New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-12-20
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Mr.. STEPHENS SECOND VOLUME.

. n.
svo pp. xv-56i. Charles Scnbnef's Sons.
The second volume Of Mr.. Stephens's history of
The French Revolution appears i've years AFTER
the publication of the first. It's concerned with
the events of the years 1928 principally, and 1t
exhibits on every page evidence of the authors
patient and conscientious research in the collec-
ton oil facts In reviewing the first volume we
spoke Of the sobriety and restraint OF MI
Stephens's styles Those who expect from him
picturesque descriptions or dramatic tableans VIII
he disappointed, for his narrative is nearly color
less, and though perfectly lucid it dispenses with
all imaginative aids. Nothing could be 1urtner
removed from Carlyle's history, and even Ialhe's'
quiet as that is acquires almost romanuc 'inge
bv contrast with this unimpassioned chronicle
So soberly written history is apt to impress
the reader with confidence In the accuracy
of its statements, and such commence Is
in large measure deserved by Mr. Stephens,
though reference to some Of his most important
sources will show that he has not always
followed them closely, and that he is pese'
throughout by a tendency which seriously IN
terferes with the value Of his conclusions. Inc
chief authority for the history of the kevoiu-
tionary Tribunal at Paris and for the WORK Oh
the delegates of the Convention on Mission, Is
NJ. Henri WALTON. whose two great works, His
Les Representants du Peuple en- Mission dams
les DEPARTMENTS, together with his studies on
the Terror. have vastly extended the area OF
sscertained and available facts concerning the
Revolution. These, with the works Of Campardon
and Dauban, afford the means of something like
exact statement on nearly every important event
in the period now treated by Mr.. Stephens; but
we do not find that he has at all generally
accepted the facts amassed by these patient delv-
ers in the archives Of France, and even when
he accepts their facts he often rejects their con-
illusions. ~
In referring to WALTON in this volume he Writ
ually accuses him of holding brief against the
Revolution. This is not fair-ln TACT IL is
miseading-statement. WALTON no doubt hpofs
TO correct the frequent false accounts which were
concocted for the very purpose Of hiding the
truth from the French people. Such deliberate
fabrications were part Of the machinery OF Uhe
Terror, and without them it probably would not
have lasted so long it did. Especially In re-
gard to the doings of the delegates on MISSION
in the Departments was this plan of systematic
mendacity employed 1t is the duty of the honest
historian TO expose such trickery, and to bring
forward the truth and if the truth is such as
10 aggravate the atrocities Of the Terror and to
deepen the infamy that rests upon the whole
mnrderous work, that is not the fault OF the
conscientious reporter, nor does the result OF his
researches argue any undue bias in him. NJ
WALTON is indeed not so cold as to be unmoVeo
by the horrible cruelties, the massacres, inc
"noyadcs," the sacrifice of innocent men, women
and children by ruians like Carrier and his peers.
but 10 show natural disgust ct these Internal
deeds is not to manifest partiality. Campar-
don, in his L. Tribunal Revolutionnaire dc Paris,
often exhibits similarly strong feelings. but 1t
rever has been alleged against him that he was
unfairly BIASED. In fact it would not pe easy
10 find any French writer of reputation who mas
not expressed the same feelings. But the main
consideration is the ascertainment of the truth.
and IL is certain that WALTON has been devoted
10 that end. 1t is really in the views and con-
illusions of Mr.. Stephens that bias is observable,
and it is a very curious kind of bias. In his
account of the Revolutionary Tribunal he probably
is right in asserting that the Terror
was deliberately adopted system
but he goes much further than this so
far. indeed, that his readers might, ii
not very careful conclude that he was an APP
proven of the policy of Terror, and that he was
full of admiration for the men who organized and
the men who applied 1t.
It can be hardly denied that he holds up the
Committee of Public Safety as characterized by
wisdom, energy and perseverance and it must be
inferred from his general attitude that he thinks
the Terror had become necessity at the time
when it was adopted. Now this is view equally
narrow and erroneous. Let it be granted that
the Girondins with their defect of practically
and excess Of speculative imagination, were
responsible for plunging France into foreign war,
it does not at all follow as Mr.. Stephens seems TO
think that the Terror policy was the only
remedy or a legitimate recourse in any point Of
~, AL -
demonstrate that the policy of Terror was
fundamentally at war with the Revolution; that
It involved not only return to but an aggrsva-
ito of the worst abuses of the old regime; and
that it was certain TO ISSUE as it did, in the over
throw Of the newly acquired national liberties
and in the re-cstablishment of absolutism. From
the days of September 10 the 18th Brumaire the
succession Of events was logical and unbroken nay
II might be said that the germ of the Empire
lay in the vote which condemned Louis
the Sixteenth to death And how grim
an irony Of fate marked the careef of the Con-
vention itself To quote from Campardon ser
vile instrument of the dominant factions, we see
1t at the demand Of 'Pere Duchesne' and Chau-
mette organs of the Commune of Paris, send the
Girondns to the scaffold; at the demand of
Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins, we see it,
some months later, condemn the 'Pere Duchesne'
and Chaumette; on the demand of Saint Just and
Robespierre We see it strike down Danton and
Camille Desmoulins; and, finally, on the 10th
Thermidor, it let's fall the sword Of the law upon
Robespierrs. Saint-Just Couthon and their allies.
The Revolutionary Tribunal was twenty six months
in existence. II began by slaughtering the
emigres and non-juring priests and the mobiles
who had not fed 1t proceeded next, under the
hideous law of the suspect. to send the common
people to the guilotine. to shoot them down or
drown them In mass; then it turned upon itself,
and its own members cut one anothers threats
and after the fall Of Robespierre what remained
Of it tried and condemned the chief agents Of its
policy in the provinces.
10 has often been said and Mr. Stephens re-