III. 1789. nobles of the province, seeing themselves thus assailed in CHAP. their pecuniary interests, and alarmed at the general effervescence in favour of the Tiers Etat which was taking place over the whole kingdom, refused to concur in the appointment of deputies to the States-generalalleging as an excuse that they were prohibited, by the constitution of the province, from taking any part in an assembly where the two first orders were not secured a separate representation. They flattered themselves that, in this way, they would preserve their privileges, which were highly favourable to the noblesse, in a separate little state, or pays d'états, forgetting that the age of such minute subdivisions of the same country was past,—that the current ran strong in favour of uniform institutions,and that if France was revolutionised, there was little Rév. i. 77. chance that Brittany would be able to live through the 356. storm.1 1 Beaulieu, Essai sur la Lab. ii. 355, Rennes and phiné. Bloody discord soon succeeded this imprudent attempt 137. of the Breton nobility to stop the current which they had Tumults in so recently made such strenuous efforts to put in motion. in DauThe populace of Rennes, indignant at the attempt to arrest the movement by the very persons who had, a few months before, stimulated them to resist the royal authority, armed themselves with sabres, pistols, and pikes, and commenced an indiscriminate attack on the noblesse when assembling to enter the hall of their provincial assemblies. The nobles on their side took up arms, and brought their retainers into the town. A fierce conflict ensued in the streets; great numbers were woundedtwo of the noblesse, M. de Boishue and M. de St. Rival, perished; and the exasperation on both sides soon became so excessive that there is no saying to what it would have led, if the Count de Thiars had not interposed, and Jan. 26, restored, for the time at least, a seeming tranquillity. Meantime, at the first intelligence of these alarms, crowds of ardent patriots flocked to Rennes from Nantes, Angers, and the neighbouring towns, eager to avenge the cause of 1789. III. 1789. CHAP. the Tiers Etat; the nobles summoned the peasantry from their estates to defend them from violence, who appeared in multitudes eager for the affray; and the governor, who was enjoined by Necker not to use military force, but trust to "the persuasion and ascendant of virtue," only succeeded in preventing an immediate civil war by adjourning the estates until the public effervescence had subsided.* Nor were matters less serious in Provence, where the approach of the elections increased to an extraordinary degree the general enthusiasm; although the efforts of the noblesse, who there had great influence over the people, prevented the breaking out of open hostilities. Notwithstanding all Mirabeau's influence, the nobles protested against the King's edict doubling the Tiers Etat; and declared that they would not submit to sending deputies to the States-general, but would proceed in a body, according to the ancient privilege of their order in the states of Dauphiné. No prosecutions or 1 Hist. Parl. punishments followed these disorders, either among the i. 202, 205, noblesse or the Tiers Etat; and Necker soon after 360 Prud- published a general amnesty for all political offences in Brittany. This step increased the belief, already unhappily too general, that in political contests the government did not venture to punish even the most guilty; and that none ran any risk of ultimate responsibility but those who discharged their duty in repressing such disorders.1 Lab. ii. 359, homme, Crimes de la Révolu tion, i. 101. Droz, ii. 132, 136. Duval, i. 43, 45. The elections in Paris, though they were of incomparably more importance, were attended with less dis 66 *To such a length did the general fervour proceed, that the women of Angers published an arrêté on 6th February 1789, in which they set forthNous, mères, sœurs, épouses, et amantes, des jeunes citoyens de la ville d'Angers, assemblées extraordinairement, lecture faite des arrêtés de tous les messieurs de la jeunesse : déclarons que si les troubles recommencent, et en cas de départ, tous les ordres des citoyens se réunissant pour la cause commune, nous nous joindrons à la nation, dont les intérêts sont les nôtres; nous reservant, la force n'étant pas notre partage, de prendre, pour nos fonctions et notre genre d'utilité, les soins des bagages, provisions de bouche, préparatifs de départ, et tous les soins, consolations, et services qui dépendront de nous." -Arrêté des Mères, Sœurs, Epouses, et Amantes, des jeunes citoyens d'Angers, 6th February 1789; Histoire Parlementaire, i. 292. III. 1789. Elections turbance, chiefly because the decided preponderance of CHAP. the Tiers Etat rendered all attempts at a contest on the part of the nobles hopeless. By an ordinance issued by Necker on the 29th March 1789, the city was divided 138. into sixty electoral districts, the inhabitants of which were at Paris. to assemble in one day and choose their deputies, which were fixed at forty, of whom twenty were from the Tiers Etat, ten from the nobles, and ten from the clergy. Paris had the privilege, nowhere else enjoyed by the people of France, of choosing their deputies at once, without the intervention of delegates. So little was the importance of a qualification in the electors understood at that period, that a regulation, practically amounting to household suffrage, was set forth in the royal edict, and excited hardly any attention.* The court was most anxious that the old custom of the president of the Tiers Etat addressing the King on his knees should be observed; but if this was done, it excited little interest whether or not the deputies were elected by universal suffrage. Great military preparations were made for preserving public tranquillity; but the elections passed off without disturbance. Twentyfive thousand electors, under this regulation, were admitted to the right of voting a very great proportion in a city not April 21. at that period containing above seven hundred thousand souls. As might have been expected with such a suffrage, the whole twenty deputies of the Tiers Etat were chosen in the democratic interest; the questions which were ere long so fiercely contested in the National Assembly were all agitated, and excited a vehement interest, in the electoral chambers of Paris ; and already might be seen ii. 376, 378. the germs of that towering ambition in the Tiers Etat, * "Les habitans composant le Tiers Etat, nés Français, ou naturalisés, agés de vingt-cinq ans, et domiciliés, auront droit d'assister à l'assemblée déterminée par le quartier dans lequel ils résident actuellement, en remplissant les conditions suivantes. Pour être admis dans l'assemblée de son quartier, il faudra pouvoir justifier d'un titre d'office, de grades dans une faculté, d'une commission ou emploi de lettres de maîtrise, ou enfin de la quittance ou avertissement de capitation, montant au moins à la somme de six livres (five shillings) en principal."-Règlement du Roi, 13th April 1789; Histoire Parlementaire, i. 307. 1 Hist. Parl. Bailly, ii. i. 310, 314. 44. Lab. CHAP. which ere long the limits of France and of Europe were unable to contain. III. 1789. The most important part of the duty of the primary electors, next to that of choosing their representatives, instructions was the drawing up of the cahiers, or statements of griev 139. Cahiers, or to the de puties. ances and suggestions of remedies. They contained instructions to the deputies how to vote on all the principal questions which were expected to be brought forward, and therefore present an authentic record of what was generally desired by the people of France on the opening of the States-general. As might have been expected, the instructions to the representatives varied, generally speaking, according to the orders from which they emanated, though on some points there was a surprising unanimity. The instructions of the nobles, on the whole, were such as were calculated to uphold the interests of their order; those of the clergy, to establish religion on a better basis, and ameliorate the condition of the inferior orders of the parish priests. An infinity of local abuses were pointed out, and remedies suggested, many of which were of course inconsistent with each other. But the majority of the cahiers demanded, on the part of all the orders together, the removal of the chief abuses which had been The majority of the cahiers of the three orders concurred in demanding 1. Equality in punishments. 2. The suppression of the sale of public offices. 3. The redemption of feudal and seignorial rights. 4. The revision of the criminal code. 5. The establishment of tribunals to conciliate litigants. 6. The suppression of seignorial criminal powers— the right of Franc-fief. custom-house duties in the interior. 7. The fixing the expense of all the departments of the public service. 8. The extinction of the public debt. 9. Toleration of all religious sects, but the recognition of the religion of the greatest number as the dominant religion. 10. The amelioration of the condition of the curés. 11. The abolition of drawing for the militia. -See Rédaction des Cahiers, par CLERMONT TONNERE, 27th July 1789. Hist. III. 1789. experienced in the practical administration of the country. CHAP. The fundamental points, on which they were nearly all unanimous, were that the person of the King was to be sacred and inviolable; that the crown was to be hereditary in the male line, and the King the depositary of the executive power; the agents of authority responsible; the royal sanction indispensable to the promulgating of laws; that the States-general, with the sovereign, should make laws; that the consent of the nation should be necessary to taxes and loans; that taxes should not be legally imposed but from one sitting of the States-general to another. Private property was to be sacred as well as individual liberty, and lettres-de-cachet were to be abolished. All the cahiers expressed their attachment to the monarchical form of government; many, in touching terms, their affectionate regard for the person of the sovereign. Their general spirit was"Concert with the King good laws for the nation ; not a few contained an express injunction to do nothing des Cahiers without his concurrence and sanction. When the National par ClerAssembly usurped the government, and centred in them- nerre, July selves the whole powers, executive as well as legislative, Hist. Parl. of the state, that ambitious body violated not less ex- Droz, ii. pressly the instructions of its constituents, than it committed treason alike against the royal authority and the cause of freedom.1 1 Résumé mont Ton 27, 1789. 382. Lab. ii. 341, 343. excitement Paris. But though moderation and wisdom generally cha- 140. racterised the instructions of the cahiers, the case was Vehement very different in the clubs and coffeehouses of the capital. which preAlready was to be seen, in the vehemence with which vailed in their inmates were agitated, and the enthusiasm with which the most violent and revolutionary doctrines were received, the most unequivocal proof of the near approach of a national convulsion. Such was the unparalleled multitude of pamphlets which issued from the press,* that, x 'Quelqu'un en acheta 2500 dans les trois derniers mois de 1788, et sa collection était loin d'être complète."-DROZ, ii. 136. |