cious calumny, are destroyed
without an opportunity of defending themselves. It is a veritable
Inquisition. It is the center of seditious publications, a school of
cabals and intrigue. If the citizens have to blush at the selection of
unworthy candidates, they are all due to this class of associations...
Composed of the excited and the incendiary, of those who aim to rule the
State," the club everywhere tends

"to a mastery of the popular opinion, to thwarting the municipalities,
to an intrusion of itself between these and the people," to an
usurpation of legal forms and to become a "colossus of despotism."

Vain complaints! The National Assembly, ever in alarm on its own
account, shields the popular club and accords it its favor or
indulgence. A journal of the party had recommended "the people to
form themselves into small platoons." These platoons, one by one,
are growing. Each borough now has a local oligarchy, an enlisted and
governing band. To create an army out of these scattered bands, simply
requires a staff and a central rallying-point. The central point and
the staff have both for a long time been ready in Paris, it is the
association of the "Friends of the Constitution."

IV.--Their rallying-points.

Origin and composition of the Paris Jacobin club.--It
affiliates with provincial clubs.--Its leaders.--The
fanatics.--The Intriguers.--Their object.--Their means.

No association in France, indeed, dates farther back, and has an equal
prestige. It was born before the Revolution, April 30, 1789.[1230]
At the assembly of the States-General in Brittany, the deputies from
Quimper, Hennebon, and Pontivy saw how important it was to vote in
concert, and they had scarcely reached Versailles when, in common with
others, they hired a hall, and, along with Mounier, secretary of the
States-General of Dauphiny, and other deputies from the provinces, at
once organized a union which was destined to last. Up to the 6th of
October, none but deputies were comprised in it; after that date, on
removing to Paris, in the library of the Jacobins, a convent in the
Rue St. Honore, many well-known eminent men were admitted, such as
Condorcet, and then Laharpe, Chenier, Champfort, David, and Talma, among
the most prominent, with other authors and artists, the whole amounting
to about a thousand notable personages.--No assemblage could be more
imposing--two or three hundred deputies are on its benches, while its
r