THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. (1789-1799.)
1. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION: THE STATES-GENERAL OF 1789.
INTRODUCTORY.--The French Revolution is in political what the German
Reformation is in ecclesiastical history. It was the revolt of the French
people against royal despotism and class privilege. "Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity," was the motto of the Revolution. In the name of these
principles the most atrocious crimes were indeed committed; but these
excesses of the Revolution are not to be confounded with its true spirit
and aims. The French people in 1789 contended for those same principles
that the English Puritans defended in 1640, and that our fathers
maintained in 1776. It is only as we view them in this light that we can
feel a sympathetic interest in the men and events of this tumultuous
period of French history.
CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION.--Chief among the causes of the French Revolution
were the abuses and extravagances of the Bourbon monarchy; the unjust
privileges enjoyed by the nobility and clergy; the wretched condition of
the great mass of the people; and the revolutionary character and spirit
of French philosophy and literature. To these must be added, as a
proximate cause, the influence of the American Revolution. We shall speak
briefly of these several matters.
THE BOURBON MONARCHY.--We simply repeat what we have already learned, when
we say that the authority of the French crown under the Bourbons had
become unbearably despotic and oppressive. The life of every person in the
realm was at the arbitrary disposal of the king. Persons were thrown into
prison without even knowing the offence for which they were arrested. The
royal decrees were laws. The taxes imposed by the king were simply
robberies and confiscations. The public money, thus gathered, was
squandered in maintaining a court the scandalous extravagances and
debaucheries of which would shame a Turkish Sultan.
THE NOBILITY.--The French nobility, in the time of the Bourbons, numbered
about 80,000 families. The order was simply the remains of the once
powerful but now broken-down feudal aristocracy of the Middle Ages. Its
members were chiefly the pensioners of the king, the ornaments of his
court, living in riotous luxury at Paris or Versailles. Stripped of their
ancient power, they still retained all the old pride and arrogance of
their order, and clung tenaciously to all their feudal privileges.
Although holding one-fifth of the lands of France, they paid scarcely any
taxes.
THE CLERGY.--The clergy formed a decayed feudal hierarchy. They possessed
enormous wealth, the gift of piety through many centuries. Over a third of
the lands of the country was in their hands, and yet this immense property
was almost wholly exempt from taxation. The bishops and abbots were
usually drawn from the families of the nobles, being too often attracted
to the service of the Church rather by its princely revenues and the
social distinction conferred by its offices, than by the inducements of
piety. These "patrician prelates" were hated alike by the humbler clergy
and the people.
THE COMMONS.--Below the two privileged orders of the State stood the
commons, who constituted the chief bulk of the nation, and who numbered,
at the commencement of the Revolution, probably about 25,000,000. It is
quite impossible to give any adequate idea of the pitiable condition of
the poorer classes of the commons throughout the century preceding the
Revolution. The peasants particularly suffered the most intolerable
wrongs. They were vexed by burdensome feudal regulations. Thus they were
forbidden to fence their fields for the protection of their crops, as the
fences interfered with the lord's progress in the hunt; and they were even
prohibited from cultivating their fields at certain seasons, as this
disturbed the partridges and other game. Being kept in a state of abject
poverty, a failure of crops reduced them to absolute starvation. It was
not an unusual thing to find women and children dead along the roadways.
In a word, to use the language of one (Fénelon) who saw all this misery,
France had become "simply a great hospital full of woe and empty of food."
REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT OF FRENCH PHILOSOPHY.--French philosophy in the
eighteenth century was sceptical and revolutionary. The names of the great
writers Rousseau (1712-1778) and Voltaire (1694-1778) suggest at once its
prevalent tone and spirit. Rousseau declared that all the evils which
afflict humanity arise from vicious, artificial arrangements, such as the
Family, the Church, and the State. Accordingly he would do away with these
things, and have men return to a state of nature--that is, to simplicity.
Savages, he declared, were happier than civilized men.
The tendency and effect of this sceptical philosophy was to create hatred
and contempt for the institutions of both State and Church, to foster
discontent with the established order of things, to stir up an
uncontrollable passion for innovation and change.
INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.--Not one of the least potent of the
proximate causes of the French Revolution was the successful establishment
of the American republic. The French people sympathized deeply with the
English colonists in their struggle for independence. Many of the
nobility, like Lafayette, offered to the patriots the service of their
swords; and the popular feeling at length compelled Louis XVI to extend to
them openly the aid of the armies of France.
The final triumph of the cause of liberty awakened scarcely less
enthusiasm and rejoicing in France than in America. In this young republic
of the Western world the French people saw realized the Arcadia of their
philosophers. It was no longer a dream. They themselves had helped to make
it real. Here the Rights of Man had been recovered and vindicated. And now
this liberty which the French people had helped the American colonists to
secure, they were impatient to see France herself enjoy.
"AFTER US, THE DELUGE."--The long-gathering tempest is now ready to break
over France. Louis XV. died in 1774. In the early part of his reign his
subjects had affectionately called him the "Well-beloved," but long before
he laid down the sceptre, all their early love and admiration had been
turned into hatred and contempt. Besides being overbearing and despotic,
the king was indolent, rapacious, and scandalously profligate. During
twenty years of his reign the king was wholly under the influence of the
notorious Madame de Pompadour.
The inevitable issue of this orgy of crime and folly seems to have been
clearly enough perceived by the chief actors in it, as is shown by that
reckless phrase so often on the lips of the king and his favorite--"After
us, the Deluge." And after them, the Deluge indeed did come. The near
thunders of the approaching tempest could already be heard when Louis XV.
lay down to die.
CALLING OF THE STATES-GENERAL (1789).--Louis XV. left the tottering throne
to his grandson, Louis XVI., then only twenty years of age. He had
recently been married to the fair and brilliant Marie Antoinette,
archduchess of Austria.
The king called to his side successively the most eminent financiers and
statesmen (Maurepas, Turgot, Necker, and Calonne) as his ministers and
advisers; but their policies and remedies availed little or nothing. The
disease which had fastened itself upon the nation was too deep-seated. The
traditions of the court, the rigidity of long-established customs, and the
heartless selfishness of the privileged classes, rendered reform and
efficient retrenchment impossible.
In 1787 the king summoned the Notables, a body composed chiefly of great
lords and prelates, who had not been called to advise with the king since
the reign of Henry IV. But miserable counsellors were they all. Refusing
to give up any of their feudal privileges, or to tax the property of their
own orders that the enormous public burdens which were crushing the
commons might be lightened, their coming together resulted in nothing.
As a last resort it was resolved to summon the united wisdom of the
nation,--to call together the States-General, the almost-forgotten
assembly, composed of representatives of the three estates,--the nobility,
the clergy, and the commons, the latter being known as the Tiers État, or
Third Estate. On the 5th of May, 1789, a memorable date, this assembly met
at Versailles. It was the first time it had been summoned to deliberate
upon the affairs of the nation in the space of 175 years. It was now
composed of 1,200 representatives, more than one-half of whom were
deputies of the commons. The eyes of the nation were turned in hope and
expectancy towards Versailles. Surely if the redemption of France could be
worked out by human wisdom, it would now be effected.
2. THE NATIONAL, OR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY (June 17, 1789-Sept. 30, 1791).
THE STATE-GENERAL CHANGED INTO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.--At the very outset
a dispute arose in the States-General assembly between the privileged
orders and the commons, respecting the manner of voting. It had been the
ancient custom of the body to vote upon all questions by orders; and
thinking that this custom would prevail in the present assembly, the king
and his counsellors had yielded to the popular demand and allowed the
Third Estate to send to Versailles more representatives than both the
other orders. The commons now demanded that the voting should be by
individuals; for, should the vote be taken by orders, the clergy and
nobility by combining could always outvote them. For five weeks the
quarrel kept everything at a standstill.
Finally the commons, emboldened by the tone of public opinion without,
took a decisive, revolutionary step. They declared themselves the National
Assembly, and then invited the other two orders to join them in their
deliberations, giving them to understand that if they did not choose to do
so, they should proceed to the consideration of public affairs without
them.
Shut out from the palace, the Third Estate met in one of the churches of
Versailles. Many of the clergy had already joined the body. Two days later
the nobility came. The eloquent Bailly, President of the Assembly, in
receiving them, exclaimed, "This day will be illustrious in our annals; it
renders the family complete." The States-General had now become in reality
the _National Assembly_.
STORMING OF THE BASTILE (July 14, 1789).--During the opening weeks of the
National Assembly, Paris was in a state of great excitement. The Bastile
was the old state prison, the emblem, in the eyes of the people, of
despotism. A report came that its guns were trained on the city; that
provoked a popular outbreak. "Let us storm the Bastile," rang through the
streets. The mob straightway proceeded to lay siege to the grim old
dungeon. In a few hours the prison fortress was in their hands. The walls
of the hated state prison were razed to the ground, and the people danced
on the spot. The key of the fortress was sent as a "trophy of the spoils
of despotism" to Washington by Lafayette.
The destruction by the Paris mob of the Bastile is in the French
Revolution what the burning of the papal bull by Luther was to the
Reformation. It was the death-knell not only of Bourbon despotism in
France, but of royal tyranny everywhere. When the news reached England,
the great statesman Fox, perceiving its significance for liberty,
exclaimed, "How much is this the greatest event that ever happened in the
world, and how much the best!"
THE EMIGRATION OF THE NOBLES.--The fall of the Bastile left Paris in the
hands of a triumphant mob. Those suspected of sympathizing with the royal
party were massacred without mercy. The peasantry in many districts,
following the example set them by the capital, rose against the nobles,
sacked and burned their castles, and either killed the occupants or
dragged them off to prison. This terrorism caused the beginning of what is
known as the emigration of the nobles, their flight beyond the frontiers
of France.
"TO VERSAILLES."--An imprudent act on the part of the king and his friends
at Versailles brought about the next episode in the progress of the
Revolution. The arrival there of a body of troops was made the occasion of
a banquet to the officers of the regiment. While heated with wine, the
young nobles had trampled under foot the national tri-colored cockades,
and substituted for them white cockades, the emblem of the Bourbons. The
report of these proceedings caused in Paris the wildest excitement. Other
rumors of the intended flight of the king to Metz, and of plots against
the national cause, added fuel to the flames. Besides, bread had failed,
and the poorer classes were savage from hunger.
October 5th a mob of desperate women, terrible in aspect as furies, and
armed with clubs and knives, collected in the streets of Paris, determined
upon going to Versailles, and demanding relief from the king himself. All
efforts to dissuade them from their purpose were unavailing, and soon the
Parisian rabble was in motion. A horrible multitude, savage as the hordes
that followed Attila, streamed out of the city towards Versailles, about
twelve miles distant. The National Guards, infected with the delirium of
the moment, forced Lafayette to lead them in the same direction. Thus all
day Paris emptied itself into the royal suburbs.
The mob encamped in the streets of Versailles for the night. Early the
following morning they broke into the palace, killed two of the guards,
and battering down doors with axes, forced their way to the chamber of the
queen, who barely escaped with her life to the king's apartments. The
timely arrival of Lafayette alone saved the entire royal family from being
massacred.
THE ROYAL FAMILY TAKEN TO PARIS--The mob now demanded that the king should
return with them to Paris. Their object in this was to have him under
their eye, and prevent his conspiring with the privileged orders to thwart
the plans of the revolutionists. Louis was forced to yield to the demands
of the people.
The procession arrived at Paris in the evening. The royal family were
placed in the Palace of the Tuileries, and Lafayette was charged with the
duty of guarding the king, who was to be held as a sort of hostage for the
good conduct of the nobles and foreign sovereigns while a constitution was
being prepared by the Assembly.
Such was what was called the "Joyous Entry" of October 6th. The palace at
Versailles, thus stripped of royalty and left bespattered with blood, was
never again to be occupied as the residence of a king of France.
THE FLIGHT OF THE KING (June 20, 1791).--For two years following the
Joyous Entry there was a comparative lull in the storm of the Revolution,
The king was kept a sort of prisoner in the Tuileries. The National
Assembly were making sweeping reforms both in Church and State, and
busying themselves in framing a new constitution. The emigrant nobles
watched the course of events from beyond the frontiers, not daring to make
a move for fear the excitable Parisian mob, upon any hostile step taken by
them, would massacre the entire royal family. Could the king only escape
from the hands of his captors and make his way to the borders of France,
then he could place himself at the head of the emigrant nobles, and, with
foreign aid, overturn the National Assembly and crush the revolutionists.
The flight was resolved upon and carefully planned. Under cover of night
the entire royal family, in disguise, escaped from the Tuileries, and by
post conveyance fled towards the frontier. When just another hour would
have placed the fugitives in safety among friends, the Bourbon features of
the king betrayed him, and the entire party was arrested and carried back
to Paris.
The attempted flight of the royal family was a fatal blow to the Monarchy.
Many affected to regard it as equivalent to an act of abdication on the
part of the king. The people now began to talk of a republic.
THE CLUBS: JACOBINS AND CORDELIERS.--In order to render intelligible the
further course of the Revolution we must here speak of two clubs, or
organizations, which came into prominence about this time, and which were
destined to become more powerful than the Assembly itself, and to be the
chief instruments in inaugurating the Reign of Terror. These were the
societies of the Jacobins and Cordeliers, so called from certain old
convents in which they were accustomed to meet. The purpose of these clubs
was to watch for conspiracies of the royalists, and by constant agitation
to keep alive the flame of the Revolution.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION.--The work of the National Assembly was now drawing
to a close. On the 14th of September, 1791, the new constitution framed by
that body, and which made the government of France a constitutional
monarchy, was solemnly ratified by the king. The National Assembly, having
sat nearly three years, then adjourned (Sept, 30, 1791). The first scene
in the drama of the French Revolution was ended.
3. THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (Oct. 1, 1791-Sept. 21, 1792).
THE THREE PARTIES.--The new constitution provided for a national
legislature to be called the Legislative Assembly. This body, comprising
745 members, was divided into three parties: the Constitutionalists, the
Girondists, and the Mountainists. The Constitutionalists of course
supported the new constitution, being in favor of a limited monarchy. The
Girondists, so called from the name (_La Gironde_) of the department
whence came the most noted of its members, wished to establish in France
such a republic as the American colonists had just set up in the New
World. The Mountainists, who took their name from their lofty seats in the
assembly, were radical republicans, or levellers. Many of them were
members of the Jacobin club or that of the Cordeliers. The leaders of this
faction were Marat, Danton, and Robespierre,--names of terror in the
subsequent records of the Revolution.
WAR WITH THE OLD MONARCHIES.--The kings of Europe were watching with the
utmost anxiety the course of events in France. They regarded the cause of
Louis XVI. as their own. If the French people should be allowed to
overturn the throne of their hereditary sovereign, who would then respect
the divine rights of kings? The old monarchies of Europe therefore
resolved that the revolutionary movement in France, a movement threatening
all aristocratical and monarchical institutions, should be crushed, and
that these heretical French doctrines respecting the Sovereignty of the
People and the Rights of Man should be proved false by the power of royal
armies.
The warlike preparations of Frederick William III. of Prussia and the
Emperor Francis II., awakened the apprehensions of the revolutionists, and
led the Legislative Assembly to declare war against them (April 20, 1792).
A little later, the allied armies of the Austrians and Prussians,
numbering more than 100,000 men, and made up in part of the French
emigrant nobles, passed the frontiers of France. Thus were taken the first
steps in a series of wars which were destined to last nearly a quarter of
a century, and in which France almost single-handed was to struggle
against the leagued powers of Europe, and to illustrate the miracles
possible to enthusiasm and genius.
THE MASSACRE OF THE SWISS GUARDS (Aug. 10, 1792).--The allies at first
gained easy victories over the ill-disciplined forces of the Legislative
Assembly, and the Duke of Brunswick, at the head of an immense army,
advanced rapidly upon Paris. An insolent proclamation which this commander
now issued, wherein he ordered the French nation to submit to their king,
and threatened the Parisians with the destruction of their city should any
harm be done the royal family, drove the French people frantic with
indignation and rage. The Palace of the Tuileries, defended by a few
hundred Swiss soldiers, the remnant of the royal guard, was assaulted. A
terrible struggle followed in the corridors and upon the grand stairways
of the palace. The Swiss stood "steadfast as the granite of their Alps."
But they were overwhelmed at last, and all were murdered, either in the
building itself or in the surrounding courts and streets.
THE MASSACRE OF SEPTEMBER ("JAIL DELIVERY").--The army of the allies
hurried on towards Paris to avenge the slaughter of the royal guards and
to rescue the king. The capital was all excitement. "We must stop the
enemy," cried Danton, "by striking terror into the royalists." To this end
the most atrocious measures were now adopted by the Extremists. It was
resolved that all the royalists confined in the jails of the capital
should be murdered. A hundred or more assassins were hired to butcher the
prisoners. The murderers first entered the churches of the city, and the
unfortunate priests who had refused to take oath to support the new
constitution, were butchered in heaps about the altars. The jails were
next visited, one after another, the persons confined within slaughtered,
and their bodies thrown out to the brutal hordes that followed the
butchers to enjoy the carnival of blood.
The victims of this terrible "September Massacre," as it is called, are
estimated at from six to fourteen thousand. Europe had never before known
such a "jail delivery." It was the greatest crime of the French
Revolution.
DEFEAT OF THE ALLIES.--Meanwhile, in the open field, the fortunes of war
inclined to the side of the revolutionists. The French generals were
successful in checking the advance of the allies, and finally at Valmy
(Sept. 20, 1792) succeeded in inflicting upon them a decisive defeat,
which caused their hasty retreat beyond the frontiers of France. The day
after this victory the Legislative Assembly came to an end, and the
following day the National Convention assembled.
4. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION (Sept. 21, 1792-Oct. 26, 1795).
PARTIES IN THE CONVENTION.--The Convention, consisting of seven hundred
and forty-nine deputies, among whom was the celebrated freethinker, Thomas
Paine, was divided into two parties, the Girondists and the Mountainists.
There were no monarchists; all were republicans. No one dared to speak of
a monarchy. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC (Sept. 21, 1792).--The very
first act of the Convention on its opening day was to abolish the Monarchy
and proclaim France a Republic. The motion for the abolition of Royalty
was not even discussed. "What need is there for discussion," exclaimed a
delegate, "where all are agreed? Courts are the hot-bed of crime, the
focus of corruption; the history of kings is the martyrology of nations."
All titles of nobility were also abolished. Every one was to be addressed
simply as _citizen_. In the debates of the Convention, the king was
alluded to as Citizen Capet, and on the street the shoeblack was called
Citizen Shoeblack.
The day following the Proclamation of the republic (Sept. 22, 1792) was
made the beginning of a new era, the first day of the YEAR 1. That was to
be regarded as the natal day of Liberty. A little later, excited by the
success of the French armies,--the Austrians and Prussians had been
beaten, and Belgium had been overrun and occupied,--the Convention called
upon all nations to rise against despotism, and pledged the aid of France
to any people wishing to secure freedom.
TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE KING (Jan. 21, 1793).--The next work of the
Convention was the trial and execution of the king. On the 11th of
December, 1792, he was brought before the bar of that body, charged with
having conspired with the enemies of France, of having opposed the will of
the people, and of having caused the massacre of the 10th of August. The
sentence of the Convention was immediate death. On Jan. 21, 1793, the
unfortunate monarch was conducted to the scaffold.
COALITION AGAINST FRANCE.--The regicide awakened the most bitter hostility
against the French revolutionists, among all the old monarchies of Europe.
The act was interpreted as a threat against all kings. A grand coalition,
embracing Prussia, Austria, England, Sweden, Holland, Spain, Portugal,
Piedmont, Naples, the Holy See, and later, Russia, was formed to crush the
republican movement. Armies aggregating more than a quarter of a million
of men threatened France at once on every frontier.
While thus beset with foes without, the republic was threatened with even
more dangerous enemies within. The people of La Vendee, in Western France,
who still retained their simple reverence for Royalty, Nobility, and the
Church, rose in revolt against the sweeping innovations of the
revolutionists.
To meet all these dangers which threatened the life of the new-born
republic, the Convention ordered a levy, which placed 300,000 men in the
field. The stirring Marseillaise Hymn, sung by the marching bands,
awakened everywhere a martial fervor.
THE FALL OF THE GIRONDISTS (June 2, 1793).--Gloomy tidings came from every
quarter,--news of reverses to the armies of the republic in front of the
allies, and of successes of the counter-revolutionists in La Vendée and
other provinces. The Mountainists in the Convention, supported by the
rabble of Paris, urged the most extreme measures. They proposed that the
carriages of the wealthy should be seized and used for carrying soldiers
to the seat of war, and that the expenses of the government should be met
by forced contributions from the rich.
The Girondists opposing these communistic measures, a mob, 80,000 strong,
it is asserted, surrounded the Convention, and demanded that the
Girondists be given up as enemies of the Republic. They were surrendered
and placed under arrest, a preliminary step to the speedy execution of
many of them during the opening days of the Reign of Terror, which had now
begun.
Thus did the Parisian mob purge the National Convention of France, as the
army purged Parliament in the English Revolution (see p. 612). That mob
were now masters, not only of the capital, but of France as well. There is
nothing before France now but anarchy, and the dictator to whom anarchy
always gives birth.
_The Reign of Terror_ (June 2, 1793-July 27, 1794).
OPENING OF THE REIGN OF TERROR.--As soon as the expulsion of the Moderates
had given the Extremists control of the Convention, they proceeded to
carry out their policy of terrorism. Supreme power was vested in the so-
called Committee of Public Safety, which became a terrific engine of
tyranny and cruelty. Marat was president of the Committee, and Danton and
Robespierre were both members.
The scenes which now followed are only feebly illustrated by the
proscriptions of Sulla in ancient Rome (see p. 283). All aristocrats, all
persons suspected of lukewarmness in the cause of liberty, were ordered to
the guillotine. Hundreds were murdered simply because their wealth was
wanted. Others fell, not because they were guilty of any political
offence, but on account of having in some way incurred the personal
displeasure of the dictators.
CHARLOTTE CORDAY: ASSASSINATION OF MARAT (July 13,1793).--At this moment
appeared the Joan of Arc of the Revolution. A maiden of Normandy,
Charlotte Corday by name, conceived the idea of delivering France from the
terrors of proscription and civil war, by going to Paris and killing
Marat, whom she regarded as the head of the tyranny. On pretence of
wishing to reveal to him something of importance, she gained admission to
his rooms and stabbed him to the heart. She atoned for the deed under the
knife of the guillotine.
EVENTS AFTER THE DEATH OF MARAT.--The enthusiasm of Charlotte Corday had
led her to believe that the death of Marat would be a fatal blow to the
power of the Mountainists. But it only served to drive them to still
greater excesses, under the lead of Danton and Robespierre. She died to
stanch the flow of her country's blood; but, as Lamartine says, "her
poniard appeared to have opened the veins of France." The flame of
insurrection in the departments was quenched in deluges of blood. Some of
the cities that had been prominent centres of the counter-revolution were
made a terrible example of the vengeance of the revolutionists. Lyons was
an object of special hatred to the tyrants. Respecting this place the
Convention passed the following decree: "The city of Lyons shall be
destroyed: every house occupied by a rich man shall be demolished; only
the dwellings of the poor shall remain, with edifices specially devoted to
industry, and monuments consecrated to humanity and public education." So
thousands of men were set to work to pull down the city. The Convention
further decreed that a monument should be erected upon the ruins of Lyons
with this inscription: "Lyons opposed Liberty! Lyons is no more!"
EXECUTION OF THE QUEEN AND OF THE GIRONDISTS.--The rage of the
revolutionists was at this moment turned anew against the remaining
members of the royal family, by the European powers proclaiming the
Dauphin King of France. The queen, who had now borne nine months'
imprisonment in a close dungeon, was brought before the terrible
Revolutionary Tribunal, a sort of court organized to take cognizance of
conspiracies against the republic, condemned to the guillotine, and
straightway beheaded.
Two weeks after the execution of the queen, twenty-one of the chiefs of
the Girondists, who had been kept in confinement since their arrest in the
Convention, were pushed beneath the knife. Hundreds of others followed.
Day after day the carnival of death went on. Seats were arranged for the
people, who crowded to the spectacle as to a theatre. The women busied
their hands with their knitting, while their eyes feasted upon the swiftly
changing scenes of the horrid drama.
Most illustrious of all the victims after the queen was Madame Roland, who
was accused of being the friend of the Girondists. Woman has always acted
a prominent part in the great events of French history, because the grand
ideas and sentiments which have worked so powerfully upon the imaginative
and impulsive temperament of the men of France, have appealed with a still
more fatal attraction to her more romantic and generously enthusiastic
nature.
SWEEPING CHANGES AND REFORMS.--While clearing away the enemies of France
and of liberty, the revolutionists were also busy making the most sweeping
changes in the ancient institutions and customs of the land. They hated
these as having been established by kings and aristocrats to enhance their
own importance and power, and to enthrall the masses. They proposed to
sweep these things all aside, and give the world a fresh start.
A new system of weights and measures, known as the metrical, was planned,
and a new mode of reckoning time was introduced. The names of the months
were altered, titles being given them expressive of the character of each.
Each month was divided into three periods of ten days each, called
decades, and each day into ten parts. The tenth day of each decade took
the place of Sunday. The five odd days not provided for in the arrangement
were made festival days.
ABOLITION OF CHRISTIANITY.--With these reforms effected, the
revolutionists next proceeded to the more difficult task of subverting the
ancient institutions of religion. Some of the chiefs of the Commune of
Paris declared that the Revolution should not rest until it had "dethroned
the King of Heaven as well as the kings of earth."
An attempt was made by the Extremists to have Christianity abolished by a
decree of the National Convention; but that body, fearing such an act
might alienate many who were still attached to the Church, resolved that
all matters of creed should be left to the decision of the people
themselves.
[Illustration: THE GUILLOTINE ]
The atheistic chiefs of the Commune of the capital now determined to
effect their purpose through the Church itself. They persuaded the Bishop
of Paris to abdicate his office; and his example was followed by many of
the clergy throughout the country. The churches of Paris and of other
cities were now closed, and the treasures of their altars and shrines
confiscated to the State, Even the bells were melted down into cannon. The
images of the Virgin and of the Christ were torn down, and the busts of
Marat and other patriots set up in their stead. And as the emancipation of
the world was now to be wrought, not by the Cross, but by the guillotine,
that instrument took the place of the crucifix, and was called the Holy
Guillotine. All the visible symbols of the ancient religion were
destroyed. All emblems of hope in the cemeteries were obliterated, and
over their gates were inscribed the words, "Death is eternal sleep."
The madness of the Parisian people culminated in the worship of what was
called the Goddess of Reason. A celebrated beauty, personating the
Goddess, was set upon the altar of Notre Dame as the object of homage and
adoration. The example of Paris was followed in many places throughout
France. Churches were everywhere converted into temples of the new
worship. The Sabbath having been abolished, the services of the temple
were held only upon every tenth day. On that day the mayor or some popular
leader mounted the altar and harangued the people, dwelling upon the news
of the moment, the triumphs of the armies of the republic, the glorious
achievements of the Revolution, and the privilege of living in an era when
one was oppressed neither by kings on earth or by a King in heaven.
FALL OF HÉBERT AND DANTON (March and April, 1794).--Not quite one year of
the Reign of Terror had passed before the revolutionists, having destroyed
or driven into obscurity their common enemy, the Girondists, turned upon
one another with the ferocity of beasts whose appetite has been whetted by
the taste of blood.
During the progress of events the Jacobins had become divided into three
factions, headed respectively by Danton, Robespierre, and Hébert. Danton,
though he had been a bold and audacious leader, was now adopting a more
conservative tone, and was condemning the extravagances and cruelties of
the Committee of Public Safety, of which he had ceased to be a member.
Hébert was one of the worst demagogues of the Commune, the chief and
instigator of the Parisian rabble. He and his followers, the sans-culottes
of the capital, would overturn everything and refound society upon
communism and atheism.
[Illustration: ROBESPIERRE]
Robespierre occupied a position midway between these two, condemning alike
the moderatism of Danton and the atheistic communism of Hebert. To make
his own power supreme, he resolved to crush both.
Hébert and his party were the first to fall, Danton and his adherents
working with Robespierre to bring about their ruin, for the Moderates and
Anarchists were naturally at bitter enmity.
Danton and his friends were the next to follow. Little more than a week
had passed since the execution of Hébert before Robespierre had effected
their destruction, on the charge of conspiring with and encouraging the
counter-revolutionists.
With the Anarchists and Moderates both destroyed, Robespierre was now
supreme. His ambition was attained. "He stood alone on the awful eminence
of the Holy Mountain." But his turn was soon to come.
WORSHIP OF THE SUPREME BEING.--One of the first acts of the dictator was
to give France a new religion in place, of the worship of Reason.
Robespierre wished to sweep away Christianity as a superstition, but he
would stop at deism. He did not believe that a state could be founded on
atheism. "Atheism," said he, "is aristocratic. The idea of a great being
who watches over oppressed innocence, and who punishes triumphant guilt,
is and always will be popular. If God did not exist, it would behoove man
to invent him." Accordingly Robespierre offered in the Convention the
following resolution: "The French people acknowledge the existence of the
Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul." The decree was adopted,
and the churches that had been converted into temples of the Goddess of
Reason were now consecrated to the worship of the Supreme Being.
THE TERROR AT PARIS.--At the very same time that Robespierre was
establishing the new worship, he was desolating France with massacres of
incredible atrocity, and ruling by a terrorism unparalleled since the most
frightful days of Rome. With all power gathered in his hands, he overawed
all opposition and dissent by the wholesale slaughters of the guillotine.
The prisons of Paris and of the departments were filled with suspected
persons, until 200,000 prisoners were crowded within these republican
Bastiles. At Paris the dungeons were emptied of their victims and room
made for fresh ones, by the swift processes of the Revolutionary Tribunal,
which in mockery of justice caused the prisoners to be brought before its
bar in companies of ten or fifty. Rank or talent was an inexpiable crime.
"Were you not a noble?" asks the president of the court of one of the
accused. "Yes," was the reply. "Enough; another," was the judge's verdict.
And so on through the long list each day brought before the tribunal.
The scenes about the guillotine were simply infernal. Benches were
arranged around the scaffold and rented to spectators, like seats in a
theatre. A special sewer had to be constructed to carry off the blood of
the victims. In the space of a little over a month (from June 10th to July
17th) the number of persons guillotined at Paris was 1285, an average of
34 a day.
MASSACRES IN THE PROVINCES.--While such was the terrible state of things
at the capital, matters were even worse in many of the other leading
cities of France. The scenes at Nantes, Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Toulon
suggested, in their varied elements of horror, the awful conceptions of
the "Inferno" of Dante. At Nantes the victims were at first shot singly or
guillotined; but these methods being found too slow, more expeditious
modes of execution were devised. To these were playfully given the names
of "Republican Baptisms," "Republican Marriages," and "Battues."
The "Republican Baptism" consisted in crowding a hundred or more persons
into a vessel, which was then towed out into the Loire and scuttled. In
the "Republican Marriages" a man and woman were bound together, and then
thrown into the river. The "Battues" consisted in ranging the victims in
long ranks, and mowing them down with discharges of cannon and musket.
By these various methods fifteen thousand victims were destroyed in the
course of a single month. The entire number massacred at Nantes during the
Reign of Terror is estimated at thirty thousand. What renders these
murders the more horrible is the fact that a considerable number of the
victims were women and children. Nantes was at this time crowded with the
orphaned children of the Vendéan counter-revolutionists. Upon a single
night three hundred of these innocents were taken from the city prisons
and drowned in the Loire.
THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE (July, 1794).--By such terrorism did Robespierre
and his creatures rule France for a little more than three months. The
awful suspense and dread drove many into insanity and to suicide. The
strain was too great for human nature to bear. A reaction came. The
successes of the armies of the republic, and the establishment of the
authority of the Convention throughout the departments, caused the people
to look upon the massacres that were daily taking place as unnecessary and
cruel. They began to turn with horror and pity from the scenes of the
guillotine.
The first blow at the power of the dictator was struck in the Convention.
A member dared to denounce him, upon the floor of the assembly, as a
tyrant. The spell was broken. He was arrested and sent to the guillotine,
with a large number of his confederates. The people greeted the fall of
the tyrant's head with demonstrations of unbounded joy. The delirium was
over. "France had awakened from the ghastly dream of the Reign of Terror
(July 28, 1794)."
THE REACTION.--The reaction which had swept away Robespierre and his
associates continued after their ruin. The clubs of the Jacobins were
closed, and that infamous society which had rallied and directed the
hideous rabbles of the great cities was broken up. The deputies that had
been driven from their seats in the Convention were invited to resume
their places and the Christian worship was reestablished.
NAPOLEON DEFENDS THE CONVENTION (Oct. 5, 1795).--These and other measures
of the Convention did not fail of arousing the bitter opposition of the
scattered forces of the Terrorists, as they were called; and on the 5th of
October, 1795, a mob of 40,000 men advanced to the attack of the
Tuileries, where the Convention was sitting. As the mob came on they were
met by a storm of grape shot, which sent them flying back in wild
disorder. The man who trained the guns was a young artillery officer, a
native of the island of Corsica,--Napoleon Bonaparte. The Revolution had
at last brought forth a man of genius capable of controlling and directing
its tremendous energies. 5. THE DIRECTORY (Oct. 27, 1795-Nov. 9, 1799).
THE REPUBLIC BECOMES AGGRESSIVE.--A few weeks after the defence of the
Convention by Napoleon, that body declaring its labors ended, closed its
sessions, and immediately afterwards the Councils and the Board of
Directors provided for by the new constitution [Footnote: There were to be
two legislative bodies,--the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of
the Ancients, the latter embracing two hundred and fifty persons, of whom
no one could be under fifty years of age. The executive power was vested
in a board of five persons, which was called the Directory.] that had been
framed by the Convention, assumed control of affairs.
Under the Directory the republic, which up to this time had been acting
mainly on the defensive, entered upon an aggressive policy. The
Revolution, having accomplished its work in France, having there destroyed
royal despotism and abolished class privilege, now set itself about
fulfilling its early promise of giving liberty to all peoples (see p.
658). In a word, the revolutionists became propagandists. France now
exhibits what her historians call her social, her communicative genius.
"Easily seduced herself," as Lamartine says, "she easily seduces others."
She would make all Europe like unto herself. Herself a republic, she would
make all nations republics.
Had not the minds of the people in all the neighboring countries been
prepared to welcome the new order of things, the Revolution could never
have spread itself as widely as it did. But everywhere irrepressible
longings for social and political equality and freedom, born of long
oppression, were stirring the souls of men. The French armies were
everywhere welcomed as deliverers. Thus was France enabled to surround
herself with a girdle of commonwealths. She conquered Europe not by her
armies, but by her ideas. "An invasion of armies," says Victor Hugo, "can
be resisted: an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted."
The republics established were, indeed, short-lived; for the times were
not yet ripe for the complete triumph of democratic ideas. But a great
gain for freedom was made. The reestablished monarchies never dared to
make themselves as despotic as those which the Revolution had overturned.
THE PLANS OF THE DIRECTORY.--Austria and England were the only formidable
powers that still persisted in their hostility to the republic. The
Directors resolved to strike a decisive blow at the first of these
implacable foes. To carry out their designs, two large armies, numbering
about 70,000 each, were mustered upon the middle Rhine, and intrusted to
the command of the two young and energetic generals Moreau and Jourdan,
who were to make a direct invasion of Germany. A third army, numbering
about 36,000 men, was assembled in the neighborhood of Nice, in South-
eastern France, and placed in the hands of Napoleon, to whom was assigned
the work of driving the Austrians out of Italy.
NAPOLEON'S ITALIAN CAMPAIGN (1796-1797).--Straightway upon receiving his
command, Napoleon, now in his twenty-seventh year, animated by visions of
military glory to be gathered on the fields of Italy, hastened to join his
army at Nice. He found the discontented soldiers almost without food or
clothes. He at once aroused all their latent enthusiasm by one of those
short, stirring addresses for which he afterwards became so famous. Then
before the mountain roads were yet free from snow, he set his army in
motion, and forced the passage of the low Genoese, or Maritime Alps. The
Carthaginian had been surpassed. "Hannibal," exclaimed Napoleon, "crossed
the Alps; as for us, we have turned them." Now followed a most astonishing
series of French victories over the Austrians and their allies. As a
result of the campaign a considerable part of Northern Italy was formed
into a commonwealth under the name of the Cisalpine Republic. Genoa was
also transformed into the Ligurian Republic.
TREATY OF COMPO FORMIO (1797).--While Napoleon had been gaining his
surprising victories in Italy, Moreau and Jourdan had been meeting with
severe reverses in Germany, their invading columns having been forced back
upon the Rhine by the Archduke Charles. Napoleon, having effected the work
assigned to the army of Italy, now climbed the Eastern Alps, and led his
soldiers down upon the plains of Austria. The near approach of the French
to Vienna induced the emperor, Francis II., to listen to proposals of
peace. An armistice was agreed upon, and a few months afterwards the
important treaty of Campo Formio was arranged. By the terms of this treaty
Austria ceded her Belgian provinces to the French Republic, surrendered
important provinces on the west side of the Rhine, and acknowledged the
Cisalpine Republic.
With the treaty arranged, Napoleon set out for Paris, where a triumph and
ovation such as Europe had not seen since the days of the old Roman
conquerors, awaited him.
NAPOLEON'S CAMPAIGN IN EGYPT (1798-1799).--The Directors had received
Napoleon with apparent enthusiasm and affection; but at this very moment
they were disquieted by fears lest the conqueror's ambition might lead him
to play the part of a second Cæsar. They resolved to engage the young
commander in an enterprise which would take him out of France. This
undertaking was an attack upon England, which they were then meditating.
Bonaparte opposed the plan of a direct descent upon the island as
impracticable, declaring that England should be attacked through her
Eastern possessions. He presented a scheme very characteristic of his
bold, imaginative genius. This was nothing less than the conquest and
colonization of Egypt, by which means France would be able to control the
trade of the East, and cut England off from her East India possessions.
The Directors assented to the plan, and with feelings of relief saw
Napoleon embark from the port of Toulon to carry out the enterprise.
Escaping the vigilance of the British fleet that was patrolling the
Mediterranean, Napoleon landed in Egypt July 1, 1798. Within sight of the
Pyramids, the French army was checked in its march upon Cairo by a
determined stand of the renowned Mameluke cavalry. Napoleon animated the
spirits of his men for the inevitable fight by one of his happiest
speeches. One of the sentences is memorable: "Soldiers," he exclaimed,
pointing to the Pyramids, "forty centuries are looking down upon you." The
terrific struggle that followed is known in history as the "Battle of the
Pyramids." Napoleon gained a victory that opened the way for his advance.
The French now entered Cairo in triumph, and all Lower Egypt fell into
their hands.
Napoleon had barely made his entrance into Cairo, before the startling
intelligence was borne to him that his fleet had been destroyed in the bay
of Aboukir, at the mouth of the Nile, by the English admiral Nelson (Aug.
1, 1798).
In the spring of 1799, Napoleon led his army into Syria, the Porte having
joined a new coalition against France. He captured Gaza and Jaffa, and
finally invested Acre. The Turks were assisted in the defence of this
place by the distinguished English admiral, Sir Sidney Smith. [Footnote:
The besieged were further assisted by a Turkish army outside. With these
the French fought the noted Battle of Mount Tabor, in which they gained a
complete victory.] All of Napoleon's attempts to carry the place by storm
were defeated by the skill and bravery of the English commander. "That man
Sidney," said Napoleon afterwards, "made me miss my destiny." Doubtless
Napoleon's vision of conquests in the East embraced Persia and India. With
the ports of Syria secured, he would have imitated Alexander, and led his
soldiers to the foot of the Himalayas.
Bitterly disappointed, Napoleon abandoned the siege of Acre, and led his
army back into Egypt. There his worn and thinned ranks were attacked near
Aboukir by a fresh Turkish army, but the genius of Napoleon turned
threatened defeat into a brilliant victory. The enthusiastic Kleber, one
of Napoleon's lieutenants, clasping his general in his arms, exclaimed,
"Sire, your greatness is like that of the universe."
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TIBERINE, HELVETIC, AND PARTHENOPÆAN REPUBLICS.--We
must turn now to view affairs in Europe. The year 1798 was a favorable one
for the republican cause represented by the Revolution. During that year
and the opening month of the following one, the French set up three new
republics. First, they incited an insurrection at Rome, made a prisoner of
the Pope, and proclaimed the Roman, or Tiberine, Republic. Then they
invaded the Swiss cantons and united them into a commonwealth under the
name of the Helvetic Republic. A little later the French troops drove the
king of Naples out of his kingdom, and transformed that state into the
Parthenopæan Republic. Thus were three new republics added to the
commonwealths which the Revolution had already created.
THE REACTION: NAPOLEON OVERTHROWS THE DIRECTORY (18th and 19th Brumaire).
--Most of this work was quickly undone. Encouraged by the victory of
Nelson over the French fleet in the battle of the Nile, the leading states
of Europe had formed a new coalition against the French Republic. Early in
1779 the war began, and was waged in almost every part of Europe at the
same time. The campaign was on the whole extremely disastrous to the
French. They were driven out of Italy, and were barely able to keep the
allies off the soil of France. The Tiberine and the Parthenopæan Republics
were abolished.
The reverses suffered by the French armies caused the Directory to fall
into great disfavor. They were charged with having through jealousy exiled
Napoleon, the only man who could save the Republic. Confusion and division
prevailed everywhere. The royalists had become so strong and bold that
there was danger lest they should gain control of the government. On the
other hand, the threats of the Jacobins began to create apprehensions of
another Reign of Terror.
News of the desperate state of affairs at home reached Napoleon just after
his victory in Egypt, following his return from Syria. He instantly formed
a bold resolve. Confiding the command of the army in Egypt to Kleber, he
set sail for France, disclosing his designs in the significant words, "The
reign of the lawyers is over."
Napoleon was welcomed in France with the wildest enthusiasm. A great
majority of the people felt instinctively that the emergency demanded a
dictator. Some of the Directors joined with Napoleon in a plot to
overthrow the government. Meeting with opposition in the Council of Five
Hundred, Napoleon with a body of grenadiers drove the deputies from their
chamber (Nov. 9, 1799).
The French Revolution had at last brought forth its Cromwell. Napoleon was
master of France. The first French Republic was at an end, and what is
distinctively called the French Revolution was over. Now commences the
history of the Consulate and the First Empire,--the story of that
surprising career, the sun of which rose so brightly at Austerlitz and set
forever at Waterloo.