80] 
on merchandize and provisions, and 
which was considered as, impeding 
the circulation of trade in these ar- 
ticles. But the transaétion, which 
afforded particular satisfaction to 
the government and people, was an 
investigation of the state of the 
national finances; by which it ap- 
peared, that thedomains which had 
been declared public property, and 
were yet unsold, at the commence- 
ment cf 1795, amounted, on a rea- 
sonable calculation, to six hundred 
millions sterling, a sum exceeding, 
by two-thirds, the paper-money 
issued on their security. 
The reciprocal hatred, subsisting 
between the various parties that 
divided the French nation, had ne- 
ver ceased to manifest itself on ail 
occasions, ever since the commence- 
ment of the revolution. It aGu- 
ated individuals of all classes ; it in- 
vaded private life no less than it 
disturbed public transactions; it 
was chiefly, indeed, on occurrences 
of this nature, that it broke, through 
all the rules of decency: inflamed 
by the warmth of party, and that 
heat of temper charaéteristic of the 
French, they gave an unbounded 
Foose to their feelings, and in the 
vehemence of their unrestrained in- 
vettives, aspersed each other’s cha- 
racter with all the malice and in- 
veteracy of men determined to go 
every length of word or deed, tor 
the gratification of an enmity that 
was literally become too big for 
utterance. Hence the pictures they 
drew of their antagonists were such 
as could not fail to hold them out to 
the public as objects of execration. 
‘he most respetable members of 
every national meeting that had 
been heid, from the constituent as. 
sembly, to the present convention, 
had. thus been described in the most 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
odious colours. When engaged in 
debates, the personal abuse of 
which they were prodigal to each 
other, tarnished the splendour of the 
noblest specimens of eloquence, by 
the vulgarity of their reciprocal 
revilings. Such was their attach- 
ment to this method of treating each 
other, that they serupled not to 
justify it by the rules of oratory, and 
by ‘adducing precedents from the 
practice of the greatest orators of an- 
tiquity. The wisest, however, in 
the convention could not-help per- 
eciving, that by this behaviour they 
lessened the dignity of their station, 
and lost the respect of the common- 
ality, who, being continually wit. 
nesses of these mean altercations, 
could not retain much reverence for 
persons who made it their business 
to defame each other. This licen- 
tiousness of speech was at this time 
- carried so far, that some of the most 
discreet ameng them, thought it in- 
dispensably necessary that it should 
be forthwith restrained,lest from Jan- 
guage, they should, in the intemper- 
ance of their unguarded effusions, 
proceed to such actions as might ex- 
pose them to absolute derision, and 
annihilate their authority, already 
weakened by these reiterated proofs 
of so much levity and indiscretion. 
Tt was therefore proposed and agreed, 
that ifany member of the convention 
used abusive language to another, 
in the course of argument or dis. 
custion of any subject, he should 
be liable to imprisonment. So uses 
ful 2 regulation, it was observed, 
pught to have passed long ago, and 
would probably have prevented 
muchevil, by the restraint it would 
have put on men’s passions, and ob- 
viated those resentments which 
harsh expressions never fail to pro- 
duce, and which are frequently pro- 
ductive 
