The French Revolution, vol 1 | Page 8

must be cut down and fixed, so that the baker can
sell bread at two sous the pound. Grain, flour, wine, salt, and provisions
must pay no more duties. Seignorial dues and claims, ecclesiastical
tithes, and royal or municipal taxes must no longer exist. On the
strength of this idea disturbances broke out on all sides in March, April,
and May. Contemporaries " do not know what to think of such a
scourge;[14] they cannot comprehend how such a vast number of
criminals, without visible leaders, agree amongst themselves
everywhere to commit the same excesses just at the time when the
States-General are going to begin their sittings." The reason is that,
under the ancient régime, the conflagration was smoldering in a closed
chamber; the great door is suddenly opened, the air enters, and
immediately the flame breaks out.
III. The provinces during the first six months of 1789. - Effects of the
famine.
At first there are only intermittent, isolated fires, which are
extinguished or go out of themselves; but, a moment after, in the same
place, or very near it, the sparks again appear. Their number, like their
recurrence, shows the vastness, depth, and heat of the combustible
matter, which is about to explode. In the four months, which precede

the taking of the Bastille, over three hundred outbreaks may be counted
in France. They take place from month to month and from week to
week, in Poitou, Brittany, Touraine, Orléanais, Normandy,
Ile-de-France, Picardy, Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy, Nivernais,
Auvergne, Languedoc, and Provence. On the 28th of May the
parliament of Rouen announces robberies of grain, "violent and bloody
tumults, in which men on both sides have fallen," throughout the
province, at Caen, Saint-Lô, Mortain, Granville, Evreux, Bernay,
Pont-Andemer, Elboeuf; Louviers, and in other sections besides. On the
20th of April Baron de Bezenval, military commander in the Central
Provinces, writes: "I once more lay before M. Necker a picture of the
frightful condition of Touraine and of Orléanais. Every letter I receive
from these two provinces is the narrative of three or four riots, which
are put down with difficulty by the troops and constabulary,"[15] -- and
throughout the whole extent of the kingdom a similar state of things is
seen. The women, as is natural, are generally at the head of these
outbreaks. It is they who, at Montlhéry, rip open the sacks of grain with
their scissors. On learning each week, on market day that the price of a
loaf of bread advances three, four, or seven sous, they break out into
shrieks of rage: at this rate for bread, with the small salaries of the men,
and when work fails,[16] how can a family be fed? Crowds gather
around the sacks of flour and the doors of the bakers. Amidst outcries
and reproaches some one in the crowd makes a push; the proprietor or
dealer is hustled and knocked down. The shop is invaded, the
commodity is in the hands of the buyers and of the famished, each one
grabbing for himself, pay or no pay, and running away with the booty.
-- Sometimes a party is made up beforehand[17] At Bray-sur-Seine, on
the 1st of May, the villagers for four leagues around, armed with stones,
knives, and cudgels, to the number of four thousand, compel the
metayers and farmers, who have brought grain with them, to sell it at 3
livres, instead of 4 livres 10 sous the bushel. They threaten to do the
same thing on the following market-day: but the farmers do not return,
the storehouse remains empty. Now soldiers must be at hand, or the
inhabitants of Bray will be pillaged. At Bagnols, in Languedoc, on the
1st and 2nd of April, the peasants, armed with cudgels and assembled
by tap of drum, "traverse the town, threatening to burn and destroy
everything if flour and money are not given to them." They go to

private houses for grain, divide it amongst themselves at a reduced
price, "promising to pay when the next crop comes round," and force
the Consuls to put bread at two sous the pound, and to increase the
day's wages four sous. -- Indeed this is now the regular thing; it is not
the people who obey the authorities, but the authorities who obey the
people. Consuls, sheriffs, mayors, municipal officers, town-clerks,
become confused and hesitating in the face of this huge clamor; they
feel that they are likely to be trodden under foot or thrown out of the
windows. Others, with more firmness, being aware that a riotous crowd
is mad, and having scruples to spill blood; yield for the time being,
hoping that at the next market-day there will be more soldiers and
better precautions taken. At Amiens, "after a very violent outbreak,"[18]
they decide to take the