F R A 
her fallen fituation with fnvage tranfport; they ftill attri¬ 
buted to her the defign of attempting to llarve them into 
fubjedtion by a fictitious famine ; and fo lively were the 
impreffions of their own diftrefs, that their indignation 
precluded that fympathy which is rarely denied to the 
unfortunate great. About feven o’clock in the evening 
his majefty and the royal family entered the capital, ra¬ 
ther amidft the reproaches than the acclamations of the 
inhabitants ; and the king, after having prefented himfelf 
at the Hotel de Ville, and received an addrefs from M. 
Bailly, was, with his royal confort, efcorted to the Thuil- 
leries. 
The firft meafure of the king after his arrival at Paris, 
was to iffue a proclamation to allay the tumults in the 
provinces ; and to reprefent his departure from Verfailles 
rather as his own choice than the effedt of condraint. 
He dated, that he had with confidence fixed his refidence 
in the capital, the inhabitants of which he was well af- 
fured would never join in any attempt to redrain the li¬ 
berty of their fovereign ; and he added, that as foon as 
the national affembly diould have terminated the grand 
object of their labours, the re-edablidiment of the public 
welfare, that then he would execute the plan that he had 
long conceived, and vi(it, without pomp, the different 
provinces of his kingdom, to prove by his prefence that 
all his people were equally dear to him. This procla¬ 
mation was followed by a fecond from the national adem¬ 
bly, in which it was declared, that though liberty was 
the fource of profperity to empires, yet unredrained li¬ 
cence was fubverfive of their dignity and importance ; 
that although, during the hour of tranquillity, the exe¬ 
cution of the laws might be enforced without any extra¬ 
ordinary exertion of the public authority, yet in cafes of 
particular emergency, particular expedients mud be re¬ 
torted to; that, impreffed with thefe confiderations, and 
defirous of preserving the tranquillity of France, the na¬ 
tional adembly had thought proper to form a code of 
martial law ; by this code all municipal officers, in in- 
ftances of civil commotion, were authorifed to employ 
military force, and were to be accountable whenever they 
neglected to adopt the means with which they were thus 
entruded. 
From the moment the king had fixed his refidence at 
Paris, the national adembly undertook to provide for the 
deficiencies of the executive government, which had been 
ftated in May 17S9, by M. Necker, at fifty-fix millions of 
livres, and was now fwelled by the fuppreffion of the 
duty on fait, and the deficiencies in the cudoms and ex- 
cife, to a mod enormous amount. To provide for this de¬ 
ficit, the eyes of the adembly were once more turned to 
the property of the church. The affluence of the cleri-, 
cal order had been feverely narrowed by the abolition of 
tythes; but their poffeffions dill prefented an immenfe 
fource of wealth, and the new government were deter¬ 
mined on feizing it. To avert fo injurious a decree, the 
archbifhop of Aix offered, in the name of the eccleliadi- 
cal body, a contribution of four hundred millions of li¬ 
vres, or near feventeen millions derling, provided they 
might be permitted to enjoy their revenues in peace. 
Yet in November 1789, the adembly decreed, “ that all 
ecclefiadical property was at the difpofal of the nation 
lubjedt to the charge of providing for the expence of di¬ 
vine vvorfhip, the fupport of the miniders of the church, 
and the relief of the poor ; but to be placed under the in. 
fpection of the different provinces. This meafure was 
followed by a proclamation fr.om the king, dating that at 
the requeft of the national adembly, he had thought pro¬ 
per to fufpend the nomination of all benefices, with the 
foie exception of curacies ; and he therefore commanded 
all tribunals, adminidrative bodies, and municipalities, to 
make known this ordonnance, and to refpedt it asthe'eda- 
blifiied law <jf the king. 
In the beginning of February 1790, all poffeffors of 
benefices, or of penfions on benefices, under the above- 
mentioned proclamation, were enjoined to declare befoie 
N C E. 775 
the municipality of the city which they inhabited, or 
were neared to, the number, the title, and the fituation, of 
the benefices that they poffeffed, asiwell as of all penfions 
which they enjoyed ; under the penalty of forfeiting thofe 
benefices and penfions which they omitted to fpecify. At 
the lame time it was declared, that in every order 
throughout the different municipalities of the kingdom, 
one religious houfe, where there exided two, diould be 
fuppreffed ; two in every>4pnicipality where there exid¬ 
ed three ; and three where there exided four; and, on 
the 13th of the fame month, a decree of the national af- 
fiembly prohibited in future all monadic vows in either 
fex. On the 26th the penfions of the religious who 
diould chufe to quit their houfes, were regulated by the 
national adembly. In the mendicant orders, thofe under 
fifty yearsof age wereaffigned feven hundred livres; thofe 
above fifty and Under feventy, eight hundred livres ; and 
thofe above feventy one thoufand livres. In the other 
religious orders, the members under fifty were allotted 
nine hundred livres ; thofe above fifty and under fevea- 
ty, one thoufand livres ; and thofe above feventy twelve 
hundred livres, Thofe religious who were formerly known 
by the name of Jefuits, and who dill redded in France, but 
pod’effed no benefice or penfion, were allotted afum equal 
to that affigned to the other religious of the fame age, and 
fubjebt to the fame regulations. The lay brethren who 
had entered into folemn vows, and thofe who coulcfprove 
any engagement contradted between themfelves and their 
monadery, were to receive, on quitting their houfes, three 
hundred livres per annum, i^they were under fifty yearsof 
age ; four hundred livres if above fifty, and under feven¬ 
ty ; and five hundred'livres if above feventy. 
No fooner had the national adembly paffed this dring 
of motions, than they proceeded to extinguifh the hopes 
of the clergy, by allotting thofe fcanty dipends which 
were in future to circumfcribe their views. Thefe were 
rather proportioned to the wants of the church in its pri¬ 
meval fimplicity, than fuited to the religious edablidi- 
ment of a great and munificent empire. The bifhops, 
and all the dignified clergy, were thus reduced to lefs 
than one fourth part of their former revenues. Of the 
parochial clergy or curates, thofe of Paris were affigned 
lix thoufand livres; in towns where the population ex¬ 
ceeded fifty thoufand fouls, four thoufand livres; in thofe 
where the numbers extended from ten thoufand to fifty 
thoufand, three thoufand livres; where under ten thou¬ 
fand, and above three thoufand, the falary was limited 
to two thoufand four hundred livres; in all towns, un¬ 
der three thoufand fouls, two thoufand livres ; and in the 
villages, from eighteen hundred down to twelve hundred 
livres,- according to the different degrees of population. 
The income of curates was alfo determined from two 
thoufand four hundred to (even hundred livres, according 
to their rank in the church, and the population of their 
parifnes. Thus the fplendour and dignity of the Gallican 
church was virtually annihilated, and its learned and ve¬ 
nerable members at once reduced to beggary and defpair. 
On the abolition of the tenures aud jurifdidtion of the 
clergy, France came to be divided into eighty-three por¬ 
tions, each forming a fquare of eighteen leagues by eigh¬ 
teen, which were called departments ; thefe were apportion¬ 
ed again into diftridts called communes , and the communes 
were fnbdivided into ftill Imaller parts, which received 
the general name of cantons. All voters for the cantons 
or primary affeinblies, were to contribute to the date as 
a qualification, the local value of three days labour; and 
they were entitled to name to the communes one out of 
every two hundred voters ; thefe, for their qualification, 
were to contribute to the public the value often days la¬ 
bour. The communes were to choofe perfons to be re¬ 
turned to the departments, and the departments were to 
elect deputies to the national affembly. Nine deputies 
were allotted to each of the eighty-three departments; 
but from the peculiar compofition of the department of 
Paris, the number, which would have amounted to {even 
hundred. 
