ontact
with reality it comes to nothing,--this was proved in 1793; for, like
all such theories, it leaves out of account the spirit of independence
that is in man. The attempt would lead to a universal uprising, to three
or four _Vendees_, to the villages rising against the towns, all the
country up in arms defying the city for its arrogance in attempting to
impose such a system upon the country.

We have already had too much of Jacobin Utopias! Let us see if some
other form of organization will meet the case.

During the great French Revolution, the provinces starved the large
towns, and killed the Revolution. And yet it is a known fact that the
production of grain in France during 1792-3 had not diminished; indeed,
the evidence goes to show that it had increased. But after having taken
possession of the manorial lands, after having reaped a harvest from
them, the peasants would not part with their grain for paper-money. They
withheld their produce, waiting for a rise in the price, or the
introduction of gold. The most rigorous measures of the National
Convention were without avail, and her executions failed to break up the
ring, or force the farmers to sell their corn. For it is a matter of
history that the commissaries of the Convention did not scruple to
guillotine those who withheld their grain from the market, and
pitilessly executed those who speculated in foodstuffs. All the same,
the corn was not forthcoming, and the townsfolk suffered from famine.

But what was offered to the husbandman in exchange for his hard toil?
_Assignats_, scraps of paper decreasing in value every day, promises of
payment, which could not be kept. A forty-pound note would not purchase
a pair of boots, and the peasant, very naturally, was not anxious to
barter a year's toil for a piece of paper with which he could not even
buy a shirt.

As long as worthless paper-money--whether called assignats or labour
notes--is offered to the peasant-producer it will always be the same.
The country will withhold its produce, and the towns will suffer want,
even if the recalcitrant peasants are guillotined as before.

We must offer to the peasant in exchange for his toil not worthless
paper-money, but the manufactured articles of which he stands in
immediate need. He lacks the proper implements to till the land, clothes
to protect him from the inclemencies of the weather, lamps and oil to
replace his miserable rushlight or tallow dip, spades, rake