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#1 The French Revolution, which took place in the late eighteenth century, marked the end of monarchy in France and the persecution of the nobility. The chosen instrument of revolutionary vengeance was the guillotine, a mechanical decapitator which made the streets of Paris run with royal and aristocratic blood.

#2 France was marked by a traumatic convulsion only just beyond living memory. Many believed that this must have been for the best and that it was somehow necessary.

#3 The last revolutions in the English-speaking world took place in Ireland in 1789, and even English-speaking contemporaries who sympathized with the French saw them as catching up with liberties proclaimed in England in 1688, or America in 1776.

#4 The French Revolution was a chaotic explosion of popular violence, which Carlyle believed was understandable if not defensible. He thought the most frightening figure was Robespierre, who tried to rule through terror.