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power.

III.

1789.

It is the intention of nature that the power of CHAP. the people should increase as society advances; but it is not her intention that this increase should take place in such a way as to convulse the state, and ultimately extinguish their own freedom. All improvements that are really beneficial, all changes which are destined to be lasting, are gradual in their progress. It is by suddenly increasing the power of the lower orders that the frame of society is endangered, because the immediate effect of such a change is to unsettle men's minds, and bring into full play the most visionary and extravagant ideas of the most desperate and ambitious men. Such an effect was produced in France by the duplication of the Tiers Etat and the union of the orders in 1788; and similar consequences will, in all ages, be found to attend the concession of great political powers, at a period of more than ordinary political excitation.

157.

headed by

classes.

"No revolution," says Madame de Stael, "can succeed in a great country, unless it is commenced by the aristo- Revolution cratic class; the people afterwards get possession of it, the higher but they cannot strike the first blow. When I recollect that it was the parliaments, the nobles, and the clergy, who first strove to limit the royal authority, I am far from intending to insinuate that their design in so doing was culpable. A sincere enthusiasm then animated all ranks of Frenchmen; public spirit had spread universally; and among the higher classes, the most enlightened and generous were those who ardently desired that public opinion should have its due sway in the direction of affairs. But can the privileged ranks, who commenced the Revolution, accuse those who only carried it on? Some will say, we wished only that the changes should proceed a certain length; others, that they should go a step farther; but who can regulate the impulse of a great people, when once put in motion ?"1 A heavy responsibility attaches 1 Rév. to those of the higher ranks, who, during periods of agita- 125. tion, support the demands of the populace for a sudden

Franç. i.

III.

1789.

CHAP. increase of power, instead of directing their desires to what may really benefit them, the redress of experienced evils. On their heads rest all the disasters and bloodshed which necessarily follow in their train. It is difficult to say which are most worthy of reprobation-the haughty aristocrats, who resist every attempt at practical improvement when it can be done with safety, or the factious demagogues, who urge on additions to popular power when it threatens society with convulsions. The true patriot is the reverse of both: he will, in every situation, attach himself to the party which resists the evils that threaten his country; in periods when liberty is endangered he will side with the popular, in moments of agitation will support the monarchical party.

CHAPTER IV.

FROM THE MEETING OF THE

TAKING OF THE BASTILLE.

STATES-GENERAL TO THE
MAY 5-JULY 15, 1789.

"The

IV.

1789.

1.

Elevated

state of

science at

the date of

the Revolu

tion.

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Legibus,

It is a common, but a very fatal mistake, to suppose CHAP. that ignorance is the greatest evil which can afflict a nation. The want of knowledge is not so much to be feared as its perversion; for the one leaves men powerless animals, the other makes them powerful demons. higher branches of science," says Plato, "are not useful to all, but only to a few ; general ignorance is neither the greatest evil, nor the most to be feared; a mass of illdigested information is much more dangerous."1 "A little 1 Plato de knowledge," says Bacon, "makes men irreligious; but lib. vii. profound thought brings them back to devotion." In the truths unfolded by these great men, are to be found the remote sources of the miseries of the French Revolution. Science had never attained a more commanding height than in France at the close of the eighteenth century: astronomy, by the aid of mathematical calculations, had, first of all the exact sciences, been brought almost to perfection; the profound researches of her geometricians had rivalled all but Newton's glory; while the talents of her chemists, and the genius of her naturalists, had explored the hidden processes of Nature, and ere long made the remains of animated life unfold the pristine order of creation. What, then, was wanting to fit her people for rational liberty, and qualify them for the exercise of the

IV.

CHAP. rights of freemen? A sense of religion, the habits of sober thought, and moderation of general opinion and the want of these rendered all the other advantages of no avail.

1789.

2.

Rashness

of the Con

stituent

and peril

of hasty

History affords no example of an era in which innovation was so hastily hurried on, and ambition so blindly worshipped; when the experience of ages was so haughAssembly, tily rejected, and the fancies of the moment so rashly innovation, adopted; in which the rights of property were so scandalously violated, and the blood of the innocent so profusely shed. If we trace these frightful disorders to their source, we shall find them all springing from the pride of a little knowledge from historical analogies being imperfectly understood, examples of antiquity rashly misapplied, dreams of perfection crudely conceived, speculations of the moment instantly acted upon. The danger of proceeding on such false conclusions had been repeatedly exposed; the annals of Tacitus, the discourses of Machiavel, the essays of Bacon, had long before illustrated it; but these and all the other lessons of experience were passed over with disdain, and every village politician who had dreamed of politics for a few months, deemed himself superior to the greatest men whom the world had ever produced. The great risk of setting the ideas of men afloat upon political subjects consists in the multitude who can think, compared to the few who can think correctly; in the rapidity with which the most stable institutions can be overturned, compared with the slow rate at which they can be restored. Every man can speak of politics; there is not one in ten who can understand them: every man flatters himself he knows something of history; to be qualified to reason justly upon it requires the incessant study of half a lifetime. But, unfortunately, the knowledge of the difficulty of the subject, and of the extensive information which it requires, is one of the last acquisitions of the human mind: none are so rash as those who are worst qualified to govern; none are so

really worthy of the lead as those who are least desirous CHAP. of assuming it.

IV.

1789.

3.

The 5th of May, 1789, was the day fixed for the opening of the States-general: with that day the French Opening of Revolution actually began.

the States

general.

On the evening before, a religious ceremony preceded the installation of the Estates. The King, his family, his May 4. ministers, and the deputies of the three orders, walked in procession from the church of Notre Dame to that of St Louis, to hear mass. The appearance of the assembled bodies, and the reflection that a national solemnity, so long fallen into disuse, was about to be revived, excited the most lively enthusiasm in the multitude. The weather was fine; the benevolent and dignified air of the monarch, the graceful manners of the Queen, the pomp and splendour of the ceremony, and the undefined hopes which it excited, exalted the spirits of all who witnessed it. But the reflecting observed with pain, that the sullen lines of feudal etiquette were preserved with rigid formality, and they augured ill of the national representation which commenced its labours amid such distinctions. First marched the clergy in grand costume, with violet robes; next the noblesse, in black dresses, with gold vests, lace cravats, and hats adorned with white plumes; last, the Tiers Etat, arrayed in black, with short cloaks, muslin cravats, and hats without feathers. But the friends of the people consoled themselves with the observation, that, however humble their attire, the numbers of this class greatly preponderated over those of the other orders. It was observed that the Duke of Orleans, who walked last, as of highest rank among the nobles, lingered behind, and was surrounded by the dense masses of the Tiers Etat, who immediately followed. Hardly any of the deputies had hitherto acquired great popular reputation. One alone attracted general attention. Born of noble parents, he had warmly espoused the popular side, without losing the

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