The French invent? They copied it from the Scots, who got it from the English
Check "Halifax Gibbet" 
The author speaks of activities 229 years ago. For most all of us, our parents birthed us about 20 years before us, their parents birthed them about 20 years prior and so on, back and back and back. 229 years ago = about eleven generations prior.
During that time, the French had the French Revolution when, they themselves, saw the major flaw in their elite, invented the guillotine and executed Marie Antoinette and many other high fallutin' jerks.
They, then, grew another big crop of the same.
There's nothing about the She racks of the world that a sharp blade can't fix!
The French invent? They copied it from the Scots, who got it from the English
Check "Halifax Gibbet"