The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-10-25

\ 1nR Gno enemies OF nDerGy eVePyWner9j Una
nation after nation was yielding to i'll
power; that it's armies were victorious, snt
it's principles, developed by it's constitution
and laws, were such ss reason and human
ity approved, the clergy and the nobility 90
criminal law, honor and every principle o
honesty at defiance, and organized forgery
and made the passage of counterfeit assig
mats an occupation, thus attempting b!
crime, by stealth, and by villsinous and
secret infamy to undermine the credit o.
the assignst, deprive France of its resources
and overthrow the revolution.
This business was prosecuted by in
dividuals in small way in Belgium snC
Switzerland, but manly in the city d
London, under the eye and approval o.
William Pitt, the premier Of England.
The history proceeds as follows:
Seventeen manufacturing establishments
were in full operation in London with {
force Of 400 men, devoted TO the production
Of 4Slss and forged asgignsts. The extern
and the success Of the labor may be judget
by the quantity and Ehe value they repre-
sented. In the month Of May, 1875, IL wal
found that there were in circulation from
Il, 600 100000 to 15,OO0, 100000 francs O
forged assignsts, which were 80 exact il
form. appearance, texture and design as II
defy detection, except by the most minut,
examination and exact knowledge Of tn
secret signs by which the initiated wert
taught TO distinguish them.
Now, taking all the facts into consider
alton, can it be said with any show o
reason and truth that the Rssignats hal
fair trial as q money? With no estab
lished government or sovereignty, they
were not in any true sense a legal tender
There being little revenue collected, they
could not be properly honored or re-
celved in the revenues, in any sort oi
proportion to the amount issued, RnC
being rude and easily cOunterfeited, il
was easy for the counterfe;ters to initiate
them to the limit Of Worthlessness. There
was not single condition on which tc
base safe money system in France al
the time the ssssgnsts were issued. Not
an enterprise, on the farm, in the shop
or in the entire fields of science or in,
dustry, could have succeeded with sc
many essential conditions lacking.
And yet, in spite of the difficulties in
the way, the French assignats made the
revolution a success. They overthreW
the monarchy, and became the means oi
permanently sub dividing the great
landed estates of the nobility into small
homes for the people. Mr.. Alison, II
his History Of Europe" vol. ~, psg'
81, states this part Of the case yer!
clearly. After mentioning the evils aris
ing from the fall of the assignsts, MI
Alison says:
On the other hand, the debtors through
out the whole country found themselve
liberated from their engagement, the ma
tional domains were purchased almost 70
nothing by the holders of government pa
per, and the land, infinitely Subdivided, re
quired little of the expenditure Of capital
and became daily more productive from tn
number and energy Of its new cultivstors
These vast alterations in the circulation
induced social changes more durable il
their influence, and far more important il
their final results than all the political cat
sstrophes of the revolution, for they entirel'
altered, and that, too, in lasting manner
the distribution of property, and made