The Revolution 343 



impossible to deprive the tenantry of a vast advantage neces- 

 sarily flowing from their emancipation. 



The confusion which has since arisen in the finances, owing 

 almost entirely to the mode of taxation adopted by the assembly, 

 has had the effect of continuing to the present moment (1791) a 

 freedom from all impost to the little proprietors, which, however 

 dreadful its general effects on the national affairs, has tended 

 strongly to enrich this class. 



The effects of the revolution, not on any particular class of 

 cultivators, but on agriculture in general, is with me, I must 

 confess, very questionable; I see no benefits flowing, particularly 

 to agriculture (liberty applies equally to all classes, and is not 

 yet sufficiently established for the protection of property), except 

 the case of tithes: but I see the rise of many evils; restrictions 

 and prohibitions on the trade of corn — a varying land tax — ■ 

 and impeded enclosures, are mischiefs on principle that ma}^ 

 have a generative faculty ; and will prove infinite drawbacks from 

 the prosperity which certainly was attainable. It is to be hoped 

 that the good sense of the assembly will reverse this system by 

 degrees; for if it is not reversed, agriculture cannot flourish. 



The effect of the revolution on the public revenue is one great 



point on which Monsieur de Calonne lays considerable stress ; and 



it has been since urged in France that the ruin of 30,000 families, 



thrown absolutely out of employment and consequently out of 



bread, in the collection of the taxes on salt and tobacco only, has 



had a powerful influence in spreading universal distress and 



misery. Thepublicrevenuesunk in one year 175,000,000: this was 



not a loss of that sum ; the people to whom assignats were paid on 



that account lost no more than the discount; the loss, therefore, 



to the people to whom that revenue was paid could amount to 



no more than from 5 to 10 per cent.^ But was it a loss to the 



miserable subjects who formerly paid those taxes; and who paid 



them by the sweat of their brows, at the expense of the bread out 



of their children's mouths, assessed with tyranny and levied in 



blood. Do they feel a loss in having 175,000,000 in their pockets 



in 1789 more than they had in 1788.'^ and in possessing other 



175,000,000 more in 1790, and the inheritance in future? Is not 



such a change ease, wealth, life, and animation to those classes 



who, while the pens of political satirists slander all innovations, 



are every moment reviving by inheriting from that revolution 



^ Since this was wTitten, assignats fell, in December 1791 and January 

 1792, to 34 to 38 per cent, paid in silver, and 42 to 50 paid in gold, cirising 

 from great emissions, from the quantity of private paper issued, from 

 forged ones being common, and from the prospect of a war. — Author's note. 



