LECTURE XXV.

GIRONDISTS, ETC. ROLAND. DUMOURIER.

USTRIA might have no right to complain if France

declared war against her, but whether France was wise in doing so is quite another question. Nations are to maintain the character of their independence. It can never be their wisdom to be otherwise than perfectly alive to such considerations; but the circumstances in which the country was placed were quite unexampled, and the leaders of the Legislative Assembly, and under their influence, Dumourier and the last Girondist ministry so conducted themselves, that the war seemed at length defensive rather on the part of Austria than of France.

Men are always so eager to go to war, war is always so dreadful a calamity, that through the whole of these lectures I have never lost any opportunity of exhibiting to you, what I conceive to be the folly of mankind on this tremendous subject. It is the great instruction of history; and because after a war, as after the eruption of a volcano, a country does not disappear, or a community does not cease to existbecause our planet rolls on as before, men seem insensible to its nature, to the crimes and cruelties that it produces, and the afflictions and agonies by which it is attended. Observe on this occasion the Legislative Assembly.

It was in vain that the deputy, Hua, insisted, "that the question was far too important to be treated in an evening sitting, at a moment when the passions, agitated on so many accounts, might hurry France down an abyss of unexampled calamities." (I translate from the historian). He was refuted by murmurs. "No doubt," said the deputy Pastoret on the other side, we must not be carried away by enthusiasm; we, above all others, the legislators of a great empire;

but are our provocations only an affair of yesterday? Is not our patience yet sufficiently clear? Are we, even now, to be accused of enthusiasm? . . . . It is surely time to break away from this long state of uncertainty; it is time that we should see a great nation display all its courage, and all the force of its will, in defending the cause of its liberty, and in that, the universal cause of every people. Yes, liberty is now to triumph, or despotism to destroy us; never have the French people been called to higher destinies. Knowing, as we do, the courage of the national guards, the zeal they have shown in defence of their country, can we doubt the success of a war undertaken under such auspices? Victory will be faithful, nor desert the cause of freedom; and soldier citizens, and citizen soldiers, will rush forward with equal emotion to defend her and to secure her by their triumphs. Never has the French nation better felt the necessity at once of glory and of independence."

To sentiments like these, so elevated and imposing, it was not possible to offer resistance; one voice, however, was heard above the storm. Observe how reasonable, as France was then situated, were the remarks that follow.

"If ever," said the deputy Becquer, “there is a moment when a nation requires a calm, it is immediately after the concussions of a great Revolution. The violent movements that accompany the destruction of ancient abuses, cause inevitably a number of individual calamities, that can only be repaired in the bosom of peace. To call for war under circumstances like these, is to call for the prolongation of every affliction and distress, and to retard the return of the national prosperity. New institutions can only have a trial in seasons of tranquillity and repose; war, on the contrary, is a state of crisis that unceasingly, while it lasts, opposes itself to every regular movement of the body politic; and every nation therefore that wishes to regenerate its institutions, must carefully avoid war. But never was the general principle so applicable as to us. Our constitution is not yet firmly established; our constituted authorities, as yet, are uncertain in their march, and the law obtains not, as yet, the obedience which doubtless it will at length obtain, when it has become to us a habit and a duty; intestine dissensions

agitate our departments. If our armies are fighting abroad, who shall restrain the seditious at home? And there is another point to be considered, that of the finances: our finances require some years of repose to re-establish them in any order. I know the prodigies that are to be expected from the valour of Frenchmen fighting for their liberty; but what, if the war is to become general, and we are to sustain it ?"

The deputy then went on to show (observe the reasonableness of his views), that the first hostilities must take place in Brabant; that England would necessarily interfere, still more, if Holland was to be endangered; and that in short, every thing which turned the scale in favour of France, would necessarily be to England an occasion of inquietude and of arms. "And why," he cried, "why thus rush into a war? Why call down this most cruel of calamities? Above all, why say that it is inevitable, while all the powers have an interest opposed to it, and declare that they wish not to attack us?

"A concert between Austria and Prussia is supposed. No doubt the nation has very just reason to complain of this coalition of kings; no doubt the court of Vienna has been wrong, and we ought not to suffer her to usurp a sovereignty over us by an interference in our internal administration. But supposing that these powers refuse to renounce this concert, would this be a sufficient reason for declaring war against them? Are we to declare it for a mere suspicion, for a mere menace that has no real meaning? This concert is but a system defensive on their parts, and one which they have adopted out of regard to themselves, not hostility to us."

These last few sentences of the deputy are, I think, decisive of the question, as to the necessity of the war on the part of France. I do not say the exact right, but the prudence, the expediency of it, and the immediate necessity of it. I must confess, too, my reverence for the great maxim—“ justa bella, quibus necessaria."

"Can we possibly require them," continues the deputy, "in the midst of the general effervescence every where visible in France, when the sounds of war have been heard within these walls, can we possibly require foreign powers to repose

upon our declaration, that we will renounce all schemes of conquest; require them to take no defensive measures, while the ardour and impetuosity of our national guards is eternally menacing them with invasion? The truth is, that if after all this we attack Austria, we shall force all the sovereigns of the world to unite in a league against us; for they will feel that their thrones are shaking under them, and that they have a common cause to maintain in this struggle between liberty and despotism. A free nation, shall it be guilty of such a breach of neutrality, as to call down upon neighbouring nations all the calamities of war, to revenge itself for insult offered it by a mere minister? False would be the glory that could arise from avenging any outrages of a nature like this. Let us renounce then an enterprise which has no reasonable object; let us defend ourselves if any power should dare to attack us; this, and no more. If with this we are content, we shall, in all probability, have no war, for it will be the interest of none of them to wage it against us: on the contrary, by provoking them to war, we shall prejudice our own cause in the eyes of all neighbouring nations; they will consider us as aggressors; they will represent us as a restless people, that disturb the peace of Europe in contempt of treaties, and even of our own laws. You will then have to combat, not only the despots, but the people themselves, armed against you by the hatred which you will so naturally inspire, as the disturbers of their country's repose."

But observations of this calm and very reasonable nature, often, as you will have remarked, quite prophetic, were in vain submitted to the consideration of the Assembly. It is ever thus: and it was the deputy who rose to reply, and others on the same side the question, who found, as usual, an audience disposed to listen and applaud. The violent party entirely prevailed, though at this period peace and repose might have been the preservation of France and her liberties; certainly was her only chance.

And now I stop for a moment to observe, as I have before observed, and shall have for ever to observe, that the French Assemblies and French people rushed into all sorts of mistakes and crimes, not from want of able and virtuous men to

counsel them aright-far from it—such men were always found; and were you to commit the error of supposing otherwise, you would not sufficiently estimate the warning that this French Revolution holds up, in every part and portion of it, to all men of ardent minds, if they mean well. Able and virtuous counsellors, who spoke the words of caution and moderation, and justice, and humanity, were by such men not regarded; and this is the great lesson.

On the whole of the case before us it may be observed, that it is truly melancholy to see a great question like this, in the affairs of mankind, brought to an issue so tremendous as that of war; to see that the parties concerned, all of them, committed the faults to which they were exposed.

It was the business, for instance, of the Girondists and Jacobins, to have left the German powers no excuse for assisting the emigrants; to have observed minutely all the relations of peace and amity between France and other independent powers; to have violated no feudal claims and no ancient treaties; and not to have supposed, that the world was to be submitted on a sudden, to the particular system of their new opinions. But their conduct was very different. And in like manner, it was the business of the German powers to be entirely on the defensive; to have avowed this distinctly; to have abstained from all menace; to be ready to repel acts of aggression on their possessions, or their constitutions of government, but not to mingle themselves in the affairs of France; not to suppose that they could separate a particular knot of individuals, the Jacobins for instance, from the rest of the people, and conceive they could wage war against one of their clubs, however abominable, without waging war against the kingdom.

But very different were their views and systems; and France and Europe were long the victims, and the most unhappy victims, of these deplorable and somewhat obvious faults in both parties, on the one side and on the other.

This Austrian war was the first great turn of the whole contest between the monarchical and popular party, after the meeting of the Legislative Assembly. I have therefore called your attention to it very particularly; it must be well considered. My opinion, such as it is, I have stated to you. It