cadence des Francais_, by M. Gaston Routier, finds one of
the many signs of the social demoralization of his countrymen in the
number and importance of the cercles in the cities, and especially in
the high play that so many of them favor.

To the extravagances and pretended miracles of the sect of the
_convulsionnaires_ and those wrought on the tomb of the deacon Paris in
the cemetery Saint-Medard in 1730 and 1731, succeeded the extraordinary
alleged cures of the German doctor Mesmer, who came to Paris in 1778
with his theory of "animal magnetism,"--theory treated with more respect
by many of the _savants_ of the present day than by those of the
eighteenth century. The invention of the brothers Montgolfier,
practically tested in 1783, awakened an extraordinary interest both in
the scientific world and among the populace; and it is related that the
American, Benjamin Franklin, being asked what he thought of these new
aerial machines, replied: "It is the coming child."

The times were ripe for change: Mademoiselle de Romans, walking in the
Tuileries gardens with a little son whom she had born to Louis XV, and
pressed by the crowd, exclaimed: "Eh! messieurs and mesdames, do not
crush so, and let your king's child breathe!" The Comte d'Artois, who
was devoted to the game of tennis, being one day in an ill humor,
ordered the court to be cleared of all the spectators, using epithets
which were habitual with him: "Drive them all out," he said, "_tous ces
b . . . et ces j . . . f . . . !_" No one was left but one officer.
"Well, did you not hear what I said?" demanded his Royal Highness. "Yes,
monseigneur, but as I am neither a b . . . , nor a j . . . f... , I
remained." "The respect for _la noblesse_ was singularly diminished, and
the whole audience, even the nobles themselves, applauded at the
theatre, in 1784, the bold epigrams of the 'Figaro' of Beaumarchais:
'Because you are a great seigneur, you think yourself a great genius!
You have given yourself the trouble to be born; that is all you have
done!'"

On the 19th of June, 1789, the Assemblee Nationale, in a session which
Marat qualified as "glorious," decreed "that hereditary nobility is
forever abolished in France; that, consequently, the titles of marquis,
chevalier, ecuyer, comte, vicomte, messire, prince, baron, vidame,
noble, duc, and all other similar titles cannot be borne by any person
whatsoever, nor given to any one; that no citizen shall bear other than
his