e exercise of
a power declared to be unbounded when entrusted to him. The men tried
with him as his accomplices were obliged by the laws to obey him; and the
acts of which they are all accused were known, applauded, and held out
for imitation, by the Convention, who now declare those very acts to be
criminal!--There is certainly no way of reconciling justice but by
punishing both chiefs and subordinates, and the hour for this will yet
come.--Adieu.

Amiens. [No date given.]

I do not yet venture to correspond with my Paris friends by the post, but
whenever the opportunity of private conveyance occurs, I receive long and
circumstantial letters, as well as packets, of all the publications most
read, and the theatrical pieces most applauded. I have lately drudged
through great numbers of these last, and bestowed on them an attention
they did not in themselves deserve, because I considered it as one means
of judging both of the spirit of the government and the morals of the
people.

The dramas produced at the beginning of the revolution were in general
calculated to corrupt the national taste and morals, and many of them
were written with skill enough to answer the purpose for which they were
intended; but those that have appeared during the last two years, are so
stupid and so depraved, that the circumstance of their being tolerated
even for a moment implies an extinction both of taste and of morals.*

* _"Dans l'espace d'un an ils ont failli detruire le produit de
plusieurs siecles de civilization."_--("In the space of a year they
nearly destroyed the fruits of several ages of civilization.")

The principal cause of this is the despotism of the government in making
the stage a mere political engine, and suffering the performance of such
pieces only as a man of honesty or genius would not submit to write.*

* The tragedy of Brutus was interdicted on account of these two
lines:

_"Arreter un romain sur de simple soupcons,
"C'est agir en tyrans, nous qui les punissons."_

That of Mahomet for the following:

_"Exterminez, grands dieux, de la terre ou nous sommes
"Quiconque avec plaisir repand le sang des hommes."_

It is to be remarked, that the last lines are only a simple axiom of
humanity, and could not have been considered as implying a censure
on any government except that of the French republic.

--Hence a croud of scribblers, without