nullite.”—­These people are not supposed to have endured those sufferings and injustices in a struggle for liberty, for the same account states truly that they have been always free; their patience in beggary and ruin, and their suffering, without remonstrance, the most flagrant and confessed injustice, if strictly true, can be nothing but the effect of this dire fanaticism.  A great multitude all over France is in the same condition and the same temper.

[117] See the proceedings of the confederation at Nantes.

[118] “Si plures sunt ii quibus improbe datum est, quam illi quibus injuste ademptum est, idcirco plus etiam valent?  Non enim numero haec judicantur, sed pondere.  Quam autem habet aequitatem, ut agrum multis annis, aut etiam saeculis ante possessum, qui nullum habuit habeat, qui autem habuit amittat?  Ac, propter hoc injuriae genus, Lacedaemonii Lysandrum Ephorum expulerunt; Agin regem (quod nunquam antea apud eos acciderat) necaverunt; exque eo tempore tantae discordiae secutae sunt, ut et tyranni exsisterent, et optimates exterminarentur, et preclarissime constituta respublica dilaberetur.  Nec vero solum ipsa cecidit, sed etiam reliquam Graeciam evertit contagionibus malorum, quae a Lacedaemoniis profectae manarunt latius.”—­After speaking of the conduct of the model of true patriots, Aratus of Sicyon, which was in a very different spirit, he says,—­“Sic par est agere cum civibus; non (ut bis jam vidimus) hastam in foro ponere et bona civium voci subjicere praeconis.  At ille Graecus (id quod fuit sapientis et praestantis viri) omnibus consulendum esse putavit:  eaque est summa ratio et sapientia boni civis, commoda civium non divellere, sed omnes eadem aequitate continere.”—­Cic.  Off. 1. 2.

[119] See two books entitled, “Einige Originalschriften des Illuminatenordens,”—­“System und Folgen des Illuminatenordens.”  Muenchen, 1787.

[120] A leading member of the Assembly, M. Rabaut de St. Etienne, has expressed the principle of all their proceedings as clearly as possible; nothing can be more simple:—­“Tous les etablissemens en France couronnent le malheur du peuple:  pour le rendre heureux, il faut le renouveler, changer ses idees, changer ses loix, changer ses moeurs, ... changer les hommes, changer les choses, changer ses mots, ... tout detruire; oui, tout detruire; puisque tout est a recreer.”—­This gentleman was chosen president in an assembly not sitting at Quinze-Vingt or the Petites Maisons, and composed of persons giving themselves out to be rational beings; but neither his ideas, language, or conduct differ in the smallest degree from the discourses, opinions, and actions of those, within and without the Assembly, who direct the operations of the machine now at work in France.

[121] The Assembly, in executing the plan of their committee, made some alterations.  They have struck out one stage in these gradations; this removes a part of the objection; but the main objection, namely, that in their scheme the first constituent voter has no connection with the representative legislator, remains in all its force.  There are other alterations, some possibly for the better, some certainly for the worse:  but to the author the merit or demerit of these smaller alterations appears to be of no moment, where the scheme itself is fundamentally vicious and absurd.