CHAPTER IV

FROM APRIL, 1791, TO THE 3OTH SEPTEMBER. THE END OF THE CONSTITUENT
ASSEMBLY


The French revolution was to change the political state of Europe, to
terminate the strife of kings among themselves, and to commence that
between kings and people. This would have taken place much later had not
the kings themselves provoked it. They sought to suppress the revolution,
and they extended it; for by attacking it they were to render it
victorious. Europe had then arrived at the term of the political system
which swayed it. The political activity of the several states after being
internal under the feudal government, had become external under the
monarchical government. The first period terminated almost at the same
time among all the great nations of Europe. Then kings who had so long
been at war with their vassals, because they were in contact with them,
encountered each other on the boundaries of their kingdoms, and fought. As
no domination could become universal, neither that of Charles V. nor that
of Louis XIV., the weak always uniting against the strong, after several
vicissitudes of superiority and alliance, a sort of European equilibrium
was established. In order to appreciate ulterior events, I propose to
consider this equilibrium before the revolution.

Austria, England, and France had been, from the peace of Westphalia to the
middle of the eighteenth century, the three great powers of Europe.
Interest had leagued the two first against the third. Austria had reason