulties that crop up between them should be settled by force alone, such a policy is criminal and mistaken. The statesmen who counsel this narrow and egoistical, this envious and malevo- lent policy, are shortsighted, they are merely alive to the interests of the moment that are a source of division, but they are blind to the interests which the peoples have in common, and above all to the disastrous consequences of antagonism and war ; they do not keep in view the benefits of peace and the horrors of war. How far preferable to an envious and ambitious policy that divides nations would be a just, friendly, and modeiaie policy that would bring them together I How far happier the nations would be if ihey would cease to lend tliemselves to a revengeful aud high-handed policy ! What a pitch of prosperity Europe would have reached if, ' E, Augier, "La Contagion," Act IV., scene iv. 352 POLITICAL CRIME. realising the project of Heniy IV., it had applied to politics the rules of good sense and Christian morality. The aspect of the world would be changed if the nations, considering themselves members of the same family, would banish vio- lence and craft fiom their councils. The policy of Christian peoples is still Pagan: it must become Christian if the world is to enjoy peace. Carried away by his somewhat excessive enthusiasm for military glory, M. Thiers has remarked: "What purpose would the strength of nations serve if it were not expended in attempts to gain the mastery over each other?" It seems to me, however, that the strength of nations might be more usefully employed than in realising dreams of conquest, which are so dearly paid for in money and bloodj and which end in disasters and catastrophes. Every time that a nation has sought to conquer other nations, it has caused torrents of blood to flow without profit to itself. All those who have entertained dreams of con- quest have met with failure. To establish their supremacy Charles V. and Napoleon I. caused millions of men to perish, and ihey were unable to attain their goal: the former died in a convent, the latter on the rocks of Saint Helena; Spain and France were ruined by their ambitious policy. To how many conquerors may not these words of the Bible be applied: "The hammer that shattered the nations of the universe has itself been broken in pieces." A policy that aims at international equilibrium CONCLUSION. 353 is better than a policy of conquest. ^ Emjiires that are too vast cannot last; they succumb, sooner or later, to a coalition between the other nations. That one nation should rule over another is always a danger to the common liberty, lor a nation that is too powerful, like a too powerful sovereign, has a difficulty in keeping within the limits of a wise moderation. If the desire for domination be of value as a motive force in politics, why should not moral domination achieved ihrough science, literal ure, and institu- tions be made the object of the activity of nations? Sceptics are disposed to smile when they hear moralists express the hope that international wars will cease, and that arbitration will take the place of lecourse to force. Lord Salisbury, how- ever, who at one time considered this hope a dream, is now of opinion that it is realisable. "Civilisation," he has said, "has substituted law court decisions for duels between private persons and conflicts between the great. International Avars are destined in the same way to give place to the courts of arbitration of a more advanced civilisation."^ In 1883 Switzerland and the ' " I have persistently shown myself to be hostile to con- quest; I was not even willing, at the time of our greatest military prosperity, that we should make the Rhine the limit of our territory." (" Expose de la Conduite Politique de M. Carnot," p. 50.) 2 Speech delivered at Hastings, May 18, 1892. I borrow this quotation from a very interesting paper by M. Arthur Desjar- dins ("Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques," July, 1892). Henry IV., who was in no way a dreamer, had considered possible the substitution of arbitration for the employment of force, and the constitution of a European confederation. 354 POLITICAL CRIME. United States pledged themselves to submit to ci court of arbitration all difficulties arising between (hem during a period of thirty years. In 1888 France contracted a similar engagement with the Equatorial Republic. In 1890 the plenipo- tentiaries of seventeen American Republics, assembled at Washington, admitted the principle of permanent arbitration. It may be hoped, in consequence, that war will become raier and larer in proportion to the pro- gress of civilisation and of the moral and econo- mical solidarity existing between different nations. The new engines of war, the destructive force of which augments every day, also contribute to the maintenance of peace, because peoples and sovereigns recoil in terror from the frightful con- sequences of a war waged with such formidable engines of destruction. The tendency of public opinion is more and more to compel Governments to maintain peace. It may be hoped in conse- quence that war, which is already more civilised, will become of rarer occurrence. Sully, whom this idea had caused to smile in the first instance, ended by esteeming it possible. "I remember," he says, "that the first time I heard the King discuss a political system by which all Europe might be divided and governed like a family, I scarcely listened to the Prince. Thinking that he only spoke in this way to amuse himself, or perhaps to have the honour of having profounder and more acute opinions upon politics than ordinary men, my answer assumed partly a jesting tone, partly a tone of compliment. . . I was convinced at the finish that, however disproportioned the means might seem to the end, a series of years during which every act, whether in connection with negotiations, finances, or the remaining necessary matters, should constantly be made to bear upon the object in view, would smooth away many difficulties. " CONCLUSION. 355 Still, as peoples and sovereigns have a tendency to become intoxicated by success, historians and moralists ought to unite their efforts to combat their unruly impulses. Historians, who habitu- ally admire success, too often lorget, Avhen nar- rating wars, to inquire into their morality and utility; ihey almost always exalt the conquerors, and in this way corrupt public opinion, by accus- toming it to allow itself to be dazzled by success. They should keep a little of the admiration they lavish upon conquerors for the upright men who have given evidence of their love of humanity and of their respect for human life. 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