"[39] Were the central government within reach they would
lay their hands on it. In default of this they substitute
themselves for it on their own territory, and exercise its functions
with a full conviction of right, principally those of gendarme,
judge, and executioner.
During the month of October, 1789, at Paris, after the assassination
of the baker Fran?ois, the leading murderer, who is a porter at the
grain depot, declares "that he wanted to avenge the nation." It is
quite probable that this declaration is sincere. In his mind,
assassination is one of the forms of patriotism, and it does not
take long for his way of thinking to become prevalent. In ordinary
times, social and political ideas slumber in uncultured minds in the
shape of vague antipathies, restrained aspirations, and fleeting
desires. Behold them aroused - energetic, imperious, stubborn, and
unbridled. Objection or opposition is not to be tolerated; dissent,
with them, is a sure sign of treachery. - Apropos of the nonjuring
priests,[40] five hundred and twenty-seven of the National Guards of
Arras write, "that no one could doubt their iniquity without being
suspected of being their accomplices.
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