The saddest chapter of the 18th century is that of the social conditions. In order to ex plain the French Revolution so much attention has been devoted to social conditions in France that there has come to be a very general im pression that social abuses were at the worst in that country. As a matter of fact with the exception of England the poorer classes were better off in France than anywhere else in Europe. The awful picture of the Ancien Regime is true, but it should be remembered that the German lower classes were in still worse condition and the Russian serfs were quite literally slaves and life and death was practically in the hands of their masters. The nobility in all the countries apparently felt them selves to be of quite different clay from the human beings below them in the social order and treated them accordingly. With the coming of the capitalist class as the result of the in dustrial revolution something of this same feel ing was to develop on the part of rich employers to employees. Whenever human nature has the chance it imposes on those below it and it must not be forgotten that the Declaration of Inde pendence in the last quarter of the century was written and most strongly upheld by men who thoroughly believed in the institution of negro slavery and insisted on maintaining it for nearly a full century.
The most shocking element in social condi tions was the utter neglect of the wards of the state, prisoners, the insane, feeble-minded and the poor. The awful conditions which existed in prisons and hospitals were described by John Howard toward the end of the century who brought about a beginning of reform. The prisoners were huddled together utterly regard less of their influence on each other, the young and the old, the first offender and the hardened criminal, and the treatment of women was al most worse than that of men. Hundreds of women in London prisons were crowded to gether, some of them women of the streets and some accused of little thefts to keep their children alive, and with many of the prisoners children were allowed to be there because there was no one else but their mother to care for them. Nearly 250 crimes were called felonies and were subject to punishment by hanging. Poor women were often hanged for having passed a counterfeit pound note which sometimes they themselves did not know was a counterfeit and the fact that they had children at their breast or were in an early stage of pregnancy was no mitiga tion of their offense. The insane who had ever shown any sign of violence were shackled and were seldom allowed to be free again. The quarters in which the insane were cared for were filthy beyond description and they were often confined in cells underground or chained to the walls of dark rooms into which the sunlight never penetrated. Quaker philanthro pists in England began a crusade for the re form of insane asylums which slowly gained ground and the movement spread to America. It had been the custom to permit visitors in search of amusement to stand at windows where they could view the antics of the insane, a small sum of money being collected for this privilege. This amusement became so popular that many thousands indulged in it every year and the fee constituted an important source of revenue. Pinel in France dared to strike the shackles off the insane in the great asylum and hospital at Bicetre though a great many even of his medical colleagues were convinced that it was a dangerous proceeding. The care
for the defectives and for the poor in the poor houses continued to be almost unspeakably bad until well on into the 19th century, and indeed in some cases until our own time. The serious idea of reform in these matters, however, began to take hold of thinking people before the end of the 18th century. The United States was a leader in these reforms. When de Tocqueville visited America and gathered the material for his book on Democracy he was here as a mem ber of a commission to investigate our prison system in order to secure the reform of French prisons.
Personal liberty on the Continent had sunk to a very low ebb indeed. Most of the rulers were absolute monarchs and there being no written guarantee of rights men had almost no redress against the monarch's ill will in their regard if he wished to exercise it. In France particularly the king might order the imprison ment of a subject no matter what his rank and keep him in prison for any length of time that he wished. This process was accomplished under a sealed document issued by the king called a Lettre de Cachet. This mode of im prisonment had been very much abused under Louis XIV, but the abuse reached a climax under Louis XV when it is said that over 150,000 sealed orders were issued. Sometimes men thus imprisoned would be entirely forgotten and the reason for their imprisonment be quite unknown. A clause of Magna Charta made any procedure a violation of the rights of Englishmen, but in other countries the practice was quite common. When the Bastille fell (1789) some of these prisoners were found for whose imprisonment no reason could be discovered.
A profound reaction in social matters was due in Europe. It came with the French Revo lution, in 1789. Begun as an attempt to dis tribute the burdens of taxation more equally on the French, or indeed to solve the problem of the bankruptcy of the country, it developed into a great outburst of the oppressed classes. As Hilaire Belloc who probably knows the period better than anyone in our time suggests it was an organized effort to win back for men some of the privileges which they had enjoyed is the Middle Ages. In that sense it continued to make itself felt all during the 19th century and down to our own time. It is this aspect of the movement that has until now not been prop erly appreciated. Hailed by all the liberal think ers of Europe as a new dawn for civilization the Revolution degenerated into the saddest of butcheries, and gave place to utter anarchy until the French people themselves, tired of bloodshed, welcomed a military dictator with power to maintain public order. In 1789 the States-Gen eral were summoned for the first time since 1614. This was changed shortly into the National Assembly. A new constitution was proclaimed in 1790. In 1792 the monarchy was abolished and the next year the well-meaning but unfortunate Louis XVI was put to death and Marie Antoinette, his queen, Maria Theresa's beautiful but imprudent daughter who had been the admiration of Europe, followed. These events alienated all Europe and the new republic fought them all in combination and won battles that enabled her to extend her territory but finally brought her under the heels of a military despot.