In the most martial nation of Europe the private soldier could not, by the greatest daring or genius, elevate himself, because only the aristocracy could obtain rank. The effects of the opposite system were afterwards seen with Napoleon, who boasted that he conquered Europe with the bivouac; with generals raised from the ranks. The oppressions of the feudal tenure in France exceeded belief; the people were even obliged to grind corn at the landlord’s mill, press their grapes at his press, and bake their bread at his oven on his own terms. The fermentation which had long been going on in the public mind; “the revolt against eighteen centuries of oppression” began to develop itself rapidly. Yet the monopolizers of all the national rights continued to dispute for a worn out authority. The court, careless and tranquil in the midst of the struggle, were wasting the property of the people while surrounded by the most frightful disorders. When it was told to the effeminate and dissolute Louis XV. that the nation could not suffer much longer, he characteristically said, “Never mind, if it last my time it is sufficient for me!” Such was the eighteenth century. It was during the years 1787 and ’88, that the French nation first conceived the idea of passing from theory to practice. The weak and vacillating Louis XVI., the least fitted of all men to guide the destinies of a nation in the throes of political convulsion, had successively tried ministry after ministry, and one expedient after the other; yet the ship of state was swiftly approaching the vortex of the whirlpool in which it had entered.