those parts which relate to international affairs and foreign policy. There is an English translation.
None of the general histories of the Revolution above named is really satisfactory. The immense mass of material has not yet been thoroughly sifted; and the passions of that age still disturb the judgment of the historian. More successful have been the attempts to treat particular aspects of the Revolution.
The foreign relations of France during the Revolution have been most ably unravelled by A. Sorel in L’Europe et la Révolution Française (8 vols., Paris, 1885–1904) carrying the story down to the settlement of Vienna. Five volumes cover the years 1789–1799.
The financial history of the Revolution has been traced by C. Gomel, Histoire financière de l’Assemblée Constituante (2 vols., Paris, 1897), and R. Stourm, Les Finances de l’Ancien Régime et de la Révolution (2 vols., Paris, 1885).
The relations of Church and State are sketched in E. Pressensé’s L’Église et la Révolution Française (Paris, 1889).
The general legislation of the period has been discussed by Ph. Sagnac, La Législation civile de la Révolution Française (Paris, 1898). The best work upon the social life of the period is the Histoire de la société française sous la Révolution, by E. and J. de Goncourt (Paris, 1889). For military history see A. Duruy, L’Armée royale en 1789 (Paris, 1888); E. de Hauterive, L’Armée sous la Révolution, 1789–1794 (Paris, 1894); A. Chuquet, Les Guerres de la Révolution (Paris, 1886, &c.). See also the memoirs and biographies of the distinguished soldiers of the Republic and Empire, too numerous for citation here.
Modern lives of the principal actors in the Revolution are numerous. Among the most important are Mémoires de Mirabeau, by L. de Montigny (Paris, 1834); Les Mirabeau, by L. de Loménie (Paris, 1889–1891); H. L. de Lanzac de Laborie’s Jean Joseph Mounier (Paris, 1889); B. Mallet’s Mallet du Pan and the French Revolution (London, 1902); Robinet’s Danton (Paris, 1889); Hamel’s Histoire de Robespierre (Paris, 1865–1867) and Histoire de St-Just (2 vols., Brussels, 1860); A. Bigeon, Sieyès (Paris, 1893); Memoirs of Carnot, by his son (2 vols., Paris, 1861–1864).
For fuller information see M. Tourneux, Les Sources bibliographiques de l’histoire de la Révolution Française (Paris, 1898, etc.), and Bibliographie de l’histoire de Paris pendant la Révolution (Paris, 1890, etc.). (F. C. M.)
French Republican Calendar.—Among the changes made during the Revolution was the substitution of a new calendar, usually called the revolutionary or republican calendar, for the prevailing Gregorian system. Something of the sort had been suggested in 1785 by a certain Riboud, and a definite scheme had been promulgated by Pierre Sylvain Maréchal (1750–1803) in his Almanach des honnêtes gens (1788). The objects which the advocates of a new calendar had in view were to strike a blow at the clergy and to divorce all calculations of time from the Christian associations with which they were loaded, in short, to abolish the Christian year; and enthusiasts were already speaking of “the first year of liberty” and “the first year of the republic” when the national convention took up the matter in 1793. The business of drawing up the new calendar was entrusted to the president of the committee of public instruction, Charles Gilbert Romme (1750–1795), who was aided in the work by the mathematicians Gaspard Monge and Joseph Louis Lagrange, the poet Fabre d’Églantine and others. The result of their labours was submitted to the convention in September; it was accepted, and the new calendar became law on the 5th of October 1793. The new arrangement was regarded as beginning on the 22nd of September 1792, this day being chosen because on it the republic was proclaimed and because it was in this year the day of the autumnal equinox.
By the new calendar the year of 365 days was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, every month being divided into three periods of ten days, each of which were called décades, and the tenth, or last, day of each decade being a day of rest. It was also proposed to divide the day on the decimal system, but this arrangement was found to be highly inconvenient and it was never put into practice. Five days of the 365 still remained to be dealt with, and these were set aside for national festivals and holidays and were called Sans-culottides. They were to fall at the end of the year, i.e. on the five days between the 17th and the 21st of September inclusive, and were called the festivals of virtue, of genius, of labour, of opinion and of rewards. A similar course was adopted with regard to the extra day which occurred once in every four years, but the first of these was to fall in the year III., i.e. in 1795, and not in 1796, the leap year in the Gregorian calendar. This day was set apart for the festival of the Revolution and was to be the last of the Sans-culottides. Each period of four years was to be called a Franciade.
| An II. 1793–1794. |
An III. 1794–1795. |
An IV. 1795–1796. |
An V. 1796–1797. |
An VI. 1797–1798. |
An VII. 1798–1799. |
An VIII. 1799–1800. |
An IX. 1800–1801. | |||||||||
| 1 Vendémiaire | 22 Sept. | 1793 | 22 Sept. | 1794 | 23 Sept. | 1795 | 22 Sept. | 1796 | 22 Sept. | 1797 | 22 Sept. | 1798 | 23 Sept. | 1799 | 23 Sept. | 1800 |
| 1 Brumaire | 22 Oct. | ” | 22 Oct. | ” | 23 Oct. | ” | 22 Oct. | ” | 22 Oct. | ” | 22 Oct. | ” | 23 Oct. | ” | 23 Oct. | ” |
| 1 Frimaire | 21 Nov. | ” | 21 Nov. | ” | 22 Nov. | ” | 21 Nov. | ” | 21 Nov. | ” | 21 Nov. | ” | 22 Nov. | ” | 22 Nov. | ” |
| 1 Nivôse | 21 Déc. | ” | 21 Déc. | ” | 22 Déc. | ” | 21 Déc. | ” | 21 Déc. | ” | 21 Déc. | ” | 22 Déc. | ” | 22 Déc. | ” |
| 1 Pluviôse | 20 Janv. | 1794 | 20 Janv. | 1795 | 21 Janv. | 1796 | 20 Janv. | 1797 | 20 Janv. | 1798 | 20 Janv. | 1799 | 21 Janv. | 1800 | 21 Janv. | 1801 |
| 1 Ventôse | 19 Févr. | ” | 19 Févr. | ” | 20 Févr. | ” | 19 Févr. | ” | 19 Fév. | ” | 19 Fév. | ” | 20 Fév. | ” | 20 Fév. | ” |
| 1 Germinal | 21 Mars | ” | 21 Mars | ” | 21 Mars | ” | 21 Mars | ” | 1 Mars | ” | 21 Mars | ” | 22 Mars | ” | 22 Mars | ” |
| 1 Floréal | 20 Avr. | ” | 20 Avr. | ” | 20 Avr. | ” | 20 Avr. | ” | 20 Avr. | ” | 20 Avr. | ” | 21 Avr. | ” | 21 Avr. | ” |
| 1 Prairial | 20 Mai | ” | 20 Mai | ” | 20 Mai | ” | 20 Mai | ” | 20 Mai | ” | 20 Mai | ” | 21 Mai | ” | 21 Mai | ” |
| 1 Messidor | 19 Juin | ” | 19 Juin | ” | 19 Juin | ” | 19 Juin | ” | 19 Juin | ” | 19 Juin | ” | 20 Juin | ” | 20 Juin | ” |
| 1 Thermidor | 19 Juil. | ” | 19 Juil. | ” | 19 Juil. | ” | 19 Juil. | ” | 19 Juil. | ” | 19 Juil. | ” | 20 Juil. | ” | 20 Juil. | ” |
| 1 Fructidor | 18 Août | ” | 18 Août | ” | 18 Août | ” | 18 Août | ” | 18 Août | ” | 18 Août | ” | 19 Août | ” | 19 Août | ” |
| 1 Sans-culottides | 17 Sept. | 1794 | 17 Sept. | 1795 | 17 Sept. | 1796 | 17 Sept. | 1797 | 17 Sept. | 1798 | 17 Sept. | 1799 | 18 Sept. | 1800 | 18 Sept. | 1801 |
| 6 ” | 22 ” | ” | 22 ” | ” | ||||||||||||
| An X. 1801–1802. |
An XI. 1802–1803. |
An XII. 1803–1804. |
An XIII. 1804–1805. |
An XIV. 1805. | ||||||
| 1 Vendémiaire | 23 Septembre | 1801 | 23 Septembre | 1802 | 24 Septembre | 1803 | 23 Septembre | 1804 | 23 Septembre | 1805 |
| 1 Brumaire | 23 Octobre | ” | 23 Octobre | ” | 24 Octobre | ” | 23 Octobre | ” | 23 Octobre | ” |
| 1 Frimaire | 22 Novembre | ” | 22 Novembre | ” | 23 Novembre | ” | 22 Novembre | ” | 22 Novembre | ” |
| 1 Nivôse | 22 Décembre | ” | 22 Décembre | ” | 23 Décembre | ” | 22 Décembre | ” | 22 Décembre | ” |
| 1 Pluviôse | 21 Janvier | 1802 | 21 Janvier | 1803 | 22 Janvier | 1804 | 21 Janvier | 1805 | ||
| 1 Ventôse | 20 Février | ” | 20 Février | ” | 21 Février | ” | 20 Février | ” | ||
| 1 Germinal | 22 Mars | ” | 22 Mars | ” | 22 Mars | ” | 22 Mars | ” | ||
| 1 Floréal | 21 Avril | ” | 21 Avril | ” | 21 Avril | ” | 21 Avril | ” | ||
| 1 Prairial | 21 Mai | ” | 21 Mai | ” | 21 Mai | ” | 21 Mai | ” | ||
| 1 Messidor | 20 Juin | ” | 20 Juin | ” | 20 Juin | ” | 20 Juin | ” | ||
| 1 Thermidor | 20 Juillet | ” | 20 Juillet | ” | 20 Juillet | ” | 20 Juillet | ” | ||
| 1 Fructidor | 19 Août | ” | 19 Août | ” | 19 Août | ” | 19 Août | ” | ||
| 1 Sans-culottides | 18 Septembre | 1802 | 18 Septembre | 1803 | 18 Septembre | 1804 | 18 Septembre | 1805 | ||
| 6” | 23 ” | ” | ||||||||
Some discussion took place about the nomenclature of the new divisions of time. Eventually this work was entrusted to Fabre d’Églantine, who gave to each month a name taken from some seasonal event therein. Beginning with the new year on the 22nd of September the autumn months were Vendémiaire, the month of vintage, Brumaire, the months of fog, and Frimaire,
