What the Dickens: Was Dickens a reactionary?

Following on yesterday's post, a pretty good example of the Dickens dichotomy appears in the next few chapters of A Tale of Two Cities, when he describes the storming of the Bastille - and has there ever been account of this event that is less sympathetic to the revolutionaries? They are an violent mass with no clearly defined or stated goal or objective, they just seem to be rioting and attacking for no reason at all, and there is no sense of victory or liberation as the enter the prison, no sense of excitement when the prisoners are liberated after years of captivity, no sense of the historical significance of this moment - the whole episode seems designed to get to the room in the North Tower once occupied by the long-released Doctor Mannette. I'm not saying necessarily that Dickens was a reactionary or a Royalist, though maybe he was, but from a literary standpoint it's obvious that he is averse to mass movements and to social uprisings and to "crowds." Then, in subsequent chapters, we see Dickens the individualist: his basic optimism about individuals, especially of the rising business class in London, leads him to make the best of even seemingly unworthy characters - with individuals, he's drawn toward a positive magnetic pole (though of course there are incontrovertible villains, too). What we see here is the conversion of Carton, who in earlier chapters was a nasty drunk who expressed his jealousy (sexual, social) of the dashing Darney; now, Darney returns from his month-long honeymoon with new bride Lucie Mannette, and Carton has a very touching heart-to-heart with Darney, asking him to forgive past ill behavior. Darney, an open and generous soul, does so gladly and welcomes Carton, now a reformed drinker, as a friend of the family. All very nice, if improbable, but showing the other side of the Dickens dichotomy. Now, it's possible that Carton is a complete sneak and will use his friendship to advantage - but I doubt that. Any reader of D. will know or at least suspect that Carton and Darney will turn out to be cousins - they look alike, and there was a hint that there's a lost branch to Darney's father's (the Marquis's) family. Tale wouldn't be Dickensian if there were some such "surprise" plot twist.