《旧制度与大革命·卷三·第三章·法国高等法院如何循着旧例反而倾覆了王权》第12节
At this first period of the Revolution, when hostilities had not yet broken out amongst the ranks of society, the language of the aristocracy was exactly the same as that of the other classes, distinguished only by going greater lengths and taking a higher tone. Their opposition had something republican about it: it was the same feeling animating prouder men and souls more accustomed to live in contact with the world’s greatness. A man who had till then been a violent enemy of the privileged orders, having been present at one of the meetings where the opposition was organised and where the nobles had made a sacrifice of all their rights amidst the applause of the commons, relates this scene in a letter to a friend and exclaims with enthusiasm, ‘Our nobility (how truly a nobility!) has come down to point out our rights, to defend them with us: I have heard it with my own ears; free elections, equality of numbers, equality of taxation--every heart was touched by their disinterestedness and kindled by their patriotism.’ When public rejoicings took place at Grenoble upon the news of the dismissal of the Archbishop of Sens, August 29th, 1788, the city was instantly illuminated and covered with transparencies, on one of which the following lines were read:-- ‘Nobles, vous méritez le sort qui vous décore, De l’État chancelant vous êtes les soutiens. La nation, par vous, va briser ses liens; Déjà du plus beau jour on voit briller l’aurore.’ In Brittany the nobles were ready to arm the peasants, in order to resist the Royal authorities; and at Paris when the first riot broke out (August 24th, 1788) which was feebly and indecisively repressed by the army, several of the officers, who belonged, as is well known, to the nobility, resigned their commissions rather than shed the blood of the people. The Parliament complimented them on their conduct, and called them ‘those noble and generous soldiers whom the purity and delicacy of their sentiments had compelled to resign their commissions.’ The opposition of the clergy was not less decided though more discreet. It naturally assumed the forms appropriate to the clerical body. When the Parliament of Paris was exiled to Troyes and received the homage of all the public bodies of that city, the Chapter of the Cathedral, as the organ of the clergy, complimented the Parliament in the following terms:--‘The vigour restored to the constitutional maxims of the monarchy has succeeded in defeating the territorial subsidy, and you have taught the Treasury to respect the sacred rights of property.’ ‘The general mourning of the nation and your own removal from your duties and from the bosom of your families were to us a poignant spectacle, and whilst these august walls echoed the sounds of public grief, we carried into the Sanctuary our private sorrow and our prayers.’--(Official Papers, 1787.)
注释摘要
托克维尔在这里试图颠覆一个根深蒂固的印象：大革命从一开始就是第三等级对特权阶级的战争。他指出了一个让后世的革命叙事难以安置的事实，即1787至1788年贵族所领导的反对派，在言论上比平民还要激进，几乎带着共和色彩。他特意让一位“曾是特权等级的死敌”的见证者来讲述贵族在会议上宣称放弃一切权利的那个场景，用意极深：他自己作为贵族出身、曾亲历1848年革命的人，…