Here they are either performers or claqueurs, an uproar not being offensive to them, because they create it.

They relieve each other, so as to be always on hand in sufficient number, or compensate for a deficiency by usurpations and brutality.

The section of the Theatre-Francais, for instance, in contempt of the law, removes the distinction between active and passive citizens, by granting to all residents in its circumscription the right to be present at its meetings and the right to vote.

Other sections[2641] admit to their sittings all well-disposed spectators, all women, children, and the nomads, all agitators, and the agitated, who, as at the National Assembly, applaud or hoot at the word of command.

In the sections not disposed to be at the mercy of an anonymous public, the same herd of frantic characters make a racket at the doors, and insult the electors who pass through them .-- Thanks to this itinerant throng of co-operating intruders, the Jacobin extremists rule the sections the same as the Assembly; in the sections as in the Assembly, they drive away or silence the moderates, and when the hall becomes half empty or dumb, their motion is passed.
Hawked about in the vicinity, the motion is even carried off; in a few days it makes the tour of Paris, and returns to the Assembly as an authentic and unanimous expression of popular will.[2642] At present, to ensure the execution of this counterfeit will, it requires a central committee, and through a masterpiece of delusion, Petion, the Girondist mayor, is the one who undertakes to lodge, sanction, and organize the committee.