Unless it is universal and excessive, discontent alone is not sufficient to bring about a revolution.It is easy to lead a handful of men to pillage, destroy, and massacre, but to raise a whole people, or any great portion of that people, calls for the continuous or repeated action of leaders.These exaggerate the discontent; they persuade the discontented that the government is the sole cause of all the trouble, especially of the prevailing dearth, and assure men that the new system proposed by them will engender an age of felicity.These ideas germinate, propagating themselves by suggestion and contagion, and the moment arrives when the revolution is ripe.
In this fashion the Christian Revolution and the French Revolution were prepared.That the latter was effected in a few years, while the first required many, was due to the fact that the French Revolution promptly had an armed force at its disposal, while Christianity was long in winning material power.
In the beginning its only adepts were the lowly, the poor, and the slaves, filled with enthusiasm by the prospect of seeing their miserable life transformed into an eternity of delight.By a phenomenon of contagion from below, of which history affords us more than one example, the doctrine finally invaded the upper strata of the nation, but it was a long time before an emperor considered the new faith sufficiently widespread to be adopted as the official religion.
4.The Results of Political Revolutions.
When a political party is triumphant it naturally seeks to organise society in accordance with its interests.The organisation will differ accordingly as the revolution has been effected by the soldiers, the Radicals, or the Conservatives, &c.
The new laws and institutions will depend on the interests of the triumphant party and of the classes which have assisted it--the clergy for instance.
If the revolution has triumphed only after a violent struggle, as was the case with the French Revolution, the victors will reject at one sweep the whole arsenal of the old law.The supporters of the fallen regime will be persecuted, exiled, or exterminated.
The maximum of violence in these persecutions is attained when the triumphant party is defending a belief in addition to its material interests.Then the conquered need hope for no pity.
Thus may be explained the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, the autodafes of the Inquisition, the executions of the Convention, and the recent laws against the religious congregations in France.
The absolute power which is assumed by the victors leads them sometimes to extreme measures, such as the Convention's decree that gold was to be replaced by paper, that goods were to be sold at determined prices, &c.Very soon it runs up against a wall of unavoidable necessities, which turn opinion against its tyranny, and finally leave it defenceless before attack, as befell at the end of the French Revolution.The same thing happened recently to a Socialist Australian ministry composed almost exclusively of working-men.It enacted laws so absurd, and accorded such privileges to the trade unions, that public opinion rebelled against it so unanimously that in three months it was overthrown.
But the cases we have considered are exceptional.The majority of revolutions have been accomplished in order to place a new sovereign in power.Now this sovereign knows very well that the first condition of maintaining his power consists in not too exclusively favouring a single class, but in seeking to conciliate all.To do this he will establish a sort of equilibrium between them, so as not to be dominated by any one of these classes.To allow one class to become predominant is to condemn himself presently to accept that class as his master.
This law is one of the most certain of political psychology.The kings of France understood it very well when they struggled so energetically against the encroachments first of the nobility and then of the clergy.If they had not done so their fate would have been that of the German Emperors of the Middle Ages, who, excommunicated by the Pope, were reduced, like Henry IV.at Canossa, to make a pilgrimage and humbly to sue for the Pope's forgiveness.
This same law has continually been verified during the course of history.When at the end of the Roman Empire the military caste became preponderant, the emperors depended entirely upon their soldiers, who appointed and deposed them at will.
It was therefore a great advantage for France that she was so long governed by a monarch almost absolute, supposed to hold his power by divine right, and surrounded therefore by a considerable prestige.Without such an authority he could have controlled neither the feudal nobility, nor the clergy, nor the parliaments.If Poland, towards the end of the sixteenth century, had also possessed an absolute and respected monarchy, she would not have descended the path of decadence which led to her disappearance from the map of Europe.
We have shewn in this chapter that political revolutions may be accompanied by important social transformations.We shall soon see how slight are these transformations compared to those produced by religious revolutions.
