treasury on the wages of manual labor, because nature, and not
society, gives us the "right to live."[2336] On the other hand, he
confers on the public treasury the right of taking the whole of an
income, because it is society, and not nature, which institutes public
funds; hence, according to him, the poor majority must be relieved of
all taxation, and all taxes must fall on the rich minority. The system
is well-timed and the argument apt for convincing indigent or straitened
tax-payers, namely, the refractory majority, that its taxes are just,
and that it should not refuse to be taxed.--

"Under the reign of liberty," says President Daverhoult,[2337] "the
people have the right to insist not merely on subsistence, but again on
plenty and happiness."[2338]

Accordingly, being in a state of poverty they have been
betrayed.--"Elevated to the height achieved by the French people,"
says another president, "it looks down upon the tempests under its
feet."[2339] The tempest is at hand and bursts over its head. War, like
a black cloud, rises above the horizon, overspreads the sky, thunders
and wraps France filled with explosive materials in a circle of
lightening, and it is the Assembly which, through the greatest of its
mistakes, draws down the bolt on the nation's head.

III.--War.

Disposition of foreign powers.--The King's dislikes.--
Provocation of the Girondins.--Dates and causes of the
rupture

It might have been turned aside with a little prudence. Two principal
grievances were alleged, one by France and the other by the Empire.--On
the one hand, and very justly, France complained of the gathering of
emigre's, which the Emperor and Electors tolerated against it on the
frontier. In the first place, however, a few thousand gentlemen, without
troops or stores, and nearly without money,[2340] were hardly to be
feared, and, besides this, long before the decisive hour came these
troops were dispersed, at once by the Emperor in his own dominions,
and, fifteen days afterwards, by the Elector of Treves in his
electorate.[2341]--On the other hand, according to treaties, the German
princes, who owned estates in Alsace, made claims for the feudal rights
abolished on their French possessions and the Diet forbade them to
accept the offered indemnity. But, as far as the Diet is concerned,
nothing was easier nor more customary than to let negotiations drag
along, there being no risk or inconvenience attendi