stations by young men repressed.
--Violence and victory of the Jacobins in the assemblies of
the sections.

"I seem to hear you," writes a sarcastic observer,[3477] "addressing the
(Jacobin) faction in these terms:

'Now, look here, we have the means, but we are not disposed to make use
of them against you; it would be unfair to attack you unarmed. Public
power emanates from two sources, legal authority and armed force. Now
we will at once create committees of supervision, of which you shall
appoint the heads, for the reason that, with a whip of this kind, you
can lash every honest man in Paris, and thus regulate public opinion.
We will do more than this, because our sacrifice is not yet complete; we
are disposed to make you a present of our armed force, with authority to
disarm anybody that you may suspect. As far as we are concerned, we
are ready to surrender even our pocketknives,[3478] and remain apart,
content with our virtues and talents.--But mind what you are about.
Should you be so ungrateful as to attack our sacred persons, we shall
find avengers in the departments.'

'What good will the departments do you, let loose against each other,
after you are out of the way?' (was the imaginary Jacobin reply!)

No summary could be more exact nor any prediction more accurately based.
Henceforth, and by virtue of the Convention's own decrees, not only have
the Jacobins the whole of the executive power in their hands, as this
is found in civilized countries, but likewise the discretionary power
of the antique tyrant or modern pasha, that arbitrary, strong arm which,
singling out the individual, falls upon him and takes from him his arms,
his freedom, and his money. After the 28th of March, we see in Paris a
resumption of the system which, instituted by the 10th of August, was
completed by the 2nd of September. In the morning, drums beat to arms;
at noon, the barriers are shut, the bridges and passages guarded, and
sentinels stand on the corners of the streets; no one is allowed "to
pass outside the limits of his section," or circulate within them
without showing his certificate of civism; houses are invested, numbers
of persons are arrested,[3479] and, during the succeeding months, this
operation is carried on under the sway of the Committee of Supervision.
Now, this Committee, in almost all the sections, "is made up of
sans-culottes," not fathers of families, men of judgment and experience,
people living a