A King Without Coin
S a result of the American wars, then, liberty began to look more like a practical proposition to many Frenchmen; but it was not the lovers of liberty who ultimately made the French Revolution inevitable. The old French monarchy fell simply because it failed to do its obvious duties. The first of these was to make the government pay its way. The king’s income came nowhere near his expenditure, and this fact became so well known that the bankers of Paris began to refuse to lend him money. On one famous occasion he had not enough money in pocket to take his court and family away for the usual summer holiday. The second great problem was the new ferment in men’s minds. Something at least had to be done abqut the rising tide of public opinion which was clamouring for reform, Actually, the two problems were up to a point the same, The king’s bankruptcy would have been solved by a reform in the taxation system. Taxes were graduated in those days, but in the opposite way to ours they were paid by the poor, while the rich went free. What was needed, therefore, was that the rich should give up their privileged position and pay part of their fair share-(" The French Revolution,’ Professor F. L, W. Wood, 2YA, September 1.)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 117, 19 September 1941, Page 5
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226A King Without Coin New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 117, 19 September 1941, Page 5
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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