It is natural that with pure Jacobins one notes the re-appearance of the pure Jacobinism, the egalitarian and anti-Christian socialism, the programme of the funereal year; in short, the rigid, plain, exterminating ideas which the sect gathers together, like daggers encrusted with gore, from the cast-off robes of Robespierre, Billaud-Varennes and Collot d'Herbois.5190

In the forefront appears the fixed and favorite idea of the old-fashioned philosophism. By that I mean the consistent and decreed plan to found a lay religion, and impose the observances and dogmas of its theories on twenty-six millions of Frenchmen, and, consequently extirping Christianity, its worship and its clergy. The inquisitors who hold office multiply, with extraordinary persistence and minuteness, proscriptions and vigorous measures for the forcible conversion of the nation. The aim is to substitute the improvised rites of a logical abstraction mechanically elaborated in the closet for the tender emotions nourished by the customs of eighteen centuries.—Never did the dull imagination of a third-rate scholar and classic poetaster, never did the grotesque solemnity of a pedant fond of his phrases, never did the irritating hardness of the narrow and stubborn devotee display with greater sentimental bombast and more administrative officiousness than in the decrees of the Legislative Corps,5191 in the acts passed by the Directory and in the instructions issued by the ministers Sotin, Letourneur, Lambrechts, Duval and FranÇois de Neufchateau. War on Sunday, on the old calendar and on fasting, obligatory rest on the dÉcadi under penalty of fine and imprisonment,5192 obligatory fÊtes on the anniversaries of January 21 and Fructidor 18, participation of all functionaries with their cult, obligatory attendance of public and private instructors with their pupils of both sexes at civic ceremonies, an obligatory liturgy with catechisms and programmes sent from Paris, rules for scenic display and for singings, readings, postures, acclamations and imprecations. One might shrug his shoulders at these prescriptions of cuistres and these parades of puppets, if, behind the apostles who compose moral allegories, we did not detect the persecutor who imprisons, tortures and murders.—By the decree of Fructidor 19, not only were all the laws of the reign of Terror against unsworn priests, their harborers and their followers, enforced again, but the Directory arrogated to itself the right of banishing, "through individual acts passed for cause," every ecclesiastic "who disturbed the public peace," that is to say who exercised his ministry and preached his faith;5193 and, moreover, the right of shooting down, within twenty-four hours, every priest who, banished by the laws of 1792 and 1793, has remained in or returned to France. Almost all the ecclesiastics, even those who are sworn, are comprised within the first category; the administration enumerates 366 in the department of Doubs alone,5194 and 556 in that of HÉrault. Thousands of ecclesiastics are comprised in the second category; the administration enumerates over 800 who, returned from the frontier of Spain alone, still wander about the southern departments. On the strength of this the moralists in office proclaim a hunt for the black game in certain places, an universal destruction without exception or reprieve. For instance, in Belgium, recently incorporated with France, the whole of the regular and secular clergy is proscribed en masse and tracked for transportation; 560 ecclesiastics in "Ourthe and the forests", 539 in Escaut, 883 in Jemmapes, 884 in Sambre-et-Meuse, 925 in la Lys, 957 in Deux-NÈthes, 1,043 in Meuse-InfÉrieure, 1,469 in Dyle, in all 7,260, without counting the missing names.5195 A number of them escape abroad or hide away; but the rest are caught, and quite enough of them to load and fill the carts constantly.—"Not a day passes," says an inhabitant of Blois,5196 "when from seven to twenty and more are lodged at the Carmelites." The next day they set out for the casemates of RhÉ and OlÉron, or for the Sinnamary marshes, where it is known what becomes of them: after a few months, three-fourths of them lie in the cemetery.—In the interior, from time to time, some are shot as an example—seven at BesanÇon, one at Lyons, three in the Bouches-du-RhÔne, while the opponents of fanaticism, the official philanthropists, the enlightened deists of Fructidor, use all these disguised or declared murders as a basis on which to rear the cult of Reason.

It remains now to consolidate the worship of Reason with the reign of Equality, which is the second article in the Jacobin credo. The object now is to mow down all the heads which rise above the common level, and, this time, to mow them down, not one by one, but in large groups. Saint-Just himself had only covertly proposed so extensive and so sweeping an operation. SiÉyÈs, Merlin de Douai, Reubell, Chazal, ChÉnier, and Boulay de la Meurthe, more openly and decidedly insist on a radical amputation. According to them,5197 it is necessary "to regulate this ostracism," by banishing "all those whose prejudices, pretensions, even existence, in a word, are incompatible with republican government." That is to say, not alone priests, but likewise nobles and the ennobled, all parliamentarians, those who are well-off and distinguished among the bourgeoisie and former notables, about two hundred thousand property-holders, men and women; in short, all who still remained among those oppressed and ruined by the Revolution.5198—The proposal was turned down by the ex-noble Barras and by the public out-cry "of merchants and workmen themselves," and banishment is replaced by civic degradation. Henceforth,5199 every noble or ennobled person, even if he has not left the territory, even if he has constantly and punctually obeyed revolutionary laws, even if he be not related to, or allied with, any ÉmigrÉ, finds himself deprived of his quality as a Frenchman. The fact alone of his being ennobled or noble before 1789, obliged him to be naturalized according to legal forms and conditions.—As to the 150,000 gentlemen, artisans and farmers who have emigrated or who have been accused of emigration, if they have returned to, or remain in France, they are to leave Paris and all communes above 20,000 souls within twenty-four hours, and France in fifteen days. If not, they are to be arrested, brought before the military commissions and shot on the spot;51100 in fact, in many places, at Paris, BesanÇon and Lyons, they are shot.—Now, a large number of pretended emigrants, who had never left France,51101 nor even their province, nor even their commune, and whose names have been put on the lists simply to strip them of their property, find that they are no longer protected either by the constancy or the notoriety of their residence. The new law is no sooner read than they begin to imagine the firing squad; the natal soil is too warm for them and they speedily emigrate.51102 On the other hand, once the name is down on the list, rightly or wrongly, it is never removed. The government purposely refuses to strike it off, while two decrees are applied which render its removal impossible;51103 each name maintained on the list of spoliation and death relieves the Revolution of a probable adversary, and places one more domain at its disposal.

The Directory renews and aggravates the measures of the Convention against the remainder of the property-holders: there is no longer a disguised but a declared bankruptcy. 386,000 fund-holders and pensioners are deprived of two-thirds of their revenue and of their capital.51104 A forced loan of 100 millions is levied progressively, and wholly on "the well-off class." Finally, there is the law of hostages, this being atrocious, conceived in the spirit of September, 1792, suggested by the famous motions of Collot d'Herbois against those in confinement, and of Billaud-Varennes against the youth, Louis XVII., but extended, elaborated and drawn up with cool legal acumen, and enforced and applied with the foresight of an administrator.—Remark that, without counting the Belgian departments, where an extensive insurrection is under way and spreading, more than one-half of the territory falls under the operation of this law. for, out of the eighty-six departments of France,51105 properly so called, forty-five are at this moment, according to the terms of the decree,51106 "declared to be in a state of civil uprising." Actually, in these departments, according to official reports, armed mobs of conscripts are resisting the authorities charged with recruiting them, bands of two hundred, three hundred and eight hundred men overrun the country, troops of brigands force open the prisons, assassinate the gendarmes and set their inmates free; the tax-collectors are robbed, killed or maimed, municipal officers slain, proprietors ransomed, estates devastated, and diligences stopped on the highways." Now, in all these cases, in all the departments, cantons or communes, three classes of persons, at first the relations and allies of the ÉmigrÉs, next the former nobles and ennobled, and finally the "fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers of persons who, without being ex-nobles or relations of ÉmigrÉs," nevertheless form a part of the bands or mobs, are declared "personally and civilly responsible" for the violent acts committed. Even when these acts are only "imminent," the administration of the department must, in its report, give a list of all the men and women who are responsible; these are to be taken as "hostages," and kept in confinement at their own expense in the local jail. If they escape, they must be put on the same footing as ÉmigrÉs, that is to say punished with death. If any damage is sustained, they are to pay costs; if any murder is committed or abduction effected, four amongst them must be deported. Observe, moreover, that the local authorities are obliged, under severe penalties, to execute the law at once. Note that, at this date, they are ultra Jacobin, since to inscribe on the list of hostages, not a noble or a bourgeois, but an honest peasant or respectable artisan, it suffices for these local sovereigns to designate his son or grandson, who might either be absent, fugitive or dead, as being "notoriously "insurgent or refractory. 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.51107 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.