Modern European history . vernmen required for a village church, the matter was regulatedfrom Paris, after exasperating delay. It was the reign of the redtape in every sense of the word. The people stood like dumb, drivencattle before this monstrous system. The only danger lay in the chancethat they might not always remain dumb. Here obviously was no schoolfor popular political education — a fact which explains many of the mis-takes and failures of the people when, in the Revolution, they themselvesundertook to rule, the monarchy having failed egregiously to dischargeits functions efficiently
Modern European history . vernmen required for a village church, the matter was regulatedfrom Paris, after exasperating delay. It was the reign of the redtape in every sense of the word. The people stood like dumb, drivencattle before this monstrous system. The only danger lay in the chancethat they might not always remain dumb. Here obviously was no schoolfor popular political education — a fact which explains many of the mis-takes and failures of the people when, in the Revolution, they themselvesundertook to rule, the monarchy having failed egregiously to dischargeits functions efficiently or beneficently. Let no one suppose that because France was a highly centralizedmonarchy, culminating in the person of the king, that there-centralized fore the French government was a real unity. Nothing but not (,Qyj(] l^g further from the truth. To study in detail the va- umfied . - rious aspects of the royal government, its divisions and sub-divisions, its standards, its agents, its methods of procedure, is to enter. LACK OF UNITY IN FRENCH INSTITUTIONS 37 a lane where the mind quickly becomes hopelessly bewildered, so greatwas the diversity in the machinery employed, so varied were the termsin use. Uniformity was nowhere to be seen. There was unity in theperson of the king, necessarily, and there only. Every- lu-con-where else disunity, diversity, variety, without rhyme or ^tru^t^dreason. It would take a volume or many volumes to make of govern-this clear — even then the reader would be driven to despair ™^* ,in attempting to form a true mental picture of the situation. Theinstitutions of France were a hodge-podge — chaos erected into a sys-tem, with no loss of the chaotic, and with no system. Nowadays thesame laws, the same taxes, the same weights and measures prevailthroughout the length and breadth of the land. But in 17S9 no suchsimplicity or equality prevailed. Weights and measures had differentnames and different values as one moved from province to province,
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