Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/473

 The First FrencJi Republic 435 the present situation of France with the disastrous results of the most horrible despotism. That is a false standpoint to which knaves and fools are always careful to revert. A vast number of citizens do not desire the old any more than the new re'gime, and the reproaches heaped upon the latter have no bearing on the reform of the older system. In order to overcome the disapprobation of the citizens it must be proved that, without the action of the Assembly and the public and private calamities which this has involved, France would never have gained freedom, the security of person and prop- erty, safety, which is the first condition of a good gov- ernment, peace, which is its sign, political equality, plenty, strength, order, and general consideration. It would, more- over, have to be proved that the Assembly had not the power to choose other institutions ; that no middle course presented itself, and that the only government adapted to the existing exigencies was that which the Assembly proclaimed, since no other offered such obvious advantages or a more evidently propitious future. III. Origin of the Jacobin Club The spontaneous origin of the Jacobin Club, which was to play such a conspicuous role in the Revolution, is here described by one of its prominent early members, Alexandre de Lameth. The society grew with astonishing rapidity. By December, 1790, there were eleven hundred names enrolled upon the list of Paris members, and by June, 1 79 1, the affiliated clubs throughout the provinces numbered four hundred and six. It must not be sup- posed that the Jacobins represented a well-defined policy or defended a single set of political opinions. Nor were they by any means always in agreement among them- selves. For example, in the winter of 1 791-1792 a strong party among them opposed the growing tendency