uch circumstances, become
a matter of course, and the chances of an Assembly acting wisely are
diminished by one-half; on becoming a club of agitators, it ceases to be
a conclave of legislators.

Let us enter and see how this one proceeds. Thus encumbered, thus
surrounded and agitated, does it take at least those precautions without
which no assembly of men can govern itself. When several hundred persons
assemble together for deliberation, it is evident that some sort of an
internal police is necessary; first of all, some code of accepted usage,
some written precedents, by which its acts may be prepared and defined,
considered in detail, and properly passed. The best of these codes it
ready to hand: at the request of Mirabeau, Romilly has sent over the
standing orders of the English House of Commons.[2103] But with the
presumption of novices, they pay no attention to this code; they imagine
it is needless for them; they will borrow nothing from foreigners; they
accord no authority to experience, and, not content with rejecting the
forms it prescribes, "it is with difficulty they can be made to follow
any rule whatever." They leave the field open to the impulsiveness of
individuals; any kind of influence, even that of a deputy, even of one
elected by themselves, is suspected by them; hence their choice of a
new president every fortnight.--They submit to no constraint or control,
neither to the legal authority of a parliamentary code, nor to the moral
authority of parliamentary chiefs. They are without any such; they are
not organized in parties; neither on one side nor on the other is a
recognized leader found who fixes the time, arranges the debate, draws
up the motion, assigns parts, and gives the rein to or restrains
his supporters. Mirabeau is the only one capable of obtaining this
ascendancy; but, on the opening of the Assembly, he is discredited by
the notoriety of his vices, and, towards the last, is compromised by his
connections with the Court. No other is of sufficient eminence to have
any influence; there is too much of average and too little of superior
talent.--Their self-esteem is, moreover, as yet too strong to allow any
concessions. Each of these improvised legislators has come satisfied
with his own system, and to submit to a leader to whom he would entrust
his political conscience, to make of him what three out of four of these
deputies should be, a voting machine, would require an apprehension of
dange