page 598
Jacques Peuchet (born 1760)
proceeded from belles lettres to medicine, from medicine to law, from law
to administration and the police. Before the outbreak of the French Revolution
he was working with Abbé Morellet on a Dictionnaire du commerce,
of which, however, only the prospectus was published, and at that time
he was occupied mainly with political economy and administration. Peuchet
was an adherent of the French Revolution for only a very short time; he
very soon turned to the royalist party, for a time held the editorship
of the Gazette de France and later even took over the notorious
royalist Mercure from Mallet du Pan. Nevertheless, he wound
his way very cleverly through the revolution, sometimes persecuted, sometimes
occupied in the Department of Administration and the Police. The Géographie
commerçante, 5 vol. in folio, which he published in 1800, attracted
the attention of Bonaparte, the First Consul, and he was appointed a member
of the Conseil de commerce et des arts.
Later he occupied a higher position in the administration under the ministry
of François de Neufchâteau. In 1814 the Restoration appointed
him censor. During the 100 days
[The Hundred Days is the second period of Napoleon’s rule, from his restoration
to the imperial throne on March 20 (after his return from the island of
Elba) to his second abdication on June 22, 1815, four days after his defeat
at Waterloo] he retired. At the restoration
of the Bourbons he was given the post of keeper of archives in the Paris
police prefecture, which he held until 1827. Peuchet was not without
influence, both directly and as a writer, on the speakers in the Constituent
Assembly, the Convention, the Tribunate, and the Chambers of Deputies under
the Restoration. The best known of his many, mostly economic, works apart
from the Geography of Commerce already referred to, is his statistics
of France [J. Peuchet, Statistique élémentaire de la France]
(1807).
Peuchet wrote his memoirs,
the materials for which he gathered partly from the Paris
police archives, partly from his long practical experience in police and
administration, as an old man and had them published only after his
death, so that in no circumstances can he be counted among the “hasty”
Socialists and Communists, who are known to lack so completely the marvellous
thoroughness and comprehensive knowledge of the general run of our writers,
officials and professional citizens.
Let us listen to our archive-keeper
of the Paris police prefecture on suicide!
The most cowardly, unresisting people become implacable as soon as they can exercise their absolute parental authority. The abuse of this authority is, as it were, a crude compensation for all the submissiveness and dependence to which they abase themselves willy-nilly in bourgeois society.
“Busybodies of both sexes came running to the scene and joined in the clamour.
The
feeling of shame caused by this abominable scene brought the child to the
decision to
take her own life. She hurried downstairs, through the crowd of the abusive
and
swearing neighbours; her eyes clouded with madness,” she rushed to the
Seine “and
threw herself into the river. Boatmen brought her out of the water, dead,
still in her
wedding finery. Needless to say, those who at first had shouted against
the daughter
at once turned against her parents; this catastrophe frightened their empty
souls. A
few days later the parents came to the police to claim a golden chain which
the child
had worn round her neck, a present from the future father-in-law, a silver
watch and
various other small pieces of jewellery, all of which had been deposited
with the
police. I did not fail to reproach these people energetically for their
stupidity and
barbarity. To say to these mad people that they would have to render account
to God
would have made very little impression on them in view of their egoistic
prejudices
and the peculiar kind of religiosity which prevails in the lower mercantile
classes.
“Greed had brought them to me, not the desire to possess two or three keepsakes;
I
thought I could punish them through their greed. They were claiming their
daughter’s
jewels; I refused these to them; I kept the certificates which they needed
to reclaim
these effects from the office where they had been deposited according to
custom. So
long as I held this post, their claims were in vain, and I found pleasure
in defying their
insults.
“In the same year there appeared in my office a young creole of attractive
appearance
Page 606
from one of the richest families of Martinique. He objected most emphatically
to the
handing over of the corpse of a young woman, his sister-in-law, to the
claimant, his
own brother and her husband. She had drowned herself. This kind of suicide
is the
commonest. Her body had been found not far from the Grève d'Argenteuil
by the
officials employed to recover corpses. From one of the well-known instincts
of
modesty which prevail in women even in the blindest despair, the drowned
woman
had wound the seam of her skirt carefully round her feet. This modest precaution
proved her suicide beyond doubt. As soon as she had been found she was
taken to
the morgue. Her beauty, her youth, her rich apparel gave rise to a thousand
speculations as to the cause of this catastrophe. The despair of her husband,
who was
the first to identify her, was boundless; he did not fathom this calamity,
at least so I
was told. I myself had not seen him before. I put it to the creole that
the claims of the
husband had precedence over all others; he was already having a magnificent
marble
tombstone erected for his unfortunate wife. ‘After he has killed her, the
monster!’
shouted the creole, rushing to and fro in his rage.
“From the excitement and despair of this young man, from his urgent pleading
to grant
his request, from his tears, I believed I could conclude that he was in
love with her,
and I told him so. He admitted his love; but with the most ardent assurances
that his
sister-in-law had never known of it. He swore to that. He wanted to bring
to light the
barbarities of his brother, even if it meant putting himself in the dock,
only to save the
reputation of his sister-in-law, whose suicide public opinion would, as
usual, attribute
to an intrigue. He begged me for my support. What I could gather from his
fragmentary, passionate declarations was this: Monsieur de M.... his brother,
rich and
a connoisseur of the arts, a friend of luxury and high society, had ‘married
this young
woman about a year earlier, apparently from mutual inclination; they were
the most
beautiful couple you could see. After the marriage a blood defect, perhaps
hereditary,
in the constitution of the young husband had broken out suddenly and violently.
Formerly so proud of his handsome appearance and his elegant figure, an
excellence, a
matchless perfection of form, this man suddenly fell a prey to an unknown
scourge
against whose devastations science was powerless; from head to foot he
was most
horribly disfigured. He had lost all his hair, his spine had grown crooked.
Day by day
emaciation and wrinkles changed him most strikingly, at least for others;
for his
self-love tried to deny the obvious. Yet all this did not make him take
to his bed; an
iron strength seemed to triumph over the attacks of the scourge. He vigorously
survived his own ruination. His body became a wreck, and his soul remained
buoyant.
He continued to give banquets, to preside over hunting parties and to lead
the rich
and magnificent way of life which seemed to be the law of his character
and his nature.
But the insults, the jibes, the taunts of schoolboys and street urchins
when he
exercised his horse in the promenades, the rude and mocking laughter, solicitous
warnings of friends about the countless occasions on which he exposed himself
to
ridicule by insisting on gallant manners towards ladies, eventually dispelled
his
illusion and made him cautious about himself. As soon as he admitted to
himself his
ugliness and deformity, as soon as he was conscious of it, his character
became
embittered; he became dejected. He seemed less keen on taking his wife
to parties, to
balls, to concerts; he fled to his country residence; he put an end to
all invitations,
avoided people under a thousand pretexts, and the compliments his friends
paid to his
wife, which he had tolerated as long as his pride gave him the certainty
of his
superiority, made him jealous, suspicious and violent. He detected in all
who insisted
on visiting him the firm resolve to conquer the heart of his wife, who
was his last pride
and his last consolation. At this time the creole arrived from Martinique
with business
whose success seemed to be
Page 607
favoured
by the restoration of the Bourbons to the
French throne. His sister-in-law received him with cordiality, and in the
shipwreck of
innumerable connections which she had contracted the newcomer preserved
the
advantage which his title of brother quite naturally gave him with Monsieur
de M....
The creole foresaw the loneliness which would surround the household both
as a
result of the direct quarrels which his brother had with several of his
friends and
through a thousand indirect incidents which drove away and discouraged
visitors.
Without being clearly aware of the motives of love which made him jealous
too, the
creole approved these measures of isolation and encouraged them by his
own advice.
Monsieur de M... finished up by withdrawing entirely into a beautiful house
in Passy,
which in a short time became a desert. jealousy feeds on the smallest things;
when it
does not know whereon to fasten, it turns against itself and becomes inventive;
everything serves to sustain it. Perhaps the young woman longed for the
pleasures of
her age. Walls obstructed the view of neighbouring residences; the shutters
were
closed from morning to night.”
The unfortunate wife was sentenced to the most intolerable slavery, and this slavery was only enforced by Monsieur de M... on the basis of the Code civil and the right of property, on the basis of social conditions which render love independent of the free sentiments of the lovers and allow the jealous husband to surround his wife with locks as the miser does his coffers; for she is only a part of his inventory.
“At night Monsieur de M... prowled round the house armed, making his rounds
with
dogs. He imagined he saw tracks in the sand and was misled into strange
suspicions
on the occasion of a ladder having been moved by a gardener. The gardener
himself, a
drunkard of almost 60, was placed as guard at the gate. The spirit of exclusion
knows
no bounds to its extravagances, it goes on to the absurd. The brother,
innocent
accomplice in all this, at last understood that he was assisting in making
the
misfortune of the young woman who, day by day kept under guard, insulted,
bereft of
everything which can divert a rich and happy imagination, became as gloomy
and
melancholy as she had been free and gay. She cried and concealed her tears,
but their
traces were visible. The creole was plagued by his conscience. Determined
to declare
himself openly to his sister-in-law and to make amends for his mistake,
which had
surely originated in his furtive feeling of love, he crept one morning
into a small
wooded pleasure garden where the Prisoner went from time to time to get
fresh air and
look after her flowers. We must take it that availing herself of this very
limited freedom
she knew that she remained under the eyes of her jealous husband; for on
seeing her
brother-in-law, who for the first time had come face to face with her unexpectedly,
the
young woman displayed the greatest dismay. She wrung her hands. ‘Go away,
in
heaven’s name,’ she cried to him in fright, ‘go away!'
“And indeed, scarcely had he time to hide in a greenhouse, when Monsieur
de M...
suddenly appeared’. The creole heard cries, he tried to listen; the beating
of his heart
prevented him from understanding the least word of an explanation to which
his
concealment, should the husband discover it, could give a deplorable outcome.
This
event spurred on the brother-in-law; he saw the need henceforth to be the
protector of
a victim. He resolved to abandon all restraint of his love. Love can sacrifice
everything
but its right to protect, for this last sacrifice would he that of a coward.
He continued
to visit his brother, ready to speak to him openly, to
page 608
reveal
himself to him, to tell him
everything. Monsieur de M... had as yet no suspicion of him, but his brother’s
insistence aroused it. Without being entirely clear on the causes of this
interest,
Monsieur de M... mistrusted them, anticipating where it might lead. The
creole soon
saw .hat his brother was not always absent, as he afterwards maintained,
when people
rang in vain at the gate of the house in Passy. A locksmith’s apprentice
made him keys
after the models of those which his master had made for Monsieur de M....
After an
interval of ten days, the creole, embittered by fear and tormented by the
maddest
imaginings, climbed the walls at night, smashed a railing in front of the
main Yard,
reached the roof by a ladder and slid down the drain-pipe to below the
window of a
store-room. Violent cries caused him to creep unnoticed as far as a glass
door. What
he saw rent his heart. The light of a lamp shone in an alcove. Behind the
bed-curtains,
hair dishevelled and face purple with fury, Monsieur de M.... crouching
half-naked
near his wife on the bed which she dared not leave though half and half
wresting
herself from him, was heaping on her the most biting reproaches and seemed
like a
tiger ready to tear her to pieces. ‘Yes,’ he said to her, ‘I am ugly, I
am a monster and, I
know it only too well, I inspire fear in you. You wish to be freed of me
so that the sight
of me may no longer he a burden to you. You are longing for the moment
which will
make you free. And don’t tell me the opposite, I guess your thoughts in
your fright
and your resistance. You blush at the unworthy laughter which I arouse,
you inwardly
rebel against met You no doubt count the minutes, one by one, which must
elapse
until I no longer beleaguer you with my weaknesses and my presence. Stop!
I am
seized with horrible desires, the frenzied wish to make you like myself,
to disfigure
you, so that you can no longer hope to console yourself with lovers for
the misfortune
of having known me. I shall break all the mirrors in this house so that
they shall not
reproach me with the contrast, so that they cease to nurture your pride.
Perhaps I
should take you out into the world, or let you go there, to see how everybody
encourages you to hate me? No, no, you shall not leave this house until
you have
killed me. Kill me, anticipate what I am tempted to do every day!’ And
the savage
rolled on the bed with loud cries, gnashing his teeth, foaming at the mouth,
with a
thousand symptoms of madness, and striking himself in his fury, near this
unfortunate
woman who wasted on him the tenderest caresses and the most pathetic entreaties.
At
last she calmed him. No doubt, pity had replaced love, but that was not
enough for
this man who had become so terrible to look at, whose passion had retained
so much
energy. A long spell of depression was the sequel to this scene, which
petrified the
creole. He shuddered and did not know to whom to rum to save the unfortunate
woman from this deadly martyrdom. This scene was apparently repeated every
day,
since for the convulsions which followed Madame de M. had recourse to bottles
of
medicine prepared for the purpose of restoring a little calm to her torturer.
“The creole was the only representative of the family of Monsieur de M.
in Paris at the
time. It is in such cases above all that one wants to curse the slowness
of judicial
procedure and the callousness of the laws which nothing can divert from
their nicely
arranged routine, particularly when it is a question only of a woman, a
being whom the
legislator surrounds with the least guarantees. A warrant for an arrest,
some drastic
measure, would alone have prevented the disaster which the witness of this
madness
foresaw too well. He decided, however, to risk everything, to take all
consequences
upon himself, since his wealth enabled him to make enormous sacrifices
and not to
fear responsibility for any risk involved. Already several doctors among
his friends,
determined like himself, were preparing to obtain entrance into Monsieur
de M.’s
house so as to diagnose these fits of madness and to separate the two spouses
by
direct force, when the occurrence of the suicide justified the belated
preparations and
put an end to the problem.
page 609
“Certainly, for anybody who does not limit the entire spirit of words to
their letter, this
suicide was a treacherous murder committed by the husband; but it
was also the
outcome of an extraordinary fit of jealousy. The jealous man needs a slave,
the jealous
man can love, but the love he feels is only a luxurious counterpart for
jealousy; the
jealous man is above all a private property-owner. [This
sentence was taken by Marx
from the description of another case of suicide given by Peuchet below
(cf. t. IV, p.
159).] I prevented the creole from
making a useless and dangerous scandal, dangerous
above all to the memory of his loved one, for the idle public would have
accused the
victim of an adulterous connection with her husband’s brother. I witnessed
the
funeral. Nobody but the brother and myself knew the truth. Around me I
heard
discreditable murmurings about this suicide and I despised them. One blushes
for
public opinion when one sees it close at hand with its cowardly embitterment
and its
dirty insinuations. Opinion is too much divided by people’s isolation,
too ignorant,
too corrupt, because each is a stranger to himself and all are strangers
to one another.
[The last sentence is taken by Marx from the description of another case
of suicide
given by Peuchet below (cf. t. IV, p. 167), Marx gave a free rendering
and added the
concluding words: “because each is a stranger to himself and all are strangers
to one
another."]
“Incidentally, few weeks passed without bringing me more revelations of
the same kind, In the same year I registered love liaisons caused by the
parents’
refusal to give their consent, and which ended with a double pistol shot.
“I also recorded suicides of men of the world reduced to impotence in the
flowering of
their age, whom the abuse of enjoyment had thrown into insuperable melancholy.
“Many people, after long and useless torture by harmful prescriptions,
end their days
dominated by the belief that medicine is incapable of freeing them from
their ills.
“One could make a remarkable collection of quotations from famous authors
and of
poems written by despairing people preparing for their death with a certain
ostentation. During the marvellously cold-blooded moment which follows
the decision
to die, a kind of infectious enthusiasm is exhaled from these souls and
flows on to
paper, even among classes which are bereft of all education. While they
compose
themselves for the sacrifice, whose depth they are pondering, all their
strength is
concentrated so as to gush out in a warm and characteristic expression.
“Some of these poems, which are buried in the archives, are masterpieces.
A
ponderous bourgeois, who puts his soul into his business and his god into
commerce,
may find all this very romantic and by his scornful laughter deny suffering
which he
does not understand: his disdain does not surprise us.”
What else can one expect of three-percenters, who do not even suspect that daily, hourly, piece by piece, they are murdering themselves, their human nature!
“But what shall one say of the good people who pass for devout and educated,
and
who echo such filth? Without doubt it is of great importance that the poor
devils
should endure life, if only in the interests of the privileged classes
of this world, which
a general suicide of the trash would ruin; but is there no other means
of making the
existence of this class bearable than insults, sneers and fine words? Besides,
there
must exist a certain greatness of soul in these wretches who, determined
as they are to
die, destroy themselves and do not take the way of suicide by the detour
of the
scaffold. It is true that, the more our commercial
page 610
Thus far Peuchet.
In conclusion
we shall give one of his tables on the annual suicides in Paris [Peuchet
writes “in the Seine
Department"].
From another
of the tables given by Peuchet we learn that from 1817 to 1824
(inclusive) 2,808 suicides
occurred in Paris.’ Actually, of course, the figure was larger. In
particular, as regards
drowned persons whose bodies are exhibited in the morgue it is
known in only very rare
cases whether they were suicides or not.
Table of Suicides in Paris in the year 1824
Number 1st half year ---------------198
Number 2nd half year ---------------173
Total ------------------------------371
Of whom the attempt at suicide was survived by ----------125
Of whom the attempt at suicide was not survived by ------
246
Of the male sex ------------------------------------------239
Of the female sex ----------------------------------------132
Unmarried ------------------------------------------------207
Married ------------------------------------------------
164
Manner of Death
Voluntary heavy fall -------------------------------------
47
Strangulation -------------------------------------
-------38
By cutting instruments----------------------------
--------40
By firearms -------------------------------------
--------42
By poisoning ----------------------------------
-------- 28
By coal fumes ---------------------------------
-------- 61
Suffocation by voluntary plunge into water ----
-------- 115
Motives
Passionate love, domestic quarrels and grief --
-----------71
Illness, weariness of life, unsound mind -----------
-------128
Misbehaviour, gaming, lotteries, fear of accusations and
punishments ---------------------------------
----------- 53
Misery, poverty, loss of position, loss of job --
----------- 59
Unknown ---------------------------------
--------------- 60