it must not be forgotten, further, that to the very last, save where
controlled by disguised rationalists like Malesherbes, the tendency
of the old régime was to persecute brutally and senselessly wherever
it could lay hands on a freethinker. In 1788, only a year before
the first explosion of the Revolution, there appeared the Almanach
des Honnêtes Gens of Sylvain Maréchal, a work of which the offence
consisted not in any attack upon religion, but in simply constructing
a calendar in which the names of renowned laymen were substituted for
saints. Instantly it was denounced by the Paris Parlement, the printer
prosecuted, and the author imprisoned; and De Sauvigny, the censor
who had passed the book, was exiled thirty leagues from Paris. [1195]
Some idea of the intensity of the tyranny over all literature
in France under the Old Régime may be gathered from Buckle's
compendious account of the books officially condemned, and
of authors punished, during the two generations before the
Revolution. Apart from the record of the treatment of Buffon,
Marmontel, Morellet, Voltaire, and Diderot, it runs: "The
... tendency was shown in matters so trifling that nothing but
the gravity of their ultimate results prevents them from being
ridiculous. In 1770, Imbert translated Clarke's Letters on Spain,
one of the best works then existing on that country. This book,
however, was suppressed as soon as it appeared; and the only
reason assigned for such a stretch of power is that it contained
some remarks respecting the passion of Charles III for hunting,
which were considered disrespectful to the French crown, because
Louis XV himself was a great hunter. Several years before this
La Bletterie, who was favourably known in France by his works,
was elected a member of the French Academy. But he, it seems,
was a Jansenist, and had moreover ventured to assert that the
Emperor Julian, notwithstanding his apostasy, was not entirely
devoid of good qualities. Such offences could not be overlooked
in so pure an age; and the king obliged the Academy to exclude
La Bletterie from their society. That the punishment extended no
further was an instance of remarkable leniency; for Fréret, an
eminent critic and scholar, was confined in the Bastille because he
stated, in one of his memoirs, that the earliest Frankish chiefs
had received their titles from the Romans. The same penalty was
inflicted four different times upon Lenglet du Fresnoy. In the
case of this amiable and accomplished man, there seems to have
been hardly the shadow of a pretext for the cruelty with which
he was treated; though on one occasion the alleged offence was
that he had published a supplement to the History of De Thou.
"Indeed, we have only to open the biographies and correspondence
of that time to find instances crowding upon us from all
quarters. Rousseau was threatened with imprisonment, was driven
from France, and his works were publicly burned. The celebrated
treatise of Helvétius on the Mind was suppressed by an order of the
Royal Council; it was burned by the common hangman, and the author
was compelled to write two letters retracting his opinions. Some
of the geological views of Buffon having offended the clergy,
that illustrious naturalist was obliged to publish a formal
recantation of doctrines which are now known to be perfectly
accurate. The learned Observations on the History of France, by
Mably, were suppressed as soon as they appeared: for what reason
it would be hard to say, since M. Guizot, certainly no friend
either to anarchy or to irreligion, has thought it worth while to
republish them, and thus stamp them with the authority of his own
great name. The History of the Indies, by Raynal, was condemned
to the flames, and the author ordered to be arrested. Lanjuinais,
in his well-known work on Joseph II, advocated not only religious
toleration, but even the abolition of slavery; his book,
therefore, was declared to be 'seditious'; it was pronounced
'destructive of all subordination,' and was sentenced to be
burned. The Analysis of Bayle, by Marsy, was suppressed, and the
author was imprisoned. The History of the Jesuits, by Linguet,
was delivered to the flames; eight years later his journal was
suppressed; and, three years after that, as he still persisted
in writing, his Political Annals were suppressed, and he himself
was thrown into the Bastille. Delisle de Sales was sentenced to
perpetual exile and confiscation of all his property on account
of his work on the Philosophy of Nature. The treatise by Mey, on
French Law, was suppressed; that by Boncerf, on Feudal Law, was
burned. The Memoirs of Beaumarchais were likewise burned; the Éloge
on Fénelon, by La Harpe, was merely suppressed. Duvernet, having
written a History of the Sorbonne, which was still unpublished,
was seized and thrown into the Bastille, while the manuscript
was yet in his own possession. The celebrated work of De Lolme
on the English constitution was suppressed by edict directly it
appeared. The fate of being suppressed or prohibited also awaited
the Letters of Gervaise in 1724; the Dissertations of Courayer in
1727; the Letters of Montgon in 1732; the History of Tamerlane,
by Margat, also in 1732; the Essay on Taste, by Cartaud, in 1736;
The Life of Domat, by Prévost de la Jannès, in 1742; the History
of Louis XI, by Duclos, in 1745; the Letters of Bargeton in 1750;
the Memoirs on Troyes, by Grosley, in the same year; the History
of Clement XI, by Reboulet, in 1752; The School of Man, by Génard,
also in 1752; the Therapeutics of Garlon in 1756; the celebrated
thesis of Louis, on Generation, in 1754; the treatise on Presidial
Jurisdiction, by Jousse, in 1755; the Ericie of Fontenelle in 1768;
the Thoughts of Jamin in 1769; the History of Siam, by Turpin,
and the Éloge of Marcus Aurelius, by Thomas, both in 1770;
the works on Finance by Darigrand, in 1764, and by Le Trosne in
1779; the Essay on Military Tactics, by Guibert, in 1772; the
Letters of Boucquet in the same year; and the Memoirs of Terrai,
by Coquereau, in 1776. Such wanton destruction of property was,
however, mercy itself compared to the treatment experienced
by other literary men in France. Desforges, for example, having
written against the arrest of the Pretender to the English throne,
was, solely on that account, buried in a dungeon eight feet square
and confined there for three years. This happened in 1749; and in
1770, Audra, professor at the College of Toulouse, and a man of
some reputation, published the first volume of his Abridgement of
General History. Beyond this the work never proceeded; it was at
once condemned by the archbishop of the diocese, and the author
was deprived of his office. Audra, held up to public opprobrium,
the whole of his labours rendered useless, and the prospects of
his life suddenly blighted, was unable to survive the shock. He
was struck with apoplexy, and within twenty-four hours was lying
a corpse in his own house."