The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-13 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLU-
TION. 2 VOLS. EDINBUAGHt 1833.
We have but one fault to find with these
volumes ; namely, that the materials are too
much spun-out ;in other words, that the cloven
foot of the book-maker is too apparent through-
out. The introductory portion hangs but by a
slender thread to the rest of the work, and wears
all the appearance of having been thrust in by
way of make-weight. But when the author
fairly embarks on his subject, he becomes less
tedious and episodical ; his habit of moralizing,
too, grows " small by degrees and beautifully
less"—an enviable recommendation in an his.
torian, for few possess that apposite reflective
power in which Gibbon so much excelled, and
which lends such a philosophic charm to his
pages. In his preface, Mr. Alison does not
attempt to disguise the fact that he regards the
French Revolution with the eye of a Tory ; he
hangs out no false colours to bewilder and lead
astray ; consequently we were prepared for a
somewhat distorted narrative of facts ; but it
glads us to be able to state that party spirit is
not unduly prominent in these volumes. Mr.
Alison (with all his Toryism and clerical pre-
dilections) is a thousand times more honest an
historian than Mr. Hume. He compares con-
flicting versions with more scrupulousness, and
is not too ready to take every statement of facts
for granted that may happen to accord with his
Own view of the point at issue. We distrust
him nowhere, save where (as in the early period
of the Revolution) he brings the French clergy
on the tapis. Here a strong bias in favour of
these misguided, or rather insincere, men is
perceptible—so much so, indeed, as to neu-
tralize all that Mr. Alison would fain al-
lege in their favour. But if he smooths
over the flagrant insincerity of his cleri-
cal brethren in France, he keeps the balance
even by sternly speaking the truth of the mean,
shuffling, cowardly conduct of the French No-
blesse. These were the men—and not the
Girondists or Jacobins, who were merely the
blind instruments of circumstance—that brought
their King to the scaffold. To promote their
own selfish purposes, they first leagued with the
people against him ; they then deserted him,
when the danger of his situation deepened ; and
then, by way of wind-up to their cowardice and
treason, brought him, by their intrigues with
the Allied Powers, to the scaffold. No wonder
that the very mention of the word " aristocrat"
is abhorrent to the ears of a Frenchman I No
wonder that it is a synonym—a by-word for
treachery, meanness, and bigotry ; that the sys-
tem is down—spit on —trampled in the dust—
never again to rear a bold head in France.
To this part of the subject Mr. Alison
does ample justice, and we respect him
for his uncompromising manliness. Nor do
we wholly object to his estimate of the Gi-
rondists—a singular fraternity of statesmen, who,
with the head to conceive the noblest projects for
the benefit of their country, had scarce the
courage to put even the most trifling act into
execution. A word from these men, spoken in
season, when the pulse of regenerated France beat
warmly towards them, would have saved her
the horrors of the Reign of Terror, and the dis-
grace of seeing a horde of Russian Cossacks
twice bivouacked within her capital. But bold
in theory, the Girondists were, to a man, weak
in practice. They carried the narrow intellect of
the cloister into the Cabinet. When they
should have been looking forward to the future,
they were content with casting their eyes back
upon the past ; and instead of legislating in ac-
cordance with circumstances, and the altered
spirit of the times, disgusted the active, impatient
mind of France, by sounding rhetorial appeals
to the memory of Brutus and Cicero. Could
they but have superadded the business-like
energy of Napoleon to their own lofty concep-
tions and habits of enlightened thought, the
Girondists might, to this hour, have been the
ruling Ministry of France. But they lacked de-
cision, and this want brought the whole party to
the scaffold. The Jacobins who succeeded them
governed, and were governed, equally by theory,
though of a diametrically opposite character.
The hobby of the one was to rule France by
love ; of the other, by terror. Both were sin-
cere, but both failed, and for the same reason—
that they were alike ignorant of the first princi-
ples of legislation. Napoleon, who possessed
not one particle of the conscientiousness of either
Girondist or Jacobin ; who lived but for him-
self, as if the interests of universal Europe were
concentrated in his own person, carried point by
point, and raised himself to the highest pinnacle
of glory, solely by his shrewd practical acquain-
tance with the weak side of human natu re.
The ablest portions of Mr. Alison's volumes—
and those with which he has evidently taken the
most pains—are his sketches of the first outbreak
of the Republican armies, incomparably the
finest that any country, whether in ancient or
modern times, ever yet sent into the field. The
Herculean energies of these warriors are without
parallel in the history of the world. Scarce a
private among them all but was fit to be a
Nlarshal of the Empire. The cleverest and most
characteristic sketch of one of these Republican
heroes, we know of, may be found in Mr.
Crowe's popular tale of " Vittoria Colonna."
His old Sergeant Latour is a conception worthy
of Scott. .

In closing this sketchy notice, we must not
omit to point out the graphic manner in which
Mr. Alison alludes to the abandonment of
Christianity in France during the administration
of the Decemvirs. He expatiates on this part
of his subject with singular eloquence and feel-
ing. It is, in fact, one of the most animated
i n his volumes, as was to be expected. " The
villagea hellseworld
(ay 0
ricsis
without 11 e ) were
blessing,
silent;age infancy a ne e
quitted
t-
-1
it without a hope." The author takes special
care, too, that the well-known remark of Robes
pierce respecting the necessity of a national re
ligion (after the municipality had vainly striven
to dispense with it), shall lose nothing in hi-
hands. But here he is on strong ground, and
does right to make the most of his footing.