demonstrated by the lettres de cachet was to put an end to "abuses," by found in the Bastille. which they meant the inequality of But moral corruption and impiety taxation and the oppressive feudal were rank amongst the highest classes, dues. The disorder of the finances imwhose hostility to Christianity was no peratively called for a remedy which doubt largely due to the writers of the should guarantee the future; and such "Encyclopédie" and their allies. But a remedy could plainly be alone this hostility had also its aristocratic attained by a fair taxation of the priv side as a sign of culture and of social ileged classes. Those classes themdistinction from the vulgar, for whom selves denounced abuses, though as a religion was good and useful. Thus rule each one demanded the abolition the Duc de Beaumont said of himself: 1 of those by which he did not benefit, "I attend Christian worship on account and was extremely tenacious with reof my belief in its political utility." spect to those which were of advantage The grandfather of the now president to him. Thus though the privileged of the French Republic is declared to orders had much jealousy amongst have had his anti-aristocratic feelings themselves - jealousy on the part of first roused by military ridicule directed the provincial nobility against that of against his piété de bourgeois. Never- the court, and jealousies of cassock, theless such sentiments were far from sword, and gown. there was neveruniversal; while their evil effects were theless a general readiness to coalesce mitigated by a widely diffused interest against any assault from citizens who in social progress and an increasing were unprivileged. Still liberal aspirapassion for scientific knowledge. The tions were very widely diffused, and chemist Fourcroy had twice to seek a the friends of progress were full of larger theatre, so great was the crowd hope on the advent of a young king of gentlemen and elegant women who known to be good and well disposed; attended his lectures. Antoine Petit's so that his accession was celebrated far course of anatomy was so popular that and wide with transports of emotion. even the bases of the windows were The first acts of the young sovereign used as seats. Geology and zoology encouraged these hopes. The king were taught by Buffon, electricity by dispensed with his right of "joyous Noller, astronomy by Lalande, and the accession," which meant an economy doctrines taught were discussed round of forty thousand livres, while the many an elegant and fashionable sup- queen renounced her right to "the per table. Deparcieux was invited royal girdle," - acts which were foleach year to the Château of Brienne, where he found a collection of natural history and physical instruments for his use during the course of lectures The king further delighted the given by him to the ladies who passed nation by dismissing the despotic the summer with the archbishop. The chancellor Maupeon (when Paris was names, too, of Coulomb, Malus, Lavoi- spontaneously illuminated and the minsier, Berthollet, Guyton de Morveau, Daubenton, Bichat, and Lamarck must not be omitted, nor those of Antoine de Jussieu and Romé de Lisle. lowed by the writing by an unknown hand of the word resurrexit on the pedestal of Henry IV.'s statue.3 ister burnt in effigy), and summoning the celebrated Turgot. Turgot was universally esteemed as an honest man, and had been adored in Limousin, where he had served as royal intendant. His first act was to do away with provincial corn-taxes and establish free trade in grain throughout the interior of France; his next was to abolish the system of forced labor known as cor 3 Ibid., p. 317. vées. He was nevertheless a strong preliminary measures were necessary. advocate for absolute power, and what One was the promotion to the magishe desired was "a patriot king." He tracy of many men belonging to the joined Maupeon and various bishops in tiers état; the other was reform in urging the king not to restore the Par- the army. Much improvement in the lements, and he was also strongly op- treatment of the "rank and file," espeposed to any elective assemblies. He cially as regards their nourishment, wished to establish a universal sys- was needed; an improvement which tem, a hierarchy, of municipalities (the would have secured its discipline and members of which should be nominated fidelity under all circumstances. But by the king), with a grand national another reform was no less needful, municipality in the place of the States- and this was the throwing open of all General. To any convocation of the commands to competent men who did latter he was strongly opposed, as tend- not belong to the nobility. ing to deprive the king of his absolute legislative power. His object was that Louis should reform abuses and reorganize the nation by his own spontaneous acts. It was in the king's full power so to do, and he was encouraged in the path he should have pursued by the words of that great empress and queen whose daughter he had espoused. On May 30, 1774, Marie Thérèse wrote to Marie Antoinette: "France has immense resources; there are also enormous abuses, but these latter are themselves a resource, since by their abolition the king will obtain the benediction of his people. The prospect is indeed fair and noble." There was yet time. Thirteen years later nearly the same words were repeated to the Assembly of the Notables by the king's minister Calonne. But it was then too late. Indeed, as we have already observed, Louis XVI. had the opportunity, had he also possessed the requisite intelligence and firmness of will, to acquire more power than had been possessed even by Louis XIV., and to become a sort of legitimate and peaceful Napoleon; yet with a far more stable authority, since the traditional loyalty to, and reverence for, its kings had not then been weakened in the French nation, and indeed amounted to a passion which it needed but a judicious course of conduct to intensify. To gain that absolute power which Louis XVI. might have secured, two 1 Correspondence, published by MM. d'Arneth We have no right to expect that Louis should not have been a man of his own times. Yet a French monarch might have been more, for Mirabeau was much more than this; and, as we have seen, Marie Thérèse understood the opportunity. The king, however, had no clear mental grasp of the situation; he was indolent and weak, and so infirm of purpose that Monsieur (afterwards Louis XVIII.), declared it to be as difficult to make him adhere to a resolution, as to hold together billiard balls which have been dipped in oil. Moreover, the king, while strongly impressed with his rights as an absolute monarch-rights he had no disposition to surrender-had, as was natural, great sympathy with the class to which all his intimate friends belonged. He doubtless shared in that mode of regarding "privileges" which was common to the society of which he was the head and summit. Moreover, the very scrupulousness of his character helped to disable him from acting the great part which was open to him. He was averse to any interference with property; and the feudal rights and dues of the nobles were in his eyes, as in the eyes of almost all the higher classes, only one form of property. Thus it was, unhappily for the king and far more unhappily for France, that this great chance of a peaceful transformation of the ancien régime was finally lost. Turgot was far from being allowed to arrange matters in his own way. and Geffroy, vol iL, p. 155, quoted by Cherest, vol. Unfortunately the king had called to his aid the elderly and frivolous Count i. p. 4. de Maurepas a man whose sympa- the women of the court, and all the thies were entirely with the abuses and religious world." corruptions of the old system. Thus, in spite of Turgot, the Parlements were restored. Louis XVI. caused letters to be written to all the exiled magistrates, ordering them to appear in their places at the Parlement on November 12, 1774. There and then the king held a "bed of justice," whereby he restored the old state of things and undid the work done by Louis XV. and his chancellor Maupeon. What Turgot had foreseen soon happened. The restored Parlement refused to register the king's beneficent edicts. It openly declared itself in opposition to Turgot, and sent a deputation to ask the king to retract his decrees,1 declaring that "the occupation of the nobility is to defend the country against its enemies, that of the clergy is to edify and instruct the people, while the duty of the rest of the nation (incapable of performing such lofty services) is to pay taxes, promote industry, and carry on manual labor." It seems to have been after these representations that Louis XVI. said: "I see very well that there is no one but Turgot and I who really care for the people." The queen must have felt the influence of such hostility among her entourage; but, as our readers will remember, it was a personal feeling of her own which led her to a fatal act. Turgot caused the recall from London of the Count de Guines, who was one of her favorites, and she determined to be revenged on him. She obtained for De Guines the title of Duke ; and though she could not, as she wished,2 consign Turgot to the Bastille, she secured his dismissal, on May 12. Then, after a brief interval, came the first ministry of Necker, followed by that war with England for sustaining the Revolution in America, to which so terrible a Nemesis succeeded. But after the fall of Necker, five years later, a period of frank and determined reaction commenced, towards the end of which the first movements of revolt were set going by the greed and ambition of the privileged orders. The reaction began under Maurepas and Joly de Fleury. Then, instead of insuring the fidelity of the army by popularizing it, a regulation was made (in 1781) to the effect that any one seeking to become an officer must produce a formal For a time the king persevered, and proof of four degrees of nobility, withon March 12, 1776, held a "bed of jus-out counting the applicant's own. tice " and forced the Parlement to There was to be but one exception -in register; to the delight of the masses, favor of sons of Knights of St. Louis. who were transported with joy. But Thus a special section of the privileged very few, save the lower classes, sup-orders secured a yet further increase in ported the minister. He was criticised their privileges, and this but eight and ridiculed in the salons. Of all this years before the assembling of the he took small heed, relying too much States-General, which was the beginon reasoning and frigid demonstration, and not taking sufficient account of the far more influential action of sentiment and prejudice. He was neither considerate nor conciliating, and did not try to manage even the king himself. Gustavus III. wrote of him two days after the "bed of justice :" "M. Turgot has opposed to him a most formidable league, consisting of all the great personages of the kingdom, all the Parlements, all the financiers, all 66 1 Rocquain, p. 345. ning of the end! When Louis XV. 8 1781 excited among the less ancient | there was much disapprobation of the nobility and the members of the Third fêtes announced to take place on JanuEstate was profound, while it did not ary 21, and a placard was discovered secure the fidelity of the officers to the king's government. posted up, on which it was written that on that day the king and queen would be escorted to the Hôtel de Ville to confess their crimes, and then burnt alive at the Place de Grève ! The Parlement of Paris continued docile during this period of reaction, but some provincial courts began to resist the imposition of taxes, and that of Besançon called for the resuscitation of the provincial estates of Franche Comté, and for the convocation of the States-General. This was on the 17th of July, 1783. By the intervention of the Count d'Artois, Calonne was appointed minister towards the end of the same year. Under his dexterous management, though the finances were not really improved, the public were dazzled with an appearance of prosperity, and his own friends and supporters were gratified; he paid the debts of the king's brothers, and bought the palace of St. Cloud for the queen. The harvests of 1784 and 1785 were very good. It was a period of enchantment, when all seemed prosperous and flourishing, and when society at Paris was brilliant and animated. The king, ignorant of the true state of his finances, was proudly rejoicing in the termination of a contest which had humiliated England, and seemed to have restored France to the rank it held before the misfortunes of the Seven Years' War. The coun The reaction was not confined to matters military. Whereas formerly very distinguished members of the higher clergy and the magistracy had been members of the Third Estate, no members thereof were any longer to be tolerated in either of those bodies. Bishoprics were reserved for persons of quality, and it was settled at court that none but nobles should be made abbots or other superiors of religious houses. The holders of fiefs, from one end of France to the other, began to examine into their feudal claims, with a view to the restoration of any of them which might have fallen into desuetude -a restoration to which the Parlement was ever ready to lend a helping hand. In Provence the feudal reaction had gone so far1 that the seigneur of the village du Pennes insisted on his vassals coming to do homage in the ancient form; namely, on their knees, bare-headed, and so swearing allegiance with their hands on the Gospels. The feudal régime had never been felt to be so detestable as after the fall of Turgot and Necker. Men's hearts became sick with hope deferred. The king and his government had promised much and raised great expectations; after which evils that had for a moment been put an end to, were not only restored, but aggravated. At the very same time royalty vis-try, under the sway of a gracious ibly enfeebled itself; the king undoing the work of Turgot and of Necker, as he had previously undone the work of Maupeon. Nevertheless, the king retained great popularity, and on the birth of the dauphin 2 was received with loud acclamations on his road to Notre Dame, while at the Opera there were loud cries of Vive le Roi! Vive la Reine! Vive Monseigneur le Dauphin! Nevertheless, some persons were sent to the Bastille for distributing writings hostile to the queen. But 1 Cherest, vol. i., p. 72, prince, seemed given up to the enjoyment of the charms of a civilization softened by the progress of ideas. Privileges indeed continued; but, when not contested, their possessors, under the sway of the prevailing sentiment, very generally made them forgotten by a refined graciousness. But what directly concerns us here is the bursting of the bubble of apparent prosperity through the forced declarations of Calonne himself. This led to a renewed, and henceforth unceasing, attack on the exemptions of the privileged orders, with a consequent up rising of those orders against royal | than about the welfare of the entire absolutism, and appeals to revolt and nation. military disaffection on their part. This animus was soon made suffiThey thus set going that revolutionary ciently evident. On the 6th of August, disorder from which they themselves 1787, a "bed of justice was held at suffered so quickly and so cruelly. Ca- Versailles, whereat M. d'Aligre, the lonne, forced at last to disclose the real president of the Parlement, in proteststate of the finances, and feeling sure ing against the proposed laws, affirmed that the only possible salvation - the that they tended to engender discord taxation of the clergy and nobility between different members of the same would be opposed by the Parlement, family, and between "seigneurs" and resolved to call together an Assembly" vassals.” This indicated what their of Notables, hoping that by the moral feelings really were, and what was the force of such a gathering he could over-real gravamen of the changes they obcome the Parlement's resistance. The jected to. The proposed laws not only failure of this Assembly is well known, taxed the seigneurs, but allowed their and the Parlement of Paris struck the vassals, assembled in parish meetings, key-note of revolution by itself repudi- to see that the charges were distributed ating the powers it had so long and equitably. On the 13th of the same strenuously asserted. It began by a month the Parlement met, and there vexatious opposition to the first at- and then affirmed once more that the tempts of the government to extend king could not lawfully impose a tax somewhat the area of taxation by means without having previously convoked of a land tax and a stamp act. On and consulted the States-General. In the 16th of July, 1787, it assembled to the preamble to this affirmation the prepare an address to the king, begging magistracy again showed plainly what him to withdraw these two edicts. It was their real object in urging on the also requested that an account of the convocation of the States. Therein states of receipts and disbursements they declared it to be "contrary to might be communicated to them. All the principles and primitive constituof a sudden a voice was heard to ex- tion of the nation, which would be adclaim: "It is not states of accounts hered to by the States-General, that we want, gentlemen, but the States- the clergy and nobility should pay terGeneral!" The idea met with a ritorial taxes in common with the tiers modified acceptance. The Parlement état" — adding that it had been reserved did not refuse the stamp edict, but for their days to see such a system rather excused itself from either ac- even proposed. The Parlement thought cepting or rejecting it, and adopted a that, thanks to an adherence to ancient formula carrying with it grave con- custom (as announced by them), the sequences. Its words were: "The clergy and nobility having two votes to nation alone, as represented in the the one of the tiers état, would easily States-General of the realm, can give maintain their existing privileges, even assent to taxation. The Parlement has if they could not acquire new ones. no such power. . . . Charged by the Little by little the Parlement began to sovereign to announce his will to the court popular favor. people, it has never been charged by been the rule for the magistrates to the people to act as its representative." keep their proceedings secret, but now This act of self-abnegation—indeed of they accustomed the public to be told self-stultification—has a patriotic as- their resolutions as soon as passed, and pect. But subsequent events showed a crowd was encouraged to wait within clearly that the Parlement of Paris the halls of the building and applaud and all the other parlements were far the members as they issued forth from more concerned about maintaining the their great chamber. The people came dignity and augmenting the power and wealth of the privileged classes, It had always 1 Cherest, vol. i., p. 276. |