74 Laura B. Pfeiffer 



hundred and forty-five ; I propose that we suspend the session and 

 go out."^^" This caused a still greater tumult and several mem- 

 bers spoke at once. There were cries for Ramond to continue, 

 for Calvet to be called to order. It was said that it would be 

 cowardly to adjourn and finally the president called Calvet to 

 order and quiet was reestablished. Ramond then replied to Cal- 

 vet, saying, " Eight thousand men await at your door your decis- 

 ion ; twenty-five millions await it no less."^^'' He then continued 

 his speech. He said that more than any one he believed in the 

 respect citizens have for the law ; he believed that the legislative 

 body would fail in its most sacred duty if it did not warn them 

 of the respect they owed to the constituted authorities ; that the 

 legislative body was not only the lawmaker but the teacher of the 

 people ; that it ought not only to watch over the constituted author- 

 ities, but over the citizens who constituted them ; and that it owed 

 it to the law, which is the divinity of a free people, to warn them 

 that they were transgressing a law which they had promulgated. 

 He said he did not fear to see the entire people around them and 

 that the more there were, the more opinions would be enlightened 

 by the expression of the public wish ; that no one desired more 

 than he to see the citizens pass before them and to see the display 

 of arms which would frighten their enemies, but that the assembly 

 ought to demand that those arms be deposited at the door, else 

 their act w^ould take on the character of fear. [Applause and 

 murmurs.] He said he applauded the generous sentiment which 

 actuated Vergniaud's motion to send sixty members to the Tuile- 

 ries but, convinced that there was no cause for fear in the midst 

 of the people of Paris, he called for the previous question. But 

 he asked that the legislative body, faithful to its duty, present to 

 the empire and to all Europe the spectacle of an obedient multi- 

 tude. He then insisted on his demand that the citizens deposit 

 their arms at the door before they entered. [Murmurs in the 

 galleries and, from the Left, some applause.] 



^'^ Journal de I'assemblee nationale, XXI, 305; Journal des dehats et de- 

 crets, No. 268; p. 267; The Moniteur gives the same thought in different 

 words. 



270 



