czar and pope. Little does he care about the wills of actually living
Frenchmen; his mandate does not emanate from a vote ; it descends to
him from aloft, conferred on him by Truth, by Reason, by Virtue. As
he alone is enlightened, and the only patriot, he alone is worthy to
take command, while resistance, according to his imperious pride, is
criminal. If the majority protests it is because the majority is
imbecile or corrupt; in either case, it deserves to be brought to
heel. And, in fact, the Jacobin only does that and right away too;
insurrections, usurpations, pillaging, murders, assaults on
individuals, on judges and public attorneys, on assemblies, violations
of law, attacks on the State, on communities -- there is no outrage
not committed by him. He has always acted as sovereign instinctively
; he was so as a private individual and clubbist; he is not to cease
being so, now that he possesses legal authority, and all the more
because if he hesitates he knows he is lost; to save himself from the
scaffold he has no refuge but in a dictatorship. Such a man, unlike
his predecessors, will not allow himself to be turned out; on the
contrary, he will exact obedience at any cost. He will not hesitate
to restore the central power; he will put back the local wheels that
have been detached; he will repair the old forcing gear; he will set
it agoing so as to work more rudely and arbitrarily than ever, with
greater contempt for private rights and public liberties than either a
Louis XIV. or a Napoleon.



II. Jacobin Dissimulation.

Contrast between his words and his acts. - How he dissimulates his
change of front. -- The Constitution of June, 1793. - Its promises