"What is this the master is saying?"cried Jacquotte,as she went back to her kitchen."There he is,the poor dear man,and what is he doing but advising them to crush the people!And they are listening to him----""I would never have believed it of M.Benassis,"answered Nicolle.
"If I require that the ignorant masses should be governed by a strong hand,"the doctor resumed,after a brief pause,"I should desire at the same time that the framework of the social system should be sufficiently yielding and elastic to allow those who have the will and are conscious of their ability to emerge from the crowd,to rise and take their place among the privileged classes.The aim of power of every kind is its own preservation.In order to live,a government,to-day as in the past,must press the strong men of the nation into its service,taking them from every quarter,so as to make them its defenders,and to remove from among the people the men of energy who incite the masses to insurrection.By opening out in this way to the public ambition paths that are at once difficult and easy,easy for strong wills,difficult for weak or imperfect ones,a State averts the perils of the revolutions caused by the struggles of men of superior powers to rise to their proper level.Our long agony of forty years should have made it clear to any man who has brains that social superiorities are a natural outcome of the order of things.They are of three kinds that cannot be questioned--the superiority of the thinker,the superiority of the politician,the superiority of wealth.
Is not that as much as to say,genius,power,and money,or,in yet other words--the cause,the means,and the effect?But suppose a kind of social tabula rasa,every social unit perfectly equal,an increase of population everywhere in the same ratio,and give the same amount of land to each family;it would not be long before you would again have all the existing inequalities of fortune;it is glaringly evident,therefore,that there are such things as superiority of fortune,of thinking capacity,and of power,and we must make up our minds to this fact;but the masses will always regard rights that have been most honestly acquired as privileges,and as a wrong done to themselves.
"The SOCIAL CONTRACT founded upon this basis will be a perpetual pact between those who have and those who have not.And acting on these principles,those who benefit by the laws will be the lawmakers,for they necessarily have the instinct of self-preservation,and foresee their dangers.It is even more to their interest than to the interest of the masses themselves that the latter should be quiet and contented.The happiness of the people should be ready made for the people.If you look at society as a whole from this point of view,you will soon see,as I do,that the privilege of election ought only to be exercised by men who possess wealth,power,or intelligence,and you will likewise see that the action of the deputies they may choose to represent them should be considerably restricted.
"The maker of laws,gentlemen,should be in advance of his age.It is his business to ascertain the tendency of erroneous notions popularly held,to see the exact direction in which the ideas of a nation are tending;he labors for the future rather than for the present,and for the rising generation rather than for the one that is passing away.
But if you call in the masses to make the laws,can they rise above their own level?Nay.The more faithfully an assembly represents the opinions held by the crowd,the less it will know about government,the less lofty its ideas will be,and the more vague and vacillating its policy,for the crowd is and always will be simply a crowd,and this especially with us in France.Law involves submission to regulations;man is naturally opposed to rules and regulations of all kinds,especially if they interfere with his interests;so is it likely that the masses will enact laws that are contrary to their own inclinations?No.
"Very often legislation ought to run counter to the prevailing tendencies of the time.If the law is to be shaped by the prevailing habits of thought and tendencies of a nation,would not that mean that in Spain a direct encouragement would be given to idleness and religious intolerance;in England,to the commercial spirit;in Italy,to the love of the arts that may be the expression of a society,but by which no society can entirely exist;in Germany,feudal class distinctions would be fostered;and here,in France,popular legislation would promote the spirit of frivolity,the sudden craze for an idea,and the readiness to split into factions which has always been our bane.
"What has happened in the forty years since the electors took it upon themselves to make laws for France?We have something like forty thousand laws!A people with forty thousand laws might as well have none at all.Is it likely that five hundred mediocrities (for there are never more than a hundred great minds to do the work of any one century),is it likely that five hundred mediocrities will have the wit to rise to the level of these considerations?Not they!Here is a constant stream of men poured forth from five hundred different places;they will interpret the spirit of the law in divers manners,and there should be a unity of conception in the law.
"But I will go yet further.Sooner or later an assembly of this kind comes to be swayed by one man,and instead of a dynasty of kings,you have a constantly changing and costly succession of prime ministers.
There comes a Mirabeau or a Danton,a Robespierre or a Napoleon,or proconsuls,or an emperor,and there is an end of deliberations and debates.In fact,it takes a determinate amount of force to raise a given weight;the force may be distributed,and you may have a less or greater number of levers,but it comes to the same thing in the end:
the force must be in proportion to the weight.The weight in this case is the ignorant and suffering mass of people who form the lowest stratum of society.The attitude of authority is bound to be repressive,and great concentration of the governing power is needed to neutralize the force of a popular movement.This is the application of the principle that I unfolded when I spoke just now of the way in which the class privileged to govern should be restricted.If this class is composed of men of ability,they will obey this natural law,and compel the country to obey.If you collect a crowd of mediocrities together,sooner or later they will fall under the dominion of a stronger head.A deputy of talent understands the reasons for which a government exists;the mediocre deputy simply comes to terms with force.An assembly either obeys an idea,like the Convention in the time of the Terror;a powerful personality,like the Corps Legislatif under the rule of Napoleon;or falls under the domination of a system or of wealth,as it has done in our own day.The Republican Assembly,that dream of some innocent souls,is an impossibility.Those who would fain bring it to pass are either grossly deluded dupes or would-be tyrants.Do you not think that there is something ludicrous about an Assembly which gravely sits in debate upon the perils of a nation which ought to be roused into immediate action?It is only right of course that the people should elect a body of representatives who will decide questions of supplies and of taxation;this institution has always existed,under the sway of the most tyrannous ruler no less than under the sceptre of the mildest of princes.Money is not to be taken by force;there are natural limits to taxation,and if they are overstepped,a nation either rises up in revolt,or lays itself down to die.Again,if this elective body,changing from time to time according to the needs and ideas of those whom it represents,should refuse obedience to a bad law in the name of the people,well and good.But to imagine that five hundred men,drawn from every corner of the kingdom,will make a good law!Is it not a dreary joke,for which the people will sooner or later have to pay?They have a change of masters,that is all.
"Authority ought to be given to one man,he alone should have the task of ****** the laws;and he should be a man who,by force of circumstances,is continually obliged to submit his actions to general approbation.But the only restraints that can be brought to bear upon the exercise of power,be it the power of the one,of the many,or of the multitude,are to be found in the religious institutions of a country.Religion forms the only adequate safeguard against the abuse of supreme power.When a nation ceases to believe in religion,it becomes ungovernable in consequence,and its prince perforce becomes a tyrant.The Chambers that occupy an intermediate place between rulers and their subjects are powerless to prevent these results,and can only mitigate them to a very slight extent;Assemblies,as I have said before,are bound to become the accomplices of tyranny on the one hand,or of insurrection on the other.My own leanings are towards a government by one man;but though it is good,it cannot be absolutely good,for the results of every policy will always depend upon the condition and the belief of the nation.If a nation is in its dotage,if it has been corrupted to the core by philosophism and the spirit of discussion,it is on the high-road to despotism,from which no form of free government will save it.And,at the same time,a righteous people will nearly always find liberty even under a despotic rule.All this goes to show the necessity for restricting the right of election within very narrow limits,the necessity for a strong government,the necessity for a powerful religion which makes the rich man the friend of the poor,and enjoins upon the poor an absolute submission to their lot.It is,in fact,really imperative that the Assemblies should be deprived of all direct legislative power,and should confine themselves to the registration of laws and to questions of taxation.
"I know that different ideas from these exist in many minds.To-day,as in past ages,there ware enthusiasts who seek for perfection,and who would like to have society better ordered than it is at present.
But innovations which tend to bring about a kind of social topsy-turvydom,ought only to be undertaken by general consent.Let the innovators have patience.When I remember how long it has taken Christianity to establish itself;how many centuries it has taken to bring about a purely moral revolution which surely ought to have been accomplished peacefully,the thought of the horrors of a revolution,in which material interests are concerned,makes me shudder,and I am for maintaining existing institutions.'Each shall have his own thought,'is the dictum of Christianity;'Each man shall have his own field,'says modern law;and in this,modern law is in harmony with Christianity.Each shall have his own thought;that is a consecration of the rights of intelligence;and each shall have his own field,is a consecration of the right to property that has been acquired by toil.
Hence our society.Nature has based human life upon the instinct of self-preservation,and social life is founded upon personal interest.
Such ideas as these are,to my thinking,the very rudiments of politics.Religion keeps these two selfish sentiments in subordination by the thought of a future life;and in this way the harshness of the conflict of interests has been somewhat softened.God has mitigated the sufferings that arise from social friction by a religious sentiment which raises self-forgetfulness into a virtue;just as He has moderated the friction of the mechanism of the universe by laws which we do not know.Christianity bids the poor bear patiently with the rich,and commands the rich to lighten the burdens of the poor;these few words,to my mind,contain the essence of all laws,human and divine!""I am no statesman,"said the notary;"I see in a ruler a liquidator of society which should always remain in liquidation;he should hand over to his successor the exact value of the assets which he received.""I am no statesman either,"said Benassis,hastily interrupting the notary."It takes nothing but a little common sense to better the lot of a commune,of a canton,or of an even wider district;a department calls for some administrative talent,but all these four spheres of action are comparatively limited,the outlook is not too wide for ordinary powers of vision,and there is a visible connection between their interests and the general progress made by the State.
"But in yet higher regions,everything is on a larger scale,the horizon widens,and from the standpoint where he is placed,the statesman ought to grasp the whole situation.It is only necessary to consider liabilities due ten years hence,in order to bring about a great deal of good in the case of the department,the district,the canton,or the commune;but when it is a question of the destinies of a nation,a statesman must foresee a more distant future and the course that events are likely to take for the next hundred years.The genius of a Colbert or of a Sully avails nothing,unless it is supported by the energetic will that makes a Napoleon or a Cromwell.Agreat minister,gentlemen,is a great thought written at large over all the years of a century of prosperity and splendor for which he has prepared the way.Steadfast perseverance is the virtue of which he stands most in need;and in all human affairs does not steadfast perseverance indicate a power of the very highest order?We have had for some time past too many men who think only of the ministry instead of the nation,so that we cannot but admire the real statesman as the vastest human Poetry.Ever to look beyond the present moment,to foresee the ways of Destiny,to care so little for power that he only retains it because he is conscious of his usefulness,while he does not overestimate his strength;ever to lay aside all personal feeling and low ambitions,so that he may always be master of his faculties,and foresee,will,and act without ceasing;to compel himself to be just and impartial,to keep order on a large scale,to silence his heart that he may be guided by his intellect alone,to be neither apprehensive nor sanguine,neither suspicious nor confiding,neither grateful nor ungrateful,never to be unprepared for an event,nor taken unawares by an idea;to live,in fact,with the requirements of the masses ever in his mind,to spread the protecting wings of his thought above them,to sway them by the thunder of his voice and the keenness of his glance;seeing all the while not the details of affairs,but the great issues at stake--is not that to be something more than a mere man?Therefore the names of the great and noble fathers of nations cannot but be household words for ever."There was silence for a moment,during which the guests looked at one another.
"Gentlemen,you have not said a word about the army!"cried Genestas.
"A military organization seems to me to be the real type on which all good civil society should be modeled;the Sword is the guardian of a nation."The justice of the peace laughed softly.
"Captain,"he said,"an old lawyer once said that empires began with the sword and ended with the desk;we have reached the desk stage by this time.""And now that we have settled the fate of the world,gentlemen,let us change the subject.Come,captain,a glass of Hermitage,"cried the doctor,laughing.
"Two,rather than one,"said Genestas,holding out his glass."I mean to drink them both to your health--to a man who does honor to the species.""And who is dear to all of us,"said the cure in gentle tones.
"Do you mean to force me into the sin of pride,M.Janvier?""M.le Cure has only said in a low voice what all the canton says aloud,"said Cambon.
"Gentlemen,I propose that we take a walk to the parsonage by moonlight,and see M.Janvier home.""Let us start,"said the guests,and they prepared to accompany the cure.
"Shall we go to the barn?"said the doctor,laying a hand on Genestas'arm.They had taken leave of the cure and the other guests."You will hear them talking about Napoleon,Captain Bluteau.Goguelat,the postman,is there,and there are several of his cronies who are sure to draw him out on the subject of the idol of the people.Nicolle,my stableman,has set a ladder so that we can climb up on to the hay;there is a place from which we can look down on the whole scene.Come along,an up-sitting is something worth seeing,believe me.It will not be the first time that I have hidden in the hay to overhear a soldier's tales or the stories that peasants tell among themselves.We must be careful to keep out of sight though,as these folk turn shy and put on company manners as soon as they see a stranger.""Eh!my dear sir,"said Genestas,"have I not often pretended to be asleep so as to hear my troopers talking out on bivouac?My word,Ionce heard a droll yarn reeled off by an old quartermaster for some cons who were afraid of war;I never laughed so heartily in any theatre in Paris.He was telling them about the Retreat from Moscow.
He told them that the army had nothing but the clothes they stood up in;that their wine was iced;that the dead stood stock-still in the road just where they were;that they had seen White Russia,and that they currycombed the horses there with their teeth;that those who were fond of skating had fine times of it,and people who had a fancy for savory ices had as much as they could put away;that the women were generally poor company;but that the only thing they could really complain of was the want of hot water for shaving.In fact,he told them such a pack of absurdities,that even an old quartermaster who had lost his nose with a frost-bite,so that they had dubbed him Nezrestant,was fain to laugh.""Hush!"said Benassis,"here we are.I will go first;follow after me."Both of them scaled the ladder and hid themselves in the hay,in a place from whence they could have a good view of the party below,who had not heard a sound overhead.Little groups of women were clustered about three or four candles.Some of them sewed,others were spinning,a good few of them were doing nothing,and sat with their heads strained forward,and their eyes fixed on an old peasant who was telling a story.The men were standing about for the most part,or lying at full length on the trusses of hay.Every group was absolutely silent.Their faces were barely visible by the flickering gleams of the candles by which the women were working,although each candle was surrounded by a glass globe filled with water,in order to concentrate the light.The thick darkness and shadow that filled the roof and all the upper part of the barn seemed still further to diminish the light that fell here and there upon the workers'heads with such picturesque effects of light and shade.Here,it shone full upon the bright wondering eyes and brown forehead of a little peasant maiden;and there the straggling beams brought out the outlines of the rugged brows of some of the older men,throwing up their figures in sharp relief against the dark background,and giving a fantastic appearance to their worn and weather-stained garb.The attentive attitude of all these people and the expression on all their faces showed that they had given themselves up entirely to the pleasure of listening,and that the narrator's sway was absolute.It was a curious scene.The immense influence that poetry exerts over every mind was plainly to be seen.For is not the peasant who demands that the tale of wonder should be ******,and that the impossible should be well-nigh credible,a lover of poetry of the purest kind?
"She did not like the look of the house at all,"the peasant was saying as the two newcomers took their places where they could overhear him;"but the poor little hunchback was so tired out with carrying her bundle of hemp to market,that she went in;besides,the night had come,and she could go no further.She only asked to be allowed to sleep there,and ate nothing but a crust of bread that she took from her wallet.And inasmuch as the woman who kept house for the brigands knew nothing about what they had planned to do that night,she let the old woman into the house,and sent her upstairs without a light.Our hunchback throws herself down on a rickety truckle bed,says her prayers,thinks about her hemp,and is dropping off to sleep.
But before she is fairly asleep,she hears a noise,and in walk two men carrying a lantern,and each man had a knife in his hand.Then fear came upon her;for in those times,look you,they used to make pates of human flesh for the seigneurs,who were very fond of them.
But the old woman plucked up heart again,for she was so thoroughly shriveled and wrinkled that she thought they would think her a poorish sort of diet.The two men went past the hunchback and walked up to a bed that there was in the great room,and in which they had put the gentleman with the big portmanteau,the one that passed for a negromancer.The taller man holds up the lantern and takes the gentleman by the feet,and the short one,that had pretended to be drunk,clutches hold of his head and cuts his throat,clean,with one stroke,swish!Then they leave the head and body lying in its own blood up there,steal the portmanteau,and go downstairs with it.Here is our woman in a nice fix!First of all she thinks of slipping out,before any one can suspect it,not knowing that Providence had brought her there to glorify God and to bring down punishment on the murderers.She was in a great fright,and when one is frightened one thinks of nothing else.But the woman of the house had asked the two brigands about the hunchback,and that had alarmed them.So back they came,creeping softly up the wooden staircase.The poor hunchback curls up in a ball with fright,and she hears them talking about her in whispers.
"'Kill her,I tell you.'
"'No need to kill her.'
"'Kill her!'
"'No!'
"Then they came in.The woman,who was no fool,shuts her eyes and pretends to be asleep.She sets to work to sleep like a child,with her hand on her heart,and takes to breathing like a cherub.The man opens the lantern and shines the light straight into the eyes of the sleeping old woman--she does not move an eyelash,she is in such terror for her neck.
"'She is sleeping like a log;you can see that quite well,'so says the tall one.
"'Old women are so cunning!'answers the short man.'I will kill her.
We shall feel easier in our minds.Besides,we will salt her down to feed the pigs.'
"The old woman hears all this talk,but she does not stir.
"'Oh!it is all right,she is asleep,'says the short ruffian,when he saw that the hunchback had not stirred.
"That is how the old woman saved her life.And she may be fairly called courageous;for it is a fact that there are not many girls here who could have breathed like cherubs while they heard that talk going on about the pigs.Well,the two brigands set to work to lift up the dead man;they wrap him round in the sheets and chuck him out into the little yard;and the old woman hears the pigs scampering up to eat him,and grunting,HON!hon!
"So when morning comes,"the narrator resumed after a pause,"the woman gets up and goes down,paying a couple of sous for her bed.She takes up her wallet,goes on just as if nothing had happened,asks for the news of the countryside,and gets away in peace.She wants to run.
Running is quite out of the question,her legs fail her for fright;and lucky it was for her that she could not run,for this reason.She had barely gone half a quarter of a league before she sees one of the brigands coming after her,just out of craftiness to make quite sure that she had seen nothing.She guesses this,and sits herself down on a boulder.
"'What is the matter,good woman?'asks the short one,for it was the shorter one and the wickeder of the two who was dogging her.
"'Oh!master,'says she,'my wallet is so heavy,and I am so tired,that I badly want some good man to give me his arm'(sly thing,only listen to her!)'if I am to get back to my poor home.'
"Thereupon the brigand offers to go along with her,and she accepts his offer.The fellow takes hold of her arm to see if she is afraid.
Not she!She does not tremble a bit,and walks quietly along.So there they are,chatting away as nicely as possible,all about farming,and the way to grow hemp,till they come to the outskirts of the town,where the hunchback lived,and the brigand made off for fear of meeting some of the sheriff's people.The woman reached her house at mid-day,and waited there till her husband came home;she thought and thought over all that had happened on her journey and during the night.The hemp-grower came home in the evening.He was hungry;something must be got ready for him to eat.So while she greases her frying-pan,and gets ready to fry something for him,she tells him how she sold her hemp,and gabbles away as females do,but not a word does she say about the pigs,nor about the gentleman who was murdered and robbed and eaten.She holds her frying-pan in the flames so as to clean it,draws it out again to give it a wipe,and finds it full of blood.
'What have you been putting into it?'says she to her man.
'Nothing,'says he.
'She thinks it must have been a nonsensical piece of woman's fancy,and puts her frying-pan into the fire again.Pouf!A head comes tumbling down the chimney!
'Oh!look!It is nothing more nor less than the dead man's head,'says the old woman.'How he stares at me!What does he want!'
'YOU MUST AVENGE ME!'says a voice.
'What an idiot you are!'said the hemp-grower.'Always seeing something or other that has no sort of sense about it!Just you all over.'
'He takes up the head,which snaps at his finger,and pitches it out into the yard.
