" Naturally, he storms and
dismisses; but, even in the revolutionary committee, none but dubious
candidates are presented to him for selection; he does not know how to
manage in order to renew the local authorities. "They play into each
others' hands," and he ends by threatening to transfer the public
institutions of the town elsewhere, if they persist in proposing to
him none but bad patriots. - At Strasbourg,[76] Couturier, and
Dentzel, on mission, report that: "owing to an unexampled coalition
among all the capable citizens, obstinately refusing to take the
office of mayor, in order, by this course, to clog the wheels, and
subject the representatives to repeated and indecent refusals," he is
compelled to appoint a young man, not of legal age, and a stranger in
the department. - At Marseilles, write the agents,[77] "in spite of
every effort and our ardent desire to republicanize the Marseilles
people, our pains and fatigues are nearly all fruitless. . . .
Public spirit among owners of property, mechanics and journey-men is
everywhere detestable. . . . The number of discontented seems to
increase from day to day. All the communes in Var, and most of those
in this department are against us.
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