Hence, "almost the entire commune is against him; the women in the streets jeer him, and the eight sections meet together to request his withdrawal." But Representative Bo reports that he is every way entitled to remain, being a true Jacobin, an admirable terrorist and "the only sans-culotte mayor which the commune of Troyes has to be proud of."[33100] It would be awarding too much honor to men of this stamp, to suppose that they had convictions or principles; they were governed by animosities and especially by their appetites,[33101] to satiate which they[33102] made the most of their offices .-- At Troyes, "all provisions and foodstuffs are drawn upon to supply the table of the twenty-four" sans-culottes[33103] to whom Bo entrusted the duty of weeding-out the popular club; before the organization of "this regenerating nucleus" the revolutionary committee, presided over by Rousselin, the civil commissioner, carried on its "gluttony" in the Petit-Louvre tavern, "passing nights bozing" and in the preparation of lists of suspects.[33104] In the neighboring provinces of Dijon, Beaune, Semur and Aignayle-Duc, the heads of the municipality and of the club always meet in taverns and bars.

At Dijon, we see "the ten or twelve Hercules of patriotism traversing the town, each with a chalice under his arm:"[33105] this is their drinking-cup; each has to bring his own to the Montagnard inn; there, they imbibe copiously, frequently, and between two glasses of wine "declare who are outlaws." At Aignay-le-Duc, a small town with only half a dozen patriots "the majority of whom can scarcely write, most of them poor, burdened with families, and living without doing anything, never quit the bars, where, night and day, they revel;" their chief, a financial ex-procureur, now "concierge, archivist, secretary and president of the popular club," holds municipal council in the tavern.

"Should they go out it was to chase female aristocrats," and one of them declares "that if the half of Aignay were slaughtered the other half would be all the better for it."-- There is nothing like drinking to excite ferocity to the highest pitch.

At Strasbourg the sixty mustachioed propagandist lodged in the college in which they are settled fixtures, have a cook provided for them by the town, and they revel day and night "on the choice provisions put in requisition," "on wines destined to the defenders of the country."[33106] It is, undoubtedly, when coming out from one of these orgies that they proceed, sword in hand, to the popular club,[33107] vote and force others to vote "death to all prisoners confined in the Seminary to the number of seven hundred, of every age and of both sexes, without any preliminary trial." For a man to become a good cut-throat, he must first get intoxicated;[33108] such was the course pursued in Paris by those who did the work in September: the revolutionary government being an organized, prolonged and permanent Septembrisade, most of its agents are obliged to drink hard.[33109]--For the same reasons when the opportunity, as well as the temptation, to steal, presents itself, they steal .-- At first, during six months, and up to the decree assigning them pay, the revolutionary committees "take their pay themselves;"[33110] they then add to their legal salary of three and five francs a day about what they please: for it is they who assess the extraordinary taxes, and often, as at Montbrison, "without making any list or record of collections." On Frimaire 16, year II., the financial committee reports that "the collection and application of extraordinary taxes is unknown to the government; that it was impossible to supervise them, the National treasury having received no sums whatever arising from these taxes."[33111] Two years after, four years after, the accounts of revolutionary taxation of forced loans, and of pretended voluntary gifts, still form a bottomless pit; out of forty billions of accounts rendered to the National Treasury only twenty are found to be verified; the rest are irregular and worthless.

Besides, in many cases, not only is the voucher worthless or not forthcoming, but, again, it is proved that the sums collected disappeared wholly or in part.