With the outbreak of the revolution, France had welcomed into its bosom a considerable number of persons not of French origin, many of whom were political refugees from their noble-dominated countries and favorably predisposed toward revolutionary ideology. Such “friends of liberty” were widely indulged in the cosmopolitanism of the revolutionaries.11 Second and more importantly, one must bear in mind that this was a period of grain riots, rural revolt, and, ultimately, the threat of foreign invasion and war. Many people long familiar with the restrictions on movement characteristic of the
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