Page:The story of the French revolution (IA storyoffrenchrev00baxe).pdf/29

 THE STORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION CHAPTER I THE LITERARY PROLOGUE Tue cardinal idea of the French Revolution was the political emancipation of the middle class. The fendal hierarchy of the Middle Ages consisted in France, as in other countries, of three main social divisions, or es- tates, as they were termed, (1) The superior territorial clergy, (2) the nobles, and (3) the smaller landholders, the free tenants, and the citizens of the independent town- ships. The mere serf or villein (holding by servile ten- ure), or common laborer, was like the slave of antiquity, unclassified. The possession or (non-servile) tenure of Jand was the condition of freedom. This third estate was the ‘germ of our middle class. The great problem of the French Revolution, then, was to obtain the inde- pendence and domination of the third estate. It is ex- pressed in the words of its representative, the Abbé Siéyés: “ What are we of the third estate? Nothing. What would we be? Everything.” But, although the political supremacy of the middle class was the central idea, and the one which it realized (thereby effectually refuting a certain order of politicians that declares vio- lent revolutions to be necessarily abortive), there were issues raised — and not merely raised, but carried for the