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Individuals of both sexes and of every age, with no ties of country or kindred, with no profession, no opinions, pressed by daily necessities that are multiplied by debauched habit, seeking to indulge these without too much effort, the means for this being formerly found in the many manual operations of commerce, gone astray during the Revolution and, subsequently, scared of the dominant party, accustomed unfortunately at that time to receiving pay for taking part in political strife, and now reduced to living on almost gratuitous distributions of food, to dealing in small wares, to the menial occupations which chance rarely presents--in short, to swindling.

Such is what the observer finds in that portion of the population of Marseilles most in sight; eager to profit by whatever occurs, easily won over, active through its necessities, flocking everywhere, and appearing very numerous...

The patriot Escalon had twenty rations a day; Feri, the journalist, had six; etc...

Civil officers and district commissioners still belong, for the most part, to that class of men which the Revolution had accustomed to live without work, to making those who shared their principles the beneficiaries of the nation's favors, and finally, to receiving contributions from gambling halls and brothels.

These commissioners give notice to their proteges, even the crooks, when warrants against them are to be enforced."] [Footnote 2403: Blanc-Gilly, "Reveil d'alarme d'un depute de Marseilles" (cited in the Memoirs" of Barbaroux, 40, 41).