-general, who has begun
proceedings against them, and want to tear him to pieces. They break his
mirrors and his furniture, leave the premises laden with booty, and go
into the town and its outskirts to pillage the manufactories and break
up or burn all the machinery.--Henceforth these constitute the new
leaders: for in every mob it is the boldest and least scrupulous
who march ahead and set the example in destruction. The example is
contagious: the beginning was the craving for bread, the end is murder
and arson; the savagery which is unchained adding its unlimited violence
to the limited revolt of necessity.

V.--Effect on the Population of the New Ideas.

Bad as it is, this savagery might, perhaps, have been overcome, in spite
of the dearth and of the brigands; but what renders it irresistible is
the belief of its being authorized, and that by those whose duty it is
to repress it. Here and there words and actions of a brutal frankness
break forth, and reveal beyond the somber present a more threatening
future--After the 9th of January, 1789, among the mob which attacks the
Hotel-de-Ville and besieges the bakers' shops of Nantes, "shouts of Vive
la Liberte![1126] mingled with those of Vive le Roi! are heard." A
few months later, around Ploermel, the peasants refuse to pay tithes,
alleging that the memorial of their seneschal's court demands their
abolition. In Alsace, after March, there is the same refusal "in many
places;" many of the communities even maintain that they will pay no
more taxes until their deputies to the States-General shall have fixed
the precise amount of the public contributions. In Isere it is decided,
by proceedings, printed and published, that "personal dues" shall no
longer be paid, while the landowners who are affected by this dare
not prosecute in the tribunals. At Lyons, the people have come to the
conclusion "that all levies of taxes are to cease," and, on the 29th of
June, on hearing of the meeting of the three orders, "astonished by the
illuminations and signs of public rejoicing," they believe that the good
time has come." They think of forcing the delivery of meat to them at
four sous the pound, and wine at the same rate. The publicans insinuate
to them the prospective abolition of octrois.[1127] and that, meanwhile,
the King, in favor of the re-assembling of the three orders, has granted
three days' freedom from all duties at Paris, and that Lyons ought
to enjoy the same privile