One must not judge of the state of
France by what has been observed elsewhere. It does not in the least
resemble any other country. Analogical reasoning from history or from
recent experience in other places is wholly delusive.
In my opinion, there never was seen so strong a government internally as
that of the French municipalities. If ever any rebellion can arise
against the present system, it must begin, where the Revolution which
gave birth to it did, at the capital. Paris is the only place in which
there is the least freedom of intercourse. But even there, so many
servants as any man has, so many spies and irreconcilable domestic
enemies.
[Sidenote: Gentlemen are fugitives.]
But that place being the chief seat of the power and intelligence of the
ruling faction, and the place of occasional resort for their fiercest
spirits, even there a revolution is not likely to have anything to feed
it. The leaders of the aristocratic party have been drawn out of the
kingdom by order of the princes, on the hopes held out by the Emperor
and the king of Prussia at Pilnitz; and as to the democratic factions in
Paris, amongst them there are no leaders possessed of an influence for
any other purpose but that of maintaining the present state of things.
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