Journalism, that universal and daily _forum_ of the people's passions, had expanded with the progress of liberty.

All ardent minds had eagerly embraced it, Mirabeau himself having set the example when he descended from the tribune.

He wrote his letters to his constituents in the _Courrier de Provence_.

Camille Desmoulins, a young man of great talent but weak reasoning powers, threw into his lucubrations for the press the feverish tumult of his thoughts.

Brissot, Gorsas, Carra, Prudhomme, Freron, Danton, Fauchet, Condorcet, edited democratic journals: they began by demanding the abolition of royalty, "the greatest scourge," said the _Revolutions de Paris_, "which has ever dishonoured the human species." Marat seemed to have concentrated in himself all the evil passions which ferment in a society in a state of decomposition: he constituted himself the permanent representative of popular hate.