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the origins of contemporary france-5-第78章

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agent; councilor or companion of his pleasures; he might have become

prime…minister to Tippoo Sahib; or other potentate; lived in a palace;

kept a harem and had lacs of rupees; undoubtedly; he would have filled

his prisons and occasionally emptied them by a massacre; as at Paris

in September; but it would have been according to local custom; and

operating only on the lives of Sheikhs and Mahrattas。 Bonaparte; after

the fall of his protectors; the two Robespierres; finding his career

arrested; wanted to enter the Sultan's service; accompanied by Junot;

Muiron; Marmont and other comrades; he could have carried to

Constantinople rarer commodities; much better compensated in the

Orient than in the Occident; namely military honor and administrative

talent; he would have dealt in these two products; as he did in Egypt;

at the right time and in the right place; at the highest price;

without our conscientious scruples and without our European

refinements of probity and humanity。 No imagination can picture what

he would have become there: certainly some pasha; like Djezzar in

Syria; or a khedive like Mahomet…Ali; afterwards at Cairo; he already

saw himself in the light of a conqueror; like Ghengis…Khan;'18' a

founder like Alexander or Baber; a prophet like Mahomet; as he himself

declares; 〃one could work only on a grand scale in the Orient;〃 and

there he would have worked on a grand scale; Europe; perhaps; would

have gained by it; and especially France。



III。 Ambition and Selection。



The Revolution provides an internal outlet and an unlimited career。 …

Effect of this。 … Exigencies and pretensions of the modern man。 …

Theoretical rule of selection among rivals。 … Popular suffrage raised

to be lord and judge。 … Consequence of its verdict。 … Unworthiness of

its choice。



But the Revolution arrived and the ambitions which; under the ancient

Régime; found a field abroad or cooled down at home; arose on the

natal soil and suddenly expanded beyond all calculation。 After 1789;

France resembles a hive in a state of excitement; in a few hours; in

the brief interval of an August morning; each insect puts forth two

huge wings; soars aloft and 〃all whirl together pell…mell;〃 many fall

to the ground half cut to pieces and begin to crawl upward as before;

others; with more strength or with better luck; ascend and glitter on

the highways of the atmosphere。 … Every great highway and every other

road is open to everybody through the decrees of the Constituent…

Assembly; not only for the future; but even immediately。 The sudden

dismissal of the entire ruling staff; executive; or consultative;

political; administrative; provincial; municipal; ecclesiastical;

educational; military; judicial and financial; summon to take office

all who covet it and who have a good opinion of themselves。 All

previously existing conditions; birth; fortune; education; old family

and all apprenticeships; customs and ways which retard and limit

advancement; are abolished: There are no longer any guarantees or

sponsors; all Frenchmen are eligible to all employments; all grades of

the legal and social hierarchy are conferred by a more or less direct

election; a suffrage becoming more and more popular; by a mere

numerical majority。 Consequently; in all branches of the government

under central or local authority and patronage; there is the

installation of a new staff of officials。 The transposition which

everywhere substitutes the old inferior to the old superior; is

universal;'19' 〃lawyers for judges; bourgeois for statesmen; former

plebeians for former nobles; soldiers for officers; officers for

generals; curés for bishops; vicars for curés; monks for vicars;

stock…jobbers for financiers; self…taught persons for administrators;

journalists for publicists; rhetoricians for legislators; and the poor

for the rich。〃 A sudden jump from the bottom to the top of the social

ladder by a few; from the lowest to the highest rung; from the rank of

sergeant to that of major…general; from the condition of a pettifogger

or starving newspaper…hack to the possession of supreme authority;

even to the effective exercise of omnipotence and dictatorship … such

is the capital; positive; striking work of the Revolution。



At the same time; and as an after…effect; a revolution is going on in

minds and the moral effect of the show is greater and more lasting

than the events themselves。 The minds have been stirred to their very

depths; stagnant passions and slumbering pretensions are aroused。 The

multitude of offices presented and expected vacancies 〃has excited the

thirst for power; stimulated self…esteem; and fired the hopes of men

the most inept。 An fierce; gross presumption has freed the ignorant

and the foolish of any feeling of modesty or incompetence; they have

deemed themselves capable of everything because the law awards public

office simply to the able。 Everybody had a perspective glimpse of

gratified ambition; the soldier dreamt only of displacing the officer;

the officer of becoming general; the clerk of supplanting the head

administrator; the lawyer of yesterday of the supreme court; the curé

of becoming bishop; the most frivolous littérateur of seating himself

on the legislative bench。 Places and positions; vacant due to the

promotion of so many parvenus; provided in their turn a vast career to

the lower classes。 Seeing a public functionary issue out of

nothingness; where is the shoeblack whose soul would not stir with

ambition?〃 … This new sentiment must be taken into account: for;

whether reasonable or not; it is going to last; maintain its energy;

stimulate men with extraordinary force'20' and become one of the great

incentives of will and action。 Henceforth; government and

administration are to become difficult matters; the forms and plans of

the old social architecture are no longer applicable; like

construction is not possible with materials of a different kind;

whether with stable or unstable materials; with men who do not dream

of quitting their condition or with men who think of nothing but that。



In effect; whatever vacancy may occur; each aspirant thinks himself

fit for it; and only one of the aspirants can obtain it。 Accordingly

some rule of preference must be adopted outside of the opinion that

each candidate entertains of himself。 Accordingly; at a very early

date; one was established; and there could be no better one; namely;

that; among the competitors for the place; the most competent to fill

it should be chosen。 Unfortunately; the judge; ordinary; extraordinary

and supreme; instituted to decide in this case; was the plurality of

male; adult Frenchmen; counted by heads; that is to say a collective

being in which the small intelligent; élite body is drowned in the

great rude mass; of all juries; the most incompetent; the easiest

duped and misled; the least able to comprehend the questions laid

before it and the consequences of its answer; the worst informed; the

most inattentive; the most blinded by preconceived sympathies or

antipathies; the most willingly absent; a mere flock of enlisted sheep

always robbed or cheated out of their vote; and whose verdict; forced

or simulated; depended on politicians beforehand; above and below;

through the clubs as well as through the revolutionary government; the

latter; consequently; maneuvering in such a way as to impose itself

along with their favorites on the choice of the French people。 Between

1792 and 1799; the republican official staff just described is thus

obtained。 … It is only in the army where the daily and keen sense of a

common physical and mortal danger ends in dictating the choice of the

best; and raises tried merit to the highest rank; and yet it must be

noted that Jacobin infatuation bore down as rigorously on the army as

elsewhere and on two occasions: at the outset through the election of

a superior officer conferred on subordinates; which handed rank over

to the noisy disputants and intemperate intriguers of the mess…room;

and again during the Reign of Terror; and even later;'21' in the

persecution or dismissal of so many patriotic and deserving officers;

which led Gouvion…Saint…Cyr and his comrades; through disgust; to

avoid or decline accepting high rank; in the scandalous promotion of

club brawlers and docile nullities; in the military dictatorship of

the civil proconsuls; in the supremacy conferred on Léchelle and

Rossignol; in the subordination forced on Kléber and Marceau; in the

absurd plans of a demagogue with huge epaulettes like Cartaux;'22' in

the grotesque orders of the day issued by a swaggering inebriate like

Henriot;'23' in the disgrace of Bonaparte; and in the detention of

Hoche。 … In the civil order of things; it was worse。 Not only was the

rule of regulating promotion by merit not recognized but it was

applied in an inverse sense。 In the central government as in the local

government; and from top to bo
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