The feeling with the country gentry was very generally the same as with
the peasantry, though hitherto they had openly expressed no opposition
to the ruling Government. They had, however, been always elected to
those situations which the leaders of the revolution had wished the
people to fill exclusively with persons from their own ranks. They were
chosen as mayors in the small towns, and were always requested to act
as officers in the corps of the National Guards, which were formed in
this, as in every other district of France. On this account the peculiar
ill-will of the Republican Government was directed against them. In
France, at that time, political inactivity was an impossibility. Revolt
against the Republic, or active participation in its measures, was the
only choice left to those who did not choose to fly their country, and
many of the seigneurs of Anjou and Poitou would not adopt the latter
alternative.
In March, the Commissaries of the Republic entered these provinces to
collect from that district, its portion towards the levy of three
hundred thousand men which had been ordered by the Convention.
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