n Paris, out of
81,200 registered names more than 74,000 fail to respond. In the Doubs,
three out of four voters stay away. In one of the cantons of the Cote
d'Or, at the close of the polls, only one-eighth of the electors remain
at the counting of the votes, while in the secondary meetings the
desertion is not less. At Paris, out of 946 electors chosen only 200 are
found to give their suffrage; at Rouen, out of 700 there are but
160, and on the last day of the ballot, only 60. In short, "in all
departments," says an orator in the tribune, "scarcely one out of five
electors of the second degree discharges his duty."

In this manner the majority hands in its resignation. Through inertia,
want of forethought, lassitude, aversion to the electoral hubbub, lack
of political preferences, or dislike of all the political candidates, it
shirks the task which the constitution imposes on it. Most certainly is
has no taste for the painstaking burden of being involved in a league
(of human rights). Men who cannot find time once in three months to
drop a ballot in the box, will not come three times a week to attend
the meetings of a club. Far from meddling with the government, they
abdicate, and as they refuse to elect it, they cannot undertake to
control it.

It is, on the other hand, just the opposite with the upstarts and
dogmatists who regard their royal privileges seriously. They not only
vote at the elections, but they mean to keep the authority they delegate
in their own hands. In their eyes every official is one of their
creatures, and remains accountable to them, for, in point of law, the
people may not part with their sovereignty, while, in fact, power has
proved so sweet that they are not disposed to part with it.[1213] During
six months preceding the regular elections, they have come to know,
comprehend, and test each other; they have held secret meetings;
a mutual understanding is arrived at, and henceforth, as other
associations disappear like fleeting bloom, theirs[1214] rise vigorously
on the abandoned soil. A club is established at Marseilles before the
end of 1789; each large town has one within the first six months of
1790, Aix in February, Montpellier in March, Nimes in April, Lyons in
May, and Bordeaux in June.[1215] But their greatest increase takes place
after the Federation festival. Just when local gatherings merge into
that of the whole country, the sectarian Jacobins keep aloof, and form
leagues of their