On the State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789; and on the courses which led to that event ... Translated by Henry Reeve

Book I

Chap. I. Opposing Judgments passed on the French Revolution at its origin .. .. 1 ii. the fundamental and final object of the revolution was not, as has been supposed, the destruction of Religious Authority and the weakening of Political Power 9 III. Showing that the French Revolution was a Political Revolution which followed the course of Religious Revolutions, and for what reasons 17 IV. Showing that nearly the whole or Europe had had PRECISELY THE SAME INSTITUTIONS, AND THAT THESE IN- STITUTIONS WERE EVERYWHERE FALLING TO PIECES . . . . 24 V. What was the peculiar scope of the French Revolution 33

Book II

I. Why Feudal Rights had become more odious to the People in France than in any other country . . . . 38 II. Showing that Administrative Centralisation is an Institution anterior in France to the Revolution of 1789, and not the product of the Revolution or of the Empire, as is commonly said 57 III. Showing that what is now called Administrative Tutelage was an Institution in France anterior to the Revolution 75 a CONTENTS. IV n. Page Chap. IV. Exceptional Administrative Jurisdictions and the immunity of Public Officers are Institutions of France anterior to the Revolution 95 V. Showing how Centralisation had been able to introduce itself among the ancient Institutions of France, and to supplant without destroying them 1"° VI. The Administrative Habits of France before the Revolution H-' VII.

Showing that of all European Nations France was already the one in which the metropolis had acquired the greatest preponderance over the Provinces, and where it most completely absorbed the whole Empire 132 VIII. Showing that France was the country in which men HAD BECOME THE MOST ALIKE 141 IX. Showing how Men thus similar were more divided THAN EVER THEY HAD BEEN BEFORE INTO SMALL GROUPS, FOREIGN AND INDIFFERENT TO EACH OTHER 149 X. The Destruction of Political Liberty and the Separation of Classes were the causes of almost all the disorders which led to the Dissolution of the Old Society of France 178 XI. Of the species of Liberty which existed under the Old Monarchy, and of the influence of that Liberty on the Revolution 199 XII. Showing that the Condition of the French Peasantry, notwithstanding the progress of civilisation, was sometimes worse in the eighteenth century than it had been in the thirteenth . . 222 XIII.

Showing that towards the middle of the eighteenth century Men of Letters became the leading Political Men of France, and of the effects of this occurrence CONTENTS. V Chap. Page XIV. Showing how Irreligion had become a general and dominant passion amongst the French of the eighteenth century, and what influence this fact had on the character of the Revolution .. 272 XV. Showing that the French aimed at Reform before Liberty 289 XVI. Showing that the reign of Louis XVI. was the most prosperous epoch of the old french monarchy, and how this very prosperity accelerated the Revolution 310 XVII. Showing that the French People were excited to REVOLT BY THE MEANS TAKEN TO RELIEVE THEM .. 329 XVIII. Concerning some practices by which the Government COMPLETED THE REVOLUTIONARY EDUCATION OF the People of France .. 344 XIX.

Showing that a great Administrative Revolution HAD PRECEDED THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION, AND WHAT WERE THE CONSEQUENCES IT PRODUCED . . . . 353 XX. Showing that the Revolution proceeded naturally from the existing state of France 372 SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. On the Pays d'Etats, and especially on the Constitutions of Languedoc 387 Notes and Illustrations The book I now publish is not a histoiy of the French Revolution ; that histoiy has been written with too much success for me to attempt to write it again. This volume is a study on the Revolution. The French people made, in 1789, the greatest effort which was ever attempted by any nation to cut, so to speak, their destiny in halves, and to separate by an abyss that which they had heretofore been from that which they sought to become here after.

For this purpose they took all sorts of precautions to carry nothing of their past with them into their new condition ; they submitted to every species of constraint in order to fashion themselves otherwise than their fathers were ; they neglected no thing which could efface their identity. I had always thought that they had succeeded in this singular attempt much less than Avas supposed abroad, and less than they had at first supposed themselves. I was convinced that they had unconsciously retained from the former state of society most of the sentiments, the habits, and even the opinions, by means of which they had effected the destruction of that state of things ; and that, without intending it, they had used its remains to rebuild the edifice of modern society, insomuch that fully to understand the Revolution and its work, we must forget for an instant that France which we see before us, and examine in her sepulchre that France which is no more.

This is what I have endeavoured to do ; but I have had more difficulty than I could have supposed in accomplishing this task. The first ages of the French Monarchy, the Middle Ages, and the Revival of Letters, have each given rise to vast researches and profound disquisitions which have revealed to us not only the events of those periods of history, but the laws, the customs, and the spirit of the government and the nation in those eras. But no one has yet taken the trouble to investigate the eighteenth century in the same manner and with the same minuteness. We suppose that we are thoroughly conversant with the French society of that date, because we clearly dis tinguish whatever glittered on its surface, we possess in detail the lives of the most eminent persons of that day, and the in genuity or the eloquence of criticism has familiarized us with the compositions of the great writers who adorned it.

But as for the manner in which public affairs were carried on, the practical working of institutions, the exact relation in which the different classes of society stood to each other, the condition and the feelings of those classes which were as yet neither seen nor heard beneath the prevailing opi nions and manners of the country, all our ideas are confused and often inaccurate. X I have undertaken to reach the cure of this state of society under the old monarchy of France, which is still so near us in the lapse of years, but concealed from us by the Revolution. For this purpose I have not only read over again the celebrated books which the eigh teenth century produced, I have also studied a multitude of works less known and less worthy to be known, but which, from the negligence of their composition, disclose, perhaps, even better than more finished productions, the real instincts of the time.

I have applied myself to investigate tho roughly all the public documents by which the French may, at the approach of the Revolution, have shown their opinions and their tastes. The regular reports of the meetings of the States, and subsequently of the Provincial Assemblies, have supplied me with a large quantity of evidence. I have especially made great use of the In structions drawn up by the Three Orders in 1789. These Instructions, which form in original a long series of manuscript volumes, will remain as the testament of the old society of France, the supreme record of its wishes, the authentic declaration of its last intentions. Such a document is unique in history. Yet this alone has not satisfied me. In countries in which the administrative government is already powerful, there are few opinions, desires, or sorroAvs— there are feAV interests or passions, Avhich are not sooner or later stripped bare before it.

In the archives of such a government, not only an exact notion of its procedure may be acquired, but the whole country is exhi bited. Any stranger who should have ac cess to all the confidential correspondence of the Home Department and the Pre fectures of France, Avould soon know more about the French than they know them selves. In the eighteenth century, the administration of the country, as Avill be seen from this book, was highly centralized, very powerful, prodigiously active. It Avas PRELIMINARY notice. incessantly aiding, preventing, permitting. It had much to promise — much to give. Its influence was already felt in a thousand Avays, not only on the general conduct of affairs, but on the condition of families and the private life of every indiAadual. More over, as this administration Avas Avithout publicity, men were not afraid to lay bare before its eyes even their most secret in firmities.

I have spent a great deal of time in studying what remains of its proceedings, both at Paris and in several provinces.* There, as I expected, I have found the Avhole structure of the old monarchy still in existence, with its opinions, its passions, its prejudices, and its usages. There every * I have more especially used the Archives of some of the great Intendancies, particularly that of Tours, which are very complete, and relate to a very extensive district placed in the centre of France, and peopled by a million of inhabitants. My thanks are due to the young and able keeper of these records, M. Grandmaison. Other districts, amongst them that of the lie de France, have shown me that business was transacted in the same manner in the greater part of the kingdom. man spoke his mind and disclosed his inner most thoughts.

I have thus succeeded in acquiring information on the former state of society, which those who lived in it did not possess, for I had before me that which had never been exposed to them. As I advanced in these researches, I was surprised perpetually to find again in the France of that time many of the characteristic features of the France of our OAvn. I met with a multitude of feelings Avhich I had supposed to be the offspring of the ReA^olution — a multitude of ideas which I had believed to originate there — a multitude of habits which are attributed to the Revolution alone. Everywhere I found the roots of the existing state of French society deeply embedded in the old soil. The nearer I came to 1789, the more distinctly I discerned the spirit Avhich had presided over the formation, the birth, and the growth of the Revolution ; I gradually saw the Avhole aspect of the Revolution un covered before me; already it announced its temperament — its genius — itself.

There, too, 1 found not only the reason of Avhat it Avas about to perform in its first effort, but still more, perhaps, an intimation of Avhat it Avas eventually to leave behind it. For the French Revolution has had tAVO totally distinct phases ; the first, during Avhich the French seemed eager to abolish everything in the past; the second, when they sought to resume a portion of Avhat they had relinquished. Many of the laAvs and political practices of the old monarchy thus suddenly disappeared in 1789, but they occur again some years later, as some rivers are lost in the earth to burst forth again lower down, and bear the same waters to other shores. The peculiar object of the work I hoav submit to the public is to explain Avhy this great Revolution, Avhich Avas in preparation at the same time over almost the Avhole continent of Europe, broke out in France sooner than elsewhere ; Avhy it sprang spontaneously from the society it Avas about to destroy ; and lastly, how the old French Monarchy came to fall so completely and so abruptly.

It is not my intention that the work I have commenced should stop short at this point. I hope, if time and my own poAvers permit it, to folloAV, through the vicissitudes of this long Revolution, these same French men with whom I have lived so familiarly under the old monarchy, and whom that state of society had formed, — to see them modified and transformed by the course of events, but without changing their nature, and con stantly appearing before us Avith features somewhat different, but ever to be recognized. With them I shall proceed to review that first epoch of 1789, when the love of equality and that of freedom shared their hearts — Avhen they sought to found not only the institutions of democracy, but the institutions of freedom — not only to destroy privileges, but to acknowledge and to sanc tion rights : a time of youth, of enthusiasm, of pride, of generous and sincere passion, which, in spite of its errors, will live for ever in the memory of men, and which will still long continue to disturb the slumbers of those Avho seek to corrupt or to enslave them.

Thus rapidly folloAving the track of this same Re\Tolution, I shall attempt to show by Avhat events, by Avhat faults, by what miscarriages, this same French people was led at last to relinquish its first aim, and forgetful of freedom, to aspire only to be come the equal servants of the World's Master — hoAV a government stronger and far more absolute than that AAThich the Revo lution had overthrown, grasped and con centrated all the poAvers of the nation, suppressed the liberties Avhich had been so dearly bought, putting in their place the counterfeit of freedom — calling " sovereignty of the people" the suffrages of electors Avho can neither inform themselves nor concert their operations, nor, in fact, choose — calling " vote of taxes " the assent of mute and enslaved assemblies ; and Avhile thus robbing the nation of the right of self-government, of the great securities of laAV, of freedom of thought, of speech, and of the pen, that is, of all the most precious and the most noble conquests of 1789, still daring to assume that mighty name.

I shall pause at the moment when the Revolution appears to me to have nearly accomplished its Avork and given birth to the modern society of France. That so ciety Avill then fall under my observation : I shall endeavour to point out in Avhat it resembles the society which preceded it, in what it differs, AArhat we have lost in this immense displacement of our institutions, Avhat Ave have gained by it, and, lastly, Avhat may be our future. A portion of this second work is sketched out, though still unworthy to be offered to the public. Will it be given me to complete it? Who can say? The destiny of men is far more obscure than that of nations. I hope I have Avritten this book without prejudice, but I do not profess to have I, written it without passion. No French man should speak of his country and think of his time unmoved.

I acknoAvledge that in studying the old society of France in each of its parts I have never entirely lost sight of the society of more recent times. I have sought not only to discover the disease of Avhich the patient died, but also the means by Avhich life might have been preserved. I have imitated that me dical analysis Avhich seeks in each expiring organ to catch the laAVS of life. My object has been to draw a picture strictly accurate, and at the same time instructive. Whenever I have met amongst our pro genitors Avith any of those masculine virtues Avhich Ave most want and which Ave least possess, — such as a true spirit of inde pendence, a taste for great things, faith in ourselves and in a cause — I have placed them in relief: so too, when I have found in the laws, the opinions, and the manners of that time traces of some of those Aaces which after having consumed the former society of France still infest us, I have carefully brought them to the light, in order that, seeing the evil they haA^e done us, it might better be understood what evils they may still engender.

To accom plish this object I confess I have not feared to wound either persons, or classes, or opinions, or recollections of the past, hoAvever Avorthy of respect they may be. I have done so often with regret, but ahvays without remorse. May those Avhom I have thus perhaps offended forgive me in consideration of the honest and disinter ested object AArhich I pursue. Many Avill perhaps accuse me of shoAving in this book a very unseasonable love of freedom — a thing for which it is said that no one any longer cares in France. I shall only beg those who may address to me this reproach to consider that this is no recent inclination of my mind. More than tAventy years ago, speaking of another community, I wrote almost textually the folloAving observations. b XX Amidst the darkness of the future three truths may be clearly discovered.

The first is, that all the men of our time are impelled by an unknoAvn force which they may hope to regulate and to check, but not to' con quer — a force Avhich sometimes gently moves them, sometimes hurries them along, to the destruction of aristocracy. The second is, that of all the communities in the world those Avhich will always be least able per manently to escape from absolute govern ment are precisely the communities in which aristocracy has ceased to exist and can never exist again. Lastly, the third is, that despotism noAvhere produces more pernicious effects than in these same com munities, for more than any other form of government despotism favours the growth of all the vices to which such societies are specially liable, and thus throws an additional Aveight on that side to which, by their natural inclination, they were already prone.

Men in such countries, being no longer connected together by any ties of caste, of class, of corporation, of family, are but too easily inclined to think of nothing but their private interests, ever too ready to consider themselves only, and to sink into the narroAv precincts of self, in Avhich all public virtue is extinguished. Despotism, instead of combating this tendency, renders it irresistible, for it deprives its subjects of every common passion, of every mutual Avant, of all necessity of combining together, of all occasions of acting together. It immures them in private life : they already tended to separation ; despotism isolates them : they Avere already chilled in their mutual regard ; despotism reduces them to ice. In such societies, in which nothing is stable, every man is incessantly stimulated by the fear of falling and by eagerness to rise; and as money, A\hile it has become the principal mark by which men are classed and distinguished, has acquired an extraordinary mobility, passing Avithout cessation from hand to hand, transforming PRELIMINARY NOTICE. the condition of persons, raising or lowering that of families, there is scarcely a man who is not compelled to make desperate and continual efforts to retain or to acquire it.

The desire to be rich at any cost, the love of business, the passion of lucre, the pursuit of comfort and of material plea sures, are therefore in such communities the prevalent passions. They are easily diffused through all classes, they penetrate even to those classes Avhich had hitherto been most free from them, and Avould soon enervate and degrade them all, if nothing checked their influence. But it is of the very essence of despotism to favour and extend that influence. These debilitating passions assist its Avork : they divert and engross the imaginations of men aAvay from public affairs, and cause them to tremble at the bare idea of a revolution. Despotism alone can lend them the secrecy and the shade Avhich put cupidity at its ease, and enable men to make dishonourable gains Avhilst they brave dishonour.

Without despotic government such passions would be strong : Avith it they are sovereign. Freedom alone, on the contrary, can effectually counteract in communities of this kind the vices which are natural to them, and restrain them on the declivity along Avhich they glide. For freedom alone can withdraAV the members of such a community from the isolation in Avhich the very independence of their condition places them by compelling them to act together. Freedom alone can warm and unite them day by day by the necessity of mutual agreement, of mutual persuasion, and mutual complaisance in the transaction of their common affairs. Freedom alone can tear them from the Avorship of money, and the petty squabbles of their private interests, to remind them and make them feel that they have a Country above them and about them.

Freedom alone can some times supersede the love of comfort by more energetic and more exalted passions can supply ambition Avith larger objects than the acquisition of riches — can create the light which enables us to see and to judge the vices and the virtues of mankind. Democratic communities AArhich are not free may be rich, refined, adorned, mag nificent, powerful, by the Aveight of their uniform mass ; they may contain many private merits, good fathers of families, honest traders, estimable men of property; nay, many good Christians Avill be found there, for their country is not of this world, and the glory of their faith is to produce such men amidst the greatest depravity of manners and under the worst governments. The Roman empire in its extreme decay Avas full of such men. But that which, I am confident, will never be found in such societies, is a great citizen, or, above all, a great people ; nay, * I do not hesitate to affirm, that the common level of the heart and the intellect Avill never cease to sink as long as equality of conditions and despotic power are combined there.

Thus I thought and thus I Avrote twenty years ago. I confess that since that time nothing has occurred in the Avorld to induce me to think or to Avrite othenvise. HaAang expressed the good opinion I had of Free dom at a time when Freedom was in favour, I may be alloAved to persist in that opinion though she be forsaken. Let it also be considered that even in this I am less at variance Avith most of my antagonists than perhaps they themselves suppose. Where is the man who, by nature, should have so mean a soul as to prefer dependence on the caprices of one of his felloAV-creatures, to obedience to laws which he has himself contributed to establish, provided that his nation appear to him to possess the virtues necessary to use freedom aright? There is no such man. Despots themselves do not deny the excel lence of freedom, but they Avish to keep it all to themselves, and maintain that all other men are utterly unworthy of it.

Thus it is not on the opinion AArhich may be entertained of freedom that this difference c subsists, but on the greater or the less esteem Ave may have for mankind ; and it may be said with strict accuracy, that the taste a man may shoAV for absolute government bears an exact ratio to the contempt he may profess for his countrymen. I pause before I can be converted to that opinion. I may add, I think, Avithout undue pre tensions, that the volume noAV published is the product of very extended labours. Sometimes a short chapter has cost me more than a year of researches. I might have surcharged my pages Avith notes, but I have preferred to insert them in a limited number at the end of the volume, Avith a reference to the pages of the text to which they relate. In these notes the reader will find some illustrations and proofs of what I have advanced. I could largely augment the quantity of them if this book should appear to require it. STATE OF SOCIETY IN FRANCE before the REVOLUTION OF 1789.

BOOK I. CHAPTER

I. OPPOSING JUDGMENTS PASSED ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AT ITS ORIGIN. Nothing is better fitted to give a lesson in modesty to philosophers and statesmen than the history of the French Revolution ; for never were there events more important, longer in ripening, more fully prepared, or less foreseen. The great Frederick himself, with all his genius, failed to perceiA^e Avhat Avas coming, and was almost in contact with it without seeing it. Nay, more, he even acted in the spirit of the Revolution beforehand, and was in some sort its precursor, and already its agent ; yet he did not recognize its approach, and when at length it made its appearance, the new and extraordinary I: OPPOSING JUDGMENTS RESPECTING Book I. 2 features which Avere to distinguish its aspect, amidst the countless crowd of human revolutions, still passed unheeded.

The curiosity of all other countries was on the stretch. Every where an indistinct conception arose amongst the nations that a new period was at hand, and vague hopes were excited of great changes and reforms ; but no one as yet had any suspicion of what the Revolution was really to become. Princes and their ministers lacked even the confused presentiment by which the masses were agitated ; they beheld in the Re\Tolution only one of those periodical disorders to which the constitutions of all nations are subject, and of which the only result is to open fresh paths for the policy of their neighbours. Even when they did chance to express a true opinion on the events before them, they did so unconsciously. Thus the principal sovereigns of Germany asembled at Pillnitz in 1791, proclaimed indeed that the danger which threatened royalty in France was common to all the established powers of Europe, and that all were threatened by the same peril ; but in fact they believed nothing of the kind.

The secret records of the period prove that they held this language only as a Chap. I. THE REVOLUTION AT ITS ORIGIN. 3 specious pretext to cover their real designs, or at least to colour them in the eyes of the mul titude. As for themselves, they were convinced that the French Revolution was an accident merely local and temporary, which they had only to turn to good account. With this notion they laid plans, made preparations, and contracted secret alliances ; they quarrelled among them selves for the division of their anticipated spoils ; split into factions, entered into combinations, and were prepared for almost every eArent, ex cept that which was impending. The English indeed, taught by their own his tory and enlightened by the long practice of political freedom, perceived dimly, as through a thick A'eil, the approaching spectre of a great revolution ; but they were unable to distinguish its real shape, and the influence it was so soon to exercise upon the destinies of the world and upon their own was unforeseen.

Arthur Young, who tra\7elled over France just as the Revolution was on the point of breaking out, and who regarded it as imminent, so entirely mistook its real character, that he thought it was a question Avhether it AArould not increase existing privib OPPOSING JUDGMENTS RESPECTING Book I. leges. " As for the nobility and clergy," says he, " if this Revolution were to make them still more preponderant, I think it Avould do more harm than good." Burke, whose genius was illuminated by the hatred with which the Revolution inspired him from its birth, Burke himself hesitated, for a moment uncertain, at the sight. His first pre diction was that France would be enervated, and almost annihilated by it. " France is, at this time, in a political light, to be considered as expunged out of the system of Europe : whether she could ever appear in it again as a leading power, was not easy to determine ; but at present he considered France as not politically existing ; and, most assuredly, it would take up much time to restore her to her former active existence.

Gallos quoque in bellis floruisse audivi mus, might possibly be the language of the rising generation." * The judgment of those on the spot was not less erroneous than that of distant observers. On the eve of the outbreak of the Revolution, men in France had no distinct notion of what it * Burke's speech on the army estimates, 1790. Chap. I. THE REVOLUTION AT ITS ORIGIN. 5 would do. Amidst the numerous instructions to the delegates of the States General I have found but two Avhich manifest some degree of appre hension of the people. The fears expressed all relate to the preponderance likely to be retained by royalty, or the Court, as it Avas still called. The weakness and the short duration of the States General were a source of anxiety, and fears were entertained that they might be sub jected to violence.

The nobility were especially agitated by these fears. Several of their instructions provide, " The Swiss troops shall take an oath never to bear arms against the citizens, not eA7en in case of riot or revolt." Only let the States General be free, and all abuses would easily be destroyed ; the reform to be made was immense, but easy. Meanwhile the Revolution pursued its course. By degrees the head of the monster became visible, its strange and terrible aspect was dis closed : after destroying political institutions it abolished civil institutions also ; after changing the laws it changed the manners, the customs, and even the language of France ; after over throwing the fabric of government it shook the foundations of society, and rose against the Book I. DEVELOPMENT OF 6 Almighty himself. The Revolution soon over flowed the boundaries of France with a vehe mence hitherto unknown, with new tactics, with sanguinary doctrines, with armed opinions — to use the words of Pitt— with an inconceivable force which struck down the barriers of empires, shattered the croAvns of Europe, trampled on its people, though, strange to say, it won them to its cause ; and, as all these things came to pass, the judgment of the world changed.