Page:Voices of Revolt - Volume 1.djvu/20

 16 the economic maturity and superiority of the bourgeoisie which was rich in capital, as opposed to the decaying feudal system, which was in a process of economic and moral dissolution. The most consistent representative of the line of evolution of these economic forces and necessities that had been conjured up by the Revolution, was the party of the Girondistes, the representative of the commercial and trading bourgeoisie, which had sent its leaders Brissot and Roland from Lyons to represent it. They called themselves "The Patriots," "The Virtuous," "The True Revolutionaries," and expressed their indignation when the Revolution set in motion the lower estates, the mass of the Paris artisans and workers, and incited them to bloody riots in the prison and street fights. Revolution for the bourgeoisie, by reason of its class situation, has very definite limits, but the lower classes, the masses of workers and peasants, can only favor and demand a single indivisible republic, and complete freedom. Their leader was Marat, the "Friend of the People." They were the true executors of the Revolution, whose aid was at first necessary to the bourgeoisie, but against whom the bourgeoisie was then obliged to set very definite limits on the Left, and ultimately to proceed with great brualitybrutality [sic]. Between these two extreme classes were the petty bourgeoisie, represented in the Convention by the petty bourgeois intelligentsia led by Robespierre and Danton. They are