as follows:--

"These _assignats_, bearing interest as they do, will soon be
considered better than the coin now hoarded, and will bring it out
again into circulation." The king was also induced to issue a
proclamation recommending that his people receive this new money
without objection.

All this caused great joy. Among the various utterances of this
feeling was the letter of M. Sarot, directed to the editor of the
Journal of the National Assembly, and scattered through France.
M. Sarot is hardly able to contain himself as he anticipates the
prosperity and glory that this issue of paper is to bring to his
country. One thing only vexes him, and that is the pamphlet of
M. Bergasse against the _assignats_; therefore it is after a long
series of arguments and protestations, in order to give a final proof
of his confidence in the paper money and his entire skepticism as to
the evils predicted by Bergasse and others, M. Sarot solemnly lays his
house, garden and furniture upon the altar of his country and offers
to sell them for paper money alone.

There were, indeed, some gainsayers. These especially appeared among
the clergy, who, naturally, abhorred the confiscation of Church
property. Various ecclesiastics made speeches, some of them full of
pithy and weighty arguments, against the proposed issue of paper, and
there is preserved a sermon from one priest threatening all persons
handling the new money with eternal damnation. But the great majority
of the French people, who had suffered ecclesiastical oppression so
long, regarded these utterances as the wriggling of a fish on the
hook, and enjoyed the sport all the better.[11]