And first, I have asked myself who these Frenchmen are, that, in the state their own country has been in for these last five years, of all the people of Europe, have alone not been able to form a decided opinion, or have been unwilling to act a decided part?

Looking over all the names I have heard of in this great revolution in all human affairs, I find no man of any distinction who has remained in that more than Stoical apathy, but the Prince de Conti.  This mean, stupid, selfish, swinish, and cowardly animal, universally known and despised as such, has indeed, except in one abortive attempt to elope, been perfectly neutral.  However, his neutrality, which it seems would qualify him for trust, and on a competition must set aside the Prince de Conde, can be of no sort of service.  His moderation has not been able to keep him from a jail.  The allied powers must draw him from that jail, before they can have the full advantage of the exertions of this great neutralist.

Except him, I do not recollect a man of rank or talents, who by his speeches or his votes, by his pen or by his sword, has not been active on this scene.  The time, indeed, could admit no neutrality in any person worthy of the name of man.  There were originally two great divisions in France:  the one is that which overturned the whole of the government in Church and State, and erected a republic on the basis of atheism.  Their grand engine was the Jacobin Club, a sort of secession from which, but exactly on the same principles, begat another short-lived one, called the Club of Eighty-Nine,[37] which was chiefly guided by the court rebels, who, in addition to the crimes of which they were guilty in common with the others, had the merit of betraying a gracious master and a kind benefactor.  Subdivisions of this faction, which since we have seen, do not in the least differ from each other in their principles, their dispositions, or the means they have employed.  Their only quarrel has been about power:  in that quarrel, like wave succeeding wave, one faction has got the better and expelled the other.  Thus, La Fayette for a while got the better of Orleans; and Orleans afterwards prevailed over La Fayette.  Brissot overpowered Orleans; Barere and Robespierre, and their faction, mastered them both, and cut off their heads.  All who were not Royalists have been listed in some or other of these divisions.  If it were of any use to settle a precedence, the elder ought to have his rank.  The first authors, plotters, and contrivers of this monstrous scheme seem to me entitled to the first place in our distrust and abhorrence.  I have seen some of those who are thought the best amongst the original rebels, and I have not neglected the means of being informed concerning the others.  I can very truly say, that I have not found, by observation, or inquiry, that any sense of the evils produced by their projects has produced in them, or any one of them, the smallest degree of repentance.  Disappointment