Wi; mm Ai Ai o| 01 1 1 3! 81 9[ 4I 4\ 51 6 ■ w^. zSi^i irr^ ^.-w^ ■^'.^^' \ Laurence Gronlund's Works. THE CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH. An Exposition of Socialism. Clotti, $1.0a Paper $.50 OUR DESTINY. The Influence of Socialism on Morals and Religion. Cloth, $1.00. Paper . $.50 C A IRA I Danton in the French Revolution. Cloth, $1.00. Paper $.50 Lee AND Shepard - Publishers Boston. gA IRA! OR DANTON IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION BY LAURENCE GRONLUND, A.M. AUTHOR OF "the CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH." " The Revohdion — call it good or bad As you yearn towards the Future or the Past." Victor Hugo. BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1887, By lee and SHEPARD. All rights reserved. DEDICATED Co the Earnest Jflinority WHO ARE WAITING AND WORKING FOR QEfje 'Htia Social ©rber. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. PAGR A Key to the French Revolution i CHAPTER I. The Rising Generation 7 Liberty and Law. — The Drama of History. — The "Sa- cred Torch" passes from England to France. — The Revolution made by Books. — Danton's Youth. — June 17. — "Ca iraI" CHAPTER II. The Middle-class Regime 37 The Counter-Revolution. — August 4. — The Constitu- tion OF '91. — Danton the First Republican. — The Doings of the French Bourgeoisie. CHAPTER IIL The Counter-Revolution Crushed 70 Conspiracy. — August 10. — Invasion. — September Mas- sacres.— War of Propaganda. — Louis'. Head "a Gage OF Battle." CHAPTER IV. Energy of the Year i loi Revolutionary Tribunal. — Committee of Public Wel- fare. — May 31. — Danton as Statesman. — Absolute Government. — Levy en Masse. — Danton's Resignation. — La Carmagnole. vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE Fraternity of the Jacobins 140 Constitution of '93. — The Maximum. — A Poor-Law. — Down with Speculators! — Education. — The Civil Code. — A Great Wrong. — " Private Enterprise" in- dispensable. CHAPTER VI. Terror • 176 HfeBERTisM.— Pity. — April 5. — Danton disinterested. — Dans le Neant, " Nothingness" (?) — The Incorrupti- ble.—" MonsieurI" CHAPTER Vn. The Present Transition State 213 Plutocrats again in Power. — i8th Brumaire. — "Thou hast been Weighed and found Wanting." — Present Tendencies of Societies. — In Proportion as the Men- tal Preparation is Complete, will the Coming Revo- lution BE Easy. — "God wills it." INTRODUCTION. A KEY TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. " Tlie Revohttioti — call it good or bad As you yearn toward the Future or the Past." — Victor Hugo. ALL thoughtful people look forward to great changes in the near future, and many think that some catastrophe like that of the French Revolution is impending in all civilized countries. I feel confident that the young, who stand on the threshold of these events, can forestall the threatened catastrophe by assisting in the birth of a new social order. It is, therefore, you, young men and women ! whom I especially hope to influence in these pages ; whom I desire, not by cleverness, not by briUiancy, but by intense earnestness, to inspire with a new sense of duty, with the conviction of a call to interfere actively in the moulding of events. Such is the intent of this volume. This work, perhaps, will be found, also, to be novel in this : that it presents to you the great French Revolution from a point of view from which it never before has been surveyed in print ; not so much that it may serve as an example or a warning (though that also), but that it may be seen to have been a preparation for the work which should be performed by you. All historians, m the English language at least, have presented the Revolution as a panorama of kaleidoscopic INTRODUCTION. pictures, and thereby made it simply a perplexing and puz- zling subject. Such pictures are altogether unprofitable to us in our generation, since they necessarily leave the crisis an in- comprehensible, an unexplained phenomenon. Even in that form it may confidently be said that no portion of history has had such a fascination for all classes of readers as the short period of French annals from 1 789 to 1 794 ; but how much greater would the interest be, especially when its centennial comes round, and the centennial of that wonderful year 1793, if we could once understand \\. ! However, mere history or simple story-telling cannot pos- sibly explain it : historic philosophy is indispensable to that. Great Britain possesses an historic philosopher of the first rank in John Morley, who also has written most profoundly and lucidly about the French Revolution, and impartially as well. But even he has not at all explained it ; he has in no sense given us a key to it. At the beginning of his interesting work, Rousseau, we meet with these words con- cerning the French Revolution : " That revolutionary drama, whose fifth act is still dark to us ; " and nowhere does he pretend to lift the veil. If, then, the " fifth act " is hidden from him in darkness, if he has no idea at all as to the out- come, how could he explain it ? How could he judge of the forces at work during the crisis? Some hypothesis or other in regard to the future must be the key we are looking for. It, however, is a great thing in Morley, that he sees something is yet coming. Other writers, even great ones, have not had an inkling that there was such a thing as a " fifth act " at all. There is, for instance, Edgar Quinet, beyond question a most considerable French philosopher, whose masterpiece is a work entitled La Revolution, in which he considers the Revolution as an episode in French history of ten years' duration ; as a kind of comet that sud- THE POSITIVIST HYPOTHESIS. denly entered the path of history in i 789, and as suddenly left it in 1 799, and which might have procured incidentally for the French such blessings as the American Revolution procured for us. But there is a sect of philosophers who have gone to work in the right way, who have framed an hypothesis of the future, and attempted to explain the French Revolution by such hypothesis : the Positivists, the disciples of Auguste Comte. The French representatives of that school — M. Lafitte, Dr. Robinet, and Antonin Dubost in his Danton and Contemporary Politics — are aware of a "fifth act." They insist that the conflict of forces during the Revolution and in modern society will result in a civilization where the whole political and industrial power of the community will be lodged in the hands of great chiefs of industry, great capitalists, who, by an organized public opinion, — that is, by a spiritual authority working by public opinion, — will be compelled to apply their power and wealth to social uses, and thus finally do away with misery and pauperism. This method is undoubtedly, as said, the only right one, and a profoundly philosophical one, and their hypothesis is a definite enough conception and a working hypothesis. But is it correct ? that is to say, is it at all likely that they have guessed right as to the future social order? There is cer- tainly not the least evidence that our great capitalists are becoming more and more inclined to use their increasing power for the social good, and, moreover, no evidence at all, that such a spiritual authority is going to assert itself; in other words, that any new edition of the Catholic hierarchy of the Middle Ages is being evolved or will be accepted. Nevertheless, this Positivist hypothesis has been very fruitful. Here, as elsewhere, an incorrect hypothesis has been instrumental in disclosing many new facts and rela- tions. INTRODUCTION. There have been and arc, however, other thoughtful men, who, speculating upon the consequences of the French Revolution, and listening to the footfalls of coming events, have formed another equally well working hypothesis as to their nature, and as to the new social order which they will inaugurate. I have in another volume ' assumed to sketch, in its broad outlines, this future social order to which, I, with them, look forward, and which I have styled " The Co-operative Commonwealth." It is this hypothesis I here purpose for the first time to use, so to speak, as spectacles through which to look at the French Revolution ; in other words, I assume the co-operative commonwealth to be, if not the final, at least the next, stage in the evolution of human societies, and shall try to explain the French Revo- lution by considering it as a most important step toward that stage. I believe I shall convince many of my readers of the cor- rectness of my hypothesis, from its ability to account for all phenomena. And if it is the true one, then the French Revolution will necessarily become invested with a new interest, with a persojial interest, for us, for it will thereby become a part of our history. Its relation to us will then be reversed. As hitherto it has been looked upon as a curiosity to be explained, so now it will be used to explain our own situation. It will not only become an example or a warning to us, but a guide that will teach us, not to pre- vent revolutions, for that would be to prevent progress, but how to prepare for our Coming Revolution, and how to carry it through in an orderly manner. And Danton? It is evident from the above that mj object has not been to write his biography ; that my object • The Co-operative Commaniuealth, published by Swan Sonnenschein, London, Eiig., and Lcc and Shepard, Boston, Mass. TYPICAL FRENCH REVOLUTIONIST. 5 has been a much wider one. Yet to describe and discuss the events of the French Revolution is necessarily to dis- cuss the work of Danton, since it fills a greater part of the French annals during the five fire-breathing years than the work of all his contemporaries combined. It ought, how- ever, to be distinctly understood what he did and what he did not do. He did not make the Revolution. No one did. It made itself in the minds of the twenty-five million Frenchmen then existing, Danton's included. But even here he may be taken as the very embodiment of the Revo- lution, and better than any one else as the typical French revolutionist of those days. Perhaps he also contributed more than any one else, not excepting Mirabeau, to remove the stumbling-blocks in the way of the Revolution. But while he did not make the Revolution, he more than once saved it. He was, indeed, as Carlyle called him, the Atlas who in the most critical period carried the Revolution on his shoulders. Moreover, being a more constructive genius than any ot his contemporaries, he laid the right foundation for the future ; and his policy should have the credit for nearly all the good his successors accomplished, as it would have saved France from all the subsequent penal- ties she has had to pay, had it been constantly pursued. Next, Danton the monster, Danton as nearly all our historians paint him, is purely a creation of the imagination. It is the French Positivists above mentioned who at last have rehabilitated him, and presented him in his true pro- portions. That Danton, as a niaa and citizen, was pure, was an heroic character, is now abundantly proved by the great mass of new material which these Positivist philoso- phers, as well as Alfred Bougeart, have collected during the last twenty-five years, but which no one, I believe, has trans- lated into English as yet. Indeed, his principal defect, one that cost France dearly, was his perfect lack of ambition. INTRODUCTION. Tlie principal lessons whicli this volume will draw from the French Revolution, in the way of example and warning, are, that I )anton was a true instrument in the hands of the Power behind Evolution, and just the kind of leader we in our generation should encourage ; that, on the other hand, good intentions alone avail nothing in popular leaders, and that therefore we should, 7cnih all our mighf, repress our Robespierres, Heberts, and Marafs. The words ^a ira are of American origin. Benjamin Franklin, while ambassador to the court of France during the American Revolution, was constantly questioned about the war with England. His usual answer was, " Ah, qa ira!^^ (" Oh, it goes ! ") This gave rise to the first revo- lutionary song, jubilantly chanted by all patriots on the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, and commencing, — "/i//, fa ira! fa ira! (a ira!" In describing the doings of the French bourgeoisie, from the moment they acquired influence, I have made consid- erable use of that most interesting work, Lundis Revolu- tionnaires, by M. Avenel. CA IRA; DANTON IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. CHAPTER I. THE RISING GENERATION. 1748-1789. " The interest of historic study lies in tracing the devious course of the sacred torch, as it shifts from bearer to bearer. It is not the bearers -who are most interesting, but the torch." — John Morlev. Liberty and Law. — The Drama of History. — The "Sacred Torch" passes from England to France. —The Revolution MADE BY Books. — Danton's Youth. — June 17. — "Ca ira!" WAS the French Revolution a failure ? Our most eminent historians affirm it. First, there is Sir Archibald Alison, who, in his celebrated History of Europe, declares that the French Revolution, "the most impassioned effort ever made for the attainment of public freedom,'' has failed, and failed not only for a time, but forever. Then there is the not less eminent William Smyth, late professor of history at Cambridge, who, in his published and widely read Lectures, lays repeated stress on the "fact" that the French Revolution did not succeed, and on " the great calamity that the cause of liberty was thus, on the whole, lost.'' These two authorities, not to si:)eak of lesser 7 8 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748- lights, ha\e furnished vast numbers of lazy-thinking people with whatever oi)inions they have of the French Revolution. 1 contend that this view is a huge blunder ; if it is, it vitiates all their other conclusions, of course. I insist that the French Revolution was and is a grand success, a most signai success : the dominant class in France to-day would hardly be so proud of " the principles of the Revolution," and be preparing to celebrate its centennial with imposing pageants, were it not ; nor, to be sure, would it pulsate in the heart of all Frenchmen of to-day, whether they curse or bless it. How account for the blunder? In the case of the above " authorities " that is easy enough. They are simply historians, — story-tellers ; and, moreover, story-tellers who have looked only at the surface of things. Note how they talk of "liberty" and "public freedom." That, to be sure, was what the actors in the French Revolu- tion talked about ; the word " liberty," meaning " absence of restraints," w^as constantly in their mouths, and, I grant, in the mouth of no one more than my hero, Danton. Our superficial historians, then, have contented themselves with taking the revolutionists on their word, and have concluded that Liberty was, in truth, the end and aim of tlie French Revolution ; and, since Liberty was finally crippled, there- fore the Revolution failed. It is, however, not historians alone who fall into this error ; even philosophers, — ay, the great French philosopher Edgar Quinet has fallen into it. He dwells on the motto of the revolutionists : ^tre libre, ou mourir (" To be free, or die "), and regrets that they who knew so well how to die, did not know how to conquer freedom. Well, Frenchmen of a century ago had very good reasons for being preoccupied widi Liberty. They were dominated by these two sentiments, — a violent discontent with their i78g.] LIBERTY AND LAW. 9 actual condition, and ardent hopefulness as to the future. Liberty, then, was for the time being their most pressing need, for it was the indispensable means to get out of their condition. This need was, with them, instinctive. These revolutionists, even the greatest among them, were really Wind actors, guided by instinct. No wonder they mistook Liberty for an end, and virtually made an idol of it. Yet Liberty, after all, did in their hands prove a most excellent instrument, and by the help of it they accomplished what they had to accomplish. But it is inexcusable that any thoughtful person in our generation should, with the experience and teachers we have had, still be making an idol of Liberty, and not yet know that absence of restraints is valuable only as a tneans, never as an end. Never ! When Liberty is made an end, it always and necessarily defeats itself; that is to say, when citizens are unrestrained, completely " at liberty," they always will, if able, encroach upon their fellows, and monopolize all power. However virtuous, in the long run they will always do it : it is human nature. In truth, this is the lesson which Carlyle and Emerson have so unceasingly been trying to inculcate, — that Liberty in that sense is a very poor thing indeed. And that noble man, Mazzini, likewise insisted continually upon this : that Liberty, though " holy as a protest against oppression," and powerful to destroy, is yet impotent to found any thing. No, liberty was not the true object aimed at by the French Revolution, nor was it its sanction. Something else was, — something very different ; something not pertaining to the individual at all, but above all individuals. To bring out this fact, is precisely the main purpose of this book, and will throughout give it its tone. First of all, we must reduce the French Revolution to its true proportions. Here, also, the revolutionary actors de- lO THE RISIXG G EXE RATI OX. [1748- ccived themselves. They foncied lliat their nation had suddenly jumped for ahead of its contemporaries, and, from its own all-conquering initiative, was about to inaugurate a brand-new state of society, something of which the outside barbarians could never so much as dream. That patriotic Frenchmen even now are possessed with the same idea, may be excused ; but when our historians, and especially philosophers, still look on the Revolution as an event si/i geneiis, as an isolated fact in history, that again is a mark of superficiality. Here the profoundness of an historic philosopher like John Morley manifests itself. On the first page of liis Rousseau he places side by side the series of remarkable changes of the first centuries of our era, and the similar series of the last two centuries ; to the former he gives the generic name of " Christianity," and to the latter, /'// tvhicli he includes the French ci'isis, that of " the Revolution." By the way, Gladstone once maintained that the English way of saying " the English Revolution," " the American Revolution," or " the French Revolution," is the correct one, and contrasted it with " the loose Continental usage " of speaking, as Morley does, of " the Revolution." The European usage, though certainly liable to misapprehension, is, it seems to me, really a profound form of speech. For I insist, with Morley, that the French Revolution, far frcmi being a unique phenomenon, as thought by the revolu- tionary actors, is, in truth, an integral part of that set of social changes which was first successfully started by. Luther in Germany, — changes that have involved the whole of ^Vestern Europe, and in whose vortex we still find ourselves at this day. The French Revolution was simply a pai-tial and local manifestation of these changes ; in other words, // was the application of this series of changes to France, primarily, and to this is precisely due its success. 1789.] LIBERTY AND LAW. II That is what the rcvoUitionary actors did. They effected tliis ehair^e in France ; they did it in a most effective, in a startHngly effective, manner. That was their merit, and thereby they placed France for a time in advance of our race ; but they did it unconsciously, instinctively. They did not know the import of their own doings, because they ignored, even despised, their whole previous history. Yet, in order to understand these changes, it is necessary to understand history ; not the history of kings, their mis- tresses and their intrigues, or of any individual or individuals soever, but the history of the collective life of humanity, in which each of us has his proper life. History concerns itself properly with the race, which has as rigid a unity as any of its individual members ; with society, which is the guardian of our destiny as a race, and which is not an empirical necessity, but a living, organizing force. History is the instinctive effort of the common, associated, mind of the race to come to self-consciousness, to put on form, to realize its own majestic unity. And so the main purpose of history is, to bring man to a proper acquaintance 7vith himself. ^\'hen man thus comes to a proper acquaintance with himself, to real self-consciousness, he cannot help becoming aware of a something animating humanity, and directing the march of the race. Human events cannot possibly be " the fortuitous vagaries of an eyeless destiny." The idea that they were the inscrutable decrees of an ///human Provi- dence, of a lordly, capricious, law/ess despot, which was cur- rent for centuries, is not tenable any longer. The tendency seems to be, to consider them the ceaseless efflux of a helpful Presence in Humanity working by law, — the " sacred torch " of Morley, the God of Christians, the Power behind Evolu- tion I like to call it ; and history then becomes a true dramn, plotted by that Power, This, after all, is the only sane foundation for any hope in our social future. It 12 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748- was in this connection, as already remarked by Henry James, sen., that Carlyle sliowcd himself weak. He main- tained that there is a Supreme Spirit in human affairs, but never dreamt of that truth having any human virtue, being of any living efficacy to help us ; hence he called it " the Eternal Silences," and rather pitied those who believed in its effective power to guide us. The drama of history, then, means that human affairs are directed by something superior to ourselves, superior to soci- ety itself; that7£^^ at-e ahvays liviiigtimkr law, under author- ity, under a moral government, recognized or unrecognized. The French revolutionists, also, were, unknown to themselves, obeying this authority ; authority was the sanction of the French Revolution, which in the last resort was successful, because the expression of this Supreme Will. And, as it so happens that just now we have become en- abled, as we shall see, to interpret history correctly, we now can conform to this moral government of the world, and co- operate with it. Louis Blanc thought that human progress is from authority in the past, through individualism in the pres- ent, to fraternity in the future. But authority and fraternity are not antagonistic ; therefore it is more correct to say, from absolutism in the past (a human authority, now seen to have been a sham authority), through present individualism, to a real, riglitftil aiitliority, whatever it be, based on the verities of things. Liberty, based on the " rights " of the individ- ual, is undoui^tedly at times a sacred thing, but, after all, Ijut a temporary necessity. Mazzini undoubtedly is riglit : " What the world is at present thirsting for is authority.'' \Ve all of us, without any exception whatever, want to be guided. * « * In what did this set of changes consist? We are now able to answer this (juestion, — in other words, 1789.1 THE DRAMA OF HISTORY. 13 able to unravel tlic plot of the drama of history, — because we lately have been furnished with the right key. Men have at all times had a suspicion that there is an intelligible law of things, which it is our urgent business to ascertain, and then conform to. We at length have ascer- tained the law (which is the greatest intellectual revolutionary achievement since the times of Copernicus) : it is that of evolution. To apply the theory of evolution to history, is applying the key to it. We now know that societies, nations, move ; next, that they move, not by leaps, but by growths. But Herbert Spencer, who has done so much to popularize the theory of evolution, seems to imply, in all his writings, that this motion is by uniform, gradual, regular, and always slow steps. This is certainly not so. Nearly the whole historic period of man is filled up with two long, ai/nost stationary periods, — organic periods, we can, with Saint-Simon, properly call them ; periods in which mankind secretes a kind of hard, thick shell around itself. The first of these "organic " periods begins with the dawn of history, and ends with the Roman republic ; the second takes us through another thousand years, from the ascend- ency of Christianity to the Reformation. The former consti- tutes the Ancient World, with its golden age of Greece and Rome ; the latter, the Middle Age, which also has its golden age : that period in which Dante lived, which Carlyle is perfectly right in calling, " with its Feudal body and Catho- lic soul, the highest ideal yet realized by man." The stationary condition, then, is the rule, is the normal condition of the race : and mark, it is in that condition that mankind enjoys the fruits of its struggles and martyrdoms ; it is then that the arts and literature flourish ; it is then we find high ideals, corporate responsibility, and public spirit ; it is then men sacrifice their lives for the common weal as a 14 THE RISIXG GENERATION. (1748- matter of course. That condition, finally, is marked by unity, by system, — precisely what makes these periods so durable, lasting, organic. Thus, of historic times there remain two shorter periods, — that from the Roman republic to the establishment of Christianity ; and another, not yet closed, from Luther to our days. John Morley has observed that these two short periods, each lasting about four hundred years, somehow correspond to each other ; and both are periods of changes, transition states, critical periods, again to call them after Saint-Simon. The bond tliat hitherto united men — the collective conception of the world — has, both then and now, been broken, and every one is left to seek truth in his own way : that is to say, while hitherto there has been systematic unity, now every thing is planless, orderless ; everywhere perfect anarchy reigns, — in beliefs, in morals, in politics, in social relations, and, worst of all, in industrial relations. While before things were nearly stationary, now things are evidently in motion. But this motion is far from being regular. First it is slow, very slow ; then it becomes (juicker and quicker ; then it moves with railroad speed — look at our century ! Lastly, the final change to the new organic order — the revolution, in fact — may be accom- plished so swiftly that the living generation can hardly re- cover its breath. But there is constant progress, — progress along a certain line, not a straight nor a curved, but a spiral line, like unto a winding staircase. Each of these periods, critical as well as organic, is really on a higher plane than any of its predecessors. There is a constant gro7oth in co-operation. Our whole civilization may be called a lesson in co-operation ; and note, that it is around the working-classes that the battle of prog- ress has constantly been waged. 1789.1 THE DRA}TA OF HISTORY. 1 5 In the fust organic period, in ancient Greece and Rome, we find coiiipidsoyy co-operation in its harshest form, — slavery. In the second organic period, tlie Middle Ages, we find a milder, ranch more humane form, also of compiilso7y co-operation, — serfdom. In the transition period in which we are living we have attained to 7'c7///;^Az;j co-operation for those who have means, for the well-off middle classes, and a still milder form of covtpiilsory co-operation for those who have no property, — wagedom. Compulsory? Yes, they are compelled by their daily wants. What the French Revolution was to do was, to introduce into France, primarily, this transition period, this critical period, with its propertied middle classes and its wage sys- tem. And that was to be done, first, by putting an end to the feudal. Catholic system of the Middle Ages ; and next, by placing the middle classes into supreme power. What im- portant function they were charged with, and how they have performed it in France, we shall afterwards see. * * * This very change, however, which now was to be worked out in France, had already been accomplished in England in all essential respects. Instead of having to do something ittiique, as the French revolutionists fancied, they needed simply to copy the model they had in England ; and that is what, after all, they virtually did. We know that both king and patriots anxiously studied the histories of Charles the First and James the Second ; and their instincts did not mis- lead them, for the " Commonwealth " of 1649 and the revo- lution of 168S form together, in truth, England's "French Revolution." These did for Great Britain what the French Revolution did for France, — overthrew the divine right of kings, absolutism, and invested the plutocracy with political power. 1 6 THE RISIXG GEXERATIOX. [1748- As this part of British history was nothing less than a precedent for France, we ought to dwell on it a little. The English plutocrats had obtained dominion in the towns as early as the fourteenth century. That dominion had gone on increasing to such an extent, that two centuries later a statute had to he passed to protect small masters against rich ones. This statute (2d and 3d, Phil, and Mary) recited that " rich clothiers do oppress the weavers by pay- ing less wages than formerly ; by engrossing the looms, and letting them out at unreasonable rents ; by employing unskil- ful journeymen, etc." During the reign of Charles a series of technical discoveries throw manufactures altogether into the hands of large capitalists. They carry the trade to places free from the control of the craft-guilds, like Birmingham and Manchester, until the guilds gradually die out before this rising great industry. And now events run on precisely as we find they do one hundred and fifty years later in France. The King needs money, and calls on the rich middle classes for it. The Long Parliament corresponds to the French National Assem- bly, even to the extent that it, too, clears landed property of many inconvenient and oppressive feudal burdens, for the benefit of capitalists. Jolni Pym, like Sieyes later, initiates the political revolution in England by insisting that " the House of Commons is the essential part of Parliament," and by telling the lords that " the Commons are ready to save the kingdom alone." When at length the physical struggle commences, London and the middle classes side with Sir Harry Vane and the Commonwealth men, as Paris later on does with Danton and the Mountain. Finally, on Jan. 4, 1649, the Rump Parliament declares that " the Commons of England, being chosen by and representing the people, half e the supreme power in this nation; " and this declaration foreshadows the action of the French Convention. i78g.] THE SACRED TORCH E¥ ERA NCE. 17 Ucsidcs these essential correspondences, there are many curious coincidences. Naseby of 1645 coincides with "Aug. 10;" Pride's Purge, applauded by Sir Harry, with what I shall call the suspension of the Girondins, con- tributed to by Danton. In both revolutions the reigning kings were executed, — and, by the way, it is almost comi- cal, when we think of the fate of their own royal family, to recall the reproaches and contumely which P'renchmen of the age of Louis XIV. heaped on the English for their " bru- tality " and '• disloyalty " in their treatment of Charles and James. Both crises ended in the supremacy of successful, selfish soldiers ; in both countries this supremacy was fol- lowed by a restoration ; in one, as in the other, the restored monarch was followed by his brother ; and lastly, in one as in the other, this brother was exiled, and gave way to a con- stitutional, middle-class king. But there was this essential and never-to-be-forgotten difference, because it augurs well for the Coming Revolution in Great Britain : that the foreign potentates did not attempt to save their crowned English brother, while they did interfere in the French Revolution, and thereby raised ujd — the Terror. // is, however, in tJic region of ideas that the connecting link between the two revolutions is to be found. Our acts are always under the empire of our ideas, con- sciously or unconsciously. More particularly is this so with social revolutions ; i.e., changes from one social order to another, even if only to a transitional order. These always start in the region of ideas, and first of all in those ideas that have the most powerful dominion over men, — their rehgious conceptions, their views of the universe and their own place in it. Naturally this change first shows itself in the form of scej^ticism, religious anarchy ; then the anarchy filters down to tliose ideas that relate to our fellow-men, to society, to our moral and political notions ; finally the anar- i8 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748- chy roaclics economics, the basis of society. There the real revolution, the real change, takes place ; and there, on the new basis, our new political, moral, and religious ideas are reconstructed. Accordingly the English Revolution commenced with the loosening of religious authority by Wickliffe, the father of the Reformation. We know for certain that this movement in religion caused the movement in political ideas, because Ilobbes tells us that "the enemies of King Charley were Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, Fifth-Monarchy men," and that their opposition "arose from the private interpretation of Scriptures in the mother-tongue." Now, it was one of the striking peculiarities of Protestantism, that it set people to study admiringly the history of the Hebrew nation, " the most rebellious people on the face of the earth," and thus made the Hebrew example an incentive to them to change the form of their own government, and the Old Testament a basis for their political si^eculations. But note this peculiarity in the English Revolution : that the political philosophy which justifies it was not elaborated he/ore the political innovation, but only years afterwards, for the good and sufficient reason that printing was as yet but little developed. "^ It was from and after the year 1700 that the two eminent English philosophers Hobbes and Locke, to ease their con- sciences, made known their new revolutionary political speculations. Hobbes' celebrated theory was, that a cove- nant between man and man created " that great leviathan called the Commonwealth." In other words, he taught the nation, first, that the basis of society is contract, or that the origin of all power is in the people ; next, that the end of government is the weal of the Commonwealth, or the peo- ple's good : and he very soon made these ideas generally accepted, which forever put an end to the old patriarchal 1789.1 THE REVOLUTION MADE BY BOOKS. 19 theory of society. lA)cke then appeared, ami added the lesson of the right of resistance to bad rulers. Now the " sacred torch " passes over from England to France ; that is to say, these English revolutionary princi- ples are transplanted into French soil, are adopted and elaborated by French writers. It is from the date of the first French book embodying them that we ought truly to date the French Revolution. It is from the date 1 748 that France commences her glorious career, which for many years places her in advance of other nations ; and that glory is thus due to the fact, that, unlike their successors, her writers were then willing to learn from other nations. * * * These writers were Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau. These three men made the French Revolution, as far as any individuals can be said to have made it. A "revolution," in its narrower sense, is the sweeping, the decisive change, which all progress passes through at some point in its career. It only takes a minute to bring into the world the infant whose preparation has required nine months in the mother's womb. Birth is a revolution. So it took only a few minutes, on a certain June day in the year ^ 7S9, for the French Revolution to be born ; but its preparation, its making, lasted forty years. It was made by the above writers in the brains of Danton and his fellows of the generation born after 1748. And // was made by books, because printing had now so far advanced, that they who were to be emancipated could all read. And, by the way, the Coming Revolution, in like manner, will, first and foremost, be a mental revolu- tion, and be made by books ; for now all can read. The book of Alontesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, appeared 1748, eleven years before Danton's birth. Nobody reads the book now for information's sake. It is extremely shallow, 20 THE RISING GENERATION. [1748- l)Olh in knowledge and thoughts. But when it appeared, it took the whole public, especially the middle classes, by storm. It colored the whole literature of France for the rest of the century : and no wonder, as it introduced just the ideas that were then needed ; it gave working answers to the burning political questions. Montesquieu passes in review all the laws and political institutions of the various countries, and compares their excellences and defects. At length he reaches Great Britain, before whose institutions he remains standing in unbounded admiration, almost adoration ; and he inoculates the whole French nation with the same feeling. Anglomania becomes, from that moment, the dominant passion of Frenchmen. Of course, what Montesquieu found so excellent was the lib- erty and consideration enjoyed in England by the common citizens of properly, but he did not analyze either his feel- ings or their object. As a matter of fact, neither he nor his contemporaries had any idea of the true nature of human societies. His own leading doctrine was, " It is government and institutions which make men what they are." He found that the principal among British institutions was the British Constitution, and as a principal feature in that constitution a division of powers, one checking the other. This, then, he thinks, must be the secret spring that causes British well- being. Go to work, then, France, and copy faithfully this constitution, and particularly this division of powers ! This, in fact, gives rise to the two leading principles of his book, to wit : " In order that there may not be an abuse of power, things should be so arranged that one poiver checks another ; " and " The problem is, not to destroy authority, but to render it impotent." These are splendid " principles " for a transit/on state, such a one as was about to be introduced into France. 1789.1 THE REVOLUTION MADE BY BOOKS. 21 No wonder he awoke the pohtical passions of the middle classes. They saw in him their true legislator, since he so charmingly disarmed the authority under which they were fretting, and gave so many guaranties to the individualism, the license, for which they were sighing. No wonder, that, as soon as the Revolution was an accomplished fact, he be- came the inspirer of the political labors of the middle classes, of the Constituent Assembly, and then of the Girondin party ! Next, Diderot, the inspirer of the Dantonists, in particu- lar; this giant, whose importance to the Revolution the French at last have recognized by erecting a statue to him in Paris on the spot where his house formerly stood. He shall be here considered only as the chief of that band of writers who created the Encyclopccdia, " that monumental ruin of thirty stout volumes," which now are still less read than The Spirit of Laws. Yet what influence they once had! The EncyclopcEdia is the gospel of labor, a glorification of productive industry, for which it inspired its readers with an earnest enthusiasm as the true basis of the new era. " To turn over volume after volume is like watching a splen- did panorama of the busy life of the time," says Morley. Its significance precisely consists in this, — that it laid down, with a fearlessness that was risky at the time, the necessary economic conditions for the coming middle-class rule, and demanded unlimited freedom in all relations of industrial life. It was no small merit that it anticipated all the essen- tial propositions laid down by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations, which appeared several years later. Indeed, it was the Encyclopaedists who first made the name " political economy," as well as the thing itself, popular. We have the testimony of Voltaire for the latter fact : " The nation, tired of verses, tragedies, comedies, operas, romances, moral 22 THE RISIXG GENERATIOX. [1748- rfllections, and theological disputes, finally commenced talking about corn. They forgot all about wine, in order to talk of wheat. They wrote useful things about agriculture, which every one read except agriculturists." The Encyclopaedists first claimed the abolition of guilds. "These," they said, "are supposed to be established to guarantee capacity and integrity in artisans and manufac- turers : they at present do nothing of the kind ; they have become monopolies, hurtful to the national interests. The rich and the great have laid hands not only on the land, the fields, and the buildings, but through tliese guilds they have interdicted the industrious and skilful the use of their labors. They must be uprooted, and perfect liberty be established in all the trades and professions." France was at that time divided into provinces, each witli its custom-houses. The Encyclopaedists demanded their abolition, as " they paralyze commerce." In many respects they write just as an orthodox economist of to-day. They find interest perfectly legitimate ; they want it not only legalized, but the rate of interest left to the lender and borrower to settle. Capital is, according to them, legiti- mately entitled to its profits. " Just as corn, when sowed in the earth, reproduces with advantage, so the capitalist sows in commerce his and his ancestors' industry." They wish to bring on competition, " which will lower prices." It should be steadily borne in mind that such ideas were at the time absolutely new. Another quotation, from the pen of Diderot himself, will show how suited to the middle classes their other ideas were : " It is property which makes the citizen. Every man who has possessions in the .State is interested in the State ; it is by means of his possessions that he acquires a right of having himself represented." In their eyes, then, tlie first of " the rights of man " was midiUc-class right to property. 1,89.] THE REVOLUTION MADE BY BOOKS. 23 But understand that they were eminently noble men, with noble hearts. They had an undivided love for all their fel- low-men, a steadfast faith in human nature, and firm aspira- tions after justice and progress. They really fancied that the liberty and equality — i.e., equality before the law — after which they strove would make this world into a para- dise. Liberty was to them a young, beautiful, promising maiden ; they had no idea that she could ever, by remaining unniated, become an old hag. V.\