If this be the case, the peasant, the former tax-
payer, gave nothing or almost nothing from his pocket during the
first year of the Revolution. For instance, in regard to the
patriotic contribution, the Assembly left it to the conscience of
each person to fix his own quota; at the end of six months,
consciences are found too elastic, and the Assembly is obliged to
confer this right on the municipalities. The result is[48] that
this or that individual who taxed himself at forty-eight livres, is
taxed at a hundred and fifty; another, a cultivator, who had offered
six livres, is judged to be able to pay over one hundred. Every
regiment contains a small number of select brave men, and it is
always these who are ready to advance under fire. Every State
contains a select few of honest men who advance to meet the tax-
collector. Some effective constraint is essential in the regiment
to supply those with courage who have but little, and in the State
to supply those with probity who do not possess it.
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