Chapter I: Front Matter

_UNIVERSITY EXTENSION MANUALS_

_EDITED BY PROFESSOR KNIGHT_

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

_GENERAL PLAN OF THE SERIES._

_This Series is primarily designed to aid the University Extension Movement throughout Great Britain and America, and to supply the need so widely felt by students, of Text-books for study and reference, in connection with the authorised Courses of Lectures._

_Volumes dealing with separate sections of Literature, Science, Philosophy, History, and Art have been assigned to representative literary men, to University Professors, or to Extension Lecturers connected with Oxford, Cambridge, London, and the Universities of Scotland and Ireland._

_The Manuals are not intended for purposes of Elementary Education, but for Students who have made some advance in the subjects dealt with. The statement of details is meant to illustrate the working of general laws, and the development of principles; while the historical evolution of the subject dealt with is kept in view, along with its philosophical significance._

_The remarkable success which has attended University Extension in Britain has been partly due to the combination of scientific treatment with popularity, and to the union of simplicity with thoroughness. This movement, however, can only reach those resident in the larger centres of population, while all over the country there are thoughtful persons who desire the same kind of teaching. It is for them also that this Series is designed. Its aim is to supply the general reader with the same kind of teaching as is given in the Lectures, and to reflect the spirit which has characterised the movement, viz. the combination of principles with facts, and of methods with results._

_The Manuals are also intended to be contributions to the Literature of the Subjects with which they respectively deal, quite apart from University Extension; and some of them will be found to meet a general rather than a special want._

The

French Revolution

BY

CHARLES EDWARD MALLET

_Late of Balliol College, Oxford_

_Lecturer in History on the Staff of the Oxford University Extension_

LONDON

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET

1893

Oxford HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

CONTENTS

PAGES
INTRODUCTORY 1-4

CHAPTER I.

THE CONDITION OF FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 5-27

The old Monarchy in France.--Survivals of free institutions.
--Centralised despotism of the Crown.--The Intendant's
position and powers.--Evils of the system.--The
Government sensitive to criticism but all-pervading.--Class
divisions.--The nobles and their privileges.--The ruined
nobles of the provinces and the rich nobles of the Court.--The
Church, and the great varieties of condition in it.--The
Middle Class, its privileges and exemptions.--Usurpations
and spirit of the guilds.--Position of the poorest class
in town and country.--Peasant owners, farmers and métayers.--Feudal
oppression from which the peasant suffered.--Exactions
of the Government.--Abuses in the system of
taxation.--The Custom-house system and its results.--Increase
of vagrancy and disorder.--Isolation of the labourer.