, demanding the dethronement. "This important measure once
passed,"[2621] he says, "the confidence of the nation in the actual
dynasty being very doubtful, we demand that a body of ministers,
jointly responsible, appointed by the National Assembly, but, as the
constitutional law provides, outside of itself, elected by the open
vote of freemen, be provisionally entrusted with the executive power."
Through this open vote the suffrage will be easily controlled. This is
but one more decree extorted, like so many others, the majority for a
long time having been subject to the same pressure as the King. "If you
refuse to respond to our wishes," as a placard of the 23rd of June had
already informed them, "our hands are lifted, and we shall
strike all traitors wherever they can be found, even amongst
yourselves."[2622]--"Court favorites," says a petition of August
6, "have seats in your midst. Let their inviolability perish if the
national will must always tamely submit to that lethal power!"--In the
Assembly the yells from the galleries are frightful; the voices of
those who speak against dethronement are overpowered; so great are the
hooting, the speakers are driven out of the tribune.[2623] Sometimes the
"Right" abandons the discussion and leaves the chamber. The insolence
of the galleries goes so far that frequently almost the entire Assembly
murmurs while they applaud; the majority, in short, loudly expresses
anger at its bondage.[2624]--Let it be careful! In the tribunes and at
the approaches to the edifice, stand the Federates, men who have a tight
grip. They will force it to vote the decisive measure, the accusation of
Lafayette, the decree under which the armed champion of the King and the
Constitution must fall. The Girondists, to make sure of it, exact a
call of the house; in this way the names are announced and printed, thus
designating to the populace the opponents of the measure, so that none
of them are sure of getting to their homes safe and sound.--Lafayette,
however, a liberal, a democrat, and a royalist, as devoted to the
Revolution as to the Law, is just the man, who, through his limited
mental grasp, his disconnected political conceptions, and the nobleness
of his contradictory sentiments, best represents the present opinion of
the Assembly, as well as that of France.[2625] Moreover, his popularity,
his courage, and his army are the last refuge. The majority feels that
in giving him up they themselves are giv