HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION FROM 1789 TO 1814

BY

F.A.M. MIGNET







INTRODUCTION


Of the great incidents of History, none has attracted more attention or
proved more difficult of interpretation than the French Revolution. The
ultimate significance of other striking events and their place in the
development of mankind can be readily estimated. It is clear enough that
the barbarian invasions marked the death of the classical world, already
mortally wounded by the rise of Christianity. It is clear enough that the
Renaissance emancipated the human intellect from the trammels of a bastard
mediaevalism, that the Reformation consolidated the victory of the "new
learning" by including theology among the subjects of human debate. But
the French Revolution seems to defy complete analysis. Its complexity was
great, its contradictions numerous and astounding. A movement ostensibly
directed against despotism culminated in the establishment of a despotism
far more complete than that which had been overthrown. The apostles of
liberty proscribed whole classes of their fellow-citizens, drenching in
innocent blood the land which they claimed to deliver from oppression. The