in the Theatre des Bergeres by the _jeunesse
doree_, the young men whose mission it was to bludgeon Jacobinism out of
the streets and cafes. But for the appalling economic conditions produced
by the fall in the value of _assignats_, Babeuf might have shared the fate
of other agitators who were whipped into obscurity.

It was the attempts of the Directory to deal with this economic crisis that
gave Babeuf his real historic importance. The new government was pledged to
abolish the vicious system by which Paris was fed at the expense of all
France, and the cessation of the distribution of bread and meat at nominal
prices was fixed for the 20th of February 1796. The announcement caused the
most wide-spread consternation. Not only the workmen and the large class of
idlers attracted to Paris by the system, but _rentiers_ and government
officials, whose incomes were paid in _assignats_ on a scale arbitrarily
fixed by the government, saw themselves threatened with actual starvation.
The government yielded to the outcry that arose; but the expedients by
which it sought to mitigate the evil, notably the division of those
entitled to relief into classes, only increased the alarm and the
discontent. The universal misery gave point to the virulent attacks of
Babeuf on the existing order, and at last gained him a hearing. He gathered
round him a small circle of his immediate followers known as the _Societe
des Egaux_, soon merged with the rump of the Jacobins, who met at the
Pantheon; and in November 1795 he was reported by the police to be openly
preaching "insurrection, revolt and the constitution of 1793."

For a time the government, while keeping itself informed of his activities,
left him alone; for it suited the Directory to let the socialist agitation
continue, in order to frighten the people from joining in any royalist
movement for the overthrow of the existing regime. Moreover the mass of the
_ouvriers_, even of extreme views, were repelled by Babeuf's
bloodthirstiness; and the police agents reported that his agitation was
making many converts--for the government. The Jacobin club of the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine refused to admit Babeuf and Lebois, on the ground that they
were "_egorgeurs_." With the development of the economic crisis, however,
Babeuf's influence increased. After the club of the Pantheon was closed by
Bonaparte, on the 27th of February 1796, his aggressive activity redoubled.
In Ventose and Germinal he publish