But how can these be regular and complete in a State
where the courts dare not condemn delinquents, where public force
dares not support the courts,[39] where popular favor protects the
most notorious bandits and the worst vagabonds against the tribunals
and against the public powers? At Paris, where, After eight months
of impunity, proceedings are begun against the pillagers who, on the
13th of August, 1789, set fire to the tax offices, the officers of
the election, "considering that their audiences have become too
tumultuous, that the thronging of the people excites uneasiness,
that threats have been uttered of a kind calculated to create
reasonable alarm," are constrained to suspend their sittings and
refer matters to the National Assembly, while the latter,
considering that "if prosecutions are authorized in Paris it will be
necessary to authorize them throughout the kingdom," decides that it
is best "to veil the statue of the Law."[40]
Not only does the Assembly veil the statue of the Law, but it takes
to pieces, remakes, and mutilates it, according to the requirements
of the popular will; and, in the matter of indirect imposts all its
decrees are forced upon it.
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