Girondins oppose abolition of feudal rights -- Decree of July 17 -- Feudal laws abolished en masse -- Reaction unable to prevent effect of decree -- Triumph of Revolution As soon as royalty was abolished, the Convention had to discuss in its first sittings the question of the feudal rights. However, as the Girondins were opposed to the abolition of these rights without indemnity, and yet proposed no scheme of redemption which would be binding on the lords, the whole matter remained in suspense. But this was the main, the all-absorbing question for much more than one-half of the population of France, who asked themselves with anxiety: " Is it possible that the peasant shall have to set his neck again under the feudal yoke, and again endure the horrors of famine-as soon as the revolutionary period is over?" We have just seen that immediately after the Girondist leaders had been expelled from the Convention, the decree wh...