.

and the Courier de l'Europe a fortnight old; and well-dressed people are now talking of the news of two or three weeks past, and plainly by their discourse know nothing of what is passing.

At Clermont "I dined, or supped, five times at the table d'hote with from twenty to thirty merchants, trade men, officers, etc., and it is not easy for me to express the insignificance,--the inanity of their conversation.
Scarcely any politics are mentioned at a moment when every bosom ought to beat with none but political sensations.

The ignorance or the stupidity of these people must be absolutely incredible; not a week passes without their country abounding with events[1338] that are analyzed an debated by the carpenters and blacksmiths of England." The cause of this inertia is manifest; interrogated on their opinions, all reply: "We are of the provinces and we must wait to know what is going on in Paris." Never having acted, they do no know how to act.

But, thanks to this inertia, they let themselves be driven.