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invasion, nor the loss of Alsace.
In the revolutions of which I have just been speaking the army was of no assistance to the government,
but did not turn against it. It sometimes happens otherwise. It is often the army which effects the
revolution, as in Turkey and Portugal. The innumerable revolutions of the Latin republics of America are
effected by the army.
When a revolution is effected by an army the new rulers naturally fall under its domination. I have already
recalled the fact that this was the case at the end of the Roman Empire, when the emperors were made
and unmade by the soldiery.
The same thing has sometimes been witnessed in modern times. The following extract from a news
paper, with reference to the Greek revolution, shows what becomes of a government dominated by its
army:--
 One day it was announced that eighty officers of the navy would send in their resignations if the
government did not dismiss the leaders of whom they complained. Another time it was the agricultural
labourers on a farm (metairie) belonging to the Crown Prince who demanded the partition of the soil
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among them. The navy protested against the promotion promised to Colonel Zorbas. Colonel Zorbas,
after a week of discussion with Lieutenant Typaldos, treated with the President of the Council as one
power with another. During this time the Federation of the corporations abused the officers of the navy.
A deputy demanded that these officers and their families should be treated as brigands. When
Commander Miaoulis fired on the rebels, the sailors, who first of all had obeyed Typaldos, returned to
duty. This is no longer the harmonious Greece of Pericles and Themistocles. It is a hideous camp of
Agramant.
A revolution cannot be effected without the assistance or at least the neutrality of the army, but it often
happens that the movement commences without it. This was the case with the revolutions of 1830 and
1848, and that of 1870, which overthrew the Empire after the humiliation of France by the surrender of
Sedan.
The majority of revolutions take place in the capitals, and by means of contagion spread through the
country; but this is not a constant rule. We know that during the French Revolution La Vendée, Brittany,
and the Midi revolted spontaneously against Paris.
2.How the resistance of
Governments may overcome
Revolution .
In the greater number of the revolutions enumerated above, we have seen governments perish by their
weakness. As soon as they were touched they fell.
The Russian Revolution proved that a government which defends itself energetically may finally triumph.
Never was revolution more menacing to the government. After the disasters suffered in the Orient, and
the severities of a too oppressive autocraticrégime , all classes of society, including a portion of the army
and the fleet, had revolted. The railways, posts, and telegraph services had struck, so that
communications between the various portions of the vast empire were interrupted.
The rural class itself, forming the majority of the nation, began to feel the influence of the revolutionary
propaganda. The lot of the peasants was wretched. They were obliged, by the system of themir , to
cultivate soil which they could not acquire. The government resolved immediately to conciliate this large
class of peasants by turning them into proprietors. Special laws forced the landlords to sell the peasants a
portion of their lands, and banks intended to lend the buyers the necessary purchase-money were
created. The sums lent were to be repaid by small annuities deducted from the product of the sale of the
crops.
Assured of the neutrality of the peasants, the government could contend with the fanatics who were
burning the towns, throwing bombs among the crowds, and waging a merciless warfare. All those who
could be taken were killed. Such extermination is the only method discovered since the beginning of the
world by which a society can be protected against the rebels who wish to destroy it.
The victorious government understood moreover the necessity of satisfying the legitimate claims of the
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enlightened portion of the nation. It created a parliament instructed to prepare laws and control
expenditure.
The history of the Russian Revolution shows us how a government, all of whose natural supports have
crumbled in succession, can, with wisdom and firmness, triumph over the most formidable obstacles. It
has been very justly said that governments are not overthrown, but that they commit suicide.
3.Revolutions effected by
Governments.--Examples:
China, Turkey, &c .
Governments almost invariably fight revolutions; they hardly ever create them. Representing the needs of
the moment and general opinion, they follow the reformers timidly; they do not precede them.
Sometimes, however, certain governments have attempted those sudden reforms which we know as
revolutions. The stability or instability of the national mind decrees the success or failure of such attempts.
They succeed when the people on whom the government seeks to impose new institutions is composed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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