Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

INTRODUCTION.

CHARACTER OF THE REVOLUTION.—The French Revolution was a tremendous upheaval of society, which brought with it the abolition of feudalism and monarchy, and the securing of an equality of political rights. Its immediate result in France was the establishment of a democratic republic, followed by an empire resting on military power. Its conquests, and the predominance of France, provoked an uprising of the other European peoples in behalf of national independence. This overthrew the French empire, and produced a temporary restoration of the old dynasty. But the effect of the Revolution, in which the other civilized nations largely shared, was the substitution, in the room of the medieval state, of the modern state resting on a broader basis of equality as regards the rights and obligations of different classes. In the Western nations of the Continent, serfdom, and manifold abuses, civil and ecclesiastical, were abolished.

CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION.—First among the causes of the Revolution in France, was the hostility felt towards the privileged classes,—the king, the nobles, and the clergy,—on account of the disabilities and burdens which law and custom imposed on the classes beneath them. When Charles Vll. organized a standing army, and laid direct taxes to support it, the burghers and peasants rejoiced (p. 328). The monarchy was thus enabled to shield them, and subdue the great nobles. Louis XIV., as long as he was successful, was sustained by the pride and national spirit of the country. Yet his domination over the nobility and the Church left the higher orders in possession not only of the offices and honors which helped to fasten them submissively to the monarch, but also left them in the exercise of the numberless complicated privileges of local rule and taxation,—privileges which were the growth of ages, and which laid on the necks of the people a yoke too heavy to be borne.

1. THE LAND: THE PEASANTS.—Nearly two-thirds of the land in France was in the hands of the nobles and of the clergy. A great part of it was ill cultivated by its indolent owners. The nobles preferred the gayeties of Paris to a residence on their estates. There were many small land-owners, but many had individually too little land to furnish them with subsistence. The treatment of the peasant was often such that when he "looked upon the towers of his lord's castle, the dearest wish of his heart was to burn it down, with all its registers of debt." There was not a large middle class of land-owners, possessed of farms which, although small, were yet adequate to yield them a living. The clergy, besides having the whole management of education, held an immense amount of land, seigniorial control over thousands of peasants, and a vast income from tithes and other sources. In some provinces, there was a better state of things than in others; but, in general, the rich had the enjoyments, and the poor carried the burdens.

2. MONOPOLIES.—Manufactures and trade, although encouraged under Colbert, were fettered by oppressive monopolies and a strict organization of guilds.

3. CORRUPT GOVERNMENT.—The administration of government was both arbitrary and corrupt. Places in parliament and in the army, and most higher offices, were sold, but sold, as a rule, only to nobles. When parliament refused to register decrees of taxation, the king held "beds of justice,"—a method of passing laws against parliamentary protest (p. 299). Warrants of arrest and imprisonment—lettres de cachet—were issued by his sole authority.

4. LOSS OF RESPECT FOR ROYALTY.—Respect for the throne was lost. Under Louis XIV., the number of salable offices was incredibly multiplied. In his last days, "in many towns the trade in timber, wine, and spirits was taken out of private hands; nay, even the poor earnings of those who towed boats on the rivers, of porters and funeral mutes, were made a monopoly, and secured to certain families exclusively, in consideration of a large premium." "Famine prevailed in every province. The bark of trees was the daily food of hundreds of thousands." The debauchery of Louis XV., and his feeble foreign policy, tended to dissipate what reverence for royalty was left.

5. ABORTIVE ESSAYS AT REFORM.—The efforts at political and social reform in France and in other countries, emanating from sovereigns after the great wars, produced a restless feeling without effecting their purpose of social reorganization.

6. POLITICAL SPECULATION.—The current of thought was in a revolutionary direction. Traditional beliefs in religion were boldly questioned. Political speculation was rife. Montesquieu had drawn attention to the liberty secured by the English constitution. Voltaire had dwelt on human rights,—the rights of the individual. Rousseau had expatiated on the sovereign right of the majority.

7. EXAMPLE OF AMERICA.—Add to these agencies, the influence of the American Revolution, and of the American Declaration of Independence, with its proclamation of human rights, and of the foundation of government in contract and the consent of the people.

8. THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE.—The immediate cause of the Revolution was the immense public debt, and the virtual bankruptcy of the government.