So that, in effect, no
deliberative capacity exists in any portion of the inhabitants.
Toulon, republican in principle, having taken its decision _in a moment
under the guillotine_, and before the arrival of these
commissioners,--Toulon, being a place regularly fortified, and having in
its bosom a navy in part highly discontented, has escaped, though by a
sort of miracle: and it would not have escaped, if two powerful fleets
had not been at the door, to give them not only strong, but prompt and
immediate succor, especially as neither this nor any other seaport town
in France can be depended on, from the peculiarly savage dispositions,
manners, and connections among the lower sort of people in those places.
This I take to be the true state of things in France, _so far as it
regards any existing bodies, whether of legal or voluntary association,
capable of acting or of treating in corps_.
As to the oppressed _individuals_, they are many, and as discontented as
men must be under the monstrous and complicated tyranny of all sorts
with which they are crushed.
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