... Have read and heard about the news of the latest celebration of French "independence" from the feudal or royal age, and have heard of the grand parades and so forth: "A bas Louis XVI," etc., but you and I both know that cake was possible in that time as the harvests of that time were good, and there were some bad ones, too; but the granaries were full in most places. The crown of France had spent its capital and other funds on the grandeur of the Regency two or three generations before and the state could no longer support itself. In the history of ideas, Robespierre and Danton nor are nor were at the time propitious ideologues, even given the critiques of modern day iconoclasts, though they did have great influence and this probably due to moneyed revolutionary interests emanating from abroad. The royals were mostly informed of the impending revolts, and this has been a subject in the literature for a long time, as they even in many cases welcomed and profited from the revolutionary ideas and regarded them as refreshing because they were taxed so heavily by the state. Some of the details are apocryphal and therefore must be treated 'avec un grain de sel,' and the actions of many revolutionaries in the Tuileries against the king's guards were horrendous and extremely cruel (they had an army and the guards could not surrender under orders, and so forth.) The celebrants of the 14 July festival are therefore again taken to be rapacious and jaded against what was a benevolent monarchy under which there were many freedoms for the time, just not financial freedoms which infuriated everyone in the end and the city of Paris became a powder keg for insurrection against bloodlines first, and then the crown.
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