Amiens, Nov. 29, 1794.
The selfish policy of the Convention in affecting to respect and preserve
the Jacobin societies, while it deprived them of all power, and help up
the individuals who composed them to abhorrence, could neither satisfy
nor deceive men versed in revolutionary expedients, and more accustomed
to dictate laws than to submit to them.*
* The Jacobins were at this time headed by Billaud Varenne, Collot,
Thuriot, &c.--veterans, who were not likely to be deceived by
temporizing.
Supported by all the force of government, and intrinsically formidable by
their union, the Clubs had long existed in defiance of public
reprobation, and for some time they had braved not only the people, but
the government itself. The instant they were disabled from corresponding
and communicating in that privileged sort of way which rendered them so
conspicuous, they felt their weakness; and their desultory and
unconnected efforts to regain their influence only served to complete its
annihilation. While they pretended obedience to the regulations to which
the Convention had subjected them, they intrigued to promote a revolt,
and were strenuously exerting themselves to gain partizans among the idle
and dissolute, who, having subsisted for months as members of
revolutionary committees, and in other revolutionary offices, were
naturally averse from a more moderate government.
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