The French Revolution 1789-1795

by Bertha Meriton Gardiner

Campaign in Belgium.

After the surrender of Condé and Valenciennes, the forces of the allies in Flanders separated. The Duke of York, against Coburg’s desire, went west to lay siege to Dunkirk, while Coburg himself invested Le Quesnoi. The Duke’s forces were in two divisions. He himself with 20,000 men besieged Dunkirk; 15,000 Hanoverians under Freitag remained a few miles inland to watch the enemy. The commander of the garrison opened the dykes and flooded the country, cutting off communication between the two divisions, and confining the Duke’s retreat eastwards to Furnes, along the sea coast. The French General Houchard, bringing together 50,000 men, overpowered Freitag’s 15,000 at the village of Hondschoote, and drove them back on Furnes (September 8). The Duke of York, hastily raising the siege, effected by a night march his retreat to Furnes, and afterwards rejoined the Austrians. Houchard, accused of treason and of neglecting to follow up his victory, was guillotined. In his place was appointed General Jourdan, who in 1791 had entered the army as a volunteer. Le Quesnoi surrendered to Coburg, and the allies next laid siege to Maubeuge. Jourdan, bringing together a large force, defeated at Wattignies 18,000 Austrians, stationed south of the river to guard against his advance (October 16). Coburg in consequence raised the siege, and the armies on both sides retired into winter quarters. The allies during the campaign had won three French fortresses—Condé, Valenciennes, and Le Quesnoi.

Campaign on the Rhine.

After the fall of Mainz the war on the Rhine had flagged. The Austrians proposed to turn south and conquer Alsace, the Prussians to lay siege to Saarlouis. The Austrian plan was adopted, but not vigorously pursued. At Berlin the final settlement of affairs in Poland was regarded as being of more importance to Prussia than anything that might happen in France; and the advisers of Frederick William were unwilling that Prussian troops should shed their blood in conquering Alsace for the Emperor. The French occupied a strong position behind the Lauter, called the lines of Weissenburg. After many weeks’ delay these lines were stormed by a combined attack of the Austrian and Prussian forces (October 11–13). The Austrian general Wurmser then pressed on southwards, eager to reach Strasburg; while Brunswick, who knew that he would give offence at Berlin if he engaged the Prussian troops in a winter campaign in Alsace, blockaded Landau, and began to take up winter quarters in the Vosges. The allied army in this quarter was consequently spread out in a long thin line, extending from Kaiserslautern to Hagenau and Dussenheim. The French forces, divided into two armies, were commanded by two young and talented generals—the Rhine army by Pichegru, the Moselle army by Hoche. Hoche at first made ineffectual efforts to storm Brunswick’s positions round Kaiserslautern, while Pichegru attacked the Austrians. Directed by Carnot, Hoche then placed a portion of his army at Pichegru’s disposal, after which a fierce and unremitting assault was opened on Wurmser’s positions. The Austrian line, broken through and surrounded, gave way on all sides. Wurmser, casting the blame of the disaster on the Prussians, retreated across the Rhine, and Brunswick was compelled to follow him. The siege of Landau was thus raised, and the French reoccupied Spires and Worms (December).

The victory of Wattignies, and still more the expulsion of the allies from Alsace, affected the relations of the factions which were struggling for ascendancy in Paris. The Montagnards resented the subserviency in which they were held by the Commune and by the two Committees; and as the danger of invasion decreased, the stronger grew their desire to shake off the oppressive yoke which they had laid upon themselves by the expulsion of the Girondists. Only a very few of their number really entertained the same ideas as the Hébertists; whilst outside the Committees of Public Safety and General Security, there was scarcely a deputy who did not resent the tyranny exercised by these Committees. Yet the Montagnards could not regain independence. They could not appeal to the deputies of the centre, who crouched in subservience even greater than their own before the Committees and the Commune. They were themselves without courage or union. All sense of political honour was dead, and in order to avoid giving offence, where to do so was dangerous, men were prepared to retract their own words, and to sacrifice their fellows without compunction. Some Montagnards, instigated by fear for their own lives, obtained the adoption of a decree to the effect that the Convention would suffer its members to speak in self-defence when charges were made against them (November 10). A few days afterwards, on the demand of the Committee of Public Safety, the Convention repealed this decree, and ordered the arrest of four deputies, including its proposers against whom a general charge of conspiring against the Republic was laid by the Committee.

The work of the Convention.

Happily, this tale of crouching submission to tyranny does not fill the whole of the annals of the Convention. Men ordinarily silent in the Convention sought shelter in private committees appointed for the preparation of special laws. In these, Montagnards and deputies of the centre still worked side by side, elaborating legislative projects for the advance of education, the reform of the civil law, the improvement of agriculture, the draining of marshes, the suppression of mendicity and the relief of the poor, and others of similar character. Although much of their labour produced no results, still a considerable amount of most important legislation was effected, which dated its commencement from the times when the Girondists had been in power, and which was far more truly characteristic of the Convention as a body than the bloody laws which it passed at the dictation of the Committee of Public Safety speaking in the name of the Jacobins and of the Commune.

The Constituent Assembly had retained, until the proprietors could be compensated, feudal duties presumed to be due for a grant of land. The Legislative Assembly, following a theory which had been entertained by many lawyers—that land was originally free—had decreed the abolition of all duties without indemnity, except in cases where the proprietors could prove the original title, showing that the duties were really due for a grant of land. This as a rule was impossible, the duties being due by prescription only. The new law gave rise to suits, and the Convention destroyed the last vestiges of the feudal system by decreeing the abolition without indemnity of all duties which bore a feudal character. Before the ejection of the Girondists entails were abolished, and parents were also prohibited from making wills favouring one child more than another. Parents were now further prohibited from giving more than a tenth of their property to strangers, or more than a sixth to collateral relations. Illegitimate children were put on the same footing as legitimate. The Legislative Assembly had instituted civil marriages, and had permitted divorce, on the mere ground of incompatibility of temper, with the consent of both parties. A new civil code, clear and simple, and in accordance with the legislation of the revolutionary Assemblies, was being prepared to take the place of the chaos of old laws and customs. The work, however, was but in progress, and the new code was not promulgated by the Convention. Negro slavery was abolished, and men of colour in the colonies received the rights of French citizens. A decree was passed for the establishment of primary schools to be maintained by the State. Instruction was to be gratuitous, attendance compulsory, and no religious teaching allowed. Laws were also passed for the institution of three schools of medicine and a school of natural history at Paris. But little was in reality effected for the instruction of any class. Money and power were both wanting. Instigated by its Committee of Public Instruction, the Convention repeatedly ordered the preservation of the valuable monastic libraries. None the less, the books were neglected, plundered, and scattered. Primary schools, if opened, were, in the country, unattended. Of higher education little was to be had. Suspected of reactionary tendencies, all academies and learned societies had been broken up. Most colleges had disappeared; a few dragged on a feeble existence.

Cambon’s financial measures.

By the side of the two committees of Government, the Committee of Finance occupied an important and, to some extent, an independent position. The Committee of Public Safety possessed no member prepared to undertake the direction of the finances, and it was therefore obliged to leave the initiative to others. The deputy Cambon, who sat on the confines of the Mountain, practically occupied the position of Minister of Finance; and several laws introduced by him were adopted, designed to restore equilibrium between expenditure and revenue, and to prevent increase in the number of assignats in circulation. The State possessed a large number of creditors, some lenders before the revolution, others since; whilst to others compensation was due for abolished offices. All these creditors were put on the same footing. Capital, if due to them, was made irrecoverable, and in all cases five per cent. interest given. The old titles were destroyed and the new entered in a common book, called the Great Book of the Public Debt. The State gained by the operation, more especially in the case of loans contracted before the revolution, often on very onerous terms. A new source of revenue was sought in the imposition of a forced loan, according to the law passed in the spring. The lenders were to be repaid in confiscated lands. This loan was expected to bring in the large sum of 43,750,000l., and assignats to that amount were to be withdrawn from circulation.