French Revolution

The French Revolution serves as a compressed historical example in an allegory of popular sovereignty: the people first overthrow the monarch in 1789 and then, in 1793, consume him. Set against the passage’s account of England, these dates mark both the force of popular revolt and the instability of the power it releases.

The People as the Rider’s Horse

The passage imagines royal power as an equestrian statue: the king appears sovereign, but the people are the horse that carries him. The horse’s transformation from an ass into a lion represents the people’s awakening to their strength. In the French case, the lion throws its rider in 1789, turning revolution into the visible reversal of the hierarchy the statue had made seem natural.

The image then grows more violent. The people do not merely cast off the ruler: in 1793, the lion devours him. The distinction makes the Revolution more than a change of government in the passage’s argument. Popular power can remove the monarch, but it can also destroy him.

France in the Passage’s Historical Contrast

The French dates are paired with English examples: the people’s throwing off the rider is associated with 1642 in England, while the rider’s destruction is associated with 1649. This parallel places the French Revolution within a recurring pattern of popular revolt rather than treating it as an isolated episode. France supplies the later instances in a comparison that crosses national histories.

The passage also stresses that the lion may relapse into the ass. Its immediate political setting is England, where popular admiration for Queen Anne accompanies what the narrator describes as renewed idolatry of the crown. The French Revolution thus helps define the stakes of the English argument: the people can become powerful enough to overthrow a monarch, yet popular political force does not, by itself, guarantee lasting emancipation.