We carry away kitchen utensils to obtain the copper; we turn people out of their rooms to get their beds; we strip them of their coats and shirts; in one day, we make ten thousand individuals in one town go barefoot.[2109] "When public needs require it," says representative Isore, "all belongs to the people and nothing to individuals." By virtue of the same right we dispose of persons as we do of things.

We decree the levy en masse and, stranger still, we carry it out, at least in many parts of the country, and we keep it up for months: in Vendee, and in the northern and eastern departments, it is the entire male, able-bodied population, up to fifty years of age, which we drive in herds against the enemy.[2110] We afterwards sign an entire generation on, all young men between eighteen and twenty-five, almost a million of men:[2111] whoever fails to appear is put in irons for ten years; he is regarded as a deserter; his property is confiscated, and his family is punished as well; later he is classed with the emigrants, condemned to death, and his father, mother and progenitors, treated as "suspects," imprisoned and their possessions taken .-- To clothe, shoe and equip our recruits, we must have workmen; we summon to head-quarters all gunsmiths, blacksmiths and locksmiths, all the tailors and shoemakers of the district, "foremen, apprentices and boys;"[2112] we imprison those who do not come; we install the rest in squads in public buildings and assign them their tasks; they are forbidden to furnish anything to private individuals.

Henceforth, French shoemakers must work only for us, and each must deliver to us, under penalty, so many pairs of shoes per decade.[2113]--But, the civil service is no less important than the military service, and to feed the people is as urgent as it is to defend them.

Hence we put "in requisition all who have anything to do with handling, transporting or selling provisions and articles of prime necessity,"[2114] especially combustibles and food--wood-choppers, carters, raftsmen, millers, reapers, threshers, wine-growers, movers, field-hands, "country people" of every kind and degree.

Their hands belong to us: we make them bestir themselves and work under the penalty of fine and imprisonment.