the Hôtel de Ville. As all Paris was in the hands of the insurgents,
the king saw the necessity of submission. On the morning of the
15th he entered the hall of the Assembly to announce that the
troops would be withdrawn. Immediately afterwards he dismissed
his new ministers and recalled Necker. Thereupon the
princes and courtiers most hostile to the National Assembly,
the count of Artois, the prince of Condé, the duke of Bourbon
and many others, feeling themselves no longer safe, quitted
France. Their departure is known as the first emigration.
The capture of the Bastille was hailed throughout Europe as
symbolizing the fall of absolute monarchy, and the victory of the
insurgents had momentous consequences. Recognizing
the 300 electors as a temporary municipal government,
the Assembly sent a deputation to confer with them at
New municipality of Paris and National Guard.
Revolution in the provinces.
the Hôtel de Ville, and on a sudden impulse one of these
deputies, Bailly, lately president of the Assembly, was
chosen to be mayor of Paris. The marquis Lafayette,
doubly popular as a veteran of the American War and as one of
the nobles who heartily upheld the cause of the Assembly, was
chosen commandant of the new civic force, thenceforwards
known as the National Guard. On the 17th Louis himself visited
Paris and gave his sanction to the new authorities. In the course
of the following weeks the example of Paris was copied throughout
France. All the cities and towns set up new elective authorities
and organized a National Guard. At the same time the revolution
spread to the country districts. In most of the provinces
the peasants rose and stormed and burnt the
taking peculiar care to destroy
their title-deeds. Some of the seigneurs were murdered
and the rest were driven into the towns or across the frontier.
Amid the universal confusion the old administrative system
vanished. The intendants and sub-delegates quitted or were
driven from their posts. The old courts of justice, whether
royal or feudal, ceased to act. In many districts there was no
more police, public works were suspended and the collection of
taxes became almost impossible. The insurrection of July really
ended the ancien régime.
Disorder in the provinces led directly to the proceedings on the famous night of the 4th of August. While the Assembly was considering a declaration which might calm revolt, the vicomte de Noailles and the duc d’Aiguillon moved that it should proclaim equality of taxation and the The 4th of August. suppression of feudal burdens. Other deputies rose to demand the repeal of the game laws, the enfranchisement of such serfs as were still to be found in France, and the abolition of tithes and of feudal courts and to renounce all privileges, whether of classes, of cities, or of provinces. Amid indescribable enthusiasm the Assembly passed resolution after resolution embodying these changes. The resolutions were followed by decrees sometimes hastily and unskilfully drawn. In vain Sieyès remarked that in extinguishing tithes the Assembly was making a present to every landed proprietor. In vain the king, while approving most of the decrees, tendered some cautious criticisms of the rest. The majority did not, indeed, design to confiscate property wholesale. They drew a distinction between feudal claims which did and did not carry a moral claim to compensation. But they were embarrassed by the wording of their own decrees and forestalled by the violence of the people. The proceedings of the 4th of August issued in a wholesale transfer of property from one class to another without any indemnity for the losers.
The work of drafting a constitution for France had already been begun. Parties in the Assembly were numerous and ill-defined. The Extreme Right, who desired to keep the government as it stood, were a mere handful. The Right who wanted to revive, as they said, the Parties in the Assembly. ancient constitution, in other words, to limit the king’s power by periodic States-General of the old-fashioned sort, were more numerous and had able chiefs in Cazalès and Maury, but strove in vain against the spirit of the time. The Right Centre, sometimes called the Monarchiens, were a large body and included several men of talent, notably Mounier and Malouet, as well as many men of rank and wealth. They desired a constitution like that of England which should reserve a large executive power to the king, while entrusting the taxing and legislative powers to a modern parliament. The Left or Constitutionals, known afterwards as the Feuillants, among whom Barnave and Charles and Alexander Lameth were conspicuous, also wished to preserve monarchy but disdained English precedent. They were possessed with feelings then widespread, weariness of arbitrary government, hatred of ministers and courtiers, and distrust not so much of Louis as of those who surrounded him and influenced his judgment. Republicans without knowing it, they grudged every remnant of power to the Crown. The Extreme Left, still more republican in spirit, of whom Robespierre was the most noteworthy, were few and had little power. Mirabeau’s independence of judgment forbids us to place him in any party.
The first Constitutional Committee, elected on the 14th of July,
had Mounier for its reporter. It was instructed to begin with
drafting a Declaration of the Rights of Man. Six
weeks were spent by the Assembly in discussing this
document. The Committee then presented a report
Declaration of the Rights of Man.
The royal veto.
which embodied the principle of two Chambers. This
principle contradicted the extreme democratic theories so much
in fashion. It also offended the self-love of most of the nobles
and the clergy who were loath that a few of their number should
be erected into a House of Lords. The Assembly rejected the
principle of two Chambers by nearly 10 to 1. The question
whether the king should have a veto on legislation was next
raised. Mounier contended that he should have an
absolute veto, and was supported by Mirabeau, who
had already described the unlimited power of a single
Chamber as worse than the tyranny of Constantinople. The Left
maintained that the king, as depositary of the executive, should
be wholly excluded from the legislative power. Lafayette, who
imagined himself to be copying the American constitution,
proposed that the king should have a suspensive veto. Thinking
that it would be politic to claim no more, Necker persuaded
the king to intimate that he was satisfied with Lafayette’s
proposal. The suspensive veto was therefore adopted. As the
king had no power of dissolution, it was an idle form. Mounier
and his friends having resigned their places in the Constitutional
Committee, it came to an end and the Assembly elected a new
Committee which represented the opinions of the Left.
Soon afterwards a fresh revolt in Paris caused the king and the Assembly to migrate thither. The old causes of disorder were still working in that city. The scarcity of bread was set down to conspirators against the Revolution. Riots were frequent and persons supposed hostile to the Assembly and the nation were murdered with impunity. The king still had counsellors who wished for his departure as a means to regaining freedom of action. At the end of September the Flanders regiment came to Versailles to reinforce the Gardes du Corps. The officers of the Gardes du Corps entertained the officers of the Flanders regiment and of the Versailles National Guard at dinner in the palace. The king, queen and dauphin visited the company. There followed a vehement outbreak of loyalty. Rumour enlarged the incident into a military plot against freedom. Those who wanted a more thorough revolution wrought up the Removal of the royal family and Assembly to Paris. crowd and even respectable citizens wished to have the king among them and amenable to their opinion. On the 5th of October a mob which had gathered to assault the Hôtel de Ville was diverted into a march on Versailles. Lafayette was slow to follow it and, when he arrived, took insufficient precautions. At daybreak on the 6th some of the rioters made their way into the palace and stormed the apartment of the queen who escaped with difficulty. At length the National Guards arrived and the mob was quieted by the announcement that the king had resolved to go to Paris. The Assembly declared itself inseparable from the king’s person. Louis and his family reached Paris on the same evening and took up their abode in the Tuileries. A little later the Assembly established itself in the riding school of the palace. Thenceforward the king and queen were to all intents prisoners. The Assembly itself was subject to constant
