CHAPTER VI

DEMOCRACY AND REACTION IN FRANCE

1815-52

CONSERVATIVE AND RADICAL ELEMENTS IN FRENCH SOCIETY THE French Revolution had left a memory which never could be effaced, the stirring tale of a successful revolt against monarchs, classes, and conditions. It Influence of had uprooted nearly all the inherited traditions the French of the land and, indeed, had enthroned revolu- Revolution tion itself as an established tradition. As a consequence there was engendered among the people a spirit of resistance to oppression, which was later to overturn the thrones of kings and of emperors and, at times, to threaten the social order itself. Even though the restored Louis XVIII sat on the throne of his ancestors, the old system of society, the ancien régime, with its semi-serfdom, political despotism, special privileges, and religious intolerance, was gone never to return. However, the work of the Revolution was not yet completed; it was as much a promise for the future as a notable achievement of the past; in a broad, general way, it indicated the line of progress along which France and the rest of Europe were to travel for the next century. But the deep wounds inflicted by the Revolution on the conservative elements of French society embittered the latter into becoming reactionary; hence the history of France during the nineteenth century is the story of a struggle between those who wished to fulfill the promise of the French Revolution and those who sought to restore the old order, or, at least, to keep the revolutionary spirit chained to what it already had accomplished.

On one or the other side of this dividing line, the various elements in France ranged themselves according to their interests and ideals. On the conservative side were naturally the aristocrats, who, however, exercised but little in

ence over the nation because they had been shorn of propConserva- erty and privilege by the Revolution. In fact, French aristocracy became a mere name which

tive forces in French society

meant little or nothing; the nobles of the ancien régime had been guillotined or discredited by treason during the Revolutionary wars, and the new ones created by Napoleon and later by Louis Philippe were of too recent origin to elicit much respect. Far stronger as a conservative force was the Roman Catholic Church, which feared the establishment of a democratic republic because that form of government was favored by its enemies, the partisans of the French Revolution. In spite of the fact that rationalism and free thought were widespread among all classes of society, the bulk of the French people remained Christian and Catholic, and conservatism found in the Church a most powerful support. But the rock against which revolutionary movements of the nineteenth century dashed in vain was the peasant. Once the Revolution had freed him from feudal dues and services and established him as a proprietor of the land which he cultivated, the peasant became a stanch supporter of conservative policies; and the influence of the great mass of peasant proprietors has more than once decided the fate of governments, parties, and dynasties in France. Along with the spirit of innovation engendered by the Revolution there was the tradition of military glory associated with the name of Napoleon. Frenchmen could not easily forget the time when the tricolor had waved triumphantly on the great battle fields of modern times. It needed but a phrase, a book, a "legend" to rekindle in France the desire for military conquest. "The man on horseback" remained an appealing figure to the imagination of Frenchmen despite his having frequently trod on principles very dear to them.

forces in

The mainstay on the radical side was the bourgeoisie, or Radical middle class. The disappearance of the landed aristocracy had left them masters of the field, with power out of all proportion to their number or to their wealth. As heirs of the great Revolution, they

French society

generally favored a democratic suffrage, a republican form of government, separation of Church and State, and freedom of thought. Another and far more radical element made its appearance as a result of the introduction of the factory system, namely, the working class, of which we shall speak later. In addition, there was the small but powerful group of philosophers, poets, artists, novelists, and dramatists who, in France, have exercised a profound influence on public affairs. These "intellectuals," inheriting the revolutionary traditions of the great philosophers of the eighteenth century, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and Montesquieu, nearly always allied themselves with the radical elements of the nation.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

ness

While the statesmen and monarchs of the Restoration Period were confidently planning to restore the old system of government and society, there was taking Reasons for place in the life of the people on the Continent France's industrial that silent change known as the Industrial backwardRevolution which was to render all their plans abortive. In England conditions were favorable to the growth of industry; in France, the reverse was true. In the first place, the latter country did not possess in sufficient quantities the essentials of the factory system, coal and iron; secondly, there was no over-supply of cheap labor, because peasant proprietorship was the inducement that operated to prevent an exodus of the country folk to the cities; thirdly, the great drain in men and money during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars depleted the requisite supply of labor and capital. The Industrial Revolution in France was, consequently, neither so rapid nor so widespread as in England. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the domestic system was still in full bloom, and it was not till the middle of the century that the foundations of the new industrial era were laid.

In England, as we have seen, the manufacturers devoted themselves by the force of circumstances to the production

of textiles and iron and steel goods, the every-day necessities of life; in France, on the contrary, and for

The silk industry similar reasons, the staples of industry were silk and wine, the luxuries of life. Cartwright's loom gave immediate impetus to the establishment of the factory system in England; but a similar invention in France, the famous Jacquard loom for the rapid weaving of complex patterns in silk (1804), had no such immediate influence on the establishment of the factory system in that country; artisans continued to spin and weave silk cloth in their homes. Notwithstanding the retarded development, the value of the product of the silk loom more than tripled during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Machinery was imported from England in order to give French industry a start; and, about 1823, the power loom Introduction was established in the city of Mülhausen, in of machinery Alsace, which became the cotton manufacturing town of France. Lille, because it was situated in the mining region and so was able to get coal quickly and cheaply, soon developed as an industrial city comparable to Manchester and Leeds. Steam was introduced as a motive force between 1830 and 1840, much later than in England, chiefly because of the low output of coal.

Rural

Although industrially backward, France was a wealthy nation because of her naturally rich soil and her splendid wine districts. Rural industries were greatly aided industries by the manufacture of wines, liquors, brandies, and beet sugar. In 1846 more than half of the exports consisted of silks and wines. In general, it might be said that France imported raw materials, such as cotton, wool, and leather, and exported manufactured luxuries and agricultural products.

In the matter of modern means of transportation, such as railways and steamboats, France was also backward. Transporta- During the two preceding centuries, she had developed a fine system of roads and canals, but it was not until 1837 that a railway, only twelve miles long, was constructed. The first law regulating the construction

tion

of railways was adopted in 1842; it provided for the building and operation of a comprehensive system of railways by private companies with the aid of government grants. Four years later, there were in operation over eleven hundred miles of railways, transporting annually about thirteen million passengers and three and a half million tons of merchandise. Internal trade increased greatly, which enabled the country to recover from the economic wounds left by the Napoleonic wars. The first transatlantic steamship line was established from Havre to New York in 1840. Protection was afforded to the merchant marine by legislation which provided for special taxes on goods carried in foreign vessels, and which forbade trade with French colonies in any but French ships.

The general outcome of the Industrial Revolution in France was the same as that in England, which has already been described. In the former there were, how- Special reever, special developments worthy of notice. sults of the Industrial One was the extreme radicalism of the industrial Revolution in France laborers. The traditions of the French Revolution inherited by the working class accentuated their hostility to capitalism, to which, almost from the very start, they threw down the gage of battle. Although few in number and poorly organized, the French workingmen have ever been in the van of radicalism and an example to the laborers of other lands. Another was the strengthening of the power of the petite bourgeoisie, or lower middle class, who invested their savings in industrial enterprises both at home and abroad. In France numerous small investors, whose frugality and thrift enabled them to buy a few dearly prized shares of stock or government bonds, constituted a power which was a near approach to a governing class. Kings, emperors, and even republics were apt to suffer swift destruction when they antagonized the interests of this numerous and influential class of small investors.