History of the French Revolution From 1789 to 1814

CHAPTER I. From the 5th of May, 1789, to the Night of the 4th of August

FROM THE 5TH OF MAY, 1789, TO THE NIGHT OF THE 4TH OF AUGUST

Opening of the states-general--Opinion of the court, of the ministry, and of the various bodies of the kingdom respecting the states--Verification of powers--Question of vote by order or by poll--The order of the commons forms itself into a national assembly--The court causes the Hall of the states to be closed--Oath of the Tennis-court--The majority of the order of the clergy unites itself with the commons--Royal sitting of the 23rd of June--Its inutility--Project of the court--Events of the 12th, 13th, and 14th of July--Dismissal of Necker--Insurrection of Paris--Formation of the national guard--Siege and taking of the Bastille--Consequences of the 14th of July--Decrees of the night of the 4th of August--Character of the revolution which had just been brought about.

CHAPTER II. From the Night of the 4th of August to the 5th and 6th of

FROM THE NIGHT OF THE 4TH OF AUGUST TO THE 5TH AND 6TH OF OCTOBER, 1789

State of the constituent assembly--Party of the high clergy and nobility-- Maury and Cazales--Party of the ministry and of the two chambers: Mounier, Lally-Tollendal--Popular party: triumvirate of Barnave, Duport, and Lameth--Its position--Influence of Sieyès--Mirabeau chief of the assembly at that period--Opinion to be formed of the Orleans party--Constitutional labours--Declaration of rights--Permanency and unity of the legislative body--Royal sanction--External agitation caused by it--Project of the court--Banquet of the gardes-du-corps--Insurrection of the 5th and 6th October--The king comes to reside at Paris.

CHAPTER III. From the 6th of October, 1789, to the Death of Mirabeau,

FROM THE 6TH OF OCTOBER, 1789, TO THE DEATH OF MIRABEAU, APRIL, 1791

Results of the events of October--Alteration of the provinces into departments--Organization of the administrative and municipal authorities according to the system of popular sovereignty and election--Finances; all the means employed are insufficient--Property of the clergy declared national--The sale of the property of the clergy leads to assignats--Civil constitution of the clergy--Religious opposition of the bishops-- Anniversary of the 14th of July--Abolition of titles--Confederation of the Champ de Mars--New organization of the army--Opposition of the officers-- Schism respecting the civil constitution of the clergy--Clubs--Death of Mirabeau--During the whole of this period the separation of parties becomes more decided.

CHAPTER IV. From April, 1791, to the 30th September, the End of the

FROM APRIL, 1791, TO THE 30TH SEPTEMBER, THE END OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Political state of Europe before the French revolution--System of alliance observed by different states--General coalition against the revolution-- Motives of each power--Conference of Mantua, and circular of Pavia--Flight to Varennes--Arrest of the king--His suspension--The republican party separate, for the first time, from the party of the constitutional monarchy--The latter re-establishes the king--Declaration of Pilnitz--The king accepts the constitution--End of the constituent assembly--Opinion of it.

THE NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

CHAPTER V. From the 1st of October, 1791, to the 21st of September, 1792

FROM THE 1ST OF OCTOBER, 1791, TO THE 21ST OF SEPTEMBER, 1792

Early relations between the legislative assembly and the king--State of parties: the Feuillants rely on the middle classes, the Girondists on the people--Emigration and the dissentient clergy; decree against them; the king's veto--Declarations of war--Girondist ministry; Dumouriez, Roland-- Declaration of war against the king of Hungary and Bohemia--Disasters of our armies; decree for a camp of reserve for twenty thousand men at Paris; decree of banishment against the nonjuring priests; veto of the king; fall of the Girondist ministry--Petition of insurgents of the 20th of June to secure the passing of the decrees and the recall of the ministers--Last efforts of the constitutional party--Manifesto of the duke of Brunswick-- Events of the 10th of August--Military insurrection of Lafayette against the authors of the events of the 10th of August; it fails--Division of the assembly and the new commune; Danton--Invasion of the Prussians-- Massacres of the 2nd of September--Campaign of the Argonne--Causes of the events under the legislative assembly.

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION

CHAPTER VI. From the 20th of September, 1792, to the 21st of January, 1793

FROM THE 20TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1792, TO THE 21ST OF JANUARY, 1793

First measures of the Convention--Its composition--Rivalry of the Gironde and of the Mountain--Strength and views of the two parties--Robespierre: the Girondists accuse him of aspiring to the dictatorship--Marat--Fresh accusation of Robespierre by Louvet; Robespierre's defence; the Convention passes to the order of the day--The Mountain, victorious in this struggle, demand the trial of Louis XVI.--Opinions of parties on this subject--The Convention decides that Louis XVI. shall be tried, and by itself--Louis XVI. at the Temple; his replies before the Convention; his defence; his condemnation; courage and serenity of his last moments--What he was, and what he was not, as a king.

CHAPTER VII. From the 21st of January, 1793, to the 2nd of June

FROM THE 21ST OF JANUARY, 1793, TO THE 2ND OF JUNE

Political and military situation of France--England, Holland, Spain, Naples, and all the circles of the empire fall in with the coalition-- Dumouriez, after having conquered Belgium, attempts an expedition into Holland--He wishes to re-establish constitutional monarchy--Reverses of our armies--Struggle between the Gironde and the Mountain--Conspiracy of the 10th of March--Insurrection of La Vendée; its progress--Defection of Dumouriez--The Gironde accused of being his accomplices--New conspiracies against them--Establishment of the Commission of Twelve to frustrate the conspirators--Insurrections of the 27th and 31st of May against the Commission of Twelve; its suppression--Insurrection of the 2nd of June against the two-and-twenty leading Girondists; their arrest--Total defeat of that party.

CHAPTER VIII. From the 2nd of June, 1793, to April, 1794

FROM THE 2ND OF JUNE, 1793, TO APRIL, 1794

Insurrection of the departments against the 31st of May--Protracted reverses on the frontiers--Progress of the Vendéans--The Montagnards decree the constitution of 1793, and immediately suspend it to maintain and strengthen the revolutionary government--Levée en masse; law against suspected persons--Victories of the Montagnards in the interior, and on the frontiers--Death of the queen, of the twenty-two Girondists, etc.-- Committee of public safety; its power; its members--Republican calendar-- The conquerors of the 31st of May separate--The ultra-revolutionary faction of the commune, or the Hébertists, abolish the catholic religion, and establish the worship of Reason; its struggle with the committee of public safety; its defeat--The moderate faction of the Montagnards, or the Dantonists, wish to destroy the revolutionary dictatorship, and to establish the legal government; their fall--The committee of public safety remains alone, and triumphant.

CHAPTER IX. From the Death of Danton, April, 1794, to the 9th Thermidor

FROM THE DEATH OF DANTON, APRIL, 1794, TO THE 9TH THERMIDOR (27TH JULY, 1794)

Increase of terror; its cause--System of the democrats; Saint-Just-- Robespierre's power--Festival of the Supreme Being--Couthon presents the law of the 22nd Prairial, which reorganizes the revolutionary tribunal; disturbances; debates; final obedience of the convention--The active members of the committee have a division--Robespierre, Saint-Just, and Couthon on one side; Billaud-Varennes, Collot-d'Herbois, Barrère, and the members of the committee of general safety on the other--Conduct of Robespierre--He absents himself from the committee, and rests on the Jacobins and the commune--On the 8th of Thermidor he demands the renewal of the committees; the motion is rejected--Sitting of the 9th Thermidor; Saint-Just denounces the committees; is interrupted by Tallien; Billaud- Varennes violently attacks Robespierre; general indignation of the convention against the triumvirate; they are arrested--The commune rises and liberates the prisoners--Peril and courage of the convention; it outlaws the insurgents--The sections declare for the convention--Defeat and execution of Robespierre.

CHAPTER X

FROM THE 9TH THERMIDOR TO THE 1ST PRAIRIAL, YEAR III. (20TH MAY, 1795). EPOCH OF THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

The convention, after the fall of Robespierre; party of the committees; Thermidorian party; their constitution and object--Decay of the democratic party of the committees--Impeachment of Lebon and Carrier--State of Paris --The Jacobins and the Faubourgs declare for the old committees; the jeunesse dorée, and the sections for the Thermidorians--Impeachment of Billaud-Varennes, Collot-d'Herbois, Barrère, and Vadier--Movement of Germinal--Transportation of the accused, and of a few of the Mountain, their partisans--Insurrection of the 1st Prairial--Defeat of the democratic party; disarming of the Faubourgs--The lower class is excluded from the government, deprived of the constitution of '93, and loses its material power.

CHAPTER XI. From the 1st Prairial (20th of May, 1795) to the 4th Brumaire

FROM THE 1ST PRAIRIAL (20TH OF MAY, 1795) TO THE 4TH BRUMAIRE (26TH OF OCTOBER), YEAR IV., THE CLOSE OF THE CONVENTION

Campaign of 1793 and 1794--Disposition of the armies on hearing the news of the 9th Thermidor--Conquest of Holland; position on the Rhine--Peace of Basel with Prussia--Peace with Spain--Descent upon Quiberon--The reaction ceases to be conventional, and becomes royalist--Massacre of the revolutionists, in the south--Directorial constitution of the year III.-- Decrees of Fructidor, which require the re-election of two-thirds of the convention--Irritation of the sectionary royalist party--It becomes insurgent--The 13th of Vendémiaire--Appointment of the councils and of the directory--Close of the convention; its duration and character.

THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORY

CHAPTER XII

FROM THE INSTALLATION OF THE DIRECTORY, ON THE 27TH OCTOBER, 1795, TO THE COUP-D'ÉTAT OF THE 18TH FRUCTIDOR, YEAR V. (3RD AUGUST, 1797)

Review of the revolution--Its second character of reorganization; transition from public to private life--The five directors; their labours for the interior--Pacification of La Vendée--Conspiracy of Babeuf; final defeat of the democratic party--Plan of campaign against Austria; conquest of Italy by general Bonaparte; treaty of Campo-Formio; the French republic is acknowledged, with its acquisitions, and its connection with the Dutch, Lombard, and Ligurian republics, which prolonged its system in Europe-- Royalist elections in the year V.; they alter the position of the republic--New contest between the counter-revolutionary party in the councils, in the club of Clichy, in the salons, and the conventional party, in the directory, the club of Salm, and the army--Coup d'état of the 18th Fructidor; the Vendémiaire party again defeated.

CHAPTER XIII

FROM THE 18TH FRUCTIDOR, IN THE YEAR V. (4TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1797), TO THE 18TH BRUMAIRE, IN THE YEAR VIII. (9TH OF NOVEMBER, 1799)

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