ter justice and praise than I did recently. But three months
ago he announced to the executive power, your General Committee of
Defense, that if we were not audacious enough to invade Holland in the
middle of winter, to declare instantly against England the war which
actually we had long been making, that we would double the difficulties
of our campaign, in giving our enemies the time to deploy their forces.
Since we failed to recognize this stroke of his genius we must now
repair our faults.

Dumouriez is not discouraged; he is in the middle of Holland, where he
will find munitions of war; to overthrow all our enemies, he wants but
Frenchmen, and France is filled with citizens. Would we be free? If we
no longer desire it, let us perish, for we have all sworn it. If we wish
it, let all march to defend our independence. Your enemies are making
their last efforts. Pitt, recognizing he has all to lose, dares spare
nothing. Take Holland, and Carthage is destroyed and England can no
longer exist but for Liberty! Let Holland be conquered to Liberty; and
even the commercial aristocracy itself, which at the moment dominates
the English people, would rise against the government which had dragged
it into this despotic war against a free people. They would overthrow
this ministry of stupidity who thought the methods of the _ancien
regime_ could smother the genius of Liberty breathing in France. This
ministry once overthrown in the interests of commerce the party of
Liberty would show itself; for it is not dead! And if you know your
duties, if your commissioners leave at once, if you extend the hand to
the strangers aspiring to destroy all forms of tyranny, France is saved
and the world is free.

Expedite, then, your commissioners; sustain them with your energy; let
them leave this very night, this very evening.

Let them say to the opulent classes, the aristocracy of Europe must
succumb to our efforts, and pay our debt, or you will have to pay it!
The people have nothing but blood--they lavish it! Go, then, ingrates,
and lavish your wealth! See, citizens, the fair destinies that await
you. What! you have a whole nation as a lever, its reason as your
fulcrum, and you have not yet upturned the world! To do this we need
firmness and character, and of a truth we lack it. I put to one side all
passions. They are all strangers to me save a passion for the public
good.

In the most difficult situations, when the enemy was at the gate