They recommend to ministry, "that no Frenchman who has
given a decided opinion or acted a decided part in this great
Revolution, for or against it, should be countenanced, brought forward,
trusted, or employed, even in the strictest subordination to the
ministers of the allied powers." Although one would think that this
advice would stand condemned on the first proposition, yet, as it has
been made popular, and has been proceeded upon practically, I think it
right to give it a full consideration.
And first, I have asked myself who these Frenchmen are, that, in the
state their own country has been in for these last five years, of all
the people of Europe, have alone not been able to form a decided
opinion, or have been unwilling to act a decided part?
Looking over all the names I have heard of in this great revolution in
all human affairs, I find no man of any distinction who has remained in
that more than Stoical apathy, but the Prince de Conti. This mean,
stupid, selfish, swinish, and cowardly animal, universally known and
despised as such, has indeed, except in one abortive attempt to elope,
been perfectly neutral.
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