d to the memory of the
criminal, the government abetted assassination and regicide. The
safety of Louis XVIII. and of every other monarch was compromised, and
a sanction was given to the dangerous and antisocial doctrine which
teaches that any individual may sit in judgment on the legitimacy of
the title of the occupier of the throne, and then determine to murder
his sovereign if he doubts the validity of his rights.

Other affronts exactly of the same complexion were offered to France
and to the army. Titles, military commissions, and pensions, were
showered, in La Vendee, upon the heads of such of the Chouans as were
most celebrated for their cruelty[9], and these marks of favour were
distributed amongst them in the presence of the victims of their
rapine and ferocity.

[Footnote 9: The Chouans never allowed the
opportunity of committing murder to escape them.
They carried their muskets as they walked by the
side of the plough, and the furrows which they trod
were frequently sprinkled with blood. The priests
who had taken the oaths, and the purchasers of
national domains, were particularly the objects of
the refinements of their cruelty. They seldom
entered a town without plundering the inhabitants,
and without slaughtering those who had been pointed
out to their vengeance.--_Lacretelle, Precis de la
Revolution._]

The members of the ruling faction thought that they had not done
enough in endeavouring to honour the French enemies of France at the
expense of her defenders, and therefore they compassed the degradation
and destruction of the institutions which reminded the people of the
praises and the glory of our national armies.

In despite of the most solemn engagements the government robbed the
legion of honour of its prerogatives. Then the ministerial papers
hinted that henceforward the order of St. Louis was to be the only
military order; and that the legion of honour was to be the reward of
civil merit. The blow was aimed at the heart; the army shuddered, our
marshals burned with indignation. The government was compelled to
disclaim and abandon its intent.

Yet one sure method of debasing the legion of honour was completely in
the power of government; they could make it cheap, and to