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 THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT 
 
 PRECEDING 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 BY 
 
 FELIX ROCQUAIN 
 
 COiWDENSED AND TRANSLATED BY 
 
 J. D. HUNTING 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY PROFESSOR HUXLEY 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. 
 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
 1894
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVEKSIi . O. CALIFORNIA 
 gANTA BAiiBARA ^ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGB 
 
 Introduction by Professor Htjxley . , . vii 
 
 Author's Preface ..... xi 
 
 I. The Regency (17 15-1723) . . . . i 
 
 II. Ministry of the Due de Bourbon and the First 
 
 Half of the Fleury Ministry (1724-1733) . 19 
 
 III. Second Half of the Fleury Ministry (1733- 1743) 35 
 
 IV. Government of Louis XV. (1743-175 1) . . 45 
 V. Government of Louis XV. (1752-1754) . . 58 
 
 VI. Government of Louis XV. (1754-1762) . . 72 
 
 VII. Government of Louis XV. (1762-1770) . . 89 
 
 vm. End of the Government of Louis XV. (1770-1774) 105 
 
 IX. Reign of Louis XVL— The Turcot Ministry 
 
 (1774-1776) 120 
 
 X. Reign of Louis XVL — The Necker Ministry 
 
 (1776-1781) 135 
 
 XI. Reign of Louis XVL— The Joly de Fleury, 
 
 d'Ormesson, and Calonne Ministries (1781-1786) 148 
 
 XII. The Assembly of Notables and the Convocation 
 
 of the St.'vtes-General (1787-1789) - . 161
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The interval between the fall of the Bourbon despotism 
 and the rise of that of Napoleon, during which the social 
 and political foundations of old France were swept away, 
 forms an epoch in the history of the modem world, the 
 importance of which looms the larger the farther the 
 stream of Time carries us away from it. Far-reaching as 
 were the moral and political consequences of the great 
 events of the sixteenth century, they begin to look small 
 beside those of the later age ; and even the speculative 
 controversies of the Reformation dwindle down to mere 
 theological squabbles in face of the issues tried at the great 
 popular assize of the Revolution, when every authority, 
 whether its pretensions were human or divine, was called 
 upon to make them good before the tribunal of reason. 
 
 And, while the questions debated with so much rancour 
 and fought over at the cost of so much bloodshed, between 
 Papists and Protestants, are rapidly losing their interest, in 
 view of the sense of the insecurity of the ground upon 
 which both combatants take their stand, which is rapidly 
 growing among thinking men ; the grave political and social 
 problems which press for solution, at the present day, are 
 the same as those which offered themselves a hundred years 
 ago. 
 
 In the Draft of a Constitution, which Robespierre drew 
 up and presented to the Convention in 1793, 1 fail to dis- 
 cover any article which goes beyond the requirements of 
 liberal politicians among ourselves, who would be shocked to
 
 viii Introduction. 
 
 be considered extremists. Moreover, the d priori method 
 of the Philosophes, who, ignoring the conditions of scienti- 
 fic method, settled the most difiicult problems of practical 
 politics by fine-drawn deductions from axiomatic assump- 
 tions about natural rights, is as much in favour at the end 
 of the nineteenth, as it was in the latter half of the eigh- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it should be needless to com- 
 mend the scientific study of the phenomena of the revolu- 
 tionary epoch to all thoughtful men. Histories of the 
 French Revolution abound ; but too many of them are 
 elaborate pleadings for one or other of the parties concerned 
 in the struggle, not without an eye to the illustration and en- 
 forcement of the writer's own principles ; or they are vivid 
 pictures drawn by literary artists, which may enable the 
 reader to see, but do not greatly help him to understand, the 
 Revolution. Most of us, however, can be trusted to bring a 
 goodly store of both partizanship and imagination to the 
 study of the past ; what most lack is the scientific temper 
 which aims only at accuracy in matters of fact, and logical 
 impartiality in drawing conclusions therefrom. 
 
 Goethe has somewhere said that the most valuable result 
 of the study of history is the enthusiasm which it creates ; 
 and it may be true that such is the best to be got out of 
 ordinary histories. But the enthusiasms thus begotten have so 
 often turned out to be mistaken ; the " verdict of history " 
 has been so often upset on appeal ; and experience drives 
 home to every man so strongly the extreme difficulty of 
 arriving at just judgments about the conduct of others, even 
 when he has ample means of knowing the circumstances, 
 that there is great room for historians who will renounce 
 the enthusiasm and verdict Imsineps and be content Avitb
 
 Introduction. ix 
 
 devoting their best efforts to the exposition of the bare 
 cold-blooded truth. 
 
 I am disposed to think that the conception of the nature 
 and the causes of the French Revolution, which is most 
 widely prevalent among us (students of De Tocqueville and 
 of Taine, of course, excepted), departs widely from this ideal 
 standard. Its causes are popularly sought in the decay of 
 religion and morality consequent upon the diffusion of the 
 teachings of a handful of sceptical and levelling Philosophers; 
 and its nature is defined as an outbreak of the covetous 
 ferocity of the mob let loose, when the bonds of society had 
 been destroyed by these same terrible Philosophes. Even 
 the question, whether the Revolution was perhaps the result 
 of a -whole nation going mad, has not seemed inconsistent 
 with the sanity of the querist. And yet, when the facts of 
 history are fully and impartially set forth, the wonder is 
 rather that sane men put up with the chaotic imbecility, the 
 hideous injustices, the shameless scandals, of the Ancien 
 Regime, in the earlier half of the century, many years before 
 the political Philosophes wrote a line, — why the Revolution 
 did not break out in 1754 or 1757, as it was on the brink of 
 doing, instead of being delayed, by the patient endurance of 
 the people, for another generation. 
 
 It can hardly be doubted that the Revolution of '89 owed 
 many of its worst features to the violence of a populace de- 
 graded to the level of the beasts by the effect of the institu- 
 tions under which they herded together and starved ; and 
 that the work of reconstruction which it attempted was 
 to carry into practice the speculations of Mably and of 
 Rousseau. But, just as little, does it seem open to question 
 that, neither the writhings of the dregs of the populace in 
 their misery, nor the speculative demonstrations of the
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Philosophers, would have come to much, except for the 
 revolutionary movement which had been going on ever 
 since the beginning of the century. The deeper source of 
 this lay in the just and profound griefs of at least 95 per 
 cent, of the population, comprising all its most valuable 
 elements, from the agricultural peasants to the merchants 
 and the men of letters and science, against the system by 
 which they were crushed, or annoyed, whichever way they 
 turned. But the surface-current was impelled by the 
 official defenders of the Ancien Regime themselves. It was 
 the Court, the Church, the Parliaments, and, above all, the 
 Jesuits, acting in the interests of the despotism of the 
 Papacy, who, in the first half of the eighteenth century, 
 effectually undermined all respect for authority, whether 
 civil or religious, and justified the worst that was or could 
 be said by the Philosophes later on,. 
 
 These important truths appeared to me to be so clearly 
 set forth and demonstrated in M. Rocquain's "L'Esprit 
 revolutionaire avant la Revolution," when I fell in with the 
 book some years ago, that I ventured to speak of its merits, 
 forgetting at the time the commendation of the work by Mr. 
 Lecky in the fifth volume of his " History of the Eighteenth 
 Century in England," which it would have been much more 
 to the purpose to quote. 
 
 However, I may congratulate myself on having done 
 some service by suggesting the translation of M. Rocquain's 
 work. The hint has been carried into effect ; and the 
 English version which has been prepared by Miss Hunting, 
 with the author's sanction, though abridged, in deference to 
 practical needs, appears to me to present a clear and ade- 
 quate viQW of the scope and substance of the original. 
 
 T. H, Huxley,
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The state of public opinion which gave rise to tlie 
 French Revolution was not the outcome of the teachings 
 of the Philosophers. The entire century prepared the 
 catastrophe. 
 
 On the morrow of the death of Louis XIV., there were 
 manifested signs of that feeling of opposition to the Church 
 and Throne which, aimed as they were at the two strongest 
 institutions of the old form of government, eventually 
 biought about the ruin of both. This double opposi- 
 tion was caused by the attacks made by an intolerant auto- 
 crat upon the sacred rights of conscience. At the com- 
 mencement of the Regency the general resentment was for 
 a moment appeased, but it broke out again with renewed 
 force when the Due d'Orleans, who had at first appeared to 
 discard the policy of the late King, made, in his turn, com- 
 mon cause with Rome. Thenceforward two parties were 
 formed ; the one included the Jesuits and the Superior 
 Clergy, the other the entire Nation. During the Ministry of 
 Cardinal Fleury this alliance between Royalty and the 
 Holy See was strengthened, and all the methods of an 
 arbitrary Government were employed to substitute Romish 
 theories for the Gallican doctrines held by the majority of 
 the people. Discontent seized upon the lower orders of the
 
 xii Atithors Preface. 
 
 clergy, the magistracy, the bourgeoisie, and the people. 
 From being religious the opposition became political. 
 When, after the death of Cardinal Fleury, Louis XV. took 
 hold of the reins of Government, it was hoped that things 
 would take a different course. But the indolence of the 
 Monarch permitted the Ultramontane party to regain its 
 ascendancy, and the excessive zeal of the superior clergy 
 stirred up the most stormy opposition. 
 
 As always happens, the opposition was increased by all 
 kinds of extraneous grievances. 
 
 When the Philosophers came to set fire to the house, it 
 already tottered on its base. These men did no more than 
 unite in a Code of Doctrine the ideas that were fermenting 
 in all minds. From the middle of the century the spirit of 
 opposition had become the spirit of Revolution. 
 
 It is of this fermentation of public opinion, of this spirit 
 of opposition deepening into a spirit of Revolution, and 
 manifesting itself with increasing distinctness, that we have 
 striven to indicate the origin and retrace the progress. The 
 numerous brochures that appeared at this epoch, in particu- 
 lar those that attracted the attention of the Government 
 and provoked severities, have been our first source of in- 
 formation. In the eighteenth century the pamphlet was 
 the organ of public opinion. The Government defended 
 itself against the pamphlet as in our day it defends itself 
 against the newspaper. The Council of State, the Parlia- 
 ment, and sometimes the Grand Council or the Chdtelet pro- 
 nounced judgment, declaring these pamphlets suppressed, 
 and this declaration involved the destruction of every copy 
 of the incriminated work. Such a sentence was equivalent 
 to a mark of infamy, and the common hangman was usually 
 entrusted with the execution of it .
 
 Author s Preface. xlii 
 
 In the course of our researches we have sometimes made 
 use of these writings themselves, and sometimes of the 
 decrees which they called forth, and which were posted, 
 cried, and sold in the streets, and nearly always included a 
 statement of the objects of their promulgation. Those of 
 the Parliament, especially, were accompanied by rdquisi- 
 toires, in which the spirit of the condemned works were 
 remarked upon, and the most offensive fragments thereof 
 cited. Having, in the process of time, become very rare, 
 these decrees form an important collection at the Archives 
 Rationales. Until now, no one has made extracts from 
 them. It must not be thought that all the decrees were 
 inspired by the same spirit. On the contrary, while thos^ 
 of the Council of State faithfully reflected the ideas of the 
 Government, those of the Parliament often opposed the 
 theories of the reigning powers. 
 
 Together with the valuable and often unexpected informa- 
 tion contained in these documents, we have also called to 
 our aid the Memoires of contemporaries, and have thus been 
 enabled to connect the movement of public thought with 
 that of public events, and to show facts giving birth to 
 ideas and ideas to facts. Besides this, we have chronicled 
 the discourses, threats, and murmurings that denoted the 
 state of popular feeling. We have made mention of sediti- 
 ous writings, placarded furtively by night at street 
 corners. We have recalled the uprisings and revolts, and 
 revealed, in fact, not only the daring acts that sprang from 
 philosophical doctrines, but the rising tide of human 
 passion. 
 
 Whatever judgment may be passed upon our work, there 
 will, at least, be found in it much information, now brought 
 to light for the first time, that must form a useful adjunct
 
 XIV Authors Preface. 
 
 to the hbtory of public opinion in the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 Our design has been neither to defend a cause nor to 
 sustain a thesis, but solely to relate what has been, and, in 
 carefully reproducing the past, to leave to readers the task 
 of making their own reflections upon the events which are 
 here nariated. 
 
 Fellx Kocquain.
 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT 
 
 PRECEDING 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Regency, 
 (1715-1723.) 
 
 Towards the end of his reign, Louis XIV. became friendly with 
 the Court of Rome, and submitted to the direction of the Jesuits, 
 who were its most ardent auxiliaries. By this conduct, he ran 
 counter to the inclinations of the majority of his subjects, for, 
 though repudiating Protestantism, France continued hostile to all 
 ultramontane pretensions. The Declaration of the Assembly of 
 the Clergy in 1682, which denied the authority of the Holy See 
 over temporal powers and proclaimed the Councils superior to the 
 Popes in matters of faith, represented the true sentiments of the 
 country. Under the influence of the opinions that dominated his 
 old age, Louis XIV. thought he was not doing enough for the 
 Church in maintaining by force a single form of religion through- 
 out his realm. In imitation of Constantino and Theodosius — to 
 whom he liked to hear himself compared — he wished to preserve 
 the purity of the dogma and to govern consciences. The 
 Jansenists, attached to doctrines that Rome had condemned, 
 particularly attracted the severities of the Monarch. 
 
 Among the books forming the nourishment of pious s^uls was 
 
 A
 
 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 one entitled Moral Reflections on the New Testament, by Father 
 Quesnel, priest of the Oratory. This work, written in 167L 
 had edified the Church for forty years, without rousing the 
 least contradiction. A new edition, published in 1699, was 
 dedicated with permission to the Cardinal de Noailles, Arch- 
 bishop of Paris. Clement XI. had eulogised the book, and 
 Father La Chaise, Confessor to Louis XIV., had it always on his 
 table, saying that, at whatever place he opened it, he found some- 
 thing to edify and instruct him. But the Jesuit Le Tellier, who 
 had replaced La Chaise in the King's favour, denounced it as 
 infected with Jansenism, and pressed the Monarch to ask the Pope 
 for a Bull condemning its errors. The question of doctrine was, 
 in reality, the most insignificant of the causes that led to this 
 move on the part of the King's Confessor. The Jesuits had 
 recently been compromised by certain Chinese affairs, and Le 
 Tellier wished to re-establish the credit of his order by uniting it 
 in a common cause with Rome. By procuring a Bull, which 
 branded a large number of the propositions contained in Quesnel's 
 book, he sought to obtain an acknowledgment of the infallibility 
 of the school of Molina.^ At the same time he struck at the 
 Cardinal de Noailles, his Jansenist rival in the King's favour. 
 Upon the suggestion of Le Tellier, many bishops censiired the 
 Moral Reflections in mandates which they distributed throughout 
 Paris. Other prelates, not less easy to persuade, consented to 
 sign letters, prepared by him, in which they implored the King to 
 protect the Faith. Louis XIV., who had fallen, as age crept on, 
 into a state of almost superstitious devoutness, and who had been 
 
 ^ It is superfluous to remind the reader of the differences which marked 
 the doctrines of the Jesuit Molina and Jansenius (Bishop of Ypres). These 
 distinctions were entirely forgotten during the course of the agitations 
 about to be recounted. Suffice it to say that the designations — Moliniste, 
 Jesuit, Ultramontane and Constitutionist, were employed indifferently in 
 referring to the partisans of Rome and the Constitution Unigenilus, which 
 will be spoken of hereafter ; while for their adversaries the titles Jansenist, 
 Quesnellist or Gallican were impartially used. However, these distinctions 
 escaped Bayle (author of Dictionnaire hiptorique et critiqiin), who declared 
 that after having well examined this quarrel between Jansenism and 
 Molinism, he found in it unanswerable arguments on both sides !
 
 The French Revolution. 
 
 accustomed for some time to consider the Jansenists as " a 
 republican party in the Church and State," requested a Bull of 
 Clement XL, which he pledged himself, in advance, should be re- 
 ceived throughout his kingdom. 
 
 Yielding to the desire of the Monarch, the Pope ordered a plan 
 of a Constitution i to be sketched out. But Le Tellier extended the 
 thread of his intrigues to Rome itself. A certain number of 
 copies of the Bull, drawn up upon his information, had already 
 been printed when it was submitted to the Pope by Cardinal 
 Fabroni who, to some extent, dominated the Holy Father's mind. 
 The authors of the Bull, having some difficulty in finding 
 material for censure in Father Quesnel's book, represented that 
 the harm contained in the Moral Reflections, was the more 
 dangerous because difficult to perceive, "like an abscess that 
 must be pierced in order to expel the matter." Clement XL ex- 
 pressed his surprise and wished to make corrections. Fabroni flew 
 into a passion, called the Pope " feeble " and " childish," upheld the 
 document in its entirety, then, leaving him bewildered, hastened to 
 post it in all the public places. The same day it was dispatched 
 by a courier to Le Tellier, who prevailed upon the King to affix 
 his assent to it, before it had been officially presented to him by 
 the Nuncio. Such, according to the Due de Saint Simon, and 
 other contemporaries, was the origin of the notorious Constitution 
 Unigenitus. 
 
 When the Bull became known to the public, the outcry was 
 universal. The condemnation of texts of St. Paul, St. Augustin, 
 and other Fathers quoted in the Moral Reflections, the Ultra- 
 montane maxims with which it was filled, and the suspicious part 
 that the Jesuits had had in it, stirred up against that body the 
 court, the city, and the provinces. Of the hundred and one pro- 
 positions condemned, the ninety-first, in particular, was the object 
 of the most heated comments. It ran thus : " An unjust ex- 
 communication ought never to prevent us from doing our duty.'* In 
 placing a stigma upon this tenet, virtue herself was outraged, a 
 
 ^ " An authoritative ordinance, regulation or enactment, especially one 
 aflFecting ecclesiastical doctrine or discipline. " Webster. ( TranslcUor'a Note. )
 
 4 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 blow was struck at the independence of kings, and the fidelity 
 owed to sovereigns by their subjects was called into question. An 
 assembly of bishops was convoked at Paris. Forty accepted the 
 mandate ; Cardinal Noailles and fourteen prelates repudiated it. 
 Divisions took place in the episcopate and among the clergy and 
 the religious societies. The laymen themselves took sides. Lo 
 Tellier did not budge. The opposing bishops were sent back to 
 their dioceses, and the prelates, who had not been present at the 
 assembly, were called upon by letters from the King to give their 
 adherence. The Sorbonne, which had rejected the Bull by a 
 majority of votes, received an order to register it. The same 
 obedience was exacted of the Parliament. Vainly did the Proctor- 
 General,^ d'Aguesseau, address respectful remonstrances to the 
 Monarch. The Parliament found itself forced to yield, and on 
 February 14th, 1714, with the ordinary reservations of the rights 
 of the Crown and the liberty of the Gallican Chr.rch, it registered 
 the Constitution. 
 
 In the letters-patent, sent to Parliament with the text of the 
 Bull, Louis XIV. ordered the suppression, not only of the Moral 
 Reflections, but of all works published in its defence; and forbade, 
 under a severe penalty, the production of any more in the future. 
 But all his authority was powerless to restrain the effervescence 
 he had excited. Interdictions, imprisonments, and exile could 
 not subjugate excited consciences. Louis XIV. was greatly 
 troubled by this opposition — tlie first he had experienced in. the 
 ■whole course of his reign — and, in his dying hours, he addressed 
 the bishops, whose counsels, together with those of Le Tellier, 
 had guided his conduct, and before God rendered them responsible 
 for the state of agitation in which he left the Church. 
 
 " Louis XIV.," says Saint Simon, " was regretted only by the 
 ** valets of his household, by a few other persons, and by the chiefs 
 " of the aflfiixir of the Constitution." The populace, but just de- 
 livered from the fatal war of the Spanish succession, ruined by 
 
 1 Under the old re/ime the Procureur-G^ndrcd combined the posts of 
 Attorney-General and Chief Magistrate or President of the Parliament. 
 He was next highest in ofHcc to the Chancellor. (Translator's Note.)
 
 The French Revolution. 
 
 taxes, and exhausted by the universal distress, accused the 
 Monarch of being the cause of their misfortunes. 
 
 The ^Parliaments, whose voices he had stifled, could not forgive 
 him for domineering over them, and trembled still with the shame 
 of having been forced to legitimize princes born of his adulterous 
 amours. Tired of a despotism that had subjected all things to itself, 
 the nation thanked Heaven for a deliverance which seemed to pro- 
 mise it a peaceful future and, at least, a certain amount of liberty. 
 
 At the beginning of his regency, the Due d'Orleans appeared 
 to enter into the feelings of the country, and, in a measure, he 
 exceeded his promises. He granted to the Parliament the right 
 of remonstrance, and caused it to annul the testament of the late 
 King, thus investing the magistrates ^ with an importance that 
 avenged them of their past servitude. By his severe treatment 
 of those who had enriched themselves with the spoils of the 
 people, he identified himself with the popular grudge against the 
 revenue farmers, and, in the face of the disorder in which he 
 found the finances, he very nearly convoked the States-General. 
 In the edict which excluded bastard princes from the succession 
 to the throne, he declared that, in default of legitimate heirs, 
 France alone had the right to award the crown ; he thus placed 
 in opposition to the will of the sovereign, the rights of the people, 
 which, he said, had been too long overlooked. 
 
 In religious matters the Regent appeared to be no less resolved to 
 depart from the views held by his predecessor. He liberated all 
 persons imprisoned for the cause of Jansenism, and nominated 
 Cardinal de Noailles, whom Louis XIV. had disgraced, Presi- 
 
 1 Parlemcnts — the name then given to a certain number of superior courts 
 of judicature in Paris and the capital towns of the various provinces, 
 which constituted the highest court of appeal, and registered edicts and 
 declarations of the kings. This last office enabled the members of these 
 courts to take part occasionally in political affairs. But their functions 
 were almost purely judiciary, and bore no trace of resemblance to those of 
 the members of the English Parliament. {Translator's Note.) 
 
 ^ The members of the Parliaments were called councillors or magistrates. 
 They will, throughout this translation, be referred to as magistrates ; tlie 
 appellation of councillor being reserved for members of the Chdtdet the 
 king's and other superior councils, {Translator's Note.)
 
 The Revolutiofiary Spirit preceding 
 
 dent of the Council of Ecclesiastical Affairs. Le Tellier, pursued 
 by public hatred, fled into exile. There was even talk of 
 suppressing the Jesuits — a measure which would have touched 
 popular feeling more nearly than the assembling of the States- 
 General, for we have no evidence that any idea of its convocation 
 had entered the public mind. But the talk resulted only in 
 their being forbidden to enter the confessional aud the pulpit. 
 The Due d'Orleans, going beyond the ideas of the Nation on yet 
 another point, had some thoughts of recalling the Protestants, 
 but he allowed the violent laws, passed against them in the former 
 reign, to stand ; only ordering that they should not be carried out. 
 
 The question of religion was the one that, above all others, 
 held the minds of men in suspense. Judging by the disposition 
 shown by the Government, it was thought that all that had been 
 done by the authority of the Constitution would not now be ad- 
 hered to. The Jesuits took alarm. Twelve prelates wrote to the 
 Pope, exhorting him to hold firm. In Paris and the provinces, 
 pamphlets were circulated stating that the faith was imperilled, 
 and condemning the adversaries of the Church as schismatics and 
 heretics. The Archbishop of Aries declared that the opponents of 
 the Bull were more culpable than was Adam after eating the for- 
 bidden fruit. In spite of laws which recognised in the representa- 
 tives of the Holy See only ordinary ambassadors, and which 
 forbade the passing of communications between them and the 
 Episcopate, the bishops were called upon in brochures to join 
 themselves to the Nuncio and act with him. The Jansenists 
 raised their voices in their turn. It having been rumoured that 
 Cardinal de Noailles had demanded from the Holy See the 
 explanation of the Bull, the three hundred parish priests of the 
 diocese of Paris, one hundred and thirty-two doctors of the 
 Sorbonne,^ and whole bodies of monks informed the Archbishop 
 that whatever explanation of it might be given, they were resolved 
 to repudiate it. 
 
 In the month of March, 1717, four bishops executed before 
 1 The Sorbonne was one of the four constituent parts of the faculty of 
 theology in the University of Paris, and the members of the college were 
 either doctors of medicine or bachelors of theology. {Translator's JSote.)
 
 The French Revolution. 
 
 notaries a deed, founded on the declaration of the clergy in 
 1682, by which they appealed from the Constitution to a future 
 General Council. The Sorbonne registered this deed, and 
 a bailiff from the Chatelet ^ had the hardihood to go to Rome and 
 post a copy on the walls of St. Peter's. He even dared to enter 
 the Vatican and insinuate himself into the presence of the Pontiff, 
 whose slipper he kissed, and, whilst talking to him personally, he 
 served him with the document. From all ranks of the clergy 
 arose supporters of this protest. The Officiality (i.e., doctor's 
 commons) of Paris was besieged by priests and ecclesiastics of the 
 second order coming to register their appeals. The Church of 
 France found herself, thenceforward, split iuto two factions, the 
 acceptants and the refiisants. The acceptunts, wrote Voltaire, 
 " were the hundred bishops who had adhered under Louis XIV., 
 " together with the Jesuits and Capuchins ; the refusants were 
 " fifteen bishops and the entire Nation." 
 
 The Due d'Orleans resolved to address himself directly to the 
 Pope, and to solicit him, of his superior knowledge, to grant him 
 the means of pacifying public opinion. A Declaration of October 
 7 th, 1717, informed France that negotiations for that purpose 
 had just been entered upon with the Court of Rome. By the 
 same Declaration, the Regent ordered all disputes upon the 
 matters that had created the divisions to cease during the course 
 of the proceedings at the Holy See, and interdicted the publica- 
 tion of books, pamphlets, or memorials, relating to the diflfer- 
 ences. This order proved equally displeasing to both Jansenists 
 and Jesuits, and on each side the talking and writing continued. 
 In a pamphlet, favourable to the Bull, the fact was recalled that 
 a sovereign of the Roman Empire — during its decline — had pre- 
 scribed an analogous silence in respect to religious quarrels, and 
 that his edict had been nullified by the Council of the Lateran. 
 Later on the Bishop of Apt, who had dared to say in one of his 
 mandates, that he was not of the same opinion as St. Paul, pub- 
 lished a statement entitled, Appeal from the Minor King to the 
 
 1 Le grand Chdtelet and le petit CMtelet, names of two civil and criminal 
 courts in Paris, now no longer existing. (Translator's Note. J
 
 8 The Revolutio7iary Spirit preceding 
 
 Major King on the Declaration of October 7th. The Parliament of 
 Aix, to which the haughty Prelate was bold enough to address his 
 brochure, noted that the title alone was an attack on the principle 
 of monarchy, for it detracted from the power of the Regent and 
 presupposed the possibility of interference with the office of the 
 Crown, " which would be a weakness contrary to the essence of 
 monarchial government." Both of these publications were burned 
 by the public executioner. 
 
 Had the Regent pursued a dififerent course, he would no doubt 
 have been able to dominate the situation from the beginning. 
 Before deciding upon approaching the Holy See, he had consulted 
 a man of great intelligence — the Due de Saint Simon. He led 
 him one evening into his box at the opera and, during the entire 
 performance, discussed with him the difficulties that the affair of 
 the Constitution had raised. Misled by incorrect reports, the Due 
 d Orleans had imagined that "a very large number were for the 
 Bull, while the opposing party consisted of a mere handful." The 
 Due de Saint Simon showed him that " the main body of the 
 court, clergy, society, and the people throughout the kingdom " 
 were among the refusantSy and that with the numbers, the char- 
 acter of this section ought to be taken into consideration. In it 
 were found the most virtuous and most learned of the bishops, 
 almost the entire company of the clergy of the second order, the 
 parliaments, colleges, schools, universities ; in a word, all whom 
 the Nation counted the most enlightened and most worthy of 
 consideration. Pointing out to .him the effect already produced 
 by the Bull, Saint Simon showed him how, in the first instance, 
 its professed object was the condemning of a book, but that, at that 
 moment, it had no less a design than to cause " all that was in- 
 cluded in the Constitution to be received, signed, believed, and 
 judged as an article of faith ; " and that, in that way, the Court of 
 Rome sought to rule France, as she already ruled Portugal, Spain, 
 and Italy. Finally, he urged upon the Regent the necessity of 
 encouraging the appeals, especially those of the parliaments, 
 round which all France would assuredly rally, of intimidating the 
 Nuncio, of addressing the Pope in firm, but respectful language, and
 
 The French Revolution 
 
 speaking very plainly to the Jesuits ; in which case, the Constitu- 
 tion, with all its contrivances and annoyances, would fall to the 
 ground. But, tiaough gifted with brilliant qualities, the Regent 
 lacked both audacity and firmness. As he said, he was less 
 afraid to face powder and shot than a scheming parson. 
 He feared the manoeuvres of the bishops, he feared the 
 Jesuits. A man, to whose shameful ascendancy he then sub- 
 mitted — the Abbo Dubois — increased, by his insinuations, the 
 Regent's natural timidity. 
 
 Just what might have been expected came to pass concerning 
 the negotiations entered upon with Rome. In abandoning to the 
 Pope, that is to say, to the men who influenced him, the task of 
 healing the divisions, Rome was left mistress of her own actions 
 and encouraged in her effrontery. 
 
 In the month of August, 1718, the tribunal of the Holy 
 Inquisition condemned all the appeals that had emanated from 
 France, and, in particular, that of Cardinal de Noailles. Six 
 months later, the Pope, in a violent letter addressed to all Catholics 
 *' of whatsoever state, degree, order, or condition/' exacted, under 
 pain of excommunication, a complete and unreserved obedience to 
 the Constitution. This letter emboldened the Ultramontane 
 party. Many bishops threatened those in their dioceses, who 
 rebelled against the Constitution, with ecclesiastical penalties. 
 The Parliaments of France — agreed upon the maintenance of the 
 liberties of the Galilean Church — protested against this latest act of 
 the Holy See. They accused the Court of Rome of placing itself above 
 the Councils and of wishing to introduce, under cover of the 
 Bull, that doctrine of Infallibility which it had endeavoured for 
 centuries to establish, and which, for centuries, France had 
 repulsed. The University of Paris which had, as yet, taken no 
 ostensible part in the debates, mingled, in its turn, in the strife 
 and appealed against both the Conslitution and the last letter of 
 the Pope. Cardinal de Noailles responded to the censure passed 
 on him by causing his " Act of appeal " to be posted on all the 
 churches of the capital. The confidence with which the first acts 
 of the Regency had inspired the Jansenists began to be shaken.
 
 lO The Revolutionary Spirit precediiig 
 
 The austerities practised on the Protestants in the provinces and 
 even in Paris showed that, from that side also, the Government 
 was departing from its first tendencies. If the Due d'Orleans 
 seemed to be belying his promises in religious matters, he was 
 repudiating them no less in political affairs. 
 
 For a century the States-General had fallen into disuse. The 
 right of remonstrance, which had been restored to the Parliament, 
 constituted the sole guarantee of the country against arbitrary 
 government. But in August, 1718, the Regent held a court 
 where, in an edict registered " by express command of the King," 
 he curtailed the Parliament's right of remonstrance and forbade 
 its interference for the future in financial or administrative 
 business. The following day the President and two judges were 
 arrested and conducted into exile. 
 
 A parliamentary Decree of January 14th, 1719, directed against 
 Jansenist and Jesuit brochures, showed the progress of the ideas 
 of both parties. In one of these documents, it was aflBrmed that 
 the Pope was "infallible in all doctrinal decisions," and it was, 
 therefore, no less heretical to reject the Bull, than to " deny the 
 incarnation of the Word and the divinity of Jesus Christ." An- 
 other upheld with equal spirit the supremacy of the Councils, and 
 compared these assizes of the Universal Church to the States- 
 General, which, said the author, " rejoice during the period of 
 their assembly in all the rights of sovereignty." The Parliament 
 condemned the first utterances as contrary to the liberty of the 
 Galilean Church, and denounced the latter as a violation of the 
 Royal authority. " In France we recognise no other sovereign 
 "than the King," said Guillaume de Lamoignon in his speech, 
 pronounced upon this occasion. " It is his prerogative to make 
 " the laws : what the King wills, the law wills. The States-General 
 " have only the rights of remonstrance and most humble supplica- 
 " tion. The King defers to their complaints and prayers according 
 " to the ruling of his pnidence and his justice. If he were obliged 
 "to accord them all their demands, he would cease to be a King." 
 The thoughts of both Ultramontanes and Jansenists had, as is 
 sjen, gone far beyond Pfere (^uesnel's book of devotioQ,
 
 The French Revolution. ii 
 
 Following out his plan, the Due d'Orleans commissioned the 
 Cardinal de Noailles and certain bishops to unite in a " code of 
 doctrine" such explanations of the Bull as should render it equally 
 acceptable to both parties. With this end in view, he enjoined, 
 by Declaration, a fresh silence of one year upon the disputed 
 points. A few days after the Declaration appeared, the Bishop of 
 Soissons addressed to the Regent a public letter, iu which he said 
 that, " The prescription of silence in regard to matters of faith 
 had never been of use except to the enemies of faith." The 
 Aichbishop of Rheims, not content with hurling invectives at the 
 little band of recalcitrant bishops, whom he compared to Luther, 
 to the followers of Arius, Nestor, and Eutyches, nor with asking 
 that the Church should treat them as pagans and publicans, also 
 set himself against the conciliatory designs of the Regent, and 
 maintained that all endeavours to effect an arrangement should 
 be repulsed. He called upon the bishops to join in a rebellion 
 against the Government, and urged them to refuse subsidies to 
 the State, unless the Regent purchased their " free gift " by his 
 complete adherence to the Constitution. The Parliament com- 
 mitted both letters to the flames. When informed of the judg- 
 ment passed upon him, the Archbishop of Rheims had a Te Deum 
 chanted, to return thanks to God for having been afironted by 
 schismatics. Rome consoled him for the insult by nominating 
 him a Cardinal. The Bishop of Soissons having retorted to the 
 magistrates that the Church was superior to their Decrees, and 
 that it was not for them to judge her, even for the crime of high trea- 
 son, was ordered to pay ten thousand livres ^ as penalty. But the 
 Regent did not insist upon his paying the fine, for fear, as he 
 said, that he too might become a Cardinal. 
 
 At this juncture, Law ^ began to apply his celebrated scheme, 
 and the fever of cupidity was suddenly substituted for that of 
 religious discussion. It seized upon the people and the magis- 
 
 1 Livre, formerly the monetary unit in France, and equivalent to the 
 franc. (Translator's Note.) 
 
 2 John Law, bom in Edinburgh, 1681. By his persuasion the first public 
 bank of circulation was established by the Regent in 1 7 16. ( Translator's Note, )
 
 1 2 The Revolutionary Spirit pr^eceding 
 
 trates, upon princes and bishops. But this new and totally dis- 
 tinct agitation destroyed the last remnant of the Due d'Orleans' 
 popularity. When, for the majority of those whom the system 
 had misled, the certainty of ruin succeeded to the mirage 
 of illusory riches, and even the lower classes found themselves 
 '• hard hit," there was a general explosion of anger against the 
 Government. For the first time, since the death of Louis XIV., 
 the people throughout Paris assumed a threatening attitude, and 
 a revolt was feared. The Parliament shared the public resent- 
 ment, and proposed to put an end to the fatal Ptegency by an 
 authoritative stroke. The young King was to be seized, declared 
 to have attained his majority, then solemnly conducted to the 
 Louvre by all the magistrates in their red robes. The Due 
 d'Orleans upset this audacious project by banishing the Parlia- 
 ment to Pontoise, and on the day he took this measure, he 
 deemed it necessary to line the streets of the capital with troops. 
 But the soldiers themselves were ready to rebel, and if, at tliat 
 critical moment, one of the princes of the blood royal had placed 
 himself at the head of the Parliament, he would have been in a 
 position to deal an authoritative stroke, perhaps even that of 
 taking possession of the Regency, for the people would undoubtedly 
 have followed him. 
 
 In spite of threats and tumult, there was no rebellion. Yet, 
 deep down in men's hearts, hatred was as strong and virulent as 
 ever. Then it w-as that those libels, pamphlets, and phiUipics of 
 every sort multiplied. Notes containing the words, " Kill the 
 tyrant, and do not he afraid 0/ creating a disturbance,^' were 
 scattered about the streets, and the Princess Palatine received 
 many letters, threatening to assassinate her son. But the Regent, 
 who might have counted the fact of his having escaped at that 
 csisis among his bonnes fortunes, did not lose sight of his designs 
 in r3gard to the acceptance of the Bull. 
 
 On March 13th, 1720, thirty bishops present in Paris signed a 
 " Code of Doctrine " drawn up by Cardinal de Noailles. Fifty 
 other prelates, to whom couriers were dispatched, also gave their 
 signatures, Without further extending the number of ad-
 
 The French Revolution. I3 
 
 hercnts, the Regent addressed a Declaration to the Parliament 
 at Pontoise, which ordered the acceptance of the Bull by the 
 entire kingdom, and quashed all the appeals made in reference to it. 
 
 On all sides protests were immediately raised. It was main- 
 tained that the public conscience could not be constrained by 
 explanations which had not received the vxnanimous asseut of the 
 Episcopate, and upon which the advice of the whole of the second 
 order of the clergy had been ignored. The University of Paris, 
 the theological faculty, and a number of priests wrote to the 
 Parliament, persisting in their opposition. The latter body, for 
 its part, did not seem disposed to register the Declaration. The 
 Bishop of Marseilles — an ardent Const itutionist — published a 
 mandate, in which he announced that Heaven was affronted by 
 the disobedience of the appellants, and attributed to them the 
 presence of the plague which then desolated the region of La 
 Provence. The Archbishop of Aries also imputed to them the 
 visitation of grasshoppers that infested the country districts of 
 his diocese. These attacks exasperated the Jansenists, without 
 shaking their constancy. "Thus it was of old," they said; "the 
 "pagans accused the Christians, who would not adore their idols, 
 "of being the cause of every evil that attacked the Roman 
 " Empire." 
 
 Tiie Due d'Orleans rashly hastened the denoHement. Ho with- 
 drew his Declaration from the hands of the Parliament and 
 addressed it to the members of the Grand Council, who all but 
 unanimously rejected it. All Paris applauded their firmness. 
 The Regent, wholly taken aback, sought more effectual means. 
 He repaired to a sitting of the Grand Council, followed by all the 
 Princes of the blood royal, by six Marshals of France (those 
 known to be Jesuits), and by several dukes and peers, and carried 
 the vote. The method employed was doubly arbitrary, for the 
 Grand Council had no right to effect this registration, and the 
 princes, who had voted severally, ought, by reason of their 
 relationship, to have counted only as one voice. For these 
 reasons, the registration was regarded as null by the public, and 
 the Pope refused to consider any, save that of the Parliament,
 
 14 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 valid. The Regent was obliged, therefore, to send back the 
 Declaration to the Parliament. But in the interval 
 men's passions had become more heated. It was said 
 that the magistrates were determined to appeal from the 
 Bull to a future Council General and to make this appeal in the 
 name of the Nation. Cardinal de Noailles, repudiating the " Code 
 of Doctrine," of which he was the author, intended to go to 
 Pontoise at the head of his clergy, accompanied by deputies of the 
 Sorbonne and the University, to renew his appeal before the 
 assembled Parliament. The Due d'Orleans, who had thought 
 himself sure of the Archbishop, treated him contemptuously. 
 *' I have long been warned," he said, *' that you are no- 
 thing but a nincompoop and stupid ass." Yielding to the 
 importunities of the Regent, but not to his insults, the Cardinal 
 de Noailles consented at last to publish a mandate, in which he 
 declared his adhesion to the Bull as interpreted by the " Code of 
 Doctrine." According to Barbier, the lawyer, this "very cun- 
 ningly-worded " mandate was nothing but " a verbal quibble upon 
 points of theology." The Parliament had been threatened with 
 transportation to Blois if it rejected the Declaration a second 
 time, and among the confidants of the Regent, there was talk of 
 suppressing it, and of instituting in its place two new assemblies 
 at Tours and Poitiers. Although the magistrates did nothing 
 at Pontoise, but " enjoy good living, amuse themselves and 
 take exercise," their situation wearied them. Their fears of an 
 aggravation of the conditions of their exile triumphed over principle, 
 and on December 4th, 1720, they registered the Declaration in 
 indefinite, equivocal terms, which meant about as much as if they 
 had not registered it at all. Their recall to Paris was their re- 
 ward for their docility. 
 
 If, by its uncertainty, the language of the Parliament left the 
 door open for the renewal of the disputes, at least the terms of 
 the Declaration were sufficiently precise. It not only quashed all 
 former appeals, but forbade any fresh ones to be made, and ordered 
 a final silence in regard to the Constitution. In spite of these 
 injunctions, three of the bishops, who had appealed in 1717,
 
 The French Revolution, 15 
 
 hurled forth mandates ia which they confirmed their appeals. 
 These mandates havinp; been suppressed by a Decree of the Council, 
 the prelates replied in a pamphlet, in which they protested against 
 the Decree. Three months latet, a letter appeared, signed by 
 several bishops and addressed to Pope Innocent XIII., who had 
 succeeded Clement XI. This letter compared the situation of the 
 Church in France to that of the ancient Eastern Church, whicli 
 was persecuted by princes and Arian bishops, and finally branded 
 the Constitution as " a law full of iniquities and errors," such as 
 Pagan Rome would never have tolerated. 
 
 The Government suppressed the letters as it had suppressed 
 the mandates, but it could not prevent this double protest finding 
 an echo in the public mind. A printed list of the names of two 
 hundred new appellants was circulated in Paris. It v;as seized by 
 the police. Another list followed containing four hundred names. 
 The Prefect of the Police commanded the signatories to 
 appear before him and represented to them that, in disobeying 
 the Declaration of August 4th, they became rebels to the authority 
 of the King. "The King," they replied, "is master of our goods 
 and persons, not of our consciences." This time it was from the 
 Jansenist quarter that the wind of rebellion blew. The Govern- 
 ment displayed great severity. It flung forth orders of exile, and 
 lettres de cachet flew hither and thither. The number of appellants 
 only increased. To the lists of Paris succeeded the lists of the 
 Provinces. There were soon some of these registers in every 
 town in the kingdom. Like the early Christians, the Janseuists 
 were ready to submit to any proofs in order to testify to the Truth. 
 To the bishops, who complained of their audacity, the Government 
 replied : " What do you expect us to do with men who speak only 
 of the next world and are ready to forsake all they have in this 
 one 1 " This movement had all the characteristics of a declared 
 opposition, yet far from monarchial sentiments being shaken, 
 affection for the young King seemed to be increased by the feeling 
 of estrangement which the Regent inspired. 
 
 Louis XV. fell ill, and the Parisians exhibited marks of genuine 
 consternation. The entire Nation was eager for news of him, and
 
 1 6 The Revohitionary Spirit preceding- 
 
 the report of his recovery gave rise to great rejoicings. The Due 
 d'Orleans went in a magnificent coach to hear the Te Deum sung 
 upon this occasion at Notre Dame. When he entered the cathedral, 
 the people within and without maintained a dead silence. After 
 him the Marechal de Villeroi, governor of the young King, pre- 
 sented himself, and for a quarter of an hour the air rang with 
 enthusiastic acclamations. One saying at this crisis faithfully 
 translated the sentiments of the crowd. It was the cry of the 
 fish women : Long live the King, hut the Devil take the Regency. 
 Far from abating the embryo opposition, the acts of the 
 Reg'^nt in every way promoted its growth. He inclined 
 again to the Ultramontane party. Two letters, that Innocent 
 XIII. had addressed to the King and the Regent against 
 the Jansenists, were allowed to be published without first being 
 approved by letters-patent or registered by the Parliament; a 
 novel mode of procedure in France, contrary to all rules, and one 
 which laid the kingdom open to Romish influences. The cogniz- 
 ance of affairs relating to the Bull was taken from the Parliament 
 in an underhand manner and delivered over to the jurisdiction of 
 the Council of State. Under the name of the "Pope's Chamber," 
 a commission, established at the Arsenal, was directed to restrain 
 the publication of books contrary to the Holy See and the Con- 
 stitution. Finally, in order the more effectually to repress all 
 expressions of thought, the book-trade laws were revised. A 
 regulation, containing a hundred and twenty-three articles, more 
 minute than any which had appeared in the reign of Louis XIV., 
 was drawn up. The strict execution of this, had it been effected, 
 would have prevented anything being published without the 
 permission of the reigning power. 
 
 Encouraged by these signs of favour, the Jesuits renewed an 
 attempt that they had made without success in the preceding 
 century. To the numerous colleges which were under their rule, 
 they wished to join the faculties which would give them the right 
 to confer degrees. At their secret solicitation, two new Uni- 
 versities at Dijon and Pau were about to be founded and de- 
 livered into their hands. But through the opposition of the
 
 The French Revolution, 17 
 
 University of Paris, round which all the other Universities of 
 France rallied, the project miscarried. 
 
 In politics, the Regent continued, by his arbitrary methods, to 
 alienate public confidence. It is true that he allowed the Parlia- 
 ment to keep its right of remonstrance in financial and adminis- 
 trative affairs, in spite of the edict of 1718, which had taken it 
 away, but in practice he paid no regard to it. 
 
 After at first displaying tendencies very different from those of 
 the late King, the Regent, breaking his vows and deceiving the 
 expectations of the people, returned openly to the paths traced by 
 Louis XIV. He reverted to them in politics by his arbitrary acts 
 and his disregard of rules ; in religion, by concerting with the 
 Jesuits and the Holy See. "Rome rules us more than ever," 
 wrote a man, fitted by his intelligence and impartiality to judge 
 of events ; " our liberties are slipping away from us and we are fall- 
 ing into Infallibility" No one then perceived the danger of the 
 situation. Nevertheless the danger existed. Besides the re- 
 ligious opposition, which might at any time be increased by 
 circumstances, and develop into political insubordination, the body 
 of magistrates, chafing in its abasement, and the people, who 
 began openly to discuss their princes, afforded easily combustible 
 elements. Wiiilst the upper ranks of the clergy seemed ready to 
 blow the fires of sedition, the bourgeoisie had not forgotten that 
 there were cases in which, by the avowal of the Government, the 
 rights of the Nation were superior to the will of kings. The 
 Regent, by the revolting cynicism of his morals, had not only 
 drawn upon himself personally the well-merited contempt of the 
 people, but he had lessened the majesty of sovereignty. The 
 nobility also had lost their prestige. Tlieir cupidity, revealed by 
 their shameless transactions in connexion with Law's scheme, their 
 public debaucheries and tho crimes, of which some nobles and 
 even some princes had been guilty, caused the lawyer Marais to 
 exclaim : " Never have the nobles of France been less noble than 
 at this time ! " 
 
 All these facts were equally the causes of disturbance, and 
 likely, some day, to give rise to a feeling of decided antagonism
 
 1 8 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 to Royalty. On the side of the Church the situation was still 
 moi*e ominous. If the disputes in regard to the Constitution were 
 prolonged, it was feared a schism might be caused and the 
 Christian Faith itself shaken. Already the Episcopate, by its 
 ambitions and intrigues, had begun to alienate from itself all 
 public esteem, and to share the discredit which had fallen upon 
 the Jesuits. Eome presented less the appearance of a venerable 
 guardian of Christian doctrine than of a power jealous of extend- 
 ing its empire, even at the expense of honesty. When Dubois, 
 whose godlessness and immorality were notorious, received a 
 Cardinal's hat as the price of his concurrence in the Declaration of 
 August 4th, 1720, everyone was filled with indignation. The 
 Bishops of France dishonoured themselves no less in 1723 when 
 they unanimously chose as President of their General Assembly, 
 him whom Rome had dubbed a Cardinal and the Regent had 
 just made Prime Minister. 
 
 Such acts could only develop the germs of unbelief, which had 
 already begun to manifest themselves. 
 
 It was in the midst of these signs of a coming disruption in the 
 Church and State that the majority of Louis XV. was officiallj' 
 proclaimed on February 22nd, 1723. 
 
 On August 10th of the same year, Dubois died, covered with 
 honours, riches, and shame. Four months later the Due d'Orleans, 
 who had succeeded him in the office of Prime Minister, expired, 
 in his turn a victim to his own excesses.
 
 The French Revolution. 19 
 
 CHAPTER ir. 
 
 Miyiistry of the Due de Bourbon and the First Half of the Fleury 
 
 Ministry. 
 
 (1721-1733.) 
 
 In the same hour that the Due d'Orl^ans died, tlie Due de 
 Bouibon begged of the King the office of Prime Minister. Though 
 a mere man of pleasure, tied to the apron strings of the Marquise 
 de Prie, and knowing nothing of the science of government, he 
 obtained the place. Eighteen months later, placards posted in 
 the Palais-Royal and other parts of Paris, demanded his dismissal. 
 
 The government of " M. le due " followed more nearly than that 
 of the Regent the lines laid down in the previous reign. The 
 Jesuits were allowed to get the upper hand, and under their 
 direction Louis XV. married Marie Leczinska, who owed to their 
 patronage her nickname of Unigenita. A Declaration was issued 
 against the Protestants which, had it been carried out to the 
 letter, would have proved more severe than the Edict of 1685. 
 Yet the Parliament registered it without comment. In religious 
 matters, the thoughts of all men were entirely taken up with the 
 Bull. 
 
 The prophecies of Saint Simon were rapidly fulfilled. Until 
 1724, the doctrine of Infallibility had been propounded only iu 
 letters and mandates. In that year an entire book appeared in 
 which the absolute sovereignty of Pontiffs and their superiority 
 to Councils was insisted upon. This publication asserted that 
 bishops derived their authority from the Holy See and not 
 from Jesus Christ, and, recalling the fact that the Saviour con- 
 ferred upon St. Peter dominion o\er Heaven and earth, insinuated 
 that the Popes had authority over kings. " This," said Gilbert de
 
 20 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 Voisins, in denouncing the book before the Parliament, " is a 
 " designed attack on our maxims, a work expressly directed against 
 " the Gallican Church and against France." 
 
 The Jansenists, whom the Declaration of August 4th, 1720, had 
 not succeeded in quieting, continued to write and print. One of 
 their chiefs, the Bishop of Montpellier, published a memorial, of 
 which the title alone, Remonstrances with the King, proclaimed 
 the hardihood. Twice did the Council of State order the sup- 
 pression of writings from the pen of this audacious bishop. In the 
 following year the General Assembly of the clergy addressed to 
 the King a letter, in which it upheld the Constitution as an article 
 of Faith, and exhorted the Monarch to have recourse to severe 
 measures to combat heresy. This letter was suppressed by the 
 Parliament, but not by the Council of State. Whilst religious 
 questions continued to agitate men's minds, there arose another 
 cause of trouble. In the summer of 1725 bread became very 
 dear. The bungling administration of " M. le due," and perhaps, as 
 was supposed, certain frauds in which the Marquise de Prie was 
 concerned, were the chief causes of this state of affairs. Riots 
 took place at Caen, Rouen, and Rennes. In Paris, a mob of 
 eighteen hundred persons collected in the streets and committed 
 acts of pillage. A cavalry charge dispersed the crowd and two of 
 the ringleaders were hanged. This action put an end to the uproar 
 but did not diminish the wrath of the populace. Notices insult- 
 ing the Ministry and threatening to set fire to Paris kept up the 
 ferment, and not until measures were taken to lower the price of 
 bread was calm re-established. 
 
 One month before this outbreak a scene had taken place in the 
 Parliament that left deeper marks of discontent. The Govern- 
 ment wished to levy a tax of one-fiftieth on all incomes. • This tax 
 was equitable enough in itself, since it affected all classes of 
 society, including the clergy, alike, but the country had not yet 
 recovered from the panic of 1720, and money was still scarce. 
 The Due de Bourbon, anticipating resistance, resolved to impose 
 the tax in a " Bed of Justice." Contrary to custom, he gave no 
 preliminary notice of his intentions, and when the time came to
 
 7 he French Revolution, 21 
 
 vote, the entire body of magistrates refused to do so, saying that 
 they could not vote on a subject of which they were ignorant. The 
 Advocate-General, speaking in the name of the magistrates, told 
 the King that they were ready to sacrifice their fortunes and their 
 lives to his interests, but that it would be easier to make that 
 sacrifice than to give their assent to edicts presented to them 
 under such conditions. The King signified, through the Keeper 
 of the Seals, that he would be obeyed, and the Decree was registered. 
 In the same session another totally unexpected edict was imposed, 
 in which all members of the Parliament who had not served for 
 ten years were prohibited from speaking upon affairs of State. 
 "You have to day become the enemy of the entire kingdom," said 
 the Prince de Conti to the Due de Bourbon on the evening of the 
 " Bed of Justice." The situation was rendered more serious by 
 the authorisation, in the presence of the Sovereign, of the first 
 arbitrary acts of which the Nation had had to complain since 
 his majority. The Minister soon realised that he had gone too far, 
 nnd, though he maintained the imposts, he repealed, six months 
 later, the edicts that had affected the parliamentary suffrage. 
 
 The conduct of the Due de Bourbon had inspired such aversion 
 in the popular mind that, when a court intrigue turned him out 
 of office, the people were with difficulty prevented from lighting 
 bonfires. Fleury, Bishop of Fregus, who was over seventy years 
 of age, and who had for a long time paved the way for his own 
 elevation, replaced him. This Prelate's influence over the young 
 King, whose tutor he had been, was complete. Shrewd, bland, 
 and insinuating, simple in his manners, and apparently disin- 
 terested to the point of refusing the title of Prime Minister, 
 Fleury was secretly possessed of the passion for power. For 
 nearly seventeen years he exercised a dominion more absolute 
 than that of either the Regent or the Due de Bourbon. He was 
 naturally fond of order, economical, and almost avaricious. Under 
 his management the finances were placed on a sound basis, and 
 only the wars that troubled the latter, part of the reign threw 
 them once more into a disorganised condition. His economic 
 measures enabled him to revoke the income-tax, and the
 
 22 The Revohitionary Spirit preceding 
 
 morals of the court, restrained by his surveillance, ceased to 
 scandalise public opinion. Yet, in spite of these reforms, Fleury's 
 administration pi'oved fatal to France. Power remained too long 
 in the hands of a man whose mind, as time went on, became 
 enfeebled by age, and whose religious intolerance constituted the 
 distinctive feature of his long ministry. 
 
 Behind the mask of the Due de Bourbon, Fleury had been the 
 real author of the Declaration against the Protestants, and, on 
 coming into power, he found it necessary to gain the support of 
 the Jesuits in order to keep his office. In 1725, the higher ranks 
 of the clergy had protested against the income-tax, and in 1726, 
 Fleury — who had been created a Cardinal on his accession to the 
 Ministry — decided that the " goods " of the clergy, being dedi- 
 cated to God, were placed above the traffic of men and ought 
 never to be subject to taxation. Encouraged by this treatment, 
 the bishops sought to put to proof the Cardinal's zeal for the 
 ConstiUition. They solicited of Louis XV. a Declaration which 
 should relieve them of the necessity of keeping silence in regard 
 to the Bull. All the King's authority, they said, was needed to 
 repress the licence provoked by pernicious writings, which 
 affronted apostolic constitutions. Without altogether yielding to 
 the desires of the bishops, the Minister showed plainly that he 
 shared their sentiments. An aged priest of the Oratory — Father 
 Soanem, Bishop of Senez — had published a pastoral instruction, 
 in which he condemned the Bull and renewed a previous appeal 
 to the Council General. Cardinal Fleury caused him to be tried 
 by a provincial council, suspended from his functions, and shut up 
 in an abbey. By this unaccustomed proceeding, he struck at a 
 universally esteemed Prelate, who was a distinguished preacher, 
 and a man of apostolic life, who gave all his substance to the 
 poor. The President of the Assembly that condemned him was 
 the disreputable Abbe Tencin, Archbishop of Embrun. 
 
 This act of severity renewed all the ardour of the disputes. 
 Fifty parliamentary advocates signed an Opinion^ in which they 
 established the right of appeal to the future Council, and pro- 
 nounced the decision of the Embrun Assembly to be null and
 
 The French Revolution. 23 
 
 void. The Minister, aided by Herault, Lieutenant of Police, did 
 all he could to prevent the publication of this document. Book- 
 sellers were forbidden, under pain of death, to print it. Yet it 
 was found in the hands of all Paris. The superior clergy cried 
 out that the advocates, being laymen, ought to be punished for 
 setting themselves up as judges of the Faith, and Rome prohibited 
 the reading of the Opinion under penalty of excommunication. 
 The Government, however, thought it best to suppress it only by 
 a Decree of Council. 
 
 This incident ended, another occurred, which caused no less 
 sensa'ion. It was rumoured that Cardinal de Noailles, desiring 
 to end his life in the good graces of Pope and King, was about to 
 adjure all his past conduct and profess unreserved adherence to 
 the Constitution. The Jansenists tried to shame him out of this 
 act of desertion. Bills were posted, ofFeriug 100,000 crowns re- 
 ward for the Archbishop's lost honour. Protests addressed to him 
 by numbers of the parish priests of his diocese were suppresse 1 
 by orders of the State Council, and an appeal against the last of 
 these orders was also denounced. In their denunciation, the 
 Councillors of State asserted that this unusual step on the part of 
 the clergy revealed the existence among them of " a spirit of in- 
 dependence and revolt," and implied that they had formed them- 
 selves into a kind of league, which was a violation of the laws of 
 the State, and which showed that they pretended to have power 
 to remonfjtrate with the Sovereign — a pretension contrary to all 
 Church discipline and public order. Yielding to the importunity 
 of the Minister, Cardinal de Noailles allowed a mandate to be ex- 
 torted from him, in which he notified his entire submission to the 
 Holy See, and accepted the Constitution " purely and simply." 
 As the parish priests refused to read this mandate from their 
 pulpits, it was posted on the doors of the churches. For fear of 
 a disturbance, this operation was performed in the early morning. 
 Officers of the police accompanied the bill-stickers, but the same 
 night all the notices were eitlier torn down or covered with mud. 
 In October, 1728, the Jansenist opposition had made considerable 
 progress. Excepting the court abbes and the bishops — of whom
 
 24 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 only eight still rebelled against the Constitution — the second 
 order of the clergy, the majority of the bourgeois and professional 
 classes, together with the people at large, were all ready to make 
 war on the Jesuits. Women of all classes mingled in the strife, 
 and became no less ardent partisans because they understood 
 nothing about the real issue. Very few people indeed, even 
 among the lawyers who had signed the Opinion, comprehended 
 the doctrinal questions that formed the grounds of the disputes. 
 But it was enough that the Bull served as a flag for the Ultra- 
 montanes, to rally against it the Jansenists, or, more properly 
 speaking, the Galileans, together with all the enemies of Home, 
 and the mal-contents of all classes who liked excitement or longed 
 for novelty. From all time, opponents to acts of tyranny have 
 been recruited in this fashion. 
 
 The mental situation facilitated the circulation of anony- 
 mous writings. The sale of the "Ecclesiastical News" — the 
 gazette of the opposition, — which for many years defied the 
 researches of the police, could only have been effected by this 
 universal complicity. Cardinal de Fleury thought that a re- 
 doubling of severities might stay the on-coming tide. He issued 
 a Declaration on May 10th, 1728, by the terms of which every 
 printer convicted of having printed " ptieinorials, letters, the 
 ' Ecclesiastical News,' or other woi'ks " relative to the disputes, 
 and, notably, contrary to the Bulls received in the kingdom, 
 would be condemned for the first offence to the pillory, and for 
 subsequent offences to the galleys. Similar penalties were 
 established against colporteurs, and authors were threatened with 
 banishment for a term of years, or in perpetuity. From the first, 
 the Minister personally saw to the carrying out of these laws. Yet 
 his measures had no effect. In despite of the law, secret print- 
 ing-presses were set going. If surveillance were feared at 
 Paris, the work was carried on in the provinces; if in the pro- 
 vinces, the type was set up and impressions taken abroad. 
 Ecclesiastical and secular corporations, as well as many private 
 individuals, had their own printing-presses, which they worked 
 in hiding.
 
 The French Revolution. 25 
 
 Two pamphlets, that the Parliament committed to the flames 
 in March, 1729, showed to what a state of passion both parties had 
 worked themselves up. In one, no less a proposal was made than 
 to revive against the Jansenists, the hoiTovs of the Saint Bar- 
 tholomew massacre. In the other, which was addressed to the 
 plenipotentiaries who were then holding at Soissons a convocation 
 in the interests of Europe, the Jesuits and their doctrines were 
 denounced, and protection against them solicited from foreign 
 powers. The last act of Cardinal de Noailles' life was to restore 
 to the Jesuits the use of the pulpit and the confessional, of which 
 they had been deprived since the beginning of the Regency. 
 
 The day on which his successor Vintimille — who was nicknamed 
 VentremiUe (thousand stomachs) on account of his immoderate 
 enjoyment of the pleasures of the table — took possession of tlie 
 Archbishopric, some one wrote on the door of his palace that Saint 
 Antony (Cardinal Noailles' name was Antoine) was dead and had 
 left his pig in his place. 
 
 The new Archbishop soon showed himself to be much attached 
 to the Constitution. At a great dinner that he gave to the 
 ecclesiastics of his chapter, he begged them to give hi.n a proof of 
 their zeal by accepting the Bull. Out of twenty-nine, twenty-five 
 gave their adhesion. The clergy of his diocese, however, were not 
 so docile and, before long, he had interdicted three hundred priests. 
 The Government, for its part, had exiled a number of parish priests 
 and others, who were opposed to the Ball. At the same time, a 
 lettre de cachet deprived doctors of the Sorbonne of their rights 
 to votes and emoluments, and, in that manner, the registry of the 
 B'dl was imposed upon the college, which went thenceforward by 
 the name of the "carcass." New causes of trouble were thus 
 stirred up, and one day the Archbishop was insulted in the 
 streets. 
 
 A fresh act of the Court of Rome added to the excitement. 
 Benedict XIII. changed the lesson in the breviary that related to 
 Gregory VII. for one in which that Pope, was praised for excom- 
 municating an Emperor and releasing his subjects from their oaths 
 of fidelity. In a prayer joined to this lesson, God was implored to
 
 26 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 give strength to the successors of Saint Gregory to follow so glorious 
 an example. Through the instrumentality of the Ultramontane 
 party, which had its headquarters in Paris, at the house of Madame 
 de Tencin (who was no more respected than her brother, the Arch- 
 bishop of Embrun), a printed leaflet of the lesson and prayer was 
 circulated among the public. The Parliament ordered the sup- 
 pression of this leaflet. It is impossible, said the King's ad- 
 vocate, to tolerate a writing which tends to shatter the inviolable 
 and sacred principles of the attachment of subjects to their 
 Sovereign. Rome replied by a letter insisting on the acceptance of 
 the new legend by the entire Catholic Church, and overruling the 
 decisions of all secular powers, even Sovereigns, who attempted to 
 oppose it. Tlie Parliament suppressed the letter. These ex- 
 aggerated doctrines of Ultramontanism had their counter-strokes 
 in the Jansenist camp The same day that the Parliament pro- 
 nounced itself against the Pontifical Brief, it committed to the 
 flames a writing addressed to the Archbishop of Paris by the 
 " faithful " of his diocese. In this letter it was asserted that there 
 were circumstances " in which a pastor should obey his flock," that 
 it was the duty of the faithful to defend the truth against the 
 Pope and bishops, and that, if the Episcopate lapsed into error, it 
 ought to be " instructed, corrected, and judged by the people." It 
 was no longer the spirit of mere opposition, but of revolution, that 
 began to permeate the Church, and it only wanted a few years for 
 this same spirit to be introduced into the State. 
 
 The recantation of Cardinal de Noailles, and the pressure brought 
 to bear upon the Sorbonne, had been the preliminaries of a 
 measure that Fleury was preparing to bring forward. On the 24th 
 of March, 1730, he addressed a Declaration to the Parliament, 
 which enjoined all the ecclesiastics of the kingdom to receive the 
 Constitution " purely and simply," and he imposed the Decree in a 
 " Bed of Justice " held by the King on April 3rd. But the pre 
 sence of the Monarch himself could not restrain all demurs. One 
 magistrate said aloud that the ninety-first article of the Constitution 
 tended to snatch the sceptre from the King's hands. The next 
 day, the Parliament assembled to deliberate upon what had taken
 
 The French Revolution. 27 
 
 place, but the King forbade them to consult either " directly or 
 indirectly" upon the Declaration. The magistrates protested 
 against the prohibition, and Abbe Pucelle boldly declared that the 
 respect due to the Sovereign consisted sometimes in transgressing 
 his orders. The King angrily threatened the magistrates, and 
 there was talk of exiling the Parliament to Amboise. The Par- 
 liament yielded. 
 
 The public, no less than the magistrates, were startled by the 
 Declaration. Placards, were posted at the Tuileries bearing the 
 inscription, " Long live the King ! Perish the Constitution and 
 those who uphold it ! " A few months later, the Council of State 
 condemned an Opinion of forty advocates in favour of those priests 
 of various dioceses, who had appealed to the Parliament against 
 the censures of their bishops. This Opinion aflBrmed the right of 
 the clergy of the second order to prosecute their superiors before 
 the magistrates. But it touched also on questions of a different 
 nature. " The authors of the consultation" — so ran the decree of 
 the Council — " do not fear to advance the principle that, according 
 " to the Constitution of the kingdom, the Parliaments are the Senate 
 " of the nation, while the King is called merely cAeV/of the nation" — 
 the sentences in italics are underlined in the original document. 
 "All that concerns the administration of Justice is there referred to 
 " the nation to that which is called its sovereign tribunal, to the 
 ''ordinances, which have been established by its will in the assem- 
 " bled States. The authors of this Opinion speak too of ... . the 
 "jurisdiction, sovereignly exercised by the Parliaments over all 
 " members of the State, as having the representative chararjter of 
 " the public authority, but do not leave it to be inferred that that 
 " authority rests in the Prince as its source. They even propound 
 "the general maxim that Haws are real conventions between those 
 " who govern and those who arc governed;^ a maxim which would not 
 " be approved even in a Republic, and which is absolutely intoler- 
 "able in a Monarchy, since, in depriving the Sovereign of his most 
 "august office, that of legislator, he is reduced to treating with 
 " his subjects on terms o!" equality by form of contract, and is con- 
 "sequently subject to receive the law from those to whor- he ought
 
 28 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 " to give it. Finally .... the authority of the Church is no more 
 " respected than that of the King, and the principles set forth tend 
 *' to stir up the people to revolt against all authority." 
 
 Forced to disavow their seditious Opinion, under pain of being de- 
 prived of their offices, the advocates issued a memorial of twenty- 
 five lines, in which they acknowledged France to be a monarchial 
 State, with the sovereign power vested in the sole person of the 
 King, but they declared anew that the Ministers of the Church 
 were subject to the jurisdiction of the Parliament, by means of an 
 appeal from the ecclesiastical to the civil courts. The Archbishop 
 of Embrun attacked this statement and spoke of the Parliaments 
 as the " chimerical tribunals of the nation." The advocates, he 
 termed revolutionary, irreligious, blasphemous, disreputable, etc., 
 etc. The Bishop of Laon, in a pastoral charge, wrote that the 
 Faith was nearly extinguished and could only be revived by 
 delivering up part of the temporal power to the bishops. The 
 Archbishop of Paris, in his turn, laimched an ordinance, in which 
 lie denounced the forty lawyers as heretics, and maintained that 
 the bishops, by virtue of their divine appointment, had a co-active 
 power independent of all secular authority. In the end, the 
 Opinion was proscribed by Rome, and the Parliament ordered the 
 ordinance of the Archbishop of Paris to be suppressed until 
 further notice. Some months later he was authorised by the 
 Government to distribute it, whereupon the forty advocates pre- 
 tended that, by this act, the Ministry gave its sanction to the 
 accusation of heresy that had been made against them, and ab- 
 stained from pleading. All the members of their profession 
 followed their example. The hearings at the Parliament, the 
 Chatelet, and the Grand Council ceased simultaneously, and ten 
 of the barristers with their president were exiled. As they took 
 their departure from Paris, they were the recipients of a popular 
 ovation. The imprudence of an abbe^ who preached against the 
 advocates, and eulogised the Archbishop at the door of the Grand 
 Chamber, very nearly provoked a tumult. " It only requires one 
 fool to destroy a city," wrote Marais, apropos of this incident. 
 
 Some occurrences in a corner of Paris became, just then, a
 
 The French Revolution. 29 
 
 fresh cause of disturbance. A Jansenist deacon named Paris, who, 
 during his lifetime, had slept without sheets, eaten only vegetables 
 and given all his goods to the poor, died in 1727, after having 
 appealed and re-appealed to a Council General. Around his 
 tomb, miracles now took place. Women were seized with con- 
 vulsions, and paralytics were cured and walked. To the people, 
 this spectacle meant the condemnation by God not only of the 
 Bull, but of Rome and the bishops. The Ministry tried, without 
 success, to stay the course of this popular religious ecstasy. 
 Portraits of the blessed Paris were sold in the streets and his 
 life was printed. All this was "bad luck" for the Constitutionists. 
 At Rome a Decree of the Inquisition condemned the Life of 21. 
 Paris to be burned by the public executioner. When the news 
 of this condemnation reached France, it augmented the excite- 
 ment and multiplied the miracles. 
 
 At the time of the 'exile of the advocates, the Bishop of LaoH 
 had launched a most abusive mandate against the Parliament. 
 The offended magistrates decided neither to suppress nor burn it, 
 for the reason that suppression did not suppress, and hmTiing 
 created Cardinals, but they agreed to prosecute its writer before 
 his peers. The Minister, however, prevented this scandal, but 
 threatened to seize the Prelate's property, and revoke the 
 privilege granted to him, according to custom, of printing his 
 pastoral charges. 
 
 In the meantime, the Parliament having addressed a remon- 
 strance to the King on the subject of the last ordinance of the 
 Archbishop of Paris, the Monarch replied that he would never 
 permit any ecclesiastical interference with his authority, nor 
 would he prevent his Parliament from using, in this respect, the 
 power he had confided to it, for the upholding of the laws. Upon 
 this, the magistrates drew up the celebrated Decree of September 
 7th. In this act, taken word for word from the ancient ordi- 
 nances, they asserted that " the temporal power was independent 
 "of all other power, that to it alone belonged the task of 
 " coercing the subjects of the King, and that the Ministers of the 
 " Church were accountable to the Parliament, under the authority
 
 30 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 " of the Monarch, for the exercise of their jurisdiction." The same 
 evening, the Archbishop of Paris and several other prelates 
 hastened to Versailles to interview Cardinal Fleury ; and on the 
 following day a Decree of Council appeared quashing that of the 
 Parliament as drawn up " against the will of the King, and inter- 
 " fering with the power to make laws and rule his subjects, which 
 " belongs to His Majesty alone." Though neither the Decree of 
 the Parliament nor that of the Council had been printed, manu- 
 script copies were circulated among the public. No doubt there 
 would have been a disturbance if, in conformity to the usages of 
 the Courts, the Parliament had not j ust then gone into vacation. 
 As a measure of precaution, however, the Ministry had a Decree 
 cried in the streets, which threatened to treat as rebels all who 
 revived disputes concerning the Constitution. But, in spite of 
 this threat, nothing was talked of but the two powers. "One 
 " might have thought," wrote a contemporary, " that two collateral 
 '^powers did actually direct the State." Archbishops and bishops 
 still continued to publish mandates. Cardinal Fleury, desir- 
 ing to put an end to the agitation, lent an ear to a proposal 
 to organise a Coup d'Etat against the Jansenists. It was pro 
 posed to arrest about fourteen hundred persons — gentlemen of 
 the Court, priests, lawyers, and private individuals. There was 
 also talk of removing the tomb of '* Monsieur Paris," but the 
 Lieutenant of Police represented to the Cardinal the danger of the 
 latter proceeding, and the project was abandoned. Later on, 
 however, with the assistance of the military, the cemetery was 
 closed. 
 
 The hour arrived for the Parliament to resume its sessions. 
 The day of the re-assembly of the magistrates, a lettre de cachet, 
 forbidding them to deliberate upon the treatment by the Council 
 of their Decree of September 7th, was dispatched to them by 
 Fleury. 
 
 The magistrates, who suspected the contents of the letter, 
 refused to hear it read, and as the President informed them that 
 the communication of an order from the King ought to precede 
 all other business, they sat opposite to each other for several
 
 The Freiich Revolulioti. 31 
 
 hours, with folded arms. The following day they determined to 
 read the letter as well as another that not only confirmed the first, 
 but ordered the Proctor-General to denounce any members who 
 committed acts of disobedience. Upon this, Abbe Pucelle 
 cried out that if the King were at the Louvre, they ought, though 
 they bad to break down barricades to reach him, to proceed to 
 the steps of his throne, and lay their complaints before him. 
 Some one remarking that the King was at Marly, it was decided, 
 by acclamation, to go to him. Fifty magistrates journeyed, there- 
 upon, to Marly. They found no one to receive them but a groom 
 of the chamber, who ordered them, in the King's name, to go 
 back to Paris. They resigned themselves to the situation and 
 retired. Subsequently the first President was commissioned to go 
 to the King, and beg of him to permit the Parliament to address 
 their complaints to him. Louis XV. replied that he would be 
 obeyed, and turned his back on the President. The magistrates 
 then passed a resolution to the effect that they would lay their 
 representations before the King at a more opportune moment. 
 But the word "opportune " offended Cardinal Fleury, who took it 
 to mean " a time when he should be no more," and tlie Parliament 
 wns commanded to appear at Versailles. There it received a 
 reprimand, and after that, there were no more references made to 
 the Decree of September 7th. 
 
 But tranquillity was not yet restored. A fresh mandate of the 
 Archbishop of Paris condemned the " Ecclesiastical News," and 
 twenty-one priests refused to read the mandate from their pulpits 
 because in it the Bull was declared to be universally received by 
 the clergy. One newly-appointed priest was about to read it 
 before two thousand people, but, as soon as he drew the paper 
 from his pocket, his congregation rose in a body and rushed from 
 the church. The King sent an order to the Parliament to take 
 no cognizance of ecclesiastical affairs without first ascertaining 
 his intentions. This time the magistrates could not contain 
 themselves, and decided unanimously to resign their seats "sooner 
 than be so disgraced." The King commanded the attendance of 
 several of them at Compifegne, and there gave them decided evi-
 
 32 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 dences of liis displeasure. As the first President was about to 
 speak, he ejaculated, " Hold your tongue ! " and -when Abbe 
 Pucelle advanced, holding in his hand a written deposition of the 
 complaints of the Parliament, he said to the Secretary of State, 
 " Tear up that paper ! " The same day Pucelle was exiled. 
 When these affronts became known, the greatest consternation 
 prevailed in Paris. The Parliament, using the right which the 
 laws of the kingdom conferred upon it, declared that the mandate 
 of the Archbishop offended against the constitution of the realm 
 and prohibited its circulation. For fear that the Decree might be 
 cancelled, as that of September 7th had been, the magistrates had 
 it printed during a sitting. The Government quashed the Decree 
 and four members of the Parliament were exiled. Upon this all 
 the magistrates, save those of the Grand Chamber, tendered their 
 resignations. One hundred and fifty magistrates quitted the 
 Palais de Justice two by two. An enormous crowd collected and 
 cried out : " These are true Eomans, and the Fathers of their 
 Country ! " This move both sui-prised and embarrassed the 
 Ministry, and the magistrates were given to understand that the 
 King had resolved to degrade them from their nobility, to confis- 
 cate their seats and banish them thirty leagues from the royal 
 domains. At these threats, those who had yielded to the force 
 of example, rather than followed their own inclinations, talked of 
 an arrangement. The Government met them half way. Ad- 
 vances were made on both sides, and the Parliament resumed its 
 functions. Everyone felt, however^ that this truce meant only 
 a suspension of hostilities. 
 
 Following on to the re-installation of the magistrates, a 
 brochure appeared treating of the Origin and Authority of the 
 Parliament, and especially of the annulling by the King's Council 
 of parliamentary Decrees. " When there is a question to be con- 
 "sidered that affects the interests of the people," wrote the author 
 of the pamphlet, " it ought not to be decided upon by the King's 
 " Council. The King can contract with his people only in the 
 " midst of his Parliament, which institution is as old as the Crown 
 " itself, and the representative of the entire kingdom. The King's
 
 Tilt French Revolution. 33 
 
 " Council is a species of jurisdiction established in despite of the 
 " fundamental laws of the Monarchy. It has no public character, 
 " and when it quashes or invalidates the decrees of the Parliament, 
 " it commits an act of usurpation. The presence or absence of the 
 " King at his Council is a matter of little consequence ; it is not 
 " his business to destroy the laws ; the role of a sovereign is to 
 " maintain them. In doing so he fulfils his coronation oath and 
 " carries out the contract made with his people. As he cannot 
 " make laws without the concurrence of his Parliament, he ought 
 '• to put up with the refusals and remonstrances of that body, 
 '■ Magistrates, who abandon their rights of resistance before 
 " Royalty, abuse their trusts and become criminals." 
 
 The Parliament destroyed this pamphlet by a Decree. Its 
 impartiality in so doing reflected the greatest credit on that 
 assembly, for the magistrates must at heart have been in favour of a 
 brochure that not only defended their rights, but obviously tended 
 to give them the status of an assembly of representatives of the 
 Nation. Not only the rights, but the very existence of the Parlia- 
 ment was now threatened. Not daring to demolish it entirely. 
 Cardinal Fleury tried to lessen its power. On August 18th, 1732, 
 he sent a Declaration to the magistrates, in which he changed its 
 order and usages, limited its action and deprived it in part of its 
 right of remonstrance. It was on this occasion that a Chief Justice 
 remarked to the Keeper of the Seals, that by this means the fire 
 would be stirred up afresh. " There is no question of extinguishing 
 " the fire," replied the latter, " but of sustaining the royal authority, 
 *' which is all but played out." Many times did the Parliament 
 implore the King to withdraw the Declaration ; the Ministry, em- 
 boldened by the coming vacation, appeared resolute. On Sep- 
 tember 3rd, the Declaration was registered in a "Bed of Justice," 
 which all the magistrates were required to attend. On their 
 return to Paris, they issued a Decree proclaiming the " Bed of 
 Justice " null and void. The result was that thirty-nine of them 
 were seized " in a single haul." But they were no sooner banished 
 than the Minister began to fear the consequences. In the month 
 

 
 34 ^>^^ Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 of November — the usual time for the re-assombling of the Parlia- 
 ment — the letters of exile were revoked, the magistrates recalled, 
 and the Declaration itself withdrawn. Such a weak act, after the 
 previous rigorous measures, did not tend to raise the fallen prestige 
 of the Government. 
 
 Jansenist passions had been intensely excited, and the recall of 
 the magistrates did not appease them. Cardinal Fleury was 
 personally attacked in an exhaustive libel. The second order of 
 the clergy clamoured for the right to be heard on matters of Faith, 
 and works were published asserting it to be the prerogative of 
 sovereigns to interfere in the administration of the Church. The 
 Bishop of Montpelier prophesied an imminent revolution^ which 
 would set up a new Church as successor to the " present betrayed 
 and dishonoured one." 
 
 The Ultramontane party was not less excited. Its members 
 declared openly that they had no more to hope for from either 
 Government or Prince. In Sorbonne theses the powers ecclesiastical 
 were exalted above all temporal authorities. 
 
 In the face of this tumult, Fleury was anxious and irre- 
 solute, and the King, who was, it is true, only twenty-four years 
 of age, allowed all the cares of Government to devolve upon him. 
 The demand of the bishops for a National Council, in which the 
 Bull should be proclaimed an Article of Faith, only added to the 
 general confusion. 
 
 The grave events that were just then taking place in Europe 
 stopped the latter project. France was on the point of being 
 involved in a war. Wise men hoped that this conjunction of 
 cii'cumstances would create a salutary diversion. " Though war 
 " is a scourge," wrote one of these in the month of July, 1733, "we 
 "shall be indebted to it for the peace of the kingdom." 
 
 Yet it is to this period that Lacretelle, for want of documents 
 that have latterly become accessible, refers, when he writes in his 
 History of France in the 18th Century: "This period shows us 
 France unshaken ; it is one of those happy intervals that history 
 praises by its silence I "
 
 The French Revolution. 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Second Half of the Fleury Ministry. 
 
 (1733-1743.) 
 
 The Jansenist opposition, which had, under the Regency, been 
 confined to the domain of religion, was transferred at length to 
 political ground. The King's authority counted for very little 
 with either Janseuiits or Jesuits. Yet their disobedience did less 
 to imperil the power of the crown, than the inconsequent and 
 alternately weak and severe actions of the Minister. Not that 
 the principle of Monarchy was called into question, but disputes 
 were rife concerning the rights of the Monarch. Royalty laid 
 claim to its privileges in a series of Decrees of Council, and 
 though, in the sphere of politics, war had not actually broken out. 
 both sides were arming for the fight. 
 
 From the religious point of view, the situation was much more 
 serious than it had been ten years before. Detestation of Rome 
 and the Jesuits, distrust of the upper clergy, and the inclination of 
 the laity to exalt themselves into judges of the Faith, formed the 
 salient features of the revolutionary mental condition of the age. 
 Men called out that Faith was extinct, and the Church about to 
 perish, or become the prey of an imminent revolution. Signs of 
 dissolution were indeed manifesting themselves in the very heart 
 of Catholicism. With two parties claiming — each one to the ex- 
 clusion of the other — the possession of the Tnith, it was no 
 wonder that doubt and scepticism assailed men's minds. 
 
 The gravity of the situation not being universally appreciated, 
 the religious quarrels were made subjects of ridicule. Comic 
 songs, directed against both Jansenists and Jesuits, were heard 
 on all sides. This spirit of raillery, doubt, and schism
 
 36 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 fertilised the germs of unbelief. For the first time, the teim 
 "irreligious" was applied to the century. The introduction of 
 political discontent into this religious ferment induced the de- 
 velopment of those philosophical doctrines which were destined, 
 later on, to exercise so great an influence. These doctrines had 
 neither name nor flag, but they had begun to permeate public 
 opinion, and had their adepts in the " Men of Letters," who ranged 
 themselves in their battle against despotism upon the Jansenist 
 side and attacked religious questions first. But whilst the 
 Jansenists engaged in the fight in the cause of Faith, the littera- 
 teurs entered it in the name of Reason, Earlj in 1734, these 
 budding doctrinaires announced their existence in a work that 
 the Pai'liament condemned to be burned, as " calculated to intro- 
 duce a dangerous libertinism into religious and social life." This 
 work was the Philosophical Letters. Then, for the first time, the 
 name of Voltaire was inscribed' in a parliamentary edict, though, 
 three years before, his History of Charles XII. had been seized, 
 and his tragedy Zaire had but just been proscribed on account of 
 one or two truths contained in the preface. About the same time, 
 Montesquieu was on the point of being dismissed from the 
 Academy because Cai-dinal Fleury considered his Persian Letters 
 to be wanting in respect for the Government and for Religion. 
 In 1735, Voltaire noted the birth of the philosophical movement, 
 to which he was so soon to give a lasting impulse. " Everyone," 
 he wrote, " is beginning to study geometry and physics, and to 
 "dabble in reasoning. Sentiment, imagination, and the graces of 
 "life are banished. No one, who lived in the time of Louis XIV., 
 " would recognise the French, but would fancy that the Germans 
 " had conquered our country." The fever of argumentation, that 
 for twepty years had been promoted by the religious disputes, no 
 doubt contributed to this change. But Voltaire complained that 
 the philosophic quiet of the life he led was disturbed by the 
 " Holy Inquisition." " Since I am forbidden to write," he said, 
 "I will leave the Jansenists and Jesuits to damn each other, and 
 " the Parliament and Council to wear themselves out in formulating 
 " decrees, and be myself contented to think freely." But on the
 
 The French Revolution. T,y 
 
 occasion of the appearance of his Philosophical Letters, his house 
 was searched and he was obliged to quit Paris. Notwithstanding 
 the " Holy Inquisition " of which Voltaire complained, no action 
 on the part of the philosophers indicated a declared opposition. 
 During the whole of the second half of the Fleury ministry, they 
 only occasionally attracted the attention of the Government. 
 The Jansenists and Ultramontanes alone seemed capable of exciting 
 any great amount of interest. 
 
 The war that had been foreseen in July, 1733, broke out in the 
 following October. Austria had declared herself against the 
 election of Stanislas Leczinska to the Polish throne, and Louis 
 XV. took up the cudgels on behalf of his wife's relative. Apart 
 from the short skirmishes with Spain under the JElegency, this was 
 the first time, since the reign of Louis XIV., that French troops 
 had marched beyond their own frontiers. The novelty of the 
 event, and the opportunity afforded for the gratification of the 
 bellicose spirit of the Nation, caused the outbreak of the war to 
 be welcomed with a burst of enthusiasm. Yet there were some 
 persons who commented upon the fact that, after so many years 
 of peace, it was found necessary to increase the taxes to meet the 
 expenses of the war, and the Jansenists objected to support 
 Stanislas, who was known to be an ardent Constitutionist. In 
 place of the constitutionary quarrels, the popular songs had for 
 themes the Vsxxv and the Generals of the array. Public attention 
 was thus diverted from religious questions. Yet, all the time, the 
 clergy continued their disputes, and the Jansenist Bishop of 
 Montpelier again called attention to the miracles. Though the 
 public had been driven from the cemetery in which the remains 
 of M. Paris were intended, the women who had been there seized 
 with convulsions still gave way, in the presence of enormous 
 crowds, to transports of ecstasy, in which they became entirely 
 insensible to pain. These marvellous performances gave rise to 
 the formation of various religious sects, who abandoned them- 
 selves to all kinds of fanatical follies,, which did an infinity of 
 harm, not only to Jansenism, but to Religion itself. *' If in our 
 "day," remarked a contemporary, "individuals are seized with these
 
 38 The Revolutionary Spij'it preceding 
 
 " transpijrts, one can no longer wonder how, in former times, the 
 '• different cults arose. Politics were subsequently mixed np in 
 "them, and thus they became imperceptibly established faiths." 
 It was not long before such reflections as these were introduced 
 into philosophical writings. Religion was discredited on the one 
 hand by Jansenist extravagance, and on the other by the violent 
 recriminations of the Ultramontane party. In spite of the pre- 
 scribed silence regarding the two Powers and the Constitution, a 
 " letter to His Majesty from the archbishops and bishops " main- 
 tained that the silence ordered in regard to the Bull and the two 
 Poivers laid no obligations upon the ministers of the Church ; since 
 "except when it was expressly stipulated to the contrary, the 
 " bishops were never subservient to the requirements of an edict." The 
 letter stated also that, in conforming to that silence, the bishops 
 would have displayed a culpable indulgence for heresy, for though 
 tolerance might be a part of all other religions, it could never be 
 an attribute of Catholicism, which, being alone in the possession of 
 the truth, must reject all heresy with horror. 
 
 Since the beginning of the war with Austria, the Minister, who 
 did not wish to have the inconvenience of internal struggles added 
 to the anxiety of a war in foreign parts, was forced to hold the 
 balance between the two parties. This fact was signified in a 
 Decree of Council promulgated in 1736, which condemned a man- 
 date of the Bishop of Laon, together with a letter of the Bishop of 
 Montpelier,and in which it was stated that the King was resolved to 
 use all his authority to repress, without distinction, the efforts of 
 those who attempted to disturb the public peace This imparti- 
 ality, however, was more apparent than real. The Lieutenant of 
 Police, acting upon his instructions, burned all Jansenist brochures 
 and punished the printers by putting them in the pillory. But 
 suppression by Decree of Council was the worst fate reserved for 
 the letters, mandates, and instructions emanating from the other 
 side. Above all things, the Government tried to prevent parlia- 
 mentary interference, and to retain the sole cognizance of all 
 matters relating to ecclesiastical disputes. 
 
 In 1737 the war with Austria came to an end. As long as it
 
 The French Revolution. 39 
 
 had lasted, the public had concerned itself but little with the 
 Constitution. One occurrence, however, served to re-attract 
 attention to it. 
 
 A man clothed in a long cloak penetrated into a room at Ver- 
 sailles, where Louis XV. was dining, and remained in silence, 
 standing upon one side, until the King had finished his repast. 
 Then he threw himself at his feet and presented him with a book, 
 which he begged the Monarch, in the name of the Truth, which had 
 for so long been hidden from him, to read. The King accepted 
 the book, and was about to open it, when a gentleman-in-waiting 
 snatched it from his hand, exclaiming that it might be poisoned. 
 The man proved to be a member of the Parliament and an in- 
 fatuated Jansenist partisan. He was immediately seized and 
 taken to the Bastille. The book contained an account of the 
 miracles of the blessed Pai'is and a long epistle addressed to the 
 King, in which the author attacked Rome and the Jesuits, and 
 denounced the King's Ministers, who, he said, deceived his 
 Majesty in regard to the needs of Religion and the true interests 
 of the Crown. While admitting the absurdity of the step taken 
 by this magistrate, the Parliament protested against the rigorous 
 punishment to which he was subjected, and stated that it was the 
 privilege of all its members to be tried by their colleagues. The 
 Government paid no heed to their representations. From the 
 Bastille, the offender was transferred to a fortress one hundred 
 and fifty leagues distant from Paris, where he remained until his 
 death in 1754. In this unfortunate man the Jansenists recog- 
 nised a martyr for their cause. He had no sooner been incarcer- 
 ated in the Bastille than the Hotel Dieu ^ was burned to the 
 ground, and many inmates perished. A month later, a fresh con- 
 flagration destroyed the Ghamhre des Comptes.^ The Jansenists, 
 when accused of having caused these catastrophes, attributed them 
 to tlie vengeance of Heaven. In spite of the defections caused 
 by the growing scepticism of the age, the Jansenists still reckoned 
 among their numbers two-thirds of the population of Paris. 
 
 1 Chief Hospital of Paris. (Translator's Note.) 
 
 2 Treasury Court. ( Translator's Note. )
 
 40 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 In 1738, the increasing age and weakness of Fleury led people 
 to talk of his death as an event of the near future. Young 
 courtiers tried to persuade the King to get rid of his old tutor. 
 But the Minister, whose passion for power increased with his age, 
 employed the same methods to keep his office that he had once 
 used to obtain it. He became a more rigid adherent than ever of 
 Jesuitism, and, emerging suddenly from his apparent neutrality, 
 quashed a Decree of the Parliament that suppressed the papal 
 Bull canonising Vincent de Paul. The magistrates' opposition 
 did not arise from any lack of veneration for the memory of 
 Vincent de Paul, but from the fact that the author of the Bull 
 alluded to Rome as the absolute authority in matters of faith. 
 Fleury quashed also a Decree promulgated by the Parliament 
 against some theses of the Sorbonne, in which the liberties of the 
 Galilean Church were attacked. About this time, too, he changed 
 the personnel of the Grand Council, in order that all its members 
 might be of his way of thinking, and letters-patent ordered the 
 submission of all matters connected with the Jesuits to the juris- 
 diction of that body. Later on, it transpired that the Minister 
 proposed to transfer all ecclesiastical appeals to the Grand 
 Council. " This," wrote d'Argenson, " was not only robbing the 
 "parliamentary crown of its choicest gems, but it was substi- 
 " tuting Ultramontanism for those vaunted Galilean liberties that 
 "had been called the palladium of France." For a long time the 
 bishops had been planning this authoritative stroke, and they be- 
 lieved now that their fondest hopes were realised. In the mean- 
 time they experienced another satisfaction. 
 
 The appeal, which, in 1718, the University had preferred 
 against the Constitution, was still inscribed in its registers. 
 Fleury resolved to expunge it. Some of the members at once 
 announced their resolve to maintain their appeal. "We thought 
 " formerly," they wrote, " that the Constitution was detestable and 
 ''attacked the very core of religion ; we think so still." In May 
 1739, the ministerial design was consun^mated. The appeal was 
 erased from the register, and the Constitution accepted without 
 restriction or reserve. Eighty-four members of the University
 
 The Fretich Revolution. 41 
 
 publicly protested against this acceptance and were deprived of 
 their degrees. The Rector and thirty-four of the best professors 
 were turned out of their chairs. It was by such inconsiderate 
 acts as these that the Government itself made converts to philo- 
 sophical ideas. 
 
 At the same time that this blow was dealt at the University, all 
 the priests of the parish of St. Roch, who were suspected of 
 Jansenism, were suddenly removed. For the same reason, the 
 Superiors of the order of the Calvary, in Paris, Poitiers and other 
 towns were also suspended, and the order of the Oratory, which 
 continued faithful to the memory of Father Quesnel, was 
 threatened with suppression. Though these, and other still 
 more violent measures were persisted in, the members of the 
 Jansenist party increased visibly. Two reasons contributed to 
 the growing rigour of the treatment of those opposed to Ultra- 
 montauism. The despised and detested Archbishop of Embrun 
 had been created a Cardinal and was spoken of as the successor 
 to Fleury, while the latter looked forward to assuming papal 
 dignities, and sought to ensure his election as Pope by redoub- 
 ling his severities against the Jansenists. In his eagerness to 
 reach the utmost limit of power, he bethought himself of en- 
 listing Voltaire in his service, and requested him to write a book 
 against Jansenism. Voltaire consented, and began a series of 
 letters, which would doubtless have borne the same relation to 
 Jansenism that those of Pascal do to Jesuitism. But after com- 
 mencing the work, he realised that he was committing a dis- 
 honourable act and threw his manuscript in tlie fire. 
 
 All this time aggravated instances of the refusal of the last 
 sacrament and the rite of Christian burial to all who died appeal 
 ing against the Bull were continually occurring. 
 
 In May, 1740, Fleury was disappointed in his hopes concerning 
 the papal chair, and the zeal of the Ministry suddenly flagged. 
 As the conduct of the Government no longer greatly irritated the 
 Jansenist pnrty, excited passions were calmed. At this moment 
 two events of considerable gravity turned the attention of the 
 public from the religious quarrels. Throughout the reign the
 
 42 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 (iardinal's cheese-paring economies had kept the finances in fairly 
 good order. But his increasing age rendered it impossible for 
 him to exercise such strict surveillance as formerly, and in the 
 wake of a disorganised finance, famine stalked through t!ie land. 
 Since the year 1739, in Tours, Maine, Angoumois, Haut Poitou, 
 Perigord, and other provinces, men had been " dying off like 
 flies " after having been reduced to eat grass with the sheep. 
 In 1740, d'Argenson wrote that in two years, distress and hunger 
 had caused more deaths than had all the wars of Louis XIV. 
 On the 18th of September, as the King passed through the 
 Faubourg St. Victor to go to call on the Cardinal at Ivry, the 
 crowds in the streets cried : " Misere, Misere, give us bread," and 
 cursed the old Cardinal. Men, quite beside themselves with 
 want, threatened openly to burn the ofiices of the Comptroller- 
 General of Finance. 
 
 Just at this time, when wheat was being brought, at great 
 expense, from Poland, Naples, and Sicily, France was threatened 
 with a war with England, and set about strengthening her navy, 
 which had been long neglected. Though money was scarce, the 
 taxes were raised. These circumstances produced general dis- 
 satisfaction, and people wondered that the King did not dismiss 
 the Cardinal, who was in universal disfavour. But Fleury had 
 carefully fostered in his young pupil an indolence and timidity 
 that incapacitated him from reigning. Whilst want and hunger 
 depopulated his kingdom, Louis XV. amused himself with hunt- 
 ing-parties and fetes, or whiled away his time at Madame de 
 Mailly's side. His apparent indifference to public calamities 
 furnished the opponents of the Government with fresh grounds of 
 complaint. Even in foreign countries, his apathy was commented 
 upon. 
 
 The dreaded war broke out at last, but not on the side it had 
 been expected. In October, 1740, Charles V. died. Immediately 
 the entire court party cried out that the opportunity must be 
 taken to destroy the power of the great Austrian Empire. It was 
 resolved to support the Elector of Bavaria as a candidate for the 
 throne, and the following year, the French armies crossed the
 
 The French Revolution. 43 
 
 Rhine. This step was a final blow to the finances. Money was 
 scarcer than ever and bankruptcies were frequent. The taxes 
 were again raised, and a Declaration of August, 1741, levied a 
 further impost of one-tenth on all incomes. 
 
 The campaign was, at first, successful. Before a single battle 
 was fought, all Germany joined its voice to that of France, and 
 in January, 1742, the Elector of Bavaria was crowned Emperor. 
 But cruel reverses followed. The Minister had entered upon the 
 war with uncertain allies, and without any distinct plan or careful 
 forethought. His narrow and jealous despotism had deprived 
 France of all her generals, and the result was, that the French 
 armies were destroyed both in Bavaria and Bohemia. 
 
 No great battle was fought, and such feeble successes as the 
 armies did obtain were due entirely to Comte Maurice de Saxe, 
 who was an alien by birth and education. 
 
 But even the misfortunes of his armies did not rouse Louis XV. 
 from his inertia. In spite of the hatred that Fleury inspired, his 
 activity, which resisted all the inroads of age, won for him a certain 
 amount of admiration. For the King nothing but contempt was 
 felt. His morals became more and more iiregular. Other 
 favourites succeeded Madame de Mailly. Indeed, from that time 
 forward a certain dignity was attached to the post of King's 
 mistress. Public morality reflected this bad example. Licentious 
 writings multiplied to such an extent that a Decree of Council — 
 the first of its kind — was directed against all books offending 
 against good morals. 
 
 Cardinal Fleury was becoming gradually more and more en- 
 feebled. Some months before his death, however, he gave the 
 Ultramontane party a last proof of his favour. In 1742, the 
 Parliament had condemned a publication, in which it was stated 
 that a minister of the Church could not allow enemies of the 
 Constitution to approach the Lord's Table, without being guilty 
 of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The Government quashed 
 the ruling of the Parliament, declaring it to be an encroachment 
 upon the spiritual domain. In reality the Minister wanted to 
 show respect for the bishops, who, in 1740, had handed over to
 
 44 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 the Government a gratuity of over three millions, and had just 
 voted another of twelve millions. At the same time, Cardinal de 
 Tencin, whom Fleury had designated as his successor was 
 nominated Minister of State. 
 
 The Jansenists, who hated De Tencin even more than they hated 
 Fleury, were filled with indignation and dismay, and declared 
 loudly that Religion had received her death blow.
 
 TJic French Revohition. 45 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Government of Louis XV. 
 
 (1743-1751.) 
 
 On the 22ud of January, 1743, Cardinal Fleury breathed his last. 
 Dearth and war were his sole legacies to his country, for he left 
 her without a King and devoid of funds, generals, and ministers. 
 
 All hopes were centred in Louis XV. For three years the 
 Parliament had held its peace, waiting for the new regime. The 
 Nation flattered itself that its Sovereign, delivered from the 
 tutelage in which he had been kept so long, would repair the 
 disorders he had been unable to prevent. " The Cardinal is dead ! 
 Long live the King ! " was the cry in Paris on the day that 
 Fleury died. 
 
 It seemed indeed as if Louis XV. were going to respond to his 
 countr^f's hopes. "Gentlemen," he said, to the Secretaries of 
 State, who brought him the news of Fleury's death, " behold in 
 me the Prime Minister ! " 
 
 Cardinal de Fleury had made some attempts to effect a peace, 
 but his efforts had been unavailing. Louis XV. had Austria, 
 England, Holland, and Savoy arrayed against him. In face of 
 this coalition, he was constrained to augment his forces, and 
 France soon had 300,000 men under arms. An ordinance of the 
 King commanded the raising in Paris alone of 30,000 troops. 
 This ruthless sacrifice of human lives, together with the 
 news of a reverse, experienced by the French at Dettingen, gave 
 rise to general expressions of discontent. Complaints were 
 publicly made of the incapacity of the generals, the negligence of 
 the ministers, and the heartlessness of the King. In view of the 
 perils that menaced the State from without and within, Madame
 
 46 The Revohitiofiary Spirit preceding 
 
 de Tencin remarked: "Unless the hand of God intervenes, the 
 State must be overturned ;" and in July, 1743, d'Argenson wrote : 
 " Revolution is certain in this State." In 1733, a Revolution had 
 been presaged in the Church ; now, ten years later, one was 
 prognosticated in the State. 
 
 Renewed levies of troops and taxes increased the public anxiety. 
 Whilst irresponsible ministers played "double or quits" with the 
 destinies of the kingdom, Louis XV. issued letters-patent, con- 
 ferring on Madame de la Tournelle the duchy of Chateauroux. 
 The publicity given to these letters drew down upon the Monarcn 
 the most offensive criticisms. But when the King, emerging from 
 his long and culpable inertia, started in May, 1744, to place him- 
 self at the head of his armies, the discontent abated. The 
 activity and courage, which he so unexpectedly displayed, caused 
 a sudden alteration in the public disposition towards him, and the 
 deepest sympathy was excited by the news of his serious illness 
 at Metz. The posting-places of the messengers were besieged 
 for news, and his convalescence celebrated by every sign of 
 spontaneous rejoicing. By an unhoped-for piece of luck, the 
 successes of Maurice de Saxe — lately made Marshal of France — 
 caused the incapacity of the rest of the generals to be forgotten. 
 The victory of Fontenoy, which paved the way for the conquest 
 of Flanders, and at which Louis XV. and the Dauphin were present, 
 added to the Monarch's prestige. The Parliament sent a deputa- 
 tion to meet and compliment him on his return to the frontier, 
 and Voltaire celebrated the victorious King in a poem, of which 
 five editions were printed in ten days. 
 
 It seemed, at last, as if the new reign, so ardently longed for 
 by both Nation and Parliament, had begun. The Cardinal de 
 Tencin had been deceived in his hope of being made Prime 
 Minister, and the King had confided the department of foreign 
 affairs to the Marquis d'Argenson, a declared partisan of 
 tolerance. For some years, no Decrees of Council or Parliament 
 had been pronounced against writings concerning the Bull, and 
 the complete silence, so often contended for since 1715, was at 
 last obtained.
 
 The French RevohUion. 47 
 
 But these happy changes were of short duration. Louis XV., by 
 recalling the Duchess of Chateauroux, from whom he had been 
 publicly separated before the war, detracted from the prestige he 
 had just won. The Duchess dying suddenly, to her succeeded 
 another favourite — Madame d'Etoilles, who, as Madame de 
 Pompadour, was destined soon to reign as actual sovereign. 
 Thenceforward, the public antagonism to the Government re- 
 vived. In spite of continued military successes in Flanders and 
 Brabant, the Nation clamoured for peace. The glories of the 
 victories were obscured by the evils of prolonged warfare. 
 
 The quarrels between Jansenists and Jesuits, though inter- 
 rupted, had not been appeased, and Catholicism found herself face 
 to face with a powerful foe. The philosophic spirit, which had 
 been gradually developing since 1734, was about to demonstrate 
 its actual power. In July, 1746, the Parliament consigned to the 
 flames Voltaire's Natural History of the Soul, in which the 
 spiritualistic theory, that disconnects mind from matter, was com- 
 batted, and Diderot's Philosophic Thoughts, which placed all 
 religions on an equality, and concluded by renouncing every one 
 of them. In 1747 the Constitution cropped up again. The 
 Bishop of Amiens charged the priests of his diocese to refuse 
 sacraments to all opponents of the Bull, and the Parliament sup- 
 pressed his mandate. Emboldened by this act, an anonymous 
 writer in the Ecclesiastical Neivs attacked the Constitution, 
 saying that, " God had permitted Satan to prevail." The Upper 
 Chamber condemned this article to be burned, and, in his harangue, 
 the Advocate- General declared that the Constitution, being a law 
 of the Church and State, could not be attacked without an in- 
 fringement of the respect due to the two Powers. The magistrates, 
 who had no part in this action of the Upper Chamber, passed a 
 Decree correcting the assertions of the Advocate-General, and 
 maintaining the reservations that the Parliament had always 
 made in regard to the Constitution. The King commanded the 
 attendance of several of the magistrates at Versailles, and ex- 
 pressed to them his disapproval of their last Decree. " I have 
 " broken and annulled it by an order of my Council," he said, "and
 
 48 The Revohitionary Spi7Ht preceding 
 
 *' I forbid you to make any representations to me on the subject." 
 The Parliament did not attempt to remonstrate with the Monarch, 
 but this humiliation created in the magistrates a profound 
 feeling of resentment. 
 
 In 1747, war broke out again. During the six years it lasted, 
 the incessant levying of troops and taxes brought the distress in 
 the provinces to a climax. Country districts were depopulated, 
 commerce destroyed, and agriculture abandoned. In Languedoc 
 and Guyenne, the dearth occasioned more serious riots than those 
 that had occurred in the latter part of the Fleury ministry. The 
 resumption of hostilities necessitating the opening up of new 
 resources, the taxes were again raised, and loans obtained by 
 means of lotteries. But money was not required for the ai'mies 
 alone. Building and re-building were going on simultaneously at 
 Fontainebleaii, Choisy, and La Muette. The days of Cardinal de 
 Fleury's cheese-paring economies were passed ! Pleasure domin- 
 ated the court circle more absolutely than ever. Madame de 
 Pompadour had introduced the fashion of private theatricals, and 
 the courtiers were constantly occupied in dancing ballets and 
 learning parts. These expenses and frivolities, in the midst of 
 the universal distress, excited the wrath of the populace. To 
 d'Argenson — whose wisdom had been the cause of his recent dis- 
 missal from the Ministry — there occurred the preseijtiment of a 
 coming change in the political oi'der of France. " In view of the 
 "slight esteem in which Royalty is held," he wrote, in December, 
 1747, " will any one dare to take any steps towards the introduc- 
 " tion of a Republican Government ? I can detect no fitness for it 
 "among the people ; as to the nobility and the tribunals, so long 
 " accustomed to servitude, it is far from their thoughts. Yet ihene 
 ^' ideas are coming, and new customs make their way rapidly 
 " with the French." 
 
 By a remarkable coincidence, d'Argenson uttered these words 
 only a few months before Montesquieu published his Spirit of 
 Laws, which drew a parallel between the monarchial and republican 
 systems. The definition given in it of a Monarchy as aformof govern- 
 n\ent, in which " one alone governs but by fixed laws," was an in-
 
 The French Revolution. 49 
 
 direct criticism on the established system, which was devoid of all 
 rule and principle. Simultaneously with this book by Montes- 
 quieu, there appeared another, entitled Morals {Les Moeurs), which 
 proved to be the most aggressive work that the philosophical spirit 
 had yet inspired. "The proposition of this book," said the Advocate- 
 General d'Ormesson, " is to set up Natural Religion on the ruins of 
 " all outward forms of worship. The precepts and ceremonies of the 
 *' ancient law are censured in common with the rites and saci-a- 
 " ments of the new. It is insisted upon that, in matters of faith, 
 " man has hitherto been the dupe of ignorance and imposture, and 
 " the sport of political intrigue. Reason is exalted as the soveveign 
 "judge of Religion. Humility, mortification, penance, celibacy, 
 " the indissolubility of marriage, and all Christian virtues, are 
 " decried by the authoi', who endeavours, before all, to deny the 
 "consequences of sin and the eternity of punishment in another life. 
 "He even censures the penalty which human justice, attaches to 
 " the crimes of theft and homicide." ^ The Parliament consigned 
 the book to the flames ; but this action only pi-omoted its popu- 
 larity. All men and womea, who prided themselves on their in- 
 telligence, desired to read it. The sensation it produced testified 
 not only to the disapproval felt in certain quarters of the severe 
 acts of the Government, but also to the growing favour with 
 which public opinion regarded the doctrines of Philosophy. 
 
 In May, 1748, the news reached Paris that, in consequence of 
 the Congress, held at Aix-la-Chapelle, the preliminaries for peace 
 had been arranged. This intelligence was received at first with 
 delight. But when it became known that France was not to retain 
 any of the towns she had conquered, and, moreover, that she was 
 to receive absolutely no recompense for all her sacrifices, the 
 people were filled with indignation at the conduct of the Govern- 
 ment in allowing the blood and money of the country to be thus 
 cruelly wasted. The Government sought in vain to gain the good 
 opinion of the public by organising a fete to celebrate the peace. 
 The Ministry even suppressed some taxes, and thus showed plainly 
 that it feared a popular demonstration. But the Nation desired 
 ^ Death was the penalty of both crimes. (Translators Xote.)
 
 50 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 something more than this. The King had promised to abolish, at the 
 conclusion of the war, the income-tax of the one-tenth. Now that 
 peace was proclaimed, thepeople, acting upontheirown judgment, re- 
 fused to pay this tax. Letters were printed and pushed under the 
 doors of houses, calling upon everyone to join in the refusal. Tlie 
 Ministry asked the Parliament to commit these " seditious writings" 
 to the flames. The magistrates, who were themselves opposed to 
 the tax, refused. The Parliaments of Aix, Pau, Bordeaux, and 
 Toulouse went a step further and forbade the tax-payers to tender 
 and the collectors to exact payment of the one-tenth, under penalty 
 of corporal punishment. In the face of this agitation, the Govern- 
 ment felt bound by its promises, and without yielding entirely, 
 endeavoured to pursue a medium course. An Edict, reducing the 
 one-tenth to a twentieth, was submitted to the Parliament. The 
 magistrates rejected it. Louis XV. intimated that ha would be 
 obeyed, and the Parliament submitted. To rid themselves of all 
 responsibility, the magistrates inscribed on their, registers that 
 they conformed at " the express desire of the King." But the 
 public desired the abolition and not the reduction of the tax, and 
 continued to complain. Men's minds were in such an acrimonious 
 condition that whatever the Government did was taken in bad 
 part. The peace, the taxes, the King's expenses, his pleasures, and 
 his mistresses were all shocking and revolting. 
 
 The ferment had not subsided whei\ a fresh cause of trouble 
 arose. The new Archbishop of Paris, Christophe de Beamont, had 
 begun to issue lettres de cachet against the clergy of his diocese — 
 sometimes to banish them from their parishes, and sometimes to 
 interdict them in the performance of their duties. Li the end he 
 ordered that all persons should be deprived of the Holy Com- 
 munion, who could not present a " ticket of confession," signed by 
 a priest^ who adhered to the Constitution. Coffin, the former Rector 
 of the University, and a devoted Jansenist, was the first to ex- 
 perience the effects of this order. When upon his deathbed, his 
 parish priest refused to administer the Sacrament to him, and he 
 expired without receiving it. Over four thousand people of all 
 classes went to his funeral and, by their action in so doing, protested
 
 The French Revolution. 51 
 
 against the rigorous measures of the Archbishop. A nepliew of 
 the deceased — a lawyer of the Chatelet — made an appeal to the 
 Parliament, founded upon the Opinions of nearly sixty barristers. 
 The King arrogated the cognizance of the matter to himself, and 
 a Decree of Council suppressed the Opinions of the advocates. 
 This Decree, which seemed to accord the bishops full licence to 
 play havoc with the constitution of the Ciiurch, served also to 
 kindle men's passions. Hostility to the Government broke out 
 with renewed force in discourses and libels. Some "horrible" 
 verses, referring to the King, were circulated. They began " Shade 
 of Ravaillac,^ Awake !" When Louis XV. heard them, he said: 
 " I can see very plainly that I shall die as Henri IV. did." A 
 great many arrests were made. The gates of the Bastille, of the 
 Castle at Vincennes and of For L'Eveque were opened wide for 
 ahbes, savants, brilliant intellects, professors of the University 
 and doctors of the Sorboune, all accused of writing or reciting 
 verses against the King, casting reflections on the Government, 01 
 publishing books in favour of Deism, and contrary to good morals. 
 Diderot was one of the first arrested, and it was during his deten- 
 tion that he conceived the plan of his Encyclopedia.- 
 
 The Government having supported the Episcopate in its refusal 
 of the Sacraments, confidently anticipated a return of civilities from 
 that body. The difl&culty in regard to taxation had led the 
 Ministry to cast their eyes on the enormous riches of the clergy, 
 who possessed aboiit a third of the wealth of the entire kingdom. 
 The subsidies gratuitously tendered by the clergy were thought 
 to be insufficient, and it was proposed to impose upon them the 
 tax of the twentieth. This plan was not at all to clerical taste. 
 In a printed memorial that appeared in 1750, the bishops re- 
 called the Declaration of 1726 — by which the Government had 
 admitted that all ecclesiastical property was held by divine 
 authorisation — and respectfully suggested to the King that he 
 was breaking his word. The Ministry had felt confident of the 
 support of the inferior clergy, for upon them the bishops laid the 
 whole burden of the subsidies. But esprit de corps and love of 
 1 The Jesuit assassin of Henri IV. ( Translator's Note. )
 
 52 The Revohitionary Spirit preceding 
 
 privilege overcame the enmity which the second order bore 
 the first, and the two bodies joined forces to resist the Govern- 
 ment, The bishops' memorial took effect. In a treatise, pub- 
 lished under the form of a series of letters, it was demonstrated 
 that the Monarch had a i-ight over the "goods" of the clergy, and 
 that the immunities, of which chese boasted, were only usurpa- 
 tions. This treatise was suppressed by a Decree of Council, the 
 double object of which was to give satisfaction to the liishops, 
 and to attract public attention to the letters which had been 
 published upon the suggestion of the Comptroller-General him- 
 self. Two months later the Government decided that the bisliops 
 and all mortmain corporations i,gens de mainmorte^) should 
 make a full statement of the amount of their possessions. The 
 bishops addressed a letter to the King, the audacity of which 
 testified to their sense of their own power. '' We will never," 
 they said, " permit that which has hitherto been the gift of our 
 "love, to become the tribute of our obedience." From that 
 moment the two Powers were " at dagrers drawn.' " 
 
 Strange to say the Government did not, in this matter, receive 
 the Nation's support. Men saw clearly that its conduct was not 
 dictated by a desire for reformation, but by the need of money 
 ■which, when once obtained, would be absorbed by the Treasury or 
 the Court expenses, and not spent in alleviation of the condition 
 of the country. In the few provinces, that had preserved their 
 right to convoke the "States," the Assembly of the three orders- 
 pronounced against the tax of the twentieth. The Government 
 then threatened to deprive these provinces of their right. An 
 eloquent brochure — attributed by some to Montesquieu, and by 
 
 1 GcTia de mainmorte — all corporations and communities (more often 
 ecclesiastical than lay) which, by the substitution of persons, were always 
 existent, and consequently the perpetual owners of land, serfs, &c. ( Trans- 
 lator's Note. ) 
 
 2 Trois ordres or dtats — the three " states." The first two included 
 the nobility and clergy ; the third, all free men, small landowners, free 
 tenants, citizens, and bourgeoisie. The lower orders, being serfs or villains, 
 Vere not recognised at all. { Translator's Note.)
 
 The French Revolution. 53 
 
 others to the Marquis de Mirabeau — on the " Utility of the 
 ' States ' of the Provinces " replied to this threat. The Paris 
 Parliament, which had been reproached for agreeing to the tax. 
 raised its voice at last, and seized the occasion of the renewal of 
 certain taxes to remonstrate with the King in terms he was 
 little accustomed to hear, concerning the distress of the people 
 and the prodigality of the Court. 
 
 In the meantime, events took place in Paris which might have 
 had most serious consequences. The Government, wishing to in- 
 crease the population of some of the colonies, had dispatched 
 thither batches of " unfortunate " girls and vagrants. Later on 
 the police — no doubt exceeding their instructions — carried off 
 some of the children of the working-classes. As soon as these raida 
 became known, there occurred a more violent revolt than any that 
 had taken place throughout the reign. Several constables of the 
 police were killed. The crowd swooped down upon the house of 
 the Lieutenant of Police, and, in its fury, would have murdered 
 him, had he not saved his own life by surrendering to the rioters 
 one of his officers. During this period of excitement, the people 
 talked of burning Versailles, which, they said, had been erected at 
 their expense. The Government, not wishing to assume the re- 
 sponsibility of the reprehensible action of the police, refused to 
 believe in the culpability of its agents and hanged three of the 
 rioters. Strenuous precautions were taken to protect the hang- 
 man in his work. Just as the execution was about to take 
 place, some voices cried " Mercy ! " and the military immediately 
 charged the crowd with theit bayonets. The injustice and cruelty 
 of this denouement sowed fresh seeds of hatred among the lower 
 orders. The upper classes, while they pitied the three victims, were 
 not sorry to see them made an example of. " We must not let the 
 people know their power," they said. For the first time a pre- 
 sentiment of coming disaster* was generally felt. 
 
 Discontent was rampant ; yet, though all classes complained 
 aloud of the Government, the police could only spy upon the 
 people. If they had begun to make ai-rests, they would have had 
 to take the whole of Paris into custody. According to d'Argenson,
 
 54 Th'i Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 the spirit of revolt was eating " like gangrene " into the national 
 life. People began to hold their own opinions concerning the 
 Government, and to claim that the men who were invested with 
 public authority " ought to repay " the Nation by bestowing upon 
 it " abundance, happiness, and justice." The introduction into the 
 language of new forms of expression was not without its signifi- 
 cance. The King received frequent sinister warnings. " Thou 
 "goest to Choisy. Have a care that thou goest not to St. 
 " Denis,"^ were words printed on some bills posted inside the Palace 
 of Versailles. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1751, another case of a refusal 
 of the Sacrament to a prominent Jansenist, denounced by 
 the Parliament, but supported by the Government, increased 
 the antagonism of the people to the superior clergy. Persons, 
 the least disposed to take part in the discussions, gave it as their 
 opinion that it was " dangerous thus to control all liberty of cou- 
 " science, and that persistence in such a system of intolerance might 
 " be the cause, one day, of a revolution in favour of Protestantism." 
 At the same time severe measures were prescribed against the 
 Protestants. Special pains were taken to show the clergy that the 
 Government's designs on their property would not diminish its 
 zeal for the faith. But, in the estimation of the bishops, an at- 
 tack on the temporality of the Church was equivalent to an assault 
 on Religion itself. A Papal brief having implicitly condemned the 
 intentions of the Ministry, the Government feared opposition from 
 Rome and began to parley with the bishops. Instead of the en- 
 forcement of the " twentieth," an arrangement was arrived at, 
 whereby the clergy's gift was increased to an annual payment of 
 ten millions. In default of the resources anticipated from the 
 clergy, the Government was thrown back upon the Nation. Not 
 daring to create new taxes, it had recourse to the issue of a loan. 
 Three times did the Parliament remonstrate with the King con- 
 cerning this step, but the Edicts creating the loan were finally 
 registered " at the King's express command." Though this regis- 
 
 ^ The burial vaults of the Kings of France are in St. Denis Cathedral,
 
 The French Revolution. 55 
 
 tration was only effected by a majority of ten votes, the public 
 took it iu bad part. Everyone commented upon the immoderate 
 expenses of the Court. The incessant journeyings, the fetes^ pla3'S, 
 and the constant building and rebuilding of palaces, together with 
 the gifts and pensions accorded by the Crown, absorbed such 
 enormous sums, that, without paying his household expenses, and 
 owing two years' pay to the various Parliaments, Louis XV. spent 
 in one year the revenues of the next. It was no longer mere 
 prodigality, the people said, it was pillage. 
 
 A dispute, most imprudently promoted by the Archbishop oi 
 Paris, followed hard upon the issue of the loans. This Prelate 
 wished to have the control of the ecclesiastical appointments to 
 the Paris hospitals, which control had previously been in the 
 hands of the administration, and he obtained from the King a De- 
 claration changing the regulations of these establishments. The 
 Parliament registered the Declaration with restrictions that altered 
 its spirit. The King annulled the restrictions by a Decree of 
 Council and informed the magistrates that, though he permitted 
 their remonstrances, he had not given them the right to introduce 
 modifications that completely changed the character of his Edicts. 
 The magistrates dared to reply that, " according to the funda- 
 " mental laws of the State, modifications introduced into Decrees at 
 " their registration remained inseparable to them." 
 
 The political questions that these debates gave rise to soon 
 obscured their original cause. As in 1732, the magistrates 
 threatened to send in their resignations, and in the Court circle 
 there was talk of suppressing the Parliament altogether. Called 
 upon, on several different occasions, to register the Declaration in 
 its entirety, the magistrates persisted in their refusal. 
 
 The King, in his annoyance, arrogated the cognizance of all 
 matters connected with the hospitals to himself and forbade the 
 magistrates to take any notice of them. More than this, ho 
 demanded to see the parliamentary registers, and with his owu 
 hand erased all records of the matter. The magistrates ceased 
 their functions. The Ministry, anticipating trouble, hastened to 
 announce a diminution of taxes. This precipitate act betokened
 
 56 The Revolutio7tary Spirit preceding 
 
 fear on the part of the Government ; nevertheless, at the King's 
 injunction, the Parliament resumed its duties, but maintained its 
 right of deliberation, prohibited the removal of its registers in the 
 future, and retracted none of its previous protests. Upon this the 
 Government, by letters-patent, transferred the surveillance of the 
 hospitals to the Grand Council. These letters were issued 
 privately for fear of displeasing the public. The whole affair 
 lasted several months and occupied the attention of all Paris, 
 including even the common people. The Parliament itself seemed 
 inspired with the spirit of revolt. 
 
 Public sentiment could be fairly gauged by the complete in- 
 difference of the populace to the announcement of the birth of a 
 son to the Dauphin. On the occasion of the files tliat celebrated 
 this event, Louis XV. showed himself on the balcony of the 
 Town Hall, but not a cheer was raised. The officers of the guard 
 threw money among the people, telling them to shout, but with 
 no result. Even the strangers in Paris remarked the silence. It 
 was obvious that " the people no longer loved the Kings whom they 
 had loved so long." When the Dauphin and Dauphiness went to 
 Notre Dame to thank God for giving them a son, they found 
 themselves surrounded by two thousand women, some of whom 
 cried: ''Give us bread, we are dying of hunger!" and others, 
 " Dismiss the harlot who governs the nation. If she remain there 
 " will soon be nothing left of us to preserve as relics." 
 
 In the provinces the distress had reached a climax and was 
 occasioning riots in Rennes, Bordeaux, Languedoc, and Toui-aine. 
 At Aries troops of armed peasants presented themselves at the 
 Town Hall and demanded bread. At the same time, threatening 
 placards multiplied against Louis XV. and the Pompadour. 
 
 In the face of this critical situation the necessity for a change 
 in the political regimen of France was widely felt. Among men 
 of reflective minds it was a frequent subject of discussion, and 
 the method of this change was expressed in the one word 
 Eevolution. 
 
 " Nothing is talked of but the necessity for a speedy Revolution," 
 wrote d'Argenson in May, 1751. Many who were averse to all
 
 The French Rcvoluiioit. 57 
 
 forms of violence judged it impossible for a reform to be carried 
 out by pacific means. But there were others who thought a 
 Eevolution could be affected by acclamation ; so widespread was 
 the discontent. The country was in such an inflammable state that 
 any riot might have been transformed into a rebellion and that 
 rebellion into a Revolution. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding that Republican ideas were already enter- 
 tained, it was not proposed to do away with Royalty, but to 
 circumscribe its power. The theory held was that princes reigned 
 over their people by virtue of a contract, real or supposed, which 
 both parties were bound to respect. One of the reforms most 
 wished for was the restriction of the King to a civil list, after the 
 manner practised in England. It was desired above all to separate 
 the Ministry from the pernicious influences of the Court. The 
 alterations proposed for the general political condition consisted 
 in the introduction of Government by Provincial States and States- 
 General. It was the aim of the reformers to re-establish on a 
 wide basis the institutions that Royalty had itself overthrown. 
 These proposals were freely discussed in public places. One day 
 a monk overheard two persons talking in the gardens of the 
 Luxembourg. One said; " It is most opportune that the Govern- 
 " raent oppresses the clergy ; these violent measures hasten the 
 " Revolution." 
 
 At the time these words were utter^-d, Voltaire was in Prussia 
 at work on his Century of Louis XIV.; Diderot had produced only 
 one volume of the Encyclopedia ; seven years were to go by before 
 Helvetius published his book on The Mind ; Rousseau was only 
 known by the discourse which procured him the prize at the 
 Dijon Academy ; Raynal was but just emerging from obscurity ; 
 Grimm had not begun h\^ Literary Correspondence ; d'Holbach had 
 written nothing, and BufFon had published only three or four 
 volumes of his Natural History. These facts completely falsify 
 the statements, so often made, that the philosophers were the 
 instigators of the Revolution.
 
 58 The Revolutmtary Spirit preceding 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Government of Lotas XV. 
 
 (1752-1754.) 
 
 The general excitement of the times had transformed France into 
 a theatre, where unexpected scenes continually succeeded each 
 other, and hurried on both actors and spectators, with ever in- 
 creasing swiftness, to a final denouement. 
 
 In January, 1752, the Sorbonne, which still went by the 
 invidious name of the "carcass," condemned a thesis which it had 
 previously applauded, but which, after a more careful examina- 
 tion, it deemed heretical. This thesis' was a dissertation by the 
 Abbe de Prades, one of the collaberators of the Encyclopedia. 
 In one of his propositions, the author maintained that the 
 miracles of Jesus Christ, apart from the prophecies which 
 announced His mission, no more proved the truth of Religion than 
 the cures of iEsculapius did. The affair was considered serious 
 enough to demand the intervention of the Archbishop of Paris. 
 " People no longer confine themselves," wrote the Prelate in his 
 mandate, " to attacking single dogmas of Christianity, they glory 
 *'in opposing all its mysteries. Every year impious brochures, de- 
 " testable libels, and volumes filled with errors and blasphemies 
 " appear. Some audacious writers have concerted together to con- 
 "secrate their talents and their labours to the preparation of poisons, 
 " and they have, perhaps, succeeded beyond their expectations." 
 These last lines were directed against the authors of the Ency- 
 clopedia. It could not have been stated in clearer terms that 
 Catholicism, with its dogmas and mysteries, was being menaced 
 by public opinion. All possible publicity was given to this man- 
 date. It was cried iq the streets and "sold cheap." Similar
 
 The French Revolution. 59 
 
 mandates by other bishops also appeared. Never had writings of 
 that nature created such u, sensation. The Abbe's thesis became 
 the common topic of conversation. Wise men regretted the pub- 
 licity that spread abroad the knowledge of doctrines hostile to 
 Religion. " The thesis had been condemned by the Sorbonne," 
 they said; "that should have sufficed. The Encyclopedia 'iB a rare 
 '^ book, expensive, and treating of abstract subjects. It could only 
 "have been read by men of intellect and scientific propensities, the 
 " number of whom is small. What is the good of a mandate that 
 " whets the curiosity of the faithful, and instructs them in methods 
 ** of reasoning which may turn them ultimately into philosophers ? " 
 The mandate had been issued at the instigation of the Jesuits, 
 who, in casting reflections upon the Abbe, wished to discounten- 
 ance the Encyclopedia. Nevertheless, the second instalment of 
 that work was published, but there appeared immediately a 
 Decree of Council suppressing both volumes. " His Majesty 
 " notes," so ran the Decree, " that in these two volumes are inserted 
 " various maxims tending to the destruction of the Royal authority, 
 "to the establishment of a spirit of independence and revolt, and, by 
 " use of equivocal terms, to the laying of the foundation stones of 
 " error, corrupt morals, irreligion,and scepticism." The formulation 
 of these sweeping statements was another Jesuit task. The 
 Ministry did more than suppress the Encyclopedia. A lettre de 
 cachet laid Diderot under the obligation of delivering up all the 
 manuscripts of his great work, but he — having no desire for a 
 second term of imprisonment — left Paris in haste. 
 
 In the end the Jesuits triumphed. Their object in raising the 
 storm had been to reduce to silence all the first authors in Paris, 
 and to start a similar inquisition in the realm of thought to that 
 they had already established in the domain of conscience. It was 
 the Jesuits who had overruled the Ministry in the dispute about 
 the " twentieth." It was they also, who, in the recent debates 
 upon the subject of the hospitals, had backed up the Archbishop 
 and humiliated the Parliament. At Court, where they had 
 managed • to regain their ascendancy, they had allies in the 
 princes of the blood and the majority of the ministers. They
 
 6o The Revohttionary Spirit preceding 
 
 had also won over to their cause Madame de Pompadour, wlio 
 was, at this time, playing the devotee, and who had submitted to 
 their decision the grave question whether she might continue to 
 live with the King as his " friend " after having been his mistress. 
 In March, 1752, the last Sacrament was refused to an aged priest 
 — Le Mere — because he was unable to produce a " ticket of con- 
 fession," This refusal led to a train of circumstances similar to 
 those that had occurred at the demise of the former Eector of the 
 University. In the end, the poor old priest died without having 
 received the Viaticum, and the King upheld the Archbishop in 
 the action he had persisted in taking. This affair produced a 
 disturbance in Paris greater than any that had occurred since 
 the times of the civil wars. " There was stirred up," wrote 
 d'Argenson, " a feeling of hatred for the King and contempt of 
 " the Government that foreboded nothing but ill." Four thousand 
 persons had attended Coffin's funeral, ten thousand were present 
 at chat of Le Mere. 
 
 The obsequies were barely concluded when other refusals of 
 Sacraments took place. The magistrates, in remonstrating with 
 the King, called his attention to the disorders which the Con- 
 stitution had introduced into the Church, and pointed out that 
 these disorders were the causes of the rapid increase of impiety. 
 They complained, too, that the bishops, in the name of a Bull, 
 that openly attacked the liberties of France, were raising " the 
 "standard of schism." "Nothing," they declared, "was more 
 " threatening to a State than religious dissension?', and, for their 
 " part, they were determined to continue to draw attention to the 
 " perils of the situation." The first President, in a consultation 
 that he had with Louis XV., said to him, with tears in his eyes : 
 " Sire, you are being deceived ; you should know the truth. 
 " Schism dethrones Kings more easily than whole armies can uphold 
 " them." The magistrates did more than remonstrate. Assured of 
 the support of public opinion, and that of the provincial Parlia- 
 ments, they resolved to act. On the 18th of April, they issued a 
 standing order forbidding "all ecclesiastics to coumiit any act 
 " tending to promote schism, and especially that of refusing Sacra-
 
 The French Revolution. 6i 
 
 " ments in default of presentation of ' tickets of confession,' or 
 " submission to the Unigenitus Bull." The penalty for those who 
 disobeyed this order was prosecution as disturbers of the public 
 peace, and punishment according to the full rigour of the law. 
 This Decree was put through the press the same night that it 
 was drawn up, and, at five o'clock the following morning, it was 
 posted at all the street comers. The public received it with 
 transports of delight. Ten thousand copies were sold in Paris 
 alone. Every purchaser called it his " ticket of confession," and 
 some had their copies framed. In the face of this demonstration, 
 the Government did not venture to overrule the magistrates' 
 Decree, but, in the desire to propitiate both parties, ordered a 
 general silence in regard to the matter. The magistrates decided to 
 send a "grand deputation " to inform the Monarch that the Parlia- 
 ment, " animated by that fidelity, which does not hesitate^ in 
 " order to serve its Sovereign, to express at times its indignation at 
 *' the King's conduct, was determined to relinquish its functions 
 " sooner than let the Archbishop pursue unpunished his schismatic 
 " manoeuvres." The Monarch's response was composed of denuncia- 
 tions and threats. The magistrates registered it, but passed a 
 Decree maintaining the liberty of their resolutions. All sections 
 of the public approved the resistance of the magistrates and 
 violently attacked the conduct of the Archbishop. When the 
 " grand deputation " returned to Paris, the people gathered in 
 crowds on the quays and clapped their hands as the magistrates 
 passed. Whilst this agitation was going on, disturbances of 
 another kind were occurring throughout the kingdom. Fresh 
 revolts, occasioned by the scarcity of bread, broke out at 
 Languedoc, Guyenne, Auvergne, Dauphin^ and Normandy, and 
 the Government had to send troops to Rouen and Mans against 
 the rioters. Everything conspired to inflame the passions of the 
 populace. 
 
 The clergy became at length so greatly exasperated by the 
 growing audacity of the Parliament, that, they tried by all means 
 in their power to alienate the public sympathy from it. In the 
 provinces, many bishops preached publicly against the magistrates.
 
 62 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 On the 10th of June, nineteen prelates united in signing a 
 petition, begging the King to punish the men who had dared to 
 call the Archbishop of Paris a schismatic. The Parliament replied" 
 to these attacks by issuing Decrees against all " writings " of the 
 bishops. In the same month, it burned a Latin manifesto, attri- 
 buted to the Archbishop of Paris, that commenced with the 
 words, Ira Dei ascendit super nos. In this the clergy were 
 charged to remember that " all the laws of the secular powers 
 " that were opposed to the precepts and authority of the Church 
 " were usurpatory and criminal," and that " God was to be obeyed 
 "befoi-e man." Ridicule found a part in these agitations. In a 
 libel entitled, "Petition of the farmers-general of this realm to 
 "the King," it was suggested that the "tickets of confession" 
 should be issued on stamped paper and subjected to the control 
 of the authorities. The King, so the libel affirmed, would thus 
 be more thoroughly assured of the piety of his subjects, and an 
 abundant source of revenue would be obtained for the Treasury. 
 Besides this, the "tickets of confession " were compared to "per- 
 mits of transit," and it was added that, if they had existed in 
 olden times, no doubt Jesus would not have given the communion 
 to Judas. This squib obtained such a success that copies were 
 circulated freely in Paris, the provinces, and abroad. 
 
 Every day complaints reached the magistrates of fresh refusals 
 of the Sacraments. In order to give more importance to its 
 deliberations, the Parliament never sat unless all chambers were 
 assembled. Thus united, it became a national body, so far ap- 
 proximating the ideal of the States-General and the English Parlia- 
 ment. On the 19th of August it issued a Decree of banishment 
 from Paris for threeyears against a curateof the parish of St. ^tiennc 
 du Mont. This daring order was quashed by a Decree of Council 
 that was cried in the streets on the 22nd. The same day, and at 
 the same hour, the Parliament had its Decree cried, so that both 
 Edicts were being piiblished at once, as if they were the productions 
 of " two equal powers that overlapped in their operations." The 
 following day the parliamentary Decree was cried again, and a 
 fresh edition printed — the supply of copies not being equal to
 
 The French Revolution. 63 
 
 the demand. The likely consequences of all this disorder did not 
 escape the notice of men of reflective minds. " Bit by bit every- 
 " thing is going," wrote d'Argenson. "Public opinion stirs, it 
 •' grows, it strengthens, and may bring about a national revolution." 
 The bishops, having just voted to the Government the "free 
 gift " of eleven millions, took advantage of the Parliament being 
 in vacation to solicit anew the annulling of the Decree of April 
 18th, which offended equally against their authority, their honour, 
 and their religion. The Government yielded to their wishes and, 
 by a decision of Council, quashed the Decree as encroaching on 
 the legislative power "that belongs to the King alone." But the 
 orders, which had sprung from this Decree, were not cancelled, 
 and the Parliament was allowed to retain the cognizance of all 
 abuses of office, of which the clergy might be found guilty. This 
 decision pleased neither bishops nor magistrates. As soon as the 
 latter had resumed their sessions, they found the Ira Dei ascendit, 
 which they had condemned to be burned in the previous July, 
 posted in the sacristies of all the Paris churches. The refusal of 
 Sacraments began again with renewed vigour. A priest, having 
 refused the Viaticum to a Sister Perpetue of the community of 
 St. Agatha, the Parliament ordered his arrest, and requested the 
 Archbishop of Paris to provide without delay for the administra- 
 tion of the Sacrament to the dying woman. This request not 
 being complied with, the Parliament convoked the assemblage of 
 his peers to judge the Archbishop and ordered the seizure of his 
 "goods." The King evoked the matter, granted the prelate the 
 right to replevy his property and forbade the peers to assemble. 
 Shortly afterwards, upon the demand of the Archbishop, he 
 ordered Sister Perpetue to be seized by the police. This time 
 the Episcopate appeared to triumph. Again and again the magi- 
 strates protested against the act of violence of which the Sister 
 had been the object. In regard to the Archbishop, they main- 
 tained that he could be tried only by his peers, and the King, in 
 constituting himself the judge, broke the laws of his country. It 
 was thus that simple questions of catechism degenerated not only 
 into religious quarrels, but into differences of opinion on matters
 
 64 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 of law. The first President, who, upon these several occasions, 
 was made the spokesman of the Parliament, assumed the attitude 
 of the leader of a revolt, who received his authority from the 
 Nation and not from the King. 
 
 The Parliament soon entered into another dispute with the 
 Crown. A refusal of the Sacraments took place at Orleans, and the 
 bishop of the diocese was ordered to pay a fine of six thousand 
 livres. The King immediately evoked the affair and quashed the 
 judgment by a Decree of Council. A notice of this ruling was 
 thereupon sent to the magistrates' clerk by an usher of the 
 Council. In this process, the magistrates detected a violation of 
 the forms established by law, and were so bold as to ask the King 
 to destroy both the original and the copy of the notice. A fresh 
 scandal having arisen at Orleans, the Parliament summoned th^ 
 bishop to appear before it. The King, determined to put an end 
 to this sort of action, issued letters-patent, ordering the Parlia- 
 ment to refrain from all action in regard to refusals of Sacraments. 
 The magistrates declined to register these letters until the 
 presentation of their Grand Remonstrances, which were then 
 being drawn up, and they continueJ, as before, to take cognizance 
 of all abuses. 
 
 Decree after Decree — condemning both persons and " writings " 
 — emanated from the Parliament. A Sorbonne thesis, containing 
 Ultramontane doctrines, having been pronounced against, two 
 members were sent to inscribe the judgment on the College 
 registers. The King annulled this registration, and the magis- 
 trates replied by a Decree enjoining instruction in all the Uni- 
 versities upon the four propositions of the Assembly of the Clergy 
 in 1682. The excitement was so great that, if the Council had 
 revoked this last Decree, sixty voices were ready to accuse the 
 Chancellor of the crime of high treason. As if these troubles 
 were not enough, the Government itself increased the general 
 agitation by its rigorous proceedings against the Protestants. In 
 Paris the people were being more and more ground down by the 
 taxes. From the 20th January to the 20th February, 1753, 
 eight hundred persons died of want in the Faubourg St. Antoine
 
 The French Revolution. 65 
 
 alone. Louis XV., more annoyed than troubled by these events, 
 entered only nominally into the decisions of his ministers, and 
 allowed his " friend," Madame de Pompadour, to reign in his 
 stead, while he found distraction in the disgraceful mysteries of 
 the Pare aux Cerfs. 
 
 By April 9th, the Grand Remonstrances were completed. 
 They formed a complete treatise of twenty-three articles. Even 
 before they were printed, copies wore ordered for circulation 
 throughout Europe. The King, on being informed of the Parlia- 
 ment's intention of presenting them, refused to hear them so long 
 as his letters-patent remained unregistered. The magistrates de- 
 clined to subscribe to this condition. The King took offence, and 
 commanded them anew to register the letters, forbidding 
 them, under pain of rousing his indignation, to take cognizance of 
 matters relating to the Sacraments. The Parliament replied with 
 one voice that they could not ohey without failing in their duty 
 and breaking their vows. What was there for it but to use 
 force 1 On the nights of the 8th and 9th of May, musketeers were 
 employed as bearers to the magistrates of leftres de cachet, which 
 sent them into exile and gave them only twenty-four hours' notice 
 to quit Paris. The Ministry had flattered itself that the members 
 of the Upper Chamber, by reason of their age and the pensions 
 they received from the Court, would be more docile, but to the 
 great satisfaction of the public, these declared openly that they 
 shared their colleagues' sentiments. Upon this, the Upper 
 Chamber was transferred from Paris to Pontoise. 
 
 The disgrace of the Parliament seemed to destroy the last 
 vestige of national liberty. All Paris was in an uproar, and the 
 Government feared a revolt. For eight nights the entire body 
 of police patrolled the city, ready to act if occasion offered. The 
 Palace of the Archbishop was shut up and guarded by soldiers. 
 In divers public places, bills were seized bearing the words : " Long 
 "live the Parliament! Down with the King and Bishops!" 
 D'Argenson, who was a witness of these events, wrote, "One can- 
 " not attribute the decline of religion in France to the influence of 
 "English philosophy ..... but to the hatred conceived for the
 
 66 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 " priests who are at this time ninuing into extremes. The ministers 
 " of religion can hardly show themselves in the streets, without 
 "being hooted, and it is the TJnigenitus and the disgrace of the 
 " Parliament that have been the causes of this state of affairs." 
 
 On May 23rd, the Remonstrances which had been so noisily 
 advertised, were placed in the hands of the public. They fully 
 justified expectation. In them, the magistrates depicted with 
 great force the alarming progress of schism, and the necessity of 
 putting some restraint on the actions of the bishops. They de- 
 scribed the origin of the Monarchy, retraced the incessant inter- 
 ferences of the spiritual with the temporal powers, and noted the 
 persistency of the clergy in claiming exemption from all secular 
 jurisdiction, as a privilege due to the nature of their order. The 
 contention of the Remonstrances was that the oflBce of the 
 successors of the Apostles was one of ministry, not of empire. 
 In recapitulating the history of the Bull Unigenitus, attention was 
 drawn to the disorders it had introduced into the Church and 
 State — to the violent measures, the prohibitions, and the debased 
 condition of the Sorbonne and the University, which had 
 brought about the all but universal ignorance of the Nation. 
 Without overstepping the bounds of respect due to the Sovereign, 
 the authors of the Grand Remonstrances reproached the Crown 
 with having become the ally, or, rather, the tool of the clergy, and 
 with having abused the system of evocation ; the employment of 
 which, though it might, in the eyes of the careless, appear to be 
 a mark of sovereignty, was, in reality, only the subversion of all 
 political order. "If subjects," they continued, "owe obedience 
 "to Kings, Kings, on their side, owe obedience to the laws." It was 
 further represented that deviation from the laws of a State pre- 
 pared the way fur Revolution. " So great is the extent of our 
 " wrongs," said the magistrates, " that we are to-day placed in a 
 "position, in which sad necessity forces us to reclaim almost all the 
 " principles of the Constitution and of the Monarchy." Reference 
 was also made to the 45,000 lettres de cachet issued since 1714, 
 to the refusals of Sacraments, and the troubles of every kind 
 that were the consequences of the King's action in prohibiting the
 
 The French Revohition. 67 
 
 Parliament to take procedure on writs of error. "No, Sire," 
 wrote the magistrates in conclusion, " we will not permit the 
 " triumph of a schism that is not only fatal to Religion, but capable 
 "of dealing a violent blow to your sovereignty and to the State. 
 " We will not be persuaded into remaining idle spectators of the 
 " wrongs our country endures, and thus become the accomplices of 
 " those who, in abusing the privileges you accord them, seek to 
 "reduce us to the cruel alternative of incurring your Majesty's dis- 
 " pleasure, or of avoiding the duties which an inviolable zeal for 
 " your service imposes on us. They shall learn that this zeal has 
 " no bounds, and that we are resolved to remain faithful to you, 
 "though we ourselves become the victims of our fidelity." 
 
 The prestige of the Parliament had never been so great. The 
 Chatelet, the Courts {des Aides, des Comptes, des Monnaies),'^ and 
 the University sent deputations to Pontoise to congratulate the 
 Grand Chamber. The provincial Parliaments, stirred by a spirit 
 of emulation, modelled their conduct on that of the Paris Parlia- 
 ment, and carried on the war against the clergy. From their 
 various places of exile, the disgraced magistrates issued memorials 
 which strengthened the resistance of the populace. " Though the 
 "King has 100,000 men," they said, "the Parliament has all the 
 "hearts, all the popular esteem, and the universal goodwill." It 
 was thought that every Parliament in the kingdom would unite 
 to demand the convocation of the States-General. The Govern- 
 ment continued its old methods of arresting individuals, quashing 
 parliamentary Decrees, and using measures of extreme violence 
 in regard to the magistrates. The Parliament of Normandy, hav- 
 ing ordered the Bishop of Evreux to pay a fine of 10,000 
 livres, a lieutenant of the King's guard went to Rouen and, es- 
 corted by several officers, erased the Decree from the registers. A 
 short time after, troops were sent into Brittany, with the object of 
 intimidating the Rennes Parliament. Such proceedings could 
 
 1 The Cour des Aides, Court of appeal for all civil and criminal actions 
 relating to excise, taxation and duties. 
 
 Cour des Monnaies, equivalent to the Court of the Exchequer; and Ccvr 
 des Comptes, the Treasury Court. ( Tramlator's Note. J
 
 68 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 only foment the opposition. At Pontoise, the exiled Grand 
 Chamber had but just begun its vacation when the King, 
 by letters-patent, nominated a " Chamber of Vacation." Tliese 
 letters were forwarded to the Chateht for registration, but the 
 councillors refused to register them, declaring that they received 
 their orders from the Parliament alone. The greater proportion 
 of the higher local courts imitated this example. A small country 
 bailiwick, composed of two officers, had the audacity to protest 
 against the letters-patent. The wave of revolt that had engulfed 
 the towns was spreading to the villages. 
 
 The doctrines, that the conditions of the times gave rise to, 
 were no less audacious than the acts. With the members of the 
 Parliament, as with the Jansenists, it was thenceforward an ad- 
 mitted principle that the Nation was superior to the Kings, as the 
 Church was to the Popes. This idea of the superiority of the Nation 
 to the Monarch was used by the Ultramontanes as a bogey to 
 frighten the Government. Letters were circulated throughout 
 the kingdom, affirming that the republican principles professed 
 by the Parliament were more threatening to the Throne than the 
 maxims of Rome, and that the Parliament, through the influence 
 that it had acquired, was more likely than was the Pope to depose 
 the King. Finally, a bishop published a mandate, in which he 
 recalled the tragic end of Charles I., and insinuated that the 
 Parliament of Paris, following the example of that of London, was 
 capable of bringing its Sovereign up for judgment and conducting 
 him to the scaffold. 
 
 These manoeuvres had the desired effect. The measures of the 
 Government became more rigorous than ever. The Chateht, 
 having committed a libel on the Parliament to the flames, the 
 councillors who had justified the measure were thrown into the 
 Bastille. The Grand Chamber was not permitted to re-assemble 
 at Pontoise, but was deprived of its functions and exiled to 
 Soissons. In place of the Paris Parliament, a "Royal Chamber" 
 was created. The Chatelet, when commanded to register, " with- 
 out deliberation," the letters-patent establishing this spurious 
 Parliament, transcribed them upon its registers " by express com-
 
 The French Revolution. 69 
 
 " mand of the King," and refused to recognise the ** Royal 
 " Chamber," as it had refused to recognise the " Chamber of Vaca- 
 " tion." There was then talk of suppressing the Chatelet. The 
 people became more and more incensed against the King, and an- 
 other uprising was feared. " I know from one of the chief 
 " magistrates of Paris," wrote d'Argenson at this time, " that the 
 " Pai'isians are in a highly inflammable state. Military precautions 
 " are being taken ; the watch is doubled, and patrols of French and 
 " Swiss guards are met with in the streets. The same informant 
 " tells me that, if the Chatelet be suppressed, he has no doubt 
 "that the shops will be shut^ that there will be barricades, 
 " and that, in that manner, the revolution will hegin" It was in 
 December, 1753, that these things were talked of. 
 
 It seemed as if the exiled magistrates anticipated some great 
 change, in which the country would need their counsels, for they 
 applied themselves to the study of public rights. Many people 
 said that, " If ever the French Nation should have an opportunity 
 '' of testifying its confidence in them, it would find in the exiled 
 " magistrates a national senate ' ready-made.' " The provincial 
 Parliaments communicated with each other by means of emissaries, 
 and accepted the word of command from the exiled magistrates 
 of Paris. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1754, the situation became still 
 more serious. Throughout France refusals of Sacraments multi- 
 plied, and in Paris the Archbishop deprived of their powers all 
 confessors who did not evince sufficient zeal for the Constitution. 
 The Royal Chamber, asphyxiated by public contempt, scarcely 
 dared to avow its existence by the passing of the most insignificant 
 Decrees. Revolts were feared in Paris and Rouen. Not content 
 with stirring up the Government against the magistrates and 
 Jansenists, the clergy denounced the Protestants as well. In 
 September, 1753, an army had been sent against the Cevennes. 
 In all parts of France the Protestants were taking up arms, and 
 in March, 1754, 5,000 of them left the kingdom. "Thus 
 " are preparations being made for a civil war," wrote d'Argenson 
 once more, " and yet the King is no longer employing his forces
 
 JO The Revolutio7iary Spirit preceding 
 
 " against his subjects. It is the priests who are promoting the 
 " disorders. Discontent is rife, and everything tends to a great 
 '^^ revolution in religious and in political matters." 
 
 Military men became at length no more submissive than the 
 pi'ofessional classes. Dispatched first against the Protestants and 
 then given the charge of keeping in check a populace maddened 
 by want, what wonder that they were disgusted with the part they 
 were called upon to play I The Chatelet having declared that, 
 during the absence of the Parliament, it intended to take 
 cognizance of the refusals of Sacraments and to prosecute their 
 initiators, four councillors were seized in the night and taken to 
 the Bastille. As if designed to aggravate the misery of the com- 
 mon people, the fetes at Longchamps had never been more 
 brilliant. The same week, a Jesuit, preaching before Louis XV., 
 declared that blood alone could extinguish heresies, and it would 
 be well to spill a few drops at once, in order to avoid the flowing 
 of streams in the future. These words had doubtless but little 
 effect on the King, who was more than ever occupied with his 
 evanescent loves. But they were taken up by the public. On all 
 sides, protests were raised against the tyranny of the Government 
 " married " to the tyranny of the clergy. War raged no longer 
 between Jansenists and Constitutionists, but between Nationalists 
 and Sacerdotalists. In the opinion of the country, it was the 
 \inion between monarchial and espiscopal despotism that had 
 been the cause of all the evils, and this fatal alliance alone that 
 had prepared the Revolution that was then threatening on all 
 sides. 
 
 The Revolution that, in men's thoughts, was already accom- 
 plished in 1751, was on the point of becoming a reality in 1754. 
 
 A Royal ordinance suppressing the Chatelet or the Parliament, 
 a refusal of Sacraments taking place under special conditions, an 
 outburst of popular indignation in regard to the taxes, or any 
 other cause, would have sufficed to bring about an explosion. Since 
 it was in the destinies of France to sustain the shock of a 
 Revolution, is it not to be regi-etted that, instead of taking place 
 thirty-five years later, it did not occur then? Tiie Parliament
 
 The Ff-ench Revolution. 71 
 
 would, no doubt, have assumed the direction of the movement. 
 It is not likely, as d'Argenson fancied, that a democratic form of 
 government would have been established. The probability is 
 that the King's authority would only have been limited. In the 
 place of a despotism, a constitutional Monarchy would have been 
 established, and the Parliament, enlarged and transformed, would 
 either have assumed an analogous position to that occupied by 
 the English House of Commons, or, preserving only its functions 
 of adjudicating, would have entered into a compact, whereby 
 regular powers would have been granted, to the States-General and 
 the provincial States. In regard to the clergy, the abortive work 
 of the Government would have been carried out ; and the 
 ecclesiastics, like other citizens, would have been obliged to 
 contribute towards the expense of the State. That which is 
 certain is that the Nation would have broken altogether with 
 Ultramontanism without returning to the ways of pure Gallicanism, 
 for all persecution of the Protestants would undoubtedly have 
 been stopped, and the laws that separated them from society, 
 repealed. D'Argenson was mistaken when he thought that the 
 people would immediately have banished all "priesthood, 
 sacerdotalism, revelation, and mystery," and have been contented 
 to worship God " in spirit and in truth." Inferior in doctrine to 
 that of 1789, this supposititious Revolution of 1754 — while falling 
 into excesses, unhappily inevitable — would not have established that 
 " reign of terror," the bitter memory of which still hangs over us, 
 though eighty years have passed. The spirit of Reform would 
 have tempered that of Revolution. Men would not have been in the 
 perilous necessity of having to consti-uct a new system of govern- 
 ment, all in a piece, upon the ruins of the old. In one word, 
 France, still feeling attached to her past, would have introduced 
 into Church and State, innovations inspired by respect both for 
 tradition and for progress of ideas, and would have left the door 
 open for still greater changes in the future.
 
 7 2 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Government of Louis X V. 
 
 (1754-1762.) 
 
 If we are to believe Jean Jacques Rousseau, the sensation, pro-' 
 duced in the month of December, 1753, by his Letters on French 
 Music, was the means of preventing the outbreak of the Revolu- 
 tion. We are further assured by Grimm that the arrival in Paris 
 of an Italian actor, Manelli, saved France from a civil war. We 
 should be forming an exaggerated estimate of the lightness of the 
 French character if we put faith in these assertions. The true 
 cause which averted an explosion was the sudden tack in the 
 course of the Government — a tack said to have been suggested by 
 Madame de Pompadour. 
 
 Towards the middle of the month of July, 1754, letters of 
 recall were forwarded to the magistrates in exile. On the 30th of 
 Augiist, letters-patent suppressed the " Royal Chamber." The 
 councillors of the Chatelet, who had been imprisoned, were set at 
 liberty, and on the 4th of September — the day following the birth 
 of the prince, who afterwards became Louis XVI. — the Parliament 
 resumed its deliberations. A Declaration of the King, dated 
 September 2nd, gave to the Parliament the charge of maintaining, 
 in all quarters, an absolute silence in regard to the Constittitiont 
 and deprived those ecclesiastics, against whom Decrees had pre- 
 viously been issued, of the power of instituting any counter pro- 
 ceedings. By this Edict the complexion of public affairs was 
 completely altered. The clergy were humiliated, and the Parlia- 
 ment triumphed. Of course the bishops protested, and refusals of 
 Sacraments began anew in various dioceses ; but the magistrates 
 — having their hands strengthened by the Declaration — did not
 
 The French Revolution. 73 
 
 hesitate to interfere. They demanded an explanation of the 
 Archbishop of Paris, in whose diocese a refusal of the Sacrament 
 liad taken place. The Prelate replied that he was accountable for 
 his actions to God alone. Instead of prosecuting him, the magis- 
 trates complained of him to the King, who, touched by this mark 
 of consideration, exiled the Archbishop to Conflans. This action, 
 which was considered a " great event," filled the Parisians with 
 delight. Louis XV. banished also the Bishops of Orleans and 
 Troyes and the Archbishop of Aix. He flattered himself that he 
 alone was best able to control the upper clergy, but he left to the 
 Parliament the duty of punishing those of the lower order. De- 
 crees of Council no longer frustrated the designs of the magis- 
 trates ; the banishment of the Archbishop of Paris had so com- 
 pletely reconciled the Parliament and the Ministry that the 
 magistrates never passed a resolution without first notifying the 
 King of their intention. Never had there been so complete an 
 agreement between the Court and the Parliament. But the clergy 
 still resisted. The Archbishop, from his place of exile, fermented 
 the disturbance, and the King sent him on from Conflans to 
 Lagny. The Jansenists and the public were jubilant, though 
 the firmness of the Government provoked the question : " Why 
 "was not this policy adopted two years ago 1 If it had been, the 
 " exile of the Parliament would have been avoided, since nothing 
 "more was then asked than is being given to-day." 
 
 The Parliament, more and more emboldened, passed sentences 
 of banishment against several Const itutionist priests, and on 
 March 18th issued a Decree denying that the Bull was an Article 
 of Faith, and forbidding all ecclesiastics, of whatsoever rank, to 
 attribute to it that character. In this Decree the clergy — who 
 had fallen into such popular disrepute, that they were afraid to 
 show themselves in the street — saw the Constitution set at naught 
 by the Nation. But the King, in view of the approaching General 
 Assembly, at which it was hoped that the customai'y "free gift" 
 of fifteen or sixteen millions would be voted, quashed the Decree. 
 The Parliament fully understood the meaning of this act, and did 
 not take offence. But the bishops were only half satisfied. What
 
 74 *rhe Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 they wanted was the abrogation of the Declaration of September 
 2nd, and that Declaration formed the chief subject of their 
 deliberations. At their instigation, writings, hostile to the 
 Parliament, were circulated among the public, and sermons de- 
 nouncing the magistrates were preached in the churches. The 
 excitement of the Ultramontane party was so great that it was 
 feared that some fanatic priest might attempt the King's life. 
 
 The Parliament was not in the least disconcerted. It burned 
 the writings and banished or condemned to the galleys all re- 
 bellious ecclesiastics. As the Sorbonne persisted in receiving 
 theses calculated to promote the disputes, the Parliament caused 
 the Declaration of September 2nd to be inscribed on its registers. 
 It was in vain that the bishops represented to the Monarch that, 
 if the audacity of the magistrates were not repressed, they would 
 be forced to take extreme measures. The King was firm. He 
 refused to recall the exiled prelates, and, as soon as the " free 
 " gift " was voted, replied " Fiddlesticks ! " to all the bishops' 
 demands. 
 
 But it was not only in its response to the clergy that the 
 Government manifested its change of feeling. It allowed the 
 Encyclopedia to re-appear, and even caused the article on the 
 Constitution to be omitted, because in it, it was stated that the 
 Bull was received in France. At this time Boyer, the old Bishop 
 of Mirepoix, who had had charge, since 1743, of the list of livings 
 in the King's gift, died, and was replaced by the Cardinal de 
 Rochefoucauld, who had only a very moderate zeal for the Con- 
 stitution. A spirit of tolerance seemed likewise to inspire the 
 Government in its action in regard to the Protestants. In several 
 localities they were allowed to erect churches, and there was 
 some talk of legitimizing their marriages and re-establishing the 
 Edict of Nantes. 
 
 But so sudden a change could not be permanent. A disagree- 
 ment arose between the Parliament and the Grand Council, and 
 the King issued a Declaration, by which he seemed to attribute 
 to the latter assembly the authority of a sovereign court. The 
 Monarch gave an order that his Declaration should be sent to all
 
 The French Revohition. 75 
 
 the sees, bailiwicks, and seneschals of the kingdom for registration. 
 The Parliament suspended the execution of this order until they 
 should have presented Remonstrances to the Sovereign. The 
 dispute very soon assumed quite unexpected proportions. All 
 tlje provincial Parliaments rallied round that of Paris. The King 
 in his reply to the Remonstrances confirmed the Declaration, 
 and the Grand Council forwarded his response to all the baili- 
 wicks. The public, which looked on the Ministry and the Grand 
 Council as "^ aiders and abettors of the Episcopate and the instru- 
 " ments of tyranny," was inflamed by this action. In the chambers 
 of the Palais, numbers of bourgeois spoke against the Government, 
 ■which it accused of joining forces with the Jesuits to degrade the 
 Parliament. Under another form, the struggle between the 
 Nationalists and Sacerdotalists had begun again. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1755, innumerable brochures once 
 more stirred up discord. In one of them it was stated that those 
 culpable persons, who had not succeeded in suppressing the Par- 
 liament by violence, were now working for the same end by 
 endeavouring to assimilate the rights of the Grand Council with 
 those of the lower chambers. The Grand Council condemned 
 this brochure to the flames, asserting that it, no less than the 
 Parliament, was the depository of the laws of the Monarchy. 
 This assertion was replied to by the reproduction of the cahiers ^ 
 of the States-General of 1560 and 1576, which expressly demanded 
 the abolition of the Grand Council. On the 6th of April the 
 Parliament passed a standing order, which denied the right of the 
 Grand Council to interfere in any affairs of public order and 
 general interest, and limited the jurisdiction of that body to 
 questions of a purely private nature. No one was astounded by 
 a Decree in which the Parliament seemed to perform an act of 
 sovereignty. So great a change had come over men's minds in a 
 few years that the people of Paris and the provinces had come to 
 consider the Parliament to be the "real Monarch of France, in whom 
 " all legitimate power was vested." The war of the " tickets of 
 
 ^ Schedules or statements of grievances, needs, and wishes of tlie three 
 orders, drawn up preparatory to the assembling of the States. ( Translator's 
 
 Note.)
 
 76 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 "confession" still waged. Not only Extreme Unction, but the Sacra- 
 ment of Marriage was now being refused by certain priests. 
 Everything conspired to bring discredit on Religion. At the Car- 
 nival in 1756, it was noted that the most popular costumes were 
 those of bishops, abbes, monks and nuns. Scepticism pro- 
 claimed itself on the pages of many books. One of these was the 
 Christiade, in which the history of Jesus Christ was told in the 
 form of a romance ; another was Bayle's Analyse raisonnee. The 
 Parliament remarked the progi'ess of philosophical ideas with 
 some uneasiness ; but, quite absorbed by its struggle with the 
 clergy, it bestowed its chief attention on the Ultramontane writ- 
 ings. Thus it was that the same Decree that struck at the 
 Christiade and the Analyse, branded more particularly the History 
 of the people of God by the Jesuit Berruyer. 
 
 As might have been foreseen, the standing orders of April 6th 
 did not terminate the conflict in which the Parisians had been so 
 much interested. A deputation from the Grand Council pre- 
 sented Remonstrances to the King. Louis XV. received the 
 deputation with the ceremonial prescribed for the reception of the 
 Parliament, and from that time no one doubted that he would 
 soon substitute the Grand Council for the Assembly of Magis- 
 trates, or that the entire Ministry would eventually become 
 Ultramontane. Each provincial Parliament united itself more 
 closely to that of Paris, and sent deputies to consult with the 
 magistrates of the capital as to the best methods of resistance. 
 The provincial assemblies styled themselves in their Decrees, 
 "sections of the Parliament," indicating in this manner that they 
 were all parts of one body. It was said that this association of 
 Parliaments represented something more than a States-General ; 
 it was " a fully formed national governme7it" 
 
 About this time there broke out the fatal Seven Years' War, in 
 which France was allied with Austria against England and 
 Prussia. The King addressed an Edict to the Parliament, ordering 
 the imposition during the hostilities of another " twentieth " tax. 
 The magistrates did not at once endorse this Edict, for they 
 flattered themselves that in the interval the Ministry would
 
 The French Revolution. 77 
 
 relent in regard to the " Grand Council," but the King forced the 
 registration in a " Bed of Justice." Thereupon the Parliament 
 protested against this act of authority and presented Remon- 
 strances, in which it formally accused the Ministry of con- 
 spiring to annihilate the Parliament. This growing resistance of 
 the Parliaments and these repeated struggles had the immediate 
 effect of inflaming men's passions. In the ministerial clique 
 sinister words were pronounced ; wrote d'Argenson : " I know 
 " some members of the Grand Council, who, sharing the views of 
 " the priests, have said that hlood alone can wipe out all this." But 
 remaining all the time utterly indifferent to the wave of anger 
 that swept around him, Louis XV. continued to disgrace himself 
 by his undisguised excesses. Submissive to the ever-changing 
 will of Madame de Pompadour — who, after abandoning the 
 bishops for the Parliament, now deserted the Parliament for the 
 bishops — the King was becoming more constitutionary and more 
 episcopal than even Louis XIV. had been. The clergy were not 
 slow to take advantage of the Monarch's change of front. In 
 September, 1754, the Parliament being, according to custom, in 
 vacation, the Archbishop of Paris promulgated a pastoral instruc- 
 tion, in which he not only prohibited the clergy from administer- 
 ing Sacraments to those who presented orders issued by secular 
 tribunals, but also enjoined that such orders should be neither 
 solicited by the faithful nor distributed by the magistrates. This 
 stroke of policy was so well prepared that the Prelate announced 
 ascertain the adliesion of over sixty bishops. But, as in 1753, 
 the Chatelet assumed the functions of the Parliament, and, on 
 the 5th of November, publicly burned the instruction. Upon this 
 the Prelate issued a mandate that threatened all those who read 
 the sentence of the Chatelet, with excommunication. The 
 Chatelet, in response, prohibited the printing and circulation of 
 the mandate under penalty of corporal punishment. As soon as 
 the Parliament reassembled it prepared in its turn to deal a blow 
 at the Episcopate, and everyone expected that a writ would be 
 issued to apprehend the person of the Archbishop. 
 
 In the meantime, Louis XV. had written to Benedict XIV. to
 
 yS The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 ascertain the best means of pacifying the quarrels. The Pontiif, 
 though disposed to be conciliatory, could not entirely divest him- 
 self of the sentiments of his predecessors. In the Brief, through 
 which be replied, he recognised the Constitution as a law of the 
 Church, which could not be rejected without risk of the loss of 
 eternal salvation, but he decided that, in order to avoid scandal, 
 the priests should administer the Sacrament to the dying, who 
 were merely suspected of Jansenism, and refuse it only to notorious 
 Jansenists. The King setit the Brief to the bishops and ordered 
 them to conform to it. The magistrates courageously suppressed 
 the Brief by a Decree, but this Decree only determined the Monai'ch 
 to proceed against them. Just at this time many of the provincial 
 Parliaments pronounced against the Edict of the second tax of the 
 twentieth. Indeed, the Pau Assembly refused point blank to 
 enforce it, saying that the distress of the people forbade their 
 registration of such a tax. 
 
 The storm which had been gathering, since the commencement 
 of the aflfair of the Grand Council, at last burst. On December 
 13th, 1756, the King came to the Parliament and held a "Bed of 
 "Justice," in which he caused three Declarations to be registered. 
 By the first, he ordered that the Bull should be respected as a 
 decision of the Church, and ascribed to the ecclesiastical tribunals 
 all cognizance of the refusals of Sacraments, except in cases of 
 appeal by writ of error. By the second, he decided that the 
 Grand Chamber alone had cognizance of all matters relating to 
 the religion of the State, that the other Chambers could not 
 assemble without its permission, and that no councillor (or magis- 
 trate) could have a deliberative voice in the Assembly of the 
 Chambers until he had served for ten years. By the third, he 
 suppressed sixty parliamentary offices and two "chambers of 
 '' requests." "You have heard my wishes," said the King. "I 
 " insist on their being carried out, and will support the execution of 
 "them with all my authority." The Parliament was completely 
 crushed. With the exception of those of the Grand Chamber, 
 all the magistrates immediately sent in their resignations. The 
 following day sixteen councillors of the Grand Chamber followed
 
 The French Revolution. 79 
 
 their example. The Chatelet ceased its functions, the lawyers 
 shut up their offices, and the course of justice was again interrupted. 
 A magistrate, foreseeing that the disturbance might shatter the 
 Government, said of the " Bed of Justice" of December 13th, that 
 it was "the last sigh of a dying Monarchy" It was at this period 
 that Grimm, who had noted the "imbecile fervour" with which 
 the French had for forty years quarrelled about the Bull, and who 
 now saw the whole of Europe in arms and the world not in the 
 least conformed to the type conceived by Philosophy, wrote : " I 
 "am far from fancying that we have attained to the century of 
 "Reason, and it would take but little to make me believe that 
 "Europe is threatened by some sinister Revolution." 
 
 The Revolution which had failed to break out in 1754 was 
 perhaps once more upon the point of bursting forth when, in 
 January, 1757, the attempt made by Damien on the life of the 
 King absorbed public attention and arrested the march of events. 
 The news of the attempt caused a revulsion of feeling among a 
 certain section of the public, similar to that which had taken place 
 in 1744. Everyone was anxious for information, and some persons 
 shed tears. Suspicion fell at once upon the clergy. The Jesuits 
 were first accused of the crime, and then the Jansenists. It was 
 also thought that the assassin might be a parliamentary fanatic. 
 At all events a very general excitement was caused. The 
 evidences of it were most noticeable among the shopkeeping 
 classes; the people were silent. Their one feeling was that of 
 resentment, and it had been stirred up in them by the indignities 
 put upon the magistrates. 
 
 In certain parts of the provinces, fetes were held to celebrate 
 the preservation of the King's life, but in Paris no demonstration 
 took place and not a single Te Deum was sung. 
 
 The Government took fright. Fearing that the attempt might 
 bee >me a signal for uprisings in different parts of the kingdom, it 
 enjoined the commanding-officers in the provinces to stick to their 
 posts and redoubled the military precautions in the capital. Six- 
 teen councillors of the Grand Chamber, who had sent in their re- 
 signations, were exiled. Two of the principal ministers — one of
 
 8o The Revolutionary Spirit p^-eceding 
 
 whom was Machault, who was in disfavour with the clergy, and 
 the other, the Count d'Argenson, a friend of the Jesuit party — 
 were also sent into exile. Arrests of ecclesiastics and of private 
 individuals, whose only crime was the having in their pockets 
 copies of the Remonstrances, were frequent. At last on April 
 16th, the King issued a Declaration, the first articles of which ran 
 as follows : " All those who shall be convicted of having composed, 
 "or caused to be composed and printed, writings tending to attack 
 " religion, to assail our authority, or to disturb the order and tran- 
 " quillity of our realm, shall be jmnished with death. All those who 
 " shall print the aforesaid works, all booksellers, colporteurs and 
 " other persons who shall circulate them among the public shall 
 " likewise be punished with death." This Declaration was only a 
 threat. The Government sent the booksellers and printers into 
 banishment, and condemned all obscure writers, convicted of con- 
 tempt of court, to the galleys. But it dared go no further. The 
 promulgation of a law, the barbarity of which rendered its ex- 
 ecution impossible, only disgraced its initiators. After some 
 months the excitement seemed to subside. The Government 
 deemed it possible to relax some of its severities. Though the 
 Declarations registered in the " Bed of Justice " were not revoked, 
 they were not acted upon ; the magistrates had their resignations 
 returned to them, the sixteen councillors of the Grand Chamber 
 were recalled, and the Parliament was re-established under the same 
 conditions as had existed before the " Bed of Justice." At the 
 same time, the Archbishop of Paris was recalled from his place of 
 exile, and all the priests banished by the Parliament were author- 
 ised to return to their parishes. The Government hoped that 
 these gentle measures would conciliate the public mind, but they 
 only aggravated it by their inconsequence. Yet the Ministry 
 showed itself consistent in one thing. It continued to disallow 
 the renewal of religious disputes. In November, the Sorbonne 
 was commanded by the Ministry, in the King's name, to cease 
 thenceforward to refer in any way to the Constitution. These 
 orders being directly contrary to those previously received, the 
 Sorbonne took offence and decided that, in view of the oath taken
 
 The French Revolution. 
 
 bj its members, "to defend the Ciitholic, Apostolic, and Roman 
 " religion usque, ad effusionem sanffuinis," it could not conform to 
 the prescribed silence. The Dean of the faculty was immediately 
 sent into exile, and the Archbishop of Paris, who had secretly en- 
 couraged the rebellion of the Sorbonne, was once more banished ; 
 on this occasion to Perigord. At the same time the Pa,rliament 
 condemned some Jesuitical writings to be burned. This was the 
 first blow struck at the Jesuits, and a precursor of the thunderbolts 
 that were soon to fall upon them. These severitiss produced their 
 efTect, and all parties were silenced. The election of Clement XIII., 
 who had been supported by the Ministry and opposed by the 
 Jesuits, so greatly disconcerted the partisans of the Constitution, 
 that it seemed as if the Bull were, at last, forgotten. But, in de- 
 fault of religious quarrels, public opinion was kept alive by other 
 grievances. 
 
 The defeat of Rosbach in November, 1757, was the source of 
 much annoyance, sorrow, and shame. These feelings were 
 deepened in June, 1758, when news came of the lose of the battle 
 of Crevelt. The expressions of dissatisfaction were all directed 
 against the Court, and what the populace gave tongue to, the 
 ministers secretly thought. " The worst of it is," wrote the Abbe 
 de Bernis on the day following the defeat of Rosbach, "that 
 " private individuals direct our affairs. We have neither generals 
 " nor ministers. What we want is a Government." The Abbe was 
 only repeating words written by d'Argenson in 1743. But in 
 1758 the disoi'ganisation was still more serious, the evil deeper, 
 and France possessed no longer a General Saxe. Louis XV., more 
 disgusted than ever with public affairs since the attempt made on 
 his life, only sank into deeper debaucheries. Madame de Pompa- 
 dour was the real King. She nominated generals and ministers, 
 received the ambassadors, regulated political moves, and decided 
 upon alliances. The expenses of the humiliating defeats had, of 
 course, to be met. As in the time of Louis XIV., a " free gift " 
 was exacted of all towns and boroughs, of the kingdom. There- 
 upon the discontent burst forth with renewed force. The people 
 were loud in their condemnation of the Government. Whilst the 
 
 F
 
 82 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 anger of the lower classes was expressed in the first ** call to 
 "arms " yet placarded iu Paris, the members of the upper ranks of 
 society did not restrict themselves to decrying the Government ; 
 they disparaged France, and praised to the skies free England, 
 victorious Prussia, and even China, which country nobody knew 
 anything about, but which was believed by all to be the home of 
 wisdom. The " upper ten " spoke freely of the general ** break 
 " up " of their country and the decadence of their nation. The 
 attempt made upon the life of the King of Portugal, in which the 
 Jesuits of Lisbon were concerned, had not only thrown the Society 
 of Jesus into discredit in France, but had cast a slur upon Reli- 
 gion. Convulsionnaires were once more to the fore with their 
 transports and miracles, and in the midst of all this disorder in 
 the Church, the Philosophers propounded their doctrines as sub- 
 stitutes for the religious traditions which were being shattered. 
 Aware of the process of disintegration that society was under- 
 going, and being no longer able to blame the clergy, whom it had 
 effectually silenced, the Parliament began to accuse the Philoso- 
 phers and to treat them with the same severity that they had 
 been employing against the Constitutionists. The Advocate- 
 General, Omer Joly de Fleury, in condemning Helvetius's book, 
 De U Esprit, together with the Encyclopedia, Voltaire's poem. 
 Natural Religion, and many other works, brought a very 
 wholesale charge against the Philosophers. He said : *' It 
 " cannot be denied that a project has been conceived and a 
 " society formed to support materialism and destroy religion, to 
 "inspire independence and promote the corruption of morals. 
 "The book, De VEsprit, is, as it were, an abridgment of 
 "that too famous work, which, according to its true object, ought 
 " to be the book of all knowledge, but which has become that of all 
 " errors." He accused the Encyclopedists of pretending " that the 
 " method of adoring the true God ought never to be in opposition 
 * to reason, because He is, Himself, the Author of Reason ; " of 
 claiming liberty of conscience, and, "by a necessary consequence, 
 " universal tolerance ; " of insisting that the authority of Kings has 
 its origin either in violence or in a contract, real or supposed,
 
 The French Revolution. 83 
 
 between the people and their masters, instead of recognising, with 
 the Apostle, that all power comes from God, and that He has 
 established all those who are in authority upon the earth. 
 
 All the works denounced in this harangue were condemned to 
 be burned by the common hangman. The Encyclopedia alone 
 was exempted, a body of lawyers and theologians being com- 
 missioned to examine it. This action was approved by devotees, 
 by Jausenists, and by those men of the world who distrusted 
 ideas that seemed too bold, but it lowered the Parliament in the 
 eyes of the numerous partisans of free thought. '' What a fuss 
 "about Monsieur Helvetius's book!" wrote Voltaire; and, referring 
 to a work by the Abbe Caveirac called Apology for the 
 Massacre of Saint Bartholomew — the publication of which the 
 Parliament had permitted — he added : " Monsieur Helvetius is 
 "persecuted, and monsters are tolerated." Grimm, who dis- 
 approved of De L'Esprit, was filled with indignation by a 
 Decree that joined to it in a common censure Voltaire's poem 
 Natural Religion. Some months later a Brief from Rome con- 
 demned the Encyclopedia. At the same time the Parliament 
 committed to the flames Voltaire's Precis of Ecclesiastes and 
 the Song of Songs. In spite of these surprisingly rigorous 
 measures, the Philosophers did not relinquish their work. 
 Attacked, as they had been, in the name of Religion, they be- 
 came thenceforward the most persistent assailants of the Church. 
 By a contrast worthy of notice, the Parliament which, in religious 
 questions, did not go beyond the doctrines of the Galilean 
 Church, continued in politics to act up to princi2)les which 
 the Philosophers themselves could find no fault with. The 
 resistance of the Parliament of Besangon in reference to the 
 [evying of fresh taxes, drew from the Sovereign several lettres de 
 cachet. The Parliament of Paris protested against the employ- 
 ment of these letters as contrary to the laws, to the dignity of the 
 magistrates, and the rights of the Nation. It was the first time 
 that the Parliament had upheld before Royalty the " rights of the 
 " Nation." Not long after this, disasters to the French arras at 
 Minden and in Canada and the loss sustained by the navy at
 
 $4 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 Belle Isle called for more funds from the Treasury. The Govern- 
 ment suspended payments of its bills, aul Louis XV, sent his 
 plate to the mint and called upon his subjects to follow his 
 example.. When in February, 1760, fresh imposts were created, 
 the Parliament constituted itself the organ of public opinion, and 
 announced its intention of requesting the ministers to submit to it 
 their accounts. The magistrates maintained that, until they had 
 assured themselves that the sums of money that had for years 
 past been poured into tlie Treasury had been really spent in the 
 service of the State, they could not register edicts imposing 
 fresh taxes upon the people. The King refused to listen to any 
 remonstrances, but relaxed some of the orders contained in iiis 
 edicts. 
 
 Whilst public opinion was being stirred up against Royalty iu 
 regard to the tax question, the Archbishop of Paris returned 
 to the capital after twenty-one months' absence. Thereupon 
 brochures appeared complaining of the silence enjoined by the 
 King in regard to the Constitution. At the same time fresh 
 attacks were made on the Philosophers. A play by Palissot was 
 brought out at the ComMie Frangaise, in which the men who, in 
 the eyes of Eui'ope, were the chief glory of France, were repre- 
 sented as blackguards. The closing lines of the comedy char- 
 acterised the whole. " At last all Philosophy is banished from 
 "the house, and we have among us only honest men." "Things 
 " have come to such a pass," wrote Grimm, " that there is not a 
 "single man in office to-day who does not consider the sjDread of 
 " Philosophy to be the source of all our woes. One would have 
 " thought that the causes of our losses of the battles of Rosbach 
 " and Minden, and of the destruction of our fleet were sufficiently 
 "immediate and apparent; but, if you take the opinion of the 
 " Court, you will be told that all these misfortunes must be attri- 
 " buted to the new Philosophy ; that it is Philosophy that has ex- 
 " tinguished our military ardour, our blind submission, and all that 
 " has hitherto produced the great men and glorious actions of 
 "France." Thus an opinion was formed that established itself 
 by degrees and has been perpetuated until the present day.
 
 The French Revobttion. 85 
 
 The conduct of the Government was, at this time, exciting the 
 most violent denunciations. The scarceness of money, the multi- 
 plicity of taxes and consequent general distress exasperated the 
 people. Everywhere there was an outcry in respect to the depre- 
 dations of the finances, and a desii*e to be avenged of them. The 
 Remonstrances of the Parliament of Rouen were printed. In them 
 " the unity of the Parliaments of the kingdom, the constitution 
 " of the French Government, and the fundamental laws of the 
 "Monarchy," were subjects of discussion that tended openly to 
 place the authority of the Parliament of France above that of the 
 Sovereign. The Government did not dare to take action in the 
 matter. It knew well that the entire province of Normandy was 
 for the Parliament, and, at a time when the English were only 
 awaiting an opportunity to invade the coasts of France, it feared 
 to excite a revolt in a seaboard province. The King contented 
 himself with commanding the attendance at Versailles of several 
 of the Rouen magistrates, and with addressing them in the follow- 
 ing manner : " I am your master and I ought to punish you for 
 " the audacity of your principles. I am more occupied than you 
 " imagine in caring for my people, and in devising means to ac- 
 " complish my task. Return to Rouen. Register my Edicts with- 
 " out delay. I will be obeyed ! " 
 
 All this time, the Parliaments of France had never ceased to re- 
 monstrate with the King in respect to the lettres de cachet that 
 had exiled the Besangou magistrates. The Parliament of Toulouse 
 maintained that their exile infringed the right of all citizens to be 
 punished only in conformity with the laws, after a judicial examina- 
 tion held by their legal judges, and protested that, in reversing the 
 forms observed by all civilised peoples, the way ivas jn^epared for 
 anarchy and independence. Never had any section of the Parlia- 
 ment made use of such plain language. The Parliament of 
 Rouen also remonstrated. To it, the Chancellor replied : " His 
 "Majesty orders me to remind you that his authority being sover- 
 "eign, no one in the kingdom can share it with him. Though the 
 " King be willing to receive the remonstrances of the Parliaments, 
 "he does not permit them, upon that pretext, to suspend, still less
 
 86 Tne Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 " to forbid, the execution of his orders. They should wait till they 
 " receive from his justice the reformation of the pretended abuses 
 " which they denounce. These are the true principles of Monarchy 
 " — unalterable principles that you are endeavouring to destroy." 
 This conflict proved to be a more serious one than any that had 
 previously arisen between the Parliaments and the Crown. The 
 question of principle outweighed the question of fact. Royalty 
 was openly attacked in the heart of the magistracy, and the re- 
 volutionary S2nrit entered even into those who most protested 
 their fidelity to existing institutions. Yielding to repeated ap- 
 plications, the Government at last recalled the exiled magistrates. 
 The Nation had begun to long for peace at any price — anxious 
 only for the termination of a war, by which France had gained 
 nothing save humiliation and ruin. In the month of April, 1761, 
 it was announced that a Congress was to be held to conclude the 
 peace. As the anxiety on that head subsided, all attention was 
 turned to a trial proceeding in the Upper Chamber, in which the 
 Jesuits were implicated. Father La Valette, Superior of the 
 Missions of Martinique, who carried on considerable trade with 
 the merchants of the south of France, had just gone into bank- 
 ruptcy for nearly 3,000,000 livres. The creditors first addressed 
 their claims to the chief of the Jesuit Society at Rome, and subse- 
 quently made an application to the Parliament. In May, the 
 Grand Chamber unanimously condemned the Society to pay the 
 3,000,000. The Jesuits were also ordered to submit their 
 statutes to the Advocate-General for examination. On the 6th of 
 August, 1761, the Parliament issued two startling Decrees. The 
 first condemned twenty-four Jesuit books to be burned as " sediti- 
 "ous, destructive of Christian morals, and teaching a murderous 
 " and abominable doctrine, not only in respect to the lives of 
 " citizens, but also in regard to the sacred persons of Sovereigns." 
 The second forbade the Jesuits to continue to teach, and 
 prohibited all subjects of the King from frequenting their schools, 
 until judgment had been passed in respect to the status of their 
 Society. These two Decrees created an immense sensation in Paris. 
 The King, without disapproving of the second one, commanded
 
 The French Revolution. 87 
 
 that its execution should be deferred for one year. The magis- 
 trates, fearing that so long a delay might put off the whole 
 question, altered their original date fi'om October to April, and 
 allowed six months' grace. The Jesuits made every endeavour to 
 profit by the respite. The Superiors of their three houses in Paris 
 witnessed before notaries deeds in which they protested their 
 fidelity to the person of the King and repudiated the imputations 
 cast upon them by the magistrates. The superior clergy declared 
 loudly that a society " that had in all times promoted the welfare 
 *' of Religion, and the maintenance of the Royal authority," ought 
 not to be subjected to the animosity of the Parliaments. Follow- 
 ing the example of the Paris magistrates, those of Rennes, Rouen, 
 Aix, Bordeaux, Besangon and Grenoble demanded the submission 
 to them of the Society's statutes. The Parliament of Paris threw 
 out an Edict, forwarded to it by the King, that aimed at reform- 
 ing the Society and, by that means, at preserving it. In justifica- 
 tion of its conduct, it presented the Monarch with an Extract of 
 dangerous doctrines taught by the Society, and contained in its 
 books. On April 1st, 1762, the term fixed by the Parliament, the 
 Jesuits found themselves constrained to give up teaching, 
 and a seal was put on all their papers. On August 6th, exactly 
 a year after the promulgation of the first Decree against them, the 
 Parliament condemned to be burned 163 more books of their's, 
 and announced the dissolution of the Society. Up till the last 
 moment, the Jesuits did not abandon hope, and when the announce- 
 ment was made, they appeared to be completely non-plussed. 
 The King did not interfere with the action of the Parliament. 
 The Lisbon plot, in throwing a light upon the attempt made 
 upon his own life, bad quite changed his disposition towards the 
 Jesuits. 
 
 Voltaire correctly estimated the real cause of the abolition of 
 the Jesuit bodies. " It was," said he, " neither Sanchez, Lessius, 
 "nor Escobar, nor the absurdities of casuists who destroyed 
 " the Jesuits ; it was Le Tellier, it was the Bull, that exterminated 
 " them."' This extermination provoked among the people an exces- 
 sive and alqiost indecent outburst of joy,
 
 88 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 lu the dissolution of the hated Society, the Parliaments re- 
 cognised the results of their combined eflforts. The Jansenists 
 exulted as if the victory had been of their achieving, and the 
 Philosophers also took to themselves the credit of it. " I seem," 
 said Diderot, "to see Voltaire raising his hands and eyes to 
 "Heaven, as he repeats the Nuwi dimittis" 
 
 In reality the abolition of the Jesuits was an achievement be- 
 longing neither to the Parliaments, the Jansenists, nor the 
 'Philosophers. It was the triumph of Public Opinion.
 
 TJie French Revoliitioji. 89 
 
 CHAPTER VIT. 
 
 Government of Louis XV. 
 
 (1762-1770.) . 
 
 The abolition of the Society of the Jesuits was the first con- 
 quest of the Revolutionary Spirit. 
 
 But the parliamentary opposition to the old order of things, 
 which had for its object the diminishing of the Royal authority 
 and the maintenance of Gallicanism, did not go far enough for 
 the more intelligent members of the community. Without any 
 clear plan or purpose, these followed the guidance of the Phil- 
 osophers, who, themselves, but vaguely aimed at the establishment 
 of a new regime. As a thoughtful writer has said : " At this 
 " crisis the real events were not acts, but books." On November 3rd, 
 1762, the preliminaries of the peace between France and England 
 were signed, and to the war of force without succeeded a war of 
 thought within the kingdom. Two celebrated books, Emile 
 and The Social Contract, inaugurated this period, Emile was 
 burned by the Parliament and censured by the Archbishop of 
 Paris. The terms of both condemnations were, however, more 
 moderate than had been those which greeted the appearance of 
 De L'Esprit. It was said that the Archbishop published his 
 mandate against Emile as a mere matter of form, and the 
 magistrates denounced it because, having just taken proceedings 
 against the Jesuits, they were afraid of being accused of indiffer- 
 ence to the Faith. The Social Co7itract, which upheld the 
 principle of appeal to the people and of the sovereignty of the 
 Nation, and which transformed the Government into a sort of re- 
 vocable commission, was incomparably more daring politically 
 than Emile was in religious matters. Even among certain 
 supporters of Philosophy, it was deemed dangerous. " It is most 
 "important," remarked Bachaumont, "that a book of this kind
 
 go The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 "should not be allowed to ferment in minds that are easily excited." 
 But, in spite of its temerity, The Social Contract was not burned 
 by the Parliament. Printed in Holland, it was known in Paris 
 by only a very small number of copies, whilst Emile, on account 
 of its denunciation by the Parliament, was read by everyone. 
 A writ was issued against Rousseau for the seizure of his person, 
 but the Ministry made its evasion easy. At the same time, the 
 Encyclopedia was most inconsequently allowed to re-appear, and 
 De L^Esprit was sold openly. Six months later, Emile and The 
 Social Contract were also obtainable at all booksellers. 
 
 Ever since 1759, when Omer de Fleury pronounced his famous 
 speech against them, the writers of the Encyclopedia had, in self- 
 defence, joined forces, with the object of establishing upon the 
 ruin of all dogmas, an empire of reason. From Ferney, whither 
 he had retired from the range of persecution, Voltaire stimulated 
 their zeal and directed their actions. From Ferney he sent forth 
 his Sermon of the Fifty, and the Testament of the Priest Mesliet — 
 first fruits of the innumerable brochures that were about to pro- 
 ceed from his indefatigable pen. But, unlike Rousseau, who laid 
 himself open to persecution by signing his works, Voltaire dis- 
 avowed his. "Try," he said to Helvetius, "to serve the human 
 " race without harming yourself in the least." Faithful to this 
 maxim, he attacked his enemies without exposing himself to their 
 counter-thrusts. Yet his ulterior aim was noble. The ardent 
 friend of humanity, he declared war against all fanaticism ; and it 
 must not be forgotten, that at the moment that he gave to 
 Helvetius this piece of ignoble advice, he was preparing his 
 Treatise of Tolerance and winning the sympathies of the whole of 
 Europe for the innocent Galas. ^ 
 
 Notwithstanding that the Jesuits had been crushed, they 
 still attempted to stir up public opinion. They accused the 
 
 * Colas — a Protestant merchant of Toulouse, accused of strangling his son 
 for becoming a Catholic, condemned to the punishment of death by breaking 
 on the wheel, and his family to imprisonment and banishment. The 
 latter, through the exertions of Voltaire, were subsequently pardoned, 
 liouis XV. gave them as compensation^ 3,000 livres. (Translator's Note.)
 
 The F^'ench RevohUion. 91 
 
 Parliament with having violated all principles of right, and in- 
 sisted that tlie pretended Extracts from the doctrine of the 
 Jesuits were nothing but a tissue of misrepresentations. They 
 circulated the most outrageous libels on the Parliaments, and these 
 bodies replied by committing the libels to the flames. One of the 
 writings that made a great stir was the Three Necessities. 
 These Necessities were to hound down the Jesuits, destroy 
 Christianity, and assassinate the Dauphin. This pamphlet, which 
 was much talked of, but which no one seems ever to have seen, 
 and which was very likely never written, was attributed by 
 the public to dissimulating Jesuits, who desired to prove 
 that their enemies were also those of Religion and of the 
 Throne. But in February, 1763, the King confirmed the dissolu- 
 tion of the Society by an Edict, and the Jesuits were soon for- 
 gotten. 
 
 The close of the hostilities did not immediately bring about an 
 abatement of the taxes. But, in the month of May, the King 
 held a " Bed of Justice," in which he forced the registration of 
 certain Edicts which suppressed some taxes and created others. 
 Thereupon the Parliament issued a Decree, declaring that these 
 enforced registrations "tended to the subversion of the funda- 
 mental laws of the kingdom." The King, in despite of the 
 Parliament, persisted in upholding his Edicts, and the magistrates 
 prepared fresh remonstrances, threatening, as in 1760, to insist 
 upon the Ministers surrendering to them their accounts. A con- 
 flict between the rights of the Throne and those of the Magistracy 
 was hourly expected. 
 
 " If the Government succeeds in diminishing the authority and 
 "asserted rights of the Parliaments," wrote Barbier, "there will 
 "no longer be any obstacle in the way of assured despotism. If, 
 " on the contrary, the Parliaments unite to oppose this move with 
 " strong measures, nothing can follow hut a general Revolution." 
 This Revolution, which Barbier then foresaw, and which, in Emile, 
 Rousseau averred was menacing the whole of Europe, was also 
 announced from the pulpit. " In a realm, where the sceptre and 
 " censer continually clash," said a priest^ " sooner or later a RevQlu-
 
 92 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 "tion must break out. The crisis is a supreme one, aud the 
 ^'■Revolution cannot he far off." 
 
 The excitement caused by the promulgation of the Money Edicts 
 spread from Paris to the provinces. Most of the Parliaments 
 refused to register them, and asked the Monarch to submit to them 
 statements of the revenues and debts of the kingdom. A propos 
 of these Edicts, mention was made in the Assembly at Bordeaux of 
 the " end of monarchies, and the downfall of empires." The " sec- 
 " tion of the Parliament in session at Rouen " declared that it was 
 time to put an end to a disorganised administration, "under pres- 
 "sure of which the Nation groaned." It refused also to contribute to 
 the ruin of the country and the triumph of the oppressors of the 
 public. For its part, the Parliament of Paris maintained that an 
 Edict was not executory unless freely registered by all the Parlia- 
 ments of the kingdom. By these incessant, and ever bolder 
 claims, the magistrates, while believing themselves to be keeping 
 to the political traditions of the past, were preparing the way 
 more and more for the Revolution. Louis XV. resolved not to 
 yield. He quashed the Decrees of the Parliaments, and enjoined 
 the commanding officers in the provinces to enforce the registra- 
 tion of his Edicts, manu militari. 
 
 This order was rigorously carried out, and the magistrates 
 replied by issuing writs for the apprehension of the officers. At 
 last the Paris Parliament represented to the Monarch that measures 
 of violence could only shatter the stability of the Throne, and that, 
 " to sustain a Government by force, was to teach the people that 
 "force could overturn it." The Ministry, intimidated by this bold 
 language, relaxed its strenuous measures. The difficulty in regard 
 to taxation gave birth to a number of brochures. Grimm affirmed 
 that the greater part of them were of so futile and puerile a 
 character as to excite pity. But the Government regarded them 
 from another point of view. It considered them likely to produce 
 in men's minds the germs of sedition, and, by a Declaration of 
 March 28th, 1764, forbade the publication, for the future, of any 
 writings relating to the State or the national finances. 
 
 This Declaration was no better observed than had been those
 
 The French Revolution. 93 
 
 i.-«ued concerning the Constitution. People were beginning co 
 laugh at these orders of silence which the Miuistiy so greatly 
 abused. It was at this time that Voltaire wrote the passage 
 which has since become so celebrated : " All I now see .sows the 
 "seeds of a Revolution which will infallihly spring up, but I shall 
 " not be a witness of it. The French are slow in accomplishing 
 '^ anything, but they achieve it in the end." 
 
 In the midst of the tumult the Money Edicts gave rise to, the 
 Archbishop of Paris tried to revive the quarrels concerning 
 the Jesuits. He published a pastoral instruction in which he 
 strove to demonstrate that the accusations made against the 
 Society concerning its doctrine had no legitimate basis, and that 
 the magistrates in their action in the matter, had audaciously 
 encroached upon the jurisdiction of the Church. The Parliament 
 committed this instruction to the flames, and requested the King 
 to chastise the incorrigible Prelate. The King, fearing that the 
 Parliament might itself take the initiative, commanded the Arch- 
 bishop to retire from Paris for a short time. This pastoral 
 instruction was succeeded by other mandates, and by brochures 
 conceived in the same spirit, w'hich were all condemned to bo 
 buniecl. The Pope joined his authority to that of the bishops 
 and published two Briefs, in which he associated the cause of 
 Jesuitism with that of Religion itself. The Parliament ordered 
 the suppression of these Briefs and renewed the prohibitions 
 against the introduction without authority into the kingdom of 
 any Act of the Court of Rome. The recriminations of the clergy 
 resulted only in the hastening of the total ruin of the Jesuits. In 
 the month of November, 1764, Louis XV. at last declared the 
 Society to be totally suppressed throughout the realm. The 
 Parliament, supported by the authority of the King, pronounced 
 against another of the Pope's Briefs, and boldly insinuated that if 
 the Court of Rome continued to sow discord, it must beware of the 
 enmity of France. The Parliament of Aix was also guilty of an 
 unparalleled audacity in publicly committing to the flames an 
 Act of the Holy See. 
 
 All this time the Encyclopedists were publishing their propa-
 
 94 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 ganda. From Ferney, there emanated successively the Catechism 
 of an Honest Man, The Examination of Religion, and the Philoso- 
 phical Dictionary. In the fight in which he was engaged, Voltaire 
 looked upon large works as arms too heavy to be employed. He 
 preferred little booklets which were easily circulated, as they were 
 not sold, but given to trustworthy persons, who distributed them 
 to young people and to women. It was, in reality, less a party 
 than a Church which the poet sought to build up, and in which he 
 wished to unite in a new apostleship all enemies of fanaticism and 
 superstition. "When he saw his Treatise on Tolerance circulated 
 throughout the kingdom, and read even at Court by Madame de 
 Pompadour and some of the ministers, when, above all, he saw the 
 Council of State quash the Decree pronounced by the Parliament 
 of Toulouse against the unfortunate Calas family, he experienced 
 the holy joy of a man who propounds on earth a new creed. " God 
 " bless our budding Church," he cried. " Scales are falling from 
 "men's eyes, and the reign of Truth is near." 
 
 The bishops, in their turn, seemed to be taking alarm at the 
 ardent propagandism of the Philosophers. In August, 1765, the 
 General Assembly of the clergy published an extract of its de- 
 liberations, in which it gave expression to its anxieties. This was 
 the first time that the superior clergy had joined in protesting 
 against the new Philosophy. "A multitude of fearless writers," 
 they said, " have trodden under foot all laws, both human and 
 "divine . . • • Nothing has been respected either in the civil or 
 "spiritual order. The majesty of the Supreme Being and that of 
 " Kings is outraged ... In the realm of faith, in that of morals, 
 " and even in the State itself, the spirit of the century seems to 
 " threaten a Revolution that presages on all sides total ruin and de- 
 "struction." This exordium — which maybe considered the first 
 announcement of the Revolution set forth in a document of a 
 public character — was followed by the condemnation in gloho 
 of all the books that had recently appeared against Religion ; 
 notably, the works of Helvetius, Diderot, Voltaire, and Rousseau. 
 By a stroke of the pen the whole of literary France was placed 
 under a ban. The Parliament did not entirely approve this
 
 The French Revohdion. 95 
 
 censure, and reproached the bishops with having said nothing of 
 the scandals of which the Jesuits and their partisans had been 
 the authors ; thus inferring that, if Religion was then being 
 combatted by the Philosophers, it was because the men who 
 should liave taught and defended it had, by their own conduct, 
 caused it to be dishonoured. But the denunciation of the 
 Philosophers was not the most important part of the manifesto ; 
 it did but precede a long exposition of the rights of the spiritual 
 •powers, in which the prelates maintained that the ecclesiastical 
 ministry was completely independent in all the " things of God," 
 and, particularly, in. the administration of the Sacraments. Follow- 
 ing on to this came a declaration upon the Unigenitus Bull. This 
 was exhuming all the old quarrels with Jansenism. In his 
 capacity as President, the Archbishop of Rheims addressed a 
 circular letter to all the prelates of the kingdom, in which he in- 
 vited them to give their adherence to the Acts of the Assembly of 
 the Clergy. At the very time that these Acts were being pub- 
 lished, the Archbishop of Paris refused the Communion to a nun 
 at St. Cloud, who had solicited before dying the consolation of the 
 Church. She managed to evade the surveillance under which she 
 was placed, and to forward her plea to the Parliament. Upon the 
 order of the magistrates, a priest of the chapel of St. Cloud pre- 
 sented himself to administer the Sacrament to the dying woman. 
 But the Mother Superior, acting upon the injunctions of the Arch- 
 bishop, refused to open the doors to him. Force was obliged to 
 be used, and the priest carried the viatica into the convent, 
 escorted by a lieutenant of police and two officers of the Parlia- 
 ment, whilst outside, mounted troops, surrounded by an excited 
 multitude, filled the avenues. No one doubted that these fresh 
 intrigues were the work of the Jesuits. The Parliament, declar- 
 ing that the bishops had exceeded their powers, suppressed the 
 Acts of the Assembly of the Clergy. The bishops complained to the 
 King, who, as he was just then desirous of obtaining subsidies from 
 the clergy, quashed the Decree. Emboldened by this mark of 
 favour, the bishops circulated the suppressed Acts throughout 
 their dioceses. Libels were spread abroad asserting that the
 
 96 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 magistrates were designedly aiming at the subversal of the Throne 
 and the Altar. Other writings demanded the re-establishment ol 
 the order of the Jesuits. But the Parliament feared a renewal of 
 those disorders which had so profoundly troubled the kingdom 
 and prohibited all adherence to the Acts. The Government also 
 took alarm, and published a Decree of Council, in which it com- 
 mended the observance of the Gallican maxims of 1682, fixed the 
 bounds of the two powers, and recalled the Declaration of 1731, 
 which had prescribed an absolute silence upon these questions. 
 
 At the same time, some difficulties arose in another quarter, 
 the consequences of which the Government had equal reasons 
 for apprehending. At the close of the conflict which the 
 Money Edicts had brought about between the Government and 
 the Parliament of Brittany, all the members of that body hud 
 sent in their resignations. Upon the order of the King, six of 
 the magistrates, including the Proctor-General, La Chalotais, were 
 arrested, and three Councillors of State, and twelve " Masters of 
 Requests," were sent to Rennes to institute proceedings against 
 them. The Parliament of Paris protested, in a Decree, against 
 the establishment of a tribunal, resembling '^ those which so 
 " many historical events had consigned to public contempt." On 
 March 3rd, 1760, Louis XV. appeared in the midst of the Parlia- 
 ment and had this Decree erased from the registers before his 
 eyes. "In my person alone," he said, "resides the sovereign 
 "power. It is to me alone that the Courts owe their existence and 
 "their authority.- To me alone belongs the legislative power in- 
 " dcpendently and indi visibly. All public order emajiates from me." 
 He concluded by declaring that if the Parliament continued to 
 present "the scandalous spectacle of a rival contradiction of his 
 " sovereign will," he would be "reduced to the sad necessity of 
 " employing the power ho had received from God to preserve his 
 " people from the baleful consequences of such proceedings." Never 
 had Royalty asserted its rights with so much vigour, for never 
 before had it been so sensible of its weakness. The Parliament 
 would not allow itself to be intimidated. It renewed its remon- 
 strances and threatened to resign. The Ministry feared to try it
 
 The French Revolution. 97 
 
 too far and once more made a compromise. The commissioners 
 were recalled from Brittany, and La Chalotais and his colleagues, 
 who had been imprisoned in different fortresses, were transferred 
 to the Bastille. 
 
 In spite of the prohibition of the Parliament and the Decree of 
 Council, adherents to the AcU continued to multiply. The 
 Paris Parliament issued writs for the apprehension of the various 
 priests who had disobeyed its injunction, and the Assemblies of 
 Bordeaux, Aix, and Toulouse followed suit. War raged once 
 more between the bishops and the magisti-ates. Louis XV., with 
 the object of conciliating both parties, evoked to his Council the 
 cognizance of all disputes relative to the AcU, and quashed the 
 parliamentary Decrees. This conduct of course displeased the 
 magistrates. Some fresh refusals of Sacraments having taken 
 place, the Parliament, in a Decree dated January 1767, ordered 
 the seizure and the banishment of those ecclesiastics, who were 
 responsible for the refusals. Whereupon the bishops rushed in a 
 body to Paris and held conventicles to decide upon a new course 
 of action. The Parliament informed the prelates that they must 
 return to their dioceses, under penalty of the seizure of tlieir 
 personal property, and forbade their holding any assembly with- 
 out permission of the King. The bishops prayed the Monarch to 
 annul this Decree and to preclude the Parliament from interfering 
 in the affairs of the Church. The King felt that they were ask- 
 ing permission to stir up the kingdom according to their will, and, 
 in quashing the Decree, he followed the example of the Parliament 
 and ordered them to return to their dioceses. It was thus that 
 the designs of the clergy miscarried. The bishops, by their mis- 
 taken zeal, only succeeded in furnishing their adversaries with 
 fresh arms. It was upon this occasion that Voltaire, referring to 
 the Unigenitus, wrote : " One must be either a priest or an ignor- 
 " amus to make of this Jesuitical and Romish harlequinade a law of 
 "the Church and State." 
 
 But the bishops did more than bra,nd the productions of the 
 Philosophers in their Acts. At their instigation, the. last volumes 
 of the Encyclopedia were seized and some of its authors sent to 
 
 G
 
 98 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 the Bastille. The Encyclopedists retaliated with fresh writings. 
 The death of the Chevalier de la Barre — the victim of religious 
 intolerance — Avho was beheaded at Abbeville in accordance with a 
 sentence confirmed by the Parliament, served to increase the 
 ardour of the Philosophers. They had not forgotten the cruel 
 end of Galas, and did not hesitate to accuse the Parliaments 
 with making themselves the instruments of fanaticism and 
 superstition. From that time forward the Philosophic school 
 held clergy and magistracy in equal enmity. 
 
 The news of the tragic event at Abbeville quite overwhelmed 
 Voltaire. " The inquisition is mild in comparison to your 
 " Jansenists of the Grand Chamber and of la Tournelle" he said. 
 " We are rescued from foxes to be delivered up to wolves." When 
 the storm was passed, he set to work again. As, after the punish- 
 ment of Calas, he preached tolerance, so, after the death of La 
 Barre, he taught respect of human life, and, inspired by the recent 
 work of Beccaria, he wrote his Commentary on the Book of 
 Misdemeanours arid Penalties. The police seized this brochure, 
 but Voltaire's voice found an echo. In November, 1766, a magis- 
 trate developed the same ideas in a Discourse upon the Adminis- 
 tration of Criminal Justice. In February, Marmontel produced 
 his Belisarius — a warm plea for tolerance. This book was 
 condemned by the Faculty of Theology and by the Archbishop of 
 Paris, both of whom declared that religious intolerance was one 
 of the essential principles of Catholicism. They added that, by 
 virtue of the bond which united the two Powers, Sovereigns ought 
 to place the sword at the service of the Faith. Such declarations 
 did not arrest the stream of publications directed against the 
 Church. In vain was a stricter watch put upon the book-trade. 
 In vain did the colporteurs encumber the prisons. Whilst in 
 certain writings, the legitimacy of the wealth of the clergy was 
 called into question, and in others the King was advised to abolish 
 convents, there appeared one after another — Priests Unmasked, 
 The Spirit of the Clergy, Sacerdotal Imposture, Doubts on 
 Religion, Portable Theology, Catechumen, and The Soldier 
 Philosopher,
 
 The French Revolution. 99 
 
 Whilst strictly proscribing the philosophical books, the Govern- 
 ment was, nevertheless, partly inspired by the ideas of their 
 writers. It openly blamed the Sorbonne for its censure of 
 Belisarius, and could not be got to endorse the principles that 
 transformed the weapon of the law into an arm in the service of 
 the Church. Towards the close of 1767, the ministers presented 
 to Louis XV. an Edict which restored to the Protestants their 
 civil status. Three times the King rejected this Edict, but, at 
 the same time, the governors of the provinces and the proctors- 
 general were commanded not to molest the "religionists." A 
 commission was also established to reform the convents, and several 
 abuses were done away with. A more significant event bore 
 witness to the new disposition of the Government. The Due de 
 Parma — Ferdinand de Bourbon — had expelled the Jesuits from 
 his dominions, and promulgated a regulation which limited the 
 action of the Papacy in religious matters. Clement XIII. quashed 
 the regulation, excommunicated the author, and declared himself 
 the sole sovereign of the States of Parma and Plaisance. The 
 Parliament suppressed the Brief and forbade its publication as an 
 act of high treason. Louis XV. confirmed this sentence, addressed 
 the Decree to all the bishops of the kingdom, and seized upon 
 Avignon^ and the Comtat Venaissin.^ This move, which was loudly 
 applauded by the populace, testified to the progress that the 
 Revolution had already made in men's minds in religious matters. 
 The Pope was, in a manner, hunted out of France by the King. 
 
 Yet if in regard to Church questions, the Government partly 
 followed the direction of public opinion, it did not do so at all in 
 politics. An Edict of January, 1768, announced the re-establish- 
 ment of the Grand Council upon the basis which had been 
 organised thirty years before under Cardinal Fleury, when that 
 minister, to please the Jesuits, had been on the point of sub- 
 
 '^ Avignon — In 1309, the Pope's Court was removed for a period from 
 Rome to Avignon ; subsequently Avignon became the residence of the 
 anti-Popes, who wrere driven out in 1408. The Pontiff, however, still re- 
 tained his sovereignty over the town. Comtat Venaissin — a district ceded 
 to the Popes in 1229. (Translator's Note.)
 
 lOO The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 stituting it for the Parliament. Public disapproval, as much, and 
 perhaps more, than the combined resistance of magistrates, princes, 
 and peers, caused the breakdown of the King's attempt, and less 
 than six months after promulgating his Edict, Louis XV. revoked 
 it implicitly by a Declaration. 
 
 At this time there began those artificial famines created by the 
 monstrous association called the ^acie de famine, which coimted 
 Louis XV. among its members. In the first half of the year 
 1768, revolts, occasioned by the dearness of bread, took place in 
 pai'ts of Brittany and in Normandy. The Parliament of the 
 province wrote to Louis XV., describing " entire villages " as 
 being devoured by maladies caused by the bad quality of the 
 grain, and calling his attention to the hunger that decimated the 
 workmen in the towns. The dearth was also felt in the capital. 
 Towards the close of the preceding year, the Parliament had sent 
 a deputation to the King, beseeching him to look with compassion 
 on his people. "I love my people tenderly," replied the Monarch, 
 "and your ill advised action will serve only to encourage theii 
 ^' complaints." In the months of October and November, 1768. 
 placards, posted in the most frequented streets of Paris, threatened 
 to set the city on fire, if the price of bread were not lowered. In 
 one of these placards the King was accused of constituting him- 
 self a '' merchant of wheat," and it was more than hinted that 
 Damiens might find his imitators. 
 
 Still the bombs continued to fall into the " house of the Lord." 
 The cannonade was composed of Sacred Contagion, The Exam- 
 ination of the Prophecies, The Life of David — the Man after God's 
 oivn Heart, etc., etc. In their war against Catholicism, it must 
 be owned that the Philosophers attacked, without caution or re- 
 serve, all the traditions and ideas which formed obstacles in their 
 path. They imposed their doctrines, too, in the same dogmatic 
 manner that they so much condemned in their adversaries. The 
 publishers, following the example set by the wiiters, made them- 
 selves anonymous and inaccessible, and severities were, therefore, 
 redoubled against colporteurs. In default of colporteurs, the 
 prohibited works were passed from hand to hand. Certain mem-
 
 The French Revolution. lOi 
 
 bers of the Parliament, irritated by the licence permitted to 
 authors, wished to have Voltaire arrested. The Patriarch, who 
 flattered himself that he was more adroit than Socrates, and who 
 had not the slightest ambition to pose as a hemlock-drinker, 
 publicly received the Communion in the church at Ferney. This 
 action stirred up a '^ devil of a row " in Paris. Twice in 1768 
 and 1769 he took part in this spiritual farce. If he had lived at 
 Abbeville, where De la Barre was executed, he would, so he said, 
 have communicated once a fortnight. The philosophical propa- 
 gandism continued so fast and strong that the Lieutenant of 
 Police himself avowed that he could not control the shower of 
 pamphlets. Encyclopedist ideas filled the minds of the nobility, 
 the bourgeois, and the magistrates. Even the clergy began to 
 take the infection. In 1769 two monks declared to Diderot that 
 atheism was the current doctrine in their cloisters. At the same 
 time, many people were demanding other rules of family life 
 than those prescribed by Catholicism. Some revolted against the 
 institution of marriage, and wrote in favour of divorce. 
 
 Whilst the Encyclopedists stirred men's minds by their writ- 
 ings, the discontent provoked among the lower classes by the 
 dearness of bread was far from being appeased. The Parliament 
 began to consider means of remedying the evil, and demanded 
 information concerning the monopolists. On their side, the 
 Economists — a newly-formed sect of "political Philosophers," 
 who aimed at upsetting all received principles of Government 
 and establishing a new order of things — set forth their views 
 upon the subject. The creation of fresh taxes, declared neces- 
 sary in order " to close the wounds which long and ruinous 
 wars had made in the State," augmented the popular indigna- 
 tion and increased the misery. But the Government, pressed 
 by a debt of nearly 3,000,000,000 livres, sought only to create 
 fresh resources. The Abbe Terray, lately nominated Comptroller- 
 General, undertook the task of bleeding the Nation. In January, 
 1770, Edicts were issued by the Council which so heavily taxed 
 pensions and incomes, that Voltaire had to hand out from his own 
 pocket 100,000 livres.
 
 102 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 This measure brought many families to ruin and excited 
 universal animosity. The Parliament, constituting itself the 
 mouthpiece of public opinion, presented Remonstrances, to which 
 the King replied that he was certainly touched by the situation 
 of his subjects, but that his paternal sentiments must yield in 
 this case to the necessities of the State, At this crisis, the King 
 was advised in a pamphlet to extinguish the debt by immediately 
 appropriating the wealth of the clergy, which, valued at a third 
 of that of the kingdom, represented, so it was affirmed, a revenue 
 of 3,000,000,000 livres. This suggestion made all the more 
 impression because it was not put forward in a pai'ty spirit, 
 but with every mark of respect for Religion, in the name of which, 
 the author exhorted the bishops to observe the rules of poverty 
 prescribed in the Gospels. But the Government repudiated the 
 doctrines that it had previously encouraged and took proceedings 
 against the publishers of the work. It could, however, see for 
 itself the universal distress. During the year 1770, the dwellers 
 in the country districts lived on beans, bran, oats, and herbs. 
 Seditious placards multiplied in Paris. One of these contained 
 the words : "If the price of bread is not diminished and order 
 " introduced into the affairs of the State, we shall know how to 
 " perform our part ; we are twenty against each bayonet ! " 
 
 The clergy were, at this time, holding their General Assembly 
 at Paris. Neither the critical state of the country, nor the 
 distress of the population was the subject of their deliberations. 
 Apart from questions of ecclesiastical administration, the bishops 
 were solely occupied in devising means to dam the torrent of 
 writings directed against the Church, At the commencement of 
 their session, they laid before the King a Memoir of the Bale- 
 ful Consequences of the Liberty of Thought and Publication. 
 They complained particularly that a new edition of the Ency- 
 clopedia was being at that moment published. Yielding once 
 more to their plaints, the Government caused all the volumes of 
 the new edition, that had already appeared, to be taken to 
 the Bastille, No one, however, doubted for a moment that these 
 volumes would be returned some months later to the pub-
 
 The French Revolution. 103 
 
 lishers. Besides this, the bishops voted an annual pension of 
 2,000 livres to an erudite ecclesiastic — the Abbe Bergier — who 
 undertook, for that price, the charge of refuting all the important 
 works of the Encyclopedists. Before separating, the bishops 
 published a Manifesto, entitled Warning to the Clergy of France 
 and to the Faithful of the Kingdom against the Dangers of In- 
 credulity. In this Manifesto, the prelates strove to interest the 
 Monarch in the cause of the Church by pointing out that Religion 
 taught the people to bear the yoke with meekness, and wear 
 unresistingly the chains of despotism. The Government was no 
 doubt touched by this declaration, no less than by the " free gift " 
 of 16,000,000 livres accorded to it, and, in acknowledgment of this 
 gift, the Parliament was requested to seize all impious works. 
 The magistrates responded to this request by committing to the 
 flames Sacred Contagion, Christianity Unveiled, The System of 
 Nature, and other books. But in spite of all these severities, it 
 was apparent that Philosophy, thenceforward victorious, had 
 exhausted its adversaries. The Warning of 1770 had none of the 
 vigour that was still remarked in the Acts of 1765, and the magis- 
 trates, contrary to custom, would not allow the speech of the 
 Advocate-General, on the occasion of the condemning of the 
 philosophical works, to be printed. In order to publish it, the 
 latter had to obtain the King's permission. 
 
 In this speech, the power of the Philosophers, whom it was pro- 
 posed to annihilate, was unskilfully thrown into strong relief. 
 " The Philosophers," said the Advocate-General, "have consti- 
 " tuted themselves the preceptors of the human race. ' Liberty of 
 " Thought ' is their cry, and this cry has made itself heard from one 
 " extremity of the earth to the other .... Their object has been 
 " to direct the minds of men into another channel in regard to all 
 " civil and religious institutions, and thus the Revolution, so to speak^ 
 " has been accomplished. Kingdoms have felt their ancient founda- 
 " tions totter, and nations, astonished to find their principles anni- 
 " hilated, have asked themselves by what fatality they have become 
 " so different from their former selves. It is against Religion above 
 " all that these innovators have aimed their deadliest blows. In writ-
 
 1 04 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 " ings without number, they have poured forth the poison of unbelief. 
 " Eloquence, poetry, histories, romauces, and even dictionaries have 
 *' been infected. And these writings are scarcely made public in 
 " the capital before they spread like a torrent to the country. 
 "The contagion has penetrated even to the workshops and 
 " cottages." 
 
 It would have been impossible to attest, in clearer terms, the 
 triumph of Philosophy, and, in particular, of the doctrines that 
 attacked Catholicism. This public avowal, emanating from a 
 magistrate, confirmed the declarations made by the Philosophers 
 themselves. According to Voltaire, to whom a statue was about 
 this time erected by his admirers, the Revolution, in its victorious 
 course, had already overstepped its mark. The Patriai'ch had 
 aimed at cleansing the Temple of Divinity of its stains, but had 
 not thought of overthrowing it. Yet the Temple was fast falling 
 to pieces. Of the edifice of the ancien regime there remained only 
 the tottering walls, beneath which Royalty took shelter. The 
 moment was drawing near when those walls would in their turn 
 crumble into dust, and not a vestige of them remain.
 
 The French Revotution. 105 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 End of the Governvient of Louis XV. 
 (1770-1774) 
 
 After more than a year of captivity, La Chalotais and the 
 five other magistrates of the Parliament of Rennes had been 
 sent into exile. But, though banished, they had not ceased 
 to protest against the harsh treatment to which they had been 
 subjected. La Chalotais, who, in spite of his advanced years, 
 had been the most severely dealt with, deemed himself the prey 
 of the " Society of Jesus," against which body he had formerly 
 pronounced a celebrated requisitoire. This idea was readily em- 
 braced by a prejudiced public. At Paris, as at Rennes, it was 
 believed that there existed a vast Jesuitical plot directed against 
 La Chalotais and the Parliament of Brittany, In which the Due 
 d'Aiguillon, Governor of the province, was himself concerned. 
 Only a small number of the magistrates who had resigned had 
 subsequently resumed their seats, and the vacancies had been 
 filled by magistrates chosen by d'Aiguillon. The Parliament had 
 protested against these arbitrary nominations, and had requested to 
 be re-established in its entirety. In July, 1769, its desire was 
 granted, and, as soon as the magistrates were installed, they in- 
 stituted inquiries into the " facts of bribery, false witness, and 
 other crimes imputed to the Due d'Aiguillon." D'Aiguillon, wish- 
 ing to refute these allegations, solicited the jurisdiction of the 
 court of Peers, and, by order of the King, the Paris Parliament 
 was convoked. 
 
 The proceedings opened at Versailles with great solemnity. 
 Louis XV. presided at the debate in person, and the magistrates 
 congratulated themselves upon their liberty of deliberation in so
 
 io6 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 grave a matter. The debate lasted for two months, and was then 
 summarily interrupted by letters-patent that annulled the pro- 
 ceedings, and gave the Due d'Aiguillon a complete discharge. 
 This act was both a serious miscarriage of justice, and an affront 
 to the dignity of the Parliament. On their return to Paris, the 
 magistrates issued a Decree, declaring the Due "deprived of the 
 " rights and privileges of the peerage until he had cleared himself 
 " of the suspicions which tarnished his honour." The King quashed 
 this Decree, and, repairing to the Parliament, caused all the 
 records of the case to be expunged from the registers. Great was 
 the indignation of the provincial Parliaments, and had not the 
 Government hastened to prevent any united action, of which it 
 foresaw the danger, the King's conduct would, no doubt, have 
 again given rise to wholesale resignations, and a " confederation 
 " of resistance " in the name of the unity and indivisibility of the 
 Parliament. At the instigation of Chancellor Maupeou, the King 
 issued an Edict, by which he forbade all the Parliaments, 
 thenceforward, to make use of the terms " unity," " indivisibility," 
 and " sections," to correspond with each other except in certain 
 cases specified in the Statutes, or to resist his will, whether by 
 cessation of service, or collective resignations, under penalty of 
 having their members deprived of their offices and punished as 
 rebels. The Parliament refused to register an Edict, the adoption 
 of which would have covered it with ignominy in the eyes of the 
 public. The following day, a " Bed of Justice " was held at 
 Versailles, at which the Chancellor stated, in the King's name, 
 that if no barrier were opposed to the actions of the Parliaments, 
 authority would no longer emanate from the Throne, but from 
 the magistracy. After some useless representations from the first 
 President, the Edict was registered. At this memorable session 
 Koyalty, by " divine right," uttered its last protest against the 
 doctrines which were assailing it on all hands. 
 
 The people, who were suffering so severely from scarcity of 
 bread, warmly took the part of the magistrates, and the princes 
 of the blood-royal testified their disapproval. The magistrates 
 besoui/bt Louis XV. either to withdraw an Edict that so disgraced
 
 The French Revolution. 107 
 
 them or to receive their resignations ; and they further resolved to 
 suspend their functions until he acceded to their request, saying 
 that " they had no longer sufficient mental freedom to enable 
 "them to regulate the 'goods,' safety, and honour of the King's 
 *' siibjects." The Monarch's only response was an order to them to 
 resume their duties. Four times he reiterated this order in 
 " letters of command ; " four times the magistrates refused to obey. 
 At last, on the night of January 20th, 1771, musketeers served 
 them with papers upon which they were forced to write " yes," or 
 " no," to signify if they consented or not to resume their functions. 
 The greater number wrote "no." Forty, who signed "yes," re- 
 tracted the following day. The night after, one hundred and 
 thirty magistrates received letters of exile, and were notified, by 
 Decree of Council, that their seats were confiscated and they and 
 their children declared incapable of holding any judicial offices in 
 the future. On January 21st, thirty-eight members of the 
 Parliament, on whom no writs had been served, came to the 
 Palais de Jvstice, followed by an enormous crowd, and solemnly 
 pronounced themselves to be at one with their colleagues. 
 They were immediately sent into exile. From that moment, no 
 Parliament existed. The Chancellor requested the Grand Council 
 to replace it ; the Coimcil hesitated. He then made overtures 
 to the Cour des Aides, but met with a rebuff. Eventually the 
 Grand Council complied with the Chancellor's request, and on 
 January 24th, was installed in the place of the old Parliament, 
 assuming both its title and attributes. This coup d'etat excited 
 a storm of indignation against Chancellor Maupeou. Insulting and 
 threatening placards were posted at Paris and Versailles, and on 
 the day that the new magistrates took their seats, it was necessary 
 to employ the military to protect them from the anger of the mob. 
 During the first days of their sitting, the Palais de Justice was 
 transformed into a veritable camp. Soldiers filled it within, and 
 on the outer walls people wrote inscriptions, referring in insulting 
 terms to the new magistrates. The princes of the blood, all of 
 whom, except the Comte de la Marche, had blamed the action of 
 the Ministry, received anonymous letters, imploring them to
 
 io8 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 "come to the help of the Nation," for fear of a catastrophe. "I 
 affirm," wrote a man, who was in a position to judge of events, 
 "that if, at this critical moment, a chief could have been found, 
 " a most terrible Revolution would have broken out." 
 
 Whilst Paris trembled, the provincial Parliaments protested by 
 Decrees, by letters and by remonstrances. At Paris, the Cour 
 des Monnaies and the Chatelet also uttered protests. The Cour 
 des Aides, over which Malesherbes — the future defender of Louis 
 XVI. — presided, asked the King to convoke the States-General. 
 " The incorruptible testimony of the representatives of the Nation," 
 so ran the Remonstrances of the latter body, " will tell you if the 
 " cause we support is that of the people, by whom, and for whom you 
 ^' reign." In a few days, copies of these Remonstrances had multi- 
 plied to such an extent that they were to be found in every 
 house, and Malesherbes was sent into exile. 
 
 Since the accession of Louis XV., there had never been such a 
 stirring up of public opinion against the Government. At private 
 gatherings and supper-parties, nothing was spoken of but the 
 impudent violation of the "fundamental constitutions" of the 
 kingdom. Even women took part in discussions about "public 
 " right," and transformed their salons into miniature States-General, 
 from which they rigorously excluded "the traitors or the cowards " 
 who from weakness or interested motives abandoned their country's 
 cause. 
 
 Maupeou fancied he could calm things down by introducing 
 into the judiciary system some of those reforms for which the public 
 had long clamoured. Under the title of "Superior Councils," he 
 created six new courts of justice within the jurisdiction of the 
 Paris Parliament, the extended scope of which had long been a 
 source of ruin to all suitors. He abolished all venal posts and 
 announced that, thenceforward, justice should be administered 
 gratuitously'- to all the King's subjects. The Parliaments of the 
 
 1 This gratuity of justice was more apparent than real. The payments 
 for fines, stamps, etc. , were all left as before, and, at the request of a hundi'ed 
 advocates — newly created and devoted to the interests of the Chancellor — 
 the lawyers' costs were augmented.
 
 The Fre7ich Revolution. 109 
 
 provinces objected to the establishment of " Superior Councils," 
 and the Rouen magistracy demanded the convocation of the 
 States-General. The Due d'Orleans presented to the King a 
 memoir, signed by sixty peers and five princes, which protested 
 against all the action taken by the Government since December 7th, 
 1770. 
 
 But instead of I'elaxing, Maupeou increased his severities. The 
 Cour des Aides having refused to recognise the new Parliament, 
 he suppressed it^ and he also ordered the princes of the blood 
 to withdraw from the Court. As the initial step in these proceed- 
 ings Maupeou had exiled those among the ministers who would have 
 been likely to withstand his designs. He now nominated in their 
 places men of whom he felt sure, and, in defiance of public opinion, 
 he recalled the Due d'Aiguillon to the Ministry. In the end, 
 Louis XV., in a "Bed of Justice," sanctioned the action of his 
 Chancellor by word of mouth, and asserted that he would never 
 change. These words called forth the angry demurs of his people- 
 Many declaimed against injustice and tyranny in the streets, and 
 women, more passionate than men, announced the downfall of the 
 Monarchy. Some verses were published, in which it was set 
 down that France was thirsting for the Chancellor's blood. 
 Numerous notices, placarded throughout Paris, bore the words: 
 ^^ Bread for two sous and the Chancellor hanged, or revolt in Paris." 
 The political emotion was greatly deepened by the agitation caused 
 by the dearth and distress. 
 
 Again there poured forth a deluge of libels, amongst which the 
 Correspondence between M. de Maupeou and M. de Sorhouet dealt the 
 hardest blows at the Ministry. This Correspondence was composed of 
 spurious letters, addressed by the Chancellor to his friend Sorhouet, 
 developing his plans, ideas, and morals — " which were not always 
 " those of honest men " — and holding up their supposed writer to 
 ridicule and contempt. Maupeou defended himself in brochures, 
 written by authors whom he employed for the purpose, of which 
 more than one hundred were given to the world before the close 
 of the year 1771. It was iinfortunate that some of these writings 
 betrayed a zeal so indiscreet that the Chancellor had to request
 
 no The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 his Parliament to denounce them ! This Parliament pursued with 
 severity the numerous writings that attacked the Minister, and the 
 police, for their part, were not inactive. Every day persons were 
 arrested for distributing libels or speaking idle words of gossip. 
 Raids were made on the booksellers, and, as another means of 
 putting an end to the publications, a tax was put on paper. 
 
 In the absence of a Paris Parliament, the provincial Assemblies, 
 united by a common feeling of resentment, threatened to become 
 centres of resistance. However, in the last month of 1771, they 
 were all suppressed ; some to be re-established, others to be 
 modified, diminished, or replaced by Superior Councils. This 
 measure was everywhere carried out by the same means. The 
 commanding-officer of the province assembled the magistrates, 
 proclaimed the Edict of suppression, and employed military force 
 to compel the evacuation of the chamber of deliberation. In 
 Normandy, where the Parliament had been dismembered and two 
 Superior Councils substituted, many of the new magistrates, 
 nominated by the Chancellor, were in danger of their lives. Some 
 of them were hung in effigy, and troops had to be sent to keep 
 the populace in check, A Manifesto to the Normans appeared, 
 in which it was asserted that the King, having broken the contract 
 made with the province when it was joined to the rest of the 
 kingdom, the Normans had the right to detach themselves from 
 France and choose another Sovereign. To keep Louis XV. in a 
 severe frame of mind, which, it is only just to say, was not his 
 natural mood, the Dubarry — who had succeeded the Pompadour, 
 and whom the Chancellor had won over by humouring her whims 
 and by flattery — was entrusted with the task of inducing in the 
 King a dread of the possible proceedings of the Parliaments. She 
 placed in her rooms a portrait of Charles I. by Vandyck, which 
 she had bought for 20,000 livres, and whenever the King showed 
 signs of relenting, she recalled to his mind the tragic end of 
 the English Monarch. 
 
 At the same time that the Ministry made its attacks upon the 
 Parliament, it suppressed the Ghdtelet and reconstructed it on a 
 new basis. The Cour des Covi23tes was threatened with abolition, and
 
 The French Revolution. 1 1 1 
 
 a number of inferior courts were done away with. The Nation 
 began to be seriously concerned. All around them, the people 
 saw their laws and institutions crumbling to pieces and a despotic 
 empire arising from their ruins ; they were further incensed 
 by the clerical reaction which followed immediately upon the 
 restoration of absolute government. 
 
 The clergy did not hide their joy at the turn events had taken. 
 They thundered from the pulpit against the ancient Parliament, 
 and the Jesuits returned to the capital in crowds. A Royal 
 Declaration, issued at the entreaty of the Archbishop of Paris, 
 recalled all the priests banished or arrested for refusals of Sacra- 
 ments since the " Bed of Justice" of December, 1756. This Declara- 
 tion was clearly intended to pave the way for the re-establish- 
 ment of the Jesuits. The Cardinal de la Roche-Aymoun, who was 
 devoted to their interests, having been charged with the list of 
 benefices, promoted several Jesuits to livings. The according of 
 these favours to the clergy created the belief that the coup d'etat 
 had been the work of the Jesuits, who hoped, by the overthrowal 
 of the magistracy, to regain their old ascendancy. In truth they 
 had helped it forward by all the means in their power, but the 
 initiative had been taken by the Government alone. Neither was 
 the coup d'etat forced upon the Chancellor by the disagreeable 
 position in which the d'Aiguillon case had placed the Ministry. 
 According to several contemporaries, that violent measure was 
 taken by Maupeou in order to extricate himself from the all but 
 insurmountable difficulties of the financial situation. Louis XV. 
 had refused to declare himself bankrupt, and, as he would not reduce 
 his expenses, it had become necessaiy to create fresh duties, to which 
 the Pari lament would assuredly have offered a most determined resis- 
 tance. On that account alone, it was said, the destruction of the 
 magistracy was resolved upon, and the King allowed himself to be 
 led into a measure, for which the d'Aiguillon case aflforded an 
 easy pretext. From the moment that the Parliament of Paris 
 was suppressed, the financial operations commenced. Money 
 Edicts multiplied to such an extent that, in the year 1771 alone, 
 the Monarch's revenue amounted to 100,000,000 livres more than
 
 1 1 2 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 his customary income. But, iu spite of this fact, not a siugle 
 State debt was discharged. Yet, though it was so finnlj believed 
 that the confused state of the finances alone accounted for the 
 great political changes, there were, in truth, other causes. It 
 had for a long time been evident that the King, irritated by the 
 incessant attacks made upon him by the magistracy, would some 
 day attempt to crush this resistant force. The situation was so 
 strained that it could only be relieved by a coup d'dtat, and Louis 
 XV. had recourse to one, as soon as a minister presented himself 
 who was bold enough to execute it. No one believed that the 
 Chancellor had been led into it, as he pretended, by ideas of re- 
 form. Indeed, the only immediate result of the innovations was 
 the destruction of the magistracy. The Parliaments had not been 
 merely judicial bodies, led, by foi'ce of circumstances, to deal with 
 political subjects ; they had come to be the sole barrier between 
 the Nation and absolute Government. In the authoritative Act 
 that destroyed them, France recognised the overthrow of her sole 
 defence against despotism. 
 
 One of the most characteristic results of the coup d'etat was the 
 concentrating of thought and doctrine upon a single object. To the 
 religious war, which the Encyclopedists considered finished, there 
 succeeded a political conflict, but it was not the Encyclopedists, 
 properly speaking, who conducted it. Voltaire, who never forgave 
 the Parliaments for their persecution of men of letters, and who 
 did not cease to reproach them for having tortured Calas and the 
 Chevalier de la Barre, actually applauded the action of the 
 Chancellor. He had, it is true, no enthusiasm for political liberty, 
 liking better, as he said, " to obey a fine lion, much stronger than 
 " himself, than two hundred rats of his own species." It was the 
 Patriots — theorists more nearly resembling the Economists than 
 the Encyclopedists — who placed themselves, at this juncture, at 
 the head of the movement. The Jansenists themselves turned 
 against monarchial despotism all the forces that they had hither- 
 to directed against papal despotism, and allied themselves to the 
 Patriot party. Thenceforward, side by side with the libels, which 
 were showered upon the Ministry, there appeared pamphlets, in
 
 The French Revolution. \\% 
 
 which the authors endeavoured to unite and develop theories, 
 propounded before their time, concerning "the natural liberty of 
 "man, the imprescriptibility of his rights, and the origin of Kings 
 "and the social contract." 
 
 These new theorists hurled forth brochure after brochure, 
 thinking, by repeated eSbrts, to attain their end more easily, 
 and to baffle the severe measures of the Government. It 
 was in the second half of 1771 that these writings began to be 
 circulated. They attacked first some of the principles so often 
 put forward by the King. " Does the sovereignty reside in one 
 "individual or in the whole body of the nation?" was one of the 
 questions they propounded, and they denied that Royalty held its 
 mithority from God, and that the legislative power was rested' 
 solely and indivisibly in the Monarch. Further they declared all 
 acts of the Sovereign, that infringed the fundamental laws of the 
 State, to be ipse facto null, and they insinuated that, in regard to 
 such acts, the people had the right of resistance. 
 
 Thus passed the year 1771, undoubtedly the most troubled 
 period of the reign of Louis XV. In 1772 the agitation, though 
 less tumultuous, still continued. The libels on the Chancellor 
 became more and more aggressive, and the author of the Secret 
 Correspondence published a new series of letters, in which irony 
 was supplanted by insult. All this time the Gazette de France 
 never ceased to affirm that the changes decreed by the Ministry 
 worked smoothly in all quarters and had gained the approbation 
 of the public. There were brought out some " Supplements " to the 
 Gazette de France which, under pretext of correcting the frequent 
 untruths retailed by this journal, occupied, from a political point 
 of view, the same position that the Ecclesiastical News had held in 
 religious matters. By a Decree of March, 1772, the Parliament 
 condemned to be burned the Secret Correspondence and one of the 
 supplements, declaring the authors to be guilty of the crime of 
 " divine and human petty treason." This sentence was parodied 
 by a " Decree of Parliament," supposed to be pronounced at the 
 request of the Advocate-General against " a furtive pamphlet, the 
 "production of an obscure cabal of 1S,000,000 persons." 
 
 H
 
 1 1 4 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 Far from intimidating the libellists, the last Decree of the 
 Parliament seemed only to stimulate their audacity. Whilst 
 bitter epigrams and insolent prints multiplied against the Chan- 
 cellor, there appeared, one after the other, pamphlets so violent 
 that they stimulated Maupeou's anger to the highest pitch. 
 Together with the libels, political brochures also appeared. In 
 one, The Maxims of Public Bight, it was declared that Kings were 
 made for the people and not people for Kings. In another, in 
 which enquiry was made into the origin of Monarchy, it was 
 established that *' the King and the Law received their authority 
 " from the same source .... the unanimity of the wishes of the 
 " Nation," and that the latter " had the right to assemble of its 
 " own accord " to deliberate upon the affairs of the State. In face 
 of these persistent attacks, Maupeou, who felt the need of creating 
 allies, did not neglect the means of inducing the friendship of the 
 clergy. At the request of the Archbishop of Paris, letters- 
 patent suspended the execution of the Decree of the old Parlia- 
 ment, which forbade the introduction into France, without 
 authorisation, of any Act of the Court of Rome. This concession 
 was apparently made to prepare the way for the re-establishment 
 of the Jesuits, and their return was feared more than ever. 
 Associating himself with the Episcopate in its enmity against 
 the Philosophers, the Chancellor ordered that part of the Bastille, 
 in which the copies of the last edition of the Encyclopedia had 
 been deposited, to be walled up. Two partisans of the Ency- 
 clopedists, Suard and the poet Delile, who had just been nominated 
 by the Academy, had their election cancelled by the King. 
 
 Maupeou still continued to issue brochures in reply to the writ- 
 ings directed against him, and his Parliament, by measures so 
 exceptionally severe, as to be almost inquisitorial, attempted to 
 avert the deluge of pamphlets. It took proceedings not only 
 against the authors, publisl.ers, and distributors of these writings, 
 but also against " their adherents and accomplices," among whom 
 were included those who only read them. Thenceforward the 
 public found itself exposed to the most tyrannical proceedings. 
 Houses were searched, and if a man was found with one of the
 
 The French Revolution. 1x5 
 
 libels about his persou, he was liable to immediate arrest. Paiis 
 swarmed with spies. Yet, in spite of these rigorous measures, 
 the publication of pamphlets went on. As in the times of 
 Jansenism, the entire Nation was an accomplice in this plot to 
 deceive the Government. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Comptroller-General still continued to bleed 
 the people. " Unlike a leech, which at least drops off wheu 
 "full," he persisted in imposing fresh taxes. All the new Parlia* 
 ments had been forbidden to present further Remonstrances, 
 and no more were issued until after the death of Louis XV. 
 Delivered up like spoil to ministers, who had no longer any check 
 put upon them, and each of whom was an absolute master in his 
 own department, France presented the appearance of a conquered 
 country, upon which a foreign power had imposed new laws. 
 In less than a year 100,000 persons, despoiled of their 
 fortunes, or threatened with the deprivation of their liberty, 
 quitted the capital, bound either for the provinces or for foreign 
 lands. The venal posts, so noisily abolished by Maupeou, reflour- 
 ished under another form. The Abbe Terray and another 
 minister, the Due de la Vrilliere, allowed shameless women to 
 traffic openly with the appointments that were at their dis- 
 posal. 
 
 Louis XV., " shut up in his seraglio, and plunged in de- 
 "bauchery," bestowed the revenues of his kingdom upon the 
 Dubarry. Provided that he had enough money for his pleasures, 
 he was but little concerned by the disordered state of his 
 
 finances. 
 
 At this time the Abb6 Raynal published his Philosophical and 
 Political History of the Establishments and Commerce of the Euro- 
 peans in the two Indies, in which he attacked all persons in 
 authority — Ministers, Priests, and Kings — with equal violence. 
 The sensation created by this book determined the Government 
 to condemn it. But, as the Ministry paid more attention to 
 phillipics than to doctrinal works, it was only suppressed by 
 Decree of Council. The Goveniment likewise contented itself 
 with merely suppressing the Philosophical Reflections upon the
 
 1 1 6 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 System of Nature, a book, no less audacious than the other, in 
 whicii it was maintained that it was not the people's 7'ight alone, 
 but their duty, to rise up against despotism. The Chancellor 
 seemed to be very uneasy in regard to the rapid introduction of free 
 thought into politics. His prudence led him to go so far as to 
 forbid the printing of the Capitulaires of Baluze, for fear lest that 
 collection of old French laws should become a weapon in the hands 
 of Patriot authors. His Parliament, for its part, was pursuing 
 inquiries in regard to anti-Chancellor books. In reference to these, 
 fifty-two persons found themselves drawn into a case which lasted 
 for nearly the whole of the year 1773. 
 
 While these events were taking place in Paris, revolts, provoked 
 by the scarcity of wheat, broke out in various parts of the pro- 
 vinces. The peasants came in thousands to the towns to demand 
 bread, and it was feared that the continuous dearth might bring 
 about a general rebellion. 
 
 In the midst of all these legitimate causes of discontent, the 
 public had one satisfaction. A Brief from Clement XIV., dated 
 July, 1773, definitely suppressed the Society of the Jesuits, and 
 this body was obliged to consider itself annihilated, since its Ultra- 
 montane maxims forbade it to rebel against Rome. In this 
 matter the Government had been unable to separate itself from 
 other Catholic Courts, all of which had solicited the Pope to grant 
 this fiat of abolition. Besides, Maupeou was no devotee, and, fol- 
 lowing on the storm of opposition which he had just been con- 
 tending against, he had no desire to stir up public antagonism a 
 second time by the re-establishment of a detested institution. And 
 he perhaps thought, by favouring its complete suppression, to win 
 the sympathies of the Nation. In truth, the Brief had to be paid 
 for by the restitution of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin, and 
 the Chancellor felt himself called upon to show that the disband- 
 ment of the Jesuits would not have the eflect of making the 
 Government more indulgent to the enemies of Religion. In Janu- 
 ary, 1774, the Parliament which had, up to that time, burned none 
 but libels directed against the Chancellor, committed to the flames 
 two books which it- stigmatised as impious ; one of them being a
 
 The FrencJi RevoCiUion. 117 
 
 posthumous work of Helvetius, called Concerning Man: His In- 
 tellectiial Faculties and Bducation. 
 
 At the close of the year 1772, the princes of the blood, though still 
 adhering in a certain degree to their original protests, were recalled 
 to the Court. Most of the members of the suppressed provincial 
 Parliaments, after having refused for a long time to accept com- 
 pensation for the loss of their offices, yielded, and the public op- 
 position began to subside. Pamphlets, too, became less numerous 
 and pointed. For two years the country had looked forward to a 
 new order of things. Every month the news had spread abroad 
 that the Parliaments were going to be re-established and the 
 Chancellor disgraced, but the constant renewal and disappoint- 
 ment of their hopes had at last worn out the people's enthusiasm. 
 
 Thus it happens too often that a Nation, that has been oppressed 
 by the heavy hand of despotism, is seized in the end by a " species 
 " of torpor and lethargy." To this lethargy soon succeeded the 
 fever of pleasui-e and dissipation. " Never have there been so 
 " many pastimes and spectacles," remarked a contemporary. At 
 Court, and in the capital, pleasure reigned in a manner all the 
 more indecorous because it seemed designed as an insult to a people 
 succumbing on all sides to povei'ty, and dwelling in the midst of 
 overturned fortunes and widespread bankruptcy. When, in 1774, 
 there appeared The Almanack Royal, in which a certain Mr. Mir- 
 lavand was characterised as " treasurer of the grain on account of 
 *' the King " — which was an open declaration of the traffic in which 
 the King was engaged — the protest of the Parisians took the feeble 
 form of a comic song. 
 
 This state of dejection accounted for the absence of any objec- 
 tions to the restitution of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin. 
 With equal indifference, the public received the news of the dis- 
 memberment of Poland. If a few people were concerned by the 
 latter event, it was because they foresaw the war which might 
 break out in consequence — some fearing it as the climax of the 
 evils that had come upon the country, others, on the contrary, 
 desiring it as a " salutary shock." 
 
 Yet, though the opposition of the people appeared to be ex-
 
 1 1 8 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 hausted, their hatred was still unappeased. The proof of this was 
 found in the case of one, Beaiimarchais, against whom a councillor 
 of the Maupeou Parliament had brought an action for the recovery 
 of fifteen louis, which the former affirmed he had already repaid. 
 The whole of France was stirred by the debate, which put to 
 shame the detested Maupeou Parliament. Beaumarchais was 
 looked upon as the organ of national vengeance. When he was 
 censured in a Decree that deprived him of all civil rights, he was 
 the recipient of an ovation. " All Paris " hastened to call upon 
 him, and the Due de Chartres and the Prince de Conti gave -a fete 
 in his honour. The effect of these proceedings was such a disgrace 
 to the councillors that it was popularly said, with that touch of 
 raillery so peculiar to Parisians : " If Louis XV. destroyed 
 the old Parliament, fifteen lotus will destroy the new one." But 
 a much more important event was about to change the political 
 situation. 
 
 In April, 1774, Louis XV. was struck with a malady that 
 threatened to put an end to his existence. The news of his ill- 
 ness soon became the sole topic of conversation. The public 
 rejoiced at the prospect of a new reign. The lower orders, especi- 
 ally, did not hide their satisfaction at the idea of changing masters. 
 One fact alone shows how much, in the space of thirty years, the 
 disposition of the Parisians towards their Monarch had changed. 
 On the word of a canon of Noti-e Dame, six thousand masses had, 
 in 1744, been requested at that church for the restoration to health 
 of the King, then ill at Metz. Ip 1757, when Damiens made his 
 attempt, the number of masses demanded was only six hundred. 
 In 1774 there were but three. Louis XV. expired at last after a 
 reign that had lasted too long for France. 
 
 That principle of " Divine right," which, four years before, he 
 had made such a desperate attempt to enunciate, he proclaimed 
 once more upon his dying bed. On receiving the Communion, he 
 said that he repented having scandalised his subjects, though he 
 ou'ed an account of his conduct to God alone. 
 
 He died in the midst of public apathy, and had for his funeral 
 oration the obloquy of his people. Daring the month that fol-
 
 The French Revolution. 119 
 
 lowed, he was spared neither placards, satires, nor detractory 
 epitaphs. No one remembered him, except to insult his 
 memory. 
 
 With Louis XV. the prestige of Royalty faded away, never to 
 reappear. Monarchy by Divine right was thenceforward con- 
 demned. Those four years, in which a Dubarry reigned by the 
 side of a Monarch sunk in debauchery — that short and shameful 
 period when principle, morality, and duty were all alike forgotten — 
 were the result to which the entire reign of Louis XV. contributed. 
 The scandals with which those years were filled prepared all minds 
 for the reception of the political maxims of Philosophy. They did 
 for Monarchy what the agitated period of the refusals of Sacra- 
 ments did for the Church. In them the Revolution was accom- 
 plished in idea, from the political standpoint, as it had already 
 been from that of Religion, and the old system of Royalty was 
 buried by the side of the Church that had succumbed before it. 
 The time had come for Revolutionary ideas to be transformed into 
 Revolutionary facts.
 
 I20 The Revolutionary Spirit pi'eceding 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Beign of Louis XVI. The Turgot Ministry. 
 
 (1774-1 770.) 
 
 On the 10th of May, 1774, Louis XVI. ascended the throne, the 
 cynosure of the high hopes of the Nation. Following on to an 
 oppressive reign which had terminated in shame and disorder, the 
 advent of a Prince — who, in spite of his youth, had already won 
 the esteem of the public by I is virtues — was welcomed as a 
 pledge of the many reforms for which the Nation sighed. Not 
 that the country had formulated any special wishes, the im- 
 mediate realisation of which it imposed upon the successor of 
 Louis XV. For that matter, the minds of men had been so 
 greatly agitated during a long period of years, and public opinion 
 BO much misled by conflicting theories, that there had come to be 
 more diversity than unanimity of thought in regard to the changes 
 necessary to be introduced into the political system. But the 
 general public, at least, bad in mind some definite ideas of reform. 
 The dismissal of ministers whom they detested, the recall of the 
 ancient Parliament, prompt reconstruction of the finances, and a 
 speedy termination of the famine, were the first satisfactions that 
 they demanded of the young King. Louis XVI. was, at heart, 
 fully disposed to walk in the way of reform. But, though he was 
 a good and honest man, he possessed a limited intelligence and an 
 undecided will. The first Edict of his reign revealed his true 
 sentiments. It remitted all " accession dues," which amounted 
 to 24^000,000 livres, and cost the tax-payers some 40,000,000 livres. 
 In it, he invoked the support of the "Most High" to sus- 
 taia him in his youth and inexperience, announced that his reign 
 would be founded on principles of justice, promised to maintain
 
 The French Revolution. 121 
 
 order and economy in the finances, and spoke of his desire to 
 make his people happy in terms that, according to (Jrimm, moved 
 the whole of Paris to tears. The young Queen, wishing to 
 associate herself with the sentiments of her husband, renounced, 
 in her turn, a right called the " dues of the Queen's girdle." In 
 these initial acts of the reign, men saw the promise of other 
 benefits, and across the pedestal of the statue of Henri IV, some 
 one wrote " ResuiTexit." 
 
 Nevertheless there were murmurs mingled with the expres 
 sions of delight. Some astonishment was felt that, in spite of 
 the assurances of reform, contained in the Royal Edict, the 
 Maupeou Parliament was allowed to remain in office and to con- 
 gratulate the King upon his accession. This fact was considered 
 a bad omen. The people were no less dissatisfied with the 
 changes that were made in the Ministry. Louis XVI. sent away 
 some of the ministers, whose dismissal was desired — notably the 
 Due d'Aiguillon — but he allowed Maupeou and the Abbe Terray 
 to remain in power. The Nation was impatient to be avenged of 
 the men who so ground it down, and mistrusted promises, which 
 were not endorsed by the discharge of these two ministers and 
 the recall of the old Parliament. 
 
 The Archbishop of Paris, and other prelates, represented to 
 the King that, if he recalled the former Parliament, Religion 
 in France would be completely done for. Mistrusting the 
 influence of Marie Antoinette, to whom it attributed the dis- 
 missal of the Due d'Aiguillon, the clerical party tried to alienate 
 from her the King's affections. At table, Louis XVI. found, on 
 his plate, notes containing the words : " Sire, put no trust in the 
 Queen," and attempts were made to persuade him that she was 
 unfaithful. Thus, from the vei-y steps of the Throne, emanated 
 the first attacks on Marie Antoinette — attacks which were but 
 the precursors of more terrible assaults. At the same time, the 
 clergy strove — by posting threatening placards and circulating 
 lying scandals against the King — to set Louis XVI. against the 
 people and the people against him. Between the representations 
 of this cabal, which hemmed him in with its intrigues, ancl
 
 1 2 2 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 the desires of his people, the Monarch hesitated. That hesitation 
 greatly impaired his popularity. 
 
 The public was already oscillating between the conditions of 
 indecision and defiance, when, on the Fete-daj of St. Louis, 
 August 25th, it was informed of the banishment of Maupeou and 
 the disgrace of Terray. In a single moment, the King regained 
 his popularity, and there was an outburst of universal joy. 
 Paris was illuminated, and transparencies with the words : " Long 
 live the King ! Long live the Queen ! Long live the ancient 
 Parliament ! " were lighted up. To these testimonies of delight 
 were joined other demonstrations. On the Place Dauphine, the 
 mob burned Chancellor Maupeou in effigy, and on the hill of St. 
 Genevieve a figure, representing the Abbe Terray in full ecclesi- 
 astical costume, was affixed to a gallows. The Government took 
 alarm at these manifestations. Hearing that the people intended 
 to burn in front of the statue of Henri IV. the figure of the 
 Chancell ;•, clothed in all the insignia of his dignity, the horse- 
 patrol was sent to disperse the crowd. Some difficulty was ex- 
 perienced in carrying out this design. With cries of " Long live 
 the King ! Long live the ancient Parliament ! " packets of in- 
 flammable fusees were thrown at the horses' heads, and the 
 multitudes had to be charged with drawn swordsj whilst a de- 
 tachment of French and Swiss guards made a pretence of loading 
 their guns. As for the members of the Maupeou Parliament, 
 they could only reach the Palais in disguise, and had to be pro- 
 tected, during their sittings, by soldiers. Similar demonstrations 
 took place in the provinces. It was thus, in the first months of 
 the reign of Louis XVI., that the people of France anticipated the 
 tragic scenes of the Revolution, 
 
 The recall of the old Parliament followed hard upon the dis- 
 missal of the ministers. The anti-parlimentaires moved Heaven 
 and earth to prevent this recall, and the clergy, especially, 
 "gnashed their teeth " in their rage. Voltaire and the greater 
 number of the Philosophers were astounded that the King 
 " wished to sacrifice the new Parliament, which had always known 
 *' how to obey, to the old one, which had done nothing but defy."
 
 The French Revolution. 123 
 
 Conforming to the wishes of the Nation, however, Louis XVI. 
 wrote to the exiled magistrates to return to Paris and to repair to 
 the Palais on the 12th of November in their robes of ceremony. 
 There the King met them, and, in a " Bed of Justice," registered 
 Edicts by which he suppressed the Supreme Councils and re- 
 established the foiTner Parliament. 
 
 On coming away from this assemblage, both King and magis- 
 trates were saluted by the acclamations of the crowd, and that 
 evening the whole of Paris was illuminated. In a few months, all 
 the provincial Parliaments were reinstated, and the Chdtelet and 
 the Cour des Aides re-established. 
 
 The King endeavoured also to conciliate the interests with 
 which his Edicts clashed. The Grand Council, which had been 
 suppressed since 1771, was revived in order to receive the 
 members of the Maupeou Parliament, but notwithstanding this 
 measure, Louis XVI. found himself exposed to the resentment of 
 the party, whose defeat he had accomplished. Placards, that 
 threatened the King's life, were posted at the Luxembourg and in 
 other parts of the capital. The very men who had so often 
 declared that the recall of the old Parliament would imperil the 
 Crown were the first to stir up the people against the person of 
 the Sovereign. The Archbishop of Paris had thought that the 
 Parliament would, at least, have been deprived of the cognizance 
 of ecclesiastical affairs, and, when he found his hopes deceived, he 
 made no attempt to conceal his displeasure. There was reason 
 to fear that he might have recourse to the means ho had employed 
 in the previous reign and endeavour to stir up the public mind by 
 refusals of Sacraments. Louis XVI. sent for him, and made him 
 understand that, if he attempted to renew the troubles he had 
 formerly excited, he would not only be banished but subjected to 
 the full severities of the law. This action showed clearly that, in 
 accordance with national desires, the Government had resolved to 
 keep a firm hand on the clergy. At the same time, Louis XVI, 
 opened wide the door for reforms. 
 
 On the evening of the day on which he had dismissed the two 
 hated ministers, he nominated Turgot — one of the most promineftt
 
 1 24 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 chiefs of the Economist party — Comptroller-General. His choice 
 was much applauded, for Turgot was well known to be a man of 
 great honesty, if somewhat of an innovator-. In Limousin, where 
 he had held the post of Intendant, he was adored by the in- 
 habitants. Upon his acceptance of the office of Minister of 
 Finance, he resolved to have recourse neither to increased taxa- 
 tion nor to loans, but to approximate the State expenditure to 
 the receipts by the practice of the strictest economies. Belong- 
 ing to a school, which, since 1767, had announced its intention of 
 changing the conditions of society, he attached himself, in that 
 respect, to Revolutionary ideas. The innovations, which he 
 meditated, did not, properly speaking, have any political character, 
 but appertained more particularly to social and administrative 
 institutions. He was not in the least in favour of an Assembly 
 that should share the legislative power with the King, and he had 
 opposed the restoration of the former Parliament. He was also 
 hostile to the States-General. From this point of view, he entirely 
 ignored the aspirations of the country ; and it cannot be denied 
 thatj in spite of praiseworthy intentions, he became an ardent 
 supporter of absolute Monarchy. As au Economist, he was the 
 partisan of indefinite liberty in industrial and commercial matters, 
 but he committed a grave error in the planning of his reforms by 
 not sufficiently taking into account either traditions or customs. 
 Having failed to find in the Nation evidences of that public 
 spiritedness that makes good citizens, he conceived a plan of 
 education, by which, he flattered himself, he could, in ten years, 
 transform France, 
 
 The first act of Turgot was to proclaim freedom of trade in 
 grain, and, in order to cut short the pacte de famine, to suppress 
 all purchasing and warehousing of wheat, on behalf of the State. 
 This measure, which was, at once, an attack on the monopolists 
 and a pledge of the cessation of the dearth which their manoeuvres 
 had caused, was received with acclamation. The Decree of 
 Council which notified the reform was, in itself, a novelty ; for in it 
 the minister propounded the principles of his economic measures, 
 a^d endeavoured to demonstrate the salutary effects of commercial
 
 The French Revolution. 125 
 
 liberty. This was the first time that the Government had thus 
 submitted its decisions to the judgment of public opinion. The 
 Edict was barely registered when Turgot began to prepare another 
 that was destined to create no less a sensation : this was the 
 Edict of the suppression of corv^es.'^ He projected at the same 
 time a reform of all taxes ; and the first ameliorations he effected 
 in this connection greatly softened the condition of the people in 
 the country districts. 
 
 The men, with whose interests or prejudices these changes 
 clashed, soon roused themselves. The unanciers, the hangers-on 
 of the Court, all those whose existences depended upon the old 
 abuses, arrayed themselves against Turgot ; and the clergy, on their 
 side, neglected their former foes to attack the minister. The 
 Parliament, itself, took part against him. The long exile that the 
 magistrates had endured had damped their patriotism and en- 
 feebled their views. Re-established under conditions that deprived 
 them of their old ascendancy, they had experienced a profound 
 feeling of bitterness, and seemed to have but one care, that of pre- 
 serving their own privileges. They were, besides, aware of the 
 fact, that the minister was their enemy, and that he wished to 
 restrict them to purely judicial functions. 
 
 In the spring of 1775, some unexpected disturbances created 
 fresh difficulties for the Government and suspended Turgot's 
 beneficent activity. The price of bread went up and the people 
 began to murmur. In various parts of the kingdom, and in the 
 environs of the capital, seditious movements took place. At Pon- 
 toise, thousands of individuals assembled on the banks of the 
 river, and stopped and plundered the boats laden with grain. At 
 Saint-Germain bags of wheat were emptied and their contents 
 strewn about the streets. Even at Versailles, under the eyes of 
 the King, similar disorders took place. The movement spread, 
 at last, to Paris. On May 3rd, the people rioted in the market- 
 places, and, all in a moment, a general uprising took place. Every 
 house of business was promptly closed, but the crowd forced its 
 
 ' All feudal dues including gratuitous labour or service due to the 
 Seigneur by peasant or tenant. ( Translator's Note. )
 
 126 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 way into the bakers' shops and pillaged tliera. An entrance was 
 also effected into many private residences, the people stealing all 
 the bread they could find. The Government was obliged to re- 
 sort to military measures. Troops were drawn up in the markets 
 and on the places, and soldiers posted at all the bakers' shops. 
 But the employment of force did not terrify the mutineers. They 
 spat in the faces of the sentinels and threatened the troops with 
 paving-stones. The Government was obliged to prohibit the 
 assembling of crowds in the streets and to authorise the soldiers 
 to fire when necessary. In the midst of this tumult, a " horrible " 
 placard was posted, bearing the words : " Louis XVI. will be 
 crowned on June 11th and assassinated June 12th." Another at 
 Versailles had the inscription : " If the price of bread is not 
 " diminished and the Ministry not changed, we will set fire to the 
 " Palace." 
 
 The scarcity of wheat seemed to be less the cause than the 
 pretext for these disturbances. Both the public and the Govern- 
 ment suspected a plot in which were concerned Maupeou, Abbe 
 Terray, the Jesuits, the superior clergy, the financiers, the grain 
 monopolists, and all other enemies of the Ministry and of reform. 
 Numerous indications testified to the existence of a concerted 
 movement, got up with the object of exciting the people against 
 the King. Superior-looking men, clergymen, and even ladies of 
 position had been seen encouraging the mutineers. False Decrees 
 of Council had been circulated in Paris and the provinces. Only 
 a year had passed since Louis XVI. had become King, and al- 
 ready threats of death were being launched against the Bourbon 
 dynasty. " Unless I am much deceived," said de Mirabeau — the 
 uncle of the future Tribune — " revolts of this kind have always 
 ''preceded Revolutions." 
 
 Towards the end of May the " flour war" came to an end and 
 order reigned once more in the streets. The restoration of tran- 
 quillity enabled the coronation ceremony, which had hitherto been 
 deferred, to take place. On this occasion, another glimpse was 
 afforded of the passions which surged around the Throne. Upon 
 the pretext of sparing the King the fatigue of too many formalities,
 
 The French Revolution. 127 
 
 the clergy suppressed that part of the ceremonial, at which, ac- 
 cording to tradition, the priest seemed to ask the people's consent 
 to the election of the King, but retained the old oath, by which 
 the Monarch pledged himself to exterminate heretics. This 
 double fact did not pass without exciting a protest. On the 
 return from the coronation, Turgot handed to the King a 
 memorial, in which he represented to him that he had no right 
 over the consciences of his subjects, and besought him, therefore, 
 to leave to everyone full liberty to follow and profess their indi- 
 vidual beliefs. The Patriots, too, published brochures, in which 
 they reminded the Monarch that he held his crown not from God, 
 but from the Nation ; and not content with declaring that the 
 King's authority had limits that must not be overstepped, they 
 represented revolt against despotism as an eflfort of the sublime3t 
 virtue. Yet, bold as these writings were, they did not put forward 
 any views that had not been advanced before. The Citizen's 
 Catechism, in particular, reduced to the comprehension of the 
 simplest and dullest minds the doctrine that The Spirit of the 
 Laxos and the Social Contract had "enveloped in metaphysics 
 difficult to understand." This fact was characteristic of the age. 
 At this epoch, the revolutionary education of the people was being 
 undertaken politically, as it had previously been undertaken 
 in religious matters. This tendency, more, perhaps, than the 
 principles propounded in the brochures, made the Parliament 
 uneasy. 
 
 The President of the Cour des Aides — Malesherbes — addressed 
 some Remonstrances to the King, in which he drew iip a 
 complete table of the system of taxation under which France 
 groaned, and of the numerous abuses that accrued in con 
 sequence. He showed how the people were ground down by, and 
 completely at the mercy of, the fiscal agents, and how all the 
 guarantees which citizens had formerly enjoyed, had been, one 
 after another, destroyed. He complained too that, in regard to 
 these matters, everything was secret, and to a certain extent 
 mysterious, and that this concealment extended to tariffs and 
 regulations as well as to the personality of the agents, who were
 
 128 The Revjlutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 entrusted with the onerous task of determining the fortunes, the 
 liberty, and sometimes the lives of the taxpayers. Malesherbes 
 demanded, therefore, that these clandestine methods should be 
 put an end to, and proposed the regular recourse to the States- 
 General, or, at least, to the provincial States. It was Turgot's 
 wish that these Remonstrances should be published, in order to 
 influence public opinion in favour of the projected changes. But, 
 upon the representations of Maurepas, who always jealously 
 opposed Turgot's ideas, the Monarch decided against publicity. 
 He assured the Cour des Aides that it should be the work of his 
 reign to put an end to the abuses to which his attention had 
 been drawn, but he maintained that it would be imprudent to 
 make the abuses public until the Government was prepared to 
 announce the remedy. Thus, by the pernicious influence of 
 Maurepas, the voice, that tirst demanded of Louis XVI. the con- 
 vocation of the States-General, was stifled. That the King, in spite 
 of all, was not averse to hearing the ti'uth, was proved a short 
 time after, when he summoned to his Council the author of the 
 Remonstrances, the publication of which he had interdicted. 
 
 The addition of Malesherbes to the Ministry strengthened the 
 authority of Turgot, which his enemies had deemed completely 
 undermined by the " flour war." These men esteemed and loved 
 each other. If there were a few political points on which they 
 differed, they were of one mind concerning the necessity for re- 
 form. Honourable and pure as was the reputation of Malesherbes, 
 the bishops were displeased at his nomination, and at the placing 
 in his hands of the administration of the affairs of the clergy and 
 of the " reformed religion." Indeed, the alliance between two 
 ministers, both of whom had been won over by the doctrines of 
 Philosophy, rather alarmed the superior clergy. They were es- 
 pecially fearful that the ministers might be leagued together to 
 constrain the clergy to furnish a statement of their wealth and 
 possessions. The public, on the contrary, received the news of 
 the elevation of Malesherbes with unbounded joy. The union of 
 these two men of worth seemed to them the happiest of 
 omens.
 
 The French Revolution. 129 
 
 Malesherbes fully justified the confidence which his character 
 had inspired. Upon his entrance into the Ministry, he requested 
 the King to abolish lettres de cachet. He even considered it a 
 point of honour to repair the injustices committed by their means. 
 Accompanied by a lieutenant of police, he went to the Castle of 
 Vinceunes, and to the Bastille, and set at liberty a number of 
 prisoners. Tnrgot, for his part, was again occupied with the 
 measures of reform, which had been interrupted by the " flour 
 war." He lightened the burden of taxes by more equal dis- 
 tribution, suppressed dues, revoked privileges that oppressed 
 trade, introduced some important ameliorations into the admini- 
 stration of the finances, and restored the national credit, which had 
 fallen during the foregoing reign. A law to validate the raamages 
 of Protestants was announced, and many people persuaded them- 
 selves that the Government would shortly accord to all "religion- 
 ists" full freedom to exercise their cult. 
 
 The attributing of these designs to the Government alarmed 
 the clergy, who were then holding their General Assembly. In- 
 stead of fostering a reform, in favour of which public opinion was 
 becoming more and more pronounced, the bishops opposed it in a 
 memorial which was presented to the King by a grand deputation. 
 The question of the Protestants was not the only one touched upon 
 in this memorial. The bishops complained of the system of 
 education that had been introduced into the colleges since the 
 suppression of the Jesuits, and begged the King to make his reign 
 illustrious by restoring these seminaries of learning to the control 
 of the clergy, who, by their enlightenment and the disinterested 
 nature of their ministry, seemed to have a special call for the 
 education of youth. The main object of the memorial was to 
 express, in a roundabout way, a desire for the recall of the Jesuits, 
 and to combat, in advance, the plan conceived by Turgot for the 
 establishment of a national system of instruction. It included 
 also a protest against the liberty accorded to literary men, and 
 denounced the number of books that attacked Religion, begging 
 the Monarch to interdict their sale and punish their authors. The 
 influence of the clergy had so much decreased that this memorial
 
 130 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 ■was scarcely noticed by the public. The King did not appear to 
 take it into sei'ious consideration, and returned only evasive re- 
 plies to their demands. In a special audience, accorded to them 
 by the Monarch, the clergy laid before him a copy of the work en- 
 titled Portable Theology, for which they solicited his censure. 
 This was the one point on which the Monarch yielded. He 
 ordered the book to be burned by the common hangman. 
 
 But if in the King the clergy lost an auxiliary that had hither- 
 to constantly supported them, they found an ally where they 
 least expected one. A reonest, on the part of the bishops, 
 had resulted in the suppression by Decree of Council of Voltaire's 
 Diatribe against the Author of Ephemerides, which contained 
 an eulogy on Turgot and some "unseemly" allusions to the 
 part which the clergy had taken in the late disturbances. 
 The Parliament, in tura, dealt with the condemned work, 
 and committed it to the flames. The Advocate-General — 
 Segnier — in his re'quisitoire, declared that the moment had ar- 
 rived in which ** the clergy and the magistracy ought to join 
 " forces and to repulse the attempts of impious hands to overturn 
 •'the throne and the altar." It was clear to the public that, by 
 this declaration, the Advocate-General made avowal of the ex- 
 istence of an alliance between the Episcopate and the magistracy. 
 Nominally contracted to safeguard the throne and the altar, this 
 alliance was, in reality, directed against the innovating spirit of 
 the Ministry, which threatened to deprive both clergy and Parlia- 
 ment of their influence and privileges. The Chdtelet followed the 
 example set by the Parliament and condemned a work of Delisle 
 de Sale, entitled : Concerning the Philosophy of Nature. Thus 
 did the Government encounter opposition in the quarters from 
 which ideas of innovation and reform had formerly proceeded. 
 
 All this time clouds were gathering against Turgot at Court. 
 The Queen, whose conduct already exhibited marks of that 
 frivolity, of which she subsequently gave such lamentable proofs, 
 was most impatient with the Comptroller-General's plans of 
 economy. Seconded by Maurepas, she had obtained for one of 
 her favourites, the Princess de Lamballe, the post of mistress
 
 The French Revolution. 131 
 
 of her household with the stipend of 150,000 livres. Turgot 
 had most reluctantly consented to this appointment, and by his 
 reluctance had incurred the royal displeasure. He managed 
 too to give offence in another quarter. Upon his advice, Louis 
 XVI. had nominated an oflBcer of approved merit — the Comte de 
 St. Germain — Minister of War^ and the great nobles had angrily 
 protested against the elevation of a simple gentilhomme to so high 
 a post. 
 
 In the midst of all these difficulties, Turgot pursued his repara- 
 tive work. At the close of the year 1775, the Edict to abolish 
 corv^es was ready for registration. A second Decree, on which 
 he had worked for some time, and that had been inspired 
 by his principles of economy, was also completed. This was the 
 Edict for the suppression of jurandes.'^ Others were promised, 
 which were to establish a single and proportionate method of 
 taxation and to reconstruct the judiciary system. There was talk 
 of a " Bed of Justice," in which the King, in spite of the opposi- 
 tion of the clergy, would solemnly abrogate the laws promulgated 
 against the Protestants by Louis XIV. 
 
 The inevitable consequence of these widespread reforms was 
 the overthrow of the fortunes of a large number of individuals. 
 Cabals, more determined than ever, were formed at Court against 
 Turgot ; and the Parliament, siding with the adversaries of the 
 Comptroller-General, prepared to declare openly against him. 
 Louis XVI. having forwarded the Edicts suppressing corve'es 
 and jurandes to the Parliament for registration, a deputation 
 of forty-two magistrates waited upon him, to beg him to withdraw 
 them. In regard to the duty-service, they made the following 
 remarkable declaration : " The duty of the nobility is to defend 
 " the country against its enemies, that of the clergy to edify and 
 " instruct the people, and the lower classes, not being able to render 
 " such distinguished service, ought to acquit their obligations to the 
 "State by payments in industry and personal labour." Well 
 did Louis XVI. say : " I see very well that only Turgot and 
 
 1 Jurandes — wardenships. The jurandes were the sworn heads of the trade 
 guilds which possessed some miscliievous privileges. ( Translator's Note.)
 
 132 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 " I love the people." The merchant class, for its part, displayed a 
 lively opposition to the Edict abolishing jurandes. They 
 published brochures, pleading for the maintenance of their 
 privileges, but a Decree of Council suppressed their plaints. Tliis 
 action gave rise to the remark that Messieurs les Economistes, who 
 preached liberty for themselves, would not give it to their enemies. 
 
 The entire Parliament was stirred up against Turgot ; his 
 person, ideas, and administration, were all turned into ridicule. 
 At Court, his enemies characterised the prefaces of his Edicts as 
 "undignified." They said that the giving of reasons for the 
 promulgation of orders was a degradation of the authority of the 
 Crown. Walpole, who was a witness of these events, wrote : — 
 " The resistance of the Parliament to the admirable reform pro- 
 "jected by Messieurs Turgot and Malesherbes, is a greater scandal 
 "than the most ferocious caprices of despotism. The action of 
 " these magistrates, in opposing the welfare of several millions of 
 "men, partly justifies Ciiancellor Maupeoti for having suppressed 
 "them." Louis XVI. held firm, and, in order to put an end to all 
 resistance, he had the Edicts registered in a "Bed of Justice," held 
 on March 12th, 1776. Praiseworthy as were the intentions of 
 Turgot, the step which, on this occasion, he suggested to the 
 King was an authoritative one, for which he was greatly blamed 
 by those who were certainly not in the position to reproach him 
 for such conduct. The Advocate-General Siguier, in drawing a 
 picture of the disorder which would follow the carrying out of 
 these Edicts, commenced his discourse with the words : " The 
 "^ Royal Authority knows no bounds save those which it is pleased to 
 " create for itself." No magistrate under Louis XV. — not even 
 Maupeou — had dared to make use of such language. 
 
 On the evening of the "Bed of Justice," there were illumina- 
 tions in various quarters of Paris. "Long live the King and 
 Liberty " was written across a good number of transparencies. 
 But, unfortunately, the enemies of the reforms were made to 
 appear in the right, by the immediate outbreak of a considerable 
 amount of disturbance. On the very day of the " Bed of Justice," 
 and during those which followed it, violent altercations took place
 
 The French Revolution. 133 
 
 between journeymen, " maddened by their liberty," and their 
 masters, and troops had to be sent to repress the revolts. In the 
 country districts, similar disturbances took place. Excited by the 
 idea that all feudal dues were to be abolished, the peasants, in 
 different localities, rebelled against their lords. In view of these 
 troubles the Parliament issued a Decree, by which it enjoined " all 
 " subjects of the King, copyholders and vassals of lords to continue, 
 " as in the past, to pay — whether to the King or to the said lords 
 " — all dues and obligations according to the statutes of thekingdom." 
 Besides this, the Decree expressly forbade anyone " to promote, 
 " whether by unguarded remarks or by indiscreet writings, any 
 "alteration of the said dues and usages, under penalty of the 
 " offenders being proceeded against as rebels to the laws, and dis- 
 " turbers of the public peace, and punished with an exemplary 
 " punishment." This Decree, posted throughout Paris, was looked 
 upon as a sort of embargo put upon the projects of the Ministrj'. 
 As a matter of fact, only the lower classes and the Philosophers 
 applauded the recent measures of Turgot. 
 
 As for Louis XVI., he early began to evince concern in regard 
 to the opposition of the Parliament. He feared that he had made 
 a mistake. With great reluctance he had imposed the registra- 
 tion of the Edicts by an act of authority. At the " Bed of 
 " Justice," even his brothers declared against him. Throughout 
 the whole of the proceedings he had been unable to overcome a 
 sense of sadness. Shortly afterwards, he said to his minister : 
 '* Monsieur Turgot, you speak to me of nothing but the happiness 
 " of my people and the geaeral welfare of my subjects, how is it, 
 *' then, that arrangements so useful and advantageous, as you tell 
 " me they are, call forth so many objections ? " 
 
 The number of the minister's enemies had visibly increased. 
 To the court, the clergy, the magistracy, the financiers, and de- 
 votees, were joined the anti-economistes — who counted amongst 
 them some determined spirits — and the entire body of the in- 
 dustrial and commercial bourgeoisie. 
 
 On May 3rd, the Parliament dealt a last blow at the Ministry 
 by committing to the flames a work entitled, The Accomplished
 
 1 34 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 Monarch, which contained an eulogy of the Emperor, Joseph IE. 
 In this eulogy, the author gave utterance to some impassioned 
 reflections upon the state of society. He drew a lugubrious 
 picture of the distress of the people, and called upon them to 
 revolt and slaughter the 'monsters that devoured their stibstance. 
 He further averred that the affairs of the French Nation had 
 reached a crisis, incident to certain forms of Government — " a 
 " terrible, bloody crisis," which was yet the signal of liberty. 
 " This crisis of which I speak," he added, " is civil war." The 
 Advocate-General, in denouncing "this murderous doctrine," 
 said : " We cannot disguise the fact that the country owes the 
 " shocks that agitate it to those enterprising geniuses who work 
 " only in the light of their own knowledge, to those dangerous 
 •'innovators who, without studying the progress of the human 
 " mind, think that they are fitted to lead it, and to those iusane 
 " and furious demagogues, who dare to destroy Governments under 
 " the pretext of reforming them." Nobody doubted that in these 
 words the Advocate-General referred to Turgot. Some Court in- 
 trigues, in which both Maurepas and Marie-Antoinette had a hand, 
 consummated the effect produced by these attacks. 
 
 On May 12th, 1776, Louis XVI. ordered Turgot to retire from 
 the Court. Malesherbes, disgusted with the many cabals he saw 
 formed around him, had already sent in his resignation. 
 
 For some time, all persons of reflective minds had expected 
 that these two wise men would quit their offices. Their down- 
 fall was inevitable. Apart from the measures inspired by 
 Turgot's schemes of economy, their innovations ran counter 
 to so many usages, interests, and prejudices, that they could not 
 carry them out. The " amputations " they proposed ought to have 
 been begun under Louis XV. Under Louis XVI., it was 
 too late. Yet society, in consequence of its unwillingness to sub- 
 mit to the manipulations of the two surgeons, who then presided 
 over France's destiny, was given over on a future day to more 
 relentless operators.
 
 The French Revolution. 135 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Rdgn of Louis XVI. — The Necher Ministry. 
 
 (1776-1781.) 
 
 At Versailles the news of the disgrace of Turgot gave rise to an 
 outburst of jcy. But the people at large, though they disapproved 
 of Turgot's systematic ideas, regretted him on account of his 
 honesty. Only a few of the more enlightened citizens showed 
 signs of real dismay. This disgrace, which affected the 
 minister more than the man, was followed, as might have been 
 expected, by the sweeping away of the reforms he had insti- 
 tuted. The Edict that had abolished jurandes was revoked 
 and corves were re-established. Other measures were also 
 abandoned. Notbiug remained — or at least scarcely anything 
 — of all that Turgot had done for the relief of the Nation 
 and the re-organisation of the finances. The Economist party 
 fell into disfavour. Louis XVI. destroyed the work of Turgot, 
 just as he had destroyed that of Louis XV., without stopping to 
 consider that such sudden variations brought discredit upon 
 the Royal Authority. The Decree that re-established the 
 jurandes was accompanied by conditions that gave it the 
 character of a money- edict, and called forth such violent antago- 
 nism, that the Court was made quite uneasy by the agitation, 
 and became more so when the renewal of the corve'es all but 
 excited a revolt. 
 
 The changes in the Ministry increased the expressions of dis- 
 content. In the place of Turgot, Clugny, a man of no moral 
 character, had been appointed to the Comptroller-Generalship by 
 the King's mentor, the old Comte Maurepas. When yet barely 
 installed, the new minister took advantage of his situation to live 
 freely and establish sinecures for the benefit of his mistresses and 
 other parasites. In order to do away at once with the State 
 debt, Clugny proposed to go nito bankruptcy. This proposition,
 
 136 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 to which the ministers seemed inclined to assent, might perhaps 
 have been carried out, if Louis XVI. had not forcibly repulsed 
 it. Just when the loss of Turgot was being more keenly felt, 
 people began also to find fault with the creature — a mere tool of 
 the clergy — who had replaced Malesherbes. Only four months 
 after the dismissal of Turgot, the discontent became so wide- 
 spread that it was said that if Louis XVL did not discharge some 
 more of his ministers, a general uprising was inevitable. 
 
 The death of Clugny put an end to a situation that was be- 
 coming perilous. Maurepas himself saw the necessity of changing 
 his tactics, and suggested as Clugny's successor, a man who was 
 antagonistic to the Economist school, but much in favour with 
 the commercial classes. This was " Genevan Necker," who had 
 acquired a great reputation for ability as a banker. There was 
 all the more need for an experienced administrator to direct the 
 finances, since the events then occurring in America seemed 
 likely to lead to a war with England. By this nomination, 
 Louis XVL made another concession to the new school of thought, 
 for Philosophers congregated in Madame Neckev's salon, and cer- 
 tainly under Louis XV., a Protestant would not have received an 
 official appointment. The Archbishop of Paris and other prelates 
 were not slow to remind the King that, by virtue of the re- 
 vocation of the Edict of Nantes, a Protestant could not fill any 
 important governmental post, and Louis XVL yielded to their 
 representations to the extent of nominating Necker " Director of 
 the Treasury," and later " Director-General of Finances," without 
 raising him to the rank of Minister. But, in spite of this distinc- 
 tion, the cabinet at Versailles was known to France and Europe 
 as the " Necker Ministry." 
 
 A considerable rise in stocks attested the confidence which the 
 choice of Necker inspired in the public. Of a more limited genius 
 and less elevated mind than Turgot, and withal a little presump- 
 tuous, Necker was honest, economical, and exact. Imbued with 
 the philanthropic ideas that did honour to the Philosophy of the 
 day, and sensible of the glory of being useful, he came to power with 
 the sincere desire of doing good. An enemy of Parliaments, as hig
 
 ihe French Revolution. 1 37 
 
 illustrious predecessor had been, he gave, like him, fresh force to 
 that form of government which had come to be called " ministerial 
 *' despotism." Though he had in view divers beneficent measures, 
 inspired by his philanthropic sentiments, it was his intention to 
 concentrate his best eflforts on financial reform, thinking er- 
 roneously, that the greatest, and perhaps the only evils from 
 which France suffered were connected with her finances. Though 
 given the name of statesman, Necker was in reality only a financier. 
 
 As had already been remarked, during the Ministry of Turgot, 
 the works published at this period were but repetitions of 
 former ones. All political ground had been so thoroughly broken 
 up, that, as Mairobert noted, there remained nothing new to be said. 
 Nevertheless, essays, made up of plagiai'isms and repetitions, 
 abounded, and,' by sheer force of numbers, carried the bold 
 doctrines of Philosophy into all corners of France. Newspapers 
 also multiplied. Voltaire, receiving a gazette at Ferney, com- 
 plained that its space was almost exclusively given up to politics. 
 By sowing in detail the theories developed in books, the journals 
 rapidly became powerful vehicles of Revolutionary ideas. 
 
 At the same time that the newspapers, by the nature of their 
 tenets, were rapidly unsettling the Nation's respect for Royalty, a 
 quantity of pamphlets were published that cast discredit on the 
 reigning house. The members of the Royal Family, the Queen, 
 and Louis XV 1. himself were attacked in libels, the circulation of 
 which it had become quite impossible to restrain. The Queen es- 
 pecially was defamed in writings a hundred times more scurrilous 
 than any that had branded the mistresses of Louis XV. Of such 
 pamphlets as The Amours of our Queen, Life and Loves of the 
 Empress, her August Mother, etc., the titles alone were an outrage. 
 In vain were colporteurs prosecuted and libraries searched. These 
 attacks, bom of fierce party spirit, or of the corrupt fruits of Court 
 intrigues, and personal spite, only increased in number and 
 effectually helped forward the downfall of the Monarchy. 
 
 If the new minister deserved reproach for not having a better 
 understanding of the evils of the political situation and the re- 
 medies it demanded, how much more did the clergy, magistracy,
 
 138 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 nobility, and Royalty itself merit censure ! All of these divisions 
 of the class in power seemed stricken with that blindness which 
 ordinarily precedes catastrophe. Ever since the disgrace of Turgot, 
 the Jesuits had been making the greatest possible efforts to re- 
 organise themselves, under the name of " The Brothers of the 
 Cross." The statements in a brochure, circulated among the 
 public, and styled The Flan of the Apocalypse, left no doubt of 
 their designs. Both in Paris and Lyons they were very numerous. 
 Occupying pulpits and disbursing large revenues, they used all 
 their influence to secure the exclusive control of a seminary that 
 there was then talk of creating, the purpose of which was to train 
 chaplains for the Army. By this means, they trusted eventually 
 to gain the support of the military. The Parliament committed 
 The Plan of the Apocalypse to the flames, and begged the Govern- 
 ment to proceed with severity against the detested body. With- 
 out going as far as the magistrates wished him to, the King, in 
 May, 1777, published an Edict which, while conciliating the Jesuits, 
 declared that their society would never he re-established. Just at 
 this time, the Chdtelet brought to a close the proceedings that 
 had been commenced under the Turgot Ministi-y against the 
 author of the Philosophy of Nature. The heads of the accusation 
 brought against Delisle de Sale, were that he had a tendency to- 
 wards " Spinosaism ; " had designated the cult of a certain party 
 the "prevailing cult of citizens;" had said that, in the life of a 
 State, there were moments of ferment, when each citizen held an 
 office, and Kings were of no more account than ordinary men ; and 
 finally, that he had dared to maintain that the four cardinal virtues 
 might be reduced to one. These points being established, a dis- 
 cussion had followed in the Chdtelet as to the mode of punishment 
 to be dealt out. Every severity and indignity, short of death, 
 were first suggested, but eventually perpetual banishment was 
 decided upon by 14 votes to 7. Delisle de Sale appealed against 
 this sentence to the Parliament. Public indignation offered a 
 further protest, and the Chdtelet prison became, for the moment, 
 an arena of triumph. The most noted Philosophers and the dis- 
 tinguished woraeij of their party wept thither to congratulate De
 
 The French Revolution. 139 
 
 Sale, aud his book acquired a popularity that it would never have 
 obtained upon its own merits. The Parliament peiceived the 
 ridiculous severity of the Gh&telet sentence, and reduced it to a 
 mere admonition. 
 
 But, in spite of this act of common-sense, the Parliament's 
 usual proceedings were not remarkable for wisdom. Though it 
 forbade the celebration of the fete of the Sacred Heart, burned 
 some writings in which the Jansenists were attacked, aud set a 
 watch upon the movements of the Jesuits, it paid no attention to 
 the real wants or wishes of the country. Its chief task was the 
 demolition of the Grand Council; while the members of that body, 
 for their part, complaining of being treated as a commission and 
 not as a sovereign court, joined forces with the inferior courts in 
 accusing the Parliament of having acquired too formidable an 
 authority. Such were the miserable quarrels that occupied the 
 attention of the magistracy in this crisis of France's destiny, 
 and the Court presented a no less piteous spectacle. The nobles, 
 in their cupidity and paltry ambition, sought only to seize upon 
 lucrative posts ; and no exterior dignity veiled their mean plots. 
 Under the influence of the ideas propagated by the Philosophers, 
 the Court etiquette that Louis XV. had, at least, known how 
 to maintain, lost all its rigour. The Queen was the first to throw 
 ofi" the restraints of ceremonial, and to tolerate a familiarity that 
 militated against her own dignity and the prestige of the Crown. 
 She outstepped the bounds of prudence and chose her favourites 
 according to her own whims and fancies without reference to their 
 worth. Added to this, she threw herself with feverish delight 
 into an uninterrupted round of jetes and dissipations. Although 
 all games of chance were forbidden by law, lansquenet and faro 
 were played at Versailles, Foutainebleau, and Marly until four or five 
 in the morning. Divested of all decorum and reserve, the Court of 
 Louis XVI., though of purer morals than that of the previous reign, 
 greatly resembled a " free and easy " club, or a gambling " hell." 
 
 But Necker stuck to his work. Likis Turgot, he had resolved 
 not to create fresh taxes, but determined to have recourse to 
 the loans which his forerunner had proscribed. In January, 177?^
 
 140 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 he opened one of 24,000,000 livres, which was succeeded in the course 
 of the same year by many others. The ParHament, in registering 
 the loan Edicts, raised some objections, and even people least 
 antagonistic to all forms of change passed criticisms, saying that 
 what France wanted was not fresh expedients, however well chosen, 
 but a total change in financial usage and an entirely new system 
 of taxation. Yet if, on the one hand, Necker burdened the 
 Treasury with loans, he sought, on the other, to relieve it by 
 economies. He simplified all services under his direction, sup- 
 pressed some offices, and announced his intention of reducing the 
 number of Receivers-General of Finances and of Farmers-General. 
 But these wise exploits only drew down upon him fresh criticisms. 
 The financiers made such an uproar that, from July onward, the 
 downfall of the Genevan appeared inevitable. Necker, fancying 
 that he could silence his enemies and popularise his administration 
 by some beneficent measures, appointed a commission to reform 
 the hospitals. The lamentable condition of these institutions was 
 at that time exciting just complaints. A little later on pawn- 
 shops were started, but usurers and money-lenders being numerous 
 among men in office, these useful establishments were not opened 
 without some opposition. 
 
 Yet Necker had more partisans than adversaries. He was not 
 " a man of schemes " like Turgot, and the common people, who saw 
 at once the bearing of his acts, efiFusively applauded them. But it 
 was evident that the clergy feared a seizure of their property and 
 were very uneasy ; they did not, however, enter into an organised 
 form of resistance. The Parliament also held itself iu reserve — a 
 reserve instinct with malevolence, for in Necker, as in Turgot, the 
 magistrates discerned an enemy. Upon the surface, the opposition 
 to Necker appeared to be unimportant enough, nevertheless there 
 was opposition. 
 
 The inconsequent treatment of Voltaire, who returned to Paris 
 about this time, gave rise to some comment. The King refused to 
 receive the poet at Versailles, but permitted the people to make 
 much of him. On his death, which occurred soon after, the 
 Monargh, at the request of the clergy, ordered a complete silence
 
 The French RevohUton. I4I 
 
 in regard to him, but six months later he allowed the Apotheosis 
 of Voltaire to be celebrated at the GomMie Frangaise. Another 
 of the inconsistencies, with which Louis XVI. may be taxed, was 
 his support of the American colonies in their war against England. 
 In the preamble of the celebrated Declaration of Independence 
 signed at Philadelphia on July 4th, 1776, occurred the following 
 words : " All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator 
 " with certain unalienable rights. To secure these rights, Govem- 
 " ments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from 
 " the consent of the governed ; and whenever any form of Government 
 " becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to 
 "alter or to abolish it." 
 
 Taking only the text of this Declaration into consideration, 
 it may well be said that, in allying himself with men who gave 
 utterance to these principles, Louis XVI. furnished his subjects 
 with arras against himself. The American doctrines found an 
 echo in France and forwarded the progress of revolutionary ideas 
 there. Yet this revolt of colonies against their parent country 
 seemed to resemble more nearly a war between two peoples 
 than the insurrection of subjects against their Sovereign. The 
 feeling of the French in regard to this war was characterised 
 less by sympathy with the insurgents than by a national hatred 
 of England. The revolt of the American colonies was welcomed 
 as a promise of the humiliation of the British and the destruction 
 of their pride and power. 
 
 Nevertheless there were in France a great many partisans of 
 peace. Louis XVI., who was, by nature, indisposed to make war, 
 bad been slow to declare it ; and Necker, in view of the state of 
 the finances, desired a truce. The King had hitherto only secretly 
 assisted the Americans, but when he saw fortune favour their 
 arms, he decided to receive Franklin as an Ambassador, and thus 
 formally recognise the American Republic- 
 Some months later he openly broke with England. The length 
 of the war, which could not be foreseen, rendered Necker's work 
 more difficult. He was forced to have recourse to fresh loans, 
 but, at the same time, he resolutely hunted down all abuses and
 
 142 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 useless expenses, carrying economy not only into big matters, but 
 into the smallest details. One of his most useful works was the 
 suppression of the Royal pay-offices — the dispersion of which was 
 a fruitful source of disorder — and the gathering in of all funds to 
 the Treasury. This reform was a severe blow not only to the 
 Treasurers-General, but to all the ministers of departments, with 
 separate treasuries. The reform of the Royal household followed. 
 This was, in truth, the quarter in which the most crying abuses 
 were to be met with ; it was also that in which the most obstacles 
 were thrown in Necker's way. 
 
 The nobles, who did not wish to be checked in their de- 
 predations, joined with the financiers in opposing him. The 
 Financier-General had, indeed, only the King on his side, for the 
 Parliament continued to find fault with his financial arrangements 
 and to sanction, most reluctantly, all his other reforms. At Court", 
 Necker had not only to combat opposition, but to witness abuses 
 that partly destroyed the result of his economies. The Queen, 
 always infatuated by play, lost 14,000 Lonis in the year 1778 alone, 
 and she continued to recompense by costly presents, extravagant 
 pensions, and appointments, representing sometimes salaries of 
 80,000 livres, persons, whose only title to consideration was that 
 they ministered to her taste for dissipation. In February, 1779, 
 she came with the King to Paris, to be present at the singing of 
 a Te Deum to celebrate the birth of the Princess, who afterwards 
 became Duchesse d'Angouleme. Nearly everywhere, the Royal 
 pair was received by a silence, which was attributed solely to the 
 bad effect produced upon the public mind by the expenses and 
 dissipations of the Queen. Having dedicated the whole of her re- 
 sources to pleasure, she had no money left for good works, and it 
 was Madame Necker who assumed her duties as patroness of the 
 charitable institutions of the kingdom. It was quite in vain that 
 the Director-General represented to her the enormity of the 
 charges she made upon the Treasury. But if Louis XVI., in his 
 indulgence of his consort, allowed the continuance of abuses that 
 be ought to have reprimanded, he, at least, seconded all the wise 
 and beneficent schemes that were submitted to him by Necker. In
 
 The French Revolution. I43 
 
 August, 1779, he promulgated the celebrated Decree, that abolished 
 all rights of servitude and mortmain ^ within his domains. " We 
 "should have desired/' he said, in the preamble to the Royal Edict, 
 '* to abolish, without distinction, all vestiges of a rigorous, feudal 
 '' system, but our finances do not permit of our purchasing this 
 "right from the seigneurs'' He expressed, however, the hope of 
 seeing his example copied by the rest of the kingdom. Some 
 of the nobles were houoiirable enough to follow the King's lead, 
 but a large number of men remained for some time attached to 
 the glebes and deprived of the liberty of their persons and the 
 prerogatives of proprietorship.^ 
 
 Feeling sure of the confidence and support of the Monarch, 
 Necker continued to carry on the work he had begun. He intro- 
 duced more and more stringent rules into the administration of 
 the finances, and started a new system of book-keeping, which 
 showed, at a glance, the balance of receipts and expenses. He 
 diminished the number of Farmers-General, and reduced from 
 sixty to twelve, that of Receivers. He also continued the difficult 
 work of reforming the King's household. The various purses for 
 the table, for minor pleasures, for the hunt, the stables, etc., were 
 united in a single fund. But in proportion as his reforms 
 were effected, so did hostility to them become more and 
 more threatening. Some of the ministers, whose independence 
 was affected by Necker's measures, began to complain, and 
 whilst they secretly plotted to impede the execution of his reforms, 
 libellous pamphlets appeared, accusing him of all kinds of public 
 and private vices. 
 
 The bishops had good reason to fancy themselves threatened by 
 Necker's reforming spirit, since the idea of assessing the property 
 of the clergy had come to be an universally admitted principle. 
 In face of the financial embarrassments of the Government, it was 
 a matter of surprise that the Episcopate still refused to contribute 
 to the expenses of the State. 
 
 1 Mainmorte, in this instance, refers to the right of seigneurs to the real 
 estate and personal property of their serfs, which property escheated on 
 their deaths to their lords. (Translator's Note.) 
 
 2 In 1789 there were still 1,500,000 left in France.
 
 144 *^^^ Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 When the General Assembly of the Clergy opened in June, 
 1780, the King's commissioner, in consideration of the war with 
 p]nglancl, made an application for a "free gift" of 30,000,000 livres. 
 But the President of the Assembly expressed his surprise that 
 " so excessive a demand " should have been made, and it was 
 agreed in the end that, in return for the sum asked, the King must 
 pay back annually, for fourteen years, the sum of 1,000,000 livres, 
 and further, that he must promise not to claim another subsidy 
 until 1785. According to custom, the bishops presented the 
 King, in the course of their deliberations, with memorials con- 
 taining their wishes in regard to the Religion of the country. In 
 one of these they expressed regret that, in spite of the laws against 
 them, Protestants had been admitted to public posts ; this was, 
 of course, an attack on Necker. In another, they complained of 
 "Anti-Christian productions" circulated everywhere with im- 
 punity, and instanced especially a famous writer, "less known 
 " for the beauty of his genius than for the implacable warfare he 
 " has waged for sixteen years against the Lord and His Christ." 
 After having thus designated Voltaire, they referred to the Abbe 
 Raynal as " a former priest, still wearing the sacred livery of the 
 " Church," who has just published a new edition of a work "teem- 
 " ing with revolting blasphemies." " Sire," they added, " the time 
 "is come for your Majesty to safeguard Religion, Morality, and 
 "Authority," by making a law to confine " that most noble of all 
 " arts — writing — to the bounds of a generous but discreet liberty." 
 As in 1775, the King's reply was couched in evasive terms, and 
 from the public the bishops' desires did not obtain even that 
 feeble attention which had been accorded them five years before. 
 
 Whilst the superior clergy were giving the world these fresh 
 proofs of their intolerance, the young Monarch, following his own 
 totally different disposition, was instituting some long-needed 
 ameliorations in the prison system, and abolishing the " prepara- 
 tory question." ^ 
 
 In January, 1781, Necker published, with the King's permission, 
 
 1 Examination by torture. Questions put to the accused while on the 
 rack previous to condemnation. {Translator's Note.)
 
 The French Revolution. 145 
 
 his famous " Accounts " of the finances. In this publication he 
 did not confine himself to drawing up a table of the receipts and 
 expenses, but also explained his previous measures, announced his 
 projects, and exposed the disorders and abuses that he had made 
 it his mission to repress. Until then, as he said, a great mystery 
 had always been made of the state of the finances, and now, for 
 the first time, the veil was lifted. An immense effect was pro- 
 duced by this statement of the accounts. On the day it appeared 
 6,000 copies were printed, and it was soon reproduced in 
 every European language. Prints and sets of verses were pub- 
 lished in honour of Necker. But together with the praises, 
 criticisms were also to be heard. It was pretended that, in de- 
 livering up to the knowledge and, in a certain degree, to the con- 
 trol of the public, all the actions of the Sovereign, the honour 
 of the Crown was detracted from, and its authority lessened. 
 The enemies of Necker, rendered desperate by the announcement 
 of his projected reforms, united all their efforts to overthrow him. 
 They overruled the King's timidity, stirred up the entire Court, 
 issued innumerable pamphlets, and, in the end, availed themselves 
 of means still more efficacious and decisive. 
 
 Necker, borrowing the idea from Turgot, had established in 
 Berry, Haute Guyenne, and Dauphine, and wished to establish, 
 by degrees, throughout France — under the name of *' Provincial 
 Administrations" — elective commissions composed of deputies 
 from the three estates. These, according to his design, were to 
 assemble at certain periods, and to be entrusted in each province 
 with the assessment of taxes and the oversight of the interests of 
 the population. But, before putting his plan into execution, he 
 presented a sketch of it to the King, and his enemies made use of 
 this sketch to bring about his ruin. In it, very diverse matters were 
 touched upon, and, it must be owned, that, side by side with 
 many useful ideas, some principles were advanced that directly 
 favoured absolute Monarchy. 
 
 In order to diminish the gahelle — tax on salt — throughout the 
 country, Necker proposed to deprive all the members of the 
 sovereign courts of their immunity from this tax. He wished also 
 
 K
 
 146 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 to abolish tithes, to raise the stipends of country clergymen to the 
 fitting sum of 12,000 livres, and to provide the means for the in- 
 crease of these salaries out of the incomes of the " big wigs " of 
 the Church and the rich endowments. His plan also abolished all 
 Intendancies, as offices " onerous to the State and tyrannous to the 
 " people," and deprived the Parliaments of the right of registration, 
 thus reducing them to purely judicial functions. The publication 
 of these propositions did not fail to stir up against Necker the 
 anger of the officials, the aristocracy, and the clergy. The sketch 
 of his reforms was secretly printed and communicated to all the 
 Parliaments of the kingdom. This was the signal for an outburst 
 of clamour. A league was formed in opposition to the Director- 
 General that was made up of all those whose interests were 
 menaced by his plan. Louis XVI. was quite overwhelmed with 
 complaints of Parliaments, Intendants,^ clergy, and court 
 officials. 
 
 Necker soon came to the conclusion that it would be impossible 
 for him to keep the direction of the Finances, unless he received 
 some distinguished mark of his Sovereign's confidence with which 
 to overawe his enemies. He, therefore, requested the King either 
 to admit him to his Council, under the title of Minister, or to 
 accept his resignation, Louis XVL might have held his ground. 
 He had no longer — as at the time of his dismissal of Turgot — the 
 excuse of his extreme youth, and it could not have escaped his 
 notice, that the opposition directed against Necker was neither so 
 serious, nor so considerable, as that which had been formed 
 against Turgot. Yet in his extreme weakness he failed to fulfil 
 his duty and accepted Necker's resignation. 
 
 When the news of this resignation broke upon Paris on the 
 morning of May 20th, it caused general consternation. A panic 
 was created on the Bourse, and the price of the Royal Bonds fell 
 considerably. The public deplored the event as a national calam- 
 ity, and that evening at the Comedie Fran^aise, a reference to 
 Necker excited a veritable tumult. The King himself evinced 
 
 ^ Intendant—A Treasury-commissioner or provincial Treasurer-general, 
 ( Translator's Note, J
 
 The French Revolution. 147 
 
 signs of regret at the departure of a man, whose stubborn character 
 must oftentimes have aggravated him, but who had, nevertheless, 
 won his esteem. For several days, the public cherished the hope 
 of his recall, and some efforts were made to induce the King to 
 retain him. But the fear of his return only revived the cabals 
 against him. On the 4th of June, Joly de Fleury, the man whom 
 the enemies of Necker had designated as his successor, joined the 
 Council as Minister of Finance, and all hope that the Monarch 
 would retract his decision was thenceforth abandoned.
 
 148 The Revohitionary Spirit precedins^ 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Reign of Louis XVT. — The Joly de Fleury, cTOrmesson, and 
 Calonne Ministries. 
 
 (1781-1786.) 
 
 On the day following the retirement of Necker, Louis XVI. de- 
 clared that "though he had changed his ministers he had not 
 "changed his principles." But the appointment of Joly de Fleury 
 showed how much this Declaration was to be believed 
 
 In August, 1781, an Edict was promulgated, which raised the 
 taxes on all articles of consumption two sous in the livre. This 
 was a return to the fiscal system in vogue in the time of Louis 
 XV., which Necker and Turgot had both repudiated. The mea- 
 sure excited universal murmurs. Among the lower classes, who 
 were most affected by it, the discontent more particularly showed 
 itself. The Parliament, in gratitude for the sacrifice made to it 
 of the "dangerous Genevan," registered the two sous in the livre 
 without uttering a single remonstrance on behalf of the people. 
 Other money-edicts followed. Returning, without scruple, to the 
 old abuses, the minister caused a loan to be raised by the city of 
 Paris to supply the personal needs of the Comte de Provence and 
 the Comte d'Artois. He re-established the forty-eight offices of 
 Receivers-General, the posts of Treasurers and Farmers-General, 
 and all the suppressed appointments in the Royal household. The 
 King was, in fact, made to undo all Necker's work, as he had 
 previously undone Turgot's, and thus, by his weakness and inces- 
 sant self-contradictions, to lower himself more and more in public 
 opinion. 
 
 Almost at the same time that the Government was annoying 
 the public with its financial measures, it published a regulation.
 
 The French Revolution. 149 
 
 by which all commoners were interdicted from serving as lieuten- 
 ants in the army, and no one, whose nobility did not date from 
 four generations, could be raised to the rank of captain. Just 
 when the War of American Independence was fostering the ideas 
 of equality propounded by Philosophy, and when the reforms of 
 Turgot and Necker had opened all eyes to the injustice and abuse 
 of privilege, it would have been difficult to commit a more impoli- 
 tic act. The impression produced by it was so great, that many 
 contemporaries have counted it among the secondary causes of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 Yet, to judge by appearances^ it might have been thought that 
 many hearts were still attached to the Monarchy. In October, 
 1781, Marie- Antoinette gave birth to a Dauphin, and, at the news 
 of this event, the Parisians seemed to forget all their grievances. 
 Louis XVI., on his way to Notre Dame, was received with loud 
 acclamations. At the opera, where a gratuitous performance was 
 given to the crowd, the auditorium resounded with cries of " Long 
 "live the King ! long live the Queen ! Long live Monseigneur the 
 ^' Dauphin ! " The address of the market-women who, according to 
 custom, went to congratulate Louis XVI., finished with the words: 
 " We charge ourselves with the task of teaching our children to 
 " love and respect their King." But, besides these attestations of 
 rejoicing, other and very different sentiments were also expressed. 
 A certain number of people were put into the Bastille for having, 
 upon this occasion, written or spoken scandalous words against 
 the Queen. Many people, too, highly disapproved of the fetes, 
 which the Mayor of Paris had arranged in celebration of the birth 
 of the Dauphin. 
 
 Some bishops who looked upon the disgrace of Necker only as 
 an event favourable to their own interests, attempted to raise 
 the alarm against Philosophy. Their mandates, however, found 
 no echo. The Ministry, to whom the Faculty of Theology 
 had complained of the publication of Voltaire's works, declared 
 that such affairs should be referred to the police. Not only were 
 Volta,ire's works printed, but a new edition of the Encyclopedia 
 was authorised by the Government. A little later, Palissot's piece
 
 1 50 The Revolutionary Spirit precedhig 
 
 was brought out again at the Comedie-Fran^aise. It was a com- 
 plete failure, and wheu Crispin entered on all fours to represent 
 Jean Jacques, there was a general expression of indignation from 
 the floor of the house. In the place of the old Archbishop of 
 Paris, who died in 1781, Louis XVI. had nominated an ardent 
 Jesuit partisan, who tried his best to exact the complete sub- 
 mission of the various ecclesiastics of his diocese to the Unigenitus. 
 But his superannuated zeal only disturbed a few old Jansenists. 
 All events tended to show that the doctrinal role of the Church 
 was played out. Bishops themselves had been won over to philo- 
 sophical unbelief, and a certain party of them — having ceased to 
 invoke " religious phantoms " — abandoned doctrinal matters for 
 questions of administration. These went by the name of " Prelate- 
 " Administrators " or "Bishops of the new school." 
 
 In spite of the hopes of peace, to which Washington's victories 
 and the French maritime successes had given rise, the war 
 with England was still prolonged. The Ministry, running short 
 of resources, employed the method, for which Necker had been so 
 severely reproached, and opened a loan at a higher rate of interest 
 than any issued by the former Director of Finance. The King 
 renewed his generous promises, and announced that — the peace 
 once concluded — he would be in a position to accord his people 
 " the measures of relief which he was impatient to procure them." 
 These promises, however, did not re-assure the public. They began 
 to murmur at the duration of a war, of which they could not clearly 
 see the utility, and which had already cost over 700,000,000 livres. 
 At the news that a considerable portion of the navy had been de- 
 stroyed at an engagement near Guadeloupe, their murmurs changed 
 to consternation. But hatred for England triumphed over alarm, 
 and subscriptions were opened on all sides to aid the Government 
 and furnish it with vessels. The King, in .a public letter, de- 
 clared himself disposed to accept the offers of provinces, towns, 
 and the different corporations of the kingdom, but refused those 
 of private persons as " the financial situation did not make this 
 "resource a necessity." But immediately afterwards there ap- 
 peared an Edict, which established, for the duration of the war
 
 The F-renck Revolution. 151 
 
 and three years after, a tax of a third twentieth on all 
 "goods." 
 
 The Parliament registered this tax with the same submission 
 that it had displayed in registering the two sons in the livre. But 
 the provincial Assemblies — more jealous of the interests of the 
 people — began to make a stir. The Besangon Parliament registered 
 the two sous in the livre with restrictions, repulsed the tax of 
 the third twentieth, and drew up some Remonstrances. But 
 before these Remonstrances were presented to the King, the 
 commanding-officer of the town, by order of the Ministry, enforced 
 the registration of both acts in their integrity. The magistrates 
 protested and declared that it was a mere farce to submit Edicts to 
 the Parliament and then to deprive it of the power of verifying 
 them. They contended also that the King commanded by 
 virtue of the law, and that the men, to whom he delegated his power, 
 were bound, like other citizens, to respect it. Thereupon a deputation 
 of the rebellious Parliament was commanded to appear at Versailles. 
 The members of the deputation, in addition to the registers, brought 
 with them a fragment of oat bread as an evidence of the ex- 
 tremities to which the rural populations were reduced. The 
 King, however, did not allow the magistrates to state their 
 grievances, but reproved them for their insubordination, inform- 
 ing them that they had exceeded their powers, and that "all that 
 " was done in his name, was done by his order." He further en- 
 joined them to erase from their registers all their recent Decrees. 
 But the time had gone by when Royalty could always have the 
 last word. Upon the return of the deputies, the Parliament of 
 Besangon passed a resolution declaring that the magistracy was 
 reduced to impotence and the people deprived of their interpreters 
 by ministers who despised the law, and claiming for the Franche- 
 Comte the assemblage of the Provincial States, and for the 
 kingdom the convocation of the States-General. Thus, upon the 
 first occasion that Louis XVI. revived the despotic measures of his 
 forerunners, claims wei'e formulated, that directly tended to 
 Bevolution. The accusation brought by the Parliament of 
 BesanQon against the ministers was well founded, for since the
 
 152 The RevoliUionavy Spirit preceding 
 
 accession of Louis XVI., the rights of the magi.stracy had beea 
 less considered than ever. A confederation of the various Pai-lia- 
 ments of the Kingdom was now initiated by the magistrates of the 
 Besangon. More disinterested than the coalitions that had been 
 formed in the previous reign, this one aimed at greater things 
 than the restoring to the magistracy its former influence. Acknow- 
 ledging — perhaps not without remorse — " that they could not, of 
 " themselves, regain their lost ascendancy," the Parliaments de- 
 cided to return to the underlying principles of Government, and to 
 demand unanimously the convocation of the States-General. 
 
 But in September, 1783, an apparent change of the conduct of 
 the Government, and the general satisfaction caused by the con- 
 clusion of the peace with England, somewhat calmed the general 
 agitation. Immediately after the signing of the preliminaries of 
 peace in the beginning of the year, the Government had printed 
 and " profusely distributed " a regulation concerning the adminis- 
 tration of the finances, in which the suppression of some of the 
 taxes was promised. The dismissal of Joly de Fleury seemed to 
 confirm this assurance. In his place, the King appointed a young 
 Councillor of State, d'Ormesson, who^ without great financial 
 aptitude, had, at least, the reputation of being an honest, hard- 
 working man. Since the beginning of the reign, this was the 
 seventh administrator who had been placed at the head of 
 financial affairs, and the public began to be alarmed at the con- 
 tinual change of ministers which so palpably demonstrated the 
 indecisive views of the Government. In April, 1783, d'Ormesson 
 was nominated to his post ; in November he quitted it. Assailed 
 by expenses he was powerless to control, and forced to satisfy the 
 whims of the King himself, who, oblivious of his economical 
 designs, had — among other extravagances — ^just bought Rambouillet 
 at the price of 14,000,000 livres, d'Ormesson had secretly borrowed 
 money from the / au?,e, d^ Escomptes — i.e., Discount Office. This fact 
 transpiring, the ownersof bills crowded to the office, which soon found 
 itself unable to disburse. D'Ormesson authorised the suspension of 
 payment, but this measure only increased the general uneasiness. 
 It was this maladroit action of the young Comptroller-General
 
 The French Revolution. 153 
 
 that appeared to be the cause of his disgrace. In reality, he was 
 forced to retire because, in default of capacity, he evinced some 
 patriotism, and had endeavoured to deter the King and his 
 courtiers from their reckless expenditure. 
 
 Those " perverse " spirits, who had overturned d'Ormesson, per- 
 suaded the weak-minded Louis to appoint a minister after their 
 own hearts — one who had long coveted the post of Comptroller- 
 General. This was Calonne: a man of no morals and bad reputa- 
 tion ; but clever, amiable, and seductive ; one who played with 
 difficulties, but who displayed such dexterity in business affairs, 
 that — according to his flatterers — he had in him "sparks of true 
 "genius." In his first interview with the King, he confessed to 
 having unpaid debts to the amount of 220,000 livres. '' A 
 "Comptroller-General," he added, "can easily find means of dis- 
 " charging obligations, but I prefer to leave all to your Majesty's 
 " kindness." Louis XVI. took from a desk 230,000 livres in shares 
 of the Paris Water Company and gave them to Calonne, who 
 kept the shares and found other means of getting rid of his debts. 
 
 The appointment of this man annoyed the public, but Calonne 
 was too careful of his popularity to have recourse to measures 
 that might bring him into disrepute. He began by dismissing 
 fiom office several clerks, who had been guilty of notorious mis- 
 appropriations, and when he went to take his oath at the Cour cles 
 Comptes he pronounced a discourse, full of sentiments of the 
 purest patriotism, in which he promised to shield the Parliaments 
 from authoritative measures. As a substitute for fresh taxes, 
 that would, undoubtedly, have stirred up objections, he issued, pu- 
 der the form of a lottery, a loan of 100,000,000 livres, and he further 
 established a Sinking Fund, by means of which, he said, the 
 National Debt would be cancelled in twenty-five years. It is un- 
 necessary to say that this Fund was never really started. 
 Caloinie spoke of his methods of amelioration in a tone of such 
 complete conviction, and prophesied such happy results from them, 
 that it was impossible not to believe that, a new era was beginning 
 for finance. No one, outside of the court circle, knew the 
 amount of Calonne's expenditure. Still less did anyone guess
 
 1 54 T/^e Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 that the means he employed to sustain it were calculated to ruin 
 France in about three years' time. Only later were discovered 
 the thousand secret expedients, amounting to fraud, and the 
 disastrous methods of anticipation, to which he had recourse. 
 For the moment, money poured forth from the Treasury as from 
 an inexhaustible source. Credit was re-established, and wealth 
 seemed to abound. The populace were dazzled, and the Parlia- 
 ments astounded At Court, whence the words ''economy" aud 
 "reform" seemed at last to be banished, everybody was en- 
 chanted, This sudden appearance of prosperity was not wholly 
 fictitious. Peace once concluded, trade by a natural consequence 
 revived. The Independence of America created fresh outlets for 
 commerce and industry, and Calonne knew how to take advan- 
 tage of the circumstances that combined to favour him. 
 
 No wonder that in the years 1784 and 1785 the people of 
 France made to themselves an illusory future ! Deceived in 
 regard to the real state of the finances, gladdened by the pro- 
 clamation of peace, and filled with pride at the thought of 
 England's humiliation, France — under a dihonnaire prince, and 
 restored to her former rank among the nations, from which 
 the Seven Years' War had ousted her — appeared, for the first 
 time, to give herself up to the charms of a civilisation, which 
 the progress of ideas only served to polish. The privileged 
 classes still existed, but the various divisions of society seemed 
 all but eftaced. If Faith were extinguished. Tolerance reigned in 
 its stead. People wrote and spoke freely on all sorts of subjects. 
 In response to Mirabeau's book on lettres de cachet, which a few 
 years before would, without doubt, have been committed to the 
 flames, the Government ordered the emptying of the donjon at 
 Vincennes, and all Paris assembled to see the odious traces of an 
 antique barbarism. Everywhere, at the suggestion of the Minis- 
 try, useful establishments were founded. Men seemed seized 
 with a veritable fever of philanthropy. In the rigorous winter 
 of 1784, the tokens of benevolence exceeded all previous mani- 
 festations of that virtue. The Abb6 de L'Epee obtained the 
 suppoii; of the Government for his work of instructing deaf mutes,
 
 The French Revolution. 155 
 
 and Valentin Haiiy, his emulator, founded the " Institute for the 
 " Blind." Never had the poor people been the objects of such 
 solicitude. Bishops established lying-in hospitals in their dioceses, 
 and in different provinces, intendants presided at open air fttes, 
 where prizes for agriculture were distributed amid cries of " Long 
 " live the King ! " However much men's dispositions may have 
 been influenced by fashion, these charitable enterprises indicated, 
 none the less, that more humane ideas were permeating society. 
 No one could have imagined that a period of violence and class 
 hatred was at hand. Rather did the people of France seem to 
 hail the dawn of those millennial days predicted by Philosophy. 
 
 Unexpected discoveries and marvellous novelties seized upon 
 men's imaginations and helped to blind all eyes to the imminent 
 catastrophe. In 1784 the invention of balloons startled the world. 
 Princes, nobles, priests, and magistrates were enraptured by this 
 novelty. At once they fancied themselves masters of the empire 
 of the air. It was a century of wonders. The word " impossible " 
 seemed no longer to be in the vocabulary of the French. " Talk- 
 ■ ' ing heads " and "birds that flew " were manufactured. Mesmerism 
 became the rage : the same excitement prevailed, the same miracles 
 took place, that had once been induced at the tomb of " Monsieur 
 " Paris." The serious accomplishments of men of science were no 
 less remarkable, Lavoisier discovered the composition of water, 
 and La Perouse made his preparations to explore the undiscovered 
 regions of the globe. Intoxicated by these marvels, and carried 
 away by chimerical ideas of philanthropy, the imagination of the 
 people of France was exalted at the expense of reason. Dreams 
 were substituted for realities. The hour was approaching when 
 those ideas which, though so grandiose, were humane, generous, 
 and intrinsically true, were to be transported to the sphere 
 of politics and induce there the same illusions, the same 
 flightiness, and the same beliefs that the conditions of society 
 might be changed as instantaneously as the conditions of life 
 already seemed to have been. An innovation, dating from this 
 period, had much to do with the training of those orators, who 
 were destined so soon to speak not only to France but to the
 
 156 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 whole of Europe. In '83 and '84 clubs were founded. Men 
 joined them at first for beneficent purposes, or simply to dine, 
 play cards, or read the gazettes. These clubs, to which, as a rule, 
 only men belonged, rapidly became the fashion and were substituted 
 for the salons over which women had presided. Whilst some of 
 them degenerated into gambling Hells, others became miniature 
 Academies, where conferences were held, speeches delivered, and, 
 in the end, politics were freely discussed. 
 
 In the minds of those who felt that they were being borne 
 towards a future full of promise, ancient institutions and the 
 principles of the past appeared to be nothing more than ridiculous 
 errors, while the Church which had for so long dominated men's 
 deepest passions seemed only a ludicrous phantom. Yet, in the 
 midst of this mirth and these illusions, the denouement rapidly 
 drew near. 
 
 In January, 1785, Calonne started a fresh loan of 125,000,000 
 livres, the conditions of which were made out to be so advantageous 
 to the lenders that they were promised a doubling of their capital at 
 the end of twenty-five years. The Chamhre des Comptes remon- 
 strated, and the Parliament felt bound to protest, representing to 
 the King that a loan had never yet been contracted at so high a 
 rate of interest, and that, in spite of the promises inscribed on the 
 previous Edicts, the National Debt was perceptibly increasing. 
 Then, for the first time, Calonne was attacked in pamphlets; but a 
 more serious onslaught was that contained in Necker's book on 
 The Administration of Finance. 
 
 In this work Necker gave figures to show how considerable had 
 been the increase of the National Debt since his retirement, and 
 called attention to the renewal of the disorders that he had suc- 
 ceeded in arresting. He concluded by insisting upon the necessity 
 for reform. Calonne tried to turn the blow aimed at him. But 
 his brochures and threats only served to increase the popularity 
 of Necker's work. By the end of January 12,000 copies had been 
 j.rinted. So great was the sensation produced that the author 
 was requested not to show himself in Paris, as his presence would 
 have undoubtedly excited a tumult. This book put the finishing
 
 The French Revolution. 157 
 
 touches to the picture of the finances that had been painted for the 
 public four years before in the "Account." 
 
 Calonne's credit, but not bis audacity, was now almost shattered. 
 He asked the clergy for a '* free gift " of 20,000,000 livres, but ob- 
 tained only 18,000,000, and that, on condition that he suppressed the 
 new edition of Voltaire's works. Calonne accepted the conditions, 
 and a Decree was published and posted. But there is no doubt 
 that the Government secretly facilitated its evasion. The loan of 
 125,000,000 was not easily raised. The financial companies that 
 Calonne had greatly favoured, in order to produce a fictitious 
 circulation to mask his own movements, attracted all available 
 money to themselves. The jobbing which he had promoted re- 
 coiled on him. He attempted to decry the companies in brochures, 
 and Mirabeau, more eloquent than honest, consented to put his 
 talents at the minister's service. Calonne soon bethought himself 
 of a method, inspired by the worst of monarchial stratagems, and 
 undertook the recoinage of gold specie. By this operation he 
 hoped to bring in about 50,000,000 louisy but, by a series of frauds, 
 he managed to lay hands on much more. The Parisians, deceived 
 by a promise of twenty &ou8 for the old livre, crowded to the mint. 
 Many received only fifteen, thirteen, or twelve &<ms, and some 
 had to furnish silver over and above their gold. The Ministry, 
 instead of giving new loxm in the place of old ones, returned 
 bills on the Jaisse d^Esconiptes, and later on, gave only acknowledg- 
 ments. The public took alarm. The Gour des Monnaies pro- 
 tested, but was reprimanded by the King, who ordered its Decree 
 to be erased from the registers. After this another Edict appeared, 
 starting a fresh loan of 80,000,000. The Parliament entreated 
 the King to withdraw it, but Louis XVI. imperatively commanded 
 its registration. The magistrates obeyed, subjoining clauses cal- 
 culated to discredit the loan. The entire Parliament was there- 
 upon ordered to appear with its registers at Versailles, and the 
 King with his own hand struck out the added clauses. " Under- 
 " stand," he said to the magistrates, "that I am satisfied with my 
 " Comptroller-General, and that I will not permit my plans for the 
 "good of my State and the welfare of my people to be interrupted
 
 158 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 "by unfounded alarms." From that moment there was an open 
 schism between Calonne and the Parliament. 
 
 The Parliament of Besan9on was just then disputing the posses- 
 sion of twenty-tv;o leagues of alluvial soil which the State, in spite of 
 the rights of proprietorship and the unanimous protest of the inhabi- 
 tants of the Province, wished to seize upon. The Rennes magistrates 
 having had a registration illegally forced upon them, were also 
 oflfering protests. Their representations were met with an asser- 
 tion worthy of Louis XV. himself. " In me alone," said the King, 
 "resides, undivided, all legislative power." It was, thus, clearly 
 shown that the arbitrary methods of Louis XV. were again to be 
 put into force. At the same time there were unmistakable signs 
 that men's sympathies were becoming more and more alienated 
 from the Royal Family. The cruel attacks made on Marie- 
 Antoinette, in regard to the affair of the necklace, proved this fact 
 beyond a doubt. The whole of France became interested in the 
 trial of the Cardinal de Rohan, the scandalous details of which 
 compromised Marie-Antoinette as woman and as Queen. No one 
 believed in the morality of the proud prelate, who was known to 
 be both a spendthrift and a libertine, but so great was the hostility 
 of the people towards the Queen that he was universally com- 
 miserated, and his acquittal excited general expressions of joy. 
 Not the Queen alone, however, but the entire Royal Family, the 
 Court, and the Episcopate, were disgraced by this affair. In July, 
 1786 — a month after the acquittal of the Cardinal — the clergy, 
 by the King's order, held a General Assembly. On this occasion 
 the Ministry made a fresh attempt to bring up the subject of the 
 assessment of the " goods " of the clergy. But the bishops — who 
 could not have been ignorant of the alarming state of the finances 
 — proved, by unanswerable arguments, that neither they nor their 
 possessions were subject to any taxation or feudal dues. 
 
 The breach between the Court and the magistracy continued to 
 widen. The affair of the alluvial soil, in regard to which the 
 Bordeaux Parliament still combatted the unjust pretensions of 
 the Ministry, had assumed the proportions of a national conflict. 
 On May 30th a " military session " imposed upon the Assembly
 
 The French Revolution. 159 
 
 at Bordeaux the registration of letters-patent, that gave the 
 ground in litigation to the State. The magistrates protested, and 
 declared that usurpation, sanctioned by letters-patent, was the 
 fruit of a system of depredation maintained " by men whom uni- 
 "versal indignation would have denounced, had they not known 
 "how to shelter themselves behind the sacred name of the Monarch." 
 The Parliament of Toulouse issued a Decree, in which it solemnly 
 adhered to that of the Parliament of Bordeaux, and all other 
 Parliaments prepared to follow this example. 
 
 The magistrates of Bordeaux were commanded to appear in a 
 body at Versailles. Ninety-six of them obeyed the summons. 
 Only those who were infirm or ill remained behind. The Ministry 
 wisely took the precaution to prohibit their passing through Paris. 
 Arrived at Versailles, the King held "a species of 'Bed of Justice,' " 
 and ordered them to expunge from their registers the Decrees that 
 attested their resistance. But, in reality, he yielded. Under 
 pretence of making his intentions more thoroughly understood, he 
 caused explanatory letters to be registered, in which he cancelled 
 the first ones, and recognised the owners whose claims the Bor- 
 deaux Parliament had so valiantly maintained. The ovation with 
 which the magistrates were received on their return to Bordeaux 
 was a fresh humiliation for the Power that had planned to rebuke 
 them. Other Parliaments began to send deputations to Versailles. 
 On the roads to the capital, magistrates were constantly to be 
 met with, going either to complain to the King or to receive 
 reproofs from the Royal mouth. In the midst of these grave 
 events, Calonne's financial embarrassments steadily increased, and 
 the illusions of the public were at last dispelled. The shares in 
 tlie last issued loan had not been taken up, and, upon the other 
 hand, the third twentieth was just about to expire. Under pre- 
 text of embellishing the capital, Calonne attempted to open, 
 through the city of Paris, a loan of 30^000,000, which he intended, 
 in reality, to pour into the Treasury. He had recourse at last 
 to smaller measures. He put a stamp on music-paper, and 
 thought of taxing lacqueys, carriages, and other articles of luxury 
 For 15,000 liyres he sold to every under-sheriff the title of King's
 
 1 60 The Revolutionary Spirit precedino 
 
 Councillor, and talked of supplementary taxes, to be exacted from 
 notaries, attorneys, and process-servers. It was even asserted 
 that the Government was going to accord civil liberty to the Pro- 
 testants, who offered to pay a large sum for the concession. 
 A thousand rumours circulated, testifying to the distress of the 
 Treasury and the embarrassments of the Government. Calonne 
 himself did not hide his desire to be relieved of the burden of the 
 finances by being called to another office. In December, 1786, a 
 quantity of Edicts and Declarations establishing fresh taxes were 
 laid before the Parliament, but the magistrates refused, in the 
 name of the people, to register any " New Year's gifts.'* There- 
 upon, everyone expected the announcement of a "Bed of Justice." 
 Instead, the startling and wholly unanticipated news was spread 
 abroad that Calonne had asked from the King, and the latter had 
 accoi'ded him, permission to convoke an Assembly of Notables. 
 The Prologue of the Revolutionary Drama had begun.
 
 TJie French Revolution. i6i 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Assemhly of Notables and the Convocation of the States-General . 
 
 (1787-1789.) 
 
 The idea of convoking the Notables had been suggested to Calonne 
 by the desperate state of the Finances. The dishonest minister 
 was at his wit's end. He had exhansted all resources and made 
 use of every imaginable expedient. The same temerity that had 
 prompted him to conduct France to her ruin now led him to 
 fancy he could extricate her from it. After having promoted 
 every kind of disorder and protected all sorts of abuses, he was 
 obliged, in the end, to revert to the project of reform conceived by 
 Necker and Turgot. 
 
 He proposed to institute throughout the entire kingdom 
 Provincial Assemblies, which should not only make a more equal 
 assessment of the taxes, but should prevent the numerous illegali- 
 ties practised in collecting them. Among other methods of 
 effecting the first of these reforms, he created a land-tax, to which 
 the clergy were to be subjected in common with other landlords, 
 and made some alterations, notably in introducing a stamp-tax, 
 in the duties imposed on commerce. He proposed also to alienate 
 some of the Crown domains and to reduce by 20,000,000 livres the 
 annual expenses of the King's household. Louis XVI., according to 
 his custom, adhered to the propositions of his minister. The plan 
 adopted, means for carrying it out had to be devised. It was at 
 this point that Calonne borrowed from the past the undreamt-of 
 expedient of assembling the Notables. He thought, not without 
 reason, that if he obtained the approbation of this body, he could 
 overrule the objections of the clergy, Court, and Parliament. The 
 Assembly, which was to be composed of 140 persons, and included
 
 1 62 The Revolutionary Spirit precedt'7tg 
 
 the most important members of the Church, the nobilitr, and 
 magistracy, and the mayors of the principal towns, was to meet 
 on the 29th of January. Calonne, who feared that his plan 
 might arouse opposition, had kept his intentions so secret that 
 the announcement of them surprised some of the ministers them- 
 selves and caused a sensation in Paris and throughout the country. 
 
 Whilst the ministerial journals applauded the generous initiative 
 of a Sovereign, who "deigned to make advances to the Nation," 
 the public could not throw off a feeling of uneasiness. The ques- 
 tion was asked : " Does the Ministry really intend to do good, or 
 "are these proceedings only a pretence?" Many persons looked 
 upon the event in the darkest light, and on 'Change there was a 
 great fall in Royal Bonds. There were those who said that it was 
 one of Calonne's projects to repeal the law of registration in order 
 to prevent the Parliament's resistance to fresh imposts. And 
 these clear-sighted ones entreated the public not to be deceived, 
 for the Government was convoking this Assembly for the sole 
 purpose of obtaining its adherence to fresh taxes " which it did 
 " not dare to impose upon the Nation single-handed." It was 
 further urged that nothing could be expected of men appointed 
 by the ministers and influenced by them through the granting of 
 pensions and favours. 
 
 In the midst of these uncertainties, one distinct thought was 
 borne in iipon the minds of reflective men. It was foreseen that 
 this Assembly would bring about, by an inevitable consequence, 
 important changes in the condition of the country and " even in 
 " the form of the Government." Mirabeau, who was then in Berlin, 
 wrote that the Convocation of Notables would, no coubt, soon be 
 followed by a National Assembly. This was also the idea in the 
 mind of Bailly, the future Mayor of Paris. Though no one could 
 forecast the violent shocks that would be the outcome of these 
 events, it was, at least, believed that the country was on the eve 
 of a Revolution. Calonne sought to destroy these annoying sup- 
 positions and to dissipate all anxietj'. He said publicly at 
 Versailles that the King was too much attached to the funda- 
 mental laws of the Monarchy to dream of diminishing the author-
 
 The French Revolution. 163 
 
 ity of the Parliameuts. And, by his order, there were distributed 
 in the cafh and all public rendezvous, manuscript bulletins, in 
 which it was stated that the King was not convoking the Notables 
 with the view of obtaining help, either in money or taxes ; his 
 object being to submit to them a plan destined to make his people 
 happy. This plan, so it was declared in the bulletins, was worthy 
 of so beneficent a Monarch, and would acquaint the country with the 
 wisdom and superiority of the Minister of Finance. But in spite of all 
 contrary assurances, the Nation was persuaded that the Ministry's 
 sole reason for having recourse to this Assembly was want of 
 money. 
 
 On February 22nd, the Notables assembled at Versailles. After 
 a short harangue from Louis XVI,, who spoke of his love for his 
 people, and recalled the example of Henri IV., whom he was 
 "pleased to imitate," Calonne addressed the Assembly. He stated 
 that the imperative circumstances augmenting the expenses had 
 produced a deficit of 80,000,000 livres, and intimated that, in order 
 to reconstitute the finances, loans must no longer be resorted to, 
 since they aggravated the evil instead of repairing it. He de- 
 clared, therefore, that the increase of taxes upon the established 
 system was thenceforward impossible, and that, economy itself 
 being an insufficient resource, the remedy lay in the reformation 
 of abuses. After this he gave a sketch of his proposals, using all 
 the artifices of rhetoric, which he so well knew how to employ, to 
 persuade the Assembly to his way of thinking. With that auda- 
 city, which the preambles of his addresses had so often exemplified, 
 he stated that a new era had begun for France, and the ancient 
 formula, " What the King wills, the laio wills," would from that 
 day forward be replaced by the motto, " What the happiness of the 
 ^^ people demands, the King wills." 
 
 But, in spite of these claptrap assurances, it was evident from 
 the first that the Government desired less to consult the Notables, 
 than to avail itself of their consent to force upon the country 
 some measures already determined upon. Calonne had said in his 
 discourse that his plans, which were known to and approved by the 
 Monarch, "had become a pei-sonal matter with hi? Majesty."
 
 1 64 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 These words, in which he insinuated that it was the duty of the 
 Assembly to subscribe to his projects, induced a lively altercation 
 Ijetween himself and some of the Notables. The Assembly had 
 been divided into seven committees, each one presided over by a 
 prince of the blood. The minister professed to have taken this 
 measure with the view of cutting short all questions of preced- 
 ence. In reality, he thought that the princes, by their ascend- 
 ancy, would be enabled to extort suflfrages. The Government had 
 counted so surely upon a favourable vote that the Edicts were all 
 printed beforehand. It was then that the wags started the joke, 
 thereafter reproduced under various forms, m which a farmer was 
 reputed to ask the animals he was about to slaughter, "what 
 "sauce they ..ould prefer to be eaten with." A similar pleasantry 
 was attributed to the Archbishop of Narbonne. " Monsieur de 
 "Calonne," he said, "proposes to bleed France — already bled 
 " several times before — and he asks the Notables for their advice 
 "as to whether it is best to bleed her in the foot, arm, or jugular 
 " vein." Calonne, however, did not find in the Notables that entire 
 docility which he had flattered himself he should meet with. 
 They consented, without resistance, to the institution of Provincial 
 Assemblies and the suppression of feudal service. But the pro- 
 posed territorial subsidies did not meet with the same favour. 
 Though one section of the Notables highly approved of this at- 
 tack on the privileged classes, others, though they dared not own 
 it, did not. But all were, at least, agreed upon the necessity of 
 knowing the exact amount of the deficit before voting fresh taxes, 
 and demanded, therefore, information regarding the state of the 
 finances. Calonne refused this information, saying that the As- 
 sembly ought to vote ixpon the form and not the grounds of 
 taxation. The Notables persisted in their demands. Their con- 
 tention was that the King had desired to consult free men, and 
 some of them declared that, sooner than subscribe blindly to what 
 was being exacted from them, they would demand the convocation 
 of the States-General. At Coiirt, this unexpected resistance took 
 everybody by surprise. The public, for its part, after having made 
 great sport of the Notables, applauded their energy, which ap-
 
 The French Revolution. 165 
 
 peared to be dictated to them bj patriotism. The King, who had 
 fully made up his mind that everything would work smoothly, did 
 not disguise liis displeasure. The princes were no less annoyed, and 
 some of them forsook their committees for the hunting field. Calonne 
 too had to suffer for his audacity. Already he iiad been forced to 
 avow that the deficit was not 80,000,000 livres but 112,000,000. 
 Shortly after this he had the effrontery to maintain that the As- 
 sembly agreed with him in regard to the principle of his project, 
 and only differed respecting some unimportant details. This ly- 
 ing assertion so irritated the Notables that they accused Calonne 
 to the King of prevaricating. The minister began, at last, to 
 distrust the Assembly on whose support he had too readily counted, 
 and he attempted to tiim public opinion against it by distributing 
 throughout Paris a printed leaflet, on which it was asserted that 
 the Notables were animated by views contrary to the generous 
 designs of the King and subversive of the people's happiness. A 
 storm of indignant protests broke from the Notables, when they 
 found their sentiments so cruelly misrepresented to the country. 
 In a memorial addressed to the Monarch, they accused Calonne of 
 appropriating considerable sums, and of making the King pay 
 15,000,000 litjres for the estate of Lorient, which was not worth 
 more than 4,000,000. The struggle became so sharp and recrimi- 
 nations so numerous that Louis XVI. felt really anxious. 
 
 Calonne tried to battle against the storm. Thirty-two lettres 
 de cachet were prepared for those Notables whose opposition was 
 strongest, and complaints were lodged against some of his fellow- 
 ministers. The King dismissed the Keeper of the Seals and 
 icplaced him by Lamoignon, the Chief Justice whose bold and 
 unscrupulous nature seemed suited for the upholding of the 
 Prime Minister's designs. But Calonne desired besides the dis- 
 charge of a minister whom the Queen favoured. Marie-Antoinette 
 took offence, and Calonne was himself dismissed. He had but 
 just surrendered his portfolio when some more of his misappro- 
 priations were discovered. The Cour des Monnaies, in examining 
 the accounts of the Directeur des Monnaies (Treasury-Director) at 
 Strasbourg, who had just been declared bankrupt, found a letter
 
 1 66 The Revolutio7iary Spirit preceding 
 
 from the Comptroller-General authorising the Directeur to debase 
 the specie. In face of such a revelation, Louis XVI. found it 
 necessary to resort to severe measures. Calonne, seated at a 
 supper-party, received a lettre de cachet exiling him to Lorraine. 
 
 Thus deceived by a minister in whom he had placed confidence, 
 Louis XVI. appeared to be terribly discouraged, and was even seen 
 to shed tears. The public, who had received the news of 
 Calonne's disgrace with joy, now loudly demanded the recall of 
 Necker. The Notables and even the ministers desired it. But, 
 instead of meeting the wishes of his people, the weak Monarch be- 
 stowed his choice on a man for whom he had no liking, but who 
 was in high favour with the Queen. This was Brienne, Arch- 
 bishop of Toulouse. Though his peer in immorality, he did not 
 share his forerunner's talents, and was more at home in a gather- 
 ing of women than at the helm of public affairs. For twenty 
 years Brienne had aimed at becoming minister, and in the 
 Assembly of Notables had only withstood Calonne in order to 
 replace him. He was appointed Chief of the Council of Finance, 
 and it was understood that the new Comptroller-General, Ville- 
 deuil, would rank as his head clerk. 
 
 The financial crisis was daily becoming more acute, and on all 
 sides bankruptcies were declared. In order to supply the most 
 crying needs, Brienne submitted to the Parliament an Edict 
 creating a loan of 60,000,000 livres, and promising a reduction in 
 the expenses of the King's household of 40,000,000 livres instead of 
 the 20,000,000 that Calonne had pledged himself to obtain. Won 
 over by his assurances, the Parliament registered the loan. The 
 Notables, in the meanwhile, resumed the sessions that had been in- 
 terrupted by the change in the Ministry. A statement of the 
 condition of the finances, for which they had never ceased to 
 clamour, was at last surrendered to them. Although this state- 
 ment was neither complete nor accurate, it gave indications of 
 a deficit of 140,000,000 livres. The Archbishop-Minister availed 
 himself of this discovery to urge upon the Assembly the ne- 
 cessity of voting the territorial subsidy and the stamp-tax. For 
 this he was reproached with forgetting in the Ministry the
 
 The French Revolution, 167 
 
 doctrines he had professed in committee, and with preaching, like 
 Calonne, " taxation and submission." Not daring to assume the 
 responsibility of weighting the country with fresh charges, the 
 Notables refused to vote the taxes, and demanded a yearly state- 
 ment of the receipts and expenditure, and the appointment to the 
 Financial Council of capable men outside the ministerial circle to 
 keep watch over the money transactions. Some of the committees 
 demanded a revision of the civil and criminal laws, and the modifi- 
 cation of Edicts relative to the Protestants. A member, who had 
 played a brilliant part in the war of American Independence — by 
 name La Fayette — ventured to propose that a request should be made 
 to the King to convoke a National Assembly in five years' time, 
 i.e. in 1792. " What, sir," said the Comte d'Artois, "you ask for 
 " the convocation of the States-General ! " " Yes, !Monseigneur," re- 
 plied La Fayette, " and even more than that." 
 
 On the 25th of May, the Notables separated. As regards the 
 immediate results of their labour, they left things very much as 
 they found them. But their deliberations had, nevertheless, a 
 far-reaching effect. They completely changed the disposition ol 
 the public. Not that the mistrust of the Government was the 
 lessened. On the contrary, it had been fomented. The 
 people, seeing that the Ministry had paid no regard to the wishes 
 of the Notables, began to question the utility of the Provincial 
 Assemblies, which they had previously so much approved. They 
 feared that these local bodies would, in their turn, be resolved in- 
 to " blind or coerced agents of the will of the reigning power." 
 At the spectacle of the opposition and patriotism of the Notables, 
 France felt herself re-created, and it was not long before those 
 who considered the convocation of this Assembly to be only 
 the prelude of greater changes, had their presumptions fully 
 verified. 
 
 The Debates of the Notables were succeeded by those of the 
 Parliament. That body alone, by virtue of its legal character, 
 could give the force of the law to the projects of the Government. 
 One Edict instituting Provincial Assemblies, and another sup- 
 dressing statute-labour, were registered without opposition. After
 
 1 68 The Revolutionary Spirit precediiig 
 
 this the Parliament was called upon to pass judgment upon the 
 stamp Edict. Then the discussions began. Calonne was de- 
 nounced, and complaints made of the expenses and dissipations of 
 the Court. At last, after debates that resembled, it is said, those 
 of the English Parliament, the magistrates did as the Notables had 
 done — they demanded a statement of the financial condition of the 
 country. The King refused to grant one, and alleged that the | 
 holding of examinations of that nature was not a function of | 
 Parliaments. The magistrates reiterated their request ; the King | 
 persisted in his refusal and insisted upon an immediate registra- | 
 tion of the stamp-tax. After the King's first response, 25 voices 
 had been in favour of demanding the States-General, and 27 had 
 requested the simple withdrawal of the Edict, Upon this occasion | 
 G3 voices rejected the Edict and 60 voted for the convocation of | 
 the States. Upon this the Parliament drew up some Remon- I 
 strances, in which it entreated the King to withdraw the Edict, 
 and expressed a wish " to see the Nation assembled as a preamble 
 " to all fresh taxation." 
 
 The Parliament which, until then, had been justly blamed for its 
 indolence and servility, recovered in a moment its former popularity. 
 In order to modify some of its provisions, the King withdrew the 
 stamp Edict, and, without expressing himself upon the question of 
 the States-General, forwarded to the Parliament the scheme of 
 the territorial subsidies, and gave orders that it was to be registered 
 without delay. By a majority of 72 votes to 48, the Parliament 
 resolved to maintain the principles it had adopted, and a Decree • 
 was formulated declaring that the Nation alone had the right to 
 gi ant subsidies, when need of them had been clearly demonstrated 
 It further resolved to send a deputation to the Monai'ch to solicit 
 the convocation of the States-General. 
 
 It was the month of July, 1787, and the excitement in Paris 
 was universal. At the Palais Royal, in the cafes, everywhere 
 people spoke only of the grave events of the day. Everyone 
 expected a coup d'etat. In the provinces the agitation was just 
 as great ; all the Parliaments evinced their resolve to follow the 
 example of the Paris magistrates. The Court party, however, was
 
 The French Revohition. 169 
 
 determined to prevent the convocation of the States — understand- 
 ing full well that the effect of such a proceeding would be to undo 
 in an instant the centuries of continued labour that had been de- 
 voted to the extension and consolidation of the Royal Authority. 
 Self-deceived in regard to its own power, and ignorant of the 
 strength of public opinion, the Government decided to employ 
 arbitrary measures. The Parliament was commanded to attend a 
 " Bed of Justice " at Versailles. Immediately the magistrates 
 protested in a Decree, in which they maintained that " the con- 
 ** stitutional principle of the French Monarchy was that all taxes 
 "must be consented to by those who had to pay them." In adher- 
 ing to the taxes levied during the last few years, the magistrates 
 declared that they had consulted their zeal rather than their legal 
 powers, and that the excuse for their conduct lay in the fact that 
 they had been led astray by the misrepresentations of prevari- 
 cating ministers. On August 6th the stamp and territorial 
 subsidy Edicts were registered at Versailles. On the 7th, the 
 magistrates issued a Decree, by which they declared the registra- 
 tion to be null and void. An immense crowd in the interior and 
 vicinity of the Palais de Justice applauded the announcement of 
 the Decree. Thus was open war declared at last, not — as was 
 thought at Court — between the Ministry and the Parliament, but 
 between the Throne and the People. 
 
 It was expected that the Ministry would immediately quash the 
 Decrees of the Parliament and fling forth letires de cachet against 
 the magistrates. The men about the Court urged the employment 
 of severe measures, and the Baron de Besenval told the Queen 
 that, '•' It was high time for the King to show the Nation who 
 " was master. Unless he did so," the Baron affirmed, " he might 
 " be obliged to lay down his crown never to put it on again." The 
 Government was irresolute, and there was division in the Council. 
 Malesherbes, who had formed part of it since the withdrawal of 
 Calonne, objected to forcible measures, and voted for the Appeal 
 to the States-General. Whilst the Ministry hesitated, the excite- 
 ment of the people increased. In the midst of the agitation 
 the Government had the stamp and territorial subsidy Edicts
 
 170 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 made public, and unscrupulously declared that these new taxes 
 had been agreed to by the Notables. The Parliament protested 
 against the publication as it had protested against the registra- 
 tion, and in a Decree, dated August 13th, declared it null and void. 
 
 This time the Government resolved to act. In the night, an 
 officer of the Guards served each member of the Parliament with 
 an order to betake himself to Troves within twenty-four hours. 
 On the following day threatening placards were posted throughout 
 Paris and at Versailles. The King's two brothers had been in- 
 structed to register the Edicts at the Chambre des Com2:)tes and the 
 Cour des Aides. Both of these courts, however, followed the ex- 
 ample set by the Parliament, and passed resolutions qualifying 
 the registi'ation as illegal, and demanding the recall of the magis- 
 trates and the convocation of the States. Outside an anxious 
 crowd awaited the result of their deliberations. A rumour having 
 spread that there were some dissentients among the members of 
 the Cour des Aides, about sixty persons burst into the hall where 
 the session was being held, and asked to see the registers. "Have 
 "confidence in the Court," said one of the councilloi's to them. 
 " and respect your King." 
 
 The Cour des Monnaies and the Chdtelet intervened in their turn 
 and sent deputations, the one to the King, the other to the Keeper 
 of the Seals, to request the recall of the Parliament. In vain 
 did the minister have cried in the streets a regulation suppressing 
 a considerable number of offices in the households of the King and 
 Queen. He succeeded only in annoying the members of the Court 
 circle. The public, who looked upon the proclamation as a false- 
 hood made up to impose upon their credulity, would not be 
 conciliated. The populace trembled with excitement, and an " ir- 
 "ruption from the faubourgs" was prophesied. The Government 
 feared an uprising, and had already caused all the clubs, which it 
 looked upon as " the resorts of malcontents and grumblers," to be 
 shut up. Military precautions were now taken, and Paris was in- 
 undated with patrols. " A very imprudent move," wrote a con- 
 temporary, testifying " that harmony no longer reigns between 
 " the Monarch and his subjects."
 
 The French Revolution. 171 
 
 Yet in the presence of this tumult the only decisive step taken 
 by Louis XVI. was the yielding up of his authority into the hands 
 of Brienne. The popular indignation soon spread from the capital 
 to all corners of the kingdom. A month before, all the principal 
 Parliaments had passed resolutions demanding the recall of the 
 Paris magistrates, the bringing of Calonne to justice, and the 
 convocation of the States-General. 
 
 These requisitions, simultaneously launched in all parts of the 
 country, were so many sparks to inflame the minds of the 
 people. In order to put an end to the threatening "confedera- 
 "tion," some of the ministers proposed to suppress all the 
 Parliaments, to supplant them by Superior Councils, and to trans- 
 fer the registration of laws, either to the Council of State, or to 
 Provincial Assemblies presided over by men devoted to Court 
 interests. Among the ministers, who most vehemently virged re 
 pressive measures, was Lamoignon, Keeper of the Seals, who 
 divined the incapacity of Brienne and secretly aspired to play the 
 role of Chancellor Maupeou. But Brienne, preoccupied with the 
 events then taking place in Holland and apprehending a war with 
 England, refused to augment these home difficulties. Besides, the 
 thought of asserting his supremacy in the eyes of the people by 
 pacifying the Nation's anxieties flattered his vanity. He entered 
 into a treaty with the Parliament, whereby the latter consented 
 to extend for two years longer the second twentieth that was 
 to have expired in 1790, and the King agreed to withdraw his 
 Edicts. Such was the price paid by the Parliament for its 
 release from exile. On September 24th, the Government had a 
 Declaration cried in the streets that revoked the two much-dis- 
 puted Edicts, and in that act proclaimed its own shame. " What 
 " are we to think," the people said, " of a Government that demands 
 "an increase of over 100,000,000 livres in taxes, declares such in- 
 " crease indispensable, deals one authoritative blow after another in 
 " order to extort it, and, in less than six weeks, revokes all previous 
 "actions, foregoes the resources, and contents itself with a slight 
 " extension of a tax already established 1 " 
 
 The Purliameut, on its return to Paris, was received by the
 
 172 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 populace with every demonstration of delight. Yet its re-installa- 
 tion did not cause unqualified satisfaction. It had been hoped 
 that the prolongation of the crisis would have obliged tlie Govern- 
 ment to convoke the States-General. Some ardent spirits accused 
 the magisti'ates of being false to their principles, and characterised 
 their conduct as "cowardly." At bottom — in spite of the ap- 
 pearance of peace — the feeling of resentment was as strong as 
 ever, and outrageous placards, threatening the King and Qaeen, 
 were still posted. The Government too continued to take pre- 
 cautions. The numerous patrols that gave to Paris the aspect 
 of a position fortified against the enemy were withdrawn, but all 
 the officers of the Guturds were forbidden to quit the metropolis, 
 and the clubs remained closed. A Decree of the Parliament, 
 ordering an inquiry into Calonne's administration, was quashed. 
 Everything confirmed the belief that the reconciliation of the 
 Court and Parliament was only a " patching-up " — a fictitious 
 peace that must soon be followed by other conflicts. 
 
 By the month of November, all fears of a war with England sub- 
 sided. At the same time the financial condition of the country 
 was as serious as ever. The extension of the second twentieth 
 gave promise of resources, but only at a distant period. Tiie 
 Archbishop, not being able to resort to taxation, resolved to 
 try another loan. He conceived the idea of starting one of 
 420,000,000 livres to be consummated in five years by successive 
 share calls. By this means he assured himself of five years' respite. 
 '\\'ith the view of commending this gigantic loan to the public, 
 Brienne was obliged to promise to assemble the States-General at 
 the expiration of the stated period, reserving to himself the right 
 of not holding to his promise when the time came. As he in- 
 tended also to pass the law, so often clamoured for, according 
 civil rights to Protestants, he made up his mind to present both 
 Edicts in a Royal Session, in which, though not a "Bed of Justice," 
 he would make use of the Royal presence to compel the assent of 
 the Parliament. This scheme being decided upon, he endeavoured 
 by bribery and by all his powers of persuasion to create a favour- 
 able majority in the Parliament. What wonder that at this time
 
 The French Revolution. 173 
 
 Mirabeau said : " What we want is a Constitution ; France is ripe 
 ^^for Revolution." 
 
 On November 19th, at 9 o'clock in the morning, Louis XVI. 
 made his appearance quite unexpectedly in the midst of the 
 Parliament, which, as the vacation was but just finished, was 
 composed of comparatively few members. The preceding night 
 private notices had been addressed to all the magistrates of whose 
 suffrages the Ministry felt sure. The Keeper of the Seals read 
 aloud the Loan Edict, and the discussion was then opened. Several 
 magistrates spoke energetically against granting more than one 
 year's loan, and demanded an earlier convocation of the 
 States-General. " Why put it off till 1792 ] " cried one ; " are not 
 "the finances in a sufficiently disordered condition 1 The truth is, 
 "Sire, that your ministers wish to avoid the convocation of the 
 " States-General, because they stand in fear of surveillance. But 
 " their hope is vain. Two years hence, the necessities of the State 
 " will force you to convoke them." For a moment Louis XVI. was 
 moved. He would perhaps have yielded to such forcible repre- 
 sentations if he had not been under the influence of his ministers. 
 The debate was still progressing when the Keeper of the Seals 
 drew near to the Monarch and spoke to him in lowered tones. 
 Then, turning towards the magistrates, he declared the Decrees 
 registered after the customary formula of " Beds of Justice." A 
 prolonged murmur issued from the Assembly at this sudden trans- 
 formation of a simple Eoyal Session, with its privilege of free 
 discussion, into a " Bed of Justice." The Due d'Orleans, who was 
 present, declared that the registration appeared to him to be 
 illegal. Louis XVI., visibly embarrassed, hurried on the reading 
 of the Decree relating to the Protestants. After that he rose and 
 retired, having been nine hours in session. 
 
 Immediately after the departure of the Monarch, the Parliament 
 signified by a Decree that it had not been concerned in the 
 registration of the Edict. The following day, a deputation was 
 commanded to bring the registers to Versailles, in order that the 
 King might himself see this Decree erased, and the Due d'Orleans 
 and two magistrates were sent into exile. These arbitrary pro-
 
 174 ^^^"^ Revolntionafy Spit it preceding 
 
 ceedings following hard upon the forced and almost fraudulent 
 registrations, greatly incensed the Parliament, and its resentment 
 vas fully shared by the public. 
 
 Two days after the Royal Session, the Parliament went in grand 
 deputation to demand of Louis XVI. complete liberty for its 
 members and the recall of the Due d'Orleans. In some " Suppli- 
 " cations," presented in regard to this subject, the magistrates, in 
 the name of the law, declared that no citizen could be condemned 
 without being heard, and thus, in the Due d'Orleans' case, they 
 pleaded that of all the French. The Monarch replied that they 
 ought not to claim from his justice that which they should only 
 expect of his goodwill. This contemptible response only aggravated 
 the irritation of the magistrates, who retaliated in a Decree, in 
 which they signified that no appeal to the King's goodwill was in 
 question, for by a step so opposed to princii^les of public order, 
 they would become the accomplices of despotism. They decided 
 too that Remonstrances should be addressed to the King in regard 
 to the use of lettres de cachet. This last decision nearly caused 
 the storm to burst. Louis complained that he was tired of these 
 agitations and wished to have done with them. It was resolved 
 to make a raid on the Parliament, to put the more recalcitrant 
 members in prison, and to banish others to Tours or Poitiers. 
 The French guards received the order to hold themselves in 
 readiness to march, and lettres de cachet were about to be issued, 
 when, at the last moment, Brienne hesitated. After all, the 
 Government contented itself with summoning the Parliament to 
 Versailles, and the King removed the minute of the Decree from 
 the registers. " I forbid you," he said, " to carry out this Decree 
 " or to make any similar ones in the future." 
 
 Whilst these conflicts were taking place, the provincial Parlia- 
 ments, bolder or more faithful to their principles than the Parlia- 
 ment of Paris, refused to register the prorogation of the second 
 twentieth, to which the latter had consented, and persisted in 
 demanding the convocation of the States-General as a preamble to 
 all fresh taxation. Many opposed the establishment of Pro- 
 vincial Assemblies, and desired, in their place, the revival of
 
 The French Revolution. 175 
 
 the old States-Provincial, which not only possessed the power of 
 voting taxes, but gave surer guarantees to the country than 
 the new Assemblies were likely to do. From divers parts of the 
 kingdom arrived Remonstrances in which the Parliaments pro- 
 tested, in the name of outraged justice, against the exile of the 
 Due d'Orleans and the two magistrates. The Keeper of the Seals, 
 who received all these communications, sent them back, without 
 reading them, and instructed the commanding-officers of the 
 different provinces to enforce the registration of the disputed 
 Edicts and threaten the rebel magistrates with punishment. These 
 ill-advised ministers, who, whilst the tide of Revolution was ris- 
 ing on all sides, audaciously chose the path of violence, were, at 
 heart, full of uncertainty and weakness. As if to accentuate the 
 feebleness of the Government, Brienne included the Queen in all 
 committees and gave her a preponderating voice in every 
 decision. This action discredited the Ministry and intensified the 
 people's hatred of Marie-Antoinette. 
 
 The year 1788 opened in the midst of these events. The 
 crisis was appalling and the alarm general. The price of the 
 Royal Bonds went down daily, and the payment of annuities fell 
 off. In spite of all statements to the contrary, made by ministerial 
 agents, the loan was not covered. The feeling against the Court 
 was widespread — it was both hated and despised. The idea of the 
 prompt convocation of the States General gained ground, and 
 bills posted in various parts of Paris threatened a general revolt, 
 if they were not summoned with the least possible delay. Other 
 placards bore the words : " Kings have received their power from 
 "the people only that they may protect the laws; they have no 
 "authority to go beyond them." The spirit of I'evolt gained even 
 the Court, and young nobles held the '* most seditious " conversa- 
 tions in the King's ante-chamber. It was felt that the old regime 
 was foundering, and a new one starting into existence. In January, 
 1788, the Parliament registered the Edict that restored to the Pro- 
 testants their civil status. Granted in the midst of political reforms, 
 this precious victory of the spirit of Tolerance, for which Philosophy 
 had laboured throughout half a century, passed almost unperceived.
 
 f 
 
 r 76 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 The Parliament had presented to the King Remonstrances 
 — previously resolved upon — in which they formally demanded 
 the abolition of lettres de cachet. " Sire," so ran these Remon- 
 strances, " Liberty is not a privilege, it is a right ; and the duty of 
 •' all Governments is to respect that right." 
 
 Tn the months of February and March, the one subject of con- 
 versation in the cafes and in all public places, was the coming 
 coup d'etat. ' All the ministers were at last agreed upon the neces- 
 sity of overthrowing the magistracy. They did not see that be- 
 hind the magistracy an oppressed Nation trembled. Yet, though 
 the public mind was so greatly stirred, no one was very much 
 alarmed. The people felt that they were on the eve of a great 
 National Revolution, and were persuaded that, in spite of all its 
 subterfuges, the Government would, in the end, be constrained to 
 convoke the States-General, so that, even if the Parliaments 
 were overturned, the States would be able " to raise a solid bari'ier 
 "between the pretensions of the throne and the rights of the people." 
 Mirabeau, writing to Montmorin, deplored "this terrible malady 
 " of ministers of never being able to make up their minds to grant 
 " to-day what would be infallibly snatched from them to-morrow." 
 Though the subject of so many disturbances and alarms, the 
 Parliament, far from giving way, displayed every day more firm- 
 ness. To the Remonstrances which it presented to the King on the 
 subject of the forced registration of the loan of 420,000,000 livres, 
 Louis XVI. replied that, having assisted at the deliberations, it 
 was not incumbent on him to take into account the actual number 
 of suffrages. " If a majority in my courts could overrule my 
 " will," he said, " the Monarchy would be only an aristocracy of 
 *' magistrates." The Parliament defended itself with wisdom and 
 dignity, " Wliat a moment your ministers have chosen to bring 
 " such an accusation against us ! The one in which the Parliament, 
 " enlightened by facts and retracing its former steps, is proving that 
 " it is more attached to the rights of the Nation than to its own in- 
 " terests, the moment in which, suddenly informed of the state of 
 " the finances, it sees only one refuge for the Nation — the Nation it- 
 "self, and therefore demands the States-General. Kings are but
 
 The French Revolution. 177 
 
 *^ men and fallible ; and it is in order that the Nation shall not be 
 *• abandoned to the baleful effects of sudden caprices, that the Con- 
 " stitution requires in the matter of laws the verification of the 
 "courts, and in the matter of subsidies, the previous consent of the 
 " States-General. The right of freely granting subsidies does not 
 "any more make of the States-General an aristocracy of citizens 
 " than the right of verification makes of the Parliaments an aris- 
 "tocracy of magistrates." 
 
 The agitated state of Paris and the provinces only served 
 to make the approach of some great stroke of policy more and 
 more believed in. Towards the end of April, it was known that 
 all the governors, commanding-officers, and intendantsof provinces 
 had received orders to report themselves at their posts. Regi- 
 ments were mustered in all parts of the country, and the friends 
 of authority were uplifted with a sense of triumph. Councillors 
 of State, bearing ministerial instructions, started for all the large 
 towns, and twenty journeymen printers, summoned to Versailles, 
 worked night and day in the greatest secrecy, guarded by soldiers. 
 The King said aloud that he was tired of being in bourgeois 
 tutelage and meant to free himself from it. On May 3rd, he held 
 a review of all the troops assembled in Paris. This was looked 
 upon as another sign of the approaching stroke. 
 
 The sfime day, the Parliament passed a " fulminating " re- 
 solution, recounting the fundamental principles of the monarchial 
 constitution, and declaring that, in case the employment of force 
 should render it impossible for it to maintain those principles, it 
 delegated the sacred trust to the King, the States-General, and 
 every class — united or separate — that went to make up the 
 Nation. 
 
 On the morning of May 5th, the whole Palais de Justice was in 
 an uproar. The magistrates had just learnt that, on the preceding 
 night, an attempt had been made to carry off two of their colleagues. 
 Both of these had fled for refuge to the Palais. The Parliament 
 immediately sent off deputies to carry a complaint to the King, and 
 remained in session, during the whole day, awaiting their return. 
 Night came and nothing was seen of the deputies. Suddenly they
 
 lyS The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 were informed that detachments of Swiss and French guards 
 had invested the Palais. A captain of the guards presented him- 
 self to arrest the two members. Not knowing them, he asked 
 to have them pointed out : " We are all Messieurs d'Espremenil 
 and Goislard ! " replied the Assembly with one voice. The 
 officer retired. At three o'clock in the morning, the deputies 
 returned and announced that the Monarch had refused to receive 
 them. This intelligence increased the anxiety. At last the 
 officer re-appeared, provided with more urgent orders. The two 
 then gave themselves up in the midst of general excitement, and 
 the Parliament separated after a session of over 30 hours, stoutlj' 
 protesting against the seizure of the two members, " violently torn 
 " from the sanctuary of the laws," 
 
 On the 8th of May, the magistrates were summoned to a " Bed 
 " of Justice" at Versailles. There, Louis XVI. announced to them 
 his intention of restoring public tranquillity by converting that 
 moment of crisis into a salutary epoch for France. Thereupon 
 the Keeper of the Seals read aloud six Edicts that the King was 
 about to promulgate. The first instituted, under the title of 
 " Grand Bailiwicks," new courts of justice to deal with all minor 
 civil and criminal affairs, and left to the Parliaments only the cogniz- 
 ance of civil actions having regard to sums over 20,000 livres, and 
 criminal cases concerning the clergy and nobles alone. A second 
 Edict — a sequel of the first — reduced the number of the magis- 
 trates of the different Parliaments, and retained of the Paris 
 Parliament only the Grand Chamber and the Chamber of Enquiries 
 (chambre des enquetes). The third Edict, in which the King tried 
 to cloak his attacks on the magistracy by certain reforms, sup- 
 pressed all extraordinary tribunals : another abolished the 
 selleite'^ and preliminary question.^ By the ^^/i(A and most im- 
 portant of all, a single body was appointed to verify and register all 
 laws of the kingdom. This body — called the Plenary Court — was 
 to be composed of the Chancellor, of the Keeper of the Seals, of 
 the Grand Chamber of the Paris Parliament (which included the 
 
 1 Two antiquated methods of examining accused parties in Courts of 
 Law. (Translator's Note.)
 
 The French Revolution. 179 
 
 priiic.6 and peers), of the great officers of the Crown, the various 
 dignitaries of the Church and Army, and a certain number of 
 members chosen by the Council of State and the Parliaments of 
 the provinces. The privilege of remonstrance was attributed to 
 it, but the King reserved the right of dictating his orders in 
 *' Beds of Justice." The Monarch also retained the privilege of 
 creating loans by his own authority without submitting them to 
 any process of verification. " In the event," he was made to say, 
 " of our being obliged to levy fresh taxes before the assembling 
 " of the States-General, the registry of the said taxes by our Plenary 
 " Court will have only a provisional effect until the assembling of 
 *' the said States, which we shall convoke, in order that these regis- 
 " trations may, upon their deliberations, be definitely decreed by 
 '* us." Finally, a sixth Edict laid all the Parliaments under an 
 inhibition of an indefinite nature, which forbade them, until fur- 
 ther orders, to assemble for the transaction of any business, public 
 or private. 
 
 Among all these reckless changes there was, at least, one wise 
 alteration, that of entrusting a single court with the registration 
 of the laws, and of separating it from the courts of justice. But, 
 on account of its composition and limited powers, this court had, 
 in fact, neither authox-ity nor independence. France saw this 
 clearly enough. She saw also that these Edicts of May 8th had 
 but one object, that of leaving her disarmed against the onsets of 
 absolute authority. The sole allusion made in these Edicts to the 
 States-General betrayed the intention of the Ministry to evade its 
 promises or to reduce that Assembly to a mere sham. The Govern- 
 ment must have been blind indeed not to see that these new laws 
 would create a general feeling of resistance. The opposition began 
 at the " Bed of Justice " when the President protested against the 
 despotic authority of the Crown, which, he said, the French Nation 
 would never acknowledge. On coming away from the " Bed of 
 "Justice," the membei's of the Grand Chamber wrote to the King 
 to decline the functions conferred upon them by the Edicts. Con- 
 voked upon the following day for the first session of the Plenary 
 Court, they renewed their protestations. At this first session,
 
 1 80 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 Louis XVI. asserted that he should persist in having his own way, 
 but he did not dare to convoke the Grand Chamber a second time. 
 The same day, all the other members of the Parliament returned 
 to Paris and at once assembled to frame an Act of protestation. 
 Finding the Palais de Justice occupied by soldiers, they retired to 
 the houses of the senior members of the various Chambers, and 
 each magistrate wrote individually to the Prime Minister, that he 
 "ought not to and could not" give his adhesion to the Edicts that 
 had just been promulgated. 
 
 The provincial Parliaments did not wait to have the laws pre- 
 sented to them, before they pronounced against them. On May 
 6th, 86 members of the Rouen Parliament pledged themselves by 
 an oath not to lend themselves directly or indirectly to the 
 execution of any Edicts or Declarations that attacked the sacred 
 'principle of free registration. The Parliament of Nancy passed a 
 similar resolution. The protests that followed the promulgation 
 of the Edicts were even more energetic. The Parliament of 
 Grenoble rejected the new laws in the name of the rights of the 
 Nation that were no less sacred than those of the Sovereign. In 
 Brittany, the "States" joined their expostulations to those of the 
 Renues Parliament, and the nobility of Dauphine passed a resolu- 
 tion by which they declared that if the Crown did not renounce 
 its illegal proceedings, the province would revert to its right of 
 self-government, and the son of the Sovereign cease to bear the 
 title of Dauphin. At Toulouse, the Parliament had the temerity 
 to make the following threatening declaration : " The people 
 " having no longer any barrier between them and the King, nothing 
 " is left them hut the consciousness of their strength." 
 
 In Paris the first feeling was one of despondency and conster- 
 nation. Certain friends of liberty, indeed, were astonished to see 
 the people so torpid. La Fayette wrote to Washington : "Dying 
 " for liberty is not the custom on this side of the Atlantic." Soon, 
 however, seditious remarks, threatening placards, and tumultuous 
 gatherings showed that the people were warming up. The members 
 of the legal profession solemnly burned a Decree of Council that 
 had quashed the Parliamentary Resolution of May 3rdj and the
 
 The French Revolution. i8i 
 
 new Edicts having deprived the Ckdtelet of its jurisdiction, that 
 court refused to register them, but was at last constrained to do 
 80 at the point of the bayonet. Already the Chamhre des Comptes 
 aad Cour des Aides had been suspended for rebelling against the 
 Edicts. Ou the walls of the Palais, which had been transformed into 
 barracks, placards were posted bearing the words : " Palais to 
 "sell ! Ministers to hang! A Crown to be given away !" Brochures 
 poured forth on every side. At the Come'die Frangaise the 
 parterre had such a rage for political allusions, that it was im- 
 possible to decide upon a piece. Even at Court there was resistance. 
 A letter of protest, signed by six peers of the realm, was presented 
 to the Monarch. Not only was the abolition of the Parliaments 
 followed by the interruption of the course of justice in Paris 
 and the provinces, but the collection of taxes was everywhere 
 stopped. The Royal Bonds were no longer saleable, and private 
 individuals could not fulfil their engagements. Civil life seemed 
 to be suspended. 
 
 The minister, however, did not draw back, but availed himself 
 of every authoritative and intimidating measure that could be 
 suggested to him. The new Edicts were cried aloud in the streets, 
 and it was affirmed in the newspapers that they had the approba- 
 tion of the country. The pi*otests of the Parliament were quashed 
 by a Decree of Council that was drawn up in the form of a mani- 
 festo and placarded throughout France. In this Decree the 
 magistrates' resistance was stigmatised as an infringement of the 
 laws. The public was inundated by an infinity of brochures that 
 emanated from the office of the Keeper of the Seals. The police 
 of the capital were all kept on duty, and frequent arrests were 
 made. Lettres de cachet were issued against the provincial Parlia- 
 ments, and troops mustered in all the towns where they assembled. 
 Collisions took place and blood was spilt. Twelve gentlemen of 
 Brittany, who came to Versailles to prefer some requests to the 
 King, were thrown into the Bastille. But these measures of 
 excessive severity only stirred up renewed resistance. At Pau the 
 excited populace constrained the magistrates to resume their seats. 
 At Greuoble a number of citizens of the three orders met in Uie
 
 1 82 T^he Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 Town Hall and decided that the States of Dauphin^, which had 
 been suppressed by the Crown for a century and a half, should 
 spontaneously reconstitute themselves. On all sides the people 
 were arming. Won over in their turn by the general excitement, 
 defections took place among the troops. Private soldiers threw 
 down their arms and officers sent in their resignations. In Paris 
 still more serious disturbances were feared. Popular movements 
 took place, not only in the suburbs, but in the heart of the city, 
 and leaflets were distributed which bore the words : "Awake ! 
 " Frenchmen : it has come, the epoch of this Revolution that will 
 "determine the regrets or the admiration of posterity, according to 
 " whether we leave our sons slavery or liberty ! " The placards, 
 which increased in numbers every day, became every day more 
 threatening. One placed on the front of the Queen's box at the 
 Italian Opera was worded : " Tremble, tyrants ; your reign is 
 ending." The smallest incident sufficed to provoke an explosion. 
 
 Brienne had flattered himself that, at least, the Episcopate 
 would support him with its assent and aid him with subsidies. 
 On the very day of the "Bed of Justice," he convoked the clergy 
 to a General Assembly and asked them for 8,000,000 livres. The 
 bishops accorded him only a "free gift" payable in two years of 
 1,800,000 ^I'vres. Far from being disposed to make the sacrifices 
 that he expected of them, they complained that his fiscal agents 
 wished to levy the twentieth taxes on ecclesiastical posses- 
 sions, and Louis XVI. was obliged to dispel their alarms by a 
 Decree of Council that certified that the clergy were not subject 
 to taxation. 
 
 But the bishops, in spite of the King's word, mistrusted the 
 enterprises of an uncontrolled power and protested against the 
 destruction of the Parliaments and the establishment of the 
 Plenary Court. They declared, as emphatically as the sincerest 
 lovers of liberty might have done, that "the people of France were 
 " not taxable at will," and they demanded the convocation, with the 
 least possible delay, of the States-General. Ko less blind than the 
 Court had been, the clergy, thinking to safeguard their own 
 interests, actually clamoured for the Revolution.
 
 The French Revolution. 183 
 
 The Archbishop-Minister was overwhelmed by these remon- 
 strances. He had exhausted all rigorous measures, and had not 
 shrunk from the spilling of blood. Deserted by the clergy, dis- 
 obeyed by the army, attacked by the Parliaments, and all the 
 sovereign courts, and hated by the Nation, he understood at last, 
 well enough, that he must yield. But he did not, at once, lay 
 down his arms, hoping that some unforeseen event might yet save 
 him. On July 5th he published a Decree of Council, that invited 
 all Provincial Assemblies, Municipalities, Academies, and private 
 individuals to communicate to the minister all the information 
 they could discover in regard to the convocation, composition, and 
 holding of States-Generals. Among certain sections of the public 
 this invitation was looked upon as a sop to Cerberus ; especially 
 as no date was fixed for the assembling of the States. By turning 
 people's minds to this subject, Brienne thought, no doubt, that 
 he could create a diversion. But he succeeded only in plunging 
 the country into a fresh state of ferment. In the meantime, on 
 the 8th of August, the King, by Decree of Council, suspended the 
 Plenary Court and convoked the States-General for May 1st, 1789. 
 
 The publication of this Decree filled the public mind with the 
 most sanguine expectations. Nevertheless, no gratitude was felt 
 towards the Government for the concession that only necessity or 
 fear had succeeded in wringing from it. Yet, great as was the 
 hatred already felt for him, Brienne was about to increase it. 
 Deprived of the subsidies he had expected from the clergy, and 
 nearly at the end of his resources, he drew upon the poor 
 relief funds, and unscrupulously seized money intended for the 
 hospitals. But, even these expedients failed him at last, and 
 he was obliged to declare bankruptcy. On August 16th be 
 issued a Decree of Council, by the terms of which the State pay- 
 ments were to be suspended for six weeks and were thereafter 
 until December 30th, 1789, to be effected partly in specie and 
 partly in paper. The maledictions of the public came down upon 
 him "like a deluge." A portion of the Court circle abandoned 
 him, and the Queen, with many tears, agreed to the necessity of 
 dismissing her favourite,
 
 1 84 The Revolutionary Spirit preceding 
 
 On the 25th of August, Brienne at last tendered his resignation. 
 At the news of it Paris underwent a sudden transition from a state 
 of despair and rage to one of the intoxication of joy. The Arch- 
 bishop was burned in effigy in the PloAe Dauphine, and the mob 
 did not wait till Lamoignon, the Keeper of the Seals, had quitted 
 the Ministry to inflict the same mark of infamy on him. 
 
 On the morrow of the departure of Brienne, Necker re-entered 
 the Council, and at once purses that had been shut to the Arch- 
 bishop were opened for the man of business, who generously gave 
 his own fortune as a guarantee for the advances made to the 
 State. One of Necker's earliest acts was to revoke the Decree of 
 bankruptcy. Without taking any extraordinary measures, but 
 simply by the effect of the confidence he inspired, he found 
 means to provide for the more urgent necessities of the Treasury, 
 Understanding what France expected of him, he recalled all the 
 exiles, repealed the six Edicts promulgated on May 8th, and by a 
 Declaration, dated September 23rd, restored to their seats the 
 Parliaments and all the sovereign courts. The following day the 
 members of the Paris Parliament presented themselves at the 
 Palais to resume their interrupted sittings, and had great diffi- 
 culty in squeezing their way in through the " prodigious multi- 
 "tude" of men of all degrees, who came to salute and applaud 
 them. At their first sitting, they proposed to bring an accusation 
 against the Keeper of the Seals and the Prime Minister and de- 
 manded that the responsibility of ministers should thenceforward 
 be an admitted principle of government. In the provinces, 
 the return of the Parliaments was an occasion for still more 
 striking demonstrations than those that had taken place in Paris. 
 In the Declaration of September 23rd, the King not only rein- 
 stalled the sovereign courts, but advanced the date of the 
 assembling of the States-General, fixing it for January 1st, 1789. 
 The Declaration was registered by the Parliament on September 
 23rd, and cried in the streets of Paris on the 26th. This time 
 the King's promise was believed, for the people had, as guarantee, 
 the word of an honest man,
 
 The French Revolution. 185 
 
 Thenceforward the drawing up of cahiers, the election of 
 deputies, and discussions as to the best modes of representation, 
 became the paramount interests of the country. During this 
 period of intense anxiety Necker, by his wise financial administra- 
 tion, enabled France to live, and that acliievement may be 
 counted the chief glory of his second administration. 
 
 In the Declaration of September 23rd, Royalty avowed itself 
 vanquished in its last combat. Condemned since the coup d'etat 
 of 1771, the Monarchy was then sentenced with death. This 
 Declaration, which convoked the States-General and frustrated 
 the attempts of May 8th, dealt a final blow at the old rdgime, and 
 ushered in the Revolution ; the Revolution that Louis XIV. pre- 
 pared by his intolerance, Louis XV. fomented by the disorders 
 and degradations of his reign, and Louis XVI. consummated by 
 his weakness ; the Revolution — born on the domain of Religion 
 and transferred to that of Politics — that had, during a century or 
 more, been the secret inspiration of the Philosophical Teachings. 
 Upon several occasions — in 1754, 1757, and 1771 — it had failed to 
 break out, but it presented itself at last, dominant and irresistible, 
 at the door opened to it by a self-dishonouring Power. The 
 product of the thoughts and sufferings of several generations, the 
 cahiers testified how — according to the words of Mirabeau — 
 France was ripe for Revolution. They revealed, too, the profound 
 abyss that yawned between the Nation and the Government that 
 pretended to rule over it. 
 
 Some slight attempts were subsequently made to throw ob- 
 stacles in the path of this victorious Revolution, but they were 
 not put forth by the powerless and all but inanimate Roj-al 
 Family. They originated entirely with the privileged classes, 
 who sheltered themselves behind the Reigning House, as during 
 long ages they had lived upon its life. These classes saw, with 
 dismay, that they also were lost, and that a whole order of things 
 that had nothing in common with the past was advancing 
 swiftly. For seeming to support their cause, the Parliament sud- 
 denly lost its popularity. The Nation ungratefully forgot that it
 
 1 86 The Revolutionary Spirit. 
 
 was the Parliament that had demanded the States-General, and, 
 in spite of errors and failings, the Parliament that had been dur- 
 ing the entire century the buckler of France against the 
 aggressive despotism of Church and King. The States-General left 
 it no part to play. By the simple fact of their convocation, 
 it was overthrown as a political institution, and, in its fall, it 
 dragged down the ancient magistracy. 
 
 The Revolution replied to the last feeble adversaries confront- 
 ing it by the mouthpiece of thousands of writers, who were the 
 heralds of the new regime, and whose brochures succeeded each 
 other with such rapidity that they became, in a few months, as 
 numerous as those that the Bull Unigenitus had called forth. "You 
 *' are 200,000," cried the people on all sides to the privileged classes, 
 " and we are 25,000,000. And you ask us what the French Nation 
 " is without you ! Look at our fields, our workshops, our counting- 
 " houses, our ports, our fleets, our armies, our tribunals, our 
 " academies, and tell us whether, without you, the people of France 
 " are of any account ! " The voice of Sifeyes, who proclaimed that 
 the third estate had been nothing in political life, while it ought to 
 be everything, was the clarion call, at sound of which all that 
 remained of the France of the past gave way. 
 
 Thenceforward, from behind the crumbling ruins of the Church, 
 the wreck of the Throne, the battered walls of the Parliament, 
 and the debris of Privilege, shone forth in full effulgence the light 
 of the Nation, — the Light, that had been looked for since the 
 morrow of the death of Louis XIV., but which, until this crisis, 
 had been shadowed and obscured. 
 
 THK END. 
 
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