V.

1789.

CHAP. of the King, in presence of his majesty and the Assembly, which was received with universal acclamation. The archbishop concluded with a proposal that the King should receive the title of "Father of his people, Restorer of the Liberty of France;" and the sitting terminated at four in the morning amid unanimous acclamations, which lasted a quarter of an hour.

31.

effects of

these changes.

Indescribable were the transports which this memorable Prodigious sitting awakened in Paris, and throughout all France. "In a single night," said the Moniteur, "the whole fabric of feudal power has fallen to the ground, and the glorious edifice of general liberty emerged in its stead." It has been truly said, that this night changed the political condition of France. It delivered the land from feudal domination, the person from feudal dependence secured the property of the poor from the rapacity of the richthe fruits of industry from the extortion of idleness. By suppressing private jurisdictions, it paved the way for public justice; by terminating the purchase of offices, it, in appearance at least, seemed to lead to purity in the discharge of their duties. The career of industry, the stimulus of ambition, was thenceforward open to all the people; and the odious distinctions of noble and roturier, patrician and base-born, the relics of Gothic conquest, were for ever destroyed. Had these changes been introduced with caution, or had they gradually grown out of the altered condition of society, there can be no doubt that they would have been highly beneficial; but, coming, as they did, suddenly and unexpectedly upon the kingdom, they produced the most disastrous consequences, and contributed, more than any other circumstance, to spread abroad that settled contempt for antiquity, and total disregard of private right, which distinguished the subsequent periods of the French Revolution.

The whole ideas of men were subverted, when rights established for centuries, privileges maintained by successive generations, and institutions held the most sacred,

V.

1789.

Dangers

they were

were at once abandoned. Nothing could be regarded CHAP. as stable in society after such a shock; the chimeras of every enthusiast, the dream of every visionary, seemed equally deserving of attention with the sober conclusions 32. of reason and observation, when all that former ages had with which done was swept away in the very commencement of attended. improvement. All that the eye had rested on as most stable, all that the mind had been accustomed to regard as most lasting, disappeared before the first breath of innovation. "Nullo tribunorum centurionumve adhortante, sibi quisque dux et instigator; et præcipuum pessimorum incitamentum, quod boni morebant." The consequences of such a step could not be other than fatal. It opened the door to every species of extravagance, furnished a precedent for every subsequent spoliation, and led immediately to that intense excitement, amid which the most audacious and the least reasonable are sure of obtaining an ascendency. The event, accordingly, proved the justice of these principles. "The decrees of the 4th August," says Dumont, "so far from putting, as was expected, a stop to the robbery and violence that was going on, served only to make the people acquainted with their own strength, and to inspire them with a conviction that all their outrages against the nobility would pass with impunity. Nothing done through fear succeeds in its object. Those whom you hope to disarm by concessions, are only led by 149. them to still bolder attempts, and more extravagant demands."1

1 Dumont,

33.

against

The consequences of this invasion of private right were soon apparent. Three days after, the popular Argument leaders maintained that it was not the power of redeem- spoliation ing, but the abolition of tithes, which had been voted; church by and that all that the clergy had a right to was a decent Sieyes.

"Without any incitement from the tribunes or leaders, every one indulged in his own vagaries; and that greatest of excitements to the bad, the grief of the good, took place."-TACITUS, Hist. i. 38.

VOL. I.

2 P

of the

Aug. 7.

V.

1789.

CHAP. provision for their members. The church found an able but unexpected advocate in the Abbé Sièyes. "If it is yet possible," said he, "to awaken in your minds the love of justice, I would ask, not if it is expedient, but if it is just, to despoil the church? The tithe, whatever it may be in future, does not at present belong to you. If it is suppressed in the hand of the creditor, does it follow from this that it is extinguished also in that of the debtor, and become your property? You yourselves have declared the tithe redeemable; by so doing you have recognised its legal existence, and cannot now suppress it. The tithe does not belong to the owner of the soil. He has neither purchased it, nor acquired it by inheritance. If you extinguish the tithes, you confer a gratuitous and uncalled-for present on Th. i. 134. the landed proprietor, who does nothing; while you 147. Hist. ruin the true proprietor, who instructs the people in return for that share of its fruits. You would be free, and you know not how to be just.”1

1 Moniteur,

Aug. 7, 8, 1789, pp. 158, 159.

Dumont,

Parl. ii. 255,

257.

34.

spoliation by Mirabeau.

Mirabeau supported the abolition of the tithes. He Argument argued, "The burden of supporting the public worship for church should be borne equally by all: the state alone was the judge whether it should fall exclusively on the landed proprietors, or be made good by a general contribution of the citizens; it robs no one if it makes such a distribution of the burden as it deems most expedient; and the oppressive weight of this impost on the small proprietors loudly called for its imposition on the state in general. For this purpose the clergy should be paid by salaries. It is time, in the midst of a revolution which has brought forth such generous sentiments, that we should abjure the haughty pride which makes us disdain the word salary. I know but three ways of living in society: you must be either a beggar, a robber, or a stipendiary. The proprietor is nothing but the first of stipendiaries. What we call property is nothing but a right to rent-that is, a certain payment out of

V.

1789.

the land. The landowners are the stewards, the agents CHAP. of the social body." The clergy had the generosity to intrust their interests to the equity of the Assembly; the only return they met with was the suppression of tithes, under the condition that the state should fitly provide for religion and its ministers-an obligation which was solemnly committed to the French nation, but which was afterwards shamefully violated, and in fact became perfectly illusory. Thus the first fruit which the clergy derived from their junction with the Tiers Etat was the annihilation of their property, and the reduction of themselves to beggary. In this there 1 Hist. Parl. was nothing surprising; gratitude is unknown in public ii. 257, 259. assemblies. When men vote away the property of 145, 147. others, they can expect no mercy for their own; when Dumont, the foundations of society are torn up, the first to be 135. sacrificed are the leaders of the movement, or the most defenceless of its supporters.1

Lac. vii.

Toul. i. 103.

147. Th. i.

The clergy acted on this occasion with a noble dis- 35.

conduct of

interestedness worthy of their mission. The first in Dignified rank, the chief in station, the richest in possessions, the clergy. were the foremost to make the sacrifice of worldly goods Aug. 11. on the altar of their country. The Archbishop of Aix first signed an unqualified renunciation of his benefices; many of the richest bishops in France immediately followed his example. During more than an hour the signature of these renunciations continued, amidst a transport of applause from the Assembly and the galleries. When the sacrifice had terminated, Juigné, Archbishop of Paris, rose and said, in a voice penetrated with emotion-"We surrender the ecclesiastical tithes into the hands of a just and generous nation: let the gospel be preached; let the Divine worship be celebrated with decency and dignity; let the churches be provided with virtuous and zealous pastors; let the poor be Aug. 10 and succoured - these are the objects to which we devote p. 165. our tithes ; these are the ends of our ministry and

2 Moniteur,

14, 1789,

CHAP.

V.

1789.

36.

decree of

bly.

our cares."

Such," said the Cardinal de Rochefoucauld, "is the wish of all the clergy; and they put their trust in the magnanimity of the nation." With such dignified and elevated sentiments did the church fall in France.

Louis perceived in the clearest manner, amidst this Foresight of chaos of selfishness in some, enthusiasm in others, and Louis, and delusion in all, whither the current was tending; and, the Assem- in a letter addressed to the Archbishop of Arles, he Aug. 11. has left the clearest evidence, both of the sagacity of his perception and the strength of his understanding.* But meanwhile the revolutionary party, seeing their advantage, pursued their aggressions with unabated vigour; and the noblesse and clergy, panic-struck and disunited, and overwhelmed by a decided majority in the Assembly, were unable to oppose any effective resistance. In the evening sitting of the 11th August, the subject of the feudal rights, the game-laws, and the tithes, was resumed; and, after a warm debate, a decree was Décret de passed in such terms as abolished the first, partly on 1789. Hist. condition of an indemnity, partly without it; the second 261. without any indemnity; and the third absolutely without compensation in the case of secular or ecclesiastical

1 Deux Amis, ii. 286, 288.

Aug. 11,

Parl. ii. 259,

* "Je suis content de cette démarche noble et généreuse des deux premiers ordres de l'état. Ils ont fait de grands sacrifices pour la réconciliation générale, pour leur patrie, pour leur Roi. Le sacrifice est beau; mais je ne puis que l'admirer. Je ne consentirai jamais à dépouiller mon clergé, ma noblesse. Je ne donnerai pas ma sanction à des décrets qui les dépouilleraient; c'est alors que le peuple Français un jour peut m'accuser d'injustice ou de faiblesse. M. l'Archévêque, vous vous soumettez aux décrets de la Providence; je crois me soumettre en ne me livrant pas à cet enthousiasme qui s'est emparé de tous les ordres, mais qui ne fait que glisser sur mon âme. Je ferai tout ce qui dépendra de moi pour conserver mon clergé, ma noblesse. Si la force m'obligeait à sanctionner, alors je cèderai; mais alors il n'y aurait plus en France, ni monarchie, ni monarque. Les momens sont difficiles. Je le sais, M. l'Archevêque, et c'est ici que nous avons besoin des lumières du ciel: daignez les solliciter. Nous serons exaucés. - LOUIS. Août 12, 1789." What a picture does this letter exhibit of the wisdom and foresight of the monarch at this crisis when all heads were reeling; and how bitterly does it augment our regret at the unpatriotic and pusillanimous emigration of the noblesse, which left such a sovereign unarmed and helpless in the midst of his enemies! See Correspondance Inédite de LOUIS XVI. i. 140; and Histoire Parlementaire, ii. 248.