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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"

The night before its dissolution, it excluded from every "
legislative, municipal, administrative and judicial function,"[31]
even that of juryman, not only the individuals who, rightly or
wrongly, had been put on a list of ?migr?s and not yet stricken off,
but likewise their fathers, sons and grandsons, brothers and brothers-
in-law, their connections of the same degree, uncles and nephews. In
all, probably two or three hundred thousand Frenchmen, nearly the
whole of the ?lite of the nation. To this it adds the rest of this
?lite, all the honest and energetic who, in the late primary or
electoral assemblies have "provoked or signed" any manifestation
against its despotism; if still in office they are to resign within
twenty-four hours, or be sent into perpetual exile. - Through this
legal incapacity of the anti-Jacobins, the field is free to the
Jacobins. In many places, for lack of candidates that please them,
most of the electors stay away from the polls; besides this, the
terrorists resort to their old system, that is to say to brutal
violence.[32] On again obtaining the support of the government they
have raised their heads and are now the titular favorites.


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