“Self-interest and a criminal avarice have fomented and kept alive the seeds of division between the inhabitants of the towns and those of the country, between the farmer, the mechanic, and the trader—­ the like has happened between adjoining towns and districts—­an universal selfishness, in short, has prevailed.”  Lindet’s Speech.

     This picture, drawn by a Jacobin Deputy, is not flattering to
     republican fraternization.

—­It is true, the wants of the lower classes are afflicting.  The whole town has, for some weeks, been reduced to a nominal half pound of bread a day for each person—­I say nominal, for it has repeatedly happened, that none has been distributed for three days together, and the quantity diminished to four ounces; whereas the poor, who are used to eat little else, consume each, in ordinary times, two pounds daily, on the lowest calculation.

We have had here a brutal vulgar-looking Deputy, one Florent-Guyot, who has harangued upon the virtues of patience, and the magnanimity of suffering hunger for the good of the republic.  This doctrine has, however, made few converts; though we learn, from a letter of Florent-Guyot’s to the Assembly, that the Amienois are excellent patriots, and that they starve with the best grace possible.

You are to understand, that the Representatives on mission, who describe the inhabitants of all the towns they visit as glowing with republicanism, have, besides the service of the common cause, views of their own, and are often enabled by these fictions to administer both to their interest and their vanity.  They ingratiate themselves with the aristocrats, who are pleased at the imputation of principles which may secure them from persecution—­they see their names recorded on the journals; and, finally, by ascribing these civic dispositions to the power of their own eloquence, they obtain the renewal of an itinerant delegation—­which, it may be presumed, is very profitable.

Beauvais, March 13, 1795.

I have often, in the course of these letters, experienced how difficult it is to describe the political situation of a country governed by no fixed principles, and subject to all the fluctuations which are produced by the interests and passions of individuals and of parties.  In such a state conclusions are necessarily drawn from daily events, minute facts, and an attentive observation of the opinions and dispositions of the people, which, though they leave a perfect impression on the mind of the writer, are not easily conveyed to that of the reader.  They are like colours, the various shades of which, though discriminated by the eye, cannot be described but in general terms.