OCCUPYING OWNERSHIP 197 



methods we have described. In France it remained, 

 but the tyrannies and oppression practised by the 

 landed aristocracy of that country made the peasants' 

 lives miserable almost beyond endurance. 



The Revolution, as far as the peasantry were con- 

 cerned, was in no sense a political one. Mr. John 

 Morley, speaking of the state of affairs after the death 

 of Louis XV. (1774), and of the "mortal paralysis" 

 with which the existing political system was smitten, 

 says: "No substantial reconstruction was possible, be- 

 cause all the evils came from the sinister influence of 

 the nobles, the clergy, or the financiers; and these 

 classes, informally bound together against the common 

 weal, were too strong for either the sovereign or the 

 ablest minister to thrust aside." ^ 



But the French cultivators had not political insight 

 enough to understand this combination ; they only 

 knew that their condition was one of deep wretched- 

 ness. The Revolution in their eyes was simply a war 

 against their immediate oppressors. Their cry was 

 *' Guerre mix Chateaux, Paix aux Chaumieres ! " (War 

 against the Mansions ; Peace to the Cottages) ! They 

 saw in the Revolution a way of freeing themselves 

 from the yoke of misery that galled and worried them 

 in every incident of their lives. The " rights " and 

 "privileges" of the seigneurs were so numerous that 

 they dogged the peasant at every step. The ''Droit 

 de colombier" — to wit, the exclusive right of the 

 lord to keep countless pigeons, which fed on the 



^ " Critical Miscellanies," first series. John Morley. 



In a previous reign (Louis XIV.) a great minister, referring to these 

 classes, told the king : " Their tables and their stables consume the 

 patrimony of the poor, and if in the midst of their plenty they cast their 

 eyes on a poor wretch, they command he should be taken out of their 

 sight instead of taking pity on him." (Colbert.) 



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