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SHAME AND MODERNITY IN BRITAIN
1890 TO THE PRESENT

ANNE-MARIE KILDAY
AND DAVID NASH
Shame and Modernity in Britain
 Anne-Marie Kilday • David S. Nash

Shame and Modernity

in Britain
1890 to the Present
Anne-Marie Kilday David S. Nash
Department of History, Philosophy Department of History, Philosophy
and Religion and Religion
Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University
Oxford, UK Oxford, UK

ISBN 978-0-230-35933-8    ISBN 978-1-137-31919-7 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-31919-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016958282

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.

Cover image: ‘The Show Must Go On’. Juan Gris in ‘L’Assiette au Beurre’ 13 November
1909. Courtesy of Mary Evans PictureLibrary.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW,
United Kingdom
To Michael John Meadows (1934–2015)
A man who loved history
 Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the numerous people who have helped in
the writing of this book. Firstly, we would like to express our thanks to staff
at the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the Imperial War Museum,
Lambeth Palace Library, Leeds University Library, London Metropolitan
Archives, the Metropolitan Police Archives, the National Archives, the
National Archives of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland and the
National Library of Wales, for their patience and helpful advice. We would
also like to thank Daniel Vicars, Carmen Bonnell and Melanie Reynolds
for the research work that they carried out in relation to some of the chap-
ters of this volume.
We are very grateful to Palgrave publishing, who have helped us with
the production of this book. Particular thanks go to Jenny McCall,
Ruth Ireland, Holly Tyler, Jade Moulds and Peter Carey. We would also
like to thank our anonymous reviewers for their helpful and important
contributions.
Finally we would also like to thank family, friends and colleagues for
their advice and support during the writing of this book.

vii
 Contents

1 Introduction: The Endurance of Shame and its

Transformation in Modern Britain1

2 White Feathers and Black Looks: Cowardice, Conscientious

Objection and Shame in the Great War21

3 ‘This Tribune of the People, this Uncrowned King

of Britain’: Horatio Bottomley – Shame, the Public
Sphere and the Betrayal of Populism63

4 The Rector of Stiffkey: ‘The lower he sinks, the greater

their crime’: Clerical Scandal, Prurience and the
Archaeology of Reputation89

5 The Silent Scream of Shame? Abortion in Modern Britain115

6 Modern Charivari or Merely Private Peccadillo?

Lord Lambton and the Archetypal Sex Scandal169

7 Lady Isobel Barnett: Shoplifting and Sympathy—The

Last Gasp of Presumptive Shame?215

ix
x CONTENTS

8 From Blackmail and the Closet to Pride and Shame:

Homosexuality and Identity—The Military Example243

9 Conclusion275

Bibliography287

Index313
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 First World War army recruitment poster, 1915

(Imperial War Museum, Art. IWM PST 4903) 26
Fig. 2.2 ‘The White Feather’, Union Jack, 26 December 1914 28
Fig. 2.3 ‘The Mysterious Scotsman’ postcard, sent in
Edinburgh to an Edinburgh address on 12 October
1916 (from Picture Postcards from the
Great War: http://www.worldwar1postcards.com,
accessed 1 January 2016) 28
Fig. 2.4 ‘The Conscientious Objector at the Front’ was a postcard
and subsequently a poster, undated but likely to have been
produced in October 1916 (accessed from Picture Postcards
from the Great War: http://www.worldwar1postcards.com,
accessed 1 January 2016) 34
Fig. 2.5 Photograph of Howard Cruttenden Marten, 1917
(Leeds University Library, GB 0206, Liddle Collection: Howard
Marten Papers, CO 061) 36
Fig. 2.6 Sketch produced as part of correspondence providing
detailed description of Field Punishment
No. 1, 1916 (National Archives, War Office Papers,
David Lloyd George, letter to French Minister, 21
November 1916, WO 32/5460) 38
Fig. 5.1 Reported abortions in the UK, 1930–2010 131
Fig. 5.2 Reported abortions in Scotland, England and Wales,
1958–2011131

xi
xii List of Figures

Fig. 5.3 Abortion rate in Britain, 1968–89 132

Fig. 6.1 Photograph of Lord Lambton, The Times, 1973
(reproduced with kind permission of the
National Portrait Gallery) 176
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: The Endurance of Shame

and its Transformation in Modern Britain

Introduction
This book is the continuation of a thesis that we began to sketch in a previ-
ous volume entitled Cultures of Shame: Exploring Crime and Morality in
Britain, 1600–1900 published in 2010.1 Our construction of this former
book was largely fuelled by unease with many conventional theoretical
approaches to the nexus of feelings that coalesce around both shame and
guilt. In effect we wanted to add our critique, through the use of micro-­
histories, to engage with the assumption that guilt is a product of moder-
nity that largely replaces shame, or at least alters it sufficiently to hide its
presence. Through the investigation of a number of case studies of indi-
viduals trapped in shame steeped situations that straddled the nineteenth
century, we uncovered a startling degree of continuity and the often active
retention of assumptions some other historians might have overlooked
or ignored. Shame was alive and well. Moreover, it was actively potent
and was functioning within societies on the cusp of full modernity. It had
either successfully survived changes in social configurations or had man-
aged to be subtly (and sometimes less than subtly) incorporated within
such changes.
But what precisely was this ‘shame’ that we had studied, and moreover
why did we find it valuable to pursue the history of this concept into the
twentieth century and modernity? Certainly academic definitions, as we
discovered, needed to be opened out from a heavily theoretical bias and
emphasis and, likewise, to be held up to the mirror of real-life situations.

© The Author(s) 2017 1

A-M. Kilday and D.S. Nash, Shame and Modernity in Britain,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-31919-7_1
2 A-M. KILDAY AND D.S. NASH

Whilst this enabled us to see shame at work in the nineteenth century, the
twentieth century also offered further opportunities to investigate this fur-
ther and, indeed, to extend our thesis that broke the connection between
shame’s often simplistic identification with rural societies and varied con-
ceptions of the ‘primitive’. Yet into the twentieth century, shame was still
manifestly about policing and controlling one’s own conduct. It was, and
remained into the modern era, a social emotion which damages a person’s
own internal strength and sense of integrity as they prepare themselves
for interactions with the public sphere. Yet that sphere itself intrigued us
in this context because it was widening and growing increasingly sophis-
ticated under the both the pressures and the opportunities offered by
modernity.
Given that we finished the previous book with conclusions that dem-
onstrated shame’s prosperity at the end of the nineteenth century, we
subsequently decided that following this trajectory through the twentieth
century was a project that was imperative. If it was still present in this
historical context what forms did it take and how was it performed? How
did those who wanted to shame people deliver this opprobrium so that it
had the desired effect? Viewing this interaction from the point of view of
the victim of shame caused us to ask how it was received and mitigated
by those subjected to its raw and energetic power. Moreover, given the
various instances of shame investigated in our first book, was it still the
case that shame could be episodic and fleeting or consistent and impactful
upon individuals? Likewise, we finished the previous volume with the first
tentative consideration of how shame could be wrought upon an institu-
tion. Given what we know about the institutionalisation and bureaucrati-
sation of twentieth-century life, could we expect this phenomenon to have
widened and deepened as a result of some of the pressures of modernity?
This book commences with the premise, established in our previous
volume, that the nineteenth century witnessed the passing of some forms
of communal shaming and its ingestion by individuals. Likewise, during
this self-same period, new methods of shaming arose whilst some of the
older ones acquired a new vibrancy that ensured the survival of shame
into the twentieth century. Whilst a meditation upon the themes pro-
voked by our research questions may carry and demonstrate elements of
continuity from our first book, we were also exceptionally mindful of the
contextual differences that venturing into the era of modernity posed for
the researcher seeking to follow the intensive study of shame. How far,
for example, is there still a conception of moral orthodoxy that individuals
 INTRODUCTION: THE ENDURANCE OF SHAME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION... 3

seem to define, perform and maintain as far as possible? How did any such
conceptions come to fit within individual contexts and experiences?
The nineteenth-century manifestations of shame that we encountered
emerged from social circumstances which had made them visible. These
instances that broke the surface appear to have generated significant pub-
lic sources with which to investigate them. This enabled our engagement
with the history of individuals negotiating their shame within, or having
their shame explicitly held up to, the public gaze. We have persisted with
this rationale since we consider such incidents to ask searching questions
about societies configuring and reconfiguring shame and public responses
to this. The different contexts are important, and we are fully aware that
our examples range from the early years of the twentieth century through
to the early years of the twenty-first. Certainly such contexts changed, and
these are reflected in the different chapters through a full and detailed dis-
cussion of the historical background to each chapter’s subject. However,
there is also a clear attempt to elaborate upon a variety of themes that,
arguably, transcend the chronological context of their respective chapters.
Themes investigated here associating shame with cowardice, with popular-
ity and betrayal, with theft and reputation and with sexuality and its mul-
tiple consequences, all speak to more common experiences that produce a
myriad of examples that could have been chosen. We are also convinced that
the systematic investigation of public instances of shame remain relatively
unexplored—paradoxically at a time when the capacity for private shame
has been opened out and, at least partly, scrutinised by other historians.

Locating Definitions of Shame in the Modern Era

Shame is about pain and dishonour brought on by the reflection upon
one’s own malevolent or indiscreet conduct. But it is also a phenomenon
that disciplines individuals through the didactic process of observing,
from a distance, its action impacting upon the lives and self-images of
others. Even in the modern era, this line of thinking too often persuades
that shame is integral to communal societies and is difficult to psychologi-
cally place in atomised urban societies. Alongside shame lies the concept
of guilt, which is often considered to be shame’s modern replacement,
and regular comparisons with the former highlight shame’s apparently
primitive nature. Guilt is apparently internalised and introspective, and
possesses tools that make an individual act to restore their own status or
position within the social world. Shame, in comparison, is something that
4 A-M. KILDAY AND D.S. NASH

paralyses the individual, often preventing them from responding to the

power of this social emotion.
But shame is also enduring, and it became an important question for us
to consider the relationship between this phenomenon and social change.
If shame policed behaviour and norms, how did shame operate amongst
such norms as they evolved over the twentieth century? Within this nexus
of ideas we came upon a phenomenon which we labelled as presumptive
shame: that is, the display of attitudes which indulge in a widespread belief
that an act is, or more importantly remains, shameful, despite important
elements of liberalisation inspired by both legislation and public opinion
which present strong counterarguments against such views. This presents
a series of ambiguous opinions which suggest that portions of society
believe it has moved on, or ought to have moved on, from a particular
interpretation of circumstance, yet some opinions and practices continue
to deny this progress in reality. Certainly in some chapters of this book this
theme appears to exert a strong influence.
Much of the material discussed in this book constitutes an argument
that modern public spheres throughout the twentieth century have con-
structed and maintained arenas in which conduct can be discussed, scru-
tinised and censured. In these, shame is regularly recast and reshaped
although its purposes remain substantially the same. Yet twentieth-century
individuals (as we will discover in forthcoming chapters) become capable
of fighting against shame and occasionally deploy what we have termed
anti-shame. That is the concerted effort of individuals, caught in shameful
situations or indulging in shameful behaviour, seeking to somehow fight
back. They may do this through counter-shaming, through unexpected and
innovative forms of defence or through persistence with their opprobrious
activities. As we will discover, many attempts have been made during the
twentieth century and beyond to actively use anti-shame. However, not all
of these are successful or sometimes even wholly articulate, and it becomes
the historian’s task to identify and elaborate upon these instances. Quite
whether anti-shame is sparked and motivated by high levels of shame, by
heightened levels of individualism or by heightened levels of fear can be
difficult to discern. Nonetheless it does unequivocally appear to be a prod-
uct of modernity and, paradoxically, something which itself has served to
give shame extra power and relevance. As we shall see, this anti-shame
frequently appears to be in a relationship with presumptive shame whereby
the former grows in power and stature as the other diminishes over the
course of the twentieth century.
 INTRODUCTION: THE ENDURANCE OF SHAME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION... 5

One further concept has also aided shame’s continuance into moder-
nity: that of culpability or what we may seek to term blameworthiness.
Culpability involves the discovery and exposure of blame for a mistake,
misdemeanour or major piece of negligence. The discovery and exposure
of culpability and the shame that goes with the apportioning of blame
was something that seemed to gather pace within the twentieth century
as a consequence of the development of modernity and its mechanisms.
Culpability, within a developed public sphere, showcased people’s behav-
iour and instances of questionable conduct to other people, who consti-
tuted a much broader audience than in the previous century. This growth
in the public sphere effectively allowed more episodes of blaming and
resultant shaming to occur. From the early years of the twentieth century,
we can think of major news events (such as the sinking of the Titanic
or the outbreak of the First World War) which were catastrophic disas-
ters for modernity’s vision of itself. As a result, the public sphere and its
mechanisms engaged in blame and shame as an almost natural response.
Beyond such major events, twentieth-century life and public knowledge of
it created new smaller-scale sites for blame and its attendant shame. New
laws and moral panics (the latter of which were a feature of the first forty
years of the century) incited the desire to apportion blame and shame.2
This further assists in confirming our original definition of shame as ‘a
response reached for by individuals and groups. This grasping of shame
occurred when the individual sought to theorise, organise and articulate
their response to their own behaviour.’3 Moreover the growing impor-
tance of institutions and their reach throughout the century meant that
the conduct of such institutions became scrutinised alongside burgeoning
codes of professional conduct and publicly received expectations about
such codes and the standards they represented.
The idea that guilt replaced shame also appeared to be further question-
able as perhaps a species of wishful thinking on the part of modernity in its
quest to be civilized. Certainly, not all thinking about shame was so readily
prepared to go along with the modernisation narrative. Indeed, bringing
our study of shame into the twentieth century resulted in our finding some
sites where the writ of humane progress ran out of steam. The apparent
transformation of punishment regimes from the start of the nineteenth
century onwards was a material case in point. Much of the theoretical
slant behind evaluations of punishment reform focussed upon variations of
Elias’ ‘civilizing process’, which made punishments modern by removing
their shameful or degrading elements.4 Guilt supposedly began to supplant
6 A-M. KILDAY AND D.S. NASH

shame, providing a further means by which relations between individuals

were softened and, arguably, modernised by a change in social practices and
configurations. Thus, within this formulation, shame became often subli-
mated into guilt practised and performed by the individual within their own
mind and psyche. However, we had already found that this simple sugges-
tion scarcely told the whole story and that shame was readily and regularly
applied to individuals and institutions within the public sphere. Indeed,
we could already point to instances at the end of the nineteenth century
where shame was intrinsic to some narratives that were radical and pro-
vided species of informed comment or active entertainment.5 The agents
and material mechanisms of the ‘civilizing process’ contained within them
the capacity to rejuvenate, recast and enhance shame and its possibilities.
Moreover, some theoretical positions in modern criminology that
wanted to rework concepts of shame were in distinct opposition to the
idea that a ‘civilizing process’ should remove shame from the mod-
ern world. Indeed, John Braithwaite, one of the foremost advocates of
shaming in the context of restorative justice, took one of Norbert Elias’
descriptors of modernity and his ‘civilized’ society as a theoretical building
block.6 Braithwaite argued that societies with high levels of communality,
and degrees of interdependency, were the most successful at bringing their
crime levels down. Such societies were highly interdependent, and this
attribute was crucial to what Braithwaite proffered as his solution to crimi-
nality and the failure of modern, post-enlightenment views of criminality.
Braithwaite argued for a skilled and targeted use of shame as chastise-
ment within a viable system of punishment. Shame was effective when it
was followed by visible systems of rehabilitation and reacceptance, and this
subsequent opportunity for the removal of shame was essential for this
approach to work.7 Braithwaite saw this happening within developed and
thoroughly interdependent societies and cultures, ones that Elias poten-
tially regarded as civilized. Consequently in the most developed and mod-
ern of societies, one influential and contemporary criminologist envisaged
that the controlled application of shame would work against transgressors
where the supposedly modern application of guilt by the individual had
failed in the arena of criminal justice. Thus it is possible to suggest that
the idea that shame had been written out or discarded by theories which
aligned themselves with modernisation ideas, was illusory or s­ hort-­sighted.
It remained a piece of social behaviour that even modern societies were
prepared to reach for and conceivably refashion, even where rational and
supposedly humane systems of criminal justice argued otherwise.
 INTRODUCTION: THE ENDURANCE OF SHAME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION... 7

However, the counterpart private world of the shamed has an under-

standable allure in relation to the modern era, possibly because it illu-
minates the very nature of privacy alongside our assumption that the
twentieth century represents both its maturity and its zenith. Whilst it
overlaps slightly in some areas with public shaming, the former already
has its own history, which has recently been ably investigated by Deborah
Cohen.8 In her excellent work Family Secrets: The Things We Tried to Hide,
published in 2014, Cohen outlines and describes attitudes, institutions
and laws which aided and abetted those intent on using a range of strate-
gies of concealment. Children born out of wedlock or with forms of men-
tal deficiency were hidden away in response to the psychological and moral
climate of the early twentieth century. But the approach to shame over
this period produced some interesting contradictions and surprises, both
for contemporaries who confronted these and for historians who subse-
quently investigated them. Cohen noted that cultures of secrecy tended
to go in circles on the back of panics about detection. The discovery of
incest, for instance, shocked only those who were not accustomed to view-
ing it as an inevitable consequence of crowded tenement life. Conversely,
domestic violence has become more hidden by the arrival of more spa-
cious and comfortable housing.9
The courtroom was another arena highlighted by Cohen which allowed
the public airing of compromising evidence and detail, particularly in the
context of attempts to deter pleas for divorce. At first the innocent pro-
duced evidence and testimony to shame the guilty. However, as time went
on, the guilty were required to attest to their own shame whilst loopholes
in procedure, and subsequent compromises in practice, led individuals to
connive in the concoction of compromising detail in pursuit of an easy
legal separation. Such outcomes were some distance from the benign
mechanism to right wrongs and, within reason, remedied social ills envis-
aged by the architects of the divorce courts.10 Likewise when the vogue
for counselling arose from the late 1940s onwards it was an unnerving
discovery for those involved, that the public at large had a sometimes inex-
haustible capacity for pouring out their secrets to a sympathetic listener.11
Moreover, Cohen’s study ends with a meditation upon the ambivalent
nature of privacy evident in the contemporary world. Whilst so-called
‘confessional culture’ exposes more secrets than ever before, there is also a
strange reticence that chooses to keep other information secret alongside
resentment of statutory or unwarranted intrusion into a constructed ideal
of libertarian privacy.12
8 A-M. KILDAY AND D.S. NASH

It also seems almost axiomatic that the extension of privacy, something

that is a feature of twentieth-century life, also created opportunities for
shame itself to become private. Some scholars, like Stuart Shapiro, have
suggested that over a considerable time period, the distinction between
public and private has largely altered in relation to the conception of ‘the
home’. This gradually became a place where activities were demarcated
and thus divided into sites in which behaviour was located. The growth
of suburbia and the onset of a ‘car culture’ enabled the size of the aver-
age dwelling to grow and thus gave enhanced opportunities for privacy.13
With this privacy came the opportunity to contemplate and investigate the
individual’s own mistakes, misdemeanours and shame, and it was possible
to locate this away from the public sphere and gaze.
Scholars such as Trina Magi have also unpacked modern conceptions of
privacy, seeing them as fundamentally important in the generation of the
modern self. It would seem logical to suggest that shame followed individ-
uals into this world of the private, and enabled them to better cope with
its assaults upon the self, rather than coping with it outside in the public
gaze. As Magi unpacks her ‘Fourteen Reasons [Why] Privacy Matters’, we
can observe both the construction of psychological equipment that made
private consideration of shame possible and the development of potential
strategies whereby it was dealt with. For Magi, privacy is a refuge where
exposure to surveillance and damaging perceptions can be avoided, some-
thing which also explains the benefits of restricting financial and personal
information solely to the individual concerned.14 She also identifies indi-
vidual autonomy and privacy’s furnishing of a space where individuals can
retreat and explore their partially formed perceptions of how to interact
or, as she puts it, their ‘rough draft ideas’.15 This also coalesces with the
ideas of Erving Goffman, since private escape and places for contemplation
were intrinsic to his conception of life as a series of social performances.16
Privacy likewise preserves the chance of a fresh start after a mistake or
episode, prompting feelings of shame. This is facilitated by the construc-
tion of an often ideologically motivated opposition to information tech-
nology’s ability to store and preserve sensitive and potentially damaging
information.17 Thus for Magi, privacy is self-evidently a social good, and
we could certainly go further and say that this enabled the construction
and performance of private shame.
We should also be aware that the state itself sometimes enabled the fur-
ther construction of privacy and that this, in turn, enabled some individuals
to transcend what would otherwise have been a cause of public shame.
 INTRODUCTION: THE ENDURANCE OF SHAME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION... 9

Nadja Durbach, for example, noted how the introduction of the abbrevi-
ated birth certificate in 1947 removed information about an individual’s
parentage. At a stroke, this eradicated some of the material (such as ille-
gitimacy or other family secrets) that promoted the shame that many
individuals from the world sketched by Deborah Cohen would have oth-
erwise carried with them in their daily interactions and course through
life.18 It was also instrumental in creating a new relationship between
the individual, the flow of information about them and the state itself.19
Steering all this range of compromising information and perceptions
away from the public gaze may have gratified many that their shame had
become their own private, personal concern. However, this did not enable
every individual to manage their shame successfully, as we shall see. Yet
the state is not always successful in breaching the world of private shame
and, indeed, suspicion of the state could actually reinforce it. For instance
attempts to turn disclosure of an individual’s sexual history to prospective
sexual partners into a ‘safe sex’ strategy in the modern USA was conspic-
uously unsuccessful. Interestingly, those most reticent and obstructive
about adopting this strategy were also those with the strongest libertarian
concerns about the state’s information-gathering and storage policies.20

Changing Contexts for Shame in Modernity

Another key issue arising in our research is that aspects of modern life
have actually changed and enhanced the modes and occasions where
public shame can occur, rather than having removed them from civilized
behaviour because they are anachronistic or unmodern. As a result, they
remake shame and provide new opportunities for it. Certainly it was
valuable for us to hold up incidents of shame to historical commonplaces
linked with modernity in Britain. What, for example, was the relation-
ship between shame, and incidents of shame, with the growing con-
ception of a permissive society? Was this new social configuration an
attempt to deal with the problems that shame had bequeathed to soci-
ety in the past by inviting discussion? Or was it the occasion for trying
to make previously shameful behaviour and morals become shameless
and beyond censure: an attempt to kick against the perceived power of
presumptive shame? Did the ­permissive society expose more shameful
material to the public gaze, thus causing panic and alarm rather than
liberation and tolerance?
10 A-M. KILDAY AND D.S. NASH

It appeared to us that public shame in the context of the twentieth

century was arguably more transitory than in previous periods, despite
the fact that it reached its audience more quickly. It became less serious
because it was less communal in nature and did not live as long as in
other chronological and spatial contexts. Privacy, thus, had the potential
to atomise audiences and attention just as much as it gave individuals the
opportunity to enjoy isolation with their own thoughts. It also appears
that the effects of shame were sometimes mitigated by modernity’s ability
to equip individuals with the tools associated with anti-shame.
Female emancipation also provides an intriguing backdrop to, and
theme of, many of our investigations and many of the cases cited in
this volume. The dramatic shift in women’s roles and expectations that
occurred from 1900 onwards had a particular impact upon shame stories.
Women were more independent, more capable of taking action within the
public sphere, but also more capable of acting as independent moral scru-
tineers of behaviour. Society had created opportunities for their voices to
be heard and for their problems to be aired. This society also saw the rise
of the problem page and opportunities for women to realise the apparent
ubiquity of some problems, and likewise the ubiquity of many solutions to
them. Yet increased social mobility could also take women entirely away
from circles of moral surveillance into quite independent spaces where
shame could be hidden, transcended or even celebrated.
Researching the twentieth century also enabled us to see new sites and
contexts where shame had been positively reinvigorated, not simply by
social changes, but also by events or special circumstances created by the
modern world. The quest for compulsory patriotic duty by all fit adult
males, for instance, was a product of the special circumstances that accom-
panied Britain’s slide into total war after 1914. The shame wielded by the
country’s mobilised and motivated women was considered both potent
and effective in the quest for selfless military service, conformity and sac-
rifice. The war’s obsession with patriotism and patriotic fervour also pro-
vided opportunities for the unscrupulous to use such apparently noble
sentiments for their own discreet ends.
Technologies of representation, reading and discussion had also been
transformed by the end of the nineteenth century, and so the capacity to
consume impressions and opinions had become a more or less accepted
part of society. Technological advances also provided opportunities to hide
or conceal shame or to enable otherwise shameful activities. Obviously
crucial to the whole function of shame within modernity is the power of
 INTRODUCTION: THE ENDURANCE OF SHAME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION... 11

the printed word. As we are aware, newspapers, magazines and periodicals

multiplied dramatically during the last quarter of the nineteenth century,
and this expansion continued apace well into the twentieth century. This
development served as both the painting materials and the finished canvas
for graphic portrayals of shame and its consequences.
Newspapers and magazines carried information, advice, reportage,
opinion, scandal and entertainment—each bringing their own agendas and
judgements upon people, events and institutions. Thus newspapers and
magazines provide fundamentally important information about under-
standings of shame and how these were communicated to wider culture
and society. However, if we are to judge the shameful actions of individu-
als as misdemeanours, then, for the bulk of the modern period, newspa-
pers, magazines and other media have been accusers, witnesses, judge and
jury. As such, their particular role in this and their interaction with specific
historical contexts perhaps deserves its own study. Occasionally we can still
see glimpses of the media constructing norms that, wittingly or not, con-
tain underlying potential for shame. Indeed, in the area of sexual behav-
iour, the printed media established and promulgated norms to produce
new forms of shame. The impact of the media established and policed
norms, but not simply in a heavy-handed didactic manner as might have
been expected. Certainly the twentieth century saw a break with Victorian
attitudes that were provoked by the agendas of the media themselves.
Deborah Cohen, for instance, notes how the Daily Mirror transformed its
fortunes by targeting a working-class readership in the 1930s by embracing
a more obviously ‘confessional style’.21
Where once the indulgence of sexual appetite and its exposure may
have attracted and enabled the performance of shame and rituals associ-
ated with this, things have arguably turned full circle. The agony columns
of newspapers and magazines constitute an anonymous forum where inti-
mate emotional and sexual difficulties are aired, discussed and, it is hoped,
remedied in the context of private shame. However, this forum’s advice,
both wittingly and unwittingly, establishes new and different ‘norms’.
Thus expectations of the nature, scope and variety of sexual behaviour
become established in the mind of the reader or audience, marginalis-
ing individuals who are unable to aspire or perform such ‘norms’.22 The
inability to measure up to standards of beauty and physical allure, or to
attain a recognisably ‘normal’ number of sexual partners before a certain
age, is now capable of disconcerting the individual. Even those in fulfill-
ing relationships are likewise ensnared by the ‘norm’ created in relation to
12 A-M. KILDAY AND D.S. NASH

expected levels of sexual activity within monogamous relationships. Where

once the performance of passion and sexual relations was hidden as poten-
tially shameful, by the latter twentieth century, the very failure to perform
such sexual activity, according to norms about nature and frequency, had
become a new source of new shame.
Certainly the same historical period also witnessed regular questioning
of the motives, morals and methods of many of the published and broad-
cast media. Within many of the examples outlined below it is possible to
trace this pointed questioning. Such dialogues revolved around the role of
the press and media and often culminated in narratives of the public inter-
est. Such twentieth-century debates have been evidently reignited in the
twenty-first century by events such as the Leveson inquiry. Press freedom
came to be regarded as a touchstone of healthy social democratic systems,
yet it also had the innate power to judge and stir up less rational ideas
and emotions. Managing the full balancing act outlined above is clearly
an ongoing challenge, and many of the issues and questions over the last
century have neither gone away, nor have they been wholly resolved.
However, it is certain that historical investigation of past episodes where
shame has been discussed illuminates some of the processes of this debate
and some of the earlier answers to its questions. What we perhaps make of
this in our own time will be governed by these past answers, but it will also
help us to acknowledge the full and ambivalent nature of press freedom
and its implications.
Whilst the public interest was the narrative the media offered to jus-
tify its investigation of shame, there were other narratives at work.
Newspapers, television and journalists may have regularly declared that
they were searching for the facts in pursuit of some sort of truth, but
their accounts of some incidents argued otherwise. Very often shame-filled
incidents, particularly those outlined in the succeeding chapters, were nar-
rativised as morality tales. Thus the predicaments of individuals were often
the result of some tragic flaw, some oversight or recklessness. Whilst it
would clearly be difficult to suggest that the use of these morality tales was
part of some overarching project of social management, it does remain the
case that shaming has persisted as a consequence of transgression and poor
behaviour, right through the transfer to modernity and beyond. Besides,
who knows how many people may have imbibed the lessons of watch-
ing the downfall of their reckless forebears and contemporaries? In this
respect, this study perhaps reaches one of the most difficult boundaries of
historical study and likewise poses one of the most difficult questions for
 INTRODUCTION: THE ENDURANCE OF SHAME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION... 13

historians. How does the historian go about studying the history of quiet
acceptance and undisturbed conformity?
One other concept that has become self-evident to us in researching
this area is the invention and enduring nature of something that we term
the archaeology of reputation. This might be considered to be the investi-
gation of the past actions and conduct of others (generally by an interested
party). These others might be individuals, institutions or whole societ-
ies that find aspects of their past conduct dragged into the spotlight and
questioned. This phenomenon may be motivated by personal connection
to the individual, or by an awakened and heightened historical interest
in the facts of an individual’s life, or by individuals who were part of the
industry of telling and retelling lives. As such, it has a close relationship
with the concept of private shame. The term ‘archaeology’ is deliberately
intended to reflect the often immense work required to uncover ideas of
truth and to demonstrate how the actions of the individuals themselves,
or of institutions, or of society as a whole has made it expedient or neces-
sary to construct an alternative version of the truth. The archaeology of
reputation can produce both beneficial and malevolent effects upon the
long-term reputation of an individual, and, as we demonstrate, society is
well used to living with both of these outcomes.
The archaeology of reputation also involves engagement with the ideas
of individuals who are fascinated by the story of your own life or that
of others. This is especially important in a world where information and
opinion are more readily stored, circulated and retrieved than ever before.
Thus numerous stories and versions of what actually happened are capa-
ble of competing for space and adherence. This is no more graphically
demonstrated than through the power of the Internet conspiracy theory.
Probably the most famous of these is the belief that the 1969 lunar land-
ing was faked by NASA. This has reached such significance that possibly
more Americans now believe it to be fiction than to be fact. Likewise,
modern culture is similarly awash with conspiracy stories concerning the
untimely deaths of individuals. Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Elvis
Presley, John Belushi, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison all have been the
subject of such speculation (informed or otherwise).23 In the twenty-first
century, with the ‘always on’ Internet, such opinions and apparent ‘facts’
are a relatively constant presence, and this means that stories about repu-
tation are often more prevalent than the truth. Perceptions that there is a
truth to be discerned or publicised frequently motivates instances of the
archaeology of reputation, making it a media activity commonplace in the
14 A-M. KILDAY AND D.S. NASH

contemporary world. Moreover, the democratised power of modern pub-

lishing via the Internet serves to create places where such an archaeology
of reputation may be stated and restated.

Tracing the Endurance of Shame in Modern Britain

As we have seen, shame appears in many guises and in a variety of contexts
in the history of modern Britain and indeed seems to be flourishing amidst
new opportunities for its acquisition and use. However, its survival and
its potency within contemporary Britain itself have a history, and it is to
this which we now turn. Each of the succeeding seven chapters elaborates
a story which focusses upon central experiences of shame. Some of these
radiate out from single, often famous instances to illuminate and highlight
the experience of others. Each elaborates a theme, and these themes, when
taken together, provide an all-embracing study of shame’s survival and
prosperity into modernity and beyond.
Chapter 2 looks at early, occasionally abortive, attempts to apply shame
to individuals suspected of refusing to engage in military conflict during
the Great War—an occasion where new stresses associated with modern
warfare dramatically altered expectations and behaviour. In particular, it
focusses in on the shaming initiatives aimed at conscientious objectors
and the extent to which these tactics were effective. The chapter also anal-
yses the impact such practices had on public opinion during a time of
intensely conflicting popular emotion, when an explicit sense of patriotism
was infused with an implicit fear about the safety of loved ones. This was
inevitably contrasted with an increasing awareness and acknowledgement
of the democratic rights of citizens.
Chapter 3 traces the life and times of the one-time popular dem-
agogue, politician and hero of the turf and boxing ring Horatio
Bottomley, who was initially seen as a populist patriot par excellence
and an effective defender of the common man and his rights. However,
Bottomley eventually came to be vilified as a cheat, a cad and a fraudster,
ultimately betraying the logic of the populist persona he had done so
much to cultivate and lionise. The chapter explores the ultimate ‘shame-
lessness’ of Bottomley, illuminates his activities and examines why he
was able to trick people for so long. It also examines the extent to which
the reach and significance of shame are dependent upon the context in
which it occurs and the preoccupations of society and the mass media at
any given time.
 INTRODUCTION: THE ENDURANCE OF SHAME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION... 15

The fourth chapter uses the 1930s case of Harold Davidson, the
Rector of Stiffkey, to examine the consumption of shame and its often
systematic repackaging for new times, contexts and media. In doing so it
introduces the analytical concept of the archaeology of reputation, which
here involves the pursuit of the ‘truth’ about individuals and incidents
with the intent of realising and telling a credible narrative. This becomes
increasingly problematic in an age where multi-media obsessions with
celebrity provide wide-ranging information on individuals and their
proclivities.
The next chapter in the volume covers the subject of abortion in
England and Scotland during the twentieth century. It thus departs from
the previous chapter and to an extent the subsequent chapters of this
book. It does not turn around specific events so much as around a phe-
nomenon to present a different aspect of shame in modern British society.
The practice of abortion has been hidden by individuals, by societies and
to an extent by history. Yet couples used this method of family planning
and limitation discreetly and then more publicly as the course of the twen-
tieth century progressed. Modernity, and indeed the very essence of being
modern, was partly about leaving behind anachronistic and unprogres-
sive attitudes. Progress seemed to be the heir of liberalising morals and
gave the individual autonomy to make personal choices about their sexu-
ality and its regulation. The evidence presented in this chapter relates to
a considerable time span and shows that women felt surprisingly little in
the way of shame after undergoing a termination. Yet, strangely, this was
not really what society thought should happen, and intermittent levels
of stigma about the choice to abort unwanted children persisted. Society
frequently indulged in the application of presumptive shame. This phe-
nomenon can be properly traced only through a long chronological analy-
sis, and this in part explains the length of this particular chapter. Whilst
strident opposition to abortion re-emphasised the contentious nature
of the issue, this clamour has sometimes overwritten and obscured the
persistence of presumptive shame emanating from particular elements of
society. Whilst ‘pro-lifers’ and ‘pro-choicers’ conducted a tug of war with
the unfortunate mother, society itself in sotto voce still expressed its disap-
proval based on its presumption that women felt shame after having an
abortion. The language of support, counselling and forms of help were all
aimed at the archetypal distraught woman riddled with doubt and regret,
an archetype rather challenged by the evidence offered in this chapter.
Moreover, the two ‘pro’ approaches each met their nemesis in normal
16 A-M. KILDAY AND D.S. NASH

women seeking terminations for personal reasons and not seeking to make
ideological stands about their decision and, on the other side, by liberal
individuals who stood up to organisations and dogmas which attempted
to blight the legitimate and legal rights of women seeking terminations.
Thus the history of abortion deserves its prominent place in this book and
the wider history of shame because it is the history of an activity which
became normalised within modern human relationships despite challenges
to destabilise it and apply opprobrium to it. Such material constitutes a
history that until now has been coloured by legal, religious and political
considerations. Unlike the experience of homosexuals, covered in a later
chapter, who asserted a new identity by ‘coming out’ of the closet, women
who had experienced abortion merely wanted to return to a normal life.
Accordingly, they sought to climb back ‘into the closet’ and resume the
quiet normality they had once known.
Sex scandals have always been associated with the application of public
and private opprobrium but in the modern era, new forms of mass media
ensure that they take on a new significance in the history of shame, since
the advances of e-technology can turn a localised affair into an incident
of national importance. The sixth chapter in this volume looks at the sex
scandal associated with the late MP Lord Antony Lambton in the 1970s.
This not only resulted in his own very public downfall and disgrace, along-
side various official inquiries into the threat of a potential security risk
caused by his actions, but it also brought about debates over the extent to
which intrusion into the private lives of public figures was justified by its
relevance to how they perform their professional duties. Questions about
this issue scarcely vanished during the twentieth century and indeed loom
large in current debates over the rights of a ‘free’ press versus the rights
of individuals.
The seventh chapter investigates the case of the one-time television
personality Lady Isobel Barnett, who tragically committed suicide after a
conviction for shoplifting. Her status, fame and subsequent downfall and
the shame she received en route enable us to explore various aspects of the
nature, application and impact of shame in the modern era. Indeed the
piece also functions as a study of the last gasp of presumptive shame as it
demonstrates its potency amongst individuals from a certain generation,
background and culture of service. This episode, in particular, can be con-
trasted with accounts of subsequent celebrity shoplifters who have relied
upon the very passing of presumptive shame and replacement narratives
about pathology and pity. The chapter also facilitates an examination of
 INTRODUCTION: THE ENDURANCE OF SHAME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION... 17

how class and status can affect those individuals involved in the shaming
process, as both accused and accuser. In addition, the piece sheds light on
the motivations and context for the crime of shoplifting in the post-war
era and its relationship to the extended networks of shame. This analysis
demonstrates how shoplifting and the associated shame shown by perpe-
trators led to it being designated a genteel crime. As a result, considerable
influence ensured that such crimes and criminals received sympathetic and
apparently humane treatment. This approach to the crime also created
very interesting debates about the behavioural norms and deviances to be
expected of different classes, and what precisely was the role of the crimi-
nal justice system in managing these for the benefit of society.
Before offering some concluding remarks, the eighth chapter in the
work traces the relationship between shame and the history of homosexu-
ality in Britain, particularly in relation to the experiences of gay men and
women in the armed forces. Within this particular context, a more liberal
or tolerant attitude to homosexuality, which has been evident across mod-
ern British society more widely, has been largely absent from the military
arena until much more recently. This has resulted in individuals hiding
their sexuality out of fear, or has led to shaming practices being carried
out against individuals suspected of being gay. The chapter fits these
experiences into theoretical understandings of shame and anti-shame.
This highlights another aspect of British life where opprobrium remains
a tool for social control when we might have assumed its dissipation. Yet
the approaches of mobilising anti-shame associated with Gay Pride and
Stonewall were not universally accepted within the gay community. Indeed
homosexuals’ striving for citizenship faced something of a backlash from
proponents of Queer Theory, who despised conformism and the activities
of homosexuals prepared to acquire full citizenship on the heterosexual
world’s terms. Instead, Queer Theory proposed that the unacceptable in
the gay and lesbian world was to be exalted and celebrated, and a crucial
element charged with doing this was shame and its various functions that
shaped and moulded dissident anti-mainstream identity. This is thus an
appropriate context within which to consider the transformation of shame
within modernity. Where once within humane modernity, homosexuality
was linked with uncivilized and offensive behaviour, it now exists as an
almost discarded component part of a culture that has seen it shaped into
something positive and worthy.
The conclusion to this book then offers a consideration of the path that
shame has trod throughout the modern era and notes how it is still being
18 A-M. KILDAY AND D.S. NASH

remade and reshaped to perform new functions. This is especially true

when it is considered that the writ of law and modern methods of control
and regulation have failed and have been manifestly found wanting. Shame
within modernity has a past, a present and a surprisingly bright future; it is
now time for us to find out precisely how and why this is the case.

Notes
1. D.S. Nash and A-M. Kilday (2010) Cultures of Shame: Exploring
Crime and Morality in Britain, 1600–1900 (Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan).
2. For an interesting discussion of post-First World War female sexu-
ality as a site of moral panic see L. Bland (2013) Modern Women on
Trial: Sexual Transgression in the Age of the Flapper (Manchester:
Manchester University Press).
3. Nash and Kilday (2010) Cultures of Shame, pp. 18–19. It is possi-
ble to see how this also potentially extends the explanatory power
of the work of Erving Goffman and his description of the evident
disappearance of inner life: see ibid., pp. 16–18.
4. See N. Elias (2000) The Civilizing Process, translated by E. Jephcott
(Oxford: Wiley Blackwell).
5. Nash and Kilday (2010) Cultures of Shame, Chap. 8.
6. J. Braithwaite (1989) Crime, Shame and Reintegration (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press).
7. Ibid., passim.
8. D. Cohen (2014) Family Secrets: The Things We Tried to Hide
(London: Penguin), passim.
9. Ibid., p. xiii.
10. Ibid., pp. 181–90.
11. Ibid., pp. 198–204.
12. Ibid., pp. 250–1.
13. S. Shapiro (1998) ‘Places and Spaces: The Historical Interaction of
Technology, Home, and Privacy’, The Information Society: An
International Journal, 14, 4, pp. 275–84.
14. T. Magi (2011) ‘Fourteen Reasons Privacy Matters: A
Multidisciplinary Review of Scholarly Literature’, Library
Quarterly: I­ nformation, Community, Policy, 81, 2, pp. 187–209, at
p. 190 and p. 197.
15. Ibid., p. 191 and p. 194.
 INTRODUCTION: THE ENDURANCE OF SHAME AND ITS TRANSFORMATION... 19

16. Ibid., p. 192.

17. Ibid., p. 198.
18. N. Durbach (2014) ‘Private Lives, Public Records: Illegitimacy
and the Birth Certificate in Twentieth Century Britain’, Twentieth
Century British History, 25, 2, pp. 305–26.
19. Ibid., p. 326.
20. W.L. Nichols (2012) ‘Deception Versus Privacy Management in
Discussions of Sexual History’, Atlantic Journal of Communication,
20, pp. 101–15.
21. Cohen (2014) Family Secrets, pp. 190–4.
22. Ibid., pp. 191–5 and p. 198.
23. Time Magazine, 20 November 2008.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
nous mourrons libres. La ville sautera si nos murs abattus
permettent à l’ennemi de souiller notre enceinte.”
Quant aux besoins de cette armée du Nord, peut-être
croira-t-on difficilement que, malgré toutes nos dépenses, la
demande qui vient d’être faite au comité, qui a été arrêtée par
le commissaire général de l’armée du Nord, et visée par les
commissaires de la Convention, monte à la somme de 49
millions.
L’armée qui doit anéantir les révoltés s’organise; il arrive un
grand nombre de bataillons à Tours; les postes de la rive
droite de la Loire se renforcent, et l’on fait défiler des troupes
en poste. Si les rebelles menacent cette rive, ils sont hors
d’état d’exécuter ce project; leurs forces ce divisent, mais ils
rentrent dans les pays couverts. Les principaux chefs des
révoltés sont subordonnés aux prêtres; c’est une véritable
croisade; mais les habitans des campagnes commencent à
se lasser de cette horrible guerre, et murmurent.
D’un autre côté, on nous écrit qu’il est parti, depuis notre
dernier succès, un courier de Bruxelles à Londres, pour
engager le cabinet de Saint-James à accélérer un armament
tendant à porter sur les côtes de Bretagne des troupes, des
armes, des munitions, et à vomir sur nos rivages un corps
considérable d’émigrés de Jersey et Guernsey.
Le transfuge Condé a envoyé à Jersey tous les émigrés
bretons pour être déposés sur nos côtes et y seconder un des
rejetons de la famille de nos tyrans.
On se plaignait presque partout des commissaires des
guerres ce corps essentiel des armées va être changé,
amélioré sur de nouvelles bases et épuré par des choix
patriotiques.
Quant à la suppression de la paie en numéraire, toutes les
armées de la République l’ont reçue sans peine; ils sacrifient
à chaque instant leur vie à la liberté, comment s’occuperaient-
il d’intérêts pécuniaires? mais aussi ils ont droit à plus de
 surveillance pour les approvisionemens et pour les
subsistances. Quelques compagnies de l’armée d’Italie
seulement ont montré de la résistance; mais les agitateurs
seront déjoués par la surveillance qui y a été établie, et par
les soins de vos commissaires.
Dans le choix des officiers généraux, nous avons dû
quelquefois obéir aux défiances populaires et aux
dénonciations individuelles; mais c’est là un des maux
attachés à la révolution, qui use beaucoup d’hommes, qui en
éloigne un plus grand nombre, et qui présente plus
d’accusations que de ressources. Sans doute après les
odieuses trahisons qui ont affligé et qui affligent encore la
république et désorganisé deux fois les armées, on peut, on
doit même devenir défiant et soupçonneux; mais la ligne qui
sépare la défiance et la calomnie, est trop facile à dépasser;
et si la dénonciation juste est une action civique, l’accusation
intéressée est la honte de nos mœurs et la ressource de la
haine....
Le comité, pour ne rien négliger dans cette terrible partie de
la guerre, a interrogé des militaires instruits; il s’est environné
de leur expérience pour faire un plan de guerre auquel se
rattacheraient des plans de campagne pour chacune des
armées. Jusqu’à présent la guerre de la liberté a été faite
sans plans, sans suite, sans prévoyance même; il est plus
que temps de tracer les limites dans lesquelles la guerre sera
soutenue, dans quelle partie elle sera défensive, dans quelle
autre elle sera offensive, assigner à chaque armée la portion
de frontières qu’elle a à défendre, les points des ennemis
qu’elle doit attaquer ou couvrir.

In what follows regarding the Navy, we see the attempt of the

Committee, which we know was foredoomed to failure, but which
was a fine one, to meet the English Power. The “error,” as English
critics have called it, of rapidly putting in new officers was an
unfortunate necessity.
 DE LA MARINE.
Ici nous devons accuser ce système perfide de Bertrand et
de ses semblables, qui, depuis plusieurs années, semblait
préparer, de concert avec l’Angleterre, l’abaissement de la
France, et assurer à nos plus constans ennemis l’empire des
mers.... C’est par la réunion des forces navales, que nos
ennemis out espéré d’attaquer plus sûrement notre
indépendance, et de nous dicter de lois. Quoique par cette
coalition l’on ait tenté aveuglement de faire passer la balance
du pouvoir à une nation maritime, déjà trop puissante pour
l’intérêt du continent; ... quoique, par la désorganisation
passagère de notre marine, par le dénuement de nos ports,
par le ralentissement des travaux, on ait espéré de changer la
destinée de la république française, ne craignons pas que l’on
parvienne à faire rétrograder la plus belle des révolutions.
La surveillance constante du comité, le zèle du ministre, et
le dévouement de l’armée navale qui se forme, feront oublier
tant de trahisons ou de négligences, mais les moyens ne
peuvent être que lents.
Des expéditions hardies, et confiées à des hommes
courageux sont préparées; les plaintes du commerce ont été
enfin entendues d’après le dernier rapport du ministre, le
cabotage va être protégé dans l’Océan par 34 canonnières,
12 corvettes, 18 lougres, cutters ou avisos, et dans la
Méditerranée, par 18 corvettes, ou cannonières et 5 avisos,
indépendamment des frégates dont il est inutile de faire
connaître le nombre et les stations, sans trahir les intérêts de
la défense de la république....
Il existe beaucoup d’officiers capables; l’abaissement des
vains préjugés qui séparaient l’armée commerciale de l’armée
navale, nous assure des ressources, mais il faut les surveiller
et punir sévèrement la désobéissance ou la malversation;
avant de choisir les officiers, examen et impartialité; après le
choix, confiance entière, mais responsabilité impérieuse. Le
secret accompagnera nos opérations, si les inquiétudes du
 commerçant ou les soupçons du zèle patriotique ne viennent
pas les altérer ou les contrarier; les corps civils ne doivent
pas s’immiscer dans le secret des opérations navales, ou
bien nos ennemis le sauront bientôt, et nous vaincrons sans
nous laisser sortir de nos ports.
Le comité s’occupe des lois répressives que la discipline
navale réclame avec plus d’intérêt que jamais. Une grande
force s’organise dans les ports de la Méditerranée, qui par
notre position, doit être le canal de navigation du commerce
français....
On s’occupe des moyens les plus propres à retirer les
colonies de l’état malheureux où elles se trouvent, depuis
qu’une cour perfide voulait faire la contre-révolution en
France, par les malheurs de l’Amérique; et si, à côté de nous,
des Français veulent se rappeler qu’ils descendant de
Guillaume, tous les calculs de la politique insulaire pourront
être dérangés.
Le comité ne peut vous offrir aucun résultat précis et
détaillé dans ce moment; il serait même impolitique de la
publier. Mais tout se prépare, et quoique les forces de la
république soient très inférieures à celles des ennemis
coalisés, le patriotisme les dirigera de manière à rappeler le
courage des filibustiers, et les exploits des Bart et des Dugay-
Trouin....

In foreign affairs we have the Dantonesque idea of pitting the

Powers against one another, which, unfortunately for France,
fanatics who were in power later abandoned. The remark on the
impolitic nature of the decree of the 19th of December should be
specially noted: it comes direct from Danton.

DES AFFAIRES ÉTRANGÈRES.

... Le ministère anglais est forcé, malgré son influence et
son orgueil avare, de voir Dantzick passer au pouvoir de la
Prusse, sans réclamation; de voir la Pologne, se partager
sans sa participation; et de se compromettre vis-à-vis la
morale et l’esprit public de la nation anglaise. Aussi l’intrigant
Pitt, qui ne peut se dissimuler que le ministre qui fait la
guerre, traite rarement de la paix, surtout chez une nation
éclairée et trompée sur cette guerre par l’astuce profonde de
son gouvernement, ne cesse d’invoquer sans cesse auprès
de la ligne, la cause générale des cours....
Le comité a cherché à resserrer le lien qui attache déjà, par
les relations commerciales, le peuple suisse et le peuple
français; et l’ambassadeur que la Suisse a reçu suit
constamment le vœu témoigné par la Convention nationale,
de s’allier avec les gouvernemens justes et les peuples libres.
Nous apprenons que les peuples neutres et amis reçoivent
avec reconnaissance le décret du 15 avril, qui eut servi plus
utilement la liberté, s’il eut été d’une date plus reculée, et si le
décret impolitique du 19 décembre n’eût pas donné un
nouveau prétexte à la perfidie des cours étrangères.
Ce décret par lequel vous aviez déclaré que la France ne
souffrirait jamais qu’aucune puissance semélât de sa
constitution et de son gouvernement, et qu’à son tour, elle ne
s’immiscerait en rien sur les autres gouvernemens; ce décret
a augmenté subitement le nombre de nos partisans dans la
Suisse; et le témoignage d’un peuple simple et libre a son prix
auprès des républicains.
Des négociations d’alliance ne sont plus des chimères pour
la France libre. Il est des puissances qui ont senti que
l’élévation ou la ruine d’une nation intéressent toutes les
autres et que celles même qui sont le plus éloignées du
théâtre de la guerre, sont souvent les victimes de leur
modération ou de leur indifférence. Il est des alliés pour leur
propre sûreté, peuvent soutenir nos intérêts, avec autant de
chaleur que de bonne foi. Il est d’autres alliances que la
politique doit vous assurer, et d’autres qui seront dues en
grande partie à votre état républicain; votre commerce ne
peut que s’en féliciter.
 L’Italie voit avec intérêt le signe de la République arboré
dans ses villes, si j’excepte les villes gouvernées encore par
un prêtre et par la maison d’Autriche....
Nous apprenons que la Russie a fait faire à la Porte la
demande officielle du passage d’une flotte, menaçant de
regarder le refus qu’on pourrait lui en faire comme une
déclaration de guerre. La réponse a été dilatoire et sera
négative; les usurpations de la Russie trouveront enfin des
bornes. C’est à la politique européenne à aider le maître des
Dardanelles à les poser....
Une suite de coalisation faite contre la France, avait jeté
des obstacles à l’arrivée des chebecs à Alger. On voulait
encore vous aliéner cette puissance, amie de la République;
mais nous recevons la nouvelle que le dey a reçu, avec le
plus vif intérêt, les deux chebecs que la République lui a
renvoyés, et qu’il a témoigné les dispositions les plus
favorables à la France....

There follows the French criticism of the Alien Bill.

Un bill infâme, qui insulte à l’humanité et aux droits des

nations, a été promulgué par le gouvernement anglais, et
traduit en espagnol à Madrid et dans les villes hanséatiques,
par les intrigues de l’ambassadeur anglais. Ce bill, dont la
haine pour la convention a dicté les clauses horribles contre
les Français, vous portera sans doute à user du droit de
représailles. Le comité vous fera un rapport sur cet objet,
ainsi que sur les diverses mesures à prendre contre la
gouvernement anglais. Des agens nombreux sont disséminés
dans l’Europe, pour connaître les complots de nos ennemis
au dedans et au dehors, et pour s’assurer des véritables amis
de la république.
Il résulte enfin, de toutes nos relations, que Dumouriez et
ses aides-de-camp, chassés du Stoutgard, n’ont pas reçu un
meilleur accueil à Vursbourg, par ordre de l’électeur, quoique
 évêque. Ainsi, les traîtres ne trouvent pas d’asyle même chez
les despotes à qui ils se sacrifient.

Matters concerning the Interior are comparatively vague, for here

the Committee wished to compromise with the Gironde; but they are
strong against civil war.

DE L’INTÉRIEUR.
... Quant aux approvisionnemens des armées et de la
marine, les commissaires éprouvent des obstacles, en ne
pouvant, d’après le dernier décret, acheter que dans les
marchés.
Le comité s’est occupé ensuite de sonder la plaie et de
connaître la source de toutes les agitations qui tourmentent la
république.
Ici des vérités doivent nous être déclarées; car, vous êtes
sur le bord d’un abyme profond, et la Convention Nationale,
au milieu de ses divisions, a oublié qu’elle marchait entre
deux écueils, et qu’elle était conduite par l’aveugle anarchie.
D’un côté, l’exécrable plan de la guerre civile, secondé par
l’Anglais, et sans doute dirigée de Londres, de Rome et par
des agens correspondans à Paris, étendait ses ramifications
sur toute la France, et principalement dans les pays qui
étaient, depuis la révolution, infestés de fanatisme, ou qui
avaient été le théâtre des troubles fanatiques et des complots
contre-révolutionnaires.
D’un autre côté, une alarme générale s’est répandue parmi
les propriétaires d’un territoire de vingt-sept mil de lieues
quarrées, et ces craintes ont eu pour base des motions
exagérées, des journaux feuillantisés et des propos
sauguinaires; le mécontentement né de nos discussions
personnelles a altéré la confiance, mais vous êtes
nécessaires: les aristocrates, redoutant les passions des
patriotes, ont excité les hommes énergiques contre les
modérés auxquels ils se rattachent sourdement; ils ont
préparé des mouvemens contraires....
Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Rouen, prenez garde, la liberté
vous observe sur votre marche dans la révolution; elle ne
vous croira jamais contraire à ses vues; mais craignez d’être
stationnaires dans le mouvement de l’opinion publique;
écrasez avec nous les révoltés, les anarchistes et les
brigands; mais aussi craignez le modérantisme et les
intrigues de l’aristocratie qui veut vous effrayer sur les
propriétés et sur le commerce, pour vous redonner des
nobles, des prêtres et un roi....
Au moment où le comité a été formé, presque partout les
administrations trop faibles ou trop au dessous des
circonstances se ressentaient de l’influence meurtrière des
passions particulières qui y correspondaient...
A Lyon, l’aristocratie a un foyer plus profond qu’on ne peut
le penser; elle est secondée par l’égoïsme et l’indifférence....
Mais les campagnes et les villes de department de Rhône
et Loire, surtout Villefranche, présente un autre esprit, et là
surtout paraissent ces signes heureux, là sont entendues ces
acclamations énergiques qui caractérisent le patriotisme.
A Marseille où tout annonce l’ardeur républicaine, à
Marseille où l’on voit presque à chaque pas un arbre de la
liberté ou une inscription civique, à Marseille où le pain, égal
pour tout et de mauvaise qualité, se vend sept sols la livre,
cette calamité est supportée sans murmurer, où l’on entend
des plaintes contre les traîtres, les égoïstes, les intrigans; où
les seuls malheurs dont on soit afflige sont ceux qui frappent
la République entière, Marseille a éprouvé des convulsions
violentes; mais si la répression de quelques excès de la
démagogie a fait craindre à de bons citoyens que le
modérantisme ne prévalût, le républicanisme n’en triomphera
pas moins des passions individuelles. Croyons que cette
grande cité ne dégénérera pas de sa renommée.
 Nous avons à gémir sur des excès commis à Avignon et à
Aix; ce qui s’est passé d’irrégulier à Toulon, relativement aux
officiers de la marine, vous sera rapporté quand le comité
aura fait le travail de cette partie.
Le meilleur esprit règne dans ce moment à Perpignan; la
vieille antipathie nationale contre l’Espagnol, y réchauffé
l’esprit républicain que le département des Pyrénées
orientales avait déjà montré avec tant d’énergie le 21 Juin
1791.
Bayonne se rattache aux bons principes. Les trahisons lui
ont donné de l’énergie; mais si cette place est dans ce
moment menacée de près par l’ennemi, le zèle des
républicains méridionaux la défendra contre les ennemis du
dedans et du dehors.
Bordeaux ne cesse de fournir à la liberté et a ses armées
des trésors et des soldats; elle va défendre en même temps
les Pyrénées et les Deux-Sèvres.
Les intentions manifestées à Nantes ne se ressentent pas
assez de l’enthousiasme civique qui doit animer dans ce
moment tous les citoyens. Ses moyens auraient pu être plus
efficaces; il y a du mécontentement et des craintes sur les
effets des divisions intestines.
A Orléans, l’esprit public s’améliore, depuis que
l’aristocratie a été frappée par la loi révolutionnaire; mais
cette ville a le droit d’obtenir que les procédures faites par les
commissaires soient bientôt jugées, les coupables punis et
les bons citoyens rassurés.
Dans le département de l’Allier, une correspondance
interceptée a fait découvrir des traînes contre la liberté, elles
étaient ourdies par des prêtres déportés, de concert avec
leurs agens à Moulins. Les corps administratifs, qui vivent
dans la plus heureuse harmonie, ont mis en lieu de sûreté les
ci-devant que leur conduite avait rendus suspects et les y font
garder avec soin et humanité, jusqu’à ce que la République
n’ait plus rien à craindre de ses ennemis intérieurs et de ces
enfans dénaturés. Le peuple a partout applaudi à cette
énergie de ses magistrats, et il les a secourus, parce que le
peuple veut franchement la liberté.
A Roanne, le modérantisme est réduit en système, et dans
la crise où nous sommes, cette apathie politique est le plus
grand fléau de la République, qui ne peut s’établir que par le
développement de toute l’énergie nationale.
A Tain, dans le département de la Drôme, des patriotes,
que n’étaient qu’aisés dans leur fortune (le patriotisme se
trouve rarement avec la fortune), se sont cotisés, et, de
concert avec le Maire, ont fait, sans y être contraints par la loi,
mais par amour pour la patrie, une cotisation, dont le produit
a été employé à fournir du pain à un prix modéré, pour les
citoyens peu fortunés. C’est ainsi que dans les provinces
méridionales, les mœurs et l’humanité font plus que les lois et
le cœur des riches dans les grandes cités....
A Tours, l’administration d’Indre et Loire, apprenant que les
ennemis étaient à Loudun, et marchaient à Chinon, a pris la
résolution, par un mouvement civique et spontané, de se
transporter toute entière au milieu des dangers qui les
menaçaient, et décidée à s’ensevelir sous les ruines de la
ville, plutôt que de se rendre. Une commission y est restée.
Loudun a demeuré sans défense. Quelques aristocrates en
ont été heureusement chassés.
Poitiers, trop influencé par des fanatiques et par des
hommes de l’ancien régime, peut donner des espérances aux
révoltés, et déjà l’administration nous a fait craindre le résultat
du mauvais esprit d’une partie de ses habitans, malgré
l’énergie connue des patriotes qu’elle renferme.
Paris qu’on accuse sans cesse, qu’on agite presque
toujours, tantôt par des crimes, tantôt par des intrigues, tantôt
par des passions personnelles, tantôt par des intérêts secrets
et étrangers, et plus souvent encore par l’action prolongée ou
l’exaltation des passions révolutionnaires; Paris, réceptacle
 de tant d’étrangers, de tant de conspirateurs, doit attirer vos
regards.

The following passage on the Commune of Paris is noteworthy for

its non-committal character, in keeping with the attempt to get rid of
the Gironde, if possible, without an insurrection.

Vous devez contenir le conseil général de la commune de

Paris dans les limites que l’unité et l’indivisibilité de la
République exigent et que la loi lui prescrit. C’est à vous qu’il
appartient seul de dominer toutes les ambitions politiques, de
détruire toutes les usurpations législatives; c’est à vous de
répondre à la France du dépôt de pouvoir qui vous a été
religieusement confié.
Vous devez aviser aux movemens inégaux et anarchiques
que des intrigans font passer dans plusieurs sections
peuplées de bons citoyens, et aux mouvemens
aristocratiques qu’on pourrait cependant leur communiquer.
Vous devez surveiller également le moderantisme qui
paralyse tout et prépare la perte de la liberté, et les excès le
la démagogie dont les émigrés et les ambitieux, déguisés
parmi nous, tiennent le secret et le prix journalier.
L’esprit des habitans de Paris est bon, malgré les vices de
l’égoïsme, de l’avarice et de l’apathie d’un certain nombre de
ses habitans. L’amour de la liberté, qu’on a voulu tant de fois
y neutraliser, sort victorieux de toutes les épreuves; et nous
pensons que Paris n’appartiendra jamais qu’à la liberté; Paris
qui à détruit le trône, ne souffrira pas qu’aucune autorité
usurpe le pouvoir national, qui est la propriété de tous, et qui
est le véritable lieu de tous les départemens.
Malgré toutes les intrigues par lesquelles on a cherché à
empêcher Paris de prononcer son patriotisme en marchant
contre les révoltés, chaque section a fourni ou s’occupe de
fournir son contingent pour former douze ou quatorze
bataillons de mille hommes....
 I quote certain portions which show the fear of the Committee, so
often justified, with regard to foreign intrigue.

FINANCES.
Il a agioté le numéraire pour avilir l’assignat; il a fait
hausser les changes, par ses opérations à la bourse.
DISSENTIONS CIVILES.
Il a alimenté le fanatisme de la Vendée; il a fourni des
hommes, des armes et des munitions.[166]
ROYALISME.
C’est l’anglais, qui a combiné les regrets et ravivé les
espérances, par l’excès du républicanisme qu’il a fomenté,
par les motions des lois agraires, dont il cherchait ensuite à
faire imputer les projets à des patriotes connus....
GÉNÉRAUX.
Celui qui avait acheté Arnold en Amérique, a acheté
Dumouriez en Europe, et il a dû traiter de même les militaires
qui n’aiment pas la république....
DE L’ORGANISATION SOCIALE.
L’anglais a semé l’effroi dans l’âme des propriétaires par
des motions sur les partages des terres, et dans le cœur des
commerçans par le pillage des magasins....
L’anglais a imaginé de la bloquer, de l’affamer, de
l’incendier dans ses ports, dans ses édifices publics; de
détruire son industrie; il armé tour à tour l’aristocrate contre le
patriote, et le patriote contre l’aristocrate; enfin, le peuple
contre le peuple, espérant que le spectacle de nos troubles
ôtera au peuple anglais le courage de détruire chez lui le
despotisme royal.
PERTE DE PARIS.
 C’est au cœur que les assassins frappent; c’est sur les
capitales que les conquérans dirigent leurs coups. On ne
pouvait perdre Paris par les armés; on a voulu perdre Paris
par les départemens; on y a semé dès terreurs pour le ruiner
par la fuite des propriétaires et des riches; on a semé des
idées de suprématie, pour séparer, pour isoler les
départemens de Paris.

The danger of civil war and vigorous methods for meeting it are
the subject of the passages that follow.

DIVISION DU TERRITOIRE.
L’anglais enfin a espéré diviser la France pour la morceler
ou la ruiner. Dans son délire, il a espéré de voir une
monarchie impuissante s’établir dans le nord, et des
républiques misérables et divisées se former dans le midi.
J’ai dévoilé le gouvernement britannique; il n’est plus à
craindre.
Dans un très grand nombre de départemens on a procédé
à la réclusion des personnes notoirement suspectes
d’incivisme et soupçonnées d’entretenir des intelligences
avec les émigrés et les contre-révolutionnaires. On en accuse
généralement les prêtres et les moines, les émigrés rentrés
impunément sur notre territoire, et les correspondants qui les
soutenaient de leurs fortunes et de leurs espérances.
On a dû prendre des mesures sévères, alors que tous les
aristocrates correspondaient à la Vendée, et que des lettres
interceptées annonçaient un rassemblement à Nantes.
Des arrestations nombreuses ont dû être la suite de ces
méfiances, de ces trahisons disséminées dans toute la
France; l’autorité, dans les temps de révolution, a plus d’yeux
et de bras que d’entrailles; mais le législateur doit à tous les
citoyens cette justice exacte qui vient régulariser les premiers
mouvemens et faire statuer sur la liberté individuelle avec les
précautions que les circonstances peuvent admettre. Vous
devez abattre également toutes les aristocraties et toutes les
tyrannies; vous devez approuver vos commissaires s’ils ont
bien fait, les blâmer et les punir s’ils ont violé les droits des
citoyens. Le comité pense que le comité de législation et de
sûreté générale doivent proposer incessamment une loi qui
règle le mode de jugement de la légitimité de ces
arrestations, et qui renvoie aux tribunaux les coupables ou
laissât en réclusion ceux qui ne sont que notoirement
suspects.
Le département de l’Ain voit l’esprit public se rétablir
parmises habitans.
La conspiration qui a éclaté dans l’Ouest semblait se
montrer dans les départemens de l’Ardèche, du Gard, de la
Haute Loire et du Cantal; mais les administrateurs et vos
commissaires sont parvenus à les réprimer. Ces troubles de
la Lozère ont un caractère plus fort; mais le patriotisme de ce
département et de ses voisins y mettra bientôt un terme.
Les tribunaux ont sévi contre les coupables; nous avions
craint que vos commissaires n’eussent dépassé leurs
pouvoirs dans le département de l’Ardèche, et nous les
aurions déféré à votre sévère justice pour donner l’exemple
de la punition de ceux qu’on affecte d’appeler des proconsuls,
pour empêcher le bien qu’ils peuvent faire ou en empoisonner
les résultats; mais un décret avait déjà mis hors de la loi les
coupables complices de Defaillant.
La trahison de Dumouriez que tout annonce avoir eu des
branches très étendus, a été un trait de lumière; elle a frappé
es administrations et les citoyens d’un coup électrique. Tous
nos moyens ont centuplé par cet évènement destiné à les
paralyser; mais de tous les maux préparés insensiblement
dans les départemens frontières comme dans le centre,
comme au milieu de nous le plus grand, le plus effrayant par
ses progrès, est la marche imprévue des contre-
révolutionnaires nobiliares, sacerdotaux et émigrés qui, du
fond de la Vendée et du Morbihan remontent la Loire,
menacent nos cités de l’intérieur, et emploient à la fois, des
moyens de terreur et de persuasion....
Les révoltés ont plusieurs corps de rassemblement. Le
principe qui s’était porté a Thouars, était, suivant les uns, de
quinze mille suivant la dernière relation envoyée par un de
nos commissaires, il était de vingt à vingt-cinq mille hommes
armés, partie de piques, partie de fusils; ils traînent avec eux,
treize pièces de canon, selon les uns, et d’après le dernier
succès de Thouars, trente pièces d’artillerie.
Ils sont commandés par des ci-devant nobles et
accompagnés par des prêtres; toutes leurs femmes leur
servent d’espions; ils se battent pour des fiefs et des prières.
Les agriculteurs fanatiques combattent avec fureur et ne
pillent pas; ils composent la moitié de la troupe.
Un quart est composé de gardes-chasses, d’échappés des
galères et de faux sauniers. Ils pillent, dévastent, égorgent, et
sont bien dignes de leurs chefs.
L’autre quart est formé d’hommes pusillanimes ou
indifférens, que la violence force de marcher, mais qui, à la
première défaite des brigands, se retireraient, et forment,
pour ainsi dire, la propriété du premier occupant. C’est à la
liberté de s’en emparer par des succès.
Il n’y a que les émigrés, les ci-devant, et les prêtres qui
voudraient mettre de l’ordre dans les rassemblemens, et de la
tactique dans cette guerre. Ils paient, les rebelles deux tiers
en numéraire.
Les chefs connus sont les ci-devant de Leseur, Laroche-
Jacquelin, Beauchamp, Langrenière, Delbecq, Baudré-de-
Brochin, Debouillé-Loret, un abbé appelé Larivière. Domengé
est colonel-général de la cavalerie; Demenens et Delbecq
commandent l’armée catholique-royale.
Le comité a pourvu journellement par des arrêtés pressans,
à ce que cette guerre intestine fût efficacement comprimée....
 Déjà l’armée s’organise à Tours; une commission centrale
est établie à Saumur; déjà des troupes de ligne ont dépassé
Paris pour s’y rendre, et le renfort considérable que le comité
avait requis, est en route pour s’y rendre. Les voitures des
riches, les équipages du luxe, auront du moins servi une fois
à la défense de la patrie et de la liberté. Une armée est
dirigée en poste sur les rives de la Loire. C’est ainsi qu’un des
plus fameux guerrieurs du nord alla écraser en 1757 les
autrichiens à la bataille de Liffa ou Leuten, avec une armée
arrivée en poste sur le champ de bataille....
Le comité prépare un rapport sur les agens périodiques de
l’opinion publique, et sur les arrêtés violateurs de la liberté de
la presse.
Tel est le tableau de l’intérieur de la république, d’après les
rapports et la correspondance des commissaires et des corps
administratifs. Nous devons le terminer par une réflexion sur
les commissaires, dont on cherche trop à effrayer les
citoyens, et même plusieurs membres de la convention....

The influence of Cambon is apparent in what follows.

DES CONTRIBUTIONS PUBLIQUES.

Quant aux contributions, rien ne prouve mieux le désir de
voir fonder la République, et de voir renaître l’ordre social le
paiement des impositions, au milieu des ruines et de débris
de l’ancien gouvernement; s’il y a de l’arriéré, ce n’est que par
les fautes des administrations qui n’ont pas encore terminé la
confection des rôles; quelques-unes ont arrêté tout envoi de
fonds. Mais un moyen de salut public, appartient à cette
partie de l’administration, c’est de vous occuper sans relâche,
des lois concernant les contributions publiques, de
l’accélération de la vente des biens d’émigrés, et des maisons
ci-devant royales, objets qui semblent encore attendre leurs
anciens et coupables possesseurs; et des moyens de retirer
de la circulation, une certaine masse d’assignats. Vous devez
 cette loi au peuple, qui a vu s’augmenter par une progression
effrayante et ruineuse, le prix des subsistances; vous le
devez à tous les créanciers de la République et à tous ceux
qu’elle salarie, afin de rétablir la balance rompu trop
rapidement, par la masse énorme de cette monnaie. La
portion du peuple qui mérite avant toutes les autres l’attention
de ses représentants, est celle qui souffre tous les jours au
surhaussement du prix des denrées.
Les contributions indirectes, perçues au milieu des
mouvemens de la révolution, et des défiances semées sur
son succès, par des mécontens et des ennemis publics,
alimentent abondamment le trésor national. Déjà dans les
trois derniers mois de Janvier, Février et Mars, la perception
des impôts indirects excède de plusieurs millions l’estimation
qui en a été faite. Le total des trois mois, se porte a
52,182,468 livres en y comprenant 5,400,000 livres, de
l’adjudication des bois. Que serace dans un temps de paix et
de prospérité? Quelle confiance la République doit avoir de
ses forces et de ses moyens?
Nous avons vu avec regret, parmi les produits de
l’imposition indirecte, des droits qui devraient être inconnus à
des peuples libres, des droits de bâtardise et de déshérence,
et que les sauvages de l’Amérique repousseraient.

From henceforward Danton’s hand is apparent throughout the

report. Some matters on the Constitution and on Public Construction,
which have little to do with the insurrection of June 2nd, have been
omitted, but the Dantonian policy of framing a constitution which
should reconcile enemies is printed in full.

DES COLONIES.
Nous ne disons encore rien des colonies, quoique nous
ayons reçu des mémoires et des vues sur cet objet important
et malheureux, d’où dépend la prospérité publique, et
l’agrandissement de la marine française. Peut-être eût-il
mieux valu de ne pas plus parler dans les assemblées
nationales, des colonies que de la religion, jusqu’à ce que la
révolution du continent eût été à son terme. Perfectionner
dans ces contrées lointaines le commissariat civil, adoucir les
effets du régime militaire, détruire insensiblement le préjugé
des couleurs, améliorer par des vues sages et des moyens
progressifs le sort de l’espèce humaine dans ces climats
avares, etait peut-être la mesure la plus convenable; mais la
révolution a fait des progrès terribles sous ce soleil brûlant.
Saint-Domingue est aussi malheureux que les îles des vents
sont redevenues fidèles, et ses malheurs ne paraissent pas
rès de leur terme.
On examinera un jour s’il est des moyens de rattacher les
colonies à la France, par leur propre intérêt, c’est-à-dire, par
la franchise absolue de leur commerce avec nous, et une
disposition générale des droits perçus sur le commerce
étranger, dans ces mêmes colonies. De pareilles lois qui nous
défendraient mieux que des escadres, demandent d’être
méditées.
Cette partie de l’intérêt national, doit être traitée
séparément et avec une forte sagesse; le comité est chargé
de préparer en attendant ce rapport, des mesures propres à
diminuer les maux que cette belle colonie souffre encore.
DE LA FORCE PUBLIQUE DE L’INTÉRIEUR.
Elle se ressent partout de l’anarchie que règne. Là, elle
délibère; ici, elle agit au gré des passions. Disséminée dans
toutes les sections de l’empire, elle semble avoir une
versatilité de principes et d’actions, qui peut effrayer la liberté.
Dans une ville, les citoyens riches et les égoïstes, se font
remplacer; défendre ses foyers, semble être encore une
corvée plutôt qu’un honneur, une charge plutôt qu’un droit.
Dans une autre cité, le service public frappe des artisans peu
aisés ou des ouvriers, qui ont besoin du repos de la nuit, pour
le travail qui alimente leur famille, il est plus que temps
d’effacer ces lignes de démarcation intolérable dans un
régime libre. La nature seule a décrit des différences; elle est
dans les âges; les jeunes citoyens depuis seize ans jusqu’à
25, sont les premiers que la patrie appelle; moins occupés et
plus disponibles, c’est à eux de voler aux premiers dangers.
Cette première force est-elle insuffisante (car il ne faut pas
penser à la défection) l’autre âge plus fort et plus sage,
présente à la société ses moyens, c’est l’âge de 25 à 35; la
troisième classe sera de 35 à 45; la dernière réquisition doit
frapper tout ce qui peut porter les armes. Alors, la société
appelle à son secours, tous ceux qui partagent la
souveraineté; une exception favorable se présente pour les
pères nourrissant leur famille du produit de leur travail. Une
exception contraire doit frapper les célibataires et les hommes
veufs sans enfans.
C’est à la législation et à la morale à flétrir ceux qui ne
paient cette dette ni à la nature ni à la République.
C’est ainsi qu’il convient aux Français, d’organiser le droit
de réquisition. Cet exemple est sorti des besoins de la liberté,
dans les terres américaines. La réquisition est l’appel de la
patrie aux citoyens; cet appel peut être fait par les généraux,
quand la loi le leur a confié momentanément, et dans les cas
de guerre; cet appel peut être fait par le pouvoir civil dans
toutes les autorités constituées, et encore plus par les
assemblées nationales, qui sont à la fois pouvoir civil,
législatif et national.
Le comité a pensé qu’il devait présenter un mode uniforme,
de requérir la force publique dans toutes les parties de la
République, et de la part de toutes les autorités, afin que
chaque fonctionnaire et chaque citoyen, connaisse l’étendue
de son pouvoir ou de son obligation....
D’ailleurs, on trouverait plusieurs avantages à borner ainsi
la constitution aux articles nécessaires.
(1ᵒ) Une plus grande espérance qu’elle sera acceptée par
le peuple.
 (2ᵒ) Une plus grande espérance encore que les citoyens ne
demanderont point si promptement, une réforme de la
constitution.
(3ᵒ) On détruirait par cette seule résolution, même avant
que la constitution fût faite, une partie des espérances de nos
ennemis, parce qu’alors, ils commenceraient à croire que la
Convention donnera une constitution à la France, ce que
jusqu’à présent ils ne croient pas.
En effet, il est difficile de ce tromper dans des articles
généraux importants, sur ce qui convient véritablement à la
nation française, et l’on n’a pas à craindre ces difficultés,
cette presqu’ impossibilité d’exécution qui, si on se livre aux
détails, pourraient faire désirer la réforme d’une constitution,
d’ailleurs bien combinée.
On pourrait donc proposer de borner la constitution à ces
articles essentiels, dans le nombre desquels on sent que doit
être compris le mode de réformer la constitution, lorsqu’elle
cessera de paraître, à la majorité des citoyens, suffisante
pour le maintien de leurs droits; et si l’assemblée adoptait cet
avis, elle chargerait quatre ou cinq de ses membres, adjoints
au comité de salut public de lui présenter un plan de
constitution, borné à ces seuls articles, et combiné de
manière que ces articles puissent être soumis immédiatement
à la discussion.
Le travail de ce comité ne prendrait qu’une semaine, et
l’assemblée pourrait suivre ses discussions sur la
constitution, car rien ne serait plus facile que de placer dans
ce plan, les points déjà arrêtés par la Convention.
Ce travail même serait utile, quand même l’assemblée
voudrait se livrer ensuite à plus de details:
(1ᵒ) Parce qu’il en résulterait un meilleur ordre de
discussions;
(2ᵒ) Parce qu’on aurait toujours alors, un moyen d’accélérer
le travail, selon que des circonstances impérieuses
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