Ancien Regime and the French Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville

Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2008-11-07T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 3

HOW THE FRENCH SOUGHT

REFORMS BEFORE FREEDOMS

One fact worth noting is that, of all the ideas and all the opinions which prepared the Revolution, the notion and desire for public freedom proper should have been the last to emerge just as they were the first to disappear.

For a long time the old structure of government had begun to shake and was already tottering while the question of freedom still did not feature. Voltaire hardly gave it a thought; his three-year stay in England had shown freedom to him without persuading him to like it. The sceptical philosophy freely preached in England delighted him but her political laws affected him little; he noted their failings more than their virtues. In his letters on the English – one of his masterpieces – he gives Parliament only the slightest mention. In reality, above all he envies the English their literary freedom but cares hardly a jot for their political freedom, as if the former could ever exist for long without the latter.

Around the middle of the century, there appeared a certain number of writers who dealt particularly with questions of public administration and who were given the common name of Economists or Physiocrats because of several similar principles they expressed. The Economists have made less of a splash in history than the philosophers; they perhaps contributed less than the philosophers to the coming of the Revolution. Nevertheless, I believe that above all we can best study its true character in their writings. The philosophers scarcely ever departed from very general and abstract ideas of government, whereas the Economists, without losing a grasp of theory, delved more closely into the facts. The former spoke of what could be imagined, the latter sometimes marked out what had to be done. All the institutions which the Revolution was to wipe out, never to return, were the particular object of their attacks; not one found favour in their eyes. On the other hand, all those institutions which could pass as the Revolution’s own achievement had been heralded by them in advance and preached with enthusiasm. Hardly a single one could be quoted whose seed had not been sown in some of their writings. We find in the Economists all the most substantial of the Revolution’s achievements.

In addition, we can already recognize in their books that revolutionary and democratic outlook which we know so well. Not only did they loathe certain privileges, diversity itself was odious. They worshipped equality even if it meant servitude. Whatever impeded them in promoting their plans was fit only for abolition. Contracts carried little respect; they had no regard for private rights, or rather there were for them no private rights strictly speaking but only public utility. Yet, in general, these were men of kindly and peaceful habits, men of substance, honourable magistrates, clever administrators; but the unique spirit in their work inspired them forward.

The past was, for the Economists, an object of boundless contempt. ‘The nation has for centuries been governed by wrong principles; everything has been done at random,’ said Letronne.

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