MAY'S DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE 89
the logic of Marat drew his sanguinary conclusions. He told the famished people that the conditions on which they had consented to bear their evil lot, and had re- frained from violence, had not been kept to them. It was suicide, it \vas murder, to submit to starve and to -- see one's children starving, by the fault of the rich, The bonds of society were dissolved by the \vrong it inflicted. The state of nature had come back, in \vhich every man had a right to \vhat he could take. The time had come for the rich to make way for the poor. With this theory of equality, liberty was quenched in blood, and French- men became ready to sacrifice all other things to save life and fortune. T\venty years after the splendid opportunity that opened in 1789, the reaction had triumphed everywhere in Europe; ancient constitutions had perished as well as new; and even England afforded them neither protec- tion nor sympathy. The liberal, at least the democratic revival, came from Spain. The Spaniards fought against the French for a king, who was a prisoner in France. They gave themselves a constitution, and placed his name at the head of it. They had a monarchy, without a king. It required to be so contrived that it would work in the absence, possibly the permanent absence, of the monarch. I t became, therefore, a monarchy only in name, composed, in fact, of democratic forces. The constitution of 18 I 2 was the attempt of inexperienced men to accomplish the most difficult task in politics. It \vas smitten \vith sterility. For many years it \vas the standard of abortive revolutions among the so-called Latin nations. It promulgated the notion of a king \vho should flourish only in name, and should not even discharge the humble function which Hegel assigns to royalty, Ç>f dotting i's for the people. The overthrow of the Cadiz constitution, in 1823, was the supreme triumph of the restored monarchy of France. Fi ve years later, under a \vise and liberal minister, the Restoration \vas advancing fairly on the constitutional paths, when the incurable distrust of the Liberal party
