We have seen how numerous the smugglers, dealers in contraband salt, poachers, vagabonds, beggars, and escaped convicts1122 have become, and how a year of famine increases the number. All are so many recruits for the mobs, and whether in a disturbance or by means of a disturbance each one of them fills his pouch. Around Caux,1123 even up to the environs of Rouen, at Roncherolles, Quévrevilly, Préaux, Saint-Jacques, and in the entire surrounding neighborhood bands of armed bandits force their way into the houses, particularly the parsonages, and lay their hands on whatever they please. To the south of Chartres "three or four hundred woodcutters, from the forests of Bellème, chop away everything that opposes them, and force grain to be given up to them at their own price." In the vicinity of Étampes, fifteen bandits enter the farmhouses at night and put the farmer to ransom, threatening him with a conflagration. In Cambrésis they pillage the abbeys of Vauchelles, of Verger, and of Guillemans, the château of the Marquis de Besselard, the estate of M. Doisy, two farms, the wagons of wheat passing along the road to Saint-Quentin, and, besides this, seven farms in Picardy. "The seat of this revolt is in some villages bordering on Picardy and Cambrésis, familiar with smuggling operations and to the license of that pursuit." The peasants allow themselves to be enticed away by the bandits. Man slips rapidly down the incline of dishonesty; one who is half-honest, and takes part in a riot inadvertently or in spite of himself; repeats the act, allured on by impunity or by gain. In fact, "it is not dire necessity which impels them;" they make a speculation of cupidity, a new sort of illicit trade. An old soldier, saber in hand, a forest-keeper, and "about eight persons sufficiently lax, put themselves at the head of four or five hundred men, go off each day to three or four villages. Here they force everybody who has any wheat to give it to them at 24 livres," and even at 18 livres, the sack. Those among the band, who say that they have no money, carry away their portion without payment. Others, after having paid what they please, re-sell at a profit, which amounts to even 45 livres the sack. This is a good business, and one in which greed takes poverty for its accomplice. At the next harvest the temptation will be similar: "they have threatened to come and do our harvesting for us, and also to take our cattle and sell the meat in the villages at the rate of two sous the pound."—In every important insurrection there are similar evil-does and vagabonds, enemies to the law, savage, prowling desperadoes, who, like wolves, roam about wherever they scent a prey. It is they who serve as the directors and executioners of public or private malice. Near Uzès twenty-five masked men, with guns and clubs, enter the house of a notary, fire a pistol at him, beat him, wreck the premises, and burn his registers along with the title-deeds and papers which he has in keeping for the Count de Rouvres. Seven of them are arrested, but the people are on their side, and fall on the constabulary and free them.1124—They are known by their acts, by their love of destruction for the sake of destruction, by their foreign accent, by their savage faces and their rags. Some of them come from Paris to Rouen, and, for four days, the town is at their mercy.1125 The stores are forced open, train wagons are discharged, wheat is wasted, and convents and seminaries are put to ransom. They invade the dwelling of the attorney-general, who has begun proceedings against them, and want to tear him to pieces. They break his mirrors and his furniture, leave the premises laden with booty, and go into the town and its outskirts to pillage the manufactories and break up or burn all the machinery.—Henceforth these constitute the new leaders: for in every mob it is the boldest and least scrupulous who march ahead and set the example in destruction. The example is contagious: the beginning was the craving for bread, the end is murder and arson; the savagery which is unchained adding its unlimited violence to the limited revolt of necessity.
Bad as it is, this savagery might, perhaps, have been overcome, in spite of the dearth and of the brigands; but what renders it irresistible is the belief of its being authorized, and that by those whose duty it is to repress it. Here and there words and actions of a brutal frankness break forth, and reveal beyond the somber present a more threatening future—After the 9th of January, 1789, among the mob which attacks the Hôtel-de-Ville and besieges the bakers' shops of Nantes, "shouts of Vive la Liberté!1126 mingled with those of Vive le Roi! are heard." A few months later, around Ploërmel, the peasants refuse to pay tithes, alleging that the memorial of their seneschal's court demands their abolition. In Alsace, after March, there is the same refusal "in many places;" many of the communities even maintain that they will pay no more taxes until their deputies to the States-General shall have fixed the precise amount of the public contributions. In Isère it is decided, by proceedings, printed and published, that "personal dues" shall no longer be paid, while the landowners who are affected by this dare not prosecute in the tribunals. At Lyons, the people have come to the conclusion "that all levies of taxes are to cease," and, on the 29th of June, on hearing of the meeting of the three orders, "astonished by the illuminations and signs of public rejoicing," they believe that the good time has come." They think of forcing the delivery of meat to them at four sous the pound, and wine at the same rate. The publicans insinuate to them the prospective abolition of octrois.1127 and that, meanwhile, the King, in favor of the re-assembling of the three orders, has granted three days' freedom from all duties at Paris, and that Lyons ought to enjoy the same privilege." Upon this the crowd, rushing off to the barriers, to the gates of Sainte-Claire and Perrache, and to the Guillotière bridge, burn or demolish the bureaux, destroy the registers, sack the lodgings of the clerks, carry off the money and pillage the wine on hand in the depot. In the mean time a rumor has circulated all round through the country that there is free entrance into the town for all provisions. During the following days the peasantry stream in with enormous files of wagons loaded with wine and drawn by several oxen, so that, in spite of the re-established guard, it is necessary to let them enter all day without paying the dues. It is only on the 7th of July that these can again be collected.—The same thing occurs in the southern provinces, where the principal imposts are levied on provisions. There also the collections are suspended in the name of public authority. At Agde,1128 "the people, considering the so-called will of the King as to equality of classes, are foolish enough to think that they are everything and can do everything." Thus do they interpret in their own way and in their own terms the double representation accorded to the Third-Estate. They threaten the town, consequently, with general pillage if the prices of all provisions are not reduced, and if the duties of the province on wine, fish, and meat are not suppressed. They also wish to nominate consuls who have sprung up out of their body." The bishop, the lord of the manor, the mayor and the notables, against whom they forcibly stir up the peasantry in the country, are obliged to proclaim by sound of trumpet that their demands shall be granted. Three days afterwards they exact a diminution of one-half of the tax on grinding, and go in quest of the bishop who owns the mills. The prelate, who is ill, sinks down in the street and seats himself on a stone; they compel him forthwith to sign an act of renunciation, and hence "his mill, valued at 15,000 livres, is reduced to 7,500 livres."—At Limoux, under the pretext of searching for grain, they enter the houses of the comptroller and tax contractors, carry off their registers, and throw them into the water along with the furniture of their clerks.—In Provence it is worse; for most unjustly, and through inconceivable imprudence, the taxes of the towns are all levied on flour. It is therefore to this impost that the dearness of bread is directly attributed. Hence the fiscal agent becomes a manifest enemy, and revolts on account of hunger are transformed into insurrections against the State.
Here, again, political novelties are the spark that ignites the mass of gunpowder. Everywhere, the uprising of the people takes place on the very day on which the electoral assembly meets. From forty to fifty riots occur in the provinces in less than a fortnight. Popular imagination, like that of a child, goes straight to its mark. The reforms having been announced, people think them accomplished and, to make sure of them, steps are at once taken to carry them out. Now that we are to have relief, let us relieve ourselves. "This is not an isolated riot as usual," writes the commander of the troops;1129 "here the faction is united and governed by uniform principles; the same errors are diffused through all minds. . . . . The principles impressed on the people are that the King desires equality. No more bishops or lords, no more distinctions of rank, no tithes, and no seignorial privileges. Thus, these misguided people fancy that they are exercising their rights, and obeying the will of the King."—The effect of sonorous phrases is apparent. The people have been told that the States-General were to bring about the "regeneration of the kingdom" The inference is "that the date of their assembly was to be one of an entire and absolute change of conditions and fortunes." Hence, "the insurrection against the nobles and the clergy is as active as it is widespread." "In many places it was distinctly announced that there was a sort of war declared against landowners and property," and "in the towns as well as in the rural districts the people persist in declaring that they will pay nothing, neither taxes, duties, nor debts."—Naturally, the first assault is against the piquèt, or flour-tax. At Aix, Marseilles, Toulon, and in more than forty towns and market-villages, this is summarily abolished; at Aupt and at Luc nothing remains of the weighing-house but the four walls. At Marseilles the home of the slaughter-house contractor and at Brignolles that of the director of the leather excise, are sacked. The determination is "to purge the land of excise-men. "—This is only a beginning; bread and other provisions must become cheap, and that without delay. At Arles, the Corporation of sailors, presided over by M. de Barras, consul, had just elected its representatives. By way of conclusion to the meeting, they pass a resolution insisting that M. de Barras should reduce the price of all comestibles. On his refusal, they "open the window, exclaiming, 'We hold him, and we have only to throw him into the street for the rest to pick him up.'" Compliance is inevitable. The resolution is proclaimed by the town-criers, and at each article which is reduced in price the crowd shout, "Vive le Roi, vive M. Barras!"—One must yield to brute force. But the inconvenience is great for, through the suppression of the flour-tax, the towns have no longer a revenue. On the other hand, as they are obliged to indemnify the butchers and bakers, Toulon, for instance, incurs a debt of 2,500 livres a day.
In this state of disorder, woe to those who are under suspicion of having contributed, directly or indirectly, to the evils, which the people endure! At Toulon a demand is made for the head of the mayor, who signs the tax-list, and of the keeper of the records. They are trodden under foot, and their houses are ransacked. At Manosque, the Bishop of Sisteron, who is visiting the seminary, is accused of favoring a monopolist. On his way to his carriage, on foot, he is hooted and menaced. He is first pelted with mud, and then with stones. The consuls in attendance, and the sub-delegate, who come to his assistance, are mauled and repulsed. Meanwhile, some of the most furious begin, before his eyes, "to dig a ditch to bury him in." Protected by five or six brave fellows, amidst a volley of stones, and wounded on the head and on many parts of his body, he succeeds in reaching his carriage. He is finally only saved because the horses, which are likewise stoned, run away. Foreigners, Italians, bandits, are mingled with the peasants and artisans, and expressions are heard and acts are seen which indicate a jacquerie.1130 "The most excited said to the bishop, 'we are poor and you are rich, and we mean to have all your property.'"1131 Elsewhere, "the seditious mob exacts contributions from all people in good circumstances. At Brignolles, thirteen houses are pillaged from top to bottom, and thirty others partly half.—At Aupt, M. de Montferrat, in defending himself, is killed and "hacked to pieces."—At La Seyne, the mob, led by a peasant, assembles by beat of drum. Some women fetch a bier, and set it down before the house of a leading bourgeois, telling him to prepare for death, and that "they will have the honor of burying him." He escapes; his house is pillaged, as well as the bureau of the flour-tax. The following day, the chief of the band "obliges the principal inhabitants to give him a sum of money to indemnify, as he states it, the peasants who have abandoned their work," and devoted the day to serving the public.—At Peinier, the Président de Peinier, an octogenarian, is "besieged in his chateau by a band of a hundred and fifty artisans and peasants," who bring with them a consul and a notary. Aided by these two functionaries, they force the president "to pass an act by which he renounces his seignorial rights of every description "—At Sollier they destroy the mills belonging to M. de Forbin-Janson. They sack the house of his business agent, pillage the château, and demolish the roof, chapel, altar, railings, and escutcheons. They enter the cellars, stave in the casks, and carry away everything that can be carried, "the transportation taking two days;" all of which cause damages of a hundred thousand crowns to the marquis.—At Riez they surround the episcopal palace with fagots, threatening to burn it, "and compromise with the bishop on a promise of fifty thousand livres," and want him to burn his archives.—In short, the sedition is social for it singles out for attack all that profit by, or stand at the head of, the established order of things.
Seeing them act in this way, one would say that the theory of the Contrat-Social had been instilled into them. They treat magistrates as domestics, promulgate laws, and conduct themselves like sovereigns. They exercise public power, and establish, summarily, arbitrarily, and brutally, whatever they think to be in conformity with natural right.—At Peinier they exact a second electoral assembly, and, for themselves, the right of suffrage.—At Saint-Maximin they themselves elect new consuls and officers of justice.—At Solliez they oblige the judge's lieutenant to give in his resignation, and they break his staff of office.—At Barjols "they use consuls and judges as their town servants, announcing that they are masters and that they will themselves administer justice."—In fact, they do administer it, as they understand it—that is to say, through many exactions and robberies! One man has wheat; he must share it with him who has none. Another has money; he must give it to him who has not enough to buy bread with. On this principle, at Barjols, they tax the Ursulin nuns 1,800 livres, carry off fifty loads of wheat from the Chapter, eighteen from one poor artisan, and forty from another, and constrain canons and beneficiaries to give acquittances to their farmers. Then, from house to house, with club in hand, they oblige some to hand over money, others to abandon their claims on their debtors, "one to desist from criminal proceedings, another to nullify a decree obtained, a third to reimburse the expenses of a lawsuit gained years before, a father to give his consent to the marriage of his son."—All their grievances are brought to mind, and we all know the tenacity of a peasant's memory. Having become the master, he redresses wrongs, and especially those of which he thinks himself the object. There must be a general restitution; and first, of the feudal dues which have been collected. They take of M. de Montmeyan's business agent all the money he has as compensation for that received by him during fifteen years as a notary. A former consul of Brignolles had, in 1775, inflicted penalties to the amount of 1,500 or 1,800 francs, which had been given to the poor; this sum is taken from his strong box. Moreover, if consuls and law officers are wrongdoers, the title deeds, rent-rolls, and other documents by which they do their business are still worse. To the fire with all old writings—not only office registers, but also, at Hyères, all the papers in the town hall and those of the principal notary.—In the matter of papers none are good but new ones—those which convey some discharge, quittance, or obligation to the advantage of the people. At Brignolles the owners of the gristmills are constrained to execute a contract of sale by which they convey their mills to the commune in consideration of 5,000 francs per annum, payable in ten years without interest—an arrangement which ruins them. On seeing the contract signed the peasants shout and cheer, and so great is their faith in this piece of stamped paper that they at once cause a mass of thanksgiving to be celebrated in the Cordeliers. Formidable omens these! Which mark the inward purpose, the determined will, and the coming deeds of this rising power. If it prevails, its first work will be to destroy all ancient documents, all title deeds, rent-rolls, contracts, and claims to which force compels it to submit. By force likewise it will draw up others to its own advantage, and the scribes who do it will be its own deputies and administrators whom it holds in its rude grasp.
Those who are in high places are not alarmed; they even find that there is some good in the revolt, inasmuch as it compels the towns to suppress unjust taxation.1132 The new Marseilles guard, formed of young men, is allowed to march to Aubagne, "to insist that M. le lieutenant criminel and M. l'avocat du Roi release the prisoners." The disobedience of Marseilles, which refuses to receive the magistrates sent under letters patent to take testimony, is tolerated. And better still, in spite of the remonstrances of the parliament of Aix, a general amnesty is proclaimed; "no one is excepted but a few of the leaders, to whom is allowed the liberty of leaving the kingdom." The mildness of the King and of the military authorities is admirable. It is admitted that the people are children, that they err only through ignorance, that faith must be had in their repentance, and, as soon as they return to order, they must be received with paternal effusions.—The truth is, that the child is a blind Colossus, exasperated by sufferings. hence whatever it takes hold of is shattered—not only the local wheels of the provinces, which, if temporarily deranged, may be repaired, but even the incentive at the center which puts the rest in motion, and the destruction of which will throw the whole machinery into confusion.
1101 (return)
[ Marmontel,
"Mémoires," II. 221.—Albert Babeau, "Histoire de la Révolution
Française," I. 91, 187. (Letter by Huez Mayor of Troyes, July 30, 1788.)—Archives
Nationales, H. 1274. (Letter by M. de Caraman, April 22, 1789.) H. 942
(Cahier des demandes des Etats de Languedoc).—Buchez et Roux,
"Histoire Parlementaire," I. 283.]
1102 (return)
[ See "The Ancient
Régime," p.34. Albert Babeau, I. 91. (The Bishop of Troyes gives 12,000
francs, and the chapter 6,000, for the relief workshops.)]
1103 (return)
[ "The Ancient Regime,"
350, 387.—Floquet, "Histoire du Parlement de Normandie," VII.
505-518. (Reports of the Parliament of Normandy, May 3,1788. Letter from
the Parliament to the King, July 15, 1789.)]
1104 (return)
[ Arthur Young,
"Voyages in France," June 29th, July 2nd and 18th—" Journal de
Paris," January 2, 1789. Letter of the curé of Sainte-Marguerite.]
1105 (return)
[ Buchez and Roux, IV.
79-82. (Letter from the intermediary bureau of Montereau, July 9, 1789;
from the maire of Villeneuve-le-Roi, July 10th; from M. Baudry, July 10th;
from M. Prioreau, July 11th, etc.)—Montjoie, "Histoire de la
Révolution de France," 2nd part, ch. XXI, p. 5.]
1106 (return)
[ Roux et Buchez, ibid.
"It is very unfortunate," writes the Marquis d'Autichamp, "to be obliged
to cut down the standing crops ready to be gathered in; but it is
dangerous to let the troops die of hunger."]
1107 (return)
[ Montjoie, "Histoire
de la Révolution de France," ch. XXXIX, V, 37.—De Goncourt, "La
Société Française pendant la Révolution," p. 5l3.—Deposition of
Maillard (Criminal Inquiry of the Châtelet concerning the events of
October 5th and 6th).]
1108 (return)
[ De Tocqueville,
"L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution," 272-290. De Lavergne, "Les Assemblées
provinciales," 109. Procès-verbaux des assemblées provinciales, passim.]
1109 (return)
[ A magistrate who
gives judgment in a lower court in cases relative to taxation. These terms
are retained because there are no equivalents in English. (Tr.)]
1110 (return)
[ "Laboureurs,"—this
term, at this epoch, is applied to those who till their own land. (Tr.)]
1111 (return)
[ Duvergier.
"Collection des lois et décrets," I. 1 to 23, and particularly p. 15.]
1112 (return)
[ Parish priests.
(SR.)]
1113 (return)
[ Arthur Young, July
12th, 1789 (in Champagne).]
1114 (return)
[ Montjoie, 1st part,
102.]
1115 (return)
[ Floquet, "Histoire du
Parlement de Normandie," VII. 508.—" Archives Nationales," H. 1453.]
1116 (return)
[ Arthur Young, June
29th (at Nangis).]
1117 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H.1453. Letter of the Duc de Mortemart, Seigneur of Bray, May
4th; of M. de Ballainvilliers, intendant of Languedoc, April 15th.]
1118 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H.1453. Letter of the intendant, M. d'Agay, April 30th; of
the municipal officers of Nantes, January 9th; of the intendant, M. Meulan
d'Ablois, June 22nd; of M. de Ballainvilliers, April 15th.]
1119 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H. 1453. Letter of the Count de Langeron, July 4th; of M. de
Meulan d'Ablois, June 5th; "Minutes of the meeting of la Maréchaussée de
Bost," April 29th. Letters of M. de Chazerat, May 29th; of M. de Bezenval,
June 2nd; of the intendant, M. Amelot, April 25th.]
1120 (return)
[ '"Archives
Nationales," H.1453. Letter of M. de Bezenval, May 27th; of M. de
Ballainvilliers, April 25th; of M. de Foullonde, April 19th.]
1121 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H.1453. Letter of the intendant, M. d'Aine, March 12th; of M.
d'Agay, April 30th; of M. Amelot, April 25th; of the municipal authorities
of Nantes, January 9th, etc.]
1122 (return)
[ "The Ancient Régime,"
pp. 380-389.]
1123 (return)
[ Floquet, VII. 508,
(Report of February 27th).—Hippeau, "La Gouvernement de Normandie,"
IV. 377. (Letter of M. Perrot, June 23rd.)—" Archives Nationales,"
H. 1453. Letter of M. de Sainte-Suzanne, April 29th. Ibid. F7, 3250.
Letter of M. de Rochambeau, May 16th Ibid. F7, 3250. Letter of the Abbé
Duplaquet, Deputy of the Third Estate of Saint-Quentin, May 17th. Letter
of three husbandmen in the environs of Saint-Quentin, May 14th.]
1124 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H. 1453. Letter of the Count de Perigord, military commandant
of Languedoc, April 22nd.]
1125 (return)
[ Floquet, VII. 511
(from the 11th to the 14th July).]
1126 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H. 1453. Letter of the municipal authorities of Nantes,
January 9th; of the sub-delegate of Ploërmel, July 4th; ibid. F7, 2353.
Letter of the intermediary commission of Alsace, September 8th ibid. F7,
3227. Letter of the intendant, Caze de la Bove, June 16th; ibid. H. 1453.
Letter of Terray, intendant of Lyons, July 4th; of the prévot des
échevins, July 5th and 7th.]
1127 (return)
[ (A tax on all goods
entering a town. SR.)]
1128 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H. 1453. Letter of the mayor and councils of Agde, April
21st; of M. de Perigord, April 19th, May 5th.]
1129 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H. 1453. Letters of M. de Caraman, March 23rd, 26th 27th
28th; of the seneschal Missiessy, March 24th; of the mayor of Hyères,
March 25th, etc.; ibid. H. 1274; of M. de Montmayran, April 2nd; of M. de
Caraman, March 18th, April 12th; of the intendant, M. de la Tour, April
2nd; of the procureur-géneral, M. d'Antheman, April 17th, and the report
of June 15th; of the municipal authorities of Toulon, April 11th; of the
sub-delegate of Manosque, March 14th; of M. de Saint-Tropez, March 21st.—Minutes
of the meeting, signed by 119 witnesses, of the insurrection at Aix, March
5th, etc.]
1130 (return)
[ An uprising of the
peasants. The term is used to indicate a country mob in contradistinction
to a city or town mob.-Tr.]
1131 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H.1274. Letter of M. de la Tour, April 2nd (with a detailed
memorandum and depositions).]
1132 (return)
[ "Archives
Nationales," H. 1274. Letter of M. de Caraman, April 22nd:—"One real
benefit results from this misfortune. . . The well-to-do class is brought
to sustain that which exceeded the strength of the poor daily laborers. We
see the nobles and people in good circumstances a little more attentive to
the poor peasants: they are now habituated to speaking to them with more
gentleness." M. de Caraman was wounded, as well as his Son, at Aix, and if
the Soldiery, who were stoned, at length fired on the crowd, he did not
give the order.—Ibid, letter of M. d'Anthéman, April 17th; of M. de
Barentin, June 11th.]
INDEED it is in the center that the convulsive shocks are strongest. Nothing is lacking to aggravate the insurrection—neither the liveliest provocation to stimulate it, nor the most numerous bands to carry it out. The environs of Paris all furnish recruits for it; nowhere are there so many miserable wretches, so many of the famished, and so many rebellious beings. Robberies of grain take place everywhere—at Orleans, at Cosne, at Rambouillet, at Jouy, at Pont-Saint-Maxence, at Bray-sur-Seine, at Sens, at Nangis.1201 Wheat flour is so scarce at Meudon, that every purchaser is ordered to buy at the same time an equal quantity of barley. At Viroflay, thirty women, with a rear-guard of men, stop on the main road vehicles, which they suppose to be loaded with grain. At Montlhéry stones and clubs disperse seven brigades of the police. An immense throng of eight thousand persons, women and men, provided with bags, fall upon the grain exposed for sale. They force the delivery to them of wheat worth 40 francs at 24 francs, pillaging the half of it and conveying it off without payment. "The constabulary is disheartened," writes the sub-delegate; "the determination of the people is wonderful; I am frightened at what I have seen and heard."—After the 13th of July, 1788, the day of the hail-storm, despair seized the peasantry; well disposed as the proprietors may have been, it was impossible to assist them. "Not a workshop is open;1202 the noblemen and the bourgeois, obliged to grant delays in the payment of their incomes, can give no work." Accordingly, "the famished people are on the point of risking life for life," and, publicly and boldly, they seek food wherever it can be found. At Conflans-Saint-Honorine, Eragny, Neuville, Chenevières, at Cergy, Pontoise, Ile-Adam, Presle, and Beaumont, men, women, and children, the hole parish, range the country, set snares, and destroy the burrows. "The rumor is current that the Government, informed of the damage done by the game to cultivators, allows its destruction. . . and really the hares ravaged about a fifth of the crop. At first an arrest is made of nine of these poachers; but they are released, "taking circumstances into account." Consequently, for two months, there is a slaughter on the property of the Prince de Conti and of the Ambassador Mercy d'Argenteau; in default of bread they eat rabbits.—Along with the abuse of property they are led, by a natural impulse, to attack property itself. Near Saint-Denis the woods belonging to the abbey are devastated. "The farmers of the neighborhood carry away loads of wood, drawn by four and five horses;" the inhabitants of the villages of Ville-Parisis, Tremblay, Vert-Galant, Villepinte, sell it publicly, and threaten the wood-rangers with a beating. On the 15th of June the damage is already estimated at 60,000 livres.—It makes little difference whether the proprietor has been benevolent, like M. de Talaru,1203 who had supported the poor on his estate at Issy the preceding winter. The peasants destroy the dike which conducts water to his communal mill; condemned by the parliament to restore it, they declare that not only will they not obey. Should M. de Talaru try to rebuild it they will return with three hundred armed men, and tear it away the second time.
For those who are most compromised Paris is the nearest refuge. For the poorest and most exasperated, the door of nomadic life stands wide open. Bands rise up around the capital, just as in countries where human society has not yet been formed, or has ceased to exist. During the first two weeks of May1204 near Villejuif a band of five or six hundred vagabonds strive to force Bicêtre and approach Saint-Cloud. They arrive from thirty, forty, and sixty leagues off, from Champagne, from Lorraine, from the whole circuit of country devastated by the hailstorm. All hover around Paris and are there engulfed as in a sewer, the unfortunate along with criminals, some to find work, others to beg and to rove about under the injurious prompting of hunger and the rumors of the public thoroughfares. During the last days of April,1205 the clerks at the tollhouses note the entrance of "a frightful number of poorly clad men of sinister aspect." During the first days of May a change in the appearance of the crowd is remarked. There mingle in it "a number of foreigners, from all countries, most of them in rags, armed with big sticks, and whose very aspect announces what is to be feared from them." Already, before this final influx, the public sink is full to overflowing. Think of the extraordinary and rapid increase of population in Paris, the multitude of artisans brought there by recent demolition and constructions. Think of all the craftsmen whom the stagnation of manufactures, the augmentation of octrois, the rigor of winter, and the dearness of bread have reduced to extreme distress. Remember that in 1786 "two hundred thousand persons are counted whose property, all told, has not the intrinsic worth of fifty crowns." Remember that, from time immemorial, these have been at war with the city watchmen. Remember that in 1789 there are twenty thousand poachers in the capital and that, to provide them with work, it is found necessary to establish national workshops. Remember "that twelve thousand are kept uselessly occupied digging on the hill of Montmartre, and paid twenty sous per day. Remember that the wharves and quays are covered with them, that the Hôtel-de-Ville is invested by them, and that, around the palace, they seem to be a reproach to the inactivity of disarmed justice." Daily they grow bitter and excited around the doors of the bakeries, where, kept waiting a long time, they are not sure of obtaining bread. You can imagine the fury and the force with which they will storm any obstacle to which their attention may be directed.
Such an obstacle has been pointed out to them during the last two years, it is the Ministry, the Court, the Government, in short the entire ancient régime. Whoever protests against it in favor of the people is sure to be followed as far, and perhaps even farther, than he chooses to lead.—The moment the Parliament of a large city refuses to register fiscal edicts it finds a riot at its service. On the 7th of June 1788, at Grenoble, tiles rain down on the heads of the soldiery, and the military force is powerless. At Rennes, to put down the rebellious city, an army and after this a permanent camp of four regiments of infantry and two of cavalry, under the command of a Marshal of France, is required.1206—The following year, when the Parliaments now side with the privileged class, the disturbances again begin, but this time against the Parliaments. In February 1789, at Besançon and at Aix, the magistrates are hooted at, chased in the streets, besieged in the town hall, and obliged to conceal themselves or take to flight.—If such is the disposition in the provincial capitals, what must it be in the capital of the kingdom? For a start, in the month of August, 1788, after the dismissal of Brienne and Lamoignon, the mob, collected on the Place Dauphine, constitutes itself judge, burns both ministers in effigy, disperses the watch, and resists the troops: no sedition, as bloody as this, had been seen for a century. Two days later, the riot bursts out a second time; the people are seized with a resolve to go and burn the residences of the two ministers and that of Dubois, the lieutenant of police.—Clearly a new ferment has been infused among the ignorant and brutal masses, and the new ideas are producing their effect. They have for a long time imperceptibly been filtering downwards from layer to layer After having gained over the aristocracy, the whole of the lettered portion of the Third-Estate, the lawyers, the schools, all the young, they have insinuated themselves drop by drop and by a thousand fissures into the class which supports itself by the labor of its own hands. Noblemen, at their toilettes, have scoffed at Christianity, and affirmed the rights of man before their valets, hairdressers, purveyors, and all those that are in attendance upon them. Men of letters, lawyers, and attorneys have repeated, in the bitterest tone, the same diatribes and the same theories in the coffee-houses and in the restaurants, on the promenades and in all public places. They have spoken out before the lower class as if it were not present, and, from all this eloquence poured out without precaution, some bubbles besprinkle the brain of the artisan, the publican, the messenger, the shopkeeper, and the soldier.
Hence it is that a year suffices to convert mute discontent into political passion. From the 5th of July 1787, on the invitation of the King, who convokes the States-General and demands advice from everybody, both speech and the press alter in tone.1207 Instead of general conversation of a speculative turn there is preaching, with a view to practical effect, sudden, radical, and close at hand, preaching as shrill and thrilling as the blast of a trumpet. Revolutionary pamphlets appear in quick succession: "Qu'est-ce que le Tiers?" by Sieyès; "Mémoire pour le Peuple Français," by Cerutti; "Considerations sur les Intérêts des Tiers-Etat," by Rabtau Saint-Etienne; "Ma Pétition," by Target; "Les Droits des Etats-généraux," by M. d'Entraigues, and, a little later, "La France libre," par Camille Desmoulins, and others by hundreds and thousands.1208 All of which are repeated and amplified in the electoral assemblies, where new-made citizens come to declaim and increase their own excitement.1209 The unanimous, universal and daily shout rolls along from echo to echo, into barracks and into faubourgs, into markets, workshops, and garrets. In the month of February, 1789, Necker avows "that obedience is not to be found anywhere, and that even the troops are not to be relied on." In the month of May, the fisherwomen, and next the greengrocers, of the town market halls come to recommend the interests of the people to the bodies of electors, and to sing rhymes in honor of the Third-Estate. In the month of June pamphlets are in all hands; "even lackeys are poring over them at the gates of hotels." In the month of July, as the King is signing an order, a patriotic valet becomes alarmed and reads it over his shoulder.—There is no illusion here; it is not merely the bourgeoisie which ranges itself against the legal authorities and against the established regime. It is the entire people as well. The craftsmen, the shopkeepers and the domestics, workmen of every kind and degree, the mob underneath the people, the vagabonds, street rovers, and beggars, the whole multitude, which, bound down by anxiety for its daily bread, had never lifted its eyes to look at the great social order of which it is the lowest stratum, and the whole weight of which it bears.