The Bourgeoisie de Robe in 1789

Critics of the Revolution of 1789 have emphasized the importance of hommes de loi as spokesmen and agitators for revolutionary change. As early as 1790, Burke said that litigious constitution was inevitable because the EstatesGeneral contained so many obscure provincial advocates, stewards of petty local jurisdictions, country attorneys, notaries... . Taine repeated this idea, and added that practitioners of law fomented violence against seigneurs and cures during the anarchy of 1789. Cochin regarded the outcome of the elections in Burgundy and Brittany as the result of manipulation by a minority organized and led chiefly by lawyers.1 Historians more sympathetic to the Revolution have, until recently, neither denied the political importance attributed by others to the lawyers nor made any effort to explain it. Rabaut de Saint-4tienne, writing at the end of 1791, described the deputies elected by the Third Estate simply as those best suited to represent it. Aulard disregarded social and political differences within the bourgeoisie in 1789. Mathiez merely noted that hommes de loi were prominent among the pamphlet-writers and numerous in the EstatesGeneral. Lefebvre suggested that they had a leading position partly because of their professional experience and acquaintanceships. He combined a notion of hommes de loi as a

Bourgeoisie · Petite bourgeoisie · Political science · European Political History Analysis · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law

• Political Decay and the European Revolutions, 1789–1848

  Open Access•John R Gillis•World Politics•1970

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