reater number of levers, but it comes to the same thing in the end: the
force must be in proportion to the weight. The weight in this case is
the ignorant and suffering mass of people who form the lowest stratum of
society. The attitude of authority is bound to be repressive, and great
concentration of the governing power is needed to neutralize the force
of a popular movement. This is the application of the principle that I
unfolded when I spoke just now of the way in which the class privileged
to govern should be restricted. If this class is composed of men of
ability, they will obey this natural law, and compel the country to
obey. If you collect a crowd of mediocrities together, sooner or later
they will fall under the dominion of a stronger head. A deputy of talent
understands the reasons for which a government exists; the mediocre
deputy simply comes to terms with force. An assembly either obeys
an idea, like the Convention in the time of the Terror; a powerful
personality, like the Corps Legislatif under the rule of Napoleon; or
falls under the domination of a system or of wealth, as it has done in
our own day. The Republican Assembly, that dream of some innocent souls,
is an impossibility. Those who would fain bring it to pass are either
grossly deluded dupes or would-be tyrants. Do you not think that there
is something ludicrous about an Assembly which gravely sits in debate
upon the perils of a nation which ought to be roused into immediate
action? It is only right of course that the people should elect a
body of representatives who will decide questions of supplies and of
taxation; this institution has always existed, under the sway of the
most tyrannous ruler no less than under the sceptre of the mildest of
princes. Money is not to be taken by force; there are natural limits
to taxation, and if they are overstepped, a nation either rises up
in revolt, or lays itself down to die. Again, if this elective body,
changing from time to time according to the needs and ideas of those
whom it represents, should refuse obedience to a bad law in the name of
the people, well and good. But to imagine that five hundred men, drawn
from every corner of the kingdom, will make a good law! Is it not a
dreary joke, for which the people will sooner or later have to pay? They
have a change of masters, that is all.

"Authority ought to be given to one man, he alone should have the
task of making the laws; and he should be a man who