New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-10-23
IN THE REIGN OF LOUIS XVI.
THE FERMENT THAT PRECEDED THE
FRENCH REVOLUTION.
TIE EVE OF TIE FRENCH REvoLUTIooS; =, by by
Edward J. Lowell. Up. Vhi' 1o'' "o'7"'''
Miflin & Co.

TIE EVE OF TIE FRENCH REVOLUTION: BY
Edward J. Lowell. PIP. viii, 1o9' Hous"'o"'
Mhiin & Co.
Mr. Lowell remarks that historians and critics
who have discussed the French Revolution may
be divided into two main classes-those VINO, con-
tempating the upheava itself, have read the STORY
backward, and imagined general social cor
ruption which did not exist, and those who see
in il the outbreak in legislation ana politics OIL
ideas which had already been working LOT
century. and which have changed the face OF the
civilized world These ideas are not all true nor
all noble They have in them large admiAture
OF speculative error and Of spiritual baseness'
They require to-day 10 be modified ana reau-
iusted But they represent sides OF truth w''icn
in 1882, and still more IN 1859. were TOO niue"
overlooked and neglected They suited the stage
Of civilization which the world had reacheui anu
men needed TO emphasize them. Their very eN-
arperation was perhaps necessary TO enable them
to fight and in a measure 10 suppant the oldcr
doctrine, which were in possession of the human
mind Induction as the sole method OF reasoning,
sensation az the sole origin of ideas. may not be
the final and only truth, but they were very
much needed in the world in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries and they found philosophers
to elaborate them, and enthusiasts 10 preach
himself belongs Obviously he would have found
IT, an easier task TO take the self-rghtcous att-
tude of the first and more numerous class. IL
is an amazingly simple problem to write history
upon the lines of the Acsopan fable. with per-
petual recurrence TO supposed moral. and with
a series Of rhetorical interludcs on the general
theme OF human depravity One may thus spread
his own tiny personality over the universe and,
assuming the Office of the Deity, may measure all
things by an ethical standard too defective even
for the regulation of his conduct.
Suppose that the administration Of France under
the old monarchy had been Just one; suppose
that taxes had been equally distributed and the
King and his Court had lived within an income
large but legally collected; yet what has fol
lowed shows that as long az the letters put upon
the mind by ancient and medieval systems
remained men would have sought relief. and they
could gain it only by violent bursting OF their
bonds Civilization had outgrown the clothes It
wore and was prepared to 60 naked, il more suit
able attire was not forthcoming. This IL no mere
figure of speech Rousseau's whole denunciation
of the contemporary state Of things and his prsis'
of primitive conditions the unconscious utter
ance Of an age that had 10 strive against ancestral
and traditional limitations Limitations which had
been OF value 10 the past. had been willingly ac-
ceped. nay. even contrivcd by tic people for them
selves and had seemed in their time OF useful
ness world too wide for human nature.
or course. II Is not to be asserted that the OH
monarchy was just. but IL is curious TO observ"
in Mr. Lowel's all too brief chapter on the
cahiers-the term in French political lancnao"
for petitions complaints and circumstances which
were intended to form the basis for legislation and
were 10 serve rs instructions more less positive
10 the IDENTITIES who brought them" how slightly
administrative abuses, whatever they may have
been affected the consciousness Of the people
There is complaint Of al'cntcclsm on the part
Of the peasantry against the lords. Of too many
taxes Of different kinds. OF inequalities by which
one parish is more hurdcncd than its nclehborS,
but in most cases tie rcmonstranccs wcrr not
drawn I'D by the peasantry themselves. hut were
constructed after models sent - the country from
Paris That is Ia say, they expressed not the
feelings Of the common people so much as striv-
ing OF the class in the capital alert 10 the changes
Of modern thought 10 work out IT, own ideals
The Able Scyes. in a pamphlet had violently
urged the right OF the commons 10 supremacy
He had asked and answered these three questions
What IL the third estate ? Everything. what
ha. it been hitherto IN the political order. Moth
ing What does IL ask To become something
Now he came forward with cahicr which tho
Viscount Of Laval proposed 10 have adopted a
Cbaumont I'm Champagne " in the interest u de-
mocracy and the Duke Of Orleans There were
balls and dinners and antc-election promises In
the most approved fashion Of a mo fern canvn>s.
and finally the Abbcs cahicr was accepted. but
the country people insisted that II would not b"
complete as a demand for reform in tic consii-
tuition without "a petition that their DOES might
not be obliged 20 carry a log fastened e. their
collars 70 prevent their running after game. and
that they themselves might he allowed to have
guns TO kill wolves Unincntonal though It
was, there could hardly be more exquisite satire
than this on the men who seemed 10 think that
the nation could be instantly transformed II
was the more incisivc because all these petitions
were complaints and circumstances We must
not look 10 the cahiers,' says Mr.. Lowell. for
mention Of any thing good in the condition OF old
France and we mus. remember that people who
are advocating change are likely to bring for
ward the worst state Of the things which they
wish to see altered
Granting that tie worst state AS thus formally
and officially reported was the real state Of
things it is plain that the cause Of discomfort
Law far below the mere array Of grievances, just
as the potent factors in the American Revolu-
ton were much more recondte than anger at
the Stamp act The conflict which farsghted
men felt TO be approaching battle Of ideas
which mad seemed mere distractions, but taken
up into the lives of men, were abuDdantly vital
and concrete. The most interesting phenomenon
OF all was to see how rapidly new ideas assumed
the form OF dogma This had been exemped
over and over in the history of times when the
mysteries OF religious belief in dispute. II
was now illustrated ancw with the formulas Of
irrcligion. The history Of the Church is con
sdcrcd dry reading, but it illustrates human
nature with iis virtues and its vices its excel
lences and defects, it's practically and mysticism,
its pety on Que side and its superstition on the
other better than almost any other form Of
narrative II would not be difficult TO produce
from the doctrina conflicts Of the Eastern Empire
a parallel for the rise and dcvel lpmcnt of Vol