Jean-Sylvain Bailly: Revolutionary Mayor of Paris

By Gene A. Brucker

A study of Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793), the French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution.

“IT IS CHARACTERISTIC of great revolutions that they are initiated by moderate men, who desire only limited reforms and who are most reluctant to resort to violence to obtain their ends. So began the French Revolution, and such a moderate was Jean-Sylvain Bailly, who, as mayor of Paris during the years 1789-91, struggled to maintain a balance between the two extremes of radicalism and reaction. He failed and paid for his failure on the guillotine. A study of his mayoral regime throws interesting light on these moderates in the early days of the Revolution, their character and aims, the problems which faced them and their attempts to solve them, the manner in which they strived to keep themselves in power, and how they failed.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Release date: May 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839745010

Gene A. Brucker

Gene Adam Brucker (October 15, 1924 – July 9, 2017) was an American historian and the Shepard Professor of History, Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. Brucker studied at Oxford and received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1954. Specializing in early modern European history, Brucker joined Berkeley immediately and taught there until his retirement in 1991. He was especially active in the history department, where he served as the department chair from 1969-1972. Brucker was also the chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate from 1984-1986 and president of the Renaissance Society of America. He was awarded the RSA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, along with the Berkeley Citation award. He also received several other academic awards, including the Rhodes Scholarship, Fulbright Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. In 1979, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In total, Brucker published more than 30 articles and essays while authoring 11 books, including Florentine Politics and Society, 1343-1378 and The Civic World of Renaissance Florence, which detail the history of late medieval Florence.

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JEAN-SYLVAIN BAILLY

REVOLUTIONARY MAYOR OF PARIS

BY

GENE A. BRUCKER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2

PREFACE 3

CHAPTER ONE—Savant to Mayor 4

CHAPTER TWO—A Constitution for Paris 16

CHAPTER THREE—Governing Revolutionary Paris 32

CHAPTER FOUR—Controlling the Revolution 62

BIBLIOGRAPHY 102

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AIDS 102

PRINTED SOURCES 102

PREFACE

IT IS CHARACTERISTIC of great revolutions that they are initiated by moderate men, who desire only limited reforms and who are most reluctant to resort to violence to obtain their ends. So began the French Revolution, and such a moderate was Jean-Sylvain Bailly, who, as mayor of Paris during the years 1789-91, struggled to maintain a balance between the two extremes of radicalism and reaction. He failed and paid for his failure on the guillotine. A study of his mayoral regime throws interesting light on these moderates in the early days of the Revolution, their character and aims, the problems which faced them and their attempts to solve them, the manner in which they strived to keep themselves in power, and how they failed. The question of why they failed is an open one, and perhaps cannot be answered. Bailly and his colleagues were not men of superior ability, but had they been giants instead of men, one is tempted to believe that the great storm which they had unleashed would have overwhelmed them.

I must acknowledge the great debt which I owe to Professor Raymond P. Stearns, who supervised this manuscript when it was being prepared as a thesis for a master’s degree at the University of Illinois, and who for nearly a decade has been an inspiring teacher, a helpful counselor, and a true friend.

GENE A. BRUCKER

Oxford, England

CHAPTER ONE—Savant to Mayor

DESTINED TO BECOME one of the first heroes of the French Revolution, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, astronomer and academicien, was born and reared in the place of Versailles, in the stronghold of the ancien régime. His father held the position of court painter and custodian of the royal art collection at Versailles, an office which had been in his family for a hundred and fifty years. An artist of some skill, the elder Bailly endeavored to impart his knowledge of painting to his young son. However, the youth’s propensities were of a more technical nature, and he profited from a curious bargain in which he received instruction in calculus from a certain M. de Moncarville, whose son in turn was taught design by Bailly père.{1} Although he excelled in mathematics, young Bailly also had literary ambitions. While still only sixteen, he exhibited two of his dramatic works to the playwright Lanoue, who suggested that he throw them into the fire.{2} After this discouragement, Bailly returned with increased ardor to scientific pursuits. Attracted to the study of astronomy, he placed himself under the tutelage of the noted Abbé de la Caille. He established his reputation quickly, and for three decades he devoted himself to scientific research and publication. On the eve of the Revolution, he was one of the most prominent astronomers in France and was known and respected by scientists throughout Europe.

In addition to his scientific writings, Bailly produced numerous works of a biographical nature, éloges as they were called, designed primarily to promote the author’s entrance into various learned societies. In Bailly’s case they succeeded very well; he was elected to three of the foremost scientific and literary academies in France. In the decade before the Revolution, he published a monumental history of astronomy, his best known work.{3} Bailly proposed the theory that scientific studies originated in India. He also developed the hypothesis that the lost civilization at Atlantis had flourished on an island which had sunk into the sea somewhere in the north polar region. Voltaire received this work with approval but questioned his theory of the origin of the study of science. Bailly printed the letters which he had received from Voltaire, together with a series of letters which he wrote in answer to Voltaire’s question. He later published another work, elaborating his theories on the origins of science.{4}

Bailly was a popular figure in the scientific circles and the salons of Paris. Franklin came to see him at his home in Chaillot in 1777, and Arago states that the American went away much impressed with Bailly’s ability to remain silent, a trait singularly unique for a Frenchman.{5} Bailly was a frequent visitor at the home of the artist Curtius, where some of the foremost savants of the day gathered regularly.{6} His relations with D’Alembert and Condorcet were unfriendly because of some machinations in the Académie des sciences, as a result of which Condorcet received the post of permanent secretary which Bailly coveted. D’Alembert had previously been on good terms with the young astronomer, advising him to write éloges to prepare for his entrance into the academies. According to Condorcet, Bailly’s literary works were remarkably mediocre, possessing all of the beauties that it is necessary to avoid in writing.{7} It was with the aid of the naturalist Buffon that Bailly was elected to the French Academy in 1783, but the astronomer exhibited his characteristic independence later when he broke with Buffon over the choice of an Academy nominee.{8}

On the eve of the Revolution, Bailly was living in Chaillot, a residential section of Paris, enjoying his reputation as a distinguished scholar. In addition to his scientific studies, he occupied himself with the affairs of the three societies in which he held membership. He regularly attended the meetings of the French Academy, and in 1786 he served a term as chancellor of the Academy.{9} In 1787 he had married a widow to whom he remained very attached all his life. His physical appearance was unprepossessing; he was tall and thin, and his visage reminded one observer of a horse’s head.{10} Contemporary descriptions emphasize his tolerance and good nature, his air of serenity and natural dignity, his unimpeachable honesty.

Bailly, already well known to the intelligentsia and the court circles of Paris, became introduced to the bourgeois elements of the city through his work on various royal commissions. He was secretary of one group which investigated the curative powers of animal magnetism as propagandized by the German physician Mesmer. Bailly’s report summarizing the findings of the commission impressed the logical-minded by its rational treatment of a controversial question, although it was condemned by Mesmer’s more fanatic adherents.{11} His reputation among the Parisian populace was further enhanced as a result of his work on commissions which investigated the Hôtel Dieu, the city’s largest hospital, and the slaughter houses of the city.{12}

Save for material in his Mémoires, there is little information on Bailly’s political views on the eve of the Revolution.{13} He was obviously deeply influenced by the political theories of the Age of Reason. Morellet lists Bailly as one of the revolutionary members of the French Academy, but Morellet’s characterizations are biased by his monarchist proclivities.{14} Bailly was certainly dissatisfied with the autocratic and irresponsible French monarchy. Besides being extremely critical of the Calonne and Brienne ministries, he castigated the Assembly of Notables which met in 1787 for its preoccupation with its own interests. He extolled Necker and the king as the men responsible for calling the Estates General, and thus for providing the French nation with the means to recover its rights. His political ideal, which he held throughout the revolutionary era, was a constitutional monarchy, with authority divided between the king and a representative assembly.

Although Bailly held pronounced views on the need for reform, he was intimate with men who were influential in court circles and with members of the privileged estates who favored the perpetuation of the ancien régime. He was known to the king, who upon being informed of his election to the Estates General, expressed his satisfaction that such an honest man should be chosen.{15} The Abbé Maury, an arch-conservative in the National Assembly, was on good terms with Bailly and suggested that they join forces when both were elected to the Estates General.{16} Villedeuil, a minister of state, and Breteuil, who replaced Necker for a few days during the Bastille crisis, were both included in Bailly’s circle of friends.{17}

A study of Bailly’s career in the pre-revolutionary period reveals a man strongly attached to the monarchy and disinclined to offend it. Upon being asked to contribute articles to the Encyclopédie, he had refused on the ground that the government opposed the project.{18} In his writings he was always very circumspect and was accused on several occasions of weakness and servility to authority.{19} When his history of astronomy was attacked as an anti-Christian work, the government leaped to his defense and ordered the accusing journalist to withdraw his charges.{20} Governmental favor procured for him a minor position in the Paris municipal government in 1777.{21} There were indications of court pressure in his election to the French Academy, and he obtained membership in the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres through royal decree.{22} Moreover he inherited from his father the post of custodian of the royal art collection, and when the office was suppressed in 1783, he received an annual pension of 1600 livres, which represented the amount of revenue from the office. He also received another pension amounting to 2400 livres annually, for his services to science.{23} Since 1787, he had been officially attached to the court, with the title of secretary to the Comtesse de Provence.{24}

The sole record of Bailly’s participation in political affairs before 1789 is his signature attached to a mémoire à consulter, which was drawn up in December, 1788, and which posed the problem of regaining for Paris a just representation in the Estates General.{25} This mémoire was submitted to a group of eminent Paris lawyers who examined the historical background of the city’s electoral methods. Their opinion was embodied in a memorial to the king, asking for the return of the ancient rights of election of the city of Paris and for a free and representative election of Parisian deputies.{26}

In the months following Necker’s announcement of the convocation of the Estates General, Paris was in a state of suspended animation, broken at times by outbursts of disorder. A flood of pamphlets engulfed the city, inflaming the ragged tempers of the half-hungry populace. Government and parlement were equally ineffective in suppressing the illegal publications. The city was made more restless by the seemingly deliberate and certainly stupid policy of the government of postponing any action on the manner of election of deputies within the city itself.{27} In the absence of any definite government pronouncement, there occurred months of bitter wrangling over questions of jurisdiction between the provost of the merchants, representing the municipal government, and the provost of Paris, who was the organ of the ministry. The method of election in the provinces had been decreed late in January, but Paris simmered in impotence and indecision until two royal decrees in March and April established the method of election within the city itself.

Having received the government’s orders, Paris went quickly to work to organize the election. The city was divided into districts which were to select delegates for an electoral assembly of the Third Estate of Paris. On the morning of 21 April 1789, Bailly stepped into the Church of the Feuillants, the meeting place of his district, and inaugurated his political career.

When I found myself in the midst of the district assembly, I felt that I was breathing new air. It was something wholly new to be a part of the political order....Here one had a remote influence, but nevertheless an influence, obtained for the first time in a century and a half....{28}

Bailly was one of those chosen to represent his district in the Electoral Assembly.

The quiet atmosphere of the Feuillants was a far cry from the turbulence and the aggressive, almost belligerent attitude which characterized the Electoral Assembly.{29} Exhibiting its independence immediately, it rejected the municipal officers which the government imposed upon it and proceeded to elect its own. Each question which arose precipitated furious and often prolonged conflict, as the electors exercised their unaccustomed privileges with undue ardor. Practical minds, however, soon gained control of the assembly, and it functioned with remarkable efficiency, approving a well-written and comprehensive cahier, and selecting a creditable group of men as deputies.{30}

Bailly entered the Electoral Assembly with trepidations and a feeling of insignificance. I considered myself almost completely unknown in this Assembly, where I scarcely knew more than eight or ten persons.{31} During the first conflict over an issue, he timidly waited to learn the view of the majority and of the moderate spirits....{32} He noticed a great dislike in the Assembly for men of letters and members of the academies.{33} Whatever rancor felt by the Assembly members for savants in general, they waived their prejudices in the case of Bailly. In the balloting for the officers of the Assembly, he ran second only to Target for the position of president and was chosen secretary by an overwhelming margin.{34} He thus was charged with writing the procès-verbal of the Assembly, a duty which he performed until he left for Versailles on 21 May. It was through Bailly’s inadvertent error of omission of an Assembly decree from the record that the Abbé Sieyès was eligible to be chosen as the last deputy to represent the Paris Third Estate and was thus given the opportunity to play his role in the National Assembly.{35} When the Electoral Assembly devoted its attention to choosing its representation to the Estates General, Bailly was named first deputy of the Third Estate of Paris. The other nineteen members of the delegation were quickly nominated, and the party made hasty preparations to repair to Versailles.

Arriving three weeks late, the Paris deputies found the Estates General still unorganized. All attempts to revive the methods of procedure last used in 1614 had been stymied by the dogged resistance of the Third Estate, which insisted upon the verification of powers in common. Haphazard attempts by the government to reconcile the estates were unavailing and only increased the general sense of frustration. However, soon after the arrival of the Paris delegation, the confusion and indecision gave way to a concentrated movement of the Third Estate, which was designed to break the deadlock. Prodded by the wily Sieyès, inspired by the tempestuous oratory of Mirabeau, the Third Estate inaugurated that precipitate rush of events which culminated in royal recognition of the National Assembly on 27 June.

In the momentous days that followed, Bailly was a dominant figure. The sensation of loneliness and unfamiliarity which oppressed him when he first came to Versailles was soon dispelled by the recognition accorded him as the first deputy of the Third Estate of Paris.{36} Within a week of his arrival, he was named presiding officer, the doyen, of the Third Estate. In his Mémoires, he writes that he accepted the post with reluctance, convinced of his unworthiness, but believing himself bound to accept because of the honor extended to Paris by his choice.{37} Bailly was doyen of the Third Estate when it decided to transform itself into a National Assembly and to solicit support from the privileged estates. Confronted with the delicate mission of obtaining interviews with the king, his task was complicated by the fatal illness of the Dauphin during this crucial period when the Third Estate insisted upon communication with its sovereign. Bailly, ignoring the calumny heaped upon him by the court