FRANCE. 
?66 
employment, and was not bound to accept of any com- 
mutation in money.. They were moreover fubjeft to 
the nobles in a thoufand oppreffive ways. The nobles 
retained all their ancient manerial or patrimonial jurif- 
diftions. The common people, being anciently Haves, 
had obtained their freedom upon different conditions. In 
many places they and their pofterity remained bound to 
pay a perpetual tribute to their feudal lords. Such tri¬ 
butes formed a confiderable part of the revenue of many 
of the provincial nobles. No man could be an officer of 
the army, who did not produce proofs of nobility for four 
generations. The parliaments, latterly, although origi¬ 
nally of the tiers etat, attempted alfo to introduce a rule 
that none but the nobleffe fhould be admitted into their 
order. In l'uch a fituation, it will not be accounted fur- 
prifing that the common people of France were extremely 
fuperftitious and ignorant. They were, however, obfe- 
quioufly devoted to their monarch, and whatever con¬ 
cerned him. In 1754, when Louis XV. was taken ill at 
Metz, the whole nation was truly in a kind of defpair. 
The courier and his horfe that brought the news of his 
recovery to Paris, were both almoft futfocated by the em¬ 
braces of the people. 
But the greateff of all the evils that can be fuggefted, 
was the infecurity of individuals in their own perfons. In 
France no man was fafe. The fecrets of private families 
were fearched into ; and nothing was unknown to the 
jealous inquifition of the police. Men were feized by 
lettres de cachet when they leaft expended it, and their fami¬ 
lies had no means iff difcovering their fate. The fentence 
of a court of law againft a nobleman was ufually reveried 
by the minifter. No book was publifhed without the 
licence of a cenfor-general appointed by the court, and 
the minifter was accountable to none but the king. No 
account was to be demanded of the expenditure of the 
public money. Enormous gratifications and peniions were 
given as the reward of the moft infamous fervices. The 
jfupreme power of the ftate was ufually lodged with a fa¬ 
vourite miftrefs, and (he was fometimes a woman taken 
from public proftitution. This was not indeed the cafe 
under Louis XVI. but it was neverthelefs one of the 
misfortunes of his life that he was far from being abfolute 
in his own family. Still, however, with all its faults, the 
French court was the moft fplendid and polilhed in Eu¬ 
rope. It was more the refort of men of talents and'lite- 
rature of every kind ; and there they met with more am¬ 
ple protection than any where elfe. The court was often 
jealous of their productions, but they met with the moft 
diftinguifned attention from men of fortune and rank ; in- 
fomuch that for a century pa(t the French have given the 
law to Europe in all departments of tafte, of literature, 
and of every polite accomplilhment. The gay elegance 
that prevailed at court diffufed itfelf through the nation; 
and, amidft much internal mifery, it gave to a foreigner 
the appearance of a mixture of happinefs, of levity, and 
vanity. 
The eftablifhed religion of France had for fome time 
•paft been gradually undermined. It had been, folenmly 
affaulted by philofophers in various elaborate perform¬ 
ances ; and men of wit, among whom Voltaire took the 
lead, had attacked it w'ith the dangerous weapon of ridi¬ 
cule. The Roman catholic religion is much expofed in 
this refpect, in confequence of the multitude of falfe 
miracles and legendary tales with which its hilfory 
abounds. Without dilcriminating betwixt the refpefta- 
ble principles on which it refts, and the fuperftitious fol¬ 
lies by which they had been defaced, the French nation 
learned to laugh at the whole, and rejefted inftead of 
being willing to reform the religion of their fathers. Thus 
the fir ft order in the ftate had already begun to be regarded 
as ufelefs, and the minds of men were prepared for impor¬ 
tant changes. 
We cannot here avoid mentioning a phyfical event, 
which affifted not a little in producing many of the con- 
vulfions attending the revolution—a ge&eral fcarcity of 
grain, which occurred about that period. On Sunday the. 
13th of July 1788, about nine in the morning, without 
any eclipfe, a dreadful darknefs fuddenly overlpread feve- 
ral parts of France. It was the prelude of fuch a temped 
as is unexampled in the temperate climates of Europe. 
Wind, rain, hail, and thunder, feemed to contend in im- 
petuofity ; but the hail was the great inftrument of ruin. 
Inftead of the rich profpefts of an early autumn, the face 
of nature in the fpace of an hour prefented the dreary 
aipeft of universal winter. The foil was converted into 
a morals, the (landing corn beaten into the quagmire, the 
vines broken to pieces, the fruit-trees demoliftied, and 
unmelted hail lying in heaps like rocksof folid ice. Even 
the robuft foreft trees were unable to vvithftand the fury 
of the tempeft. The hail was compofed of enormous folid 
and angular pieces of ice, fome of them weighing from 
eight to ten ounces. The country people, beaten down 
in the fields on their way to church, amidft this concuftion 
of the elements, concluded that the laft day was arrived ; 
and, fcarcely attempting to extricate themfelves, lay de- 
fpairing and half fuffocated amidft the water and the mud, 
expecting the immediate ditfolution of all things. The 
Itorm was irregular in its devaftations. While feveral rich 
diftrifts were laid entirely wafte, fome intermediate portions 
of country were comparatively little injured. One of fixty 
fquare leagues had not a Tingle ear of corn or a fruit of any 
kind left. Of the fixty-fix parifhes in thediftrift of P011- 
toife, forty-three were entirely defolated, and of the re¬ 
maining twenty-three, fome loft two-thirds and others half 
their harveft. The I file of France, being the diftrift in 
which Paris is (ituated, and the Orleannois, appear to 
have buffered chiefly : the damage there, upon a mode¬ 
rate eftimate, amounted to So,ooo,oooof livres, or between 
three and four millions fterling. Such a calamity mull at 
any period have been feverely felt; but occurring on the 
eve of a great political revolution, and amidft a general 
fcarcity throughout Europe, it was peculiarly unfortu¬ 
nate, and gave more embarraffment to the government 
than perhaps any other event whatever. Numbers of fa¬ 
milies found it neceffary to contract their mode of living 
for a time, and to difmifs their fervants, who were thus, 
left deftitute of bread. Added to the public difcontent 
and political diffenfions, it produced fuch an effedl upon 
the people in general, that the nation feemed to have- 
changed its character; and, inftead of that levity by 
which it had ever been diftinguifhed, a fettled gloom ap¬ 
peared to be fixed on every countenance. 
Such was the wretched ftate of France, and fuch the 
miferably impoverifhed condition of the people, when 
Louis XVI. equally diftrelfed with the meaneft of his. 
fubjefts for the want of pecuniary aids, and after apply ing 
for relief in vain to the meetings of his parliaments, his. 
notables, and the ftates-general, was fatally driven to an¬ 
nihilate the fabric of the ancient conftitution, and bend 
beneath the undefined powers of a new and imperious au¬ 
thority, which daily and hourly acquired new ftrength, 
and manifefted a haughty and invincible fpirit. Such 
was the National Affembly, in the moment when Louis,, 
on the brink of a precipice, determined yet to compel the 
three privileged orders, the nobility, the clergy, and the 
commons to vote as feparate bodies in their refpeftive 
chambers, and as three diftinft members of the new con¬ 
ftitution. 
On the 23d of June 1789, the king convened the firfl 
legitimate meeting of the National Affembly in the grand 
faloon of the palace of Verfailles. His majefty opened 
the affembly by a fpeech, in which he complained ot that 
divifion which he had heard prevailed among them, (o 
fatal to the hopes of the people, and io contrary to the, 
views of the fovereign. This was followed by a declara¬ 
tion from the keeper of the feals : in the moft decifive 
language it infilled upon the ancient diftinftion of the 
three orders as effential to the exiftence of the ftate ; it 
eftablifhed particular rules for their deliberations; it abo- 
iiftied and declared void the celebrated declaration ot the 
1 , commons 
