110 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1*794 



that should be affixed to all the ne- 

 cessaries of life. It was mucli ap- 

 plauded, as settihg bciinds to aia- 

 rice and monopoly. Barrerfe, ih 

 particular, was warm in his oncb- 

 iiiiiims oil tlic pains taken by the 

 »:onimittee for the service of the 

 community. Some parts of his 

 s[x;ech on this occasion were re- 

 markable. Let the rich, says he, 

 resign the superfluities of their ta- 

 bles, where luxury and vanity alotie 

 are fed; let them cease to con- 

 sume in one day the food of many 

 months ; let us all impose on our- 

 selves some civic privations ; let us 

 suppress all delicacies, calculated 

 for voluptuaries, and not for repub- 

 licans. 



But the public was divided in its 

 opinion of the propriety of this 

 mensure, ; Heavy taxes on the su- 

 perfluities*, and encouragements to 

 the importersof necessaries, restric- 

 tion on the sale of yoimg cattle, 

 bounties for the largest quantities 

 of indispensable necessaries brought 

 to market, severe discouragements 

 of costly entertainments, prohibi- 

 tions of culinary refinements, a re- 

 duction of horses kept for mere pa- 

 rade, coniinement- to the plainest 

 food in the douieslic fa're of fami- 

 lies : — these, and oilier regulalions 

 of a similar kind, were deemed by 

 man} better calculated to reduce 

 the price of provisions, than limit- 

 ing the rates at wliich they were to 

 be sold: — a measure that must ulti- 

 mately tend to discourage botli their 

 growth and importation. 



' However detrimental the decree 

 that established the maximum 

 might be deemed, that which was 

 afterwards enacted on the 2Hih of 

 Februaiy, for the extension of the 

 powers of the committee of iiublic' 

 safety, was evidently of a much 



more dangerous tendency. It in- 

 vested that committee, already to6 

 powerful, wilh the right of setting 

 patriots at liberty. Such were the 

 fiords of the decree. Bvit as they 

 had been previously empowered to 

 arrest and imprison individuals de- 

 hounced to them as disloyal, it was 

 clear that this privilege of libera- 

 ting theih at discretion wcfuld pro- 

 duce much oppression, by inducing 

 them to deprive people of their 

 libertv, in order to cxtbrt money 

 from them for restoring it. 



Much U'orsfe was that decree ' 

 which was enacted, at the same 

 time, against those who werfe deem- 

 ed enemies to the revolutidn. It 

 confiscated their effects for the use 

 of the republic, and condemned 

 them to imprisonment until peace 

 w^as restored, and then sentenced 

 them to perpetual banishment. — 

 lliis was a stretch of power that 

 indisposed numbers against the go- 

 vernment, who v/ere in other re- 

 spects sincere friends to the revo- 

 lution. It was a virtual spoliation 

 of all propert)', as noinan colild be 

 safe from the pretence of suspicion. 



A declaration had been publish- 

 ed by the British ministry, stating 

 the motives for continuing the waf 

 against France. This declaraiiori 

 had been carefully ciiculated id all 

 those countries of which the so- 

 vereigns were in alliance with 

 Great Britain, in order to let the 

 jniblic see that views of ambitiori 

 and conquest did not operate with 

 this power; but that it sought only 

 to replace the system of Europe 

 on the footing on which it stood 

 prcvi( u^ly to the troubles which 

 now agitated it. It asserted that a 

 majority of the French nation was 

 desirous of a lestoration of mo-j 

 narchy j and expressed a fervenri 



wish' 



