All natural or acquired ties, consequently, which bound men together through geographical position, through climate, history, pursuits, and trade, are sundered.

The old provinces, the old provincial governments, the old municipal administrations, parliaments, guilds and masterships, all are suppressed.

The groups which spring up most naturally, those which arise through a community of interests, are all dispersed, and the broadest, most express, and most positive interdictions are promulgated against their revival under any pretext whatever.[2250] France is cut up into geometrical sections like a chess-board, and, within these improvised limits, which are destined for a long time to remain artificial, nothing is allowed to subsist but isolated individuals in juxtaposition.

There is no desire to spare organized bodies where the cohesion is great, and least of all that of the clergy.

"Special associations," says Mirabeau,[2251] "in the community at large, break up the unity of its principles and destroy the equilibrium of its forces.