Scepticism of the thinkers seized on the Nation; and the consequence was, the overthrow of the whole Fabric of Government, political, religious, and social, which had maintained itself in France for so many centuries.

Thus were the seeds of the tempest sown.

THE REVOLUTION.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

IN 1774, Louis XVI., grandson of Louis XV., ascended the throne at twenty years of age. He was both amiable and virtuous, but without the capacity to direct, much less to control the deep fermentation then pervading France. He singularly resembled the unfortunate Charles I. Like him, he was moral and kind-hearted, but weak and vacillating; and like him, he allowed his Queen to exercise over him a fatal ascendency. Both appeared at an epoch when their faults, however venial, could have no other result than Death for themselves and Revolution for their respective countries.

The King called to his aid the leading men of the day-Turgot, Malesherbes, and Necker. Many abuses were abolished, and many useful institutions were established.*

In 1778, Louis gave assistance in men and money to the English Colonies in North America against the Mother-country, and guaranteed their Independence by the Treaty of Versailles, 1782.

The dilapidated state of the Finances compelled the King to call two Assemblies of the Notables, consisting

* The Mont de Piété-State pawnbrokers-and the Caisse d' Escompte -a bank of discount, the origin of the Bank of France-were two of the most useful institutions founded at this time.

of the heads of the Nobility, Clergy, and Magistracy, 1787-88. They quarrelled, and decided nothing. He then convoked the States General, May, 1789, which had not met since 1614, and which, as already seen, was composed of the three Orders, the Nobility, Clergy, and Tiers-Etat-Third Estate, or Middle Class.* When the States assembled, the Nobility and Clergy refused to deliberate in common with the Tiers-Etat. The Deputies of the Middle Class thereupon withdrew in June, and met separately in a hall at Versailles used as a tennis court, and assumed the name of the National Assembly. This incident caused agitation in Paris; but it augmented greatly when, soon afterwards, the Tiers-Etat were ordered to disperse. They defied the Government, and swore never to adjourn till they had given a Constitution to France. The excitement in Paris became so alarming that troops were ordered to concentrate on Versailles, the residence of the King.

On the 11th of July, the Prime Minister, Necker, the idol of the people, was dismissed. This spark caused an explosion which shook all Europe to its centre. On the 14th of July the people of Paris rose in insurrection, and captured the Bastille.† The National Assembly or Tiers-Etat, regardless of the co-operation of the Representatives of the Nobility and Clergy sitting at Versailles, began legislating with extraordinary boldness. In August, 1789, they voted the abolition of all Feudal privileges. Then followed a Decree proclaiming Religious Liberty and Freedom of

* Convoked for the first time in 1369.

It was

+ The Bastille was a large fortress built in 1343. Like the Tower of London, it was meant either to defend or menace Paris. used latterly as a prison of State. The mistresses of Louis XV., by lettres de cachet, sent any one there who gave them umbrage.

the Press. In October, the people of Paris went to Versailles en masse, and demanded the King's return to the Capital. The National Assembly then removed to Paris. In November, they voted that the property of the Church belonged to the Nation. In January, 1790, the old territorial division of France into Provinces was superseded by breaking up the Kingdom into eighty-three Departments. In March, the sale of the church property was voted to the extent of 400 millions of francs; in April, paper money, called assignats *—from the church lands being assigned as security was created; and in June, all Titles of Nobility were abolished. In 1791, the King's Right of Pardon was suppressed.

It was in June of this same year that the King and his family were discovered endeavoring to escape from France, and brought back to Paris. In July, all Orders of Knighthood were abolished: and in September, a Constitution was voted and accepted by the King.

The Constitution gave the Executive power to the King, and the Legislative power to a single Chamber called the Legislative Assembly-to be elected by the people, and to consist of seven hundred and forty-five Members.

The leading man of the National or Tiers-Etat Assembly was Mirabeau. Though a Nobleman of ancient descent, he threw himself with ardor into the Revolutionary movement; and, by his energy and unrivalled eloquence, gave it an impetus which soon outran his wishes. Whether from sympathy with

* The emission of assignats or paper notes went on increasing till they reached, in 1796, the sum of 45 millions of francs, which then became worthless.

the Royal Family, or because he was bribed, he abandoned his violent opposition to the Government, and thereby endangered his immense popularity. He died April, 1791.

Another man as prominent, but far inferior in oratory, was the Abbé Sieyès.* It was he who proposed that the deputies of the Tiers-Etat should organize as the National Assembly. He acquired great importance by a brochure in 1789 entitled-" What is the Tiers-Etat? Everything. What has it hitherto been? Nothing. What does it demand? To become something."

The Legislative Assembly met in October, 1791. In November, they declared all emigrants condemned to death, with the confiscation of their property, who did not return to France within two months. In April, 1792, they declared war against Austria; in May, they condemned to transportation all Ecclesiastics who did not acknowledge the Constitution; and in July, they decreed "The Country in Danger," and held Permanent Sessions-ordering all the Municipalities to do the same, and the National Guard to rise en masse. In August, they suspended the functions of the King, and voted that a new Assembly, to be called the National Convention, should be convoked.

In this Legislative Assembly, were organized two parties, which soon began struggling for the supremacy. The first was known as la Montagne-the

* This extraordinary man, after figuring in all the sanguinary phases of the revolution, a member of the National Assembly, and afterwards of the Convention, in which he voted the King's execution, became at last the colleague of General Bonaparte as one of the three Consuls. Later, he was transformed into a Count of the Empire. After the fall of Napoleon, he retired to Brussels; but after the revolution of 1830, he returned to Paris, where he died in 1836.