Prev | Current Page 867 | Next

Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"


Because the workers of Paris have been usurpers and tyrants they are
now beggars. Owing to the ruin brought on proprietors and capitalists
by them, individuals can no longer employ them. Owing to the ruin
they have brought on the Treasury, the State can provide them with
only the semblance of charity, and hence, while all are compelled to
go hungry, a great many die, and many commit suicide.
* On Germinal 6th, "Section of the Observatory,"[142] at the
distribution, "forty-one persons had been without bread; several
pregnant women desired immediate confinement so as to destroy their
infants; others asked for knives to stab themselves."
* On Germinal 8th," a large number of persons who had passed the night
at the doors of the bakeries were obliged to leave without getting any
bread."
* On Germinal 24th, "the police commissioner of the Arsenal section
states that many become ill for lack of food, and that he buries quite
a number.... The same day, he has heard of five or six citizens, who,
finding themselves without bread, and unable to get other food, throw
themselves into the Seine."
* Germinal 27, "the women say that they feel so furious and are in
such despair on account of hunger and want that they must inevitably
commit some act of violence.


Pages:
855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879