[110] See Gulliver's Travels for the idea of countries governed by philosophers.
[111] M. de Calonne states the falling off of the population of Paris as far more considerable; and it may be so, since the period of M. Necker's calculation.
| Livres. | £ | s. | d. | |
| Travaux de charité pour subvenir au manque de travail à Paris et dans les provinces | 3,866,920 | 161,121 | 13 | 4 |
| Destruction de vagabondage et de la mendicité | 1,671,417 | 69,642 | 7 | 6 |
| Primes pour l'importation de grains | 5,671,907 | 235,329 | 9 | 2 |
| Dépenses relatives aux subsistances, déduction fait des reconvrements qui out en lieu | 39,871,790 | 1,661,324 | 11 | 8 |
| Total | 51,082,034 | 2,128,418 | 1 | 8 |
When I sent this book to the press, I entertained some doubt concerning the nature and extent of the last article in the above accounts, which is only under a general head, without any detail. Since then I have seen M. de Calonne's work. I must think it a great loss to me that I had not that advantage earlier. M. de Calonne thinks this article to be on account of general subsistence; but as he is not able to comprehend how so great a loss as upwards of 1,661,000l. sterling could be sustained on the difference between the price and the sale of grain, he seems to attribute this enormous head of charge to secret expenses of the Revolution. I cannot say anything positively on that subject. The reader is capable of judging, by the aggregate of these immense charges, on the state and condition of France, and the system of public economy adopted in that nation. These articles of account produced no inquiry or discussion in the National Assembly.
[113] This is on a supposition of the truth of this story; but he was not in France at the time. One name serves as well as another.
[114] Domat.
[115] Speech of M. Camus, published by order of the National Assembly.
[116] Whether the following description is strictly true I know not; but it is what the publishers would have pass for true, in order to animate others. In a letter from Toul, given in one of their papers, is the following passage concerning the people of that district:—"Dans la Révolution actuelle, ils ont résisté à toutes les séductions du bigotisme, aux persécutions et aux tracasseries des ennemis de la Révolution. Oubliant leurs plus grands intérêts pour rendre hommage aux vues d'ordre général qui out déterminé l'Assemblée Nationale, ils voient, sans se plaindre, supprimer cette foule d'établissemens ecclésiastiques par lesquels ils subsistoient; et même, en perdant leur siège épiscopal, la seule de toutes ces ressources qui pouvoit, on plutôt qui devoit, en toute équité, leur être conservée, condamnés à la plus effrayante misère sans avoir été ni pu être entendus, ils ne murmurent point, ils restent fidèles aux principes du plus pur patriotisme; ils sont encore prêts à verser leur sang pour le maintien de la constitution, qui va réduire leur ville à la plus déplorable nullité."—These people are not supposed to have endured those sufferings and injustices in a struggle for liberty, for the same account states truly that they have been always free; their patience in beggary and ruin, and their suffering, without remonstrance, the most flagrant and confessed injustice, if strictly true, can be nothing but the effect of this dire fanaticism. A great multitude all over France is in the same condition and the same temper.
[117] See the proceedings of the confederation at Nantes.