tural or adopted children can be looked
after."--

"The richest Frenchman," says Robespierre, "ought not to have now more
three thousand livres rental."--

Beyond what is strictly necessary, no property is legitimate; we have
the right to take the superfluous wherever we find it. Not only to-day,
because we now require it for the State and for the poor, but at all
times, because the superfluous, in all times, confers on its owner an
advantage in contracts, a control of wages, an arbitrary power over
the means of living, in short, a supremacy of condition worse than
preeminence in rank. Consequently, our hand is not only against the
nobles, but also against the rich and well-to-do bourgeois[2146] the
large land-owners and capitalists; we are going to demolish their crafty
feudalism from top to bottom.[2147]--In the first place, and merely
through the effect of the new institutions, we prevent any capitalist
from deducting, as he is used to do, the best portion of the fruits of
another's labor; the hornets shall no longer, year after year, consume
the honey of the bees. To bring this about, we have only to let the
assignats (paper money) and their forced rate (of exchange) work things
out. Through the depreciation of paper-money, the indolent land-owner
or capitalist sees his income melting away in his hands; his receipts
consist only of nominal values. On the 1st of January, his tenant pays
him really for a half term instead of a full term; on the 1st of March,
his farmer settles his account with a bag of grain.[2148] The effect
is just the same as if we had made fresh contracts, and reduced by
one-half, three-quarters, or, even more, the rate of interest on loans,
the rent of houses and the leases of farm lands.--Whilst the revenue of
the landlord evaporates, his capital melts away, and we do the best
we can to help this along. If he has claims on ancient corporations
or civil and religious establishments of any description, whether
provincial governments, congregations, associations, endowments or
hospitals, we withdraw his special guarantee; we convert his title-deeds
into a state annuity, we combine his private fortune with the public
fortune whether he will or not, we drag him into the universal
bankruptcy, toward which we are conducting all the creditors of the
Republic.[2149]--Besides, to ruin him, we have more direct and prompt
means. If an emigre, and there are hundreds of thousands of emigres, we
confiscate h