FRENCH REVOLUTION 



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FRENCH REVOLUTION 



reorganization by the privileged 

 classes, the disastrous failure of a 

 succession of incompetent ministers 

 to discover any remedy for the 

 chaos, led to the suggestion that 

 the Government should consult the 

 nation by summoning an Assembly 

 of the three estates, noblesse, clergy 

 and commons, an obsolete form of a 

 National Assembly which had not 

 been called together for the best 

 part of two centuries. 



In Jan., 1789, the States-General 

 was summoned. At the beginning 

 of May it assembled, the Third 

 Estate, or commons, appearing by 

 its elected representatives, among 

 whom were included a sprinkling of 

 aristocratic sympathisers. It was 

 apparent that, if the three estates 

 voted as separate chambers, as 

 the government intended, the two 

 privileged chambers would be in 

 permanent agreement, resolved to 



French Revolution. Enrolling volunteers to serve in the Revolutionary armies 



From a picture by Vinchon, at VeriaiUet 



14 the mob marched upon the Armed Paris organized itself as the 



upon 

 Bastille, the fortress-prison which 



French Revolution. Roll call of the last victims of the Reign of Terror, 1794. 



The seated figure in the centre is Andre de Chenier, who wrote his most famous 



poems in the pr ison of Saint-Lazare 



From a picture by C. L Muller, at Versailles 



surrender no fraction of the privi- 

 leges which in their view consti- 

 tuted the safeguards of society. 

 The voice of the Third Estate would 

 count for nothing unless all the 

 chambers voted together, giving 

 the preponderant voting power to 

 the preponderant numbers of the 

 Third Estate. 



This was the first battle-ground, 

 and the fight was won by the Third 

 Estate, led by the aristocrat Mira- 

 beau. Its delegates assumed the 

 title of the National Assembly, 

 and were joined by many of the 

 representatives of the lower clergy. 

 The sympathies of the whole popu- 

 lation of Paris and the whole rank 

 and file of the soldiery were with 

 them. An appeal to force was too 

 dangerous to be attempted ; the 

 government gave way and the 

 Estates were constituted as a 

 single chamber. 



The court sought to save itself 

 and to overawe Paris by means of 

 mercenary regiments, Germans and 

 Swiss. Paris armed itself ; on July 



stood as the material embodiment 

 of the old system, and stormed it. 



National Guard. The fall of the 

 Bastille was hailed as typifying the 

 fall of the old order. The National 

 Guard was placed under the com- 

 mand of the popular nobleman 

 Lafayette ; it adopted the tri- 

 colour for its colours. All over 

 the country mobs rose, and the 

 down-trodd'en peasantry turned 

 their fury upon the chateaux of the 

 seigneurs, while payment of taxes 

 was refused. The whole machinery 

 of government had broken down, 

 though some semblance of order 

 was preserved by the efforts of the 

 middle classes and by the organiza- 

 tion in the provinces of National 

 Guards after the Paris model. 



On the other hand the king, 

 Louis XVI, a man hopelessly lack- 

 ing in insight, but with the best of 

 intentions and abundant personal 

 courage, won a moment's popu- 

 larity by boldly presenting himself 

 in Paris, obviously at the risk of 



French Revolution. The arrest of Robespierre amidst the turmoil and strife 

 of the night of 9-10 Thermidor, 1794 



From a contemporary print 



