The Rights of Man

Paine describes the history of the French Revolution as it unfolded up to early 1791. He briefly traces France’s political history from the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV, highlighting influential writers such as Montesquieu and Voltaire. Paine suggests, in short, that the French Revolution was not a sudden outburst, but rather the product of a gradual awakening.

French support for the American Revolution accelerated the pace of events. Benjamin Franklin, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the French soldiers returning home from America intensified French interest in the cause of liberty. Meanwhile, French finances faltered, and the new finance minister decided to call for a meeting of the ancient Assembly of the Notables—which had not met since 1617—to drum up support for new taxes. Paine calls this “the first practical step toward the Revolution” (54). The Assembly of the Notables debated new taxes, but, with the Marquis de Lafayette taking the lead, concluded that it could merely recommend taxes and that only an elected assembly could decide such a question. Local parlements (Paine calls them “parliaments,” but they resembled judicial courts rather than legislatures) refused to act on the recommendation of new taxes.