[Footnote 3217: Stourm, ibid.,II., 365. (Speech of Ozanam to the Five Hundred, Pluviôse 14, year VII.) "Scandalous traffic.... Most of the (tax) collectors in the republic are heads and managers of banks."--(Circular of the minister of the finances, Floréal 25 year VII.) "Stock-jobbing of the worst kind to which many collectors give themselves up, using bonds and other public securities received in payment of taxes."--(Report by Gros-Cassaud Florimond, Sep.19, 1799.) "Among the corruptible and corrupting agents there are only too many public functionaries."--Mollien, "Mémoires," I., 222. (In 1800, he had just been appointed director of the sinking-fund.) "The commonplace compliment which was everywhere paid to me (and even by statesmen who affected the sternest morality) was as follows--you are very fortunate to have an office in which one may legitimately accumulate the largest fortune in France. "--Cf. Rocquain, "État de la France au 18 Brumaire." (Reports by Lacuée, Fourcroy and Barbé-Marbois.)] [Footnote 3218: Charlotte de Sohr, "Napoléon en Belgique et en Hollande," 1811, vol. I., 243. (On a high functionary condemned for forgery and whom Napoleon kept in prison in spite of every solicitation.) "Never will I pardon those who squander the public funds.... Ah! parbleu! We should have the good old times of the contractors worse than ever if I did not show myself inexorable for these odious crimes."] [Footnote 3219: Stourm, ibid., I., 177. (Report by Gaudin, Sep. 15, 1799.) "A few (tax) rolls for the year V, and one-third of those for the year VII, are behindhand."--(Report by the same, Germinal I, year X.) "Everything remained to do, on the advent of the consulate, for the assessment and collection of direct taxes; 35,000 rolls for the year VII still remained to be drawn up. With the help of the new office, the rolls for the year VII have been completed; those of the year VIII were made out as promptly as could be expected, and those of the year IX have been prepared with a dispatch which, for the first time since the revolution, enables the collections to be begun in the very year to which they belong."] [Footnote 3220: "Archives parlementaires," VIII., p.11. (Report by Necker to the States-General, May 5, 1789.) "These two-fifths, although legitimately due to the king, are always in arrears.... (To-day) these arrears amount in full to about 80 millions."] [Footnote 3221: De Foville, "la France économique," p.354.] [Footnote 3222: "The Ancient Régime," p. 354. (Laff. I. p. 263.)] [Footnote 3223: Necker, "De l'administration des finances," I., 164, and "Rapport aux états-généraux," May 5th, 1789. (We arrive at these figures, 179 millions, by combining these documents, on both sides, with the observation that the 3rd vingtième is suppressed in 1789.)]