osses which the priests have dug up; they
put back the ropes to the bells which the magistrate has taken away."]

[Footnote 3184: Archives nationales, cartons 3144 and 3145, No. 1004,
missions of the councilors of state, year IX.--(Report by Fourcroy.)
"The keeping of Sunday and the attendance on the churches, which is seen
everywhere, shows that the mass of Frenchmen desire a return to ancient
usages, and that the time has gone by for resisting this national
tendency... The mass of mankind require a religion, a system of worship
and a priesthood. It is an error of certain modern philosophers, into
which I have myself been led, to believe in the possibility of any
instruction sufficiently widespread to destroy religious prejudices;
they are a source of consolation for the vast number of the
unfortunate.... Priests, altars and worship must accordingly be left to
the mass of the people."]

[Footnote 3185: Peuchet, "Statistique elementaire de la France"
(published in 1805), p.228. According to statements furnished by
prefects in the years IX and X, the population is 33,111,962 persons;
the annexation of the island of Elbe and of Piedmont adds 1,864,350
Total, 34,976,313.--Pelet de la Lozere, P.203. (Speech by Napoleon to
the council of state, February 4, 1804, on the Protestant seminaries of
Geneva and Strasbourg, and on the number of Protestants in his states.)
"Their population numbers only 3 millions."]

[Footnote 3186: Roederer, III., 330 (July 1800): "The First Consul spoke
to me about the steps necessary to be taken to prevent the (emigres)
who had been struck off from getting back their possessions, in view of
maintaining the interest in the revolution of about 1,200,000 purchasers
of national domains. "--Rocquain, "Etat de la France au 18 Brumaire."
(Report by Barbe-Marbois on Morbihan, Finisterre, Ile-et-Vilaine, and
Cotes-du-Nord, year IX.) "In every place I have just passed through the
proprietors recognize that their existence is attached to that of the
First Consul."]

[Footnote 3187: Constitution of Frimaire 22, year VIII, art.
94.--Article 93, moreover, declares that "the possessions of the emigres
are irrevocably acquired by the republic."]

[Footnote 3188: Law of Floreal 29, year X, title I, article 8. The
member also swears "to combat with all the means which justice, reason
and the law authorize, every enterprise tending to restore the feudal
regime," and, consequently, feudal rights and tithes]