7544. REVOLUTION (French), Riots.—[further continued].
They were the most abandoned banditti of Paris, and never was a
riot more unprovoked and unpitied. They began,
under a pretence that a paper manufacturer
had proposed in an assembly to reduce
their wages to fifteen sous a day. They rifled
his house, destroyed everything in his magazines
and shops, and were only stopped in their
career of mischief by the troops engaging in
regular action with them and killing probably
one hundred of them. Neither this nor any
of the other riots has had a professed connection
with the great national reformation now
going on. They are such as have happened
every year since I have been here, and as will
continue to be produced by common incidents.—
To John Jay. Washington ed. iii, 26.
(P.
May. 1789)
