FRENCH REVOLUTION 



3344 



FRENCH REVOLUTION 



his life, and mounting the tricolour 

 cockade. Popular hostility, how- 

 ever, was directed not against him 

 but against the arrogance and the 

 privileges of the noblesse. These,the 

 enthusiasts declared, were at the 

 root of the woes of France ; and 

 on Aug. 4 the National Assembly 

 decreed the abolition of the whole 

 mass of the obnoxious privileges ; 

 after which it set about formulating 

 a constitution, taking to itself the 

 title of the Constituent Assembly. 



While the Assembly continued 

 its work of wholesale abolition and 

 wholesale reconstruction, the king 

 was kept virtually a prisoner in 

 Paris ; numbers of the nobility 

 were fleeing or had already fled 

 into a voluntary exile in the hope 

 of eventually recovering their lost 

 privileges by force ; and outside the 

 Assembly was organized the politi- 

 cal association of reformers known 

 as the Jacobin Club, which derived 

 its name from its meeting place, 

 the Dominican or Jacobin convent 

 of the Rue S. Jacques. The club, 

 affiliating to itself similar clubs all 

 over the country, became a great 

 political power. 



Death of Mirabeau 



It is conceivable that Mirabeau, 

 if the court party had placed itself 

 unreservedly in his hands, might 

 have succeeded in effecting a re- 

 construction combining a monar- 

 chical executive with a democratic 

 legislature, capable of providing a 

 strong government with popular 

 sympathies; but the court party 

 had few ideas apart from striving 

 to paralyse the activities of the 

 Assembly, in which they were 

 aided by the extremists of the 

 other wing. The last chance, such 

 as it was, perished with the death 

 of Mirabeau on April 2, 1791. The 

 king, finding himself helpless, 

 resolved upon flight. He attempted 

 to execute the design (June), but 

 was detected and stopped at 

 Varennes as he was nearing the 

 frontier, and was brought back. 



The flight to Varennes and the 

 documents which Louis had left 

 behind made it clear that the king 

 was antagonistic to the constitu- 

 tion which had been designed, also 

 that it was probable he would seek 

 to evade it or overturn it. There 

 was more than excuse for the 

 suspicion that he and his wife, 

 Marie Antoinette, if they had 

 crossed the border, intended to 

 appeal to the crowned heads of 

 Europe and more particularly to 

 the queen's brother, the emperor 

 Leopold II. The emigres, the fugi- 

 tive noblesse, notable among whom 

 was the king's brother, the count 

 of Artois (afterwards Charles X), 

 were already clamouring for armed 

 intervention from abroad. 



Leopold, in conjunction with the 

 king of Prussia, issued the declara- 

 tion of Pilnitz a warning that the 

 Powers could not recognize the 

 existing French government until 

 the reinstatement of the king, and 

 threatening intervention should 

 the Powers be unanimous a per- 

 fectly safe threat, since Leopold 

 knew that the Powers would not 

 be unanimous. On the other hand, 

 the declaration was calculated to 

 silence the emigres. 



The Legislative Assembly 



Meanwhile in France the more 

 advanced democrats were calling 

 for the deposition of the king, even 

 for the declaration of a republic. 

 Moderates like Lafayette, men 

 who two years before had been 

 regarded as the leaders of the 

 advance guard, rallied to the 

 monarchy and urged on the king 

 the adoption of the constitution 

 promulgated by the Assembly. 

 His acceptance reinstated him as 

 king, with limited powers. The 

 constitution provided for the 

 appointment of a new Legislative 

 Assembly in which all members of 

 the* National Assembly were pro- 

 hibited from sitting. 



The members of the National 

 Assembly had at least attained 

 some experience of administrative 

 functions ; the members of the 

 new Legislative Assembly were 

 without experience at all, and 

 were for the most part doctrinaire 

 republicans. On the reinstate- 

 ment of the monarchy the declara- 

 tion of Pilnitz was withdrawn. 

 But it had had a fatal effect upon 

 which Leopold had not calculated. 

 Its subtle intention was mis- 

 understood in France, and it was 

 regarded simply as an insolent 

 attempt on the part of foreign 

 Powers to dictate to France on a 

 domestic question with which they 

 had no concern. 



In the Assembly there were three 

 main groups besides the infinitesi- 

 mal sprinkling of thorough -going 

 royalists : the Feuillants or Con- 

 stitutionalists, the Girondins, who 

 came from the department of the 

 Gironde and may be described as 

 literary republicans ; and the ultra- 

 democrats, now identified with the 

 Jacobins. The Feuillants and the 

 Girondins were both disposed to 

 adopt a highly aggressive attitude 

 towards the foreign Powers and 

 the emigres. Louis found himself 

 forced to discard his royalist 

 ministers and put Girondins in 

 their places. Though the Jacobins 

 held aloof, for which the leaders 

 outside, Danton and Robespierre 

 and Marat, had their own reasons, 

 Louis was compelled to declare 

 war upon Austria at the moment 

 when the emperor Leopold died 



and was succeeded by Francis II 

 (March, 1792). 



Dumouriez, the new war minis- 

 ter, had again developed Louis 

 XIV's conception that the borders 

 of France should be extended to her 

 " natural boundaries," the Rhine, 

 the Alps, and the Pyrenees. 

 Patriots hastened to join the as yet 

 ill -organized armies OTI the frontiers. 

 Ill-success was attributed to the 

 aristocratic officers. Riots broke 

 out in Paris, the mob invaded the 

 Tuileries and insulted the king and 

 the royal family. Prussia declared 

 war in alliance with Austria it 

 must be remembered that at this 

 time the Netherlands belonged to 

 Austria, and the modern Belgian 

 frontier was then the Austro- 

 French frontier. The duke of 

 Brunswick, on behalf of Prussia, 

 issued a threatening manifesto 

 which filled Paris with wrath. The 

 Jacobins had captured the Com- 

 mune (the government of Paris), 

 and virtually dominated the Legis- 

 lative Assembly. 



The Victory of Valmy 



The prisons were crowded with 

 suspects, persons supposed to be 

 under suspicion of collusion with 

 the emigres. The advance of the 

 Prussians created a panic; there 

 was a widespread belief that there 

 was a royalist plot for a royalist 

 insurrection in Paris. The Com- 

 mune organized a visitation of the 

 prisons, and in the September 

 Massacres hundreds of captives 

 were slaughtered. Simultaneously 

 came the news that the Prussians 

 had been checked in an engage- 

 ment at Valmy. From that time 

 the armies of the Republic habitu- 

 ally proved themselves more than 

 a match for then- enemies. 



With the close of Sept. the 

 Legislative Assembly gave way to 

 a new National Convention, part 

 Girondist, part Jacobin, and alto- 

 gether Republican. It proceeded 

 at once to declare that the monar- 

 chy was abolished and a Repub- 

 lic established, and all populations 

 in districts occupied by French 

 troops were proclaimed freed from 

 the monarchies under which they 

 were supposed to have groaned. 

 The French Republic had assumed 

 the character of an aggressive 

 champion of the Liberty which it 

 was determined to impose upon the 

 peoples of Europe in a general war 

 against monarchy. It clinched its 

 position by repudiating treaties, 

 finally challenging England by 

 declaring the opening of the navi- 

 gation of the Schelde and by 

 throwing down the head of a king 

 as its gage of battle to the kings of 

 Europe. Louis was brought to a 

 sort of trial, and was beheaded 

 Jan. 21, 1793. 



