They do not, consequently, return, and "no
one now will take the office of either mayor or administrator." -
The outrages which the municipalities thus commit against their
superiors are committed against themselves. The National Guards,
the mob, the controlling faction, arrogating to themselves in the
commune the same violent sovereignty which the commune pretends to
exercise against the State.
I should never finish if I undertook to enumerate the outbreaks in
which the magistrates are constrained to tolerate or to sanction
popular usurpations, to shut up churches, to drive off or imprison
priests, to suppress octrois, tax grain, and allow clerks; bakers,
corn-dealers, ecclesiastics, nobles, and officers to be hung, beaten
to death, or to have their throats cut. Ninety-four thick files of
records in the national archives are filled with these acts of
violence, and do not contain two-thirds of them. It is worth while
to take in detail one case more, a special one, and one that is
authentic, which serves as a specimen, and which presents a
foreshortened image of France during one tranquil year.
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