What with arsenals
pillaged, citadels invaded, convoys arrested, couriers stopped,
letters intercepted, constant and increasing insubordination,
usurpations without truce or measure, the municipalities arrogate to
themselves every species of license on their own territory and
frequently outside of it. Henceforth, forty thousand sovereign
bodies exist in the kingdom. Force is placed in their hands, and
they make good use of it. They make such good use of it that one of
them, the commune of Paris, taking advantage of its proximity, lays
siege to, mutilates, and rules the National Convention, and through
it France.
III. MUNICIPAL KINGDOMS.
The Municipal bodies. - Their great task. - Their incapacity. -
Their feeble authority.- Insufficiency of their means of action. -
The role of the National Guard. -
Let us follow these municipal kings into their own domain: the
burden on their shoulders is immense, and much beyond what human
strength can support. All the details of executive duty are
confided to them; they have not to busy themselves with a petty
routine, but with a complete social system which is being taken to
pieces, while another is reconstructed in its place.
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