DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

France, by whom they were put up for sale. The sale, however, proved a failure, as the sense of insecurity was too deep, and money was too scarce. Then the municipalities were authorised to pay the state in notes on the security of the land. The currency of these assignats, as they were called, was enforced by law, an expedient which tided over the first embarrassment. But later on, when the State issued assignats without any secu- rity, there being no money in the treasury to redeem them, they became worthless, and the State bank- rupt. But we are anticipating events. The clergy could hardly be expected to accept the spoliation of their property without opposition. Their in- trigues called forth decrees abolishing monastic vows, the suppression of convents and monasteries, and declaring the civil constitution of the Church. This measure provided that the clergy should be elected by the lay authorities, and should swear allegiance to them—an enactment highly repulsive to the religious feelings of a body which only acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope. Here we may pause for an instant and fairly concede our admiration to the next decree of the Assembly. While in England, for many years afterwards, the Catholics, Dissenters, and Jews were still de- prived of the rights of citizenship, in France, in the year 1790, freedom of worship was granted to