Weekly national intelligencer., 1857-10-10

| in our hearts the root from which they sprang For
him they cherished at the time the tenderness which
feels for father with the respect which is due only
TO God. In submitting to his commands, the most
arbitrary they yielded less to constraint than love
and thus 1t came to pass that they the soul
free in the midst of dependence the most extreme For
them the greatest evil of obedience compulsion for
us 1T is the least Let not then despise fathers
we have no right to do God grant that may
cover, with their preudices and their faults small
measure of their grandeur"
We have made these citations from M de Tocque-
vile work for double purpose-because they illus
trate not only the free spirit in which it is written
but serve also at the same time to indicate the great
central fact which, apart from these political innuen
does, it aims to establish. That fact may be con-
densed into the general statement that pery many
OF the thoughts sentiments, ideas, principles, and
habatudes Of France, aclich hare been heretofore
considered the peculiar offspring Of the Revolution,
really plant their roots IN the ancient monarchy,
lnsomuch that the France of the ancien regime is
much more like the France of the present day than
Is commonly supposed In word, though the
French, by the Revolution of 1889, sought to fix
great gulph between their present and their past,
they succeeded much less in that attempt than they
intended, and much less than Is generally believed,
| as well by themselves as by others. M. de Tocque
vile describes himself as more and surprised
by the traces of this fact in proportion to the pro-
SIcSS he ldue III uuTUilHR tuc uUCuuicutS WuiCH
contain the story of the fallen dynasty and ancient
society of France. Making his researches in
quarter heretofore neglected he has been rewarded
for his patience and sagacity by the discovery of
historic truths which as important in point of
fact as they are novel and striking in the conclu-
sions to which they lead. The sources upon which
he has drawn the preparation of the present trea
tise and which have proved so fertile Of valuable
results to the cause of history, are thus stated in
the preface of the volume:
I have undertaken reach the core of this state of
society under the old monarchy of France which is still
the lapse Of years. but concealed from
by the Revolution
For this purpose have only read again the
celebrated books which the eighteenth century produc
ed have also studied multitude of works less known
and less werhy to be known but which, from the neg
gence of their composition disclose perhaps better
than finished productions the real instincts of the
time have applied myself to investigate thoroughly
all the public documents by which the French may, at
the approach of the Revolution have shown their opn
ions and their tastes The regular reports of the meet
ngs of the States and subsequently of the Provincial
Assemblies, have supplied with large quantity of
evidence have especially made great of the In
sructons drawn by the Three Orders in 1789 These
Instructions which form in original long series of manu-
script volumes viii remain the testament of the old
society Of France the supreme record Of its Wishes the
suhentic declaration Of its last intentions Such do
.cpnsnt is unique in history Yet this alone has not
Satisfied me-
- IN countries IN WHICH the aQmlnSGratlve doVern-
ment is already powerful there few opinions DESIRES
sorrows there few interests passions which
not later stripped bare before it. In the
archives of such Government not only exact notion
of its procedure be acquired but the whole country
is exhibited Any stranger who should have to
all the confidential correspondence of the Home Depart
and the Prefectures of France would soon know
about the French than they know themselves. In
the eighteenth century the administration of the
try, will be from this book, highly central
lied, very powerful prodigiously active 1t inces
sanity aiding preventing. permitting 1t had much to
promise, much to give. Its influence already felt
in thousand ways, not only the general conduct of
affairs but the condition of families and the private
life of every individual Moreover, this administra
tion without publicity, not afraid to lay
bare before its eyes their secret nfrmities
have spent great deal of time in studying what
mains of its proceedings both at Paris and in several
provinces
ture of the old monarchy still in existence with its opn
ions, its passions its preudces, and its usages. There
every spoke his mind and disclosed his nnermost
thoughts have thus succeeded in acquiring nforma
ton the former state of society which those who lived
in ii did not possess for had before that which had
never been exposed to them"
We shall proceed briefly to reproduce few of the
results of NJ. dc Tocqueville's re Asrches in the
new and productive field he has b b the first to
open. The French Revolution has filled the world
with Its echo, and yet, if we may judge from the
contradictory judgments which have been passed
dhht Atc Caucts anu eucclc, ucdu-
ing Of the voice in which it has spoken has never
yet been satisfactorily interpreted from amid the
Babel sounds that accompanied it. And under
these circumstances il is that NJ. de Tocqueville
10 add his sagaeity and patient inquiry to the
calculation of this vexed historic problem and has
sought to explain what was the real meaning, the
real character, and what the permanent effects of
this strange and terrible event. The question he
proposed TO himself was twofold-" What, pr,,cise-
", has the Revolution destroyedl What h.,s it
created and well has he answered it,
The writer first undertakes to show that the ir-
religious spirit which apparently animated the
French Revolution was rather incidental to it than
the primam mobile of Its activity. The Church
was assailed not so much as the pillar and ground
Of Christian truth as because it had become, in
the popular mind, by reason of its proprietary
rights, its spiritual lords, Its tithecoectors AID
the host of its hireling retainers, little more or
better than part and parcel of the privileged sys
tenn" on which the old society based, and which
the new fermentation of thought was aiming to ex-
plcie: The Church had become aristocratic in its
constitution and in its spirit and therefore natu-
rally shared in-the odium that was directed against
the very idea of all aristocracy
The French Revolution differed from all others
in its expansive and diffusive spirit. 1t was emil
nently epidemic in its maxims, and, not satisfied
with the establishment of Liberty in France,
sought to find lodgment for that goddess through
out the whole of Europe And this complex ion it took
not only from the aggressive character of Its lead
ers, but from the nature of the principles in whose
name the Revolution was preached. 1t considered
in the abstract, and human rights in their me-
taphysica relations, apart from national limits or
national peculiarties. And herein also it took on
the form of religious proselytism, and became in
fact new evangel-a religion of humanity, with
out God, without divine worship, and without
future hfe-a sort of political Mohammedan SIN, in
undating the world with its soldiers apostl es and
martyrs, and offering every where to popular ac-
cepsance either the Koran of universal liberty the
sword of revolutionary propagandism
The spread of its influence was greatly accelerated
by the condition of Europe at that date. During