rsonal insults and the abbey of Saint-Germain, between shouts of
laughter celebrating the burning of their chateaux and the clamors
which, thirty times in a quarter of an hour, cry down their opinions,"
they are given over and denounced "to the ten thousand Cerberuses" of
the journals and of the streets, who pursue them with their yells and
"cover them with their slaver." Any expedient is good enough for putting
down their opposition, and, at the end of the session, in full Assembly,
they are threatened with "a recommendation to the departments," which
means the excitement of riots and of the permanent jacquerie of the
provinces against them in their own houses.--Parliamentary strategy
of this sort, employed uninterruptedly for twenty-nine months, finally
produces its effect. Many of the weak are gained over;[2145] even on
characters of firm temper fear has a hold; he who would march under fire
with head erect shuddered at the idea of being dragged in the gutter by
the rabble; the brutality of the populace always exercises a material
ascendancy over finely strung nerves. On the 12th of July, 1791,[2146]
the call of the house decreed against the absentees proves that one
hundred and thirty-two deputies no longer appear in their places. Eleven
days before, among those who take no further part in the proceedings.
Thus, before the completion of the Constitution, the whole of the
opposition, more than four hundred members, over one-third of the
Assembly, is reduced to flight or to silence. By dint of oppression, the
revolutionary party has got rid of all resistance, while the violence
which gave to it ascendancy in the streets, now gives to it equal
ascendance within the walls of Parliament.

IV.--Refusal to supply the ministry

Effects of this mistake--Misconception of the situation--The
committee of investigation--Constant alarms--Effects of
ignorance and fear on the work of the Constituent Assembly.

Generally in an omnipotent assembly, when a party takes the lead and
forms a majority, it furnishes the Ministry; and this fact suffices
to give, or to bring back to it, some glimpse of common sense. For its
leaders, with the Government in their own hands, become responsible for
it, and when they propose or pass a law, they are obliged to anticipate
its effect. Rarely will a Secretary of War or of the Navy adopt a
military code which goes to establish permanent disobedience in the
army or in the navy. R