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, 



