ABSTRACT
Babeuf became a martyr for the post-Imperial generation of republicans, largely as a result ofBuonarroti's well-timed book. 10 During the Restoration, interest in the revolutionary years grew, in direct proportion to declining enthusiasm for the Bourbons. Until the publication ofBuonarroti's book and its accompanying documents, Babeuf had been disregarded by the large number of writers of all political persuasions who competed for an eager market in their attempts to explain the 1789 Revolution. Buonarroti revered Babeuf He tried to rehabilitate the concept of an egalitarian revolution 11 and laid the ground-rules for a very specific kind of republicanism. He paid no attention to the Girondins, who had been central to many Restoration interpretations. He was, predictably, very hostile to the Directory. Buonarroti had been an eager supporter of the Jacobin Republic and undertook a number of diplomatic missions on its behalf 12 In his book, the Jacobin Constitution of 1793 - never implemented because of the demands of war and the subsequent overthrow of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor 1794 - was re-printed in full, as a blue-print for a future fully democratic republic. He ignored the not inconsiderable differences between the Jaco bins and Babeuf'3 and passed over the violence of the Terror in terms of vague, generalised regret. 14
Thirdly, Babeuf and later insurgents had total confidence that both artisans and soldiers would instinctively and instantly identify with their revolution, particularly in a time of devastating economic recession. 15 Babeuf preached economic equality: 'Private property is the source of all the calamities upon this earth.'16 'We look to common property, or the community of goods. ' 17 His revolution was meant simultaneously to secure economic and political equality.
