Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/214

184 filial devotion, and misfortune. It places the trust of the constitution under the guardianship of all the virtues.

124. The declaration of rights and the constitutional act are graven upon tablets in the midst of the legislative body and in public places.

 40. Decree for the Levy en Masse.

August 23, 1793. Duvergier, Lois, VI, 107–108.

This document exhibits something of the spirit with which France met the invasion of its territory, and may serve to indicate how it was possible for her to accomplish so much against such overwhelming odds. It was, perhaps, never intended that the decree should be everywhere put in force. It was enforced in the invaded departments and those adjacent. The precise effects of the measure is a matter of dispute.

Gardiner, French Revolution, 170–171; Von Sybel, French Revolution, III, 165–169; Cambridge Modern History, VIII, 348; American Historical Review, IX, 525–532; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire générale, VIII, 267–269; Jaurès, Histoire socialiste, IV, 1644–1646.

1. From this moment until that in which the enemy shall have been driven from the soil of the Repiiblic, all Frenchmen are in permanent requisition for the service of the armies.

The young men shall go to battle the married men shall forge arms and transport provisions; the women shall make tents and clothing and shall serve in the hospitals; the children shall turn old linen into lin; the aged shall betake themselves to the public places in order to arouse the courage of the warriors and preach the hatred of kings and the unity of the Republic.

2. The national buildings shall be converted into barracks, the public places into workshops for arms, the soil of the cellars shall be washed in order to extract therefrom the saltpetre.

3. The arms of the regulation calibre shall be reserved exclusively for those who shall march against the enemy; the service of the interior shaJl be performed with hunting pieces and side arms.

4. The saddle horses are put in requisition to complete the cavalry corps; the draught-horses, other than those employed in agriculture, shall convey the artillery and the provisions.

5. The Committee of Public Safety is charged to take all 