Vindiciae Gallicae and Other Writings on the French Revolution

Selective Chronology of Events Relating to the French Revolution and Parliamentary Reform in Britain

283 Selective Chronology of Events Relating to the French Revolution and Parliamentary Reform in Britain 1787 22 February: Meeting of the Assembly of Notables. The Assembly was called to discuss Calonne’s reforms for dealing with the French state’s financial crisis. However, the Assembly proved hostile to Calonne’s ideas. 8 April: Following the hostile reception by the Assembly of Notables to the proposed tax reforms, Calonne was dismissed. 1 May: Appointment of Loménie de Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse, as head of the Royal Council of Finances. Brienne went on to propose a modified version of Calonne’s reforms. 25 May: Assembly of Notables refused to ratify Brienne’s reform program and consequently was dispersed. 14 August: Parlement of Paris exiled to Troyes. 1788 4 May: Lettres de cachet issued against Goislard de Montsabert and Duval d’Eprémesnil. 8 May: Attempted French royal coup against the parlements. 8 August: Louis XVI agrees to the summoning of the Estates General. 25 September: Paris parlement reconvened. 4 November: Celebrations of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 organized by London Revolution Society, coinciding with the illness of George III and the Regency crisis. 6 November: Meeting of second Assembly of Notables in France. 1789 24 January: Letters patent issued setting out electoral procedure for forthcoming Estates General. January: Abbé Sieyès’s Qu’est-ce que le tiers état? published in France. 5 May: Opening meeting of French Estates General. 284 chronology of events May: Bill to remove the civil disabilities imposed on English dissenters by the Test and Corporation Acts narrowly defeated. 17 June: Third Estate of France adopted the title National Assembly and declared their intention to rule on behalf of the nation. 20 June: The serment du jeu de paume (Tennis Court Oath); owing to the closure of its normal meeting place, the National Assembly met in the royal tennis court where they swore not to disband until a constitution had been firmly established. 23 June: National Assembly rejected Louis XVI’s order that the three estates meet separately and reiterated its earlier decrees. 9 July: National Assembly adopted the title “National Constituent Assembly.” 11 July: Dismissal of Necker. 14 July: Storming of the Bastille. 4 August: National Assembly abolished many privileges of the nobility and the church. 26 August: Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen. 10 September: National Assembly voted for a unicameral legislature in the forthcoming constitution. 11 September: National Assembly voted to give the king a suspensive veto over legislation. 5–6 October: People of Paris marched to Versailles and forced Louis XVI to return to the capital. Soon after, the National Assembly voted to move to Paris. 2 November: Nationalization of church property. 3 November: Suspension of parlements. 4 November: Richard Price gave his sermon on “Love of Our Country” at the annual meeting of the London Revolution Society, after which an address was sent to French National Assembly. 19 December: Assignats issued. 22 December: Decree setting out plans for primary elections to the forthcoming legislature. 1790 9 February: Burke’s first public attack on the French Revolution in his speech on the army estimates (published 20 February). 4 March: Henry Flood’s motion for parliamentary reform defeated in House of Commons. 15 March: National Assembly declared abolition of feudal regime in France. chronology of events 285 22 May: National Assembly voted to abolish king’s prerogative over declarations of war and peace. 19 June: Abolition of titles of hereditary nobility. June: Horne Tooke stood as candidate for Westminster on the program of reform agreed by the Society for Constitutional Information. 12 July: Civil Constitution of the Clergy voted by National Assembly. 4 September: Resignation of Necker. 6 September: Abolition of the parlements. October: Publication of Calonne’s De l’état de la France. 1 November: Publication of Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. 29 November: Publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Man. December: Publication of Catharine Macaulay’s Observations on the Reflections of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke. 1791 January: Publication of Joseph Priestley’s Letters to the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke. 12 March: Publication of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man. Part the First. 7 May: Publication of Mackintosh’s Vindiciae Gallicae. May: Open rift between Burke and Fox in the House of Commons. 20 June: Louis XVI’s flight to Varennes. 2 July: Publication...