Woe to whoever would take them from us again, to convert them into a focus of counter-revolution " - M. de Miran, commandant of the province, has, it is true, made a demand for them. But, "is it not somewhat pitiable to see the requisition of a Sieur de Miran, made in the name of the King he betrays, to surrender to his Majesty's troops places which, henceforth in our hands, guarantee public security to the nation, to the law, and to the King?" In vain does the King, at the request of the National Assembly,[34] order the municipality to restore the forts to the commandants, and to make the National Guards leave them. The municipal authorities become indignant, and resist. According to them the wrong is all on the side of the commandant and the ministers. It is the commandants who, "with the threatening equipment of their citadels, their stores of provisions and of artillery, are disturbers of the public peace.
What does the minister mean by driving the national troops out of the forts, in order to entrust their guardianship to foreign troops?
His object is apparent in this plan . . . . he wants to kindle civil war." - "All the misfortunes of Marseilles originate in the secret under-standing existing between the ministers and the enemies of the State." The municipal corps is at last obliged to evacuate the forts, but it is determined not to give them up. The day following that on which it receives the decree of the National Assembly, it conceives the design of demolishing them. On the 17th of May, two hundred laborers, paid in advance, begin the work of destruction. To save appearances the municipal body betakes itself at eleven o'clock in the morning to the different localities, and orders them to stop. But, on its departure, the laborers keep on;and, at six o'clock in the evening, a resolution is passed that, "to prevent the entire demolition of the citadel, it is deemed advisable to authorize only that of the part overlooking the town." On the 18th of May the Jacobin club, at once agent, accomplice, and councilor of the municipal body, compels private individuals to contribute something towards defraying the expenses of the demolition. It "sends round to every house, and to the syndics of all corporations, exacting their quotas, and making all citizens subscribe a document by which they appear to sanction the action of the municipal body, and to express their thanks to it. People had to sign it, pay, and keep silent. Woe to any one that refused !" On the 20th of May the municipal body presumes to write to the Assembly, that "this threatening citadel, this odious monument of a stupendous despotism, is about to disappear." To justify its disobedience, it takes occasion to remark, "that the love of country is the most powerful and most enduring of an empire's ramparts." On the 28th of May it secures the performance in two theaters of a piece representing the capture of the forts of Marseilles, for the benefit of the men engaged in their demolition. Meanwhile, it has summoned the Paris Jacobins to its support; it has proposed to invite the Lyons federation and all the municipalities of the kingdom to denounce the minister. It has forced M. de Miran, threatened with death and watched by a party in ambush on the road, to quit Aix, and then demands his recall.[35] Only on the 6th of June does it decide, at the express command of the National Assembly, to suspend the almost completed demolition. - ?Authorities to which obedience is due could not be treated more insolently. The end, however, is attained; there is no longer a citadel, and the troops have departed; the regiment commanded by Ernest alone remains, to be tampered with, insulted, and then sent off. It is ordered to Aix, and the National Guard of Marseilles will go there to disarm and disband it. Henceforth the municipal body has full sway. It "observes only those laws which suit it, makes others to its own liking, and, in short, governs in the most despotic and arbitrary manner."[36] And not only at Marseilles, but throughout the department where, under no authority but its own, it undertakes armed expeditions and makes raids and sudden attacks.
III.
Independent Assemblies. - Why they took the initiative. - The people in council. - Powerlessness of the municipalities. - the violence to which they are subject. - Aix in 1790. - Government disobeyed and perverted everywhere.
