honest women and the of the both women and armed men “lowest refuse streets,” (196-7). This duality is later given geographical and temporal expression, as, on arrival at Versailles, Wollstonecraft asserts that the unarmed women go to the Assembly, whilst the armed proceed to the Palace; correspondingly, for Wollstonecraft, events at the Assembly can be read as a proto-typical act of popular political expression being met with concessions by governing representatives, whilst, like other commentators, she is uncompromising in her account of the violence, confusion and disorder of the attack on the Palace. This double character of the mob in the is properly read not as contradiction or ambivalence, but as structurally View required: the mob represents the dangers of uneducated political actors or sentiments, as announced by the but also the potential of the will of the “Preface,” “sovereign” people: realized in the storming of the Bastille, and the object of all the exhortations towards the future improvement of Europe (100). Just as the National Assembly is caught in a moment of political hiatus, so too are the mob suspended between what they are and what they might be. The appearance of the mob, but only “famished,” suggests a corresponding betweenness in the uncertain and “half famished,” equally unknowable presence or absence of bread, caught between an absence suggested by the near-starving mob, and a presence which for free trade supporters would be secured by liberalization of the grain trade. representation of the mob a term also widely and Wollstonecraft’s – unapologetically used by other radical writers is arguably more complex than that – of other writers on the revolution, who nevertheless concurred on the dangers of its combination of passions and suspicious irrationality. For Paine, the Parisian “heated” mob is a present in all European countries, produced by the “class” “ill construction” of governments; the violence seen in Paris, he suggests, is comparable to that of the
honest women and the “lowest refuse of the streets,” both women and armed men (196-7). This duality is later given geographical and temporal expression, as, on arrival at Versailles, Wollstonecraft asserts that the unarmed women go to the Assembly, whilst the armed proceed to the Palace; correspondingly, for Wollstonecraft, events at the Assembly can be read as a proto-typical act of popular political expression being met with concessions by governing representatives, whilst, like other commentators, she is uncompromising in her account of the violence, confusion and disorder of the attack on the Palace. This double character of the mob in the View is properly read not as contradiction or ambivalence, but as structurally required: the mob represents the dangers of uneducated political actors or sentiments, as announced by the “Preface,” but also the potential of the “sovereign” will of the people: realized in the storming of the Bastille, and the object of all the exhortations towards the future improvement of Europe (100). Just as the National Assembly is caught in a moment of political hiatus, so too are the mob suspended between what they are and what they might be. The appearance of the mob, “famished,” but only “half famished,” equally suggests a corresponding betweenness in the uncertain and unknowable presence or absence of bread, caught between an absence suggested by the near-starving mob, and a presence which for free trade supporters would be secured by liberalization of the grain trade. Wollstonecraft’s representation of the mob – a term also widely and unapologetically used by other radical writers – is arguably more complex than that of other writers on the revolution, who nevertheless concurred on the dangers of its combination of “heated” passions and suspicious irrationality. For Paine, the Parisian mob is a “class” present in all European countries, produced by the “ill construction” of governments; the violence seen in Paris, he suggests, is comparable to that of the
ERR256_Packham%20Editing%20in%20Progress.docx