Monasteries were often ransacked and pillaged.
A few of the unlucky lords were murdered, and many others were driven
into the towns or across the frontier. Amid the universal confusion,
the old system of local government completely collapsed. The intendants
and governors quitted their posts. The ancient courts of justice,
whether feudal or royal, ceased to act. The summer of 1789 really ended
French absolutism, and the transfer of the central government from
Versailles to Paris in October merely confirmed an accomplished fact.
[Sidenote: The Revolution Social as well as Political]
Whatever had been hitherto the reforming policies of the National
Assembly, the deputies henceforth faced facts rather than theories.
Radical social readjustments were now to be effected along with purely
governmental and administrative changes. The Revolution was to be
social as well as political.
THE END OF THE OLD REGIME: THE NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY, 1789-1791
[Sidenote: Achievements of the National Assembly, 1789-1791]
By the transformation of the Estates-General into the National
Constituent Assembly, France had become to all intents and purposes a
limited monarchy, in which supreme authority was vested in the nation's
elected representatives.
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