ABSTRACT
Standard accounts of the French Revolution usually treat the year 1790, or even the period between October 1789 and the spring of 1791, as a time of peace and order in the otherwise tumultuous history of this great upheaval. In order to provide further evidence of the severity and complexity of this problem, the chapter presents an examination of two incidents. The examples, which occurred in Marseilles and Lyon, were selected for a number of reasons. Each took place in a comparatively large population center with a heterogeneous social composition. The issues involved, while they may not be entirely typical of conditions in the country at large, are not, on the other hand, unique. And finally, the documentation for these incidents—largely unexploited—is reasonably complete. Even the authorities and agencies charged with the maintenance of law and order commonly viewed their functions in political terms and thus seriously undermined their own ability to accomplish their duties.
