THE FIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC
[Sidenote: The permanent reforms of 1789.]
227. We have now studied the progress and nature of the revolution which
destroyed the old régime and created modern France. Through it the
unjust privileges, the perplexing irregularities, and the local
differences were abolished, and the people admitted to a share in the
government. This vast reform had been accomplished without serious
disturbance and, with the exception of some of the changes in the
church, it had been welcomed with enthusiasm by the French nation.
[Sidenote: The second revolution.]
This permanent, peaceful revolution, or reformation, was followed by a
second revolution of unprecedented violence, which for a time destroyed
the French monarchy. It also introduced a series of further changes many
of which were absurd and unnecessary and could not endure since they
were approved by only a few fanatical leaders. France, moreover, became
involved in a war with most of the powers of western Europe. The
weakness of her government which permitted the forces of disorder and
fanaticism to prevail, combined with the imminent danger of an invasion
by the united powers of Europe, produced the Reign of Terror. After a
period of national excitement and disorder, France gladly accepted the
rule of a foreigner, who proved himself far more despotic than its
former kings had been. Napoleon did not, however, undo the great work of
1789; his colossal ambition was, indeed, the means of extending,
directly or indirectly, many of the benefits of the Revolution to other
parts of western Europe. When, after Napoleon's fall, the brother of
Louis XVI came to the throne, the first thing that he did was solemnly
to assure the people that all the great gains of the first revolution
should be maintained.
[Sidenote: The emigration of the nobles.]
228. While practically the whole of the nation heartily rejoiced in the
earlier reforms introduced by the National Assembly and celebrated the
general satisfaction and harmony by a great national festival held at
Paris on the first anniversary of the fall of the Bastile, some of the
higher nobility refused to remain in France. The king's youngest
brother, the count of Artois, set the example by leaving the country. He
was followed by others who were terrified or disgusted by the burning of
the châteaux, the loss of their privileges, and the unwise abolition of
hereditary nobility by the National Assembly in June, 1790. Before long
these emigrant nobles (_émigrés_), among whom were many military
officers, organized a little army across the Rhine, and the count of
Artois began to plan an invasion of France. He was ready to ally himself
with Austria, Prussia, or any other foreign government which he could
induce to help undo the Revolution and give back to the French king his
former absolute power and to the nobles their old privileges.
[Sidenote: The conduct of the emigrant nobles discredits the king and
queen.]
The threats and insolence of the emigrant nobles and their shameful
negotiations with foreign powers discredited the members of their class
who still remained in France. The people suspected that the plans of the
runaways met with the secret approval of the king, and more especially
of the queen, whose brother was now emperor and ruler of the Austrian
dominions. This, added to the opposition of the non-juring clergy,
produced a bitter hostility between the so-called "patriots" and those
who, on the other hand, were supposed to be secretly hoping for a
counter revolution which would reëstablish the old régime.
[Sidenote: The flight to Varennes, June 21, 1791.]
The worst fears of the people appeared to be justified by the secret
flight of the royal family from Paris, in June, 1791. Ever since the
king had reluctantly signed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy,
flight had seemed to him his only resource. There was a body of regular
troops on the northeastern boundary; if he could escape from Paris and
join them he hoped that, aided by a demonstration on the part of the
queen's brother, he might march back and check the further progress of
the revolutionary movement with which he could no longer sympathize. He
had, it is true, no liking for the emigrants and heartily disapproved of
their policy, nor did he believe that the old régime could ever be
restored. But, unfortunately, his plans led him to attempt to reach the
boundary just at that point where the emigrants were collected. He and
the queen were, however, arrested on the way, at Varennes, and speedily
brought back to Paris.
[Sidenote: Effect of the king's flight.]
The desertion of the king appears to have terrified rather than angered
the nation. The grief of the people at the thought of losing, and their
joy at regaining, a poor weak ruler like Louis XVI clearly shows that
France was still profoundly royalist in its sympathies. The National
Assembly pretended that the king had not fled, but that he had been
carried off. This gratified France at large; still in Paris there were
some who advocated the deposition of the king, and for the first time a
_republican_ party appeared, though it was still small.
[Sidenote: The constitution completed, 1791.]
The National Assembly at last put the finishing touches to the new
constitution upon which it had been working for two years, and the king
readily swore to observe it faithfully. A general amnesty was then
proclaimed. All the discord and suspicion of the past months were to be
forgotten. The National Assembly had completed its appointed task,
perhaps the greatest that a single body of men ever undertook. It had
made France over and had given her an elaborate constitution. It was now
ready to give way to the regular Legislative Assembly provided for in
the constitution. This held its first session October 1, 1791.[404]
[Sidenote: Sources of danger at the opening of the Legislative
Assembly, October, 1791.]
229. In spite of the great achievements of the National Assembly it left
France in a critical situation. Besides the emigrant nobles abroad,
there were the non-juring clergy at home, and a king who was secretly
corresponding with foreign powers with the hope of securing their aid.
When the news of the arrest of the king and queen at Varennes reached
the ears of Marie Antoinette's brother, the Austrian ruler, Leopold II,
he declared that the violent arrest of the king sealed with unlawfulness
all that had been done in France and "compromised directly the honor of
all the sovereigns and the security of every government." He therefore
proposed to the rulers of Russia, England, Prussia, Spain, Naples, and
Sardinia that they should come to some understanding between themselves
as to how they might "reëstablish the liberty and honor of the most
Christian king and his family, and place a check upon the dangerous
excesses of the French Revolution, the fatal example of which it
behooves every government to repress."
[Sidenote: The Declaration of Pillnitz, August 27, 1791.]
On August 27 Leopold had issued, in conjunction with the king of
Prussia, the famous Declaration of Pillnitz. In this the two sovereigns
state that, in accordance with the wishes of the king's brothers (the
leaders of the emigrant nobles), they are ready to join the other
European rulers in an attempt to place the king of France in a position
to establish a form of government "that shall be once more in harmony
with the rights of sovereigns and shall promote the welfare of the
French nation." In the meantime they promised to prepare their troops
for active service.
[Sidenote: Effect of the Declaration.]
The Declaration was little more than an empty threat; but it seemed to
the French people a sufficient proof that the monarchs were ready to
help the seditious French nobles to reëstablish the old régime against
the wishes of the nation and at the cost of infinite bloodshed. The idea
of foreign rulers intermeddling with their internal affairs would in
itself have been intolerable to a proud people like the French, even if
the permanence of the new reforms had not been endangered. Had it been
the object of the allied monarchs to hasten instead of to prevent the
deposition of Louis XVI, they could hardly have chosen a more efficient
means than the Declaration of Pillnitz.
[Sidenote: The newspapers.]
230. The political excitement and the enthusiasm for the Revolution were
kept up by the newspapers which had been established, especially in
Paris, since the meeting of the Estates General. The people did not need
longer to rely upon an occasional pamphlet, as was the case before 1789.
Many journals of the most divergent kinds and representing the most
diverse opinions were published. Some were no more than a periodical
editorial written by one man; for example, the notorious "Friend of the
People," by the insane Marat. Others, like the famous "Moniteur," were
much like our papers of to-day and contained news, reports of the
debates in the assembly, announcements of theaters, etc. Some of the
papers were illustrated, and the representations of contemporaneous
events, especially the numerous caricatures, are highly diverting.
[Illustration: Caricature representing Louis XVI as a Constitutional
Monarch[405]]
[Sidenote: The Jacobins.]
Of the numerous political clubs, by far the most famous was that of the
_Jacobins_. When the Assembly moved into Paris, some of the provincial
representatives of the third estate rented a large room in the
monastery of the Jacobin monks, not far from the building where the
National Assembly itself met. A hundred deputies perhaps were present at
the first meeting. The next day the number had doubled. The aim of this
society was to discuss questions which were about to come before the
National Assembly. The club decided beforehand what should be the policy
of its members and how they should vote; and in this way they
successfully combined to counteract the schemes of the aristocratic
party in the assembly. The club rapidly grew and soon admitted some who
were not deputies to its sessions. In October, 1791, it decided to
permit the public to attend its discussions.
Gradually similar societies were formed in the provinces.[406] These
affiliated themselves with the "mother" society at Paris and kept in
constant communication with it. In this way the Jacobins of Paris
stimulated and controlled public opinion throughout France, and kept the
opponents of the old régime alert. When the Legislative Assembly met,
the Jacobins had not as yet become republicans, but they believed that
the king should have hardly more power than the president of a republic.
They were even ready to promote his deposition if he failed to stand by
the Revolution.
[Sidenote: The emigrant nobles declared traitors.]
231. The growing discord in the nation was increased by the severe
edicts that the Legislative Assembly directed against the emigrant
nobles and the non-juring clergy. "The Frenchmen assembled on the
frontier" were declared under suspicion of conspiring against their
country. If they did not return to France by January 1, 1792, they were
to be regarded as convicted traitors, to be punished, if caught, with
death; their property was to be confiscated.
[Sidenote: Harsh measures of the Assembly toward non-juring clergy.]
The harsh treatment of the emigrant nobles was perhaps justified by
their desertion and treasonable intrigues; but the conduct of the
Assembly toward the clergy was both unstatesmanlike and iniquitous.
Those who had refused to take the oath to support a system which was in
conflict with their religious convictions and which had been condemned
by the pope, were commanded to do so within a week on penalty of losing
their income from the state and being put under surveillance as
suspects. As this failed to bring the clergy to terms, the Assembly
later (May, 1792) ordered the deportation from the country of those who
steadily persisted in their refusal to accept the Civil Constitution of
the Clergy. In this way the Assembly aroused the active hostility of a
great part of the most conscientious among the lower clergy, who had
loyally supported the commons in their fight against the privileged
orders. It also lost the confidence of the great mass of faithful
Catholics,--merchants, artisans, and peasants,--who had gladly accepted
the abolition of the old abuses, but who would not consent to desert
their religious leaders.
[Sidenote: The Legislative Assembly precipitate a war with Europe.]
232. By far the most important act of the Legislative Assembly during
the one year of its existence was its precipitation of a war between
France and Austria. It little dreamed that this was the beginning of a
war between revolutionary France and the rest of western Europe, which
was to last, with slight interruptions, for over twenty years.
To many of the leaders in the Assembly it seemed that the existing
conditions were intolerable. The emigrant nobles were forming little
armies on the boundaries of France and had, as we have seen, induced
Austria and Prussia to consider interfering in French affairs. The
Assembly suspected that Louis was negotiating with foreign rulers and
would be glad to have them intervene and reëstablish him in his old
despotic power. The deputies argued, therefore, that a war against the
hated Austria would unite the sympathies of the nation and force the
king to show his true character; for he would be obliged either to
become the nation's leader or show himself the traitor they suspected
him to be.
[Sidenote: France declares war upon Austria, April, 1792.]
[Sidenote: The king suspected and his life threatened.]
It was with a heavy heart that the king, urged on by the clamors of the
Assembly, declared war upon Austria in April, 1792. The unpopularity of
the king only increased, however. He refused to ratify certain popular
measures of the Assembly and dismissed the ministers who had been forced
upon him. In June a mob of Parisians invaded the Palace of the
Tuilleries, and the king might have been killed had he not consented to
don the "cap of liberty," the badge of the "citizen patriots."
[Sidenote: Growth of republican feeling.]
When France declared war, Prussia immediately allied itself with
Austria. Both powers collected their forces and, to the great joy of the
emigrant nobles, who joined them, prepared to march upon France. The
early attempts of the French to get a footing in the Austrian
Netherlands were not successful, and the troops and people accused the
nobles, who were in command of the French troops, of treason. As the
allies approached the boundaries it became clearer and clearer that the
king was utterly incapable of defending France, and the Assembly began
to consider the question of deposing him. The duke of Brunswick, who was
at the head of the Prussian forces, took the very worst means of helping
the king, by issuing a manifesto in which he threatened utterly to
destroy Paris should the king suffer any harm.
[Sidenote: Insurrection of August 10, 1792.]
Angered by this declaration and aroused by the danger, the populace of
Paris again invaded the Tuilleries, August 10, 1792, and the king was
obliged to take refuge in the building in which the Assembly was in
session. Those who instigated the attack were men who had set their
heart upon doing away with the king altogether and establishing a
republic. A group of them had taken possession of the city hall, pushed
the old members of the municipal council off from their seats, and taken
the government in their own hands. In this way the members of the Paris
commune became the leaders in the revolution which established the first
French republic.
[Sidenote: France proclaimed a republic, September 22, 1792.]
233. The Assembly agreed with the commune in desiring a republic. If, as
was proposed, France was henceforth to do without a king, it was
obviously necessary that the monarchical constitution so recently
completed should be replaced by a republican one. Consequently, the
Assembly arranged that the people should elect delegates to a
constitutional _Convention_, which should draw up a new system of
government. The Convention met on the 21st of September, and its first
act was to abolish the ancient monarchy and proclaim France a republic.
It seemed to the enthusiasts of the time that a new era of liberty had
dawned, now that the long oppression by "despots" was ended forever. The
twenty-second day of September, 1792, was reckoned as the first day of
the Year One of French liberty.[407]
[Sidenote: The September massacres, 1792.]
Meanwhile the usurping Paris commune had taken matters into its own
hands and had brought discredit upon the cause of liberty by one of the
most atrocious acts in history. On the pretext that Paris was full of
traitors, who sympathized with the Austrians and the emigrant nobles,
they had filled the prisons with three thousand innocent citizens. On
September 2 and 3 hundreds of these were executed with scarcely a
pretense of a trial. The members of the commune who perpetrated this
deed probably hoped to terrify those who might still dream of returning
to the old system of government.
[Sidenote: Progress of the war with Austria and Prussia.]
Late in August the Prussians crossed the French boundary and on
September 2 took the fortress of Verdun. It now seemed as if there was
nothing to prevent their marching upon Paris. The French general,
Dumouriez, blocked their advance, however, and without a pitched battle
caused the enemy to retreat. Notwithstanding the fears of the French,
the king of Prussia had but little interest in the war; the Austrian
troops were lagging far behind, and both powers were far more absorbed
in a second partition of Poland, which was approaching, than in the fate
of the French king. The French now invaded Germany and took several
important towns on the Rhine, including Mayence, which gladly opened its
gates to them. They also occupied the Spanish Netherlands and Savoy.
[Sidenote: Trial and execution of the king, January, 1793.]
Meanwhile the new Convention was puzzled to determine what would best be
done with the king. A considerable party felt that he was guilty of
treason in secretly encouraging the foreign powers to come to his aid.
He was therefore brought to trial, and when it came to a final vote, he
was, by a small majority, condemned to death. He mounted the scaffold on
January 21, 1793, with the fortitude of a martyr. Nevertheless, one
cannot but feel that through his earlier weakness and indecision he
brought untold misery upon his own kingdom and upon Europe at large. The
French people had not dreamed of a republic until his absolute
incompetence forced them, in self-defense, to abolish the monarchy in
the hope of securing a more efficient government.
[Sidenote: The Convention proposes to aid other countries to rid
themselves of their monarchs.]
[Sidenote: France declares war on England, February 1, 1793.]
234. The exultation of the Convention over the conquests which their
armies were making, encouraged them to offer the assistance of the new
republic to any country that wished to establish its freedom by throwing
off the yoke of monarchy. They even proposed a republic to the English
people. One of the French ministers declared, "We will hurl thither
fifty thousand caps of liberty, we will plant there the sacred tree of
liberty." February 1, 1793, France greatly added to her embarrassments
by declaring war on England, a country which proved her most inveterate
enemy.
[Sidenote: The allies settle their differences and renew the war against
France.]
The war now began to go against the French. The allies had hitherto been
suspicious of one another and fearful lest Russia should take advantage
of their preoccupation with France to seize more than her share of
Poland. They now came to an agreement. It was arranged that Prussia and
Russia should each take another piece of Poland, while Austria agreed to
go without her share if the powers would aid her in inducing the elector
of Bavaria to exchange his possessions for the Spanish Netherlands.
[Illustration: The Partitions of Poland]
[Sidenote: French driven from the Netherlands; desertion of Dumouriez.]
This adjustment of the differences between the allies gave a wholly new
aspect to the war with France. When in March, 1793, Spain and the Holy
Roman Empire joined the coalition, France was at war with all her
neighbors. The Austrians defeated Dumouriez at Neerwinden and drove the
French out of the Netherlands. Thereupon Dumouriez, disgusted by the
failure of the Convention to support him and by their execution of the
king, deserted to the enemy with a few hundred soldiers who consented to
follow him.
[Sidenote: French government put in the hands of the Committee of
Public Safety, April, 1793.]
The loss of the Netherlands and the treason of their best general made a
deep impression upon the members of the Convention. If the new French
republic was to defend itself against the "tyrants" without and its many
enemies within, it could not wait for the Convention to draw up an
elaborate, permanent constitution. An efficient government must be
devised immediately to maintain the loyalty of the nation to the
republic, and to raise and equip armies and direct their commanders. The
Convention accordingly put the government into the hands of a small
committee, consisting originally of nine, later of twelve, of its
members. This famous Committee of Public Safety was given practically
unlimited powers. "We must," one of the leaders exclaimed, "establish
the despotism of liberty in order to crush the despotism of kings."
[Sidenote: The Girondists.]
235. Within the Convention itself there were two groups of active men
who came into bitter conflict over the policy to be pursued. There was,
first, the party of the Girondists, so called because their leaders came
from the department of Gironde, in which the great city of Bordeaux lay.
They were moderate republicans and counted among their numbers some
speakers of remarkable eloquence. The Girondists had enjoyed the control
of the Legislative Assembly in 1792 and had been active in bringing on
the war with Austria and Prussia. They hoped in that way to complete the
Revolution by exposing the bad faith of the king and his sympathy with
the emigrant nobles. They were not, however, men of sufficient decision
to direct affairs in the terrible difficulties in which France found
herself after the execution of the king. They consequently lost their
influence, and a new party, called the "Mountain" from the high seats
that they occupied in the Convention, gained the ascendency.
[Sidenote: The extreme republicans, called the 'Mountain.']
This was composed of the most vigorous and uncompromising republicans.
They believed that the French people had been depraved by the slavery to
which their kings had subjected them. Everything, they argued, which
suggested the former rule of kings must be wiped out. A new France
should be created, in which liberty, equality, and fraternity should
take the place of the tyranny of princes, the insolence of nobles, and
the impostures of the priests. The leaders of the Mountain held that the
mass of the people were by nature good and upright, but that there were
a number of adherents of the old system who would, if they could, undo
the great work of the Revolution and lead the people back to slavery
under king and church. All who were suspected by the Mountain of having
the least sympathy with the nobles or persecuted priests were branded as
counter-revolutionary. The Mountain was willing to resort to any
measures, however shocking, to rid the nation of those suspected of
counter-revolutionary tendencies, and its leaders relied upon the
populace of Paris to aid them in reaching their ends.
[Sidenote: Girondist leaders expelled from the Convention, June 2,
1793.]
The Girondists, on the other hand, abhorred the furious Paris mob and
the cruel fanatics who composed the commune of the capital. They argued
that Paris was not France, and that it had no right to assume a despotic
rule over the nation. They proposed that the commune should be dissolved
and that the Convention should remove to another town where they would
not be subject to the intimidation of the Paris mob. The Mountain
thereupon accused the Girondists of an attempt to break up the republic,
"one and indivisible," by questioning the supremacy of Paris and the
duty of the provinces to follow the lead of the capital. The mob, thus
encouraged, rose against the Girondists. On June 2 it surrounded the
meeting place of the Convention, and deputies of the commune demanded
the expulsion from the Convention of the Girondist leaders, who were
placed under arrest.
[Sidenote: France threatened with civil war.]
[Sidenote: The revolt of the peasants of Brittany against the
Convention.]
The conduct of the Mountain and its ally, the Paris commune, now began
to arouse opposition in various parts of France, and the country was
threatened with civil war at a time when it was absolutely necessary
that all Frenchmen should combine in the loyal defense of their country
against the invaders who were again approaching its boundaries. The
first and most serious opposition came from the peasants of Brittany,
especially in the department of La Vendée. There the people still loved
the monarchy and their priests and even the nobles; they refused to send
their sons to fight for a republic which had killed their king and was
persecuting the clergymen who declined to take an oath which their
conscience forbade. The Vendean royalists defeated several corps of the
national guard which the Convention sent against them, and it was not
until autumn that the distinguished general, Kléber, was able to put
down the insurrection.
[Sidenote: Revolt of the cities against the Convention.]
The great cities of Marseilles and Bordeaux were indignant at the
treatment to which the Girondist deputies were subjected in Paris, and
organized a revolt against the Convention. In the manufacturing city of
Lyons the merchants hated the Jacobins and their republic, since the
demand for silk and other luxuries produced at Lyons had come from the
nobility and clergy, who were now no longer in a position to buy. The
prosperous classes were therefore exasperated when the commissioners of
the Convention demanded money and troops. The citizens gathered an army
of ten thousand men and placed it under a royalist leader. The
Convention, however, called in troops from the armies on the frontier,
bombarded and captured the city, and wreaked a terrible vengeance upon
those who had dared to revolt against the Mountain. Frightened by the
experience of Lyons, Bordeaux and Marseilles decided that resistance was
futile and admitted the troops of the Convention. Some of the Girondist
deputies had escaped from Paris and attempted to gather an army in
Normandy; but they failed, too. The Convention's Committee of Public
Safety showed itself far more efficient than the scattered and disunited
opponents who questioned its right to govern France.
[Sidenote: The French repulse the English and Austrians.]
While the Committee of Public Safety had been suppressing the revolts
within the country, it had taken active measures to meet its foreign
enemies. The distinguished military organizer, Carnot, had become a
member of the Committee in August and immediately called for a general
levy of troops. He soon had five hundred and fifty thousand men; these
he divided into thirteen armies and dispatched them against the allies.
The English and Hanoverians, who were besieging Dunkirk, were driven off
and the Austrians were defeated, so that by the close of the year 1793
all danger from invasion was past, for the time being at least.
[Sidenote: The Reign of Terror.]
[Sidenote: The Revolutionary Tribunal.]
236. In spite of the marvelous success with which the Committee of
Public Safety had crushed its opponents at home and repelled the forces
of the coalition, it continued its policy of stifling all opposition by
terror. Even before the fall of the Girondists a special court had been
established in Paris, known as the Revolutionary Tribunal. Its duty was
to try all those who were suspected of treasonable acts. At first the
cases were very carefully considered and few persons were condemned. In
September, after the revolt of the cities, two new men, who had been
implicated in the September massacres, were added to the Committee of
Public Safety. They were selected with the particular purpose of
intimidating the counter-revolutionary party by bringing all the
disaffected to the guillotine.[408] A terrible law was passed, declaring
all those to be suspects who by their conduct or remarks had shown
themselves enemies of liberty. The former nobles, including the wives,
fathers, mothers, and children of the "emigrants," unless they had
constantly manifested their attachment to the Revolution, were ordered
to be imprisoned.
[Sidenote: Execution of Marie Antoinette, October, 1793.]
In October, the queen, Marie Antoinette, after a trial in which the most
false and atrocious charges were brought against her, was executed in
Paris, and a number of high-minded and distinguished persons suffered a
like fate. But the most horrible acts of the Reign of Terror were
perpetrated in the provinces. A representative of the Convention had
thousands of the people of Nantes shot down or drowned. The convention
proposed to destroy the great city of Lyons altogether, and though this
decree was only partially carried out, thousands of its citizens were
executed.[409]
[Sidenote: Schism in the party of the Mountain.]
[Sidenote: Robespierre as dictator.]
Soon the radical party which was conducting the government began to
disagree among themselves. Danton, a man of fiery zeal for the republic,
who had hitherto enjoyed great popularity with the Jacobins, became
tired of bloodshed, and believed that the system of terror was no longer
necessary. On the other hand, Hébert the leader of the commune felt that
the revolution was not yet complete. He proposed, for example, that the
worship of Reason should be substituted for the worship of God, and
arranged a service in the great church of Notre Dame, where Reason, in
the person of a handsome actress, took her place on the altar. The most
powerful member of the Committee of Public Safety was Robespierre, who,
although he was insignificant in person and a tiresome speaker, enjoyed
a great reputation for republican virtue. He disapproved alike of
Danton's moderation and of the worship of Reason advocated by the
commune. Through his influence the leaders of both the moderate and the
extreme party were arrested and executed (March and April, 1794).
[Sidenote: Fall of Robespierre, July 27, 1794.]
It was, of course, impossible for Robespierre to maintain his
dictatorship permanently. He had the revolutionary tribunal divided into
sections, and greatly increased the rapidity of the executions with a
view of destroying all his enemies; but his colleagues in the Convention
began to fear that he would demand their heads next. A coalition was
formed against him, and the Convention ordered his arrest.[410] He
called upon the commune to defend him, but the Convention roused Paris
against the commune, which was no longer powerful enough to intimidate
the whole city, and he and his supporters were sent to the guillotine.
[Sidenote: Reaction after the overthrow of Robespierre.]
237. In successfully overthrowing Robespierre the Convention and
Committee of Public Safety had rid the country of the only man, who,
owing to his popularity and his reputation for uprightness, could have
prolonged the Reign of Terror. There was an immediate reaction after his
death, for the country was weary of executions. The Revolutionary
Tribunal henceforth convicted very few indeed of those who were brought
before it. It made an exception, however, of those who had themselves
been the leaders in the worst atrocities, for example, as the public
prosecutor, who had brought hundreds of victims to the guillotine in
Paris, and the brutes who had ordered the massacres at Nantes and Lyons.
Within a few months the Jacobin Club at Paris was closed by the
Convention, and the commune abolished.
[Sidenote: Constitution of the year III.]
The Convention now at last turned its attention to the great work for
which it had originally been summoned, and drew up a constitution for
the republic. This provided that the lawmaking power should be vested in
a legislative assembly consisting of two houses. The lower house was
called the Council of the Five Hundred, and the upper chamber the
Council of the Elders. Members of the latter were required to be at
least forty years of age. The executive powers were put in the hands of
a _Directory_ of five persons to be chosen by the two chambers.
[Sidenote: The dissolution of the Convention, October, 1795, its
achievements.]
In October, 1795, the Convention finally dissolved itself, having
governed the country during three years of unprecedented excitement,
danger, and disorder. While it was responsible for the horrors of the
Reign of Terror, its committees had carried France through the terrible
crisis of 1793. The civil war had been brought to a speedy end, and the
coalition of foreign powers had been defeated. Meanwhile other
committees appointed by the Convention had been quietly working upon the
problem of bettering the system of education, which had been taken by
the state out of the hands of the clergy. Progress had also been made
toward establishing a single system of law for the whole country to
replace the old confusion. The new republican calendar was not destined
to survive many years, but the metric system of weights and measures
introduced by the Convention has now been adopted by most European
countries, and is used by men of science in England and America.
On the other hand, the Reign of Terror, the depreciated paper
currency,[411] and many hasty and unwise laws passed by the Convention
had produced all sorts of disorder and uncertainty. The Directory did
little to better conditions, and it was not until Napoleon's strong hand
grasped the helm of government in the year 1800 that order was really
restored.
General Reading.--In addition to the references given at the end of
the preceding chapter, BELLOC, _Danton_ (Charles Scribner's Sons,
$2.50) and _Robespierre_ by the same author (same publisher,
$2.00).