y were to be removed, and a state of unbounded
liberty, plenty, and prosperity, was about to take place.

In the midst of the popular ferments, the regiment of guards,
comprising three thousand six hundred men, revolted: immense bodies of
workmen assembled together, and gave vent to the most inflammatory
language; the Hotel of the Invalids was captured; fifty thousand pikes
were forged and distributed among the people; the Bastile was stormed;
and military massacres commenced. Soon after, the tricolored cockade
was adopted, the French guards were suppressed by the Assembly, the
king and his family were brought to Paris by a mob, and the Club of
the Jacobins was established. Before the year 1789 was ended, the
National Assembly was the supreme power in France, and the king had
become a shadow and a mockery; or, rather, it should be said that
there was no authority in France but what emanated from the people,
and no power remained to suppress popular excesses and insurrections.
The Assembly published proclamations against acts of violence; but it
was committed in a contest with the crown and aristocracy, and
espoused the popular side. A famine, added to other horrors, set in at
Paris; and the farmers, fearing that their grain would be seized, no
longer brought it to market. Manufactures of all kinds were suspended,
and the public property was confiscated to supply the immediate wants
of a starving and infuriated people. A state was rapidly hastening to
universal violence, crime, misery, and despair.

[Sidenote: Rule of the People.]

The year 1790 opened gloomily, and no one could tell when the
agitating spirit would cease, or how far it would be carried, for the
mob of Paris was rapidly engrossing the power of the state. One of the
first measures of the Assembly was to divest the provinces of France
of their ancient privileges, since they were jealous of the
sovereignty exercised by the Assembly, and to divide the kingdom into
eighty-four new departments, nearly equal in extent and population. A
criminal tribunal was established for each department and a civil
court for each of the districts into which the department was divided.
The various officers and magistrates were elected by the people, and
the qualification for voting was a contribution to the amount of three
days' labor. By this great stop, the whole civil force in the kingdom
was placed at the disposal of the lower classes. They had the
nomination of the muni