The Enlightenment that Failed by Jonathan I. Israel

Author:Jonathan I. Israel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

18.3. The Vonckiste Revolution Overwhelmed

The main Belgian institutional bodies, Congress, the provincial States of Brabant, Flanders, and Hainault, and the city governments, divided over the nobility’s privileges, magistracies, and ecclesiastical property. At a theoretical–constitutional level, the argument revolved mainly around the question of sovereignty: did popular sovereignty, a doctrine both sides ostensibly embraced, mean the people should be represented in Congress, as the Vonckistes claimed, or only that their sovereignty was vested in Congress without their being represented there? On a practical level, the issue was whether, and how far, to widen representation. Even though the Brussels guilds and common people had engineered the revolution, the States of Brabant ruled that effective sovereignty belonged not to the people but the States which alone should decide the new constitutional arrangements. This view prevailed, after some months even in “Austrian” Limburg.92

Eventually, with the simmering clashes unresolved and democrats resisting, the question was settled not by negotiation but by force. The constitutional struggle for the soul of the Belgian revolution culminated in March and April 1790, with most of the Brabant population, as one Dutch-language pamphlet described the struggle, proving to be Aristocraten and very few Democraten.93 Once again, undeniably, it was the common people’s vigorous intervention, peasants and urban populace both, that decided the issue. Van der Noot, posting up placards two days previously, summoned the Brussels populace to a vast gathering in the Grande Place, on 16 March; skirmishes ensued, several rich merchants’ mansions were pillaged. Violence spread to other towns. 94 During these tense days, the streets of Brussels, Louvain, and other cities constantly echoed to cries of “Vive Henri Van der Noot! Vivent les États-Unis!”95 Congress dragoons paraded through the streets carrying busts of their hero, shouting “Vive Van der Noot!” and playing loud martial music which did nothing to dispel the “inquietude” that had seized the capital, any more than the sporadic outbreaks of yelling in the streets with stones thrown through the windows of residences known for Vonckiste opposition to Van der Noot.

The “democratic” faction responded by boycotting the Congress; they were proclaimed public enemies and swiftly overwhelmed by a furious populace. The Societé patriotique, the main Vonckiste organization, was quickly routed after a few minor armed clashes in the streets. Denouncing the Belgian Congress as “purement aristocratique,” the Vonckistes in desperation called on France to intervene and join them in the fight for democratic freedom and equality or what the anti-philosophe Feller termed “une anarchie parfaite.” In the streets, fields, every corner of Belgium, exulted Feller, South Netherlanders showed their worth, their loathing of “philosophy” and democratic revolutionary values, their undeviating faith, and loyalty to clergy, aristocracy, and the old order.96 They rose up as one body and overwhelmed the Democraten, decisively crushing the foes of the old Estates.97 According to Condorcet, a philosophe convinced popular ignorance always represents the greatest danger to liberty, the Brabant revolution, originating, he believed, in a revolt on behalf of Catholic seminaries, proved all too plainly that the common people are readily misled and persuaded to act directly against their own cause and interest.

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