THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
[Sidenote: Reforms proposed by Calonne.]
218. It was necessary, in order to avoid ruin, Calonne claimed, "to
reform everything vicious in the state." He proposed, therefore, to
reduce the _taille_, reform the salt tax, do away with the interior
customs lines, correct the abuses of the guilds, etc. But the chief
reform, and by far the most difficult one, was to force the privileged
classes to surrender their important exemptions from taxation. He hoped,
however, that if certain concessions were made to them they might be
brought to consent to a land tax to be paid by all alike. So he proposed
to the king that he should summon an assembly of persons prominent in
church and state, called _Notables_, to ratify certain changes which
would increase the prosperity of the country and give the treasury money
enough to meet the necessary expenses.
[Sidenote: Summoning of the Notables, 1786.]
The summoning of the Notables in 1786 was really a revolution in itself.
It was a confession on the part of the king that he found himself in a
predicament from which he could not escape without the aid of his
people. The Notables whom he selected--bishops, archbishops, dukes,
judges, high government officials--were practically all members of the
privileged classes; but they still represented the nation, after a
fashion, as distinguished from the king's immediate circle of courtiers.
At any rate it proved an easy step from calling the Notables to
summoning the ancient Estates General, and that, in its turn, speedily
became a modern representative body.
[Sidenote: Calonne denounces the abuses.]
In his opening address Calonne gave the Notables an idea of the sad
financial condition of the country. The government was running behind
some forty million dollars a year. He could not continue to borrow, and
economy, however strict, would not suffice to cover the deficit. "What,
then," he asked, "remains to fill this frightful void and enable us to
raise the revenue to the desired level? _The Abuses!_ Yes, gentlemen,
the abuses offer a source of wealth which the state should appropriate,
and which should serve to reëstablish order in the finances.... The
abuses which must now be destroyed for the welfare of the people are the
most important and the best guarded of all, the very ones which have the
deepest roots and the most spreading branches. For example, those which
weigh on the laboring classes, the pecuniary privileges, exceptions to
the law which should be common to all, and many an unjust exemption
which can only relieve certain taxpayers by embittering the condition of
others; the general want of uniformity in the assessment of the taxes
and the enormous difference which exists between the contributions of
different provinces and of the subjects of the same sovereign; the
severity and arbitrariness in the collection of the _taille_; the
apprehensions, embarrassment, almost dishonor, associated with the trade
in breadstuffs; the interior custom-houses and barriers which make the
various parts of the kingdom like foreign countries to one another
...,"--all these evils, which public-spirited citizens had long
deprecated, Calonne proposed to do away with forthwith.
[Sidenote: Calonne and the Notables dismissed.]
The Notables, however, had no confidence in Calonne, and refused to
ratify his programme of reform. The king then dismissed him and soon
sent them home, too (May, 1787). Louis XVI then attempted to carry
through some of the more pressing financial reforms in the usual way by
sending them to the _parlements_ to be registered.
[Sidenote: The _parlement_ of Paris refuses to register new taxes and
calls for the Estates General.]
219. The _parlement_ of Paris resolved, as usual, to make the king's
ministry trouble and gain popularity for itself. This time it resorted
to a truly extraordinary measure. It not only refused to register two
new taxes which the king desired, but asserted that "_Only the nation
assembled in the Estates General can give the consent necessary to the
establishment of a permanent tax_." "Only the nation," the _parlement_
continued, "after it has learned the true state of the finances can
destroy the great abuses and open up important resources." This
declaration was followed in a few days by the humble request that the
king assemble the Estates General of his kingdom.
The refusal of the _parlement_ to register the new taxes led to one of
the old struggles between it and the king's ministers. A compromise was
arranged in the autumn of 1787; the _parlement_ agreed to register a
great loan, and the king pledged himself to assemble the Estates General
within five years. In the early months of 1788 many pamphlets appeared,
criticising the system of taxation and the unjust privileges and
exemptions enjoyed by a few of the citizens to the detriment of the
great mass of the nation.
[Sidenote: The _parlement_ of Paris protests against the 'reform' of the
judicial system.]
Suddenly the _parlement_ of Paris learned that the king's ministers were
planning to put an end to its troublesome habit of opposing their
measures. The ministers proposed to remodel the whole judicial system
and take from the courts the right to register new decrees and
consequently the right to protest. This the _parlement_ loudly
proclaimed was in reality a blow at the nation itself. The ministers
were attacking the court simply because it had acknowledged its lack of
power to grant new taxes and had requested the king to assemble the
representatives of the nation. The ministers, it claimed, were bent upon
establishing an out-and-out despotism in which there should no longer be
any check whatever on the arbitrary power of the king.
[Sidenote: Protests from the provinces.]
Some of the provinces became very apprehensive when they learned that
the king proposed to take from the local _parlements_ the right to
examine edicts before registering them. Might not the tyrannically
inclined ministers proceed to make new laws for the whole realm and
ignore the special privileges which the king had pledged himself to
maintain when Brittany, Dauphiny, Bearn, and other important provinces
were originally added to France? The cause of the _parlements_ became in
this way the cause of the people.
[Sidenote: The Estates General summoned.]
Meanwhile the ministers were becoming very hard pressed for funds to
meet the regular expenses of the government. The _parlements_ had not
only refused to register taxes but had done everything that they could
to embarrass the ministers and destroy the confidence of those who might
otherwise have lent money to the government. There seemed no other
resort except to call the representatives of the people together. The
Estates General were accordingly summoned to meet on May 1, 1789.
[Sidenote: General ignorance in regard to the Estates General.]
[Sidenote: The old system of voting by classes in the Estates General.]
220. It was now discovered that no one knew much about this body of
which every one was talking, for it had not met since 1614. The king
accordingly issued a general invitation to scholars to find out all they
could about the customs observed in the former meetings of the Estates.
The public naturally became very much interested in a matter which
touched them so closely, and there were plenty of readers for the
pamphlets which now began to appear in greater numbers than ever before.
The old Estates General had been organized in a way appropriate enough
to the feudal conditions under which they originated.[393] All three of
the estates of the realm--clergy, nobility, and third estate--each sent
an equal number of representatives, who were expected to consider not
the interests of the nation but the special interests of the particular
social class to which they respectively belonged. Accordingly, the
deputies of the three estates did not sit together, or vote as a single
body. The members of each group first came to an agreement among
themselves and then a single vote was cast for the whole order.
[Sidenote: Objections to this system.]
It was natural that this system should seem preposterous to the average
Frenchman in 1788. If the estates should be convoked according to the
ancient forms, the two privileged classes would be entitled to twice the
number of representatives allotted to the other twenty-five million
inhabitants of France. What was much worse, it seemed impossible that
any important reforms could be adopted in an assembly where those who
had every selfish reason for opposing the most necessary changes were
given two votes out of three. Necker, whom the king had recalled in the
hope that he might succeed in adjusting the finances, agreed that the
third estate might have as many deputies as both the other orders put
together, namely six hundred, but he would not consent to having the
three orders sit and vote together like a modern representative body.
[Sidenote: The _cahiers_.]
Besides the great question as to whether the deputies should vote by
head or by order, the pamphlets discussed what reforms the Estates
should undertake.[394] We have, however, a still more interesting and
important expression of public opinion in France at this time, in the
_cahiers_,[395] or lists of grievances and suggestions for reform which,
in pursuance of an old custom, the king asked the nation to prepare.
Each village and town throughout France had an opportunity to tell quite
frankly exactly what it suffered from the existing system, and what
reforms it wished that the Estates General might bring about. These
_cahiers_[396] were the "last will and testament" of the old régime, and
they constitute a unique historical document, of unparalleled
completeness and authenticity. No one can read the _cahiers_ without
seeing that the whole nation was ready for the great transformation
which within a year was to destroy a great part of the social and
political system under which the French had lived for centuries.
[Sidenote: Desire of the nation for a constitutional, instead of an
absolute, monarchy.]
Almost all the _cahiers_ agreed that the prevailing disorder and the
vast and ill-defined powers of the king and his ministers were perhaps
the fundamental evils. One of the _cahiers_ says: "Since arbitrary power
has been the source of all the evils which afflict the state, our first
desire is the establishment of a really national constitution, which
shall define the rights of all and provide the laws to maintain them."
No one dreamed at this time of displacing the king or of taking the
government out of his hands. The people only wished to change an
absolute monarchy into a limited, or constitutional, one. All that was
necessary was that the things which the government might _not_ do should
be solemnly and irrevocably determined and put upon record, and that the
Estates General should meet periodically to grant the taxes, give the
king advice in national crises, and expostulate, if necessary, against
any violations of the proposed charter of liberties.[397]
[Sidenote: The Estates General meet May 5, 1789.]
[Sidenote: The representatives of the third estate declare themselves a
'National Assembly.']
221. With these ideas in mind, the Estates assembled in Versailles and
held their first session on May 5, 1789. The king had ordered the
deputies to wear the same costumes that had been worn at the last
meeting of the Estates in 1614; but no royal edict could call back the
spirit of earlier centuries. In spite of the king's commands the
representatives of the third estate refused to organize themselves in
the old way as a separate order. They sent invitation after invitation
to the deputies of the clergy and nobility, requesting them to join the
people's representatives and deliberate in common on the great interests
of the nation. Some of the more liberal of the nobles--Lafayette, for
example--and a large minority of the clergy wished to meet with the
deputies of the third estate. But they were outvoted, and the deputies
of the third estate, losing patience, finally declared themselves, on
June 17, a "National Assembly." They argued that, since they
represented at least ninety-six per cent of the nation, the deputies of
the privileged orders might be neglected altogether. This usurpation of
power on the part of the third estate transformed the old feudal
Estates, voting by orders, into the first modern national representative
assembly on the continent of Europe.
[Sidenote: The 'Tennis-Court' oath.]
Under the influence of his courtiers the king tried to restore the old
system by arranging a solemn joint session of the three orders, at which
he presided in person. He presented a long programme of excellent
reforms, and then bade the Estates sit apart, according to the old
custom. But it was like bidding water to run up hill. Three days before,
when the commons had found themselves excluded from their regular place
of meeting on account of the preparations for the royal session, they
had betaken themselves to a neighboring building called the "Tennis
Court." Here, on June 20, they took the famous "Tennis-Court" oath, "to
come together wherever circumstances may dictate, until the constitution
of the kingdom shall be established." They were emboldened in their
purpose to resist all schemes to frustrate a general reform by the
support of over half of the deputies of the clergy, who joined them the
day before the royal session.
[Sidenote: The nobility and clergy forced to join the third estate.]
Consequently, when the king finished his address and commanded the three
orders to disperse immediately in order to resume their separate
sessions, most of the bishops, some of the parish priests, and a great
part of the nobility obeyed; the rest sat still, uncertain what they
should do. When the master of ceremonies ordered them to comply with the
king's commands, Mirabeau, the most distinguished statesman among the
deputies, told him bluntly that they would not leave their places except
at the point of the bayonet. The weak king almost immediately gave in
and a few days later ordered all the deputies of the privileged orders
who had not already done so to join the commons.
[Sidenote: The fall of the Bastille, July 14, 1789.]
222. The National Assembly now began in earnest the great task of
preparing a constitution and regenerating France. It was soon
interrupted, however, by events at Paris. The king had been advised by
those about him to gather together the Swiss and German troops who
formed the royal guard, so that if he decided to send the insolent
deputies home he would be able to put down any disorder which might
result. He was also induced to dismiss Necker, who enjoyed a popularity
that he had done little to merit. When the people of Paris saw the
troops gathering and when they heard of the dismissal of Necker, there
was general excitement and some disorder.
[Illustration: Mirabeau]
On July 14 crowds of people assembled, determined to procure arms to
protect themselves and mayhap to perform some daring "deed of
patriotism." One of the bands, led by the old Parisian guards, turned to
the ancient fortress of the Bastile, on the parapets of which guns had
been mounted which made the inhabitants of that part of the city very
nervous. The castle had long had a bad reputation as a place of
confinement for prisoners of state and for those imprisoned by _lettres
de cachet_. When the mob demanded admission, it was naturally denied
them, and they were fired upon and nearly a hundred were killed. After a
brief, courageous attack the place was surrendered, and the mob rushed
into the gloomy pile. They found only seven prisoners, but one poor
fellow had lost his wits and another had no idea why he had been kept
there for years. The captives were freed amidst great enthusiasm, and
the people soon set to work to demolish the walls.
[Sidenote: Formation of the 'national guard.']
The actual occurrences of this celebrated day were soon "disfigured and
transfigured by legends," and the anniversary of the fall of the Bastile
is still celebrated as the great national holiday of France.[398] The
rising of the people to protect themselves against the machinations of
the king's associates who, it was believed, wished to block reform, and
the successful attack on a monument of ancient tyranny appeared to be
the opening of a new era of freedom. The disorders of these July days
led to the formation of the "national guard." This was made up of
volunteers from among the more prosperous citizens, who organized
themselves to maintain order and so took from the king every excuse for
calling in the regular troops for that purpose. Lafayette was put in
command of this body.
[Sidenote: Establishment of communes in Paris and other cities.]
The government of Paris was reorganized, and a mayor, chosen from among
the members of the National Assembly, was put at the head of the new
_commune_, as the municipal government was called. The other cities of
France also began with one accord, after the dismissal of Necker and the
fall of the Bastile, to promote the Revolution by displacing or
supplementing their old royal or aristocratic governments by committees
of their citizens. These improvised communes, or city governments,
established national guards, as Paris had done, and thus maintained
order. The news that the king had approved the Paris revolution
confirmed the opinion that the citizens of other cities had done right
in taking the control into their own hands. We shall hear a good deal of
the commune of Paris later, as it played a very important rôle in the
Reign of Terror.
[Sidenote: Disorder in the country districts.]
By the end of the month of July the commotion reached the country
districts. A curious panic swept over the land, which the peasants long
remembered as "the great fear." A mysterious rumor arose that the
"brigands" were coming! The terrified people did what they could to
prepare for the danger; neighboring communities combined with one
another for mutual protection. When the panic was over and people saw
that there were no brigands after all, they turned their attention to an
enemy by no means imaginary, i.e., the old régime. The peasants
assembled on the village common or in the parish church and voted to pay
the feudal dues no longer. The next step was to burn the castles of the
nobles in order to destroy the records of the peasants' obligations to
their feudal lords.[399]
[Sidenote: The decree abolishing the survivals of serfdom and feudalism,
August, 1789.]
223. About the first of August news began to reach the National Assembly
of the serious disorders in the provinces. This led to the first
important reforms of the Assembly. A momentous decree abolishing the
survivals of serfdom and feudalism was passed in a night session (August
4-5) amid great excitement, the representatives of the privileged orders
vying with each other in surrendering their ancient privileges. The
exclusive right of the nobility to hunt and to maintain pigeon houses
was abolished, and the peasant was permitted to kill game which he found
on his land. The president of the Assembly was "commissioned to ask the
king to recall those persons who had been sent to the galleys or exiled
simply for the violation of the hunting regulations." The tithes of the
church were done away with. Exemptions from the payment of taxes were
abolished forever. It was decreed that "taxes shall be collected from
all citizens and from all property in the same manner and in the same
form," and that "all citizens, without distinction of birth, are
eligible to any office or dignity." Moreover, inasmuch as a national
constitution would be of more advantage to the provinces than the
privileges which some of these enjoyed, and,--so the decree
continues,--"inasmuch as the surrender of such privileges is essential
to the intimate union of all parts of the realm, it is decreed that all
the peculiar privileges, pecuniary or otherwise, of the provinces,
principalities, districts, cantons, cities and communes, are once for
all abolished and are absorbed into the law common to all
Frenchmen."[400]
[Illustration: FRANCE IN DEPARTMENTS]
[Sidenote: Unification of France through the abolition of the ancient
provinces and the creation of the present departments.]
This decree established the equality and uniformity for which the French
people had sighed so long. The injustice of the former system of
taxation could never be reintroduced. All France was to have the same
laws, and its citizens were henceforth to be treated in the same way by
the state, whether they lived in Brittany or Dauphiny. The Assembly soon
went a step farther in consolidating and unifying France. It wiped out
the old provinces altogether, by dividing the whole country into
districts of convenient size, called _departments_. These were much more
numerous than the ancient divisions, and were named after rivers and
mountains. This obliterated from the map all reminiscences of the feudal
disunion.
[Sidenote: The Declaration of the Rights of Man.]
224. Many of the _cahiers_ had suggested that the Estates should draw up
a clear statement of the rights of the individual citizen. It was urged
that the recurrence of abuses and the insidious encroachments of
despotism might in this way be forever prevented. The National Assembly
consequently determined to prepare such a declaration in order to
gratify and reassure the people and to form a basis for the new
constitution.
This Declaration (completed August 26) is one of the most notable
documents in the history of Europe. It not only aroused general
enthusiasm when it was first published, but it appeared over and over
again, in a modified form, in the succeeding French constitutions down
to 1848, and has been the model for similar declarations in many of the
other continental states. It was a dignified repudiation of the abuses
described in the preceding chapter. Behind each article there was some
crying evil of long standing against which the people wished to be
forever protected.
[Sidenote: Contents of the Declaration.]
The Declaration sets forth that "Men are born and remain equal in
rights. Social distinctions can only be founded upon the general good."
"Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to
participate, personally or through his representative, in its formation.
It must be the same for all." "No person shall be accused, arrested, or
imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by
law." "No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including
his religious views, provided that their manifestation does not disturb
the public order established by law." "The free communication of ideas
and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every
citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, being
responsible, however, for such abuses of this freedom as shall be
defined by law." "All citizens have a right to decide, either personally
or by their representative, as to the necessity of the public
contribution, to grant this freely, to know to what uses it is put, and
to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection, and the
duration of the taxes." "Society has the right to require of every
public agent an account of his administration." Well might the Assembly
claim, in its address to the people, that "the rights of man had been
misconceived and insulted for centuries," and boast that they were
"reëstablished for all humanity in this declaration, which shall serve
as an everlasting war cry against oppressors."
[Illustration: Louis XVI]
[Sidenote: Suspicion aroused against the court.]
225. The king hesitated to ratify the Declaration of the Rights of Man,
and about the first of October rumors became current that, under the
influence of the courtiers, he was calling together troops and preparing
for another attempt to put an end to the Revolution, similar to that
which the attack on the Bastile had frustrated. It was said that the
new national colors--red, white, and blue--had been insulted at a
banquet at Versailles. These things, along with the scarcity of food due
to the poor crops of the year, aroused the excitable Paris populace.
[Sidenote: A Paris mob invades the king's palace and carries him off to
Paris.]
On October 5 several thousand women and a number of armed men marched
out to Versailles to ask bread of the king, in whom they had great
confidence personally, however suspicious they might be of his friends
and advisers. Lafayette marched after the mob with the national guard,
but did not prevent some of the rabble from invading the king's palace
the next morning and nearly murdering the queen, who had become very
unpopular. She was believed to be still an Austrian at heart and to be
in league with the counter-revolutionary party.
The mob declared that the king must accompany them to Paris, and he was
obliged to consent. Far from being disloyal, they assumed that the
presence of the royal family would insure plenty and prosperity. So they
gayly escorted the "baker and the baker's wife and the baker's boy," as
they jocularly termed the king and queen and the little dauphin, to the
Palace of the Tuilleries, where the king took up his residence,
practically a prisoner, as it proved. The National Assembly soon
followed him and resumed its sittings in a riding school near the
Tuilleries.
This transfer of the king and the Assembly to the capital was the first
great misfortune of the Revolution. At a serious crisis the government
was placed at the mercy of the leaders of the disorderly elements of
Paris. We shall see how the municipal council of Paris finally usurped
the powers of the national government.[401]
[Sidenote: Unjust apportionment of the revenue of the church.]
226. As we have seen, the church in France was very rich and retained
many of its mediæval prerogatives and privileges. Its higher officials,
the bishops and abbots, received very large revenues and often a single
prelate held a number of rich benefices, the duties of which he utterly
neglected. The parish priests, on the other hand, who really performed
the manifold and important functions of the church, were scarcely able
to live on their incomes. This unjust apportionment of the vast revenue
of the church naturally suggested the idea that, if the state
confiscated the ecclesiastical possessions, it could see that those who
did the work were properly paid for it, and might, at the same time,
secure a handsome sum which would help the government out of its
financial troubles. Those who sympathized with Voltaire's views were
naturally delighted to see their old enemy deprived of its independence
and made subservient to the state, and even many good Catholics could
not but hope that the new system would be an improvement upon the old.
[Sidenote: The property of the church confiscated by the government.]
The tithes had been abolished in August along with the feudal dues. That
deprived the church of perhaps thirty million dollars a year. On
November 2 a decree was passed providing that "All the ecclesiastical
possessions are at the disposal of the nation on condition that it
provides properly for the expenses of maintaining religious services,
for the support of those who conduct them and for the succor of the
poor." This decree deprived the bishops and priests of their benefices
and made them dependent on salaries paid by the state. The monks,
monasteries, and convents, too, lost their property.
[Sidenote: The _assignats_, or paper currency.]
The National Assembly resolved to issue a paper currency for which the
newly acquired lands should serve as security. Of these _assignats_, as
this paper money was called, we hear a great deal during the
revolutionary period. They soon began to depreciate, and ultimately a
great part of the forty billions of francs issued during the next seven
years was repudiated.
[Sidenote: The Civil Constitution of the Clergy.]
The Assembly set to work completely to reorganize the church. The
anxiety for simplification and complete uniformity shows itself in the
reckless way that it dealt with this most venerable institution of
France, the customs of which were hallowed not only by age, but by
religious veneration. The one hundred and thirty-four ancient
bishoprics, some of which dated back to the Roman Empire, were replaced
by the eighty-three new departments into which France had already been
divided.[402] Each of these became the diocese of a bishop, who was
looked upon as an officer of the state and was to be elected by the
people. The priests, too, were to be chosen by the people, and their
salaries were much increased, so that even in the smallest villages they
received over twice the minimum amount paid under the old régime.
This Civil Constitution of the Clergy[403] was the first serious mistake
on the part of the National Assembly. While the half-feudalized church
had sadly needed reform, the worst abuses might have been remedied
without shocking and alienating thousands of those who had hitherto
enthusiastically applauded the great reforms which the Assembly had
effected. The king gave his assent to the changes, but with the feeling
that he might be losing his soul by so doing. From that time on, he
became at heart an enemy of the Revolution.
[Sidenote: Harsh treatment of the 'non-juring' clergy.]
The discontent with the new system on the part of the clergy led to
another serious error on the part of the Assembly. It required the
clergy to take an oath to be faithful to the law and "to maintain with
all their might the constitution decreed by the assembly." Only six of
the bishops consented to this and but a third of the lower clergy,
although they were much better off under the new system. Forty-six
thousand parish priests refused to sacrifice their religious scruples,
and before long the pope forbade them to take the required oath to the
Constitution. As time went on, the "non-juring" clergy were dealt with
more and more harshly by the government, and the way was prepared for
the horrors of the Reign of Terror. The Revolution ceased to stand for
liberty, order, and the abolition of ancient abuses, and came to mean,
in the minds of many besides those who had lost their former privileges,
irreligion, violence, and a new kind of oppression worse than the old.
General Reading.--There are a great many histories of the French
Revolution. The best and most modern account is STEPHENS, _The
French Revolution_ (Charles Scribner's Sons, 3 vols., $2.50 each).
SHAILER MATHEWS, _The French Revolution_ (Longmans, Green & Co.,
$1.25), is an excellent short account. See also the brief but
admirable chapters in ROSE, _The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era_
(The Macmillan Company, $1.25). CARLYLE'S famous _French
Revolution_ is hardly a history but rather a series of vivid
pictures, valuable only to those who already have some knowledge of
the course of events. For Mirabeau see WILLERT, _Mirabeau_ (The
Macmillan Company, 75 cents).