fest enemy,
and revolts on account of hunger are transformed into insurrections
against the State.

VI.--The first jacquerie in Province

Feebleness or ineffectiveness of repressive measures.

Here, again, political novelties are the spark that ignites the mass
of gunpowder. Everywhere, the uprising of the people takes place on
the very day on which the electoral assembly meets. From forty to
fifty riots occur in the provinces in less than a fortnight. Popular
imagination, like that of a child, goes straight to its mark. The
reforms having been announced, people think them accomplished and, to
make sure of them, steps are at once taken to carry them out. Now
that we are to have relief, let us relieve ourselves. "This is not an
isolated riot as usual," writes the commander of the troops;[1129]
"here the faction is united and governed by uniform principles; the same
errors are diffused through all minds. . . . . The principles impressed
on the people are that the King desires equality. No more bishops
or lords, no more distinctions of rank, no tithes, and no seignorial
privileges. Thus, these misguided people fancy that they are exercising
their rights, and obeying the will of the King."--The effect of sonorous
phrases is apparent. The people have been told that the States-General
were to bring about the "regeneration of the kingdom" The inference is
"that the date of their assembly was to be one of an entire and absolute
change of conditions and fortunes." Hence, "the insurrection against the
nobles and the clergy is as active as it is widespread." "In many
places it was distinctly announced that there was a sort of war declared
against landowners and property," and "in the towns as well as in the
rural districts the people persist in declaring that they will pay
nothing, neither taxes, duties, nor debts."--Naturally, the first
assault is against the piquet, or flour-tax. At Aix, Marseilles, Toulon,
and in more than forty towns and market-villages, this is summarily
abolished; at Aupt and at Luc nothing remains of the weighing-house but
the four walls. At Marseilles the home of the slaughter-house contractor
and at Brignolles that of the director of the leather excise, are
sacked. The determination is "to purge the land of excise-men. "--This
is only a beginning; bread and other provisions must become cheap, and
that without delay. At Arles, the Corporation of sailors, presided over
by M. de Barras, consul,