The Legislative Assembly contained deputies
of fundamentally diverse views who quarreled long though eloquently
among themselves. Moreover, it speedily came into conflict with the
king, who vainly endeavored to use his constitutional right of
suspensive veto in order to check its activities. Combined with these
problems was the popular agitation and excitement: a peasant revolt in
La Vendee, the angry threats of emigre nobles and non-juring clergy
across the eastern frontier, the loud tumults of the proletariat of
Paris and of other large cities as well.
[Sidenote: Foreign Hostility to the French Revolution]
The difficulties of the limited monarchy were further complicated by an
embarrassing foreign situation. It will be borne in mind that all
important European states still adhered rigidly to the social
institutions of the "old regime" and, with the exception of Great
Britain, to divine-right monarchy. Outside of France there appeared as
yet no such thing as "public opinion," certainly no sign among the
lower classes of any opinion favorable to revolution.
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