The inner history of the Convention was strange and terrible. It turned

on the successive schisms in the ruling minority. Whichever side

prevailed destroyed its adversaries only to divide afresh and renew the

strife until the victors were at length so reduced that their yoke was

shaken off and the mass of the Convention, hitherto benumbed by fear,

resumed its freedom and the government of France. The first and most

memorable of these contests was the quarrel between Jacobin and

Girondin. Both parties were republican and democratic; both wished to

complete the Revolution; both were determined to maintain the integrity

of France. But they differed in circumstances and temperament. Although

the leaders on both sides were of the middle class, the Girondins

represented the _bourgeoisie_, the Jacobins represented the populace.

The Girondins desired a speedy return to law and order; the Jacobins

thought that they could keep power only by violence. The Jacobins leant

on the revolutionary commune and the mob of Paris; the Girondins leant

on the thriving burghers of the provincial cities. Despite their smaller

number the Jacobins were victors. They were the more resolute and

unscrupulous. The Girondins numbered many orators, but not one man of

action. The Jacobins controlled the parent club with its affiliated

societies and the whole machinery of terror. The Girondins had no

organized force at their disposal. The Jacobins perpetuated in a new

form the old centralization of power to which France was accustomed. The

Girondins addressed themselves to provincials who had lost the power of

initiative. They were termed federalists by their enemies and accused,

unjustly enough, of wishing to dissolve the national unity.

Even in the first days of the Convention the feud broke out. The

Girondins condemned the September massacres and dreaded the Parisian

populace. Barbaroux accused Robespierre of aiming at a dictatorship, and

Buzot demanded a guard recruited in the departments to protect the

Convention. In October Louvet reiterated the charge against Robespierre,

and Barbaroux called for the dissolution of the Commune of Paris. But

the Girondins gained no tangible result from this wordy warfare. For a

time the question how to dispose of the king diverted the thoughts of

all parties. It was approached in a political, not in a judicial spirit.

The Jacobins desired the death of Louis, partly because they hated kings

and deemed him a traitor, partly because they wished to envenom the

Revolution, defy Europe and compromise their more temperate colleagues.

The Girondins wished to spare Louis, but were afraid of incurring the

reproach of royalism. At this critical moment the discovery of the

famous iron chest, containing papers which showed that many public men

had intrigued with the court, was disastrous for Louis. Members of the

Convention were anxious to be thought severe lest they should be thought

corrupt. Robespierre frankly demanded that Louis as a public enemy

should be put to death without form of trial. The majority shrank from

such open injustice and decreed on the 3rd of December that Louis should

be tried by the Convention.

Trial and execution of Louis XVI.

A committee of twenty-one was chosen to frame the indictment against

Louis, and on the 11th of December he was brought to the bar for the

first time to hear the charges read. The most essential might be summed

up in the statement that he had plotted against the Constitution and

against the safety of the kingdom. On the 26th Louis appeared at the bar

a second time, and the trial began. The advocates of Louis could plead

that all his actions down to the dissolution of the National Assembly

came within the amnesty then granted, and that the Constitution had

proclaimed his person inviolable, while enacting for certain offences

the penalty of deposition which he had already undergone. Such arguments

were not likely to weigh with such a tribunal. The Mountain called for

immediate sentence of death; the Girondins desired an appeal to the

people of France. The galleries of the Convention were packed with

adherents of the Jacobins, whose fury, not confined to words, struck

terror into all who might incline towards mercy. In Paris unmistakable

signs announced a new insurrection, to be followed perhaps by new

massacres. On the question whether Louis was guilty none ventured to

give a negative vote. The motion for an appeal to the people was

rejected by 424 votes to 283. The penalty of death was adopted by 361

votes against 360 in favour of other penalties or of postponing at least

the execution of the sentence. On the 21st of January 1793 Louis was

beheaded in the Place de la Revolution, now the Place de la Concorde.

Battle of Valmy.

Between the deposition and the death of Louis the war had run a

surprising course. Accompanied by King Frederick William, Brunswick had

entered France with 80,000 men, of whom more than half were Prussians,

the best soldiers in Europe. The disorder of France was such that many

expected a triumphal march to Paris. But the Allies had opened the

campaign late; they moved slowly; the weather broke, and sickness began

to waste their ranks. Dumouriez succeeded in rousing the spirit of the

French; he occupied the defiles of the forest of Argonne, thus causing

the enemy to lose many valuable days, and when at last they turned his

position, he retreated without loss. At Valmy on the 20th of September

the two armies came in contact. The affair was only a cannonade, but the

French stood firm and the advance of the Allies was stayed. Brunswick

had no heart for his work; the king was ill satisfied with the

Austrians, and both were alarmed by the ravages of disease among the

soldiers. Within ten days after the affair of Valmy they began their

retreat. Dumouriez, who still hoped to detach Prussia from Austria, left

them unmolested. When the enemy had quitted France, he invaded Hainaut

and defeated the Austrians at Jemappes on the 6th of November. In

Belgium a large party regarded the French as deliverers. Dumouriez

entered Brussels without further resistance, and was soon master of the

whole country. Elsewhere the French were equally successful. With a

slight force Custine assailed the electorate of Mainz. The common

people were friendly, and he had no trouble in occupying the country as

far as the Rhine. The king of Sardinia having shown a hostile temper,

Montesquiou made an easy conquest of Savoy. At the close of 1792 the

relative position of France and her enemies had been reversed. It was

seen that the French were still able to wage war, and that the

revolutionary spirit had permeated the adjoining countries, while the

old governments of Europe, jealous of one another and uncertain of the

loyalty of their subjects, were ill qualified for resistance.

The first coalition against France.

Intoxicated with these victories, the Convention abandoned itself to the

fervour of propaganda and conquest. The river Scheldt had been closed to

commerce by various treaties to which England and Holland, neutral

powers, were parties. Without a pretence of negotiation the French

government declared on the 16th of November that the Scheldt was

thenceforwards open. On the 19th a decree of the Convention offered the

aid of France to all nations which were striving after freedom--in other

words, to the malcontents in every neighbouring state. Not long

afterwards the Convention annexed Savoy, with the consent, it should be

added, of many Savoyards. On the 15th of December the Convention decreed

that all peoples freed by its assistance should carry out a revolution

like that which had been made in France on pain of being treated as

enemies. Towards Great Britain the executive council and the Convention

behaved with singular folly. There, in spite of a growing antipathy to

the Revolution, Pitt earnestly desired to maintain peace. The conquest

of the Netherlands and the symptoms of a wish to annex that country made

his task most difficult. But the French government underrated the

strength of Great Britain, imagining that all Englishmen who desired

parliamentary reform desired revolution, and that a few democratic

societies represented the nation. When Monge announced the intention of

attacking Great Britain on behalf of the English republicans, the

British government and nation were thoroughly alarmed and roused; and

when the news of the execution of Louis XVI. was received, Chauvelin,

the French envoy, was ordered to quit England. France declared war

against England and Holland on the 1st of February and soon afterwards

against Spain. In the course of the year 1793 the Empire, the kings of

Portugal and Naples and the grand-duke of Tuscany declared war against

France. Thus was formed the first coalition.

France was not prepared to encounter so many enemies. Administrative

confusion had been heightened by the triumph of the Jacobins. Servan was

succeeded as minister of war by Pache who was incapable and dishonest.

The army of Dumouriez was left in such want that it dwindled rapidly.

The commissioners of the Convention plundered the Netherlands with so

little remorse that the people became bitterly hostile. The attempt to

enforce a revolution of the French sort on the Catholic and conservative

Belgians drove them to fury. By every unfair means the commissioners

extorted the semblance of a popular vote in favour of incorporation, and

France annexed the Netherlands. This was the last outrage. When a new

Austrian army under the prince of Coburg entered the country, Dumouriez,

who had invaded Holland, was unable to defend Belgium. On the 18th of

March he was defeated at Neerwinden, and a few days later he was driven

back to the frontier. Alike on public and personal grounds Dumouriez was

the enemy of the government. Trusting in his influence over the army he

resolved to lead it against the Convention, and, in order to secure his

rear, he negotiated with the enemy. But he could make no impression on

his soldiers, and deserted to the Austrians. Events followed a similar

course in the Rhine valley. There also the French wore out the goodwill

at first shown to them. They summoned a convention and obtained a vote

for incorporation with France. But they were unable to hold their ground

on the approach of a Prussian army. By April they had lost the country

with the exception of Mainz, which was invested. France thus lay open to

invasion from the east and the north. The Convention decreed a levy of

300,000 men.

Rising in La Vendee.

About the same time began the first formidable uprising against the

Revolution, the War of La Vendee, the region lying to the south of the

lower Loire and facing the Atlantic. Its inhabitants differed in many

ways from the mass of the nation. Living far from large towns and busy

routes of commerce, they remained primitive in all their thoughts and

ways. The peasants had always been on friendly terms with the gentry,

and the agrarian changes made by the Revolution had not been appreciated

so highly as elsewhere. The people were ardent Catholics, who venerated

the nonjuring clergy and resented the measures taken against them. But

they remained passive until the enforcement of the decree for the levy

of 300,000 men. Caring little for the Convention and knowing nothing of

events on the northern or eastern frontier, the peasants were determined

not to serve and preferred to fight the Republic at home. When once they

had taken up arms they found gentlemen to lead and priests to exhort,

and their rebellion became Royalist and Catholic. The chiefs were drawn

from widely different classes. If Bonchamps and La Roche-jacquelin were

nobles, Stofflet was a gamekeeper and Cathelineau a mason. As the

country was favourable to guerilla warfare, and the government could not

spare regular troops from the frontiers, the rebels were usually

successful, and by the end of May had almost expelled the Republicans

from La Vendee.

The Committee of Public Safety.

Danger without and within prompted the Convention to strengthen the

executive authority. That the executive and legislative powers ought to

be absolutely separate had been an axiom throughout the Revolution.

Ministers had always been excluded from a seat in the legislature. But

the Assemblies were suspicious of the executive and bent on absorbing

the government. They had nominated committees of their own members to

control every branch of public affairs. These committees, while reducing

the ministers to impotence, were themselves clumsy and ineffectual. It

may be said that since the first meeting of the states-general the

executive authority had been paralysed in France. The Convention in

theory maintained the separation of powers. Even Danton had been forced

to resign office when he was elected a member. But unity of government

was restored by the formation of a central committee. In January the

first Committee of General Defence was formed of members of the

committees for the several departments of state. Too large and too much

divided for strenuous labour, it was reduced in April to nine members

and re-named the Committee of Public Safety. It deliberated in secret

and had authority over the ministers; it was entrusted with the whole of

the national defence and empowered to use all the resources of the

state, and it quickly became the supreme power in the republic. Under it

the ministers were no more than head clerks. About the same time were

instituted the deputies on mission in the provinces, who could overrule

any local authority, and who corresponded regularly with the Committee.

France thus returned under new forms to its traditional government: a

despotic authority in Paris with all-powerful agents in the provinces.

Against disaffection the government was armed with formidable weapons:

the Committee of General Security and the Revolutionary Tribunal. The

Committee of General Security, first established in October 1792, was

several times remodelled. In September 1793 the Convention decreed that

its members should be nominated by the Committee of Public Safety. The

Committee of General Security had unlimited powers for the prevention or

discovery of crime against the state. The Revolutionary Tribunal was

decreed on the 10th of March. It was an extraordinary Court, destined to

try all offences against the Revolution without appeal. The jury, which

received wages, voted openly, so that condemnation was almost certain.

The director of the jury or public prosecutor was Fouquier Tinville. The

first condemnation took place on the 11th of April.

Fall of the Girondins.

Enmity between Girondin and Jacobin grew fiercer as the perils of the

Republic increased. Danton strove to unite all partisans of the

Revolution in defence of the country; but the Girondins, detesting his

character and fearing his ambition, rejected all advances. The Commune

of Paris and the journalists who were its mouthpieces, Hebert and Marat,

aimed frankly at destroying the Girondins. In April the Girondins

carried a decree that Marat should be sent before the Revolutionary

Tribunal for incendiary writings, but his acquittal showed that a

Jacobin leader was above the law. In May they proposed that the Commune

of Paris should be dissolved, and that the _suppleants_, the persons

elected to fill vacancies occurring in the Convention, should assemble

at Bourges, where they would be safe from that violence which might be

applied to the Convention itself. Barere, who was rising into notice by

the skill with which he trimmed between parties, opposed this motion,

and carried a decree appointing a Committee of Twelve to watch over the

safety of the Convention. Then the Commune named as commandant of the

National Guard, Hanriot, a man concerned in the September massacres. It

raised an insurrection on the 31st of May. On Barere's proposal the

Convention stooped to dissolving the Committee of Twelve. The Commune,

which had hoped for the arrest of the Girondin leaders, was not

satisfied. It undertook a new and more formidable outbreak on the 2nd of

June. Enclosed by Hanriot's troops and thoroughly cowed, the Convention

decreed the arrest of the Committee of Twelve and of twenty-two

principal Girondins. They were put under confinement in their own

houses. Thus the Jacobins became all-powerful.

Revolt of the provinces.

A tremor of revolt ran through the cities of the south which chafed

under the despotism of the Parisian mob. These cities had their own

grievances. The Jacobin clubs menaced the lives and properties of all

who were guilty of wealth or of moderate opinions, while the

representatives on mission deposed the municipal authorities and placed

their own creatures in power. At the end of April the citizens of

Marseilles closed the Jacobin club, put its chiefs on their trial and

drove out the representatives on mission. In May Lyons rose. The Jacobin

municipality was overturned, and Challier, their fiercest demagogue, was

arrested. In June the citizens of Bordeaux declared that they would not

acknowledge the authority of the Convention until the imprisoned

deputies were set free. In July Toulon rebelled. But in the north the

appeals of such Girondins as escaped from Paris were of no avail. Even

the southern uprising proved far less dangerous than might have been

expected. The peasants, who had gained more by the Revolution than any

other class, held aloof from the citizens. The citizens lacked the

qualities necessary for the successful conduct of civil war. Bordeaux

surrendered almost without waiting to be summoned. Marseilles was taken

in August and treated with great cruelty. Lyons, where the Royalists

were strong, defended itself with courage, for the trial and execution

of Challier made the townsmen hopeless of pardon. Toulon, also largely

Royalist, invited the English and Spanish admirals, Hood and Langara,

who occupied the port and garrisoned the town. At the same time the

Vendean War continued formidable. In June the insurgents took the

important town of Saumur, although they failed in an attempt upon

Nantes. At the end of July the Republicans were still unable to make any

impression upon the revolted territory.

Disunion of the allied powers.

Thus in the summer of 1793 France seemed to be falling to pieces. It was

saved by the imbecility and disunion of the hostile powers. In the north

the French army after the treason of Dumouriez could only attempt to

cover the frontier. The Austrians were joined by British, Dutch and

Prussian forces. Had the Allies pushed straight upon Paris, they might

have ended the war. But the desire of each ally to make conquests on his

own account led them to spend time and strength in sieges. When Conde

and Valenciennes had been taken, the British went off to assail Dunkirk

and the Prussians retired into Luxemburg. In the east the Prussians and

Austrians took Mainz at the end of July, allowing the garrison to depart

on condition of not serving against the Allies for a year. Then they

invaded Alsace, but their mutual jealousy prevented them from going

farther. Thus the summer passed away without any decisive achievement of

the coalition. Meanwhile the Committee of Public Safety, inspired by

Danton, strove to rebuild the French administrative system. In July the

Committee was renewed and Danton fell out; but soon afterwards it was

reinforced by two officers, Carnot, who undertook the organization of

the army, and Prieur of the Cote d'Or, who undertook its equipment.

Administrators of the first rank, these men renovated the warlike power

of France, and enabled her to deal those crushing blows which broke up

the coalition.

The reign of terror.

The Royalist and Girondin insurrections and the critical aspect of the

war favoured the establishment of what is known as the reign of terror.

Terrorism had prevailed more or less since the beginning of the

Revolution, but it was the work of those who desired to rule, not of the

nominal rulers. It had been lawless and rebellious. It ended by becoming

legal and official. While Danton kept power Terrorism remained

imperfect, for Danton, although unscrupulous, did not love cruelty and

kept in view a return to normal government. But soon after Danton had

ceased to be a member of the Committee of Public Safety Robespierre was

elected, and now became the most powerful man in France. Robespierre was

an acrid fanatic, and unlike Danton, who only cared to secure the

practical results of the Revolution, he had a moral and religious ideal

which he intended to force on the nation. All who rejected his ideal

were corrupt; all who resented his ascendancy were traitors. The death

of Marat, who was stabbed by Charlotte Corday (q.v.) to avenge the

Girondins, gave yet another pretext for terrible measures of repression.

In Paris the armed ruffians who had long preyed upon respectable

citizens were organized as a revolutionary army, and other revolutionary

armies were established in the provinces. Two new laws placed almost

everybody at the mercy of the government. The Law of the Maximum, passed

on the 17th of September, fixed the price of food and made it capital to

ask for more. The Law of Suspects, passed at the same time, declared

suspect every person who was of noble birth, or had held office before

the Revolution, or had any connexion with an _emigre_, or could not

produce a card of _civisme_ granted by the local authority, which had

full discretion to refuse. Any suspect might be arrested and imprisoned

until the peace or sent before the Revolutionary Tribunal. An earlier

law had established in every commune an elective committee of

surveillance. These bodies, better known as revolutionary committees,

were charged with the enforcement of the Law of Suspects. On the 10th of

October the new constitution was suspended and the government declared

revolutionary until the peace.

Execution of the queen.

The spirit of those in power was shown by the massacres which followed

on the surrender of Lyons in that month. In Paris the slaughter of

distinguished victims began with the trial of Marie Antoinette, who was

guillotined on the 16th. Twenty-one Girondin deputies were next brought

to the bar and, with the exception of Valaze who stabbed himself, were

beheaded on the last day of October, Madame Roland and other Girondins

of note suffered later. In November the duke of Orleans, who had styled

himself Philippe Egalite, had sat in the Convention, and had voted for

the king's death, went to the scaffold. Bailly, Barnave and many others

of note followed before the end of the year. As the bloody work went on

the pretence of trial became more and more hollow, the chance of

acquittal fainter and fainter. The Revolutionary Tribunal was a mere

instrument of state. Knowing the slight foundation of its power the

government deliberately sought to destroy all whose birth, political

connexions or past career might mark them out as leaders of opposition.

At the same time it took care to show that none was so obscure or so

impotent as to be safe when its policy was to destroy.

The disastrous effects of the Terror were heightened by the financial

mismanagement of the Jacobins. Assignats were issued with such reckless

profusion that the total for the three years of the Convention has been

estimated at 7250 millions of francs. Enormous depreciation ensued and,

although penalties rising to death itself were denounced against all who

should refuse to take them at par, they fell to little more than 1% of

their nominal value. What were known as revolutionary taxes were

imposed at discretion by the representatives on mission and the local

authorities. A forced loan of 1000 millions was exacted from those

citizens who were reputed to be prosperous. Immense supplies of all

kinds were requisitioned for the armies, and were sometimes allowed to

rot unused. Anarchy and state interference having combined to check the

trade in necessaries, the government undertook to feed the people, and

spent huge sums, especially on bread for the starving inhabitants of

Paris. As no regular budget was attempted, as accounts were not kept,

and as audit was unknown, the opportunities for fraud and embezzlement

were endless. Even when due allowance has been made for the financial

disorder which the Convention inherited from previous assemblies, and

for the war which it had to wage against a formidable alliance, it

cannot be acquitted of reckless and wasteful maladministration.

Revolutionary legislation. The new calendar.

Notwithstanding the disorder of the time, the mass of new laws produced

by the Convention was extraordinary. A new system of weights and

measures, a new currency, a new chronological era (that of the

Republic), and a new calendar were introduced (see the section

_Republican Calendar_ below). A new and elaborate system of education

was decreed. Two drafts of a complete civil code were made and, although

neither was enacted, particular changes of great moment were decreed.

Many of the new laws were stamped with the passions of the time. Such

were the laws which suppressed all the remaining bodies corporate, even

the academies, and which extinguished all manorial rights without any

indemnity to the owners. Such too were the laws which took away the

power of testation, placed natural children upon an absolute equality

with legitimate, and gave a boundless freedom of divorce. It would be

absurd, however, to dismiss all the legislative work of the Convention

as merely partisan or eccentric. Much of it was enlightened and skilful,

the product of the best minds in the assembly. To compete for power or

even to express an opinion on public affairs was dangerous, and wholly

to refrain from attendance might be construed as disaffection. Able men

who wished to be useful without hazarding their lives took refuge in the

committees where new laws were drafted and discussed. The result of

their labours was often decreed as a matter of course. Whether the

decree would be carried into effect was always uncertain.

Overthrow of the Paris Commune. Fall of the Dantonists.

The ruling faction was still divided against itself. The Commune of

Paris, which had overthrown the Girondins, was jealous of the Committee

of Public Safety, which meant to be supreme. Robespierre, the leading

member of the committee, abhorred the chiefs of the Commune, not merely

because they conflicted with his ambition but from difference of

character. He was orderly and temperate, they were gross and debauched;

he was a deist, they were atheists. In November the Commune fitted up

Notre Dame as a temple of Reason, selected an opera girl to impersonate

the goddess, and with profane ceremony installed her in the choir. All

the churches in Paris were closed. Danton, when he felt power slipping

from his hands, had retired from public business to his native town of

Arcis-sur-Aube. When he became aware of the feud between Robespierre and

the Commune, he conceived the hope of limiting the Terror and guiding

the Revolution into a sane course. He returned to Paris and joined with

Robespierre in carrying the law of 14 Frimaire (December 4), which gave

the Committee of Public Safety absolute control over all municipal

authorities. He became the advocate of mercy, and his friend Camille

Desmoulins pleaded for the same cause in the _Vieux Cordelier_. Then the

oppressed nation took courage and began to demand pardon for the

innocent and even justice upon murderers. A sharp contest ensued between

the Dantonists and the Commune, Robespierre inclining now to this side,

now to that, for he was really a friend to neither. His friend St Just,

a younger and fiercer man, resolved to destroy both. Hebert and his

followers in despair planned a new insurrection, but they were deserted

by Hanriot, their military chief. Their doom was thus fixed. Twenty

leaders of the Commune were arrested on the 17th of March 1794 and

guillotined a week later. It was then Danton's turn. He had several

warnings, but either through over-confidence or weariness of life he

scorned to fly. On the 30th he was arrested along with his friends

Desmoulins, Delacroix, Philippeaux and Westermann. St Just read to the

Convention a report on their case pre-eminent even in that day for its

shameless disregard of truth, nay, of plausibility. Before the

Revolutionary Tribunal Danton defended himself with such energy that St

Just took means to have him silenced. Danton and his friends were

executed on the 5th of April.

Supremacy of Robespierre.

For a moment the conflict of parties seemed at an end. None could

presume to challenge the authority of the Committee of Public Safety,

and in the committee none disputed the leadership of Robespierre.

Robespierre was at last free to establish the republic of virtue. On the

7th of May he persuaded the Convention to decree that the French people

acknowledged the existence of a Supreme Being and the immortality of the

soul. On the 4th of June he was elected president of the Convention, and

from that time forward he appeared to be dictator of France. On the 8th

the festival of the Supreme Being was solemnized, Robespierre acting as

pontiff amid the outward deference and secret jeers of his colleagues.

But Robespierre knew what a gulf parted him from almost all his

countrymen. He knew that he could be safe only by keeping power and

powerful only by making the Terror more stringent. Two days after the

festival his friend Couthon presented the crowning law of the Terror,

known as the Law of 22 Prairial. As the Revolutionary Tribunal was said

to be paralysed by forms and delays, this law abolished the defence of

prisoners by counsel and the examination of witnesses. Thenceforward the

impressions of judges and jurors were to decide the fate of the accused.

For all offences the penalty was to be death. The leave of the

Convention was no longer required for the arrest of a member. In spite

of some murmurs even this law was adopted. Its effect was fearful. The

Revolutionary Tribunal had hitherto pronounced 1200 death sentences. In

the next six weeks it pronounced 1400. With Robespierre's approval St

Just sketched at this time the plan of an ideal society in which every

man should have just enough land to maintain him; in which domestic life

should be regulated by law and all children over seven years should be

educated by the state. Pending this regeneration of society St Just

advised the rule of a dictator.

The Revolutionary War. Republican successes.

The growing ferocity of the Terror appeared more hideous as the dangers

threatening the government receded. The surrender of Toulon in December

1793 closed the south of France to foreign enemies. The war in La Vendee

turned against the insurgents from the time when the veteran garrison of

Mainz came to reinforce the Republican army. After a severe defeat at

Cholet on the 16th of October the Royalists determined to cross the

Loire and raise Brittany and Anjou, where the Chouans, or Royalist

partisans, were already stirring. They failed in an attempt on the

little seaport of Granville and in another upon Angers. In December they

were defeated with immense loss at Le Mans and at Savenay. The rebellion

would probably have died out but for the measures of the new Republican

general Turreau, who wasted La Vendee so horribly with his "infernal

columns" that he drove the peasants to take up arms once more. Yet

Turreau's crimes were almost surpassed by Carrier, the representative on

mission at Nantes, who, finding the guillotine too slow in the

destruction of his prisoners, adopted the plan of drowning them

wholesale. In the autumn of 1793 the war against the coalition took a

turn favourable to France. The energy of Danton, the organizing skill of

Carnot, and the high spirit of the French nation, resolute at all costs

to avoid dismemberment, had well employed the respite given by the

sluggishness of the Allies. In Flanders the English were defeated at

Hondschoote (September 8) and the Austrians at Wattignies (October 15).

In the east Hoche routed the Austrians at Weissenburg and forced them to

recross the Rhine before the end of 1793. The summer of 1794 saw France

victorious on all her frontiers. Jourdan won the battle of Fleurus

(June 25), which decided the fate of the Belgian provinces. The

Prussians were driven out of the eastern departments. Against the

Spaniards and the Sardinians the French were also successful.

Fall of Robespierre. The 9th Thermidor.

Under these circumstances government by terror could not endure.

Robespierre was not a man of action; he knew not how to form or lead a

party; he lived not with his fellows but with his own thoughts and

ambitions. He was hated and feared by most of the oligarchy. They

laughed at his religion, resented his puritanism, and felt themselves in

daily peril. His only loyal friends in the Committee of Public Safety,

Couthon and St Just, were themselves unpopular. Robespierre professed

consideration for the deputies of the Plain, who were glad to buy safety

by conforming to his will; but he could not reckon on their help in time

of danger. By degrees a coalition against Robespierre was formed in the

Mountain. It included old followers of Danton like Taillen, independent

Jacobins like Cambon, some of the worst Terrorists like Fouche, and such

a consummate time-server as Barere. In the course of July its influence

began to be felt. When St Just proposed Robespierre to the committees as

dictator, he found no response. On the 8th Thermidor (26th of July)

Robespierre addressed the Convention, deploring the invectives against

himself and the Revolutionary Tribunal and demanding the purification of

the committees and the punishment of traitors. His enemies took the

speech as a declaration of war and thwarted a proposal that it should be

circulated in the departments. Robespierre felt his ascendancy totter.

He repeated his speech with more success to the Jacobin Club. His

friends determined to strike, and Hanriot ordered the National Guards to

hold themselves in readiness. Robespierre's enemies called on the

Committee of Public Safety to arrest the traitors, but the committee was

divided. On the morning of the 9th Thermidor St Just was beginning to

speak in the Convention when Tallien cut him short. Robespierre and all

who tried to speak in his behalf were shouted down. The Plain was deaf

to Robespierre's appeal. Finally the Convention decreed the arrest of

Robespierre, of his brother Augustin, of Couthon and of St Just. But the

Commune and the Jacobin Club were on the alert. They sounded the tocsin,

mustered their partisans, and released the prisoners. The Convention

outlawed Robespierre and his friends and sent out commissioners to rally

the citizens. It named Barras, a deputy who had served in the royal

army, to lead its forces. Had Robespierre possessed Danton's energy, the

result might have been doubtful. He did nothing himself and benumbed his

followers. Without an effort Barras captured the Hotel de Ville.

Robespierre, whose jaw had been shattered by a pistol shot, was left in

agony for the night. On the next morning he was beheaded along with his

brother, Couthon, St Just, Hanriot and seventeen more of his adherents.

On the day after seventy-one members of the Commune followed them to the

scaffold. Such was the revolution of the 9th Thermidor (27th of July

1794) which ended the Reign of Terror.

In a period of fifteen months, it has been calculated, about 17,000

persons had been executed in France under form of law. The number of

those who were shot, drowned or otherwise massacred without the pretence

of a trial can never be accurately known, but must be reckoned far

greater. The number of persons arrested and imprisoned reached hundreds

of thousands, of whom many died in their crowded and filthy jails. The

names on the list of _emigres_ at the close of the Terror were about

150,000. Of these a small proportion had borne arms against their

country. The rest were either harmless fugitives from destruction or had

never quitted France and had been placed on the list simply in order

that they might incur the penalties of emigration. Every one of this

multitude was liable to instant death if found in French territory.

Their relatives were subjected to various pains and penalties. All the

property of those condemned to death and of _emigres_ was confiscated.

The carnage of the Terror spread far beyond the clergy and the nobility,

beyond even the middle class, for peasants and artisans were among the

victims. It spread far beyond those who could conspire or rebel, for

bedridden old men and women and young boys and girls were often

sacrificed. It made most havoc in the flower of the nation, since every

kind of eminence marked men for death. By imbuing Frenchmen with such a

mutual hatred as nothing but the arm of despotic power could control the

Reign of Terror rendered political liberty impossible for many years.

The rule of the Terrorists made inevitable the reign of Napoleon.

Reaction after the Terror.

The fall of Robespierre had consequences unforeseen by his destroyers.

Long kept mute by fear, the mass of the nation found a voice and

demanded a total change of government. When once the reaction against

Jacobin tyranny had begun, it was impossible to halt. Great numbers of

prisoners were set at liberty. The Commune of Paris was abolished and

the office of commandant of the National Guard was suppressed. The

Revolutionary Tribunal was reorganized, and thenceforwards condemnations

were rare. The Committees of Public Safety and General Security were

remodelled, in virtue of a law that one-fourth of their number should

retire at the end of every month and not be re-eligible until another

month had elapsed. Somewhat later the Convention declared itself to be

the only centre of authority, and executive business was parcelled out

among sixteen committees. Most of the representatives on mission were

recalled, and many office-holders were displaced. The trial of 130

prisoners sent up from Nantes led to so many terrible disclosures that

public feeling turned still more fiercely against the Jacobins; Carrier

himself was condemned and executed; and in November the Jacobin Club was

closed. In December 73 members of the Convention who had been imprisoned

for protesting against the violence done to the Girondins on the 2nd of

June 1793 were allowed to resume their seats, and gave a decisive

majority to the anti-Jacobins. Soon afterwards the law of the Maximum

was repealed. A decree was passed in February 1795 severing the

connexion of church and state and allowing general freedom of worship.

At the beginning of March those Girondin deputies who survived came back

to their places in the Convention.

Parties in the Assembly after Thermidor.

But the return to normal life after the Jacobin domination was not

destined to be smooth or continuous. Beside the remnant of Terrorists,

such as Billaud Varennes and Collot d'Herbois, who had joined in the

revolt against Robespierre, there were in the Convention at that time

three principal factions. The so-called Independents, such as Barras and

Merlin of Douai, who were all Jacobins, but had stood aloof from the

internal conflicts of the party, hated Royalism as much as ever and

desired the continuance of the war which was essential to their power.

The Thermidorians, the immediate agents in Robespierre's overthrow, such

as Tallien, had loudly professed Jacobinism, but wanted to make their

peace with the nation. They sought for an understanding with the

Girondins and Feuillants, and some went so far as to correspond with the

exiled princes. Lastly, those members who had never been Jacobins wanted

a speedy return to legal government at home and therefore wished for

peace abroad. While bent on preserving the civil equality introduced by

the Revolution, many of these men were indifferent as between

constitutional monarchy and a republic. The government, mainly

Thermidorian, trimmed between Moderates and Independents, and for this

reason its actions were often inconsistent.

Progress of the reaction.

The Jacobins were strong enough to carry a decree for keeping the

anniversary of the execution of Louis XVI. as a national festival. They

could count on the populace, because work was still scarce, food was

still dear, and a multitude of Parisians knew not where to find bread. A

committee having recommended the indictment of Collot d'Herbois and

three other Terrorists, there ensued the rising of the 12th Germinal

(April 1). The mob forced their way into the hall of the Convention and

remained there until the National Guards of the wealthy quarters drove

them out. By a decree of the Convention the four accused persons were

deported to Cayenne, a new mode of dealing with political offenders

almost as effective as the guillotine, while less apt to excite

compassion. The National Guard was reorganized so as to exclude the

lowest class. The property of persons executed since the 10th of March

1793 was restored to their families. The signs of reaction daily became

more unmistakable. Worshippers crowded to the churches; the _emigres_

returned by thousands; and Anti-Jacobin outbreaks, followed by massacre,

took place in the south. The despair of the Jacobins produced a second

rising in Paris on the 1st Prairial (May 20). Again the mob invaded the

Convention, murdered a deputy named Feraud who attempted to shield the

president, and set his head on a pike. The ultra-Jacobin members took

possession and embodied their wishes in decrees. Again the hall was

cleared by the National Guards, but order was restored in Paris only by

employing regular troops, a new precedent in the history of the

Revolution. Paris was disarmed, and several leaders of the insurrection

were sentenced to death. The Revolutionary Tribunal was suppressed.

Toleration was proclaimed for all priests who would declare their

obedience to the laws of the state. Royalists began to count upon the

restoration of young Louis the Dauphin, otherwise Louis XVII.; but his

health had been ruined by persevering cruelty, and he died on the 10th

of June.

Progress of the war.

The Thermidorian government also endeavoured to pacify the rebels of the

west. Its best adviser, Hoche, recommended an amnesty and the assurance

of religious freedom. On these terms peace was made with the Vendeans at

La Jaunaie in February and with the Chouans at La Mabilais in April.

Some of the Vendean leaders persevered in resistance until May, and even

after their submission the peace was ill observed, for the Royalists

hearkened to the solicitations of the princes and their advisers. In the

hope of rekindling the civil war a body of _emigres_ sailed under cover

of the British fleet and landed on the peninsula of Quiberon. They were

presently hemmed in by Hoche, and all who could not make their escape to

the ships were forced to surrender at discretion (July 20). Nearly 700

were executed by court-martial. Yet the spirit of revolt lingered in the

west and broke out time after time. Against the coalition the Republic

was gloriously successful. (See FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS.) In the

summer of 1794 the French invaded Spain at both ends of the Pyrenees,

and at the close of the year they made good their footing in Catalonia

and Navarre. By the beginning of 1795 the Rhine frontier had been won.

Against the king of Sardinia alone they accomplished little. At sea the

French had sustained a severe defeat from Lord Howe, and several of

their colonies had been taken by the British. But Great Britain, when

the Netherlands were lost, could do little for her allies. Even before

the close of 1794 the king of Prussia retired from any active part in

the war, and on the 5th of April 1795 he concluded with France the

treaty of Basel, which recognized her occupation of the left bank of the

Rhine. The new democratic government which the French had established in

Holland purchased peace by surrendering Dutch territory to the south of

that river. A treaty of peace between France and Spain followed in July.

The grand duke of Tuscany had been admitted to terms in February. The

coalition thus fell into ruin and France occupied a more commanding

position than in the proudest days of Louis XIV.

Constitution of the year III. The Directory.

But this greatness was unsure so long as France remained without a

stable government. A constitutional committee was named in April. It

resolved that the constitution of 1793 was impracticable and proceeded

to frame a new one. The draft was submitted to the Convention in June.

In its final shape the constitution established a parliamentary system

of two houses: a Council of Five Hundred and a Council of Ancients, 250

in number. Members of the Five Hundred were to be at least thirty years

of age, members of the Ancients at least forty. The system of indirect

election was maintained but universal suffrage was abandoned. A moderate

qualification was required for electors in the first degree, a higher

one for electors in the second degree.

When the 750 persons necessary had been elected they were to choose the

Ancients out of their own body. A legislature was to last for three

years, and one-third of the members were to be renewed every year. The

Ancients had a suspensory veto, but no initiative in legislation. The

executive was to consist of five directors chosen by the Ancients out of

a list elected by the Five Hundred. One director was to retire every

year. The directors were aided by ministers for the various departments

of State. These ministers did not form a council and had no general

powers of government. Provision was made for the stringent control of

all local authorities by the central government. Since the separation of

powers was still deemed axiomatic, the directors had no voice in

legislation or taxation, nor could directors or ministers sit in either

house. Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of labour

were guaranteed. Armed assemblies and even public meetings of political

societies were forbidden. Petitions were to be tendered only by

individuals or through the public authorities. The constitution was not,

however, allowed free play from the beginning. The Convention was so

unpopular that, if its members had retired into private life, they would

not have been safe and their work might have been undone. It was

therefore decreed that two-thirds of the first legislature must be

chosen out of the Convention.

Insurrection of 13 Vendemiaire.

When the constitution was submitted to the primary assemblies, most

electors held aloof, 1,050,000 voting for and only 5,000 voting against

it. On the 23rd of September it was declared to be law. Then all the

parties which resented the limit upon freedom of election combined to

rise in Paris. The government entrusted its defence to Barras; but its

true man of action was young General Bonaparte, who could dispose of a

few thousand regular troops and a powerful artillery. The Parisians were

ill-equipped and ill-led, and on the 13th of Vendemiaire (October 5)

their insurrection was quelled almost without loss to the victors. No

further resistance was possible. The Convention dissolved itself on the

26th of October.

Balance of parties in the new legislature.

The feeling of the nation was clearly shown in the elections. Among

those who had sat in the Convention the anti-Jacobins were generally

preferred. A leader of the old Right was sometimes chosen by many

departments at once. Owing to this circumstance, 104 places reserved to

members of the Convention were left unfilled. When the persons elected

met they had no choice but to co-opt the 104 from the Left of the

Convention. The new one-third were, as a rule, enemies of the Jacobins,

but not of the Revolution. Many had been members of the Constituent or

of the Legislative Assembly. When the new legislature was complete, the

Jacobins had a majority, although a weak one. After the Council of the

Ancients had been chosen by lot, it remained to name the directors. For

its own security the Left resolved that all five must be old members of

the Convention and regicides. The persons chosen were Rewbell, Barras,

La Revelliere Lepeaux, Carnot and Letourneur. Rewbell was an able,

although unscrupulous, man of action, Barras a dissolute and shameless

adventurer, La Revelliere Lepeaux the chief of a new sect, the

Theophilanthropists, and therefore a bitter foe to other religions,

especially the Catholic. Severe integrity and memorable public services

raised Carnot far above his colleagues, but he was not a statesman and

was hampered by his past. Letourneur, a harmless insignificant person,

was his admirer and follower. The division in the legislature was

reproduced in the Directory. Rewbell, Barras and La Revelliere Lepeaux

had a full measure of the Jacobin spirit; Carnot and Letourneur favoured

a more temperate policy.

Character of the Directory.

With the establishment of the Directory the Revolution might seem

closed. The nation only desired rest and the healing of its many wounds.

Those who wished to restore Louis XVIII. and the _ancien regime_ and

those who would have renewed the Reign of Terror were insignificant in

number. The possibility of foreign interference had vanished with the

failure of the coalition. Nevertheless the four years of the Directory

were a time of arbitrary government and chronic disquiet. The late

atrocities had made confidence or goodwill between parties impossible.

The same instinct of self-preservation which had led the members of the

Convention to claim so large a part in the new legislature and the whole

of the Directory impelled them to keep their predominance. As the

majority of Frenchmen wanted to be rid of them, they could achieve their

purpose only by extraordinary means. They habitually disregarded the

terms of the constitution, and, when the elections went against them,

appealed to the sword. They resolved to prolong the war as the best

expedient for prolonging their power. They were thus driven to rely upon

the armies, which also desired war and were becoming less and less civic

in temper. Other reasons influenced them in this direction. The finances

had been so thoroughly ruined that the government could not have met its

expenses without the plunder and the tribute of foreign countries. If

peace were made, the armies would return home and the directors would

have to face the exasperation of the rank and file who had lost their

livelihood, as well as the ambition of generals who could in a moment

brush them aside. Barras and Rewbell were notoriously corrupt themselves

and screened corruption in others. The patronage of the directors was

ill bestowed, and the general maladministration heightened their

unpopularity.

Military triumphs under the Directory. Bonaparte.

The constitutional party in the legislature desired a toleration of the

nonjuring clergy, the repeal of the laws against the relatives of the

_emigres_, and some merciful discrimination toward the _emigres_

themselves. The directors baffled all such endeavours. On the other

hand, the socialist conspiracy of Babeuf was easily quelled (see BABEUF,

FRANCOIS N.). Little was done to improve the finances, and the

_assignats_ continued to fall in value. But the Directory was sustained

by the military successes of the year 1796. Hoche again pacified La

Vendee. Bonaparte's victories in Italy more than compensated for the

reverses of Jourdan and Moreau in Germany. The king of Sardinia made

peace in May, ceding Nice and Savoy to the Republic and consenting to

receive French garrisons in his Piedmontese fortresses. By the treaty of

San Ildefonso, concluded in August, Spain became the ally of France. In

October Naples made peace. In 1797 Bonaparte finished the conquest of

northern Italy and forced Austria to make the treaty of Campo Formio

(October), whereby the emperor ceded Lombardy and the Austrian

Netherlands to the Republic in exchange for Venice and undertook to urge

upon the Diet the surrender of the lands beyond the Rhine.

Notwithstanding the victory of Cape St Vincent, England was brought into

such extreme peril by the mutinies in the fleet that she offered to

acknowledge the French conquest of the Netherlands and to restore the

French colonies. The selfishness of the three directors threw away this

golden opportunity. In March and April the election of a new third of

the Councils had been held. It gave a majority to the constitutional

party. Among the directors the lot fell on Letourneur to retire, and he

was succeeded by Barthelemy, an eminent diplomatist, who allied himself

with Carnot. The political disabilities imposed upon the relatives of

_emigres_ were repealed. Priests who would declare their submission to

the Republic were restored to their rights as citizens. It seemed likely

that peace would be made and that moderate men would gain power.

Coup d'etat of the 18th Fructidor.

Barras, Rewbell and La Revelliere-Lepeaux then sought help from the

armies. Although Royalists formed but a petty fraction of the majority,

they raised the alarm that it was seeking to restore monarchy and undo

the work of the Revolution. Hoche, then in command of the army of the

Sambre and Meuse, visited Paris and sent troops. Bonaparte sent General

Augereau, who executed the _coup d'etat_ of the 18th Fructidor

(September 4). The councils were purged, the elections in forty-nine

departments were cancelled, and many deputies and other men of note were

arrested. Some of them, including Barthelemy, were deported to Cayenne.

Carnot made good his escape. The two vacant places in the Directory were

filled by Merlin of Douai and Francois of Neufchateau. Then the

government frankly returned to Jacobin methods. The law against the

relatives of _emigres_ was reenacted, and military tribunals were

established to condemn _emigres_ who should return to France. The

nonjuring priests were again persecuted. Many hundreds were either sent

to Cayenne or imprisoned in the hulks of Re and Oleron. La Revelliere

Lepeaux seized the opportunity to propagate his religion. Many churches

were turned into Theophilanthropic temples. The government strained its

power to secure the recognition of the _decadi_ as the day of public

worship and the non-observance of Sunday. Liberty of the press ceased.

Newspapers were confiscated and journalists were deported wholesale. It

was proposed to banish from France all members of the old _noblesse_.

Although the proposal was dropped, they were all declared to be

foreigners and were forced to obtain naturalization if they would enjoy

the rights of other citizens. A formal bankruptcy of the state, the

cancelling of two-thirds of the interest on the public debt, crowned the

misgovernment of this disastrous time.

In the spring of 1798 not only a new third of the legislature had to be

chosen, but the places of the members expelled by the revolution of

Fructidor had to be filled. The constitutional party had been rendered

helpless, and the mass of the electors were indifferent. But among the

Jacobins themselves there had arisen an extreme party hostile to the

directors. With the support of many who were not Jacobins but detested

the government, it bade fair to gain a majority. Before the new deputies

could take their seats the directors forced through the councils the law

of the 22nd Floreal (May 11), annulling or perverting the elections in

thirty departments and excluding forty-eight deputies by name. Even this

_coup d'etat_ did not secure harmony between the executive and the

legislature. In the councils the directors were loudly charged with

corruption and misgovernment. The retirement of Francois of Neufchateau

and the choice of Treilhard as his successor made no difference in the

position of the Directory.

While France was thus inwardly convulsed, its rulers were doubly bound

to husband the national strength and practise moderation towards other

states. Since December 1797 a congress had been sitting at Rastadt to

regulate the future of Germany. That it should be brought to a

successful conclusion was of the utmost import for France. But the

directors were driven by self-interest to new adventures abroad.

Bonaparte was resolved not to sink into obscurity, and the directors

were anxious to keep him as far as possible from Paris; they therefore

sanctioned the expedition to Egypt which deprived the Republic of its

best army and most renowned captain. Coveting the treasures of Bern,

they sent Brune to invade Switzerland and remodel its constitution; in

revenge for the murder of General Duphot, they sent Berthier to invade

the papal states and erect the Roman Republic; they occupied and

virtually annexed Piedmont. In all these countries they organized such

an effective pillage that the French became universally hateful. As the

armies were far below the strength required by the policy of unbounded

conquest and rapine, the first permanent law of conscription was passed

in the summer of 1798. The attempt to enforce it caused a revolt of the

peasants in the Belgian departments. The priests were made responsible

and some eight thousand were condemned in a mass to deportation,

although much the greater part escaped by the goodwill of the people.

Few soldiers were obtained by the conscription, for the government was

as weak as it was tyrannical.

The second coalition.

Under these circumstances Nelson's victory of Aboukir (1st of August),

which gave the British full command of the Mediterranean and secluded

Bonaparte in Egypt, was the signal for a second coalition. Naples,

Austria, Russia and Turkey joined Great Britain against France.

Ferdinand of Naples, rashly taking the offensive before his allies were

ready, was defeated and forced to seek a refuge in Sicily. In January

1799 the French occupied Naples and set up the Parthenopean republic.

But the consequent dispersion of their weak forces only exposed them to

greater peril. At home the Directory was in a most critical position. In

the elections of April 1799 a large number of Jacobins gained seats. A

little later Rewbell retired. It was imperative to fill his place with a

man of ability and influence. The choice fell upon Sieyes, who had kept

aloof from office and retained not only his immeasurable self-conceit

but the respect of the public. Sieyes felt that the Directory was

bankrupt of reputation, and he intended to be far more than a mere

member of a board. He hoped to concentrate power in his own hands, to

bridle the Jacobins, and to remodel the constitution. With the help of

Barras he proceeded to rid himself of the other directors. An

irregularity having been discovered in Treilhard's election, he retired,

and his place was taken by Gohier. Merlin of Douai and La Revelliere

Lepeaux were driven to resign in June. They were succeeded by Moulin and

Ducos. The three new directors were so insignificant that they could

give no trouble, but for the same reason they were of little service.

French reverses. The Directory discredited.

Such a government was ill fitted to cope with the dangers then gathering

round France. The directors having resolved on the offensive in Germany,

the French crossed the Rhine early in March, but were defeated by the

archduke Charles at Stockach on the 25th. The congress at Rastadt, which

had sat for fifteen months without doing anything, broke up in April and

the French envoys were murdered by Austrian hussars. In Italy the allies

took the offensive with an army partly Austrian, partly Russian under

the command of Suvarov. After defeating Moreau at Cassano on the 27th of

April, he occupied Milan and Turin. The republics established by the

French in Italy were overthrown, and the French army retreating from

Naples was defeated by Suvarov on the Trebbia. Thus threatened with

invasion on her German and Italian frontiers, France was disabled by

anarchy within. The finances were in the last distress; the

anti-religious policy of the government kept many departments on the

verge of revolt; and commerce was almost suspended by the decay of roads

and the increase of bandits. There was no real political freedom, yet

none of the ease or security which enlightened despotism can bestow. The

Terrorists lifted their heads in the Council of Five Hundred. A Law of

Hostages, which was really a new Law of Suspects, and a progressive

income tax showed the temper of the majority. The Jacobin Club was

reopened and became once more the focus of disorder. The Jacobin press

renewed the licence of Hebert and Marat. Never since the outbreak of the

Revolution had the public temper been so gloomy and desponding.

In this extremity Sieyes chose as minister of police the old Terrorist

Fouche, who best understood how to deal with his brethren. Fouche closed

the Jacobin Club and deported a number of journalists. But like his

predecessors Sieyes felt that for the revolution which he meditated he

must have the help of a soldier. As his man of action he chose General

Joubert, one of the most distinguished among French officers. Joubert

was sent to restore the fortune of the war in Italy. At Novi on the 15th

of August he encountered Suvarov. He was killed at the outset of the

battle and his men were defeated. After this disaster the French held

scarcely anything south of the Alps save Genoa. The Russian and Austrian

governments then agreed to drive the enemy out of Switzerland and to

invade France from the east. At the same time Holland was assailed by

the joint forces of Great Britain and Russia. But the second coalition,

like the first, was doomed to failure by the narrow views and

conflicting interests of its members. The invasion of Switzerland was

baffled by want of concert between Austrians and Russians and by

Massena's victory at Zurich on the 25th and 26th of September. In

October the British and the Russians were forced to evacuate Holland.

All immediate danger to France was ended, but the issue of the war was

still in suspense. The directors had been forced to recall Bonaparte

from Egypt. He anticipated their order and on the 9th of October landed

at Frejus.

Coup d'etat of the 18th Brumaire.

Dazzled by his victories in the East the public forgot that the Egyptian

expedition was ending in calamity. It received him with an ardour which

convinced Sieyes that he was the indispensable soldier. Bonaparte was

ready to act, but at his own time and for his own ends. Since the close

of the Convention affairs at home and abroad had been tending more and

more surely to the establishment of a military dictatorship. Feeling his

powers equal to such an office he only hesitated about the means of

attainment. At first he thought of becoming a director; finally he

decided upon a partnership with Sieyes. They resolved to end the actual

government by a fresh _coup d'etat_. Means were to be taken for removing

the councils from Paris to St Cloud, where pressure could more easily be

applied. Then the councils would be induced to decree a provisional

government by three consuls and the appointment of a commission to

revise the constitution. The pretext for this irregular proceeding was

to be a vast Jacobin conspiracy. Perhaps the gravest obstacles were to

be expected from the army. Of the generals, some, like Jourdan, were

honest republicans; others, like Bernadotte, believed themselves capable

of governing France. With perfect subtlety Bonaparte worked on the

feelings of all and kept his own intentions secret.

On the morning of the 18th Brumaire (November 9) the Ancients, to whom

that power belonged, decreed the transference of the councils to St

Cloud. Of the directors, Sieyes and his friend Ducos had arranged to

resign; Barras was cajoled and bribed into resigning; Gohier and

Moulins, who were intractable, found themselves imprisoned in the

Luxemburg palace and helpless. So far all had gone well. But when the

councils met at St Cloud on the following day, the majority of the Five

Hundred showed themselves bent on resistance, and even the Ancients gave

signs of wavering. When Bonaparte addressed the Ancients, he lost his

self-possession and made a deplorable figure. When he appeared among the

Five Hundred, they fell upon him with such fury that he was hardly

rescued by his officers. A motion to outlaw him was only baffled by the

audacity of the president, his brother Lucien. At length driven to

undisguised violence, he sent in his grenadiers, who turned out the

deputies. Then the Ancients passed a decree which adjourned the Councils

for three months, appointed Bonaparte, Sieyes and Ducos provisional

consuls, and named the Legislative Commission. Some tractable members of

the Five Hundred were afterwards swept up and served to give these

measures the confirmation of their House. Thus the Directory and the

Councils came to their unlamented end. A shabby compound of brute force

and imposture, the 18th Brumaire was nevertheless condoned, nay

applauded, by the French nation. Weary of revolution, men sought no more

than to be wisely and firmly governed.

General estimate of the Revolution.

Although the French Revolution seemed to contemporaries a total break in

the history of France, it was really far otherwise. Its results were

momentous and durable in proportion as they were the outcome of causes

which had been working long. In France there had been no historic

preparation for political freedom. The desire for such freedom was in

the main confined to the upper classes. During the Revolution it was

constantly baffled. No Assembly after the states-general was freely

elected and none deliberated in freedom. After the Revolution Bonaparte

established a monarchy even more absolute than the monarchy of Louis

XIV. But the desire for uniformity, for equality and for what may be

termed civil liberty was the growth of ages, had been in many respects

nurtured by the action of the crown and its ministers, and had become

intense and general. Accordingly it determined the principal results of

the Revolution. Uniformity of laws and institutions was enforced

throughout France. The legal privileges formerly distinguishing

different classes were suppressed. An obsolete and burthensome agrarian

system was abolished. A number of large estates belonging to the crown,

the clergy and the nobles were broken up and sold at nominal prices to

men of the middle or lower class. The new jurisprudence encouraged the

multiplication of small properties. The new fiscal system taxed men

according to their means and raised no obstacle to commerce within the

national boundaries. Every calling and profession was made free to all

French citizens, and in the public service the principle of an open

career for talent was adopted. Religious disabilities vanished, and

there was well-nigh complete liberty of thought. It was because Napoleon

gave a practical form to these achievements of the Revolution and

ensured the public order necessary to their continuance that the

majority of Frenchmen endured so long the fearful sacrifices which his

policy exacted.

That a revolution largely inspired by generous and humane feeling should

have issued in such havoc and such crimes is a paradox which astounded

spectators and still perplexes the historian. Something in the cruelty

of the French Revolution may be ascribed to national character. From the

time when Burgundians and Armagnacs strove for dominion down to the last

insurrection of Paris, civil discord in France has always been cruel.

More, however, was due to the total dissolution of society which

followed the meeting of the states-general. In the course of the

Revolution we can discover no well-organized party, no governing mind.

Mirabeau had the stuff of a great statesman, and Danton was capable of

statesmanship. But these men were not followed or obeyed save by

accident or for a moment. Those who seemed to govern were usually the

sport of chance, often the victims of their colleagues. Neither

Royalists nor Feuillants nor Girondins had the instinct of government.

In the chaotic state of France all ferocious and destructive passions

found ample scope. The same conditions explain the triumph of the

Jacobins. Devoid of wisdom and virtue in the highest sense, they at

least understood how power might be seized and kept. The Reign of Terror

was the expedient of a party which knew its weakness and unpopularity.

It was not necessary either to secure the lasting benefits of the

Revolution or to save France from dismemberment; for nine Frenchmen out

of ten were agreed on both of these points and were ready to lay down

their lives for the national cause.

In the history of the French Revolution the influence which it exerted

upon the surrounding countries demands peculiar attention. The French

professed to act upon principles of universal authority, and from an

early date they began to seek converts outside their own limits. The

effect was slight upon England, which had already secured most of the

reforms desired by the French, and upon Spain, where the bulk of the

people were entirely submissive to church and king. But in the

Netherlands, in western Germany and in northern Italy, countries which

had attained a degree of civilization resembling that of France, where

the middle and lower classes had grievances and aspirations not very

different from those of the French, the effect was profound. Fear of

revolution at home was one of the motives which led continental

sovereigns to attack revolution in France. Their incoherent efforts only

confirmed the Jacobin supremacy. Wherever the victorious French extended

their dominion, they remodelled institutions in the French manner. Their

sway proved so oppressive that the very classes which had welcomed them

with most fervour soon came to long for their expulsion. But

revolutionary ideas kept their charm. Under Napoleon the essential part

of the changes made by the Republic was preserved in these countries

also. Moreover the effacement of old boundaries, the overthrow of

ancestral governments, and the invocation, however hollow, of the

sovereignty of the people, awoke national feeling which had slumbered

long and prepared the struggle for national union and independence in

the 19th century.

See also FRANCE, sections _History_ and _Law and Institutions_. For

the leading figures in the Revolution see their biographies under

separate headings. Particular phases, facts, and institutions of the

period are also separately dealt with, e.g. ASSIGNATS, CONVENTION, THE

NATIONAL, JACOBINS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The MS. authorities for the history of the French

Revolution are exceedingly copious. The largest collection is in the

Archives Nationales in Paris, but an immense number of documents are

to be found in other collections in Paris and the provinces. The

printed materials are so abundant and varied that any brief notice of

them must be imperfect.

The condition of France and the state of public opinion at the

beginning of the Revolution may be studied in the printed collections

of _Cahiers_. The _Cahiers_ were the statements of grievances drawn up

for the guidance of deputies to the States-General by those who had

elected them. In every _bailliage_ and _senechaussee_ each estate drew

up its own cahier and the cahiers of the Third Estate were condensed

from separate cahiers drawn up by each parish in the district. Thus

the cahiers of the Third Estate number many thousands, the greater

part of which have not yet been printed. Among the collections printed

we may mention _Les Elections et les cahiers de Paris en 1789_, by C.

L. Chassin (4 vols., Paris, 1888); _Cahiers de plaintes et doleances

des paroisses de la province de Maine_, by A. Bellee and V. Duchemin

(4 vols., Le Mans, 1881-1893); _Cahiers de doleances de 1789 dans le

departement du Pas-de-Calais_, by H. Loriquet (2 vols., Arras, 1891);

_Cahiers des paroisses et communautes du bailliage d'Autun_, by A.

Charmasse (Autun, 1895). New collections are printed from time to

time. A more general collection of cahiers than any above named is

given in vols. i.-vi. of the _Archives parlementaires_. The cahiers

must not be read in a spirit of absolute faith, as they were

influenced by certain models circulated at the time of the elections

and by popular excitement, but they remain an authority of the utmost

value and a mine of information as to old France. Reference should

also be made to the works of travellers who visited France at the

outbreak of the Revolution. Among these Arthur Young's _Travels in

France during the years 1787, 1788 and 1789_ (2 vols., Bury St

Edmunds, 1792-1794) are peculiarly instructive.

For the history of the Assemblies during the Revolution a main

authority is their _Proces verbaux_ or Journals; those of the

Constituent Assembly in 75 vols., those of the Legislative Assembly in

16 vols.; those of the Convention in 74 vols., and those of the

Councils under the Directory in 99 vols. See also the _Archives

parlementaires_ edited by J. Mavidal and E. Laurent (Paris, 1867, and

the following years); the _Histoire parlementaire de la Revolution_,

by P. J. B. Buchez and P. C. Roux (Paris, 1838), and the _Histoire de

la Revolution par deux amis de la liberte_ (Paris, 1792-1803).

The newspapers, of which a few have been mentioned in the text, were

numerous. They are useful chiefly as illustrating the ideas and

passions of the time, for they give comparatively little information

as to facts and that little is peculiarly inaccurate. The ablest of

the Royalist journals was Mallet du Pan's _Mercure de France_.

Pamphlets of the Revolution period number many thousands. Such

pamphlets as Mounier's _Nouvelles Observations sur les Etats-Generaux

de France_ and Sieyes's _Qu'est-ce que le Tiers Etat_ had a notable

influence on opinion. The richest collections of Revolution pamphlets

are in the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris and in the British Museum.

The contemporary memoirs, &c., already published are numerous and

fresh ones are always coming forth. A few of the best known and most

useful are, for the Constituent Assembly, the memoirs of Bailly, of

Ferrieres, of Malouet. The _Correspondence of Mirabeau with the Count

de la Marck_, edited by Bacourt (3 vols., Paris, 1851), is especially

valuable. Dumont's _Recollections of Mirabeau_ and the _Diary and

Letters of Gouverneur Morris_ give the impressions of foreigners with

peculiar advantages for observing. For the Legislative Assembly and

the Convention the memoirs of Madame Roland, of Bertrand de

Molleville, of Barbaroux, of Buzot, of Louvet, of Dumouriez are

instructive. For the Directory the memoirs of Barras, of La Revelliere

Lepeaux and of Thibaudeau deserve mention. The memoirs of Lafayette

are useful. Those of Talleyrand are singularly barren, the result, no

doubt, of deliberate suppression. The memoirs of the marquise de La

Rochejacquelein are important for the war of La Vendee. The most

notable Jacobins have seldom left memoirs, but the works of

Robespierre and St Just enable us to form a clearer conception of the

authors. The correspondence of the count of Mercy-Argenteau, the

imperial ambassador, with Joseph II. and Kaunitz, and the

correspondence of Mallet du Pan with the court of Vienna, are also

instructive. But the contemporary literature of the French Revolution

requires to be read in an unusually critical spirit. At no other

historical crisis have passions been more fiercely excited; at none

have shameless disregard of truth and blind credulity been more

common.

Among later works based on these original materials the first place

belongs to general histories. In French Louis Blanc's _Histoire de la

Revolution_ (12 vols., Paris, 1847-1862), and Michelet's _Histoire de

la Revolution Francaise_ (9 vols., Paris, 1847-1853), are the most

elaborate of the older works. Michelet's book is marked by great

eloquence and power. In H. Taine's _Origines de la France

contemporaine_ (Paris, 1876-1894) three volumes are devoted to the

Revolution. They show exceptional talent and industry, but their value

is impaired by the spirit of system and by strong prepossessions. F.

A. M. Mignet's _Histoire de la Revolution Francaise_ (2 vols., Paris,

1861), short and devoid of literary charm, has the merits of learning

and judgment and is still useful. F. A. Aulard's _Histoire politique

de la Revolution Francaise_ (Paris, 1901) is a most valuable precis of

political history, based on deep knowledge and lucidly set forth,

although not free from bias. The volume on the Revolution in Lavisse

and Rambaud's _Histoire generale de l'Europe_ (Paris, 1896) is the

work of distinguished scholars using the latest information. In

English, general histories of the Revolution are few. Carlyle's famous

work, published in 1837, is more of a prose epic than a history,

omitting all detail which would not heighten the imaginative effect

and tinged by all the favourite ideas of the author. Some fifty years

later H. M. Stephens published the first (1886) and second (1892)

volumes of a _History of the French Revolution_. They are marked by

solid learning and contain much information. Volume viii. of the

_Cambridge Modern History_, published in 1904, contains a general

survey of the Revolution.

The most notable German work is H. von Sybel's _Geschichte der

Revolutionszeit_ (5 vols., Stuttgart, 1853-1879). It is strongest in

those carts which relate to international affairs and foreign policy.

There is an English translation.

None of the general histories of the Revolution above named is really

satisfactory. The immense mass of material has not yet been thoroughly

sifted; and the passions of that age still disturb the judgment of the

historian. More successful have been the attempts to treat particular

aspects of the Revolution.

The foreign relations of France during the Revolution have been most

ably unravelled by A. Sorel in _L'Europe et la Revolution Francaise_

(8 vols., Paris, 1885-1904) carrying the story down to the settlement

of Vienna. Five volumes cover the years 1789-1799.

The financial history of the Revolution has been traced by C. Gomel,

_Histoire financiere de l'Assemblee Constituante_ (2 vols., Paris,

1897), and R. Stourm, _Les Finances de l'Ancien Regime et de la

Revolution_ (2 vols., Paris, 1885).

The relations of Church and State are sketched in E. Pressense's

_L'Eglise et la Revolution Francaise_ (Paris, 1889).

The general legislation of the period has been discussed by Ph.

Sagnac, _La Legislation civile de la Revolution Francaise_ (Paris,

1898). The best work upon the social life of the period is the

_Histoire de la societe francaise sous la Revolution_, by E. and J. de

Goncourt (Paris, 1889). For military history see A. Duruy, _L'Armee

royale en 1789_ (Paris, 1888); E. de Hauterive, _L'Armee sous la

Revolution, 1789-1794_ (Paris, 1894); A. Chuquet, _Les Guerres de la

Revolution_ (Paris, 1886, &c.). See also the memoirs and biographies

of the distinguished soldiers of the Republic and Empire, too numerous

for citation here.

Modern lives of the principal actors in the Revolution are numerous.

Among the most important are _Memoires de Mirabeau_, by L. de Montigny

(Paris, 1834); _Les Mirabeau_, by L. de Lomenie (Paris, 1889-1891); H.

L. de Lanzac de Laborie's _Jean Joseph Mounier_ (Paris, 1889); B.

Mallet's _Mallet du Pan and the French Revolution_ (London, 1902);

Robinet's _Danton_ (Paris, 1889); Hamel's _Histoire de Robespierre_

(Paris, 1865-1867) and _Histoire de St-Just_ (2 vols., Brussels,

1860); A. Bigeon, _Sieyes_ (Paris, 1893); _Memoirs of Carnot_, by his

son (2 vols., Paris, 1861-1864).

For fuller information see M. Tourneux, _Les Sources bibliographiques

de l'histoire de la Revolution Francaise_ (Paris, 1898, etc.), and

_Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Revolution_ (Paris,

1890, etc.). (F. C. M.)

_French Republican Calendar._--Among the changes made during the

Revolution was the substitution of a new calendar, usually called the

revolutionary or republican calendar, for the prevailing Gregorian

system. Something of the sort had been suggested in 1785 by a certain

Riboud, and a definite scheme had been promulgated by Pierre Sylvain

Marechal (1750-1803) in his _Almanach des honnetes gens_ (1788). The

objects which the advocates of a new calendar had in view were to strike

a blow at the clergy and to divorce all calculations of time from the

Christian associations with which they were loaded, in short, to abolish

the Christian year; and enthusiasts were already speaking of "the first

year of liberty" and "the first year of the republic" when the national

convention took up the matter in 1793. The business of drawing up the

new calendar was entrusted to the president of the committee of public

instruction, Charles Gilbert Romme (1750-1795), who was aided in the

work by the mathematicians Gaspard Monge and Joseph Louis Lagrange, the

poet Fabre d'Eglantine and others. The result of their labours was

submitted to the convention in September; it was accepted, and the new

calendar became law on the 5th of October 1793. The new arrangement was

regarded as beginning on the 22nd of September 1792, this day being

chosen because on it the republic was proclaimed and because it was in

this year the day of the autumnal equinox.

By the new calendar the year of 365 days was divided into twelve months

of thirty days each, every month being divided into three periods of ten

days, each of which were called _decades_, and the tenth, or last, day

of each decade being a day of rest. It was also proposed to divide the

day on the decimal system, but this arrangement was found to be highly

inconvenient and it was never put into practice. Five days of the 365

still remained to be dealt with, and these were set aside for national

festivals and holidays and were called _Sans-culottides_. They were to

fall at the end of the year, i.e. on the five days between the 17th and

the 21st of September inclusive, and were called the festivals of

virtue, of genius, of labour, of opinion and of rewards. A similar

course was adopted with regard to the extra day which occurred once in

every four years, but the first of these was to fall in the year III.,

i.e. in 1795, and not in 1796, the leap year in the Gregorian calendar.

This day was set apart for the festival of the Revolution and was to be

the last of the _Sans-culottides_. Each period of four years was to be

called a _Franciade_.

+----------------------------------+----------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-----------------+---------------+

| AN II. | AN III. | AN IV. | AN V. | AN VI. | AN VII. | AN VIII. | AN IX. |

| 1793-1794 | 1794-1795. | 1795-1796. | 1796-1797. | 1797-1798. | 1798-1799. | 1799-1800. | 1800-1801. |

+-----------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-----------------+---------------+

| 1 Vendemiaire | 22 Sept. 1793 | 22 Sept. 1794 | 23 Sept. 1795 | 22 Sept. 1796| 22 Sept. 1797 | 22 Sept. 1798 | 23 Sept. 1799 | 23 Sept. 1800 |

| 1 Brumaire | 22 Oct. " | 22 Oct. " | 23 Oct. " | 22 Oct. " | 22 Oct. " | 22 Oct. " | 23 Oct. " | 23 Oct. " |

| 1 Frimaire | 21 Nov. " | 21 Nov. " | 22 Nov. " | 21 Nov. " | 21 Nov. " | 21 Nov. " | 22 Nov. " | 22 Nov. " |

| 1 Nivose | 21 Dec. " | 21 Dec. " | 22 Dec. " | 21 Dec. " | 21 Dec. " | 21 Dec. " | 22 Dec. " | 22 Dec. " |

| 1 Pluviose | 20 Janv. 1794 | 20 Janv. 1795 | 21 Janv. 1796 | 20 Janv. 1797| 20 Janv. 1798 | 20 Janv. 1799 | 21 Janv. 1800 | 21 Janv. 1801 |

| 1 Ventose | 19 Fevr. " | 19 Fevr. " | 20 Fevr. " | 19 Fevr. " | 19 Fev. " | 19 Fev. " | 20 Fev. " | 20 Fev. " |

| 1 Germinal | 21 Mars " | 21 Mars " | 21 Mars " | 21 Mars " | 1 Mars " | 21 Mars " | 22 Mars " | 22 Mars " |

| 1 Floreal | 20 Avr. " | 20 Avr. " | 20 Avr. " | 20 Avr. " | 20 Avr. " | 20 Avr. " | 21 Avr. " | 21 Avr. " |

| 1 Prairial | 20 Mai " | 20 Mai " | 20 Mai " | 20 Mai " | 20 Mai " | 20 Mai " | 21 Mai " | 21 Mai " |

| 1 Messidor | 19 Juin " | 19 Juin " | 19 Juin " | 19 Juin " | 19 Juin " | 19 Juin " | 20 Juin " | 20 Juin " |

| 1 Thermidor | 19 Juil. " | 19 Juil. " | 19 Juil. " | 19 Juil. " | 19 Juil. " | 19 Juil. " | 20 Juil. " | 20 Juil. " |

| 1 Fructidor | 18 Aout " | 18 Aout " | 18 Aout " | 18 Aout " | 18 Aout " | 18 Aout " | 19 Aout " | 19 Aout " |

+-----------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-----------------+---------------+

|1 Sans-culottides| 17 Sept. 1794 | 17 Sept. 1795 | 17 Sept. 1796 | 17 Sept. 1797| 17 Sept. 1798 | 17 Sept. 1799 | 18 Sept. 1800 | 18 Sept. 1801 |

|6 " | | 22 " " | | | | 22 " " | | |

+-----------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-----------------+---------------+

+---------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

| AN X. | AN XI. | AN XII. | AN XIII. | AN XIV. |

| 1801-1802. | 1802-1803. | 1803-1804. | 1804-1805. | 1805. |

+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

| 1 Vendemiaire | 23 Septembre 1801 | 23 Septembre 1802 | 24 Septembre 1803 | 23 Septembre 1804 | 23 Septembre 1805 |

| 1 Brumaire | 23 Octobre " | 23 Octobre " | 24 Octobre " | 23 Octobre " | 23 Octobre " |

| 1 Frimaire | 22 Novembre " | 22 Novembre " | 23 Novembre " | 22 Novembre " | 22 Novembre " |

| 1 Nivose | 22 Decembre " | 22 Decembre " | 23 Decembre " | 22 Decembre " | 22 Decembre " |

| 1 Pluviose | 21 Janvier 1802 | 21 Janvier 1803 | 22 Janvier 1804 | 21 Janvier 1805 | |

| 1 Ventose | 20 Fevrier " | 20 Fevrier " | 21 Fevrier " | 20 Fevrier " | |

| 1 Germinal | 22 Mars " | 22 Mars " | 22 Mars " | 22 Mars " | |

| 1 Floreal | 21 Avril " | 21 Avril " | 21 Avril " | 21 Avril " | |

| 1 Prairial | 21 Mai " | 21 Mai " | 21 Mai " | 21 Mai " | |

| 1 Messidor | 20 Juin " | 20 Juin " | 20 Juin " | 20 Juin " | |

| 1 Thermidor | 20 Juillet " | 20 Juillet " | 20 Juillet " | 20 Juillet " | |

| 1 Fructidor | 19 Aout " | 19 Aout " | 19 Aout " | 19 Aout " | |

+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

| 1 Sans-culottides | 18 Septembre 1802 | 18 Septembre 1803 | 18 Septembre 1804 | 18 Septembre 1805 | |

| 6 " | | 23 " " | | | |

+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

Some discussion took place about the nomenclature of the new divisions

of time. Eventually this work was entrusted to Fabre d'Eglantine, who

gave to each month a name taken from some seasonal event therein.

Beginning with the new year on the 22nd of September the autumn months

were _Vendemiaire_, the month of vintage, _Brumaire_, the months of fog,

and _Frimaire_, the month of frost. The winter months were _Nivose_,

the snowy, _Pluviose_, the rainy, and _Ventose_, the windy month; then

followed the spring months, _Germinal_, the month of buds, _Floreal_,

the month of flowers, and _Prairial_, the month of meadows; and lastly

the summer months, _Messidor_, the month of reaping, _Thermidor_, the

month of heat, and _Fructidor_, the month of fruit. To the days Fabre

d'Eglantine gave names which retained the idea of their numerical order,

calling them Primedi, Duodi, &c., the last day of the ten, the day of

rest, being named Decadi. The new order was soon in force in France and

the new method was employed in all public documents, but it did not last

many years. In September 1805 it was decided to restore the Gregorian

calendar, and the republican one was officially discontinued on the 1st

of January 1806.

It will easily be seen that the connecting link between the old and

the new calendars is very slight indeed and that the expression of a

date in one calendar in terms of the other is a matter of some

difficulty. A simple method of doing this, however, is afforded by the

table on the preceding page, which is taken from the article by J.

Dubourdieu in _La Grande Encyclopedie_.

Thus Robespierre was executed on 10 Thermidor An II., i.e. the 28th of

July 1794. The insurrection of 12 Germinal An III. took place on the

1st of April 1795. The famous 18 Brumaire An VIII. fell on the 9th of

November 1799, and the _coup d'etat_ of 18 Fructidor An V. on the 4th

of September 1797.

For a complete concordance of the Gregorian and the republican

calendars see Stokvis, _Manuel d'histoire_, tome iii. (Leiden, 1889);

also G. Villain, "Le Calendrier republicain," in _La Revolution

Francaise_ for 1884-1885. (A. W. H.*)

FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS (1792-1800), the general name for the first

part of the series of French wars which went on continuously, except for

some local and temporary cessations of hostilities, from the declaration

of war against Britain in 1792 to the final overthrow of Napoleon in

1815. The most important of these cessations--viz. the peace of

1801-1803--closes the "Revolutionary" and opens the "Napoleonic" era of

land warfare, for which see NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS, PENINSULAR WAR and

WATERLOO CAMPAIGN. The naval history of the period is divided somewhat

differently; the first period, treated below, is 1792-1799; for the

second, 1799-1815, see NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS.

France declared war on Austria on the 20th of April 1792. But Prussia

and other powers had allied themselves with Austria in view of war, and

it was against a coalition and not a single power that France found

herself pitted, at the moment when the "emigration," the ferment of the

Revolution, and want of material and of funds had thoroughly

disorganized her army. The first engagements were singularly

disgraceful. Near Lille the French soldiers fled at sight of the

Austrian outposts, crying _Nous sommes trahis_, and murdered their

general (April 29). The commanders-in-chief of the armies that were

formed became one after another "suspects"; and before a serious action

had been fought, the three armies of Rochambeau, Lafayette and Luckner

had resolved themselves into two commanded by Dumouriez and Kellermann.

Thus the disciplined soldiers of the Allies had apparently good reason

to consider the campaign before them a military promenade. On the Rhine,

a combined army of Prussians, Austrians, Hessians and _emigres_ under

the duke of Brunswick was formed for the invasion of France, flanked by

two smaller armies on its right and left, all three being under the

supreme command of the king of Prussia. In the Netherlands the Austrians

were to besiege Lille, and in the south the Piedmontese also took the

field. The first step, taken against Brunswick's advice, was the issue

(July 25) of a proclamation which, couched in terms in the last degree

offensive to the French nation, generated the spirit that was afterwards

to find expression in the "armed nation" of 1793-4, and sealed the fate

of Louis XVI. The duke, who was a model sovereign in his own

principality, sympathized with the constitutional side of the

Revolution, while as a soldier he had no confidence in the success of

the enterprise. After completing its preparations in the leisurely

manner of the previous generation, his army crossed the French frontier

on the 19th of August. Longwy was easily captured; and the Allies slowly

marched on to Verdun, which was more indefensible even than Longwy. The

commandant, Colonel Beaurepaire, shot himself in despair, and the place

surrendered on the 3rd of September. Brunswick now began his march on

Paris and approached the defiles of the Argonne. But Dumouriez, who had

been training his raw troops at Valenciennes in constant small

engagements, with the purpose of invading Belgium, now threw himself

into the Argonne by a rapid and daring flank march, almost under the

eyes of the Prussian advanced guard, and barred the Paris road,

summoning Kellermann to his assistance from Metz. The latter moved but

slowly, and before he arrived the northern part of the line of defence

had been forced. Dumouriez, undaunted, changed front so as to face

north, with his right wing on the Argonne and his left stretching

towards Chalons, and in this position Kellermann joined him at St

Menehould on the 19th of September.

Valmy.

Brunswick meanwhile had passed the northern defiles and had then swung

round to cut off Dumouriez from Chalons. At the moment when the Prussian

manoeuvre was nearly completed, Kellermann, commanding in Dumouriez's

momentary absence, advanced his left wing and took up a position between

St Menehould and Valmy. The result was the world-renowned Cannonade of

Valmy (September 20, 1792). Kellermann's infantry, nearly all regulars,

stood steady. The French artillery justified its reputation as the best

in Europe, and eventually, with no more than a half-hearted infantry

attack, the duke broke off the action and retired. This trivial

engagement was the turning-point of the campaign and a landmark in the

world's history. Ten days later, without firing another shot, the

invading army began its retreat. Dumouriez's pursuit was not seriously

pressed; he occupied himself chiefly with a series of subtle and curious

negotiations which, with the general advance of the French troops,

brought about the complete withdrawal of the enemy from the soil of

France.

Jemappes.

Meanwhile, the French forces in the south had driven back the

Piedmontese and had conquered Savoy and Nice. Another French success was

the daring expedition into Germany made by Custine from Alsace. Custine

captured Mainz itself on the 21st of October and penetrated as far as

Frankfurt. In the north the Austrian siege of Lille had completely

failed, and Dumouriez now resumed his interrupted scheme for the

invasion of the Netherlands. His forward movement, made as it was late

in the season, surprised the Austrians, and he disposed of enormously

superior forces. On the 6th of November he won the first great victory

of the war at Jemappes near Mons and, this time advancing boldly, he

overran the whole country from Namur to Antwerp within a month.

Such was the prelude of what is called the "Great War" in England and

the "Epopee" in France. Before going further it is necessary to

summarize the special features of the French army--in leadership,

discipline, tactics, organization and movement--which made these

campaigns the archetype of modern warfare.

At the outbreak of the Revolution the French army, like other armies

in Europe, was a "voluntary" long-service army, augmented to some

extent in war by drafts of militia.

The French army, 1792-1796.

One of the first problems that the Constituent Assembly took upon

itself to solve was the nationalization of this strictly royal and

professional force, and as early as October 1789 the word

"Conscription" was heard in its debates. But it was decreed

nevertheless that free enlistment alone befitted a free people, and

the regular army was left unaltered in form. However, a National Guard

came into existence side by side with it, and the history of French

army organization in the next few years is the history of the fusion

of these two elements. The first step, as regards the regular army,

was the abolition of proprietary rights, the serial numbering of

regiments throughout the Army, and the disbandment of the _Maison du

roi_. The next was the promotion of deserving soldiers to fill the

numerous vacancies caused by the emigration. Along with these,

however, there came to the surface many incompetent leaders,

favourites in the political clubs of Paris, &c., and the old strict

discipline became impossible owing to the frequent intervention of the

civil authorities in matters affecting it, the denunciation of

generals, and especially the wild words and wild behaviour of

"Volunteer" (embodied national guard) battalions.

When war came, it was soon found that the regulars had fallen too low

in numbers and that the national guard demanded too high pay, to

admit of developing the expected field strength. Arms, discipline,

training alike were wanting to the new levies, and the repulse of

Brunswick was effected by manoeuvring and fighting on the old lines

and chiefly with the old army. The cry of _La patrie en danger_, after

giving, at the crisis, the highest moral support to the troops in the

front, dwindled away after victory, and the French government

contented itself with the half-measures that had, apparently, sufficed

to avert the peril. More, when the armies went into winter quarters,

the Volunteers claimed leave of absence and went home.

But in the spring of 1793, confronted by a far more serious peril, the

government took strong measures. Universal liability was asserted, and

passed into law. Yet even now whole classes obtained exemption and the

right of substitution as usual forced the burden of service on the

poorer classes, so that of the 100,000 men called on for the regular

army and 200,000 for the Volunteers, only some 180,000 were actually

raised. Desertion, generally regarded as the curse of professional

armies, became a conspicuous vice of the defenders of the Republic,

except at moments when a supreme crisis called forth supreme

devotion--moments which naturally were more or less prolonged in

proportion to the gravity of the situation. Thus, while it almost

disappeared in the great effort of 1793-1794, when the armies

sustained bloody reverses in distant wars of conquest, as in 1799, it

promptly rose again to an alarming height.