on its
bewilderment. In the name of reason, they discard reason as far as
they can, and hasten a vote because their decrees do not stand up to
analysis.--At other times, and especially on grand occasions, they
compel a vote. In general, votes are given by the members either sitting
down or standing up, and, for the four hundred deputies of the "Center,"
subject to the scolding of the exasperated galleries, it is a
tolerably hard trial. "Part of them do not arise, or they rise with
the 'Left'."[2242] If the "Right" happens to have a majority, "this is
contested in bad faith and a call of the house is demanded." Now, "the
calls of the house, through an intolerable abuse, are always published;
the Jacobins declaring that it is well for the people to know their
friends from their enemies." The meaning of this is that this list of
the opposition will soon serve as a list of the outlaws, on which
the timid are not disposed to inscribe themselves. The result is an
immediate defection in the heavy battalions of the "Centre"; "this is
a positive fact," says Hua, "of which we were all witnesses; we always
lost a hundred votes on the call of the house."--Towards the end they
give up, and protest no more, except by staying away: on the 14th of
June, when the abolishment of the whole system of feudal credit was
being dealt with, only the extreme left was attending; the rest of the
"Assembly hall was nearly empty"; out of 497 deputies in attendance, 200
had left the session.[2243] Encouraged for a moment by the appearance of
some possible protection, they twice exonerate General Lafayette, behind
whom they see an army,[2244] and brave the despots of the Assembly, the
clubs, and the streets. But, for lack of a military chief and base, the
visible majority is twice obliged to yield, to keep silent, and fly
or retreat under the dictatorship of the victorious faction, which
has strained and forced the legislative machine until it has become
disjointed and broken down.[2245]

*****

[Footnote 2201:"Correspondence (manuscript) of Baron de Stael," with his
Court in Sweden. Oct. 6, 1791.]

[Footnote 2202: "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis,
duc), chancelier de France, in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris
1893.--Dumouriez, "Memoires," III. ch. V: "The Jacobin party, having
branches all over the country, used its provincial clubs to control
the elections. Every crackbrain, every seditious scribbler, all the
agitators were elected