The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• A Thinker For Our Times: Madame De Staël, Her Life and Works
• Life of Madame De Staël
• Works of Madame De Staël
• Madame De Staël and Napoléon
• The Ideas of Considerations
• The Reception of Considerations
• Madame De Staël and America
• Note On the Present Edition
• Considerations On the Principal Events of the French Revolution
• Notice By the Editors 1
• Advertisement of the Author
• Part I
• Chapter I: General Reflections.
• Chapter II: Considerations On the History of France.
• Chapter III: On the State of Public Opinion In France At the Accession of Louis XVI.
• Chapter IV: Of the Character of M. Necker As a Public Man.
• Chapter V: M. Necker’s Plans of Finance.
• Chapter VI: M. Necker’s Plans of Administration.
• Chapter VII: Of the American War.
• Chapter VIII: M. Necker’s Retirement From Office In 1781.
• Chapter IX: The Circumstances That Led to the Assembling of the Estates General.—ministry of M. De Calonne.
• Chapter X: Sequel of the Preceding.—ministry of the Archbishop of Toulouse.
• Chapter XI: Did France Possess a Constitution Before the Revolution? 1
• Chapter XII: On the Recall of M. Necker In 1788.
• Chapter XIII: Conduct of the Last Estates General, Held At Paris In 1614.
• Chapter XIV: The Division of the Estates General Into Orders.
• Chapter XV: What Was the Public Feeling of Europe At the Time of Convening the Estates General?
• Chapter XVI: Opening of the Estates General On the 5th of May, 1789.
• Chapter XVII: Of the Resistance of the Privileged Orders to the Demands of the Third Estate In 1789.
• Chapter XVIII: Conduct of the Third Estate During the First Two Months of the Session of the Estates General.
• Chapter XIX: Means Possessed By the Crown In 1789 of Opposing the Revolution.
• Chapter XX: The Royal Session of 23d June, 1789.
• Chapter XXI: Events Caused By the Royal Session of 23d June, 1789.
• Chapter XXII: Revolution of the 14th of July (1789).
• Chapter XXIII: Return of M. Necker.
• Part Ii
• Chapter I: Mirabeau.
• Chapter II: Of the Constituent Assembly After the 14th of July.
• Chapter III: General La Fayette.
• Chapter IV: Of the Good Effected By the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter V: Liberty of the Press, and State of the Police, During the Time of the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter VI: Of the Different Parties Conspicuous In the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter VII: Of the Errors of the Constituent Assembly In Matters of Administration.
• Chapter VIII: Of the Errors of the National Assembly In Regard to the Constitution.
• Chapter IX: Efforts Made By M. Necker With the Popular Party In the Constituent Assembly to Induce It to Establish the English Constitution In France.
• Chapter X: Did the English Government Give Money to Foment Troubles In France?
• Chapter XI: Events of the 5th and 6th of October, 1789.
• Chapter XII: The Constituent Assembly At Paris.
• Chapter XIII: Of the Decrees of the Constituent Assembly In Regard to the Clergy.
• Chapter XIV: Of the Suppression of Titles of Nobility.
• Chapter XV: Of the Royal Authority As It Was Established By the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter XVI: Federation of 14th July, 1790.
• Chapter XVII: Of the State of Society In Paris During the Time of the Constituent Assembly.
• Chapter XVIII: The Introduction of Assignats, and Retirement of M. Necker.
• Chapter XIX: State of Affairs and of Political Parties In the Winter of 1790–91.
• Chapter XX: Death of Mirabeau.
• Chapter XXI: Departure of the King On the 21st of June, 1791.
• Chapter XXII: Revision of the Constitution.
• Chapter XXIII: Acceptance of the Constitution, Called the Constitution of 1791.
• Part Iii
• Chapter I: On the Emigration.
• Chapter II: Prediction of M. Necker On the Fate of the Constitution of 1791.
• Chapter III: Of the Different Parties Which Composed the Legislative Assembly.
• Chapter IV: Spirit of the Decrees of the Legislative Assembly.
• Chapter V: Of the First War Between France and Europe.
• Chapter VI: Of the Means Employed In 1792 to Establish the Republic.
• Chapter VII: Anniversary of 14th July Celebrated In 1792.
• Chapter VIII: Manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick.
• Chapter IX: Revolution of the 10th of August, 1792—overthrow of the Monarchy.
• Chapter X: Private Anecdotes.
• Chapter XI: The Foreign Troops Driven From France In 1792.
• Chapter XII: Trial of Louis XVI.
• Chapter XIII: Charles I and Louis XVI.
• Chapter XIV: War Between France and England. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox.
• Chapter XV: Of Political Fanaticism.
• Chapter XVI: Of the Government Called the Reign of Terror.
• Chapter XVII: The French Army During the Reign of Terror; the Federalists and La Vendée.
• Chapter XVIII: Of the Situation of the Friends of Liberty Out of France During the Reign of Terror.
• Chapter XIX: Fall of Robespierre, and Change of System In the Government.
• Chapter XX: Of the State of Minds At the Moment When the Directorial Republic Was Established In France.
• Chapter XXI: Of the Twenty Months During Which the Republic Existed In France, From November 1795 to the 18th of Fructidor (4th of September) 1797.
• Chapter XXII: Two Singular Predictions Drawn From the History of the Revolution, By M. Necker.
• Chapter XXIII: Of the Army of Italy.
• Chapter XXIV: Of the Introduction of Military Government Into France By the Occurrences of the 18th of Fructidor.
• Chapter XXV: Private Anecdotes.
• Chapter XXVI: Treaty of Campo Formio In 1797. Arrival of General Bonaparte At Paris.
• Chapter XXVII: Preparations of General Bonaparte For Proceeding to Egypt. His Opinion On the Invasion of Switzerland.
• Chapter XXVIII: The Invasion of Switzerland.
• Chapter XXIX: Of the Termination of the Directory.
• Part Iv
• Chapter I: News From Egypt: Return of Bonaparte.
• Chapter II: Revolution of the 18th of Brumaire.
• Chapter III: Of the Establishment of the Consular Constitution.
• Chapter IV: Progress of Bonaparte to Absolute Power.
• Chapter V: Should England Have Made Peace With Bonaparte At His Accession to the Consulate?
• Chapter VI: Of the Solemn Celebration of the Concordat At Nôtre-dame.
• Chapter VII: M. Necker’s Last Work Under the Consulship of Bonaparte.
• Chapter VIII: Of Exile.
• Chapter IX: Of the Last Days of M. Necker.
• Chapter X: Abstract of M. Necker’s Principles On Government.
• Chapter XI: Bonaparte Emperor. the Counter-revolution Effected By Him.
• Chapter XII: Of the Conduct of Napoléon Toward the Continent of Europe.
• Chapter XIII: Of the Means Employed By Bonaparte to Attack England.
• Chapter XIV: On the Spirit of the French Army.
• Chapter XV: Of the Legislation and Administration Under Bonaparte.
• Chapter XVI: Of Literature Under Bonaparte.
• Chapter XVII: A Saying of Bonaparte Printed In the Moniteur.
• Chapter XVIII: On the Political Doctrine of Bonaparte.
• Chapter XIX: Intoxication of Power; Reverses and Abdication of Bonaparte.
• Part V *
• Chapter I: Of What Constitutes Legitimate Royalty.
• Chapter II: Of the Political Doctrine of Some French Emigrants and Their Adherents.
• Chapter III: Of the Circumstances That Render the Representative Government At This Time More Necessary In France Than In Any Other Country.
• Chapter IV: Of the Entry of the Allies Into Paris, and the Different Parties Which Then Existed In France.
• Chapter V: Of the Circumstances Which Accompanied the First Return of the House of Bourbon In 1814.
• Chapter VI: Of the Aspect of France and of Paris During Its First Occupation By the Allies.
• Chapter VII: Of the Constitutional Charter Granted By the King In 1814.
• Chapter VIII: Of the Conduct of the Ministry During the First Year of the Restoration.
• Chapter IX: Of the Obstacles Which Government Encountered During the First Year of the Restoration.
• Chapter X: Of the Influence of Society On Political Affairs In France.
• Chapter XI: Of the System Which Ought to Have Been Followed In 1814, to Maintain the House of Bourbon On the Throne of France.
• Chapter XII: What Should Have Been the Conduct of the Friends of Liberty In 1814?
• Chapter XIII: Return of Bonaparte.
• Chapter XIV: Of the Conduct of Bonaparte On His Return.
• Chapter XV: Of the Fall of Bonaparte.
• Chapter XVI: Of the Declaration of Rights Proclaimed By the Chamber of Representatives, 5th of July, 1815.
• Part Vi
• Chapter I: Are Frenchmen Made to Be Free?
• Chapter II: Cursory View of the History of England.
• Chapter III: Of the Prosperity of England, and the Causes By Which It Has Been Hitherto Promoted.
• Chapter IV: Of Liberty and Public Spirit Among the English.
• Chapter V: Of Knowledge, Religion, and Morals Among the English.
• Chapter VI: Of Society In England, and of Its Connection With Social Order.
• Chapter VII: Of the Conduct of the English Government Outside of England.
• Chapter VIII: Will Not the English Hereafter Lose Their Liberty?
• Chapter IX: Can a Limited Monarchy Have Other Foundations Than That of the English Constitution?
• Chapter X: Of the Influence of Arbitrary Power On the Spirit and Character of a Nation.
• Chapter XI: Of the Mixture of Religion With Politics.
• Chapter XII: Of the Love of Liberty.

CHAPTER XII

Trial of Louis XVI.

What a subject! But it has been so often treated on that I shall here allow myself to make only a few particular observations.1

In the month of October, 1792, before the horrible trial of the King had begun, before Louis XVI had named his defenders, M. Necker stood forward to receive that noble and perilous charge. He published a memoir2 which posterity will accept as one of the truest and most disinterested testimonies that could be given in favor of the virtuous monarch thrown into captivity.* M. de Malesherbes3 was chosen by the King to be his advocate in the National Convention. The dreadful death of this admirable man and of his family demands the first place in our memory; but the sound reasoning and sincere eloquence of M. Necker’s publication in defense of the King must render it a document for history.

It cannot be denied that Louis XVI was considered as a prisoner from the time of his departure for Varennes, and consequently he did nothing to forward the establishment of a Constitution, which the most sincere efforts would not, perhaps, have been able to maintain. But with what delicacy does not M. Necker, who always believed in the force of truth, place it before us upon this point.

M. Necker goes on to retrace in his Memoir the acts of beneficence which marked the reign of Louis XVI before the Revolution; the extinction of the remains of servitude, the interdiction4 of the torture, the suppression of the corvée, the establishment of the provincial administrations, the convocation of the Estates General. “Is it not Louis XVI,” says he, “who, in occupying him unceasingly with the improvements of the prisons and hospitals, has given the attention of a tender father and of a compassionate friend to the asylums of misery and the retreats of misfortune or of error? Is it not he, perhaps the only one, besides St. Louis, of all the heads of the French Empire who has given the rare example of purity of manners? Must he not besides be allowed the peculiar merit of having been religious without superstition, and scrupulous without intolerance? And is it not from him that a part of the inhabitants of France (the Protestants), persecuted during so many reigns, have received not only a legal security but a civil station which admits them to a participation in all the advantages of social order? These benefits belong to the past; but is the virtue of gratitude applicable only to other periods and other portions of life?”

The want of respect shown to Louis XVI during his trial is more striking than even his condemnation. When the President of the Convention said to him who was his King: “Louis, you may sit down!” we feel more indignation even than when he is accused of crimes which he had never committed. One must have sprung from the very dust not to respect past obligations, particularly when misfortune has rendered them sacred; and vulgarity joined to crime inspires us with as much contempt as horror. No man of real superiority has been remarked amongst those who incited the convention to condemn the King; the popular tide rose and fell at certain words and certain phrases, while the talent of so eloquent an orator as Vergniaud5 could not influence the public mind. It is true that the greater part of the deputies who defended the King took a detestable ground. They began by declaring that he was guilty; and one among them said at the tribune that Louis XVI was a traitor, but that the nation ought to pardon him; and this they called the tactics of the Assembly! They pretended that it was necessary to humor the reigning opinion, that they might moderate it at a proper time. With such cautious prudence as this, how could they resist their enemies, who sprang with all their force upon the victim? In France, they always capitulate with the majority, even when they wish to oppose it; and this miserable finesse assuredly diminishes the means instead of increasing them. The power of the minority can consist only in the energy of conviction. What are the weak in numbers if they are also weak in sentiment?

Saint-Just,6 after having searched in vain for authentic facts against the King, finished by declaring that “no one could reign innocently”; and nothing could better prove the necessity of the inviolability of kings than this maxim; for, there is no king who might not be accused in some way or another if there were no constitutional barrier placed around him. That which surrounded the throne of Louis XVI ought to be held sacred more than any other, since it was not tacitly understood as elsewhere, but solemnly guaranteed.

The deputies from the Gironde wished to save the King; and to that end they demanded an appeal to the people. But in demanding this appeal, they continued to concur in sentiment with the Jacobins, incessantly repeating that the King deserved death. This was deserting the cause entirely. Louis XVI, says Biroteau,7 is already condemned within my heart; but I demand an appeal to the people that he may be condemned by them. The deputies from the Gironde were right in requiring a competent tribunal, if there could exist one for such a cause: but how much more effect might they not have produced if they had required it in favor of an innocent person, instead of for one whom they pretended to be guilty. The French, it can never be too often repeated, have not yet learned in civil affairs to be moderate when they are strong, and bold when they are weak; they should transplant into politics all their military virtues, and their affairs would be improved by it.

What is most difficult to be conceived, in this terrible discussion of the national convention, is the abundance of words that everyone had ready upon such an occasion. It was natural to expect to find a concentrated fury in those who desired the death of the King; but to make it a subject for the display of wit, for the turning of phrases, what obstinacy of vanity in such a scene.

Thomas Paine8 was the most violent of the American democrats: and yet, as there was neither calculation nor hypocrisy in his political exaggerations, when the sentence of Louis XVI came under discussion, he alone advised what would have done honor to France if it had been adopted, the offer to the King of an asylum in America. The Americans are grateful to him, said Paine, for having promoted their independence. Considering this resolution only in a republican point of view, it was the only one which could at that time have weakened the interest for royalty in France. Louis XVI had not those talents which are necessary to regain a crown by force; for a situation which did not excite pity would never have produced devotion. Death inflicted on the most upright man in France, but, at the same time, the least to be feared—on him who, if I may use the expression, had taken no part in his own fate, could only be a dreadful homage paid to his former greatness. There would have been more of republicanism in a revolution which had evinced less fear and more justice.

Louis XVI did not refuse, like Charles I, to acknowledge the tribunal before which he was tried; but answered to all the questions which were put to him, with unaltered gentleness. The President asked him why he had assembled the troops at the palace on the tenth of August, and he replied: “The palace was threatened, all the Constituted Authorities saw it, and, as I myself was one of the Constituted Authorities, it was my duty to defend myself.” How modest and unassuming was this manner of speaking of himself, and by what burst of eloquence could we be more deeply moved!

M. de Malesherbes, formerly the King’s minister, stood forward to defend him. He was one of the three ministers, himself, M. Turgot, and M. Necker, who had advised the voluntary adoption of the principles of liberty to Louis XVI. He was obliged, together with the other two, to resign his place in consequence of some opinions which the parlements opposed; and now, notwithstanding his advanced age, he reappeared to plead the cause of the King in the presence of the people, as he had formerly pleaded the cause of the people before the King; but the new master was implacable.

Garat,9 then Minister of Justice, and, in times better suited to him one of the best writers of France, has told us, in his private memoirs, that when the duties of his dreadful situation compelled him to communicate to the King the sentence which condemned him to death, the King displayed, whilst listening to it, the most astonishing coolness; once only, he expressed by a gesture his contempt and his indignation; it was at the article which accused him of having wished to spill the blood of the French people. His conscience revolted at that, although he had restrained every other feeling. On the very morning of his execution, he said to one of his servants, Go to the Queen; but, stopping himself, he repeated, Go to my wife. He submitted, even at that moment, to the deprivation of his rank which had been imposed upon him by his murderers. Without doubt he believed that in everything fate executes the designs of God upon his creatures.

The King’s will10 exhibits the whole of his character. The most affecting simplicity reigns throughout: every word is a virtue, and we find in it all the intelligence which a mind just, temperate, and of infinite goodness could inspire. The condemnation of Louis XVI so affected every heart that, on account of it, the Revolution was for several years considered as accursed.

[1. ] On this issue, see Walzer, Regicide and Revolution; Jordan, The King’s Trial: Louis XVI vs. the French Revolution; and Ozouf’s entry on the trial of Louis XVI in A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, 95–106.

[2. ]Réflexions présentées à la nation française sur le procès de Louis XVI (Berne and Paris, 1792).

[* ] The property which M. Necker possessed in France was sequestered from the very day on which his Memoire justicatif de Louis XVI appeared.

[3. ] Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1721–94) was a former president of the Cour des aides in the Parlement of Paris and a minister of Louis XVI’s (1775–76, 1788). He served as Louis XVI’s counsel for the defense and was subsequently arrested and executed in 1794. He was a relative of Tocqueville. For more information, see Wyrwa, ed., Malesherbes, le pouvoir et les lumières.

[4. ] Interdiction of torture to obtain confessions from those who were arrested.

[5. ] Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud (1753–93) was a prominent lawyer and a deputy to the Legislative Assembly from the Gironde. As a leader of the Girondins, he distinguished himself as one of the greatest orators of the French Revolution. During the trial of the King, he recommended a referendum on the King’s punishment and actively opposed the Montagnards and Robespierre. He fell with the other Girondins in June 1793 and was guillotined four months later.

[6. ] Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (1767–94) was a prominent Jacobin leader and a close associate of Robespierre, with whom he served on the Committee of Public Safety. For more information, see Gross, Saint-Just: sa politique et ses missions.

[7. ] Biroteau (1753–93), a lawyer from Perpignan, sided with the Girondins and voted for the death of Louis XVI. He was executed in October 1793.

[8. ] Thomas Paine (1737–1809) came to France in 1791 and received French citizenship in August 1792 before being elected a deputy to the Convention. He was excluded from the Convention in January 1793 and returned to the United States in 1802.

[9. ] Dominique Garat (1749–1833) followed Danton as minister of justice in October 1792. In March 1793, he became minister of the interior before being imprisoned during the Terror. His Mémoirs historiques sur le XVIIIe siècle, sur les principaux personnages de la Révolution française were published in two volumes in 1829.

[10. ] The King’s testament was published in Soboul, Le procès de Louis XVI, 236–40.