"The apostles of Reason preached in vain to the people,
telling them that, up to this time, they had been deceived and that
now was the time to throw off the yoke of prejudice: 'we are willing
to believe that, thus far, we have been deceived, but who will
guarantee us that you will not deceive us in your turn?'"
[58] Lagros: " La R?volution telle qu'elle est." (Unpublished
correspondence of the committee of Public Safety, I., 366. Letter of
Prieur de la Marne.) " In general, the towns are patriotic; but the
rural districts are a hundred leagues removed from the Revolution. .
. . Great efforts will be necessary to bring them up to the level of
the Revolution."
[59] According to the statistics of 1866 (published in 1869) a
district of one thousand square kilometres contains on an average,
thirty-three communes above five hundred souls, twenty-three from five
hundred to one thousand, seventeen bourgs and small towns from one
thousand to five thousand, and one average town, or very large one,
about five thousand. Taking into account the changes that have taken
place in seventy years, one may judge from these figures of the
distribution of the population in 1793.
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