or reviving
material prosperity, notwithstanding all that so many eloquent orators
of the old republican party predicted to that effect. The _Presse_ at
this juncture gave a most melancholy account of the sufferings of the
poor, and the distress of the commercial classes:--"It will be necessary
to feed at the public expense two hundred and sixty-three thousand
persons during the present month, two hundred and eighty thousand
during the month of December, three hundred thousand during the month
of January, three hundred thousand during the month of February, three
hundred thousand during the month of March, and two hundred and eighty
thousand during the month of April next; and the sum granted by the
assembly will not afford each individual more than 12 centimes (1d. and
2/5ths) per day each to exist upon. At the same time the revenue of
the city of Paris has fallen off by a sum of 16,000,000 fr. (L640,000),
which must be made good by an addition to the assessed taxes of more
than 50 per cent."

The Socialists were not without hope that matters would turn to their
account; and although they did not dare to defy the republic in action,
they became more resentful in language than ever. They continued to
hold meetings, in which opinions at variance with all morality and civil
order were expressed, and which would have alarmed every government
in Europe, had not recent events been of a character to confine the
attention of these governments to domestic affairs. A banquet, under the
title of "The Confederation of the People of Europe," was held, at
which eight hundred men, French, Poles, Belgians, Germans, and Italians
assembled; the most furious threats to kings, governments, persons of
property, and to all persons everywhere not favourable to communistic
projects, were uttered. One blasphemous toast will show the _animus_
of the assembly, and of its orators. It was delivered by M. Saint
Just:--"To the men strong, courageous, and valiant in the cause of
humanity. To those whose names serve as a guide, a support, and an
example to the degenerate beings--to all those whom history calls
heroes!... To Brutus, to Catiline, to Jesus Christ, to Julian the
Apostate, to Attila!... To all the thinkers of the middle age....
To unfortunate thinkers!... To Jean Jacques Rousseau, and his pupil,
Maximilian Robespierre!" This enumeration of names was received with a
triple salvo of applause, and was encored, with which request M. Saint
Jus