a majority of the population, all men
"honest or not, who have anything to lose."[2404] After he is driven
out, then proscribed, then imprisoned, they resign themselves, and
Marseilles belongs to the low class, to 40,000 destitute and rogues led
by the club.

The better to ensure their empire, the municipality, one month after the
expulsion of M. Lieutaud, declared every citizen "active" who had any
trade or profession[2405]; the consequence is that vagabonds attend
the meetings of the sections in contempt of constitutional law. The
consequence, was that property-owners and commercial men withdrew, which
was wise on their part, for the usual demagogic machinery is set in
motion without delay. "Each section-assembly is composed of a dozen
factious spirits, members of the club, who drive out honest people
by displaying cudgels and bayonets. The deliberations are prepared
beforehand at the club, in concert with the municipality, and woe to him
who refuses to adopt them at the meeting! They go so far as to threaten
citizens who wish to make any remarks with instant burial in the cellars
under the churches."[2406] The argument proved irresistible: "the
majority of honest people are so frightened and so timid" that not one
of them dare attend these meetings, unless protected by public force.
"More than 80,000 inhabitants do not sleep peacefully," while all
the political rights are vested in "five or six hundred individuals,"
legally disqualified. Behind them marches the armed rabble, "the horde
of brigands without a country,"[2407] always ready for plundering,
murder, and hanging. In front of them march the local authorities, who,
elected through their influence, carry on the administration under their
guidance. Patrons and clients, members of the club and its satellites,
they form a league which plays the part of a sovereign State,
scarcely recognizing, even in words, the authority of the central
government.[2408] The decree by which the National Assembly gives
full power to the Commissioners to re-establish order is denounced as
plebecide; these conscientious and cautious moderators are qualified
as "dictators"; they are denounced in circular letters to all the
municipalities of the department, and to all Jacobin clubs throughout
the kingdom;[2409] the club is somewhat disposed to go to Aix to cut off
their heads and send them in a trunk to the president of the National
Assembly, with a threat that the same penalty awaits h