question_answer

  Which groups of French society would have gained from the Constitution of 1791? Which groups would have had reason to be dissatisfied? What developments does Marat (Source B) anticipate in the future?                                                         Source B The revolutionary journalist Jean-Paul Marat commented in his newspaper L'Ami du peuple (The friend of the people) on the Constitution drafted by the National Assembly. The task of representing the people has been given to the rich the lot of the poor and oppressed will never be improved by peaceful means alone. Here we have absolute proof of how wealth influences the law. Yet laws will last only as long as the people agree to obey them. And when they have managed to cast off the yoke of the aristocrats, they will do the same to the other owners of wealth'. Source An extract from the newspaper L'Ami du People.

Answer:

                  Only some members of the Third Estate, who were rich and propertied, would have gained from this Constitution. Members of the First and Second Estates would have been Dissatisfied as their privileges were abolished and they had to pay taxes. Marat anticipates another revolution in which the poor will rebel against the rich persons of the Third Estate and overthrow them, just like they had done the noblemen and clergy.