300 POLITICS 



istic doctrines which that revolution propounded were then wholly 

 new to mankind. They were, moreover, then set forth in almost 

 the very form now familiar to all civilized men. The " Agreement 

 of the People," issued in the name of the Commonwealth army and 

 dated January 15, 1649, clearly enunciates that sovereignty resides 

 in the people. It would have placed supreme legislative power in 

 a representative assembly elected for a limited term, given equal 

 voting privileges to all payers of taxes, established religious freedom, 

 and separated church from state. Even the idea wrought into our 

 governmental system, of limiting the legislature's function by cer- 

 tain vital principles fixed beforehand in a constitution, is clearly 

 embodied in that Agreement. 



That Agreement of 1649 and the debates and struggles by which 

 men sought to give it effect furnished Locke and Algernon Sidney 

 their alphabet and their inspiration, which they in turn passed on to 

 Rousseau and to the American revolutionists. 



While all this is to be admitted, still Guizot's remark that every 

 characteristic element of modern civilization has been mediated to 

 the world through France is substantially true of democratic gov- 

 ernment as it has come to be practiced. It is the product of the 

 French Revolution. 



Whatever opinion may be held of its character in other respects, 

 no one can question the importance of that revolution in shaping 

 political ideas and affairs since. Description and discussion in fact 

 hardly hint at the radical, pervasive, and lasting changes which the 

 revolutionary movement effected in the political condition of Europe, 

 not a single element of which escaped positive influence therefrom. 



The main significance of the revolution does not lie in the facts 

 that France, from a condition of abject weakness, making her the 

 scorn of Europe, suddenly rose up, changed her form of government, 

 and in a few years forced a continent to her feet, her empire surpass- 

 ing Charlemagne's in size and recalling that of Augustus; it resides 

 rather in the irresistible will first revealed in all this against monarch- 

 ical, feudal, and ecclesiastical oppression and unreason, " organic 

 torpor," a decayed, inefficient, and inexpressibly burdensome public 

 system. The cause of these brilliant deeds was passion for a rational 

 public order, educated and developed by a series of French writers 

 and fired to frenzy by Bourbon tyranny, stupidity, and immorality. 



Pressed by his Minister to attend to affairs of state, Louis XV 

 would retort, " Bah, the crazy old machine will last out my time, 

 and my successors must look out for themselves." 



"Unhappy man" you are hearing Cariyle "there as thou 

 turnest in dull agony on thy bed of weariness, what a thought is 

 thine! Purgatory and hell-fire, now all too possible in the prospect; 

 in the retrospect, alas, what thing didst thou do that were not 



