Nothing of all this finds its way into
their rude, untrained brains; instead of a peasant who has just left
his oxen, there is needed here a legal adept aided by a trained
clerk. - Prudential considerations must be added to their ignorance.
They do not wish to make enemies for themselves in their commune,
and they abstain from any positive action, especially in all tax
matters. Nine months after the decree on the patriotic
contribution, "twenty-eight thousand municipalities are overdue, not
having (yet) returned either rolls or estimates."[23] At the end of
January, 1792, "out of forty thousand nine hundred and eleven
municipalities, only five thousand four hundred and forty-eight have
deposited their registers; two thousand five hundred and eighty
rolls only are definitive and in process of collection. A large
number have not even begun their sectional statements."[24] - It is
much worse when, thinking that they do understand it, they undertake
to do their work. In their minds, incapable of abstraction, the law
is transformed and deformed by extraordinary interpretations.
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