And first of all, if bread is not as expensive as on the 5th of October, the misery is worse.

The production of articles of luxury has been at a standstill for three years, and the unemployed artisan has consumed his small savings.

Since the ruin of St.Domingo and the pillaging of grocers' shops colonial products are dear; the carpenter, the mason, the locksmith, the market-porter, no longer has his early cup of coffee,[2521] while they grumble every morning at the thought of their patriotism being rewarded by an increase of deprivation.
But more than all this they are now Jacobins, and after nearly three years of preaching, the dogma of popular sovereignty has taken deep root in their empty brains.

"In these groups," writes a police commissioner, "the Constitution is held to be useless and the people alone are the law.

The citizens of Paris on the public square think themselves the people, populus, what we call the universality of citizens."[2522]--It is of no use to tell them that, alongside of Paris, there is a France.
Danton has shown them that the capital "is composed of citizens belonging one way or another to the eighty-three departments; that is has a better chance than any other place to appreciate ministerial conduct; that it is the first sentinel of the nation," which makes them confident of being right.[2523]--It is of no use to tell them that there are better-informed and more competent authorities than themselves.
Robespierre assures them that "in the matter of genius and public-spiritedness the people are infallible, whilst every one else is subject to mistakes,"[2524] and here they are sure of their capacity .-- In their own eyes they are the legitimate, competent authorities for all France, and, during three years, the sole theme their courtiers of the press, tribune, and club, vie with each other in repeating to them, is the expression of the Duc de Villeroy to Louis XIV.