Chapter XV: The French Revolution Introductory (3)

The constitution of the first French Republic was drawn up by the National Convention during the last year of its session and after it had passed under bourgeois influence. This constitution which went into effect in 1795 and is known, therefore, as the Constitution of the Year III (of the Republic), intrusted the legislative power to two chambers, chosen by indirect election,--a lower house of five hundred members, to propose laws, and a Council of Ancients, of two hundred and fifty members, to examine and enact the laws. The bourgeois distrust of the lower classes showed itself again in restricting the electorate to taxpayers who had lived at least a year in one place. The executive authority of the republic was vested in a board of five members, styled Directors, and elected by the legislature, one retiring every year. The Board of Directors, or "Directory," was to supervise the enforcement of laws and to appoint the ministers of state, or cabinet, who should be responsible to it.

[Sidenote: Brief Duration of the Directory, 1795-1799]

Thus, as the National Constituent Assembly had framed the constitution for the liberal monarchy, so the National Convention drafted that for the republic. But in strength and durability the republic was hardly more fortunate than the limited monarchy. Louis XVI reigned as constitutional king under the document of 1791 less than a year. The Directory governed in accordance with the constitution of the Year III less than four years (1795-1799).

[Sidenote: Weaknesses in the Directory]

The failure of the Directory was due to two chief causes: first, the prevalence of domestic difficulties; and second, the rise of military power and the appearance of a victorious, ambitious general. To both of these causes reference must be made. The former proved that another kind of government was needed to cope with the situation; the latter suggested what the nature of the new government would be.

To consolidate the French people after six years of radical revolutionary upheavals required hard and honest labor on the part of men of distinct genius. Yet the Directors were, almost without exception, men of mediocre talents, [Footnote: Carnot, upright and sincere, and the only member of first-rate ability, was forced out of the Directory in 1797.] who practiced bribery and corruption with unblushing effrontery. They preferred their personal gain to the welfare of the state.

[Sidenote: Political and Social Dissensions]

The period of the Directory was a time of plots and intrigues. The royalists who were elected in large numbers to the Assemblies were restrained from subverting the constitution only by illegal force and violence on the part of the Directors. On the other hand, the extremists in Paris found a warm-hearted leader in a certain Babeuf (1760-1797), who declared that the Revolution had been directed primarily to the advantage of the bourgeoisie, that the proletarians, despite their toil and suffering and bloodshed, were still just as poorly off as ever, and that their only salvation lay in a compulsory equalization of wealth and the abolition of poverty. An insurrection of these radicals--the forerunners of modern Socialism--was suppressed and Babeuf was put to death in 1797.

[Sidenote: Financial Difficulties]

While sincere radicals and convinced reactionaries were uniting in common opposition to the unhappy Directory, the finances of the state were again becoming hopelessly involved. "Graft" flourished unbridled in the levying and collecting of the taxes and in all public expenditures. To the extravagance of the Directors in internal administration were added the financial necessities of armies aggregating a million men. Paris, still in poverty and want, had to be fed at the expense of the nation. And the issue of _assignats_ by the National Constituent Assembly, intended at first only as a temporary expedient, had been continued until by the year 1797 the total face value of the _assignats_ amounted to about forty-five billion _livres_. So far had the value of paper money depreciated, however, that in March, 1796, three hundred _livres_ in _assignats_ were required to secure one _livre_ in cash. In 1797 a partial bankruptcy was declared, interest payments being suspended on two-thirds of the public debt, and the _assignats_ were demonetized. The republic faced much the same financial crisis as had confronted the absolute monarchy in 1789.

[Sidenote: Continued Success in Foreign War]

From but one direction did light stream in upon the Directory--and that was the foreign war. When the Directory assumed office, France was still at war with Austria, Sardinia, and Great Britain. The general plan of campaign was to advance one French army across the Rhine, through southern Germany, and thence into the Austrian dominions, and to dispatch another army across the Alps, through northern Italy, and thence on to Vienna. Of the army of the Rhine such veteran generals as Pichegru, Jourdan, and Moreau were put in charge. To the command of the army operating in Italy, the young and inexperienced Bonaparte was appointed.

[Sidenote: Appearance of Napoleon Bonaparte]

Napoleon Bonaparte hitherto had not been particularly conspicuous in politics or in war. He was believed to be in full sympathy with the Revolution, although he had taken pains after the downfall of Robespierre to disavow any attachment to the extreme radicals. He had acquired some popularity by his skillful expulsion of the British from Toulon in 1793, and his protection of the National Convention against the uprising of the Parisian radicals in 1795 gave him credit as a friend of law and order. Finally, his marriage in 1796 with Josephine Beauharnais, the widow of a revolutionary general and an intimate friend of one of the Directors, bettered his chances of indulging his fondness for politics and his genius in war.

[Sidenote: Bonaparte's First Italian Campaign, 1796-1797] [Sidenote: Treaty of Campo Formio, 1797]

That very year (1796), while the older and more experienced French generals were repeatedly baffled in their efforts to carry the war into the Germanies, the young commander--but twenty-seven years of age-- swept the Austrians from Italy. With lightning rapidity, with infectious enthusiasm, with brilliant tactics, with great personal bravery, he crossed the Alps, humbled the Sardinians, and within a year had disposed of five Austrian armies and had occupied every fort in northern Italy. Sardinia was compelled to cede Savoy and Nice to the French Republic, and, when Bonaparte's army approached Vienna, Austria stooped to make terms with this amazing republican general. By the treaty of Campo Formio (1797), France secured the Austrian Netherlands and the Ionian Islands; Austria obtained, as partial compensation for her sacrifices, the ancient Venetian Republic, but agreed not to interfere in other parts of Italy; and a congress was to assemble at Rastatt to rearrange the map of the Holy Roman Empire with a view to compensating those German princes whose lands on the left bank of the Rhine had been appropriated by France.

[Sidenote: Great Britain Left Alone in Arms Against the French Republic]

The campaign of 1796-1797, known in history as the First Italian campaign, was the beginning of a long series of sensational military exploits which were to rank Napoleon Bonaparte as the foremost soldier of modern times. Its immediate effect was to complete the dissolution of the First Coalition by forcing Austria and Sardinia to follow the example of Spain, Prussia, and Holland and to make a peace highly favorable to the French Republic. Great Britain alone continued the struggle against the Directory.

[Sidenote: Bonaparte's Rising Fame]

Another effect of the first Italian campaign, almost as immediate and certainly more portentous, was the sudden personal fame of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was the most talked-of man in France. The people applauded him. The government feared but flattered him. Schemers and plotters of every political faith sought his support. Alongside of decreasing respect for the existing government was increasing trust in Bonaparte's strength and ability.

[Sidenote: Bonaparte's Egyptian Campaign Against Great Britain, 1798]

It was undoubtedly with a sense of relief that the despised Directors in 1798 assented to a project proposed by the popular hero to transport to Egypt a French expedition with the object of interrupting communications between Great Britain and India. The ensuing Egyptian campaign of 1798 was spectacular rather than decisive. Bonaparte made stirring speeches to his soldiers. He called the Pyramids to witness the valor of the French. He harangued the Mohammedans upon the beautiful and truthful character of their religion and upon the advantages which they would derive from free trade with France. He encouraged the close study of Egyptian antiquities. [Footnote: It was an army officer on this Egyptian expedition who discovered the famous Rosetta Stone, by the aid of which hieroglyphics could be deciphered.] But his actual victories did not measure up to the excessively colored reports that he sent home. He was checked in Syria, and a great naval victory won by the celebrated English admiral, Lord Nelson, near the mouth of the Nile, effectually prevented the arrival of reinforcements.

[Sidenote: Embarrassments of the Directory during Bonaparte's Absence from France]

Thereupon, General Bonaparte, luckily eluding the British warships, returned to France. It was believed by Frenchmen that his last expedition had been eminently successful: but that in the meantime the work of the Directory had been disastrous, no one doubted. While Bonaparte was away, affairs in France had gone from bad to worse. There were new plots, increased financial and social disorders, and finally the renewal on a large scale of foreign war.

[Sidenote: The Second Coalition and the Renewal of War in Europe]

After the treaty of Campo Formio, the Directors had prosecuted zealously the policy of surrounding France with a circle of dependent republics. Even before that peace, Holland had been transformed into the Batavian Republic, and now pretexts of various sorts were utilized to convert the duchy of Milan, or Lombardy, into the Cisalpine Republic; the oligarchy of Genoa into the Ligurian Republic; the Papal States into the Roman Republic; the kingdom of the Two Sicilies into the Parthenopaean Republic; the Swiss Confederation into the Helvetic Republic.

In view of the fact that the governments of all these republics were modeled after that of France and were allied with France, the monarchs of Europe bestirred themselves once more to get rid of the danger that threatened them. A Second Coalition was formed by Great Britain, Austria, and Russia, and, thanks to liberal sums of money supplied by William Pitt, the British minister, they were able to put large armies in the field.

[Sidenote: French Reverses]

During 1799 the Second Coalition won repeated victories; the French were driven from Italy; and most of the dependent republics collapsed. It seemed as though Bonaparte's first Italian campaign had been for naught. Possibly the military hero of France had himself foreseen this very situation and had intended to exploit it to his own advantage.

[Sidenote: Return of Bonaparte from Egypt: the "Man of the Hour"]

At any rate, when Bonaparte had sailed for Egypt, he had left his country apparently prosperous, victorious, and honored. Now, when he landed at Fréjus on 9 October, 1799, he found France bankrupt, defeated, and disgraced. It is small wonder that his journey from Fréjus to Paris was a triumphal procession. The majority of Frenchmen were convinced that he was the man of the hour.

[Sidenote: The Coup d'État of the Eighteenth Brumaire: Overthrow of the Directory, 1799] Within a month of his return from Egypt, public opinion enabled the young conqueror to overthrow the government of the Directory. Skillfully intriguing with the Abbé Sieyès, who was now one of the Directors, he surrounded the Assemblies with a cordon of troops loyal to himself and on 18-19 Brumaire (9-10 November, 1799) secured by show of force the downfall of the government and the appointment of himself to supreme military command. This blow at the state (_coup d'état_) was soon followed by the promulgation of a new constitution, by which General Bonaparte became First Consul of the French Republic.

[Sidenote: Militarism and the Close of the Revolution]

The _coup d'état_ of 18 Brumaire virtually ended the Revolution in France. Within the space of ten and a half years from the assembling of the Estates-General at Versailles, parliamentary and popular government fell beneath the sword. The predictions of Marat and Robespierre were realized: militarism had supplanted democracy.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1799)

It may now be possible for us to have some idea as to the real meaning of these ten years of Assemblies, constitutions, insurrections, and wars, which have marked the period of the French Revolution. A present- day visitor in Paris will be struck by the bold letters which stand out on the public buildings and churches: _Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité_--Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. These were the words which the revolutionaries spelled out on their homes, which they thought embodied the true meaning of the Revolution.

As to the meaning of these words, there were certainly quite contradictory views. To the royalists and rigid Catholics--to the privileged nobility and clergy--to many a surprised peasant--to all the reactionaries, they meant everything that was hateful, blasphemous, sordid, inhuman, and unpatriotic. To the enlightened altruistic bourgeois--to the poverty-stricken workingman of the city--to many a dreamer and philanthropist--to all the extreme radicals, they were but a shadowy will-of-the-wisp that glimmered briefly and perhaps indicated faintly the gorgeousness of the great day that much later might break upon them. Between these extremes of reaction and radicalism fell the bulk of the bourgeoisie and of the peasantry--the bulk of the nation-- and it is in their sense that we shall try to make clear the meaning of the three symbolical words.

[Sidenote: "Liberty"]

"Liberty" implied certain political ideals. Government was henceforth to be exercised not autocratically by divine right, but constitutionally by the sovereign will of the governed. The individual citizen was no longer to be subject in all things to a king, but was to be guaranteed in possession of personal liberties which no state or society might abridge. Such were liberty of conscience, liberty of worship, liberty of speech, liberty of publication. The liberty of owning private property was proclaimed by the French Revolution as an inherent right of man.

[Sidenote: "Equality"]

"Equality" embraced the social activities of the Revolution. It meant the abolition of privilege, the end of serfdom, the destruction of the feudal system. It pronounced all men equal before the law. It aspired, though with little success, to afford every man an equal chance with every other man in the pursuit of life and happiness.

[Sidenote: "Fraternity"]

"Fraternity" was the symbol of the brotherhood of those who sought to make the world better and happier and more just. In France it found expression in an outburst of patriotism and national sentiment. No longer did mercenaries fight at the behest of despots for dynastic aggrandizement; henceforth a nation in arms was prepared to do battle under the glorious banner of "fraternity" in defense of whatever it believed to be for the nation's interests.

Political liberty, social equality, patriotism in the nation,--these three have been the enduring watchwords of all those who down to our own day have looked for inspiration to the French Revolution.

ADDITIONAL READING

GENERAL. Textbook narratives: J. H. Robinson and C. A. Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe,_ Vol. I (1907), ch. xii, xiii; J. A. R. Marriott, _The Remaking of Modern Europe, 1789-1878_ (1910), ch. i-vi; H. E. Bourne, _The Revolutionary Period in Europe, 1763- 1815_ (1914), ch. Vi-xvi; H. M. Stephens, _Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1815_ (1893), ch. ii-vi; J. H. Rose, _Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era, 1789-1815_ (1895), ch. Ii-vi; C. A. Fyffe, _A History of Modern Europe, 1792-1878_ (1896), ch. i-iv; H. T. Dyer, _A History of Modern Europe from the Fall of Constantinople,_ 3d ed. rev. by Arthur Hassall (1901), ch. lii-lxi; Charles Seignobos, _History of Contemporary Civilization,_ Eng. trans. by J. A. James (1909), pp. 92-149. See also H. A. L. Fisher, _The Republican Tradition in Europe_ (1911), ch. i-vii; and Emile Bourgeois, _Manuel historique de politique étrangère,_ 4th ed., Vol. II (1906), ch. i-v, vii.

ONE-VOLUME SURVEYS: Shailer Mathews, _The French Revolution_ (reprint 1912), a clear, well-balanced introduction, ending with the year 1795; Hilaire Belloc, _The French Revolution_ (1911), in the "Home University Library," interestingly written and inclined to be philosophical; R. M. Johnston, _The French Revolution_ (1909), emphasizes the spectacular and military rather than the social and economic; Louis Madelin, _La Révolution_ (1911), written for the general French reader and probably the very best of its kind, now in process of translation into English.

STANDARD HISTORIES OF THE REVOLUTION: Alphonse Aulard, _Histoire politique de la révolution française, 1789-1804,_ 3d ed. (1905), Eng. trans. by Bernard Miall, 4 vols. (1910), a painstaking study of the growth of the spirit of democracy and of the rise of the republican movement, by an eminent authority who has devoted many years to a sympathetic study of the Revolution; H. M. Stephens, _A History of the French Revolution,_ 2 vols. (1886-1891), mainly political, generally reliable, but stops short with the Reign of Terror; H. A. Taine, _The French Revolution,_ Eng. trans. by John Durand, 3 vols. (1878-1885), brilliantly written and bitterly hostile to many of the leaders of the Revolution, a work still famous though many of its findings have been vehemently assailed by Aulard, the apologist of the Revolution; Jean Jaurès (editor), _Histoire socialiste, 1789- 1900,_ 12 vols. (1901-1909), a well-known and highly useful history of France by a group of prominent French Socialists with a penchant for stressing economic matters--Vols. I-IV, by Jaurès himself, treat of the years 1789-1794, and Vol. V, by Gabrielle Deville, of 1794-1799; P. A. (Prince) Kropotkin, _The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793,_ Eng. trans. by N. F. Dryhurst (1909), emphasizes the role played by the uneducated classes, eulogizes Marat, and suggests the conflict of interests between the bourgeoisie and the lower classes; Thomas Carlyle, _The French Revolution,_ originally published in 1837, lively literary gossip and commentary rather than narrative history, amusing though often fuliginous, should be read only by those already familiar with the actual events of the Revolution; Albert Sorel, _L'Europe et la révolution française,_ 8 vols. (1885-1904), of which Vols. I-V deal with the years 1789-1799 and mainly with the effects of the Revolution throughout Europe, a monumental work of the highest merit; Gustave Le Bon, _La révolution française et la psychologie des révolutions_ (1912), trans. by Bernard Miall under the title of _The Psychology of Revolution_ (1913), a noteworthy contribution to the study of "mob psychology" as exemplified by the French Revolution; Ernest Lavisse and Alfred Rambaud (editors), _Histoire générale,_ Vol. VIII, a collection of scholarly monographs on various phases of the Revolution; _Cambridge Modern History,_ Vol. VIII (1904), a similar work in English; Heinrich von Sybel, _Geschichte der Revolutionzeit von 1789,_ 3d ed., 5 vols. (1865-1879), the best and most famous German work on the subject; Wilhelm Oncken, _Das Zeitalter der Revolution,_ 2 vols. (1884- 1886); Adalbert Wahl, _Geschichte des europäischen Staatensystems im Zeitalter der französischen Revolution und der Freiheits-Kriege, 1789- 1815_ (1912), useful epitome of foreign relations; Émile Levasseur, _Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l'industrie en France de 1789 à 1870,_ Vol. I (1903), Livre I, _La Révolution,_ valuable for the history of the working classes; Philippe Sagnac, _La législation civile de la révolution française,1789-1804_ (1898), very important survey of permanent social and civil gains; E. F. Henderson, _Symbol and Satire in the French Revolution_ (1912), interesting side- lights.

SOURCE MATERIALS. Of the vast masses of source material available for special study of the French Revolution, the following selections may be found useful and suggestive: F. M. Anderson, _Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1901,_ 2d rev. ed. (1909); L. G. Wickham Legg, _Select Documents Illustrative of the French Revolution, the Constituent Assembly,_ 2 vols. (1905); Léon Duguit and Henry Monnier, _Les constitutions et les principales lois politiques de la France depuis 1789_ (1898); H. M. Stephens, _The Principal Speeches of the Statesmen and Orators of the French Revolution, 1789-1795,_ 2 vols. (1892); Léon Cahen and Raymond Guyot, _L'oeuvre législative de la révolution_ (1913); Alphonse Aulard, _Les grands orateurs de la révolution--Vergniaud, Danton, Robespierre_ (1914); Merrick Whitcomb, _Typical Cahiers of 1789,_ in "Translations and Reprints" of the University of Pennsylvania (1898). In the _Collection de documents inédits sur l'histoire économique de la révolution française,_ now in course of publication under the auspices of the French Ministry of Public Instruction, have appeared (1906-1915) several volumes of the local _cahiers_ of 1788-1789. See also Armand Brette, _Recueil des documents relatifs à la convocation des états généraux de 1789,_ 3 vols. (1894-1904); P. J. B. Buchez and P. C. Roux- Lavergne, _Histoire parlementaire de la révolution française, 1789- 1815,_ 40 vols. (1834-1838), embracing extracts from the debates, quotations from contemporary newspapers and pamphlets, and the text of some of the most important statutes and decrees; _Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860_, 1st series _1787-1799_, 82 vols., the official, but not always trustworthy, reports of the debates in the successive French legislative bodies; _Réimpression de l'ancien Moniteur_, 32 vols., a reprint, in several different editions, of one of the most famous Parisian newspapers of the revolutionary period; Alphonse Aulard, _La société des jacobins_, 6 vols. (1889-1897), a collection of documents concerning the most influential political club of revolutionary France. Of the numerous memoirs of the time, perhaps the most valuable are those of Mallet du Pan, Comte de Fersen, Bailly, Ferrières, and Malouet; see also the _History of My Time_ by the Duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier (1767-1862), Eng. trans. by C. E. Roche, 3 vols. (1893-1894), especially Part I; and for additional memoirs and other source-material consult the bibliographies in the _Cambridge Modern History_ or in the _Histoire générale_. There are several detailed bibliographies on the French Revolution; and since 1881 the veteran scholar Aulard has edited _La révolution française_, devoted exclusively to the subject. For interesting personal impressions of the Revolution by an American eye-witness, see Gouverneur Morris, _Diary and Letters_, 2 vols. (1888). F. M. and H. D. Fling, _Source Problems on the French Revolution_ (1913), is a useful compilation for intensive critical study of various phases of the Revolution.

SPECIAL WORKS ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. W. M. Sloane, _The French Revolution and Religious Reform_ (1901), a résumé of legislation affecting the Church, 1789-1804; Antonin Debidour, _Histoire des rapports de l'église et de l'état en France de 1789 à 1870_ (1898); Pierre de La Gorce, _Histoire religieuse de la révolution française_, Vol. I, _1789-1791_ (1909), Vol. II, _1791-1793_ (1912), comprehensive and exhaustive, sympathetic with the Church but scrupulously fair; Paul Pisani, _L'église de Paris et la révolution_, 4 vols. (1908-1911), covering the years 1789-1802, a work of high rank by a canon of Notre Dame; J. F. E. Robinet, _Le mouvement religieux à Paris pendant la révolution, 1789- 1801_, 2 vols. (1896-1898), primarily a collection of documents; The Abbé Bridier (editor), _A Papal Envoy during the Reign of Terror, being the Memoirs of Mgr. de Salamon the Internuncio at Paris during the Revolution, 1790-1801_, Eng. trans. by Frances Jackson (1911); Ludovic Sciout, _Histoire de la constitution civile du clergé, 1790- 1801_, 4 vols. (1872-1881); Alphonse Aulard, _La révolution et les congrégations: exposé historique et documents_ (1903); Edmé Champion, _La séparation de l'église et de l'état en 1794_ (1903).

SPECIAL WORKS ON CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH OPINION OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Edward Dowden, _The French Revolution and English Literature_ (1897); H. N. Brailsford, _Shelley, Godwin, and their Circle_ (1913); W. P. Hall, _British Radicalism, 1791-1797_ (1912); Edmund Burke, _Reflections on the Revolution in France_, in many editions, a furious and prejudiced arraignment of the whole movement; John (Viscount) Morley, _Edmund Burke_ (1879), an apology for Burke; John MacCunn, _The Political Philosophy of Burke_ (1913), clear and concise though somewhat less laudatory of Burke; _The Life and Writings of Thomas Paine_, edited by D. E. Wheeler, 10 vols. (1909), the most elaborate edition of the writings of the chief English friend of the Revolution; Paine's _The Rights of Man_ has appeared in many other editions.

SECONDARY WORKS ON OTHER SPECIAL TOPICS. On the wars 1792-1795: Arthur Chuquet, _Les guerres de la révolution_, 11 vols. (1886-1896), very detailed, coming down only to September, 1793; A. T. Mahan, _The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793- 1812_, Vol. I, 10th ed. (1898); Mrs. Maxwell-Scott, _Life of the Marquise de la Rochejaquelein_ (1912), and Ida A. Taylor, _The Tragedy of an Army: La Vendee in 1793_ (1913), two sympathetic and popular accounts of the Vendean Revolt. On the Terror: H. A. Wallon, _La Terreur_, 2 vols. (1881), and, by the same author, _Les représentants du peuple en mission_, 5 vols. (1889-1890), and _Le tribunal révolutionnaire_, 2 vols. (1900); Louis Mortimer-Ternaux, _Histoire de la Terreur, 1792-1794_, 8 vols. (1862); Edmond Bire, _La légende des girondins_ (1881); Charles de Ricault Héricault, _La révolution de thermidor_, 2d ed. (1878). On the Directory, 1795-1799: Ludovic Sciout, _Le Directoire_, 2 vols. (1895-1896).

BIOGRAPHIES. Of Mirabeau, the best biography in English undoubtedly will be that of F. M. Fling, projected in three volumes, of which Vol. I, _The Youth of Mirabeau_, was published in 1908; the most recent and convenient French treatment is by Louis Barthou (1913); a standard German work is Alfred Stern, _Das Leben Mirabeaus_, 2 vols. (1889); and for a real insight into Mirabeau's character and policies, reference should be made to his _Correspondance avec le comte de la Marck_, 3 vols. (1851). Hilaire Belloc has written very readable and suggestive English biographies of _Danton_ (1899), _Robespierre_ (1901), and _Marie Antoinette_ (1909). Perhaps the best brief appreciation of _Danton_ is that by Louis Madelin (1914); J. F. E. Robinet has written a valuable _Danton_ (1889), and likewise a _Condorcet_ (1893). The elaborate _Histoire de Robespierre et du coup d'état du 9 thermidor_ by Ernest Hamel, 3 vols. (1865-1867), is marred by excessive hero-worship. Jules Claretie, _Camille Desmoulins, Lucille Desmoulins: étude sur les dantonistes_ (1875), a charming biography, has been translated into English. Among other useful biographies of persons prominent during the Revolution, the following might be consulted with profit: J. H. Clapham, _The Abbé Sieyès: an Essay in the Politics of the French Revolution_ (1912); E. D. Bradby, _The Life of Barnave_, 2 vols. (1915), containing vivid descriptions of the National Constituent Assembly; Francois Chèvremont, _Jean-Paul Marat_, 2 vols. (1880); Charles Vatel, _Vergniaud_, 2 vols. (1873), and, by the same author, _Charlotte de Corday et les girondins: pièces classées et annotées_, 3 vols. (1864-1872); Arthur Chuquet, _Dumouriez_ (1914); Pouget de Saint- André, _Le général Dumouriez, 1739-1823_ (1914); C. A. Dauban, _Étude sur Madame Roland et son temps_ (1864); Bernard Mallet, _Mallet du Pan and the French Revolution_(1902); E. B, Bax, _Babeuf: the Last Episode of the French Revolution_ (1911).