70
CHAPTER
FIVE:
phenomenon
that
we can
understand
today
more
easily
than
we could
a
generation ago.
The French
Revolution
was
a sort
of
combination
of the
Communist
revolution
in
Russia
and
the
Nazi
revolution
in
Germany,
and
it
ushered
in a
quarter
of a
century
of
tumults
and
wars
culminating
in a
military despotism
more
widespread
than
Hitler's at
its
greatest
all
springing,
so
it
seemed,
from
the
innocent
seed of
much-needed
reforms.
The French
Revolution
conjured
up
a terri-
fying
vision
of revolution
in the abstract.
Men
thought
of
it as
an all-
devouring
monster that
had
to be
kept
chained
beneath
the
surface
of
society,
or as
the
burning
lava
pushing
upward
against
the
fragile
crust
of
a
volcano;
hence
the
dread
of
any yielding
to
pressure
from
below.
At
first there
was no
sign
of the curse
in
Britain.
Even
the
Tories,
whom the
French
Revolution
was to
turn
into
the
party
of blind
reaction,
felt
relief
rather than alarm
at the
strange
news
that
began
to come from
across
the
Channel
in
the
early
summer
of
1789.
They
thought
that
the disturbances
in
the
capital
and
the
provinces
of
France
would
eliminate
that
country
as
an international
factor
for some
time,
and
the
prospect pleased
them.
France was
England's
traditional
foe,
and
had
been for
so
many
centuries
that the
hostility
between
these
two
countries
was
much
more historic
than
any
other
in
the
Old
World.
Moreover,
France
seemed
to be
turning
over
a
new leaf
with
her
abolition
of
feudalism,
her enunciation
of
liberty,
and
her
estab-
lishment
of
a
constitutional
monarchy.
Was
she
not,
in her own
way
of
course,
following
the
English
example?
Imitation
is the sincerest
form of
flattery,
and even
Tories are
quite susceptible.
Among
the
Whigs,
who
were
becoming
a reform
party
and as such
were soon
to
be smashed
by
the French
Revolution,
there was even
more
rejoicing
over
what was
happening
in
France.
Not a few
of them
hoped
that
tie
principles
of
the French
Revolution would
spread
and
triumph
throughout
the
world.
Their
warmhearted
leader,
Charles
James
Fox,
was
the
most enthusiastic of all. He
declared
that
the
taldng
of
the
Bastille was the
greatest
and best event that
had
ever
happened
in
the
world;
and
he
loudly
applauded every
step
in
the
progress
of the French
Revolution,
though
he
regretted
the
shedding
of
blood
that
accompanied
it.
Democratic
societies were formed in British
towns
and
cities,
and
they
entered
into
correspondence
with the
political
clubs
that
were
springing
up
all over France. The British
press
poured
out
pamphlets
advancing
radical
views
inspired
by
events in France.
In
all
this
there
was
precious
little to
suggest
that
the
people
were
trembling
on
the