Histoire des Insurrections de l'Ouest by Leon DubreuilThe American Historical Review, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Oct., 1930), pp. 132-133Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1837650 .

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132 Reviews of Books

followed closely the degree of fear of famine. It is likely that what seems to be the decline of the assignat is really a rise in prices of food stuffs. Varying degrees of scarcity could account for many of the regional differences in the value of the assignat. Certainly on the basis of his somewhat sketchy index price, it is hard to follow Dr. Harris in his conclusion that " Caron's conviction as to the rather secondary in- fluence of everything but the price of gold and silver in Paris does not appear to be well founded ".

As Ihistory, the treatment is not fully worked out. The chapter on "The Control of Prices and Supplies ", made up of the strongest col- lection of data I know of on the relation between economic doctrine and party cleavage in the Convention, is nevertheless, unorganized. Other efforts to solve the problem are ignored. Aulard's story of the payment of the American debt should have been used; it would at least have saved the author the absurd statement that the Americans had paid four-fifths of their debt by December, I79I. It would also have made clearer the mechanism by which the American exchange was kept above the general level. The fear of famine was an old and familiar fear in France; but I have yet to find adequate evidence that any large number of people actually starved to death after I789, as they did frequently enough before I750.

The University of lfyoming. F. L. NUSSBAUM.

Histoire des Insurrections de l'Ouest. Par LEoN DUBREUIL. Tome I. [Manuels d'Histoire Moderne.] (Paris: Rieder. I929.

Pp. 328. 30 fr.) FOR most readers of the French Revolution the struggle in La Vendee

recalls hardly more than names of epic heroes, La Rochejaquelein, Charette, D'Elbee, and of epic villains like Carrier, with his fusillades and noyades. The region is not often visited by the tourist, and its villages and towns possess a confusing fluidity of location. It is probably the relation of the struggle to the disasters of the Church during the Revo- lution that continually prompts reexamination of the problems. Leon Dubreuil proposes to devote two volumes to the question, of which the first has now appeared. He has been one of the most useful of the group associated in the studies of the economic history of the Revolution. Among other works he has edited two volumes on the Vicissitudes du Domaine Conge'able en Basse-Bretagne and one on the Vente des Biens Nationacux dans le De'partement du Nord. He wisely begins his treatment with a geographical study of the whole region, for he holds that topog- raphy had something to do with the reactionary or conservative attitude of the Vendean peasant. Adopting the view of Professor Mathiez that the Church could have " baptized " the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, he blames the nonjuring priests for the growth of the rebellious spirit in the West. This gave the nobles like the Marquis de la Rouairie recruits for their counter-revolutionary armies. Rouairie himself, who, by the way, fought in the War of American Independence, did not live to see

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Fiirstenbriefe ant Napoleon I I33

the armies move, but M. Dubreuil shows that he had worked out a very complete technique of insurrection. One fact that M. Dubreuil brings out clearly is that the attempt of the Convention to raise three hundred thousand volunteers in February, 1793, was not the cause of the Vendean wars. There had been outbreaks much earlier, one before the king was overthrown. The call for men and the measures taken to enforce it did offer the occasion, and the seizure of Rouairie's papers revealed the names of many noble conspirators and gave them the alternative of rising at once or fleeing the country.

Apropos of nonjuring priests, M. Dubreuil shows that the Legislative Assembly in passing a bill providing that they should be removed from their former parishes and forced to reside in the capital of the department was applying a remedy for the growth of fanaticism and disorder which the western departmental directories had begun to use nearly a year before. It was not the Paris Jacobins that took the initiative but the authorities on the spot, often themselves practicing Catholics.

In the first part of the volume which deals with the origins of the insurrection the author displays an admirable objectivity of view, but when he comes to describe the actual campaigning and the furious quarrels which destroyed the efficiency of the " Blues " as well as of the " Whites " he does not escape the tone of partisanship. He sneers at the conviction of the Aulard school of historians that Philippeaux was a "brave et loyal representant" and remarks in connection with Carrier's arrival at Nantes on October 7 that to him " allait revenir l'honneur de seconder les troupes republicaines au cours de cette campagne dont le resultat sera de jeter les Vendeens hors de la Vendee ". It is only with the second volume that we shall know how far this attitude of apology and approvRl of Carrier goes. To turn to the "Whites ", one of the strangest things was their inability in this deadly struggle to attain anything like unity of plan. Charette seemed always playing a " lone hand ". Another strange phe- nomenon was the thorough-going democratic organization of the Ven- deans. An element of comedy is added in the r6le of the Abbe Guillot de Folleville, pseudo-bishop of Agra.

Fiirstenbriefe an Napoleon I. Herausgegeben von FRIEDRICH M. KIRCHEISEN. Band I., Deutsche Fiirsten und Fiirstinnen. Band II., Ausserdeutsche Fiirsten und Fiirstinnen, Fiirsten und Fur- stinnien aus dent Hause Bonaparte. (Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta'sche. I929. PP. xi, 36I; xvii, 384. I4 M.) IN placing before us this collection of letters addressed to Napoleon

by members of the European dynasties, one of the most eminent of Ger- man authorities upon Napoleonic history may be said to have broken new ground. The appearance of the Correspondarnce de Napoleon Ier and the succeeding shoals of Lettres ine'dits and Derniers lettres inedits would seem to justify the assumption that only a negligible number of his writ- ings, in as far as they exist, still remain out of print. This of course

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