opinion.

The sittings took place in the evening, so that the people should not be
prevented from attending in consequence of their daily labour: the acts
of the National Assembly, the events of the moment, the examination of
social questions, frequently accusations against the king, ministers,
the _côté droit_; were the texts of the debates. Of all the passions of
the people, there hatred was the most flattered; they made it suspicious
in order to subject it. Convinced that all was conspiring against
it,--king, queen, court, ministers, authorities, foreign powers,--it
threw itself headlong into the arms of its defenders. The most eloquent
in its eyes was he who inspired it with most dread--it had a parching
thirst for denunciations, and they were lavished on it with prodigal
hand. It was thus that Barnave, the Lameths, then Danton, Marat,
Brissot, Camille Desmoulins, Pétion, Robespierre, had acquired their
authority over the people. These names had increased in reputation as
the anger of the people grew hotter; they cherished their wrath in order
to retain their greatness. The nightly sittings of the Jacobins and the
Cordeliers frequently stifled the echo of the sittings of the National
Assembly: the minority, beaten at the Manège, came to protest, accuse,
threaten at the Jacobins.

Mirabeau himself, accused by Lameth on the subject of the law of
emigration, came a few days before his death to listen face to face to
the invectives of his denouncer, and had not disdained to justify
himself. The clubs were the exterior strength, where the factious of the
assembly gave the support of their names in order to intimidate the
national representation. The national representation had only the laws;
the club had the people, sedition, and even the army.