The French Revolution of 1789, as Viewed in the Light of Republican InstitutionsAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
The French Revolution of 1789, as Viewed in the Light of Republican Institutions
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799
The Archbishop of Paris had fled with the emigrants. On the 19th
of October the National Assembly left Versailles and held its
first sitting in Paris, in a room of the archbishop's palace, from
which room it soon removed to the riding-hall of the Tuileries,
a much more commodious apartment which had been prepared for its
accommodation.[236] As the great object of the Assembly was now to
reorganize the government upon the basis of a free constitution, it
dropped the name of National Assembly on leaving Versailles, and
assumed in Paris the name of Constituent Assembly. Thus the same body
in the course of five months was called by three different names. It
was first the States-General, from the period of its meeting on the
5th of May until the union of the three orders on the 27th of June. It
was then the National Assembly until its removal from Versailles to
Paris, on the 19th of October. It then took the name of the Constituent
Assembly, and continued in existence for nearly two years, until
the 30th of September, 1791, when it expired, and a new body, the
Legislative Assembly, commenced its session.
The storm of revolution for a time seemed to lull, and there were
but few acts of violence. The people of Paris were still in a state
of fearful suffering from famine, and on the 21st of October a few
half-starved wretches seized a baker named François, whom they accused
of holding back his bread, and in a moment of phrensy, before the
police could interfere, strung him up at a lamp-post, and then cut off
his head.
The deed was denounced by even the most violent of the revolutionists,
and the Assembly took advantage of the feeling which the outrage
excited to pass a martial law against tumultuous assemblies of the
people. This law, which was almost a repetition of the English riot
act, was assailed by many of the journals as a gross infringement of
the rights of the people. Robespierre in the Assembly and Marat in his
wide-spread journal were conspicuous in denouncing it.
The atrocious murder of François, who was a generous and a charitable
man, and entirely innocent of the crime of which he was accused,
produced a profound impression. It was indicative of the rapid and
fearful rise of mob violence. The king and queen sent to his young
widow a letter of condolence, with a gift in money amounting to
about twenty-five hundred dollars. The city government of Paris sent
a committee of its members to visit and console her. La Fayette,
mortified and indignant at the outrage, scoured the faubourgs in search
of the miscreants who perpetrated the deed. Two of the ringleaders were
arrested and handed over to immediate trial.
They were condemned to death, and the next morning were hanged in the
same Place de Grêve which had been the scene of the outrage. This was
the only murder, perpetrated by a Parisian mob, during the Revolution,
which the law was sufficiently powerful to punish.[237]
[Illustration: ASSASSINATION OF FRANÇOIS THE BAKER.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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