elgium and
Holland "and thus onward to the Polar Sea," is thanked and given a seat
on the benches of the Assembly.[2219] Compliments are made to the Vicar
of Sainte-Marguerite and his wife is given a seat in the Assembly
and who, introducing "his new family," thunders against clerical
celibacy.[2220] Crowds of men and women are permitted to traverse the
hall letting out political cries. Every sort of indecent, childish and
seditious parade is admitted to the bar of the house.[2221] To-day it
consists of "citoyennes of Paris," desirous of being drilled in military
exercises and of having for their commandants "former French guardsmen;"
to-morrow children come and express their patriotism with "touching
simplicity," regretting that "their trembling feet do not permit them to
march, no, fly against the tyrants;" next to these come convicts of
the Chateau--Vieux escorted by a noisy crowd; at another time the
artillerymen of Paris, a thousand in number, with drums beating;
delegates from the provinces, the faubourgs and the clubs come
constantly, with their furious harangues, and imperious remonstrances,
their exactions, their threats and their summonses.--In the intervals
between the louder racket a continuous hubbub is heard in the clatter of
the tribunes.[2222] At each session "the representatives are chaffed by
the spectators; the nation in the gallery is judge of the nation on the
floor;" it interferes in the debates, silences the speakers, insults
the president and orders the reporter of a bill to quit the tribune. One
interruption, or a simple murmur, is not all; there are twenty, thirty,
fifty in an hour, clamoring, stamping, yells and personal abuse. After
countless useless entreaties, after repeated calls to order, "received
with hooting," after a dozen "regulations that are made, revised,
countermanded and posted up" as if better to prove the impotence of the
law, of the authorities and of the Assembly itself, the usurpations of
these intruders keep on increasing. They have shouted for ten months
"Down with the civil list! Down with the ministerials! Down with those
curs! Silence, slaves!' On the 26th of July, Brissot himself is to
appear lukewarm and be struck on the face with two plums. "Three or
four hundred individuals without either property, title, or means of
subsistence... have become the auxiliaries, petitioners and umpires of
the legislature," their paid violence completely destroying whatever is
still le