The mass of the people show utter indifference. (March 24.) "In this
town of twenty thousand souls (Blois) the primary assemblies are
composed of the dregs of the people only a very few honest people
attend them; 'suspects,' the relations of ?migr?s and priests, all
expelled, leave the field free to intriguers. Not one proprietor is
summoned. The terrorists rule in three out of the four sections. .
. The Babouvists always employ the same tactics; they recruit voters
in the streets who sell their sovereignty five or six times over for a
bottle of wine." (April 12, according to an intelligent man coming
from Paris.) "Generally, in Paris, nobody attends the primary
assemblies, the largest not returning two hundred voters." - Sauzay,
IX., ch. 83. (Notes on the election at Besan?on 1798, by an eye-
witness.) "Jacobins were elected by most frightful brigandage,
supported by the garrison to which wine had been distributed, their
election being made at the point of the bayonet and under blows with
sticks and swords. A good many Catholics were wounded."
[82] Albert Babeau, II., 444. (Declaration of the patriotic and
secessionist minority of the canton of Riquy at the elections of the
year VI.
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