I always found it to be not wishing for the guillotine but warning against it. With reforms everyone can win. With peaceful political revolution you lose, but keep your head and probably enough of your money to swim in. But if you block avenues to peaceful change, you make violent change inevitable. And, of course, the thing about violent change is that it goes not the way of the people with the best ideas or the most legitimate grievance, but to those most apt to do violence. These are, by and large, not likely to be nice people.
Guillotines are a potent reminder of this dynamic, I find.
