It is over the lowest class
of mankind that government by terror is intended to operate, and it is
on them that it operates to the worst effect. They have sense enough
to feel they are the objects aimed at; and they inflict in their
turn the examples of terror they have been instructed to practise.
There is in all European countries a large class of people of that
description, which in England is called the "mob." Of this class
were those who committed the burnings and devastations in London in
1780, and of this class were those who carried the heads on iron
spikes in Paris. Foulon and Berthier were taken up in the country, and
sent to Paris, to undergo their examination at the Hotel de Ville; for
the National Assembly, immediately on the new ministry coming into
office, passed a decree, which they communicated to the King and
Cabinet, that they (the National Assembly) would hold the ministry, of
which Foulon was one, responsible for the measures they were
advising and pursuing; but the mob, incensed at the appearance of
Foulon and Berthier, tore them from their conductors before they
were carried to the Hotel de Ville, and executed them on the spot. Why
then does Mr. Burke charge outrages of this kind on a whole people? As
well may he charge the riots and outrages of 1780 on all the people of
London, or those in Ireland on all his countrymen.
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