The fortunes, liberties and lives of every
individual in easy circumstances are thus legally surrendered to the
despotism, cupidity and hostility of the levelers in office. -
Contemporaries estimate that 200,000 persons were affected by this
law.[107] The Directory, during the three months of existence yet
remaining to it, enforces it in seventeen departments; thousands of
women and old men are arrested, put in confinement, and ruined, while
several are sent off to Cayenne -- and this is called respect for the
rights of man.
VIII. Propaganda and Foreign Conquests.
Propaganda and foreign conquests. - Proximity and advantages of
Peace. - Motives of the Fructidorians for breaking off peace
negotiations with England, and for abandoning the invasion of foreign
countries. - How they found new republics. - How governed. -
Estimate of foreign rapine. - Number of French lives sacrificed in
the war.
After the system which the Fructidoreans establish in France, we may
consider the system they impose abroad - always the same contrast,
between the name and the thing, the same phrases covering the same
misdeeds, and, under proclamations of liberty the institution of
brigandage.
Pages:
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009