The reduction of things to an absolute level is adopted as a principle; "equality of rights," says Lamarque,[2334] "is to be maintained only by tending steadily to an equality of fortunes;" this theory is practically applied on all sides since the proletariat is pillaging all who own property.--"Let the communal possessions be partitioned among the citizens of the surrounding villages," says Francois de Nantes, "in an inverse ratio to their fortunes, and let him who has the least inheritance take the largest share in the divisions."[2335] Conceive the effect of this motion read at evening to peasants who are at this very moment claiming their lord's forest for their commune.

M.Corneille prohibits any tax to be levied for the public treasury on the wages of manual labor, because nature, and not society, gives us the "right to live."[2336] On the other hand, he confers on the public treasury the right of taking the whole of an income, because it is society, and not nature, which institutes public funds; hence, according to him, the poor majority must be relieved of all taxation, and all taxes must fall on the rich minority.

The system is well-timed and the argument apt for convincing indigent or straitened tax-payers, namely, the refractory majority, that its taxes are just, and that it should not refuse to be taxed .-- "Under the reign of liberty," says President Daverhoult,[2337] "the people have the right to insist not merely on subsistence, but again on plenty and happiness."[2338] Accordingly, being in a state of poverty they have been betrayed.--"Elevated to the height achieved by the French people," says another president, "it looks down upon the tempests under its feet."[2339] The tempest is at hand and bursts over its head.

War, like a black cloud, rises above the horizon, overspreads the sky, thunders and wraps France filled with explosive materials in a circle of lightening, and it is the Assembly which, through the greatest of its mistakes, draws down the bolt on the nation's head.
III .-- War.
Disposition of foreign powers .-- The King's dislikes .-- Provocation of the Girondins .-- Dates and causes of the rupture It might have been turned aside with a little prudence.

Two principal grievances were alleged, one by France and the other by the Empire .-- On the one hand, and very justly, France complained of the gathering of emigre's, which the Emperor and Electors tolerated against it on the frontier.