Barre evening enterprise. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-1898, 1898-05-10
FRENCH SUSPICION.
1T HAS PLAYED AN IMPORTANT PART
IN THE COUNTRY'S HISTORY.

Reached the Preternatural and Is No
New Thing-How 1t Influenced the Ac-
tions of Robesplerre.
At all tho great crises of French life
the clement of proternatural suspicion
has played an important part Like
some mischievous Puck it hovers over
the land, whispering doubts here, mis-
givings there, converting the whole ma
ton into mouchards, whose business it
is to set a watch OH their neighbors day.
and night. We have such profound
admiration for many qualities of the
French people, such sincere belief in
the necessity of a powerful French fac
tor in the complex mesh of modern
civilization, that we can afford to bring
this charge of undue suspicion against
France as whole. No student of
French history can fail to see the con-
fusion it has wrought, 1t is not the
growth of yesterday, but it is almost as
evident in the memoirs of the France
Of the seventeenth century as on the
Paris boulevards at the present moment.
IL pCINuuGu IuC COulu anu tlC OIlloAoA
classes in the time of Richelieu, it was
constantly present in tho mind of Maza-
rim when negotiating with Cromwell,
and it is visible all through the pages
of the memoirs of De Retz This spirit
of preternatural suspicion naturally at
tanned its climax in the French revolu
ton, when, for the first time, the mon
archy was involved in it's infinite en-
tanglemcnts.
From the moment when the national
assembly met at Versailles to the day
when Napoleon was banished to Ella
universal suspicion filled the air and
dictated the cruel aspect Of French pol
icy. The queen was, Of course, suspect
ed, and justly, in political matters and
perhaps it was not altogether unreason-
able that the suspicion in which she
was enveloped should have attached to
her weak but perfectly honest husband,
who was assumed to be absolutely un-
der her fatal influence.
The attack on the Eastille was ami
mated not merely by memories Of the
past, not in the least because of actual
crueltes at the time. for there was
none, but mainly because it was sus-
pected that the Bastilla was to be utilized
as an armed fortress to overawc Paris
The day of the "blaclz cockadcs' and
the march of the Maenads Ito use Car
lyle's graphic phraseology) were due to
excited suspicion. The assembly had
scarcely organized itself before the
demon Of suspicion spread its duSky
wings over that body, and Mirabeau and
Barnave, at first popular idols, became
suspected of intrigue with the court.
The vigorous personalities who came
to the front all suspected one another.
To them the famous warning which
Benjamin Franklin addressed to the
founders of the American republic,
"Gentlemen, we must hang together or
we shall hang separately, would have
been useless They could not hang TO-
gethcr, and they did hang, or were
guillotined, separately. 1t was Danton S
suspicion Of an aristocratic plot which
caused the September massacres. 1t was
pure suspicion that created the most re-
voting and unjust of all the revolu-
tionary excuses, the tribunal OF Fou-
uuier- Tinvle. Danton in his turn was
suspected and fell.
We may, IF course, justify the suspi-
cion of Dumouriez, but what possible
explanation IAN be given Of the suspi.
cion of the harmless astronomer Eailly,
with his precisian virtues, who paid
with his head for the dangerous folly
of mcddling with things lie did not I'M.
derstand? 1t was obviously a question
! of war to the knife between .]acObln anC
Girondin, for each took an absolutely
different view Ct both foreign and i'll
ternal politics; bat why could not the
struggle have Keen confined to party
warfare within the walls Of the con
vcntion? Why was it necessary to dccl
mate tho Gir0ndin chiefs! The only
answer that can be made is that suspi
cion had grown to such pitch that thu
very existence Of GirOudiSm was con
sidcrcd incompatible with the security
of tho republic. Men had become fren
zed, insane, through constant Spying OF
one another's actions and perpetual at
tc1nptS to fathOm one auOther'S inward
thoughts, and the claw Of suspects
was simply Il formal expression of IA
tional crazincss. That way lANt;ncss lies
In the person of Robespicrlo prct2rnat
ural suspicion attained its most com
plote incarnation His feline nature wa
ever on the dart for its prey Ee coul'
not bear good word said Of any ma,
but he instantly began to rcvolve in hi
mind the question as to whether Their
were not some concealed motive i'll tn
praise. Tho shout Of triumphant rcl!c
which reverberated over France whe1
Robespierre's head fell into the basko
marked the break of the strainin9 poin
of that suspicion which had created an
sustained the terror Whcu we rcmem
Der that but for an accident Carno
would have fallen n victim to Robes
pierre's suspicious and thiJ this suspi
cious disposition had led a mar of senti
mental virtue to become IL wholesal
murderer. we can understand that feel
ing of relief London Spectator.
Nothing to Work On.
\