Moreover, the practice of imprisoning men for debt was
abolished, negro slavery was ended, and woman's claim on property was
protected in common with man's. Finally the new republican constitution
was permeated with ideas of political democracy.
[Sidenote: Eventual Bourgeois Control Of The National Convention]
After the downfall of Robespierre (Thermidorian Reaction), the National
Convention ceased to press reforms in behalf of the proletariat and
came more and more under the influence of the moderate well-to-do
bourgeoisie. The law against suspects was repealed and the grain laws
were amended. The Revolutionary Tribunal was suppressed and the name of
the Place de la Revolution was changed to the Place de la Concorde. The
death in prison of the young and only son of Louis XVI in 1795 was a
severe blow to the hopes of the royalists. By 1795 France seemed
definitively committed to a republican form of government, which,
however, would not be extremely radical but only moderate, being now
founded on the bourgeoisie rather than on the proletariat.
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