time--secretly receiving heavy bribes. When, at the downfall of the
monarchy a few years later, the famous iron chest of the Tuileries was
opened, there were found evidences that, in this carnival of inflation
and corruption, he had been a regularly paid servant of the Royal
court.[36] The artful plundering of the people at large was bad
enough, but worse still was this growing corruption in official and
legislative circles. Out of the speculating and gambling of the
inflation period grew luxury, and, out of this, corruption. It grew
as naturally as a fungus on a muck heap. It was first felt in
business operations, but soon began to be seen in the legislative body
and in journalism. Mirabeau was, by no means, the only example. Such
members of the legislative body as Jullien of Toulouse, Delaunay of
Angers, Fabre d'Eglantine and their disciples, were among the most
noxious of those conspiring by legislative action to raise and depress
securities for stock-jobbing purposes. Bribery of legislators
followed as a matter of course, Delaunay, Jullien and Chabot accepted
a bribe of five hundred thousand _livres_ for aiding legislation
calculated to promote the purposes of certain stock-jobbers. It is
some comfort to know that nearly all concerned were guillotined for
it.[37]

It is true that the number of these corrupt legislators was small, far
less than alarmists led the nation to suppose, but there were enough
to cause wide-spread distrust, cynicism and want of faith in any
patriotism or any virtue.


II.

Even worse than this was the breaking down of the morals of the