mass of people who form the lowest stratum of society.  The attitude of authority is bound to be repressive, and great concentration of the governing power is needed to neutralize the force of a popular movement.  This is the application of the principle that I unfolded when I spoke just now of the way in which the class privileged to govern should be restricted.  If this class is composed of men of ability, they will obey this natural law, and compel the country to obey.  If you collect a crowd of mediocrities together, sooner or later they will fall under the dominion of a stronger head.  A deputy of talent understands the reasons for which a government exists; the mediocre deputy simply comes to terms with force.  An assembly either obeys an idea, like the Convention in the time of the Terror; a powerful personality, like the Corps Legislatif under the rule of Napoleon; or falls under the domination of a system or of wealth, as it has done in our own day.  The Republican Assembly, that dream of some innocent souls, is an impossibility.  Those who would fain bring it to pass are either grossly deluded dupes or would-be tyrants.  Do you not think that there is something ludicrous about an Assembly which gravely sits in debate upon the perils of a nation which ought to be roused into immediate action?  It is only right of course that the people should elect a body of representatives who will decide questions of supplies and of taxation; this institution has always existed, under the sway of the most tyrannous ruler no less than under the sceptre of the mildest of princes.  Money is not to be taken by force; there are natural limits to taxation, and if they are overstepped, a nation either rises up in revolt, or lays itself down to die.  Again, if this elective body, changing from time to time according to the needs and ideas of those whom it represents, should refuse obedience to a bad law in the name of the people, well and good.  But to imagine that five hundred men, drawn from every corner of the kingdom, will make a good law!  Is it not a dreary joke, for which the people will sooner or later have to pay?  They have a change of masters, that is all.

“Authority ought to be given to one man, he alone should have the task of making the laws; and he should be a man who, by force of circumstances, is continually obliged to submit his actions to general approbation.  But the only restraints that can be brought to bear upon the exercise of power, be it the power of the one, of the many, or of the multitude, are to be found in the religious institutions of a country.  Religion forms the only adequate safeguard against the abuse of supreme power.  When a nation ceases to believe in religion, it becomes ungovernable in consequence, and its prince perforce becomes a tyrant.  The Chambers that occupy an intermediate place between rulers and their subjects are powerless to prevent these results, and can only mitigate them to a very slight extent; Assemblies, as I have said