with devotion to liberty. It has long
been a popular error, encouraged by historians of a former generation,
that the French Revolution arose from a starving peasantry driven to
madness by intolerable oppression. We know better now. It was in Paris,
not in the provinces, that the revolt began. Judged by modern standards,
of course, the French peasantry were oppressed; but if we measure their
condition by that of surrounding nations at the time, by the Austrians
under kind-hearted Maria Theresa, or even by the Prussians under
Frederick the Great, most advanced of the upholders of "benevolent
despotism," in whose lands serfs were still "sold with the soil"
compared with these, Frenchmen were free, prosperous, and happy. It is
even true that the lower classes were unready for change. In Hungary,
Joseph II, son of Maria Theresa, attempted a complete and radical reform
of all abuses, and the mob rose in fury against his innovations,
compelled him to restore their "ancient customs." They had grown
familiar with their chains.[11]

The French Revolution was an uprising of the middle classes. Its great
leaders in the earlier stages were Mirabeau, son of a baron, and
America's own friend the Marquis Lafayette. Even the King, Louis XVI, at
least partly approved the movement. The States-General was summoned in
1789 after an interval of nearly two centuries, to decide on the best
way of relieving the country from its financial embarrassments. This
gathering was soon resolved into a National Assembly which insisted on
giving France a constitution, making it a limited instead of an absolute
monarchy.[12]

On the 14th of July the mob of Paris rose in sudden fury and stormed the
ancient state prison, the Bastille. The King sent no troops to resist
them; and from that time his power was but a shadow. His overthrow,
however, was not yet contemplated. The Revolution was still to be one of
dignity and intellect. An entire year after the fall of the Bastille,
the president of the National Assembly could still say in addressing a
deputation of Americans headed by Paul Jones: "It was by helping you to
conquer liberty that the French learned to understand and love it. The
hands which went to burst your fetters were not made to wear them
themselves; but, more fortunate than you, it is our King himself, it is
a patriot and citizen king, who has called us to the happiness which we
are enjoying that happiness which has cost us merely sacrifices, b