Such was the man whom nature had given to the Girondists as their chief.

He disdained the office, although he possessed all the qualities and the views, of a statesman; too careless to be the leader of a party, too great to be second to any one.

Such was Vergniaud,--more illustrious than useful to his friends; he would not lead, but immortalised, them.
We will describe this great man more in detail at the period when his talent places him in a more conspicuous situation.

"Are there circumstances," said he "in which the natural rights of man can permit a nation to adopt any measure against emigrations ?" Vergniaud spoke against those pretended natural rights, and recognised, above all individual rights, the right of society, which comprises and dominates over all, just as the whole predominates over a portion: he compared political liberty to the right of a citizen to do what he pleases, provided he do nothing injurious to his country; but there he stops.

Man can, no doubt, materially use this right to abdicate the country in which he was born and to which he belongs, as the limb belongs to the body, but this abdication is treason; for it severs the union between the nation and himself, and the nation no longer owes him or his property any protection.