The Moniteur of 1788
1968; Duke University Press; Volume: 5; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/286040
ISSN1527-5493
Autores Tópico(s)Political Theory and Influence
ResumoIn the year 1788 France was deluged with political pamphlets, ranging in length from a few to hundreds of pages and in quality from good to ghastly. Some three hundred pamphlets had been published in 1787, a trickle compared to what was to follow. One event in particular was responsible: the promulgation on May 8, 1788, of the May Edicts, by which the ministry headed by Lomenie de Brienne hoped to break the political power of the parlements and save France from bankruptcy by carrying out the thorough tax reform the parlements had blocked for so long. In the tumultuous four months between the promulgation of the May Edicts and their withdrawal in September an estimated five hundred pamphlets appeared, most of them hostile to the crown's policy.1 Among the hundreds of pamphlets that the May Edicts inspired, the series of four entitled Le Moniteur was not remarkable. They were published anonymously, and their place of publication was not given. Although few,copies of Le Moniteur seem to have survived, some degree of success in 1788 is suggested by the fact that the third number went through two editions and the fourth through three.2 The subject matter of the pamphlets was not distinctive either. The first two were concerned mainly with denunciations of the government's destruction
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