The French Revolution has been character ized as °The most important event in the life of modern Europe)); it has been compared to the Reformation and to the rise of Christianity, because, as in both of these great movements, it set forces in motion which changed the thought and life of men and permanently af fected human civilization. The sovereignty of e people, personal liberty, a new idea of nationality were three principles that were awakened in the minds of men. The blood shed and treasure spent and the unrest of Europe were but the prelude of a brighter day when order should come out of chaos, peace be restored to the nations, feudalism destroyed, social equality advanced and great national movements made possible.
The life and work of Napoleon in the Restoration, whatever may be our judgment of his motives and his purposes, have always been a subject of profound study for the student, for there is scarcely any department of human activity that he did not touch and influence. History, religion, politics, education, law, gov ernment, political and industrial economy and social reforms were all subjects for his wonder ful energy. One of the most versatile char acters of history, his reorganization of France was one of his greatest achievements.
In order to understand the conditions exist ing at this time and to follow the steps by which Napoleon attained his remarkable posi tion we must go back into the reign of Louis XVI and study the events which resulted in the Reign of Terror, the Revolution and the establishment of democracy.
Louis XVI, son of the Dauphin and grand son of Louis XV, ascended the throne on the death of the latter, 10 May 1774. Hardly had he been crowned when war broke out with Eng land, in consequence of the support afforded by France to the revolted American colonies of Great Britain; A treaty of commerce and alli ance with the United States was signed 6 Feb. 1778, and was followed by an immediate decla ration of war by England. The war was suc cessful in its immediate object and was termi nated by the Treaty of Versailles, 3 Sept. 1783. Three years afterward a commercial treaty was concluded with England. The first difficulty of Louis' government, however, and the rock upon which it split was the hopeless and unmanage able condition of the public finances. Maurepas, Turgot, Malesherbes, Clugny de Nuis, Necker, Joly de Fleury, d'Ormesson, Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, Lomenie de Brienne and others signally failed to ward off impending disaster and resigned or were dismissed. Finally the king was forced to convoke the States-General (q.v.) at Versailles 5 May 1789. Owing to dis putes between the three parties represented the nobility, the clergy and the Third Estate— the attempt to solve the difficulties was abortive. The king assumed a hostile attitude and com mitted several acts which angered the public, the chief of which was the dismissal of Necker, who a second time had been called to the finan cial portfolio; and in June 1789 it became neces to bring foreign troops to Paris to overawe the assembly. The people demanded arms and the Hotel de Ville at Paris supplied them; blood was shed there on 12 July; and on the 14th the Bastile was captured and destroyed. The garde bourgeoise, formed by the munici pality, was now transformed into the national guard with Lafayette as commander. The spirit of insurrection in the meantime had, since the beginning of 1789, been spreading in the prov inces; sections of the country were swept by a panic called the °Great Fear,)) and the urgency of affairs induced the assembly, on 4 August, to take a decisive step. On the basis of a future compensation all privileges were abolished. A banquet given to the foreign troops at Ver sailles, at a time when the populace was threat ened with famine, excited another insurrection. Versailles was attacked by the mob and the king brought a prisoner to Paris (5 and 6 Oct. 1789).
In December 1790 the king began to cor respond secretly with foreign powers and a secret convention had been made with Austria, Prussia, Piedmont, Spain and Switzerland to advance their troops to the frontiers with a view to a simultaneous occupation of the terri tory. Louis made his escape from Paris (20 June 1791) and endeavored to reach Mont medy; but he was recognized on the road, ar rested at Varennes and brought back to Paris escorted by the commissaries of the assembly. A demonstration in the Champ de Mars in favor of his deposition (17 July) was put down by force by Lafayette and Bailly under order of the assembly.
On 30 Sept. 1791 the assembly brought its work to a finish. The constitution was sworn to by the king on 14 September, after which he was reinstated in his functions. The constitu tion embraced all those civil reforms which, afterward incorporated in the code of Napoleon, survived the political changes of the Revolu tion. It deprived the king of arbitrary powers
and voted him a civil list; it provided liberty of worship, freedom of the press, of commerce, of industry; the laws of primogeniture and entail were abolished and equal division of property among children made compulsory; confiscation of property for offenses was abolished and per sonal punishment substituted; titles were abolished; the clergy were reduced to public functionaries, salaried by the state; the terri tory of France was declared free through all its extent and a redivision of it was effected (15 Jan. 1790) in 83 departments. This division afterward proved an admirable instrument of centralization and in repeated emergencies en abled Napoleon at once to lay his hand with ease upon all the military resources of France. One of the measures already mentioned in par ticular demands further details, as it was the means of meeting the financial difficulty and at the same time of arming the enemies of the Revolution, at whose expense it was effected. On 2 Dec. 1789 the domains of the Church were, in the euphemism of the assembly, put at the disposition of the nation. The minister was au thorized to sell these estates to the extent of 400,000,000 livres. Until the sale was effected he was authorized, on the security of these na tional domains, to issue a paper money having a forced circulation and a preference in the purchase of them. In 1792 the estates of the emigres were confiscated in like manner. Thus was created that seemingly inexhaustible treasury of assignats which brought France so speedily into a financial anarchy worse than any she had yet experienced. Among other re forms was the reorganization of the adminstra tion of justice. The parliaments were dissolved by indefinite prorogation and judicial functions were separated from the administrative; district courts were created and judges appointed for 10 years. The assembly closed with an attempt to recall the émigrés and it prohibited the re election of its members. Mirabeau, the greatest orator of the assembly and one of the boldest leaders of the Revolution, had died prematurely 2 April 1791 from the excesses of his life. The constituent assembly was, according-to the con stitution, immediately followed by the legislative assembly, which began its.sittings on 1 October ; but before the period assigned by the constitu tion it gave place to the convention. In the legislative assembly there were two parties of political importance, the Girondists, who led it, and the•Montagnards, who subsequently became all-powerful in the convention. The royalists were already powerless. The assembly was compelled at once to take a decisive course. By the declaration of Pilnitz the emperor of Germany and the king of Prussia threatened an armed intervention to restore Louis to his rights. The king was compelled in March to accept a Girondist ministry, and on 20 April 1792 war was declared against the empire. The first attempts to assume the offensive were un successful and the French armies were not even able to prevent the enemy from invading home territory. To make matters worse the king maintained a treasonable correspondence with the allies and refused to sanction the decrees of the assembly. Paris grew restless as the enemy advanced; unscrupulous politicians urged the mobs to violence and on 20 June the people invaded the assembly and the Tuileries and summoned the king to sign the decrees. He refused, but satisfied them for the moment by allowing himself to be crowned with a red bonnet. On 26 July the Duke of Brunswick issued his celebrated and impolitic manifesto, threatening, if the king were insulted, to deliver Paris to a military execution. The sections of Paris retorted by signing a petition demanding the deposition of the king before the close of the day (9 August). At midnight the tocsin sounded. The Tuileries, after a sanguinary combat, was taken and sacked. The king took refuge with his family in the assembly, which was invaded and compelled to submit to the dictation of the victors by assenting to the suspension of the king and the convocation of a national convention. The convention was an extraordinary assembly, summoned for an emergency, and thus recognized the fact that France was again without a constitution. The war now assumed a more favorable aspect. The victory of Valmy, 20 Sept. 1792, caused the Germans to fall back discomfited. The siege of Thionville was abandoned and France was freed of her invaders. Savoy, Nice and Villa franca were seized and occupied by the French; the army of Alsace under Custine took Speier (30 Sept. 1792), Worms (5 October) and Mainz (21 October). Frankfort capitulated to liouchard ; and the victory of Dumouriez over the Austrians at Jemappes, 6 Nov. 1792, led to the occupation of Belgium.