4. Causes of the Duration of the Revolution.
If we limit the Revolution to the time necessary for the
conquest of its fundamental principles—equality before the law,
free access to public functions, popular sovereignty, control of
expenditures, &c.—we may say that it lasted only a few months.
Towards the middle of 1789 all this was accomplished, and during
the years that followed nothing was added to it, yet the
Revolution lasted much longer.
Confining the duration to the dates admitted by the
official historians, we see it persisting until the advent of
Bonaparte, a space of some ten years.
Why did this period of disorganisation and violence follow
the establishment of the new principles? We need not seek the
cause in the foreign war, which might on several occasions have
been terminated, thanks to the divisions of the allies and the
constant victories of the French; neither must we look for it in
the sympathy of Frenchmen for the revolutionary Government.
Never was rule more cordially hated and despised than that of the
Assemblies. By its revolts as well as by its repeated votes a
great part of the nation displayed the horror with which it
regarded the system.
This last point, the aversion of France for the
revolutionary régime, so long misunderstood, has
been well displayed by recent historians. The author of the last
book published on the Revolution, M. Madelin, has well summarised
their opinion in the following words:—
“As early as 1793 a party by no means numerous had
seized upon France, the Revolution, and the Republic. Now,
three-quarters of France longed for the Revolution to be checked,
or rather delivered from its odious exploiters; but these held
the unhappy country by a thousand means. . . . As the Terror was
essential to them if they were to rule, they struck at whomsoever
seemed at any given moment to be opposed to the Terror, were they
the best servants of the Revolution.”
Up to the end of the Directory the government was
exercised by Jacobins, who merely desired to retain, along with
the supreme power, the riches they had accumulated by murder and
pillage, and were ready to surrender France to any one who would
guarantee them free possession of these. That they negotiated
the coup d'État of Brumaire with Napoleon was
simply to the fact that they had not been able to realise their
wishes with regard to Louis XVIII.
But how explain the fact that a Government so tyrannical
and so dishonoured was able to survive for so many years?
It was not merely because the revolutionary religion still
survived in men's minds, nor because it was forced on them by
means of persecution and bloodshed, but especially, as I have
already stated, on account of the great interest which a large
portion of the population had in maintaining it.
This point is fundamental. If the Revolution had remained
a theoretical religion, it would probably have been of short
duration. But the belief which had just been founded very
quickly emerged from the domain of pure theory.
The Revolution did not confine itself to despoiling the
monarchy, the nobility, and the clergy of their powers of
government. In throwing into the hands of the bourgeoisie
and the large numbers of peasantry the wealth and the employments
of the old privileged classes it had at the same stroke turned
them into obstinate supporters of the revolutionary system. All
those who had acquired the property of which the nobles and
clergy had been despoiled had obtained lands and
châteaux at low prices, and were terrified lest the
restoration of the monarchy should force them to make general
restitution.
It was largely for these reasons that a Government which,
at any normal period, would never have been endured, was able to
survive until a master should re-establish order, while promising
to maintain not only the moral but also the material conquests of
the Revolution. Bonaparte realised these anxieties, and was
promptly and enthusiastically welcomed. Material conquests which
were still contestable and theoretical principles which were
still fragile were by him incorporated in institutions and the
laws. It is an error to say that the Revolution terminated with
his advent. Far from destroying it, he ratified and consolidated
it.
