s vicinity, and sometimes the commune
obtains from the government a charitable gift of wheat, oats, rice or
assignats. But the quantity of grain it receives is so small, one asks
how it is that, after two months, six months or a year of such a system,
that half of the inhabitants are not in the grave yard. I suppose that
many of them live on what they raise in their gardens, or on their small
farms; others are helped by their relations, neighbors and companions;
in any event, it is clear that the human body is very resistant, and a
few mouthfuls suffice to keep it going a long time.--At Ervy,[42113]
in Aube, "not a grain of wheat has been brought in the last two market
days." "To morrow,[42114] Prairial 25, in Bapaume, the main town of the
district, there will be only two bushels of flour left (for food of
any sort)." "At Boulogne-sur-Mer, for the past ten days, there has been
distributed to each person only three pounds of bad barley, or maslin,
without knowing whether we can again distribute this miserable ration
next decade." Out of sixteen hundred inhabitants in Brionne, "twelve
hundred and sixty[42115] are reduced to the small portion of wheat they
receive at the market, and which, unfortunately, for too long a time,
has been reduced from eight to three ounces of wheat for each person,
every eight days." For three months past, in Seine et Marne,[42116]
in "the commune of Meaux, that of Laferte, Lagny, Daumartin, and other
principal towns of the canton, they have had only half a pound per
head, for each day, of bad bread." In Seine et Oise, "citizens of the
neighborhood of Paris and even of Versailles[42117] state that they
are reduced to four ounces of bread." At Saint-Denis,[42118] with a
population of six thousand, "a large part of the inhabitants, worn
out with suffering, betake themselves to the charity depots. Workmen,
especially, cannot do their work for lack of food. A good many women,
mothers and nurses, have been found in their houses unconscious, without
any sign of life in them, and many have died with their infants at their
breasts." Even in a larger and less forsaken town, Saint-Germain,[42119]
the misery surpasses all that one can imagine. "Half-a-pound of flour
for each inhabitant," not daily, but at long intervals; "bread at
fifteen and sixteen francs the pound and all other provisions at
the same rate; a people which is sinking, losing hope and perishing.
Yesterday, for the fete of the 9th of Thermid