ey hold on to it through terror and
executions.--Straining will to the utmost, with no curb to check it,
steadfastly believing in its own right and with utter contempt for
the rights of others, with fanatical energy and the expedients of
scoundrels, a minority may, in employing such forces, easily master and
subdue a majority. So true is that, with faction itself, that victory is
always on the side of the group with the strongest faith and the least
scruples. Four times between 1789 and 1794, political gamblers take
their seats at a table where the stake is supreme power, and four times
in succession the "Impartiaux," the "Feuillants," the "Girondins," and
the "Dantonists," form the majority and lose the game. Four times in
succession the majority has no desire to break customary rules, or, at
the very least, to infringe on any rule universally accepted, to wholly
disregard the teachings of experience, the letter of the law, the
precepts of humanity, or the suggestions of pity.--The minority, on the
contrary, is determined beforehand to win at any price; its views and
opinion are correct, and if rules are opposed to that, so much the
worse for the rules. At the decisive moment, it claps a pistol to its
adversary's head, overturns the table, and collects the stakes.

*****

[Footnote 1201: See the figures further on.]

[Footnote 1202: Mallet du Pan, II. 491. Danton, in 1793, said one day to
one of his former brethren an advocate to the Council.: "The old regime
made a great mistake. It brought me up on a scholarship in Plessis
College. I was brought up with nobles, who were my comrades, and with
whom I lived on familiar terms. On completing my studies, I had nothing;
I was poor and tried to get a place. The Paris bar was very expensive,
and it required extensive efforts to be accepted. I could not get into
the army, having neither rank nor patronage. There was no opening for me
in the Church. I could purchase no employment, for I hadn't a cent. My
old companions turned their backs on me. I remained without a situation,
and only after many long years did I succeed in buying the post of
advocate in the Royal Council. The Revolution came, when I, and all like
me, threw themselves into it. The ancient regime forced us to do so, by
providing a good education for us, without providing an opening for
our talents." This applies to Robespierre, C. Desmoulins, Brissot,
Vergniaud, and others.]

[Footnote 1203: Religious ord