It is not enough to desire to be free—­one must know how to be free.  I shall speak briefly on this subject, for after the success of our deliberations, I await with confidence the spirit and action of this Assembly.  I only wish to announce my opinions on a question, the rejection of which would sooner or later mean the loss of our liberties.  This question leaves no doubt in the minds of those who reflect on governments and are guided by impartial judgments.  Those who have combatted the committee have made a fundamental error.  They have confounded democratic government with representative government; they have confounded the rights of the people with the qualifications of an elector, which society dispenses for its well understood interest.  Where the government is representative, where there exists an intermediary degree of electors, society which elects them has essentially the right to determine the conditions of their eligibility.  There is one right existing in our constitution, that of the active citizen, but the function of an elector is not a right.  I repeat, society has the right to determine its conditions.  Those who misunderstand the nature as they do the advantages of representative government, remind us of the governments of Athens and Sparta, ignoring the differences that distinguish them from France, such as extent of territory, population, etc.  Do they forget that they interdicted representative government?  Have they forgotten that the Lacedemonians had the right to vote in the assemblies only when they held helots?  And only by sacrifice of individual rights did the Lacedemonians, Athenians, and Romans possess any democratic governments!  I ask those who remind us of them, if it is at such government they would arrive?  I ask those who profess here metaphysical ideas, because they have no practical ideas, those who envelop the question in clouds of theory, because they ignore entirely the fundamental facts of a positive government—­I ask is it forgotten that the democracy of a portion of a people would exist but by the entire enslavement of the other portion of the people?  A representative government has but one evil to fear, that of corruption.  That such a government shall be good, there must be guaranteed the purity and incorruptibility of the electorate.  This body needs the union of three eminent guarantees.  First, the light of a fair education and broadened views.  Second, an interest in things, and still better if each had a particular and considerable interest at stake to defend.  Third, such condition of fortune as to place the elector above attack from corruption.