So remote from the center, having no knowledge of general affairs or of their unity, they are two years behind their brethren of the Constituent Assembly.

They are described in the following manner by Malouet,[2209] "Most of them, without having decided against a monarchy, had decided against the court, the aristocracy, and the clergy, ever imagining conspiracies and believing that defense consisted solely in attack.
There were still many men of talent among them, but with no experience; they even lacked that which we had obtained.

Our patriot deputies, in great part, were aware of their errors; the novices were not, they were ready to begin all over again." Moreover, they have their own political bent, for nearly all of them are upstarts of the new regime.

We find in their ranks 264 department administrators, 109 district administrators, 125 justices and prosecuting-attorneys, 68 mayors and town officers, besides about twenty officers of the National Guard, constitutional bishops and cures.

The whole amounting to 566 of the elected functionaries, who, for the past twenty months, have carried on the government under the direction of their electors.