If the Government took a fancy to arrest everybody who hates it openly, there would be neither gendarmes nor gaolers enough; above all, there would be an insufficiency of those houses of peace, of which it has been said, that "their protection and salubrity prolong the life of their inmates."[10] The citizens, then, are allowed to speak freely, provided always they do not gesticulate too violently.

But we may be sure no word is ever lost in a State watched by priests.

The Government keeps an accurate list of those who wish it ill.

It revenges itself when it can, but it never runs after vengeance.

It watches its occasion; it can afford to be patient, because it thinks itself eternal.
If the bold speaker chance to hold a modest government appointment, a purging commission quietly cashiers him, and turns him delicately out into the street.
Should he be a person of independent fortune, they wait till he wants something, as, for instance, a passport.