Lectures on the French Revolution

VII. THE FOURTH OF AUGUST

LectFrRevol_051-100.indd 82 4/27/12 9:59 AM VII THE FOURTH OF AUGUST We come to-day to the most decisive date in the Revolution, the fall of the social system of historic France, and the substitution of the Rights of Man. When the Assembly was fully constituted, it had to regulate its procedure. Sir Samuel Romilly, a friend of Dumont, and occasionally of Mirabeau, sent over an account of the practice of the British Parliament, with the cumbrous forms, the obstacles to prompt action , the contrivances to favour a minority, and to make opposition nearly equal to government. The French required more expeditious methods. They had a single Assembly with a known and welldefined commission, and the gravest danger of the hour was obstruction and delay. Every member obtained the right ofinitiative, and could submit a motion in writing. The Assembly might, after debate, refuse to consider it; but if not arrested on the threshold, it might be discussed and voted and passed in twenty-four hours. The security for deliberation was in the Bureaux. The Assembly was divided into thirty groups or committees, of nearly forty members each, who met separately, the Assembly in the morning, the Bureaux in the evening. This plan ensured thorough and sincere discussion , for men spoke their genuine thoughts, where there was no formality, no reporter, no stranger in the gallery. The Bureaux were disliked and suspected by the excluded public. The electorate, experiencing for the first time the sensation ofhaving deputies at work to do their will, desired to watch them, and insisted on the master's right to look after his man. Representation was new; and to every reader of Rousseau, ofTurgot, or of Mably, it was an object ofpro82 LectFrRevol_051-100.indd 83 4/27/12 9:59 AM THE FOURTH OF AUGUST found distrust. The desire to uphold the supremacy ofthe deputing power over the deputed, of the constituent over his member, was distinctly part ofthe great literary inheritance common to them all. As the mandate was originally imperative, the giver ofthe mandate claimed the right ofseeing to its execution. The exercise ofpowers that were defined and limited, that were temporary and revocable, called for scrutiny and direct control. The Bureaux did not last, and their disappearance was a disaster . Party, as the term is used in the constitutional vocabulary, was not yet developed; and no organisation possessed the alternate power of presenting ministers to the Crown. The main lines that divided opinion came to light in the debates ofSeptember, and the Assembly fell into factions that were managed by their clubs. The President held office for a fortnight, and each new election indicated the movement of opinion, the position of parties, the rise of reputations. The united Assembly did honour to the acceding orders . The first presidents were prelates and men ofrank. Out ofsix elections only one fell to a commoner, until the end ofSeptember, when the leader of the Liberal Conservatives, Mounier, was chosen , at what proved a moment of danger. In the same way, the thirty chairmen of the Bureaux were, with scarcely an exception, always taken from the clergy or the nobles. As Mounier, with his friends, had dominated in the constitutional committee of thirty, and was now paramount in the new committee of eight, there was some prospect of a coalition, by which, in return for their aid in carrying the English model, the nobles would obtain easy terms in the liquidation ofprivilege. That is the parliamentary situation. That is the starting-point of the transactions that we have now to follow. During the days spent in making terms between the king, the Assembly, and the capital, the provinces were depending on Paris for news, for opinions, and direction. They were informed that the Parisians had made themselves masters of the royal fortress, and had expelled the royal authority; that the king and the Assembly had accepted and approved the action; that there was no executive ministry, either old or new; and that the capital was providing for its own security and administration. The towns soon had imitations of the disorders that had been so successful, and quickly repressed them; for the towns were the seat of the middle class, the natural LectFrRevol_051-100.indd 84 4/27/12 9:59 AM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION protectors of acquired property, and defenders of order and safety. In country districts the process...