In Paris, as in the provinces, it is from the clubs or popular associations in which they congregate, that they are sought for .-- Each section of Paris contains one of these clubs, in all forty-eight, rallied around the central club in the Rue St.Honore, forty-eight district alliances of professional rioters and brawlers, the rebels and blackguards of the social army, all the men and women incapable of devoting themselves to a regular life and useful labor,[3307] especially those who, on the 31st of May and 2nd of June, had aided the Paris Commune and the "Mountain" in violating the Convention.

They recognize each other by this sign that, "each would be hung in case of a counter-revolution,"[3308] laying it down "as an incontestable fact that, should a single aristocrat be spared, all of them would mount the scaffold."[3309] They are naturally wary and they stick together: in their clique "everything is done on the basis of good fellowship;"[3310] no one is admitted except on the condition of having proved his qualifications "on the 10th of August and 31st of May."[3311] And, as they have made their way into the Commune and into the revolutionary committees behind victorious leaders, they are able, through the certificates of civism which these arbitrarily grant or refuse, to exclude, not only from political life but, again, from civil life, whoever is not of their party.
"See," writes one of Danton's correspondents,[3312] "the sort of persons who easily obtain these certificates,--the Ronsins, the Jourdans, the Maillards, the Vincents, all bankrupts, keepers of gambling-hells and cut-throats.

Ask these individuals whether they have paid the patriotic contribution, whether they regularly pay the usual taxes, whether they give to the poor of their sections, to the volunteer soldiers, etc.; whether they mount guard or see it regularly done, whether they have made a loyal declaration for the forced loan.

You will find that they have not....

The Commune issues certificates of civism to its satellites and refuses them to the best citizens." The monopoly is obvious; they make no attempt to conceal it; six weeks later,[3313] it becomes official: several revolutionary committees decide not to grant certificates of civism to citizens who are not members of a popular club." And strict exclusion goes on increasing from month to month.