Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-06-22
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

masses. who were incensed against
their tyrant feudal lords. But it was
postponed, and that evening august
I, 1881 Vicomte de sNoailles sprung
into the limelight by proposing a
measure that would abolish all dis
elimination or privilege in taxation of
classes. In the intense excitement Of
the debate which followed. member
aroused the people to frenzy by as
cendinS the tribune in the costume Of
a Breton peasant and defantly assert
ing:
You might have prevented the
burnings of the chateauX If you had
been more prompt in declaring that
the terrible weapons they contained.
which had tornented the people for
centuries. were to be annihilated by
the compulsory purchase you had or
dered. The people. impatient to OBJ
tain justice and weary of oppression,
strive to destroy the title deeds, those
monuments of the barbarism of our
forefathers. Which of us in
this enlightened age would not make
an eXpiatory pyre o. these infamous
parchments and would not bear the
torch to make a sacrifice of them upon
the altar of public good?"
In the height OF the debate. the
Clericals of the French Assembly
undertook to procure a modification.
to save the tithes of the church,
whereupon Buzot. the future chief
of the Girondins. took up the re-
bound against that reaction by de-
claring. The property of the church
belonged by right to the nation
That phrase at once became the
keynote of the Revolutionists until
they had effected the confiscation of
church property. upon the ground of
moral right and title. In the same
spirit. the German advocates of con-
f1scation have sounded the note that
the property of the princes is, by
right, the property of the nation
which the rulers had ruined.
And so the French feudal system
of llsOtten wealth for the lords.
and serfdom for the peasants, came
to its end through confiscation. i'm a
movement which, on August 4. 1889,
had begun as measure TO purchase
upon a 30-year payment plan. II
ended August IL by seizure without
compensation. when public excite
ment had carried the leaders beyond
their original purposes. The essen
tial clauses of the mea sure as finally
, passed within a week, were as fol-
lows:
The National Assembly entirely
destroys the feudal system. and de-
crees that the feudal rights. which
are derived from real or personal
mainmOrte and personal servitude.
and those which represent them. are
abolished without indemnity.
All feudal jurisdictions are sup
pressed without indemnity.
Tithes of all kinds and dues. which
take the place of them. under what
ever name they may be known and
levied are abolished
Conditions are not entirely parallel
between the feudal peasants of
France at the outbreak of the Rev
olution and of the citizens of the
Republic of Germany today. in that
!. the French prior TO their uprising
were still under the official power OF
! their lords. while the Germans now
are out from under the Kaisers
scepter. But the financial conditions
are nearly alike. since the Kaiser and
the princes and minor kings hold
vast property which the Republicans
claim "by right belongs to the ma
tion.' and which is paying no taxes
to the national treasury. nor afford
ing hospita liZation for the victims OF
the "Kaisers War"
The antipathy of the French
against the feudal lords increased as
the Revolution progressed. and when
the reactionaries persisted In at
tempts to undo the acts of the Ma
tional Assembly of 1889 and 1890 the
Legislative Assembly of 1892, through
its feudal committee, formulated
decree, passed June IS. confirming
the confiscation. In the debate at
that time, Dorliac declared that all
feudal rights" were due to the SOW
ereignty which the lords had ac-
quired by force" In that debate Ii
was clear that the national interests
were in conflict with those of a privi-
legged ninority-and the ma jority in
terests ultimately trilmphsd ovAr
technical titles to the vast eatataa.
Copyright, 1898, BIZ Paul y. 6psNxab