e, firm
Patriots all, Danton one of them: Renewable every month;--yet why not
reelect them if they turn out well? The flower of the matter is that
they are but nine; that they sit in secret. An insignificant-looking
thing at first, this Committee; but with a principle of growth in it!
Forwarded by fortune, by internal Jacobin energy, it will reduce
all Committees and the Convention itself to mute obedience, the Six
Ministers to Six assiduous Clerks; and work its will on the Earth and
under Heaven, for a season. 'A Committee of Public Salvation,' whereat
the world still shrieks and shudders.

If we call that Revolutionary Tribunal a Sword, which Sansculottism
has provided for itself, then let us call the 'Law of the Maximum,' a
Provender-scrip, or Haversack, wherein better or worse some ration of
bread may be found. It is true, Political Economy, Girondin free-trade,
and all law of supply and demand, are hereby hurled topsyturvy: but what
help? Patriotism must live; the 'cupidity of farmers' seems to have no
bowels. Wherefore this Law of the Maximum, fixing the highest price of
grains, is, with infinite effort, got passed; (Moniteur, du 20 Avril,
&c. to 20 Mai, 1793.) and shall gradually extend itself into a Maximum
for all manner of comestibles and commodities: with such scrambling and
topsyturvying as may be fancied! For now, if, for example, the farmer
will not sell? The farmer shall be forced to sell. An accurate
Account of what grain he has shall be delivered in to the Constituted
Authorities: let him see that he say not too much; for in that case,
his rents, taxes and contributions will rise proportionally: let him
see that he say not too little; for, on or before a set day, we shall
suppose in April, less than one-third of this declared quantity, must
remain in his barns, more than two-thirds of it must have been thrashed
and sold. One can denounce him, and raise penalties.

By such inextricable overturning of all Commercial relation will
Sansculottism keep life in; since not otherwise. On the whole, as
Camille Desmoulins says once, "while the Sansculottes fight, the
Monsieurs must pay." So there come Impots Progressifs, Ascending Taxes;
which consume, with fast-increasing voracity, and 'superfluous-revenue'
of men: beyond fifty-pounds a-year you are not exempt; rising into the
hundreds you bleed freely; into the thousands and tens of thousands, you
bleed gushing. Also there come Requisitions; there comes 'Forced