However, his neutrality, which it seems would
qualify him for trust, and on a competition must set aside the Prince de
Conde, can be of no sort of service. His moderation has not been able to
keep him from a jail. The allied powers must draw him from that jail,
before they can have the full advantage of the exertions of this great
neutralist.
Except him, I do not recollect a man of rank or talents, who by his
speeches or his votes, by his pen or by his sword, has not been active
on this scene. The time, indeed, could admit no neutrality in any person
worthy of the name of man. There were originally two great divisions in
France: the one is that which overturned the whole of the government in
Church and State, and erected a republic on the basis of atheism. Their
grand engine was the Jacobin Club, a sort of secession from which, but
exactly on the same principles, begat another short-lived one, called
the Club of Eighty-Nine,[37] which was chiefly guided by the court
rebels, who, in addition to the crimes of which they were guilty in
common with the others, had the merit of betraying a gracious master and
a kind benefactor.
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