ildren, all upholding that doctrine, without comprehending
it, or understanding any of its distinctions and interpretations, out
of hatred to Rome and the Jesuits. Women, the silliest, and even
chambermaids, would be hacked to pieces for it. . ." This party is
increased by the honest folks of the kingdom who detest persecutions
and injustice. Accordingly, when the various chambers of magistrates, in
conjunction with the lawyers, tender their resignations and file out of
the palace "amidst a countless multitude, the crowd exclaims: Behold
the true Romans, the fathers of the country! and as the two counselors
Pucelle and Menguy pass along they fling them crowns." The quarrel
between the Parliament and the Court, constantly revived, is one of the
sparks which provokes the grand final explosion, while the Jansenist
embers, smoldering in the ashes, are to be of use in 1791 when the
ecclesiastical edifice comes to be attacked. But, within this old
chimney-corner only warm embers are now found, firebrands covered
up, sometimes scattering sparks and flames, but in themselves and by
themselves, not incendiary; the flame is kept within bounds by its
nature, and its supplies limit its heat. The Jansenist is too good
a Christian not to respect powers inaugurated from above. The
parliamentarian, conservative through his profession, would be horrified
at overthrowing the established order of things. Both combat for
tradition and against innovation; hence, after having defended the past
against arbitrary power they are to defend it against revolutionary
violence, and to fall, the one into impotency and the other into
oblivion.

II. CHANGE IN THE CONDITION OF THE BOURGEOIS.

Change in the condition of the bourgeois.--He becomes
wealthy.--He makes loans to the State.--The danger of his
creditorship.--He interests himself in public matters.

The uprising is, however, late to catch on among the middle class, and,
before it can take hold, the resistant material must gradually be made
inflammable.--In the eighteenth century a great change takes place
in the condition of the Third-Estate. The bourgeois has worked,
manufactured, traded, earned and saved money, and has daily become
richer and richer.[4303] This great expansion of enterprises, of trade,
of speculation and of fortunes dates from Law;[4304] arrested by war it
reappears with more vigor and more animation at each interval of peace
after the treaty of Aix-la-