198 ; BAILLY. 
They ascribe to Foulon the barbarous vaunt; “I will 
force the people to eat hay;” and without any order from 
the constituted authorities, some peasants, neighbours of 
the old minister, arrest him, take him to Paris, his son-in- 
law experiences the same fate, and the famished popu- 
lace immolates both of them. 
In proportion as the multitude appear to me unjust and 
culpable, in attacking certain men respecting a scarcity of 
provisions, when it is the manifest consequence of the 
severity of the seasons, I should be disposed to excuse 
their rage against the authors of factitious scarcities. 
Well, Gentlemen, at the time that Foulon was assassi- 
“nated, the people, deceived by some impassioned orators 
of the Assembly, might, or let us rather say, ought to 
believe, that they were wilfully famished. Foulon per- 
ished the 22d of July, 1789; on the 15th, that is to say, 
seven days before, Mirabeau had addressed the following 
incendiary words to the inhabitants of the capital, from 
the National Tribune :— 
“Henry IV. allowed provisions to be taken into be- 
sieged and rebellious Paris; but now, some perverse 
ministers intercept convoys of provisions destined for 
famished and obedient Paris.” 
Yet people have been so inconsiderate as to be aston- 
ished at the assassinations of Foulon and of Berthier. 
Going back in thought to the month of July, 1789, I 
perceive in the imprudent apostrophe of the eloquent 
tribune, more sanguinary disorders than the contemporary 
history has had to record. 
One of the most honourable, one of the most respect- 
able and the most respected members of the institute, 
having been led, in a recent work, to relate the assassina- 
tion of Foulon, has thrown on the conduct of Bailly, 
