The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-06

What caussd the French ~hevoiutiout
1hsre have been during thu last quarter ~
Q oentury . good many attempts Ia mini
miss tho provocatlon given 10 the massaa
~ ths French people by the monarchy md
tbs aristocracy. Wa are told, for instance,
that tho PEASANTS do no, ows Ia the Revolu-
ton the farms which thsy now possesses In
fee slmpls; that. as . matter Of fact, they
already owned q large fraction Of the French
soil: that the abuses 10 which they had ones
been subjected az tho hands Of the nobles,
the dVoa do ssigneur, 30, had become leg
endary; that Diokens's tale Of Two Cities
was "a anachronism; and that the friendly
relations between the pessanta and their
social supsriors were fairly ~exemplihed In
brittany, which undertook q long and des-
psrnte revolt against tho French Republic.
II h doubtless true that II the Bourbon
monarchy had not been In financial straits
and needed the support Of its subjects In
order 10 avert imminent bankruptcy ths
States General would not have been con-
'voked Just when they were; namely, in i7Se.
Mr.. Beeaiy, however, brings forward q
great deal Of evidence 70 show that II the
French Revolution had not come just when
it did IL must have come not long after
ward, for tho situation OF large sections OF
the people had become intolerable.
Mr.. Beesly admits that no man can name
al tho causes Of tho Freroh Revolution,
because they are countless, old as the world,
b~eRinning at the remotest eras OF history
the same thing may DO said Of all great
historical events-yet he submits that.
from q less nebulous point Of view, never
were causes more certainly known, or sus-
ceptiblc Of more exact definition. A people
rebels when 1t is ~misgoverned or starved.
Unquestionably the French people were both
starved and misgoverned. No doubt, the
writings OF Voltaire and Beaumarchais
had killed many superstitions. No doubt.
too the writings Of Rousseau had created
many yearnings. The Encyclopaedia had
been the entrance gate to an avenue OF far
reaching thought. The example OF the
United States of America may have stimu-
lated some theorists and awakened some
aspirations. No doubt, too, the imbecility
Of the court Of Louis XVI. surpassed the
hopes OF its most sanguine enemies. Never
theless, our author is inclined to think that
each Of these factors in the Revolution.
or all Of them put together, might not
improbably have failed to revolutionize
France, IL it had not been for the profound
misery and degradation OF the French
people,
Let us look at some OF the evidence Of
which this conclusion is based. In 17o9 a
cure entered in his parish register. "Icertify
to all those whom it may concern that all
the persons who are named herein have died
Of famine. with the exception OF NJ. Des-
crots and his daughters" He adds; THE
people have been eating dead carrion for a
fortnight past; there is no grain. and women
have smothered their children for dread Of
having to feed them" In 1889 D'Argenson
says, The men are dying as thick as flies,
and the living are eating grass In ten
years the population Of FRANCE had dimin-
ished one-third. The people were already
full Of rage, when" says D'Argenson,
"the people no longer fear anything. they are
everything. All these materials are COM
bustible." At the time Of Danton's marriage,
In 1887, there was no change for the better.
Michelet records that in the month OF May,
1880, famine had driven whole populations
from their homes. In the same year Niche
let testified that the French nation had been
prepared for revolution by the sense Of its
miseries rather thar by the progress of en-
l%iRhtenment. All over France land was
going out OF cultivation, The highroads
were deserted. You might go on one thirty
miles from Paris and not meet a diligence
or a carriage. The fields, where titled,
were titled badly. The houses were often
without glazed windows. The castle you
might see perched overhead oil some rock
would be kept garrisoned for the reception Of
prisoners sent by lettres de cdchet. In Paris
alone there were thirty prisons where you
could be incarcerated without trial. In
siI only Of the twenty bastiles Of France
there were in 1775 three hundred prisoners.
There were vast wastes, huge forests and
here and there grand mansions, but the own
ers were absentees, s~quandering the rents
wr,1np from their serfs in the luxury Of
towns.
The wretched peasants, shoeleee, stock
ingless. living on bread that was bread
only in name, were often hardly human
10 look upon. Women Of % seemed like
women Of 70, being deformed and dis
figured by inoessant and grinding toll.
Wages were incredibly low. Inns were
often less clean than an English pig sty.
Outside Paris and some Of the larger towns
a new spaper was a rare article, Yet every
where was an ominous era wing for news,
and, as a result, there was q constant crop
Of monstrous umors. The lazy swarm
of monks was hated, and the tithes Of the
clergy, though less cruelty exacted than
other dues, were a burden daily harder
to be borne, because famine, which had
never been unknown, was become chronic.
Mr.. Beesly suggests that the words in
which an English poet oonsecrated "Car-
mage" might have been more truly used
by a Frenchman Of Famine" and hailed
as Gods daughter, for, at the cost Of in
finite suffering, 1t was indirectly the sal
walton OF France. He adds that those who
speak W., horror O. the 1900 >iotims OF
the massacres OF September, 1892. might
do well TO bear in mind the appalling amount
OF wrong and wretohedness which, though
unrecorded by newspapers, and unexag-
gerated by loud tongued pamphleteers.
had gone on accommodating during the in
terminable years which preceded the
ven geance Of one week. We are reminded
that Arthur Young, who was an eye wit
ness Of the condition of the French peas
entry before the Revolution, doubted the
wisdom Of those who feel no compassion
for the many because they suffer, in his
eyes, not Individually, but by Millions"
and concluded that she who chooses to be