hors of each decree passed by it add to its
thunderbolt the rattling hail of their own abuse and slander.

"Children," says a deputy, "have the poison of aristocracy and
fanaticism injected into them by the congregations."[2321]

"Purge the rural districts of the vermin which is devouring
them!"--"Everybody knows," says Isnard, "that the priest is as cowardly
as he is vindictive... Let these pestiferous fellows be sent back to
Roman and Italian lazarettos.. What religion is that which, in its
nature, is unsocial and rebellious in principle?"

Whether unsworn, whether immigrants actually or in feeling, "large
proprietors, rich merchants, false conservatives,"[2322] are all
outspoken conspirators or concealed enemies. All public disasters are
imputed to them. "The cause of the troubles," says Brissot,[2323] "which
lay waste the colonies, is the infernal vanity of the whites who have
three times violated an engagement which they have three times sworn to
maintain." Scarcity of work and short crops are accounted for through
their cunning malevolence.

"A large number of rich men, "says Francois de Nantes,[2324] "allow
their property to run down and their fields to lie fallow, so as to
enjoy seeing the suffering of the people."

France is divided into two parties, on the one hand, the aristocracy to
which is attributed every vice, and, on the other hand, the people on
whom is conferred every virtue.[2325]

"The defense of liberty," says Lamarque,[2326] "is basely abandoned
every day by the rich and by the former nobility, who put on the mask of
patriotism only to cheat us. It is not in this class, but only in that
of citizens who are disdainfully called the people, that we find pure
beings, those ardent souls really worthy of liberty."--One step more
and everything will be permitted to the virtuous against the wicked;
if misfortune befalls the aristocrats so much the worse for them. Those
officers who are stoned, M. de la Jaille and others, "wouldn't they do
better not to deserve being sacrificed to popular fury?"[2327] Isnard
exclaims in the tribune, "it is the long-continued immunity enjoyed
by criminals which has rendered the people executioners. Yes, an angry
people, like an angry God, is only too often the terrible supplement
of silent laws."[2328]--In other words crimes are justified and
assassinations still provoked against those who have been assassinated
for the past two years.

By a forced conclusion, if th