7502. REVOLUTION (French), Clergy and nobles.—
It was imagined the ecclesiastical
elections would have been generally in favor
of the higher clergy; on the contrary, the
lower clergy have obtained five-sixths of these
deputations. These are the sons of peasants,
who have done all the drudgery of the service
for ten, twenty, and thirty guineas a year, and
whose oppressions and penury, contrasted with
the pride and luxury of the higher clergy, have
rendered them perfectly disposed to humble
the latter. They have done it, in many instances,
with a boldness they were thought insusceptible
of. Great hopes have been formed
that these would concur with the Tiers Etat
in voting by persons. In fact, about half of
them seem as yet so disposed; but the bishops
are intriguing, and drawing them over with
the address which has ever marked ecclesiastical
intrigue.—
To John Jay. Washington ed. iii, 27.
(P.
May. 1789)
