Art. 11.-FOUCHÉ.

1. Fouché, 1759-1820. By Louis Madelin. Two vols. Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1901.

2. Les Mémoires de Joseph Fouché, Duc d'Otrante. Two vols. Paris: Le Rouge, 1824.

3. Types révolutionnaires. Étude sur Fouché et sur la communisme &c. (Part 1). Fouché et Robespierre &. (Part II). By the Comte de Murtel. Paris: Lachaud, 1873; Plon, 1879.

4. Un Ami de Fouché, d'après les Mémoires de Gaillard. By Baron Despatys. Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1911. And other works.

I PROPOSE in this article to say something about a man who, for the better part of a quarter of a century, was one of the most important figures in French political life-the most important, I think, after Napoleon. Joseph Fouché's name is doubtless pretty well known among us; but probably very few know much about his astonishing career. It is a career which throws a flood of light upon the times, and is therefore worth studying, whatever estimate we may form of the man. Certain it is that most of his contemporaries held him in great disesteem. Liar, cheat, assassin, traitor, nay, fanfaron de trahisons, were epithets which they freely applied to him. Napoleon, summoning up, at St Helena, remembrance of things past, called him ce coquin, and expressed poignant regret at not having hanged him. On the other hand, the Duke of Wellington does not seem to have thought him more unprincipled than most politicians, and had a kindly feeling for him. That was the case, too, with Metternich; and Fouché was also on terms of intimate friendship— purely platonic, be it noted-with Madame de Custine, with Madame de Rémusat, with Madame Récamier, and with many other charming and accomplished women. The literature about him is enormous; but happily it has been thoroughly investigated-I may say winnowed-by M. Louis Madelin, whose two ample volumes supply a long-felt want in French literature. This monumental work is the first attempt to present a complete life of Fouché. Its author gives us to understand that he was engaged upon it for six years. They must have been six

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years of unremitting toil, which the result thoroughly justifies. M. Madelin has used his abundant materials with discrimination and impartiality. Moreover, his book is not merely a biography. It may truly be described as being also an essay in psychology, unpretentious, indeed, but not, on that account, of the less value. In what I am about to write I shall freely use it.

Joseph Fouché was born in 1759 at Pellerin, five leagues from Nantes. He came of a good middle-class family belonging to the French mercantile marine-a more adventurous calling then than now, for, owing to the constant hostilities with the English, there was in it an element of war. At nine he was sent to the College of the Oratorians at Nantes to learn 'grammar and the humanities'; but arithmetic, physics, the exact sciences, had a greater attraction for him. It was soon decided that he was unfit for a seafaring career on account of his delicate health; and he continued his studies with the Oratorians, who, since the expulsion of the Jesuits, had had the higher education of France in their hands. In 1781, having received the tonsure, he removed to their Seminary in Paris, where, among other students, who were to be damned to everlasting flame for participation in the worst atrocities of the French Revolution, were Joseph Lebon, Ysabeau, and Billaud-Varennes. He himself came much under the influence of a pious priest, Père Merault of Bisy, of whose 'angelic soul' he wrote forty years afterwards, declaring that it had penetrated his own. Clearly the effect of the alleged penetration was not lasting; but there can be no doubt that down to the year 1792 he was a devout Oratorian. He took his colour, then as always, from his surroundings. After teaching in various Oratorian institutions, he was sent in 1788 to the college at Arras, as professor of physics. Here he came under the influence of the new ideas which found expression in the French Revolution; and here he made the acquaintance of Robespierre, then an advocate, with little business, to whom he lent money, and to whose sister Charlotte he paid much attention, without how

That is to say, he was admitted to minor orders; he never went further in the ecclesiastical career. M. Wallon, therefore, is in error-an error shared by many other writers-when he speaks of him as 'prêtre défroqué, moine apostat.' He was neither a priest nor a monk.

ever, becoming actually affianced to her. In 1790 he was transferred to the Oratorian college at Nantes. There the Revolutionary doctrines were fermenting in the heads of many students, the consequence being an epidemic of | anarchy. Fouché shortly became principal or prefect of the college, and laboured successfully to introduce order and discipline.

The old institutions of the country-the French Oratory among them-were now crumbling away, sapped by the Revolutionary tide; and Fouché, always a man of circumstances,' as his biographer calls him'opportunist' does not seem a precise equivalent-watched keenly the signs of the times. He became a member of the Club of Friends of the Constitution,' a liberal royalist society, if I may so speak, and in a few months he was elected its president. In 1792 the Oratory came to an end, and with it Fouché's community life of celibacy. On September 17, 1792, he married Mlle Coignard, daughter of the president of the administration of Nantes, a lady endowed with many excellent virtues, but of singularly unprepossessing appearance.† Barras, a good judge, speaks of her horrible ugliness'; and Vicenzo Monti applies to her the adjective brutta.' Fouché himself was, to say the least, as ill-favoured as his spouseMichelet attributes to him 'une figure atroce—a fact which, later on, Robespierre, oddly enough, urged against him in the course of a general indictment. But he and his wife appear to have been indifferent to external parts and graces, and were unquestionably a devoted couple. Moreover, he always retained the simple and frugal habits, the gravity and austerity, which had marked his career as an Oratorian. M. Madelin, in an interesting page, traces the influence, visible throughout his career. of heredity and early education. The descendant of a family of sailors, the qualities of energy, self-confidence, and coolness, so necessary to seafaring men, and treasured

A different institution from the Oratory of St Philip Neri, though derived from it.

† Baron Despatys describes her as 'une femme maigre, rousse, aux pomettes osseuses, une vraie laideron' (p. 11); he speaks of 'son caractère difficile, son humeur acariâtre' (p. 250), and refers passim to her vulgarity and avarice. But to these defects and blemishes Fouché seems to have been blind. His marital fidelity was matter of wonder in those days.

up through long generations of them, were ever displayed by him. He knew too, instinctively, that it is of no use to sail against the wind; that in order to arrive, one must tack and sail with it. Again, though he was never ordained priest, his ecclesiastical training had imparted to him something sacerdotal. Even in his later years his correspondence teems with biblical phrases. One of his most striking characteristics was an absence of rancour; the readiness with which he pardoned-or perhaps I should say ignored-injuries, even grave ones, was remarkable; and this he himself ascribes, in one of his letters, au souvenir de la morale Oratorienne, qui était celle de l'Évangile.' To which may be added, that he possessed quite a clerical gift à frequenter, à ménager et à diriger la femme-a gift of which he made full proof with women of very different types and positions. For Charlotte Robespierre, for Joséphine Beauharnais, for Élise Bonaparte, for Madame de Custine, he is 'le grand ami,' the companion, the guide and the familiar friend. Moreover, as professor, he had acquired the art of managing men; he had 'le sens gouvernemental.' One more debt he owed to his studious youth. Mathematician, physicist, chemist, he had learnt to state problems accurately; and this is the first step towards their solution.

Fouché's political life began in 1792 with his election to the National Convention as a deputy from Nantes, in the character of a Moderate, or, we may say, a Conservative. In the Convention he took his seat on the Right, to the displeasure of Robespierre, his old friend of Arras, and was numbered among the Girondins. He was appointed to several Committees and took an active part in their labours. But all the time he was slowly gravitating towards the Left. When the question of the King's execution came up, he inclined at first against that crime; but, perceiving that the majority was of the contrary opinion, he made no difficulty about following the multitude to do evil, and voted that the monarch be put to death, defending his vote by a violent pamphlet. This was the occasion of his leaving the Girondist party, and becoming the associate of Hébert and Chaumette. Esprit résolu et énergique,' says M. Madelin (i, 57), 'il entendait aller jusqu'au bout de l'aventure. La parole était aux violents: il les dépassa tous, au moins en paroles.'

It was on March 13, 1793, that Fouché was senten mission' to the west of France; and there he made full proof of his readiness to carry out a policy of 'thorough,' which he himself seems gradually to have excogitatedthe complete programme of what he called an integral revolution.' We should do him an injustice if we supposed that he himself had any personal predilection for this integral revolution. But his aim was to be-or to seem to be-in the advanced guard of the extreme party, his adhesion to which had been cemented by the blood of the King. Hébert and Marat were at the height of their authority when he left Paris; and it was his cue to show himself as good a Revolutionist as they. This was undoubtedly the secret of what M. Madelin calls 'the policy of demagogic exaltation' which he displayed at Nantes, and which won him honour from the terrorists of Paris. The programme of the integral revolution' was a monstrous amalgam of Jacobinism, Atheism and Communism. He was ever, let us remember, a man of circumstances'; and, at the moment, the faction of Hébert, Chaumette, Collot and Billaud was dressed in a little brief authority, which lasted until Robespierre's axe cut them off. So Fouché was, for the nonce, of their persuasion; he was indeed the most daring theorist of their party, giving lessons of Jacobinism to Hébert, of Atheism to Chaumette, of Communism to the Commune of Paris. On June 27, 1793, he caused himself to be designated Commissary of the Convention in the West and Centre; and, after having installed the Revolutionary tribunal at Nantes, he left that city, amidst the maledic tions of its inhabitants, soon to be succeeded there by his friend the murderous Carrier. At Nevers, the next scene of his activity, he had the assistance of another friend, Chaumette, the apostle of official Atheism, whom he enthusiastically assisted, making churches the scene of horrible profanations, while over the gates of the cemeteries he caused the inscription to be put, Death is an eternal sleep.' One of his achievements was the establishment of a 'philanthropic Committee,' authorised by him to levy on the rich a tax proportioned to the number of the indigent. He also issued a proclamation abolishing mendicity and affirming that everyone has a right to be comfortable, and ought to be made so at the