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the ancien regime-第9章

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little news; or very little which it was politic to publish。  One

reports that a smuggler of salt has been hung; and has displayed

great courage; another that a woman in his district has had three

girls at a birth; another that a dreadful storm has happened; but

has done no mischief; a fourthliving in some specially favoured

Utopiadeclares that in spite of all his efforts he has found

nothing worth recording; but that he himself will subscribe to so

useful a journal; and will exhort all respectable persons to follow

his example:  in spite of which loyal endeavours; the journal seems

to have proved a failure; to the great disgust of the king and his

minister; who had of course expected to secure fine weather by

nailing; like the schoolboy before a holiday; the hand of the

weather…glass。



Well had it been; if the intermeddling of this bureaucracy had

stopped there。  But; by a process of evocation (as it was called);

more and more causes; criminal as well as civil; were withdrawn from

the regular tribunals; to those of the intendants and the Council。

Before the intendant all the lower order of people were generally

sent for trial。  Bread…riots were a common cause of such trials; and

M。 de Tocqueville asserts that he has found sentences; delivered by

the intendant; and a local council chosen by himself; by which men

were condemned to the galleys; and even to death。  Under such a

system; under which an intendant must have felt it his interest to

pretend at all risks; that all was going right; and to regard any

disturbance as a dangerous exposure of himself and his chiefsone

can understand easily enough that scene which Mr。 Carlyle has

dramatised from Lacretelle; concerning the canaille; the masses; as

we used to call them a generation since:



〃A dumb generationtheir voice only an inarticulate cry。

Spokesman; in the king's council; in the world's forum; they have

none that finds credence。  At rare intervals (as now; in 1775) they

will fling down their hoes; and hammers; and; to the astonishment of

mankind; flock hither and thither; dangerous; aimless; get the

length even of Versailles。  Turgot is altering the corn trade;

abrogating the absurdest corn laws; there is dearth; real; or were

it even factitious; an indubitable scarcity of broad。  And so; on

the 2nd day of May; 1775; these waste multitudes do here; at

Versailles chateau; in widespread wretchedness; in sallow faces;

squalor; winged raggedness; present as in legible hieroglyphic

writing their petition of grievances。  The chateau…gates must be

shut; but the king will appear on the balcony and speak to them。

They have seen the king's face; their petition of grievances has

been; if not read; looked at。  In answer; two of them are hanged; on

a new gallows forty feet high; and the rest driven back to their

dens for a time。〃



Of course。  What more exasperating and inexpiable insult to the

ruling powers was possible than this?  To persist in being needy and

wretched; when a whole bureaucracy is toiling day and night to make

them prosperous and happy?  An insult only to be avenged in blood。

Remark meanwhile; that this centralised bureaucracy was a failure;

that after all the trouble taken to govern these masses; they were

not governed; in the sense of being made better; and not worse。  The

truth is; that no centralised bureaucracy; or so…called 〃paternal

government;〃 yet invented on earth; has been anything but a failure;

or is it like to be anything else:  because it is founded on an

error; because it regards and treats men as that which they are not;

as things; and not as that which they are; as persons。  If the

bureaucracy were a mere Briareus giant; with a hundred hands;

helping the weak throughout the length and breadth of the empire;

the system might be at least tolerable。  But what if the Government

were not a Briareus with a hundred hands; but a Hydra with a hundred

heads and mouths; each far more intent on helping itself than on

helping the people?  What if sub…delegates and other officials;

holding office at the will of the intendant; had to live; and even

provide against a rainy day?  What if intendants; holding office at

the will of the Comptroller…General; had to do more than live; and

found it prudent to realise as large a fortune as possible; not only

against disgrace; but against success; and the dignity fit for a new

member of the Noblesse de la Robe?  Would not the system; then; soon

become intolerable?  Would there not be evil times for the masses;

till they became something more than masses?



It is an ugly name; that of 〃The Masses;〃 for the great majority of

human beings in a nation。  He who uses it speaks of them not as

human beings; but as things; and as things not bound together in one

living body; but lying in a fortuitous heap。  A swarm of ants is not

a mass。  It has a polity and a unity。  Not the ants but the fir…

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 mere
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