family was betrayed by one of
its own house, the despicable Philip "Egalite," who sought to stir up
the basest dregs of society, that in the ferment he might rise to the
top; hungry Paris, stung to action by rumors which he spread and by
bribes which he lavished, put Lafayette at its head, and on October
fifth marched out to the gates of the royal residence in order to make
conspicuous the contrast between its own sufferings and the wasteful
comfort of its servants, as the King and his ministers were now
considered to be. Louis and the National Assembly yielded to the
menace, the court returned to Paris, politics grew hotter and more
bitter, the fickleness of the mob became a stronger influence. Soon
the Jacobin Club began to wield the mightiest single influence, and as
it did so it grew more and more radical.

Throughout the long and trying winter the masses remained,
nevertheless, quietly expectant. There was much tumultuous talk, but
action was suspended while the Assembly sat and struggled to solve its
problem, elaborating a really fine paper constitution. Unfortunately,
the provisions of the document had no relation to the political habits
of the French nation, or to the experience of England and the United
States, the only free governments then in existence. Feudal privilege,
feudal provinces, feudal names having been obliterated, the whole of
France was rearranged into administrative departments, with
geographical in place of historical boundaries. It was felt that the
ecclesiastical domains, the holders of which were considered as mere
trustees, should be adapted to the same plan, and this was done.
Ecclesiastical as well as aristocratic control was thus removed by the
stroke of a pen. In other words, by the destruction of the mechanism
through which the temporal and spiritual authorities exerted the
remnants of their power, they were both completely paralyzed. The King
was denied all initiative, being granted merely a suspensive veto, and
in the reform of the judicial system the prestige of the lawyers was
also destroyed. Royalty was turned into a function, and the courts
were stripped of both the moral and physical force necessary to compel
obedience to their decrees. Every form of the guardianship to which
for centuries the people had been accustomed was thus removed--royal,
aristocratic, ecclesiastical, and judicial. Untrained to self-control,
they were as ready for mad excesses as were the German Anabaptis