History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814

History of the French Revolution
from 1789 to 1814

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from 1789 to 1814
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Title: History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814
Author: F. A. M. Mignet

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HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION FROM 1789 TO 1814
BY
F.A.M. MIGNET

INTRODUCTION
Of the great incidents of History, none has attracted more attention or
proved more difficult of interpretation than the French Revolution. The
ultimate significance of other striking events and their place in the
development of mankind can be readily estimated. It is clear enough
that the barbarian invasions marked the death of the classical world,
already mortally wounded by the rise of Christianity. It is clear enough
that the Renaissance emancipated the human intellect from the
trammels of a bastard mediaevalism, that the Reformation consolidated
the victory of the "new learning" by including theology among the
subjects of human debate. But the French Revolution seems to defy
complete analysis. Its complexity was great, its contradictions

numerous and astounding. A movement ostensibly directed against
despotism culminated in the establishment of a despotism far more
complete than that which had been overthrown. The apostles of liberty
proscribed whole classes of their fellow-citizens, drenching in innocent
blood the land which they claimed to deliver from oppression. The
apostles of equality established a tyranny of horror, labouring to
extirpate all who had committed the sin of being fortunate. The apostles
of fraternity carried fire and sword to the farthest confines of Europe,
demanding that a continent should submit to the arbitrary dictation of a
single people. And of the Revolution were born the most rigid of
modern codes of law, that spirit of militarism which to-day has caused
a world to mourn, that intolerance of intolerance which has armed
anti-clerical persecutions in all lands. Nor were the actors in the drama
less varied than the scenes enacted. The Revolution produced Mirabeau
and Talleyrand, Robespierre and Napoleon, Sieyès and Hébert. The
marshals of the First Empire, the doctrinaires of the Restoration, the
journalists of the Orleanist monarchy, all were alike the children of this
generation of storm and stress, of high idealism and gross brutality, of
changing fortunes and glory mingled with disaster.
To describe the whole character of a movement so complex, so diverse
in its promises and fulfilment, so crowded with incident, so rich in
action, may well be declared impossible. No sooner has some
proposition been apparently established, than a new aspect of the period
is suddenly revealed, and all judgments have forthwith to be revised.
That the Revolution was a great event is certain; all else seems to be
uncertain. For some it is, as it was for Charles Fox, much the greatest
of all events and much the best. For some it is, as it was for Burke, the
accursed thing, the abomination of desolation. If its dark side alone be
regarded, it oppresses the very soul of man. A king, guilty of little more
than amiable weakness and legitimate or pious affection; a queen
whose gravest fault was but the frivolity of youth and beauty, was done
to death. For loyalty to her friends, Madame Roland died; for loving
her husband, Lucille Desmoulins perished. The agents of the Terror
spared neither age nor sex; neither the eminence of high attainment nor
the insignificance of dull mediocrity won mercy at their hands. The
miserable Du Barri was dragged from her obscure retreat to share the

fate of a Malesherbes, a Bailly, a Lavoisier. Robespierre was no more
protected by his cold incorruptibility, than