HIS DISLIKE OF OSTENTATIOUS DISPLAY. 191 



once with his wife, to regulate the furnishing of the apart- 

 ments that the Commune assigned him ; rejecting all that 

 had the appearance of luxury or even of elegance ; to 

 replace sets of china by sets of earthenware, new carpets 

 by the half-used ones of M. de Crosnes, writing tables 

 of mahogany by writing tables of walnut, &c. But all 

 this would appear an indirect criticism, which is far from 

 my thoughts. From the same motives, I will not say, 

 that inimical to all sinecures, of all plurality of appoint- 

 ments, when the functions are not fulfilled, the Mayor of 

 Paris, since he no longer regularly attended the meetings 

 of the National Assembly, no longer fingered the pay of 

 a deputy, and that this was pro^edpto^e great confusion 

 of the idiots, whose minjJs^had been Disturbed by Marat's 

 clamours. Yet I will record that Bailly refused all that 

 in the incomes of his predecessors had proceeded from 

 an impure source ; as, for example, the allowances from 

 the lotteries, the amount of which was by his orders 

 constantly paid into the coffers of the Commune. 



You see, Gentlemen, that no trouble was required to 

 show that the disinterestedness of Bailly was great, 

 enlightened, dictated by virtue, and that it was at least 

 equal to his other eminent qualities. In the series of 

 accusations that I have extracted from the pamphlets 

 of that epoch, there is one, however, as to which, all 

 things considered, I will not attempt to defend Bailly. 

 He accepted a livery from the city ; on this point no 

 blame was attached to him ; but the colours of the livery 

 were very gaudy. Perhaps the inventors of these bright 

 shades had imagined, that the insignia of the first magis- 

 trate of the metropolis, in a ceremony, in a crowd, should, 

 like the light from a Pharos, strike even inattentive 

 eyes. But these explanations regard those who would 



