stilities immortal, give them names;
do you wish to break down the national strength, divide it in sections:
arm against your enemy, if you will, but here you would arm one hand
against the other."

To the charge of defending the French mob, his answer was in the most
prompt and daring style.

"Who are the French mob? The French nation. Dare you put eight and
twenty millions of men into your bill of attainder? No indictment ever
drawn by the hand of man is broad enough for it. Impeach a nation, you
impeach the Providence that made it. Impeach a nation, you are
impeaching only your own rashness and presumption. You are impeaching
even the unhappy monarch whom you profess to defend. Man is every where
the creature of circumstances. Nations are what their governments make
them. But France is in a state of revolt. Be it so. I demand what nation
ever revolted against justice, truth, and honour? You might as well tell
me, that they rebelled against the light of heaven; that they rejected
the fruits of the earth; that they refused to breathe the air. Men do
not thus war against their natural benefactors; they are not mad enough
to repel the very instincts of preservation. I pronounce it, fearlessly,
that no nation ever rose, or ever will rise, against a sincere,
national, and benevolent authority. No nation was ever born blind.
Infatuation is not a law of human nature. The monarchy of France was the
criminal."

Another burst, which produced vast effect on the House, referred to the
exclusiveness of the chief public employments.

"The people have overthrown the titles and dignities of France. I admit
it. But was it from a natural hatred of those distinctions? That I deny.
They are congenial to the heart of man. The national hatred lay in the
sense of that intolerable injustice which turns honour into shame. For
centuries, those titles and dignities were to the people not badges of
honour, but brands of scorn. They were not public calls to generous
emulation, but royal proclamations of everlasting contempt. They were
not ramparts surrounding the state, but barriers shutting out the
people. How would such insults to the common origin of man, to the
common powers of the human mind, to the common desires of distinction
born with every man, be endured in this country? Is it to be wondered
at, that France should have abolished them by acclamation? I contend,
that this was a victory gained, not for a populace, but for a people,
f