The French Revolution, vol 1 | Page 7

their fortune, are
they residents, and what their exemptions amount to? In replying, the
attorney who holds the pen, names and points out with his finger each
privileged individual, criticizes his way of living, and estimates his
fortune, calculates the injury done to the village by his immunities,
inveighs against the taxes and the tax-collectors. On leaving these
assemblies the villager broods over what he has just heard. He sees his
grievances no longer singly as before, but in mass, and coupled with
the enormity of evils under which his fellows suffer. Besides this, they
begin to disentangle the causes of their misery: the King is good -- why
then do his collectors take so much of our money? This or that canon or
nobleman is not unkind -- why then do they make us pay in their place?
-- Imagine that a sudden gleam of reason should allow a beast of

burden to comprehend the contrast between the species of horse and
mankind. Imagine, if you can, what its first ideas would be in relation
to the coachmen and drivers who bridle and whip it and again in
relation to the good-natured travelers and sensitive ladies who pity it,
but who to the weight of the vehicle add their own and that of their
luggage.
Likewise, in the mind of the peasant, athwart his perplexed brooding, a
new idea, slowly, little by little, is unfolded: -- that of an oppressed
multitude of which he makes one, a vast herd scattered far beyond the
visible horizon, everywhere ill used, starved, and fleeced. Towards the
end of 1788 we begin to detect in the correspondence of the intendants
and military commandants the dull universal muttering of coming
wrath. Men's characters seem to change; they become suspicious and
restive. -- And just at this moment, the Government, dropping the reins,
calls upon them to direct themselves.[11]. In the month of November
1787, the King declared that he would convoke the States-General. On
the 5th of July 1788, he calls for memoranda (des mémoires) on this
subject from every competent person and body. On the 8th of August
he fixes the date of the session. On the 5th of October he convokes the
notables, in order to consider the subject with them. On the 27th of
December he grants a double representation to the Third-Estate,
because "its cause is allied with generous sentiments, and it will always
obtain the support of public opinion." The same day he introduces into
the electoral assemblies of the clergy a majority of curés[12], "because
good and useful pastors are daily and closely associated with the
indigence and relief of the people," from which it follows "that they are
much more familiar with their sufferings" and necessities. On the 24th
January 1789, he prescribes the procedure and method of the meetings.
After the 7th of February writs of summons are sent out one after the
other. Eight days after, each parish assembly begins to draw up its
memorial of grievances, and becomes excited over the detailed
enumeration of all the miseries which it sets down in writing. -- All
these appeals and all these acts are so many strokes, which reverberate,
in the popular imagination. "It is the desire of His Majesty," says the
order issued, "that every one, from the extremities of his kingdom, and
from the most obscure of its hamlets, should be certain of his wishes
and protests reaching him." Thus, it is all quite true: there can be no

mistake about it, the thing is sure. The people are invited to speak out,
they are summoned, and they are consulted. There is a disposition to
relieve them; henceforth their misery shall be less; better times are
coming. This is all they know about it. A few month after, in July,[13]
the only answer a peasant girl can make to Arthur Young is,
"something was to be done by some great folks for such poor ones, but
she did not know who nor how." The thing is too complicated, beyond
the reach of a stupefied and mechanical brain. - One idea alone emerges,
the hope of immediate relief. The persuasion that one is entitled to it,
the resolution to aid it with every possible means. Consequently, an
anxious waiting, a ready fervor, a tension of the will simply due to the
waiting for the opportunity to let go and take off like a irresistible
arrow towards the unknown end which will reveal itself all of a sudden.
Hunger is to mark this sudden target out for them.
The market must be supplied with wheat; the farmers and land-owners
must bring it; wholesale buyers, whether the Government or individuals,
must not be allowed to send it elsewhere. The wheat must be sold at a
low price; the price