the Conspiracy The ultimate goal of François-Noël Babeuf and his comrades was absolute equality. The purpose of the Conspiracy was to continue revolution and to lead it to the collectivisation of lands and the means of production to ‘put an end to civil dissension and public poverty.’ They furthermore demanded the application of the Constitution of Year 1 (dating from 1793, the first constitution of the Republic, which was never applied). The ideas of the Conspiracy were particularly set forth in the Manifesto of Equals of 1796, which was written by Babeuf’s top aide Sylvain Maréchal. The manifesto advocated a radical reform of France which went further than the French Revolution's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to enforce the practice of absolute equality across all aspects of society. Maréchal rejected the notion that equality before the law itself was sufficient enough to define societal equality, and thus placed a strong emphasis on the abolition of private property and equal access to food. The manifesto further denounced the privileged bourgeoisie who benefited from the Revolution such as the wealthy landowners who continued to profit off the ‘common good’ of land. Although the Conspiracy acknowledged the ‘selfish’ would oppose their aims to preserve their unjust privileges, their sacrifice of power was deemed necessary to enact real equality. The Manifesto additionally reads: ‘We aspire to live and die equal, the way we were born: we want real equality or death; this is what we need. And we’ll have this real equality, at whatever the cost.’ However, the Conspiracy failed to include colonial slaves into their manifesto’s thinking, and only championed equality for those they considered the ‘People of France’. The Manifesto was not met with unanimous support from the directors of the revolt. Maréchal’s point ‘Let the arts perish, if need be, as long as real equality remains’ was especially contested. Growth For a time the government, while keeping itself informed of his activities, left him alone. It suited the Directory to let the socialist agitation continue, in order to deter the people from joining in any royalist movement for the overthrow of the existing régime. Moreover the mass of the ouvriers, even of extreme views, were repelled by Babeuf's bloodthirstiness; and the police agents reported that his agitation was making many converts - for the government. The Jacobin Club refused to admit Babeuf and René-François Lebois, on