Tea at Trianon: Reflections on the French Revolution

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Reflections on the French Revolution

From Canada Free Press:

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen has been hailed as comparable to the Declaration of Independence and declared a model for human rights in the world. Yet, it is a very European-oriented document—strong on theory, but short on substance. There were 17 Articles that were practically broken as quickly as they had been voted upon. Highly idealistic, they were all humanistic in origin: Article One stated: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common good.” The real problem with this ideal is who determines the common good? What standard of public good is being used as the measurement?

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen asserted that rights are derived from the state—-in this case, the National Assembly. Article Three of the Declaration stated: “The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. Nobody, no individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.”

So, this was a decree of national sovereignty, and theoretically, it eliminates the need for a king if the National Assembly is declaring itself as sole and genuine sovereign over all of France. In other words, this legislature declared itself to be the sovereign rule at the heart of the nation. At this stage of the French Revolution, it appears fine that rational men are able to reason with one another. It is similar to the Continental Congresses of the rebellious British Colonies. But, one fundamental difference lies in the Declaration of Independence: the rights of men are derived from God, thus rights derived from decree by national leaders, or the government, are opposite from the concept of God-given rights, and the purpose of government being to protect the inalienable rights from God.
(Read more.)

From The Humanist:

Two classes of clergy emerged: those known as juring priests, who took the oath, and refractory priests who didn’t. In many rural areas of France, parish churches were the major source of authority—a fact that threatened the new republican bureaucracy. The power of the church in the countryside and the influence of refractory priests was a major problem for the revolution in its early days. In 1792, Catholicism was officially banned.

By 1793 the revolution turned more, well, revolutionary. In January of that year, King Louis XVI was executed. Revolutionaries implemented the metric system and a brand-new calendar, with names free from religious or royal influence: the French Republican Calendar. Unsurprisingly, these sweeping changes evoked strong negative reactions from millions of confused and angry French citizens.

After reorganizing and then banning the Catholic Church, revolutionaries set up the Cult of Reason, a new atheistic religion devoted to the ideals of rational thought. By November , Notre-Dame cathedral had been converted into “The Temple to the Goddess Reason.” (Interestingly, later in the revolution, Notre-Dame was converted into a wine warehouse.)

The Cult of Reason was supposed to replace Christianity as the new state belief system—hardly true to its professed ideal of secularism. Churches around the country were converted to temples of reason and new rituals, like the wild Roman-inspired Festival of Reason, took the place of Christian services. (Read more.)