254 



FRANCE. (HISTORY.) 



estates of the clergy, estimated at 3,000 millions, 

 national property ; the alteration of Uie former title 

 of king of France and Navarre into that of king of 

 the French; the establishment of clubs, among 

 which that of the Jacobins became the most power- 

 ful ; the adoption of the new constitution by the 

 king; the civil oath, " to be faithful to the nation, 

 the law, and the king, and to maintain the con- 

 stitution ;" the romantic celebration of the fete of 

 the federation on the Champ-de-Mars (July 14, 

 1790), were the principal events in the first act of 

 this great revolution. The fixing of the civil list for 

 the king (25,000,000 livers yearly) ; the conversion 

 of the royal domains and the ecclesiastical possessions 

 into national possessions ; the suppression of heredi- 

 tary rank and titles ; the confiscation of the con- 

 vents, and the grant of pensions to their tenants ; 

 the decree that the clergy should take the civil 

 oath; the erection of a supreme national court of 

 justice, to try the offence of treason against the 

 nation ; the abolishing of the taxes on leather, oil, 

 soap, starch, salt, and tobacco ; the removal of the 

 excise (douane) from the interior to the frontiers; the 

 establishment of the land tax, of licenses for car- 

 rying on trades, of the fees for stamps and records ; 

 and the creation of assignats, according to the 

 proposal of Mirabeau, these were the principal acts 

 of the national assembly in the first period. The 

 second act of this great drama begins with the de- 

 cree of the assembly, that the king should not remove 

 more than twenty leagues from Paris, and that, in 

 case he should leave the kingdom, and refuse to 

 return on the invitation of the assembly, he should 

 forfeit the throne. The burning of the pope in effigy, 

 at Paris, gave the signal for the revolution in religion, 

 and the club of the Cordeliers (the party of Marat, 

 Danton, &c.) inflamed the hatred of the king among 

 the people. Louis now fled from Paris ; but he was 

 brought back from Varennes (June 25, 1791). He 

 was hardly able to appease the irritated nation by 

 accepting, in the assembly (Sept. 14), the new con- 

 stitution of Sept. 3, 1791, by which he was declared 

 commander-in-chief of the army and navy, with a 

 cabinet of six ministers, to assist in the administration. 

 The constituent assembly separated (Sept. 30), and 

 was succeeded, October 1, 1791, by the legislative 

 assembly, after the members of the first had agreed 

 not to allow themselves to become members of the 

 second a circumstance to which very serious conse- 

 quences are ascribed. Meanwhile, the number of 

 emigrant nobility and clergy increased. Among 

 them were the brothers of the king, the counts of 

 Provence and of Artois, prince Conde, with his son 

 and grandson, the dukes of Bourbon and of Enghien, 

 and the marshal Broglio. They assembled French 

 troops of the line at Coblentz and Worms, and were 

 joined by several German princes (Wurtemberg, 

 Deuxponts, Baden, Darmstadt, and Spires), whose 

 dominions in the French territory of the empire had 

 been incorporated with France in the new organization, 

 and were not restored, notwithstanding the interces- 

 sion of the emperor, and the declaration of the diet, 

 that this measure was a violation of the peace. 

 France, however, offered to make compensation. 

 The fear of the example of France, of the influence 

 which its enthusiasm for liberty and equality, and the 

 activity of the Jacobins, might have on other nations, 

 and the sympathy of the other sovereigns in the fate 

 of Louis XVI., led to the project of saving the 

 Bourbons, and extinguishing^ flame which threatened 

 the general conflagration of existing institutions, by 

 an armed interference. The declaration of Pilnilz, 

 by Austria and Prussia (August 27, 1791), to the 

 brothers of the king, was only general and condi- 

 tional The assembly proclaimed its peaceable in- 



tentions, and declared that France would never 

 undertake a war of conquest. This only increased 

 the hatred of the nobles and the cabinets against the 

 new order of things in France. Louis's declaration 

 to the foreign powers, that he had freely accepted 

 the constitution, was of no avail. Russia and Sweden 

 entered into an alliance (Oct. 19, 1791) for the resto. 

 ration of the emigrant princes. In vain Louis wrote 

 to recall his brothers, and issued decrees against the 

 emigrants ; they continued their levies of royalist 

 corps, under the protection of the German princes 

 and of Russia. When the alliance of Austria and 

 Prussia (concluded at Berlin, February 7, 1792) was 

 known in Paris, the war party gained the ascendancy 

 in the legislative assembly, and war was declared 

 against the king of Hungary and Bohemia, (April 

 20, 1792), on the motion of Dumouriez, minister of 

 war. July 14, 1792, Russia joined the coalition 

 against France, to which Hesse and Sardinia had 

 already acceded, and the German empire became a 

 party to the same in the year 1793. During this 

 war, the Jacobins gained strength in Paris. They 

 meditated the overthrow of the throne ; their influ- 

 ence predominated in the assembly; their attack on 

 the Tuileries (Aug. 10) decided the victory in favour 

 of the democracy. (See Petion.) The unfortunate 

 Louis was suspended by the assembly, as a traitor to 

 the country, and imprisoned, with his family, in the 

 Temple. The popular fury was raised to the highest 

 pitch, when it was known that the Prussians had 

 penetrated into France, and that Lafayette had left 

 the army. It began to be suggested that the most 

 dangerous enemies of liberty were in the capital 

 itself. Hence the bloody >2d and 3d September, 1792 

 (similar to the day of the Armagnacs, June 12, 1418), 

 in which a band of human tigers massacred several 

 thousand prisoners. At Rheims and other places, 

 similar scenes of horror occurred. The oath of the 

 assembly (Sept. 4), "swearing hatred to kings and 

 royalty, and that no foreign power should ever be 

 suffered to dictate laws to the French," was followed 

 by the decree of the national convention, which took 

 the place of the second national assembly, Sept. 20, 

 1792, declaring the abolition of royalty (Sept. 21), 

 and the French republic one and indivisible (Sept. 

 28). With the.former day began the new republican 

 computation of time terminated by Napoleon, Jan. 1, 

 1806. 



2. The History of the French Republic till the 

 Establishment of the Empire (Sept. 21, 1792 May 

 18, 1804). The birth of the republic was ushered in 

 with news of victory. Custine had taken Mentz ; the 

 enemies had been compelled to leave the territory of 

 France. Dumouriez had conquered at Jemappe. 

 The convention declared itself henceforward ready 

 " to assist all nations desirous of recovering their 

 liberty," by promising the suppression of feudal ser- 

 vices in all countries occupied by French troops. At 

 the same time, it decreed the penalty of deatli against 

 all emigrants taken with arms in their hands, and 

 condemned Louis XVI. The majority in the con- 

 vention was overawed by the furious populace, who 

 demanded the head of the king; and war was de- 

 clared against the kings (not the people) of England 

 and Spain, and the hereditary stadtholder of Holland. 

 (See Brissot.) Tims the empire, Britain, Prussia, 

 Spain, Holland, Portugal, Naples, Tuscany, Sardinia, 

 and the pope formed 'a coalition against the republic, 

 which was acknowledged by Venice alone. To 

 foreign war was added the civil war of La Vende'e, 

 which rose to avenge the death of the king. The 

 republic seemed to be lost, and armed itself with the 

 weapons of terror and despair. The Mountain over- 

 threw the moderate party, the Girondists (q. v.),who, 

 there is little doubt, would not have been able to 



