Reflections on the Revolution in France
Outline of the Book (page numbers are from O'Brien ed.)
Clubs, 85-159
Constitutional Society, 85-87
Revolution Society, 87-159
have no real authority in England, despite French opinion, 87
basic political principles alien to them, 88-91
(e.g. liberty wielded by a group constitutes a power deserving of regulation, 91)
they see only "a firm and temperate exertion of freedom" in France, [92-]93
Price's sermon at the Old Jewry, Nov. 4, 1789, 93-159
no spirit of moderation, 94
religious sermon no place for political dissension, 94
likes the idea of dissent, 95; of "democratic and levelling principles," 96
part of a grand revolutionary plan for Britain, 97-98
Fundamental rights, critiqued by Burke, 99-143
"To choose our own governors," 99-112
Price confounds the Fr.Rev., that of 1688, and the one ca. 1648, 99-100
Principle in the 1688/89 Declaration of Right is alien, establishes succession to crown, 100-02
In fact, clear succession is superior because it provides security against confusion and bloodshed, 102-03
English precedents also alien, legislature declaring "the inheritable nature of the crown," 102-12, esp. 102, 109
Should not deviate from tradition unless in dire emergency, 105-07
Revolution Society focuses on the unusual and drastic deviations, 107
Bogeyman of "divine right" an unfair and incorrect charge, 111-12
To cashier our governors for misconduct, 112-17
Misconduct too indefinite, 112
Cashiering difficult and often for the worse, 114; requires force, i.e. war, and extraordinary situation, 116
King should not be told that he serves at people's whim, 114, though he serves "general advantage," 115
King is not "responsible" to the people, 115
Cashiering should be last resort, 117
"To form a government for ourselves," 117-25
Fabricating a new government is to lose all gains that have been won; need precedents, 117
Rights, franchises, and liberties are an inheritance, 118, from ancient times, 119
Innovation is not reform, which also requires reflection, 119
Nature and tradition provide a "permanent body composed of transitory parts," 120
Noble freedom is freedom tempered by human nature and tradition, not speculations, 121
Monarchy presses on competing interests to keep them in line, 122
France has good precedents, too, as does common law of Europe altogether, 122-23
These promote virtue and religion and true moral equality, 124-25
France's actual, recent actions are alien to these, 125-43
Deposed king, laws, regular money, property, 126
Authorized multiple crimes, 127
Third Estate unqualified, ditto National Assembly, 128-43
Regular lawyers who benefit from litigation, who are not prepared for greatness, instead of magistrates, 129-31
Others have minimal skills and provincial, illiberal experience, 131
Doctors, but sick beds are not the place to learn leadership, 132
Should be composed of the "natural landed interest," 132
Need much greater qualifications, a comprehensive connected view, 133
Assembly needs but lacks laws, conventions, usages to restrain it; has no controls, 133
Representatives of the clergy also provincial, 134
Love of one's own can be expanded to include a nation and all mankind, not so for ultra-individualism, 135
Individual ambition yields loss of necessary dignity and the long view, 136
Not so in Britain and even before in Fr.; the revolutionaries rose in virtue for the sake of the world, 137
Those who would level do not equalize; some must always be at the top, so leveling is unnatural, 138
True qualifications are virtue and wisdom, in whomever they be found, 139
State must be represented in its ability as well as its property, latter needing special protection, 140
This protection offered through some regulated hereditary governance, 141
Mere representation not enough; one's will and one's interest often differ, 141
Individualism prevents unity of dignified approach to governance, 142
Price's France and the Revolution Society's ideals no model for Britain, 143-53
France now seems to have nothing worth modeling, 143-45
Price's men: false claim that British monarchy is a usurpation, 145-47
Some want to destroy the civil power, some the ecclesiastical power, 147-48
They despise experience, 148
For them "the rights of men" mantra stands supreme, while "real rights of men" not upheld, 148-49
They aim at metaphysical truth but produce what is morally and politically false, 153
The right way to understand government, 150-53
"All men have equal rights; but not to equal things," and certainly not to equal ruling power, 150
Government is a convention and not about natural rights, 150
People should not be judges of their own causes, but need external restraints, 150-51
Determining the limits to absolute freedom, and modifying the state, is complex and difficult, 151
How to do it cannot be taught a priori; it is practical; there are always unintended consequences, 152
Requires more experience than any one person can ever muster, therefore infinite caution, 152
Need "models and patterns of approved utility," 152
Nature of man and objects of society are very complex yet should be known, 153
Multiple points of view must be incorporated into the whole, 153
Rights of men consist of advantages, often "in balances between differences of good," compromises, 153
Political reason makes moral, not mere metaphysical or mathematical, decisions, 153
Price's men confound people's rights with power, 153
Price's sermon encourages revolutionaries, not leaders, 154-56
Frequent theme of revolution turns the mind in that direction, 154
No shortage of eager politicians, 155
Preparation for revolution can harden the heart to moral evils in practice, versus natural sympathies, 156
Plays to audience seeking spectacle, 156
17th century seemed just as enlightened as the current age, 157
France no model for England, 159-88
National Assembly in dire straits, 159-60
King in dire straits, without real power, 160, 162, 163, 168-
Assembly acts the farce of deliberation, can destroy but unable to construct, 161
History will record 6 Oct. 1789 as a travesty of public faith, 164-66
Queen in dire straits, 169-70
Chivalry is gone, 170-75
"generous loyalty to rank and sex," "proud submission," "dignified obedience,"
"subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of
an exalted freedom," "manly sentiment and heroic enterprize," 170
honor, 170
Chivalry used to distinguish the special character of Europe, 170
a noble equality that underlay government, 170
produced harmony and softened private society, provided moral imagination and yielded dignity, 171
"engages the affections on the part of the commonwealth," 172
embody institutions, in some way, in persons, to personify the state and love it, 172
also requires something worth loving, 172
kings could trust subjects through honor, and not have to use bloody power, 172
"spirit of a gentleman," 173
this along with the spirit of religion supported all good things in civilization, 173
the nobility and the clergy preserved learning, 173
nobility and religion must combine but each keep its proper place, 173
October 1789 was a "revolution in sentiments, manners, and moral opinions," 175
Moral sentiment shows the same, 175-77
If not chivalry, even natural feelings are repulsed by France, passions instructing reason, 175
Even the theater could not stomach the unnatural injustices of France, 176-77
King and queen not the tyrants they're made out to be, 178-79
The English are not the regicides or atheists they're sometimes made out to be, 179-88
"we think that no discoveries are to be made, in morality; nor many in the great
principles of government, nor in the ideas of liberty," 182
English still have natural feelings, unsophisticated by pedantry and infidelity, 182
Fit for rational liberty, 183
Use metaphysics to ground general prejudices [cf. Arist.N.E.], not destroy them, 183
prejudices can be good and make duty habitual, 183
The "enlightened" French differ on these points, but think the English are revolutionaries too, 184-85
The English revolutionaries of old are no longer paid any attention, 186
The English know and feel "that religion [beyond chivalry] is the basis of civil society," 186
They are protestants not to be anti-Catholic but from zeal for religion; man is a religious animal, 187
England is fine, thank you very much, and a good example for France
Plan: "We are resolved to keep an established church,
an established monarchy,
an established aristocracy, and
an established democracy, each in the degree it exists, and in no greater. I shall shew you presently how much of each of these we possess" (188). [but this plan was abandoned; see p. 275]
Britain's church establishment, 188-225
"The first of our prejudices . . . involving in it profound and extensive wisdom," 188-89
Yields high and worthy notion of governing, acting analogously to God, 189-94
Encourages work for "a solid, permanent existence, in the permanent part of their nature," 189
Whenever men rule over men, the best possible merit is required, 189
Rulers are "awefully impressed with an idea that they act in trust," 190
They act both for the present and for what is due to posterity, impossible if government always changes, 192-93
Ruling appears as a holy office, 192
State is thereby consecrated, as a contract in the sight of God, 194, 196-97
Contract is also with posterity, and the visible and invisible worlds, 194
These thoughts are reached by reflection, but also on authority, 195-96
Both sources produce men who "move with the order of the universe," 196
Appears that God is needed to have any hope of governing well, 196
"This principle runs through the whole system of their polity," integrated with society and state, 197-98
Education system supports all this, and provides for liberalization of the church as necessary, 198
Church is independent of political repression and immune to property confiscation (unlike Fr.), 199-225
Leaders must seem--by actions--to actually believe the religious principles they want the people to follow, 200
The wealthy (contra Fr. opinion) have their problems too, 200-02
The church need not live in poverty, 202-04
Fr. confiscations only inspire Br. to secure church property all the more, 204
Even individuals should not have their property confiscated, 205-07
"It is to the property of the citizen . . . that the first and original faith of civil society is pledged," 207
Yet France has even denied citizens their pensions, 208
In France a great monied interest had developed apart from property owners, 209-11
The two kinds of owners are rivals, 210-11
The monied interest "struck at the nobility through the crown and the church," 210
In France the "political Men of Letters" also had arisen, 211-15
They "formed something like a regular plan for the destruction of the Christian religion," 211
They are zealous like those of faith, 211
They seek to change national opinion, and to "establish dominion over those who direct it," 212-14
They sought literary fame for this purpose, and many won it, 212
This has worsened literature and taste as well as morals and true philosophy, 212
They turned their whole efforts to cabal and intrigue, 213
They teamed up with the monied interest (which is why certain old debts are being repaid anyway), 213-14
Meanwhile the church and nobility are to lose their property unjustly, 214-15
History provides few precedents for France's confiscations, 216-19
Mr. Necker, a finance minister, already showed how the confiscations were not financially necessary, 220-23
The church had nevertheless promised a large contribution to the new state, 223
But it was not accepted: "The service of the state was made a pretext to destroy the church. In their way to the destruction of the church they would not scruple to destroy their country," 223
Fr. idea was to issue paper currency founded on future sale of church lands (assignats), 224-25
Paper is compulsory and forces all to be complicit in such sale, 225
[long digression on other topics:]
French Government, 225-30
Fr. cut off the old independent judiciary of the parliaments, 225-26
Fr.'s revolutionaries are wrongly against the king, and don't go for balance of powers, 227-
Looks like Fr. will become a bad oligarchy, and pure democracy is unlikely any better, 228
Monarchy has its good points, and was being reformed for the better, 229-31 [and 232-37]
Meanwhile, Fr. has just started over, with little chance of succeeding, 230, 237
Critique of French Monarchy, 232-37
Population: grew much under monarchy, 232-33
Wealth: monarchy was not too bad, and the country produced much of excellent quality, 233-36
Quality of men in different professions also very high, 236
Open to reform, 236-37
French Gov't, II, 238-74
Already is making the people suffer, much worse than before, 238-39
Badmouths overmuch the nobility, who do have their faults, 240-44
Wrongly uses memory of Henry IV, who supported the nobility, 241-42
Nobility have high aspirations to virtue, at least, and are friendly to the inferior classes, 243-44
The separation between property and wealth is a principal cause of the nobility's destruction, 244-45
Unfair persecution of the clergy, partly through misusing history, 246-60
Corporate bodies should not be continually punished for long-past and long-paid sins, 247
History is to be used for instruction: it teaches that sins are human and institutions are just the pretexts, 247-48
"Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names," 248
History filters details to find "the spirit and moral quality of human actions," 250
Contemporary clergy do not commit the old sins to an intolerable degree, in fact are well cultured, 251-54
Meanwhile, the bishops are deposed and replaced with an unqualified cohort, 255-56
Seems that the new system is "preparatory to the utter abolition, under any of its forms, of the Christian religion, whenever the minds of men are prepared for this last stroke against it," now bringing ministers into contempt, 256
"They who will not believe, that the philosophical fanatics who guide in these matters, have long entertained such a design, are utterly ignorant of their character and proceedings. These enthusiasts do not scruple to avow their opinion, that a state can subsist without any religion better than with one [and rather with] a knowledge of the physical wants of men; progressively carried to an enlightened self-interest, which, when well understood, they tell us will identify with an interest more enlarged and public," via "Civic Education," 256
Seems that the (wrong) hope is that nations will permit the persecution because it's Catholics being persecuted, 257
The British system of reform is completely different, 258-60
Defend tolerance for all Christians, maybe even more broadly than that, 258-59
Recommend justice and mercy rather than iniquity and cruelty, 258
In any case, property confiscation is no remedy, 259-60, 263; policy same as justice, 265
Fr. subverted property law, beyond historical precedent, 260-62
The revolutionaries have tried to take their message international, but may instead invite wars, 263
Governments are increasing their public debts, 264-65
Property is protected as a basic rule of law that permits stability and flourishing, 265-66
Messing with one part of a system breaks the order of the whole, 266
Fr. missing its chance to make the best of the materials of its country, like a good statesman with a long view, 267-68
Better to use people's believe in God, with its superstitious flux, for the good, than to simply destroy it, 268-70
French property owners, 270-74
Characteristics of property, 270
Somebody must own it, so consider the merits of the class of owners, 270-71
Clergy are good owners; consider their great use of all kinds of property, 271-72
Many others seem to be worse, but they are tolerated anyway, 272-73
Easier to control property through corporate bodies like the church, than through individuals, 273
Inheritance via merit (e.g., bishops' properties) a good method of transfer, 274-75
New plan for the whole, 275-377
Introduction: the revolutionaries, 275-84
Revolutionaries hostile to opinion, 275
Assembly is a voluntary association that usurped power, and makes commitments with narrow majorities, 275-76
Could excuse such a group that had to start from scratch, but these did not, and offer no apology, 276-77
They are contradictory, esp. between principles and practices, even haphazard in decisions, 277
Should be humble about the difficulty of their task, but instead talk out of hubris, 277-78
System seems to have no comprehensive vision behind it, 278
Decisions seem to be made with the short view, and to avoid difficulty, out of sloth and uninstruction, 278-79
Choose eloquence or force where they lack wisdom, 278-79
Qualities of the true statesman lacking, 280-83
Change ought to be slow and measured, 280-81
Complexity must be made into harmony, long view needed, many minds needed across the ages, 282
Looking too much at faults turns minds from the good, 283
They provide too much spectacle instead of substance, 283-84
Qualifications of Assembly assessed by looking at their work in practice, 284-373
(based also on principles and overall consistency)
Legislature, 284-316
Geometrical arrangement (by territory) fails, being arbitrary and simply divisive, 286-87
Arithmetical arrangement (by population) fails, and inconsistent in view of "qualification" cost, 287-89
Financial arrangement (by contribution) fails, relying totally on property instead of rights of men, 289-316
[Due to influence of monied interest?]
Purportedly maintains varying power of the cities, supporting rich rather than rights of the poor, 290-91
Math to show the folly of this arrangement, 291-92
Some cities can offer large contributions by accidents of trade, not from actual consumption, 293-94
The three arrangements are contradictory, and mathematically they serve purposes opposed to design, 294-97
They seem to divide France into competing republics, and do worse like alien conquerors, 297-98
Precedents show that above methods are inferior to those that have to do with diverse citizens and men, 299-301
Good classifications could preserve a society even when the government fails, 301
In contrast, the revolutionaries want a system so screwy that no one will dare destroy it, 301-02
M. de Calonne showed that a confederacy is more likely to result than a republic, 302
For in a republic, representations act for the nation rather than their constituency alone, 302-04
The Assembly is the sole sovereign without needed checks or balances, 303
Members unqualified; besides, term limits prevent experience from bearing fruit, 305-06
The people are too far removed from their legislators, with too many levels in between, [305]
No Senate for general stability, 316
Institutions of coherence no glue after all, 307-16
Paper currency, based on confiscation and speculation, promotes ascendancy of monied class
and loss of confidence in savings or system--promotes oligarchy, 307-13
Ascendancy of city of Paris, in attempt to absorb local allegiances into one national allegiance,
ignores the foundational love of one's own, 314-15
Army (see below)
Executive power, 317-25
Degraded king without real power, can execute sentences but without authority, 317-25
King is supposed to act in trust, ditto subjects, but this system encourages the opposite, 318-21
Rulers who don't like individuals, tend to keep them as advisors anyway, for sake of security, 319-20
Magistrates take responsibility for their charges (unlike Assembly), 321
Fr. training next king to be in the same situation, 322
Assembly poses farce of king purportedly for the sake of public order, but really as scapegoat, 322-23
Weak king and lack of senate gives nations no one to deal with but individual, scheming Assy members, 323
Judicature, 325-30
Independent judicial parliaments dissolved rather than reformed, 325
They could preserve property against the state, 326; now nothing checks the Assembly, 327
Assy appears to have simply "invented new principles of order," 328; but laws not forthcoming, 329
Local judges in bad straits, 328
Assy and administrative bodies are now exempt from lawsuits, 329; appear aimed at oligarchy, 329
The "committee of research" will prosecute crimes against the state--harrowing indeed, 330
Army, 330-50
Report of M. de la Tour du Pin: army in increasing disarray, may rebel, 331-33
Military democracy, on plan of revolution, seems to promote rebellion from officers, 333-34
Oaths of obedience seem to have no purpose in an atheistic state, 335
Attempt to win obedience by having army mix with the locals, encourages dissipation, 335-37, 339-40
No clear line of authority, since towns and townspeople are also to control armies passing through, 337
Civil and military anarchies reflect and promote each other, 338
Assembly members can deal with individual generals, promoting factions, 340
Army needs to be constrained "by a real, vigorous, effective, decided, personal authority," 341
Military may soon take over the country or at least overthrow their officers, 342
Municipal army does already elect its own officers, 343-44
Military needed for force, and troops often called out to put down rebellions,
but soldiers are being taught to resist authority, 344-50
Army is sent out by burghers against the industrious peasants too, 347-50
System of finance and use of wealth, 351-73
Wealth, including public wealth, extremely important and useful, so requires great knowledge, 351-52
Assess Fr. system on basis of balance of private and public wealth and how it's used, 352-68
Secure an ample revenue, which in Fr. has dramatically decreased, 353-54
Impose it with judgment and equality, which by virtue of voluntary contributions is very unequal, 354-58
Employ it economically, which compels Fr. because of dwindling resources, yet Fr. still poor at this, 358
Use credit wisely, 359-68
Money based on assignats very unstable, like Land Banks, 359-61
Worse, no assessment of the properties to be sold, so real value unknown, 361-63
Fr. can't prove it uses money wisely, quite the opposite, 363-68
In fact, squanders all its chances on the principle of assignats, 367-68
Like the fraud of Mr. Law, 368-69
People's financial situation worsening, 369-70
Fr. financial situation crumbling, 371
Better to have moderate taxation and moderate services, which gives stability, than none of either, 372
Settled economic order necessary to flourishing state where people can keep what they work for, 372-73
Conclusion, 373-77
Liberty requires wisdom, which requires virtue, 373
Appealing to popular sentiment is valuable, but only on top of wise liberty, not as Fr. has it, 373
National Assembly not qualified to form a free government, but will become more extreme, 374
British example commended (on basis of longstanding existence and reforms), rather than vice versa, 375