Part 61 (2/2)
As a last resort it was resolved to summon the united wisdom of the nation,--to call together the States-General, the almost-forgotten a.s.sembly, composed of representatives of the three estates,--the n.o.bility, the clergy, and the commons, the latter being known as the Tiers etat, or Third Estate. On the 5th of May, 1789, a memorable date, this a.s.sembly met at Versailles. It was the first time it had been summoned to deliberate upon the affairs of the nation in the s.p.a.ce of 175 years. It was now composed of 1,200 representatives, more than one-half of whom were deputies of the commons. The eyes of the nation were turned in hope and expectancy towards Versailles. Surely if the redemption of France could be worked out by human wisdom, it would now be effected.
2. THE NATIONAL, OR CONSt.i.tUENT a.s.sEMBLY (June 17, 1789-Sept. 30, 1791).
THE STATE-GENERAL CHANGED INTO THE NATIONAL a.s.sEMBLY.--At the very outset a dispute arose in the States-General a.s.sembly between the privileged orders and the commons, respecting the manner of voting. It had been the ancient custom of the body to vote upon all questions by orders; and thinking that this custom would prevail in the present a.s.sembly, the king and his counsellors had yielded to the popular demand and allowed the Third Estate to send to Versailles more representatives than both the other orders. The commons now demanded that the voting should be by individuals; for, should the vote be taken by orders, the clergy and n.o.bility by combining could always outvote them. For five weeks the quarrel kept everything at a standstill.
Finally the commons, emboldened by the tone of public opinion without, took a decisive, revolutionary step. They declared themselves the National a.s.sembly, and then invited the other two orders to join them in their deliberations, giving them to understand that if they did not choose to do so, they should proceed to the consideration of public affairs without them.
Shut out from the palace, the Third Estate met in one of the churches of Versailles. Many of the clergy had already joined the body. Two days later the n.o.bility came. The eloquent Bailly, President of the a.s.sembly, in receiving them, exclaimed, ”This day will be ill.u.s.trious in our annals; it renders the family complete.” The States-General had now become in reality the _National a.s.sembly_.
STORMING OF THE BASTILE (July 14, 1789).--During the opening weeks of the National a.s.sembly, Paris was in a state of great excitement. The Bastile was the old state prison, the emblem, in the eyes of the people, of despotism. A report came that its guns were trained on the city; that provoked a popular outbreak. ”Let us storm the Bastile,” rang through the streets. The mob straightway proceeded to lay siege to the grim old dungeon. In a few hours the prison fortress was in their hands. The walls of the hated state prison were razed to the ground, and the people danced on the spot. The key of the fortress was sent as a ”trophy of the spoils of despotism” to Was.h.i.+ngton by Lafayette.
The destruction by the Paris mob of the Bastile is in the French Revolution what the burning of the papal bull by Luther was to the Reformation. It was the death-knell not only of Bourbon despotism in France, but of royal tyranny everywhere. When the news reached England, the great statesman Fox, perceiving its significance for liberty, exclaimed, ”How much is this the greatest event that ever happened in the world, and how much the best!”
THE EMIGRATION OF THE n.o.bLES.--The fall of the Bastile left Paris in the hands of a triumphant mob. Those suspected of sympathizing with the royal party were ma.s.sacred without mercy. The peasantry in many districts, following the example set them by the capital, rose against the n.o.bles, sacked and burned their castles, and either killed the occupants or dragged them off to prison. This terrorism caused the beginning of what is known as the emigration of the n.o.bles, their flight beyond the frontiers of France.
”TO VERSAILLES.”--An imprudent act on the part of the king and his friends at Versailles brought about the next episode in the progress of the Revolution. The arrival there of a body of troops was made the occasion of a banquet to the officers of the regiment. While heated with wine, the young n.o.bles had trampled under foot the national tri-colored c.o.c.kades, and subst.i.tuted for them white c.o.c.kades, the emblem of the Bourbons. The report of these proceedings caused in Paris the wildest excitement. Other rumors of the intended flight of the king to Metz, and of plots against the national cause, added fuel to the flames. Besides, bread had failed, and the poorer cla.s.ses were savage from hunger.
October 5th a mob of desperate women, terrible in aspect as furies, and armed with clubs and knives, collected in the streets of Paris, determined upon going to Versailles, and demanding relief from the king himself. All efforts to dissuade them from their purpose were unavailing, and soon the Parisian rabble was in motion. A horrible mult.i.tude, savage as the hordes that followed Attila, streamed out of the city towards Versailles, about twelve miles distant. The National Guards, infected with the delirium of the moment, forced Lafayette to lead them in the same direction. Thus all day Paris emptied itself into the royal suburbs.
The mob encamped in the streets of Versailles for the night. Early the following morning they broke into the palace, killed two of the guards, and battering down doors with axes, forced their way to the chamber of the queen, who barely escaped with her life to the king's apartments. The timely arrival of Lafayette alone saved the entire royal family from being ma.s.sacred.
THE ROYAL FAMILY TAKEN TO PARIS--The mob now demanded that the king should return with them to Paris. Their object in this was to have him under their eye, and prevent his conspiring with the privileged orders to thwart the plans of the revolutionists. Louis was forced to yield to the demands of the people.
The procession arrived at Paris in the evening. The royal family were placed in the Palace of the Tuileries, and Lafayette was charged with the duty of guarding the king, who was to be held as a sort of hostage for the good conduct of the n.o.bles and foreign sovereigns while a const.i.tution was being prepared by the a.s.sembly.
Such was what was called the ”Joyous Entry” of October 6th. The palace at Versailles, thus stripped of royalty and left bespattered with blood, was never again to be occupied as the residence of a king of France.
THE FLIGHT OF THE KING (June 20, 1791).--For two years following the Joyous Entry there was a comparative lull in the storm of the Revolution, The king was kept a sort of prisoner in the Tuileries. The National a.s.sembly were making sweeping reforms both in Church and State, and busying themselves in framing a new const.i.tution. The emigrant n.o.bles watched the course of events from beyond the frontiers, not daring to make a move for fear the excitable Parisian mob, upon any hostile step taken by them, would ma.s.sacre the entire royal family. Could the king only escape from the hands of his captors and make his way to the borders of France, then he could place himself at the head of the emigrant n.o.bles, and, with foreign aid, overturn the National a.s.sembly and crush the revolutionists.
The flight was resolved upon and carefully planned. Under cover of night the entire royal family, in disguise, escaped from the Tuileries, and by post conveyance fled towards the frontier. When just another hour would have placed the fugitives in safety among friends, the Bourbon features of the king betrayed him, and the entire party was arrested and carried back to Paris.
The attempted flight of the royal family was a fatal blow to the Monarchy.
Many affected to regard it as equivalent to an act of abdication on the part of the king. The people now began to talk of a republic.
THE CLUBS: JACOBINS AND CORDELIERS.--In order to render intelligible the further course of the Revolution we must here speak of two clubs, or organizations, which came into prominence about this time, and which were destined to become more powerful than the a.s.sembly itself, and to be the chief instruments in inaugurating the Reign of Terror. These were the societies of the Jacobins and Cordeliers, so called from certain old convents in which they were accustomed to meet. The purpose of these clubs was to watch for conspiracies of the royalists, and by constant agitation to keep alive the flame of the Revolution.
THE NEW CONSt.i.tUTION.--The work of the National a.s.sembly was now drawing to a close. On the 14th of September, 1791, the new const.i.tution framed by that body, and which made the government of France a const.i.tutional monarchy, was solemnly ratified by the king. The National a.s.sembly, having sat nearly three years, then adjourned (Sept, 30, 1791). The first scene in the drama of the French Revolution was ended.
3. THE LEGISLATIVE a.s.sEMBLY (Oct. 1, 1791-Sept. 21, 1792).
THE THREE PARTIES.--The new const.i.tution provided for a national legislature to be called the Legislative a.s.sembly. This body, comprising 745 members, was divided into three parties: the Const.i.tutionalists, the Girondists, and the Mountainists. The Const.i.tutionalists of course supported the new const.i.tution, being in favor of a limited monarchy. The Girondists, so called from the name (_La Gironde_) of the department whence came the most noted of its members, wished to establish in France such a republic as the American colonists had just set up in the New World. The Mountainists, who took their name from their lofty seats in the a.s.sembly, were radical republicans, or levellers. Many of them were members of the Jacobin club or that of the Cordeliers. The leaders of this faction were Marat, Danton, and Robespierre,--names of terror in the subsequent records of the Revolution.
WAR WITH THE OLD MONARCHIES.--The kings of Europe were watching with the utmost anxiety the course of events in France. They regarded the cause of Louis XVI. as their own. If the French people should be allowed to overturn the throne of their hereditary sovereign, who would then respect the divine rights of kings? The old monarchies of Europe therefore resolved that the revolutionary movement in France, a movement threatening all aristocratical and monarchical inst.i.tutions, should be crushed, and that these heretical French doctrines respecting the Sovereignty of the People and the Rights of Man should be proved false by the power of royal armies.
The warlike preparations of Frederick William III. of Prussia and the Emperor Francis II., awakened the apprehensions of the revolutionists, and led the Legislative a.s.sembly to declare war against them (April 20, 1792).
A little later, the allied armies of the Austrians and Prussians, numbering more than 100,000 men, and made up in part of the French emigrant n.o.bles, pa.s.sed the frontiers of France. Thus were taken the first steps in a series of wars which were destined to last nearly a quarter of a century, and in which France almost single-handed was to struggle against the leagued powers of Europe, and to ill.u.s.trate the miracles possible to enthusiasm and genius.
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