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La réflexion doit préparer et la

foudre exécuter. (Reflection should prepare and lightning execute).

Saying of LAZAre Hoche (176897). Cf. Deliberate slowly, execute promptly.

La république, elle est perdue; le's brigands triomphent. (The Republic is doomed; the brigands triumph).

Reply made by ROBESPIERRE (1758-94), on his arrest being decreed by an immense majority of the National Convention (July 27, 1794) amid cries of Vive la liberté! Vive la République! (Long live liberty! Long live the Republic !)

La République est le gouverne

ment qui nous divise le moins. (The Republic is the government which divides us least).

L.-A. THIERS (1797-1877)-in a speech on public instruction, Feb. 13, 1850, said: ". . . elle [the Republic] est, de tous les gouvernements, celui qui nous divise le moins" (.... it is of all governments the one that divides us least). -Discours parlementaires vol. 8, pp. 608-9.

La République sera conservatrice, ou elle ne sera pas. (The Republic will be conservative, or it will not exist). Journal Officiel, Nov. 14, 1872. In an address read by L.-A. THIERS (1797-1877) to the National Assembly, Nov. 13, 1872.

La révolution française est un bloc (The French

revolution is a block. .. .) E. CLEMENCEAU (b-1841)—in a speech in the French Chamber à propos of Sardou's play Thermidor (represented at the ComédieFrançaise, Jan. 24 & 26, 1891).

Messieurs, que nous le voulions ou non, que cela nous plaise ou que cela nous choque, la Révolution française est un bloc. M. MONTAUT.-Indivisible! M. CLÉMENCEAU. . . un bloc dont on ne peut rien distraire parce que la vérité historique ne le permet pas." (Gentlemen, whether we like it or not, whether it pleases or shocks us, the French revolution is a block. . M. MONTAUT-Indivis

ible! M. CLÉMENCEAU . a block in which nothing can be changed, because historic truth does not permit it.) Le Journal officiel, Jan. 30, 1891, pp. 155-6.

La seule différence entre eux.

et moi, c'est qu'ils sont des descendants et que je suis un ancêtre. (The only difference between them and me is that, they are descendants and I am an ancestor.)

GENERAL A. JUNOT'S (17711813) reply to those who spoke to him of the prejudices of the old French nobility. Cf.

"Mon nom commence en moi: de votre honneur jaloux, "Tremblez que votre nom ne finisse dans vous.

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(My name begins in me: you jealous of your fame, Beware lest in yourself should end your name).-Voltaire, Rome Sauvée, act 1, sc. 5 (Cicéron). See Τὸ μὲν ἐμον ἀπ ̓ ἐμοῦ γένος, etc. La tragédie court les rues.

(Tragedy runs in the streets.) Reply made by the poet LEMIERRE (1723-93) to those who expressed

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their astonishment at his refusal to allow his tragedy, Virginie, to be acted. "Que voulez-vous, maintenant la tragédie court les rues?" (What would you have, now tragedy runs in the streets?) Nearly the same words were used by DUCIS* (1733-1816) and CHAMFORT (174194).

L'avenir appartient à tout le

monde. (The future belongs to everyone.)-Lord Malmesbury, Memoirs of an ex-Minister, vol. I, p. 323, 1884.

LORD MALMESBURY (1807-89)— in a letter to Lord Cowley, dated Foreign Office, Mar. 26, 1852. L'avenir des enfants est l'ouv

rage des mères. (The future of children is the work of mothers.)

NAPOLEON (1769-1821).

Laver son linge sale en famille. (To wash one's dirty linen in private).

Derived from a speech (Jan. I, 1814) by NAPOLEON (1769-1821) to the Corps législatif in which he said: "est en famille, ce n'est pas en public, qu'on lave son linge sale." (... it is in private, not in public, that dirty linen is washed.)

La victoire sera au plus sage.

(Victory will belong to the wisest).

L.-A. THIERS (1797-1877), addressing the National Assembly, Mar. 27, 1877, said :-"Messieurs, je m'adresse à tous les partis indistinctement. Savez-vous à qui appartiendra la victoire? Au plus (Gentlemen, I am addressing myself to all parties without distinction. Do you know to whom victory will belong? To the

sage.

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*See Campenon, Essais de Mémoires etc., Ducis (1824) p. 79.

wisest).-Discours parlementaires, vol. 13, p. 143.

La

vieillesse est l'enfer des femmes. (Old age is woman's hell.)

Saying of NINON DE LENCLOS (1616-1705).

La vie n'est qu'un songe: le mien a été beau, mais il est court. (Life is but a dream; mine has been beautiful, but it is short.)

Dying words of MARSHAL SAXE (1696-1750) to his physician SENAC (1693-1770).

La vile multitude. (The vile crowd).

Phrase used by L.-A. THIers (1797-1877) in a speech in the National Assembly, May 24, 1850, to designate a class of vagabond citizens proposed to be eliminated from the list of voters.

Cf. "Learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude." E. Burke, On the French Revolution, (Bohn's Library ed., vol. 2, p. 351.) Le boulet qui doit me tuer n'est

pas encore fondu. (The bullet that is to kill me is not yet moulded).

NAPOLEON (1769-1821) at Montereau, in 1814. Charles V of Spain (1500-58) is said to have asked whether an emperor had ever been hit by a cannon ball.

Le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche. (The knight without fear and without reproach). Surname applied to the Chevalier Pierre du Terrail, SEIGNEUR DE BAYARD (1476-1524). Francis I after the battle of Marignan (1515) was, at his own request, knighted by Bayard.

Le citoyen Jésus Christ est le premier sans-culotte du monde ! (The citizen, Jesus Christ, is the first sans-culotte in the world!)

F. CHABOT (1759-94)—Sep. 7, 1793.

CAMILLE DESMOULINS (1762-94) April 3, 1794, when stating his age to the revolutionary tribunal said: J'ai l'âge du sans-culotte Jésus, trente-trois ans quand il mourut. (I am the age of the sans-culotte, Jesus, thirty-three years when he died.) The abbé Maury (17461817) at the Constituent Assembly asked the president to 'silence the sans-culottes.' (Th. Barrau, Histoire de la Révolution francaise, 1862, p. 134.) Robespierre (1758-94) jokingly applied the term to a women's club, founded by the actress Lacombe, when he proposed to have it closed. Another version of Desmoulin's reply is: "J'ai l'âge de Jésus quand il mourut, 33 ans." (I am the age of Jesus when he died, 33 years). —Derniers momens, p. 200.

Le Cléricalisme, voilà l'ennemi !

(Clericalism, there's the enemy!) Journal Officiel, May 5, 1877, p. 3284.

Concluding words of L. GAMBETTA'S (1838-81) speech in the French Chamber, May 4, 1877, quoting the phrase as being that of his friend Peyrat ALPHONSE PEYRAT, a journalist, who died 1891.

Le Congrès ne marche pas, mais

il danse. The Congress does not progress [walk], but it

*Term applied to the Republicans, because they wore trousers instead of kneebreeches.

Others say it was because the new legislators, mostly poor, had not a culotte

to wear.

dances). Journal des Débats, Feb. 5, 1861).

"Le

The PRINCE DE LIGNE (17351814)-alluding to the lively slowness of the Vienna Congress, which began Nov. 1814. Quoted by Jacob Grimm in a letter dated Nov. 23, 1814 (Briefwechs. d. Grimm, 1881) to his brother William as: Congrès danse beaucoup, mais il ne marche pas." (The Congress dances much, but it doesn't progress ;) and (in German) by Varnhagen of Ense (Galerie v. Bildnessen aus Rahels Umgang und Briefwechs, 1836, 1, 171) as: "Der Kongress tanzt wohl, aber geht nicht." (The Congress dances much, but it doesn't progress) after saying that festivities were more thought of at the Congress than the business on hand.

Le contentement voyage rare

ment avec la fortune, mais il suit la vertu jusque dans le malheur. (Contentment rarely accompanies fortune, but it follows virtue even in misfortune.)

Saying of MARIE LECZINSKÁ (1703-68) wife of Louis XV. Le couronnement de l'édifice.

(The crowning of the edifice). NAPOLEON III (1808-73) in a speech delivered Feb. 14, 1853, opening the parliamentary session at the Tuileries, said: "La liberté n'a jamais aidé à fonder d'édifice politique durable; elle le couronne quand le temps l'a consolidé." (Liberty has never helped to found any durable political edifice; it crowns it when time has consolidated it.) A letter (Jan. 1867) addressed to E. Rouher (1814-84) by the Emperor ends: "en achevant enfin le couronnement de l'édifice par la volonté nationale.' (... com. pleting at last the crowning of the edifice by the national will). The

words also occur in a letter from the Emperor to M. Émile Ollivier, dated Jan. 13, 1867. The phrase appears, however, to have originated with CAMILLE JORDAN (1771-1821). Cf. Vrai sens du Vote National sur le Consulat à vie, p. 46.

"Le crime fait la honte, et non

pas l'échafaud." (Crime makes the shame, and not the scaffold.) --Thomas Corneille, Le comte d'Essex, act iv, sc. 3.

LOTTE

Line quoted by MARIE-CHAR DE CORDAY D'ARMONT (1768-93) at the end of a letter of farewell to her father, after murdering J.-P. Marat (1744-93). Charlotte Corday was a descendant of Corneille.

Le diable m'emporte! laissez

les dire, mais qu'ils gardent l'honneur des dames. (The devil fly away with me! let them talk, only let them take care of the ladies' honour.)

Attributed to LOUIS XII (14621515) when complaint was made to him of the free language made use of by the Basochiens against his method of governing.

Le drapeau rouge n'a jamais fait que le tour du Champ-deMars, et le drapeau tricolore a fait le tour du monde. (The red flag has never made more than the circuit of the Champde-Mars and the tricolour has made the tour of the world.)

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du monde avec le nom, la gloire et la liberté de la patrie!" (... for the red flag that you bring us has, etc., dragged through the blood of the people in '91 and '93, and the tricolour etc., with the name, the glory, and the liberty of the country). -Lamartine, Hist. de la Révolution de 1848, bk. 7, ch. 27.

Le droit d'être vêtu simplement n'appartient pas à tout le monde. (The right to dress simply does not belong to everyone.)

Saying of NAPOLEON (1769-1821). Cf. the remark of HENRI DE NAVARRE after the battle of Coutras (1587) on seeing the brilliant costume of the duc de Joyeuse: Il ne convient qu'à des comédiens de tirer vanité des habits qu'ils portent. (It is only fitting for comedians to take pride in the clothes they wear).

Le génie n'est qu'une plus grande aptitude à la patience. (Genius is only a greater aptitude for patience.)-H. de Séchelles, Voyage à Montbar. An ix [1801] p. 15.

BUFFON (1707-88) in 1785, during a visit to him by H. de Séchelles (1760-94). Variously, but incorrectly quoted, as "Le génie n'est qu'une longue patience. Le génie, c'est la patience. Le génie n'est autre chose qu'une grande aptitude à la patience."-Cf. Notes and Queries, 9th S. xi, 373-4. "The good plan itself, this comes not of its own accord; it is the fruit of 'genius' (which means transcendant capacity of taking trouble, first of all):"-Carlyle, Hist. of Frederick the Great, bk. 4, ch. 3. "Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius."

Cf,

-Beacor.sfield, Contarini Fleming. Μελέτη τὸ πᾶν. (Care is everything). -Diogenes i, 7, 6, 99. PERIANDER (Al. B.C. 625).

Le gouvernement de France est une monarchie absolue tempérée par des chansons. (The government of France is an absolute monarchy tempered by songs).

Remark made to Chamfort (174194) by a witty person. (Cf. (Euvres choisies, A. Houssaye's edition, p. 800). Often quoted as: "La France est un gouvernement absolu, tempéré par des chansons." (France is an absolute government, etc.) The following lines at the end of Beaumarchais Mariage de Figaro, alluding to the people of France:

Cf.

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also Beaumarchais' Barbier de Séville, act. I, sc. 2. 'Aujourd'hui, ce qui ne vaut pas la peine d'être dit, on le chante. (Now-a-days, that which is not worth saying is sung). Cf. the remark by a Russian magnate to Count Munster, the Hanoverian minister, after the murder in 1801 of the Emperor Paul (17541801): "Le despotisme tempéré par l'assassinat, c'est notre Magna Charta." (Despotism tempered by assassination is our Magna Charta). See Liberalism is trust of the people tempered, etc.

Le gouvernement de l'ordre moral.' (The government of moral order).

Term applied to the government of Marshal MacMahon (1808-93) who was elected president, May 24, 1873. The words "l'ordre moral" occur in MacMahon's letter published in the Journal Officiel of May 25, 1873.

Le "grand Francais" (The "great Frenchman ").

Surname given to FERDINAND DE LESSEPS (1805-94) by LÉON GAMBETTA (1838-82) at a banquet in Paris, May 29, 1879, à propos of the Panama Canal.

Le juste milieu. (The golden mean.) Moniteur universel, Jan. 31, 1831, p. 1.

In a speech by LOUIS-PHILIPPE (1773-1850) in reply to an address from the town of Gaillac (Tarn) Jan. 29, 1831. "Nous chercherons "à nous tenir dans un juste milieu, également éloigné des excès du

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pouvoir populaire et des abus du pouvoir royal." (We shall seek to keep within an exact mean, equally removed from the excesses of popular power and the abuses of royal power). Bossuet, in his Traité du Libre Arbitre, ch. 4, vol. uses the

66

X, p. 115, also phrase. Cf. Pyrrhonisme. "L'extrême esprit est accusé de folie, "comme l'extrême folie. Rien que "la médiocrité n'est bon.. "C'est sortir de l'humanité que de "sortir du milieu: la grandeur de "l'âme humaine consiste à savoir "s'y tenir", etc. (Pyrrhonism.Extreme wit is accused of madness, like extreme madness. Nothing but mediocrity is good. Το

go beyond the mean is to go beyond humanity: the greatness of the human soul consists in knowing how to keep there, etc). - Pascal, Pensées, art 6, 17. "Illud quod medium est atque inter utrumque probamus." (That we approve which both extremes avoids).-Martial, Epigrams, I, 57 (58). "In medio tutissimus ibis" (A middle course is the safest)-Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, l. 137; also Horace, Odes, bk. 2, x, 5 (“aurea mediocritas"). The expression "golden mean occurs in Massinger's Great Duke

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