Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/149



so sweet that you will prefer its infernal enjoyment to the welfare of the country; you whom they wanted to terrify with armed petitions as if you did not know that in the beginning of the Revolution the sanctuary of liberty was surrounded by the satellites of despotism, that Paris was besieged by an army, and that those days of danger were those of veritable glory for the Constituent Assembly; you, to whom I have believed I ought to present these swift reflections because at the moment when it is important to stir deeply public opinion it seemed to me indispensable to do away with all the illusions, all the errors which might lessen the effect of your measures; you, finally, to whom each day discloses a vast horizon of conspiracies, treacheries, dangers; who are placed on the crater of Ætna to ward off the thunderbolt — what are your resources? What does necessity command you? What does the Constitution allow you?

First, I will call your attention to interior troubles. They have two causes: aristocratic maneuvers, and priestly maneuvers. Both tend to the same end — counter-revolution. "You will prevent the action of the first by means of a wise and vigorous police. We must hasten to discuss the bases of it; but when you have done everything that in you lay to save the people from the terrible influence of the second, the Constitution leaves at your further disposal