ns of a large number of the communes, persisting in
trusting these, will lend no assistance whatever to the election of the
new ones; the result is, that we are obliged, in selecting these people,
to refer the matter to persons whom we scarcely know, and who are
scarcely better known to the directories of the district. As they
are elected against the will of the citizens, they do not gain their
confidence, and draw their salaries from the commune treasury, without
any advantage to public instruction,"]

[Footnote 2108: Mercure de France, Sep. 3, 1791. "The right of attending
primary meetings is that of every citizen who pays a tax of three
livres; owing to the violence to which opinions are subject, more than
one-half of the French are compelled to stay away from these reunions,
which are abandoned to persons who have the least interest in
maintaining public order and in securing stable laws, with the least
property, and who pay the fewest taxes."]

[Footnote 2109: "The French Revolution," Vol. I. p. 182 and following
pages.]

[Footnote 2110: "Correspondence of M. de Stael" (manuscript), Swedish
ambassador, with his court, Sept 4, 1791. "The change in the way of
thinking of the democrats is extraordinary; they now seem convinced
that it is impossible to make the Constitution work. Barnave, to my own
knowledge, has declared that the influence of assemblies in the future
should be limited to a council of notables, and that all power should be
in the government"]

[Footnote 2111: Ibid. Letter of July 17, 1791. "All the members of the
Assembly, with the exception of three or four, have passed a resolution
to separate from the Jacobins; they number about 300."--The seven
deputies who remain at the Jacobin Club, are Robespierre, Petion,
Gregoire, Buzot, Coroller, and Abbe Royer.]

[Footnote 2112: "Les Feuillants" Was a political club consisting
of constitutional monarchists who held their meetings in the former
Feuillants monastery in Paris from 1791 to 1792. (SR).]

[Footnote 2113: Decree of Sept 29, 30, 1791, with report and
instructions of the Committee on the Constitution.]

[Footnote 2114: Decree of May 17, 1791.--Malouet, XII. 161. "There was
nothing left to us but to make one great mistake, which we did not fail
to do."]

[Footnote 2115: A few months after this, on the election of a mayor for
Paris, the court voted against Lafayette, and for Petion]

[Footnote 2116: M. de Montlosier, "Memoires," II. 309. "As