STATE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FINANCES AND RESOURCES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FRENCH REPUBLIC, 
 
 To the ift of JANUARY 1796. 
 
 Being a Continuation of the REFLECTIONS ON THE 
 and of the CURSORT VIEW OF THE ASSIGNATS ; 
 
 AND CONTAINING 
 
 An Anfwer to the PICTURE OF EUROPE, 
 By Mr. DE CALONNE. 
 
 By FRANCIS D'lVERNOIS, ESQ,, 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for P.'ELMSLY, Strand; J. DEBRETT, Piccadilly; 
 
 J. EDWARDS, Pall-Mall.; J. DE BOFFE, Gerard- ftreet, 
 
 Soho; J. OWEN, Piccadilly; J. SEWKLL, Cornhill; and 
 
 V>:RNOR and HOOD, Birchin-lane.. 
 
 PV.IARCH 1796 
 
 lifornia 
 
 .onal 
 
 lity
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CfdTE of the Finances and Refources of tie French 
 Republic, to the ift of January 1796. Page i 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Refearches concerning the Diminution of Specie in France, 
 and that of the Capital, and the Income of its lnba~ 
 bit ants. Comparative View of the Prices of the 
 NeceJJaries of Life-, and of Wages, - - 83 
 
 POSTSCRIPT, March ijl. 
 
 1140481
 
 Publijbedly the fame AUTHOR. 
 
 1. ETAT DES FINANCES ET DES RESSOURCES DE LA 
 REPUBLIQJJE FRANCAISE, au premier Janvier 1796. 
 Price 2s. 6d. 
 
 2. REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR; on the Finances of the French* 
 on thtir prefent Svjlem of Government^ their Mews of dggran- 
 dizementi &c. &c. Being the 2d Edition confiderably en- 
 larged, January 1796. Price 45. 
 
 3. CURSORY VIEW OF THE ASSIGNATS. Price is. 6d. 
 
 4. DES REVOLUTIONS DE FRANCE ET DE GENEVE, in 
 one Vol. 8vo. October 1795. Price 75. 
 
 5. The fecond English Edition of the SHORT ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THE LATE REVOLUTION IN GENEVA. Price IS. 
 
 Printed for P. ELMSLY, Strand; J.DEBRETT, Piccadilly; 
 J. EDWARDS, Pall-Mall ; J.Di-BoFFE, Gerard-flreet, Soho; 
 J. OWEN, Piccadilly; J. SEWELL, Cornhill; and VER.NO* 
 and HOOD, Birchin-IaRe
 
 s r A r E 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FINANCES AND RESOURCES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FRENCH REPUBLIC, 
 
 To the ift of JANUARY 1796. 
 
 A SHORT time only had elapfed, after my announcing, 
 " in the Curfory View of the AJJignats^ that their ca- 
 taftrophe was impending, when it became evident 
 that it had already taken place, and the Directory, 
 in order to give a colour to its violent propofition*, 
 informed the two Councils, that the feafon for palli- 
 atives was paft, that all the fprings of the machine were 
 treating, and that the Republic muft foon be at an 
 end t unkfsfome unexpected refource Jhould flajh with the 
 rapidity of lightning from the genius of liberty*. 
 
 And yet, at the very time when the Directory was 
 giving lo ftriking a confirmation of my aff ions, 
 and at the very time when it was admitted :u ^ns 
 that the fyftem of aj/ignats was too bad to continue f , 
 
 Mcflage from the Directory to the Council of 500, Decem- 
 ber 6, 1795. 
 
 f &rwhl/t Prc fident of the Direaorf - 
 
 B a writer,
 
 a writer, who was once hirnfclf the miniftcr of French 
 finances, has here in London treated all my calcu- 
 lations on their inevitable fall as empirical illufions ! 
 In his opinion, the author of Reflexions en Peace 
 was perfectly right in attributing all the triumphs of 
 the Republic, to the revolutionary impulfe, and the fa- 
 naticifm of liberty. He even goes farther, and con- 
 tends, that the fame emhufiafm ftill remains, and 
 may again produce the fame wonderful effects. 
 
 When it is known, tfiat the political champion 
 who has thus prelented himfelf to defend the opi- 
 nions of the daughter of M. Necker, is no other than 
 his celebrated rival M de Calonne, no one I am fure 
 will contend that the age of chivalry is paft. 
 
 We all have read, that the knights-errant of old 
 times, when defending diftreffed damfels, very often 
 began the conflict with a volley of vocal weapons > 
 and it was, I fujipaie, to prelerve the confiftency of 
 his aflumed character, that my antagonift, inftead of 
 treating me with the civility with which I was care- 
 ful to treat M. de Stael, indulges himfelf in terms of 
 reproach, grand prognofticator* dogmatizer, political 
 pamphleteer* prophet, oracle, puffer, &e. &c. &c. * 
 
 After having exerted my feeble abilities in plead- 
 ing the caufe of ths French monarchy, and of the 
 many unfortunate exiles who have been robbed of 
 their property , I fhould, perhaps, have been atalofs 
 to conjecture, how I had incurred the difpleafure 
 of M. de Galonne, if his impatience to contradict 
 one of my aflertions had not explained the nature 
 
 * M. de Cayenne is, however, too much praftifed in the tac- 
 tics of literary, warfare, to employ all his artillery of this kind 
 in open view, and fome of his perfonalicies are placed as 
 mafked batteries, under the cover of general remarks. Thus, 
 for inftance, he often ufes the plural number, when aware that 
 what he fays cannot be undetilood or addrefled to any one but 
 myfelf. See his work as originally publilhed in the Courier de 
 Londrts* during the months of November and December 1795. 
 
 of
 
 [ 3 1 
 
 of my offence. I had afierted, that the French mo- 
 narchy feil by tbe ruin of its finances; upon which he 
 exclaims, that this is not true-, that-// never will be 
 true i that tbe public treafury never had been fo free 
 from demandable debts ', fo punftual in its payments , and 
 fo high in its credit, as at the time when the Notables 
 were convened, &c. 
 
 From this formal contradiction of my aflertion, I 
 mud fuppofe, that the inconteftable proofs, which 
 he fays he has in his pofieffion, will, when pnblifhed, 
 leave me nothing but to make an apology for my 
 great miftake * ; this I will readily do, provided 
 he will allow me to lament, with all Europe, that he 
 fhould fo long have hid fuch important truths from 
 the public ; and, that when he convened the Nota- 
 bles, he did not think fit to lay before them thefe 
 proofs of the profperous ftate of the monarchy, in- 
 ilead of announcing to them, as he did, a defi- 
 ciency of 115 millions. 
 
 The queftion however is not at prefent, whether 
 the monarchy perifhed by the dilapidation of its fi- 
 
 nances: our iimoiv 10 calculate wnctncr rne 
 
 j ! Type or Print p 
 
 uthor Ivernois,/Sir Francis d f?~>- /^f> 
 
 iverted _,-,- ____,____, 
 
 JVC- 
 
 111048! 
 
 ^x,H. 
 
 r State ,of the finances and resources of 
 ltle the French Republic, to the 1st of Jan. 
 1796. Being a continuation of the refle 
 tions on the war, and of the cursory 
 view of the assignats... translated from 
 the original French. lie**. \*xj ,3-2-6 2 (** K 
 
 <kdered 
 Received 
 
 Handling 
 
 dition | place London Da ffiareh 1J96 
 
 Elmsly ^;; nr ---DC--ltl R . e g- "l^T 1796 
 
 o. of Copies Charge to 
 
 Economics 
 
 Price 
 
 ealer HOWey Jan .^^62 92 Recommended by 
 hipping ty^&Ht&f? 
 
 Countersigned by 
 
 i_C CLu has original French Jan. 1796 wjlth aaveTTii semens 
 3BM oENl ebvjtf of Bngl. edition to be published. *
 
 a writer, who was once himfclf the minifter of French 
 finances, has here in London treated all my calcu- 
 lations on their inevitable fall as empirical illufions ! 
 In his opinion, the author of Reflections en Peace 
 was perfectly right in attributing all the triumphs of 
 the Republic, to the revolutionary impulfe, and the fa~ 
 ntiticifm of liberty. He even goes farther, and con- 
 tends, that the fame enihufiafm ftill remains, and 
 may again produce the fame wonderful effects. 
 
 When it is known, tfiat the political champion 
 who has thus prelented himfelf to defend the opi- 
 nions of the daughter of M. Necker, is no other than 
 his celebrated rival M. de Calonne, no one I am fure 
 will contend that the age of chivalry is pafl. 
 
 We all have read, thai: the knights-errant of old 
 times, when defending diftreffed damfels, very often 
 began the conflict with a volley of vocal weapons ; 
 and it was, I fuppodi, to prelerve the confiftency of 
 his aflumed character, that my antagonift, inftead of 
 treating me with the civility with which I was care- 
 
 1L/T A<* C-~~L :*4.,l~ u:_r-ir :_ r
 
 [ 3 I 
 
 of my offence. I had afierted, that the French mo- 
 narchy feil by the ruin of its finances ; upon which he 
 exclaims, that this is not true ; that-// never will be 
 true -, that the public treafury never had been fo free 
 from demandable debt 3 1 fo punffual in its payments, and 
 fo high in its credit^ as at the time when the Notables 
 were convened, &c. 
 
 From this formal contradiction of my affertion, I 
 muft fuppofe, that the inconceftable proofs, which 
 he fays he has in his pofleffion, will, when pnblifhed, 
 leave me nothing but to make an apology for my 
 great miftake * ; this I will readily do, provided 
 he will allow me to lament, with all Europe, that he 
 fliould fo long have hid fuch important truths from 
 the public ; and, that when he convened the Nota- 
 bles, he did not think fit to lay before them thefe 
 proofs of the profperous ftate of the monarchy, in- 
 ilead of announcing to them, as he did, a defi- 
 ciency of 115 millions. 
 
 The queftion however is not at prefent, whether 
 the monarchy perimed by the dilapidation of its fi- 
 nances; but fimply to calculate whether the Re- 
 public will fall to pieces in confequence of the dif- 
 credit of its paper money. This too M. de Calonne 
 equally denies, and fets out with oppofmg to my 
 opinion, the great refource which the French derive 
 from their energy , exalted by fanaticifm, and redoubled 
 by calamity itjelf. This appears to me to be merely 
 a paraphrafe of the firft lines of the Reflexions on 
 Peace -, and I think I have proved, that if the revo- 
 lution commenced in enthufiafm, yet the Republic 
 
 * M. de Calonne ought not to be too fevere upon me for this 
 miftake, (if it is one,) becaufe he himfelf in fome fort contri- 
 buted to it, by accufing the Conjiituent djfiembly of having made 
 the dilapidation of the finances worfe, which, fays he, they ought 
 to have rffairtd. See his Etat dt la Fraact freftat & a veir, 
 page 5. 
 
 B 2 owes
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 owes its exigence to the aflignats, and is indebted to 
 them for its conquefts *. 
 
 * See Curfory View, tc. page I, &c., and page 22 of the 2d 
 edition of Reflections on the Wur, on the Finances of the French, 
 tn their prefent Syjhm of Government, their Views of Aggrandife- 
 ment, &c. &c. printed for Elmfley January i, 1796. I there 
 applied myfelf to prove, from the confeffions of the French Le- 
 giflators, that all the power of tkeir Revolution conjijled exclu- 
 fively in their ajfignats. If any additional proofs were wanted 
 in fupport of this proportion, they might be found in the 
 Report which the new Commiffion of Finance prefented to the 
 Council of 500, the i3th of November laft. For inftance, 
 
 The Revolution, by opening to the people of France a career of 
 glory, bat alfo opened a four ce of public expences. The terrible war 
 which ive have carried on againjl our enemies, is the caufe of the 
 prtfent ftatt of our finances . 
 
 Armies amounting to 1,400,000 fighting men, provided with 
 every thing necejjary for a3ual fervice j the almojl injlantaneous 
 tftablijhment of a multitude of manufactories and arfenals in every 
 fart of the Republic ; a numerous navy put on the jlocks and equipped 
 in a moment ; a confumption in every refpeft unexampled; immenfe 
 fupplies of prov ijions and military and naval Jl ores bought in foreign 
 countries to replenijh the voracious gulph of our wants ; a thoufand 
 unforefeen expences occajioned by the events of the Revolution theft 
 are the honourable caufes of the ft ate of ourjinances. 
 
 During this period, ados the Reporter Echafleriaux, the finances 
 were not directed by any principle or any determinate rule. EmiJJion* 
 ef ajfignats were ufed to repair every diforder in them, and to pay 
 with profujton every expsnce. The war department became a gulph. 
 From that moment all proportion between the receipt and the expen- 
 diture *was lojt t the diforder increafed t the taxes were negleSed,, 
 the plate of the ajjtgnati was the only refource of Government for 
 the charges of the war, for the ordinary expenditure of the interior % 
 and for all the extraordinary dijbnrfements. The imbecility of a. 
 dozen diftinfi Adminiftrations only ferved to fwell the expences, 
 and to fqueexe the national treafury, which, in order to fupply the 
 demands on it, was continually calling for new emijflons of 
 affignats. 
 
 I do not know what M. de Calonne will think of this ftate- 
 ment, determined as he is to attribute the fuccefs of his coun- 
 trymen againft the confederation of the grealeft Potentate* to fome 
 caufe more noble than a iimple engraving. Afublime and won- 
 derful fecret, indeed! fays he, to have found out a way of fighting 
 again/} all Europe witb paper, and of making txtenfive (onquefit 
 with rags ! 
 
 This
 
 [ 5 3 
 
 This the Author of the Piffure of Europe is very 
 far from admitting; but fuppofing it true, he 
 maintains the poffibility of prolonging the fame fyf- 
 tem, by reviving the credit of the afiignats, which hp 
 knows feveral ways of doing, notwithftanding their 
 prefent depreciation. They, fays he, who by a decree 
 of a few lines have created immenfe rithes, who havt 
 multiplied them at their pleafure, and, in fpite of diffir- 
 cutties, have fwelled their mafs beyond bounds, cannot they 
 now, while they ft ill have in their hands the fame terrible 
 and all-potent wand, fupport their work, or replace it ; 
 repair its decay, or create it anew -, preferve from re- 
 turning to nothing what they made fiart from nothing 
 with a word, or with a word fubjlitute injlead of it 
 a Jimilar creation ? Is it not a received maxim that 
 whatever can caufe the greater can caufe the lefs ? Is 
 it not an eternal truth that the power which is able to 
 create is able alfo to preferve ? 
 
 This Picture is exactly in the ftyle of the revolu- 
 tionary fchool. If even at Paris fome perfons fhould 
 think it too highly coloured, it muft be becaufe their 
 tafte is not fufficiently modernifed ; for M. de Ca- 
 lonne allures us, that the lejfon of events Jhould have 
 convinced us, that, at prefent, the worft way of reafon- 
 ing is to reafon as heretofore. 
 
 Had it not been for this prudent admonition, the 
 leffbn of events might have convinced me more than 
 ever, that the old way of reafoning is ftillthe befti 
 and if the Author of the Piflure of Europe had not 
 wilfully rejected what he calls antiquated methods^ 
 antiquated maxims, and antiquated probabilities) I am 
 inclined to think he would have inverted fome of his 
 propofitions, and faid, " The magic wand with 
 " which the French Revolution created immenfe 
 " riches, and increafed them beyond bounds, was 
 " armed at its ends with the talifmans of enthufiafm 
 u and terror. They are deftroyed, and thole fpirits 
 ' are now no longer obedient to its controul, which 
 13 " at
 
 [ 6 3 
 
 " at a word once formed the aflignats from nothing. 
 te The difconcerted magician has, a hundred times 
 " over, folemnly promiied to reftore their former 
 " credit, and yet their difcredit is continually in- 
 " creafing. He was not able to prevent it even 
 te while his wand retained its terror; how then will 
 <i he be able to fubftitute another delufion, now 
 " that the wand itfelf is gone? Is it not a received 
 f( maxim, that he cannot perform the greater who 
 " cannot perform the lefs ? Is it not an eternal 
 " truth, that creative power cannot belong to that 
 " which has not power to preferve ?" 
 
 The Financier who undertakes to refute me, op- 
 pofes to my opinion the character of the French, 
 whom he represents as of all people upon the earth the 
 mo ft credulous i and the moft eaftly f educed; and he 
 concludes from this, that it is contrary to COMMON 
 SENSE to doubt but that they who have Jo eajily found at 
 their printer's, moKey enough to refift the attacks of all 
 Europe, will again dif cover ^ when they want it, fame 
 Jimilar expedient,. andfucceedinfubjlituting onefiRionfor 
 another. Is then (he afks) the four ce ofillufions exhaufted? 
 
 1 muft confefs that I believed it was exhaufted; and 
 though M. de Calonne is much better acquainted with 
 its hidden recefles than I pretend to be, yet common 
 fenfe will not allow me to fuppofe, that even he can 
 ever again make it productive; unlefs indeed it is 
 poflible to perfuade the French nation, ift, That 
 war is necejfary to their jy/t em* j idly, That in order 
 to prolong it, recourfe (hould be had to fame expedient 
 ftmilar to the affignats which have ruined them ; 
 ^dly, That the fecurity for a new fpecies of paper 
 money is abfolutely different from that of the paper 
 money which preceded it. 
 
 Among his various ways of opening again the 
 fource of illufions, the Author of the Piflure of Eu- 
 rope commences with pointing out one which he 
 
 * An affertion of the Author of the fifttre of Europe. 
 
 thinks
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 thinks the moft fimple, Why then, fays he, may not 
 the chiefs of the Convention, nvw that the public necej- 
 ftty is greater than ever, be able to perfuade the nation 
 to cut off fame cyphers from the ajjignats, in order tofm-> 
 plify their denominator, juft as decimal fractions have 
 been introduced into arithmetic to facilitate calculations ? 
 The companion is not exaft, but however the mean- 
 ing is intelligible ; and certainly \t is a mark of no 
 common mind to conceive the idea of reftoring the 
 credit of the afTignats by diminiming their value. 
 The firft honours of this ingenious device *, M. 
 de Calonne has unluckily been deprived of by the 
 French Legiflature ; who, in this inftance at lead, 
 have not given him an opportunity of faying that 
 the unjkilfulnefs of the means propofed by the Conven- 
 tion, only prove the abfurdity of thofe who have adopted 
 them. 
 
 Ic remains to be feen in what degree this ftmplify- 
 ing the denominator can retard the difcredit of the 
 aflignats, which have now undergone the experi- 
 ment ; and which difcredit he merely confiders as an 
 excejfi-ve irregularity in their circulation ; and according 
 to him, this irregularity itfelf is only a proof of dif- 
 orderly jobbing, to which, in his opinion, it is not im- 
 poffible to put an end. 
 
 It kerns to me, that in this idea too the French 
 legiflators have anticipated him; they have held 
 exactly the fame language for ten months paft, but 
 have not hitherto found it pofiible to check, in the 
 imalleft degree, the evil of which they complain. 
 The reafon is obvious this disorderly jobbing origin- 
 ates -in deep diftrufi-, and a dirtruit of paper money 
 
 * He developed this luminous idea in the Courier de Londres 
 of the 1 3th 'of November, within three weeks of which 
 lime the two Legiflarive Councils voted the fame meafure. 
 They decreed, (to facilitate calculation 1 fuppofe,) that the go- 
 vernment would receive aflignats in payment of the forced loan, 
 at the rate of 100 for \. This is their way of fimpKfying the de- 
 nominator, 
 
 B 4 clearly
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 clearly marks the opinion of the Public that its fecu- 
 rity is not adequate to its amount. 
 
 M. de Calonne makes no fecret of one of his re- 
 cipes for this diforder; his countrymen will judge 
 how /ar it is practicable. If, fays he, the execrable 
 Robefpierre, wbofe knowledge was as confined as his bar- 
 barity was unbounded^ bad been lefs unfkilful in admi- 
 niftration, and lefs inclined to cboofe his meafures in pro- 
 portion to their tyranny, he would not have thought it ne- 
 cejfary to have recourfe to a law fo vexatious as that of 
 the maximum. He would have contented himfelf with 
 giving the ajjignats a forced circulation, by excluding 
 that of gold andjilver. , 
 
 Bcuidon of Oife propofed the fame thing juft fix 
 months before M. de Calonne. 1 agree that it would 
 have been lefs tyrannical, but furely it would not have 
 been more effectual than the maximum. All the 
 gold and filver would have been buried which could 
 not be conveniently exported, and I am at a lofs to 
 guefs how it could pofiibly have prevented a depre- 
 ciation of paper money which depends upon other 
 caufes than their concurrence with it in circulation. 
 What my opponent advances on this fubject appears 
 t,o me to have very litile weight. An artificial money* 
 he fays, neither gains nor lofesbut when it can be changed 
 for real money. The courfe of exchange is, with refpeff 
 to it, an exprejfion without meaning. 
 
 This ideafeems to be the foundation of all the doc- 
 trine on this fubjecl which M. de Calonne has advanced, 
 and he reprehends thofe who, without having any 
 found notions of tbe rate of exchange of ajfignats, pre- 
 fume neverthelefs to reafon upon it. \ do not very well 
 know how he can have contrived to form found no- 
 lions, as he calls them, of the rate of exchange of a 
 paper money which the holders (to repeat a very apt 
 companion) have been continually pafling from hand 
 to hand like a burning coal. For my part, I cannot 
 bead of having been able to defcribe or detect all 
 
 the
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
 the revolutionary circumftances which, at particular 
 periods, have more or lefs influenced the courfe of 
 exchange of the aflignats. Nor is it necefiary to 
 analyfe the caufes of their fluctuation, for the im- 
 portant objects are, their progreflive depreciation, 
 and particularly their prefent rate of exchange, upon 
 wh ch only any approximation to the reputed value of 
 thtir fecurity can be founded. 
 
 This principle has been dated with confiderablc 
 perfpicuity in the Council of Ancients by their Com- 
 uiifiion' of Finance. "The 'value of the affignats, fay 
 they, (December the 3d,) is unalterably fixed by its 
 relation to the fecurity upon which it is affined*. After 
 laying down this principle, and lamenting the conti- 
 nually increafing uncertainty as to the reality of the 
 property which is the fuppofed fecurity of the 
 aflignats, the CommifTion concluded, that in order 
 to annihilate the difcredit of the paper money, the 
 real value of the national domains ought to be 'verified. 
 It was however foon discovered that the remedy would 
 be worfe than the difeafe. But though they have noc 
 found it convenient to undertake this 'verification^ 
 yet, by applying the principle which they have Itated, 
 it will not be difficult to eftimate that value which 
 they have thought fit to leave unafcertained. In fact, 
 if weadmic the exact relation between the value of the 
 aflignat and of its fecurity, and if, in addition to 
 this, we obferve, that the 20 milliards which were in 
 circulation on the 3d of December were then only 
 worth five -eighths per cenf. of their nominal value, and 
 confequently that they were not equivalent to more 
 than 125 millions of real value, then this latter fum 
 
 * In the fitting of the roth of Oftober, Le Coulteux added 
 another explanation of this principle. The ajjignat, faid he, 
 cannot be raifed or depreciated but in proportion to the greater or 
 left quotient of the fecurity upon 'which it it affigned, and by whiffy 
 it it to be paid ojf, compared with the afcertained quotient of tbt 
 nominal amount of tbt ajjignat: which are ijjued. 
 
 gives
 
 t 10 ] 
 
 gives the reputed value of the fecurity upon which 
 they are afilgned, and with which they have an un- 
 alterable relation. 
 
 Low as this valuation. may- appear, yet it muft not 
 for that reafon be too haftily rejected as erroneous : 
 For if we trace the gradation of the depreciation of 
 the afilgnats, its connexion with the public opinion 
 of the value of the property on which they are fe- 
 cured is demonftrated by the effects of the immenfe 
 reftitutions, and of the low price at' which thofe do- 
 mains can now be fold which yet remain in the pof- 
 fefiion of the Governmenr. The progrefiive dimi- 
 nution of the real value of the mafs of afllgnats has 
 very nearly correfponded with the progrefiive dimi- 
 nution and depreciation of their bafe*, whofe reputed 
 value may at any time be eftimated with fufficienr, 
 accuracy by what is called the rate of exchange. 
 
 May I be allowed to enter into a, dilcuffion which 
 perhaps the Author of the Pifture of Europe has 
 thought too unimportant to be worth his notice, for 
 the word hypotheque (fecurity) is not even once ufed 
 in that part of his work which treats of the afilgnats. 
 I will not, however, content myfelf with having 
 afcertained what the value of this fecurity is, as far 
 as it may be deduced from the conduct of thofe who 
 make a trade of exchanging afilgnats at Paris -, for a 
 more material queftion occurs, which is, Whether 
 thofe dealers in paper money have any found found- 
 ation for fuppofing that the unfold eftates are really 
 worth fa much as 125 millions of livres? So far 
 
 * Io the fitting of the 3d of December, the banker Le Coul- 
 teux attempted to mark fome of the fteps in this fcale of depre- 
 ciation. ' ' In the month P/u<viqfe, faid he, of the third year, the 
 aflignats were reckoned at 6,400,000,000, and being only as 
 one to four when compared with metallic money, they repre- 
 fented 1,600 millions of it. Two months after, the affignats 
 were augmented to fix milliards and one half; but, becoming 
 worth no more than as one to fix, they reprefented only 
 1,200 millions of metallic value." 
 
 from
 
 from believing this, I deny without hefiration that 
 they are now of any fort of value to the Republic. 
 I aflert, that nothing at all can be drawn from them 
 to fet againlt the public debt, a truth of which the 
 holders of afiignats muft be convinced if they will 
 attend to the following observations. 
 
 I know but one way of obtaining an exact valua- 
 tion of a farm, and that is by a ftatement of its 
 clear rent. Though for a long time pail the French 
 Government has taken great pains to conceal the real 
 rental of the national domains in order to exaggerate 
 their value, yet the myftery may be explained by 
 the affiftance of fome aftertions on this fubject which 
 Jobannot made, not very difcreetly perhaps, about a 
 year ago. One of them, which 1 have formerly 
 quoted, is very material. The annual value cf tbs 
 national domains which continue unfold is about 300 
 millions (12,500,000 fterling). Now, we may ob~ 
 ferve, ift, That fmce the time of this aflertion (the 
 22d of December 1794) there not only have been 
 no newconfifcations,but that all thofe which took place 
 under the tyranny of Robefpierre have been annulled, 
 without any other exception than that of the property 
 of the family of Du Barre. 2dly, Le Coulteux has de- 
 clared, that by the I4th of April (only four months 
 after) the reftitutions had reduced the remaining mart' 
 gaged -property to /even milliards at the valuation of 
 1790, (that valuation being taken at 50 years pur chafe,) * 
 and this of courfe reduced to 140 millions the annual 
 value of all the then remaining national property, 
 jdly, Since the time mentioned by Le Coulteux* a 
 great part of this remaining national property has 
 been alienated. 
 
 Now, as the purchafers were tempted by an unli- 
 mited power of felecting any domains they pleafed, 
 there can be no doubt but that they have chofen the 
 
 * See the Moniteur of the gth of December 1795. - 
 
 beflj
 
 [ 1* ] 
 
 heft; and we may conclude that thole which they 
 have rejected, and which remain at the difpofal of 
 the nation, are, in general, either confifcadons of 
 emigrant property fuuated in the departments which 
 are in a ftate of infurrection ; or elfe eftates which 
 have fufFered by the ravages of war ; or eftates which 
 Cambon a long time ago faid were perijhing in the 
 hands cf the nation ; or thofe which the fame Cambon 
 rells us were left on hand by fraudulent purchafers y after 
 being jlri-pped of the timber and materials. Confider- 
 ing thefe circumftances, I doubt whether the whole 
 of the property which remains unfold and unreftored 
 would now produce half the revenue mentioned by 
 Le Coulteux. But let us even admit the eftimate 
 of 140 millions -per annum, to which fum he faid 
 that the revenue of the national property amounted 
 eight months ago. 
 
 To thefe firft data three others muft be joined, 
 i ft, That the number of the creditors who have 
 claims upon the confifcated eftates amounts to about a 
 million. 2dly, That, on the ift of January 1795, the 
 Convention folemnly made the nation refponfible for 
 this debt. 3dly, That, not long after the reftitu- 
 tions to the federalifts, Johannot afferted, that this 
 debt did not amount to more than 1500 millions, which 
 was much the fame as owning, that it amounted to 
 more than ten times the annual value of all the 
 eftates pofiefied by the nation. 
 
 My readers will probably have anticipated my in- 
 ference from thefe circumftances. If the revenue of 
 the eftates unfold is not more than 140 millions, and 
 thofe eftates are charged with a debt of 1500 mil- 
 lions, that is, more than ten times their rent, it is 
 evident that the nation, bound as it is to pay off 
 this original incumbrance, can derive no benefit from 
 the eftates it pofiefies, unlefs it mould be able to fell 
 them for more than ten years purchafe. But what 
 chance can there be of obtaining fuch a price, now 
 
 that
 
 [ '3 1 
 
 that the nation has been unable to difpofe of its beft- 
 eftates for more than two or three years purchafe on 
 the rent of 1790 ? However, admitting that by an]T 
 turn of circumftances or trick of finance they Ihould 
 be fold at ten years purchafe, even then they 
 would produce no more than enough to pay the 
 original creditors. What then now remains to 
 the State of all its plunder ? The fpoii is difli- 
 pated, and nothing left but the difgrace of rob- 
 bery and the mortification of difappointment ! The 
 nation has no fooner taken violent pofTefiion of this 
 eftate, than it finds itfelf ruined by its own plunder j 
 and difcovers that the incumbrances exceed the value 
 to which the litigation has reduced it ! No fooner 
 has it, by every cruelty, and a vaft expence, ex- 
 pelled or deftroyed the legal heirs, than it finds that 
 in paffing to fo fufpecled a poflefibr, the eftate has 
 fuddenly loft nine-tenths of its value ! And, to com- 
 plete its mifery, tfyis plundering Government has now 
 no way left to extricate itfelf from the diftrefs in 
 which it is wilfully involved! Is it propofed to fufpend 
 the fale of the remaining eftates, in order to effect 
 a gradual reftoration of their value? The anfwer 
 is, that their income has not hitherro equalled the ex- 
 pences of management i and that, in fpite of all vi- 
 gilance, they are deteriorating every day. Will 
 they deprive the original creditors of their claims 
 upon them ? or, vb'ch is much the fame thing, pay 
 them off with affignats or cedules ? Such a meafure 
 would infallibly reduce to beggary, a million of fa- 
 milies, whofe maintenance muft immediately become 
 a burden upon the State ; for it has already been 
 found by dear-bought experience, that fince the Go- 
 vernment has ruined the ftockholdcrsat Paris, by pay- 
 ing them with depreciated paper, it cofts the ftate far 
 more to keep them, and thofe who lived by them, 
 from ftarving, by gratuitous diftributions, than it 
 
 would
 
 [ 14 ] 
 
 would have done to have honourably paid the full 
 amount of their intereft *. So that, furrounded by 
 precipices, to whichever fide they look, no way of 
 cfcaping can be discovered. 
 
 How memorable an inftance of the ruinous confe- 
 quences of a fyftem of confifcation, both to the go- 
 vernments which adopt it, and the intriguers who 
 hope to turn it to their own profit! While they 
 think they are ftripping their enemies, they are, in 
 reality, robbing themfelves ? Dealers in affignats ! 
 You who have flattered yourfelves with a vifionary 
 gain by your numberlefs acts of fraud and injuftice ! 
 Look at your heaps of paper ! What are they worth 
 now? What are they now but fo many proofs* of 
 your indigence and greedy credulity ? Purchafers of 
 confifcations ! What have you gained but a precari- 
 ous pofieffion of domains, the profit of which is no 
 iboner touched than it vanifhes ! 
 
 How important the moral for future times, that 
 felf-intereft cannot exift without juftice ! And 
 what an inexhauftible fund of meditation for the 
 
 * The Directory, in its meflage of the i6th December, avowed, 
 that at that time the Juljt/ience of Paris coji the Government more 
 than 370 millions per decade. No one can be furprifed, that 
 Dupont fliould fay no regulated fociety can ever raife upon the 
 people a tax great enough to feed the people. 
 
 Before this Revolution, which has irretrievably ruined the mo- 
 ztied men, the life annuitants, and all the other claffes, the Go- 
 vernment, fo far from being at any expence in feeding the metro- 
 polis, drew from it a revenue of from 77 to 78 millions per an- 
 num. Mr. Necker, upon giving this calculation, adds as a re- 
 mark, that the King of France drew more revenue from his me- 
 tropolis, than the three kingdoms of Sardinia, Sweden, and Den' 
 mark paid in taxes to their Sovereign . 
 
 At the time of the above meffage, 370 millions of livres were 
 worth two millions of fpecie ; fo that this expence per decade is 
 at the rate of 73 millions, or more than THREE MILLIONS STER- 
 LING PER ANNUM IN SPECIE, employed in keeping a city from 
 fhrving, whrch bat feven years ago paid in duties and taxes a 
 greater fum than this towards the expences of Government. 
 
 philo-
 
 [ 15 ] 
 
 philofophcr and the financier, when they fix their 
 attention on the following queftions which immedi- 
 ately occur ! 
 
 If the Chiefs of the French Revolution had fcru- 
 puloufly refpected private property, and only exerted 
 themfelves in making a more equitable afielTment of 
 the former contributions, would they not, by only tax- 
 ing the produce of the eftates which they have feized, 
 have raifed an annual revenue, nominally lefs valu- 
 able, but really more efficient than the fums obtain- 
 ed by their confifcation ? Would they have enter- 
 tained the chimerical hope of overturning the go- 
 vernments, and difmembering the territories of their 
 neighbours, if they had not been deceived by the 
 vifionary imrnenfity of their artificial wealth ? And 
 would they not have been able to eflablim much 
 fooner, and on a firmer foundation, the free Con* 
 ftitution which they wifhed for, and with a reve- 
 nue adequate to the expcncrrof their government? 
 
 In the fituation to which the fuccefibrs of Robef- 
 pierre are now reduced, could they adopt any mea- 
 fure more productive as to finance, more likely to 
 bring back a part of the wealth which is vanimed, 
 and reftore activity to the agriculture of their coun- 
 try, than by re-inftating the right proprietors in 
 their pofieflions, upon condition of paying off by 
 inftallmems, the old incumbrances on their property, 
 and for which the Convention has made the nation 
 refponfible ? 
 
 Admitting that Robefpierre and the Jacobins could 
 have continued to rule by terror, and fupply the 
 public expences by confifcation, how long could fuch 
 a fyftem have lafted before all France would have be- 
 come an uncultivated waftc, and felf-intereft would 
 10 have
 
 have compelled the tyrants to adopt a different con. 
 duft? 
 
 Suppofmg: a cafe of two neighbouring princes 
 equally abfolute and equally rich j but with this 
 difference, that in the one country the lands were 
 veiled in the people, and the revenue raifeci by tax- 
 ation , whereas in the other, the lands were vefted in 
 the prince, and only rented by his fubjects : which 
 of the two would moft increafe his own power, and 
 that of his fucceffors ? The tormer, by acting like 
 the leaders of the rrench Republic, and confifcating 
 the lands of which his fubjects were proprietors -, 
 or the latter, by imitating the example of the Eng- 
 lifh government, which has lately fecured the inha- 
 bitants of its Indian territories in the perpetual pof- 
 fefiion, upon certain conditions, of the lands which 
 till then, from time immemorial, they had only oc- 
 cupied as renters ? 
 
 What a demonftration have we in the circum- 
 ftances of the prefent times, that PROPERTY is the 
 corner-done of the focial fyftem, that it is the firft 
 and only fource of induftry, of reproduction, and of 
 power ? 
 
 Nations whom the French Republic has hoped 
 to pervert by its example of confifcations ! Give 
 thanks to that Providence which watches over man- 
 kind, for having protected you from fimilar confe- 
 quences of injuftice. The temptation of pre- 
 tended opulence has immediately been counteracted 
 by cries of real mifery j of mifery which will for ever 
 deter you from imitating the crimes by which it has 
 been occafioned. 
 
 And let not this leffon be loft on the rulers of 
 mankind ! Refpect for property will always be the 
 fureft protection of their thrones. Let them re- 
 member, that every government which prefumes to 
 
 violate
 
 t -17 1 
 
 violate the property of its fubjects, inevitably pro- 
 vokes, and I am not afraid to fay it, juftifies their 
 infurrections ? 
 
 But, to return to the afllgnats. Is it true, that 
 their depreciation might have been flopped by giv- 
 ing them a forced circulation, in confequence of 
 forbidding that of gold and fiher ? I am very much 
 miftaken if fuch a meafure could have in the leaft 
 prevented the value of the afiignats from being 
 regulated by the following circumftances : ift, By 
 the eft i mate of the dividend to be obtained by the 
 fale of the national domains : adly, According as 
 new emiffions are more or lefs to be apprehended ; 
 for the increafe of debts on an infolvent capital muft 
 necefiarily diminim the proportion which can be 
 repaid of thofe that have been previou fly contract- 
 ed : 3dly, According as an opinion prevails, either 
 that the nation will be able to give fecnre poflefiion 
 of the confiscated eftates to the holders of affign- 
 ments on them, or that it will eventually be obliged 
 to reftore them to their right owners. Without tak- 
 ing into confideration other analogous circumftances, 
 the fluctuation of public opinion as to the three 
 which I have mentioned, would always produce a 
 correfponding fluctuation of the proportion of paper 
 money to the things for which it is paid, or in 
 other words, a rate of exchange. Even if all memo- 
 ry of metallic money were loft, yet the periodical 
 value of any medium of exchange (or money) fubftt- 
 tuted inftead of it, would be afcertained by commo- 
 dities in the market, nearly in the fame way as is now 
 done by the quantity of afllgnats which, upon the 
 Change at Paris, will purchafc a Louis d'or. 
 
 What does the author of the Pifture of Europe fay 
 in oppofition to this way of reafoning as others have 
 reafoned before us ? He has an idea of a new kind 
 of money, which may be denominated bttjhel of 'wheat ', 
 divided into founds and half pounds of bread. I will 
 e content
 
 [ '8 ] 
 
 content myfelf with afking him, if a flip of paper called 
 & pound of bread would purchafe more than an ounce 
 of it, at a time when the fecurity upon which this 
 new paper money might be affigned, would fell for 
 no more bufhels of real corn than one fixteenth of 
 the number affigned upon it? 
 
 I have been the more defirous to explain this fub- 
 ject, becaufe, in fadt, the cedules which they propofed 
 to fubftitute for the ajfignats^ would have been a 
 new fpecies of paper money not denominated by founds 
 of bread but acres of land j and we may be fure that 
 their rate of exchange would have been regulated by 
 the circumftances that I have dated; and with this 
 additional caufe of diftruft, that a decree of two or 
 three lines can Jimplify the denominator of a cedule of 
 100 acres, juft as eafily as of one of 100 livres. 
 In other words, their rate of exchange for wheat*, or 
 any other commodity, would depend on exactly the 
 fame principle as that of the affignats for gold on 
 public confidence. 
 
 But when, M. de Calonne afks, las any confidence 
 txifted ? Did it exifti when, fo early as the fecond year> 
 tbe affignats were at a dif count of twenty-eight per cent. ? 
 &c. ? &c. ? &c. ? Has he confidered at all before 
 he afks iuch queftions ? And can I give him a better 
 anfwer than by afldng him in return, how it could 
 
 * In the Appendix I have brought together a number of fafts 
 which relate to this fubjedl, and which appear to me to be fin- 
 gularly curious. I believe they will be found to throw great 
 light on the enormous mafs of fpecie which has been fent out 
 of France the great diminution of private incomes, and the de- 
 preciation of the value of lands. There will belides be found 
 in the Appendix, documents refpefting the price of labour, 
 which are the more remarkable, becaufe they prove that, in ge- 
 nera], the wages of artificer* have progreffively diminifhed in pro- 
 portion as the price of provifions has increafed. It is only by 
 collecting and comparing fuch facts, that any juft notion can be 
 formed of the long train of calamities which the Revolution has 
 brought upon France. 
 
 poflibly
 
 [ 19 1 
 
 pofllbly happen, that at the time when he was writ- 
 ing, 24 livres in gold were given at Paris, and even 
 in neutral countries, for an afiignat of 3,600 livres, 
 if this paper did not dill retain at lead the ryoth part 
 of its original credit ; if the taker of it at lead did 
 not expect to be reimburfed in that proportion ? 
 
 It muft be admitted, however, that the confidence 
 they once enjoyed has been progrefiively diminifh- 
 ing, and that of courfe the difproportion between the 
 nominal and the real value of the affignats has been 
 increafing by a correfponding progreflion. Now it 
 is from the diminution of their real value that I in- 
 fer there has been a correfponding diminution of 
 confidence in them ; and from the accelerated rapi- 
 dity of this diminution, I conclude that it muft foon 
 lead to their total annihilation; whereas M. de Ca- 
 lonne affirms that no fuch conclufion can be drawn from 
 it ; for he fays, that befides Simplifying the denomi- 
 nator, the Republic has feveral other means in referve 
 which can (top this diftrull and the annihilation of 
 the affignats. When, fays he, there is an irre/iftibk 
 power, when the thing propofed is evidently neaffary, and 
 the authority which wills it is abfolute, how can it meet 
 with any refiflance ? The great miftake rejults from not 
 conjidering the nature of revolutionary means. If per- 
 fans were fufficiently convinced of the degree in which they 
 furpafs, both in force and extent, any regular and lawful 
 means, they would not publijh chimeras. 
 
 But is it pofiible again to realife in France the 
 fcenes of violence and anarchy which ftill prefent 
 themfelves to the frighted imagination of this writer? 
 Will it be poflible to reftore that dreadful fyftem 
 there, which its tyrants have been compelled to 
 abandon ? I not only believe that experience and 
 mifery have calmed the furious paflions which, during 
 the former reign of terror, agitated the French na- 
 tion to madncls , but if there were no otiier argument 
 for it, I (hould infer that its fceptre is broken, from 
 c 2 the
 
 r i 
 
 the acknowledged neceffity of breaking the plate of 
 the affignats. I once more repeat it, that they, and 
 they only, furnimed the Government of terror with 
 the means of hiring one half of the nation to frighten 
 and opprefs the other*. Whatever may be faid, the 
 affignats were at that time confidered as worth at leaft 
 one third of their nominal value, and unlefs fome 
 other rtfource can be difcovered which will be equal 
 to the maintenance of another fuch army of robbers 
 as thac which was paid' by the affignats, the French 
 have the fame fecurity againft a fecond fyftematic do- 
 mination by terror, that the Continental powers have 
 for the reftitution of the provinces which they have 
 loft. 
 
 M. de Calonne may, if he pleafes, labour to con- 
 vince his readers that revolutionary means far furpafs 
 lawful ones, both in force and extent. The trouble is 
 unnecefiary, for it is an aflertion which no one will 
 contradict , and befides, the queftion at prefent does 
 not depend upon their force, but their duration; and 
 whether they can again be recurred to with efTed, 
 when once they have been abandoned. 
 
 But why not ? (he afks) have we not been informed 
 that the new Legijlature has decreed that the depart- 
 ment of the Seine alone Jhould furnijh the metropolis with 
 250,000 quintals of wheat in the courfe of three days? 
 The next intelligence will inform us, that it has been done. 
 Where elje can fuch meafures be adopted or executed ? 
 
 This very inrtance which M. de Calonne has ad- 
 duced, I confider as favourable to my fyftem. Firfl 
 
 * When the immenfe mob of artificers and bufbandmen, 
 mentioned by Cambon, were tempted to leave their occupations, 
 and become Members of Revolutionary Committees, and hired 
 to terrify the nation xtfive iivres a-day; if the aflignats were then, 
 at adifcountof 50 per cent yet flill what they received was equi- 
 valent to a payment in Ipecie of two Iivres ten fous per day. 
 Before the fanr> 20,000 Committees can be revived, and thefe 
 Revolutionary armiu.as they were called, can again be enlifted, 
 fome iumis muit r>e found for paying them as productive as the 
 aflignats, and rather more valuable. 
 
 of
 
 C ] 
 
 of all, it mould be remembered that the whole which 
 this decree enacted, was only an immediate advance 
 of the tax in kind, and that in order to enforce this 
 demand, recourfe was had to very extraordinary mea- 
 fures *. And why was not this exertion of authority 
 extended beyond the diftricts in the vicinity of Paris, 
 but becaufe there, and there only, the Directory was 
 able to enforce it by military power ? by a felected 
 army under its orders, too ftrong to be oppofed by a 
 difarmed and fubjugated people. But even if, againft 
 all probability, theT^rench Government could extend 
 this fummons, as they call it, and even could collect 
 the forced loan in thofe provinces where the inhabit- 
 ants are armed, and there are no troops to control 
 them even then, 1 would afk any man of common 
 reflection, whether fuch an expiring ftruggle of terror 
 ought to give any alarm to the powers at war with 
 fuch a nation ? If the paflive fubmiffion of France is 
 in proportion to the audacity of its tyrants, does it 
 follow that its reproductions (which, after all, are the 
 only refources of a long continued war) will multiply 
 the fafter, becaufe thofe who produce them are plun- 
 dered, and the plunder is immediately wafted? When 
 it is conffdered that for the purpofe of enforcing this 
 payment in advance of the tax in kind, in the vici- 
 nity of Paris, it was found expedient to pur in motion 
 the troops which had been collected to fupprefs the 
 infurrection of the lections of that city ; and when 
 we remember too, that thofe troops were not pro- 
 cured but by reducing the army of the Rhine, and 
 confequendy expofing it to the difafters which have 
 followed-, when befides we con Cider that this mea- 
 fure, if fuccelsful in its utmoft extent, could only 
 give to Paris for a few weeks that bread, which 
 
 * One of thefe means was a decree that tboje ivho did net 
 furnijb their quotas within the limited time Jhould, pay afexth part 
 more for every day's delay ; and armies weje on the fpot to en- 
 force its execution. 
 
 c 3 waggon-
 
 [ 99 ] 
 
 waggon-loads of affignats could no longer procure ; 
 what is there to perfuade us that any revolu- 
 tionary means which can now be employed will be 
 adequate to the feeding fo many armies, to 
 the fupport of fo expenfive a war, and to the 
 extorting from the people that fmall remainder of 
 their treafure which every one is fo anxious to con- 
 ceal, and without which the foldiers cannot much 
 longer receive the pay that has been promifed ? Still 
 lefs can any revolutionary means reftore confidence 
 in any fort of paper money that can be dcvifed as a 
 fubftitutefor fpecie. CONFIDENCE by TERROR is one 
 of the novelties of revolutionary wifdom ! 
 
 I ou^ht, however, to own, that the defender of the 
 affignats feems himfelf to have fome doubts of their 
 refurreclion by the influence of terror j for he advifes 
 his countrymen to confider their annihilation as no- 
 thing more than a lofs of artificial riches. If, fays he, 
 France ftill has that principal part of her power which 
 is rooted in her foil, and confolidated by millions of war* 
 riors, what are we to think of the oracles of M. d'lvernois, 
 when he repeats, with redoubled confidence, that without 
 qffignats France can do nothing ? . 
 
 He muft permit me to remind him, that fo far 
 from repeating it, I have never once afierted that 
 without aj/ignats France can do nothing. I have only 
 faid, what J repeat with greater confidence than ever, 
 that /'/ is not poj/ible for France to carry on a war of 
 which aggrandifement is the only objetJ, ubile the af- 
 fignats, her means of carrying it on, are infuch a ft ate of 
 depreciation ; and equally impojjible to 'prevent that depre- 
 ciation, now that a fyftem of moderation, adopted from 
 abfclute necejfity, prevents plunder and confiscation ade- 
 quate to the wafte. 
 
 But, fays he, does France, by lojing the ufe of aj- 
 Ji gnats, lofe all her t ower ? irom that moment basjhe no 
 longer her foil t her climate, her productions, her induf- 
 fry, her foldiers, her artillery? 1 can never be per- 
 
 fuaded
 
 [ 23 ]' 
 
 fuaded that Jhe will lofe her natural rides andftrewtb* 
 tie. &c. &c . 
 
 If he means to include that a&ive population, 
 whofe induftry turned to profit her natural advan- 
 tages, and without which any natural advantages can 
 only produce the luxuriance of a wildernefs, I be- 
 lieve it is but too true that the war and the guillotine 
 have cut off the flower of it. And befides, the 
 queftion turns on the means of fupporting the war; 
 and depends much lefs on the portion of natural ad- 
 vantages which may ftill remain, than on the means 
 which may ftill remain to the Government, of employ- 
 ing them for political, and efpecially for military pur- 
 pofes. 
 
 My antagonift, ever fertile in refources, no fooner 
 difcovers that the poft he has occupied is without de- 
 fence, than he immediately fhifts to another, where he 
 rallies his talents, and hopes to renew the difpute with 
 greater advantage. We need not fcruple to mention, he 
 fays, flat if the ajfignats Jhould lofe all value, the ft ate will 
 ly fuch a circumftance be dij charged from this debt, and 
 what fame wijb to reprefent as the principle of its diftrefs, 
 will rather be its deliverer from its difficulties. M. de Ca- 
 lonne has exerted all his powers in developingthis idea. 
 He difcovers, by a very eafy calculation, that< the 780 
 millions fterling, which have beenfpentby France Jince the 
 commencement of the Revolution, only reprefent at prefent 
 5,2OO,ooo/.y?<?r//', it follows^ that four years war, &c. 
 have not coft France more than the fourth part of what 
 England has /pent in one year of war only. 
 
 There muft certainly be fomeihing fpecious in this 
 calculation, becaufe feveral pcrfons have been (truck 
 with it; but I believe there will be no great difficulty 
 in (hewing that it is altogether illufivej in fad, a 
 mere fophifm, contrived by ufing the words Francs 
 and England, inftead of, the people of France and 
 the people of hn 6 land \ for if thclc compound terms 
 c 4 had
 
 had been ufed, the fallacy would have been fclf. 
 evident. 
 
 Firft then, in order to form a juft idea of what 
 this war has coft France, we ought to know the real; 
 value of the enormous quantities of fpecie, plate, 
 bullion, and jewels of all forts, which her govern- 
 ment has fquandered, after having forcibly taken them 
 from private perfons, from commercial bodies, and 
 from the churches. Next, in order to calculate the 
 real value of what the paper money fhe has iflued has 
 enabled her to fpend, we ought to know how much 
 fpecie or merchandise each emiffion of afiignats was 
 equivalent to at the time when it was iflued. But,. 
 without any minute invtftigation of thefe data, I may 
 venture to aflert, without danger of exaggeration, that 
 France, during the war, has really expended more than 
 twice as much as the whole coalition againft her ; and in 
 confirmation of this, I can quote an afiertion made in 
 the Council of Ancients by one of its mod intelligent 
 members, who valued the 30 milliards, iflued and 
 voted to the end of 1795, at Jive milliards of fpecie*. 
 
 Let 
 
 k 
 
 * " Since the firft emifiion of the afiignats," faid Le Coulteux, 
 the 3d of December, " reckoning from the time when the Go- 
 vernment began to make ufe of them for paying the expences, 
 '< we muft calculate that it has expended annually at lead one 
 " milliard in real value. Cambon, in his report of the 3d Plu- 
 ' viofe, third year, faid that the Revolution and the War had 
 " then coft five milliards 350 millions above the ordinary ex- 
 * penditore, which he eftimated at 700 millions per annum; fo 
 ' that ar the commencement of the year 1795, allowing that 
 " the great deduction of a third of the annual fum ought to be 
 *< made for difcount, a milliard per annum has been fpent of real 
 ' value, and undoubtedly the expence has not been lefs in the 
 ' prefent year. The Government began to difcharge the whole 
 expenditure by afiignats in 1791, fo that from 1791 to the end 
 of 1795 we may fay that the 30 milliards of aflignats which 
 will be iflued, will rep'efent'a real expence of five milliards, 
 " which are, properly faking, due from the Nation to the 24 mil- 
 ** lions of inhabitants ivhich compofe it." 
 
 This is the neareft approximation to the real expences of the 
 French Republic that has hitherto been given, and is very far 
 
 from
 
 t 
 
 t,et us allow, for a moment, the accuracy of this 
 calculation, and admit that France has only fpent by 
 
 means 
 
 from being exaggerated, becaufeits difburfements in fpecie are not 
 included. At prefent, in order to afcertain the true proportion 
 between the expences of France and thofe of Great Britain during 
 this war, it mull be obferved, that it has not colt the latter more 
 than about .60,000,000 fterling, in addition to the annual re- 
 venue, to provide for all the extraordinary expences incurred by 
 it, including thofe of the next campaign : 
 
 Great Britain has borrowed in this war by loan, 
 including that of February 1793, and that of laft 
 December - - - - ------- 
 
 By Navy Bills funded in 1794 and 1795 - - 3,536,000 
 Navy Bills which it is propofed to fund in the 
 courfe of the prefent feffion, and for which taxes 
 are already provided -------- 
 
 , 
 
 5,000,000 
 60,036,000 
 
 By funding the above fums of .5 1,500,000 and 
 .3,536,000, there has been added to the capital 
 of the National Debt .73,636,000. What addi- 
 tion will be made to the capital by funding the 
 .5,000,000 rfbove mentioned of Navy Bills cannot 
 be afcertained till it is known what flock it will be 
 made a part of. 
 
 Total intereit and charges of management of the 
 debt already funded, including Long Annuities to 
 the amount of .209,115, which will expire in 
 64 years - - - - -------- 
 
 One per cent, on the additional capital above 
 mentioned, and in fimilar proportion for the Long 
 Annuities, which is added to the fund eftablifhed 
 for extinguifhing the National Debt - - - - 
 
 Probable amount of intereft, and of fimilar addi- 
 tion to the finking fund, for the .5,000,000 of 
 Navy Bills which may be funded this ieifion - - 
 
 2,609,571 
 
 766,878 
 
 311,250 
 
 Total charge of the above 3,687,699 
 
 The following obfervations, which are connected with thefe 
 flatements, deferve the attention of the reader: 
 
 I. During the prefent war Great Britain has regularly pro- 
 vided by additional taxes fufficient funds for paying the intereft 
 and redeeming the principal of its additional debt as foon as it 
 has been contracled. Provifion is now made in every ftffion by 
 
 taxes
 
 mea.ns of affignats a real value of five milliards, or 
 fomewhat more than 300 millions ftcrlingi and let 
 
 us, 
 
 taxes fufficient for the intereft of the debt to be funded in each, 
 and, invariabJy, for the increafe of the floating debt, beyond even 
 what may be funded, where any excefs at all remains. The 
 taxes have actually been provided for the . 5, 000,000 of Navy 
 Bills intended to be funded in the prefent feffion. By thefe ar- 
 rangements the floating debt is kept within bounds, and the mif- 
 chievous consequences of ifluing a greatly depreciated paper 
 are prevented ; whereas at the termination of the laft war, the 
 floating debt amounted to no lefs than .27,000,000, the. 
 greateft part of which was in Navy Bills and Oidnance Deben- 
 tures, iflued at a very heavy difcount, and for which the intereft 
 was not provided till after the peace. 
 
 2. The reafon why the annual burden which has been in- 
 curred appears fo great, is becaufe about a twelfth part of it 
 con lifts in Long Annuities, which terminate in 64 years; but 
 more particularly becaufe the Minifter has wifely adhered to his 
 admirable plan of providing for the extinction of every new debt 
 at the time of creating it, by conftantly raifing fufficient taxes not 
 only to pay the perpetual intereft, and the Long Annuities, &c. 
 but alfo to make a regular addition to the finking fund of one 
 fir cent, per tnnum for the additional capital, and in the fame 
 proportion for the temporary annuities. 
 
 3. That the faith of Parliament is pledged for making a fimi- 
 lar provifion for the extinction of every new debt as foon as con- 
 traded. 
 
 4; During the preflure of the war the whole money deftined 
 for the extinction of the National Debt has regularly been ap-' 
 plied to that purpofe, by which, during the prefent war, there 
 has been redeemed to the amount of more than .7,200,000 of 
 the capital. 
 
 It is by a ftrift adherence to thefe admirable arrangements 
 that the credit of Great Britain, contrary to all former examples, 
 has even improved notwithftanding the increafe of its debt; and 
 the Government now, in this fourth year of the prefent war, has 
 fucceeded in borrowing money at one and three-tenths per cent. 
 lower intereft than it was procured for in the correfponding year 
 of the laft war with France. The rate of intereft paid for the 
 money borrowed in 1778, the firft year in which we were engaged 
 with France in the laft war, including the bonus on . j. </. 
 the Lottery Tickets, was - - ------4198 
 
 In the fourth year of that war it was .- - - - 6 o o 
 
 Whereas in the firft year of the prefent war it was 
 only ..-.__. -434 
 
 And in the fourth year of it -------4 140. 
 
 Including;
 
 ,us, for the fake of comparifon, affume what Great 
 Britain has fpent in the fame time by means of loans 
 
 funded 
 
 Including in each inftance the difcount, and allowing for she 
 times when the intercft commenced. 
 
 I compare the four years of the prefent war not with what are 
 called the four firft years of the laft, but with thofe years in which 
 we were engaged in war with France; for in a comparifon of 
 expences and credit, it would be abfurd and ridiculous to com- 
 pare the con tell with our Colonies, unfupported by any foreign, 
 power, with the prefent war, fince the firil loan in that ftruggle 
 amounted only to two millions. 
 
 On this review of the charges occasioned by the war I (hall 
 make another general obfervation ; that it is much more import- 
 ant to infpedl the intereft than the capital of the debt contracted, 
 as that intereft is the'meafure of the public burdens, and becaufe 
 the capital will be difcharged in nearly the fame time, in what- 
 ever flock the money may be borrowed, as the finking fund is 
 augmented in proportion to the nominal capital. 
 
 It is evident that by fteadily adhering to this admirable fyf- 
 tem Great Britain no longer wages war as formerly, by entail- 
 ing indefinitely its expences on future generations, but on the 
 contrary provides for its expences, by contracting a debt which, 
 extinguifhes itfelf; fo that the ^.3,687,697 of annual intereft 
 and taxes which the war has occasioned, ought not to be confi- 
 dered as a perpetual debt, but as an annuity of which the ex- 
 tinction depends upon the rate at which the capital will be re- 
 deemed, but which probably will not laft more than 40 years. 
 
 What will the perfons in France, who have fo confidently 
 prophefied the immediate and inevitable difcredit of Great Bri- 
 tain, fay, when they are informed that the Britifh Government, 
 upon the fingle fecurity of this exhaufted credit, has been able to 
 procure the immenfe fum of 18 millions fterling at a lower rate 
 cf intereft than private perfons can procure the thoufandth part of 
 it by mortgage of the beft-circumftanced eftates? What would they 
 fay if informed of the nature of the complaint againft the Mi- 
 nifter on this occafion ; if they heard the Oppofition blame him 
 for not having taken advantage of the general eagernefs of the 
 lenders, refuiting from the confidence in the public credit of 
 the nation, to procure this fum on ftill better terms? 
 
 But how much more would they be furprifed to find that the 
 new taxes during this war, amounting to more than three mil- 
 lions and a half fterling per annum, have excited no clamour, and 
 are contrived fo as to fall almoft exclufively oo the rich, or, at 
 Jeaft, on perfons in eafy circumstances? Beiides all this, no lefs 
 than one million of tne new loan is provided for the purpofe of 
 3
 
 [ 3 
 
 funded on new taxes, as bearing a proportion to tha$ 
 of the French expence of 198 to 200, which however 
 is more than three times its actual amount. In the 
 one country the Government has contrived to procure 
 the merchandife, produce, and fervice of the people 
 by promifes to pay, called paper money j and in the 
 other, the inhabitants have been punctually paid for 
 the fame things, and to their real value, with money 
 advanced by themfelves for that purpofe. 
 
 Now, in this cafe, nothing can be more clear, than, 
 that if the French Government only difcharges the 
 one hundredth part of the bills which it has iffued, 
 the remaining ninety-nine parts are loft to the people, 
 who, upon the credit of thofe bills, have advanced of 
 their property to the amount of 200 millions fterlingj 
 and the portion of their merchandife, &c. which will 
 never be reimburfed to them, is a facrifice exactly as 
 great as that of their adverfaries would have been if 
 they had lent to their Government the fum of 
 198 millions fterling, with which all their other 
 
 giving bounties on the importation of foreign corn, in order to 
 .lower the price of bread. 1 need not, perhaps, obferve, that as 
 the benefit refulting from thefe bounties will fpread equally to 
 all the inhabitants of the kingdom) while the money with which 
 they are paid is procured by taxes proportioned to the means of 
 paying them, they are really, in a great part, a contribution 
 from property for the relief of indigence. 
 
 Let the French meditate on this recent example of the re- 
 fources of Great Britain, and judge whether it is by exhaufting 
 fuch refources that they can reduce her to the daflardly deiertion 
 cf her Allies, and of her own beft interefts : and efpecially, let 
 the fupreme Directory difprove, if it can, thefe authentic fadls 
 before it repeats its harangues on the feeblenefs of the Combined 
 Powers. In a late number of the Redafieur, a newfpaper which 
 is exclufively under the controul of ihe Executive Power, and 
 which anfwers to the Court Gazette under the old Government, 
 is the following paflage on this fubject: The dijirejfed jlate of the 
 Italian Powers, THE EXHAUSTED CONDITION OF THE FI- 
 NANCES EVEN OF GREAT BRITAIN, every thing concurs to 
 make us hope that ive need only ajjume a firm and rejj>eftahle pofture, 
 and make 'vigorous preparations for ivar by one lajt effort, in order 
 to obtain very Joan an i N D E M N i T tc/or all our /act i/ices by a peace. 
 
 advances
 
 r 29 ] 
 
 advances and fervices had been paid. The only 
 difference is, that the one nation will have contri- 
 buted ;' kind to the charges of the war, while the 
 other will have paid for thole charges with money. 
 
 But if in this point of view the Sacrifices of the two 
 nations would have been equal, yet in a profpective 
 view of their effects, they would be incommenfurable. 
 In the one, where fuch an enormous fubfidy had been 
 gradually raifed by taxes impofed with caution and 
 proportioned to ability, thofe taxes might for a time 
 diminifli, but would not exhauft the incomes of the 
 perfons who muft pay them; and thofe peribns, con- 
 iidered collectively, by paying the new taxes, furniih 
 the money with which they themfelves are paid the 
 intereft of their loans to the Government, and which. 
 were funded on thofe taxes. In the other nation, 
 where the whole fubfidy has been either advanced or 
 extorted in kind, and without a chance of reimburfe- 
 ment; in confequence of the inability of the Govern- 
 ment to fulfil its engagements, all the expences of the 
 war are irregularly proportioned, without any atten- 
 tion to the relative wealth of the perfons in whofe 
 hands the paper money happens to be at the time 
 when the Government gets rid of its obligation, by 
 contriving to force a repayment of it to itfelf at one 
 for one hundred of its nominal value. Some poor 
 and credulous perfons, with all their little property 
 in their pocket-books, will find themfelves reduced 
 to the lowed mifery ; while other wealthy perfons, 
 with large eftates, and who have always diffrufted 
 this paper money, feel no inconvenience from a de- 
 cree which totally ruins all the families that have not 
 been able to follow their example. This pernicious 
 decree will not only deftroy all the former proportions 
 of fortunes, but will befides put a fudden flop to all 
 the enterprifes of induftry. In thus declaring its own 
 bankruptcy, this blind adminiftration may have be- 
 lieved that it was treeing itfelf from its obligation to 
 
 difcharge
 
 t 3 i 
 
 difcharge the debts contracted by previous folly; but 
 the enormous deficiency of the exifting taxes, which 
 muft be the neceflary confequence of fuch a bankrupt- 
 cy, will foon reduce it to the abfolute impofllbility of 
 providing any regular fupply for future expences. It 
 will have ruined, perhaps for an age to come, the peo- 
 ple whofe competence was its fole fupport : in vain 
 will it attempt to perfuade them, that the demonetifa- 
 tion of paper money only takes away their artificial 
 riches', the clafTes ruined by it will afk in a rage, whe- 
 ther they did not give their real riches in exchange for 
 thefe pretended artificial riches ? and it will be found 
 that this bankruptcy has deftroyed even the means of 
 repairing the difaftrous effects of the war. 
 
 But how will it be, if all refources are completely 
 drained before the war itfelf is terminated ; before 
 the conditions are known upon which the oppofite 
 parties are difpofed to end it? And how will it be, 
 when this wretched people finds that during its dreams 
 of inexhauftible opulence it has fuffered almoft all its 
 former treafure to be tranfported into other coun- 
 tries ? How will it be, when in order to recover the 
 proportion of fpecie that is deficient, and which will 
 be neceflary to reftore the political confequence of 
 France, its inhabitants, in a country whofe means of 
 production are ruined, find themfelves reduced to 
 make perpetual exertions in order to draw back, by 
 flow degrees, their fpecie from abroad ? Then, at 
 laft, this credulous nation will be completely unde- 
 ceived *, and will execrate the impoftors who have fe- 
 
 duccd 
 
 * In the excellent work of M. Necker on tie Adminiftration 
 ef the Finances of France, he Hates a cafe hypothecically, which, 
 the French can hardly fail of applying to their prefent melan- 
 choly fituation. 
 
 He firft fuppofes a country equal to France in extent, till then 
 unknown to the reft of the world, and whofe circulating fpecie 
 amounted to no more than about 20,000 pounds fterling. 
 ' By another fuppofition he brings this unknown country, hi- 
 therto rich and fluunfhing notvvithftanding the fmall amount of 
 
 its
 
 t 3* 3 
 
 duced it, by perfuading it that liberty was only to be 
 gained by the ruin of property ; at laft it will fee the: 
 folly of its war for the fake of conquefts. While its 
 enemies have been defraying the expences by their 
 income, France has contrived to diffipate its capital; 
 and finds, at laft, that every Government is helplefs 
 whofe fubjects are indigent. 
 
 This will be ; in fact, this already is the effect on 
 the French Republic of the depreciation of the af- 
 fignats, and of their inevitable annihilation. Its unfor- 
 tunate citizens can fay whether it is true (which M. 
 de Calonne has no hefitation in maintaining} that the 
 annihilation of the affignats^ which, fays he, perfons are 
 difpofed to confider as the caufe of the diftrefs of the 
 ftate y will not rather free it from its difficulties. They will 
 rather, I believe, agree with a report made to the 
 Council of Ancients on the 3d of December, that 
 the difcredit of the ajjignats is a difeafe of the moft dan- 
 gerous kind, the only one under which the Republic Juf- 
 fers; one which calls for all the attention of the Legijla- 
 
 its gold and filvcr, into the neighbourhood of our continent, and 
 fays, yery foon involved in our political combinations, its neigh- 
 bours vjould /peculate on its vjeaknefs, and would endeavour to take 
 advantage of it. They would obferve, that this nevj ftate being 
 deftitute of gold and felver, cannot for a long time be in a condition 
 to maintain an army out of its ovon territory. They vjould go jiill 
 farther, and vaould calculate, that in a country ivhere the fcarcity 
 of fpecie keeps dovjn the value of all the necejjaries of life, vjith a. 
 J'mall funt of money, provifions may be collcQea, magazines eftablijb- 
 td, and if necejfary, the generals, /oldiers, and mmijlers may Le 
 corrupted, and, in a nuord, all the other means of conqueft may be 
 joined to military force. 
 
 In citing this example, which to me appears to be fingularly 
 applicable to the prefent fituation of France, I however by no 
 means adopt the opinions advanced by M Decker in the fame 
 chapter, where he confiders the annual importation and accu- 
 mulation of gold and fiiver, as one of the moft important ob- 
 jects of political economy. On the contrary, 1 am more and 
 more perfuaded, that the relative wealth of nations confifts infi- 
 nitely lefs in the mafs of precious metals which they refpec- 
 tive.y accumulate, than in the means which they have of pro- 
 curing thoie metals whenever they want them. 
 
 tare*
 
 [ 3* } 
 
 ture, all tie activity of the Government, all the anxiety 
 and zeal of the citizens; and, laftly, that the extinction 
 of their little remaining credit will bring on the ter- 
 mination of its liberty and political exiftence. 
 
 I refer exclufively to this * and to other fubfequent 
 reports for a decifion of the controverfy, which the 
 
 Author 
 
 * It appears by this report, that my conjectares as to the fu- 
 ture fitaation of France are already but too exactly realized ; 
 for after having owned, that the fpecie remaining in circulation 
 cannot be eftimated at more than 300,000,000 (12,500,000 
 iterling), the reporter adds, ' No doubt, time will bring back 
 ' our fpecie; but it will not bring it back without exertions 
 ' of our induftry; and our induftry will be for a long while 
 ' to come without vigour, and without activity. If fpecie 
 ' for circulation is wanting, the contributions both direct 
 ' and indirect muft fail. Inftead of railing them again to 
 the rate at which they were fixed* you muft reduce them, 
 perhaps one half. If then you exact a contribution upon 
 the footing of 1790, you will annihilate agriculture, iiahoje 
 apparent profperity in fal is only lecaufe on the one hand 
 no taxes are paid, and on the other the rents are reduced 
 to nothing. Where there is neither circulation nor in- 
 duftry, there can be no accumulation of capital. If there is 
 no accumulation of capital, no ways of placing it will be 
 looked for, nor any enterprife formed. And it is in fuck a 
 Jituation of things that nve believe we can have commercial 
 " companies which are not yet in exigence /" 
 
 After this extract, my readers will hardly have expected, 
 that this new report is, like all before it, a motley mixture of 
 rational principles and abfurd applications. Who, for inftance, 
 could have believed, that after having conjured his colleagues 
 not to yield to an inconjiderate impulfe, and not to abandon to 
 chance the dejiinies of France, the reporter fhould have fubjoined 
 to this prudent advice the following words ? " It is not the fate 
 of the Republic to be for ever directed by frigid calculations, 
 and fa<ved by laborious conceptions. 'There are," he exclaimed> 
 fudden infpirations, which ftrongly difturb the imagination, 
 torment the heart till they compel it to utter them, to unfold 
 all its energy, and enlarge by them the bounds of pojfibility" 
 In order to comprehend this fpecimen of dithyrambics, it 
 fhould be known that the Council of Ancients felected to invefti- 
 gate the finances the Deputy Le Brun, the moft diftinguifhed poet 
 of the Republic ; after which it is not at all furprifing that, un- 
 able to fave the State by frigid calculations and laborious concep- 
 tions, he invoked to his afliftance what, as a poet, he C&llsfuda'en 
 inffirations t which ftrongly difturb the imagination. 
 
 It
 
 I 33 ] 
 
 T* 
 
 Author of the Pitture of Europe has thought fit 
 to begin with me. I wifh that, his various en- 
 gagements may not allow him to continue much 
 longer this weekly attack in the public papers, of 
 which he himfelf fpeaks with fo much contempt. 
 Both my habits and my inclination are equally ad- 
 verfe to fuch a fort of warfare, and I hope he will 
 not attribute any other motive to me for declining ic 
 
 It remains to be feen whether this Tally of poetic rapture will 
 enable France to enlarge what, as a financier, he calls the bounds 
 of pojjibility . Meantime he may have the gratification of boaft- 
 ing that he has taught the Direflory to elevate their flyle; for three 
 days after, in imitation, I fuppofe, of his fublimity, in a meffage 
 adore/Ted to the two Councils, they invoke fame unexpected re- 
 fource to Jiart with the rapidity of lightning from the Genius of 
 Liberty. 
 
 We may judge in what degree the Genius of Liberty and the 
 Genius of Poetry have infpired tn-e Members of the fupreme 
 Directory by the following paflages of their folemn inftrufiions to 
 the National CommiJ/arin : 
 
 Marked in the forehead like the fir ft homicide, the emigrants are 
 like him condemned to 'wander without ceajing ; curfgd as he was 
 by all the world, 'vagabonds, like him, they will find no rejl but in 
 the grave. 
 
 To crujh royalifm and anarchy, to dejlroy jobbing, to rejlorc the 
 national character, and the morality of the Revolution, to recall con- 
 fidtnce, and bring back abundance, to extinguijh the volcano of La 
 Sendee, to terminate this deadly war which threatens to depopulate 
 Europe, one thing only is fufficient A SINCERE, a STRONG, AND 
 AN UNMIXED DESIRE. When once you are INTOXICATED with 
 this defire, you will transfufe it into the fouls of the people under 
 your direction. 
 
 In vain will the whale univerfe arm againjl the Republic ; the 
 Republic will triumph over the Englijh, the Aujlrians ; it will tri- 
 umph over the univerfe. Agents of the Government ! fwear in our 
 name that e'er a King JJjall enter France again, Paris would imi- 
 tate Saguntum, and the whole of France wculd become one Repub- 
 lican Vendee. tt r e have travel-fed rivers of blood to become a Re- 
 public, afea of blood muft be traverfed in returning ta Royalty. 
 
 Think you that the devouring torth of Royalijis and of Kings 
 would fpare you ? JF YOU HAVE NOT CAUSED, you HAVE 
 PERMUTED THE REVOLUTION. This terrible argument will 
 be your fcntence of death. 
 
 This politico- palkiral inftruclion is figned Rewbell, Prejjdent 
 of the Directory (h? might have a'. J ded) of the language and elo- 
 yuence of the Froith Republic. 
 
 D in
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
 in future. In proportion as I was convinced of 
 the correctnefs of my calculations on the exhaufted 
 ftate of the French Republic, it was natural that, for 
 once at leaft, 1 mould defire to defend them againft 
 fo celebrated a financier j but the eale of his ftyle, the 
 elegance and the embellifhments with which he has the 
 art of decorating fo dry a fubject, will warn me againft 
 any longer oppofing him by dull and tedious difcuffions. 
 I confider, too, how much he will triumph over an 
 antagonift who only alledges facts in fupport of his 
 conclufions ; and 1 cannot forget with what reputa- 
 tion he once contrafted what he called a large economy* 
 with the narrow ftrictnefs of a Genevan banker. 
 
 Still, however, unlefs it can be proved to me that 
 facts are the weakeft fupporters of theories, I mail 
 continue to reafon in the fame old-falhioned wayj and 
 as in my fecond chapter of the Curfory View, I con- 
 firmed the aflertions which I had previouQy made on 
 the fubject of French finance by authentic docu- 
 ments, fo now I fhall ufe the fame method of proving 
 whatever 1 have hitherto advanced on this fubject. 
 
 In my firft chapter on the affignats, I had advanced, 
 that they would continue to fall at the rate of 50 per 
 cent, every two months. It was towards the end of 
 March that I calculated their progreffive deprecia- 
 tion, and at that time they were ftill worth 10 per 
 cent, in exchange for fpecie. According to my con- 
 jecture, they ought to have been worth only 5 per 
 cent, by the end of May, 24 by the end of July, 
 i^ by the end of September, and \\hsper cent, by 
 the end of November. In this laft conjecture I was 
 too hafty by three days, for it was not till the 3d of 
 December * that they were reduced to precifely 4ths 
 of their nominal value. 
 
 * It was on that day that Lafond-Ladelat faid in the Coun- 
 cil of Ancients, The man iiabo no<w receives ten millions from the 
 National Treafury, at the prefent exchange of foe- eighths per cent, 
 in reality only receives 62,500 fares* 
 
 I after-
 
 [ 3S ] 
 
 I afterwards announced, that by the end of the 
 year there would be in circulation a new mafs of about 
 five milliards, in addition to the twelve which were 
 circulating about the end of June. Here I was ftill 
 more miftaken, for fo early as the I3th of November, 
 the day when the Commiflion of the Council of 500 
 made its report, there had been iflfued about 29^- mfl- 
 liards from the commencement of the afiignats; on 
 which circumftance it is not unimportant to remark, 
 that from the ift of September 1790 to the ift of 
 September 1793, fix milliards were iffbed ; in the 
 following 1 6 months only 3^. milliards } and that the 
 whole furplus of 20 milliards had been ifiued and 
 fpent in the year 1795 *. 
 
 lalfo 
 
 * Even this mafs, enormous as it is, has been by no means 
 adequate :o all the expences of the Government, for I obferve 
 by the late reports, that it at the fame time iffued bills payable to 
 bearer. But France owes to Camion, the detection of another 
 expedient pradifed by the Government, which is ftill more ex- 
 traordinary. He was no fooner fet at liberty, together with a 
 great number of other terrorifts, than immediately he difclofed the 
 gr^nd fecret of his fucceflbrs in managing the finances. He at 
 once addrefled himfelf to the publifhers of the newfpapers, and 
 complained, that fince the termination of his adminiitration, not 
 only new affignats had been created and iffued without mentioning 
 them to the Convention; but, that befides this, a NEW MONEY 
 had been created by means of infcriptions in the great book (that is, 
 they had made additions to the funded debts by infertions in the 
 general lift of public creditors). He certainly was right in an- 
 nouncing, as he has done to the annuitants, that the meafure 
 ought to give them uneafinefs, if what he affirms is true, that the 
 amount of the confederate fum which has been fpent in INSCRIP- 
 TIONS is altogether unknown, 
 
 The new Legislative Body, while affecling to difclofe every 
 thing, and while allowing that, from September 1794 to Octo- 
 ber 1795, 19! milliards had been ifiued in affignats, did not 
 judge it convenient to tell the amount of thefe infcriptions^ 
 which, however, was indifpenfable in order to obtain a balanced 
 account of the debt and the expences; becaufe, every thirty 
 millions of intereft inferted in the great book, is equivalent to 
 the emiffion of a milliard of affignats. 
 
 Echajfcriaux, in his report of the 13th of November, after as 
 
 cautious a filence, refpecting the increafe of the intereft of the 
 
 o 2 public
 
 I alfo faid, that if I were to go to the extent of my 
 calculations, the emijjion for the Jingle month of De- 
 cember muft amount to 9^ milliards. I do not recollect 
 why it was that I added, that I did not conjider fuch an 
 event as poffible : rny miftake was only in having 
 doubted its pcjfibility \ for in the beginning of that 
 month the Minifter of the Finances came forward 
 and faid, that a hundred millions of ajfignats per day 
 had not hitherto fupplied one -third of the demand for 
 them. This makes the affignats wanted for the 
 month of December amount to nine milliards and 
 three- tenths. The Minifter confefied too, that even 
 this would not be enough; and we learn, that the 
 wants of the fucceeding month will require 22 mil- 
 liards! 
 
 I had faid, that the jfatf means adopted by the Con- 
 vention to diminifh the emiffions, and ftop the de- 
 preciation of its paper money, and to withdraw it 
 from circulation, were no lefs ineffectual than un- 
 juft, and that the Government would be forced to 
 abandon them. All thefe means have been fuccef- 
 fively abandoned. 
 
 I had faid too, that the temporary adoption of 
 them would only tend to accelerate the crifis which 
 they were intended to prevent; that this crifis was 
 haftily advancing, for that emijfwns upon emijflons would 
 foon preclude the poj/ibility of making any more, and 
 that the value of the aflignats would not much lon- 
 ger be adequate to the expence of their fabrication and 
 the falaries of the perfons employed to verify them. It 
 would certainly have been more corredl, if I had 
 ventured to mention what I fufpecled'; that the fa- 
 brication would be fufpended from not being able 
 
 public debt, the amount of that debt, and of the infcriptions in 
 the great book, as refpe&ing the revenue of the national do- 
 mains, had notwithftanding the confidence to fay in the Council 
 of 500, Hire, Citizens ! is the balanced account you ha<vefo often 
 ojked for ; and about which, for a long time fojl, diftruft bat oc- 
 - tafioned Jo tnucb uncertainty ! 
 
 to
 
 [ 37 ] 
 
 to procure paper to print them on, in proportion to 
 the confumption. This circumftance, however, Du- 
 bois Crance difclofed towards the end of October ; 
 The Government , faid be, hat been on the -point of be- 
 coming bankrupt y for want of paper to make them in a 
 quantity adequate to the fervice *. And this exactly 
 correfponds with the information given to the Exe- 
 cutive Directory five weeks after by the Minifter of 
 Finance. The knowledge that another paper-mill is 
 engaged^ in order to multiply the affignats, has already 
 bad the moft pernicious effetts upon the Stock Exchange. 
 
 Laftly, I ventured to prognojlicate^ that with the 
 annihilation of the revolutionary money, the only re- 
 maining charm of the Revolution itfelf would vanijh,from 
 thofe it had enriched, thofe who have fought its battles* 
 and from allitsjlipenda^ies j that the Government being 
 no longer able to find any me ans of maintaining its nu- 
 merous armies, they would dilband for want of pay , 
 that the cries of the unhappy people of France 
 would force their Chiefs to buy a peace by the abfo- 
 lute facrifae of all their conquefts-, and that, in order to 
 bring about fuch a facnfice, England had only to 
 reject any negotiation, of which an offer to make thai 
 facrifice was not the bafts. 
 
 I cannot fupport my prognoftics more fully than by 
 refuming the narrative of the financiering operations 
 of the Republic, which, in my fecond chapter on 
 this fubject, I brought down to the 6th of Septem- 
 ber. 
 
 On the 2Oth of October, Vernier prefented a new 
 report on the finances, in which, like all his prede- 
 
 * Dubois Crance did not however think fit to difclofe a circotn- 
 ftance, of which I have been informed by a perfon of veracity, 
 that at the period in quellion, they found themfelves reduced to 
 make ufe of muflin for want of paper ; that in feverd towns, as 
 Nantz and Rheims, the people absolutely refufed to take either 
 muflin or paper; and that in the country, the d.itruft is be- 
 come fo great, that (Jiraud, on the z8th of Q&obrr, complained 
 that the farmers refuted to take aifignats, and faid they would 
 take them if their hor/ei would eat them. 
 
 D 3 ceflbrs,
 
 C 38 ] 
 
 ceflbrs, he complained, that they had hitherto mif- 
 taken a chimera for reality -, and propofed a cure for the 
 body politic , a flow one indeed^ but infallible. The diftrufis 
 and the troubles which have diftrafted us are, laid he, 
 the only caufe of the difcredit of which we complain, and 
 which will ceafe with the r e- eft ablijhment of order, of 
 peace, and a gocd government *. 
 
 Having poftponed the revival of public credit to 
 this happy epoch, he gave the lame fort of conlbla- 
 tion as M. de Calonhe, with refpedt to the depre- 
 ciation of the afiignats , he remarked, that 450 mil- 
 lions of fpecie would be enough to extinguifh them* Not 
 able however to fay, juft then, where luch a treafure 
 might be found, he guaranteed their future reim- 
 burfement by the national property of Belgium and 
 St. Domingo, as well as France j and which, all to- 
 gether, he valued at ten milliards in fpecie : So that, 
 if the mafs of ajjignats Jhould not be increafed beyond 
 twenty milliards* which, faid he, // is to be hoped will 
 -not happen, the holders of them will be in poffejfion of a 
 fecurity to the extent of HALF their nominal value ! 
 
 What a number of illufions have vanifhed in the 
 courfe of the laft campaign ! Full of falfe hopes as 
 this report is, yet what a gloomy contrail does it 
 make with that of Johannot ten months before, in 
 
 * To terminate the foreign war by a fpeedy and folid peace is 
 undoubtedly, as Vernier fays, the firft, and a neceflary Itep to- 
 wards making the affignats of any fort of value. The deputy 
 Chapelain, however, propofes another perhaps not lefs neceflary, 
 which is, to put an end to the civil war. This, faid he, in the 
 Council of 500, the jth of November, is the fureji 'way to re- 
 trieve the credit of the paper : by dejiroying Charelte you nuill nearly 
 raife the affignats to par. 
 
 This Chapelain, deputy of La Vendee, openly accufes the 
 Convention of having caufed this difaftrouswar, which, according 
 to him, has depended on the conduft of a Government fometimes 
 furious and fometimes indolent, fometimes aWind exterminator of the 
 human race, and fometimes humane, but feeble, and impofed upon by 
 the brigands. This picture, drawn from nature, is fuffidently 
 itrikirg. 
 
 which,
 
 [ 39 ] 
 
 which, without including either Belgium or St. Do- 
 mingo, he aflTened, that the value of the fecurity was 
 double the nominal value of the afiignats ! and tri- 
 umphantly exclaimed, never bad paper money fo folid 
 a bafe ! 
 
 It may be worth remarking, that this report of 
 Vernier on the immenfe augmentation of the fecurity 
 of the affignats had been preceded by an obferv- 
 ation of his colleague Louchet, which deftroyed its 
 effect fix days beforehand. What I faid he, the re- 
 union of the conquered country quite to the Rhine gives 
 a new fecurity, an immenfe fecurity for our ajjignats, and 
 yet their difcredit increafes more than ever ! 
 
 Gamier, fearing that this increafing difcredit would 
 revive the alarms of the aflembly, attempted to 
 roufe the courage of his colleagues the 2ad of Octo- 
 ber, by faying to them, We alone fhall triumph ! We 
 /hall domineer over the earth for the happinefs of the 
 world ! 
 
 In two days, however, after the boaft of GarniA" 
 and Vernier's impofture as to the immenfe fecurity of 
 the affignats, nothing was to be heard but expref- 
 fions of confirmation on the deficiency of provifions, 
 and the impoffibility of preventing a general famine 
 at home, buc by rinding money to procure corn in 
 other countries. The mifery of the people is at its 
 height, exclaimed Roux , it is the wijh of your heart to 
 relieve it. Hardy confirmed this by an aflertion 
 Which makes one fhudder. The departments, faid he, 
 are without bread \ at Rouen, for a fortnight, there has 
 not been a mouthful. Marec rofeto vindicate the Go- 
 vernment, by declaring, that it bad purcbafed ten mil- 
 lions of quintals of grain in the North, which would by 
 this time have arrived in France, if the States of Hol- 
 ' land had paid the bills drawn upon them according to 
 the terms of the treaty. 
 
 Such, however, is the unaccountable obftinacy of 
 
 theie legiflators, that while they tell che world that 
 
 D 4 they
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 they have long been convinced^ that a counter -revolution 
 will be the conference cf the alarming dearnefs of every 
 thing* , and while they lay they are in a ftate of fa- 
 mine j- ; yet inftead of endeavouring to relieve them- 
 felves by treating with their enemies, they perfift 
 with fury in the war which accelerates their total 
 ruin, and name aCormniffion to point out means for 
 continuing it without relaxation !' 
 
 The members of this Commifiion found that a 
 few hours were enough to enable them to make up 
 their minds on the lubje<5t, and agreed in opinion, 
 that nothing could be done without reviving the 
 maximum. They at once propofed, without any 
 hefiraticn, that the price of all falaries, commodities, 
 and merchandife of -prime necejfity, of all -productions of 
 agriculture cr induftry^ and of all commercial importa- 
 tions^ Jhould be fixed at ten times the value of the fame 
 cbjetts r effectively in September 1750. 
 
 This new maximum was on the point of palling 
 with enthufialrr), when L'Oifeau fucceeded in pre- 
 venting it, the 25th of October, much lefs by any 
 
 * Hardy, the 24th of October 1795. 
 
 j- Thefe confeffions, as imprudent as the fa&s are deplorable, 
 have been repeated in various forms in the new Legiflative 
 Councils. So long fince as the i^th of November, Le Cointe 
 after ted that, unlefs ft rang and 'vigorous meafures 'were taken, the 
 Republic 'would infallibly penjb for want of fubfeftence. 
 
 Thus all the great political phyficiaris of the infant Republic 
 agree in faying th?.t it has a mortal difeafe ; they only vary as 
 to the name of the malady ; Le Cointe calls it, ivant of fubfift- 
 ence; Rewbell, we (hall find, calls it, tilt defertion of the defenders 
 of their country : but while the greater part attribute it to thedif- 
 organization of the finances, thofe who are more fagacious can fee, 
 with Columbel, that the feat of the difeafe is in the public opinion, 
 which he tells us is fo much depraved, /#/ infome departments it is 
 a dtjbonour to be called a Republican. But the fymptoms of the 
 diforder, or the names by which it is called, aie of little conle- 
 quence, when compared with the inveltigation of its origin, and 
 that I have no doubt in afcribing to the democratic regimen ; 
 and I add, that if they would fave their country from the ex- 
 ceffes which ruin it, and by degrees reftore it to health and vigour, 
 they mull alter this regimen as icon as poffible. 
 
 confideration
 
 [ 41 ] 
 
 consideration of its ruinous effects than by proving 
 that fuch a law could never again be enforced. Have 
 you not been told at the bar cf this Houfe, faid he, 
 that there is no way of enforcing a maximum but by 
 a guillotine at the door of every Jhopkeeper ? Giraud 
 fupported this affertion by another ftill more (Irong : 
 Citizens! do you not all know that at the very timewhen^ 
 by the help of revolutionary armies, revolutionary tribu- 
 nals^ and revolutionary committees^ you compelled a few 
 individuals to fubmit to the maximum, the Government 
 pur chafed at prices above the maximum? Were you not 
 every one of you obliged either to die of hunger or violate 
 your own law ? I will fay no more than this, Without 
 a maximum you muft pay very dear^ but with a maxi- 
 mum you will bejiarved. 
 
 This laft word is, 1 think, enough to fecure France 
 for a long time, if not againft attempts in favour of 
 a maximum, yet at leaft againft the poffibility of ex- 
 ecuting if. Not content with having demonftrated 
 this impoffibility, Giraud went ftill farther, and faid, 
 / am net afraid to declare^ that if a counter-revolution 
 were pojjible y the decree prcpofed by the CommiJJion would 
 effeft it. 
 
 Placed in this inevitable dilemma of itfelf caujing 
 a counter-revolution^ if it adopted this remedy for 
 the dilbrder of the finances ; or elfe letting that very 
 diforder caufe it, if it applied no remedy , the dif- 
 concerted Convention tried to fupply the want of a 
 maximum by decreeing for the year 1795, an ^ tra ~ 
 ordinary war- tax of twenty livres in ajfignats for every 
 twenty fols of land-tax. The deputy Hardy extorted 
 this decree by declaring that the queftionwas to enfure 
 the government refources for the expence of the next 
 campaign. 
 
 Now in order to eftimare what proportion fuch a 
 tax could bear to the expence of the next campaign^ we 
 are to oblervr, j ft, That if this fubfidy had not 
 been abandoned foon after ic was decreed, and if 
 
 (which
 
 [ 4* ] 
 
 (which is more that doubtful) it could have brought 
 back, as they flattered themfclves, eight milliards in 
 affignats, that fum would hardly have been enough 
 to pay the expences of the fucceeding monih of No- 
 vember. 2dly, That far from meriting the name of 
 an extraordinay war-tax, it in fact would not produce 
 more than one-fifth of the ordinary land-tax in time 
 of peace; for confidering the depreciation of the 
 afiignats, it was necefiary to increafe the land-tax of 
 1795 one hundred fold, inftead of twenty fold, in 
 order to equalize it with the contribution as afieffed 
 before the war in 1790. 
 
 Such was the concluding operation in finance of 
 the Convention, and with which, afeer hzv'ingjecured 
 a fupply for the enfuing campaign, it terminated what 
 Louvet calls an immortal fitting \ and recommends to 
 the biftorian as one of the moft important fubjefts that 
 he can treat of for the inftruftion of nations to come ! 
 
 Let us now fee whether the new Legiflative Body 
 has been able to furpafs its immortal predecefibrs in 
 the management of finances. 
 
 And we muft begin by doing them the juftice to 
 acknowledge, that the firft fubject mentioned in the 
 Councils was the diftreQing ftate in which the finances 
 had been left by their predeceflbrs, and the continu- 
 ally increafing depreciation of the afiignats. The cir- 
 cumftances in which you are will not admit of a danger- 
 ous fecurity, faid Bourdon of Oife, fo early as the 
 3ift of October, even before the election of the Exe- 
 cutive Directory. The Royalifls have but one refource 
 left, which is the total annihilation of the credit of our 
 paper money, and all their efforts tend to this objeff. 
 This morning the jobbers have fucceeded in raifmg the 
 Louis to 4,200 livres. 
 
 The Mcnileur, which gives an account of this 
 
 gloomy opening of the debates of the Council of 500, 
 
 obferves, that the Council Jhewed its indignation at 
 
 7 this
 
 [ 43 ] 
 
 this unpromifing intelligence. Bourdon of Oife very 
 adroitly turned this indignation againft the late extra- 
 ordinary meafures^ which there had not been time to con- 
 Jtder, and which having been drawn up with precipita- 
 tion, have only been of ufe to the jobbers^ and have 
 increafed the depreciation of the Republican money. He 
 added, a free and deciftve difcujfion muft be opened on the 
 ftate of the finances. At this found of alarm the new 
 Legislature immediately appointed a Commiflion of 
 Finances; and after taking great care to keep out of it 
 all the quacks who had hitherto fo much contributed 
 to their ruin, ordered it ro examine the new extraordi- 
 nary tax, of which, at the fame time, the fufpenfion 
 was decreed provifionally. In this fitting, remarkable 
 for the avowals made in it, Dubois Crance, as if to fee an 
 example, by facrificing his felf-love for the good of 
 his country, called for an examination of the tax in 
 kind, of which he was the author. All thele propo- 
 fitions were no fooner made than adopted ; and Baudin 
 got it voted befides, that the New Commiflion of 
 Finance lh >uld not report but in a Secret Corn* 
 mittee*. 
 
 This Commiflion was employed no lefs than thir- 
 teen days in framing a report ; and, notwithftanding 
 the univerfal clamour of urgency, the Council of 500 
 took almoft as much time to ftudy it, and bring ic 
 to perfection, All Frenchmen acquainted with the 
 fubject, and it is laid even feveral foreigners, were 
 previoufly defired to affift the new Commiffioners 
 
 * Prudent as this precaution was, yet it appears to have been 
 juft as mifchievous in its effefts as the publicity of the preceding 
 debates on the fame fubjeft in the Convention, On the i6ch 
 of November the deputy Craflous faid, in the Council of 500, 
 Citizens, your intentions are calumniated : the malevolent of every 
 Jefcription fay that you keep your deliberations on the finances a Je- 
 er -et, becaufeyoit ivijh to conceal the extreme embarrajj'ment in which 
 they fuppofe that you are ; and are preparing violent meafures, which 
 are to fall fuddenly upon all the citizens. 
 
 We ftnll fee hereafter whether the malevolent calumniated their 
 new financiers when they iuppofed them in an extreme embarrajf- 
 tnent, 
 
 with
 
 [ 4t 1 
 
 tnth their talents ; and this plan of regeneration, 
 after having been calmly and profoundly confidered 
 in a private Committee, was at length communicated 
 to the Council of 500 on the ipth of November, and 
 then to the whole French Nation, in order to revive 
 its confidence, by convincing it, that if the evils are 
 great i the refources are flill greater^ and that it has the 
 means of curing them, and of regenerating the finances ^ if 
 it will. Let every word of this, which our enemies hear, 
 found like a clap of thunder to them, faid the reporter, 
 Echafieriaux. Let them ceafe to cherifo the vain hope 
 of ruining us by cur finances. 
 
 This plan, which was to thunder in the ears of the 
 enemies of France, depended on an entirely new va- 
 luation of the national property ; which, with as lit- 
 tle hefitation as examination, was eftimated at once 
 at more than f even milliards infpecie. 
 
 The reporter, indeed, included in this eftimate, juft 
 as Vernier had done before him, two new articles, 
 viz. the national forefts, and the property of Bel- 
 gium, each of which he valued, by guefs, at two mil- 
 liards in fpecie. This flattering guefs he haftily finifhed 
 \viththefollowingwords: Here? citizens! is the ftate- 
 ment of 'our accounts , fo often ajkedfor-, and~whofe refult 
 has, in conference of dijlrujl^ tieen long confidered as fo 
 uncertain. Malevolence has fucceeded in deceiving the 
 pet/pie on the extent of the public debt. 
 
 The people being thus undeceived on the extent of 
 the public debt by means of abatement of account which 
 did not mention in any way either the perpetual debt, 
 the annuities, or the debt arifing from the original 
 incumbrances on the national domains, or the pen- 
 fions, this able financier fixed the attention of the 
 Affembly exciufively upon the means of difcharging 
 the debt of the affignats ; and after having declared 
 that every other extraordinary method had appeared dan- 
 gerous^ he propofed the creation of a new denomination 
 of paper muney to be called cedules -, a paper money, 
 
 faid
 
 [ 45 1 
 
 faid he, which nothing can depreciate, and to which he 
 affirmed [hat an annual inter eft of three per cent, would 
 give a {uperiority over metallic money. With the help 
 of thefe cedules he propofed to deftroy publicly the 
 plate of the affigruts fo foon as 30 milliards of them 
 fhould have been iflued, and thefe 30 milliards he 
 propofed to redeem with one milliard of cedules. 
 
 As this famous projeft differs but little from one 
 propofed by Johannot feven months before, as it had 
 exadly the fame fate, and no more remains of it al- 
 ready than the declarations which it occafioned*, I 
 fhall content myfelf with obferving that, without 
 annihilating the former paper money, it profefTed to 
 redeem it with tedides at the rate of one for thirty, 
 and iflue it again, to be again redeemed, ad infinitum\ 
 fo long, at lead, as cedules could be printed and 
 iflfued : that, inftead of contriving a new fecurity for 
 thefe cedules, they were to have exadly the fame as 
 the affignats , that is to fay, that though this fecurity 
 was already fo much diminifhed that its reputed value 
 was no more than the i50th part of the 20 milliards 
 of affignats then in circulation -, yet without any aug- 
 mentation of that fecunty, it was intended to increafc 
 the mafs to 90 millions, only difguifing it under the 
 more modeft appellation of three milliards of cedules ; 
 
 * Several of the confeflions in this report have already been 
 mentioned ; I will add fame others not lefs open : 
 
 " Oar political economy was deltroyed from the moment that 
 *' our fpecie difappeared. Foreigners with their gold will al- 
 " ways be your mailers; and you will never fucceed in amelio- 
 " rating the finances, unlefs you adapt meaiures for making 
 " fpecie once more vifible in the markets and the counting- 
 M houfes. 
 
 " The firft wealth of a nation, after the revenue of its terri- 
 " tory and its labour, is fpecie. 
 
 " For three years palt the fucceffive depreciation of the af- 
 " fignats has reduced > the taxes to alrnoil nothing. Thi expence of 
 11 management has nearly exceeded the -value of tht produce. The 
 " belt oi States, depending on fueh a lyltcm of coninbu;ions, 
 " would foon be ihaken, and involved in its fall." 
 
 of
 
 [ 46 ] 
 
 of which, too, one milliard was to be inviolably re- 
 ierved for the defenders of the country : laftly, that 
 while it propofed this expedient of cedules, in order 
 to free the country from that part of its debts which, 
 being in afljgnats, was not demandable, it alfo pro- 
 pofed to pay all the annuities and penfions either in 
 fpecif, or in affignats at tbeir current value. So that if 
 the interefts of what they call infcriptions amount to 
 300 millions, which there is every reafon to believe*; 
 and if, unfortunately, the afllgnat mould have reco- 
 vered fo much of its credit as to become fixed at a 
 currency of one per cent, by this meafure they under- 
 took to pay on this account only 30 milliards per 
 annum. According to this curious contrivance, the 
 ftate was to be guilty of a difhonourable a<fl of bank- 
 ruptcy, in order to clear itfelf from ^|ths of a debt 
 which it could not be called upon to discharge, by en- 
 tering into an engagement to pay yearly as much as 
 the whole amount of that debt to creditors whofe de- 
 
 * I only give this value by conje&ure, but it will not be 
 thought exaggerated if it is confidered that Camion, in his report 
 of the 1 5th of Auguft 1793, makes the inscriptions, that is, the 
 intcreil of the natioifal debt, amount to 200 millions. It can 
 hardly be doubted but that thofe infcriptions amount at prefent 
 to 300 millions, including the penfions ; and if we recollect 
 Camion's complaint of their having created a new paper money 
 by means of infcriptions in the great book fince he had the care 
 of it. His fucceffors have avoided any explanation of the 
 prrfent amount of the infcriptions, but a circumftance has lately 
 become public which may help us to unfold the myftery. 
 Since the Directory was inftituted, it has difccvered that the Trea- 
 fury dill procured affignats by way of loan at three percent, by 
 infcriptions at that rate in the great book ; fo that with 20 fols 
 in fpecie one might purchafe 150 livres in affignats, and upon 
 tarrying them to thofe who have the care of the great book, 
 obtain for them an infcription of four livres ten fols per annum, 
 or 450 per cent, annual intereft. It is true that upon the repre- 
 fentation of the Directory, the Legiflature has lately put a flop to 
 this mode of borrowing, but it has taken care not to give a lift 
 of the infcriptions pofterior to 1793* when they were known to 
 be 200 millions ; and fuch a cautious concealment can hardly be 
 owing to any other cauic than their enormous amount* 
 
 mands
 
 [ 47 ] 
 
 mands it had hitherto got rid of by paying them the 
 hundredth part of the fum. 
 
 Though the fentiments of the public at Paris were 
 divided between hope and fear upon the firft com- 
 munication of this extraordinary plan *, yet the Coun- 
 cil of 500 feemed to accept it with a confidence 
 more general, and, one might have fuppofed, more 
 rational j for after debating it for ten days fuccef- 
 fively, it adopted it with fome flight alterations. 
 
 The whole of this long debate having been fecret, 
 in order to guefs at the arguments ufed in it, I 
 have fancied myfelf prefent in the committee-room, 
 where the five fages of the Council held their delibe- 
 rations, and have thought I heard the contriver of 
 this project hold fomewhat like the following lan- 
 guage to his four colleagues : 
 
 " Nothing need be defpaired of with a nation the 
 " moft credulous upon eartb^ and the moft eafily feduced. 
 " The miracle expected from us is a multiplication 
 
 * The daily papers, which reprefent the public opinion with 
 fufficient fidelity, at firft expreffed a fort of uncertainty as to the 
 fate of this grand prcjeft. 
 
 The Gazette Generate de VEurope of the 24th of November 
 was a very warm advocate for it. This plan, though not the nuork 
 of the perfon luhom Mr. Pitt thinks proper to call our firft financier, 
 (General Montefquiou,) may make that famous Minifter pafs fome 
 uncomfortable nights. This fyftem may yet fa<ue France. 
 
 Perlet's Journal announced it in more cautious language : If 
 it is nvifily contrived, it may afford fome remedy for our misfortunes j 
 but it will complete them perhaps, if it is badly executed. 
 
 The moft whimfical of all the opinions was that in the "Journal 
 des Patriotes, which, though in the pay of the Government, yet 
 thought fit to end its examination of this regenerating plan with 
 thefe words: 
 
 Paturiunt mantes, nafcitur ridiculus mus. ^ 
 
 This licence of the publifhers occafioned a warm debate in the 
 Council of 500, where fome Members irfifted that the Govern- 
 ment (hould ftop its pay towards the fupport of a paper fo hottile 
 to it ; but a great majority of the Members inclined to continue 
 the penfioning the persons who attacked the plan, and at the fame 
 time adopted ic as inatuckable. 
 
 " of
 
 [ 48 ] 
 
 * e of paper money. And as this cannot be done without 
 " firft multiplying the national property, our firft and 
 " principal object muft be to contrive feme way of 
 " Iwelling its value in the eyes of the vulgar. Let 
 " us begin with expatiating on our new foffejfions in 
 " the liland of Saint Domingo ! Do not you recol- 
 cc Ie6b the confidence of our anceftors in the paper 
 " ifiued on the credit of the MifTifiipi bubble? and 
 *' do you fuppofe ihcfource ofiilufionsfo exhaufted, that 
 *' no drops from it are left for their defcendants ? Jf 
 " this fhould fail, let us throw into the fcale the 
 " rich pofieffions of the Belgic Clergy j but we muft 
 " take care not to iflue any paper money on the cre- 
 " dit of this new fecurity,becau(e a few forced marches 
 " by Clairfaye would ftifle it in its birth. As to tell- 
 * e ing our Frenchmen that they are Romans, it would 
 " be to very little purpofe : we muft not flatter our- 
 <f felves that our Parifian jobbers will be anxious to 
 " bid for the lands on which this new Hannibal 
 " pitches his camp , we had better give them only 
 <c a diftant view of thofe vaft eftates, juft as the Car- 
 * c thaginian General (hewed Italy to his companions 
 " as a prey which could not efcape from them. 
 
 " When onefign has loft its credit > (as one of our new 
 * e financiers has very happily remarked,) very often 
 " no more is mceffary than to fubjlitute another inftead 
 " of it) efpecially when the fecurity and the real grounds 
 '* of confidence are juft the fame as they were before *. 
 
 " From 
 
 * Le Niir La Roche. Seethe Moniteur of the 2ift of No- 
 vember 1795. 
 
 The Legiflators of France mufl certainly have a very high opi- 
 nion of the effeft of words on the people, if they flatter themfelves- 
 with impofing on them by fimply metamorphofing ASSIGNATS 
 into CEDULES. They have fince made two other dill bolder 
 experiments of the fame kind, by adopting the word SUMMA- 
 TION inftead of REQUISITION, and the words FORCED LOAN 
 inftead of CONTRIBUTIONS. They have done the fame in a more 
 important circumltance. On the a6th of O&ober, by a folemn 
 
 decree,
 
 [ 49 ] 
 
 " From this I infer, that our firft object fhould be 
 "_ to fubftitute the word cedule inftead of the word 
 <c qffignat. Now if we can but i(Tue three milliards 
 " of thefe cedules, and if we can but perfuade the 
 " public that each of thefe new milliards will be 
 * c equal in value to 30 milliards of affignats, we 
 " mall run no rifk in breaking the plate which we 
 c< have ufed for fabricating them ; for while we 
 tc gravely invite the gaping populace to a fight they 
 " have fo long been defiring, we (hall have the 
 " plate of the cedules in referve, and in fact (hall 
 <e only replace one that is worn out by one that is 
 ' new. Belter ftill than this, we (hall have in re- 
 " ferve the fcheme of borrowing by infcriptions in 
 " the great book, which is fo productive that a 
 " fingle clerk, by only inferring 30 millions of inte- 
 " reft per day, may pump back again daily a mil- 
 " liard of affignats, and aflift our cedules. If any 
 " holders of affignats fhould not like to change 
 <c them for cedules, which we will call invariable^ 
 " indepreciable, we will threaten them explicitly with 
 c< a complete demomtifation. To fome we will fay 
 " that as the aflignars have fallen, fo, by the help 
 " of this remedy, they will rife progreflively *. To 
 " others we will prove, that we offer them a greater 
 
 decree, they gave the name of Place de la Concorde to the Plate 
 <te la Revolution, where they had decreed the permanence of their 
 guillotines; to that place of blood, where they had deliberately 
 beheaded the only one of their K ngs who thought them worthy of 
 political liberty, and to which they afterwards leu with acclama- 
 tions a minilhr of ftate who had always fhewn himfelf the true 
 friend of the people as well as of his Sovereign, the refpe&able 
 Mahjherbes. Juft God ! They have dared to give the name of 
 Place of Concord to that ever-execrable place where they dragged 
 to punifliment, like the vilcit of criminals, the daughter of 
 Emperors ; and that Princefs whofe memory their polterity will 
 one day adore, the filter of Louis XVI. whofe reputation ca- 
 lumny never tainted, even at Versailles. 
 
 * Phrafe of Echafleriaux in his Report of the 1310 of No- 
 vember. 
 
 E " intrinfic
 
 " tntrinfic value for their affignats than they will fell 
 " for upon Change. We will ftt in the ftrongcft 
 <c point of view the madnefs of felling them there 
 " at the current price, when the government will 
 " give twice as much for them in real value *. The 
 " better to difguife the magnitude of our diftrefs, 
 " and of our future expenditure, we will make 
 " the moft aftonifhing declarations on former extra- 
 f vagance. If, after all, fome timid perfons mould 
 *' feem afraid that the new paper will, by little and 
 " little, be reduced to the fame fituation as the old, 
 *< we will filence them by an admonition 
 
 " Qg'on nc doit point prevoir les malbeurs de fe loin. 
 
 <e If the two Councils will but adopt the project 
 '* with confidence, many perfons will foon be in- 
 *' duced by their example to exchange their afiignats 
 ** for cedules ; a circumftance which we (hall turn to 
 ** our advantage, by faying to our enemies, Ceafe 
 "to cherijh the vain hope of conquering us by our 
 " finances-^ / The nations united againft us will be 
 " terrified when they are told that we have dif- 
 * c covered another mine of paper money, as pro- 
 c< dudlive, and thirty times as rich, as that of the 
 ** affignats. The protecting Genius of the Republic 
 *' will perform the reft." 
 
 I cannot aflert that this was exactly the chain of 
 reafoning ufed in the Council of 500, to induce it 
 to adopt this wmderful project ; but I am difpofed 
 to think fo upon looking at the preamble which that 
 Council prefixed to it before it was lent for ratifica- 
 tion to the Council of the Ancients. The Council of 
 AJOO, confidering that the fureft way of leaving the ene- 
 mies of French liberty nothing but the defpair of having 
 in vain attempted to deftrcy it, is to provide long before- 
 l) and fur e refources for the extraordinary expences of th& 
 decrees, &c. 
 
 * chafleriagx, on the ijth of November. f Idem. 
 
 Never
 
 f 51 ] 
 
 Never did project fo adroitly contrived meet with 
 fo mortifying a fate as this in the Council of the 
 Ancients. The five members appointed to examine 
 it, had no fooner fucceffively expofed the injuttice 
 of faking away tbe fecurity of the affignats *, and i be im- 
 poffibility of executing the 'plan of the cedules, than a 
 number of members, who had given in their names 
 to fpeak againft the fcheme, were reduced to filence 
 by rinding that not one would undertake its defence : 
 it became ufelefs to compliment it with a debate; 
 and even Jobannot was not allowed to fpeak, though 
 he prorefted that he bad nothing but what was tran- 
 quillizing to fay. 
 
 Having thus fent back to the Council of 500 the 
 whole of their refolutions, without even giving a rea- 
 fon for having unanimoufly rejected them, in order 
 to obviate the mifchievous effect which fuch a pro- 
 ceeding might have among the enemies of the Re- 
 public, they took pains to join in chorus with La 
 Fond-Ladebat, who fa id, // muft net be that the ene- 
 mies of the Republic Jhould be able to fay, we have re- 
 jelled the 'plan for no other re of on but becaufe the re- 
 fources of the nation are exhaufted. The developement 
 cf our rgfources, and our apparent fir mnefs, wi II prove the 
 ufele/nefs of their efforts f. 
 
 When the rejection of this intended decree was 
 notified to the Council of 500, equal care was 
 taken to repeat the fame fort of language. This 
 rejection ought on no account to dif courage us, faid 
 Villers; we muft by a difcuj/ion^ if poffible, more prof ound 
 
 * Lt Couheux. 
 
 f After having drawn a pifture truly magical, of the refources 
 of the Republic, 'fbis piSure, faid he, is enough to convince you 
 of the extent cf our re/ources, to Jemonftrait to you that it is not tbe 
 feebltne/s ef our means nvhicb bat determined us to propofe toy 014 
 to rejetl tbe refolutions of tbe 500, but only tbe impojfibility of exe- 
 cuting tbe plan upon which tboje rcfoiutiojis *wtrt founded, 
 
 2 (ban
 
 [ 52 ] 
 
 than the former ) fear ch for the ft ream of light which has 
 efcaped our notice. I know that our only refource de- 
 pends on being able to offer a NEW CREDIT. 
 
 The Directory, on their part, employed them- 
 felves in bringing to a focus the {bartered corufcations 
 of financiering imagination, in order to procure the 
 ftream of ///>/, required, and interrupted the new de- 
 liberations of the Legiflators by the following meflage, 
 Juminous enough no doubt : 
 
 *' Citizen Legiflators ! We have Jong believed it 
 fc our duty to hide from you, or at leaft to foften, a 
 " part of the evils which affiicl the Republic, and of 
 " the (till greater evils with which it is immediately 
 " threatened. V^e have long been afraid that the 
 " publifhing them might give new ftrength to male- 
 " volence, and difcourage the friends of their coun- 
 <4 try. But it appears that the feafon for palliatives is 
 " paft ; and that any fort of temporifing will but in- 
 *' creafe the danger. The truth, the truth alone in 
 <( all its rudenefs, is the only plank we can difcover 
 ** which can poffibly fave us in this moment of 
 
 " fhipwreck We at prcfent fay nothing but 
 
 ** of the finances, becaule it is a fubjecl: we can no 
 <c longer defer, becaufe all the fprings cf the machine 
 *' are breaking, becaufe the moft frightful catajlrophe 
 ** threatens to fwallow up the whole Republic y unlefs 
 *' fome remedy equally atflive and powerful imme- 
 ** diately changes the face of affairs." 
 
 " We have alktd ourfelves, whether there is any 
 " way to avoid this terrible cataftrophe, this fatal 
 " diflolution ; we believe a way ftill exifts, in a few 
 " days perhaps it may exift no longer. We have 
 " hoped in vain for a falutary crifis from the new 
 *' plans of finances which have been propofed to you. 
 " The unavoidable flownefs of thefe important deli- 
 *' berations, the uncertainty as to the propriety of 
 " their refulr, and as to the efficacy of the meafures 
 M which have been propofed, have only irritated the 
 
 < evil;
 
 t 53 ] 
 
 ** evil; and the laft refources of the Republic are 
 " exhaufting while we wait for thofe of the Legifla* 
 " tive Body." 
 
 " You will obferve, Citizen Legiflators, by the 
 " annexed letters from the three Minifters *, that we 
 
 " are 
 
 Thefe three letters are fuch interefting documents for the 
 hiltory of affignats, that I am induced to give the following ex- 
 tra&s from them : 
 
 Report of the Minijler ef Finance to the Executive Directory. 
 
 " Citizen Directors ! Neither I nor the Treafury can create 
 " refources as faft as they are wanted ; we cannot fubftitute 
 *' plenty for total want. .It is my duty to tell you the naked 
 " truth ; if I were to difguife it by any ftrong colouring I mould 
 " condemn myfelf; the Directory might remain in ill-timed 
 " fecurity, for which I (hould be culpable ; and it might perhaps 
 " be my fault if they let flip opportunities of faving the Re- 
 " public. 
 
 " Millions of fpccie, and immenfe fums in affignats are 
 " wanted by the military, naval, and home departments, and 
 " there is nothing to fupply them. I have already, by my own, 
 " particular connexions, procured the Treafury a credit upon 
 * feveral commercial places abroad, but this cannot be made of 
 " ufe in lefs than ten or twelve days, and will then be very in- 
 " adequate to the demands, which multiply every hour. Every 
 * thing is paralyfed by the tedioufnefs of the difcuffions in the 
 ' Legiflative Body on the plan of finance which is to furnilh the 
 " Directory with refources. 
 
 '* The zeal of the Directory, devoted as it is to the welfare of 
 " the Republic, cannot alone fave it; there muft be means, 
 " and thofe means cannot exift without being able to pay 
 *' for them. But what payments can it make ? The arrears ac- 
 " cumulate every day. The knowledge that another paper mill 
 " is engaged in order to multiply the affignats, has already had 
 " the moft pernicious effeft upon the Stock Exchange, before it 
 " could occafion any fenfible augmentation of them. What we 
 " gain in the courfe of a day or two by the having more affignats 
 " to pay away, as much, and even more, we lofe by their de- 
 " preciation. 
 
 " In a few words, the fituation of the public Treafury is this: 
 ' It owes 72 millions of fpecie, and it has none to difpofe of. 
 * The bills drawn by Magon upon Spain for 20 millions muft 
 " take time to exchange. 
 
 " Hitherto 100 millions of aflignats a-day have not beea 
 * l equal to one-third of the demand. 
 
 x 3 Fifteea
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
 " are almoft at the end of cur career, unlefs Tome 
 " unexpefled refource Jbould flajh, if we may fay 
 <c fo, with the rapidity of lightning from the Genius of 
 " Liberty. 
 
 (Signed) REWBELL, Prefidcnt." 
 Obedient 
 
 " Fifteen hundred millions which will be paid away in the 
 *' courfe of this decade can have but a feeble effeft." 
 
 '* Citizen Directors ! The picture which I prefent to you is 
 " affliding, and meafures to terminate fo alarming a crifis are 
 " become indifpenfable. 1 leave it to your wifdom to determine 
 " what may be moft proper for the falvation of the State. It 
 *' was my duty to inform you of the urgency of circumib.nces. 
 " I am ready to fhew that I am devoted to your glory, and par- 
 ' ticularly fo to the liberty which you defend; but unable to 
 " create means where they do not exift, [ have chofen to addrefs 
 " you in the language of franknefs an .t uth." 
 
 (Signed) FAIPOUL." 
 
 Extrafifrotn the Letter of the Minifter of the 'Home Department. 
 
 " 1 cannot poffibly conceal from you, Citizens, this fad fit ua- 
 " tion ; and J find myfelf compelled to tell you, that unlefs it is 
 '* altered in a few days, no public fervicecan be carried on, for a 
 " partial fupply is as ufelefs as no fupply at all." 
 
 *' It is therefore my duty to obferve to the Directory , that the 
 " armies, without either afiignatsor fpecie, with a ruined credit, 
 *' every where deilitute of forage, horfes, bread, watch-coats, 
 " fhoes, and means of conveyance, are in the utmoft diftrefs, 
 " and that in confequence of this calamity the movements are 
 *' fettered, and defertion is inceflamly increafing. The Directory 
 " has called upon me to afTume courage, and in that refpeft I 
 " can venture to fay I have not failed in my duty; bull declare 
 ." that when, knowing thofe wants of the armies, 1 have given 
 " orders for fupplying all of them, the Treafury pays ne- 
 *' thing, all at cnce there is a want of every thing, and my 
 ** efforts to overcome any one obftacle are ineffectual." 
 
 *' I intreat you therefore, Citizens, to take the deplorable 
 " Hate of my department into ferious confideration." 
 
 Exit -aft from the Letter of tie MiniflerofWar, the $th of Dec. 
 
 " I have already obferved to the Directory, that all the armies 
 '' have written to me that the purveyors can no longer procure 
 ' fupplies, became they are deftitu;e of the neceflary funds." 
 
 " Uneafy at the general want of credit which pervades every 
 ' part of this fervice, I wilhed to know what proportion of my 
 " orders upon the Treafury remained unpaid, and wrote to in- 
 
 quire,
 
 t 55 1 
 
 * * 
 
 Obedient to this invocation, tbe Genius of Liberty 
 with the rapidity of lightning, a decree truly 
 
 unexpected 
 
 *' quire, but as yet have had no anfwer. In fhort, this very day 
 
 * I wilhed to know how much I could have from the National 
 ' Treafury of the fpecie promifed me by the Minifter of Finance* 
 
 * I was to have 5,500,000 livres, but they could not engage to 
 give me more than 600,000 livres for to-morrow. But how 
 can 1 have even tfiefe ? They have not yet been able to fend the 
 300,000 livres for which there was fo urgent a neceffity ac 
 Luxembourg." 
 
 " The great Communes are every where calling for fub- 
 fiftence. Foreign commerce alone can reftore plenty in 
 France, and plenty only can re-animate us ; but commerce is 
 difcouraged by the advances made to Government, and which 
 have not been repaid. However, by my exertions to reftore 
 confidence, 1 have engaged fome commercial houfes to afllit 
 Government. Confiderable purchafes of corn have been 
 made abroad, which is coming by the canals of Belgium ; buc 
 the commodity muft be paid for upon delivery, and it muit be 
 paid for in fpecie. 1 muft abfolutely have three millions by 
 the i ft ofNivofe, and feven more by the 25th of the fame 
 month. If the Government will but be true to its engage- 
 ments, all the commerce of the country will be at its com- 
 mand. But if it undertakes more than it can perform, the 
 diftruft will increafe, and no refource will be left for fupport- 
 ing the Republic." 
 
 I cannot help fmiling when lobferve that the Paper which firft 
 publifhed thefe Letters in England was the Courier de Londres, 
 in which M.deCalonne has inferred his Pifture of Europe, deftmed 
 to a*waken thofe <who jlumber in a deceitful perfuajion that the fall of 
 the aj/jgnats alone is enough to ruin France, and to render her inca* 
 fable of continuing the 'war, &c. &c. 
 
 To elucidate this fubjed (till more, I think it important to 
 add to thefe State Papers another not lefs remarkable, and which, 
 the Directory has thought proper to publiflu Jn this Letter, 
 which was addrefled to the Minifter of the Finances by the Mem- 
 bers of the Adminiftration of Polls and Meflageries, theydefcriba 
 the unhappy fituation of their department in the following 
 terms : 
 
 We are 'without funds, or at leaji the little money which the 
 ^Treafury allows us ive divide nuith the Letter -fojl and Meffageriet, 
 tf which the <wants are not lefs prrjjing than our stun. 
 
 We therefore declare to you as exprefsly as we can, And ive fray 
 
 you to inform the Executive DireSory, that it is no longer in our 
 
 E 4 fewer
 
 [ 5 3 
 
 untxpefted of a forced lean, to be levied upon thofe per" 
 fans liable to pay taxes who are reputed the tnoft 
 wealthy } and, thanks to repeated cries of urgency, 
 the decree was fancYioned the i2th of December by 
 the Council of Ancients, who had fo unanimoufly re- 
 jected that which preceded it. This loan will be 
 inftead of the war- tax, and is not to bear but upon that 
 fourth part of the taxable Citizens which is either moft 
 highly rated, or liable to be moft highly rated^ in each de- 
 partment, who, according to the -public notoriety of 
 their means, are to be arbitrarily divided by the Ad- 
 miniftrators into fixteen cldfies differently taxed. The 
 perfons fo taxed are to pay one-third of their quota 
 every fortnight, under the penalty of a tenth more 
 for every decade cf delay. Till the 5th of January 
 they "were permitted to make their payments in 
 atfignats ; but as the Government will not receive 
 them for more than the hundredth part cf their nominal 
 lalue, the fixteen clafirs, if they were to collect and 
 pay in all the 30 milliards of aflignats in circulation, 
 would only difcharge by them 300 millions, no more 
 
 power to carry on the important fervice of the pojls ; that in our 
 prejent fituation chance only, or a breach of the lanvt, can keep it on 
 foot in fame part soft he Republic ; and that, asnot one of themeansvue 
 hume propofed has been adopted, f we can only inform the Government 
 of our inability, and of the . dijirefs to <wbich nve are reduced. 
 JrlEALTH AND FRATERNITY. 
 
 (Councerfigned) FAIPOUL, Minifler of Finance. 
 
 A few Jays after the publication of this meflage, Ramel, in the 
 name of the Commiffion of Finance, added another dedaration 
 on the fame fubjeft, viz. That at prefent the Adminijlration of the 
 Pojli <cfls fve millions a day. This melancholy representation of 
 the iiiuation of the department of the Ports had been preceded 
 by a meflage from the Direclory, announcing to the Council 
 of 500, that the bufinefs of the Revenue department is in almoji as 
 great confujton as that of the Pojts ; and that thofe -who prefide in it 
 are in a ft ate of penury t itr&ica prevents the punctuality of the fer- 
 vice. No wonder that a letter announcing fuch facls (hould begin 
 with faying, Citizen Legijtators ! The Diretfory ought to Jhenu you 
 all the wounds of the Body Social, and they will d it. They bleed 
 in every part, ^3c. &c. 
 
 than
 
 [ 57 ] 
 
 than one-half the forced loan : they are permitted, 
 in cafe they have not fpecie, to pay the fecond moiety 
 of the fubfidy in corn, valued at its current price in 
 1790; that is, at a price far lower than it generally 
 fells for at prefent in fpecie. Laftly, a very im- 
 portant circumftance is to be mentionedj that this 
 advance of 600 millions will not difcharge the per- 
 fons on whom it is levied from paying the tax in 
 kind for the year 1795, and by which tax the Go- 
 vernment has calculated upon raifing to the real 
 amount of between two and three hundred mil- 
 lions. 
 
 Such a decree as this manifeftly contradicts the 
 fundamental articles of the Conftitution, of which, 
 the 3octh article orders, that the contributions of every 
 kind Jhall be apportioned among thofe who are liable to 
 pay them^ according to their means-, whereas in this 
 cafe, three-fourths of thole who are fubjecl: to pay 
 taxes are enti "fly exempted ; confequently do not 
 comribute according to their means, and form in this 
 refpect a privileged clafs *. 
 
 Ic 
 
 * A few days before they {tarred the idea of this loan, the 
 Members of the Directory addreffi-d the following opinions to 
 their agents, upon what they termed the CONSTITUTIONAL 
 IMPOST. // is no longer, fay they, an impoft paid to a King, 
 nubo applies the public money to bis o r wn particular ufe\ IT is A 
 
 CONTRIBUTION VOLUNTARILY CONSENTED TQ BY THE 
 
 PERSONS WHO HAVE p RoF E RT Y, for the profptrity of the com- 
 m unity. 
 
 Tne contraft between this language and that of the Minifterof 
 Finance on the I3th of December, when recommending to the 
 fame agents the meafures necefiary for collecting the forced Joan, 
 is curious. In all your operations, fays he, you muft be expeditious, 
 without attending to the precifeon which ought to be obfer--jed if tbt 
 thing in quejlion were not a loan of nxih'ub the repayment witl re- 
 pair the inconvenience of aftvj irregularities in its ajjej/'ment, &C. 
 3c. In fact, they amufe the lenders with a hope that ihe money 
 at prefent forcibly taken from them will be repaid by annual in- 
 ftalments of ten per cent, that is to fay, by allowing an annual 
 deduction in that proportion from their future contributions.
 
 t 58 1 
 
 It is equally manifeft that by forcibly bringing 
 back into the Treafury the affignats which have been 
 ifiued, this decree* without being avowedly a demo* 
 vetifatiott, will entirely put an end to the revo- 
 lutionary money, and coniequently remove the grand 
 obftacle to a counttr-revolution. 
 
 Laftly, it is evident that as this decree calls upon 
 the Republicans for funds to fupport the charges of 
 the war, it puts things in a new fituation by unde- 
 ceiving the people, who hitherto have only approved 
 of ir, becaufe they believed that it could be brought 
 to a conclufion without any fubfidies. All at once* 
 when already impoverifhed by the enormous depre- 
 ciation of the affignats, a depreciation which bur- 
 dens them with the paft expence, they find them- 
 felves condemned to bear all the future expences 5 to 
 reftore the affignats they have received, and to give 
 up the little fpecie that they have till now been able 
 to fave from the general wreck. 
 
 But we will leave thefe general obfervations, and 
 confider exclufively the three following queftions : 
 
 i ft, Are there in France the 600 millions for which 
 the call upon the people is made ? 
 
 idly, If they are there, and the people will not 
 give them up, has the Government fufficient means 
 of taking them by force ? 
 
 3dly, If, in any way, the Government fhould be 
 able to obtain them, how long will thcfe 600 millions 
 enable it to continue the war ? 
 
 In order to folve the firft of thefe queftions, a cor- 
 rect idea muft be formed of the whole taxable in- 
 come of the French. The beft information on this 
 fubjeft has been given by the Deputy Dupont. He 
 proved on the loth of December, that the clear and 
 
 If it were pofiible that the Government ihould be obliged to per- 
 form this promife, it would find that the prefent anticipation 
 amounts to a founh fart of all the direft taxes for the next ten 
 years.
 
 [ S9 1 
 
 pcflible income could not at prefent It eftimated at mort 
 than 800 millions ; and very properly obferved, thac 
 from this fum all that part muft be deducted of which 
 the nation is already in pofiefiion, by means of fe- 
 queftrations and confifcations. It does not indeed 
 clearly appear, whether, in this fum of 800 millions, 
 he included the net produce of property only, or 
 added to it the income derived from induftry. But 
 he could hardly think of including the latter, at a 
 time when Le Couheux had juft before been proving, 
 that the few mechanics who could find any employ- 
 ment in towns, did not receive for their labour 
 more than a fourth or fifth part of their former 
 wages. After the latter had fo lately made it ap- 
 pear that this clafs of the people was reduced to 
 drink nothing but water, it would have been too 
 great an ablurdity to talk of their taxable incomes. 
 Perhaps it would not be difficult for me to mew that 
 this eftimate by Dupont, low as it feems to be, was 
 yet confiderably above the truth; and that he 
 thought fo himlclf. But, admitting its accuracy, 
 what refults from it ? That out of SQJ millions, to 
 which the whole net and pojjible income of taxable 
 perfons in France amounted, for the year 1795, 
 their Legiflators expect to draw 600 millions by the 
 forced loan, and two or three hundred more by afiefiT- 
 ments on real and perfonal property, exclufive of 
 indirect contributions. Theie Legiflators will fay 
 that the greater part of the forced loan will not be 
 levied in kind, but in paper money and fpecie, 
 which form a fund that is independent of the pro- 
 ductions of the year. This I know, but they too 
 know very well that all the paper money and all the 
 fpccie in circulation is not enough to pay it. In 
 fact feveral of them have lately concurred in afiert- 
 ing that the fpecie which now remains in circulation 
 in France, docs not amount to more than between 
 two and three hundred millions (from 8 to 12 mil- 
 12 lions 
 

 
 t 6 3 
 
 lions fterling) ; and a$ no one has contradi&ed them* 
 this fum, which however I believe to be ftill much 
 exaggerated, is the bed foundation we have for cal- 
 culating upon. If then we confider that the 30 mil- 
 liards of affignats are only taken in payment of it 
 at the rate of 100 for one , as they are, therefore, 
 made equivalent to 300 millions only in fpecie, we 
 get at proofs that not more than half the loan can 
 poffibly be paid in affignats, and indifputably not 
 more than half of it in fpecie, fuppofing the whole 
 circulating quantity of both to be paid to the Go- 
 vernment. But what, if it were practicable, would 
 be ftill more extraordinary is this, that the whole 
 amount is to be difcharged in fix weeks, and yet not 
 more than one-fourth of the taxable perfons are 
 liable to pay it; confequently not more than one- 
 fourth of thofe who have any paper or fpecie in 
 their pofTcfTion *. If fuch a loan could be collected, 
 
 it 
 
 * In order to remove this difficulty, Vernier obferved that the 
 Government might re-ifTue the affignats as fall as it received 
 them, and again receive them, in order again to repeat the fame 
 operation. It is not at all furprifing that Fernier fhould advance 
 fuch an abfurdity ; but it is unaccountable that it fliould be 
 ferioufly fupported by a man fo intelligent as Le Coulteux. 
 Could it be guefled that this Deputy, who fo greatly contributed 
 to the rejection of the fyftem of cea'u'es, and upon that occafion 
 ended his fpeech with the following important truths PRO- 
 DUCTION and CIRCULATION are the two words which we no<vf 
 Ought tojubjoin religioujly to LIBERTY and EQUALITY ; Could 
 it be guefled, that, but a few days after, this lame Orator fhould 
 fhew himfelf one of the moft zealous advocates for the forced 
 loan ; fhould ftyle it an imperceptible tranfpiration, and juftify it 
 by infifting, that the fums paid in by the fir ft inftalments would 
 rapidly return into circulation by the 'very expences of the Govern- 
 ment, and furnijb the means of making good tht Jfubfequent pay- 
 ments ? 
 
 But why (hould we be furprifed that French Financiers fhould 
 adopt and preach fuch a doftrine, when even here, in England, 
 we meet with perfons who believe in the practicability of fuch a 
 project, and think it may be reiterated. " If it takes effecl," 
 fay they, " the French Government will have been carried on 
 
 *' without
 
 [ 61 ] 
 
 it would certainly be one of the greateft wonders of 
 the French Revolution, 
 
 This 
 
 without any diminution of the wealth of the people, taken 
 collectively. Now, if it does not impoverifh the mafs of the 
 nation at all, fo long as the whole which is received is faith- 
 fully and promptly re-iflued, who will venture to affert that 
 the war cannot be prolonged by repeated recourfe to this ex- 
 pedient ?" 
 
 At firft fight this reafoning feems to correfpond with the gene- 
 ral theory of taxation ; but it is not confidered that the whole of 
 the contribution in queftion bears direclly or ultimately on the 
 produce of the foil, and that it is impoffible the Government 
 can annually receive more than the perfons who are taxed an- 
 nually receive themfelves from that produce; and that, in faft, 
 only the furplus of each year's produce above the confumption, 
 and maintenance of the cultivators can poffibly be levied an- 
 nually by the Government, unlefs it will deprive them of the 
 means of future cultivation, from the furplus produce of which 
 the Government is toexpecl its future fupplies. 
 
 I allow that the cafe is not exactly the fame with refpeft to 
 fome forts of contributions in fpecie or paper money ; but in any 
 cafe, before that monllrous reciprocation of fpoliations and 
 restitutions can be eftablifhed which the French Legiflators are 
 now attempting, firft of all it will be nece/Tary that they export 
 no part of the money they receive ; and next that they fhould 
 be able to repay to each perfon taxed exactly fo much as they 
 take from him, and which, after having refiored to him, they 
 propofe to take from him again. If, inftead of this, they fpoil 
 one to enrich another, it is evident that when they would at- 
 tempt to fpoil this fecond perfon, in order to enrich a third, 
 that third perfon, having before him tne example of the fate 
 which awaits himfelf, will have no inclination to receive in pay- 
 ment money of which he is only to have the keeping till it is 
 taken from him to be paid to a fourth. Now, in cafe of any 
 interruption in this fyflem, the Government would find itfelf 
 flopped in its circle of fpoliations, if not by refiftance on the 
 part of the perfons fpoiled, yet by ihe difficulty of finding indi- 
 viduals difpofed to enrich themfelves to-day in order to be plun- 
 dered to-morrow. I may be told that in the Turkifh Empire 
 this fyftem is actually adopted ; Viziers and Bafhas are fuccef- 
 fively plundered, and other perfons are ccnflantly found who 
 fubmit to the fame rifk; but even there this terrible fyftem is 
 only praftifed on the minifters of the government, and by no 
 paeans extended to the people. Were its application to the people 
 
 propofed
 
 This expofition will, I think, demonftrate that 
 the forced loan and the tax in kind, taken together, 
 amount to at leaft a whole year's taxable income of 
 the whole nation, and will probably at once decide 
 the fecond queftion, Whether the Government has 
 means fufficient to extort the payment by force * ? 
 
 What 
 
 propofed in the Divan, the auifwer would be, that as the people in 
 this cafe would no longer have any property, in a very fhort 
 time there would be no more cultivation ; that an attempt to 
 fubjeft any people to fuch a fyftem, would be in fad attempting 
 to reduce it to a ftate of nature ; and that annual contribu- 
 tions, well apportioned, gather the fruits of the tree of re- 
 production without injuring it, while forced loans cut it to the 
 ground. 
 
 But I will venture to allure the French that their Government 
 will not have time to lead them on to this laft extremity of 
 wretchednefs, and will find it has very much mifcalculated, if, 
 by iffuing cedules or continuing to make aflignats, it has flat- 
 tered itfelf with being able to circulate them at the rate of 100 
 for one, at which it r< ceites back hof'e already iflued. It will 
 foon find to its coft, that the perfons to wh'?m it offers them in 
 payment, either for falaries, or for neceflary fupplies, will not 
 be difpofed to have any connexion or dealings with it, becaufe 
 they will fee thac it would be no other than a fort of wilful en- 
 rolment of themfclves in the lift of perfons 10 be plundered a 
 few months after. So that the more fuccefsful the Directory 
 may be, in withdrawing the aflignats from circulation by violence, 
 the more completely it will deprive itfelf jof any fort of refource 
 from public confidence; and the more university will any new 
 kind of paper money in its hands be reprobated. The Executive 
 Directory will have given itfelf the mortal blow forefcen by Le 
 Coulteux, who, when fpeaking ag^inft the cedules, declared that 
 they were about to ruin for ever the credit of any paper money 
 which could be created in France. Ultimately this loan will have 
 fruftrated the intended projed of teau'es, and will have annihi- 
 lated the fmall remaining value of iht ajfignatt. 
 
 * No one, 1 believe, will now fancy that it can be obtained 
 by the enthufiafm of France. If ever there was revolurionary 
 enthuiiafm in that country, it was when the Etats Generaux firft 
 aflembled ; and yet, though at that time France was full of Ipecie, 
 it was to no purpole that Mr Necker called upon the patriotifm 
 of the monied men ; he could not even procure, by voluntary 
 luan, the fmall ium which at that time might poflibly have faved 
 
 the
 
 [ 63 1 
 
 What means it is at prefent employing to plunder 
 its devoted victims I cannot tell. But admitting 
 that Terror mould again refume its iron rod, if the 
 inhabitants of the provinces (where they are not 
 difarmed) tamely allow themfelves to be robbed of 
 their little remaining fubfiftence, we may fay without 
 hefitation that the French people, collectively, is the 
 moft degenerate and moft abiurd that ever yet ap- 
 peared upon earth. It will then be a proper queftion, 
 Whether regular and lawful Governments can pru- 
 dently treat at all with fuch a monftrous Government, 
 which thus abandons itfelf to new robberies, in con- 
 tempt of oaths, and of a Conftitution recently 
 adopted, which forbids all fpoliations r If fuch 
 
 the Clergy from the fpoliation with which they were threatened. 
 The deputy Le Coulteux reminded his colleagues of thefe diffi- 
 culties, on the 3d of December. 
 
 When, faid he, the circulation imas eftimated at 2 milliardt 
 400 millions in ffecie, at the time when the credit of France ivas 
 faghejt ; and <when Mr. Necker made the moft extenjive ufe of it t 
 that Minijier never could raife by loan more than 1OO milliont 
 (4,166,666!. ilerling) per annum. 
 
 The fame Deputy who cited this fal, eight days after voted 
 in favour of the forced loan, and fupported it in a long fpeech, 
 in which, leaving out of the queftion all that patted in the time 
 of Mr. Necker's adminiftration, he went back to the reign of 
 Louis XIV. and faid in the Council of Ancients, We had in the 
 beginning of this century a memorable example of the happy effett of 
 thefe extraordinary helps, in prej/ing necejjities of the ft ate. It vaas 
 during the unfortunate incidents of 17 10, that the expedient <was 
 found out of fftablijhtng a levy of a tenth, on the income of all real t 
 and, univerjally , of all perfonal property 
 
 So, by citing an inftonct or a levy of one tenth, Le Couheux 
 flip/ports with fucceis a decree for levying the 'whole I He calls, 
 indeed, morality as well as hiltory to fupport the projecl. // /'/ 
 become time, faid he, for all thofe iubo have either abandoned them- 
 Jelves to the uncertain courfe of events, or have fujfered themfelvei 
 to be led by it, to make for a harbour, and give them/elves to moral 
 reflections; to virtues *which eafely return, vuhen the means of exig- 
 ence are jure, and perfon and property arefafe. 
 
 The French then are to be aj/ured of the meant of exigence, 
 and their perfons and properties are to be feaired by a fyltem of 
 forced leans ! 
 
 fhould
 
 [ 64 ] 
 
 fhould be the miferable lot of France, the Powers 
 united againft her, far from being intimidated by 
 this laft paroxyfm of her frenzy fever, ought to re- 
 gulate their efforts in fuch a way as to be able to 
 conquer by perfeverance, rather than attempt to fub- 
 due by violent exertions ; and wait with confidence 
 for the inevitable accomplifhment of Louvet's pro- 
 phetic remark If terror c mid revive > which we do not 
 believe ; but if it could revive, it 'would mow down in a 
 few months all the men of energy of every party ; and 
 when another qth of Fhermidor r ever fed this horrible 
 fyftem^ there would be no human -power able to refift the 
 re-aftion of Ariftccracy, and the return of Royalty *. 
 
 We may, 1 think, prefume that the very firft 
 rumour of this decree buried in the earth the little 
 gold and filver which till then had been rifked in 
 circulation ; and no one can deny but that all the; 
 money which is buried in this way, becomes juft as 
 ufelefs to individuals, and to the public, as if it ftill 
 remained in its dative mines, till forne protecting Go- 
 vernment, by re-eftablilhing fecurity and confidence, 
 induces the owners to dig it up again. When 1 join 
 to all thefe circumftanccs, theexhaufted condition of 
 the French ; when 1 recollect how artfully they 
 evaded Robcfpierre's forced loan, in fpite of his re- 
 volutionary armies, which he marched from province 
 to province f with the guillotine; when I reflect on 
 the prefent difpofition of the Departments, where 
 Columbel tells us that // is a dijbonour to be called a Re- 
 publican j I venture to aflert with confidence, that the 
 Republican Government will not procure, by this 
 
 * See his paper, the Sentinelle, of the 25th of Oftober 1795. 
 . f After the death of Robefpierre, Cambon acknowledged 
 that the forced loan of a milliard, decreed in Auguft 1793, had 
 not produced more than from 180 to 200 millions. The fame Cam- 
 bon owned that the Miniiters of Terror, that is to fay, the 
 20,000 Committees formed to levy the revolutionary taxes, coft 
 the nation 591 millions a-year. 
 
 rnifchievous
 
 [ 65 ] 
 
 mifchievous loan, more than 200 millions in real 
 value * -, and that if ever its produce amounts to fo 
 much, nearly one-half of it will have been extorted 
 from the miferable inhabitants of Paris, who have 
 loads of aflignats, which, now that they have been 
 difarmed for more than three months, they can no 
 longer either conceal or protect. 
 
 We may however (till hear more boailings of the 
 Directory. It may (till proclaim % to Europe, that the 
 French Republic is once more faved, and that it is its 
 defliny to efcape from the vnoft critical dangers ; that 
 the idea of this civic contribution electrified every 
 heart ; and that the unexpected fuccefs of this grand 
 and decifive meafure ought to make the enemies of 
 the Republic tremble, and deprive them for ever of 
 all bope of fubduing it by the finances. But as all thefe 
 
 * I wifti thofe who may differ from this opinion to confider 
 attentively the fpeech of Dupont, which he commenced by ob- 
 ferving that it would not be proper for an AJJembly of Legijlators 
 to ena& an impojfibility. 
 
 He concluded the fame fpeech by faying, " Only that fourth 
 part therefore of the citizens denominated rich, will be obliged 
 to furniih to the Republic all tht fpecie which is on its territory , 
 and befedes that, ten milliards of affignats which are not in ex- 
 igence. I afk a Council of Sages if the thing is poffible, and 
 if it is reafonable to order it by a law ?" 
 The whole fpeech, which was given in the Moniteur of the i;th 
 of December, mould be read, and alfo the reply of fernier, who 
 complained that the lad fpeaker had aftedled to mifunderftand the 
 nature of this loan, had called it by the general name of tax, and 
 raifed a. fort of fufpicion concerning it, by giving it that title ; 
 though, faid he, it is only an advance, a real lending, a tempo- 
 rary facrijice, on thejincerity of the repayment of which not a doubt 
 can be formed. To prove its urgency, Vernier painted the in- 
 trepid warriors of France as being every day expofed to all the 
 miferieSy all the calamities which can ajflift human nature. After- 
 wards, inftead of conwfting any one of the allegations by Du- 
 font on the impoffibility of finding fpecie enough for the loan, he 
 fucceeded in getting rid of the objection by obferving to the 
 Council of Ancients, that the real or factitious money paid into 
 the public chefts, would very foon be fent into circulation again by 
 the daily payments made by the T^reafury, or in the departments, 
 f Speech of the Deputy Ratnel. 
 
 E declarations
 
 [ 66 1 
 
 declarations cannot fill the treafuryj let us wait for the 
 epoch when thefe impoftors, again without any means 
 of fup plying the wants which the armies every where 
 manifeji, once more reprefent the naked truth to the 
 Legislative Body *. We mall then hear the Directory 
 faying, as Pelet formerly faid, that themoft dangerous 
 enemy of the Republic is a cold and barbarous egotifm ; 
 and (hall be told that the forced loan has produced 
 next to nothing in the country ; and ftiall hear the 
 impending fall of Liberty imputed, as Vernier al r 
 ready has done, to thoje men, either unjuft or indifferent, 
 who refufe to -pay this facred debt, this necejfary bond of 
 the facial contra.51. 
 
 But let us proceed to the third queftion, previoufiy 
 admitting, for argument's fake, that the forced loan 
 may poffibly fucceed in its full extent. We have in 
 that cafe feveral data upon which to calculate, in an 
 approximating way, the longeft term to which 
 this refource can protract the warlike fyftem of 
 France. 
 
 And firft of all, we are to recollect that Le Coulteux 
 has aflerted and proved that the Republic had ex- 
 pended annually to the real amount of one milliard by the 
 afiignats , and has added, that undoubtedly th ex- 
 jpence of laft year was not lefs than of thofe preceding 
 It. Though I could very eafily demonftrate that the 
 expenditure has been, and muft continue to be, far 
 more coniiderable than this ftatement of it ; yet I 
 will even adopt one which is ftill lower, made by Ra- 
 mel t who only calculates it at the rate of 70 millions 
 per month, or 840 millions a yearf, which would 
 bring the ordinary and extraordinary expences of the 
 
 * See the meflage of the Directory, quoted p. 52. 
 
 f To prevent any one of his colleagues from not underfland- 
 ing that he was fpeaking of fpecie, he declared the 8th of De- 
 cember, in the name of the Directory, that the 'value of 20 mil- 
 liards 200 millions muft be had in a month t or a/urn conefponding 
 with it, of 70 millions in fpecie. 
 
 French
 
 French Republic nearly to a par with thofe of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Now, in order to afcertain how long the 600 mil- 
 lions railed by rhis forced loan could fupport fuch an 
 expence, it muft be obferved, ift, That, by the tenor 
 of the decree, all the affignats it produces are to be 
 .cancelled in the prefence of thofe who pay them in, and 
 afterwards publicly burnt-, which will reduce the 
 produce remaining at the difpof^of the nation to 
 at moft, one- half, or 300 millions.^sdly, That in the 
 beginning of December the minifter of the finances 
 declared that the Treafury owed 72 million* injpecie ; art 
 anticipation which, together with the difburfementsfor 
 December and January, muft confume at leaft two- 
 thirds of the remaining 300 millions. 3dly, That at 
 this time, (the beginning of February, ) if France 
 fhould find herfelf reduced to the preffing neceflity 
 of procuring at any rate, the 10 millions of quintals 
 of corn which its rulers fay they have engaged fop 
 in the North, and which for fome months they 
 have been waiting in vain to pay for with the 30 
 millions of florins due from the Dutch Republic; 
 the whole remainder of the forced loan, if applied to 
 this purpote, would only pay for a part of this corn 
 at a facrifice of all the fpecie in the Treafury. 
 
 But if this is the cafe, how are the future expences 
 to be defrayed ? Certainly not with affignats, for a re- 
 cent acceleration of their fall has obliged the two 
 Councils to come to a refolution that the implements 
 for fabricating them (hall be immediately deftroyed. 
 And though there is a claufe in the decree which 
 authorizes the continuing their fabrication to the ex- 
 tent of 40 milliards, yet the Treafury already owes a 
 great deal more than the difference between this fumi 
 and that of the afli^nats which have already been 
 lifted*. 
 
 But 
 
 * If it is recolle&ed that fo darly as the middle of O&ober 
 Dubois Cranct faid that ;he Adminiilration hardly fupplied half itt
 
 [ 68 ] 
 
 But to avoid any appearance of anticipating the 
 term to which the benefit of this refource can be 
 fuppofed to extend, let us poftpone it to the beginning 
 of May ; that is, to the probable opening of the 
 next campaign. When that time comes, I again afk, 
 what remaining expedient the Republican Govern- 
 ment can have to meet the expences of that campaign, 
 and provide befides for another? Unlefs it recurs to 
 the expedient of cedules, or to that of another forced 
 loan> I know of bt two others which remain, and 
 both of them are equally limited and precarious the 
 tax in kind, and the fale of the moveable efefts of the 
 nation, and of the forefts formerly royal. The Direc- 
 tory indeed has already requefted authority to take 
 thefe meafures, in a meflage which completely finiflies 
 the picture of national indigence. 
 
 The forced loan muft fave the Republic, fay the Di- 
 rectors in this meflage fent to the Council of 500, 
 December the" i pth. It willfully anfwer the expeRa- 
 tion of the true friends of liberty : but, fay they, its pro- 
 duce will not fupply the whole of our wants. The D;'- 
 reflory muft havefupplementary means without delay, and 
 they muft be very powerful ones. Without very great 
 weans the Directory cannot take in feafon the nece/ary 
 meafures for fupplying the armies. 
 
 Having, in conlequence, requefted to be allowed 
 to fell thtfore/ts, the movcable national ejfecJs^ and the 
 property belonging to the ancient Civil Lift* ; they add, 
 
 wants by a fabrication of 100 millions of affignats per day; 
 and that in the beginning of December, the Miniiter of Finances 
 declared that this daily fabrication of 100 millions was xot enough 
 to fupply one third of the <wants ; it will be underftood that all the 
 affignacs not yet iifued are due by anticipation ; and, far from 
 being applicable to new expences, will hardly be adequate to dif- 
 charge the bills payable to bearer. 
 
 * On the aift of December the Directory was authorized to 
 difpofe of all the woods containing fe-iver than \ 5 tboufand acres. 
 But a few months fmce thefe ttately forefts were to lurnifh thou- 
 fands of floating caltles, to liberate the ocean from Englifti do- 
 
 mmation,
 
 [ 69 3 
 
 be Directory, Citizens, has made a requefl of vafl ex- 
 tent ; but the powers at war with us muji be made to 
 underftand what the French nation is capable of, and 
 what it puts in the power of its Government in order to 
 
 initiation, and carry equality andfraternifation to theBritifti fhore; 
 and now they are condemned for fale to the belt bidder ! 
 Qui Vincanto fitii.fparir le lar<ve> 
 Gia vinto e dellafelva ilfero incanto. 
 
 This fale, in a country without money/ without commerce, and 
 without confidence, is to affitre, at loft, to the Republic the meant 
 of triumphing ever its enemies ! 
 
 In order however to make ajjurance doubly fare, the Directory 
 at the fame time was authorized to fell 'without delay all the furni- 
 ture, effefls, and mercbandifes net indifpenfable for the public Jervict. 
 
 The French Republic then, amidft all its trophies, is reduced 
 to the laft (hifts of a defperate gamefler! Her eftates fold to any 
 purchafers who will rifk a bad title, or elfe mortgaged for more 
 than they are worth ; her trinkets long fince turned into money ; 
 now that no ufurer can be found to truft her, (he fells her furniture 
 and timber, and fcts the whole upon a card, with a prefumptuous 
 confidence of fuccefs which misfortunes and experience cannot 
 correct. 
 
 By the fame decree the Directory is authorized " to proceed to 
 ' the fale of the parks and houfes of St. Cloud, Meudon, 
 Vincennes, Madrid, Bagatelle, Choify, Marly, Chantilly, 
 ' and of all the houfes and parks depending upon the late Civil 
 ' Lift, or coming from the late Princes who have emigrated, 
 ' with the exception only of the principal houfes of Vcriailles, 
 ' Fontainebleau, and Compiegne !" 
 
 But in order to raife money it is not enough that forefts, pa- 
 laces, pictures, and jewels are offered for fale, unlefs there are 
 the means and an inclination to purchafe. In the prefent fitua- 
 tion of France, this decree, if carried into effect in its fullelt ex- 
 tent, would procure but a very fhort refource for expencesfuch as 
 thole of that country, and that, by dilapidations and devaluations 
 which a century could not remedy. 
 
 Two important obfervations may be made on this decree; the 
 I ft, That as thefe forefts, &c. form a part of the original fecurity 
 for the aflignats, and a? thofe which are obtained by thefe fales 
 are to be paid into the national treajury, to be employed for the public 
 expences, inftead of being burnt, this is a direct Subtraction from 
 the fecurity upon which they were originally affigned ; and the zd, 
 That they no longer find it expedient to offer any other pro- 
 perty for fale but that which belonged to the Civil Lift and 
 the Princes, and which is not fubject to old incumbrances. 
 
 F 3 combat
 
 combat them* 'This alone can lead to a pacification y and 
 peace is the greateft economy. To BE ABLE TO SPEND 
 
 A GREAT DEAL IS THE BEST WAY OF BEING OBLIGED 
 TO SPEND BUT LITTLE. 
 
 What language from men, who in the fpace of five 
 years have expended infinitely more than Louis XIV. 
 diflipated during half a century of romantic exploits 
 and extravagant prodigalities ? And to whom had the 
 Directory the affur^nce to addrefs this language of' 
 economy ? To its colleagues in difiipating the wealth 
 of the public during the empire of the Convention, 
 to the authors of dilapidations cf which, as one of 
 themfelves has faid, the hiftory cf mankind dees not 
 furnijh a Jingle example*. 
 
 But this very prodigality will eventually have ac- 
 celerated the repoie of Europe, by accelerating the 
 cataftrophe or the prodigals themfelves. That ca- 
 taftrophe is approaching ; they already fee the ap- 
 proaching ruin of the fabric which they have raifed 
 on the rums of monarchy ; the pillars which fup- 
 ported it are falling away ; they fancied themfelves 
 furrounded by multitudes of faithful partifans ; but 
 now find in their turn that thofe partifans become 
 difcontented upon difcovering that the Treafury is 
 totally txhaufted, and that they have not even enough 
 remaining to pay their Pretorian guards. 
 
 How impolitic and how ruinous in its confequences 
 would it be if in luch a ftate of the French Govern- 
 ment the Allied Powers fhould give themfelves up 
 to defpair, and make all the blood which has been 
 ihed in this war ufclefs, by Hopping their exertions at 
 the very moment when every thing announces more 
 and more, that 'thole exertions muft' ultimately be 
 fuccefsful ? If they are pufillanimous enough to pur- 
 chafe a peace by the facrifice of a fingle province, the 
 
 * Le Coulteux, the 3<1 December 1795. 
 
 evils
 
 t 71 ] 
 
 evils apparently terminated by fuch a pacification 
 will almoft immediately begin again with more vio- 
 lence than ever , the dates which have been plundered 
 will foon, take up arms again, to recover poffeffion of 
 the provinces they may have ceded ; and unltfs they 
 fucceed in regaining them, the devouring ambition 
 of this Republic will fooner or later be directed to 
 new projects of aggrandifement. Europe can never 
 be again at reft, if it encourages the French in their 
 defire of conqueft by abandoning the mod infignifi- 
 cant village to their troops. If, on the contrary, the 
 Continental Powers have perieverance enough to wait 
 the event without yielding to difficulties, every thing 
 promifes them that the abfolute want in which France 
 finds herlelf, will foon reduce her, either to offer a 
 restitution of all her conquefts, or elfe to fee them 
 evacuated by her armies, which will difband for want 
 of pay. 
 
 I developed thefe two aflertions in the month of 
 May laft, and I repeated them in the month of Sep- 
 tember with redoubled confidence. 
 
 M. de Calonne takes occafion, from this circum- 
 ftance, to amufe himfelf at my expence. 
 
 In this way talks M. d'lvernois, and fuch are his 
 offer f tons ! Juft what he now fays he faid nine months 
 ago, and though fence that time there has been neither 
 any diffolution of the armies, any evacuation of the con- 
 quefts, or any fupplication for peace, yet this little mif- 
 calculation of the epoch when his predictions were to be 
 accompli/bed does not at all difconcert him. On the con- 
 trary ', he repeats his affertions with redoubled confidence, 
 andftill he appeals to events ! May they obey the voice of 
 the prophet ! 
 
 This little mifcalculation, I can venture to fay, is en- 
 tirely on the part of M. de Calonne, who has ante- 
 dated the time which I affigned for what he is pleafed 
 to call the accompli/hment of my predictions ', and which 
 I certainly never fpoke of as more carl? than at the 
 F 4 commencement^
 
 commencement, or at any rate by the end of the next 
 campaign. But is it not ftrange that a writer, who 
 charges me with having been miftaken refpecting a 
 future event, mould himfelf be io much miftaken as 
 to things which are actually happening ? Is he really 
 ignorant, or does he only affect not to know, that 
 the difiblution of the armies, which he denies, has 
 already Ihewn itfelf in a number of fymptoms of the 
 moft alarming kind ? 
 
 Since he obliges me to make new extracts from the 
 French Papers in confirmation of my former afler- 
 tions, I beg him to look back to the debate in the 
 Convention of the ?6th of laft July, when Villetard 
 faid, that the crime of defer t ion bad never been more fre- 
 quent than for fame months paJL Afterwards, on the 
 26th of October, he may obferve, that Guilkmardet 
 announced to the Convention, that the Officers of 
 Health belonging to the military ho/pit als defer ted from their 
 pofts, and left their fick and wounded brethren deftitute 
 of medical affiftance. This defcrtion does not exactly 
 tally with what M. de Calonne calls tke fanaticifm of 
 the French armies, which calamities have redoubled; 
 but it tallies better with my idea of the degree of 
 fidelity to be expected from men who do not receive 
 the hundredth part of the falaries they were pro- 
 mifed. Not knowing where to find money for thofe 
 falaries, the Convention, by way of indemnifying the 
 Officers of Health, thought fit to decree a two years 
 imprifonment in irons for delerters of every description. 
 It at the fame time declared null and void all leaves, of 
 abfence granted up to the iftof November-, and be- 
 fides this, it annulled the greater part of the requi- 
 fitions ; for it mould be known, that a great number 
 of the defenders of their country had, by favour or 
 by intrigue, found out the art of making themielves 
 invulnerable, as one of the Deputies * jocofely called 
 
 * Villttard, the i ft of December 1795. 
 
 it,
 
 [ 73 1 
 
 it, by procuring themfelves to be put in requifition for 
 fome fervice more lucrative and lefs dangerous than 
 fighting on the frontiers. 
 
 Notwithftanding precautions and decrees, the con- 
 tagion of defertion has fpread from the hofpitals to 
 the battalions, fanatical as they are fuppofed to be. 
 Even before the defeats on the Rhine, a multitude of 
 warriors, in full health, had abandoned the banks of 
 that river, to retire quietly into the interior; and it 
 is evident that this difpofnion is general in all the 
 armies ; for in the fitting of the 2,5th of November, 
 the Deputy Marlot harangued the Council of Ancients 
 on the fcandal which the armies of the Pyrenees had oc- 
 cafwned, and efyecially the iveftern army, where, faid he, 
 thejoldiers have been fe en returning quietly to their own 
 homes in bands of 6o < <?r 80 men, with their arms and 
 baggage. A month afterwards Poultitr added another 
 fimilar circumftance; that the conquerors of the Py- 
 renees, thofe at leaft who did not defert by the way, 
 bad arrived in time to fill up the void occajioned by dt- 
 fertion in the army of Italy, where he afferted that out 
 of 30,000 men 1 5,000 had abandoned their colours. 
 
 Such is the ftate of the armies which, according 
 to M. de Calonne, are fo fanatical. It is his bufinefs 
 to explain why fo many decrees and fo many threats 
 are necefiary to prevent the defertion of the Repub- 
 lican foldiers, whofe fanaticism calamity itfelf has re- 
 doubled. If in this defertion he can difcover a proof 
 of their ardour and zeal, no wonder that he can 
 find molt powerful relburces for France in the lofs of 
 \\trartificialriches. His telefcope deceives him, be- 
 caufe the glafs through which he looks is his own bril- 
 liant imagination. But if he will look into the French 
 Papers, he will there find proofs of \.ht fcandal de- 
 nounced by Marlot ; he will obferve that they are full 
 of letters from departments the mod remote from 
 one another, which have announced for feveral months 
 that the young men cfthefirft requifilion have almoft all 
 
 of
 
 [ 74 I 
 
 ef them quitted their colours. Thofe from Lyons de- 
 clare, that they profefs there the waft infclent royalifm. 
 Thofe from Valence add, that defer ters from the age 
 of 18 to 25 have kindled a ttew Vendee in the de- 
 partment of Puy de Dome, and are collected in the 
 mountains to the number of 1500 from the different 
 armies *. 
 
 I have already remarked, that in order to ftop this 
 evil in its fource, the Convention at laft decided upon 
 allowing the foldiers two fols per day in fpecie. I can 
 now add that, great as this facrifice may appear, and 
 doubtful as it is how long it can be continued, it has 
 not been enough ; becaufe, even including this aug- 
 mentation, the foldiers do not receive more than half 
 the pay of the old eftablifhment ; confequently the 
 defertion is greater than ever. If we read the con- 
 cluding debates of the Convention, we mall find 
 them full of lamentations and complaints of this 
 pernkious .diforganization of the armies, and of the 
 unforefeen failure of the mine of aflignats, by the 
 help of which the 14 armies had till lately been fo 
 amply provided for. 
 
 Tou cannot, faid Rewbell, efiablijh the Conftitution -, 
 you cannot rejign the. executive power to the Government , 
 without at leaft leaving it funds for tie expences of the 
 enfuing campaign. I come from the army* where I affure 
 you that nothing is done becaufe no remittances are made. 
 Tour fyftem of ajfignats is Jo bad that it cannot con~. 
 iinue. 
 
 Let us next obferve what was the object which en- 
 gaged the firft attention of the Executive Directory. 
 In three days after its inftallation it addrefled the Le- 
 giflative Body to invite it to take into confederation an 
 cbjeft of the utmcft importance^ the return to the bofom 
 cf their families of a number of the defenders of liberty^ 
 
 * See the SentinelJe of O&ober the 3Oth, a Paper written by 
 the Deputy Lowe?. 
 
 and
 
 [ 75 1 
 
 end the difficulties which the Government found in re~ 
 calling them to their colours *. 
 
 Though the only way to recall them muft un- 
 doubtedly be to pay them, yet the Council of 500, 
 which was engaged in finding ways and means, ad- 
 journed that bufintfs in confequence of this new 
 alarm, to employ itfelf, in preference to any other 
 affair, in making a penal codeagainftdcfertion ; but 
 it had fcarcely begun its deliberations on this new 
 fubjcct, when it was ag.un forced to interrupt them, 
 in order to recommence its consideration of the pecu- 
 niary neceffities of the Republic, as of ftili grearer 
 urgency. The Deputy )uirot, out of all patience at 
 this changing from fubject to fubjecl, grievoutly com-, 
 plained of it. " They recommend to you," faid he, 
 " to occupy yourfelves with the finances, at the mo- 
 " ment when your attention is directed to defertion ; 
 " and when you are engaged on the finances, then 
 " they come to draw you away from that fubje<5b, in 
 " order to renew the difcuffions refpeding defer- 
 " tion. In this way the natural thread of Ideas is cut 
 " afunder." 
 
 But, with due deference to Deputy Quirot y it ap- 
 pears to me that if the Republican foldiers really de- 
 fert from deficiency of PAY, the being employed in 
 finding means for paying them before framing a pe- 
 nal code againft deferters, is not exactly to cut the 
 natural thread of ideas > at lead, he ought not to com- 
 plain of it unlcfs he is of the fame opinion with his 
 colleague Bezard, who exclaimed, the zzd of No- 
 
 * Nine days afterwards the DireSory again prefled the Coun- 
 ,cil of 500 to take into confederation the means of preventing tbc 
 defertion ivhicb multiplies in the armies ; and it then propofed fe- 
 veral means proper in its eftimation to fill up what it ingenuoufly 
 called the void in the armies. But, after requiring that parents 
 fhould be made, like Brutus, the judges of their own children, it 
 denounces thefe new Brutufes for themfelves giving an afylum to 
 f.heir fons who bafely abandon thtir cclcurs. 
 
 vcmber,
 
 [ 76 ] 
 
 vember, Citizens! let us not accuflom the mflitary only 
 to do their duty for money. 
 
 So far, however, I agree with Deputy Quirot^ that 
 there may be fome doubt which of the two leaks 
 they ought firft to try to flop, in order to keep their 
 veffel from immediately finking; for during thefe 
 debates of urgency Dupuis, after obferving that 
 fl victory depended as much on the cotijl&ncy as on 
 " the courage of the French legions, faid to his col- 
 ** leagues, It is not without the deepeft concern (bat, in 
 *' f^JJing through federal departments of the Republic^ 
 " / have feen troops of defer ters travelling along the 
 *' road as much at their eafe as myfelf" After having 
 talked of the duty of the foldier to his country, " // 
 *' remains" faid he, " to talk cf the care which the 
 *' country ought to take of the foldier, who frequently 
 " finds himfelf naked and in wretchednefs. There is, 
 *' befides," faid he, " another caufe, which is, the 
 '* fmallnefs of the foldier's pay in fpecie; for as to 
 " what he receives in afiignats, it is not to be reckon- 
 * e ed as any thing in a hoftile country ; and here we 
 " ought to difculs this important queftion, Whether 
 " the farmer and the greedy tradefman, whofe pro- 
 " perty and commerce the foldier defends, can much 
 " longer be allowed to pay their public contributions 
 " in a money which they will not take themfelves, 
 cc and which every day they more and more depre- 
 " ciate ? For in one way or other the final triumph of 
 ft the Republic muft be fecured*." 
 
 In 
 
 * The debates of the Council of 500 in the fitting of the 21 ft 
 of November, inflead of fongs of triumph were only rilled with 
 lamentations that the triumph was all at once flopped by the 
 inevitable diffolution of the armies. It ought not to be concealed 
 from you, faid Talot, that the foldier s are dtf contented; that if they 
 took up arms in favour of liberty, they may perhaps turn them againji 
 it, unlefs the Legijlative Body adopts 'wife and prudent meafures. 
 Defer t ion has, for fome time paft, been fo frequent in the army of 
 tire Rhiat t that tbofe who remain are obliged to double duty. Se- 
 vere
 
 [ 77 ] 
 
 In the way towards this triumph there are, I think, 
 two obftacles: -Firft, I imagine that fome expedient 
 mud be found to make this people, fo enthujiajlically 
 Republican^ pay thofe taxes in kind, or in money, which 
 hitherto it has not been poflible to procure the pay- 
 ment of in affignats. Then, if this fhould be ma- 
 naged, the next difficulty is how to renew and to 
 multiply thofe taxes fo as to be adequate not only 
 to the ordinary expences of a peace eftablifhment, 
 but to the additional expences of a very burdenfome 
 war. When thefe two problems are folved, I fhall 
 then begin to think that the final triumph cf tie Re- 
 public may be fecured. 
 
 It is very true, that I ftill perfift in drawing my 
 authorities from the French Legiflators and 'from the 
 Members of their new Directory; and confequently 
 M. de Calonne may ftill charge me with propping up 
 my argument by fcraps cf quotations compiled from the 
 incoherent difcourfes of the Conventional oracles, who 
 know no more of the matter, than thofe who quote them. 
 
 But who are we to believe with refpedt to the na- 
 kednefs and the mifery of the Republican armies, and 
 the defertion of a multitude of the defenders of liberty, if 
 we muft not believe their Proconfuls, thofe Deputies 
 on miffion who return in hafte to acquaint the Go- 
 vernment {bat nothing is done becaufe no remittances are 
 made? Who are we to believe if we muft not give 
 credit to fuch authority as that of Rewbell, Prefidenc 
 
 litre meafures are tieceflary, but wifiom is equally fo t ivif&out which 
 the dijfi/lution of the armies would be inevitable. 
 
 In the fitting of the loth of December Lindet traced in a few 
 words the true caufe of thefe frequent defertions. Our intrepid 
 'warriors, faid he, jind them/elves expofed daily to all the miferiet- 
 and all the calamities which tan ajftiEl human nature. 
 
 The Directory, on its part, has thought fit to attribute thefe 
 defertions to the cowardice, and not the mifery, of its warriors. 
 Calculate all the calamities which have bten caufed by the cowardt 
 who have abandoned their colour i> the cowards who 'would not join 
 them. See the initruclion of the Directory to its agents. 
 
 7 of
 
 t 78 J 
 
 >f the fupreme Directory, who evidently prefents to the 
 LiCgiflative Body this diftrefling alternative REORGA- 
 
 oi 
 
 Legifla 
 
 NISATION OF THE FINANCES, OR DISORGANISATION 
 
 OF THE ARMIES? When no one rifes to contradict 
 him, will not all the world own that he has facts on 
 his fide ? In fhort, what ought we to believe, if noc 
 official and authentic communications from perfons 
 who have every motive to palliate the evil, if it 
 could poffibly admit of palliation ? 
 
 M. de Calonm will find it but a fruitlefs attempt 
 to fubftitute mere theories inftead of this clear de- 
 duction from the reports and the debates of thelaft and 
 prefcnt Legiflatures of France-, he will repeat to no 
 purpofe, that thofe Legiflatures miftake for a failure 
 of refources, what only refults from bad management. 
 That while they lafted they were badly managed, 
 nobody will deny; but I am now more confident than 
 ever, that the finances, and, in confequence, the mi- 
 litary refources of the French Republic are decidedly 
 exhaufted. 
 
 If indeed we can fuppofe, that France will always 
 be in the power of two or three hundred thoufand 
 Jacobins who have already defolated it, and whom 
 at preient the Directory felects for its agents, we 
 mull admit fome poffibility, that this Directory may 
 be able to protract a little longer its own exigence 
 and their tyranny. The Jacobins, who feem alone 
 at prefent to conilitute the nation, and to have lome 
 remaining energy, may certainly be able to form 
 themfelves once more into revolutionary bands ; over- 
 run fome of the provinces; tear without distinction, 
 from their homes old men and children, as well as 
 thole fit for fervice ; take away the flocks and the 
 clothing ; drag their flaves and their plunder to war; 
 and, by fuch means, may poffibly fupport another 
 campaign. I am aware of this remaining power of 
 the Directory ; but the power neceJGTary to confoli- 
 date a new Republic, the power which belongs to 
 
 a regu
 
 [ 79 J 
 
 a regulated fociety, to a wife and firm Government^ 
 that power it does not poffefs, that power the def- 
 pair of fome, the ferocity of others, and the general 
 wretchednefs have annihilated. And as to the power 
 which is indifpenfable for continuing a regular war, 
 for furnifhing numberlefs fortreiles with provifions, 
 for defending conquefts which on all fides are open, 
 to attack, and keeping in fubjedion their inhabitants, 
 who deteft their conquerors j for continually recruit- 
 ing the armies, feeding them, clothing them, paying 
 them, and preventing their defertion ; I leave it to 
 the judgment of thofe who are converfant in hiftory, 
 whether all the energy of the Jacobins will be able 
 to give their Revolutionary Government the power 
 requifite for fuch exertions, or prolong beyond an- 
 other year its expiring convulfions. 
 
 Inhabitants of France ! If thefe pages, haflily writ- 
 ten, can reach you before it is too late, recollect your- 
 ielves at lead for one moment ! confider the abyfs 
 into which your Chiefs are plunging you, and cal- 
 culate the confequences of the new depredations you 
 are permitting them to make ! Behold your brave 
 warriors reduced to wretchednefs without example, 
 which difables them from advancing againft the 
 enemy, and compels them to leave their colours from 
 mere neceffity ! Are you unable to fee that the fall 
 of your tranfient Republic muft inevitably follow 
 from the ruin of its artificial finances ? And can yon 
 Hill flatter yourfelves, that the pomp and parade 
 which furrounds the tottering Coloflus you have 
 raifed, can make it any object of difmay to the 
 Powers whom your conduct has united againft you ? 
 Or do you think that; they are blind to your diftrefs, 
 and will abandon in delpair the territories which 
 your Chiefs have thought fit to incorporate with 
 your indruifible Republic ? Be allured, that fince 
 thofe Chiefs have yiolate'd your Conftitution, and, 
 in order to protract the war abroad, have again had 
 recourfe to fpoliation at home, they have made it 
 
 once
 
 [ 80 ] 
 
 once more the duty of Europe to compel you to 
 renounce for ever this fyftem of barbarians! Aflfure 
 yourfelves, that every facrifice which your Chiefs 
 extort from you to prolong the war, will lead to 
 other facrifices, if pofiible, more and more difaf- 
 trous, and will give your plundered neighbours an 
 additional fccurity for the reftitution of their terri- 
 tories. 
 
 I am not ignorant that your feducers attempt to 
 ftigmatife every one who holds this language as an 
 apologift for war ; but I know too that the time is 
 not far diflant when you will applaud him as an 
 apoftle of peace, who firft raifed his voice to con- 
 jure you to renounce the empty glory of extending 
 the frontiers of your vaft territory; who invited you 
 to cultivate in quiet the inheritance of your fathers, 
 and fecure yourfelves in the protection of a limited 
 monarchy. 
 
 Perhaps it is not yet too late, but deceive not 
 yourfelves ! The longer thofe factious leaders who have 
 fubjugated you, are allowed to deprave the people, 
 the lefs eafy hereafter it will be to govern the people, 
 unlefs with a rod of iron. How long will you fuffer 
 them to labour to make you incapable of enjoying 
 any portion of real liberty ? Oh ! if ftill there are 
 among you any languid fparks of liberty, kindle its 
 flame again ere your tyrants have totally extinguifhed 
 them ; make one noble exertion at leaft to free your 
 country from the domination of the fucceflbrs of 
 Robefpierre ; fuffer them not to finifti her defolation ; 
 fuffer them not to drag her, expiring, to the feet of 
 an enemy whom they might fo eafily difarm, and to 
 whofe pacific declarations they ftill reply with vain 
 and infulting bravados *. Unite all together, to tell 
 
 them 
 
 See a late meflage addreffed to the Council of 500, by the 
 Executive Directory. 
 
 The Directory believes it approaches near to that capital point 
 upon ivbicb defend the bappinefi and the glory of France, a/peedy peace, 
 
 FOUNDED
 
 [ 8i ] 
 
 them that they have too long held with polluted 
 hands the fceptre of France, from which the blood 
 will never be wafhed, till it is confided to an here- 
 ditary but limited monarch. 
 
 FOUNDED ON THE DEFEAT AND THE HUMILIATION OF OUR 
 
 MARITIME RIVALS. This is the objel of all its efforts ^ this is the 
 wni'verfal <wijh of France. 
 
 (Signed) REWBELL, Prefidcnt. 
 
 c APPENDIX,
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Refearches concerning the Diminution of Specie in France* 
 &nd that of the Capital, and the Income of its Inhabit- 
 ants. Comparative View of the Prices of the Ne- 
 ceffaries of Life -, and of Wages. 
 
 f-pHERE is one of M. de Calonne's aguments, re- 
 > fpeding which, cither his fuperior knowledge of 
 finance, or ibrne other caufe, has induced him to 
 exprefs himfelf in terms more peremptory than he 
 generally ufes. It is this : Making an allowance for 
 exportation^ IT is CERTAIN, that 20 milliards in gold 
 coin put into circulation in the kingdom^ would have pro- 
 duced as great an augmentation of the price of provi/ions 
 and other objefts of fale> as twenty milliards of ajfig- 
 nats*. 
 
 I looked 
 
 This work of M. de Calonne has jufl appeared under the 
 title of a PICTURE OF EUROPE in November 1795, and 
 Thought 
 
 On iiohat bat Been done, and ivbich ought not to have been done ; 
 On what ought to have been done, and which Jtas not been done ; 
 On what ought to be done, and ivbicb perhaps luill not be done. 
 
 Three enigmas well contrived to raife the public curiofity, 
 and efpecially the third of them. As my readers may be impatient 
 to know what M. de Calonne thinks ought to be done, I will un- 
 riddle it at once. He advifes the Allied Powers to publifh a fo- 
 lemn proclamation, of which he gives them a model, and which 
 fiiould begin thus : Frenchmen they have deceived jou re/fe3ing
 
 I looked at this paragraph again and again before 
 I would believe my own eyes, and I ftill afk myfelf, 
 
 Is 
 
 our motives for taking up arms ; ive do not pretend to invade or dif- 
 member your territory, &c. &C. 
 
 Is it not odd that a writer, who infifts that the French ought 
 to be undeceived as to the opinion they have that there is an in- 
 tention of difmembering their country, m,ould have fubjoined 
 this mode] of a proclamation to a work of which the beginning 
 is chiefly employed in confirming that opinion ; and where this 
 fame writer affirms that the iuar, which ought to have been en* 
 tirely dire fie d by motives of generofety, honour, and dijintereftednefs, 
 is become a ivar of cupidity, illiberal vievjs, and private inter efts ? 
 The afiertion is iupported by a long detail of fasts of public noto- 
 riety; and among others, by the taking poffejjion of Valentiennes 
 in the name of the Emperor. In order to be confiftent with him- 
 felf, M. de Calonne ought furely to have begun the proclamation 
 which he recommends to the Coale'fced Powers with the follow- 
 ing words: Frenchmen! nve have deceived ourfelves refpetling the 
 motives, &c. Sec, 
 
 The reil of this publication has a few trifling contradictions of 
 the fame kind. For ioftance, either the Author muft have for- 
 gotten all he had faid before refpe&ing the affignats, or elfe, 
 upon better reflection, he has thought fit to adopt all my prophe- 
 Jles and predictions respecting their inevitable annihilation, and 
 the ulterisr confequences of that event; for he finifhes with re- 
 marking, that the Revolution has devoured to the very roots, tfje 
 . natural refources, and thcfe derived from induftry in France. Who 
 that had only read th'e beginning of his work, would expect to 
 find in i the following picture of the frightful dilapidation ef the 
 finances, \>. zoo? " The entire dejlruflion of the public revenue, 
 " the unheard-of enormity of the expences, the continually increafeng 
 " difordtr of Adminijlration, and the total failure of the fources 
 tl of the riches of the State." " No commerce, no indujiry, no ex- 
 " portation of produclions, no credit, no circulation of fpecie, and 
 " a mafs of paper money fo monftrous, fo decried, fo pernicious in 
 ' ** its influence on the price cf commodities, that there is not a man 
 " but forefees its ruin. What is to be the. end of it ? what to 
 " reckon upon ? what to expeti in fuch a Jituation?" &c. &c. 
 
 1 have not faid any thing more true on the ruin of the af- 
 lignats, nor indeed have 1 the talent of painting in fuch ftrong 
 colours the horrible cataftrophe which France mud expecJ in 
 .fuch a fititation. Certainly when I read in the firft numbers of 
 M. de Calonne's work, that the ruin of the affignats, which I 
 had considered as the origin of the diftrefs of the State, would 
 
 rather
 
 [ 85 ] 
 
 Is it pofiible, that one who has been comptroller" 
 of the finances of France fhould pronounce ic as 
 
 rather I e the origin of its liberation ; if I had then fufpe&ed th^t 
 he would have refuted himfelf fo ably, I fhould very willingly 
 have laved myfelf that trouble, at lealt I fhould have refrained 
 from certain fufpicions which I regret the ndt having been able- 
 to reprefs, when I faw a writer, who has been Minitter of Fi- 
 nance in France, intimidating the Coalefced Powers by a pom- 
 pous difplay of the refoorces of the French Republic. I am now 
 convinced, that he could have no other view in reprefenting 
 France as fo formidable, but to imprefs more ftrongly the im- 
 portance of his own eloquent proclamation which was to 
 follow. 
 
 Upon the merit, perhaps of this tardy recantation, the Au- 
 thor founds his requeft, that perfons will abflain from pre- 
 judicing the objeft of bis work by their criticifmi on it, or by a 
 mifrepreftntation of its intentions: he protelts that be is more! 
 anxious to convince than to pleafe anyone', and he excufes hiirH 
 felf for having infuj'ed a little afperity f onetimes in the dij'cujjion 
 of what he believed he ought to combat. 
 
 I do not very clearly comprehend what he means by infujlng a 
 little afperity ; but what I can fee more plainly is, that he has 
 been wanting in thofe civilities which authors who pretend to 
 any education confider as due to one another. Far however 
 from being unjuft to him on this account, 1 feel a pleafure, and 
 think it a djuty to join with him in the only one of his political 
 opinions which, he tells us, has expofed him to the ceniure of 
 fome of his countrymen who are refident in England, in the 
 earlieft numbers of his publication, he not only had. the candour 
 to acknowledge that the Kingdom of France had not a Conftitu- 
 tion\ but he infifted that a limited monarchy is 'the fitteft form' of 
 Government for a great Empire; he even went to far as to ad- 
 vife againft jiriQly connecting the return of order with the return of 
 the ancient Conjiitution, 'without any change in it, becaufe j great 
 number of Frenchmen are poffeffed with an idea., that it would meari 
 the return of the ancient abujes. 
 
 Having been warmly cenfured for this very wife advice, he in his 
 Appendix cites one of his letters to Louis XVI. which proves 
 that there is no variance between his prefenc and former opinion 
 on this fubjeft. And what is ftill more to his credit, he perfiits 
 in maintaining it, notwiihftanding the clamours of the zealots 
 for the old forms, and finilhes his work with firmly infilling, 
 that the monarchical power ought to be regulated and moderated in 
 France by fundamental laws, which fliould be fixed, eJJablifhed by 
 a Jolemn tode, and preferred from the mutability to which thty 
 c 3 migkt
 
 t 86 ] 
 
 certain, that if eight or ten times the ufual quantity 
 of fpccie were introduced into that kingdom, and it 
 were without foreign intercourfe, then provifions and 
 other objects of fale would cod one or two hundred 
 times as much as before, which has been the effect 
 of the 20 milliards of affignats that have been put 
 into circulation ? 
 
 Inftead of lofing ourfelves with him in imaginary 
 fpace, while calculating what poffibly miht have 
 been the effect if the affignats had been fpecie ; in- 
 ilead of this, let us examine the facts as they are , 
 and firft let us attend to what has become of the 
 wealth rn fpecie which exifted in France before the 
 invention of affignats. 
 
 I have already had occafion to (hew that more than 
 five-fixrhs of it have been exported, a fact which can 
 hardly be contefted ; for Dupont the deputy, who af- 
 ferted it, fupported his aflenions in the Council of 
 Ancients by authentic documents. Ik 1790, faid he, 
 the fpecie was eftimated at 2 milliards 200 millions ; 
 fine e that time^ three years of war have obliged us to re- 
 mit 600 millions annually to -pay for our purchajes in 
 foreign countries ; this makes 1800 millions, OF WHICH 
 
 THE EXPORTATION IS ASCERTAINED Y AUTHENTIC 
 
 might be fubjefl, if it depended entirely on the iioill of the monarch 
 to maintain or to abrogate them. He adds, Whoever does not fee 
 honu nectjfary to the re-eft ablijhmeut of monarchy in France it is 
 to declare, that fuch as this Jhall be the bajis of the nenv Conftitu- 
 tion, is decidedly blind \ 'whoever has not in his heart this wife is 
 born to be ajla<ve ; nvbcpver thinks it and dares not utter it, is a <vilt 
 flatterer ; whoever ad<vifes the Princes of Bourbon to a<ve r w oppofae 
 Jentiments, is their perfonal enemy and 1 be enemy of France. 
 
 This is a fenciment which Ihews elevation of mind, and M. 
 de Calonne has expreiTecl ic with equal force and dignity. May 
 thefe laft lines of his publication make a deep impreffion on, 
 thofe of his countrymen who are fo decidedly Hind as to blame 
 him for an opinion of which their own belt interefts fhould 
 have taught them the propriety long fince ! How long will petty 
 prejudices be oppofed to ihe molt violent paffions that ever conr 
 valitd an Empire ? 
 
 POCUMENTS,
 
 t 87 ] 
 
 DOCUMENTS. The emigrants have carried off ano- 
 ther portion of it, whofe qua:; lily cannot be afcertained 
 by any document , you are all aware that it muft have 
 been conftderable. Some little has lately returned again ; 
 but no political calculator will venture to think or Jay 
 that the fpecie which at prefent is oflenfible or in circu- 
 lation , amounts to more than 300 millions, 
 
 While none of Dupont's colleagues obje&ed to 
 this afiertion, though militating fo ftropgly againft 
 their favourite meafure of a forced loan, and which 
 therefore we muft fuppofe they would have contra- 
 dicted if they could ; M. de Calonne publi/hed in Lon- 
 don a conjecture on this fubjtrft more exaf t he fays, 
 than any thing to be found in the pamphlets which fpeak 
 tnoji confidently. All things co>Jidered, fays he, IT 
 CANNOT BE DISPUTED, but that if we rijjume at no 
 more than two milliards the mafs of gold and filver 
 coined and uncoined, which heretofore in France amounted 
 to about four milliards, we take it rather below, than: 
 above the reality, and two milliards (about o millions 
 Iterling) muft certainly be fujficient for tfre circulation in 
 France, becauje in all Great Britain there is not 'half fo 
 much, the fpecie there riot being ejlimated at more than 
 29 millions Jlerling. At leaft we cannot help obferving^ 
 that the fuppofed proofs of an abfolute want of metallic, 
 riches in France, only prove want of ABILITY to draw 
 them from their retreats, by means which depend more 
 on the Jkill of an Adminiftration than on t.be extortions 
 of violence. 
 
 Till he has (hewed us what thofe means are, we 
 may be allowed, I imagine, to rely on the authentic 
 documents appealed to by Dupont. Now, as they 
 afctrtain that more than five-fixths of the fpecie have 
 pafted out of France, I rc-queft the reader to atten4 
 particularly to the following obfervations : 
 |n 1790 the money in France was 
 
 a,c - - - ... 3*20.0 millions. 
 04 1
 
 [ 88 ] 
 
 In December 1795 there remained 
 
 of fpecie only ------ 300 millions. 
 
 And the whole mafs of aflignnts, at 
 the then courfe of exchange, was 
 worth no more than - - - . 125 millions. 
 Total real metallic value of money in 
 
 France in December 1795 " * 4 2 5 millions. 
 Difference between metallic value of 
 
 money in 1790 and December 1795 1,775 millions. 
 Which is in the proportion of more than five to. 
 one. 
 
 An obvious inference from this is, that fince 
 money is now more than five times as fcarce, elti- 
 mated by its metallic value, c^eteris paribus* a given 
 quantity of it ought to purchafe more than five times 
 as much land now as it could do in 1790. 
 
 In fact, we have a demonrtration of this inference 
 in the prke which freehold eftates, that have not been 
 confifcated, at prefent fell for in France. No docu- 
 ments on this important fubject are to be found in 
 the debates of the LegiQative Body ; but I have ic 
 upon authority, in which I can entirely confide, that 
 the average price in fpecie of fuch eftates was very 
 lately about five or fix years value according to the 
 rents of 1790. This fad, which is itfelf accounted 
 for by the fcarcity of money and the extreme infe- 
 curity of pofleffion, explains the reafon why confif- 
 cafed x lands do not find purchafers even at two years 
 value, reckoning in the fame way by the rent of 
 1790. 
 
 We may now, by the afiiftance of thefe two facts, 
 calculate the enormous reduction of the territorial 
 value of France. It is well known that in 1790 the 
 Conftituent Aflfembly eftimated the clear and taxable 
 annual income of all the lands in the kingdom at 
 1500 millions (.62,500,000 fterling) j and as at 
 that time they fold in general at about thirty years 
 
 value,
 
 [ 8 9 . ] 
 
 value, the whole landed capital was then 45 mil- 
 liards. 
 
 It is generally believed that the confifcated lands, 
 including thofe of the crown, the clergy, and the 
 emigrants, amount to about one-third of the whole, 
 or 500 millions a year; and, as they do not fell 
 for more than two years value, they can only be 
 eftimated at-------- i milliard. 
 
 The unconfifcated lands one milliard a 
 
 year, at fix years purchafe - 6 milliards. 
 Total value of landed capital in De- . 
 
 cember 1795 -------7 milliards. 
 
 So that in this moft confiderable part of the pro- 
 perty of France there is a diminution in value of 
 yf- cns or more than five-fixths*. Incontestable as this 
 refult is, yet I by no means pretend to fay that the in- 
 trinfic value of the lands of France is fo much fallen ;' 
 I only infer, that this diminution has followed very 
 clofely the diminution of the Ipecie ; and I deduce 
 from it a proof that France has loft, for the prefcnt, 
 five-fixths of chofe parts of her capital which confifted 
 in lands and money. Now, as this lofs has deltroved 
 the relation which her negotiable capital bore to thole 
 of the other nations of Europe, fhe will very fenfibiy 
 feel it when fhe attempts to revive her commercial 
 connexions with them. 
 
 Perhaps it will not be unimportant to compare this 
 enormous diminution of the territorial value of France 
 
 * Two reafons induce me to think that this diminution mud 
 have been much more coufiderable: the firft, that the Confti- 
 tuent Afl'embly had, as Dupont aflerts, eompnfed in rhe n- an- 
 nual revenue of 1500 millions, the produce of the marine fifbtnu, 
 tf the mines, the quarries, and the colonies', the fecoiu 1 ., that I 
 have not a doubt but that by this time the unconfiflated eftates 
 will no longer fell for fix years purchafe. Bt-fides this, there is 
 good reafon to believe that the eftimate of 1790 was taken much 
 too high, and confequently the fum of feven milliards would for 
 that reafon be too great in the fame proportion. 
 
 with
 
 C 90 3 
 
 with that produced in England by the long-continued 
 and bloody conteft between the rival houfes of York 
 4nd Lancafter. Fortefcue and other contemporary 
 writers inform us, that in the reign of Edward the 
 Third lands fold at 25 years value, but that in the 
 reign of EMward the Fourth they had fallen to ten 
 years value. Such was in England the difaftrous 
 effect of a civil war, during which the Conqueror 
 had confifcated 10 his own ufe about a fifth of all the 
 eftates in the kingdom, many of which he diftributed 
 or fold to his adherents at two years value. So far 
 the parallel is ftriking; and refpecting the remoter 
 confequences in England, there is a circumftance well 
 worth remarking, which is, that a fpace of two cen- 
 turies and a half elapfed before eftates in that king- 
 dom rofe to their former value. I do not mean to 
 fay that landed property in France may not recover 
 its former value in a much fhorter time than this, 
 with the affiftance of a monarchical but lirrjited Con- 
 ftitution, and by the falutary effects which would 
 immediately be felt by every clafs in that country 
 from a uniyerfal reftitution of confifcated property. 
 There is, befides,, another circumftance in the com- 
 parifon of thefe political convulfions which is worth 
 noticing, and which is, that in England a bloody 
 civil war, fo many years continued, only funk the 
 value of eftates three-fifths, while in France, during 
 the (hort fpace of fix years, the territorial value has 
 been reduced 4^ tns i or niore than five-fixths. 
 
 As to capitals employed in commerce and manu,r 
 -facture, they in France have undergone not merely a 
 proportional diminution, but almolt a total annihila- 
 tion -, for of all the former manufactories and immenfe 
 warehoufes full of merchandife, hardly a trace re- 
 mains in that unhappy country. Nantes, Bourdeaux, 
 Lyons, Sedan, Marseilles, have been exterminated, and 
 Orleans has been decimated^ faid Dupont the loth of 
 
 Pecember,
 
 t 9' ] 
 
 December. His colleague Coren-Fufiier fupported 
 this reprefentation by the mod melancholy details, 
 while reviewing the fituation of every clafs which be- 
 fore the Revolution had fomething to fpare. Let us, 
 take, he faid in rhe Council of Ancients, a curfory 
 view of the Jituation of France ^ and let us examine what 
 are the claffes which are able to contribute to this alarm- 
 ing loan "which is propofed. 
 
 4< Can it be the clafs heretofore privileged? The 
 " expropriations ic has undergone; the fequefl rations 
 " to which a great majority of it have been con* 
 ** demned; the expences necefiarily incurred by the 
 " affaffinations, imprifbnments, and banishments it 
 has fufFered ; the robbery and pillage of its goods, 
 " its money, and other effects ; the law by which the 
 " Government obliged it to change its fpecie for in- 
 " fcriptions in the great Book on the mod burthen- 
 " fome conditions; all thefe have reduced that clals 
 " to fuch diftrefs that it is no longer poffible to build 
 " any hopes on this refource. 
 
 " Can it be the clafs formerly called Bourgeois.^ 
 <c But this, like the former, has been imprilbned, 
 " pillaged, robbed, fqueezed ; for you are not igno- 
 " rant that talents, virtues, and abilities have had 
 " their fhare of perfecutions of which I have been 
 *' giving a flcet;ch. And befides, the means of fub- 
 <c fiftence of this clafs confided in intereft of money 
 " lent to the State, or to private perfons, in trading 
 " capitals, and in leafes ; and you cannot but know 
 " what has been the lot of this numerous part of 
 " the community after having exhaufted all its 
 tl refources to fubfift itfelf, it periflies in garrets ior 
 '* want. 
 
 " Can it be the clafs of merchants? The wound 
 " ftill bleeding of the maximum, the Icars yet pain- 
 *' ful of the requifition, the plunders which infolent 
 tc and furious demagogues have unremittingly infti- 
 ' gated, the manner in which this clafs has been 
 
 " terrified,
 
 " terrified, (we have heard an orator exclaim from this 
 * e tribune, that they ought to bejirjl pillaged and then 
 " banged^) the bitternefs with which they have been 
 *' drenched, and the perpetual impediments to their 
 *' ufeful fpeculations, have fo much exhaufted and dif- 
 " couraged the upright part of the merchants that 
 ct any aid from them would be as ineffectual as from 
 *' the former clafles. 
 
 " As to the boneft and humane part of tbe farmers^ 
 " and it gives me pleafure to think that the majority 
 " of them are fo, they are equally exhaufted by the 
 u late fcourges of the maximum and of rec^u'ifi lions y by 
 the payment of contributions, and of th.ir labour- 
 ** ers in kind. 
 
 " As to the mecbanic, we all know his indigence.; 
 *' he lives but from day to day j in a word, it muft be 
 <c agreed that the diftrefs is general, and therefore the 
 " execution of the project under difcuffion is impofllble. 
 
 " It may be faid in anfwer, that France having 
 " always been rich, her riches muft be fomewhere, 
 " and we muft get at them if pofiible. To this I re-. 
 *' ply, that our gold and trinkets have gone to other 
 ** countries by emigration and by purchafcs; that 
 " another part of our wealth has been buried by the 
 c< victims of tyranny, which it is impoffible to find 
 44 unlefs tbe dead Jhould come back again j and that; 
 < jobbing has fwallowed up the reft," 
 
 Let us confider a moment this feries of authentic 
 proofs of the annihilation of the greater part, of the 
 wealth of France, and among the reft, the nearly 
 total lofs of its fpecie. Let us next compare with this 
 circumftance the prefent prices of the neceffaries of 
 life, and we have a demonftration that bread would 
 be intrinfically five or fix times as dear now as in 1790, 
 if it were to fell for no more fpecie than it then did, 
 which was about two fols and a half per pound j and 
 that it is really ten or twelve times as dear as it then 
 4 was,
 
 C 93 3 
 
 was, if it be true that even at Paris it cofts five fols 
 pet pound in fpecie, as is mentioned in letters which 
 have been lately received *. 
 
 God forbid we mould have reafon to conclude that 
 it is ten or twelve times as fcarce as before the Revo- 
 lution, becaufe it is ten or twelve times as dear! In 
 that cafe what a horrible famine would be inevitable; 
 and how many innocent perfons would perifh for 
 warn, e'er the authors of the mifchief would peffonally 
 feel it ! 
 
 No doubt the fcarcity of the neceffaries of life is 
 far greater in France than in any other country of 
 Europe ; but their exceffive dearnefs is principally 
 to be attributed to an impeded circulation, to the 
 fubverfion of focial order, and to this obvious cir- 
 cumftance, that the farmers, well aware that fpecie 
 or affignats are more eafily fubjefted to forced loans 
 and other arbitrary affeffments than corn, chofe ra- 
 ther to have their property in their granaries than in 
 their pockets: and befides this, the practice of paying 
 the labourers in kind, which the neceffity of the times 
 has introduced, diminifhes the quantity for the market, 
 connects the intereft of the labourer with that of the 
 farmer in retaining as much as poflible at home, and 
 muft increafe the difficulties in procuring an ade- 
 quate fupply for the great towns, and for thofe de- 
 partments which do not raife enough for their own 
 confumpdon. Weighing all thefe circumftances, I 
 . am in doubt whether there may not be as much arti- 
 ficial a.> real fcarcity of corn -f. But as to the ori- 
 ginal 
 
 * On the ift of January the pound of bread fold at from 50 to 
 60 Hvrcs in aflignats, and calculating at 4800 livres for a louis, 
 50 livres correfponded with five fols in fpecie. 
 
 f The author of the PiSure of Europe is much more confident 
 than I am, in rejecting all idea:, of any poffibility that France can 
 be threatened with famine . After appealing to the acknowledged 
 abundance of the lajt crop ; What a chimera! fays he, to imagine 
 that they mujl die of a famine in a country the moji fertile and the 
 
 ff
 
 r 94 i 
 
 gjnal caufe of the diftrefs, it is impofiible to have any 
 doubt but that it is the greedy ignorance of a Govern- 
 ment which, though no longer able either to protect or 
 to plunder the land-owners, is however (till poflefTed 
 of means to prevent the farmers fro;n carrying on 
 their bufmefs without moleftation. 
 
 May I be allowed a fhort digrefTion which is fug- 
 gt-fted by the prefent dearnefs of corn in France ? 
 Its price throughout Europe, for two or three centu- 
 ries paft, has depended much more on the progress 
 of civilization than on the increafe of fpecie. In 
 
 mofl cultivated of Europe, in a country iuhicb, one year with an- 
 other, produces more than it confumes / By a careful iniiejfigation, 
 he adds, at the time when there <was an ATTENTIVE ADMINI- 
 STRATION, it 'was verified that a common crop, taking the whole of 
 the kingdom together, EXCEEDED BY AT LEAST ONEEIGHTH 
 ivhat ivas requifete for feeding all the inhabitants, &c. &c. 
 
 Is M. de Calonne quite Jure of the acknowledged abundance of 
 the laft crop? Js he equally fure that France is the moft fertile 
 find mojl cultivated country in Europe? is he quite fure that the 
 'verification he quotes ever took place? If that invejligation was 
 -made with care, it would no doubt have pointed out to what 
 parts this immenfe furplus of an eighth was exported, and in 
 what countries the three or four millions of inhabitants exifted 
 ivho were fed by the fuperfluities of France. Hitherto, in run- 
 ning over the works of the French economics, I have been una- 
 b]e to find any thing on this fuhjeft but the moft contradictory 
 conjectures; and though they are often aflerted with as much 
 confidence as if they were axioms, yet I confefs, J never have 
 imagined that any adminiftration there had condefcended to take 
 the trouble of fo laborious an inquiry. M. Necker, after trying 
 to difcover if there were really a deficiency or a furplus of pro- 
 vifions in France, contented himfelf with ftating, that the ex- 
 portation of corn, and other eatables, only amounted on an ave- 
 rage to 16 millions per annum (jT.666,666 fterling), while on 
 an average the importation amounted annually to 40 millions. 
 If, as I fuppofe, M. de Calonne fhould not admit the authority of 
 M. Necker, \ will appeal to that of the Deputy Giraud, who, on 
 the 24th of October lalt, held the following language on the fub- 
 jfdl to his colleagues : Tou ha a Jt long been told that France had a. 
 Sufficiency for her own ufe ; /'/ has required a long time to undeceive 
 you. Whoever told you the truth met with an unfavourable re- 
 ception. 
 
 France
 
 [ 95 3 
 
 France particularly, every one of the civil wars 
 Which difturbed agriculture and Ihook property has 
 been marked by a rife more or lefs confiderable in 
 the price of provifions. The moft ancient inftance 
 which the hittory of that country furnifhjs, took, 
 place in 1304 during the long war in the reign of 
 Philip IV. A little more than a century after that, 
 the lofs of the battle of Agincourt produced another ; 
 and all the inteftine commotions which have fince 
 defolated that kingdom have been marked by a real 
 fcarcity or a dearncfs of provifions. Under Charles 
 VII. Henry IV. Louis XIII. and even under 
 Louis XIV. every fault of the kings, and every in-* 
 lurrcclion of the people, was immediately followed 
 by the lame fort of calamity. Indeed, if the great- 
 nefs of the calamity is the bed criterion of the magni- 
 tude of the faults which have occafioned it, there 
 have been none in France comparable with thofe of 
 the prefent Rc-volution; elpecially if we may give 
 credit to Lindet's aflertion in the Council of Ancients 
 the loth of December, that already, infeveral depart- 
 ments, a fack of wheat fells for. 100 tores in facie, 
 which in 1790 only coft 25 livres. 
 
 Some French writers, and among others the ma- 
 nagers of the Journal des Loix of the 2d December, 
 while they complain of the infupportable dearnefs of all 
 the neceffaries of life, are at the fame time much at a 
 iofs to difcover why (at the time when aflignats were 
 at 150 to i) certain very fcarce articles, as butchers* 
 meat for inftance, mould only fell at 60 or 80 times 
 the ufual price before the Revolution , whereas wheat, 
 of which i, lay they, there is no want in France^ is worth 
 ico times as much as in 1/90. 
 
 What they confider as an exception to the general 
 principle is really a confirmation or it. If at the time 
 when they wrote corn was two hundred times dearer 
 in afiignats than in 1790, or, which comes to the 
 fame, one fourth dearer in fpecie, this advance is 
 
 cafily
 
 t 9 ] 
 
 eafily explained, by fuppofing that it might be 
 one fourth fcarcer in the latter than the former 
 period; that is to fay, that, fetting afide the confufion 
 of the Revolution and the fcarcity of money, bread 
 which fAld for three foh then, would now fell for 4 fols 
 per Ib. Or fuch a rife might be occafioned by no more 
 trun a falfe alarm of famine among a people the 
 more apprehenfive on this fubjec~t, becaufe it has 
 more than once wanted bread, and has fo ofren fuf- 
 fertd by the meddling ignorance of its adminiftrators, 
 and by the numerous experiments in the commerce 
 of corn which they have difputed with one another 
 the honour of making. 
 
 But the problem which a Parifian finds it mod dif- 
 ficult to folvc is, how meat, which beyond all doubt 
 is as leaft twice as fcarce in proportion as corn, mould 
 in November 1795 fell for little more than half the 
 price of 1790? If this lad fad is correclly flared, I 
 am convinced that it is only true with refpecl: to Paris, 
 and there it is accounted for at once, if we recoiled 
 Vermtr\ declaration the i6th of June , that the con- 
 fumption of Paris in meat only coll the Government 
 37 millions per month. Put what may in the capital 
 be true as to an arricle which the Government buys 
 very dear in the departments, and fells again at a 
 great lofs to the Parifians, cannot be true with refpeft 
 to the confurners of that article in thofe departments : 
 and as there is every reafon to believe that meat is at 
 leaflfour times as fcarce as before the revolution ; if 
 the general price is not proportionably advanced, 
 this can only be accounted for by admitting, that the 
 Revolution has entirely ruined three fourths of the 
 claffcs who formerly could afford to indulge themfelves 
 with meatj or elfe, which would come to the 
 fame thing, that the perfons who formerly one with 
 another confumed half a pound of meat per day, 
 cannot at prefent afford to buy more than two 
 ounces. 
 
 I am
 
 [ 97 ] 
 
 I am afraid that this melancholy inference is by 
 no, means exaggerated; and I do not think that any 
 general argument can be drawn from the price of 
 meat at Paris, when I obfcrve that candles, which 
 at prefentareconfidered as a luxury^ and which/or that 
 realon the Governmenc excufes itfelf from being at 
 the expence of providing for the Parifians, have long 
 fince rifen in a proportion much beyond the fall of 
 the affignats. This 1 rife has been fo great, that it is 
 afiertcd there have been times at Paris when the Citi- 
 zens found it a fort of economy to go to the Opera 
 in order to fave burning candles at home*. 
 
 It is thus that the political arithmetician will very 
 often find himfclf miltaken if he thinks of applying 
 common principles to all the anomalous fituations of 
 a Revolutionary Government. For inftance, under 
 any regular Government, 'the value of gold in ex- 
 change for provifions or for paper money, might 
 ferve as a fufficiently accurate rule for moft calcula- 
 tions i but in France at prefent, any fuch criterion is 
 fo little to be relied on, that even the relative value 
 or gold and filver has not continued the fame as in the 
 
 * On 2oth of laft Thermidor, at which time the affignats were 
 in Paris at 22 to i againft fpecie, and when St. Aubin publilhed 
 his comparative <uie*uj of commodities and merchandifes , the price of 
 meat in aflignats was in the proportion of 20 to i to the price 
 in fpecie before the Revolution, that of candles in the proportion 
 of 56 to i, and that of bread at 107 to I. But notwithftanding 
 this, the day's work of a tailor was only dearer in the proportion 
 pf 1 5 to i . 
 
 After this view, the author adds : Even the moft ufeful inftruc* 
 tion,fuch at arithmetic and fpelling, is hardly paid double (which 
 would at that time have come to abo<u the eleventh part of the 
 old pay), becauft folid knowledge is only confidered at Paris as a 
 luxury which may be difpenfed with. Eejldes, all majiers are paid 
 nearly at the J "ami rate ; a circumftance which infinitely multiplies 
 that daft, and renders their falaries as low, and their fetuation as 
 defpicable, as is in general their ability to leach. It is not the 
 way to have fine mujlin if one gives jajl the fame price for the 
 o the bale, 
 
 H neigh-
 
 [ 98 ] 
 
 neighbouring nations, for the difference has been feve-r 
 ral times during this Revolution, greater by ten percent, 
 in France than the ufual difproportion. The reafon isa 
 very fimple one; the weight of filver is 15 times as great 
 in proportion to its value as that of gold ; and during 
 a Revolution every one prepares to lave what he can, 
 by reducing his wealth to the form in which it can 
 be removed out of danger with the leaft difficulty and 
 chance of detection and lofs. Precifdy the fame rea- 
 foning has contributed to make meat, notwithftand- 
 ing its increafing fcarcity, comparatively much 
 cheaper than various other articles. If the cattle 
 have been driven by thoufands to the (laughter* houfes 
 of the capital and to the armies, it has been becaufe 
 this fpecies of property could not poffibly be fo con 
 cealed as to efcape revolutionary requifitions and con- 
 ilitutional fummations. Whether the Government of 
 France praifes its own luccefs in having reverfed the 
 ufual proportion between the prices of meat and 
 bread I know not j but of this I am fure, that it will 
 focn be found one of the mcft dangerous of all the 
 calamities that have ruined France, one which it will 
 be moft difficult to remedy, and which at prefent is 
 becoming daily more mifchievous. In fact, if we re- 
 collect that formerly the chief impediment to a fuc- 
 cefsful cultivation in France, was a deficiency of ma- 
 nure frorrTa want of cattle to produce it in a proper 
 quantity, we may form fome idea of the impo verified 
 ftate to which the foil muft be reduced by a con- 
 fumption of three-fourths of the flock, at the fame 
 time that the quantity of land in tillage has been 
 considerably increafed. If I am not miftaken, the 
 French will foon difcover the good fenfe of the fol- 
 lowing expreffion of one of their beft writers on this 
 fubjeft. Tou would have more corn, if you bad lefs ara- 
 ble land. I am fatisfied that in a fhort time one of the 
 meafures moft required from the regenerated Govern- 
 ment!
 
 [ 99 ] 
 
 mcnt, will be fevcre lav/s for the propagation and 
 prefervation of ca::!s*. 
 
 The price of wcod h;s fallen in France precifely 
 for the fame realbn cs t\;j.-: of meat ; becaufe the forefts 
 have been cut down every where; but as to other 
 articles they have almoft univerfally rifen : on look- 
 ing at the lift of p:ices we find that in confequence 
 of the dearnefs of bread, thofe forts of provifions 
 which are of a nature to be ufed without the accom-. 
 paniment of bread, have fucce'ffively become the 
 deareft. There have even been periods when the in- 
 habitants of Paris have lived upon a half pound of 
 meat, with only one ounce of bread per day. 
 
 I have this remarkable fact from a little work pub- 
 limed at Paris fix months ago, intitled, Tableau 
 comparatif des denrees & marchandifes. AsSt.dubin, the 
 Author, appears to me to have without comparifon the 
 cleared and moft comprehenfive ideas on the fubject 
 of any one who has treated of the French finances for 
 feveral years paft, I requeft M. de Calonne to read his 
 work i and I hope to excite his curiofity by quoting 
 fome very fenfible obfervations which he will find 
 in it: 
 
 " In order to remedy old follies we are often 
 " obliged to be guilty of new ones. 
 
 * France does not produce the necefiaries of life 
 * e in a quantity fufficient for the fubfiftence of its in- 
 
 * The prefent Lcgiflators begin to complain on this fubjeft. 
 *The cattle has been confumed, and young ones have no longer been 
 reared, fa id Bejfroy in his report of the ill of January 1796. 
 The fear of being without employment has led to the purfuit of gold, 
 which may be buried, carried away, or changed for any thing elfe : 
 Of this you now feel the pernicious ejfecli Already farms 'which have 
 been abandoned canjind no neiv majiers willing to make the great 
 advances 'which are necejjary to render them productive. 
 
 In the fame report he expatiates on the evils which have followed 
 from the hafly and convulfive courfe of a REVOLUTION ,GJ OR lous 
 indeed, but of which the Jiorms have fucceffively gone through tht 
 fonynt and the country t the greatejt citiei andjmalleft hamlets. 
 
 H 2 habitants.
 
 C ioo ] 
 
 " habitants. It by no means furniihes one year with 
 * f anorher as much wheat as it confumes. 
 
 " Before the Revolution, we were already fo much 
 " in want of cattle for making manure, that every 
 6< one acquainted with the fubject attributed the in- 
 " conteflable fuperiority of the agriculture of Eng- 
 '* land above ours, principally to the proportionately 
 " greater quantity of cattle, which fupply that coun- 
 " try with manure enough to make the moil of the 
 Ci land. 
 
 " The beft Government, when it interferes with 
 < c the fubfiftence of the people, if it takes the beft 
 " poffible meafures, feeds them badly, and if it takes 
 " improper meafures, ftarves them. 
 
 " The pretenfion of the inhabitants of Paris to be 
 u fed at the coft of the Republic is a true arifto- 
 '* cracy: 
 
 " We may have peace with the univerfe and the 
 " beil Conltitution in the world ; but that will not 
 * e give us a bufhel of corn the more, if we do not 
 " cultivate better than at preient; and not a 
 " pound of candles more unlefs we make our cattle 
 " fatter," 
 
 By confidering the progreffive depreciation of the 
 affignats, which, though increafedtozo or 30 milliards, 
 do not really pafs for more than 125 millions j and 
 by the information derived from the debates in the 
 Council of Ancients, that the fpecie in circulation 
 does not amount to more than 2 or 300 millions, we 
 arrive at other conclufions more certain and not lefs 
 lamentable than thofe which I have already ex- 
 plained. 
 
 In fact, as afumof about4oomillions (^.16,500,000 
 fterling), including fpecie and paper, fupplies at pre- 
 fcnt all the circulation of France, which fix years ago 
 employed fix times as much, the conclufion is terrible, 
 and yet, I fear, but too well founded, that the whole 
 
 capital
 
 [ 101 ] 
 
 capital of France which can be exchanged for mo- 
 ney, including territory, goods, produce, and the 
 value of labour, has been fo much confumed, dif- 
 fipated, and deteriorated during the Revolution, as 
 to be reduced in the fame proportion in point of 
 value whh the money which is employed in exchange 
 ing it ; fo that during each of the five laft years, 
 France has loft about a fixth part of the exchangeable 
 capital which it had in 1790 ! 
 
 . As to the prefent price of labour, in the very fen- 
 fible little work which I have juft been mentioning, 
 there is a lift of wages which is the more valuable, 
 becaufe perhaps one of the beft rules we have yet 
 had for appreciating the prefent and future effects of 
 the Revolution. It may there be obferved, that if 
 wages in general have rifen in a proportion more or 
 lefs near to the fall of the affignats, yet in the towns 
 this progreflive rife has been fufpended or modified 
 by the ruin of fortunes; of which ruin this lift fur- 
 ni(hes, by that circumftance, a fort of thermometer. 
 Tt will be feen in it that the only manual labour, 
 of which the price is advanced in towns, is garden- 
 ing ; a circumftance refulting from the indifpenfable 
 neceflity of that fpecies of induftry ; and that as to the 
 mafons, who were thriving while the fyftem of demo- 
 lition was going on, and while fpeculators were every 
 where building, in order, as they exprefied it, to convert 
 their affignats intojtones; now that the latter havejeft 
 off building for fear of being thought rich, the for- 
 mer have no longer any means of fubfifting. Jt will 
 be feen that hair-dreflers, and mafters who teach 
 arithmetic and fpelling, have not more than one- 
 eleventh part of their former prices; and that the 
 price for carrying water, an employment which re- 
 quires no fkill, and which of confequence many 
 ruined perlbns can undertake, is the mod reduced of 
 H 3 any.
 
 [ 102 ] 
 
 any. I have indeed no doubt but that this lift of 
 prices of labour will explain to any man ofjudgment 
 the nature of the fanaticism which has driven ib 
 many of the inhabitants of towns into the armies j 
 where if they have not a great pay, yet they, at leaft, 
 are either fure of being fed, or of ending their mi- 
 ferable exiftence. 
 
 But we now have more recent details of the price 
 of manual labour in France, and which are the more 
 to be depended upon, becaufe they have the autho- 
 rity of the two perfons who, of the whole republican 
 party, have fludied longeft and mod unremittingly 
 every thing connected with political economy, the 
 Deputies Le Coulteux and Dupont de Nemours. 
 
 The latter of theie aflerted in the Council of An- 
 cients December the ioth, tl That the expences cf 
 " hufbandry, and country labour in general, arecon- 
 " fiderably augmented, becaufe workmen being be- 
 C{ come more fcarce, the competition for employing 
 " them is greater ; and becaufe the manners of the Re- 
 " volution have introduced among the labourers 
 " in hufbandry a habit of greater coofumption." 
 Among other facts he mentioned one to his colleagues, 
 " wbicb" fays he, " every one of you can be competent to 
 4 * judge of. tfbrejhing is now paid for by a fourth -part of 
 " the number of bujhels thre/hed cf every fort of grain. 
 ** Some ether farts cf husbandry work have not rifen fo 
 " mucb" he added, u but fet ting one againft another, 
 *' yen may be well ajfured^ tbat in eftimating the general 
 " increafe of the coft of bu/bandry work at one-fifth 
 " in real value, wejball rather be under than above the 
 " truth" 
 
 Le Coulteux, on his part, affirmed feven days before, 
 that he had made an eftimate of the earnings of workmen , 
 thejhoemaker, laid he, who earned five iivres in 1790, 
 now earns but 250 Iivres (which at the then value of 
 afilgnats was only equivalent to I livre 15 Ibis in 
 
 fpecie)-,
 
 fpecie); and that, of the feamen, and others employed irt 
 the harbours, thofe who earn the higheft wages, can- 
 not make more than 350 livres one day with another in 
 ajfignats (whereas in 1790 they earned from 6 to 9 
 livres in fpecie). He went a great deal further, and 
 aflerted it as a fact, that the moft necejjitous of the 
 workmen take y at 20 for i, the aflignats which the Go- 
 vernment ijjues to the purveyors at 120 for i. He then 
 extolled their economy, and exclaimed, What can 
 be greater economy than often to drink nothing but 
 water ! 
 
 Thefe two defcriptions, however oppofite at firft 
 fight, arc really not ac all contradictory ; for Dupont 
 only fpeaks of the earnings of labourers in the coun- 
 try, and Le Coulteux only of thofe in the towns* 
 Suppofing their accounts exact, I fee at prefent but 
 one way in each cafe of accounting for this differ- 
 ence. If the wages of rural labour have advanced, 
 is it not becaufe the lands in the country muft have 
 become far more fcarce, and the depopulation occa- 
 fioned by the war muft have more particularly 
 affected this part of the community ? If on the 
 contrary the daily earnings of workmen in the towns 
 have been gradually reduced three-fourths or even 
 four-fifths, how can this be otherwife accounted for, 
 but by fuppofing that the number of inhabitants 
 who have money enough to hire them is reduced 
 four- fifths ; or that the clafs of indigent perfons, 
 who are reduced to daily labour for their bread, is 
 increaied four-fifths, by a proportionate diminution 
 of thofe who had formerly a competence ? More 
 probably it refults from a combination of thefe 
 caufes. 
 
 If it is true that the inhabitants of the towns were 
 
 the firft authors of the French Revolution, what art 
 
 inexhauftible fource of mifery have they brought 
 
 upon themfelves ? The deftructive whirlwind of 
 
 H 4 this
 
 this Revolution has reduced all to a level, religions, 
 ranks, reputations, property, talents; and, while 
 nothing is fo much nfen as the price of bread, the 
 earnings of the poor are reduced as five to one ? 
 Such is the benefit which the French recommended to 
 the world ! 
 
 A few days before this alarming ftatement by 
 Le Cculttux y Benezech^ the Minifter of tlve Inte- 
 rior, had . addrefled a letter to the Adminiftrators 
 of the Departments, in which he defired them 
 TO ENLIGHTEN HIM on the great benefits which the 
 French have reafon to expei from the Republican Con- 
 ftitution ! 
 
 Do they wi(h to enlighten him and themfelves too 
 with regard to its effects ? Let them join in afcer- 
 taining whether it is true, that the earnings of the poor 
 inhabitants of the towns are reduced three-fourths ; 
 aed then afk him, how this clafs, fo prejjed by its 
 necejfities, can drag on under the new fyftem an ex- 
 iftence which Itemed fo deplorable under the old ? 
 If this alarming fall of wages is fo true and fo ge- 
 neral, Le Coulteux has announced the circumftance 
 which is more likely than any other to put an end to 
 the. Revolution. 
 
 After having been fo long engaged in this view of 
 the difaftrous impoverifhment of France, let us look 
 to a confolatioj), and perhaps the only one which it 
 offers ; it is this, that the fame poverty which muft 
 foon terminate the war will be the fureft guarantee 
 that any treaty of peace will be obferved and re- 
 fpeded by the prefent Government of France, or 
 any other which may fuccecd jt. I am the more 
 anxious to eftablifh this confluence, becauie I find 
 in the Tableau de I' Europe an afiVrtion, which I think 
 it important to refute. The author affirms in the 
 5ift page, that a peace could be only illufory, and 
 evidently pernicious to England; becaufe, when once 
 
 difarmed
 
 difarmed ly a perfidious negotiation, Jhe would be ex- 
 pofed to be taken unprepared infix months after *. 
 
 I clafs this aflertion with others by the fame au- 
 thor, in which he either ftill perfifts in confidering the 
 French Revolution as being to go through the world, 
 or elfe aiTerts, that fo long as it exifts it will threaten 
 the whole world. A general combuftion, he adds, can- 
 not be avoided , by flopping at the flatus quo as the con- 
 dition of peace. I am fo happy as no longer to par- 
 ticipate in any fuch fears ; and, at prefent, I am per- 
 fectly at eafe respecting any future infection from the 
 French doctrine, when f contemplate the calamities 
 it has brought upon France, and upon its own au- 
 thors and dupes, and confider the number of ene- 
 mies which its partizans have raifed ag^inft it in every 
 country, by the means with which they have endea- 
 voured to propagate it. 
 
 In truth, when I read the work of M. de Calonne 
 I cannot tell whether it is the beginning or the con- 
 clufion of it which mod aftomfhes me. Who would 
 think that the two parts came from the fame pen ! 
 After having affirmed thatFrance is able to feed herfelf; 
 after having afiured the reader, that fhe ftill has 
 three times as much fpecie remaining as the whole 
 circulating coin of Great Britain j alter having fup- 
 pofed that the Republic might be able to fupport 
 the affignats, or fubftitute inttead of them fomeftmi- 
 lar expedient-, and after having difplayed the im- 
 menfe refources which the Republic might find in 
 the revolutionary movement, in its natural energy ex- 
 alted by fanaticifm, and in its fanaticifm redoubled by 
 calamity it/elf; after all this, one would have fup- 
 
 * The Author has gone further, and in his turn prophefies. Ta 
 'whatever reverses chance may have defined France, he fays, p. 124, 
 J'ooner or later Jhe 'will rife frcm her ruins, find will make her tnt- 
 mies fay dearly for the mi/chief which has been done to her y by 
 taking fo cruel an advantage of her difordert, injiead of generouflp 
 helping her to extricate kerfttffrom them. 
 
 pofcd
 
 [ io6 J 
 
 pofed that he meant to give the fame advice with 
 the Author of the Reflections on Peace ; one would 
 have expected that he would recommend to the Co- 
 alefced Powers, not to exhauft themfelves in a retro- 
 grade ftruggle, and would conjure them to make peace 
 at any rate : but inftead of this, he conjures them 
 to continue the war at any rate ; becaufe, he fays, 
 conjidering the incompatibility of the French democracy 
 with the tranquillity of Europe, any negotiation would 
 only lead to a falfe fecurity ; becaufe, fo long as France 
 Ijas not a firm Government, and one compatible with the 
 tranquillity of nations, it is evident ', that whatever may 
 le concluded with a chimerical and impracticable Govern- 
 ment would only have> like it, a tranfitory and momen- 
 tary exigence; becaufe, //// that is overturned, there 
 will not be a firm Government in France, there will not 
 le peace in Europe. And laftly, above all things, be- 
 caufe fovereigns cannot be too ftrongly perfuaded, 
 that THE REPUBLICAN SPIRIT ESSENTIALLY IN- 
 CLUDES IN IT A HATRED OF KlNGS. 
 
 If M. de Calonne would be convinced of the confe- 
 quence of fo imprudently publifhingfuch a maxim as 
 the laft, let him look at the Mcniteur of the $d of 
 December, where he will find an extract from a 
 work by a foreigner at Paris. This writer aflerts, 
 that either England muft become a Republic, in order to 
 fecure that of France, or elfe, France muft again become 
 a monarchy, in order that England may be in fafety. In 
 confequence, he ferioufly exhorts the French by the 
 confideration of their own prefervation, to continue the 
 war till Great Britain can be their friend; that is, 
 till (he is become Republican. 
 
 That fuch abfurdities mould ftill be preached in 
 France, I do not at all wonder ; though I venture to 
 fay that the unfortunate inhabitants of that country 
 are in. general fufficiently returned to their fenfes to be 
 able to value fuch advice as it deferves : but is not 
 the preaching exactly the counterpart of fuch doctrine 
 
 to
 
 to their adverfaries, the moft likely way to drive* 
 them again into that frenzy which at prefent feems 
 to have in a great degree fubfided ? What friend of 
 peace and of the balance of Europe is there, who will 
 not feel alarmed, that a Frenchman mould attempt 
 to reprefent the coalition as formed only to propagate 
 royalty, mould attempt to convert the war into a 
 political crufade, and labour to perfuade the Englifti 
 Nation that it is even of more importance to it to 
 compel the French to abandon their principles than 
 their conquefts ? When the Britim Miniftry exprefsly 
 difavows thefe dangerous infinuations, when it ex- 
 prefsly reprefents the balance of Europe, and not 
 political opinions, as the reafon for continuing the 
 war ; is not the reprefenting this general caufe of 
 Europe as a mere party difpute, the way to weaken 
 abfurdly the intereft which at prefent the Englifti 
 very wifely and honorably take, in obliging France 
 to give up the conquefts which (he has made from 
 their Allies ? The firft of the two authors to whom 
 I have replied, (the Author of Reflections on Peace,) 
 took particular care, while pleading the caufe of the 
 French, to mew them the folly of their wifh to dif- 
 turb governments differing from their own. And 
 yet M. de Calonne t while pleading the caufe of the 
 Allies, relies principally on this propofition, that the 
 Republican fpirit ejfentially includes in it a t hatred of 
 Kings! I hardly know what will be faid in America, 
 Swificrlaod, and particularly at Venice, on feeing 
 fuch a fentiment propofed as the active principle of 
 the war againft France j but I fufpecl: that there is a 
 city in the latter State, where more tha* one enlight- 
 ened partizan of the Coalition upon reading and 
 comparing thefe two publications, will be apt to fay, 
 
 Mi*** vatit un fage enntmi t 
 ^^Quun impudent ami. 
 
 .Xfilnk M. deCalonne would have run lefs rifk of 
 Injuring the caufe he w lined to defend, if, inftead 
 
 "
 
 [ io8 ] 
 
 of lofing himfelf in imprudent digrefiions againft 
 Republics in general, he had confined his argument 
 to the particular cafe in queftion ; or if perhaps 
 he had ftated it in the following manner : 
 
 If ever there fhould appear among the ftates of 
 Europe any monarchy whatever, which fhould con- 
 ceive and avow the defign of fubverting all the Re- 
 publican Governments near it, would not the right 
 of nations authorise all the Republics fo threatened 
 to join in a crufade for the purpofe of annihilating that 
 monarchy, and overturning a Government in whofe 
 vicinity no Republic could peaceably exifi ? 
 
 For the fame reafon, if there fhould rife up in the 
 centre of Europe a Republic, which from its very 
 infancy, formed the project of difleminating in the 
 neighbouring monarchies, aH thole principles of infub- 
 ordination which it had luccecded in making triumph- 
 ant at home-, if it mould openly afpire to perpetuate 
 the fubverfion of its own throne, by overturning all 
 thofe of its old Allies; if this Republic mould have in- 
 ftituted a fociety for the purpofe of propagating this 
 doctrine of fubverfion, and preaching it to the inhabit- 
 ants of other countries; and if itmould have attempted 
 to promote fuch a project by war, and fhould have at- 
 tacked the greater part of its neighbours, in order to 
 unite their territories to its own, or elfe to compel them 
 to adopt its own Republican fyftem j would not the 
 right of nations authorife thofe neighbours to confe- 
 derate for the defence of their refpective forms of 
 Government ? And would they not bejuftified if they 
 dire&ed their united efforts, not exclufively to the 
 conquering and exhaufting fuch a hoftilc Republic ; 
 but befules that, to the grand object of deftroying 
 a Government fo difpofed to fubvert others, fo into- 
 lerant, and fo active in propagating the principles of 
 mif-rule.; and alfo to that of bringing the authors of 
 fuch a crime againfl the great family of mankind to 
 juil punifhmem for all their other offences ? 
 ,12
 
 I can have no hefhation in anfwering both thefe 
 cafes affirmatively* ; I even add, that the interefts 
 of fociety would make it the indifpenfable duty of 
 fuch a Coalition to purfue this grand objeifl, if pof- 
 fible to be attained , but I muft at the fame time ob- 
 ierve, that if the attainment is no longer poffible, the 
 endeavour ceafes to be a duty. If, in the prefent in- 
 ftance, after having n,ade very great facrifices with that 
 view, the Coalition formed to fupprefs this fyitem of 
 mifrule (hould have proofs that the war, inftead of 
 (baking the power of the ufurpers, only contributes to 
 Strengthen it, and gives them a pretence for commit- 
 ting new enormities j if, I fay, after having offered the 
 people oppreffed by fuch a ufurpation, every afiiitance 
 necefiary to enable them to free themfelves from their 
 tyrants, that people mould be feen t*o crouch more and 
 more (lavifhly before them : if this Ihould be the cafe, 
 I cannot but believe that thofe States who have hitherto 
 perfevered in faithfully maintaining the caufe of foci- 
 ety, may confider themfelves as having done all that 
 ought to be required of them, and may leave the fu- 
 ture chaftifement of the ufurpers to the Supreme Dif- 
 pofer of events. But as, in fuch a cafe, it would be im- 
 pofilble to terminate the war without fome treaty, po- 
 litical morality would fully authorife them no longer to 
 look to any thing but their own interefts, whether in 
 the further profccution of the war, or in the negocia- 
 tions for a peace. Thus, for inttance, if England 
 mall have fucceeded in fecuring Europe from the 
 projects of the French, yet though their revolution- 
 ary principles may be ftifled on that Continent, we 
 cannot forget that the Convention has planted them 
 
 * " If then there were any where a rejllefs and mifcbievout 
 nation, always ready to injure others, to crofs them, to excite 
 domejlic troubles in them, it cannot admit a doubt but that all 
 would have a right to join together for the purpofe of reprefT- 
 ing her, chaitifing her, and even putting it for ever out of her 
 power to do any harm." Fatel.Droit dts Gens, /. 1 1. r. 4.
 
 in the iflands of America, and that all the poffeflions 
 of Great Britain in thofe iflands will continue in the 
 moft imminent danger till the fyftem of equality is 
 completely rooted out of them. It follows, there- 
 fore, that, from motives of felf-prefervation, much 
 more than from any paflion for eonquefts, England 
 cannot prudently difarm till (he has in her pofleffion 
 all thofe points from which the flames of anarchy 
 might be communicated to her own territories; or 
 till, at leaft, the French engage to extinguifh thofe 
 flames, and can prove that they have the power as 
 well as the inclination to do it. 
 
 But of what ule is the agitating any fuch idle quef- 
 tions at prefent; and in the cafe of a war which the 
 Coalefced Powers are compelled to continue, how- 
 ever unwillingly, from the ftrongeft of all motives, 
 that of depriving France of her eonquefts ? Is it not 
 fufficient to demonftrate, that if (he were permitted 
 to keep them, they would become a never-failing 
 fource of new wars, as bloody as this has been, and 
 would infallibly fubmit the States reduced to cede 
 them to be at the difcretion of not merely a Govern- 
 ment of Regicides, but a Government of Con- 
 querors ?
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 March ift. 
 
 SINCE the preceding Tranflation was fent to 
 Prefs, information has been received of fomc 
 eircumftances which very ftrongly corroborate my 
 afiertions in the Reflections on theWar* and my fub* 
 fequent publications. 
 
 The firft is, that the plates of the aflignats were 
 definitively deftroyed on the 2Oth of February : with 
 them ceafes the famous territorial and republican money, 
 which, as Cambon faid, has rendered fuch great fervices 
 to the Revolution. In contemplation of that event, 
 the Government appears to have hefitated for fomc 
 time paft, whether it fhould fupport the credit of the 
 affignats in circulation, or whether it had not a 
 greater intereft in depreciating them : for how elfe 
 can we account for the decree of the 2ift of Decem- 
 ber, by which the Legifiators of France have taken 
 away the belt and almoft the only iecurity left for 
 thofe which remain ; viz. the forefts and effects 
 belonging to the Crown ; which, fince that decree, 
 are no longer purchafed by affignats, to be deftroyed 
 according to the original engagement upon the faith 
 of which this paper money firft obtained credit, but 
 with money to be employed by the Directory in the public 
 fervice ? So much for French affignats, and French 
 good faith ! 
 
 The fecond is, that the Government has daily new 
 grounds for thinking that there is no way left to fup- 
 
 ply
 
 ply the want of this paper money, but by forced 
 loans ; and there is every reafon to believe, that if 
 thefe are any where productive it will or.ly be in 
 thofe provinces where there is a military power flrong 
 enough to enforce their collection ; as, for inftance, 
 in Belgium. This mealure of partial fpoliation, is 
 executed with fueh inequality, and fuch rapacioufnefs, 
 that La Fond Ladebat declared, in the Council of An- 
 cients on the 1 2th of January, " None of us are ig- 
 " norant of the arbitrary manner in which the afFeiT- 
 " merit has been made. We all know that feveral 
 < c citizens have been ajjejjed at fums which exceed the 
 ** whole of their property." If iuch violences have not 
 yet occafioned a general infurrection, it is becaufe the 
 people becomes every day more and more abject and 
 weary of contending} and efpeciaily, becaufe this be- 
 ginning of fpoliation by loans is limited in its opera- 
 tion to much the fmalleft part of the inhabitants of 
 France. The multitude does not yet openly oppofe 
 thefe meafures, becaufe perhaps it expects to efcape 
 them ; but when it begins to feel or to apprehend 
 their operation, I confider refiftance as certain. 
 
 The third is, that this event cannot be very re- 
 mote , for the produce of the forced loan is fo far 
 from providing funds for the enfuing campaign^ (a 
 hope with which the Public was amufed,) that it is 
 not even adequate to the current expences. I de- 
 duce a proof of this from a recent fact to which I 
 could with to direct the public attention. At the 
 very moment when the Directory announced in mag- 
 nificent terms the fuccefs of this forced loan-, and 
 tyhen, according to the letter of the law, the produce 
 of it ought to have been already received ; this Ex- 
 ecutive Power, in order to fupply the want of that 
 produce, aflumed the function of the Legiflative 
 Body ; and, folely upon its own authority, created a 
 new fort of paper money, payable in three months 
 
 after
 
 [ "3 ] 
 
 after date, out of the produce of the forced loan, and 
 that of the f ale of the forefts, &c. &c. * Thefe ma- 
 nufcript afiignats are called Refcriptions tnetalliques, 
 and the Minifter who has figned them tells us, that 
 they are to contribute to the amelioration of the finances 
 of the Republic. A (ingle obfervation will fhew the 
 nature of this amelioration: in order to give this 
 new paper money any fort of credir, the Govern- 
 ment has been obliged to engage that it will receive 
 it again in payment of the forced loan, of the direB 
 and indircft taxes, &c. &c. Now upon a iup- 
 polition, that thofe who contract with the Go- 
 vernment agree to take thefe promffiry notes at even 
 half their nominal value -j- j it is evident, that the 
 
 taxable 
 
 * See the Moniteur of the 3Oth of January 1796. 
 f The laft papers announce, that the rlt Refcriptions iflued 
 are already at a difcount of between 30 and 40 per cent, though 
 the Directory has pledged 1 itfelf not to ifTue more than to the 
 amount of 30 millions; and it is not too bold a conjedlure to 
 fay, that they will be at a difcoutu of more than 50 per cent. 
 before the whole 30 millions can be iflued j and which whole 
 fum after all is not more than equivalent to the expenditure of 
 fevcn or eight days. 
 
 But a fingular circumftance is, that the Directory has at the 
 fame time taken upon itfelf to create a third fpecies of paper 
 money, no other than the Co-math-i&lked-ofCiduksJyypot&eeairet, 
 which were unanimoufly rejected by the Council of Ancients. 
 It has (imply, upon its own authority, created them by order- 
 ing " the payments of the purchafe money of all immoveable 
 national property, which is fold, to be made by three-twelfths 
 in gold or filver money, paid down in three days from the fale, 
 and the remaining nine-twelfths by nine Cedulei hypothecates, 
 cedules afligned upon the eftate fold, bearing interelt at 5 per 
 cent. ; payment of the firft one-twelfth to be exafted at the end 
 " of four months, and of the eight others, monih after month 
 " fwxeffively." 
 
 It is evident that the Directory, if it <can find purchafers 
 bold enough ftill to buy national property and pay for it with 
 fuch cedules, will immediately fend them to market. The 
 French papers at prefent give the courfe of exchange of two 
 forts of paper money, the AJJignats at a difcount of 99* per cent. 
 the RefcriptioMS at a difcount of between 30 and 40 per cent. : as 
 U> the CeJuItt, their difcount is not yet mentioned; but the next 
 i papers
 
 [ "4 ] 
 
 taxable perfons to whom thefe contra&ors pay them 
 away again at the fame rate, will be able by this 
 meafure, to pay with 3000 livres an afTeffment of 
 6000 ; fo that by this expedient the Directory pro- 
 longs perhaps for a few months its own exiftence, by 
 diminifhing at lead one half the produce of the laft 
 refource for perpetuating the exiftence of the Re- 
 public. But the ultimate fecurity of this new paper is 
 
 papers will no doubt inform us of it, and alfoofthat of another 
 fort of paper money which the Directory has lately created, 
 called Notes payable to order, which it allows to be paid by fuch 
 perfons affeffed in the forced loan as have neither money nor 
 ajfignats, and who are permitted to contribute their mare in a 
 Note for metallic value at 60 days date. Thefe Notes will be fe- 
 cured upon the landed property of the fubfcriber. The Go- 
 vernment propofes to negociate them immediately, and an- 
 nounces that the Bearers, who may have received them, will 
 become the dirt 3 creditors of thofe who have figned them, and 
 will have a complete mortgage upon their property in cafe of non- 
 payment when the note becomes due. 
 
 It is difficult to judge what kind of credit will be given to this 
 paper, by the right of arreft which is granted to the bearers of 
 it ; but it will be curious to fee notes of 12 1. or 25 1. drawn by 
 a peafant at the foot of the Alps, negociated by a citizen of 
 Dunkirk, who knows nothing of his perfon or property, but 
 has the legal right of execution againft both. 
 
 As the French nevvfpapers have not yet given us any account of 
 the prefentrateof difcountof the Ctdules, and of the Notes payable 
 to order, or of a fifth fpecies of paper money, which the Government 
 is now manufacturing under the name of Bank notes, and which 
 1 lhall fpeak of hereafter, we may give a guefs at what that rate 
 will probably be from the following paflage in the Courier Fran- 
 tais of the iyth of February: " The feveral kinds of paper 
 " money which the Government has introduced into circula- 
 " tion, has entirely ruined the affignats, which it ought to have 
 ' been its objeft to fupport, both for the purposes of the 
 " war, and of internal trade, the latter of which is becoming 
 ' daily more and more embarrafled. France is like a city taken 
 " by Jlorm, where every ajfailant is intent upon plunder t and con* 
 " ceivet himftlf entitled to whatever he can feize." 
 
 I am very much. inclined to think that this is one of the fecret 
 objeft* of the National Bank, which the Directory has been 
 compelled by the urgency of its neceflhies to eftablifh of its own 
 authority, though the Council of 500, after frequently confider- 
 ing the fubject in its private meetings, rejected the idea. 
 
 of
 
 of the fame kind as of that which preceded it. The 
 affignats were to be repaid by a plunder denominated 
 confijcation\ the refcriptions, by a plunder called forced 
 loan. f 
 
 But the Government feems fufficiently aware of 
 the confequence of levying money by any violently 
 coercive meafures , for though the forced loan has 
 hicherto hardly produced more than a fixth part of 
 the fum at which it was calculated *, yet, in order to 
 procure any portion of what remains, it finds the ns- 
 
 ceflity 
 
 One of the members has announced that not more -than ten 
 milliards of affignats have been received. And the Directory has 
 declared, that it has good reafon, to think that the affignats in cir- 
 culation, which it eltimated at 40 milliards, are reduced one 
 fourth, though Le Franc, one of the Deputies, has aflerted (in- 
 confiderately perhaps), that in fame of the departments not ajiep has 
 teen taken toivardt making up the quotas of the loan. This is very 
 much below what, in the preceding chapter, I fuppofed would 
 be the produce of that loan, but it has not difcouraged the au- 
 thors of it. Infpite of the doubts of the enemies of the public ivea/, 
 fays the Directory, the loan ivill and muft fucceed, and anfwer all 
 our expectations. As to what may have been collected in fpecie, 
 the Government has carefully avoided faying any thing about it ; 
 and we may guefs how fmall it muft have been, by the ne- 
 csfiity of adopting the expedient of Refcriptions at three months 
 date, on its future receipt in fpecie, at the very time when, 
 according to the decree, the whole fliould have been collected. 
 
 Someperfons, however, have fancied that the Government muft 
 have received fpecie enough to go on with for the prefenr, becaufe 
 all the expences have lately been Hated in metallic money ; but 
 Fermont has cautioned the public (l4th of February), not to ima- 
 gine that becaufe a fum is granted infpecit, therefore there is really 
 '"" tcie in the treafury to pay it. The expences, faid he, are defrayed 
 
 it this aflertion be true, the Government muft very foon be 
 in a terrible dilemma: for how can it much longer have any 
 affignats to ifTue, now that the fabrication of them is at an end ; 
 unlefs it has fraudulently coined more than the 40 milliards al- 
 lowed, and beyond which it pledged its faith and loyalty to the 
 nation, that their fum fliould not be carried ? How is it poflible 
 to avoid this conclufion, if we only go back three or four 
 months, and compare the expences of that period with the quan- 
 tity of affignats which even the Government confe/Tes have 
 been iffued for the purpofes of defraying them? 
 
 i ^ Even
 
 cefiVty of relaxing the drift regulations for its pay- 
 ment : it has promifed to relieve thofe who complain 
 that they have been rated too high* in the ift in- 
 
 ftallment. 
 
 Even before it was decreed that the emiffion fhould, under n* 
 pretence, be carried beyond 40 milliards, befides the 5 mil- 
 liards burnt or to be burnt, Ecbajftriaux, in his report 
 of the I3th of December, owned that 29 and one-half milliards 
 had been ifiued ; and it is manifeft from the confeffions of the 
 Minifter of Finance, and of Dubois Grand, that at the fame pe- 
 riod the Government owed already, by anticipation more than 
 tlie whole fum which remained to be fabricated; and, during 
 the fabrication of this final addition to the mafs, Ramel an- 
 nounced on the part of the Directory the expenditure of 
 the month would amount to 22 milliards ; and that of February, 
 the next month, muft have been at leaft one-third more ; fo that 
 we have 55 milliards of expence to be paid by 15! milliards 
 fabricated ! and which were all due by anticipation ; and yet 
 the Government goes on defraying its expencn by ejjignats, 
 though it protefts that it has not coined one/ol beyond cue 45 
 milliards allowed! In fact, this laft fabrication appears to me 
 very fimilar to the fecret emifiions of the Convention; and I {hall 
 be much miflaken if the Directory does not foon come forwards 
 with the fame language as EchaJJeriaux ufed in his Report 
 quoted above: In the midji of this ruinous anarchy, faid he, 
 the fear of depreciating the Jign of exchange^ which, in ordtr 
 tojatisjy the public expences, they ivere obliged to ij/ue frequently 
 and abundantly ; the fear of dejiroying credit and of alarming the 
 people, cccaJtoneJ fomt concealments with rej'pecl to the emiffioni as 
 ordered by Decree. 
 
 * To fupprefs the public difcontent, the Government has al. 
 ready been obliged to correft fome of the miftakes which it 
 made in the firft apportionment of the burthen ; and, in order 
 not to diminiih the produce exptcled, it has enlarged the num. 
 her of thofe who are to bear it ; but as this new meafure has in- 
 creafed the number of complainants in the fame ratio, the Go 
 vernment has been obliged to enlarge the time for the final pay- 
 ments to the zpch of February, and to permit thofe whofe con- 
 tributions do not exceed 600 livres to pay the whole of their af- 
 feflments in affignats at 100 for i, though the current price of 
 the aSignat is 350 for i, a meafure which of courfe reduces the 
 real produce more than one third. The reafon for this indul- 
 gence is worth remarking : Conjidering (fays the Directory) hona 
 little fpecie is to be found among citizens of that defcription, and 
 alfo ccnfedering that the delay they have made in their payments pro- 
 feeds from their inability to make them in aJJtgnalSy &c. &c. 
 
 This
 
 ftallment, has prolonged the terms fixed for the ad 
 and 3d, and has confented to receive the affignats 
 at ,00 for i, though at about 350 for i in the com- 
 mon courfe of exchange. 
 
 The fourth is an official letter from the Minifter 
 of Finance publilhed the beginning of February, 
 and intended to check the manoeuvres of the money 
 jobbers, who, fays he, have already fucceeded in con- 
 fiderably depreciating the Refcriptions. In order to con- 
 vince the Public, that there are the necefiary funds for 
 redeeming this new paper, which is already diftrufted, 
 the Minifter gives a detailed view of the probable re- 
 ceipt between the date of his letter and the firft of 
 Floreal (2oth of April) ; a receipt which he has no 
 difficulty in gueffing at 216 millions (9 millions 
 fterling) in fpecie ; and of which the principal ar- 
 ticles confift in ift, 50 millions which he hcpes for 
 from the forced loan in Belgium; adly, 100 mil- 
 lions which he experts from the produce of the fame 
 loan in the reft of France ; 3dly, 10 millions from 
 the fale of effects in Belgium ; 4thly, 20 millions 
 irom the fale of the national forefts of France ; 5tUy* 
 10 millions from part of the debt due from Holland, 
 Sep. If we could believe the Minifter of Finance, the 
 receipt of this immenfe fum in fpecie is certain, be- 
 tween this and the firft of 'Floreal ; that is, in abouj 
 two months. 
 
 He carefully adds a comparative ftatement of the 
 expenditure during the farnc period ; and, though 
 forced to admit that (QT Pluviofe (February) it will 
 be 80 millions in metallic value, yet h^ takes upon 
 him to engage, that the two fucceeding months 
 of pentofe and Germinal will not coji more tbaq 
 
 This declaration is not only inconfiftent with the fplendid de- 
 fcriptions we have heard from the fame body of the irarnenfe 
 refources of France ; but i in fatt a fubltra&ion of the fecurity 
 fo recently pledged for the Re/crtftioat which were ilfigncd upon 
 the fpecie to be received by the forced loan. 
 
 13 50 mil-
 
 [ "8 ] 
 
 50 millions each. So that in the middle of a ge- 
 neral and moft expenfive war, with a Republi- 
 can Government which pays about 450 thoufand 
 perfons in civil employments, with a debt very 
 greatly increafed, and an immenfe population habi- 
 tuated to be gratuitoufly fed, this Minifter expects 
 to be able, in the fpace of three or four weeks, to 
 reduce the whole expenditure of France to exactly 
 the fame level as it was in a time of profound peace, 
 and during the economical adminiftration of Mr. 
 Necker*; and this diminution of expences is expected 
 at a time when the armies will probably have com- 
 menced active operations -, a circumftance which has 
 not prevented the Minifter from concluding two 
 pages filled with thefe flattering views of receipts 
 and of economy, wirh faying, Tbus y Citizen Di- 
 reftors, the Refcriptions will be exaftly reimbursed. 
 
 He then dares believe^ that thefe explanations will 
 fatisfy the Directory -, but, in order to give an accumu- 
 lation of fecurity, he adds an abridgment of the afflually 
 exifting refources of the Republic. Thefe, as ufual, 
 confift in unfold ejlates> in national for efts ^ and national 
 effefts in Belgium. The firft he puts at 2 milliards 
 600 millions, taking the revenue of 1790 as -the bafis 
 of his eftimate; but takes care not to mention at how 
 many years purchafe he has valued them in order to 
 raile them to this fum, He is equally cautious not to 
 
 * A few days after, on the 25th of February, Dulois Crance* 
 fpeaking on behalf of Government, informed the Council, that 
 1500 millions in fpecie were abfolutely neceflary for tk0jfrvV< 
 
 of the approaching campaign. 'The fum, faid he, /'/ large, but it 
 muft be found. He introduced this alarming declaration by 
 faying, If you could bring alt the fpecie remaining in France fwici 
 a year into your offers, it tuould be too little for 'the 'wants of Go- 
 vernment, It is very evident that the greater part of our fpecie 
 has disappeared ', nor have ive any means of bringing it back again, 
 but by the jloiu operations of fteady indujtry and a flour ijbing trade. 
 I mult here beg that the reader will compare this ac- 
 knowledgment of Dubois Crance with what I have faid p. 88, 
 which feme perfons have considered as exaggerated. 
 
 fty
 
 fay a word of their preterit income, or of the old debts 
 with which they are charged. As to theforefts, they, 
 fays he, are worth 2 milliards, and that in fpecie. 
 This we are to take his word for, though about two 
 years before, when the national eftates fold 7 or 8 
 times better than now, and theforejts had not been 
 damaged fo much as they have fmce been, Cambon 
 only estimated them at i milliard 200 millions in 
 aflignats. Laftly,tofinifh thisfplendidvifion, he values 
 the national effefts in Belgium at aftill more conjiderable 
 fum> but without fpecifying it; and ends his letter 
 by faying : " Here are pofitive riches to the amount 
 " of between 6 and 7 milliards in metallic value. 
 <c This irnmenfe refource may he made faleable, 
 <; partly ly cedules^ and by means which will be the 
 " fubject of another letter that I fhall addrefs to the 
 " Directory. (Signed) FAIPOUL." 
 
 We have at prefent a proof, that the immenfe re- 
 fource of the Directory for continuing the war de- 
 pends upon felling for fpecie national effefls and fo- 
 rejls, which the French did not think it worth while 
 to purchafe with depreciated affignats ; or elfe upon 
 making the national property once more faleable by 
 fome other fpecies of aGignments, under the deno-^ 
 mination of either Refcriptions or Cedules- t which are 
 to obtain credit notwithflanding half the previously 
 exifting paper money is recalled by violence, and 
 the remainder of it deprived of the fecurity upon 
 which it was folemnly guaranteed,-^-that of the na- 
 tional effects and forefts,, which are now to be made 
 the pledge for various new kinds of paper money 
 which muft foon have the fame fate as the former. 
 The French Government has brought itfelf into 
 fuch a fhuation, that its prefent fraudulent projects 
 are the necefiary confequences of its former rob- 
 beries; and its exiftence, folely depending on its 
 means of depredation, muft terminate whenever 
 j 4 thole
 
 thofe means can no longer be employed. Yet, in 
 the midft of fo much vifible mifery and diftrefs, it 
 redoubles its boatling, and {till replies to overtures of 
 peace by infolent declarations calculated to prevent 
 negotiation. 
 
 The laft debates on the finances differ in little 
 elfe from the preceding ones, but that the lamenta- 
 tions begin to be more prevalent than the boaftings; 
 both of them continually occafion new confeffions, 
 which are more and more demonftrative of extreme 
 diftrefs. 
 
 The Commiffion of Finance, in a report made by 
 Ramel the 31(1 of January, declare, that 44 tns of 
 the taxes for 1792 and 1793 vet rem *in unpaid. 
 *' It is hardly credible," faid he; " but the proprie- 
 " tors ftill owe to the treafury more than 13 mil- 
 * Hards *. We have impoverifhed ourfelves by not 
 " paying our debts to our country. How cruel 
 ' have been the effects of the indulgence allowed 
 " with regard to them ! A government which 
 " draws from its mines enough to pay all its ex- 
 " pences, will foon be crulhed by the load of its 
 *' own wealth. Of this we have almoft had a fatal 
 e experience." The word almojl feems rather oddly 
 introduced by the reporter. 
 
 Another confeffion not lefs extraordinary has been 
 made by the Directory, who owned, the I4th of Fe- 
 bruary, that " the furniming the Commune of Paris 
 with articles of fubfiftence cofts the Government annually 
 
 * I fuppofe that in thefe 13 milliards he includes the arrears 
 due from the purchafe money of the national eftates, which were 
 fold during thofe years to the Jacobins, who got poffefiion of 
 them, and who cannot, by any means yet difcovered, be com- 
 pelled to pay for them. Jf it is fo, France will find it the more 
 eafy to refume thofe cftates, in order to reftore them to their 
 Jawful owaers, 
 
 86,684,000
 
 86,684*000 Kvres infpede*, (more than 3^ millions 
 fterling,) and that without including the expenct of 
 agency, the confuwption of fuel, and other concomitant cir- 
 cumftanccs :" an expenct: which exceeds the whole of 
 the prefcnt revenue of France. The Government 
 at the fame time difclofed another circumftance 
 equally alarming, that the prefent population 
 of Paris exceeds the ufual number of inhabitants by 
 at leaft 150,000 fouls; and that it is increajing every 
 day \ becaufe they come from every part of the 
 Republic to inhabit a Commune where bread is diftributed 
 for nothing. It may be fuppofed that nothing could 
 have drawn fuch a confeflion from the Government 
 but the prefling necefiity in which it found itfelf, of 
 retrenching its gratuitous diftributions. Accordingly 
 it has given notice, that they are to ceafe on the 2oth 
 of February ; from which day forwards no more will 
 be given than to the amount of 150,000 pounds 
 weight of bread and 10,000 of meat per day, as ALMS 
 to the real poor of the Commune of Paris. Such a di- 
 minution of the donations is a real fentence of death 
 to the miferable wretches who formerly lived upon 
 their incomes from the funds, and who had only this 
 one refource left, now that the ftate pays them no 
 more than the three hundredth part of the annual in* 
 tereft which is due to them -f. Ferment advifes 
 
 thefe 
 
 * Of thefe 86 millions about 30 were diflributed in beef and 
 mutton. About the middle of February, that is to fay, upon 
 the reduction of the gratuitous diftributions of meat, the price 
 of it rofe to eleven fous a pound in fpecie, which is about dou- 
 ble what it coft before the Reyolution, when there was fix times 
 more fpecie in the country; a circumftance which ftrongly cor- 
 roborates the conjectures I dated in my Appendix, p. 96, &c. 
 
 f In confequence of this diminution of the gratuitous diftri- 
 butions, the Council of 500 propofcd to the Council of Ancients, 
 on the 1 4th February, to pay the public creditors hereafter ten 
 livres in affignats for one, of the intereft cue to them in fpecie ; 
 ib that if they fliould fall no lower than they now are (that is 
 
 to
 
 thefe poor wretches to feel that order and tranquil- 
 lity are neceffary for the purpofe of reftoring the 
 finances of their country, and that they will only ruin 
 them/elves by ill-timed and unprincipled reftftance. But if 
 they are to be keptquiet by aconviclion of the necejjlty 
 of dying with hunger, rather than difturb the public 
 order, can the fame paffive refignation be expected 
 from the labouring clafs, whofe bread once depended 
 on the being employed by the public creditors of 
 whom I have been {peaking; and whofe clamours 
 have hitherto been only fupprefled by gratuitous 
 distributions of provifions ? I believe we (hall foon 
 find, that the time when thofe diftributions terminate 
 will be one of the moft critical fince the exiftence of 
 the Republic. But at any rate, it cannot be long before 
 we mail know whether the populace of the Tuburbs 
 of Paris is really attached to the new fyftem from any 
 other motives than aftrong perfuafion that the Govern- 
 to fay 5 per cent.}, the creditor will receive the liberal allowance 
 of 403. for his demand of lool. fterling per annum; and this 
 extraordinary favour is only allowed to thofe whofe intereft 
 amounts to lefs than 50!. per annum. No wonder that on the 
 17th of February, when that meafure was adopted by the Coun- 
 cil of Elders, Diiponf exclaimed, with what face can we " pro- 
 " pofe to the Republic to adopt two weights and two mea,- 
 * fures? How fliall we advife her to take affignats at the 
 " rate of 100 or even more than 100 for i, and to iffue 
 " them in her payments to her annuitants who have trufted her 
 " with their fortunes, or to her pensioners who have bled for her, 
 *' at only a tenth part of that rate ?" This consideration wholly 
 difappears before thofe which Ferment, in the name of the Com- 
 miffion of Finance, fubmitted to the Council of 500, and which 
 concluded with thefe words : " None of thefe circumftances 
 ' will efcape the fagacity of the annuitants, who are really at- 
 *' tached to their country, or of thofe patriot heroes who have 
 ' bled in her defence, or.of thofe ministers of religion who love 
 1 peace and have constantly obeyed the laws. They are all 
 convinced that more would be done for them, if more could 
 ' be done, and they will patiently wait for better times. Ma- 
 
 * lice and mifreprefentation will in vain endeavour to impofe 
 
 * upon them," 
 
 ment
 
 [ '3 3 
 
 nifter will be able conftantly to feed and fupport it 
 in idlenefs and indigence. 
 
 Though De Fermont had exprefsly declared that 
 this reduced allowance of the preceding diftributions, 
 which had amounted to 600,000 rations a day, was 
 more than fufficient to anfwer the wants of the poor, 
 and wight be ftill further reduced-, yet the Directory has 
 been obliged, in fpiteof the troops with which it had 
 filled Paris, to give way on this point, as well as on 
 that of the forced loan, and to declare that the cuf- 
 tomary diftribution Ihould continue to be made pro- 
 vifionally to all whofe afleflments did not exceed 400 
 livres, and to fuch public functionaries as did not re- 
 ceive above 12,000 livres a month from their offices. 
 This operation (hews us at once the nature of thefe 
 '* immenfe refources" which confift in plundering one 
 fourth of the people of the country, of fuch parts of 
 their property as the Government choofes to cally- 
 perfluities, though it is at the fame time obliged to 
 reftore it to them under the name of ALMS. How 
 is it poffible that a Government purfuing fuch a 
 fyftem can ever extricate itfelf from the labyrinth of 
 its own abfurdities ? But above all, how can the re- 
 duced populace be brought to fubmit with patience 
 to fuch a privation, or how acquiefce in a plan of 
 economy which is only practifed towards them, 
 while the general diffipation and dilapidation is 
 greater, if poflible, than ever? " It is not by any 
 *' means the number of the afilgnats in circulation 
 V which depreciates their value," faid Bourdon the 
 1 3th of February, " but it is the defpair of the Citizens, 
 <c who feeing the dilapidations which are committed every 
 " day, have no hope of the return of order and eco- 
 " nomy, and confequently no hope of the reftoration 
 " of the finances. It is very certain that for three 
 " months pad you have infilled upon having a de- 
 " tailed account of the expences, which you have 
 M not been able to obtain. I infift upon having 
 6 " it."
 
 " it *." " Tes" faid Johannot, we have been too long 
 talking of retrenchments* and only increafmg our ex^ 
 fences -f. The time is come for making retrenchments, 
 as well as talking of them. Let us confider that every 
 day which pajfes without fome reformation is a day of 
 calamity. 
 
 It was in this fitting that a new fpeaker, called 
 Montmaycu, exprefied fentiments which will be often 
 enough repeated in the two Legislative Councils : 
 " Till now/* laid he, ' I believed that we have 
 " owed our liberty to the afllgnats, and that we 
 *' could not have terminated the Revolution, if it 
 
 " had 
 
 * This demand by Bourdon gave occafion to a fcene fuffici- 
 ently ridiculous on the pare of Rome/, who is at prefent con- 
 fidered as an oracle in the matters of finance. The account of ex- 
 fences has leenfent, faid he ; I have it in my hand. The refult of 
 it if, that their <wbole amount for the year ivill be only 528 millions. 
 He was then goingto expatiate on the incalculable advantage of fo 
 unexpected a reduction ; but happening to look at the authentic 
 Jiatement, which he held in his hand, and from which he was 
 drawing his proofs, he flopped fhort, and olferved, fays the Re- 
 publican of the I 5th inftant, that out of the 528 millions, 300 
 c were ajfigtiats, 'which had been very improperly brought into the ac~ 
 count asjpecie: 1 HAVE JUST OBSERVED IT, faid he. This fa- 
 gacious obferver was very properly considered as the fitteft perfon 
 to fucceed Faipoul as Minifter of Finance, a place which he now 
 defervedly fills. 
 
 f Deferment had complained grievoufly the day before of 
 an unlimited creation of a multitude of agencies, commif- 
 fions, and public functionaries, with which the national 
 buildings are filled. There feems," faid he, " much lefs 
 difpofition to form ufeful eftablifhments and give adivity to 
 adrniniitration, than to create lucrative employments, for 
 perfons whofe fervices are pretended to deferve a recom- 
 pence." On a recent occafion, the Minifter of War ftated, 
 thai there 'were a considerable number of military bofpitals, 'where the 
 Jick 'were lefs numerous than the officers of health and their ajpftants. 
 Great expectations are however entertained from his fuccef- 
 for, who has already reduced the number of his clerks from 
 1700 to 600. But he muft ftill make farther reductions, if it be 
 true, as Dupont positively aflerted, on the ijth of February, 
 the Republic prof/idei daily twice as many rations as it has foldiers. 
 
 All
 
 t *5 3 
 
 <e had not been for this paper money. It is with 
 " great aftonifhment that I have lately obferved a 
 " different opinion entertained. I have heard it faid 
 " by men, whofe patriotifm is undoubted, that the 
 " afilgnats can no longer be made ufe of. A pro- 
 " portional icale has been propofed, and the effect 
 " has been to precipitate us from the top to the 
 *' bottom of it. What was the object of the Cedules 
 " hypothecates^ which teafed us for fuch a long time, 
 " but to provide a bafis for a project of a Bank of 
 " finances, the offspring of a moft unprincipled cat- 
 " culation; and intended to annihilate the aflignats, 
 44 to fubftitute in their room another fort of paper 
 " money, and put the Republic into the hands of a 
 ** Bank ! Republicans ! Rally your f elves to raife again 
 <{ the credit of the affignats. With that view, do juft 
 " the reverfe of whatever has yet been done. Tell 
 " your commiffioners of finances, that the only ob- 
 " ject of all your laws is to reftore tbe affignats to their 
 " -primitive value. Raife the credit of the afiignats, 
 e and you will fave yourfelves from the DISGRACE 
 " AND THE ODIUM with which you are. menaced. 
 " Raiie the credit of the affignats, and you will ter- 
 " minate the Revolution with glwy. 
 
 " Do you wilh to do it ? Compel the payment of 
 " the forced loan. Compel the receipt of the ar- 
 " rears .of the contributions. Repeal all the laws 
 " which eftablifh fo much difference between the 
 <* value of afllgnats and metallic money." Here, 
 fays the Moniteur, the public tribune (the gallery) 
 refounded with applaufe. " 7 repeat my opinion : If 
 " ycur deliberations do not tend to raife the credit of the 
 " aJfignatSy you will terminate a glorious Revolution 
 
 " With DISGRACE." 
 
 All thefe difcoveries, late as they have been, have however 
 made fuch an impreflion, that upon a late propofal to provide t 
 library for the ufe and in the neighbourhood of the Legiflative 
 Body ; Let us nuait for peace y cried Baudin ; Cod knonvi <u)betber 
 iue foall meet at that time. 
 
 5 While
 
 While this warm patriot was thus exerting hirti- 
 felf in the Legiflative Body, in rallying the Republicans 
 to raife the credit of the affignats y the public Opinion 
 out of that body rallied with more effect than ever to 
 fink it*. What muft make Monlmayou defpond, and 
 thofe republicans who, like him, believe that the Re- 
 volution cannot be terminated at all, or elfe will be ter- 
 minated with DISGRACE unlefs the affignats are reft or ed 
 to their primitive value, is this, that their value has 
 diminilhed ftill more fince the twolaft decrees, which 
 were to raife it as high as ever it was ; I mean the 
 decree for deftroying the plates of the affignats, and 
 that which, by the help of the forced loan, was to 
 take out of circulation three-fourths of the affignats 
 which had been iffued. Their effects, however, were 
 ftrangely mifcalculated ; for the very day when Ramel 
 came forwards to announce, as a mod favourable cir- 
 cumftance for the affignats, that the plates were to 
 be destroyed ; on that very day their growing dif- 
 credit was more apparent than ufual ; and from that 
 time it has been increafing with accelerated rapi- 
 dity f. 
 
 It muft, however, be owned, that on this import- 
 ant fubject Ramel had both anticipated and furpaffed 
 his colleague Montmayou, and neglected no patriotic 
 incitement, no confideration of perfonal intereft, no 
 figures of rhetoric, to make the Republicans feel 
 
 The editor of the Eclair of the i8th of February, in giving 
 an account of the fpeech of Montmayou, whom he reprefents as 
 a violent Jacobin, fays, " Words colt but little, but words alone 
 ' will not reftore credit to paper money which fo many caufes 
 " have contributed to make of no value. The only method of 
 railing the value of affignats is that which has been negle&ed, 
 " it is by putting an end to a ruinous and dejlruttiwt <war t and tak~ 
 ' ing the opportunity of peace, to introduce a fyilem of rigid 
 ' economy into every branch of Government." Is not this the 
 very language I addreffed to the French about a year ago in my 
 Reflexions en tki War? 
 
 f The French newfpapers ftate the louis d'or at 8600 
 HvresI 
 
 that
 
 that their Government could not (land without af- 
 fignats. 
 
 " They have effected the Revolution," faid he to 
 his colleagues the 2gth of January, " they have 
 " brought about the deftruclion of ranks and privi- 
 *' leges ; they have overturned the throne and founded 
 " the Republic ; they have launched the Vefiel of the 
 '* State ; they ought ftill to be her anchor and her 
 " cable in harbour. Frenchmen ! A GRAND EPOCH 
 
 " IS APPROACHING } FOR IT IS A TRUTH THAT THE 
 " FATE OF EMPIRES IS CONNECTED WITH THE STATE 
 
 " OF THEIR FINANCES. Revive your manufactures ; 
 " refume your induffry ; the fortune of the State 
 " is under your protection; fupport it; watch it; 
 " your own is intimately connected with it. The 
 " afilgnats have enabled you to acquire benefits 
 " which you are about to enjoy ; they are ftill your 
 " principal refource ; take care not to remain in- 
 " attentive to this till it is too late. Let us all join 
 '* hands and hearts to fupport the Republic, and the 
 " qffignats which founded it, and which will ftill de- 
 " fend it! IT ONLY BELONGS TO FRANCE TO FIND 
 
 " RESOURCES IN WHAT MIGHT APPARENTLY BE 
 ' CONSIDERED AS MAKING HER SITUATION MORB 
 " GRIEVOUS." 
 
 If France has fuch a fecret, her Financiers have 
 given her ample opportunity of ufing it; .and in 
 proportion as they have made her Jituation more 
 grievous, me has the more room to exercife her 
 faculty, and bring into action her inexhauftible re- 
 refources *. Now that the forced loan has extorted 
 one portion of the afiignats from the public, and 
 the remainder are deprived of their fecurity by the 
 
 * Dupont, in endeavouring to expofc the abfurdity of this new 
 principle, has unfortunately (hewn it to be lefs ridiculous than 
 it at firft appears. Our refources, faid he, on the 171)1 of Febru- 
 ary, lie in the retrenchment of a thoufand vices, a million of crimes t 
 *nd a tboufand million! of ' abujts, 
 
 alienation
 
 [ III ] 
 
 alienation of the effects of the crown ; now that the 
 Government is obliged to relinquish for ever its 
 productive fource of ideal wealth, and deftroy the 
 plate of the afiignatsj thefe new empirics, afcer attempt- 
 ing to give credit 10 three different forts of paper 
 money, are to be employed in fabricating a fourth, 
 the talk of introducing and circulating which, is to be 
 affigned to a junto of dock-jobbers, under the refpec- 
 table title of National Bank. To fill the lift of ad- 
 venturers, the Minifter of Finance has not only 
 offered to give up to them fome of the branches of 
 the revenue, but alfo to add to their fecurity feveral 
 parts of the National property, to the amount, as he 
 boldly aflerts, of 883 millions ; he has however 
 carefully avoided faying any thing of the annual 
 income arifing from thefe parts of the National pro- 
 perty, or of the burthens to which they may already 
 be fubjed. But he is very explicit on the fubjecl: 
 of the returns he expects from the fubfcribers for 
 thefe generous conceffions, and tells them that be 
 hopes they will be able to make a monthly loan to Govern- 
 ment of 25 millions infpecic, or in paper of credit equal 
 tofpeeie. 
 
 This hope is certainly very moderate, and it is 
 hard to fay, what may not be expected from the 
 French Government if it is able to draw fuch afiiftance 
 as 25 millions monthly from a bank, the (hares of 
 which amount to but 600 livres (25 pounds fterling). 
 In the prefent fituation of France, I know of but 
 one circumftance that can give the Company 
 even a momentary exiftence, and which is very dif- 
 tinclly ftated in the Courier Francois of the 1 8th of 
 February. " We can go no further (fays the Edi- 
 " tor) with our aflignats. We muft have a Bank ; 
 " and when we have it, it will be the intereft of all 
 e who have any property to fupport it, not only that 
 " they may derive fome advantage from that pro- 
 " perty, but in faft that they may preferve their lives^ 
 
 " which
 
 [ 129 3 
 
 " which would be expofed to no fmall rifk in the 
 " confufion which a general infolvency would 
 *' create." 
 
 The latter of thefe recommendations is certainly a 
 very ftrong one ; but if it be that on which Lafond 
 Ladebat, who is the author of the fcheme, principally 
 depends, I think he might have fpared himfelf the 
 trouble of proving that his Bank ftands on the fame 
 principles on which tboje of Holland, of Genoa, of Venice* 
 and of the American States, are founded, and which have 
 contributed fo largely to the profperity of thofe countries: 
 principles, adds this great Financier, to which Den- 
 mark and Pruffia owe the very fahation of their public 
 credit. 
 
 Time will foon fhew how far the National Bank 
 of France, which feems to me to be nothing more 
 than a ftock-jobbing trick, will deferve the fame praife; 
 and in a few days we (hall be able to learn the, pro- 
 portions of credit which the five forts of paper money 
 which are to circulate in France will bear to each 
 other. Their names are, 
 
 Affignats, 
 Refcriptions, 
 Hypothecary Cedules, 
 Notes payable to order, 
 Bank Notes. 
 
 We are to obferve that the four laft are intended 
 folely to fupport the credit of the firft, that is to fay, 
 to reftore life to the afljgnats, as if it were poflible 
 to reanimate a corpfe by fattening it to a living body. 
 Nor is the order in which each is to produce 
 its effecl: by fupporting the credit of the reft, lefs 
 curious; for the Bank notes are to anfwer for the 
 deficiencies of the Notes payable to order, the notes 
 payable to order for thofe of the Cedules, the ce- 
 dules for the Refcriptions, the refcriptions for the 
 the affignats are to fupport the Armies, 
 K the
 
 C 3 ] 
 
 the armies the Republic, the Republic, &c. &c. In 
 fhort this is the houfe thai Jack built j this is the 
 corn, &c. &c . 
 
 How many weeks, or even how many months this 
 feries of ruinous expedients will enable thofe who now 
 govern that unhappy country to protract the ftruggles 
 of their expiring power, is more than I can venture to 
 fay; but 1 fee plainly that an opinion is daily becoming 
 more general, that the French Republic will fall, as 
 the French Monarchy fell, by the ruin of its finances, 
 while they who are now at the head of it, are the only 
 perfons in the country who do not know, or who 
 affect not to know, that the difeafe which has at- 
 tacked the affignats is mortal. A difcredited paper 
 money is to a nation what a confumption is to an 
 individual. In each cafe the unhappy victim talks 
 gaily of recovery, exhaufts its ftrength in forming 
 fchemes of future happinefs, and fpends its lalt 
 breath in defcriptions of ideal enjoyment. That 
 this is the cafe with the French Republic, I appeal 
 to the words of the new M Snifter of Finance, Rame^ 
 who fpeaks as gravely of the efcape of the Republic 
 from the ruin that threatened her finances, as if he really 
 believed his own aflertions : in a few months, he de- 
 clares, they will be wholly out of danger. Dubois 
 Crance however, with more honefty or lefs caution, 
 has exprefied his fears that the critical moment is fo 
 far from being paffed, that it is not yet ccme j and 
 when fpeaking, the 2^th of February, of the depre- 
 ciation of the aflignats, exclaimed, It is a truth which 
 every Frenchmen muft be made to knew and to feel, that 
 we have no alternative, but ASSIGNATS OR DEATH*. 
 
 As 
 
 * // is toe true (faid Ifnard the day before in the Council of 
 500) that r we cannot do without ajjignati ; lue Jhall be ruined 
 without them, but iue muft do all in out power to reduce the quan- 
 tity in circulation. 
 
 Each of thefe prophetic financiers prppofes a remedy for the 
 evils he foretells. Ifnard, for jnftance, has adopted that which 
 
 M, de
 
 C 3 ] 
 
 As an expedient to avoid the latter, he at the fame 
 time ventured to propofe a tax in kind, though his 
 own experience for the laft fix months ought to have 
 convinced him that the levying fuch a tax is utterly 
 impofiible , and his worthy colleague Baudin fup- 
 ported his propofal by moving, that Government Jhould 
 be empowered (if necejjary) to levy it by force. This 
 
 motion 
 
 M. de Calonne has already fuggefted and proved to be infalli- 
 ble. He has propofed, that hereafter no gold or Jilver Jhall be 
 fold in any form whatever. Without enquiring how far fuch a 
 decree would effect the purpofe propofed, it appears to me, 
 that the French Legislators may fpare themfelves the trouble of 
 iffuing it, confidering the rapidity with which what remains of 
 fpecie is exported out of the country, and the little care they 
 take to retain it. The remedy propofed by Duboit Crance, the 
 Very day after, is much more daring : " When you have an 
 '* army (faid he) confiding of 1,200,000 men to feed, it can- 
 *' not be done by means of paper money : you mull have the 
 " provifions themfelves. Before the Revolution, the land-tax 
 " amounted to 300 millions exclusive of the tithes paid to the 
 " clergy, which were equal to another 100, while the indirect 
 " taxes produced 200. Thus in fetting now the land-tax at 500 
 " millions in kind, the indirect taxes at 300 millions, with 200 
 " millions which we expeft from the forced loan, and 400 front 
 " the rents of the national domains, you will have 1400 mil- 
 " lions. And if you can, by means of a rigid economy, re- 
 " duce the expences of the year to 1200 millions, you will 
 " then have a fund of zoo millions to anfwer unforefeen ccn- 
 " tingencies." 
 
 It is obvious that the whole of this fcheme refts upon the pof- 
 fibility of getting pofleffion, by indireft taxit, of all the fpecie 
 now remaining in the country, and, by direfl taxts, of -|ths of 
 the net income of every land-owner in France, the whole of 
 which, as Dupont has proved, is now reduced to lefs than 800 mil- 
 lions. But the mod remarkable feature of this fplendid clli- 
 jnate, is, that it fets the prefent revenue of the national domains 
 at 400 millions. 
 
 1 (hall not repeat what I have faid, p. 12 and 13, to (hew 
 that the whole of this revenue is completely exhaulted in paying 
 the interefl of the debt charged upon it. I will content myfelf 
 with giving a ihort ftatement of the variations in the account 
 delivered by the different French financiers of the value of thefe 
 domains, though they all affVcl to take the revenue of 1790 is 
 the bafis of their calculations. 
 
 ic 2 In
 
 motion was fuperfluous, for there can be no doubt 
 that the Government would, if it could, refort to 
 
 force i 
 
 In June 1791, Camus reckons 
 the lands of the Crown and of the 
 Church, at ----- - 
 
 In February 1793, Cambon efti- 
 mated the lands of the Emigrants 
 at - - . - .- - - . * - - 
 
 In December 1794, Jobannot 
 valued all the lands then unfold of 
 the Church, the Crown, of Emi- 
 grants, or of thofe who had been 
 condemned, at 40 years purchafe 
 upon their annual rents, (which 
 never were mentioned before, and 
 which he eftimates at about 300 
 millions,) at - - - - - 
 
 ^ In April 1795, when great ref- 
 titutions had been made, Le Coul- 
 ttux, reckoning the remainder at 
 50 years purchafe, eftimated it at 
 On the i5th of February 1796. 
 Sergier reprefents the matter very 
 differently, and taking the efti 
 mate of the new Minifter of Fi- 
 nance as his bafis he admits, that 
 the value of the national domains 
 remaining unfold in France alone, 
 exclufive of the conquered pro- 
 vinces, of the forefts and buildings 
 amount to 2 milliards 80 millions, 
 and he adds, " If thefe eftates 
 have been let upon the common 
 terms of letting eftates, they 
 will produce to the Republic a 
 revenue of 52 millions in 
 
 fpecie" 
 
 It is worthy of remark that this 
 fame Eergier had proved the fame 
 day, that the decree which autho- 
 rifes the farmers to pay half their 
 rents in aflignats at their nominal 
 value ; that is to fay, with a 2OOth 
 part of that half, deprives the Re- 
 public of a real fupply of 25 mil- 
 
 Revenue. 
 
 
 300 millions 
 1 40 millions 
 
 52 millions 
 
 Capital. 
 2,452 millions. 
 2,800 millions. 
 
 1 2,000 millions. 
 
 7000 millions. 
 
 4,800 million;* 

 
 t 133 ] 
 
 force; but the difficulty is not in collecting and 
 making ufe of an armed force, fo much as in rinding 
 the means of paying it. And if I am not miftaken, 
 I have already proved (page 20), that it can only 
 be effected by another emiflion of affignats under 
 fome lefs hacknied name, by means of which the 
 Government may hire an army of plunderers more 
 
 tions 876,000 livres, (fomething 
 more than a million fterling) ; and 
 from the meafures which have 
 been adopted with refpeft to the 
 other half which was to be paid in 
 kind, the Republic, faid he, will 
 receive from its domains no more 
 than 8 millions 796,660 livres 
 The Council of 500, terrified at 
 the truths contained in this report, 
 will not permitit to be printed; and 
 on the 24th of February, Thibault, 
 in order to counteract its effects, 
 afcertains that the annual produce 
 of the national domains amounted 
 
 And on the next day, Dubois 
 Crance left all his predeceflbrs be- 
 hind him, and boldly declared 
 that it amounted to - - - - 
 
 R'e venue. 
 
 8 1 millions. 
 
 173 millions. 
 400 millions. 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Admitting this eftimate of Bergier, that is to fay, a revenue of 
 about 8 or 9 millions, which, by the by, 1 am inclined to believe 
 is ftill too much, I (hall only make three fhort obfervations. 
 Thefirft'is, that Ecbafleriaux admitted, that, for the loft thru 
 yean, the expence of management almojl eat up the 'whole of 
 the revenue ; zdly, That tne Republic is ftill fubjcft to the pay- 
 ment of intereft on an immenfe debt charged on the confifcated 
 eftates ; 3dly, That the refidue of thofe eftates after payment of 
 that debt is the only fund for the redemption of the allignat?, 
 the cedules, the bank notes, &c. &c. 
 
 Who can look for a moment at fuch a pifture, and not cry 
 out with Laujuinais on the 24th January 1796, Every Govern-- 
 tnent nuhich hopes to enrich iff elf by arbitrary conjlfcations takes tht 
 Jhorttjt road to its eiva deJlruftioH ? 
 
 numerous
 
 [ iJ4 3 
 
 numerous than the plundered, and reftore the fyfterri 
 of terror in all i:s rapacity. Till this is difcovered, 
 or the depreciation of the aflignats is flopped, his 
 countrymen may, I think, be allowed to join with 
 Montmayou in a fear, that a glorious Revolution may 
 terminate with dijgrace: till then too we may be al- 
 lowed to believe Ramei's own intimation that a grand 
 epoch is approaching j for it is a truth that the fate 
 cf empires is connected with the ft ate of their finances. 
 
 Near and inevitable as this grand epoch muft be 
 thought, if we calculate by thefe indications of its 
 approach, yet even in England there are perfons of 
 judgment who dill hefitate to believe that it will 
 ever arrive ; and for no other reafon but becaufe it 
 is not already come, though it has been fo long an- 
 nounced. As to myfelf, I own I am rather aftonifh- 
 cd that it approaches fo rapidly ; for it would fhew 
 no great knowledge of the motion of political me- 
 chanifm to imagine, that a fyftem fuch as that of 
 France can flop in an inftant. The impulfe which 
 the afiignats have given to it is fo immenfe, that 
 notwithtlanding it is Ib badly contrived and fo gene- 
 rally deranged, yet it muft ftill be expected to retain, 
 for fome time, a fort of jarring and irregular mo- 
 tion, though its managers have fome months fince 
 declared that all its fprings were breaking in their 
 hands. I do not think that the effec~l of their prefent 
 diftrefs will be an inftantaneous deftruction of this 
 political machine; but I believe it will fhew itfelf 
 .in an abfolute incapacity to keep thofe parts of it 
 in motion, which are at a diftance from the centre 
 of impelling power -, it will be feen in a forced or 
 a voluntary abandonment of all thofe conquefts 
 which the Republic is fighting to retain, a facrifiee 
 which the French Nation already begins to call for. 
 Now that the people difcovers that the war cannot 
 be carried on but by forced loam and requifitions, the 
 Paris papers are no longer filled with the praifes of 
 
 the
 
 135 ] A 028105 
 
 the perfons who inculcated the convenience of mak- 
 ing the Rhine the frontier of the Republic; and fe- 
 veral of them are bufily employed in railing doubts, 
 not fo much of the convenience of fuch a meafure, as 
 of the pdfiibility of paying much longer the ibldiers 
 employed in defending the conquefts of France, and 
 continuing facrifices which, fay they, furpafs thofe of all 
 Europe together. Has not the blood of France flowed 
 long enough ? they exclaim : Can our agriculture Jliil 
 ffare an infinite number of men and borfes for the war y 
 without being ftripped of what is absolutely necejfary for 
 carrying it on ? &c. &c. * 
 
 The 
 
 * With a view, I imagine, to quiet thefe clamours, which the 
 more popular newfpapers at Paris begin to be filled with, the Di- 
 re&ory has thought proper to employ the pen of a writer, whofe 
 talents merit the choice they have made ; and who, in undertak- 
 ing to anfwer my Reflexions on tht War, does not call me 
 exadly as Thibault did, a Writer penfioned by Mr. Pitt to vilify 
 the ajjignats, but {imply a Writer 'who is knovjn to haw devoted 
 his pen to Mr. Pitt. 
 
 This anfwer, which is fpecious enough, it detailed at great 
 length in the Moniteur of the ijth of February. Le Noir de la 
 Roche, whofe fignature it bears, wiihes to appear an advocate 
 for the entire prefervation of the conquered and incorporated pro- 
 vinces, but firftof all, with agood deal of addrefs, applies himfelf to 
 prove, that theauthors, who have hitherto fupported with fo much 
 applaufe the fame idea of this famous quejlion of the limits, have 
 not confidered it by any means in a proper point of view. When 
 good reafons can be adduced, fays he, recourfe jhould never be had 
 to doubtful ones. It is not becaufe great rivers are the natural 
 boundaries of ft at es, or becaufe the freedom of their navigation fa- 
 cilitates their communications and commerce, that France ought to 
 txtend its territory to the Rhine. After having overturned the 
 whole abfurd theory of Theremin, the Pruflian writer, this advocate 
 of the Directory developes his own reafons for not abandoning the 
 conqueits, and which are of quite a different fort. His own he 
 draws from what, in the fafhionable language of his nation, are 
 called grand principles. He freely admits, that the conqueils are 
 only a fort of hojtage; but he proves by abjlrafl right, by the 
 right of nature and of nations, that France cannot (hpulate for 
 the conquered provinces without their own intervention and con- 
 Jent ; and that jhe ought to guarantee to the nations united <with her 
 (he execution of their ivijhtt, and of their own centraflt. Then, 
 
 after
 
 The Directory feemsdeafto this cry of France j 
 and every thing leads to a belief that it has taken a 
 refolution to try one laft effort, and attempt fome great 
 military itroke by the aid of the infinite number of 
 men and horfes which it is now finding to 'the war. 
 The fliock of fuch a multitude as poffibly may be got 
 together by the exertions it is now making, will no 
 doubt be terrible, and for a time perhaps its impetu- 
 ofity may bear down refiliancej but even admitting 
 the commencement of the approaching campaign to 
 be favorable to France, yet if the Germanic Body 
 will but oppofe firmnefs to violence, it will in no long 
 time compel this wide- wafting torrent to retreat within 
 its proper bounds ; and Europe will loon enjoy the 
 only peace at prefent to be defired, becaufe the only 
 one which can be confidered as fincere and lafting ; 
 I mean that which is founded on a treaty figned upon 
 the ancient frontier of France. 
 
 after having explained the nature of contrails between two par- 
 ties with confiderable perfpicuity, he exclaims, HO<VJ can France^ 
 without being guilty of the greateft injuftice, break (particularly 
 luith Belgium and Saiioy) the contract which Jhe has entered into 
 ^witb them, detach her] elf from their inter ejii, and dijpofe of their 
 
 J'att WITHOUT THEIR ASSENT? 
 
 If this author is really, as I hope, the engine of the Directory, 
 I fhall be very much difpofed to confider thefe laft words as a 
 fignal of peace, or at leaft, as the firfl dawning of returning 
 moderation. If, in truth, this great injustice & the only fcruple 
 which at prefent embarrafles the Rulers of France ; if the only 
 thing which now keeps them from reftoring their conquefts is 
 the ASSENT of ihe conquered nations, this Gordian Knot may ba 
 eafily untied. The Directory may, as foon as it pleafes, con- 
 vene the Primary Aflemblies of Savoy and the Pay; as ; and if 
 they are really left at liberty to exprefs their "juijb, they will not 
 only unanimoufly aflc for their former Sovereigns, but they will 
 aver that they never had any ixijb of a contrary kind. 
 
 It may be obferved, that this great regard for the right of na- 
 ture and of nations has only been talked of by the defenders of 
 the Directory, fince the refource of the afiignats has been incoa- 
 tellably exhausted. 
 
 THE END.