people
get out of his way as on the approach of a mad bull.

If they do not jump aside of their own accord, he will run at them,
for he is unscrupulous as well as furious.--In every political struggle
certain kinds of actions are prohibited; at all events, if the majority
is sensible and wishes to act fairly, it repudiates them for itself.
It will not violate any particular law, for, if one law is broken,
this tends to the breaking of others. It is opposed to overthrowing
an established government because every interregnum is a return to
barbarism. It is opposed to the element of popular insurrection because,
in such a resort, public power is surrendered to the irrationality of
brutal passion. It is opposed to a conversion of the government into
a machine for confiscation and murder because it deems the natural
function of government to be the protection of life and property.--The
majority, accordingly, in confronting the Jacobin, who allows
himself all this,[1257] is like a unarmed man facing one who is fully
armed.[1258] The Jacobin, on principle, holds the law in contempt,
for the only law, which he accepts is arbitrary mob rule. He has no
hesitation in proceeding against the government because, in his eyes,
the government is a clerk which the people always has the right to
remove. He welcomes insurrection because, through it, the people recover
their sovereignty with no limitations.--Moreover, as with casuists, "the
end justifies the means."[1259] "Let the colonies perish," exclaims
a Jacobin in the Constituent Assembly, "rather than sacrifice a
principle." "Should the day come," says St. Just, "when I become
convinced that it is impossible to endow the French with mild, vigorous,
and rational ways, inflexible against tyranny and injustice, that day
I will stab myself." Meanwhile he guillotines the others. "We will make
France a graveyard," exclaimed Carrier, "rather than not regenerating
it our own way!"[1260] They are ready to risk the ship in order to seize
the helm. From the first, they organize street riots and jacqueries in
the rural districts, they let loose on society prostitutes and ruffians,
vile and savage beasts. Throughout the struggle they take advantage of
the coarsest and most destructive passions, of the blindness, credulity,
and rage of an infatuated crowd, of dearth, of fear of bandits, of
rumors of conspiracy, and of threats of invasion. At last, having seized
power through a general upheaval, th