When the English agronomist Arthur Young traveled through the French countryside on the eve of the French Revolution, he was aghast at what he perceived as an insufficiency of news circulating in rural areas. Arriving at Thierry-sur-Marne on July 4, 1789, Young wrote that he wished to see a newspaper “in a period so interesting to France,” but that not one was to be found. “Here are two parishes, and some thousands of inhabitants, and not a newspaper to be seen by a traveler, even in a moment when all ought to be in anxiety. What stupidity, poverty, and want of circulation! This people hardly deserve to be free; and should there be even a slightly vigorous attempt to keep them otherwise, it can hardly fail of succeeding.”