Excerpt from History of the French Revolution, Vol. 3 of 4 Very different was the activity and success of their oppo nents, the Democrats. The plan of subjecting all the pro perty and civilisation of France to their will, which they had first promulgated after the l0th of August, and again during the month of December, was now to be brought into full operation by the new ascendancy which this party had acquired through the trial and execution of the king. As the middle class in Paris kept entirely aloof from politics, the sectional assemblies were only attended by a handful of proletaries, who commenced their sittings late in the evening after work hours, and faithfully represented that sovereignty of the people, whose dicta - according. To the doctrine of the J acobins were to be a binding law on the Convention. Care was taken that there should never be any want of orators or exciting themes of declamation: discussions were carried on till late in the night, on the worthlessness of the ministry and the Gironde - ou the intrigues of the Emigres, and the traitors at home - and above all, on the starvation of the poor, the hard-heartedness of the rich, and the means of extermin ating usurers and monopolists. As many articles were made dear by the stagnation of trade and the mass of as signats, there was reason enough for complaint; and the exasperation was increased by the thought that goods existed in plenty, and that they only had a higher price put on them by the merchants, or were altogether withdrawn from the market, in consequence of the uncertain value of the paper money. And thus a fresh outcry was raised against their grinding selfishness and it was again demanded that the State should decree low and fixed prices, and punish those who refused to sell their goods. The word was passed from section to section; wherever any opposition showed itself it was immediately suppressed by a number of resolute Federes; and on the 12th of February the first of those storm petitions - which were so terribly to characterize the year. 1793 - was presented to the Convention. Commissioners of the sections and the Federes, warmly supported by Marat. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.