since seen, the application of the same treatment to the most
respectable persons.--Public opinion, it is said, will prevent this,
Opinion! what is it without the authority of law? what is it without
independent organs to express it? Opinion was in favor of the Duke
d'Enghien, in favor of Moreau, in favor of Pichegru:--was it able to
save them? There will be neither liberty, dignity, nor security in a
country where proper names are discussed when injustice is about to
be committed. Every man is innocent until condemned by a legal
tribunal; and the fate of even the greatest of criminals, if he is
withdrawn from the law, ought to make good people tremble in common,
with others. But, as is the custom in the English House of Commons,
when an opposition member goes out, he requests a ministerial member
to pair off with him, not to alter the strength of either party,
Bonaparte never struck the jacobins or the royalists without
dividing his blows equally between them: he thus made friends of
all those whose vengeance he served, We shall see in the sequel that
he always reckoned on the gratification of this passion to
consolidate his government: for he knows that it is much more to be
depended on than affection. After a revolution, the spirit of party
is so bitter, that a new chief can subdue it more by serving its
vengeance, than by supporting its interests: all abandon, if
necessary, those who think like themselves, provided they can
sacrifice those who think differently.

The peace of Luneville was proclaimed: Austria only lost in this
first peace the republic of Venice, which she had formerly received
as an indemnity for Belgium; and this ancient mistress of the
Adriatic, once so haughty and powerful, again passed from one master
to the other.