[49] - Besides, to ruin him, we
have more direct and prompt means. If an ?migr?, and there are
hundreds of thousands of ?migr?s, we confiscate his possessions. If
he has been guillotined or deported, and there are tens of thousands
of these, we confiscate his possessions. If he is "recognized as an
enemy of the Revolution,"[50] and "all the rich pray for the counter-
revolution,"[51] we sequestrate his property, enjoying the usufruct of
it until peace is declared, and we shall have the property after the
war is over. Usufruct or property, the State, in either case,
inherits; at the most we might grant temporary aid to the family,
which is not even entitled to maintenance.
It is impossible to uproot fortunes more thoroughly. As to those
which are not at once eradicated we get rid of them piecemeal, and
against these we employ two axes:
On the one hand, we decree the principle of progressive taxation, and
on this basis we establish the forced loan:[52] in incomes, we
distinguish between the essential and the surplus; we fix according as
the excess is greater or less we take a quarter, a third or the half
of it, and, when above nine thousand francs, the whole; beyond its
small alimentary reserve, the most opulent family will keep only four
thousand five hundred francs income.
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