Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed ProofreadingTeam
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION FROM 1789 TO 1814
BY
F.A.M. MIGNET
INTRODUCTION
Of the great incidents of History, none has attracted more attention orproved more difficult of interpretation than the French Revolution. Theultimate significance of other striking events and their place in thedevelopment of mankind can be readily estimated. It is clear enough thatthe barbarian invasions marked the death of the classical world, alreadymortally wounded by the rise of Christianity. It is clear enough that theRenaissance emancipated the human intellect from the trammels of a bastardmediaevalism, that the Reformation consolidated the victory of the "newlearning" by including theology among the subjects of human debate. Butthe French Revolution seems to defy complete analysis. Its complexity wasgreat, its contradictions numerous and astounding. A movement ostensiblydirected against despotism culminated in the establishment of a despotismfar more complete than that which had been overthrown. The apostles ofliberty proscribed whole classes of their fellow-citizens, drenching ininnocent blood the land which they claimed to deliver from oppression. Theapostles of equality established a tyranny of horror, labouring toextirpate all who had committed the sin of being fortunate. The apostlesof fraternity carried fire and sword to the farthest confines of Europe,demanding that a continent should submit to the arbitrary dictation of asingle people. And of the Revolution were born the most rigid of moderncodes of law, that spirit of militarism which to-day has caused a world tomourn, that intolerance of intolerance which has armed anti-clericalpersecutions in all lands. Nor were the actors in the drama less variedthan the scenes enacted. The Revolution produced Mirabeau and Talleyrand,Robespierre and Napoleon, Sieyès and Hébert. The marshals of the FirstEmpire, the doctrinaires of the Restoration, the journalists of theOrleanist monarchy, all were alike the children of this generation ofstorm and stress, of high idealism and gross brutality, of changingfortunes and glory mingled with disaster.
To describe the whole character of a movement so complex, so diverse inits promises and fulfilment, so crowded with incident, so rich in action,may well be declared impossible. No sooner has some proposition beenapparently established, than a new aspect of the period is suddenlyrevealed, and all judgments have forthwith to be revised. That theRevolution was a great event is certain; all else seems to be uncertain.For some it is, as it was for Charles Fox, much the greatest of all eventsand much the best. For some it is, as it was for Burke, the accursedthing, the abomination of desolation. If its dark side alone be regarded,it oppresses the very soul of man. A king, guilty of little more thanamiable weakness and legitimate or pious affection; a queen whose gravestfault was but the frivolity of youth and beauty, was done to death. Forloyalty to her friends, Madame Roland died; for loving her husband,Lucille Desmoulins perished. The agents of the Terror spared neither agenor sex; neither the eminence of high attainment nor the insignificance ofdull mediocrity won mercy at their hands. The miserable Du Barri wasdragged from her obscure retreat to share the fate of a Malesherbes, aBailly, a Lavoisier. Robespierre was no more protected by his coldincorruptibility, than was Barnave by his eloquence, Hébert by hissensuality, Danton by his practical good sense. Nothing ava