universal atrophy.
Deprive people of the fruits of their labor, and yet more, force them
to produce by fear, confiscate their time, their painstaking efforts and
their persons, reduce them to the condition of fellahs, create in them
the sentiments of fellahs, and you will have nothing but the labor
and productions of fellahs, that is to say, a minimum of labor and
production, and hence, insufficient supplies for sustaining a very dense
population, which, multiplied through a superior and more productive
civilization, will not long subsist under a barbarous, inferior and
unproductive regime. When this systematic and complete expropriation
terminates we see the final result of the system, no longer a dearth,
but famine, famine on a large scale, and the destruction of lives
by millions.--Among the Jacobins,[4244] some of the maddest who are
clear-sighted, on account of their fury, Guffroy, Antonelle, Jean Bon
Saint-Andre, Collot d'Herbois, foresee the consequences and accept them
along with the principle. Others, who avoid seeing it, are only the more
determined in the application of it. However, they all work together
with all their might to aggravate the misery of which the lamentable
spectacle is so vainly exposed under their eyes.

IV. Hunger.

Famine.--In the provinces.--At Paris.--People standing in
lines under the Revolutionary government to obtain food.
--Its quality.--Distress and chagrin.

Collot d'Herbois wrote from Lyons on November 6, 1793: "There is not
two days' supply of provisions here." On the following day: "The present
population of Lyons is one hundred and thirty thousand souls at least,
and there is not sufficient subsistence for three days." Again the day
after: "Our situation in relation to food is deplorable." Then, the next
day: "Famine is beginning."[4245]--Near by, in the Montbrison district,
in February, 1794, "there is no food or provisions left for the people;"
all has been taken by requisition and carried off, even seed for
planting, so that the fields lie fallow.[4246]--At Marseilles, "since
the maximum, everything is lacking; even the fishermen no longer go out
(on the sea) so that there is no supply of fish to live on."[4247]--At
Cahors, in spite of multiplied requisitions, the Directory of Lot and
Representative Taillefer[4248] state that "the inhabitants, for
more than eight days, are reduced wholly to maslin bread composed of
one-fifth of wheat and the rest of b