To oppose the acts of
union appeared to Cambon an overt act of treason. The wish so much as to
reflect and to deliberate was in his eyes a great crime. He calumniated
our intentions. The voice of every deputy, especially my voice, would
infallibly have been stifled. There were spies on the very monosyllables
that escaped our lips.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] The most seditious libels upon all governments, in order to excite
insurrection in Spain, Holland, and other countries,--TRANSLATOR.
[8] It may not be amiss, once for all, to remark on the style of all the
philosophical politicians of France. Without any distinction in their
several sects and parties, they agree in treating all nations who will
not conform their government, laws, manners, and religion to the new
French fashion, as _an herd of slaves_. They consider the content with
which men live under those governments as stupidity, and all attachment
to religion as the effect of the grossest ignorance.
The people of the Netherlands, by their Constitution, are as much
entitled to be called free as any nation upon earth. The Austrian
government (until some wild attempts the Emperor Joseph made on the
French principle, but which have been since abandoned by the court of
Vienna) has been remarkably mild. No people were more at their ease than
the Flemish subjects, particularly the lower classes. It is curious to
hear this great oculist talk of couching the _cataract_ by which the
Netherlands were _blinded_, and hindered from seeing in its proper
colors the beautiful vision of the French republic, which he has himself
painted with so masterly an hand.
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