Bienfaisants* at Lyons. Such refinements never fail to be considered as a sort of heresy, and the professors will be held with a jealous and unfriendly eye by some, who will pride themselves on adhering to the old faith. And the greater the success of the heresy, the greater will be the animosity between the parties.—May not this help to explain the mutual hatred of the Parisians and the Lyonnois, which produced the most dreadful attrocities ever perpetrated on the face of the earth, and made a shambles and a desert of the finest city of France?
The first proceeding by the advice of the deputies was the formation of a political committee in every Lodge. This committee corresponded with the distant Lodges, and in it were discussed and settled all the political principles which were to be inculcated on the members. The author of the Neueste Arbeitung says expressly, that "he was thoroughly instructed in this; that it was given in charge to these committees to frame general rules, and to carry through the great plan (grand auvre) of a general overturning of religion and government." The principal leaders of the subsequent Revolution were members of these committees. Here were the plans laid, and they were transmitted through the kingdom by the Corresponding Committees.