confused way; if it cannot give much guidance, it will still seem to
give some. It emits pacificatory Proclamations, not a few; with more or
with less result. It authorises the enrolment of National Guards,--lest
Brigands come to devour us, and reap the unripe crops. It sends missions
to quell 'effervescences;' to deliver men from the Lanterne. It can
listen to congratulatory Addresses, which arrive daily by the sackful;
mostly in King Cambyses' vein: also to Petitions and complaints from all
mortals; so that every mortal's complaint, if it cannot get redressed,
may at least hear itself complain. For the rest, an august National
Assembly can produce Parliamentary Eloquence; and appoint Committees.
Committees of the Constitution, of Reports, of Researches; and of much
else: which again yield mountains of Printed Paper; the theme of new
Parliamentary Eloquence, in bursts, or in plenteous smooth-flowing
floods. And so, from the waste vortex whereon all things go whirling and
grinding, Organic Laws, or the similitude of such, slowly emerge.

With endless debating, we get the Rights of Man written down and
promulgated: true paper basis of all paper Constitutions. Neglecting,
cry the opponents, to declare the Duties of Man! Forgetting, answer we,
to ascertain the Mights of Man;--one of the fatalest omissions!--Nay,
sometimes, as on the Fourth of August, our National Assembly, fired
suddenly by an almost preternatural enthusiasm, will get through whole
masses of work in one night. A memorable night, this Fourth of
August: Dignitaries temporal and spiritual; Peers, Archbishops,
Parlement-Presidents, each outdoing the other in patriotic devotedness,
come successively to throw their (untenable) possessions on the 'altar
of the fatherland.' With louder and louder vivats, for indeed it is
'after dinner' too,--they abolish Tithes, Seignorial Dues, Gabelle,
excessive Preservation of Game; nay Privilege, Immunity, Feudalism root
and branch; then appoint a Te Deum for it; and so, finally, disperse
about three in the morning, striking the stars with their sublime heads.
Such night, unforeseen but for ever memorable, was this of the Fourth
of August 1789. Miraculous, or semi-miraculous, some seem to think it. A
new Night of Pentecost, shall we say, shaped according to the new Time,
and new Church of Jean Jacques Rousseau? It had its causes; also its
effects.

In such manner labour the National Deputies; perfecting their Theory of
Irre