A Political and Social History of Modern Europe Part 55

"Fraternity" was the symbol of the brotherhood of those who sought to make the world better and happier and more just. In France it found expression in an outburst of patriotism and national sentiment. No longer did mercenaries fight at the behest of despots for dynastic aggrandizement; henceforth a nation in arms was prepared to do battle under the glorious banner of "fraternity" in defense of whatever it believed to be for the nation's interests.

Political liberty, social equality, patriotism in the nation,--these three have been the enduring watchwords of all those who down to our own day have looked for inspiration to the French Revolution.

ADDITIONAL READING

GENERAL. Textbook narratives: J. H. Robinson and C. A. Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe,_ Vol. I (1907), ch. xii, xiii; J. A.

R. Marriott, _The Remaking of Modern Europe, 1789-1878_ (1910), ch. i-vi; H. E. Bourne, _The Revolutionary Period in Europe, 1763- 1815_ (1914), ch. Vi-xvi; H. M. Stephens, _Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1815_ (1893), ch. ii-vi; J. H. Rose, _Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era, 1789-1815_ (1895), ch. Ii-vi; C. A. Fyffe, _A History of Modern Europe, 1792-1878_ (1896), ch. i-iv; H. T. Dyer, _A History of Modern Europe from the Fall of Constantinople,_ 3d ed. rev. by Arthur Ha.s.sall (1901), ch. lii-lxi; Charles Seign.o.bos, _History of Contemporary Civilization,_ Eng. trans. by J. A. James (1909), pp. 92-149. See also H. A. L. Fisher, _The Republican Tradition in Europe_ (1911), ch. i-vii; and Emile Bourgeois, _Manuel historique de politique etrangere,_ 4th ed., Vol. II (1906), ch. i-v, vii.

ONE-VOLUME SURVEYS: Shailer Mathews, _The French Revolution_ (reprint 1912), a clear, well-balanced introduction, ending with the year 1795; Hilaire Belloc, _The French Revolution_ (1911), in the "Home University Library," interestingly written and inclined to be philosophical; R. M. Johnston, _The French Revolution_ (1909), emphasizes the spectacular and military rather than the social and economic; Louis Madelin, _La Revolution_ (1911), written for the general French reader and probably the very best of its kind, now in process of translation into English.

STANDARD HISTORIES OF THE REVOLUTION: Alphonse Aulard, _Histoire politique de la revolution francaise, 1789-1804,_ 3d ed. (1905), Eng. trans. by Bernard Miall, 4 vols. (1910), a painstaking study of the growth of the spirit of democracy and of the rise of the republican movement, by an eminent authority who has devoted many years to a sympathetic study of the Revolution; H. M. Stephens, _A History of the French Revolution,_ 2 vols. (1886-1891), mainly political, generally reliable, but stops short with the Reign of Terror; H. A.

Taine, _The French Revolution,_ Eng. trans. by John Durand, 3 vols. (1878-1885), brilliantly written and bitterly hostile to many of the leaders of the Revolution, a work still famous though many of its findings have been vehemently a.s.sailed by Aulard, the apologist of the Revolution; Jean Jaures (editor), _Histoire socialiste, 1789- 1900,_ 12 vols. (1901-1909), a well-known and highly useful history of France by a group of prominent French Socialists with a penchant for stressing economic matters--Vols. I-IV, by Jaures himself, treat of the years 1789-1794, and Vol. V, by Gabrielle Deville, of 1794-1799; P. A.

(Prince) Kropotkin, _The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793,_ Eng.

trans. by N. F. Dryhurst (1909), emphasizes the role played by the uneducated cla.s.ses, eulogizes Marat, and suggests the conflict of interests between the bourgeoisie and the lower cla.s.ses; Thomas Carlyle, _The French Revolution,_ originally published in 1837, lively literary gossip and commentary rather than narrative history, amusing though often fuliginous, should be read only by those already familiar with the actual events of the Revolution; Albert Sorel, _L'Europe et la revolution francaise,_ 8 vols. (1885-1904), of which Vols. I-V deal with the years 1789-1799 and mainly with the effects of the Revolution throughout Europe, a monumental work of the highest merit; Gustave Le Bon, _La revolution francaise et la psychologie des revolutions_ (1912), trans. by Bernard Miall under the t.i.tle of _The Psychology of Revolution_ (1913), a noteworthy contribution to the study of "mob psychology" as exemplified by the French Revolution; Ernest Lavisse and Alfred Rambaud (editors), _Histoire generale,_ Vol. VIII, a collection of scholarly monographs on various phases of the Revolution; _Cambridge Modern History,_ Vol. VIII (1904), a similar work in English; Heinrich von Sybel, _Geschichte der Revolutionzeit von 1789,_ 3d ed., 5 vols.

(1865-1879), the best and most famous German work on the subject; Wilhelm Oncken, _Das Zeitalter der Revolution,_ 2 vols. (1884- 1886); Adalbert Wahl, _Geschichte des europaischen Staatensystems im Zeitalter der franzosischen Revolution und der Freiheits-Kriege, 1789- 1815_ (1912), useful epitome of foreign relations; emile Leva.s.seur, _Histoire des cla.s.ses ouvrieres et de l'industrie en France de 1789 a 1870,_ Vol. I (1903), Livre I, _La Revolution,_ valuable for the history of the working cla.s.ses; Philippe Sagnac, _La legislation civile de la revolution francaise,1789-1804_ (1898), very important survey of permanent social and civil gains; E. F. Henderson, _Symbol and Satire in the French Revolution_ (1912), interesting side- lights.

SOURCE MATERIALS. Of the vast ma.s.ses of source material available for special study of the French Revolution, the following selections may be found useful and suggestive: F. M. Anderson, _Const.i.tutions and Other Select Doc.u.ments Ill.u.s.trative of the History of France, 1789-1901,_ 2d rev. ed. (1909); L. G. Wickham Legg, _Select Doc.u.ments Ill.u.s.trative of the French Revolution, the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly,_ 2 vols. (1905); Leon Duguit and Henry Monnier, _Les const.i.tutions et les princ.i.p.ales lois politiques de la France depuis 1789_ (1898); H. M. Stephens, _The Princ.i.p.al Speeches of the Statesmen and Orators of the French Revolution, 1789-1795,_ 2 vols. (1892); Leon Cahen and Raymond Guyot, _L'oeuvre legislative de la revolution_ (1913); Alphonse Aulard, _Les grands orateurs de la revolution--Vergniaud, Danton, Robespierre_ (1914); Merrick Whitcomb, _Typical Cahiers of 1789,_ in "Translations and Reprints" of the University of Pennsylvania (1898). In the _Collection de doc.u.ments inedits sur l'histoire economique de la revolution francaise,_ now in course of publication under the auspices of the French Ministry of Public Instruction, have appeared (1906-1915) several volumes of the local _cahiers_ of 1788-1789. See also Armand Brette, _Recueil des doc.u.ments relatifs a la convocation des etats generaux de 1789,_ 3 vols. (1894-1904); P. J. B. Buchez and P. C. Roux- Lavergne, _Histoire parlementaire de la revolution francaise, 1789- 1815,_ 40 vols. (1834-1838), embracing extracts from the debates, quotations from contemporary newspapers and pamphlets, and the text of some of the most important statutes and decrees; _Archives parlementaires de 1787 a 1860_, 1st series _1787-1799_, 82 vols., the official, but not always trustworthy, reports of the debates in the successive French legislative bodies; _Reimpression de l'ancien Moniteur_, 32 vols., a reprint, in several different editions, of one of the most famous Parisian newspapers of the revolutionary period; Alphonse Aulard, _La societe des jacobins_, 6 vols. (1889-1897), a collection of doc.u.ments concerning the most influential political club of revolutionary France. Of the numerous memoirs of the time, perhaps the most valuable are those of Mallet du Pan, Comte de Fersen, Bailly, Ferrieres, and Malouet; see also the _History of My Time_ by the Duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier (1767-1862), Eng. trans. by C. E. Roche, 3 vols.

(1893-1894), especially Part I; and for additional memoirs and other source-material consult the bibliographies in the _Cambridge Modern History_ or in the _Histoire generale_. There are several detailed bibliographies on the French Revolution; and since 1881 the veteran scholar Aulard has edited _La revolution francaise_, devoted exclusively to the subject. For interesting personal impressions of the Revolution by an American eye-witness, see Gouverneur Morris, _Diary and Letters_, 2 vols. (1888). F. M. and H. D. Fling, _Source Problems on the French Revolution_ (1913), is a useful compilation for intensive critical study of various phases of the Revolution.

SPECIAL WORKS ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. W. M.

Sloane, _The French Revolution and Religious Reform_ (1901), a resume of legislation affecting the Church, 1789-1804; Antonin Debidour, _Histoire des rapports de l'eglise et de l'etat en France de 1789 a 1870_ (1898); Pierre de La Gorce, _Histoire religieuse de la revolution francaise_, Vol. I, _1789-1791_ (1909), Vol.

II, _1791-1793_ (1912), comprehensive and exhaustive, sympathetic with the Church but scrupulously fair; Paul Pisani, _L'eglise de Paris et la revolution_, 4 vols. (1908-1911), covering the years 1789-1802, a work of high rank by a canon of Notre Dame; J. F. E.

Robinet, _Le mouvement religieux a Paris pendant la revolution, 1789- 1801_, 2 vols. (1896-1898), primarily a collection of doc.u.ments; The Abbe Bridier (editor), _A Papal Envoy during the Reign of Terror, being the Memoirs of Mgr. de Salamon the Internuncio at Paris during the Revolution, 1790-1801_, Eng. trans. by Frances Jackson (1911); Ludovic Sciout, _Histoire de la const.i.tution civile du clerge, 1790- 1801_, 4 vols. (1872-1881); Alphonse Aulard, _La revolution et les congregations: expose historique et doc.u.ments_ (1903); Edme Champion, _La separation de l'eglise et de l'etat en 1794_ (1903).

SPECIAL WORKS ON CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH OPINION OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

Edward Dowden, _The French Revolution and English Literature_ (1897); H. N. Brailsford, _Sh.e.l.ley, G.o.dwin, and their Circle_ (1913); W. P.

Hall, _British Radicalism, 1791-1797_ (1912); Edmund Burke, _Reflections on the Revolution in France_, in many editions, a furious and prejudiced arraignment of the whole movement; John (Viscount) Morley, _Edmund Burke_ (1879), an apology for Burke; John MacCunn, _The Political Philosophy of Burke_ (1913), clear and concise though somewhat less laudatory of Burke; _The Life and Writings of Thomas Paine_, edited by D. E. Wheeler, 10 vols. (1909), the most elaborate edition of the writings of the chief English friend of the Revolution; Paine's _The Rights of Man_ has appeared in many other editions.

SECONDARY WORKS ON OTHER SPECIAL TOPICS. On the wars 1792-1795: Arthur Chuquet, _Les guerres de la revolution_, 11 vols. (1886-1896), very detailed, coming down only to September, 1793; A. T. Mahan, _The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793- 1812_, Vol. I, 10th ed. (1898); Mrs. Maxwell-Scott, _Life of the Marquise de la Rochejaquelein_ (1912), and Ida A. Taylor, _The Tragedy of an Army: La Vendee in 1793_ (1913), two sympathetic and popular accounts of the Vendean Revolt. On the Terror: H. A. Wallon, _La Terreur_, 2 vols. (1881), and, by the same author, _Les representants du peuple en mission_, 5 vols. (1889-1890), and _Le tribunal revolutionnaire_, 2 vols. (1900); Louis Mortimer-Ternaux, _Histoire de la Terreur, 1792-1794_, 8 vols. (1862); Edmond Bire, _La legende des girondins_ (1881); Charles de Ricault Hericault, _La revolution de thermidor_, 2d ed. (1878). On the Directory, 1795-1799: Ludovic Sciout, _Le Directoire_, 2 vols. (1895-1896).

BIOGRAPHIES. Of Mirabeau, the best biography in English undoubtedly will be that of F. M. Fling, projected in three volumes, of which Vol.

I, _The Youth of Mirabeau_, was published in 1908; the most recent and convenient French treatment is by Louis Barthou (1913); a standard German work is Alfred Stern, _Das Leben Mirabeaus_, 2 vols. (1889); and for a real insight into Mirabeau's character and policies, reference should be made to his _Correspondance avec le comte de la Marck_, 3 vols. (1851). Hilaire Belloc has written very readable and suggestive English biographies of _Danton_ (1899), _Robespierre_ (1901), and _Marie Antoinette_ (1909). Perhaps the best brief appreciation of _Danton_ is that by Louis Madelin (1914); J. F. E. Robinet has written a valuable _Danton_ (1889), and likewise a _Condorcet_ (1893). The elaborate _Histoire de Robespierre et du coup d'etat du 9 thermidor_ by Ernest Hamel, 3 vols. (1865-1867), is marred by excessive hero-worship.

Jules Claretie, _Camille Desmoulins, Lucille Desmoulins: etude sur les dantonistes_ (1875), a charming biography, has been translated into English. Among other useful biographies of persons prominent during the Revolution, the following might be consulted with profit: J. H.

Clapham, _The Abbe Sieyes: an Essay in the Politics of the French Revolution_ (1912); E. D. Bradby, _The Life of Barnave_, 2 vols.

(1915), containing vivid descriptions of the National Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly; Francois Chevremont, _Jean-Paul Marat_, 2 vols. (1880); Charles Vatel, _Vergniaud_, 2 vols. (1873), and, by the same author, _Charlotte de Corday et les girondins: pieces cla.s.sees et annotees_, 3 vols. (1864-1872); Arthur Chuquet, _Dumouriez_ (1914); Pouget de Saint- Andre, _Le general Dumouriez, 1739-1823_ (1914); C. A. Dauban, _etude sur Madame Roland et son temps_ (1864); Bernard Mallet, _Mallet du Pan and the French Revolution_(1902); E. B, Bax, _Babeuf: the Last Episode of the French Revolution_ (1911).

CHAPTER XVI

THE ERA OF NAPOLEON

[Sidenote: Introductory]

From 1799 to 1814 the history of Europe was the history of France, and the history of France was the biography of Napoleon Bonaparte. So completely did this masterful personality dominate the course of events that his name has justly been used to characterize this era. The Era of Napoleon stands out as one of the most significant periods in modern times. Apart from its importance as marking a revolution in the art of war, it bore memorable results in two directions: (1) the adaptation of revolutionary theories to French practical political necessities, and the establishment of many of the permanent inst.i.tutions of present-day France; and (2) the communication of the revolutionary doctrines of the French Revolution far and wide throughout Europe, so that henceforth the movement was general rather than local.

During the first five years of the era (1799-1804) France remained formally a republic. It was in these years that General Bonaparte, as First Consul, consolidated his country and fashioned the nature of the lasting gains of the Revolution. Thenceforth, from 1804 to 1814, France was an empire, established and maintained by military force. Then it was that the national hero--self-crowned Napoleon I, emperor of the French,--by means of war, conquest, annexation, or alliance, spread the ideas of his country far and wide throughout Europe. Before we review the main activities of the constructive consulate or of the proselyting empire, we should have some notion of the character of the leading actor.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC UNDER THE CONSULATE, 1799-1804

[Sidenote: Napoleon Bonaparte]

When General Bonaparte executed the _coup d'etat_ of 1799 and seized personal power in France, he was thirty years of age, short, of medium build, quiet and determined, with cold gray eyes and rather awkward manners. His early life had been peculiarly interesting. He was born at Ajaccio in Corsica on 15 August, 1769, just after the island had been purchased by France from Genoa but before the French had fully succeeded in quelling a stubborn insurrection of the Corsicans.

Belonging to a prominent and numerous Italian family,--at the outset his name was written Napoleone di Buonaparte,--he was selected along with sons of other conspicuous Corsican families to be educated at public expense in France. In this way he received a good military education at Brienne and at Paris. He early displayed a marked fondness for the study of mathematics and history as well as for the science of war; and, though reserved and taciturn, he was noticeably ambitious and a keen judge of men.

During his youth Buonaparte dreamed of becoming the leader in establishing the independence of Corsica, but the outbreak of the French Revolution afforded him a wider field for his enthusiasm and ambition. Already an engineer and artilleryman, he threw in his lot with the Jacobins, sympathized at least outwardly with the course of the Revolution, and was rewarded, as we have seen, with an important place in the recapture of Toulon (1793) and in the defense of the Convention (1795). It was not, however, until his first Italian campaign,--when incidentally he altered his name to the French form, Bonaparte,--that he acquired a commanding reputation as the foremost general of the French Republic.

[Sidenote: Character of Bonaparte]

How Bonaparte utilized his reputation in order to make himself master of his adopted country has already been related. It was due in large part to an extraordinary opportunity which French politics at that time offered. But it was due, likewise, to certain characteristic qualities of the young general. In the first place, he was thoroughly convinced of his own abilities. Ambitious, selfish, and egotistical, he was always thinking and planning how he might become world-famous.

Fatalistic and even superst.i.tious, he believed that an unseen power was leading him on to higher and grander honors. He convinced his a.s.sociates that he was "a man of destiny." Then, in the second place, Bonaparte possessed an effective means of satisfying his ambition, for he made himself the idol of his soldiers. He would go to sleep repeating the names of the corps, and even those of some of the individuals who composed them; he kept these names in a corner of his memory, and this habit came to his aid when he wanted to recognize a soldier and to give him a cheering word from his general. He spoke to the subalterns in a tone of good fellowship, which delighted them all, as he reminded them of their "common feats of arms." Then, in the third place, Bonaparte was a keen observer and a clever critic. Being sagacious, he knew that by 1799 France at large was weary of weak government and perpetual political strife and that she longed to have her scars healed by a practical man. Such a man he instinctively felt himself to be. In the fourth place, Bonaparte was a politician to the extreme of being unscrupulous. Knowing what he desired, he was ready and willing to employ any means to attain his ends. No love for theories or principles, no fear of G.o.d or man, no sentimental aversion from bloodshed, nothing could deter him from striving to realize his vaulting but self-centered ambition. Finally, there was in his nature an almost paradoxical vein of poetry and art which made him human and often served him well. He dreamed of empires and triumphs. He reveled in the thought of courts and polished society. He entertained a sincere admiration for learning. His highly colored speeches to his soldiers were at once brilliant and inspiriting. His fine instinct of the dramatic gave the right setting to all his public acts. And in the difficult arts of lying and deception, Bonaparte has never been surpa.s.sed.

[Sidenote: The Government Of The Consulate: Const.i.tution Of The Year VIII]

Such was the man who effected the _coup d'etat_ of 18 Brumaire (November, 1799). His first work in his new role was to publish a const.i.tution, which he prepared in conjunction with the Abbe Sieyes and which was to supersede the Const.i.tution of the Year III. It concealed the military despotism under a veil of popular forms. The doc.u.ment named three "consuls," the first of whom was Bonaparte himself, who were to appoint a Senate. From lists selected by general election, the Senate was to designate a Tribunate and a Legislative Body. The First Consul, in addition to conducting the administration and foreign policies and having charge of the army, was to propose, through a Council of State, all the laws. The Tribunate was to discuss the laws without voting on them. The Legislative Body was then to vote on the laws without discussing them. And the Senate, acting as a kind of supreme court, was to decide all const.i.tutional questions. Thus a written const.i.tution was provided, and the principle of popular election was recognized, but in last a.n.a.lysis all the power of the state was centered in the First Consul, who was Napoleon Bonaparte.

The doc.u.ment was forthwith submitted for ratification to a popular vote, called a _plebiscite_. So great was the disgust with the Directory and so unbounded was the faith of all cla.s.ses in the military hero who offered it, that it was accepted by an overwhelming majority and was henceforth known in French history as the Const.i.tution of the Year VIII.

[Sidenote: Foreign Danger Confronting France]

One reason why the French nation so readily acquiesced in an obvious act of usurpation was the grave foreign danger that threatened the country. As we have noted in another connection, the armies of the Second Coalition in the course of 1799 had rapidly undone the settlement of the treaty of Campo Formio, and, possessing themselves of Italy and the Rhine valley, were now on the point of carrying the war into France. The First Consul perceived at a glance that he must face essentially the same situation as that which confronted France in 1796.

[Sidenote: Dissolution of the Second Coalition]

The Second Coalition embraced Great Britain, Austria, and Russia.

Bonaparte soon succeeded by flattery and diplomacy not only in securing the withdrawal of Russia but in actuating the half-insane Tsar Paul to revive against Great Britain an Armed Neutrality of the North, which included Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark. Meanwhile the First Consul prepared a second Italian campaign against Austria. Suddenly leading a French army through the rough and icy pa.s.ses of the Alps, he descended into the fertile valley of the Po and at Marengo in June, 1800, inflicted an overwhelming defeat upon the enemy. French success in Italy was supplemented a few months later by a brilliant victory of the army under Moreau at Hohenlinden in southern Germany. Whereupon Austria again sued for peace, and the resulting treaty of Luneville (1801) reaffirmed and strengthened the provisions of the peace of Campo Formio.

[Sidenote: Truce between France and Great Britain: Treaty of Amiens, 1802]

Meanwhile, steps were being taken to terminate the state of war which had been existing between France and Great Britain since 1793. Although French arms were victorious in Europe, the British squadron of Lord Nelson (1758-1805) had managed to win and retain the supremacy of the sea. By gaining the battle of the Nile (1 August, 1798) Nelson had cut off the supplies of the French expedition in Egypt and eventually (1801) obliged it to surrender. Now, by a furious bombardment of Copenhagen (2 April, 1801), Nelson broke up the Armed Neutrality of the North. But despite the naval feats of the British, republican France seemed to be unconquerable on the Continent. Under these circ.u.mstances a treaty was signed at Amiens in March, 1802, whereby Great Britain promised to restore all the colonial conquests made during the war, except Ceylon and Trinidad, and tacitly accepted the Continental settlement as defined at Luneville. The treaty of Amiens proved to be but a temporary truce in the long struggle between France and Great Britain.

[Sidenote: French Reforms under the Consulate]

So far, the Consulate had meant the establishment of an advantageous peace for France. With all foreign foes subdued, with territories extended to the Rhine, and with allies in Spain, and in the Batavian, Helvetic, Ligurian, and Cisalpine republics, the First Consul was free to devote his marvelous organizing and administrative instincts to the internal affairs of his country. The period of the Consulate (1799- 1804) was the period of Bonaparte's greatest and most enduring contributions to the development of French inst.i.tutions.

[Sidenote: The Revolutionary Heritage]

Throughout his career Bonaparte professed himself to be the "son of the Revolution," the heir to the new doctrine of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. It was to the Revolution that he owed his position in France, and it was to France that he claimed to be a.s.suring the results of the Revolution. Yet, in actual practice, it was equality and fraternity, but not liberty, that were preserved by the First Consul.

"What the French people want," he declared, "is equality, not liberty."

In the social order, therefore, Bonaparte rigidly maintained the abolition of privilege, of serfdom and feudalism, and sought to guarantee to all Frenchmen equal justice, equal rights, equal opportunity of advancement. But in the political order he exercised a tyranny as complete, if less open, than that of Louis XIV.

[Sidenote: Administrative Centralization]