ght sections of Paris, which is a surrender of the
administrative bodies and the forty-eight sections of Paris to the
Jacobin minority, which minority, through its zeal and being ever
present, knows how to convert itself into a majority.--Let us trace the
consequences of this, and see the selection which is thus effected by
the double decree. Those who attend these meetings, day and night, are
not the steady, busy people. In the first place, they are too busy in
their own counting-rooms, shops and factories to lose so much time. In
the next place, they are too sensible, to docile, and too honest to
go and lord it over their magistrates in the Hotel-de-ville, or regard
themselves in their various sections as the sovereign people. Moreover,
they are disgusted with all this bawling. Lastly, the streets of Paris,
especially at night, are not safe; owing to so much outdoor politics,
there is a great increase of caning and of knocking down. Accordingly,
for a long time, they do not attend at the clubs, nor are they seen in
the galleries of the National Assembly; nor will they be seen again
at the sessions of the municipality, nor at the meetings of the
sections.--Nothing, on the other hand, is more attractive to the idle
tipplers of the cafes, to bar-room oracles, loungers, and talkers,
living in furnished rooms,[2640] to the parasites and refractory of the
social army, to all who have left the social structures and unable to
get back again, who want to tear things to pieces, and, for lack of
a private career, establish one for themselves in public. Permanent
sessions, even at night, are not too long either for them, or for lazy
Federates, for disordered intellects, and for the small troop of genuine
fanatics. Here they are either performers or claqueurs, an uproar not
being offensive to them, because they create it. They relieve each
other, so as to be always on hand in sufficient number, or compensate
for a deficiency by usurpations and brutality. The section of the
Theatre-Francais, for instance, in contempt of the law, removes the
distinction between active and passive citizens, by granting to all
residents in its circumscription the right to be present at its meetings
and the right to vote. Other sections[2641] admit to their sittings
all well-disposed spectators, all women, children, and the nomads, all
agitators, and the agitated, who, as at the National Assembly, applaud
or hoot at the word of command. In the sections n