188 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



j^lory ? — No : you are now en- 

 lightened by the voict; of truth, and 

 ah'eady many of you are returned, 

 and find security the price of your 

 confidence. Return all of you, and 

 let the fire-side of each become se- 

 cure and peaceful, let the lands be 

 cultivat<!d, and let plenty resuaie 

 its reign ! Let us join in avenging 

 ourselves of the common enemy — 

 of that implacable and jealous na- 

 tion, which has thrown the brand 

 of discord amongst us ! Let all 

 our republican energy be directed 

 against those who have violated the 

 rights of the people ! Let the ut- 

 most vigour animate all throughout 

 our ports ; let the ocean be covered 

 with our privateers j and let the 

 war of extermination, with all its 

 attendant horrors, be carried from 

 the banks of the Loire to the banks 

 of the Thames ! — 



Decreed, 



I. That all persons in the de- 

 partments of the east, the coasts of 

 Brest and of Cherbourg, known 

 under the name of the robbers of 

 La Vendee and of Chouans, who 

 shall lay down their arms in the 

 course of a month after the publi- 

 cation of the present decree, shall 

 not be molested or tried for the 

 acts which they may have com- 

 mitted. 



2. The arms shall be deposited in 

 the municipalities and communes 

 that shall be pointed out by the re- 

 presentatives of the people. 



3. To superinted the execution 

 of the present decree, the conven- 

 tion appointed the representatives 

 of the people, Menou, Boudin, the 

 official for the departments of the 

 cast, and two others for the coasts 

 of Cherbourg, withthesamepowers 

 as thj representative., of the people 

 in luissioQ. 



Proclamnt'wn to the French people 

 to accompany the decree of the re- 

 peal cf Ike latv of the MaximunDi. 



Frenchmen, 



REASON, equity, the interest 

 of the n-public, reproved long 

 ago the law of the maximum j the 

 national convention revokes 'M; and 

 the more the salutary motives whicli 

 dictated this decree shall be known, 

 the more it will have a right to your 

 confidence. In taking this measure, 

 it does not mistake the ciicumstanccs 

 which suiround it ; it foresees that 

 bad faith will endeavour to per- 

 suade, that all the evils which were 

 occasioned by the maximum itself 

 aretheef!ectsof its suppression. Eut 

 your faithful representatives have 

 forgot their dangers, and only look 

 for public utility. 



i'heleastenlightened minds know 

 now, that the law of the maximum 

 annihilated from day to day com- 

 merce and agriculture : the more 

 that law was enforced, the more 

 it became impracticable. Oppres- 

 sion in vain assumed a thousand 

 forms ; it met with a thousand ob- 

 stacles ; it was constantly eluded, 

 or it only took away, by odious and 

 violent means, some precarious re- 

 sources, which it wassoontoexhaust. 

 It is then that law which became 

 so disastrous, that conducted us to 

 an exhausted state. Considerations 

 which exist no more, justified it 

 perhaps at first ; had not the con- 

 vention, in repealing it, broken the 

 chains of industry. It belongs to 

 industry freed from her shackles; it 

 belongs to regenerated commerce 

 to multiply our wealth and our 

 means of exchange. The supplies 

 of the republic are entrusted to una- 

 nimity and to liberty, the only 

 bases of commerce and agriculture- 

 Bur 



