. . . . They adhered to the last Constitution as to their
sole palladium, only a very few of them dreaming of re-establishing
the ancient r?gime." Their object is plain enough; they are for the
Constitution against the Revolution, for limited power against
discretionary power, for property against robbery, for upright men
against thieves. - "Would you prevent, say the administrative
authorities of Aube,[48] a return to the disastrous laws of the
maximum, of monopolies, to the resurrection of paper-money? . . .
Would you, as the price of a blameless life, be once more humiliated,
robbed, imprisoned, tortured by the vilest, most repulsive and most
shameless of tyrants? You have only one recourse: do not fail to go to
your primary assemblies and remain there." The electors, warned by
their late personal and bloody souvenirs, rush to the polls in crowds
and vote according to their consciences, although the government
through the oaths it imposes, its official candidatures, its special
commissioners, its intimidation and its money, bears down with all its
weight on the resolutions they have taken. Although the Jacobins at
Nevers, M?con and elsewhere, have forcibly expelled officers legally
elected from their bureaux, and stained the hall with their blood,[49]
"out of 84 departments 66 elected a plurality of electors from among
the anti-republicans, eight being neither good nor bad, while only ten
remained loyal to the Jacobins.
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