Transcriber’s Notes: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_;
boldface text is enclosed in =equals signs=.
This ebook contains sidenotes. To distinguish them from regular text,
they are in diamond symbols: ♦sidenote text♦.
Other notes will be found near the end of this ebook.
HISTORICAL WORKS FOR SCHOOLS.
EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY.
EDITED BY THE
Rev. Sir G. W. COX, Bart., M.A., and by C. SANKEY, M.A.
=THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SULLA.= By A. H. BEESLY, M.A. With 2 Maps.
=THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE=, from the Assassination of Julius Cæsar to
the Assassination of Domitian. By the Rev. W. WOLFE CAPES, M.A.
With 2 Maps.
=THE ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE SECOND CENTURY=, or the Age of the
Antonines. By the Rev. W. WOLFE CAPES, M.A. With 2 Maps.
=ROME TO ITS CAPTURE BY THE GAULS.= By WILHELM IHNE. With Map.
=THE ROMAN TRIUMVIRATES.= By CHARLES MERIVALE, D.D., late Dean of
Ely. With Map.
=ROME AND CARTHAGE, the PUNIC WARS.= By R. BOSWORTH SMITH, M.A. With
9 Maps and Plans.
=THE GREEKS AND THE PERSIANS.= By the Rev. Sir G. W. COX, Bart., M.A.
With 4 Maps.
=THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE=, from the Flight of Xerxes to the Fall of
Athens. By the Rev. Sir G. W. COX, Bart., M.A. With 5 Maps.
=THE RISE OF THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE.= By ARTHUR M. CURTEIS, M.A. With
8 Maps.
EPOCHS OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
Edited by MANDELL CREIGHTON, D.D., LL.D.
LATE BISHOP OF LONDON.
=EARLY ENGLAND TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST.= By L. YORK POWELL, M.A.
=ENGLAND A CONTINENTAL POWER=, 1066–1216. By Mrs. MANDELL CREIGHTON.
=THE RISE OF THE PEOPLE AND THE GROWTH OF PARLIAMENT.= 1215–1485. By
JAMES ROWLEY, M.A.
=THE TUDORS AND THE REFORMATION.= 1485–1603. By MANDELL CREIGHTON,
D.D., LL.D.
=THE STRUGGLE AGAINST ABSOLUTE MONARCHY=, 1603–1688. By Mrs. S. R.
GARDINER.
=THE SETTLEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION=, 1689–1784. By JAMES ROWLEY, M.A.
=ENGLAND DURING THE AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN WARS.= 1765–1820. By the
Rev. O. W. TANCOCK.
=EPOCHS OF ENGLISH HISTORY.= Complete in One Volume, with 27 Tables
and Pedigrees and 23 Maps. Fcp. 8vo.
=THE SHILLING HISTORY OF ENGLAND=: being an Introductory Volume to
the Series of _Epochs of English History_. By MANDELL CREIGHTON,
D.D., LL.D. Fcp. 8vo.
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., 39 Paternoster Row,
London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras.
EPOCHS OF MODERN HISTORY.
Edited by EDWARD E. MORRIS, M.A., J. SURTEES
PHILLPOTTS, B.C.L., and C. COLBECK, M.A.
Fcp. 8vo.
=The BEGINNING of the MIDDLE AGES.= By the Very Rev. RICHARD WILLIAM
CHURCH, M.A. &c., late Dean of St. Paul’s. With 3 Maps.
=The NORMANS in EUROPE.= By the Rev. A. H. JOHNSON, M.A. With 3 Maps.
=The CRUSADES.= By the Rev. Sir G. W. COX, Bart., M.A. With a Map.
=The EARLY PLANTAGENETS.= By W. STUBBS, D.D., late Bishop of Oxford.
With 2 Maps.
=EDWARD the THIRD.= By the Rev. W. WARBURTON, M.A. With 3 Maps and 3
Genealogical Tables.
=The ERA of the PROTESTANT REVOLUTION.= By F. SEEBOHM, LL.D. With 4
Maps and 12 Diagrams.
=The AGE of ELIZABETH.= By MANDELL CREIGHTON, D.D., LL.D., late
Bishop of London. With 5 Maps and 4 Genealogical Tables.
=The FIRST TWO STUARTS and the PURITAN REVOLUTION=, 1603–1660. By
SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER. With 4 Maps.
=The THIRTY YEARS’ WAR=, 1618–1648. By SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER. With a
Map.
=The ENGLISH RESTORATION and LOUIS XIV.= 1648–1678. By OSMUND AIRY,
LL.D.
=The FALL of the STUARTS; and WESTERN EUROPE= from 1678 to 1697. By
the Rev. EDWARD HALE, M.A. With 11 Maps and Plans.
=The AGE of ANNE.= By E. E. MORRIS, M.A. With 7 Maps and Plans.
=FREDERICK the GREAT and the SEVEN YEARS’ WAR.= By F. W. LONGMAN.
With 2 Maps.
=The WAR of AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE=, 1775–1783. By J. M. LUDLOW. With
4 Maps.
=The FRENCH REVOLUTION.= 1789–1795. By Mrs. S. R. GARDINER. With 7
Maps.
=The EPOCH of REFORM=, 1830–1850. By JUSTIN MCCARTHY.
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., 39 Paternoster Row,
London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras.
_EPOCHS of MODERN HISTORY_
EDITED BY
C. COLBECK, M.A.; EDWARD F. MORRIS, M.A.;
AND J. SURTEES PHILLPOTTS, M.A., B.C.L.
_THE FRENCH REVOLUTION_
B. M. GARDINER
[Illustration: CENTRAL EUROPE 1789
_Longmans, Green & Co., London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta & Madras._]
_Epochs of Modern History_
THE
FRENCH REVOLUTION
1789–1795
BY
BERTHA MERITON GARDINER
_SIXTEENTH IMPRESSION_
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
1921
All rights reserved
PREFACE.
In writing this handbook on the French Revolution, it has been my
endeavour to give a correct and impartial account of the most important
events of the revolutionary period, and of the motives by which the
leading characters were actuated. Much has necessarily been omitted
which finds a place in larger works. Those who wish to pursue the
subject further, and have time at their disposal, would do well to
study, besides general histories, some of the many books lately
published which deal with special branches of the subject, and often
enable the reader to form a more independent judgment both of men and
events than is possible from the perusal of works of the former class
alone. Amongst general histories those of Michelet and Louis Blanc
will probably be found most serviceable. No satisfactory account of
the relations of France with other countries is to be found in the
French tongue, partly because French historians still write with bias,
partly, also, because they hitherto either have been unacquainted
with, or have ignored the results of German research. Professor Von
Sybel’s well-known book, ‘Geschichte der Revolutionszeit,’ contains
the fullest and best account of the relations which existed between
the different States of Europe, but it is not an impartial one.
Hermann Hüffer’s books are valuable contributions to our knowledge of
diplomatic relations, and, being written from an opposite point of
view, should be studied by all readers of Von Sybel. The history of the
foreign policy of England during this period has still to be written.
M. Sorel has lately published in the pages of the ‘Révue Historique’ a
full account of the foreign policy pursued by the Committee of Public
Safety after Robespierre’s fall, and of the negotiations leading
to the treaties of peace signed in 1795 between France and Prussia
and France and Spain. Much fresh information regarding the internal
condition of France during the revolutionary period is to be found
scattered in local and special histories of various kinds. Amongst
such may be specially mentioned Mortimer Ternaux’s ‘Histoire de la
Terreur,’ and ‘La Justice Révolutionnaire,’ by Berriat St. Prix. M.
Taine in his great work has collected a large number of extracts from
documents lying in the archives of the departments, but entire absence
of classification, and the strong political bias of the writer, makes
this work of less value to the student than others of less pretensions.
Amongst the best of local histories are the works of M. Francisque
Mège, which reveal the course taken by the Revolution in the province
of Auvergne. Biographical works are numerous. Mirabeau’s character
will best be learnt from his correspondence with the Count de la
Marck. M. D’Héricault’s ‘Révolution de Thermidor’ contains a detailed
account of the policy pursued by Robespierre after the expulsion of
the Girondists. Danton’s life and character can best be studied in
the works of M. Robinet. Schmidt’s ‘Pariser Zustände während der
Revolutionszeit’ contains the best existing account of the economic
condition of Paris between 1789 and 1800. As it is improbable that
those for whom this book is in the first place intended will have
any idea of the amount represented by so many thousand or million
livres, I have invariably given the English equivalent of the French
money, following the table inserted by Arthur Young in his ‘Travels in
France.’ After the introduction of the revolutionary calendar, I have
in giving dates followed the table in ‘L’Art de vérifier les Dates.’ In
consequence of the different system of intercalation pursued in the two
calendars, the correspondence of dates varies from year to year, and
in consequence of leaving this fact unnoticed even French historians
sometimes give the date in the old style wrongly. I have only further
to add that the purple lines upon the map of France in provinces
represent the frontiers where customs duties were levied under the old
Monarchy. They are copied from a map published with Necker’s works. It
will be seen that Alsace and Lorraine, as well as Bayonne and Dunkirk,
were allowed to trade freely with the foreigner. Marseilles enjoyed the
same privilege.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
FEUDALISM AND THE MONARCHY.
PAGE
The Monarchy in France 1
Social condition of France 3
Feudal rights 4
Condition of the Church 6
Government and administration 7
The privileged classes 8
Taxation 9
Condition of the People 11
Interference with trade 13
Public opinion in France 13
Voltaire and his followers 13
The Encyclopædists 14
The Church and Christian Theology attacked 15
The Economists 16
Rousseau 16
CHAPTER II.
FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XVI., 1774–1789.
The Ministry of Turgot 18
Opposition raised to his reforms 19
Character of Louis XVI. 19
Character of Marie Antoinette 20
1776. Dismissal of Turgot 21
Movement of Reform extends over Europe 21
Condition of England 23
Pitt in Office 24
Reaction after Turgot’s dismissal 25
Ministry of Necker 25
Necker opposed by the Parliaments 25
1781. He resigns office 26
Desire for political liberty 26
1776. American Declaration of Independence 26
1783. Ministry of Calonne 27
1787. The Assembly of Notables 27
Ministry of Brienne 27
General disaffection 28
1788. Second Ministry of Necker, and calling of the States General 29
Pamphlets and Cahiers 29
Siéyès’ Pamphlet--What is the Third Estate? 30
Double Representation of the Third Estate 31
CHAPTER III.
THE ASSEMBLY AT VERSAILLES, 1789.
May 5, 1789. Meeting of the States General 33
Relation of the King to the Revolution 33
Question whether the States were to sit as one or as three
chambers left undecided 33
Evil consequences of the Royal policy 34
Character and policy of Mirabeau 35
Title of National Assembly adopted by the Third Estate 37
Excitement and disorder in Paris 38
Louis takes part with the Upper Orders 39
June 20. Tennis Court Oath 40
Royal Sitting of June 23 40
The States constituted as one Chamber 41
July 14. The fall of the Bastille 43
Establishment of a Municipality and of a National Guard in Paris 46
Visit of Louis to the Capital 47
Risings in the Provinces 48
Decrees of August 4 49
Composition of the Assembly 51
The Reactionary Right 51
The Right Centre 52
The Centre and Left 52
The Extreme Left 53
Causes giving ascendency to the Left 54
Policy of Mirabeau 56
Declaration of the Rights of Man 58
New Constitution; Legislature to be formed of one House;
Veto given to the King 58
Scarcity of Bread 59
Character of the National Guard of Paris 60
October 6. The King and Queen brought to Paris 60
CHAPTER IV.
THE CONSTITUTION, 1789–1791.
Results of the Movement of October 6 63
The Jacobins 64
The Constitution; Administrative Changes; Establishment
of 44,000 Municipalities 65
Judicial Reforms 66
Increase of the State debt 67
Church Property appropriated by the State 67
Creation of Assignats 68
Civil Constitution of the Clergy 69
Feast of the Federation 69
Emigration of the nobles 70
Embitterment of the Relations between nobles and peasants 71
Weakness of the Central Government 72
Mutinies in the Army 73
Imposition of an Oath on the Clergy; Schism in the Church 74
The Constitution decried by the Ultra-Democrats 76
Brissot 76
Desmoulins 77
Marat 78
Sources of influence exercised by the Ultra-Democrats 79
Influence exercised by Jacobin Clubs 80
September 1790. Resignation of Necker 81
The Commune of Paris; Composition of its Municipality 81
Mirabeau’s policy; his Death, April 2, 1791 84
Position of the Constitutionalists 85
CHAPTER V.
THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY, 1791–1792.
Unpopularity of Marie Antoinette 87
June 20, 1791. Flight of the Royal Family 88
Ultra-Democrats seek the Establishment of a Republic 91
July 17. Massacre of the Champ de Mars 91
Attempt to revise the Constitution 93
The work of the National Assembly; legal and financial reforms 93
Creation of Assignats of small value 94
Plans of the Queen 94
Policy of territorial aggrandisement pursued by the Great Powers 96
Austria and Russia at war with Turkey 97
Death of Joseph II. 97
Treaty of Reichenbach 97
Declaration of Pilnitz 98
Designs of Catherine II. on Poland 98
Leopold II. unwilling to engage in war with France 98
The new Legislative Assembly; its composition 99
Policy of the Girondists 100
Ecclesiastical policy of the Legislature 101
Emigrants encouraged by Princes of the Empire 101
Growth of a warlike spirit in the Assembly 102
The French Revolution is more than a National movement 104
Commencement of war with Austria and Prussia 105
The Jacobins embody a spirit of suspicion 106
Robespierre’s character 107
Administrative anarchy 109
Troubles at Avignon 110
The Girondists hope for the best 111
Lafayette denounces the Jacobins 112
The mob invades the Tuileries on June 20 113
The Country declared in danger; Manifesto of the Duke of
Brunswick 114
Preparations made for an insurrection 115
Insurrection of August 10; Suspension of the King 117
CHAPTER VI.
THE FALL OF THE GIRONDISTS, 1792–1793.
Formation of the new Commune of Paris 119
The September massacres 121
The defence of the Argonnes 123
The meeting of the Convention, and the abolition of Monarchy 124
The Girondists and the Mountain 125
Weakness of the Centre 128
Re-election of the Commune 129
Conquest of Savoy, Mainz, and Belgium 130
Question of the annexation of Belgium 131
The Opening of the Scheldt, and the order to the Generals
to proclaim the Sovereignty of the People 134
Objects of the Allies 135
Pitt’s ministry in England 136
Views taken of the French Revolution in England 137
Trial and Execution of Louis XVI. 139
War with England; the French expelled from Belgium 141
Establishment of the Revolutionary Court; Defeat of Neerwinden 143
Party strife in the Convention 144
Establishment of the Committee of Public Safety 145
Deputies in mission 146
Laws against Emigrants and Nonjurors 147
Policy of the Mountain 148
The economical situation 149
Popular remedies opposed by the Girondists 151
The Commune leads a movement against the Girondists 153
Expulsion of the leading Girondists 155
CHAPTER VII.
THE COMMUNE AND THE TERROR, 1793.
State of public feeling 156
Girondist and Royalist movements; Resistance in Lyons and Toulon 157
General submission to the Convention 158
War in La Vendée 159
Successes of the Vendeans 160
Successes of the Allies 161
Coolness between Austria and Prussia 162
Assassination of Marat 163
Sanguinary tendencies of the Government 165
Growing strength of the Committee of Public Safety 166
Power of the Commune 167
Views of Hébert and Chaumette 168
Introduction of the conscription 170
Maximum laws 171
Laws against speculation 172
Depression of trade and agriculture 173
Law of ‘Suspected Persons’ 175
Increased activity of the Revolutionary Court 176
Execution of the Queen and the Girondists 177
Worship of Reason 178
Introduction of the Revolutionary calendar 180
Surrender of Lyons 181
Destruction of the Vendean army 182
The Terror in the Departments 183
The Terrorists a small minority 186
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FALL OF THE HÉBERTISTS AND DANTONISTS, 1793–1794.
Condition of the Army 188
Carnot’s military reforms 189
Campaign in Belgium and the Rhine; Victories of Hondschoote and
Wattignies 191
The Allies expelled from Alsace by Hoche and Pichegru 192
Legislation of the Convention 193
Cambon’s financial measures 195
Growing feeling against the Commune 196
Robespierre attacks the Hébertists 197
_The Old Cordelier_ 199
The Hébertists attack the Dantonists 200
Robespierre’s influence over the Jacobins 201
Robespierre abandons the Dantonists 202
Execution of the Hébertists and Dantonists 204
CHAPTER IX.
THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE, 1794.
Despotism of the Committee of Public Safety 204
Aims of Robespierre 205
Aims of St. Just 206
Financial object of the continuation of the Terror 207
The Terror systematised 208
Renewal of the War in La Vendée 209
Treaty of the Hague between England and Prussia 209
Insurrection in Poland 210
Differences between England and Prussia 211
The Allied Forces driven from Belgium 212
Worship of the Supreme Being instituted by Robespierre 214
Increased activity of the Revolutionary Court 215
Position of Robespierre 216
Discords break out within the Committee of Public Safety 217
Insurrection of Thermidor 219
Execution of the Robespierrists 220
CHAPTER X.
FALL OF THE MONTAGNARDS, 1794–1795.
Reactionary Movement in Paris and in the Departments 221
Parties in the Convention 222
Readmission of the expelled Girondist Deputies to the Convention 223
Repeal of Maximum Laws, and suffering in Paris 225
Insurrection of Germinal 12 226
Reaction in Paris, and in the Departments 227
The public exercise of all forms of worship permitted by the
Convention 228
The White Terror 229
Insurrection of Prairial 1 230
Proscription of Montagnards 231
CHAPTER XI.
THE TREATY OF BASEL AND THE CONSTITUTION OF 1795.
Conquest of Holland by Pichegru 232
Foreign policy of the Convention 233
Foreign policy of Thugut 235
Foreign policy of Catherine II.; Alliances between Russia and
Austria 236
English foreign policy; Successes at Sea, and conquest of French
Colonies 237
Prussian foreign policy; Peace made at Basel between Prussia and
France 238
Position of Spanish Government; Treaty of Peace between France
and Spain 240
War in the West; Hoche appointed Commander-in-Chief 242
Expedition of Emigrants to Quiberon 243
Position of the Convention; its unpopularity 245
Death of the Dauphin 245
The Convention sanctions the use of Churches for Catholic worship 246
Position of the Clergy; Parties amongst them 247
The Convention frames the Constitution of 1795 248
Special Laws passed to maintain the Republican Party in Power 249
Insurrection of Vendémiaire 13 suppressed by Napoleon Bonaparte 250
Law of Brumaire 3, excluding relations of Emigrants from Office 250
The Five Directors; Position of the New Government 251
INDEX 255
MAPS.
Europe in 1789 _To face title page_
Map of France in Provinces 9
Revolutionary Paris 43
Map of France in Departments 65
Map of Belgium 132
Map of the Rhine 190
Map of Quiberon 241
REVOLUTIONARY CALENDAR.
Vendémiaire Sept. Oct.
Brumaire Oct. Nov.
Frimaire Nov. Dec.
Nivose Dec. Jan.
Pluviose Jan. Feb.
Ventose Feb. March
Germinal Mar. April
Floréal April May
Prairial May June
Messidor June July
Thermidor July Aug.
Fructidor Aug. Sept.
LEADING DATES IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
_Dates relating to military or foreign affairs are given in italics
in order that the attention of the reader may be drawn to the
relation between them and the domestic occurrences._
1774
Accession of Louis XVI.--Ministry of Turgot.
1776
Dismissal of Turgot--Ministry of Necker--_American Declaration
of Independence_.
1778
_France allies itself with America._
1781
Resignation of Necker.
1783
Calonne’s Ministry.
1787
The Assembly of Notables--Brienne’s Ministry.
1788
Necker’s Second Ministry.
1789
May 5. Meeting of the States General.
June 17. Adoption of the title of National Assembly.
June 20. The Tennis Court Oath.
June 23. The King comes to the Assembly to command the separation
of the Orders.
July 14. Capture of the Bastille.
Aug. 4. Abolition of feudal rights.
Oct. 6. The King brought to Paris.
1790
July 14. Feast of the Federation.
Nov. 27. Oath imposed on the Clergy.
1791
April 2. Death of Mirabeau.
June 20. The Flight to Varennes.
July 17. The Massacre of the Champ de Mars
Aug. 27. _Declaration of Pilnitz._
Sept. 30. End of the Constituent Assembly.
Oct. 1. Meeting of the Legislative Assembly.
1792
April 20. _Declaration of War against the King of Hungary and
Bohemia, entailing also a War with Prussia._
June 13. Dismissal of the Girondist Ministers.
June 20. The King mobbed in the Tuileries.
July 26. _The Duke of Brunswick’s Manifesto._
Aug. 10. Overthrow of the Monarchy.
Aug. 24. _Surrender of Longwy._
Sept. 2–7. The September Massacres.
Sept. 20. _The Cannonade of Valmy._
Sept. 21. Meeting of the Convention.
Sept. 22. Proclamation of the Republic.
Nov. 6. _Victory of Jemmapes, followed by the occupation of
Belgium, Savoy, Nice, and Mainz._
Nov. 19. The Convention offers assistance to all Peoples desirous
of freedom.
Dec. 2. _The French driven out of Frankfort._
Dec. 15. The Convention orders its Generals to revolutionise
the Foreign Countries in which they are.
1793
Jan. 21. Execution of the King.
Feb. 1. _Declaration of War against England and Holland._
Mar. 3. _Miranda driven from Maestricht._
Mar. 9. Establishment of the Revolutionary Court.
Mar. 18. _Defeat of Neerwinden, followed by the loss of Belgium._
April 6. Constitution of the Committee of Public Safety.
June 2. Expulsion of the Girondists.
July 3. Assassination of Marat.
July 8. _Surrender of Mainz, Condé, and Valenciennes._
Aug. 23. The Levy of all men capable of bearing arms decreed.
Sept. 8. _Victory of Hondschoote._
Sept. 17. The great Maximum Law and the Law against Suspected Persons.
Oct. 7. _Capture of Lyons._
Oct. 16. Execution of the Queen.
Oct. 16. _Victory of Wattignies._
Oct. 31. Execution of the Girondists.
Nov. 10. Worship of Reason at Notre Dame.
Dec. 10. _Capture of Toulon._
Dec. 12. _Destruction of the Vendean Army at Le Mans._
1794
Mar. 24. Execution of the Hébertists.
April 5. Execution of the Dantonists.
April. _Insurrection in Poland._
April 18. _Victory of Turcoing._
June 1. _Battle of June 1._
June 8. Feast in honour of the Supreme Being.
June 26. _Victory of Fleurus, followed by the evacuation of
Belgium by the Allies._
July 28. Execution of the Robespierrists.
Nov. 12. Jacobin Club closed.
Dec. 8. Seventy-three Deputies of the Right readmitted into
the Convention.
Dec. 24. Repeal of Maximum Laws.
1795
Jan. _Invasion of Holland._
Mar. 8. Readmission to the Convention of survivors of Girondist
Deputies proscribed on June 2, 1793.
April 1. (Germinal 12) Insurrection of Lower Classes against the
Convention.
Feb. 22. Public exercise of all forms of worship permitted by the
Convention.
May 20. (Prairial 1) Second insurrection by Lower Classes against
the Convention.
April 5. _Treaty of Peace made at Basel between France and Prussia._
June 8. Death of the Dauphin.
July 12. _Treaty of Peace between France and Spain._
July 21. _Defeat of Emigrants at Quiberon._
Sept. 23. Proclamation of the Constitution of the Year III. (1795).
Oct. 5. (Vendémiaire 13) Insurrection of the Middle Classes
against the Convention.
Oct. 26. (Brumaire 4) Meeting of the New Legislature.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER I.
FEUDALISM AND THE MONARCHY.
♦The Monarchy in France.♦
Like the rest of Western Europe, France, in the Middle Ages, was ruled
by a feudal nobility, holding their lands of the king. Nowhere in
Western Europe in the tenth century was the power of the king less,
or the power of the nobles greater. The weight of their authority,
therefore, fell heavily upon the peasants on their estates, and upon
the inhabitants of the little towns scattered over the country. A
feudal noble, if he were a _seigneur_, answering to our lord of the
manor, ruled all dwellers on his estate. Their claims to property
were heard in his courts, and they were amenable to his jurisdiction
for crimes committed, or alleged to have been committed, by them. The
seigneur may not have been a worse tyrant than many kings and princes
of whom we read in history; but he was always close at hand, whilst
Nero or Ivan the Terrible was far off from the mass of his subjects.
He knew all his subjects by sight, had his own passions to gratify
amongst them, and his vengeance to wreak upon those whom he personally
disliked. To be free from this domination must have been the one
thought of thousands of miserable wretches.
To shake off the yoke by their own efforts was an impossibility. The
nearest ally on whom they could count was the king. He too was opposed
to the domination of the nobles, for as long as they could disregard
his orders with impunity, he was king in name alone. He was, in fact,
but one nobleman amongst many, with a higher title than the rest.
Dwellers in towns could more readily coalesce and resist the authority
of the seigneurs than dwellers in the country. By trade they acquired
wealth, and with wealth influence. In the twelfth century they
formed themselves into municipal communities, and, bidding defiance
to their seigneurs, called upon their king to aid them in achieving
independence. From that time to the end of the seventeenth century the
power of the Monarchy grew stronger with every succeeding generation.
The king was the dispenser of law and order, while the enemies of law
and order were the feudal nobles. When Louis XIV. took the government
into his own hands, in 1661, his will was law. Justice was administered
by parliaments or law courts acting in the name of the king. The
affairs of the provinces were administered by _intendants_, acting by
his commission. No nobleman, however wealthy or highly placed, dared
to resist his authority. With the frank gaiety of their nation the
nobles themselves accepted the position, and crowded to his court or
confronted death in his armies. He was able to say, without fear of
contradiction, ‘I am the State.’
Unhappily for his people, he could not say ‘I am the Nation.’ In him
the Monarchy had been victorious over its enemies, but it had not
accomplished its task. The nation wanted more work from its kings,
wanted simply that they should go on in the path which had been trodden
by their ancestors. The national wish was too feebly expressed to
reach the ears of Louis. He was thinking of military glory and courtly
display, not of the grievances of his people. He had overthrown the
power of the nobility so far as it threatened his own. He did not care
to inquire whether there was enough left to produce cruel wrong far
off from the splendid palace of Versailles. His great-grandson, the
vile, profligate Louis XV., had even less thought for the exercise of
the duties of a king, as father of his people. The Monarchy was in its
decline, not because it was intentionally tyrannical, but because it
had ceased to do its duty. The French people were not Republican. They
needed a government, and government in any true sense there was none.
♦Social condition of France.♦
In consequence of the king thus deserting the path trodden by his
ancestors, a state of things arose in France such as was found in no
other country. Nowhere did the nobility as a class do so little for
the service of their countrymen, yet nowhere were they in possession
of more social influence or greater privileges. Nowhere were the
mercantile and trading classes comparatively more wealthy and
intellectual, yet nowhere was the distinction between the noble and
the plebeian or bourgeois more rigorously maintained. Finally, in no
other country where, as was the case in France, the mass of peasants
were free men, did the owners of fiefs retain so many rights over the
dwellers on their estates, and yet live in such complete separation
from them.
After the nobles had lost political power they were cut off from
all healthy communication with their fellow subjects. In France all
sons and daughters of noblemen were noble, and their families did
not blend with those of other classes like the family of an English
peer. Nobles contemned the service of the administration as beneath
their birth; on the contrary, no one who was not of noble birth could
hold the rank of an officer in the army. The great lords flocked to
Paris and Versailles, where they wasted their substance in extravagant
living; the lesser nobles, men who in England would have occupied the
position of country gentlemen, were often through poverty compelled
to reside in their châteaux, where they lived in isolation, having no
common interests with their neighbours, while clinging tenaciously
to the possession of their rights as proprietors and feudal lords.
♦Feudal rights.♦ These feudal rights varied in every province, but were
of three general kinds. (1) Rights which had their origin when the
seigneur was also ruler--as, for instance, the right of administering
justice, though this he now almost invariably farmed to the highest
bidder; the right of levying tolls at fairs and bridges; and the
exclusive right of fishing and hunting. (2) Peasants in the position of
serfs were only to be found in Alsace and Lorraine; but rights still
existed all over the country which betrayed a servile origin. Thus, the
farmer might not grind his corn but at the seigneur’s mill, nor the
vine-grower press his grapes but at the seigneur’s press; and every man
living on the fief must labour for the seigneur without return so many
days in the year. (3) Finally, the courts ruled that wherever land was
held by a peasant from the owner of a fief, there was a presumption
that the owner retained a claim to enforce cultivation and the payment
of annual dues. Land so held was termed a _censive_--resembling an
English copyhold. The granting of land on these terms never stopped
from the close of the Middle Ages down to the Revolution. The dues
retained were often petty. One tenant might pay a small measure of
oats; another a couple of chickens. Yet the payments were often
sufficiently numerous to form the chief maintenance of many of the
nobles. The holders of these _censives_ possessed however, all the
rights of proprietors. They could not be dispossessed so long as they
paid the dues to which they were liable, and they could sell and devise
the land without the consent of the owners of the fief. Properties held
on these terms abounded in all parts of France, and though the extent
of each _censive_ was often no more than a couple of acres, it is
probable that before the Revolution at least a fifth of the soil had by
these means passed into the possession of the peasantry.
The existence of feudal rights produced three results exceedingly
detrimental to the national prosperity. It impeded a good cultivation
of the soil; it prevented the country from being inhabited by men
of the middle class, who preferred to reside in towns rather than
recognise the social superiority claimed by the seigneur; and,
finally, it was an incessant source of irritation to the whole rural
population. By the rights due to a seigneur as ruler, and by those
of servile origin, all dwellers upon the fief were affected, whether
occupiers of land or not. The cultivator suffered at every turn--in
the prohibition to plant what crops he pleased; in the prohibition
to destroy the seigneur’s deer and rabbits that roamed at will over
his fields and devoured his green corn; in the toll he paid for leave
to guard his crops while growing, and to sell them after they were
gathered in; and in many other ways. Such a system had become in the
course of centuries both excessively complicated and wholly unsuited to
existing social conditions. Sometimes half-a-dozen different persons
claimed dues from the same piece of land. The proprietorship of fiefs
and the ownership of feudal rights, or the greater part of them, were
constantly separated. Poverty induced the resident seigneur to sell his
rights, which, bought by a townsman, passed from hand to hand in the
market, like any other property, and were the more sought after because
their possession was held a sign of social superiority. Non-resident
owners farmed them, and middle-men were harsh and exacting in their
collection. The peasant, ignorant and poor, but thrifty and cunning,
and fondly attached to his plot of ground, disputed claims made upon
him to pay dues now to this man, now to that, in virtue of concessions
of which, in a vast number of cases, the origin was completely lost.
Innumerable lawsuits resulted, which left stored up in the peasant’s
mind bitter feelings of resentment against both judge and seigneur, one
of whom he accused of partiality, the other of rapacity and extortion.
♦The Church.♦
The maintenance of feudal relations between classes, when neither
government nor society rested on the same bases as in feudal times,
could only be productive of harm. In right of birth privileges and
advantages were claimed by nobles without regard to principles of
justice or of public utility. On every side, in the army, the navy,
the profession of the law, distinction between the nobleman and the
bourgeois still prevailed. But no institution suffered in consequence
of the privileges of the nobility so great moral detriment as the
Church. The Church was a rich, self-governed corporation, in possession
of an annual revenue of more than 8,750,000_l._, providing for about
130,000 persons, including monks and nuns. This great wealth was
unfairly distributed, and to a large extent misapplied. As a rule, all
higher posts were reserved for portionless daughters and younger sons
of noble families. Bishops and abbots, who revelled in wealth, were
nobles; parish priests, who had barely enough for subsistence, were
bourgeois and peasants. Thus the Church teemed with abuses, and exerted
little moral influence. Her wealth excited the jealousy of the middle
classes, whilst the luxurious and profligate lives led by many prelates
and holders of sinecures brought disgrace on the ecclesiastical
profession. Of reform there was no hope, since the lower clergy, who
had interest in effecting it, were excluded from all part in Church
government.
♦Government and administration.♦
Such abuses called aloud for the hand of a reformer. The material
result of social disorder was impoverishment and decay. ‘Whenever you
stumble on a grand seigneur,’ wrote an English traveller, ‘you are sure
to find his property a desert.... Go to his residence, wherever it may
be, and you will probably find it in the midst of a forest very well
peopled with deer, wild boars, and wolves. Oh! if I were the legislator
of France for a day, I would make such great lords skip.’ The king had
acquired power in right of the services he rendered the nation. When he
ceased to do good, as had been the case since Louis XIV. plunged the
nation into a series of wars of ambition, it was inevitable that he
should do harm. The welfare of the masses was dependent on the action
of the central government, and the central government sacrificed their
welfare for the sake of obtaining favour with the upper classes. Hence
administration was in a chaos, and the government, in appearance all
powerful, was in reality strong only when it had to deal with the
crushed and helpless peasant and artisan. The States-General, which
in some sort answered to our English Parliament, had last met in
1614. For the past two centuries the royal council had been engaged
in undermining local liberties, and establishing a centralised system
of administration. The work in all essentials was so thoroughly done,
that no parish business, down to the raising of a rate or the repairing
of a church-steeple, could be effected without authorisation from
Paris. Absolute and centralised, the government was also excessively
arbitrary. On plea of State necessity it repudiated debts, broke
contracts, over-ruled laws, and set aside proprietary rights without
scruple. The issue of warrants, called _lettres de cachet_ sealed
letters, ordering the imprisonment of the person designated in some
state fortress, was an ordinary mode of inflicting punishment.
Yet, however harsh and arbitrary in treatment of individuals, the
government sought to avoid collision with the upper classes as a body.
On all sides it left standing institutions of the Middle Ages, local
functionaries, and municipal assemblies, of which the existence in many
instances increased the weight of local charges and impeded attempts to
ameliorate the condition of the working classes. In the same way the
upper law courts, the Parliaments, were suffered as of old to meddle
in administrative matters. Privileges, so far from being assailed,
were respected. Whatever special rights provinces, towns, or classes
possessed were suffered to remain and were often extended.
♦Privileged classes.♦
The wars of Louis XIV. and the orgies of Louis XV. absorbed more and
more money. On the labouring classes, already overtaxed, an increased
weight of taxation was always being laid. Hence, of these classes the
king became the oppressor, and the oppression was the greater because
the upper classes, who were best able to pay taxes, contributed much
less than their fair share of the burden.
The nobles and clergy, styled the two upper orders, stood, in right
of their privileges, both pecuniary and honorary, apart from the
rest of the nation. Nobles did not pay any direct taxes in the same
proportion as their fellow subjects, and in the case of the _taille_,
a heavy property tax, their privilege approached very nearly to entire
exemption. The clergy, except in a few frontier provinces, paid
personally no direct taxes whatever. The bourgeoisie was regarded as
an inferior class. Those who were able acquired by purchase the rank
and privileges of nobles, and in this way had come into existence a
nobility of office and royal creation, which, although looked down
upon by the old nobility of the sword, enjoyed the same pecuniary
immunities. Those left on the other side of the line deeply resented
the social superiority claimed by the nobility in right of its
privileges. The upper section of the bourgeoisie was, however, itself
privileged to no inconsiderable extent. By living in towns, merchants,
shopkeepers, and professional men were able to avoid serving in the
militia and collecting the _taille_, from which in the country nobles
alone were exempt. They also purchased of the government petty offices,
created in order that they might be sold, to which no serious duties
were attached, but the possession of which conferred on the holders
partial exemption from payment of the _taille_ and of excise duties,
and other privileges of like character.
[Illustration: FRANCE IN PROVINCES 1769–1789.
_Longmans, Green & Co., London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta & Madras._]
♦Taxes.♦
Oppressive as taxation was, owing to its weight alone, and to its
unjust distribution between classes, it was rendered yet more so by
want of administrative unity, by the nature of some of the taxes and
the method of their assessment and collection. Internal custom-houses
and tolls impeded trade, gave rise to smuggling, and raised the price
of all articles of food and clothing. It took three and a half months
to carry goods from Provence to Normandy, which, but for delays
caused by the imposition of duties, might have travelled in three
weeks. Customs duties were levied with such strictness that artisans
who crossed the Rhône on their way to their work had to pay on the
victuals which they carried in their pockets. Excise duties were
laid on articles of commonest use and consumption, such as candles,
fuel, wine, and even on grain and flour. Some provinces and towns
were privileged in relation to certain taxes, and as a rule it was
the poorest provinces on which the heaviest burdens lay. One of the
most iniquitous of the taxes was the _gabelle_, or tax on salt. Of
this tax, which was farmed, two-thirds of the whole were levied on a
third of the kingdom. The price varied so much that the same measure
which cost a few shillings in one province cost two or three pounds
in another. The farmers of the tax had behind them a small army of
officials for the suppression of smuggling, as well as special courts
for the punishment of those who disobeyed fiscal regulations. These
regulations were minute and vexatious in the extreme. Throughout the
north and centre of France, the _gabelle_ was in reality a poll tax;
the sale of salt was a monopoly in the hands of the farmers; no one
might use other salt than that sold by them, and it was obligatory on
every person aged above seven years to purchase seven pounds yearly.
This salt, however, of which the purchase was obligatory, might only be
used for purely cooking purposes. If the farmer wished to salt his pig,
or the fisherman his fish, they must buy additional salt and obtain a
certificate that such purchase had been made. Thousands of persons,
either for inability to pay the tax, or for attempting to evade the
laws of the farm, were yearly fined, imprisoned, sent to the galleys,
or hanged. The chief of the property taxes, the _taille_, inflicted as
much suffering as the _gabelle_, and was also ruinous to agriculture.
Over two-thirds of France the _taille_ was a tax on land, houses, and
industry, reassessed every year not according to any fixed rate, but
according to the presumed capacity of the province, the parish, and
the individual taxpayers. The consequence was that, on the smallest
indication of prosperity, the amount of the tax was raised, and thus
parish after parish, and farmer after farmer, were reduced to the same
dead level of indigence.
♦Condition of the people.♦
Under the state of things here described, France had retrograded in
wealth and population. Intense misery prevailed amongst the working
classes. Artisans were unable to live on their wages; farmers and
small proprietors were constantly being reduced to beggary; ignorance
grew more dense. The government, by its own frequent setting aside of
laws, and by its intolerance and cruelty, helped to render the people
lawless, superstitious, and ferocious. Protestants were subjected to
persecuting laws. Thousands of them had been driven from the country,
or shot down by troops. The penal code was barbarous, and the brutal
breaking on the wheel was an ordinary mode of putting criminals
to death. It was only by very rough usage that fiscal regulations
were maintained, and the taxes gathered in. If the _taille_ and the
_gabelle_ were not paid, the defaulter’s goods were sold over his
head, and his house dismantled of roof and door. In all cases in
which the administration was concerned, whatever justice peasant and
artisan received was meted to them by administrative officials who
were themselves parties in the cause. Famine was like a disease which
counted its victims by hundreds. As a rule, the farmer was a poor and
ignorant peasant, living from hand to mouth, miserably housed, clothed,
and fed.
An Englishman, Arthur Young, travelling in France in the years
1788–1789, reports how he passed over miles and miles of country once
cultivated, but then covered with ling and broom; and how within a
short distance of large towns no signs of wealth or comfort were
visible. ‘There are no gentle transitions from ease to comfort,
from comfort to wealth; you pass at once from beggary to profusion.
The country deserted, or if a gentleman in it, you find him in some
wretched hole, to save that money which is lavished with profusion in
the luxuries of a capital.’ The same traveller tells us how, as he was
walking up a hill in Champagne, he was joined by a poor woman who
complained of the hardness of the times. ‘She said her husband had
but a morsel of land, one cow and a poor little horse, yet he had a
franchar (42 lbs.) of wheat and three chickens to pay as a quit rent to
one seigneur, and four franchars of oats, one chicken, and one shilling
to pay another, besides very heavy _tailles_ and other taxes. She had
seven children, and the cow’s milk helped to make the soup. It was
said, at present, that something was to be done by some great folks
for such poor ones, but she did not know who nor how, but God send us
better, “car les tailles et les droits nous écrasent.” This woman, at
no great distance, might have been taken for sixty or seventy, her
figure was so bent and her face so furrowed and hardened by labour, but
she said she was only twenty-eight.’
Since, owing to the weight of taxation, no profits were to be made by
farming, it was impossible that there should be a good cultivation of
the soil. The amount of capital employed on land in England was at
least double that employed in France. Hence, while in England famine
was unknown, in France production barely equalled consumption, and
scarcities were of incessant occurrence. A single bad season would
force the farmer to desert his land, and with his family beg or steal.
Whenever bread rose above three halfpence the pound men starved.
Bread riots constantly took place in one or another province, and
the country swarmed with beggars, brigands, poachers, and smugglers.
Thousands of these outcasts were imprisoned, sent to the galleys, or
hanged; but no severity could lessen their number, while the causes
producing them remained unremoved. Adequate means of providing for
the destitute there were none. A few hospitals and other charitable
institutions existed. Bishops, great seigneurs, and monasteries often
kept alive hundreds in seasons of scarcity. Hospitals, however, were
little better than plague houses, where the sick and infirm were taken
in to die, whilst private charity was partial and insufficient. There
was no general system of poor relief. With the object of keeping bread
at a price within the people’s reach, the corn trade was subject to a
variety of regulations and restrictions. Occasionally the government
made purchases of foreign corn, which was resold under price. Sometimes
the prices of corn and other articles of food were fixed. In towns
the price of bread was ordinarily regulated according to the price of
corn by police officers, a not unnecessary precaution when the baking
trade was in the hands of a close corporation. A more vicious mode of
relief could hardly have been devised, but to abandon it was no easy
matter. The arbitrary means taken to reduce the price of corn often had
the effect of raising it, and, when successful, only tended to lessen
production and lead to greater scarcities, since cutting down the
profit of the already overweighted corn grower was, in reality, casting
an additional tax upon him. On the other hand, it was no less true that
so long as the existing order continued, a slight rise in the price of
the pound of bread meant sheer starvation for the mass of artisans, and
for thousands of agricultural labourers and small proprietors who were
not corn growers. Accustomed to look to the government to provide them
with cheap bread, in every season of scarcity these clamoured for a
reduction in price, and unless authorities were complaisant, resorted
to riot and pillage.
♦Voltaire.♦
The misery of the working classes presented in itself reason enough for
revolution; but revolution only comes when there are men of ideas to
lead the unlettered masses. In France the educated classes entertained
revolutionary ideas, and the men of letters who promulgated those ideas
became the leaders of opinion, and exerted enormous influence over
their own and the following generations. First came the Voltairians,
led by Voltaire (1694–1778). During the century rapid advance was
being made in all branches of study--in history, jurisprudence,
mathematical and physical science. The idea of progress was definitely
conceived, and knowledge upheld as the chief factor in producing
virtue and happiness. For the increase and diffusion of knowledge the
recognition of two principles was indispensable--religious toleration
and the freedom of the press. Both these principles were, however,
in direct antagonism to the principles on which the authority of the
Roman Catholic Church was based--unity of faith and worship, the
subordination of philosophy and science to theology, the submission
of reason to the teaching of tradition. Protestant clergymen were put
to death as late as 1762; while in 1765 a lad convicted of sacrilege
was hanged, and his body afterwards burned. Such acts of intolerance
and cruelty were, however, condemned by public opinion, and, between
the Church and the exponents of the new ideas, violent collision
inevitably ensued. Voltaire made it the work of his life to destroy
belief in revealed religion. In verse and in prose, in historical
works, in letters and pamphlets by the dozen, with rude licence or sham
respect, he held up the Church to derision, indignation, and contempt,
as the great enemy of enlightenment and humanity. ‘The most absurd of
empires,’ he wrote, ‘the most humiliating for human nature, is that of
priests; and of all sacerdotal empires, the most criminal is that of
priests of the Christian religion.’
♦Encyclopædists.♦
Voltaire himself was a sceptic. Behind him followed men who denied
belief in a personal God and the immortality of the soul. Diderot
(1713–1784) and D’Alembert (1717–1783), with indefatigable energy
published the ‘Encyclopædia,’ or dictionary of universal knowledge,
inculcating, at least indirectly, atheistical opinions, and designed,
by the destruction of ignorance and superstition, to undermine the
whole fabric of Christian theology. Before the end of his long life,
in 1778, Voltaire was the most eminent man in France, and sceptical
and atheistical opinions were commonly held and openly professed by
men and women of the upper and middle classes. The triumph of the new
philosophy was not, indeed, due merely to the powers of irony or the
reasoning of its advocates. The scandalous abuses within the Church
had prepared the way for its reception. The attacked had no efficient
weapon with which to repel their assailants. The Church was without
reforming energy or proselytising zeal. On the arm of the State she
could not rely for support with the same confidence as in former times.
The government was incapable of stamping out the new movement, nor
was it prepared seriously to make the attempt. The official class,
which came out of the middle class, was, like all others, permeated
with the new ideas. The occasional arrest of authors and printers, and
seizure of types and presses, did but increase the virulence of the
attack, and made the forbidden books more eagerly sought after. The
clergy were the more open to attack because they were interested in
the maintenance of privileges and abuses which inflicted cruel wrongs
on the working classes, while the new philosophy aimed at destroying
whatever stood in the way of material progress and the happiness of
the masses. In opposition to the Church’s doctrine of the natural
depravity of human nature, its adherents taught that man is born
good, and that wrong-doing is the result of ignorance; inculcated
the importance of educating all classes, and refused to recognise
limits to the improvement of which both individuals and the race are
capable. Often accompanied by a sensual view of life, which accorded
with the profligacy common amongst the upper classes at the time,
this high opinion of human nature developed a respect for man as man,
regardless of social position, race, or creed, and a passionate hatred
of inequalities founded on such distinctions. ♦Economists.♦ A school of
political economists, starting from the theory that all men originally
had equal rights, and every man liberty to employ his time, his hands,
and his brains according to his own advantage, demonstrated the
principles of free trade, and declared entire liberty of agriculture,
entire liberty of commerce and industry, entire liberty of the press to
be the true foundations of national prosperity. Appealing to abstract
principles of justice, humanity and right, Voltairians and Economists
joined in opening a fire of scathing criticism on existing laws,
customs, and institutions. They exposed the abuses and sufferings
incident to the use of torture, serfdom, and the slave trade, to
excessive centralisation and interference with trade and agriculture,
to close guilds, feudal duties, internal custom-houses, to the _taille_
and the _gabelle_, and demanded the carrying out of reforms which
should set trade and industry free, destroy class and provincial
privileges, introduce unity in the administration, and equality of
rights between man and man.
♦Rousseau.♦
The Voltairians were specially characterised by their attack upon the
Church and Christianity; the Economists by the importance which they
attached to individual liberty. Neither regarded the ignorant and
oppressed masses as able to act for themselves, and both looked to the
royal power, enlightened by a free press, as the instrument through
which reform must be effected. Rousseau was a writer of a different
stamp. Instead of idolising knowledge he declared the untaught peasant
and artisan the superiors of the philosopher and man of culture. They
alone, he said, had retained that natural goodness of heart which
men had in times long since gone by, when social inequalities along
with idleness and luxury were unknown. Rousseau opposed also the
atheistic tendencies of the day, declaring belief in a personal God
and the immortality of the soul requisite to make life endurable to
the oppressed. His indifference to knowledge and culture caused him to
regard the masses themselves as alone able to regenerate France, if
indeed regeneration were still possible. Society, according to him,
was originally based on a contract by which every citizen in return
for protection of person and property placed himself under the general
will. Laws, therefore, were the expression of the general will; kings
were merely the servants of the people, and not they but the people
sovereign. Whatever was amiss in France, or in other countries, the
fault lay purely with society and government, and should ever idleness
and luxury disappear and the people recover their lost sovereignty,
then and then only, as in primitive times, would men be happy and
virtuous. ‘Man is born free,’ were the opening words of the ‘Social
Contract,’ the book in which these theories were maintained, ‘and
everywhere he is in chains.’