the ancien regime-第8章
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needles and sticks; of which the ants have piled their nest; are a
mass。
The term; I believe; was invented during the Ancien Regime。 Whether
it was or not; it expresses very accurately the life of the many in
those days。 No one would speak; if he wished to speak exactly; of
the masses of the United States; for there every man is; or is
presumed to be; a personage; with his own independence; his own
activities; his own rights and duties。 No one; I believe; would
have talked of the masses in the old feudal times; for then each
individual was someone's man; bound to his master by ties of mutual
service; just or unjust; honourable or base; but still giving him a
personality of duties and rights; and dividing him from his class。
Dividing; I say。 The poor of the Middle Age had little sense of a
common humanity。 Those who owned allegiance to the lord in the next
valley were not their brothers; and at their own lord's bidding;
they buckled on sword and slew the next lord's men; with joyful
heart and good conscience。 Only now and then misery compressed them
into masses; and they ran together; as sheep run together to face a
dog。 Some wholesale wrong made them aware that they were brothers;
at least in the power of starving; and they joined in the cry which
was heard; I believe; in Mecklenburg as late as 1790: 〃Den Edelman
wille wi dodschlagen。〃 Then; in Wat Tyler's insurrections; in
Munster Anabaptisms; in Jacqueries; they proved themselves to be
masses; if nothing better; striking for awhile; by the mere weight
of numbers; blows terrible; though aimlesssoon to be dispersed and
slain in their turn by a disciplined and compact aristocracy。 Yet
not always dispersed; if they could find a leader; as the Polish
nobles discovered to their cost in the middle of the seventeenth
century。 Then Bogdan the Cossack; a wild warrior; not without his
sins; but having deserved well of James Sobieski and the Poles;
found that the neighbouring noble's steward had taken a fancy to his
windmill and his farm upon the Dnieper。 He was thrown into prison
on a frivolous charge; and escaped to the Tatars; leaving his wife
dishonoured; his house burnt; his infant lost in the flames; his
eldest son scourged for protesting against the wrong。 And he
returned; at the head of an army of Tatars; Socinians; Greeks; or
what not; to set free the serfs; and exterminate Jesuits; Jews; and
nobles; throughout Podolia; Volhynia; Red Russia; to desecrate the
altars of God; and slay his servants; to destroy the nobles by
lingering tortures; to strip noble ladies and maidens; and hunt them
to death with the whips of his Cossacks; and after defeating the
nobles in battle after battle; to inaugurate an era of misery and
anarchy from which Poland never recovered。
Thus did the masses of Southern Poland discover; for one generation
at least; that they were not many things; but one thing; a class;
capable of brotherhood and unity; though; alas! only of such as
belongs to a pack of wolves。 But such outbursts as this were rare
exceptions。 In general; feudalism kept the people divided; and
therefore helpless。 And as feudalism died out; and with it the
personal self…respect and loyalty which were engendered by the old
relations of master and servant; the division still remained; and
the people; in France especially; became merely masses; a swarm of
incoherent and disorganised things intent on the necessaries of
daily bread; like mites crawling over each other in a cheese。
Out of this mass were struggling upwards perpetually; all who had a
little ambition; a little scholarship; or a little money;
endeavouring to become members of the middle class by obtaining a
Government appointment。 〃A man;〃 says M。 de Tocqueville; 〃endowed
with some education and small means; thought it not decorous to die
without having been a Government officer。〃 〃Every man; according to
his condition;〃 says a contemporary writer; 〃wants to be something
by command of the king。〃
It was not merely the 〃natural vanity〃 of which M。 de Tocqueville
accuses his countrymen; which stirred up in them this eagerness
after place; for we see the same eagerness in other nations of the
Continent; who cannot be accused (as wholes) of that weakness。 The
fact is; a Government place; or a Government decoration; cross;
ribbon; or what not; is; in a country where self…government is
unknown or dead; the only method; save literary fame; which is left
to men in order to assert themselves either to themselves or their
fellow…men。
A British or American shopkeeper or farmer asks nothing of his
Government。 He can; if he chooses; be elected to some local office
(generally unsalaried) by the votes of his fellow…citizens。 But
that is his right; and adds nothing to his respectability。 The test
of that latter; in a country where all honest callings are equally
honourable; is the amount of money he can make; and a very sound
practical test that is; in a country where intellect and capital are
free。 Beyond that; he is what he is; and wishes to be no more; save
what he can make himself。 He has his rights; guaranteed by law and
public opinion; and as long as he stands within them; and (as he
well phrases it) behaves like a gentleman; he considers himself as
good as any man; and so he is。 But under the bureaucratic Regime of
the Continent; if a man had not 〃something by command of the king;〃
he was nothing; and something he naturally wished to be; even by
means of a Government which he disliked and despised。 So in France;
where innumerable petty posts were regular articles of sale; anyone;
it seems; who had saved a little money; found it most profitable to
invest it in a beadledom of some kindto the great detriment of the
country; for he thus withdrew his capital from trade; but to his own
clear gain; for he thereby purchased some immunity from public
burdens; and; as it were; compounded once and for all for his taxes。
The petty German princes; it seems; followed the example of France;
and sold their little beadledoms likewise; but even where offices
were not sold; they must be obtained by any and every means; by
everyone who desired not to be as other men were; and to become
Notables; as they were called in France; so he migrated from the
country into the nearest town; and became a member of some small
body…guild; town council; or what not; bodies which were infinite in
number。 In one small town M。 de Tocqueville discovers thirty…six
such bodies; 〃separated from each other by diminutive privileges;
the least honourable of which was still a mark of honour。〃
Quarrelling perpetually with each other for precedence; despising
and oppressing the very menu peuple from whom they had for the most
part sprung; these innumerable small bodies; instead of uniting
their class; only served to split it up more and more; and when the
Revolution broke them up; once and for all; with all other
privileges whatsoever; no bond of union was left; and each man stood
alone; proud of his 〃individuality〃his complete social isolation;
till he discovered that; in ridding himself of superiors; he had rid
himself also of fellows; fulfilling; every man in his own person;
the old fable of the bundle of sticks; and had to submit; under the
Consulate and the Empire; to a tyranny to which the Ancien Regime
was freedom itself。
For; in France at least; the Ancien Regime was no tyranny。 The
middle and upper classes had individual libertyit may be; only too
much; the liberty of disobeying a Government which they did not
respect。 〃However submissive the French may have been before the
Revolution to the will of the king; one sort of obedience was
altogether unknown to them。 They knew not what it was to bow before
an illegitimate and contested powera power but little honoured;
frequently despised; but willingly endured because it may be
serviceable; or because it may hurt。 To that degrading form of
servitude they were ever strangers。 The king inspired them with
feelings 。 。 。 which have become incomprehensible to this generation
。 。 。 They loved him with the affection due to a father; they
revered him with the respect due to God。 In submitting to the most
arbitrary of his commands; they yielded less to compulsion than to
loyalty; and thus they frequently preserved great freedom of mind;
even in the most complete dependence。 This liberty; irregular;
intermittent;〃 says M。 de Tocqueville; 〃helped to form those
vigorous characters; those proud and daring spirits; which were to
make the French Revolution at once the object of the admiration and
the terror of succeeding generations。〃
This libertytoo much akin to anarchy; in which indeed it issued
for awhileseems to have asserted itself in continual petty
resistance to officials whom they did not respect; and who; in their
turn; were more than a little afraid of the very men out of whose
ranks they had sprung。
The French Governmentone may say; every Government on the
Continent in those dayshad the special weakness of all
bureaucracies; namely; that want of moral force which compels them
to fall back at last on physical force; and transforms the ruler
into a bully; and the soldier into a policeman and a gaoler。 A
Government of parvenus; uncertain of its own position; will be
continually trying to assert itself to itself; by vexatious
intermeddling and intruding pretensions; and then; when it meets
with the resistance of free and rational spirits; will either recoil
in awkward cowardice; or fly into a passion; and appeal to the
halter and the sword。 Such a Government can never take itself for
granted; because it knows that it is not taken for granted by the
people。 It never can possess the quiet assurance; the courteous
dignity; without swagger; yet without hesitation; which belongs to
hereditary legislators; by which term is to be understood; not
merely kings; not merely noblemen; but every citizen of a free
nation; however democratic; who has received from his forefathers
the right; the duty; and the example of self…government。
Such was the political and social state of the Ancien Regime; not
only in France; but if we are to trust (as we must trust) M。 de
Tocqueville; in almost every nation in Europe; except Britain。
And as for its moral state。 We must look for thatif we have need;
which happily all have notin its lighter literature。
I shall not trouble you with criticisms on French memoirsof which
those of Madame de Sevigne are on the whole; the most painful (as
witness her comments on the Marquise de Brinvilliers's execution);
because written by a woman better and more human than ordinary。 Nor
with 〃Menagiana;〃 or other 'ana'sas vain and artificial as they
are often foul; nor with novels and poems; long since deservedly
forgotten。 On the first perusal of this lighter literature; you
wi