THE
LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY, Sept.
Outlines and Refernces for European History
2. Mrs. Gardiner's compact little book is the best text-book
upon the French Revolution, and must be in the hands of the
class, each of whom will be expected to own also Number 3 of
Volume I, "European History from Contemporary Sources" (10
cents). For those who can give further study, Carlyle (the most
vivid picture), Taine (a great work, strongly anti-democratic),
and Stephens (by far the most trustworthy work), should be spec-
ially mentioned. Von Sybel is the only writer who does justice to
outside Europe. Bax gives the extreme socialist view. For the
Napoleonic Regime, Theirs' "Consulate and Empire" is the clear-
est and fullest account though sometimes ludicrously French, and
often inaccurate.
3. For France from 1815 to 1871 : One of the general works
answers all strict requirements, except for topics and for the '4-8
period. Van Laun gives a readable summary. Latimer is gos-
sipy, but unreliable. For the important period 184-8-52, see syl-
labus.
4. Wilson or Burgess (the more critical account) should be
used for present constitutions. Members of the class will be ex-
pected to own Wilson.
5. Recent problems must be hunted down in annual encyclo-
paedias and periodicals.
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I. FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
A. CLASSES.
1. An aristocracy privileged, wealthy, non-resident, scepti-
cal, corrupt and useless all in the "age of vanity"
140,000 nobles, 130,000 clergy (70,000 monks and
nuns).
2. A wealthy middle class (third estate) wanting elsewhere
in continental Europe.
Serf-like peasantry and proletariat 23,000,000.
a. Their misery.
1) Testimony of La Bruyere, in 1689. Cf. Lowell, chs.
13 and 14 for criticism of an extreme view.
2) A century of famine. Taine, "Ancient Regime," 386.
b. Causes of these conditions.
1 ) Peasantiy.
a) Extortionate taxation (50 to 80 per cent of
peasant's crop); exemptions of privileged class-
es; methods of collection ; indirect taxation; etc.
b) Feudal dues.
Irredeemable burdens on land.
Rights to justice fees, intestate's property.
Tolls roads, bridge, ferry, market, mill, oven.
Game laws.
2) Workingmen in the towns machinery, guilds, etc.
c. Improved condition, nevertheless, of the peasantry.
1) Practical abolition of personal serfdom.
2) Ownership of land. Tocqueville, bk. II. , ch. 1.
B. GOVERNMENT.
(Wilson, 176-95, and Tocqueville. )
1. Highty centralized.
Irresponsible king; appointed council ; comptroller general.
Thirty-six intendants for the thirty-six provinces.
Sub-delegates in each canton.
2. Powers and responsibility.
3. Appearance of complexity and partial checks from the
shadows of oid local and class jurisdictions.
(Pays d'etats and pays d 'election. )
4. "The good machine left to run itself. "
C. IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF REVOLUTION.
1. The revolution in French opinion from 1770 the philoso-
phersVoltaire and Rousseau a humanitarian aristoc-
rac\ r and a benevolent king.
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2. Influence of England. Buckle, I, 518-528.
3. Mismanagement of finances.
4. Long continued failures of harvests.
5. Lack of repression of disorders; attempts at reform which
incited to more rebellion.
D. REVOLUTION UNEXPECTED.
1. Old prophecies the cry of "wolf. "
2. The movement confounded at first with the other tenden-
cies toward reform by the enlightened nionarchs of the
century from which it is to be distinguished by its pop-
ular initiative and control.
3. A destructive revolution was not inevitable in the nature
of things, but resulted from the incapacity of the rulers
and nobility.
Taine: "Ancient Regime," especially pp. 13-85 and 329-402.
Van Laun: "French Revolutionary Epoch," 1-32. (A sum-
mary from Taine, chiefly, but less graphic and powerful. )
Tocqueville: "France Before the Revolution" ("The Old
Regime and the Revolution" is a translation of the same work
under another name) very excellent and judicial, especially bk.
II, chs. 1-6, 9 and 12.
Adams: "Democracy and Monarchy in France," 32-135.
Stephens; Kitchin; Morris; Lowell; Lecky, V; Gardiner;
Von Sybel; Buckle, chs. 8-14. ("If but one thing can be read on
the events introducing the Revolution, this (Buckle) should be
that one thing," said President White, some years ago. )
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/I. FRANCE-IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THE
REVOLUTION.
The influence of national bankruptcy ; the deficit the immediate
impulse to reform from the court side. "It is spiritual bank-
ruptcy long tolerated, now verging toward economic(al) Bank-
ruptcy, and become intolerable. " (Connection with the Amer-
ican war. )
CHIEF MINISTERS OF Louis XVI.
Turgot: despotic reforms; vastness and multiplicity of his
aims.
Necker: the American war.
Calonne: the Notables.
Brienne: the Parliaments.
(attempt of all sooner or later to introduce equal taxa-
tion).
Necker again, and the
A. STATES GENERAL (May 9, 1789).
Methods of election ; problems of organization double re-
presentation and individual voting. The NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
(Mirabeau and Sieyes). Court plan for coup cT etat defeated
by rising of Paris. The
FALL OF THE BASTILE. Sovereignty of the bourgeoisie (rep-
resented by the Assembly).
1. Spontaneous anarchy and spontaneous local organization.
a. Municipal governments from electoral colleges.
b. National guards.
2. National character of the movement. France now becomes
France fused in this Revolutionary furnace. All France,
not Paris alone, the revolutionary force.
3. This new national consciousness, despite isolated separatist
tendencies, leads a little later to the FEDERATION, July 14,
1790.
4. The various jacqueries.
5. The composition of the Assembly. Early reforms of the
Assembly at Versailles ;
a. the declaration of rights the fall of feudalism night
of Aug. 4, 1789;
b. the veto power.
6. Second court plot (or justifiable suspicion of one "O
Richard, my king! ") leads to The March of the Maenads
and the removal of the king and Assembly to Paris, Oct. 5,,
1789.
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a. 2nd and main flight of emigrants \ The Desertion
b. Secession of the Right / of the Nobility.
c. Increase of , popular influence over the Assembly
(shifting of parties).
1) The Clubs and Salons.
2) The Galleries and street mobs.
7. The Constitution.
Civil equality.
Extreme decentralization with an "orgie of elections"
(clergy, judges, and officers of the National guard).
Political power, by system of property qualifications and
indirect elections, in the hands of the bourgeoisie.
Abolition of privileges and titles equality before the law;
trial by jury; freedom of conscience; freedom of the
press; elective legislature with responsible government,
power of taxation, etc. ; suspensive veto.
A constitutional monarchy resting on local self-govern-
ment.
8. Mirabeau and his plans; his death, April 2, '91, and ac-
cession of influence to the "thirty-voices" (Robespierre).
9. The flight to Varennes,
a. Split of the patriots into Constitutional Monarchists
and Republicans.
b. "Massacre of the Champ du Mars. "
c. General conservative tendency of the closing days of
the Assembly.
General result, to be more clearly seen after the close of this
first Assembty. Not a revolution of government but a
dissolution of society; emergence of rascaldom, stupid-
ity, and fanaticism; society to be terrorized and ruled
by minorities until finally reconstructed by Napoleon.
B.
THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, Sept. '91-A. ug. '92.
1. Election. The conquest of the Jacobin clubs. Victory of
the "passive" citizens. Therule of minorities. (Terrorism
and lack of civic virtue).
2. The leading problems before the Assembly for the first
months.
a. The recusants.
b. The emigrants.
The royal vetoes.
3. WAR.
a. Declaration ; attitude of parties ; international re-
lations preceding the Padua letter and declaration
of Pilnitz; the plot of the emigrants at Coblentz;
royal vetoes paralyze national action.
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b. Influence upon internal politics :
1) The invasion ; the armed petition, June 20.
2) Brunswick's proclamation. Revolution of Aug.
10, and the first arrest of suspects.
3) Fall of Txmgwy and Verdun; the September
Massacres.
Under the Convention.
4) Defeat and treason of Dumouriez. Creation of
Committee of Public Safety and adoption of policy
of ''Terror. "
Further influence in financial and economic measures under
the Convention.
Still more important influence in spreading the Revolution;
it becomes a propaganda.
C. THE CONVENTION, '92-'95.
1. First Period.
a. The Republic and universal suffrage.
b. Split between Girondists and Jacobins.
c. The new Constitution of the Year I. (Paper) sus-
pended for
2. THE REIGN OF TERROR.
a. Organization.
Great Committee of Public Safety.
Subordinate committees.
Representatives on mission.
The Paris Commune.
b. Policy (atrocities) to secure
Military success.
Internal order.
c. The economic side ideals of the terrorists.
d. Constructive work (Stephens in Yale Rev. , Nov. '95).
e. Dissensions the factions devour each other.
D. THE DIRECTORY. Constitution of the Year III. A revolution
in favor of the middle classes.
E. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR VIII. The Consulate and
Napoleon.
F. RESULTS.
1. To France.
a. Political in national and local government.
b. Social and civil (the Code).
c. Religious (the Concordat) ultratn on tanism.
d. Economic the peasantry, land, trade.
2. To Europe at the time,
a. Political.
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b. Civil and economic.
The wars of the Republic and of Napoleon motives and
characteristics.
Q. LATER RESULTS.
We may note, to sum up, three chief principles of the Revolu-
tion.
1. Civil liberty.
2. Political liberty constructively, democracy ; destructively,
the abolition of monarchies by divine right; government
must be by as well as for the people.
3. Nationality, as opposed to the medieval idea of a State.
Napoleon, as the last of the benevolent despots, maintains
the first, temporarily suppresses the second, and tries to
use the third selfishly and deceitfully, but "finds it a
boomerang. "
Or: The French Revolution established the principles of
civil liberty, and prepared the way for the two great
movements of this century National Autonomy and
"Triumphant Democracy. "
"The history of the nineteenth century is precisely the history
of all the work the Revolution did leave. The Revolution was a
creating force, even more than a destroying one ; it was an inex-
haustible source of fertile influences; it not only cleared the ground
of the old society, but it manifested all the elements of the new so-
ciety. " FREDERIC HARRISON.
Note that the constructive influences could not be seen in
proper proportion until after 1848.
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? 111. FRANCE-THE THREE SUPPLEMENTARY REVOLU-
TIONS, 1830, 1848, 1870 FROM NAPOLEON THE
GREAT TO NAPOLEON THE LITTLE.
A. THE RESTORATIONS OF 1814 AND 1815.
1. The two treaties and the terms.
B. UNDER THE BOURBONS.
Louis XVIII and Charles X, 1815-30
1. The charter. Van Laun, II, 151-4 ; Fyffe, II, 14-16 ; Con-
temp. Sources; I, 3, for text.
2. Struggle of the reaction. Mueller, 90-101 ; Fyffe, II, 16-
19, 31-77, 356-48 ; Lodge, 657-60.
Reactionary elements the old clergy and returned etni-
grees ; their program ; Louis sides with the constitution-
alists until the rapid liberal gains and the unfortunate
assassination of the Due de Berry drive him into the
arms of the reactionists, 1820; progress of the contest
to Charles X's appointment of Polignac.
3. The Revolution of 1830. Fyffe, II, 368-81 ; Lodge, 660-
62 ; Mueller, 99-112 ; Van Laun, II, 267-86 ; Latimer,
14-33 ; Blanc.
a. The "July Ordinances. "
b. "The Three Days. "
c. Louis Philippe and Lafayette Republic or Monarchy f
d. Results abroad.
C. THE JULY MONARCHY (ORLEANS).
Fyffe, II, 414-18; Mueller, 186-201; Van Laun, II, 287-362;
Guizot's Louis Philippe ; Adams, 256-86 ; Lamartine's For-
ty-Eight; Latimer, 34-92; Michaud; St. Armand.
1. The "Citizen King. "
2. Constitutional changes ; the character of the Revolution ;
a "constitutional monarchy"; charter, slightly modified,
imposed upon the king; power in the hands of the mid-
dle classes.
3. Ministries and policies.
a. Succession of short ministries of virtual minorities,
1830-40.
b. Guizot, 1840-48 "Parliamentary government" a "cor-
rupt government by an incorruptible minister. "
4. Problems.
a. Foreign : the Eastern Question ; the Spanish marriage ;
South Sea Islands.
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b. Domestic: drift toward socialism (Louis Blanc); de-
mands for electoral reform and the removal of "place-
men. " Mill and Adams; St. Armand.
D. THE THIRD REVOLUTION.
1. The Year of Revolutions, 1848. Adams, 289-400; Lati-
mer, ch. V. ; Mill; Ely, and references for BGuizot and
Adams for one side ; Lamartine and Mill for the other.
a. The banquets and the ministry ; the barricades and the
national guard. (St. Armand for a full account. )
b. The Provisional Government.
1) Creation.
2) Composition (the Moderates Lamartine, and the
Reds Ledru Rollin, and the Socialists Louis
Blanc.
3) Its "Hundred Days. " Adams; Mill; Ely; Lamartine;
Poolers Index for many periodical articles; espe-
cially Frazer, 90: 437, and Dublin Review, 33: 134.
a) The national workshops the Paris mob.
b) Taxation.
c) Other decrees.
