loan, revolutionary taxes,[4142] seizures
of gold and silver coin, requisitions of common useful utensils,[4143]
sequestrations of prisoners' property, confiscations of the possessions
of emigrants and exiles and of those deported or condemned to death.
No capital invested in real or personal property, no income in money
or produce, whatever its source, whether leases, mortgages, private
credits, pensions, agricultural, industrial or commercial gains, the
fruits of economy or labor, from the farmers', the manufacturers' and
the merchant's stores to the robes, coats, shirts and shoes, even to
the beds and bed-rooms of private individuals--nothing escapes their
rapacious grasp: in the country, they carry off even seed reserved for
planting; at Strasbourg and in the Upper Rhine, all kitchen utensils; in
Auvergne and elsewhere, even the shepherd's pots. Every object of
value, even those not in public use, comes under requisition: for
instance,[4144] the Revolutionary Committee of Bayonne seizes a lot of
"cotton cloth and muslin," under the pretext of making "breeches for
the country's defenders." On useful objects being taken it is not always
certain that they will be utilized; between their seizure and putting
them to service, robbery and waste intervene. At Strasbourg,[4145] on
a requisition being threatened by the representatives, the inhabitants
strip themselves and, in a few days, bring to the municipality "6,879
coats, breeches and vests, 4,767 pairs of stockings, 16,921 pairs of
shoes, 863 pairs of boots, 1351 cloaks, 20,518 shirts, 4,524 hats,
523 pairs of gaiters, 143 skin vests, 2,673, 900 blankets, besides 29
quintals of lint, 21 quintals of old linen, and a large number of other
articles."

But "most of these articles remain piled up in the storehouses, part
of them rotten, or eaten by rats, the rest being abandoned to the
first-comer.... The end of spoliation was attained."--Utter loss to
individuals and no gain, or the minimum of a gain, to the State. Such
is the net result of the revolutionary government. After having laid
its hand on three-fifths of the landed property of France; after having
wrested from communities and individuals from ten to twelve billions of
real and personal estate; after having increased, through assignats and
territorial warrants, the public debt, which was not five billions
in 1789, to more than fifty billions;[4146] no longer able to pay its
employees; reduced to supporting its ar