st turn of the road on which they
have just fraternally entered hand in hand?

Wisdom of this melancholy stamp is not theirs. They set out with the
principle that man, and especially the man of the people, is good; why
conjecture that he may desire evil for those who wish him well? They
are conscientious in their benevolence and sympathy for him. Not only do
they utter these sentiments but they give them proof. "At this moment,"
says a contemporary,[4258] "the most active pity animates all breasts;
the great dread of the opulent is to appear insensible." The archbishop
of Paris, subsequently followed and stoned, is the donator of 100,000
crowns to the hospital of the Hotel-Dieu. The intendant Berthier, who is
to be massacred, draws up the new assessment-roll of the Ile-de-France,
equalizing the taille, which act allows him to abate the rate, at first,
an eighth, and next, a quarter[4259]. The financier Beaujon constructs a
hospital. Necker refuses the salary of his place and lends the treasury
two millions to re-establish public credit. The Duc de Charost, from
1770[4260] down, abolishes seigniorial corvees on his domain and founds
a hospital in his seigniory of Meillant. The Prince de Beaufremont,
the presidents de Vezet, de Chamolles, de Chaillot, with many seigniors
beside in Franche-Comte, follow the example of the king in emancipating
their serfs[4261]. The bishop of Saint-Claude demands, in spite of his
chapter, the enfranchisement of his mainmorts. The Marquis de Mirabeau
establishes on his domain in Limousin a gratuitous bureau for the
settlement of lawsuits, while daily, at Fleury, he causes nine hundred
pounds of cheap bread to be made for the use of "the poor people, who
fight to see who shall have it."[4262] M. de Barral, bishop of Castres,
directs his curates to preach and to diffuse the cultivation of
potatoes. The Marquis de Guerchy himself mounts on the top of a pile of
hay with Arthur Young to learn how to construct a hay-stack. The
Marquis de Lasteyrie imports lithography into France. A number of grand
seigniors and prelates figure in the agricultural societies, compose or
translate useful books, familiarize themselves with the applications of
science, study political economy, inform themselves about industries,
and interest themselves, either as amateurs or promoters, in every
public amelioration. "Never," says Lacretelle again, "were the French
so combined together to combat the evils to which nature