The Revolution 341 



should be, as formerly, at sixteen years of age : ^ that lettres de 

 cachet are useful and even necessary. ^ They solicit to prohibit 

 all di\ision of commons : ^ — to revoke the edict allowing en- 

 closures ; ^ that the export of com be not allowed ; ^ and that 

 public granaries be established.* 



The ill effects of the revolution have been felt more severely 

 l)y the manufacturers of the kingdom than by any other class of 

 the people. The rivalry of the English fabrics, in 1787 and 1788, 

 was strong; and successful ; and the confusions that followed in 

 all parts of the kingdom had the efltect of lessening the incomes 

 of so many landlords, clergy, and men in public employments, 

 and such numbers fled from the kingdom, that the general mass 

 of the consumption of national fabrics sunk perhaps three- 

 fourths. The men whose incomes were untouched lessened their 

 consumption greatly, from an apprehension of the unsettled 

 state of things: the prospects of a civil war suggested to ever)' 

 man that his safety, perhaps his future bread, depended on the 

 money which he could hoard. The inevitable consequence was 

 turning absolutely out of employment immense numbers ofwork 

 men. I have, in the diar)' of the journey, noticed the infinite 

 misery to which I was a witness at Lyons, Abbeville, Amiens, etc., 

 and by intelligence I understood that it was still worse at Rouen : 

 the fact could not be otherwise. This effect, which was absolute 

 death, by starving many thousands of families, was a result that, 

 in my opinion, might have been avoided. It flowed only from 

 carrying things to extremities — from driving the nobility out of 

 the kingdom, and seizing, instead of regulating, the whole regal 

 authority. These violences were not necessary to liberty; they 

 even destroyed true liberty by giving the government of the 

 kingdom in too great a degree to Paris and to the populace of 

 every town. 



The effect of the revolution to the small proprietors of the king- 

 dom must, according to the common nature of events, be, in the 

 end, remarkably happy; and had the new government adopted 

 any principles of taxation except those of the economistes, 

 establishing at the same time an absolute freedom in the business 

 of enclosure, and in the police of corn, the result would probably 

 have been advantageous, even at this recent period. The com- 



' Saintonge, p. 26. Montargis, p. 10. — Author's note. 



* Limoges, p. 22. — Author's note. 

 ' Troyes, p. 11. — Author's note. 



* Metz, p. II. — Author's note. 



'" Rouen, p. 24. — Author's note. 



* I aon, p. II. Bourdon, p. 17. — .iuthor's note. 



