That which they are really averse to is the Directory and its clique,
Barras with his court of gorged contractors and kept women, Reubell
with his family of extortioners, stamp of a parvenu and ways of a
tavern keeper, La R?velli?re-Lepaux with his hunchback vanity,
philosophic pretensions, sectarian intolerance and silly airs of a
pedantic dupe. What they demand in the tribune,[55] is the
purification of the administration, the suppression of jobbery, an end
to persecution and, according as they are more or less excited or
circumspect, they demand legal sentences or simply the removal of
Jacobins in office, the immediate and entire suppression or partial
and careful reform of the laws against priests and worship, against
?migr?s and the nobles.[56] -- Nobody has any idea of innovation with
respect to the distribution of public powers, or to the way of
appointing central or local authorities. " I swear on my honor,"
writes Mathieu Dumas, "that it has always been my intention to
maintain the Republican Constitution, persuaded as I am that, with a
temperate and equitable administration, it might give repose to
France, make liberty known and cherished, and repair in time the evils
of the Revolution.
Pages:
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980