The French Revolution - Volume 2
Text Transcriber's Note : The numbering of Volumes, Books, Chapters and Sections are as in the French not the American edition. Annotations by the transcriber are initialled SR. Svend Rom, April 2000.
HTML Producer's Note : Footnote numbering has been changed to include as a prefix to the original footnote number, the book and chapter numbers. A table of contents has been added with active links. David Widger, June 2008
In this volume, as in those preceding it and in those to come, there will be found only the history of Public Authorities. Others will write that of diplomacy, of war, of the finances, of the Church; my subject is a limited one. To my great regret, however, this new part fills an entire volume; and the last part, on the revolutionary government, will be as long.
I have again to regret the dissatisfaction I foresee this work will cause to many of my countrymen. My excuse is, that almost all of them, more fortunate than myself, have political principles which serve them in forming their judgments of the past. I had none; if indeed, I had any motive in undertaking this work, it was to seek for political principles. Thus far I have attained to scarcely more than one; and this is so simple that will seem puerile, and that I hardly dare express it. Nevertheless I have adhered to it, and in what the reader is about to peruse my judgments are all derived from that; its truth is the measure of theirs. It consists wholly in this observation: that
HUMAN SOCIETY, ESPECIALLY A MODERN SOCIETY, IS A VAST AND COMPLICATED THING.
Hence the difficulty in knowing and comprehending it. For the same reason it is not easy to handle the subject well. It follows that a cultivated mind is much better able to do this than an uncultivated mind, and a man specially qualified than one who is not. From these two last truths flow many other consequences, which, if the reader deigns to reflect on them, he will have no trouble in defining.
H. A. Taine, Paris 1881.
Hippolyte Taine
THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY FRANCE, VOLUME 3
PREFACE:
BOOK FIRST. THE JACOBINS.
CHAPTER I. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW POLITICAL ORGAN.
I.—Principle of the revolutionary party.
II.—The Jacobins.
III.—Psychology of the Jacobin.
IV.—What the theory promises.
CHAPTER II.
I.—Formation of the party.
II.—Spontaneous associations after July 14, 1789.
III.—How they view the liberty of the press.
IV.—Their rallying-points.
V.—Small number of Jacobins.
BOOK SECOND. THE FIRST STAGE OF THE CONQUEST.
CHAPTER I. THE JACOBINS COME INTO IN POWER.
I.—Their siege operations.
II.—Annoyances and dangers of public elections.
III.—The friends of order deprived of the right of free assemblage.
V.—Intimidation and withdrawal of the Conservatives.
CHAPTER II.
I.—Composition of the Legislative Assembly.
II.—Degree and quality of their intelligence and Culture.
III.—Aspects of their sessions.
IV.—The Parties.
V.—Their means of action.
VI.—Parliamentary maneuvers.
CHAPTER III.
I.—Policy of the Assembly.—State of France at the end of 1791.
II.—The Assembly hostile to the oppressed and favoring oppressors.
III.—War.
IV.—Secret motives of the leaders.
V.—Effects of the war on the common people.
CHAPTER IV. THE DEPARTMENTS.
II.—The expedition to Aix.
III.—The Constitutionalists of Arles.
IV.—The Jacobins of Avignon.
V.—The other departments.
CHAPTER V. PARIS.
I.—Pressure of the Assembly on the King.
II.—The floating and poor population of Paris.
IV.—The 20th of June.
CHAPTER VI. THE BIRTH OF THE TERRIBLE PARIS COMMUNE.
I.—Indignation of the Constitutionalists.
II.—Pressure on the King.
III.—The Girondins have worked for the benefit of the Jacobins.
IV.—Vain attempts of the Girondins to put it down.
V.—Evening of August 8.
VI.—Nights of August 9 and 10.
VII.—August 10.
VIII.—State of Paris in the Interregnum.
BOOK THIRD. THE SECOND STAGE OF THE CONQUEST.
CHAPTER I.
I.—Government by gangs in times of anarchy.
III. Terror is their Salvation.
V. Abasement and Stupor.
VI. Jacobin Massacre.
CHAPTER II. THE DEPARTMENTS.
I. The Sovereignty of the People.
II.—In several departments it establishes itself in advance.
III.—Each Jacobin band a dictator in its own neighborhood.
IV.—Ordinary practices of the Jacobin dictatorship.
V.—The companies of traveling volunteers.
VI.—A tour of France in the cabinet of the Minister of the Interior.
CHAPTER III.
I.—The second stage of the Jacobin conquest.
II.—The elections.
III.—Composition and tone of the secondary assemblies.
IV.—Composition of the National Convention.
V.—The Jacobins forming alone the Sovereign People.
VI.—Composition of the party.
VII. The Jacobin Chieftains.
I.—Jacobin advantages.
II.—Its parliamentary recruits.
III. Physical fear and moral cowardice.
IV. Jacobin victory over Girondin majority.
V. Jacobin violence against the people.
VI. Jacobin tactics.
VII. The central Jacobin committee in power.
VIII. Right or Wrong, my Country.