V. had over its movements; but this and all other sobriquets CHAP. were soon merged in the general names of Girondists and Jacobins, who, under the Convention, acquired an immortal celebrity. 1789. 48. nary haste mation of The proceedings of the Assembly in the formation of this constitution were so precipitate, that, in the eyes Extraordiof the few reasonable men left in the commonwealth, they in the forprognosticated nothing but ruin to the country. Medita- the constition and thought there passed for nothing; every one tution. seemed only desirous to gratify his own vanity by anticipating the notions of his rivals; every thing was done at the sword's point, as in a place taken by assault; every change pressed on at full gallop. No interval was allowed for reflection, no breathing-time given to the passions. After having demolished every thing, they resolved to reconstruct the whole social edifice with the same breathless rapidity; and so extravagant was the opinion of the Assembly as to its own powers, that it would willingly have charged itself with the formation of constitutions for all nations. In these monstrous pretensions and ruinous innovations, is to be found the remote but certain cause 159, 160. of all the blood and horrors of the Revolution. 1* 1 Dumont, 49. the absolute The question of the veto, or of the royal sanction being required to validate the acts of the legislature, was next Question of brought under discussion, and excited still more violent veto, which passions. One would have thought, from the anxiety the King. manifested on the subject, that the whole liberty of France depended on its decision, and that the concession *The particulars of this constitution, which was soon swept away amidst the violence and insanity of subsequent times, are too complicated and prolix to be susceptible of enumeration in general history; but one vital part of the fabric is deserving of especial attention. By a fundamental article, France was divided into 83 departments: the primary assemblies, 8000 in number, which were to be convoked every two years to elect the legislature, consisted of 5,000,000 citizens: in addition to this, there were established 48,000 municipal assemblies, composed of 900,000 citizens: 547 district assemblies, and 83 departmental assemblies, for the management of the local concerns of the provinces. But the most dangerous part of this highly democratic constitution remained behind. Each of the primary assemblies named an elector for every hundred citizens, who constituted 83 assemblies of 600 persons each, making in all 50,000 for the whole kingdom, who remained permanently in possession of is denied to V. 1789. CHAP. of this right to the throne would be sufficient to restore the ancient régime. The multitude, ever governed by words, imagined that the Assembly, which had done so much, would be left entirely at the mercy of the King if this power were conceded, and that any privilege left to the court would soon become an anti-revolutionary engine. This was the first question since the Revolution in which the people took a vivid interest, and it may easily be conceived how extravagant were their ideas on the subject. They imagined that the veto was a monster which would devour all the powers they had acquired, and deliver them over, bound hand and foot, to the despotism of the throne. Those who supported the veto were instantly stigmatised as inclining to every species of tyranny. Many, without understanding even so much as that, imagined that it was a tax which it was necessary to abolish, or an enemy who should be hanged; and they loudly demanded that he should be suspended on the lamp-post. Others, better informed, asked, "Should the veto be vested in a single individual, or twenty-five millions of men?" The clubs of the Palais Royal took the most violent measures, and incessantly besieged the Assembly with menacing deputations; efforts were made to array the municipality in insurrection; and the multitude, armed since the 14th of vi. 379,381. July, began to give symptoms of revolt. Alarmed by such 153. Mig.i. dangerous signs, the ministry recommended concession to the King, and he himself preferred a conditional to an absolute vote. The Assembly, by a majority of two to 1 Hist. Parl. Th. i. 148, 86, 87, 156. Aug. 10. their functions for the two years that the legislature sat. These 83 assemblies were invested with powers so considerable, that they almost amounted to the establishment of so many separate republics in one great federal union. They nominated, to the exclusion of the King, the whole local authorities, including the bishops and clergy, the judges, both supreme and inferior, the magistrates and functionaries of every description. They constituted, in short, a permanent political union, legally established in every department, elected by universal suffrage, and wielding within that department nearly the whole influence and authority of government. The Legislative Assembly, which succeeded the Constituent, was chosen under this constitution, and when the nation had become habituated to the exercise of these powers. See CALONNE, 360, 361, and Const. 1789, § 17; Histoire Parlementaire, iii. 41, 56. . one,* decreed that the King should have a veto, but that CHAP. his power to decline sanctioning any legislative measure should not extend beyond two successive legislatures. 1789. 50. "Let Mirabeau supports the crown in the On this occasion Mirabeau supported the crown, and argued strenuously in favour of the absolute veto. us not," said he, "arm the sovereign against the legislature, by allowing a moment to exist in which he may become debate. its involuntary instrument. The nation will find more real security in laws consented to by its chief, than in the revolution which would follow the loss of his power. When we have placed the crown in the hands of a particular family, it is in the last degree imprudent to awaken their alarms, by subjecting them to a control which they cannot resist; and the apprehensions of the depositary of the whole forces of the monarchy cannot be contemplated without the most serious alarm. I would rather live in Constantinople than in France, if laws could be made without the royal sanction,"-words of striking and prophetic import, which were then ill understood or angrily interpreted, but which were recollected with bitter and unavailing regret when the course of events had proved their truth, and the most vehement of their revilers had perished from their neglect. Mounier and Lally Tollendal on this occasion, though members of the committee appointed to frame the constitution, were the leaders of the party who contended for the division of the chambers, the absolute veto, and the formation of the constitution on the model of that of England. They 1 Parl. Hist. even contended for it after the King had, by Necker's ii. 247. advice, agreed to yield the point. After the vote was ii. 343, 346. passed, they were so much disconcerted that they with- Lac.vii.165. drew from the committee on the constitution, and shortly after left the Assembly.1 It is a remarkable fact, singularly illustrative of the rapid progress of revolutionary ideas, when the fever of innovation has once seized upon men's minds, that, in all By a majority of 613 to 325. VOL. I. * 2 Q Deux Amis, Th. i. 154. СНАР. 1789. 51. This was the cahiers. the instructions of the electors to the deputies, without exception, the absolute veto, as well as personal inviolability, had been conceded to the sovereign. A few weeks of agitation-the revolt of the 14th July-the Tenniscontrary to court oath-had overturned all these sober resolutions, the general directions of and the crown was compelled to recede from a privilege which had been unanimously agreed to by the whole kingdom. The instructions in the cahiers, indeed, were most express against almost all the illegal acts and usurpations of the Assembly. They almost invariably secured to the sovereign all the essential prerogatives of the monarchy. They unanimously prescribed a monarchical government for France; that all laws should require the King's sanction to their validity; that he should have the unrestrained right of making peace or war, and appointing the judges; that private property should be inviolate; and, by a great majority, that the rights, estates, and privileges of the clergy should be maintained. The new constitution, the abolition of the absolute veto, the spoliation of the church, already violated these instructions in their most essential particulars: yet not a voice was raised in France to protest against these monstrous and unauthorised stretches of power on the part of the 124, 125, popular representatives. So intoxicating is the possession of power to mankind, and so little are they qualified to bear its seduction, even when the measures to which it leads are most opposed to preconceived ideas, or most at variance with settled resolutions. 1 1 Calonne, 127, 214, 215, 304, 305, 319, 320. Lac. vii. 162. But, in the midst of these projects of political reconstruction, the distress of Paris and of the kingdom was daily increasing, and matters, by the middle of September, had come to such a pass, from the effects of the insurrec *So strongly was this principle expressed in all the cahiers, that the Assembly, by act 17 of the constitution of 5th October 1789, sanctioned it by a special clause in these terms:-"Property of every sort being a sacred and inviolable right, no one can be deprived of it but on the ground of public necessity, legally established and evidently requiring it, and on the condition of a full and ample indemnity."--See Const. 1789, act 17; CALONNE, 215. CHAP. V. 1789. Increased agitation in tion of 14th July, that it was already apparent that a second popular outbreak was approaching. The usual effects of a revolution were experienced-an unavoidable and most alarming increase in the public expenditure, 52. accompanied by a corresponding diminution in the income. misery and The exchequer, the city of Paris, all the public bodies, Paris. were on the verge of bankruptcy; and while the increasing, and now appalling misery of the working-classes, rendered an immediate expenditure of money indispensable, the prevalent confusion had entirely stopped the collection of the revenue, and general insecurity kept the now trembling capitalists aloof from all advances of money by them. Specie had disappeared from circulation; distrust was universal, credit annihilated. The days were past when, on the return of Necker to power, the funds rose thirty per cent in a day; the reality of revolution had dispelled all its illusions. The loan of 30,000,000 francs, voted by the Assembly to assist the government, had proved entirely nugatory, for no one would advance money: a second loan of 80,000,000, at a much higher rate of interest, since attempted, had met with little better success. At the same time, not only were the forced purchases of grain by government, and their sale at a reduced price, unavoidably increasing; but a large body of workmen, thrown out of employment, were maintained at the public expense, for whose support not less than 12,000 francs, or about £500, was daily issued from the treasury in Paris alone. The King and Queen had sent the whole of their plate to be melted Sept. 24. down at the mint, but this proved an inadequate supply for the public necessities, and assuaged but for a short time the miseries of the poor. Finding these projects ineffectual, the minister had the boldness to propose a contribution of a fourth of the income of each individual, and did not 1. vii. disguise that there was no other alternative, and that the 159, 161. rejection of the measure would lead to a stoppage of the iii. 31, 33. pay of the army, and of the interest of the public debt.1 1 Lab. iii. 458, 459. 178. Th. Deux Amis, |