An Evaluation of the French Revolution


Politically, constitutionalism had been accepted, but the constitution of 1799 was a farce; declarations of rights had been made three times, but each time they had been more form than substance, and in 1799 they were omitted entirely; democracy had never been really tried 1799 inaugurated a dictatorship; the liberties of the subject had been flagrantly violated during the Terror; in 1799 it appeared that equality and security were preferable to liberty; and protection of property had been of little help to the clergy or the émigrès.
Economically, "free" land was a reality only for those who possessed the wherewithal to purchase it; agricultural reforms were still in the future; workers lacked the right to organize and to strike; and the fiscal and financial situation left by the Directory was worse than that facing the Estates General -stability was still lacking.
Socially, the bourgeoisie had supplanted the clergy and nobles, but the common man still awaited his due; class consciousness persisted, and privilege was still sought; many of the social reforms proposed never passed outside the legislative halls; and socialism was a dead issue.
Religiously, France was still Catholic, and neither the Revolution nor its attempt at a synthetic faith had altered the situation; anti -Protestantism and anti-Semitism were by no means obliterated; and the revolutionary legislation affecting the Church had produced a schism which remained for Napoleon to heal.
Finally, despite a brief taste of the several freedoms, France was entering upon a period in which censorship was to keep news of Trafalgar from the columns of the Moniteur, and education was to become little more than Bonapartist propaganda; in fact, the educational projects of the Revolution remained, for the most part, decently interred in statute books.
Yet this situation was by no means abnormal. It should neither encourage the counter-revolutionary nor discourage the revolutionary. As fundamental change, the Revolution inevitably worked through a three-fold process: disestablishment (of outmoded old institutions); innovation (through badly needed new institutions); and compromise (by adaptation of existing institutions to the necessities of the moment). The original objectives -which, for convenience, may perhaps best be summed up as liberty, equality, and order-could be achieved in no other way. What appears to be failure is nothing more than proof that in such movements the forces of reaction are strong, and the ambitions of men usually far exceed the ability of those same men to put their plans to practical use.

__________________
There will always be a You-like hole in my life.