A Woman of the Revolution, Throigne de Mricourt (Electronic book text)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3CHAPTER III THiROIGNE'S CLUB THE French have always been gregarious and communicative. They have always loved to discuss their interests, and to express in words their fears and agitations, as well as their rejoicing and admiration. This national trait was remarkably noticeable throughout the eighteenth century. It was the age of opinion. The thinkers of the day emulated one another in making public their ideas. An irresistible impulse to teach, to lead, to convert, or at least to state probabilities and possibilities, began somewhere near the close of Louis XIV.'s reignthat is to say, in the youth of Voltaire and Rousseauand increased slowly throughout the Regency, more quickly in the second half of Louis XV.'s reign, whilst in the seventies and eighties the impulse became uncontrollable. To speak one must have an audience, and to gather an audience one must have a meeting-place. In the early part of the century people met at the cafes and in the salons to air their views and imbibe the new philosophical ideas that were spreading rapidly through the country. No sooner was there a whisper of revolt than these places became inadequate to hold the masses who wished to utter volumes of complaints and to formulate plans for the amelioration of conditions. A new outlet had to be found for them, and was found in the shape of political clubs. At first these were few and held in secret, but after the opening of the States General they multiplied in numbers, subdivided and re-formed until they became a recognised institution of revolutionary France. They were the best medium for an interchange of ideas, and they issued pamphlets and journals in a never-ceasing, ever- increasing stream. One of the most important was first formed by a small section of the deputies of Brittany, and was called the Breton C...