I.

Weakness of former governments. - Energy of the new government. -
The despotic creed and instincts of the Jacobin.


So far, the weakness of the legal government is extreme. During four
years, whatever its kind, it has constantly and everywhere been
disobeyed. For four years it never dared enforce obedience.
Recruited among the cultivated and refined class, the rulers of the
country have brought with them into power the prejudices and
sensibilities of the epoch. Under the influence of the prevailing
dogma they have submitted to the will of the multitude and, with too
much faith in the rights of Man, they have had too little in the
authority of the magistrate. Moreover, through humanity, they have
abhorred bloodshed and, unwilling to repress, they have allowed
themselves to be repressed. Thus from the 1st of May, 1789, to June
2, 1793, they have administrated or legislated, escaping countless
insurrections, almost all of them going unpunished ; while their
constitution, an unhealthy product of theory and fear, have done no
more than transform spontaneous anarchy into legal anarchy.
Deliberately and through distrust of authority they have undermined
the principle of command, reduced the King to the post of a decorative
puppet, and almost annihilated the central power: from the top to the
bottom of the hierarchy the superior has lost his hold on the
inferior, the minister on the departments, the departments on the
districts, and the districts on the communes. Throughout all branches
of the service, the chief, elected on the spot and by his
subordinates, has come to depend on them. Thenceforth, each post in