* Every department was infested by one, two, or more of these strolling Deputies; and, it must be confessed, the constant tendency of the people to revolt in many places afforded them sufficient employment.  Sometimes they acted as legislators, making laws on the spot—­sometimes, both as judges and constables—­or, if occasion required, they amused themselves in assisting the executioner.—­The migrations of obscure men, armed with unlimited powers, and whose persons were unknown, was a strong temptation to imposture, and in several places adventurers were detected assuming the character of Deputies, for various purposes of fraud and depredation.—­The following instance may appear ludicrous, but I shall be excused mentioning it, as it is a fact on record, and conveys an idea of what the people supposed a Deputy might do, consistent with the “dignity” of his executive functions.

An itinerant of this sort, whose object seems to have been no more than to procure a daily maintenance, arriving hungry in a village, entered the first farm-house that presented itself, and immediately put a pig in requisition, ordered it to be killed, and some sausages to be made, with all speed.  In the meanwhile our mock-legislator, who seems to have acted his part perfectly well, talked of liberty, l’amour de la Patrie, of Pitt and the coalesced tyrants, of arresting suspicious people and rewarding patriots; so that the whole village thought themselves highly fortunate in the presence of a Deputy who did no worse than harangue and put their pork in requisiton.—­Unfortunately, however, before the repast of sausages could be prepared, a hue and cry reached the place, that this gracious Representant was an impostor!  He was bereft of his dignities, conveyed to prison, and afterwards tried by the Tribunal Revolutionnaire at Paris; but his Counsel, by insisting on the mildness with which he had “borne his faculties,” contrived to get his punishment mitigated to a short imprisonment.—­Another suffered death on a somewhat similar account; or, as the sentence expressed it, for degrading the character of a National Representative.—­Just Heaven! for degrading the character of a National Representative!!! —­and this too after the return of Carrier from Nantes, and the publication of Collot d’Herbois’ massacres at Lyons!

**The agents employed by government in the purchase of subsistence amounted, by official confession, to ten thousand.  In all parts they were to be seen, rivalling each other, and creating scarcity and famine, by requisitions and exactions, which they did not convert to the profit of the republic, but to their own.—­These privileged locusts, besides what they seized upon, occasioned a total stagnation of commerce, by laying embargoes on what they did not want; so that it frequently occurred that an unfortunate tradesman might have half the articles in his shop under requisition for a month together, and sometimes under different