The Revolution - III

Volume four of Taine’s Origins of Contemporary France deals with the Reign of Terror, beginning with the fraudulent manoeuvres, dissimulation, and despotic energy that led to the establishment of the Jacobin dictatorship, headed by the wily Maximilien Robespierre, who, having pushed others without committing himself, had, at the last minute, pounced like a cat on his prey; the social and political conditions that permitted its consecration; and the final crushing of the Girondists. Analysed are the Constitution of 1793 and the Jacobin programme—the latter’s conception of society, the surrender of the individual to the state, the suppression of religion, the destruction of large and small fortunes, the measures to prevent new ones, and the drive to socially engineer the population so as to recast human nature into the Jacobin type, in conformity with abstract philosophical notions. Also analysed are the catastrophic failings, indeed the folly, of such efforts. Taine then profiles the Jacobin leaders and describes the various bodies that ruled the country, tracing the loss of all sense and the descent into systematic murder of opponents, real or perceived. The prostrating social and economic effects of the Jacobin levelling are examined in detail. Finally, Taine rounds up his account of the revolution with the Thermidorean reaction, the installment of the Directory, and its oppressive, amoral, criminal career right up to the eve of Napoleon’s rise to First Consul.