" Those who remain, consist
of the most restless and most loquacious, the most eager for office,
the self-mutilated club being thus reduced to a nucleus of charlatans
and scoundrels.
To these spontaneous eliminations through which the club deteriorates,
add the constant pressure through which the Committee of Public Safety
frightens and degrades it. The lower the revolutionary government
sinks, and the more it concentrates its power, the more servile and
sanguinary do its agents and employees become. It strikes right and
left as a warning; it imprisons or decapitates the turbulent among its
own clients, the secondary demagogues who are impatient at not being
principal demagogues, the bold who think of striking a fresh blow in
the streets, Jacques Roux, Vincent, Momoro, H?bert, leaders of the
Cordeliers club and of the Commune. After these, the indulgent who
are disposed to exercise some discernment or moderation in terrorism,
Camille Desmoulins, Danton and their adherents; and lastly, many
others who are more or less doubtful, compromised or compromising,
wearied or eccentric, from Maillard to Chaumette, from Antonelle to
Chabot, from Westermann to Clootz.
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