They do not
obtain from their subjects any of that unconscious obedience, that
degree of passive co-operation, without which the law remains a dead
letter.[138] Their Republic, so young,
"is attacked by that nameless malady which commonly attacks only old
governments, a species of senile consumption to which one can give no
other definition than that of the difficulty of living; nobody strives
to overthrow it, although it seems to have lost the power of standing
erect."[139]
Not only does their domination paralyze instead of animating the
State, but, with their own hands, they undermine the order they
themselves have established. Whether legal or extra-legal, it makes
no difference: under their rule, no constitution, made and remade, no
government, not even that of their leaders, can survive. Once masters
of France, they quarrel over it amongst themselves, each claiming for
himself the whole of the prey. Those who are in office want to stay
there; those who are out want to get in. Thus is formed two factions,
while each repeats against the other the coup d'?tat which both have
together carried out against the nation. - According to the ruling
clique, its adversaries are simply "anarchists," former
Septembriseurs, Robespierre's confederates, the accomplices of Babeuf,
eternal conspirators.
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