THE FRENCH CENTENNIAL by Interior

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 24, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 24.

THE FRENCH CENTENNIAL.

By Interior

With the close of the centennial ceremonies in this country, those of the French republic have begun. It was on May 5, 1789, that Louis XVI. convened the States-General, and last week the French people celebrated at Versailles the centenary of that event as the first of the important series which led to the establishment of the constitutional system. The last meeting of the Three Estates, consisting of representatives of the nobility, the clergy, and the third estate, or middle classes, and constituting a sort of national legislature, had occurred in 1614, during the reign of Louis XIII. The latter monarch and his two successors, however, believing that an assembly of nobles would be more tractable, dispensed with the services of the estates, and it was not until the reign of Louis XVI., the last of the French Bourbon sovereigns of the eighteenth century, that the assembly was revived. When it convened on May 5, 1789, as the result of financial burdens caused by foreign campaigns, the profligacy of the nobles, and the abuses of privilege which laid the main burden of taxation on the third estate, and the growth of republican ideas among the commons, France was ready for revolution.

From that date events marched rapidly, and six weeks after, when the king had refused to grant their demands, and the nobles to sit in the same hall and vote by poll, the commons proclaimed themselves to be the National Assembly and the governing force in the kingdom. It was the solemn oath not to separate until they had established the constitution of France upon as permanent foundations as had been laid in the United States, that eventually brought the king to terms, and forced him to direct the representatives of the privileged classes to take part in the assembly. But first came the attempt to disperse the self-constituted legislature, which led to the famous message of Mirabeau: "We are here by the power of the people, and we will not be driven hence save by the power of the bayonet."

Then came the bloodshed of July 12, the calling out of the national guard, constituted but a few days before largely through the energy of Mirabeau, and the attack upon, and demolition of, the Bastile on July 14. To the people of Paris the latter will doubtless be the great anniversary of the year, though there were so many other conspicuous events during that memorable summer that nothing but a continuous celebration would adequately commemorate them. On the 4th of August the National Assembly abolished all feudal privileges and decreed the freedom of religion and the press, and on the 18th came the Declaration of the Rights of Man, an embodiment of our own charter of liberty. Indeed, there are many dates which might be chosen for remembrance of some sort, as steps in the movement which resulted in the greatest social upheaval in human history, the overthrow of monarchy, and a new era of republicanism and constitutional progress.

In after years came scenes of blood and carnage and violence, of the very memory of which monarchical Europe still stands in awe, and which the founders of our own republic were among the first to condemn. But the work of 1789 is little subject to censure, and although ambassadors of the various courts refrained from attending the celebration at Versailles, Americans at least could join heartily in the commemoration. The French revolution was closely and logically connected with our own, and American interest in the French centennial will be quickened by the traditions of the French-American alliance, and pride in the success of republican institutions.—Interior.