The French Revolution Author:Hippolyte Taine Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. The Jacobins in power.—The elections of 1791.—Proportion of places gained by them.—I. Their siege operations.—Means used by them to discourage th... more »e majority of electors and conservative candidates.—Frequency of elections.—Effect of the oath.—II. Annoyances and dangers of public offices.—The Constituents excluded from the Legislative body.—III. The friends of order deprived of the right of free assemblage.—Violent treatment of their clubs in Paris and the provinces.—Legal prevention of conservative associations.—IV. Turmoil at the elections of 1790.—Election' in 1791.—Effect of the King's flight.—Domiciliary visits.—Mortagne during the electoral period.—V. Intimidation and withdrawal of the Conservatives.—Popular outbreaks in Burgundy, Lyonnais, Provence, and the large cities.—Electoral proceedings of the Jacobins; examples at Aix, Dax, and Montpellier.— Agitators go unpunished.— Denunciations by name.— Manoeuvres with the peasantry.—General tactics of the Jacobins. In June, 1791, and during the five following months, the class of active citizensl are convoked to elect their elective representatives, which, as we know, according to the law, are of every kind and degree; in the first place, there are 40,000 electors ot the second degree and 745 deputies; next, one-half of the administrators of 83 departments, one-half of the administrators of 544 districts, one-half of the administrators of 41,000 communes, and finally, in each municipality, the mayor and syndic- attorney; in each department, the president of the criminal court and the prosecuting-attorney, and, throughout France, officers of the National Guard; in short, almost the entire body of the agents and depositaries of legal authority. The garrison of the public citadel is to be renewed, which is the secon...« less