Revolution and the Republic by Jeremy Jennings

Author:Jeremy Jennings [Jennings, Jeremy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-02-08T19:37:54+00:00

democratic institutions, and ‘centralization fell with absolute government’.237 Yet,

with the passing of the ‘vigorous generation’ that had begun the Revolution, the love

of liberty subsided amidst ‘anarchy and popular dictatorship’ and the taste for equality

prevailed. And so ‘from the very bowels of a nation that had just overthrown the

monarchy suddenly emerged a power more extensive, more detailed, and more

absolute than that exercised by any of our kings’.238 From this point onwards,

Tocqueville concluded, the French had limited themselves to ‘placing the head of

Liberty upon a servile body’.239

Contained within L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution was a passionate plea for

individual liberty as an end in itself. Yet this very same book served as an explana-

tion of the failure of liberty to secure a solid foundation and sustained existence in

France. Seen thus, the anomaly in Tocqueville’s account was the moment of

‘greatness’ and ‘virility’, the ‘time of immortal memory’ as he described it, when

the call for liberty, long submerged beneath despotism, all-too-briefly made its

voice heard above the clamour for vengeance. It was a moment that almost defied

explanation, such was the weight that Tocqueville attributed to the prevailing

tradition of centralization and its eradication of countervailing trends. This perhaps

explains the peculiar passage at the very end of the book where Tocqueville spoke of

the unique character of the French people. No nation was so full of contrasts, so

changeable, so routine-bound, and so capable of coming above or below the

‘common norms of humanity’. France alone, Tocqueville wrote, ‘could give birth

to a revolution so sudden, so radical, so impetuous in its course and yet so full of

reverses, contradictory facts and contrary examples’.240 But the reality, as he himself

acknowledged, was that, for all its frequent revival in new and unexpected forms,

the desire for liberty quickly succumbed before a love of equality that remained

234 Ibid. 232.

235 Ibid. 235.

236 Ibid. 243.

237 Ibid. 248.

238 Ibid.

239 Ibid.

240 Ibid. 250.

282

History, Revolution, and Terror

constant. Such, at least, was how it appeared to Tocqueville from deep within the

Second Empire of Napoleon III.

Tocqueville, like so many of his fellow historians, could not resist asserting the

unique and exceptional character of the Revolution. He was, on the other hand,

immune from the commonly held faith in the virtues of the people and plainly saw

little evidence of the Revolution as the dawn of a new religion of justice and

fraternity. Indeed, with the notable exception of the summer of 1789, Tocqueville

appears to have discerned few signs of political innovation among the momentous

events that shook France to her very foundations. However, Tocqueville was to be

by no means alone in stressing the theme of continuity. As we have seen, Quinet,

under the influence of Tocqueville, was to rework the idea in order to suggest that

the Revolution marked a revival of monarchical absolutism. Another person to

develop this theme was the diplomatic historian Albert Sorel. 241 ‘The fact is’, Sorel

wrote, almost three decades later, ‘that the Revolution did not, as has too often been

said, break the chain of French history.’242 Although probably the most remarkable

of episodes, it was nonetheless only ‘one episode’ in that history. Indeed, Sorel

ended the introduction to

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