The Development of Modern Europe Volume I by James Robinson & Charles Beard

Author:James Robinson & Charles Beard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jovian Press

THE EVE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

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THE ANCIEN RÉGIME IN FRANCE

The benevolent despots had not succeeded in ridding Europe of the old institutions and confusion which had come down from the Middle Ages, — indeed, there were many things which they had no desire to change. Even in England little was done in the eighteenth century to meet the most reasonable demands of the reformers. But in 1789 the king of France asked his people to submit their grievances to him and to send representatives to Versailles to confer with him upon the state of the realm and the ways in which the government might be improved so as to increase the general happiness and the prosperity of the kingdom. And then the miracle happened! The French National Assembly swept away the old abuses with an ease and thoroughness which put the petty reforms of the benevolent despots to shame. It accomplished more in a few months than the reforming kings had done in a century; for the kings had never dreamed of calling in their people to aid them. Instead of availing themselves of the great forces of the nation, they had tried to do everything alone by royal decrees, and so had failed.

The unique greatness of the reformation accomplished by the French Assembly is, however, often obscured by the disorder which accompanied it. When one meets the words “French Revolution,” he is pretty sure to call up before his mind’s eye the storming of the Bastille, the guillotine and its hundreds of victims, and the Paris mob shouting the hymn of the Marseillaise as they parade the streets with the heads of unfortunate “aristocrats” on their pikes. Every one has heard of this terrible episode in French history, even if he knows practically nothing of the permanent good which was accomplished at the time. Indeed, it has made so deep an impression on posterity that the Reign of Terror is often mistaken for the real Revolution. It was, however, only a sequel to it, an unhappy accident which will seem less and less important as the years go on, while the achievements of the Revolution itself will loom larger and larger. The Reign of Terror will be explained and described in good time, but it is a matter of far greater importance to understand clearly how the fundamental and permanent reforms were wrought out, and how France won the proud distinction of being the first nation to do away with the absurd and vexatious institutions which weighed upon Europe in the eighteenth century.

We have already examined these institutions which were common to most of the European countries, — despotic kings, arbitrary imprisonment, unfair taxation, censorship of the press, serfdom, feudal dues, friction between Church and State, — all of which the reformers had been busy denouncing as contrary to reason and humanity, and some of which the benevolent despots and their ministers had, in a half-hearted way, attempted to remedy. The various relics of bygone times and of outlived

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