, penny-a-liners
out of the gutters, bar-room oracles, unfrocked monks and priests, the
refuse of the literary guild, of the bar, and of the clergy, carpenters,
turners, grocers, locksmiths, shoemakers, common laborers, many with no
profession at all, strolling politicians and [3122]public brawlers,
who, like the sellers of counterfeit wares, have speculated for the past
three years on popular credulity. There were among them a number of
men in bad repute, of doubtful honesty or of proven dishonesty, who,
in their youth led shiftless lives. They are still besmirched with old
slime, they were put outside the pale of useful labor by their vices,
driven out of inferior stations even into prohibited occupations,
bruised by the perilous leap, with consciences distorted like the
muscles of a tight-rope dancer. Were it not for the Revolution, they
would still grovel in their native filth, awaiting prison or forced
labor to which they were destined. Can one imagine their growing
intoxication as they drink deep draughts from the bottomless cup of
absolute power?--For it is absolute power which they demand and which
they exercise.[3123] Raised by a special delegation above the regular
authorities, they put up with these only as subordinates, and tolerate
none among them who may become their rivals. Consequently, they reduce
the Legislative body simply to the function of editor and herald of
their decrees; they have forced the new department electors to "abjure
their title," to confine themselves to tax assessments, while they lay
their ignorant hands daily on every other service, on the finances, the
army, supplies, the administration, justice, at the risk of breaking the
administrative wheels or of interrupting their action.

One day they summon the Minister of War before them, or, for lack of
one, his chief clerk; another day they keep the whole body of officials
in his department in arrest for two hours, under the pretext of finding
a suspected printer.[3124] At one time they affix seals on the funds
devoted to extraordinary expenses; at another time they do away with
the commission on supplies; at another they meddle with the course of
justice, either to aggravate proceedings or to impede the execution of
sentences rendered.[3125] There is no principle, no law, no regulation,
no verdict, no public man or establishment that is not subject to the
risk of their arbitrariness.--And, as they have laid hands on power,
they do the s