he Jacobin club in the rue St. Honore, and in the
branch clubs of the quarter, there is constant purging, and always in
the same sense, until the faction is cleansed of all honest or passable
alloy and only a minority remains, which has its own way at every
balloting. One of them announces that, in his club, eighty doubtful
members have already been gotten rid of; another that, in his club,
one hundred are going to be excluded.[3316] On Ventose 23, in the
"Bon-Conseil" club, most of the members examined are rejected: "they
are so strict that a man who cannot show that he acted energetically in
critical times, cannot form part of the assembly; he is set aside for
a mere trifle." On Ventose 13, in the same club, "out of twenty-six
examined, seven only are admitted; one citizen, a tobacco dealer, aged
sixty-eight, who has always performed his duty, is rejected for having
called the president Monsieur, and for having spoken in the tribune
bareheaded; two members, after this, insisted on his being a Moderate,
which is enough to keep him out." Those who remain, consist of the
most restless and most loquacious, the most eager for office, the
self-mutilated club being thus reduced to a nucleus of charlatans and
scoundrels.

To these spontaneous eliminations through which the club deteriorates,
add the constant pressure through which the Committee of Public Safety
frightens and degrades it. The lower the revolutionary government sinks,
and the more it concentrates its power, the more servile and sanguinary
do its agents and employees become. It strikes right and left as
a warning; it imprisons or decapitates the turbulent among its own
clients, the secondary demagogues who are impatient at not being
principal demagogues, the bold who think of striking a fresh blow in
the streets, Jacques Roux, Vincent, Momoro, Hebert, leaders of the
Cordeliers club and of the Commune. After these, the indulgent who
are disposed to exercise some discernment or moderation in terrorism,
Camille Desmoulins, Danton and their adherents; and lastly, many others
who are more or less doubtful, compromised or compromising, wearied or
eccentric, from Maillard to Chaumette, from Antonelle to Chabot, from
Westermann to Clootz. Each of the proscribed has a gang of followers,
and suddenly the whole gang are obliged to do a volte-face; those who
were able to show initiative, grovel, while those who could show mercy,
become hardened. Henceforth, amongst the suba