arried on
with unerring instinct, the extraordinary spectacle presenting itself of
an entire nation legally overcome by a troop of insurgents.[2103]

I.--Their siege operations.

Means used by them to discourage the majority of electors
and conservative candidates.--Frequency of elections.--
Obligation to take the oath.

First of all, they clear the ground, and through the decrees forced out
of the Constituent Assembly, they keep most of the majority away from
the polls.--On the one hand, under the pretext of better ensuring
popular sovereignty, the elections are so multiplied, and held so near
together, as to demand of each active citizen one-sixth of his time;
such an exaction is very great for hard-working people who have a trade
or any occupation,[2104] which is the case with the great mass; at all
events, with the useful and sane portion of the population. Accordingly,
as we have seen, it stays away from the polls, leaving the field open
to idlers or fanatics.[2105]--On the other hand, by virtue of the
constitution, the civic oath, which includes the ecclesiastical oath, is
imposed on all electors, for, if any one takes the former and reserves
the latter, his vote is thrown out: in November, in the Doubs, the
municipal elections of thirty-three communes are invalidated solely
on this pretext.[2106] Not only forty thousand ecclesiastics are thus
rendered unsworn (insermentes), but again, all scrupulous Catholics lose
the right of suffrage, these being by far the most numerous in Artois,
Doubs and the Jura, in the Lower and Upper Rhine district,[2107] in the
two Sevres and la Vendee, in the Lower Loire, Morbihan, Finisterre and
Cotes du Nord, in Lozere and Ardeche, without mentioning the southern
departments.[2108] Thus, aided by the law which they have rendered
impracticable, the Jacobins, on the one hand, are rid of all sensible
voters in advance, counting by millions; and, on the other, aided by a
law which they have rendered intolerant, they are rid of the Catholic
vote which counts by hundreds of thousands. On entering the electoral
lists, consequently, thanks to this double exclusion, they find
themselves confronted by only the smallest number of electors.

II.--Annoyances and dangers of public elections.

The constituents excluded from the Legislative body.

Operations must now be commenced against these, and a first expedient
consists in depriving them of their candidates