Show The Causes of the French Revolution IN a lofty apartment magnificent in m n white and gold with great glass stained stained glass windows softly admitting the light of heaven with walls hung with rare paintings and rich tapestry warmed by byan an immense open fireplace fill filled d with glowing logs on a luxurious couch framed in silken curtains reclines a a haired fair-haired child it is the great grand son of Louis XIV of France To this boys boy's II household belong over two hundred and fifty nobles whose onerous duties are to live riotously at the ex expense expense expense ex- ex pense of a starving people and to to II attend the prince On a cold bleak plain a driving sleet is falling a wretched woman with a bundle in her arms emerges from a miserable hovel she wanders about aimlessly for a time then falls overcome overcome over over- come corne b by weakness Presently she revives revives revives re re- vives tenderly places her burd burden n beneath beneath beneath be be- neath some low shrubbery and like a wild beast tears at the hard earth It Itis Itis Itis is one of the peasant women women omen of France a young mother seeking a burial place for her babe dead of cold and hunger upon its mothers mother's breast She hears a bugle call my lords lord's hunting party approaches she barely escapes but as the reckless nobles sweep on merciless hoofs trample the tiny corpse The woman utters a piercing shriek the lords answer with a merry peal of laughter and are gone She lifts her pinched famine-pinched face and long bony hands toward heaven and the parched parche l lips murmur a curse II Look on this picture and on that They represent the condition of the two great classes into which the people of ot France were divided during the centuries centuries centuries cen cen- preceding the French Revolution The peasantry were always slaves under the military hierarchy of the Barbarian their vassalage was galling under the feudal anarchy it was severe under the despotism despotism- of kings it became able In corruption and oppression the church was the pattern of the state authority came from on high and was shrouded in mystery inquiry was blasphemy blasphemy blasphemy blas blas- phemy and servitude a virtue Thus in France the people silently endured the two equally infamous governments whose acts and crimes every day belied belled their If the spirit of philosophy stirred mens men's souls to inquiry or reason these mighty powers so divinely authorized applied the faggot the rack the thumbscrew dungeons inquisitions massacres intimidated unhappy victims the serf was ground down until he was little better than the soil from which he obtained a bare subsistence In the reign of Louis XIV the Grand Sovereign the absolute monarchy was definitely established it appeared like a smiling magnificent fiend The crown arrogated the right to dispose of life and property at its pleasure The privileged class including the nobility I and the patrician prelates the bishops and and nd abbots of the church owned two- two thirds of all the land and were almost exempt from taxation The unprivileged unprivileged unprivileged consisting of the humble clergy the people the toilers the Helots of France Francl posse possessed sed scarcely third one-third of the soil enjoyed absolutely no privileges leges leges-If leges if we except paying taxes to the lords taxes to the priests taxes to the king This monarchs monarch's expensive wars and magnificent buildings increased taxation taxation taxation taxa taxa- tion depleted the treasury and a severe winter reduced the people to starvation But to the superficial observer the court ot of France was the most splendid since Neros Nero's her military successes were the talk of the hour hers was the gorgeous seat of learning whose brIlliancy brilliancy brilliancy bril brIl- so penetrating influenced allf all f Europe Proud vain foolish country t Lt She groaned beneath the heavy load but endured for vanity's sake In his exertions to diffuse knowledge the king hastened on the awful storm whose distant rumblings could even now be heard Men awoke from their lethargy began to think and to look about them to inquire why the toilers should die of cold and hunger while the idlers were lolling in wealth to discuss discuss discuss dis dis- cuss the causes of the evils and even to suggest a remedy God places retributive retributive retributive tive justice in our very acts Thus a aking aking aking king applied the spark which lighted the revolutionary fire of French French philo- philo sophy How quickly it flamed up How rapidly it spread How awful was its devastation The two great infidel writers of the ti time e poured oil upon the blaze V Voltaire's Voltaire's Vol Vol- 01 taire's aim was to abolish theocracy and to establish religious toleration and Ii liberty berty Under the very protection of thrones this peerless satirist struck right and left at the evils and abuses of church and of nobility expressed what the people were vaguely feeling jeered at their galling chains and bade the cowards doff them Rosseau the sentimentalist would abolish every arrangement of politics church and society and have the people return to the primitive state the government should be a r republic public and grant universal sal license One has said that Vol taire's followers would overturn altars while Rosseau's would raise them The he influence of these two great writers upon an awakening people was almost terrible in its reaching far power Voltaire himself said that he did more even than Luther Under the weak sensual Lou Louis is XV despotism rushed on to its doom the the burdensome taxes were increased the miserable peasants sweat blood that i iJ J king and nobility might revel in awful 1 extravagance in gilded licentiousness i iThe The period was one of shame and ands s j humiliation for France glory no longer gratified her suffering childrens children's vanity They nursed their wrongs The storm muttered But the taxes must be paid prison doors yawned for all who were in arrears And yet heads fields must not be fenced it would interfere with my lords lord's hunting party the sleek deer must graze in the crops the peasant dare not riot drive them away there no hoeing and weeding my lords lord's partridges partridges partridges par par- might fly from their nests and the eggs grow cold the stubble stubble stubble stub stub- ble must not be remo removed ed the dainty birds might shiver The slave must even pay for the privilege of grinding barley between two stones at my lords lord's mill What a striking contrast between the fat sleek game and the wretched serfs with their lank bony half- half starved bodies their black burnt livid skins their hollow hungry eyes and above all the dumb hopeless idiotic expression of their faces with the stupid open half-open mouth Surely the human brute of my lord suffers by the comparison And what of the wealthy intelligent middle class They were forced to endure the intolerant insolence of the nobility Because plebeians they were refused civil ecclesiastical and m military ili tary dignities no matter what their genius they could only enter a profession on certain conditions if rich enough and foolish e enough lOugh to purchase a title of nobility they were regarded as despised despised despised de Parvenus Men raised their eyes to to heaven and shrieked How Howlong Howlong long 0 O Lord t As Louis XV closed his eyes in death he heard this awful wail of the people and shuddered at the gusts of the now fast fast approaching ching storm Louis XVI and the beautiful brilliant brilliant brilliant bril bril- unfortunate Marie Antoinette ascended the throne Then came the word from across the wat waters waters rs that America was uprising against her oppressors Sympathetic France already already already al al- ready in a fervent became like a seething seething seething see see- thing volcano her enthusiasm knew no bounds her king took the most suicidal step by aiding the colonists for her soldiers returned full of the spirit of revolt against tyrants The people no longer endured silently The severe winter of 9 1788 found them again reduced to starvation there was a deficit deficit deft deft- cit of seven millions sterling in the treasury in vain did the kings king's ministers ministers minis minis- enact measures to aid the im impoverished impoverished paver country Something must be done Reluctantly Louis summoned the State-General State and thus acknowledges the weakness of the government and the necessity of innovations But too late The people begin assembling all ll France is is' is clamoring for bread vaga vaga- Vagabonds vagabonds 1 bonds flock to Paris parading their nakedness and want The slightest cause will precipitate the trouble It comes Someone whispers that the guns of the Bastile that ancient seat of despotism are turned upon the city The starving mob become raging howling howl I ing demons Let us storm the Bastile Bastile Bastile Bas Bas- tile and revolution is no longer a adream adream adream dream but an awful reality N Now ow blood must flow like water to wash out the wrongs of ages kings and heads queens must be sacrificed proud must be laid low tender innocent babes must be torn from their parents' parents arms armsto armsto to be mowed down like hay before the scythe At the trie appeal of the demagogue gue and the summons of the an anarchist the trodden down-trodden slaves rise from the earth like maddened beasts to rend and tear their oppressors Such was the French Revolution Indeed a tale of blood and tears of But let not the revolting scenes carnage blind the eye to the justice of and noble its cause to its true spirit aims Let us bear in mind that people never revolt from fickleness or the i mere desire of change It is the impatience impatience impatience tience of suffering which alone has this effect A mighty people had toiled and endured for centuries The nobility had sapped the strength of their bodies the church had starved their souls The too awful cries of hunger grew more and more distinct Then came sweeping sw over Europe like an un uncontrollable uncontrollable con con- flood the necessity of change reform and ald innovation Men awoke to the truth that it is not in the economy ot otan of-an an wise All-wise Creator for thousands to suffer that one may enjoy The far West Vest the home of inspiration tion was the first to cast of the yoke of tyranny The next blow was struck by impetuous France the most sinned against and perhaps the most to sin with one supreme effort she hurled despotism from its seat forever The lesson thus given to kings was i indeed deed a terrible one Sturdy England slower to act has a queen it is true but what more is her title than an empty name Methodical Germany whose blood flows even more sluggishly is slowly but none the the less surely approaching her goal the goal the republic Even Kven suffering Russia and abject slavish Turkey half halfin halfin halfin in joy half in fear are straining their to catch the sound of the ears oncoming oncoming on com ing majestic tread of liberty And now more than tha one hundred years after the terrible French Revolution Revolution Revolution tion what of our own fair country this boasted land of freedom Has liberty been abused Does she hang her head in shame and sorrow What mean these mutterings throughout the theland theland theland land Dissatisfaction Has this nation the very cradle of liberty permitted a afew afew afew few to become wealthy and powerful all-powerful Does a sovereign people acknowledge its inability to govern itself If so where and to whom is it to look for aid Let men reflect let them profit by bythe bythe bythe the awful lessons lessons of of the past let them pause in their blind selfishness lest our our fair land be torn by internal dissensions lest anarchy lift her like hydra-like head scattering death and desolation and democracy be but another term for scorn L. L S. S Peirce |