First Entry: My name is John Claude a thirty five years old male working as a Parish Priest of the First Estate. I have not married and I am not expected to marry because as a career priest I have vowed to abstain. We as the members of the First Estate believe that the Third Estate need to be taxed because they do not have power, they are in the lowest rank of the social scale and they consume significant resources. However, we cannot be taxed because people look at us for religious growth and education and we heavily contribute to the well being of the society. Further, the leadership of our nation relies on the institution of the Catholic Church for some important decision-making processes. By helping maintain the moral balance in societies around the country, the government also gain our support in helping it enforce its policies including changes in taxation policies. The looming loss of the people’s trust in the government policies will be a big threat to our work in the society and could even change the whole leadership structure.
The arguments of the Third Estate members to bring a revolution are however true on their end. For example, the poor governance and misuse of tax revenue has led to most of the Third Estate people miserable lives. They are forced to work in farms they do not even own for very little money but they are subjected to exorbitant taxes. Incidences as the government spending to support the American Revolution against the British heightened the level of people frustration in the administration of King Louis, who has also embezzled most of the tax money for wasteful personal uses. With the decline of the Third Estate people which has been the case years in year out, most peasants, artisans and bourgeoisies have become increasingly tied of the Monarch administration. Rise of philosophers and free thinkers in the French society has not eased attempts to reduce rise of government opposition by the Third Estate population. Juxtaposing the living standards of the First, Second and Third Estate members clearly shows that the latter have all the right to fight for a change in the nation’s governance system.
Second Entry: My name is Antonio Martial a member of the King’s army and a head of tax collection activities in my village. Many people in my class also share the same occupation as mine and in turn have more privileges than the people in the Third Estate. People like Julius who belongs to the First Estate have however much more benefits than any other member of the population. For example, they own most of the land and live a much better; luxurious in some cases. The case is, however, very much different had far much more privileges than other members of the Second Estate. Composed of nobles, this part of the population was exempted from taxation and in turn was expected to support the monarchy by collecting taxes from the approximately 27,000,000 Third Estate members. This was the most affected group by the government since they were mostly farmers in an agricultural based economy. They are subjected to heavy taxation including church tax, poll tax, income tax, land tax among many others.
The rise of the oppression by the Monarchy especially under King Louis XVI has escalated the loss of most poor people in the nation. As a result, a revolution has been long coming as the poor people have for many years not been specifically happy with how they have to work hard and members of the King, his family combined with the Second and First Estate people. As such, the revolution had long matured in the minds of people long before it translated into a political and social crisis. For instance, in the last two weeks the tax collector has significantly been harassing us using the guards and the majority of the people in the neighbourhood are very angry with him. To make the matters worse, they beat up a man in the third street, which aggravated people and if the revolution comes I am sure the people will attack him and his family. His actions seem as if they are not privy of the ballooning dissatisfaction among the people.
Agricultural economies, as it is the case in France are affected by various natural phenomenon and the most adversaries are the peasants. For example, changes in climatic conditions such as the frequency of rainfall or long winter spells affects most farmers’ produce. The situation is even worse for the peasants since they have to remit higher taxes than normal to meet the high spending needs of the Monarch. The same has to be taxed among other natural disasters could mean that the economy constantly faced the challenge of low output and combining this with the heavy spending of the Monarchy meant that the peasants were the worst victims. José, for instance, works on a vine plantation together with his wife. During periods of low production, he was forced to bring some of his older sons with him to work so that the family would produce enough money for tax and to feed them. To José, the monarchy was oppressing, and the development of a new government system would mean a better life for him and his family. José was extremely lucky as the revolution that was desired by many of his kind was now around the corner.
Third Entry: My name is Frank Valbuena, a peasant in the Third Estate and one of the fellows struggling to bring a change in the nation’s governance. The rise of the Renaissance period in Europe or what is commonly known as the age of reason was characterized by philosophers who began questioning the monarchy by employing logic rather than religious bias has specifically helped us to realise the level of oppression we are subjected to. One of the governance areas that the Philosopher has highlighted as one of the key areas that need change is the tax system. We are also not happy with the unfair government policies. The increasing dissatisfaction and looming revolution is taking root in nearly all the people in the neighbourhood who are yearning for a change in the system of governance.
Subjecting poor people like us to high taxes even in harsh circumstances and not charging any on some people is class discrimination. The revolution began at around June 20th 1789 when the members of the third estate have been locked from deliberations between the members of the clergy (first estate) and those of the second estate on how they will reform the current government and develop a national constitution that will efficiently lead the nation to success. After national pressure to develop a new governance system, delegates had been selected to meet and deliberate on the best way forward for France. The problem is that we have been locked away from meeting between the first and second Estate members in forming a new national constitution.
This came to much relief to Parisian peasants like us who have suffered for a long time under the Monarchy administration. The other day there were chaos in the northern part of Paris and the increasing presence of guards in the neighbourhood has been fuelling people to join the revolution. Yesterday I was in a meeting and it was resolved that this part of town has to participate fully to ensure it is a success. The majority of the people were fired up and tomorrow we will start the demonstrations and the guards seem prepared for the same.
Works Cited
Schwartz, H. E. The French Revolution: Terror and triumph. New York: Teacher Created Materials, 2013. Print.
Thomas Carlyle. "A History of the French Revolution." N.p., 15 May 2010. Web. <http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/carlyleT/French%20Revolution.pdf>.
