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1874.] 1789, they saw with indignation the tiers état, their own representatives, treated with contempt by the nobility and clergy, and for every unwise measure supported by the king they held the queen responsible. And yet no one could be more innocent of any real intention to increase the misfortunes of the people than was Marie Antoinette. But such is the corrupting, belittling effect of the doctrine

of the rights of privileged classes that no one nurtured in it can possibly do justice to those who by labor create the wealth of the world. Our blood curdles with horror at the thought of the blond head of the princesse de Lamballe borne on a pike before the prison windows of the fainting queen, and so we are too apt to forget that action and reaction are equal, and to curse the brutal effect instead of the brutalizing cause.

Under the auspices of the empress