Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1898-02-03
FRENCH SUSPICION.
1T HAS PLAYED AN IMPORTANT PART
IN THE coUNTRYS HISTORY.

1T HAS PLAYED AN IMPORTANT PART
IN THE couNIRY's HISTORY.
In France the Element OF Suspicion Has
Reached the Preternatural and Is No
New Thing-How 1t Influenced the Ac-
tions of Robespierre.
At all the great crises of French life
the element of preternatural 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 watch on their neighbors day
and night. We have such a profound
admiration for many qualities of the
French people, such sincere belief in
the necessity of 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.
It peryaded the court and the official
classes in the time of Richelieu, it was
constantly present in the mind Of Maza-
rim when negotiating with Cromwell,
and it is visible I'll 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 its infinite en-
tanglements
From the moment when the national
assembly met at Versailles to the day
when Napoleon was banished to Elba
universal suspicion filed the air and
dictated the cruel aspect of French pol.
| lev. 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 tt
her weak but perfectly honest husband
who was assumed to be absolutely un
der her fatal influence.
The attack on the Bastille was ami
| mated not merely by memories of thu
| past, not in the least because OF actua
cruelties at the time. for there wa
none. but mainly because it was sus
pected that the Bastille was to be utilized
as an armed fortress to overawe Paris
The day of the ''black cockades" ant
the march Of the Maenads Ito use Car
| lyles graphic phraseology) were due E
| excited suspicion. The assembly ha'
scarcely organized itself before tn
demon Of suspicion spread its dusk.
wings over that body, and Mirabeau ant
| Barnave, at first popular idols, becam
suspected Of intrigue with the court
The vigorous personalities who cam
to the front all suspected one another
To them the famous warning whic
BENJAMIN Franklin addressed to tn
| founders OF the American republic
Gentlemen, we must hang together
J we shall hang separately, ?" would hav
been useless. They could not hang te
gether, and they did hang, or wer
guillotined, separately. 1t was Danton
, suspicion Of an aristocratic plot whic
, caused the September massacres. 1t wa
| pure suspicion that created the most IT
voting and unjust of ell the revolt
tionary excuses, the tribunal of For
i | ouier- TinvilIe. Danton in his turn we
suspected and fell.
We may, of course, justify the susp
} cion of Dumouriez, but what possib
explanation can be given of the susp
cion Of the harmless. astronomer Bail,
D with his precisian virtues. who pal
7 with his head for the dangerous fol-
| of meddling with things he did not III
derstand? It was obviously a questie
of war to the knife between Jacobin al
f Girondin, for each took an absolute.
7 different view Of both foreign and il
! ternal politics; but why could not I'll
! struggle have been confined to par
, | warfare within the walls of the Co
vention? Why was it necessary to dec
0 mate the Girondin chiefs? The on
Q answer that can be made is that susI
o cion had grown to such a pitch that Il
yerv existence Of Girondism was co
sidered incompatible with the securi
of the republic. Men had become fire.
g zied, insane, through constant spying {
: one another's actions and perpetual q
;, tempts to fathom one another's inwa
e thoughts, and the claw Of suspects
k was simply formal expression OF n
J. tional greatness. That way madness Lie
= In the person Of Robespierre preterna
: ural suspicion attained its most COZ
b plete incarnation. His feline nature W
Il ever on the dart for It's prey. He cou
a not hear a Ct I. " or5. said OF any mi
d but he instantly began 70 rsvolve ID
|, mind the question as TO whether the
It were not some concealed motive i'll t
s praise. The shout of triumphant rel
g which reverberated over France VIII
; Robespierre' head fell into the basA
IS marked the break Of the straining poi
l. of that suspicion which had created a
% sustained the terror When we remel
y Der that but for an accident Carr
i would have fallen victim to Rob
pierre's suspicious and that this susl
cious disposition had led man of sen
mental virtue to become q wholesi
murderer, we can understand that fe
ing of relief. London Spectator.