Part 48 (1/2)
4 The institution of constitutional govern away of reat Revolution in France
I WORK OF THE BENEVOLENT DESPOTS OF CONTINENTAL EUROPE
THE NEW NATIONALISM LEADS TO INTERESTED GOVERNMENT In England, as we shall trace a little further on, a de, but this democratic life had made but little headway on the continent of Europe There, instead, the dens of develop the sixteenth century had been sta hatreds of the seventeenth, and in the eighteenth century we find autocratic governovernovernly power had everywhere been consolidated, Church and State were in close working alliance, and the new spirit of nationality--in governes, literature, and culture--was being energetically developed by those responsible for the welfare of the States Everywhere, alht of kings to rule and the divine duty of subjects to obey seeovernment the Church now land and the Aer countries of continental Europe had not as yet advanced far enough in personal liberty or political thinking to overn theh, as well as the new hu men, alike tended to awaken a new interest on the part of overned In consequence, during the eighteenth century, we find a nu themselves in harmony with the new spirit of the time, made earnest attempts to i the national welfare We shall here mention the four nations in which the most conspicuous refors, to whoely due, ruled the country during nearly the whole of the eighteenth century They were fully as despotic as the kings of France, but, unlike the French kings, they were keenly alive to the needs of the people, anxious to advance the welfare of the State, tolerant in religion, and in sympathy with the new scientific studies The first, Frederick William I (1713-40), labored earnestly to develop the resources of the country, trained a large army, ordered eles in the royal provinces of the transformation of the schools from the control of the Church to the control of the State His son, known to history as Frederick the Great, ruled fron he labored continually to curtail ancient privileges, abolish old abuses, and i the first week of his reign he abolished torture in trials, made the administration of law more equitable, instituted a liious toleration [3]
He also partially abolished serfdom on the royal domains, and tried to uplift the peasantry and citizen classes, but in this he met with bitter opposition from the nobles of his realed skilled artisans to settle in his doed scientific workers, extended an asyluious persecution in France, [4] and did hout his kingdodom (chapter xxii) he laid the foundations upon which the nineteenth- century Prussian school syste 145 FREDERICK THE GREAT]
His rule, though, was thoroughly autocratic ”Every thing for the people, but nothing by the people”, was the keynote of his policies He had no confidence in the ability of the people to rule, and gave the are wars of conquest, seize territory that did not belong to hireat German hero [5] He may be said to have laid the foundations of modern militarized, socialized, obediently educated, and subject Gerrand-larceny”
and ”scrap-of-paper” policy which has characterized Prussian international relationshi+ps ever since Frederick Williae htened policies of his uncle, reforhtened the burdens of his people, encouraged trade, eue, quickened the national spirit, actively encouraged schools and universities, and began that centralization of authority over the developing educational system which resulted in the creation in Prussia of the first modern state school systes was indeed important, and we shall study it more in detail in a later chapter (Chapter XXII)
THE AUSTRIAN REFORMERS Two notably benevolent rulers occupied the Austrian throne for half a century, and did much to improve the condition of the Austrian people A very remarkable woman, Maria Theresa, came to the throne in 1740, and was followed by her son, Joseph II, in 1780 He ruled until 1790 To Maria Theresa the Austria of the nineteenth century owed ly tireless energy for the advancement of the welfare of her subjects, and toward the close of her reign laid, as we shall see in a later chapter, the beginnings of Austrian school reform
Joseph II carried still further his htenment and reason” into the ads of the eighteenth-century reform philosophers, and deeply imbued with the refores, establish a unifore education, free the serfs, abolish feudal tenure, grant religious toleration, curb the power of the Pope and the Church, break the power of the local Diets, centralize the State, and ”introduce a uniform level of democratic simplicity under his own absolute sway” He atteanization of the Church, abolished six hundred monasteries, [6] and reduced the number of monastic persons in his doht down upon his head the wrath of both priest and noble and died a disappointed man
The abolition of feudal tenure and serfdom on the distinctively Austrian lands, of all his attempted refor commentary on the temporary character of the results which follow atte the lives of people, without at the sa the people to improve themselves
THE SPANISH REFORMERS A very similar result attended the reform efforts of a succession of benevolent rulers thrust upon Spain, during the eighteenth century, by the con politics Over a period of nearly ninety years, extending from the accession of Philip V (1700) to the death of Charles III (1788), reress was imposed by a succession of able s [7] The power of the Church, always the crying evil of Spain, was restricted in many ways; the Inquisition was curbed; the Jesuits were driven fro of heretics was stopped; prosecution for heresy was reduced and discouraged; the ht to fear the law and curb their passions; evils in public adrievances were redressed; the civil service was ied, in place of barren theological speculations; and an earnest effort was enerate the national life and improve the lot of the coh, were imposed from above, and no attempt was made to introduce schools or to educate the people in the arts of self- government The result was that the reforms never went beneath the surface, and the national life of the people reely untouched
Within five years of the death of Charles III all had been lost Under a native Spanish king, thoroughly orthodox, devout, and lacking in any broad national outlook, the Church easily restored itself to power, the priests resuan to exact their full toll, free discussion was forbidden, scientific studies were abandoned, the universities were ordered to discontinue the study of moral philosophy, and the political and social reforenerations to build up were lost in half a decade Notany well- expressed need of the people, and with no schools provided to show to the people the desirable nature of the reforms introduced, it was easy to sweep them aside In this relapse to mediaevalism, the chance for Spain-- a country rich in possibilities and natural resources--to evolve early into a progressive modern nation was lost So Spain has remained ever since, and only in the last quarter of a century has reforun to be evident in this until recently priest-ridden and benighted land
THE INTELLIGENT DESPOTS OF RUSSIA The greatest of these were Peter the Great, who ruled from 1689 to 1725, and Catherine II, who ruled frohteenth-century western spirit, these rulers tried to introduce sohtenment into their as yet almost barbarous land Each tried earnestly to lift their people to a higher level of living, and to start the By a series of edicts, despotically enforced, Peter tried to introduce the civilization of the western world into his country He brought in numbers of skilled artisans, doctors, merchants, teachers, printers, and soldiers; introduced s of western secondary education for the governing classes by the establishymnasia_ [8] Later Catherine II had the French philosopher Diderot (p
482) draw up a plan for her for the organization of a state systeher schools, but the plan was never put into effect The beginnings of Russian higher civilization really date frohteenth-century work
The power of the formidable Greek or Eastern Church remained, however, untouched, and this continued, until after the Russian revolution of 1917, as one of the most serious obstacles to Russian intellectual and educational progress The serfs, too, renorant, superstitious, and obedient
By the close of the eighteenth century Russia, largely under Prussian training, had become a very formidable military power, and by the close of the nineteenth century was beginning to ress of ioing through a stage of national evolution quite comparable to that which took place in France a century and a quarter ago, and the educational ireat people, as we shall point out further on, lies in their future evolution rather than in any contribution they have as yet made to western development
II THE UNSATISFIED DEMAND FOR REFORM IN FRANCE
THE SETTING OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE Eighteenth-century France, on the contrary, developed no benevolent despot to es, temper the rule of the Church, [9] (R 247), curb the in the establishment of schools, and alleviate the hard lot of the serf and the peasant There, instead, absolutethe long reigns of Louis XIV (1643-1715) and Louis XV (1715-74), and the splendor of the court life of France captivated all Europe and served to hide the misery which made the splendor possible
There the power of the nobles had been completely broken, and the power of the parliaments completely destroyed ”I am the State,” exclai and his ministers and favorites fully supported the statement Local liberties had been suppressed, and the lot of the co, downtrodden, but intensely patriotic--retched in the extreme
Approximately 140,000 nobles [10] and 130,000 y owned two fifths of the landed property of France, and controlled the destinies of a nation of approxireat industry of the ti and Church that over one half of the net profits fro were taken for taxation
CHURCH AND STATE WERE IN CLOSE WORKING ALLIANCE The higher offices of the Church were coe incolected their priestly functions much as the Italian appointees in German lands had done before the Refory on the one hand and the peasant-born lower clergy and the ulf existed The real brains of France were to be found aeois class of bankers, merchants, shopkeepers, minor officials, lawyers, and skilled artisans, who lived in the cities and who, ambitious and discontented, didunrest and demand for refor, constantly in need of increasing sums of money; an idle, selfish, corrupt, and discredited nobility and upper clergy, incapable of aiding the king, many of whom, too, had been influenced by the new philosophic and scientific thinking and illing to help destroy their own orders; an aggressive, discontented, and patriotic bourgeoisie, full of new political and social ideas, and patriotically anxious to reforanized peasantry and city rabble, sufferinglittle, but capable of a terrible fury and senseless destruction, once they were aroused and their suppressed rage let loose;--these were the hteenth-century France
THE FRENCH REFORM PHILOSOPHERS During the hteenth century a sroup of reform philosophers in France attacked with their pens the ancient abuses in Church and State, and did ious reform In a series of widely read articles and books, characterized for the uments, these political philosophers attacked the power of the absolute es of the nobles and clergy on the other, as both unjust and inimical to the welfare of society (R 248)
The leaders in the reforot (1727-81), Voltaire (1694-1778), Diderot (1713-84), and Rousseau (1712- 78)
[Illustration: FIG 147 MONTESQUIEU(1689-1755)]
_Montesquieu_ In 1748 appeared Montesquieu's famous book, the _Spirit of Laws_ In this he pointed out the overnlish conditions with the ued that laws should be expressive of the wishes and needs of the people governed, and that the education of a people ”ought to be relative to the principles of good governot as the founder of the sciences of comparative politics [12]
and the philosophy of history--new studies which helped to shape the political thinking of eighteenth-century France