lect one of their own number
for a pilot or for the officer of the watch. The former captain
continues to nominate them; through very shame, and because he is a
good sort of man, his title is left to him, and he is retained for the
transmission of orders. If these orders are absurd, so much the worse
for him; if he resists them, a fresh mutiny forces him to yield; and
even when they cannot be executed, he has to answer for their being
carried out. In the meantime, in a room between decks, far away from the
helm and the compass, our club of amateurs discuss the equilibrium of
floating bodies, decree a new system of navigation, have the ballast
thrown overboard, crowd on all sail, and are astonished to find that
the ship heels over on its side. The officer of the watch and the pilot
must, evidently, have managed the maneuver badly. They are accordingly
dismissed and others put in their place, while the ship heels over
farther yet and begins to leak in every joint. Enough: it is the
fault of the captain and the old staff of officers, They are not
well-disposed; for a beautiful system of navigation like this ought to
work well; and if it fails to do so, it is because some one interferes
with it. It is positively certain that some of those people belonging
to the former regime must be traitors, who would rather have the ship
go down than submit; they are public enemies and monsters. They must
be seized, disarmed, put under surveillance, and punished.--Such is the
reasoning of the Assembly. Evidently, to reassure it, a message from the
Minister of the Interior chosen by the Assembly, to the lieutenant of
police whom he had appointed, to come to his office every morning, would
be all that was necessary. But it is deprived of this simple resource by
its own act, and has no other expedient than to appoint a committee of
investigation to discover crimes of "treason against the nation."[2148]
What could be more vague than such a term? What could be more
mischievous than such an institution?--Renewed every month, deprived of
special agents, composed of credulous and inexperienced deputies, this
committee, set to perform the work of a Lenoir or a Fouche, makes up for
its incapacity by violence, and its proceedings anticipate those of
the Jacobine inquisition.[2149] Alarmist and suspicious, it encourages
accusations, and, for lack of plots to discover, it invents them.
Inclinations, in its eyes, stand for actions, and floating projects