Power Tends To Corrupt: Lord Acton's Study of Liberty

8—The French Revolution: A Triumph of Revolutionary Tyranny

EIGHT The French revolution A Triumph of Revolutionary Tyranny There is something in the French nation which incapacitates it for liberty; . . . what [the French] have always sought, and sometimes enjoyed, is not freedom; . . . their liberty must diminish in proportion as their ideal is attained. Whether despotism is exercised in virtue of the principles of 1789 or in virtue of the absolute principle of divine rights, it is no less despotism. The deepest cause which made the French revolution so disastrous to liberty was its theory of equality.1 F r o M W h at h a s B e e N s a i D in the preceding chapters, it should be obvious that acton is not particularly fond of France, its people, or its culture. The first epigraph above confirms this and even bespeaks a strong bias against France. But acton is not merely a Francophobe. his family had a French branch, he spoke French, and he knew France and its culture. his opprobrium had therefore another genesis. as spokesman for freedom, acton sees in France “the classic land of absolutism.” France and its history form an important paradigm of development for the entire continent of europe, one that he does not like. What then, according to acton, lurks in France that “incapacitates it for liberty” and gives a faulty example for others to follow? a brief review of France’s role in the history of liberty (mainly a recollection of what has C h a P t e r 176 PoWer teNDs to CorrUPt already been said in previous chapters) would help us answer this question. to understand his position on this subject fully, however, we need to focus on the French revolution, that most prominent and celebrated attempt of the French at winning freedom. how does acton judge the revolution? We already know that, next to the american revolution, it constituted the third stage in the four-century-long process of freeing the individual and society from estate inequality and the shackles of absolutism: a path leading toward mature liberty. Was the French revolution therefore an exception to France’s otherwise natural inclination toward arbitrary power? or did the revolution end its flirtation with “intelligent government” for good and open a new, liberal chapter in its history? Did it serve the cause of liberty or not? as regius Professor of Modern history at Cambridge University, acton prepared a series of lectures for his students on the French revolution, which he delivered twice over the period of four academic years (1895–1899). Published soon after his death, these lectures, nearly 350 pages long, contain acton’s detailed description and analyses of the revolution and therefore represent the most important source for dissecting his views on this topic.2 But while he describes events and analyzes revolutionary dynamics in great detail, he is often sparing in evaluating and elucidating their deeper meaning for liberty. This is truly unusual in acton’s writing. it is as though acton-the-descriptivehistorian had cast acton-the-political-thinker to the sidelines. Perhaps the nature of the lectures—an introduction to the revolution for undergraduates—explains his concentration on presenting events while avoiding judgments and broad generalizations. Thisdoesnotmean,however,thatactonconcealshisattitudecompletely. on the contrary, he uses his well-known terms and code phrases that clearly indicate his true outlook. For example, whenever he mentions the centralization of power, unlimited authority, direct or pure democracy, the limiting of local self-government, the triumph of equality over liberty, or the rejection of higher law, his attitude is obvious: he deplores them as disastrous for liberty, regardless of time and circumstances. it is therefore highly unlikely that acton changed his views on the revolution in old age and renounced the earlier judgments published in his youth, and even more so in his mature age, when he was more outspoken in condemning the revolution’s various flaws. Thus, employing his earlier writing as supporting evidence seems entirely justified, especially when his comments are vague or absent in the lectures. The French Revolution 177 The old regime and the Beginning of the revolution as mentioned in chapter 4, acton charges that the French are infatuated with arbitrary power. he traces the origin of this affection to antiquity, when the romans supposedly contaminated the Gauls with their attachment to strong authority and, going hand in hand with it, the idea of “undistinguished equality.” The Middle ages did...