A complete history of the Marquis de Lafayette, major-general in the American army in the war of the revolution. Embracing an account of his tour through the United States, to the time of his departure, September, 1825. By an officer in the late army.

244 HISTORY OF THE
His second reply contains sentiments ennobling to human
nature. " I will observe, gentlemen," said he, " that in this
moment of troubles, it is difficult to regulate the expenditure
of the commander-in-chief. If my personal situation required
pecuniary aid, I would have demanded it: and I beg you to
believe, that I do not attach more importance to refusing,
than to accepting it. But, at a time when so many citizens
are in want, and so many expenses are necessary, it is repugnant to my feelings uselessly to increase them. My fortune
is sufficient for the rank I hold.-After this declaration, gentlemen, I confine myself simply to the request, that the one
hundred thousand livres added for the current year, to the
forty thousand crowns, may contribute to the comfort and
relief of those who have most severely suffered for their
country." In the same communication, he declared that the
compensation of the commander-in-chief, fixed at one hundred and twenty thousand livres, was excessive, and ought to
be diminished.'i
The society of Jacobins, one of the most powerful engines
recurred to during the French revolution, was now beginning
to dictate laws to the assembly itself. "' From the moment,"
says madame De Stael, "' that we admit into a government,
a power that is not legal, it invariably ends by becoming the
strongest." The Jacobin clubs, (for there were no less than
twenty thousand afiliated clubs in France,) were organised
as a government more than the government itself: they pass.
ed decrees; they were connected by correspondence in the
provinces, with other clubs not less powerful; and, finally,
they could be considered only as a mine, always ready to
blow up existing institutions, when opportunities should offer
Buft Its incendiary motions and outrageous proceedings, and
the equivocal characters of many of the ruling members, had
cast an indelible stain on a society which, after efficaciously
and usefully counterbalancing the influence of the court, was
now likely, at no distant period, to endanger the fabric of
Merm. Hist. p. 178-184.