It is
notorious that all their measures are decided before they are debated.
It is beyond doubt that, under the terror of the bayonet and the
lamp-post and the torch to their houses, they are obliged to adopt all
the crude and desperate measures suggested by clubs composed of a
monstrous medley of all conditions, tongues, and nations. Among
these are found persons, in comparison of whom Catiline would be
thought scrupulous and Cethegus a man of sobriety and moderation.
Nor is it in these clubs alone that the public measures are deformed
into monsters. They undergo a previous distortion in academies,
intended as so many seminaries for these clubs, which are set up in
all the places of public resort. In these meetings of all sorts
every counsel, in proportion as it is daring and violent and
perfidious, is taken for the mark of superior genius. Humanity and
compassion are ridiculed as the fruits of superstition and
ignorance. Tenderness to individuals is considered as treason to the
public. Liberty is always to be estimated perfect, as property is
rendered insecure. Amidst assassination, massacre, and confiscation,
perpetrated or meditated, they are forming plans for the good order of
future society. Embracing in their arms the carcasses of base
criminals and promoting their relations on the title of their
offences, they drive hundreds of virtuous persons to the same end,
by forcing them to subsist by beggary or by crime.
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