Short Essay on the French Legislative Assembly and Its Various Groups during the French Revolution

After framing the constitution, the National Constituent Assembly dissolved itself by a Self-Denying Ordinance. By that time the elections of the new Legislative Assembly had taken place.

All the new members were inexperienced and had no knowledge of framing a constitution. Its first meeting was held in 1791. On this occasion the king accepted the constitution and there was enough of joy and merriment in France.

People began to think that the revolution had ended and their difficulties were over forever. But their estimation proved to be wrong and with passage of time they had to face some new problems in life.

The total members in the Legislative Assembly were 745 and most of them belonged to middle-class families. The number of the lawyers surpassed all others in the Assembly. The members of this assembly were more revolutionary than all the preceding leaders.

They were young lads, and most of them had not crossed their thirties. They belonged to the following parties:

(i) Royalists. They were the supporters of the king and numbered one hundred.

(ii) Constitutionalists. They were in favour of constitution, and that is why they were known as constitutionalists or Feuillants. They wanted to minimise the rights of the king. They were supported by the middle class and numbered 164 in the Legislative Assembly.

(iii) Democrats. They wanted to establish democracy by putting to an end the authority of the king. They were divided into two parties known as Girondists and Jacobins, and their number was 236.

(iv) Centre Party. They were independent. They were not allied to any party. Later on they joined Jacobin party. They were 245 in number.

The constitutionalists soon failed to hold the authority of the state and there arose a fierce struggle between the Girondists and the Jacobins to get hold of the authority.

It continued up to 2nd June 1793 and ultimately the Jacobins succeeded in this struggle. They guillotined 22 famous Girondist leaders and established their sway in France.

(v) Girondists. Girond was the name of one of the 83 departments of France. It was situated in the western part of France and as most of the Girondists belonged to this province; the party came to be known as Girondist party.

Lamertine was the first man to pronounce the word ‘Girondist’. They were opponents of autocratic rule and were influenced by the Greek and Roman principle of democracy.

They were radical leaders and wanted to establish democratic form of government in France. They were specially famous for their patriotism.

In fact, the GirondL’ Is we’re not a political party. They did not have any political programme. Elton writes about them:

“The Girondists understood ideas, nor men or even things, they were phrase makers.”

They used to meet at 5 Place Vendeme. They were more democratic than the members of the Jacobin party but they condemned the mob rule. They were, in fact, men of culture, antique Romans in the loftiness of their views.

They had full faith in the theory of representation. They opined that after the election of a member, he should be at liberty to perform his duty according to his own wisdom. The outsiders should not interfere in his deeds.

This was the chief reason of their encounter with Paris mob as the crowd wanted to keep an eye over the proceedings of the Assembly whereas Jacobin party was guided by the mob of Paris. This was the apple of discord between the two parties.

The prominent leaders of this party were named as Vegniaud, Guadet, Gensonne, Brissot, Condorcet, Dumoureiz, and Madam Rolland etc.

All the members of this party were fired with the revolutionary zeal and patriotism but they did not have any practical experience. Owing to this they could not stand against the Jacobin party in the struggle for survival.

(vi) Jacobin Party. In the beginning, the Jacobin party had no name. The members of this party used to meet one another in the church of ‘Jacob’ in Paris. Later, they hired this place for their club.

In the beginning people of different ideologies were the members of this club but later on, only persons of radical views were preferred and admitted in it.

Owing to this change, Lafayette, Sieyes and Mirabeau broke their relations with this party and the supremacy of Robespierre was established.

In the beginning they used to hold in camera meetings and only bona-fide members were allowed to attend them but with the passage of time the club was thrown open for all persons.

The branches of this club were opened in all parts of the country. The members numbered 140 in the legislative council and used to sit on high places and therefore, they were also known as ‘mountains’.

This was a terrorist party. They used to hold hot discussions on political issues and used to give great importance to intellectual and political supremacy.

They were of the opinion that the commoners were unable to understand the political and intellectual issues, and thus these should be undertaken by the elected few. The revolution takes place in the name of entire public and not by the entire public.

Elton writes, “Jacobinism, the terror, had no captain; it was a dictatorship without a dictator.”

Jacobins had no leader of theirs but Robespierre was their most significant member. None but Danton tried to become the leader of this party.

He was held responsible for treachery and sent to guillotine. Robespierre, Danton, Doctor Marat, Herbert etc., were known as the prominent members of this party.

(vii) Cordilier Club. This club was situated in a street named Cordilier, and hence the club came to be known as the Cordilier Club.

It was established after the formation of the Jacobin party and the chief credit for its establishment went to Dr. Marat, Danton and Camille Desmoulins.

The members of this club used to pay only one penny monthly as subscription to the club, and that is why the commoners had a majority in it. Many students, handicraftsmen and shopkeepers were the members of this club.

In fact it was a club of the opposite party where they used to deliver inflammatory speeches on the principles of democracy. The ideologies of this club were imbued with terrorism and it worked as a breeding ground of hot-headed extremists.