The Revolution 365 



preserved the free-corn trade, a trade of import more than of 

 export ; had they been silent upon enclosures ; and done nothing 

 in relation to raw materials, the profit of investments would have 

 been higher in France than in America, or any country in the 

 world, and immense capital would have flowed into the kingdom 

 from every part of Europe: scarcity and famine would not have 

 been heard of, and the national wealth would have been equal 

 to all the exigencies of the period* 



April 26, 1792. 



In the last moment which the preparation for publication allows 

 me to use, the intelligence is arrived of a declaration of war on 

 the part of France against the House of Austria ; — the gentlemen 

 in whose company I hear it, all announce destruction to France ; 

 — they will be beat ; — they want discipline ; — they have no sub- 

 ordination ; — and this idea I find general. So cautiously as I 

 have avoided prophetir presumption through the preceding pages, 

 I shall scarcely assume it so late in my labours ; — but thus much 

 I may venture, — that the expectation of destruction to France 

 has many difficulties to encounter. Give all you please to power 

 of field evolution, depending on the utmost strictness of dis- 

 cipline — you must admit that it bears only on the question of 

 battles. But guarded as France is, by the most important 

 frontier fortresses the world knows, why hazard battles.'^ Un- 

 disciplined troops behind walls and within works are known on 

 experience to be effective: and where are the resources to 

 be found that shall attack those strongholds, 700 miles from 

 home? I was as Lisle, Metz, and Strasbourg; and if the 

 military intelligence I had was accurate, it would demand 

 100,000 men, completely provided with everj'thing for a siege, 

 three months to take either of those towns, supposing them well 



England, and not in the infamous methods of the old government of 

 France, would have been paid by them in a light proportion without know- 

 ing it ; but the economistes, to be consistent with their c'd pernicious 

 doctrines, took every step to make all, except land taxes, unpopular; and 

 the people were ignorant enough to be deceived into the opinion that it 

 was better to pay a tax on the bread put into their children's mouths — 

 and, what is worse, on the land which ought but does not produce that 

 bread — than to pay an excise on tobacco and salt; better to pay a tax 

 which is demanded equally, whether they have or have not the money to 

 pay it, than a duty which, mingled with the price of a luxury, is paid in 

 the easiest mode and at the most convenient moment. In the writings 

 of the economistes, you hear of a free-corn trade and free export of every- 

 thing being the recompense for a land tax, but see their actions in power 

 — they impose the burthen and forget the recompense! — Author's note. 



