We have already noticed how in July while the Assembly was still at
Versailles, the royal officers in the country districts had ceased to
rule and how the peasants had destroyed many _chateaux_ amid
scenes of unexpected violence. News of the rioting and disorder came to
the Assembly from every province and filled its members with the
liveliest apprehension. A long report, submitted by a special
investigating committee on 4 August, 1789, gave such harrowing details
of the popular uprising that every one was convinced that something
should be done at once.
[Sidenote: "The August Days"]
While the Assembly was debating a declaration which might calm revolt,
one of the nobles--a relative of Lafayette--arose in his place and
stated that if the peasants had attacked the property and privileges of
the upper classes, it was because such property and privileges
represented unjust inequality, that the fault lay there, and that the
remedy was not to repress the peasants but to suppress inequality. It
was immediately moved and carried that the Assembly should proclaim
equality of taxation for all classes and the suppression of feudal and
servile dues.
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