Litchfield enquirer., 1872-02-01


 CTS, unable to live by the products of their lands, have abandoned them. Some have become beggafs, and others soldiers; ma ny have gone away to foreign countries. A hamlet which before the war supported fifteen hundred inhabitants, can scarcely furnish necessaries for six hundred. Cat tie have diminished in proportion with men. The country is in absolute need oi cattle; in most of the villages where labor is still carried on men do the work of oxen" Another writes thus:-ssThe sub iects of the king diminish every day in this province; soon there will be no longer any inhabitants. have desired the cures of the different parishes to furnish me with lists of baptisms and burials, and the number of the deaths exceeds the num- bers of the living; but of fifty of the kings subjects there are scarcely two who have bread to eat. Others die from want. Mar rage is almost unknown, and the children that are born are the offspring of debauch- ery.1
 Riots broke out in the streets of Paris, and gaunt, famished wretches pursued the kings carriage with cries of Bread! breadr' But the courtiers closed his ears against these cries, and were assiduous only in effacing from his mind those dark images. In the gallery at Versailles was 8 picture representing Roman Emperor giving bread to the people, and this was removed, in order that the king might not be reminded of the wants of the populace. And he and his companions feasted and revelled, and the sale of corn was a mo- nopoly, and people died of want in the streets.
 s'After us the delugel' said Pompadour, prophetically. Verify the clouds had long been gathering. Scores of years before or her royal lover came into the world, the groans and tears of the oppressed, and their cries for justice, had been rising from earth to heaven and evoking Divine wrath. With Louis XIV. began this storm gathering those long desolat- ing wars that brought only terrible heri- tage of suffering to be transmitted from father to son. To complete the labor that Richelieu had commenced, and upon the ruins of the feudal system to erect an absolute and irresponsible monarchy, was the leading aim of Grand Monarque's life. In the splendor of his Oriental court the nobility became mere gilded butterflies, a portion of the trappings that set off his own maenifcence, but having no vitality apart from him. The nobles, by their constant attendance upon the king, be- came alienated from the peasantry who were ground down to support their ex- trayagance at Versailles; thus the best ties of the feudal system, those ties which in the old days rendered the interests oi lord and vassal in some measure identical, were broken, and the lord soon became. in the eyes of the vassal, simply a tyrant and an oppressor Many of the nobility, unable to keep pace with the splendor oi the court,-their estates sold or hopeless .ly mortgaged, sank into the condition oi mere peasant farmers. Gloomy, discon- tented, ever inwardly contrasting the past power of their family with their pres. ent degradation, the proud blood of the old sa0blesse that coursed through their veins revolting against their menial posi- tion, heart sick, weary, longing for any charge that would break the letters of their vile bondage, the descendants ol these men became the leading and most dangerous spirits of the early days oi the Revolution. Thus, the very means by which the king had thought to most effectually cement absolutism, proved one of it's strongest disintegratiug clements.
 The numbers of the discontented were largely swelled by the ingratitude of his successor. Tapped in Sybaritish luxury, Louis XV. cared little for the brave men who fought the battles of the country, who shed their blood and expended theil patrimonies to uphold monarch who at times would not even deign to receive them. After the battle of Fontenoy, the Chevaher de Modena presented himself at Versailles, and craved an audience with the king but as his dress was that worn on the battlefield, admission was refused him. 'aThis dress still bears upon it the dnst of Fontenoy, which ought to be a proud sight for the king" answered the old soldier. But such excuses were no passport at Versailles the chevaier was ordered to don more ceremonius garb, and then he might be admitted. sI have none but this, nor the means to procure any other I sold my last rood of land to make the last campaign, " was the reply.
 The more reason that he should not be admitted why should the repese of Sar. danapalus be troubled by the presence oi beggared soldiers? And so the brave old noble was not suffered to put foot within the palace. Sung to the soul by the thought of the unworthy treatment he had received in return for all his sacrifices he vented his wrath i'll the following yer. SeS :- "Serviles instruments de triomphes nouveaux,
 Victimes des projets don't cette cour abonde Courez. piochez, minez, ct montez anx assaults,
 Sacrificez vos jours au plus grand roi dn monde Louis vous le permet. combattre vos etats.
 Mais nc paraisssz point au grand jour qui sap,
 prete:
 votre ombre importnn pourrait troubler Ia fete raplo
 For this ''seditious" utterance of his wrongs, orders were given for his arrest, and it was only by timely flight into his own country of Avignon that he escaped what might have been lifelong incar- ceration in the Bastillei
 But although brave soldiers were re- fused admittance to Versailles on account of their battle-stained costume, the rigid etiquette and almost Eastern severance oi ranks which had obtained under the Grand Monarque all but disappeared in the court of his successor. La Pompadopr was 8 bourgeOise, the first who had ever risen to the ''honors" of the acknowledged favor ite in the court of France. The etiquette and arist0cratic exclusiveness of the last reign were standing protests against he1 position. To nullify such protests bJ breaking down the distinctions of caste was her natural impulse. The task was one of impulse. The task was one of lit tie difficulty, for the court, wearied of te dious ceremony and autocratic seclusion plunged into the opposite extreme, and rioting in it's new-found liberty, mingled with 6oaggeoise and artisan in one com mon debauchery. It was the beg1nnine of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity; but thereafter the people improved upo1 the lesson, and applied it in a way oi which it's first promoters never dreamed
 The glamour of rank that had hitherto dazzled the eyes of the commonalty wal dispelled, and the eyes saw, instead ot demi-gods and demi-goddesses, men and women as commonplace and as vicious a. those to whom they belonged The ef fects of this disillusion were quickly ap parent; the saeredness of monarchy wa. openly questioned; the privileges of ranl bitterly inveighed against; the ssEspri des Loix'' and the sContrat Social" struci at the very roots of the oncSee reginae Buf as thOuOh the very nahloa thouosnlvo,