Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

because they came too late. It is difficult to say what they call soon enough, when it is recollected that these concessions were made before the deputies had even verified their powers; before a single decree of the Assembly had passed, at the very opening of their sittings; and when all their proceedings up to that hour had been an illegal attempt to centre in themselves all the powers of government. But, in truth, what rendered that solitary act of vigour so disasthat it was totally unsupported; that no measures were simultaneously taken to make the royal authority respected; that the throne was worsted from its own want of foresight in the very first contest with the Commons, and above all, that the army betrayed their sovereign and rendered resistance impossible, by joining the rebels to his government.

trous was,

The National Assembly, like every other body which commits itself to the gale of popular applause, experienced the utmost disquietude at the thoughts of punishing any of the excesses of their popular supporters. How exactly is the following description applicable to all times and nations!

"The disorders which were prolonged in the provinces, the massacres which stained the streets of Paris, induced many estimable persons to propose an address of the Assembly, condemnatory of such proceedings to the people. The Assembly, however, was so apprehensive of offending the multitude, that they regarded as a snare every motion tending to repress the disorders, or censure the popular excesses. Secret distrust and disquietude was at the bottom of every heart. They had triumphed by means of the people, and they could not venture to show themselves severe towards them; on the contrary, though they frequently declared, in the preambles of their decrees, that they were profoundly afflicted at the burning of the chateaux and the insults to the nobility, they rejoiced in heart at the propagation of a terror which they regarded as indispensable to their designs. They had reduced themselves to the necessity of fearing the noblesse, or being feared by them. They condemned publicly, they protected secretly; they conferred compliments on the constituted authorities, and gave encouragement to license. Respect for the executive power was nothing but words of style; and in truth, when the ministers of the crown revealed the secret of their weakness, the Assembly, which remembered well its own terrors, was not displeased that fear had changed sides. If you are sufficiently powerful to cause yourselves to be respected by the people, you will be sufficiently so to inspire us with dread; that was the ruling feeling of the Cote Gauche."-P. 134.

This is precisely a picture of what always must be the feeling in regard to tumult and disorders of all who have committed their political existence to the waves of popular support. However much, taken individually, they may disapprove of acts of violence, yet when they feel that intimidation of their oppopents is their sheet-anchor, they cannot have an insurmountable aversion to the deeds by which it is to be effected. They would prefer, indeed, th it terror should answer their pur

poses without the necessity of blows being actually inflicted; but if mere threats are insufficient, they never fail to derive a secret satisfaction from the recurrence of examples calculated to show what risks the enemy runs. The burning of castles, the sacking of towns, may indeed alienate the wise and the good; but alas! the wise and the good form but a small proportion of mankind; and for one whose eyes are opened by the commencement of such deeds of horror, ten will be so much overawed, as to lose all power of acting in obedience to the newly awakened and better feelings of his mind.

"Intimidation," as Lord Brougham has well observed, "is the never-failing resource of the partisans of revolution in all ages. Mere popularity is at first the instrument by which this unsteady legislature is governed; but when it becomes apparent that whoever can obtain the direction or command of it must possess the whole authority of the state, parties become less scrupulous about the means they employ for that purpose, and soon find out that violence and terror are infinitely more effectual and expeditious than persuasion and eloquence. Encouraged by this state of affairs, the most daring, unprincipled, and profligate, proceed to seize upon the defenceless legislature, and, driving all their antagonists before them by violence or intimidation, enter without opposition upon the supreme functions of go vernment. The arms, however, by which they had been victorious, are speedily turned against themselves, and those who are envious of their success, or ambitious of their distinction, easily find means to excite discontents among the multitude, and to employ them in pulling down the very individuals whom they had so recently elevated. This disposal of the legislature then becomes a prize to be fought for in the clubs and societies of a corrupted metropolis, and the institution of a national representation has no other effect than that of laying the government open to lawless force and flagitious audacity. It was in this manner that, from the want of a natural and efficient aristocracy to exercise the functions of hereditary legislators, the National Assembly of France was betrayed into extravagance, and fell a prey to faction; that the Institution itself became a source of public misery and disorder, and converted a civilized monarchy first into a sanguinary democracy, and then into a military despotism." How exactly is the progress, here so well described, applicable to these times! "Take this bill or anarchy," says Mr. Macauley.-"Lord Grey,” says the Times, "has brought the country into such a state, that he must either carry the Reform Bill or incur the responsibility of a revolution." How exactly is the career of democratic insanity and revolutionary ambition the same in all ages and countries!

[ocr errors]

Dumont, as already mentioned, was a leading member of the committee which prepared the famous declaration on the Rights of Man. He gives the following interesting account of the revolt of a candid and sagacious mind at the absurdities which a regard to the popular opinion constrained them to adopt:

* Edinburgh Review, vi. 148.
+ Times, March 27, 1832.

and wished to suppress the work of their own
hands. They could not do so, however, and
were constrained, by the dread of losing their
popularity, to throw into the bosom of an ex
cited people a firebrand, which they themselves
foresaw would speedily lead to a conflagration.
Such is the desperate, the hopeless state of
slavery, in which, during periods of excite-
ment, the representatives of the mob are held
by their constituents.
The whole purposes

of a representative form of government are at
once destroyed; the wisdom, experience, study,
and reflection of the superior class of states-
men are trodden under foot; and the enlight
ened have no chance of keeping possession of
the reins of power, or even influencing the
legislature, but by bending to the passions of
the ignorant.

This consideration affords a decisive argument in favour of the close, aye, the nomination boroughs. Their existence, and their existence in considerable numbers, is indispensable towards the voice of truth being heard in the national councils in periods of excitement, and the resistance to those measures of innovation, which threaten to destroy the liberties, and terminate the prosperity, of the people. From the popular representatives during such periods it is in vain to expect the language of truth; for it would be as unpalatable to the sovereign multitude as to a sovereign despot. Members of the legislature, therefore, are indispensably necessary in considerable numbers, who, by having no popular constituents, can venture to speak out the truth in periods of agitation, innovation, and alarm. The Re

Duroverai, Claviere, and myself, were | ing up their perilous and highly inflammatory named by Mirabeau to draw up that celebrated declaration, they were aware of its absurdity, declaration. During the course of that mournful compilation, reflections entered my mind which had never before found a place there. I soon perceived the ridiculous nature of the undertaking. A declaration of rights, I immediately saw, may be made after the proclamation of a constitution, but not before it; for it is laws which give birth to rights-they do not follow them. Such general maxims are highly dangerous; you should never bind a legislature by general propositions, which it afterwards becomes necessary to restrain or modify. 'Men,' says the declaration, ' are born free and equal;' that is not true; they are so far from being born free, that they are born in a state of unavoidable weakness and dependence: Equal-where are they? where can they be? It is in vain to talk of equality, when such extreme difference exists, and ever must exist, between the talents, fortune, virtues, industry, and condition of men. In a word, I was so strongly impressed with the absurdity of the declaration of the Rights of Man, that for once I carried along with me the opinions of our little committee; and Mirabeau himself, when presenting the report to the Assembly, ventured to suggest difficulties, and to propose that the declaration of rights should be delayed till the constitution was completed. 'I tell you,' said he, in his forcible style, 'that any declaration of rights you may make before the constitution is framed, will never be but a one year's almanac. Mirabeau, always satisfied with a happy expression, never gave himself the trouble to get to the bottom of any subject, and never would go through the toil to put himself in possession of facts sufficient to de-formers ask, what is the use of a representafend what he advanced. On this occasion he tive of a green mound, or a ruined tower, in a suffered under this: this sudden change be- popular parliament? We answer, that he is came the subject of bitter reproach. Who is more indispensable in such a parliament than is,' said the Jacobins, 'who seeks to employ in any other. Nay, that without such a class his ascendant over the Assembly, to make us the liberties of the nation cannot exist for any say yes and no alternately? Shall we be for long period. Representatives constantly actever the puppets of his contradictions?' There ing under the influence or dread of popular was so much reason in what he had newly constituents, never will venture, either in their advanced, that he would have triumphed if he speeches to give vent to the language of truth, had been able to bring it out; but he aban-nor in their conduct to support the cause of doned the attempt at the very time when seve- real freedom, if it interferes with the real or ral deputies were beginning to unite themselves supposed interests of their constituents. They to him. The deplorable nonsense went tri- will always be as much under the influence of umphantly on, and generated that unhappy | their tyrannical task-masters, as Mirabeau and declaration of the Rights of Man which subsequently produced such incredible mischief. I am in possession at this moment of a complete refutation of it, article by article, by the hand of a great master, and it proves to demonstration the contradictions, the absurdities, the dangers of that seditious composition, which of itself was sufficient to overturn the constitution of which it formed a part; like a powder magazine placed below an edifice, which the first spark will blow into the air.”—Pp. 141, 142.

These are the words of sober and experienced wisdom; and coming, as they do, from one of the authors of this celebrated declaration, are of the very highest importance. They prove, that at the very time when Mirabeau and he popular party in the Assembly were draw

Dumont were in drawing up, against their better judgment, the Rights of Man. It is as absurd to expect rational or independent measures from such a class, in opposition to the wishes or injunctions of those who returned them to parliament, as it is to look for freedom of conduct from the senate of Tiberius or the council of Napoleon. We do not expect the truth to be spoken by the representative of a mound, in a question with its owner, or his class in society, nor by the representatives of the people, in a question which interests or excites the public ambition. But we expect that truth will be spoken by the representatives of the people, as against the interests of the owner of the mound; and by the representatives of the mound, as against the passions of the people; and that thus, between the

two, the language of reason will be raised on | rights of its own anterior to their being blended every subject, and that fatal bias the public together. mind prevented, which arises from one set of doctrines and principles being alone presented to their consideration. In the superior fearlessness and vigour of the language of the Conservative party in the House of Lords, to what is exhibited in the House of Commons, on the Reform question, is to be found decisive evidence of the truth of these principles, and their application to this country and this age. Of the fatal 4th August, "the St. Barthelemy of properties," as it was well styled by Rivarol, and its ruinous consequences upon the public welfare, we have the following striking and graphic account:--

[ocr errors]

"On the following day, every one began to reflect on what had been done, and sinister presentiments arose on all sides. Mirabeau and Sieyes, in particular, who had not been present at that famous sitting, condemned in loud terms its enthusiastic follies. This is a true picture of France, said they; we spend a month in disputing about words, and we make sacrifices in a night which overturn every thing that is venerable in the monarchy. In the subsequent meetings, they tried to retract or modify some of these enormous concessions, but it was too late; it was impossible to withdraw what the people already looked upon as their rights. The Abbé Sieyes, in particu lar, made a discourse full of reason and justice against the extinction of tithes, which he looked upon with the utmost aversion. He demonstrated, that to extinguish the tithes, was to spoliate the clergy of its property, solely to enrich the proprietors of the lands; for every one having bought or inherited his estate minus the value of the tithe, found himself suddenly enriched by a tenth, which was given to him as a pure and uncalled for gratuity. It was this speech, which never can be refuted, which terminated with the well-known expression:They would be free, and they know not how to be just.' The prejudice was so strong, that Sieyes himself was not listened to; he was regarded merely as an ecclesiastic, who could not get the better of his personal interest, and paid that tribute of error to his robe. A little more would have made him be hooted and hissed. I saw him the next day, full of bitter indignation against the injustice and brutality of the Assembly, which in truth he never afterwards forgave. He gave vent to his indignation, in a conversation with Mirabeau, who replied, 'My dear Abbé, you have unchained the bull; do you expect he is not to gore with his horns?' "These decrees of Aug. 4 were so far from

"Never was such an undertaking accomplished in so short a time. That which would have required a year of care, meditation, and debate, was proposed, deliberated on, and voted by acclamation. I know not how many laws were decreed in that one sitting; the abolition of feudal rights, of the tithes, of provincial privileges; three articles, which of themselves embraced a complete system of jurisprudence and politics, with ten or twelve others, were decided in less time than would be required in England for the first reading of a bill of ordinary importance. They began with a report on the disorders of the provinces, chateaux burnt, troops of banditti who attacked the nobles and ravaged the fields. The Duke d'Aguillon, the Duke de Noailles, and several others of the democratic part of the nobility, after the most disastrous pictures of these calamities, exclaimed that nothing but a great act of generosity could calm the people, and that it was high time to abandon their odious privileges, and let the people taste the full benefits of the Revolution. An indescribable effervescence seized upon the Assembly. Every one proposed sacrifice: every one laid some offering on the altar of their country, proposing either to denude themselves or denude others; no time was allowed for reflec-putting a period to the robbery and violence tion, objection, or argument; a sentimental contagion seized every heart. That renunciation of privileges, that abandonment of so many rights burdensome to the people, these multiplied sacrifices, had an air of magnanimity which withdrew the attention from the fatal precipitance with which they were made. I saw on that night many good and worthy deputies who literally wept for joy at seeing the work of regeneration advance so rapidly, and at feeling themselves every instant carried on the wings of enthusiasm so far beyond their most ardent hopes. The renunciation of the privileges of provinces was made by their respective representatives; those of Brittany had engaged to defend them, and therefore they were more embarrassed than the rest; but carried away by the general enthusiasm, they advanced in a body, and declared in a body, that they would use their utmost efforts with their constituents to obtain the renunciation of their privileges. That great and superb operation was necessary to confer political unity upon a monarchy which had been successively formed by the union of many independent states, every one of which had certain

[ocr errors]

which desolated the country, that they only tended to make the people acquainted with their own strength, and impress them with the conviction that all their outrages against the nobility would not only not be punished, but actually rewarded. Again I say, every thing which is done from fear fails in accomplishing its object; those whom you expect to disarm by concessions, only redouble in confidence and audacity."-Pp. 146-149.

Such is the conclusion of this enlightened French Reformer, as to the consequences of the innovations and concessions, in promoting which he took so large a share, and which it was then confidently expected, would not only pacify the people but regenerate the monarchy, and commence a new era in the history of the world. These opinions coming from the author of the Rights of Man, the preceptor of Mirabeau, the fellow-labourer of Bentham, should, if any thing can, open the eyes of our young enthusiasts, who are so vehement in urging the necessity of concession, avowedly from the effects of intimidation, who expect to "let loose the bull and escape his horns"

It is on this question of the effects to be ex

pected from concession to public clamour, that | gigantic; his taste was natural, and had been the whole question of Reform hinges. The cultivated by the study of the classical authors. supporters of the bill in both Houses have He knew little; but no one could make a betabandoned every other argument. 'Pass this ter use of what he had acquired. During the bill, or anarchy will ensue," is their sole princi- whirlwind of his stormy life he had little leiple of action. But what says Dumont, taught by sure for study; but in his prison of Vincennes the errors of the Constituent Assembly? "Pass he had read extensively, and improved his style this bill, and anarchy will ensue.” "Whatever by translations, as well as extensive collections is done,” says he, "from fear, fails in its object; from the writings of great orators. He had those whom you expect to disarm by conces- little confidence in the extent of his erudition; sion, redouble in confidence and audacity." but his eloquent and impassioned soul animatThis is the true principle; the principle con- ed every feature of his countenance when he firmed by universal experience, and yet the was moved, and nothing was easier than to Reformers shut their eyes to its application. inflame his imagination. From his youth upThe events which have occurred in this age wards he had accustomed himself to the disare so decisive on this subject, that nothing cussion of the great questions of erudition and more convincing could be imagined, if a voice government, but he was not calculated to go to from the dead were to proclaim its truth. the bottom of them. The labour of investigation was not adapted to his powers; he had too much warmth and vehemence of disposition for laborious application; his mind proceeded by leaps and bounds, but sometimes they were prodigious. His style abounded in vigorous expressions, of which he had made a particular study.

Concession, as Dumont tells us, and as every one acquainted with history knows, was tried by the French government and Assembly, in the hope of calming the people, and arresting the Revolution. The monarch, at the opening of the States-General, made "greater concessions than ever king made to his people;" the nobles abandoned, on their own motion, in one night, all their rights; and what was the consequence? The revolutionary fervour was urged into a fury; the torrent became a cataract, and horrors unparalleled in the history of the world ensued.

Resistance to popular ambition, a firm opposition to the cry for reform, was at the same period, under a lion-hearted king and an intrepid minister, adopted in the midst of the greatest dangers by the British government. What was the consequence? Universal tranquillity-forty years of unexampled prosperity -the triumph of Trafalgar-the conquest of Waterloo.

Conciliation and concession, in obedience, and with the professed design of healing the disturbances of that unhappy land, were next tried in Ireland. Universal tranquillity, contentment, and happiness, were promised from the great healing measure of emancipation. What has been the consequence? Disturbances, massacres, discord, practised sedition, threatened rebellion, which have made the old times of Protestant rule be regretted.

"If we consider him as an author, we must recollect that all his writings, without one single exception, were pieces of Mosaic, in which his fellow-labourers had at least as large a share as himself, but he had the faculty of giving additional eclat to their labours, by throwing in here and there original expressions, or apostrophes, full of fire and eloquence. It is a peculiar talent, to be able in this manner to disinter obscure ability, intrust to each the department for which he is fitted, and induce them all to labour at the work of which he alone is to reap the glory. ·

"As a political orator, he was in some respects gifted with the very highest talents-a quick eye, a sure tact, the art of discovering at once the true disposition of the assembly he was addressing, and applying all the force of his mind to overcome the point of resistance, without weakening it by the discussion of minor topics. No one knew better how to strike with a single word, or hit his mark with perfect precision; and frequently he thus carried with him the general opinion, either by a happy insinuation, or a stroke which inConciliation and concession were again put timidated his adversaries. In the tribune he in practice by the Whig Administration of was immovable. The waves of faction rolled England. What was the result? Perils great-around without shaking him, and he was er than assailed the monarchy from all the master of his passions in the midst of the utmight of Napoleon; dissension, conflagration, most vehemence of opposition. But what he and popular violence, unexampled since the wanted as a political orator, was the art of disgreat rebellion; a falling income and an in-cussion on the topics on which he enlarged. creasing expenditure; the flames of a servile war in Jamaica; and general distress unequalled since the accession of the House of Brunswick.

[ocr errors]

The character of Mirabeau, both as a writer and orator, and an individual, is sketched with no ordinary power by this author, probably better qualified than any man in existence to portray it with accuracy:

He could not embrace a long series of proofs and reasonings, and was unable to refute in a logical or convincing manner. He was, in consequence, often obliged to abandon the most important motions, when hard pressed by his adversaries, from pure inability to refute their arguments. He embraced too much, and reflected too little. He plunged into a discourse made for him on a subject on which he had never reflected, and on which he had been at no pains to master the facts; and he was,

"Mirabeau had within his breast a sense of the force of his mind, which sustained his courage in situations which would have crush-in consequence, greatly inferior in that particued a person of ordinary character: his imagi- lar to the athlete who exhibit their powers in Dation loved the vast; his mind seized the the British parliament.”—P. 277.

revolution. All the miseries of that country sprung from the very principle which is in cessantly urged as the ruling consideration in favour of the Reform Bill.

What led to the French Revolution? This question will be asked and discussed, with all the anxiety it deserves, to the end of the world. Let us hear Dumont on the subject. "No event ever interested Europe so much No body of men ever inflicted such disasters as the meeting of the States-General. There on France, as the Constituent Assembly, by was no enlightened man who did not found the their headlong innovations and sweeping degreatest hopes upon that public struggle of molitions. Not the sword of Marlborough nor prejudices with the lights of the age, and who the victories of Wellington-not the rout of did not believe that a new moral and political Agincourt nor the carnage of Waterloo-not world was about to issue from the chaos. The the arms of Alexander nor the ambition of Nabesoin of hope was so strong, that all faults | poleon, have proved so fatal to its prosperity. were pardoned, all misfortunes were represent-From the wounds they inflicted, the social sysed only as accident; in spite of all the calamities which it induced, the balance leaned always towards the Constituent Assembly.-It was the struggle of humanity with despotism.

"The States-General, six weeks after their convocation, was no longer the States-General, but the National Assembly. Its first calamity was to have owed its new title to a revolution; that is to say, to a vital change in its power, its essence, its name, and its means of authority. According to the constitution, the commons should have acted in conjunction with the nobles, the clergy, and the king. But the commons, in the very outset, subjugated the nobles, the clergy, and the king. It was in that, that the Revolution consisted.

[ocr errors]

tem may revive-from those of their own innovators, recovery is impossible. They not only destroyed freedom in its cradle-they not only induced the most cruel and revolting tyranny; but they totally destroyed the materials from which it was to be reconstructed in future, they bequeathed slavery to their chil dren, and they prevented it from ever being shaken off by their descendants. It matters not under what name arbitrary power is adminis tered: it can be dealt out as rudely by a reform ing assembly, a dictatorial mob, a committee of Public Safety, a tyrannical Directory, a military despot, or a citizen King, as by an absolute monarch or a haughty nobility. By destroying the whole ancient institutions of FranceReasoning without end has taken place on by annihilating the nobles and middling ranks, the causes of the Revolution; there is but one, who stood between the people and the throne in my opinion, to which the whole is to be as--by subverting all the laws and customs of cribed; and that is, the character of the king.antiquity-by extirpating religion, and inducPut a king of character and firmness in the place ing general profligacy, they have inflicted of Louis XVI., and no revolution would have en- wounds upon their country which can never sued. His whole reign was a preparation for be healed. Called upon to revive the social it. There was not a single epoch, during the system, they destroyed it: instead of pouring whole Constituent Assembly, in which the into the decayed limbs the warm blood of youth, king, if he could only have changed his cha- they severed the head from the body, and all racter, might not have re-established his au- subsequent efforts have been unavailing to rethority, and created a mixed constitution far store animation. It is now as impossible to more solid and stable than its ancient mon- give genuine freedom, that is complete protecarchy. His indecision, his weakness, his half tion to all classes, to France, as it is to restore counsels, his want of foresight, ruined every the vital spark to a lifeless body by the convulthing. The inferior causes which have con- sions of electricity. The balance of interests, curred were nothing but the necessary conse- the protecting classes, are destroyed: nothing quences of that one moving cause. When the remains but the populace and the government: king is known to be weak, the courtiers be-Asiatic has succeeded to European civilizacome intriguers, the factious insolent, the people audacious; good men are intimidated, the most faithful services go unrewarded, able men are disgusted, and ruinous councils adopted. A king possessed of dignity and firmness would have drawn to his side those who were against him; the Lafayettes, the Lameths, the Mirabeaus, the Sieyes, would never have dreamed of playing the part which they did; and, when directed to other objects, they would no longer have appeared the same men.". Pp. 343, 344.

:

tion: and, instead of the long life of modern freedom, the brief tempests of anarchy, and the long night of despotism, are its fate.

The Constituent Assembly, however, had the excuse of general delusion: they were entering on an untrodden field: the consequence of their actions were unknown: enthusiasm as irresistible as that of the theatre urged on their steps. Great reforms required to be made in the political system; they mistook the excesses of democratic ambition for the dictates of ameliorating wisdom: the corruption of a guilty court, and the vices of a degraded nobility, called loudly for amendment. But what shall we say to those who adventured on the same perilous course, with their fatal example before their eyes, in a country requiring no

:

These observations are of the very highest importance. The elements of discord, rebellion, and anarchy, rise into portentous energy when weakness is at the head of affairs. A reforming, in other words a democratic, administration, raise them into a perfect tempest.accession to popular power, tyrannized over by The progress of time, and the immense defects of the ancient monarchical system, rendered change necessary in France; but it was the weakness of the king, the concessions of the nobility and clergy, which converted it into a

no haughty nobility, consumed by no internal vices, weakened by no foreign disasters ? What shall we say to those who voluntarily shut their eyes to all the perils of the head· long reformers of the neighbouring kingdom ·

« AnteriorContinuar »