The Arcades Project - Operi

The Convention, organ of the sovereign people, aims to make mendicancy and
poverty disappear at a single stroke . ... It guarantees work for all citizens who
need it . ... Unfortunately, the section of the law that was designed specifically to
deal with mendicancy as a crime was more easily enforced than that which promised
the benefits of national generosity to the poor. Repressive measures were
taken, and they have remained within the letter as well as the spirit of the law,
whereas the system of charity that motivated and justified these measures has
never existed, except in the decrees of the Convention!" E. Buret, De la Misere des
classes laborieuses (Paris, 1840), vol. 1, pp. 222-224. Napoleon adopted the position
described here with his law of July 5, 1808; the law of the convention dates
from October 15, 1793. Those convicted three times of begging could expect deportation
for eight years to Madagascar. [a5,4]
Hippolyte Passy, ex-minister, in a letter addressed to the temperance society of
Amiens (see Le Temps, February 20, 1836): One is led to recognize that, however
meager the share of the poor might be, it is the art of applying that share to his real
needs, it is the capacity to encompass the future in his thoughts, that the poor man
lacks. His plight is due more to this lack than to any other." Cited in E. Buret, De
la Misere des classes laborieuses (Paris, 1840), vol. 1, p. 78. [a5a,1]
"There was a time, and it was not so long ago, when-all the while effusively
singing the praises of work-one never let on to the worker that the means by
which he derived his subsistence was not his freely willed labors but, in fact, a tax
levied on him by certain persons who fattened themselves by the sweat of his
brow . ... It is what is called the exploitation of man by man. Something of this
sinister and deceptive doctrine has remained in the songs of the street. . .. Work is
still spoken of with respect, but tIus respect has something forced about it, something
of a grimace . ... It is nevertheless true that tIus way of viewing work is an
exception. More often, it is praised like a law of nature, a pleasure, or a benefit . ..
Against the lazy let us always do battle­
Great enemies of our society.
For if they complain of sleeping on straw,
It is only what they deserve.
In our stockyards, our factories, our mills,
Let us answer the call at day's dawning;
While we work our prodigious machines,
Let us hymn a fraternal refrain . .. "
-Antoine Remy
Charles Nisard, Des Chansons populaires (Paris, 1867), vol. 2, pp. 265-267.
[05a,2J
"The fifteen years of the Restoration had been years of great agricultural and
industrial prosperity . ... If we leave aside Paris and the large cities, we see that
the institution of the press, along with the various electoral systems, engaged only
part of the nation, and the least numerous part: the bourgeoisie. lVlany in this