- At Rheims, the president of the district is[97] "a former
bailiff, on familiar terms with the spies of the Robespierre r?gime,
acting in concert with them, but without being their accomplice,
possessing none of the requisite qualities for administration."
Another administrator is likewise "a former bailiff, without means,
negligent in the highest degree and a confirmed drunkard." Alongside
of these sit "a horse-dealer, without any means, more fit for shady
dealings than governing, moreover a drunkard, a dyer, lacking
judgment, open to all sorts of influences, pushed ahead by the Jacobin
faction, and having used power in the most arbitrary manner, rather,
perhaps, through ignorance than through cruelty, a shoemaker, entirely
uninstructed, knowing only how to sign his name," and others of the
same character. In the Tribunal, a judge is noted as
"true in principle, but whom poverty and want of resources have driven
to every excess, a turncoat according to circumstances in order to get
a place, associated with the leaders in order to keep the place, and
yet not without sensibility, having, perhaps, acted criminally merely
to keep himself and his family alive.
Pages:
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554