Bastille Day, law and liberty

Martin Henry, Contributor

Today is Bastille Day. On this summer day in 1789, the masses, fed up with the oppression of the ancien régime and assisted by dissident soldiers, stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, captured it, released its seven prisoners and smashed it to pieces.

A French newspaper of the time provides a description of the events from the perspective of the triumphant rebels (with a bit of editing by me).

"First, the people tried to enter this fortress by the Rue St, this fortress, which no one has ever penetrated against the wishes of this frightful despotism and where the monster still resided. The treacherous governor had put out a flag of peace.

"So a confident advance was made; a detachment of French Guards, with perhaps five to six thousand armed bourgeois, penetrated the Bastille's outer courtyard, but as soon as some six hundred persons had passed over the first drawbridge, the bridge was raised and artillery fire mowed down several French Guards and some soldiers; the cannon fired on the town, and the people took fright; a large number of individuals were killed or wounded; but then they rallied and took shelter from the fire ... .

"Meanwhile, they tried to locate some cannon; they attacked from the water's edge through the gardens of the arsenal, and from there made an orderly siege; they advanced from various directions, beneath a ceaseless round of fire.

"It was a terrible scene. ... The fighting grew steadily more intense; the citizens had become hardened to the fire; from all directions they clambered on to the roofs or broke into the rooms ... . People bravely faced death and every danger; women, in their eagerness, helped us to the utmost; even the children, after the discharge of fire from the fortress, ran here and there picking up the bullets and shot [and so the Bastille fell and the governor, De Launey, was captured] ... .

"Serene and blessed liberty, for the first time, has at last been introduced into this abode of horrors, this frightful refuge of monstrous despotism and its crimes.

"The conquerors, glorious and covered in honour, carry their arms and the spoils of the conquered, the flags of victory, the militia mingling with the soldiers of the fatherland, the victory laurels offered them from every side, all this created a frightening an splendid spectacle.

"On arriving at the square, the people, anxious to avenge themselves, allowed neither De Launey nor the other officers to reach the place of trial; they seized them from the hands of their conquerors, and trampled them underfoot one after the other. De Launey was struck by a thousand blows, his head was cut off and hoisted on the end of a pike with blood streaming down all sides ... .

"This glorious day must amaze our enemies, and finally usher in for us the triumph of justice and liberty."

The fall of the Bastille launched the French Revolution with its promise of liberté, égalité, fraternité.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen followed, as well an Enlightenment Constitution. But also dictatorship and the Reign of Terror.

As one history text enquires, "How was it that the advocates of democracy now imposed a dictatorship on France? And it provided an explanation by one of the most powerful leaders of the revolution, Maximilien Robespierre, "To establish and consolidate democracy, to achieve the peaceful rule of constitutional laws, we must first finish the war of liberty against tyranny ... . We must annihilate the enemies of the republic at home and abroad, or else we shall perish ... .

"If virtue is the mainstay of a democratic government in time of peace, then in time of revolution a democratic government must rely on virtue and terror ... . Terror is nothing but justice, swift, severe and inflexible; it is an emanation of virtue ... . It has been said that terror is the mainstay of a despotic government ... . The government of the revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny."

Robespierre's speech could have come straight out of George Orwell's caricature of communism 175 years later, the only other political movement in modern history which thought it could abolish religion and create a utopian state.

WORSHIP FOR LIBERTY

But the abolition of religion did not last long in the French Revolution. "One of the ceremonies of this insane time," another historian noted, "stands unrivalled for absurdity combined with impiety. The doors of the Convention were thrown open to a band of musicians, preceded by whom, the members of the municipal body entered in solemn procession, singing a hymn in praise of liberty, and escorting, as the object of their future worship, a veiled female, whom they termed the Goddess of Reason ... .

"She was unveiled with great form, and placed on the right of the president, when she was generally recognised as a dancing girl of the opera ... . To this person as the fittest representative of that reason whom they worshipped, the National Convention of France rendered public homage."

The orator who introduced the worship of Reason boldly declared: "Legislators! Fanaticism has given way to reason ... . The French have celebrated the only true worship - that of Liberty, that of Reason." The assembly was commanded, "Henceforth acknowledge no divinity but Reason." The laws were accordingly adjusted, including the introduction of a 10-day week and reducing marriage to an easily dissolved civil contract.

The very concept of freedom Orlando Patterson argues in Freedom in the Making of Western Culture is a peculiar political contribution of Western civilisation. "No one would deny that today freedom stands unchallenged as the supreme value of the Western world." And there is an entire section of the book on Christianity and the Institutionalisation of Freedom.

In the 'coda' of the book, Patterson writes: "From its Judaeo-Christian religion, forged in the sickening horror of Roman slave society, the West learned the reinforcing spiritual truth that out of evil cometh good. The vision of Israel emerging from the bondage of Egypt. Redemption - spiritual freedom - was not simply liberation from slavery to sin, but as Paul saw, with his fearsome vision, the suffering of sin made necessary the coming of the Christ and the promise of the cross - that central and most protean, civilisational symbol of death and rebirth, estrangement and reconciliation, slavery and salvation."

There is no, and has never been, any truly secular society. Humankind is, apparently genetically wired to be incapable of irreligion. The only real question is which religion. The most influential religion in the West and the rest of the world today is humanism. Humanism makes humans the measure of all things and their own god. Human law based on traditional Christian moral foundations and those of the other great monotheistic faiths was viewed as derived from divine law and with the intent of restraining evil and promoting good.

The 18th-century English jurist, Sir William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England deeply influenced both English jurisprudence and the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution, wrote: "... Municipal law is a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state. I proceed now to the latter branch of it; that it is a rule so prescribed, commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong."

And Blackstone meant right and wrong in a moral sense. The American Declaration of Independence anchored "unalienable Rights" not in the pronouncements of a constituent assembly but in humans being created equal by "Nature's God".

STRIVING FOR UTOPIA

Humanist law is derived purely from human reason and is aimed, as in the French Revolution and in communism, to take humans and human society to perfection by legislative engineering. But what the humanist leaders will not tell the people, and the people must learn to figure out for themselves, learning from history, is that if there is no higher law and no transcendent moral code as the basis of human law, the law will not be, and cannot be, Everyman's Law, but will be Strong Man's Law, that is law imposed by the powerful, with no checks upon them. Robespierre had to be executed to remove him from despotic power which exercised tyranny as an instrument of liberty.

As the first American president, George Washington, noted: "And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. ... Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government."

And, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labour to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. ... Let it simply be asked, 'Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?"

The second president, John Adams, wrote: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. ... Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

There is a vast political, legal and social experiment under way globally within which our own country is caught up to write laws without reference to, and often diametrically opposed to, the Judaeo-Christian moral code on which Western civilisation and its concept of freedom were founded. There will be severe unintended consequences. Bastille Day is a good time to ponder these things.

Martin Henry is a communication specialist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and medhen@gmail.com.