intimidation. Many members of the Right gave up the struggle
and emigrated, or at least withdrew from attendance, so that the
Left became supreme.
Mirabeau had already taken alarm at the growing violence of the Revolution. In September he had foretold that it would not stop short of the death of both king and queen. After the insurrection of October he sought to communicate with them through his friend the comte de Mirabeau and the court. la Marck. In a remarkable correspondence he sketched a policy for the king. The abolition of privilege and the establishment of a parliamentary system were, he wrote, unalterable facts which it would be madness to dispute. But a strong executive authority was essential, and a king who frankly adopted the Revolution might still be powerful. In order to rally the sound part of the nation Louis should leave Paris, and, if necessary, he should prepare for a civil war; but he should never appeal to foreign powers. Neither the king nor the queen could grasp the wisdom of this advice. They distrusted Mirabeau as an unscrupulous adventurer, and were confirmed in this feeling by his demands for money. His correspondence with the court, although secret, was suspected. The politicians who envied his talents and believed him a rascal raised the cry of treason. In the Assembly Mirabeau, though sometimes successful on particular questions, never had a chance of giving effect to his policy as a whole. Whether even he could have controlled the Revolution is highly doubtful; but his letters and minutes drawn up for the king form the most striking monument of his genius (see Mirabeau and Montmorin de Saint-Hérem).
Early in the year 1790 a dispute with England concerning the frontier in North America induced the Spanish government to claim the help of France under the Family Compact. This demand led the Assembly to consider in what hands the power of concluding alliances and of making The Assembly and the royal power. peace and war should be placed. Mirabeau tried to keep the initiative for the king, subject to confirmation by the Chamber. On Barnave’s motion the Assembly decreed that the legislature should have the power of war and peace and the king a merely advisory power. Mirabeau was defeated on another point of the highest consequence, the inclusion of ministers in the National Assembly. His colleagues generally adhered to the principle that the legislative and executive powers should be totally separate. The Left assumed that, if deputies could hold office, the king would have the means of corrupting the ablest and most influential. It was decreed that no deputy should be minister while sitting in the House or for two years after. Ministers excluded from the House being necessarily objects of suspicion, the Assembly was careful to allow them the least possible power. The old provinces were abolished, and France was divided anew into eighty departments. Each department Reorganization of France. was subdivided into districts, cantons and communes. The main business of administration, even the levying of taxes, was entrusted to the elective local authorities. The judicature was likewise made elective. The army and the navy were so organized as to leave the king but a small share in appointing officers and to leave the officers but scanty means of maintaining discipline. Even the cases in which the sovereign might be deposed were foreseen and expressly stated. Monarchy was retained, but the monarch was regarded as a possible traitor and every precaution was taken to render him harmless even at the cost of having no effective national government.
The distrust which the Assembly felt for the actual ministers
led it to undertake the business of government as well as the
business of reform. There were committees for all
the chief departments of state, a committee for the
army, a committee for the navy, another for diplomacy,
Executive committees of the Assembly.
Confiscation of church property.
The assignats.
another for finance. These committees sometimes
asked the ministers for information, but rarely took their advice.
Even Necker found the Assembly heedless of his counsels. The
condition of the treasury became worse day by day. The yield
of the indirect taxes fell off through the interruption of business,
and the direct taxes were in large measure withheld, for want of
an authority to enforce payment. With some trouble Necker
induced the Assembly to sanction first a loan of 30,000,000
livres and then a loan of 80,000,000 livres. The public having
shown no eagerness to subscribe, Necker proposed that every
man should be invited to make a patriotic contribution of one-fourth
of his income. This expedient also failed. On the 10th
of October 1789 Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, proposed
that the Assembly should take possession of the lands
of the church. In November the Assembly enacted
that they should be at the disposal of the nation, which
would provide for the maintenance of the clergy. Since the
church lands were supposed to occupy one-fifth of France, the
Assembly thought that it had found an inexhaustible source
of public wealth. On the security of the church lands it based
a paper currency (the famous assignats). In December it ordered
an issue to the amount of 400,000,000 livres. As the revenue
still declined and the reforms enacted by the Assembly involved
a heavy outlay, it recurred again and again to this expedient.
Before its dissolution the Assembly had authorized
the creation of 1,800,000,000 livres of assignats and
the depreciation of its paper had begun. Finding that
he had lost all credit with the Assembly, Necker resigned office
and left France in September 1790.
Even the committees of the Assembly had far less power
than the new municipal authorities throughout France. They
really governed so far as there was any government.
Often full of public spirit, they lacked experience and
in a time of peculiar difficulty had no guide save their Power of the municipalities and popular clubs.
own discretion. They opened letters, arrested suspects,
controlled the trade in corn, and sent their National
Guards on such errands as they thought proper.
The political clubs which sprang up all over the country often
presumed to act as though they were public authorities (see
Jacobins). The revolutionary journalists, Desmoulins in his
Révolutions de France et de Brabant, Loustallot in his Révolutions
de Paris, Marat in his Ami du peuple, continued to feed the
fire of discord. Amid this anarchy it became a practice for the
National Guards of different districts to form federations, that
is, to meet and swear loyalty to each other and obedience to the
laws made by the National Assembly. At the suggestion of the
municipality of Paris the Assembly decreed a general federation
of all France, to be held on the anniversary of the fall of the
Bastille. The ceremony took place in the Champ de Mars (July
14, 1790) in presence of the king, the queen, the Assembly,
and an enormous concourse of spectators. It was attended by
deputations from the National Guards in every part of the
kingdom, from the regular regiments, and from the crews of the
fleet. Talleyrand celebrated Mass, and Lafayette was the first
to swear fidelity to the Assembly and the nation. In this gathering
the provincial deputations caught the revolutionary fever
of Paris. Still graver was the effect upon the regular army.
It had been disaffected since the outbreak of the Revolution.
The rank and file complained of their food, their lodging and
their pay. The non-commissioned officers, often intelligent
Disaffection
in the army.
and hard-working, were embittered by the refusal
of promotion. The officers, almost all nobles, rarely
showed much concern for their men, and were often
mere courtiers and triflers. After the festival of the
federation the soldiers were drawn into the political clubs, and
named regimental committees to defend their interests. Not
content with asking for redress of grievances, they sometimes
seized the regimental chest or imprisoned their officers. In
August a formidable outbreak at Nancy was only quelled with
much loss of life. Desertion became more frequent than ever, and
the officers, finding their position unbearable, began to emigrate.
Similar causes produced an even worse effect upon the navy.
By its rough handling of the church the Assembly brought
fresh trouble upon France. The suppression of tithe and the
confiscation of church lands had reduced the clergy to
live on whatever stipend the legislature might think fit
to give them. A law of February 1790 suppressed the
Civil constitution
of the clergy.
religious orders not engaged in education or in works of
charity, and forbade the introduction of new ones. Monastic vows
