THIRD EDITION
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1888
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | ||
| Translator’s Preface to the Second Edition | [[5]] | |
| Preliminary Notice | [[9]] | |
| BOOK I. | ||
| CHAPTER | ||
| I. | Opposing Judgments passed on the French Revolution at its Origin | [1] |
| II. | The Fundamental and Final Object of the Revolution was not, as has been supposed, the destruction of Religious Authority and the weakening of Political Power | [5] |
| III. | Showing that the French Revolution was a Political Revolution which followed the course of Religious Revolutions, and for what Reasons | [9] |
| IV. | Showing that nearly the whole of Europe had had precisely the same Institutions, and that these Institutions were everywhere falling to pieces | [12] |
| V. | What was the peculiar scope of the French Revolution | [16] |
| BOOK II. | ||
| I. | Why Feudal Rights had become more odious to the People in France than in any other country | [19] |
| II. | Showing that Administrative Centralisation is an Institution anterior in France to the Revolution of 1789, and not the product of the Revolution or of the Empire, as is commonly said | [28] |
| III. | Showing that what is now called Administrative Tutelage was an Institution in France anterior to the Revolution | [36] |
| IV. | Administrative Jurisdiction and the Immunity of Public Officers are Institutions of France anterior to the Revolution | [45] |
| V. | Showing how Centralisation had been able to introduce itself among the ancient Institutions of France, and to supplant without destroying them | [50] |
| VI. | The Administrative Habits of France before the Revolution | [54] |
| VII. | Of all European Nations France was already that in which the Metropolis had acquired the greatest preponderance over the Provinces, and had most completely absorbed the whole Empire | [63] |
| VIII. | France was the Country in which Men had become the most alike | [67] |
| IX. | Showing how Men thus similar were more divided than ever into small Groups, estranged from and indifferent to each other | [71] |
| X. | The Destruction of Political Liberty and the Estrangement of Classes were the causes of almost all the disorders which led to the Dissolution of the Old Society of France | [84] |
| XI. | Of the Species of Liberty which existed under the Old Monarchy, and of the Influence of that Liberty on the Revolution | [94] |
| XII. | Showing that the Condition of the French Peasantry, notwithstanding the progress of Civilisation, was sometimes worse in the Eighteenth Century than it had been in the Thirteenth | [105] |
| XIII. | Showing that towards the Middle of the Eighteenth Century Men of Letters became the leading Political Men of France, and of the effects of this occurrence | [119] |
| XIV. | Showing how Irreligion had become a general and dominant passion amongst the French of the Eighteenth Century, and what influence this fact had on the character of the Revolution | [128] |
| XV. | That the French aimed at Reform before Liberty | [136] |
| XVI. | Showing that the Reign of Louis XVI. was the most prosperous epoch of the old French Monarchy, and how this very prosperity accelerated the Revolution | [146] |
| XVII. | Showing that the French People were excited to revolt by the means taken to relieve them | [155] |
| XVIII. | Concerning some practices by which the Government completed the Revolutionary Education of the People of France | [162] |
| XIX. | Showing that a great Administrative Revolution had preceded the Political Revolution, and what were the consequences it produced | [166] |
| XX. | Showing that the Revolution proceeded naturally from the existing State of France | [175] |
| SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. | ||
| On the Pays d’États, and especially on the Constitutions of Languedoc | [182] | |
| BOOK III. | ||
| I. | Of the violent and undefined Agitation of the Human Mind at the moment when the French Revolution broke out | [192] |
| II. | How this vague perturbation of the Human Mind suddenly became in France a positive passion, and what form this passion at first assumed | [201] |
| III. | How the Parliaments of France, following precedent, overthrew the Monarchy | [205] |
| IV. | The Parliaments discover that they have lost all Authority, just when they thought themselves masters of the Kingdom | [224] |
| V. | Absolute Power being subdued, the true spirit of the Revolution forthwith became manifest | [229] |
| VI. | The preparation of the instructions to the Members of the States-General drove the conception of a Radical Revolution home to the mind of the People | [240] |
| VII. | How, on the Eve of the Convocation of the National Assembly, the mind of the Nation was more enlarged, and its spirit raised | [243] |
| Notes and Illustrations | [247] | |
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
TO THE SECOND EDITION.