nstant
system of preaching, which is nothing but flattery, that he is
patriotic, intelligent, virtuous, of which he can have no doubt,
because, before being admitted into the club, his civic virtues have
been verified and he carries a printed certificate of them in his
pocket.--Accordingly, he is one of an elite corps, a corps which,
enjoying a monopoly of patriotism, holds itself aloof, talks loud,
and is distinguished from ordinary citizens by its tone and way of
conducting things. The club of Pontarlier,[1222] from the first,
prohibits its members from using the common forms of politeness.

"Members are to abstain from saluting their fellow-citizens by removing
the hat, and are to avoid the phrase, 'I have the honor to be,' and
others of like import, in addressing persons."

A proper idea of one's importance is indispensable.

"Does not the famous tribune of the Jacobins in Paris inspire traitors
and impostors with fear? And do not anti-Revolutionaries return to dust
on beholding it?"

All this is true, in the provinces as well as at the capital, for,
scarcely is a club organized before it sets to work on the population.
In may of the large cities, in Paris, Lyons, Aix and Bordeaux, there
are two clubs in partnership,[1223] one, more or less respectable and
parliamentary, "composed partly of the members of the different branches
of the administration and specially devoted to purposes of general
utility," and the other, practical and active, made up of bar-room
politicians and club-haranguers, who indoctrinate workmen,
market-gardeners and the rest of the lower bourgeois class. The latter
is a branch of the former, and, in urgent cases, supplies it with
rioters.

"We are placed amongst the people," says one of these subaltern clubs,
"we read to them the decrees, and, through lectures and counsel, we
warn them against the publications and intrigues of the aristocrats.
We ferret out and track plotters and their machinations. We welcome and
advise all complainants; we enforce their demands, when just; finally,
we, in some way, attend to all details."

Thanks to these vulgar auxiliaries, but whose lungs and arms are strong,
the party soon becomes dominant; it has force and uses it, and,
denying that its adversaries have any rights, it re-establishes all the
privileges for its own advantage.[1224]

III.--How they view the liberty of the press.

Their political doings.

Let us consider its mode of pro