Chapter II: I.--Formation of the party (2)

These ideas flood a mind of his stamp like a vast torrent precipitating itself into a narrow gorge; they upset it, and, no longer under self-direction, they sweep it away. The man is beside himself. A plain bourgeois, a common laborer is not transformed with impunity into an apostle or liberator of the human species.--For, it is not his country that he would save, but the entire race. Roland, just before the 10th of August, exclaims "with tears in his eyes, should liberty die in France, she is lost the rest of the world forever! The hopes of philosophers will perish! The whole earth will succumb to the cruelest tyranny!"[1254]--Grégoire, on the meeting of the Convention, obtained a decree abolishing royalty, and seemed overcome with the thought of the immense benefit he had conferred on the human race.

"I must confess," said he, "that for days I could neither eat nor sleep for excess of joy!"

One day a Jacobin in the tribune declared: "We shall be a nation of gods!"--Fancies like these bring on lunacy, or, at all events, they create disease. "Some men are in a fever all day long," said a companion of St. Just; "I had it for twelve years..."[1255] Later on, "when advanced in life and trying to analyze their experiences, they cannot comprehend it."[1256] Another tells that, in his case, on a "crisis occurring, there was only a hair's breadth between reason and madness."--"When St. Just and myself," says Baudot, "discharged the batteries at Wissenbourg, we were most liberally thanked for it. Well, there was no merit in that; we knew perfectly well that the shot could not do us any harm."--Man, in this exalted state, is unconscious of obstacles, and, according to circumstances, rise above or falls below himself, freely spilling his own blood as well as the blood of others, heroic as a soldier and atrocious as a civilian; he is not to be resisted in either direction for his strength increases a hundredfold through his fury, and, on his tearing wildly through the streets, people get out of his way as on the approach of a mad bull.

If they do not jump aside of their own accord, he will run at them, for he is unscrupulous as well as furious.--In every political struggle certain kinds of actions are prohibited; at all events, if the majority is sensible and wishes to act fairly, it repudiates them for itself. It will not violate any particular law, for, if one law is broken, this tends to the breaking of others. It is opposed to overthrowing an established government because every interregnum is a return to barbarism. It is opposed to the element of popular insurrection because, in such a resort, public power is surrendered to the irrationality of brutal passion. It is opposed to a conversion of the government into a machine for confiscation and murder because it deems the natural function of government to be the protection of life and property.--The majority, accordingly, in confronting the Jacobin, who allows himself all this,[1257] is like a unarmed man facing one who is fully armed.[1258] The Jacobin, on principle, holds the law in contempt, for the only law, which he accepts is arbitrary mob rule. He has no hesitation in proceeding against the government because, in his eyes, the government is a clerk which the people always has the right to remove. He welcomes insurrection because, through it, the people recover their sovereignty with no limitations.--Moreover, as with casuists, "the end justifies the means."[1259] "Let the colonies perish," exclaims a Jacobin in the Constituent Assembly, "rather than sacrifice a principle." "Should the day come," says St. Just, "when I become convinced that it is impossible to endow the French with mild, vigorous, and rational ways, inflexible against tyranny and injustice, that day I will stab myself." Meanwhile he guillotines the others. "We will make France a graveyard," exclaimed Carrier, "rather than not regenerating it our own way!"[1260] They are ready to risk the ship in order to seize the helm. From the first, they organize street riots and jacqueries in the rural districts, they let loose on society prostitutes and ruffians, vile and savage beasts. Throughout the struggle they take advantage of the coarsest and most destructive passions, of the blindness, credulity, and rage of an infatuated crowd, of dearth, of fear of bandits, of rumors of conspiracy, and of threats of invasion. At last, having seized power through a general upheaval, they hold on to it through terror and executions.--Straining will to the utmost, with no curb to check it, steadfastly believing in its own right and with utter contempt for the rights of others, with fanatical energy and the expedients of scoundrels, a minority may, in employing such forces, easily master and subdue a majority. So true is that, with faction itself, that victory is always on the side of the group with the strongest faith and the least scruples. Four times between 1789 and 1794, political gamblers take their seats at a table where the stake is supreme power, and four times in succession the "Impartiaux," the "Feuillants," the "Girondins," and the "Dantonists," form the majority and lose the game. Four times in succession the majority has no desire to break customary rules, or, at the very least, to infringe on any rule universally accepted, to wholly disregard the teachings of experience, the letter of the law, the precepts of humanity, or the suggestions of pity.--The minority, on the contrary, is determined beforehand to win at any price; its views and opinion are correct, and if rules are opposed to that, so much the worse for the rules. At the decisive moment, it claps a pistol to its adversary's head, overturns the table, and collects the stakes.

*****

[Footnote 1201: See the figures further on.]

[Footnote 1202: Mallet du Pan, II. 491. Danton, in 1793, said one day to one of his former brethren an advocate to the Council.: "The old régime made a great mistake. It brought me up on a scholarship in Plessis College. I was brought up with nobles, who were my comrades, and with whom I lived on familiar terms. On completing my studies, I had nothing; I was poor and tried to get a place. The Paris bar was very expensive, and it required extensive efforts to be accepted. I could not get into the army, having neither rank nor patronage. There was no opening for me in the Church. I could purchase no employment, for I hadn't a cent. My old companions turned their backs on me. I remained without a situation, and only after many long years did I succeed in buying the post of advocate in the Royal Council. The Revolution came, when I, and all like me, threw themselves into it. The ancient régime forced us to do so, by providing a good education for us, without providing an opening for our talents." This applies to Robespierre, C. Desmoulins, Brissot, Vergniaud, and others.]

[Footnote 1203: Religious order founded in Rome in 1654 by saint Philippe Neri and who dedicated their efforts to preaching and the education of children. (SR)]

[Footnote 1204: Dauban, "La Demagogie à Paris en 1793," and "Paris in 1794." Read General Henriot's orders of the day in these two works. Comparton, "Histoire du Tribunal Révolutionaire de Paris," a letter by Trinchard, I. 306 (which is here given in the original, on account of the ortography): "Si tu nest pas toute seulle et que le compagnion soit a travailler tu peus ma chaire amie ventir voir juger 24 mesieurs tous si devent président ou conselier au parlement de Paris et de Toulouse. Je t'ainvite a prendre quelque chose aven de venir parcheque nous naurons pas fini de 3 hurres. Je t'embrase ma chaire amie et épouge."-Ibid. II. 350, examination of André Chenier.--Wallon, "Hist. Du Trib. Rév.", I, 316. Letter by Simon. "Je te coitte le bonjour mois est mon est pousse."]

[Footnote 1205: Cf. "The Revolution," page 60.]

[Footnote 1206: Cf. On this point the admissions of the honest Bailly ("Mémoires," passim)]

[Footnote 1207: Rétif de la Bretonne: "Nuits de Paris," 11éme nuit, p. 36. "I lived in Paris twenty-five years as free as air. All could enjoy as much freedom as myself in two ways--by living uprightly, and by not writing pamphlets against the ministry. All else was permitted, my freedom never being interfered with. It is only since the Revolution that a scoundrel could succeed in having me arrested twice."]

[Footnote 1208: Cf. "The Revolution," vol. I. p.264.]

[Footnote 1209: Moniteur, IV. 495. (Letter from Chartres, May 27, 1790.)]

[Footnote 1210: Sauzay, I.147, 195 218, 711.]

[Footnote 1211: Mercure de France, numbers of August 7, 14, 26, and Dec. 18, 1790.]

[Footnote 1212: Ibid. number of November 26, 1790. Pétion is elected mayor of Paris by 6,728 out of 10,632 voters. "Only 7,000 voters are found at the election of the electors who elect deputies to the legislature. Primary and municipal meetings are deserted in the same proportion."---Moniteur, X. 529 (Number of Dec. 4, 1791). Manuel is elected Attorney of the Commune by 3,770 out of 5,311 voters.--Ibid. XI. 378. At the election of municipal officers for Paris, Feb.10 and 11, 1792, only 3,787 voters present themselves; Dussault, who obtains the most votes, has 2,588; Sergent receives 1,648.--Buchez et Roux, XI. 238 (session of Aug.12, 1791). Speech by Chapelier; "Archives Nationales," F.6 (carton), 21. Primary meeting of June 13, 1791, canton of Bèze (Cote d'Or). Out of 460 active citizens, 157 are present, and, on the final ballot, 58.--Ibid., F7, 3235, (January, 1792). Lozerre: "1,000 citizens, at most, out of 25,000, voted in the primary meetings. At. Saint-Chèly, capital of the district, a few armed ruffians succeed in forming the primary meeting and in substituting their own election for that of eight parishes, whose frightened citizens who withdrew from it... At Langogne, chief town of the canton and district, out of more than 400 active citizens, 22 or 23 at most--just what one would suppose them to be when their presence drove away the rest--alone formed the meeting."]

[Footnote 1213: This power, with its gratifications, is thus shown, Beugnot, I. 140, 147. "On the publication of the decrees of August 4, the committee of surveillance of Montigny, reinforced by all the patriots of the country, came down like a torrent on the barony of Choiseul, and exterminated all the hares and partridges... They fished out the ponds. At Mandres we find, in the best room of the inn, a dozen peasants gathered around a table decked with tumblers and bottles, amongst which we noticed an inkstand, pens, and something resembling a register.--'I don't know what they are about,' said the landlady, 'but there they are, from morning till night, drinking, swearing, and storming away at everybody, and they say that they are a committee.'"]

[Footnote 1214: Albert Babeau, I. 206, 242.--The first meeting of the revolutionary committee of Troyes in the cemetery of St. Jules, August, 1789. This committee becomes the only authority in the town, after the assassination of the mayor, M. Huez (Sept 10, 1790).]

[Footnote 1215: "The French Revolution," Vol.I. pp. 235, 242, 251.--Buchez et Roux, VI, 179.--Guillon de Montléon, "Histoire de la Ville de Lyon pendant la Revolution," I. 87.--Guadet, "Les Girondins."]

[Footnote 1216: Michelet, "Histoire de la Révolution," II.47.]

[Footnote 1217: The rules of the Paris club state that members must "labor to establish and strengthen the Constitution, according to the spirit of the club."]

[Footnote 1218: Mercure de France, Aug.11, 1790.--"Journal de la Société des Amis la Constitution," Nov.21, 1790.--Ibid., March, 1791.--Ibid., March, 1791.--Ibid., Aug.14, 1791 (speech by Roederer)--Buchez et Roux, XI. 481.]

[Footnote 1219: Michelet, II. 407.--Moniteur, XII 347 (May 11, 1792), article by Marie-Joseph Chénier, according to whom 800 Jacobin clubs exist at this date.--Ibid., XII. 753 (speech by M. Delfaux session of June 25, 1792).--Roederer, preface to his translation of Hobbes.]

[Footnote 1220: "Les Révolutions de Paris," by Prudhomme, number 173.]

[Footnote 1221: Constant, "Histoire d'un Club Jacobin en province, "passim (Fontainbleau Club, founded May 5, 1791).--Albert Babeau, I.434 and following pages (foundation of the Troyes Club, Oct 1790).--Sauzay, I 206 and following pages (foundation of the Besançon Club Aug. 28, 1790).--Ibid., 214 (foundation of the Pontarlier Club, March, 1791)]

[Footnote 1222: Sauzay, I. 214 (April 2, 1791)]

[Footnote 1223: "Journal des Amis de la Constitution," I. 534 (Letter of the "Café National" Club of Bordeaux, Jan.29, 1791). Guillon de Monthléon, I. 88.-"The French Revolution," vol. I. 128, 242.]

[Footnote 1224: Here we have a complete system of propaganda and organizational tactics identical to those used by the NAZIS, the Marxist-Leninists and other 'children' of the original communist-Jacobins. (SR.)]

[Footnote 1225: Eugène Hatin, "Histoire politique et littéraire de la presse," IV. 210 (with Marat's text in "L'Ami L'Ami du peuple," and Fréron's in "l'Orateur du peuple").]

[Footnote 1226: Mercure de France, Nov. 27, 1790.]

[Footnote 1227: Mercure de France, Sept. 3, 1791 (article by Mallet du Pan). "On the strength of a denunciation, the authors of which I knew, the Luxembourg section on the 21st of June, the day of the king's departure, sent commissaries and a military detachment to my domicile. There was no judicial verdict, no legal order, either of police-court, or justice of the peace, no examination whatever preceding this mission... The employees of the section overhauled my papers, books and letters, transcribing some of the latter, and carried away copies and the originals, putting seals on the rest, which were left in charge of two fusiliers."]

[Footnote 1228: Mercure de France, Aug. 27, 1791 (report by Duport-Dutertre, Minister of Justice).--Ibid., Cf. numbers of Sept. 8, 1790, and March 12, 1791.]

[Footnote 1229: Sauzay, I.208. (Petition of the officers of the National Guard of Besançon, and observations of the municipal body, Sept. 15, 1790.--Petition of 500 national guards, Dec. 15, 1790).--Observations of the district directory, which directory, having authorized the club, avows that "three-quarters" of the national guard and a portion of other citizens "are quite hostile to it."--Similar petitions at Dax, Chalons-sur-Saône, etc., against the local club.]

[Footnote 1230: "Lettres" (manuscript) of M. Roullé, deputy from Pontivy, to his constituents (May 1, 1789).]

[Footnote 1231: A rule of the association says: "The object of the association is to discuss questions beforehand which are to be decided by the National Assembly,... and to correspond with associations of the same character which may be formed in the kingdom."]

[Footnote 1232: Grégoires, "Mémoires," I. 387.]

[Footnote 1233: Malouet, II. 248. "I saw counselor Duport, who was a fanatic, and not a bad man, with two or three others like him, exclaim: 'Terror! Terror! What a pity that it has become necessary!'"]

[Footnote 1234: Lafayette, "Mémoires" (in relation to Messieurs de Lameth and their friends).--According to a squib of the day: "What Duport thinks, Barnave says and Lameth does"--This trio was named the Triumvirate. Mirabeau, a government man, and a man to whom brutal disorder was repugnant, called it the Triumgueusat. (A trinity of shabby fellows)]

[Footnote 1235: Moniteur, V.212, 583. (Report and speech of Dupont de Nemours, sessions of July 31 and September 7, 1790.)--Vagabonds and ruffians begin to play their parts in Paris on the 27th of April, 1789 (the Réveillon affair).--Already on the 30th of July, 1789, Rivarol wrote: "Woe to whoever stirs up the dregs of a nation! The century Enlightenment has not touched the populace!"--In the preface of his future dictionary, he refers to his articles of this period: "There may be seen the precautions I took to prevent Europe from attributing to the French nation the horrors committed by the crowd of ruffians which the Revolution and the gold of a great personage had attracted to the capital."--"Letter of a deputy to his constituents," published by Duprez, Paris, in the beginning of 1790 (cited by M. de Ségur, in the Revue de France, September 1, 1880). It relates to the maneuvers for forcing a vote in favor of confiscating clerical property. "Throughout All-Saints' day (November 1, 1789), drums were beaten to call together the band known here as the Coadjutors of the Revolution. On the morning of November 2, when the deputies went to the Assembly, they found the cathedral square and all the avenues to the archbishop's palace, where the sessions were held, filled with an innumerable crowd of people. This army was composed of from 20,000 to 25,000 men, of which the greater number had no shoes or stockings; woollen caps and rags formed their uniform and they had clubs instead of guns. They overwhelmed the ecclesiastical deputies with insults, as they passed on their way, and shouted that they would massacre without mercy all who would not vote for stripping the clergy... Near 300 deputies who were opposed to the motion did not dare attend the Assembly... The rush of ruffians in the vicinity of the hall, their comments and threats, excited fears of this atrocious project being carried out. All who did not feel courageous enough to sacrifice themselves, avoided going to the Assembly." (The decree was adopted by 378 votes against 346.)]

[Footnote 1236: Cf. "The Ancient Régime," p. 51.]

[Footnote 1237: Malouet, 1.247, 248.--"Correspondence (manuscript) of M. de Staël," Swedish Ambassador, with his court, copied from the archives at Stockholm by M. Léouzon-le-Duc. Letter from M. Staël of April 21, 1791: "M. Laclos, secret agent of this wretched prince, (is a) clever and subtle intriguer." April 24: "His agents are more to be feared than himself. Through his bad conduct, he is more of a nuisance than a benefit to his party."]

[Footnote 1238: Especially after the king's flight to Varennes, and at the time of the affair in the Champ de Mars. The petition of the Jacobins was drawn up by Laclos and Brissot.]

[Footnote 1239: Investigations at the Chatelet, testimony of Count d'Absac de Ternay.]

[Footnote 1240: Malouet I. 247, 248. This evidence is conclusive. "Apart from what I saw myself," says Malouet, "M. de Montmorin and M. Delessart communicated to me all the police reports of 1789 and 1790."]

[Footnote 1241: Sauzay, II.79 (municipal election, Nov.15, 1791).--III. 221 (mayoralty election, November, 1792). The half-way moderates had 237 votes, and the sans-culottes, 310.]

[Footnote 1242: Mercure de France, Nov. 26, 1791 (Pétion was elected mayor, Nov.17, by 6,728 votes out of 10,682 voters).--Mortimer-Ternaux, V. 95. (Oct 4, 1792, Pétion was elected mayor by 13,746 votes out of 14,137 voters. He declines.--Oct. 21, d'Ormessan, a moderate, who declines to stand, has nevertheless, 4,910 votes. His competitor, Lhuillier, a pure Jacobin, obtains only 4,896.)]

[Footnote 1243: Albert Babeau, II. 15. (The 32,000 inhabitants of Troyes indicate about 7,000 electors. In December, 1792, Jacquet is elected mayor by 400 votes out of 555 voters. A striking coincidence is found in there being 400 members of the Troyes club at this time.)--Carnot, Mémoires," I. 181. "Dr. Bollmann, who passed through Strasbourg in 1792, relates that out of 8,000 qualified citizens, only 400 voters presented themselves.]

[Footnote 1244: Mortimer-Ternaux, VI. 21. In February, 1793, Pache is elected mayor of Paris by 11,881 votes.--Journal de Paris, number 185. Henriot, July 2, 1793, is elected commander-in-chief of the Paris national guard, by 9,084, against 6,095 votes given for his competitor, Raffet. The national guard comprises at this time 110,000 registered members, besides 10,000 gendarmes and federates. Many of Henriot's partisans, again, voted twice. (Cf. on the elections and the number of Jacobins at Paris, chapters XI. and XII. of this volume.)]

[Footnote 1245: Michelet, VI. 95. "Almost all (the missionary representatives) were supported by only, the smallest minority. Baudot, for instance, at Toulouse, in 1793, had but 400 men for him."]

[Footnote 1246: For example, "Archives Nationales," Fl 6, carton 3. Petition of the inhabitants of Arnay-le-Duc to the king (April, 1792), very insulting, employing the most familiar language; about fifty signatures.--Sauzay, III. ch. XXXV. and XXXIV. (details of local elections).--Ibid., VII. 687 (letter of Grégoire, Dec. 24, 1796).--Malouet, II. 531 (letter by Malouet, July 22, 1779). Malouet and Grégoire agree on the number 300,000. Marie-Joseph Chénier (Moniteur, XII, 695, 20 avril 1792) carries it up to 400,000.]

[Footnote 1247: Cf. "The French Revolution," Vol. I. book II. Ch. III.]

[Footnote 1248: Cf. "The Ancient Régime," p.352.]

[Footnote 1249: "Memoires de Madame de Sapinaud," p. 18. Reply of M. de Sapinaud to the peasants of La Vendée, who wished him to act as their general: "My friends, it is the earthen pot against the iron pot. What could we do? One department against eighty-two--we should be smashed!"]

[Footnote 1250: Malouet, II. 241. "I knew a clerk in one of the bureaus, who, during these sad days, September, 1792), never missed going. as usual, to copy and add up his registers. Ministerial correspondence with the armies and the provinces followed its regular course in regular forms. The Paris police looked after supplies and kept its eye on sharpers, while blood ran in the streets."--Cf. on this mechanical need and inveterate habit of receiving orders from the central authority, Mallet du Pan, "Mémoires," 490: "Dumouriez' soldiers said to him: 'F--, papa general, get the Convention to order us to march on Paris and you'll see how we will make mince-meat of those b--in the Assembly!'"]

[Footnote 1251: With want great interest did any aspiring radical politicians read these lines, whether the German socialist from Hitler learned so much or Lenin during his long stay in Paris around 1906. Taine maybe thought that he was arming decent men to better understand and defend the republic against a new Jacobin onslaught while, in fact, he provided them with an accurate recipe for repeating the revolution. (SR).]

[Footnote 1252: At. Matthew, 17:20. (SR.)]

[Footnote 1253: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII 55. Letter by Brun-Lafond, a grenadier in the national guard, July 14, 1793, to a friend in the provinces, in justification of the 31st of May. The whole of this letter requires to be read. In it are found the ordinary ideas of a Jacobin in relation to history: "Can we ignore, that it is ever the people of Paris which, through its murmurings and righteous insurrections against the oppressive system of many of our kings, has forced them to entertain milder sentiments regarding the relief of the French people, and principally of the tiller of the soil?.. Without the energy of Paris, Paris and France would now be inhabited solely by slaves, while this beautiful soil would present an aspect as wild and deserted as that of the Turkish empire or that of Germany," which has led us "to confer still greater lustre on this Revolution, by re-establishing on earth the ancient Athenian and other Grecian republics in all their purity. Distinctions among the early people of the earth did not exist; early family ties bound people together who had no ancient founders or origin; they had no other laws in their republics but those which, so to say, inspired them with those sentiments of fraternity experienced by them in the cradle of primitive populations."]

[Footnote 1254: Barbaroux, "Mémoires" (Ed. Dauban), 336.--Grégoire, "Mémoires," I. 410.]

[Footnote 1255: "La Révolution Française," by Quinet (extracts from the unpublished "Mémoires" of Baudot), II. 209, 211, 421, 620.--Guillon de Montléon I. 445 (speech by Chalier, in the Lyons Central Club, March 23, 1793). "They say that the sans-culottes will go on spilling their blood. This is only the talk of aristocrats. Can a sans-culotte be reached in that quarter? Is he not invulnerable, like the gods whom he replaces on this earth?"--Speech by David, in the Convention, on Barra and Viala: "Under so fine a government woman will bring forth without pain."--Mercier "Le Nouveau Paris," I. 13. "I heard (an orator) exclaim in one of the sections, to which I bear witness: 'Yes, I would take my own head by the hair, cut it off, and, presenting it to the despot, I would say to him: Tyrant, behold the act of a free man!'"]

[Footnote 1256: Now, one hundred years later, I consider the tens of thousands of western intellectuals, who, in their old age, seem unable to understand their longtime fascination with Lenin, Stalin and Mao, I cannot help to think that history might be holding similar future surprises in store for us. (SR).]

[Footnote 1257: And my lifetime, our Jacobins the communists, have including in their register the distortion, the lie and slander as a regular tool of their trade. (SR).]

[Footnote 1258: Lafayette, "Mémoires," I.467 (on the Jacobins of August 10, 1792). "This sect, the destruction of which was desired by nineteen-twentieths of France."--Durand-Maillan, 49. The aversion to the Jacobins after June 20, 1792, was general. "The communes of France, everywhere wearied and dissatisfied with popular clubs, would gladly have got rid of them, that they might no longer be under their control."]

[Footnote 1259: The words of Leclerc, a deputy of the Lyons committee in the Jacobin Club at Paris May 12, 1793. "Popular machiavelianism must be established... Everything impure must disappear off the French soil... I shall doubtless be regarded as a brigand, but there is one way to get ahead of calumny, and that is to exterminate the calumniators."]

[Footnote 1260: Buchez et Roux, XXXIV. 204 (testimony of François Lameyrie). "Collection of authentic documents for the History of the Revolution at Strasbourg," II. 210 (speech by Baudot, Frimaire 19, year II., in the Jacobin club at Strasbourg). "Egoists, the heedless, the enemies of liberty, the enemies of all nature should not be regarded as her children. Are not all who oppose the public good, or who do not share it, in the same case? Let us, then, utterly destroy them... Were they a million, would not one sacrifice the twenty-fourth part of one's self to get rid of a gangrene which might infect the rest of the body?..."For these reasons, the orator thinks that every man who is not wholly devoted to the Republic must be put to death. He states that the Republic should at one blow cause the instant disappearance of every friend to kings and feudalism.--Beaulieu, "Essai," V. 200. M. d'Antonelle thought, "like most of the revolutionary clubs, that, to constitute a republic, an approximate equality of property should be established; and to do this, a third of the population should be suppressed."--"This was the general idea among the fanatics of the Revolution. "--Larevellière-Lépaux, "Mémoires," I.150 "Jean Bon St. André... suggested that for the solid foundation of the Republic in France, the population should be reduced one-half." He is violently interrupted by Larevellière-Lépeaux, but continues and insists on this.--Guffroy, deputy of the Pas-de-Calais, proposed in his journal a still larger amputation; he wanted to reduce France to five millions of inhabitants.]

BOOK SECOND. THE FIRST STAGE OF THE CONQUEST.