Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/581

The French Revolution 439 762. Declaration of Pillnitz. The queen's brother, Leopold, the Austrian ruler, was greatly agitated over the forcible arrest of the French king and declared that the European powers should combine to "check the dangerous excesses of the French Revolu- tion," which he thought threatened the power of other monarchs. He induced the king of Prussia to join him in the famous Declara- tion of Pillnitz (August, 1791), in which he suggested that the European powers unite in an attempt to force the French people to give back to Louis XVI his former rights. The Declaration was little more than an empty threat, but it seemed to the French people a sufficient proof that the monarchs were ready to help the seditious French nobles to reestablish the old regime against the wishes of the nation and at the cost of infinite bloodshed. The idea of foreign rulers' intermeddling with their internal affairs would in itself have been intolerable to a proud people like the French, even if the permanence of the new reforms had not been endangered. Had it been the object of the allied monarchs to hasten instead of to prevent the fall of Louis XVI, they could hardly have chosen a more efficient means than the Declaration of Pillnitz. 763. The Newspapers. The political excitement and the enthu- siasm for the Revolution were kept up by the newspapers which had been established, especially in Paris, since the meeting of the Estates General. The people did not need longer to rely upon an occasional pamphlet, as was the case before 1789. Many journals representing the most diverse opinions were published. Some were no more than a periodical editorial written by one man. Others, like the famous Moniteur, were much like our papers of today and contained news, reports of the debates in the Assembly, announce- ments of theaters, etc. 764. The Jacobins. Of the numerous political clubs, by far the most famous was that of the "Jacobins." When the Assembly moved into Paris, some of the representatives of the Third Estate rented a large room in the monastery of the Jacobin monks, not far from the building where the National Assembly itself met. The aim of this society was to discuss questions which were about