A change has come over the spirit of the body as well as over its composition; it is nothing more now than a servile instrument in the hands of the seditious, who have mutilated it, and who, masters of it through a first misdeed, are going to use it to legalize other crimes.
VI .-- Nights of August 9 and 10.
The sections .-- Commissioners of the sections at the Hotel- de-ville .-- The revolutionary Commune is substituted for the legal Commune.
During the night of the 9th and 10th of August their government forms itself for action, it has been set up as it will behave, with violence and fraud .-- In vain have they annoyed and worked on the sections for the past fortnight; they are not yet submissive, only six out of forty-eight at the present hour, eleven o'clock at night, being found sufficiently excited or purged to send their commissioners forthwith, with full power, to the Hotel-de-ville.

The others will follow, but the majority rests inert or recalcitrant.[2667]--It is necessary, therefore, to deceive or force this majority, and, to this end, darkness, the late hour, disorder, dread of the coming day, and the uncertainty of what to do, are precious auxiliaries.

In many of the sections,[2668] the meetings are already adjourned or deserted; only a few members of the permanent bureau in the room, with a few men, perhaps asleep, on the nearly empty benches.

An emissary arrives from the insurgent sections, along with a company of trusty fellows belonging to the quarter, and cries out, Save the country! The sleepers open their eyes, stretch themselves, raise their hands, and elect whoever is designated, sometimes strangers and other unknown individuals, who will be disowned the coming day at a full meeting of the section.

There is no official report drawn up, no balloting, the course pursued being the most prompt.
At the Arsenal section, six electors present choose three among their own number to represent 1,400 active citizens.