ere is no greater menace to private fortunes than the bad
administration of the public fortune. Now, under the pressure of Jacobin
principles and of the Jacobin faction, the trustees of France have
administered the country as if they purposely meant to ruin their ward;
every known means for wasting a fortune have been brought into play by
them.--In the first place, they have deprived him of three-fourths of
his income. To please the people and enforce the theory, the taxes on
articles consumed, on salt, with the excise subsidies and the octroi
duties on liquors, meat, tobacco, leather and gunpowder, have been
abolished, while the new imposts substituted for the old ones, slowly
fixed, badly apportioned and raised with difficulty have brought in no
returns. On the 1st of February, 1793,[4208] the Treasury had received
on the real and personal taxation of 1791, but one hundred and fifty
millions instead of three hundred millions. On the same taxes for 1792,
instead of three hundred millions it had obtained nothing at all.
At this date, and during the four years of the Revolution, the total
arrears of taxation amounted to six hundred and thirty-two millions--a
bad debt that can hardly be recovered, and, in fact, it is already
reduced one-half, since, even if the debtor could and was disposed to
pay, he would pay in assignats, which, at this time, were at a discount
of fifty per cent.--In the second place, the new managers had quadrupled
the public expenditure.[4209] What with the equipment and excursions of
the National Guards federations, patriotic festivals and parades,
the writing, printing and publication of innumerable documents,
reimbursements for suppressed offices, the installation of new
administrations, aid to the indigent and to its charity workshops,
purchases of grain, indemnities to millers and bakers, it was under
the necessity of providing for the cost of the universal demolition
and reconstruction. Now, the State had, for the most part, defrayed all
these expenses. At the end of April, 1793, it had already advanced to
the city of Paris alone, one hundred and ten million francs, while the
Commune, insolvent, kept constantly extorting fresh millions.[4210] By
the side of this gulf, the Jacobins had dug another, larger still, that
of the war. For the first half of the year 1793 they threw into this
pit first, one hundred and forty millions, then one hundred and sixty
millions, and then one hundred and ninety mi