inestimable;--nor should this sympathy be the less, that so many perished in the conflagration, which, at the commencement, they had fanned too rashly. They did even more, for they endeavoured to heal the wounds of the nation by passing an act of general amnesty, which at once placed in security the Jacobins of the Champ de Mars, and the unfortunate companions of the King's flight. This was one of their last and wisest decrees, could they have enforced its observance by their successors. The adieus which they took of power were anything but prophetic. They pronounced the Revolution ended, and the Constitution completed--the one was but commencing, and the other was baseless as a morning dream. FOOTNOTES: [123] Thiers, tom. i., p. 192; Lacretelle, tom. vii., p. 262. [124] "The indignant populace murmured at the severity. 'What!' they exclaimed, 'is this our liberty? We can no longer hang whom we please!'"--TOULONGEON, tom. i., p. 168. [125] "A simple decree, proposed, June 20th, by Lameth, that the titles of duke, count, marquis, viscount, baron, and chevalier, should be suppressed, was carried by an overwhelming majority."--MIGNET, tom. ii., p. 114. [126] Richard the Second, act iii., sc. i. [127] "One of the most singular propositions of this day was, that of renouncing the names of estates, which many families had borne for ages, and obliging them to resume their patronymic appellations. In this way the Montmorencies would have been called Bouchard; La Fayette, Mottié; Mirabeau, Riquetti. This would have been stripping France of her history; and no man, how democratic soever, either would or ought to renounce in this manner the memory of his ancestors."--M. DE STAËL, vol. i., p. 364. [128] The Comte de Mirabeau was furious at being called _Riquetti l'ainé_, and said, with great bitterness, when his speeches were promulgated under that name, "_Avec votre Riquetti, vous avez désorienté l'Europe pour trois jours_." Mirabeau was at heart an aristocrat. But what shall we say of Citoyenne Roland, who piques herself on the plebeian sound of her name, _Manon Philipon_, yet inconsequentially upbraids Citoyen Pache with his father's having been a porter!--S.--_Memoirs_, part i., p. 140.