CHAP. 1794. to work out its deserved punishment in the efforts which it makes for its own gratification. The death of Hebert and the anarchists was that of guilty depravity; that of Robespierre and the Decemvirs, of sanguinary fanaticism; that of Danton and his confederates, of stoical infidelity; that of Madame Roland and the Girondists, of reckless ambition and deluded virtue; that of Louis and his family, of religious forgiveness. The moralist will contrast the different effects of virtue and wickedness in the last moments of life; the Christian will mark with thankfulness the superiority in the supreme hour, to the sublimest efforts of human virtue, which was evinced by the believers in his own faith. CHAPTER XV. INTERNAL STATE OF FRANCE DURING THE REIGN OF ARGUMENT. Vast Exertions of the French Government during the Reign of Terror-Its enormous Expenditure-Prodigious Issue of Assignats: its Effects-Their rapid Depreciation-Origin of the Law of the Maximum on Prices-Great increase of Disorders and Gambling from the rapid changes of Prices-Forced Requisitions of Grain, Horses, and Carriages-Public Robbery for support of Populace of Cities-The immense Burden it imposed on the State-Forced Loans from the Opulent Classes-Confusion of the old and Revolutionary Debt Continued Fall of the Assignats-Severe Laws against Forestallers and all Public Companies-Direful effects of these Laws-Excessive Violence of the People from the Rise of Prices-Renewed Measures of Severity by the Municipality-And of the Convention-Establishment of the Committee of Subsistence-Equalization of Weights and Measures, and Decimal Notation— Sunday abolished-The Decade Established--Absolute Powers of the Committee of Public Safety-Grinding oppression on the Poor-Their Destitute and Deplorable Condition-People of Paris put on Reduced Rations-Fresh Arbitrary Taxation of the Opulent-Conversion of the Life into perpetual Annuitants-Reflections on the successive Destruction of all Classes by the Revolution-But it necessarily results from the Developement of the Revolutionary Passion-Successive steps of its disastrous progress; irresistible Power which made the one lead to the other-Great Effect of these Changes on the Distribution of the Landed Property of France-Its Effect on Population. XV. THE internal and financial situation of France, dur- CHAP. ing, and subsequent to the Reign of Terror, is equally instructive as to the inevitable consequence of revolu- 1793. tions, and the causes of the military events which subsequently occurred. Nothing could have enabled the French government to make head against the difficulties of their situation, and the formidable attack of the European CHAP. XV. 1793. French Go during the Reign of powers in 1793, but the immense levy of 1,500,000 men which then took place, the confiscation of half the landed property in the kingdom, and the unboundVast Exer- ed issue of assignats on the security of the national tions of the domains. These great measures, which no governvernment ment could have attempted, but during the fervour of a revolution, mutually upheld each other; and perpetuated the revolutionary system by the important interests which were made to depend on its continuance. The immense levy of soldiers drew off almost all the ardent and energetic spirits, and not only furnished bread to the multitudes whom the closing of all pacific employments had deprived of subsistence, but let off in immense channels the inflamed and diseased blood of the nation; the confiscation of the land placed funds worth above L. 700,000,000 sterling at the disposal of the government, which they were enabled to squander with boundless profusion in the maintenance of the revolutionary régime at home, and the contest with its. enemies abroad; the extraordinary issue of paper to the amount ultimately of L. 350,000,000, which always enabled the Treasury to liquidate its demands, and interested every holder of property in the kingdom in the support of the national domains, the only security on which it rested. During the unparalleled and almost demoniac energy produced by the sudden operation of these powerful causes, France was unconquerable; and it was their combined operation which brought it triumphant Th. vii. 239. through that violent and unprecedented crisis.1 1 Toul. v. 194. mous Ex Europe has had too much reason to become acIts Enor- quainted with the military power developed by France penditure, during this eventful period; but the civil force, exerted by the dictators within their own dominions, though less generally known, was, perhaps, still more remark CHAP. XV. Preface, 97, able. Fifty thousand Revolutionary Committees were soon established in the republic, and embraced above 500,000 members, all the most resolute and deter- 1793. mined of the Jacobin party. Each of these individuals received three francs a-day as his wages for seeking out victims for arrest and the scaffold; and 1 Chateaub. their annual charge was 591,000,000 of francs, or Etud. Hist. L.24,000,000 sterling. Between the military defend- 98 ers and civil servants of the government, almost all the active and resolute men in France were in the pay of the dictators; and the whole starving energy of the country fed on the spoils of its defenceless opulence; -a terrible system, drawing after it the total dissolution of society; capable of being executed only by the most audacious wickedness; but never likely when it is attempted, of failing for a time at least of success. "When a native of Louisiana," says Montesquieu, "wishes to obtain the fruit of a tree, he lays the axe to its root behold the emblem of despotism!" He little imagined how soon his own country was to afford a signal example of this truth. This system of revolutionary activity and plunder, produced astonishing effects for a limited period, just as an individual who, in a few years, squanders a great fortune, outshines all those who live only on the fruits of their industry. But the inevitable period of weakness soon arrives; the maniac who exerts demoniac strength, cannot in the end withstand the steady efforts of intelligence; the career of extravagance is in general short; bankruptcy arrests alike the waste of improvidence, and the splendour which attends it. issue of As. Cambon, the minister of finance, soon after the fall Prodigious of Robespierre, made an important and astonishing signats. Its revelation of the length to which the emission of assignats had been carried under the Reign of Terror. Effects. XV. CHAP. The national expenses had exceeded three hundred millions of francs, or above L. 12,000,000 a-month; 1793. the receipts of the treasury during the disorder which prevailed, never exceeded a fourth part of that sum; and there was no mode of supplying the deficiency but by an incessant issue of paper money. The quantity in circulation at the fall of Robespierre amounted to six milliards, four hundred millions,-about L. 300,000,000 sterling; while the national do1 Report of mains were still worth twelve milliards, or above Th. vii. 134. L. 520,000,000 sterling.' But this astonishing issue Cambon. 2 Th. viii. 103, 115, 446. of paper could not continue, without introducing a total confusion of property of every sort. All the persons employed by government, both in the civil and military departments, were paid in the paper currency at par; but as it rapidly fell, from the enormous quantity in circulation, to a tenth part, and soon a twentieth of its real value, the pay received was merely nominal, and those in the receipt of the largest apparent incomes were in want of the common necessaries of life. Pichegru, at the head of the army of the north, with a nominal pay of four thousand francs, was only in the actual receipt on the Rhine, in 1795, of two hundred francs, or L. 8 sterling a-month in gold or silver; a smaller sum than is the pay of an English lieutenant: and Hoche, the commander of 100,000 men, the army of La Vendée, besought the government to send him a horse, as he was unable to purchase one, and the military requisitions had exhausted all those in the country where he commanded. If such was the condition of the superior, it may be imagined what was the situation of the inferior officers, and private soldiers; while in their own country they were literally starving; and the necessity of conquest was felt as strongly, to enable them to live2 |