The Notables said ``No.'' The crowd
in the street began to smash windows and do other unseemly
things. The Notables fled. Calonne was dismissed.
A new colourless Minister of Finance, the Cardinal
Lomenie de Brienne, was appointed and Louis, driven by the
violent threats of his starving subjects, agreed to call together
the old Estates General as ``soon as practicable.'' This vague
promise of course satisfied no one.
No such severe winter had been experienced for almost a
century. The crops had been either destroyed by floods or had
been frozen to death in the fields. All the olive trees of the
Provence had been killed. Private charity tried to do some-
thing but could accomplish little for eighteen million starving
people. Everywhere bread riots occurred. A generation before
these would have been put down by the army. But the
work of the new philosophical school had begun to bear fruit.
People began to understand that a shotgun is no effective
remedy for a hungry stomach and even the soldiers (who came
from among the people) were no longer to be depended upon.
It was absolutely necessary that the king should do something
definite to regain the popular goodwill, but again he hesitated.
Here and there in the provinces, little independent Republics
were established by followers of the new school. The cry
of ``no taxation without representation'' (the slogan of the
American rebels a quarter of a century before) was heard
among the faithful middle classes.
Pages:
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368