Page:The story of the French revolution (IA storyoffrenchrev00baxe).pdf/35

 perienced since 1709. As the spring advanced the misery increased. The industrial crisis became acute in the towns, thousands of workmen were thrown out of em- ployment owing to the introduction of recently invented machinery from England, which was beginning to super- sede hand-labor in some trades. The riots and local dis- turbances which. had for many years past been taking place sporadically in various districts, now became daily more frequent, so much so that from March onwards the whole peasantry of France may be said to have been in a state of open insurrection, three hundred separate ris- ings in the provinces being counted for the four months preceding the taking of the Bastille.

In 1787, the Minister Lomenie de Brienne had created nineteen new provincial assemblies. Below the arron- dissement, or district assembly, which had been instituted some years before, now came the assembly of the parish. In each of these primary assemblies of the parish, the arrondissement, and even of the province, the “ people, farmers, etc., sat side by side with the local dignitaries,” a fact which, as may be imagined, considerably tended to obliterate the ancient feudal awe. In November, 1787, the King announced his intention of convoking the States- General. On the 5th of July, 1788, the various local bodies were called upon to draw up cahiers, or state- ments of their grievances, for presentment before the King and States-General, in which a double representa- tion of the “third estate” was conceded. These cahiers form a mass of the most interesting material illustrative of the condition of France just before the Revolution, and have not even vet been fully investigated. “ The King,” said the proclamation, “ desires that from the ex- ‘tremities of his kingdom, and the least known of its habi- tations, each may feel assurance in bringing before him his views and grievances,” and this and other similar ex- pressions were interpreted by the peasantry in the natural sense that the King was really desirous of rescuing then