The Revolution 335 



ing provinces, at the same time that the king, through the organ 

 of so popular a minister as Monsieur Necker, was decreeing an 

 absolutely free transport of corn throughout the kingdom, and 

 even at the requisition of the National Assembly itself. But 

 this was nothing new; it was their common practice. The 

 parliament of Rouen passed an arret against killing of calves; 

 it was a preposterous one, and opposed by administration; but 

 it had its full force ; and had a butcher dared to offend against 

 it, he would have found, by the rigour of his punishment, who 

 was his master. Inoculation was favoured by the court in Louis 

 XV. 's time ; but the parliament of Paris passed an arret against 

 it, much more effective in prohibiting than the favour of the 

 court in encouraging that practice. Instances are innumerable, 

 and I may remark that the bigotry, ignorance, false principles, 

 and tyranny of these bodies were generally conspicuous ; and that 

 the court (taxation excepted) never had a dispute with a parlia- 

 ment, but the parliament was sure to be wrong. Their constitu- 

 tion, in respect to the administration of justice, was so truly 

 rotten that the members sat as judges, even in causes of private 

 property in which they were themselves the parties, and have, 

 in this capacity, been guilty of oppressions and cruelties which 

 the crown has rarely dared to attempt. 



It is impossible to justify the excesses of the people on their 

 taking up arms; they were certainly guilty of cruelties; it is 

 idle to deny the facts, for they have been proved too clearly to 

 admit of a doubt. But is it really the people to whom we are 

 to impute the whole .^ — Or to their oppressors who had kept 

 them so long in a state of bondage? He who chooses to be 

 served by slaves, and by ill-treated slaves, must know that he 

 holds both his property and life by a tenure far different from 

 those who prefer the service of well treated freemen ; and he who 

 dines to the music of groaning sufferers must not, in the moment 

 of insurrection, complain that his daughters are ravished and 

 then destroyed and that his sons' throats are cut. When such 

 evils happen, they surely are more imputable to the tyranny of 

 the master than to the cruelty of the servant. The analogy- 

 holds with the French peasants — the murder of a seigneur, or a 

 chateau in flames, is recorded in every newspaper; the rank of 

 the person who suffers attracts notice; but where do we find the 

 register of that seigneur's oppressions of his peasantry, and his 

 exactions of feudal services, from those whose children were 

 dying around them for want of bread ? Where do we find the 

 minutes that assigned these starving wretches to some vile petty- 



