ecessor, but too weak to carry out the reforms necessary to
restore the prosperity of the nation. Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu,
and many other writers, as well as the influence of the American
Revolution, had fostered democratic ideas among the people, for the
government was reeking with abuses.

The parliament had not assembled for three-quarters of a century;
but representatives of the people met in 1789, in spite of the
opposition of the king. The extreme of license followed the extreme
of absolutism. The king opposed the Constituent Assembly, for this
body changed its name several times, till the political conflict
ended in the death by the guillotine of Louis XVI., and later by the
execution of his queen, Marie Antoinette. For every two hundred and
fifty of the gross population there was a member of the nobility who
was exempted from the payment of any land tax, though this kind of
property was almost exclusively in their possession, and from many
other taxes and burdens, which all the more heavily weighed down
the great body of the people. The latter had a long list of genuine
grievances which the king and his advisers refused to remedy.

The revolution became an accomplished fact in the capture and
destruction of the Bastille, on July 14, 1789, which day is still
celebrated as a national holiday in France. It had been for hundreds
of years a prison for political offenders, and was regarded by the
people as the principal emblem and instrument of tyranny. The
population became as intemperate as their rulers had been, thousands
perished by the guillotine, and the reign of terror was established.
The National Convention proclaimed a republic; but this body was
divided by conflicting opinions, and had not the power to inaugurate
their ideal government. Blood flowed in rivers, and the reaction was
infinitely more terrible than the tyranny which had produced it.

The Convention was divided into at least four parties, though the
lines which separated them were not very clearly defined. The
Jacobins were the most prominent, and the most radical. It had its
origin in the Jacobin Club, formed in Versailles, taking its name
from a convent in which it met. This organization soon spread
through its branches all over France, and its party was the most
violent and blood-thirsty in the convention. Danton, Robespierre,
Marat, Desmoulins, and other desperate leaders were of this faction.

The Girondists were next in numbers