letter from Piorry, Representative of the People, to the popular society of Poitiers:—­ “My honest and determined Sans Culottes, as you seemed to desire a Deputy amongst you who has never deviated from the right principles, that is to say, a true Mountaineeer, I fulfil your wishes in sending you the Citizen Ingrand.—­Remember, honest and determined Sans Culottes, that with the sanction of the patriot Ingrand, you may do every thing, obtain every thing, destroy every thing—­imprison all, try all, transport all, or guillotine all.  Don’t spare him a moment; and thus, through his means, all may tremble, every thing be swept away, and, finally, be re-established in lasting order. 
                    (Signed) “Piorry.”

The gentleman who translated the above for me, subjoined, that he had omitted various oaths too bad for translation.—­This Piorry always attended the executions, and as fast as a head fell, used to wave his hat in the air, and cry, "Vive la Republique!"

     Such are the founders of the French Republic, and such the means by
     which it has been supported!

—­It may be admitted, that the lives of the higher Noblesse were not always edifying; but if their dissipation was public, their vices were less so, and the scenes of both were for the most part confined to Paris.  What they did not practise themselves, they at least did not discourage in others; and though they might be too indolent to endeavour at preserving the morals of their dependents, they knew their own interest too well to assist in depraving them.

But the Representatives, and their agents, are not to be considered merely as individuals who have corrupted only by example;—­they were armed with unlimited authority, and made proselytes through fear, where they failed to produce them from inclination.  A contempt for religion or decency has been considered as the test of an attachment to the government; and a gross infraction of any moral or social duty as a proof of civism, and a victory over prejudice.  Whoever dreaded an arrest, or courted an office, affected profaneness and profligacy—­and, doubtless, many who at first assumed an appearance of vice from timidity, in the end contracted a preference for it.  I myself know instances of several who began by deploring that they were no longer able to practise the duties of their religion, and ended by ridiculing or fearing them.  Industrious mechanics, who used to go regularly to mass, and bestow their weekly liard on the poor, after a month’s revolutionising, in the suite of a Deputy, have danced round the flames which consumed the sacred writings, and become as licentious and dishonest as their leader.

The general principles of the Convention have been adapted to sanction and accelerate the labours of their itinerant colleagues.  The sentences of felons were often reversed, in consideration of their “patriotism”—­ women of scandalous lives have been pensioned, and complimented publicly —­and various decrees passed, all tending to promote a national dissoluteness of manners.*