ity which slowly works changes in positive law. The
French Eevolution was a remarkable instance where a
number of men dreamed of taking upon themselves the
gigantic task of modifying by concerted action, finally
and certainly, both the positive morality and the code
of laws; they planned to rebuild not only the social
structure but also the foundation upon which it stood.
The absence of economic theory in the principles
of the Eevolution scarcely needs more than assertion.
The crisis was a political crisis, and, if there was an
economic cause at the bottom, nobody discerned it.
It is safe to say that wherever economic principles
played any part in the French Eevolution, such prin-
ciples were the philosophical theories of the Physio-
crats. If wealth was desired, it was in order to an in-
creased happiness; if production, more especially agri-
culture was to be encouraged, it was because this was
held to be the means, and the only means, to add to
the national wealth. And all this is the physiocratic
doctrine. As for the relation of government in indus-
try, the principle of laissez-faire, another principle
made current by the Physiocrats, theoretically domi-
nated the Eevolution. All these notions can hardly be
called principles of political economy; they are rather
philosophy and politics in a jumble. Eeading, at the
THEIR POLITICAL CHARACTER.
various legislative bodies and at the clubs, those
speeches which touched upon questions of practical
finance and taxation, a doubt occurs as to whether
there was, in the minds of the speakers, any particular
appreciation of the existence of a special set of prob-
lems called economic. The question turned rather
upon the state policy in relation to the individual as
an agent in industrial life. It would almost be af-
fectation to try to formulate any theory of economics
from the passing phrases which might be found here
and there. The Eevolution was a political movement,
and its fundamental principles form a political phil-
osophy.
The special character of these principles of the Eevo-
lution will then be sufficiently defined if the hypo-
thesis concerning the ultimate nature of the universe,
and the theories with regard to man and society be
stated, along with the most fundamental of the politi-
cal principles. The Law of Nature (Loi nature!), the
doctrine of the social contract, the theory of Natural
Eights (Droits naturels) and such derivative political
principles as the doctrine of popular sovereignty, the
right of social supremacy in conducting the affairs of
the national life, make up the essential parts of the
political and social faith of the time; these principles
have, therefore, been selected for exposition.
n.
One important fact needs emphasis in regard to the
primary conceptions of the Eevolution. Throughout
the period the fundamental notions did not change.
In 1789 the theories of man and of society are the
132 PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION.
same as those of 1793. Clermont-Tonnerre, Sieyes,
Mirabeau, Vergniaud, Saint Just, Marat, each held a
fundamental hypothesis which differed but slightly.
All, consciously or instinctively, started from the no-
tion of a divine plan, whose end was human happiness;
all were equally loyal to the Eights of Man and the
Social Contract. As will be seen, it is the application
of these conceptions, it is those ideas belonging most
specifically to the theory of politics which are not the
same during the period in question. The principle of
republicanism is not the dominant idea in '89 far
from it. A more or less recognized spirit of compro-
mise, a sense of the value of gradual change checked
legislative reform at constitutional monarchy in '91,
but that theory of government went down altogether
before the rage for democracy which gave power to
the constitution-makers of '93. However, the tem-
perate politician of '91 and the frenzied democrat of
'93 held to the same fundamental conceptions. One
set of primary notions controlled the whole movement.
It is these conceptions which are now to be stated.
The principles of the Eevolution were, as a whole,
theories having to do with the conditions of a mun-
dane existence; they were a new code of morality and
politics, not metaphysical or religious principles in
any real sense. The whole doctrine implies faith in
the power of the untrammeled human will to bring
about permanently harmonious social relations. Like
the eighteenth century philosophy which bred it, the
revolutionary theory posited the individual will but
took small account of its possible beginnings. Yet
LAW OF NATURE. 133
there was some attempt at an explanation of final
causes. The foundation of the revolutionary faith
was flimsy, but there was such a foundation the doc-
trine of natural or rational religion. No longer will-
ing to listen to theologians, no longer recognizing an
external authority, the revolutionists appealed from a
ruling church or a self-revealing God, to an inner con-
science which stood ready to tell the same truth to each
man who looked within himself. The revolutionists of
'89 and '93 turned to Nature as the only positive au-
thority, and set at naught deductions based upon cus-
toms or upon principles framed by any constituted
power.
In studying the debates of the period, it is at first
difficult to find any real denial of the old principles
which recognized the infallible dogma of a dominant
church. In the Constituent Assembly, a somewhat
sophistical desire to preserve the Catholic cult, 1 strip-
l It is of interest to remember the attitude of the Assembly
in regard to Catholicism. One scene will serve as type of any
of the earlier ones. At the stance of April 13, 1791 (Choix
de Rapports II, p. 102), Dom Gerle proposed to decree the
Catholic religion as the state religion; a heated debate fol-
lowed, in which some of the good Bishops and Abbe's lost
their tempers, and Mirabeau cited the Saint Bartholomew mas-
sacre with crushing effect. The assembly eventually agreed
upon this decree : " Whereas, the Assembly has not, nor ever
can have, any power over consciences or religious opinions;
whereas, the majesty of religion and the profound respect due
to it, does not permit that it become subject of deliberation :
whereas, the attachment of the National Assembly to the
Catholic cult could not be doubted at a moment when this
cult was being placed by it in first rank of public expenses;
and, whereas, a unanimous movement of respect has expressed
opinion in the only manner which can comport with the dig-
nity of the religion and the character of the Assembly," etc.
Comp. also, Moniteur, stance of February 14, 1790, III, p.
134 PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION.
ping it of its temporal power only, is plainly evident.
In the later assemblies, there was, of course, a candidly
avowed intention to do away with all Christian cults. 2
But whether the speaker was outward conformist or
philosopher, the notion of final causes which each en-
tertain really differed but slightly.
What may be called the first principle in all the revo-
lutionary philosophy defined a plan and purpose un-
derlying the universe. The revolutionary theory
started from the belief in an absolute and directed
tendency in phenomena. Perhaps the majority con-
tinued to believe that the universe was the work of
an anthropomorphic divinity surrounded by a host of
worshipful satellites; the philosophy of that minority
who worked the change in the social organization be-
gan more and more avowedly with the idea of a bene-
ficent First Cause, God or Nature, 3 concerning whose
origin and personality it would be futile to wonder.
The prevailing attitude among the leaders was that
which Pope expresses when he apostrophizes a
" Great First Cause, least understood,
Who all my sense combined,
To know but this, that Thou art good
And that myself am blind."
Even in '93 and '94 deity was officially recognized. 4
Translated and popularized by Voltaire, the Deism of
363. Comp. also, Camus, stance of June 1, 1790. " Nous
pouvons changer la religion, mais nous ne voulons pas."
2 Comp. Aulardj Le Culte de la Raison et le Culte de TEtre
Supreme.
3 Nature is used in the widest sense, as the underlying prin-
ciple at the root of all time and space phenomena.
4 As for example, when Barere, in August, 1793, in his re-
port on the state of the republic, speaks of the statue of the
LAW OF NATURE. 135
Pope and Bolingbroke had come to ask first place as a
national religion.
On the question of a cosmogony, the difference of
opinion between the older cults and the doctrine of
the Eevolution is not vital. In both cases, the original
power was thought of as having conceived and ordained
upon an unalterable plan and in a spirit of extreme
beneficence, a vast scheme of inorganic and organic
life; all believed that this great creative work had
been done solely to promote the well-being of man. In
both cases, the original Cause was believed to have re-
mained entirely outside the creation which was his
work. God or Nature had made the universe, had fixed
its workings, had set man at the head of it; man him-
self must discover the proper use of it. Christian
prelates or Deists, conformists or disciples of Natural
religion in any of its forms, each and all alike ren-
dered homage to a power external to the earth they
inhabited, a Power which had given them being and
endowed them with the right and duty to make the
best possible use of the land and its bounties.
The revolutionary deism set out then with the same
primary idea as did orthodoxy; but, following the lead
of the philosophers, it soon definitely rejected external
authority as the sanction to personal or social conduct,
and opposed a belief in earthly happiness to the
Church's idea of waiting patiently for the joys of the
hereafter. First, as to the separation of opinion re-
republic, which is to be created, " Sous les regards du Legis-
lateur Eternal." Morse-Stephens. Orators of the Revolu-
tion, II, p. ii. Compare also Aulard, Le Culte de la Raison
et le Culte de PEtre Supreme, chapters iii, iv, vii and viii.
136 PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION.
garding the origin of man's knowledge concerning
fundamental truth.
Throughout the eighteenth century orthodox doc-
trine had rested or professed to rest on revelation. Men
had believed that, if they knew the purpose of the uni-
verse, it was because at some time there had been di-
rect communication between the prime Cause of all
things and some favored few among the dwellers upon
earth, and they held that the whole law contained in
such communication had been vested in an organized
ecclesiastical authority which had the sole right to form
and to watch over men's consciences and acts. The
doctrine of the Ke volution, on the contrary, rejected all
revelation as a " harmful creed " (croyance funeste). 6
For these rationalists, the truths which men arrived at
by reason were the only " revelation ; " absolute knowl-
edge with regard to the secrets of the universe was ac-
cessible to the reason and to the reason alone. Faith
in rational principles almost entirely took the place of
faith in mystic notions or in canons of theology; the
final criterion, whether for personal or social conduct,
was the human intelligence. The final authority
and before it revealed religion and popish infallibility
had no force was the instinct which Nature had
given each man, and which his reason alone could
interpret.
As to the existence possible during an earthly career,
the difference is likewise radical. The doctrine of
5 Comp. Volney. Catchisme de citoyen f rangais ( published
1793), p. 177. See also, Bonneville and Blanchard, whose
ideas are given in Laurent. La Revolution franyaise, II, pp.
492-498,
LAW OF NATURE.
revelation conceived of post-mundane life as the only
consolation for the vexations and miseries of an
earthly life. The new creed, thrilling with the idea
of an original earthly paradise, believed it was per-
fectly possible for the concerted action of man to re-
store those happy conditions which had originally been
arranged for the first human inhabitants of this planet,
and it believed that it was eminently necessary to do
this. Whether the supporters of the new thinking ex-
pressed their theory by a worship of the supernatural,
the natural or the combination of these two which he
conceived man to be; whether the divinity was a Su-
preme Being, Nature or Man, the avowed or tacit con-
ception from which all later principles derived, was
this one of a purpose in the universe, and that purpose
the ultimate contentment of all humanity. Since
Providence, or more usually Nature, had arranged by
immutable and unerring though not inscrutable laws,
a contented existence for man, the wise man was he
who studied to discover these laws and so to insure
the fulfillment of the original plan. The first duty of
the philosopher, and yet more of the legislator, was to
seek out what had been the normal conditions, and
then to restore those conditions to a world which had
been disastrously deprived of them. It rested alto-
gether within man's competence to do this; the affairs
of this world were entirely subject to the free will of
the individual. If man respected the leading prin-
ciples which his reason could make clear to him, an
end to all unhappiness here below might confidently
be expected. By the highway of reason, with virtue as
guide, it was possible to discover and. realize terrestrial
133 PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION.
happiness. 6 All social unrest, it was believed, was the
result of misunderstanding this truth. When legisla-
tors could be taught to keep this doctrine permanently
and intelligently before them, social happiness might
soon be expected. Men now combined the utilitarian
doctrine of the Encyclopedists and the Physiocrats
with the sentimental teachings of Kousseau, and pro-
claimed the happiness of humanity to be the end of all
association.
This, the doctrine of Natural Law, was the current
and admired theory all through the Revolutionary
period. It was this theory which, accepted in its full
meaning, altered the whole complexion of social ac-
tivity. When it was denied that life here below was
merely a preparation for another world; when it was
declared that, on the contrary, it was a strictly mun-
dane business, having to do with the best possible ar-
rangement of individual and social relations here,
revolutionary action received its inspiration and justifi-
cation.
All other ideas of the Revolution rested upon this
belief in a Natural Law making for terrestrial con-
tent. The first principles of the revolutionary philo-
sophy center about the faith in a propensity in all
creation, a propensity which was believed to tend al-
ways to the happiness of man.
When we come to the question of the original con-
dition of man and the beginnings of society, we do
6 Comp. Boissy d'Anglas Voulez-vous detruire le fanatisme
et la superstition? Offrez a 1'homme des lumieres. Voulez-
vous le disposer a recevoir des lumieres. Sachez le rendre
heureux et libre. Cited in Laurent, op. cit., II, p. 457.
LAW OF NATURE.
not find the same unity of opinion that prevailed con-
cerning the Law of Nature. On this point there is an
evident separation of theory. Two conceptions are cur-
rent: the one, that idea of the providentially happy
original man, which Eousseau had popularized; the
other, the idea of an original savage. Both theories
of the primitive man had a certain support among
those leaders who, in a sense, forced the new principles
upon the nation.
It is certain that during the Eevolution, and for a
long time after, the idea, of a " natural man " had
precedence as a popular notion. Probably the majority
of the lawmakers of the Eevolution started their civil
and political code with the image from which our
own time has by no means entirely freed itself the
image of an ideal primeval man, free from prejudices,
free from vicious desires, or unhealthy notions of self-
denial which he miscalled virtues. Over and over in
the three successive legislatures, it is implied or stated
that, in a primitive period of terrestrial life, man lived
in greatest happiness because he had complete liberty. 7
Each man came from the hands of a beneficent Nature
endowed with entire freedom; his sole duty, the pursuit
of happiness ; his only law, the preservation of his being.
Moreover, each man was endowed by Nature with the
right to precisely the same amount of pleasure as any
7Comp. Robespierre's speech on property, Stance of April
24, 1793. Vergniaud, speech of Oct. 25, 1791, on the Emigres;
Claude Fauchet, in Blanc, Histoire de la Revolution fran-
gaise, V, p. 121 : Jeanbon de Saint Andre", " Je sais qu'il y a
dans le coeur de Phomme une tendance a la v6rit6," etc., stance
May 8, 1793. Choix de Rapports, XI, 295-296,
140 PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION.
other man; each was equal to his fellow. 8 That each
man had the natural and inalienable right to come and
go as he pleased; to enjoy whatever he could make his
own and to remain in unmolested possession of it, were
so many corollaries of the original proposition of a free
and happy primitive man. 9 Anterior to society, there
had only been faultless human beings, each having the
eternal right to liberty, to equality, and to the posses-
sion of his own goods; and this natural man, free and
contented, was the ideal for the social man to strive
after.
In opposition to this notion of a " natural " man
stood the idea of a primeval savage, who depended for
his development upon that which association with
others brought to him. Even among the leaders of
radicalism, there were men who energetically rejected
the idea made current by Rousseau's love of paradox.
In parliamentary debates, the primeval savage, pain-
fully and unceasingly struggling for his daily nutri-
ment, plays a less prominent, but none the less a fre-
quent part, in discussions. An appreciable number of
persons, whose ideas got a following among the stronger
men of the time, held to the theory of social develop-
ment suggested by Turgot, and made current during
the Revolution by Condorcet 10 and many of the
Gironde.
8Comp. Declaration of Rights of '93, art. 3.
QComp. Declaration of Rights of '89. Especially art. 2,
title I, of Constitution of 1791 ; and arts. 2-7 and 18 of the
Declaration of '93.
lOEsquisse d'Un Tableau Historique des progres de 1'Esprit
Humain. Published 1793. Volney (Cat6chisme de Citoyen
PRIMITIVE SOCIETY.
One debate might be cited 11 to show how the differ-
ence of opinion on the matter stood. The question
turned upon the first article of the Declaration of
Eights. As first given out, the article read thus : " The
natural, civil and political rights of men are liberty,
equality, security, property, the social guarantee and re-
sistance to oppression." A deputy 12 at once arose and
protested. " I don't well understand what the Commit-
tee desired to say by these words, natural right. In the
state of pure nature, no rights exist unless those of
force; in the state of nature, man has a right to that
which he may get at, and this right is only limited by
possibility; this right he abandons from the moment
that he enters into society," etc. Another 13 follows him
with a protest that man is innately social, that " the
social state is the veritable natural state of man." Verg-
niaud proposed a compromise, and, the majority of the
Convention consenting, the article is changed so that it
reads, "The Eights of Man in society." 14 Thus, al-
though there had been a committee who held to the
tLeory of a natural man, with his inalienable natural
rights, it is clear that by 1793 the dominant opinion in
the legislative body recognized only the Eights of Man
in society, and thus denied the " bon sauvage."
However, whether founded on the doctrine of a natu-
ral or a social man, whether held to originate anterior
to society or to begin with social organization, the
frangais) scouts the idea of the original happy savage (bon
sauvage).
11 Seance of April 17, 1793.
12 Lasouree.
13 Garran-Coulon.
de Rapports, XII, pp. 286 et sq.
142 PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION.
theory of inalienable individual rights was universally
accredited during the Kevolution. The later opinion,
just instanced, resulted from an enlarged conception of
the social right as against the individual right; it did
not, any more than the theory it opposed, deny certain
" natural " and reserved rights to each individual. The
conception of Natural Eights and of their relation to
the association of men played then a most important
part in this new political theory. Men differed in re-
gard to the social guarantee of these rights; they rarely
denied their real and important political bearing. The
theory was too good a weapon against the old authorities
for it to have been neglected by the practical men of
the Kevolution, even though some of them may have
had little faith in its philosophical truth. The doctrine
of " Droits naturels " usually derived from the meta-
physical conception of a Law of Nature a conception
that, in its turn, has been seen to be practically the ap-
peal from an organized social sanction to an individual
power and right of judgment is the conspicuous
principle in the new creed.
Before explaining how the more notable Natural
Rights in society were regarded during the Revolu-
tion, it remains, in this summary explanation of basic
conceptions, to show how the revolutionists imagined
political society to have originated. The revolutionists
for the most part adopted Rousseau's fallacy of the
Social Contract, by which Rights were conceived to
have been protected by a partial surrender of most of
them.
Under the prevailing notions of the Revolution, as
under those of the eighteenth century, all association
was the result of a conscious act, an act which had
SOCIAL CONTRACT.
been instigated by the purely self-interested and utili-
tarian motive of a more comfortable conservation of
natural rights. Current theory held that, in a non-
social state, each man would seek his own happi-
ness, irrespective of that of others; that, in an ir-
regulated association of man with his fellows, a con-
dition of things so intolerable had come about that the
necessity for some device by which peace might be at-
tained, had grown always more apparent to each man,
and so in every instance, agreement to a social
arrangement of some sort had become imperative. A
compact voluntarily entered upon by all members of
the association had been the fundamental fact of or-
ganized association. The same utter blindness to psy-
chological differences in men which characterized the
thought of the century, continues to be the mode dur-
ing the Eevolution. Only a minority, and these
not the leaders, recognized that association began
in the necessities of man's instinct and the fact of
individual usurpation; 15 men who realized that dif-
ferences of endowment and strength make leaders of
some, and more or less willing followers of others, were
not those whose opinion carried weight at this time.
The fundamental dogma concerning the origin of soci-
ety, most popular at the time now under discussion held
that, at some period antecedent to the existence of so-
ciety, 16 men had come together, and, in order to have
15 There was an appreciable minority who, like Volney, took
this position.
16 Or again at any given period of social change. When
the Convention was called, the idea was stated in so many
words. Couthon rises to declare that the deputies had been
144 PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION.
peace and the means for fullest enjoyment, had by
a voluntary act resigned a certain part of their indi-
vidual will in favor of the general will.
Men were supposed to have entered into the Social
Contract for reasons purely egotistical; but the revolu-
tionists, as Eousseau had done, laid most emphasis upon
the idea that, in the interests of that peace for which
the contract was made, men must be ready to make
a personal submission to a general will. It was usual
to urge that what though the original reason for giv-
ing up the full exercise of the individual will had been
purely utilitarian, it was now a moral duty so to sub-
mit the particular to the general will. 17 The end in
which the social contract was made, could only be
accomplished when each should fulfill this sacred duty.
By the terms of the social contract then, men recog-