From the victory of the 10th of August resulted immediately some progress of the popular cause. A few days after the fall of the throne, the exercise of political rights was extended to all citizens, without distinction. All were declared eligible to public functions, and it was solemnly recognized that no constitution could be imposed on the people without their consent. At the same time marriage was legally disembarrassed of that deplorable (désespérinte) indissolubility which often renders it as inimical to the happiness of individuals and families, as it is disastrous to morals and liberty. It is a fact deserving observation, that the energy of the nation in defence of the Revolution invariably expanded or diminished in proportion as the laws seemed to favour equality or to oppose it. It was the working class—that class so maltreated and so unjustly despised in society—which achieved all the prodigies of virtue and devotion to which the Revolution gave birth. The rest of the community (with very few exceptions) only threw obstructions in the way of the national regeneration.
It is an unquestionable fact that theAristocrats in the National Convention before 31st May Order of Egoism, or Aristocracy,[1] had very able and numerous advocates in the National Convention. For proofs of this we need only look to the crafty harangues and writings of Vergniaud, Guadet, Raband, Brissot, Gorsas, Condorcet, Lanjuinais, Louvet, Barbaroux, and so many others of the same stamp. We have further proofs in their transactions with the court—in their incessant invectives against the friends of equality—in their avowed hatred of the real directors of the insurrection of the 10th of August—in their connections with Narbonne, Dumouriez, Custine, and other faithless generals—in their persevering opposition to the establishment of the progressive impost[2]—in the prodigal interest they took in- ↑ The aristocratic system, or exercise of sovereign power, by a part of the nation over the whole, is an inevitable consequence of the inequality consecrated by the Order of Egoism.
- ↑ The impost progressive differs from the proportional impost in this—that the relation of the latter to a man's income is always the same the tax preserving a uniform ratio to his fortune—whereas in the impost progressive the ratio itself increases at the point where superfluity begins. In short, the progressive impost prevents large fortunes and spares small ones.
