ave
remained under the government of the Stadtholder, who took from them no
more than a fixed portion of their property, than to pass under that of
a revolutionary power, which would make a complete revolution in their
bureaus and strong-boxes, and reduce them to wretchedness and rags?[13]
Robbery and anarchy, instead of encouraging, will always stifle
revolutions.

"But why," they object to me, "have not you and your friends chosen to
expose these measures in the rostrum of the National Convention? Why
have you not opposed yourself to all these fatal projects of union?"

There are two answers to make here,--one general, one particular.

You complain of the silence of honest men! You quite forget, then,
honest men are the objects of your suspicion. Suspicion, if it does not
stain the soul of a courageous man, at least arrests his thoughts in
their passage to his lips. The suspicions of a good citizen freeze those
men whom the calumny of the wicked could not stop in their progress.

You complain of their silence! You forget, then, that you have often
established an insulting equality between them and men covered with
crimes and made up of ignominy.

You forget, then, that you have twenty times left them covered with
opprobrium by your galleries.

You forget, then, that you have not thought yourself sufficiently
powerful to impose silence upon these galleries.

What ought a wise man to do in the midst of these circumstances? He is
silent. He waits the moment when the passions give way; he waits till
reason shall preside, and till the multitude shall listen to her voice.

What has been the tactic displayed during all these unions? Cambon,
incapable of political calculation, boasting his ignorance in the
diplomatic, flattering the ignorant multitude, lending his name and
popularity to the anarchists, seconded by their vociferations, denounced
incessantly, as counter-revolutionists, those intelligent persons who
were desirous at least of having things discussed. To oppose the acts of
union appeared to Cambon an overt act of treason. The wish so much as to
reflect and to deliberate was in his eyes a great crime. He calumniated
our intentions. The voice of every deputy, especially my voice, would
infallibly have been stifled. There were spies on the very monosyllables
that escaped our lips.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] The most seditious libels upon all governments, in order to excite
insurrection in Spain, Holland, and other