of the Republic," says St. Just, "the Constitution cannot be
implemented as this would enable attacks on liberty to take place
because it would lack the violent measures necessary to repress
these." We are no longer to govern "according to maxims of natural
peace and justice; these maxims are only valid among the friends of
liberty;" but they are not applicable between patriots and the
malevolent. The latter are "outside our sovereignty," are lawless,
excluded from the social pact, slaves in rebellion, to be punished or
imprisoned, and, amongst the malevolent must be placed "the
indifferent[112]". - "You are to punish whoever is passive in the
Republic and does nothing for it;" for his passivity is treason and
ranks him among other public enemies. Now, between the people and its
enemies, there is nothing in common but the sword; steel must control
those who cannot be ruled "by justice"; the monarchical and neutral
majority must be repressed (comprimé);

"The Republic will be founded only when the sans-culottes,[113] the
sole representatives of the nation, the only citizens, "shall rule by
right of conquest."[114]

The meaning of this is more than clear. The régime of which St. Just
presents the plan, is that by which every oligarchy of invaders
installs and maintains itself over a subjugated nation. Through this
régime, in Greece, ten thousand Spartans, after the Dorian invasion,
mastered three hundred thousand helots and périocques; through this
régime, in England, sixty thousand Normans, after the battle of
Hastings, mastered two million Saxons; through this régime in Ireland,
since the battle of the Boyne, two hundred thousand English
Protestants have mastered a million of Catholic Irish; through this
régime, the three hundred thousand Jacobins of France will master the