The Psychology of Revolution Part 15

While proclaiming that the people const.i.tuted the only sovereign, the a.s.sembly was greatly embarra.s.sed by riots which went far beyond its theoretical expectations. It had supposed that order would be restored while it fabricated a Const.i.tution destined to a.s.sure the eternal happiness of mankind.

We know that during the whole duration of the Revolution one of the chief occupations of the a.s.semblies was to make, unmake, and remake Const.i.tutions. The theorists attributed to them then, as they do to-day, the power of transforming society; the a.s.sembly, therefore, could not neglect its task. In the meantime it published a solemn Declaration of the Rights of Man which summarised its principles.

The Const.i.tution, proclamations, declarations, and speeches had not the slightest effect on the popular movements, nor on the dissentients who daily increased in number in the heart of the a.s.sembly. The latter became more and more subjected to the ascendancy of the advanced party, which was supported by the clubs. Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and later Marat and Hebert, violently excited the populace by their harangues and their journals. The a.s.sembly was rapidly going down the slope that leads to extremes.

During all these disorders the finances of the country were not improving. Finally convinced that philanthropic speeches would not alter their lamentable condition, and seeing that bankruptcy threatened, the a.s.sembly decreed, on the 2nd of November, 1789, the confiscation of the goods of the Church. Their revenues, consisting of the t.i.thes collected from the faithful, amounted to some L8,000,000, and their value was estimated at about L120,000,000. They were divided among some hundreds of prelates, Court abbes, &c., who owned a quarter of all France. These goods, henceforth ent.i.tled is "national domains," formed the guarantee of the a.s.signats, the first issue of which was for 400,000,000 francs (L16,000,000 sterling). The public accepted them at the outset, but they multiplied so under the Directory and the Convention, which issued 45,000,000,000 francs in this form (L1,800,000,000 sterling), that an a.s.signat of 100 livres was finally worth only a few halfpence.

Stimulated by his advisers, the feeble Louis attempted in vain to struggle against the decrees of the a.s.sembly by refusing to sanction them.

Under the influence of the daily suggestions of the leaders and the power of mental contagion the revolutionary movement was spreading everywhere independently of the a.s.sembly and often even against it.

In the towns and villages revolutionary munic.i.p.alities were inst.i.tuted, protected by the local National Guards. Those of neighbouring towns commenced to make mutual arrangements to defend themselves should need arise. Thus federations were formed, which were soon rolled into one; this sent 14,000 National Guards to Paris, who a.s.sembled on the Champ-de-Mars on the 14th of July, 1790. There the king swore to maintain the Const.i.tution decreed by the National a.s.sembly.

Despite this vain oath it became more evident every day that no agreement was possible between the hereditary principles of the monarchy and those proclaimed by the a.s.sembly.

Feeling himself completely powerless, the king thought only of flight. Arrested at Varennes and brought back a prisoner to Paris, he was shut up in the Tuileries. The a.s.sembly, although still extremely royalist, suspended him from power, and decided to a.s.sume the sole charge of the government.

Never did sovereign find himself in a position so difficult as that of Louis at the time of his flight. The genius of a Richelieu would hardly have extricated him. The only element of defence on which he could have relied had from the beginning absolutely failed him.

During the whole duration of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly the immense majority of Frenchmen and of the a.s.sembly remained royalist, so that had the sovereign accepted a liberal monarchy he could perhaps have remained in power. It would seem that Louis had little to promise in order to come to an agreement with the a.s.sembly.

Little, perhaps, but with his structure of mind that little was strictly impossible. All the shades of his forbears would have risen up in front of him had he consented to modify the mechanism of the monarchy inherited from so many ancestors. And even had he attempted to do so, the opposition of his family, the clergy, the n.o.bles, and the Court could never have been surmounted. The ancient castes on which the monarchy rested, the n.o.bility and the clergy, were then almost as powerful as the monarch himself. Every time it seemed as though he might yield to the injunctions of the a.s.sembly it was because he was constrained to do so by force, and to attempt to gain time. His appeals to alien Powers represented the resolution of a desperate man who had seen all his natural defences fail him.

He, and especially the queen, entertained the strangest illusions as to the possible a.s.sistance of Austria, for centuries the rival of France. If Austria indolently consented to come to his aid, it was only in the hope of receiving a great reward. Mercy gave him to understand that the payment expected consisted of Alsace, the Alps, and Navarre.

The leaders of the clubs, finding the a.s.sembly too royalist, sent the people against it. A pet.i.tion was signed, inviting the a.s.sembly to convoke a new const.i.tuent power to proceed to the trial of Louis XVI.

Monarchical in spite of all, and finding that the Revolution was a.s.suming a character far too demagogic, the a.s.sembly resolved to defend itself against the actions of the people. A battalion of the National Guard, commanded by La Fayette, was sent to the Champ-de-Mars, where the crowd was a.s.sembled, to disperse it. Fifty of those present were killed.

The a.s.sembly did not long persist in its feeble resistance. Extremely fearful of the people, it increased its arrogance towards the king, depriving him every day of some part of his prerogatives and authority. He was now scarcely more than a mere official obliged to execute the wishes of others.

The a.s.sembly had imagined that it would be able to exercise the authority of which it had deprived the king, but such a task was infinitely above its resources. A power so divided is always weak. "I know nothing more terrible," said Mirabeau, "than the sovereign authority of six hundred persons."

Having flattered itself that it could combine in itself all the powers of the State, and exercise them as Louis XVI. had done, the a.s.sembly very soon exercised none whatever.

As its authority failed anarchy increased. The popular leaders continually stirred up the people. Riot and insurrection became the sole power. Every day the a.s.sembly was invaded by rowdy and imperious delegations which operated by means of threats and demands.

All these popular movements, which the a.s.sembly, under the stress of fear, invariably obeyed, had nothing spontaneous about them. They simply represented the manifestations of new powers-the clubs and the Commune-which had been set up beside the a.s.sembly.

The most powerful of these clubs was the Jacobin, which had quickly created more than five hundred branches in the country, all of which were under the orders of the central body. Its influence remained preponderant during the whole duration of the Revolution. It was the master of the a.s.sembly, and then of France, its only rival the insurrectionary Commune, whose power was exercised only in Paris.

The weakness of the national a.s.sembly and all its failures had made it extremely unpopular. It became conscious of this, and, feeling that it was every day more powerless, decided to hasten the creation of the new Const.i.tution in order that it might dissolve. Its last action, which was tactless enough, was to decree that no member of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly should be elected to the Legislative a.s.sembly. The members of the latter were thus deprived of the experience acquired by their predecessors.

The Const.i.tution was completed on the 3rd of September, 1791, and accepted on the 13th by the king, to whom the a.s.sembly had restored his powers.

This Const.i.tution organised a representative Government, delegating the legislative power to deputies elected by the people, and the executive power to the king, whose right of veto over the decrees of the a.s.sembly was recognised. New departmental divisions were subst.i.tuted for the old provinces. The imposts were abolished, and replaced by direct and indirect taxes, which are still in force.

The a.s.sembly, which had just altered the territorial divisions and overthrown all the old social organisation, thought itself powerful enough to transform the religious organisation of the country also. It claimed notably that the members of the clergy should be elected by the people, and should be thus withdrawn from the influence of their supreme head, the Pope.

This civil const.i.tution of the clergy was the origin of religious struggles and persecutions which lasted until the days of the Consulate. Two-thirds of the priests refused the oath demanded of them.

During the three years which represented the life of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly the Revolution had produced considerable results. The princ.i.p.al result was perhaps the beginning of the transference to the Third Estate of the riches of the privileged cla.s.ses. In this way while interests were created to be defended fervent adherents were raised up to the new regime. A Revolution supported by the gratification of acquired appet.i.tes is bound to be powerful. The Third Estate, which had supplanted the n.o.bles, and the peasants, who had bought the national domains, would readily understand that the restoration of the ancien regime would despoil them of all their advantages. The energetic defence of the Revolution was merely the defence of their own fortunes.

This is why we see, during part of the Revolution, nearly half the departments vainly rising against the despotism that crushed them. The Republicans triumphed over all opposition. They were extremely powerful in that they had to defend, not only a new ideal, but new material interests. We shall see that the influence of these two factors lasted during the whole of the Revolution, and contributed powerfully to the establishment of the Empire.

CHAPTER II

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE LEGISLATIVE a.s.sEMBLY

1. Political Events during the Life of the Legislative a.s.sembly.

Before examining the mental characteristics of the Legislative a.s.sembly let us briefly sum up the considerable political events which marked its short year's life. They naturally played an important part in respect of its psychological manifestations.

Extremely monarchical, the Legislative a.s.sembly had no more idea than its predecessor of destroying the monarchy. The king appeared to it to be slightly suspect, but it still hoped to be able to retain him on the throne.

Unhappily for him, Louis was incessantly begging for intervention from abroad. Shut up in the Tuileries, defended only by his Swiss Guards, the timid sovereign was drifting among contrary influences. He subsidised journals intended to modify public opinion, but the obscure "penny-a-liners" who edited them knew nothing of acting on the mind of the crowd. Their only means of persuasion was to menace with the gallows all the partisans of the Revolution, and to predict the invasion of France by an army which would rescue the king.

Royalty no longer counted on anything but the foreign Courts. The n.o.bles were emigrating. Prussia, Austria, and Russia were threatening France with a war of invasion. The Court favoured their lead. To the coalition of the three kings against France the Jacobin Club proposed to oppose a league of peoples. The Girondists were then, with the Jacobins, at the head of the revolutionary movement. They incited the ma.s.ses to arm themselves-600,000 volunteers were equipped. The Court accepted a Girondist minister. Dominated by him, Louis XVI. was obliged to propose to the a.s.sembly a war against Austria. It was immediately agreed to.

In declaring war the king was not sincere. The queen revealed the French plans of campaign and the secret deliberations of the Council to the Austrians.

The beginnings of the struggle were disastrous. Several columns of troops, attacked by panic, disbanded. Stimulated by the clubs, and persuaded-justly, for that matter-that the king was conspiring with the enemies of France, the population of the faubourgs rose in insurrection. Its leaders, the Jacobins, and above all Danton, sent to the Tuileries on the 20th of June a pet.i.tion threatening the king with revocation. It then invaded the Tuileries, heaping invectives on the sovereign.

Fatality impelled Louis toward his tragic destiny. While the threats of the Jacobins against royalty had roused many of the departments to indignation, it was learned that a Prussian army had arrived on the frontiers of Lorraine.

The hope of the king and queen respecting the help to be obtained from abroad was highly chimerical. Marie-Antoinette suffered from an absolute illusion as to the psychology of the Austrian and the French peoples. Seeing France terrorised by a few energumens, she supposed that it would be equally easy to terrify the Parisians, and by means of threats to lead them back under the king's authority. Inspired by her, Fersen undertook to publish the manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick, threatening Paris with "total subversion if the royal family were molested."

The effect produced was diametrically opposite to that intended. The manifesto aroused indignation against the monarch, who was regarded as an accomplice, and increased his unpopularity. From that day he was marked for the scaffold.

Carried away by Danton, the delegates of the sections installed themselves at the Hotel de Ville as an insurrectionary Commune, which arrested the commandant of the National Guard, who was devoted to the king, sounded the tocsin, equipped the National Guard, and on the 10th of August hurled them, with the populace, against the Tuileries. The regiments called in by Louis disbanded themselves. Soon none were left to defend him but his Swiss and a few gentlemen. Nearly all were killed. Left alone, the king took refuge with the a.s.sembly. The crowds demanded his denouncement. The Legislative a.s.sembly decreed his suspension and left a future a.s.sembly, the Convention, to decide upon his fate.

2. Mental Characteristics of the Legislative a.s.sembly.

The Legislative a.s.sembly, formed of new men, presented quite a special interest from the psychological point of view. Few a.s.semblies have offered in such a degree the characteristics of the political collectivity.

It comprised seven hundred and fifty deputies, divided into pure royalists, const.i.tutional royalists, republicans, Girondists, and Montagnards. Advocates and men of letters formed the majority. It also contained, but in smaller numbers, superior officers, priests, and a very few scientists.

The philosophical conceptions of the members of this a.s.sembly seem rudimentary enough. Many were imbued with Rousseau's idea of a return to a state of nature. But all, like their predecessors, were dominated more especially by recollections of Greek and Latin antiquity. Cato, Brutus, Gracchus, Plutarch, Marcus Aurelius, and Plato, continually evoked, furnished the images of their speech. When the orator wished to insult Louis XVI. he called him Caligula.

In hoping to destroy tradition they were revolutionaries, but in claiming to return to a remote past they showed themselves extremely reactionary.

For the rest, all these theories had very little influence on their conduct. Reason was continually figuring in their speeches, but never in their actions. These were always dominated by those affective and mystic elements whose potency we have so often demonstrated.

The psychological characteristics of the Legislative a.s.sembly were those of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, but were greatly accentuated. They may be summed up in four words: impressionability, mobility, timidity, and weakness.

This mobility and impressionability are revealed in the constant variability of their conduct. One day they exchange noisy invective and blows. On the following day we see them "throwing themselves into one another's arms with torrents of tears." They eagerly applaud an address demanding the punishment of those who have pet.i.tioned for the king's dethronement, and the same day accord the honours of the session to a delegation which has come to demand his downfall.

The pusillanimity and weakness of the a.s.sembly in the face of threats was extreme. Although royalist it voted the suspension of the king, and on the demand of the Commune delivered him, with his family, to be imprisoned in the Temple,