The whole kingdom is directed by
_the refuse of its chicane_, with the aid of the bustling, presumptuous
young clerks of counting-houses and shops, and some intermixture of
young gentlemen of the same character in the several towns. The rich
peasants are bribed with Church lands; and the poorer of that
description are, and can be, counted for nothing. They may rise in
ferocious, ill-directed tumults,--but they can only disgrace themselves
and signalize the triumph of their adversaries.
[Sidenote: Effects of the rota.]
The _truly_ active citizens, that is, the above descriptions, are all
concerned in intrigue respecting the various objects in their local or
their general government. The rota, which the French have established
for their National Assembly, holds out the highest objects of ambition
to such vast multitudes as in an unexampled measure to widen the bottom
of a new species of interest merely political, and wholly unconnected
with birth or property. This scheme of a rota, though it enfeebles the
state, considered as one solid body, and indeed wholly disables it from
acting as such, gives a great, an equal, and a diffusive strength to the
democratic scheme.
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