Philosophy does not inspire by violence, nor by seduction; nor is it the sword that begets love of liberty.

Joseph the Second also borrowed the language of philosophy, when he wished to suppress the monks in Belgium, and to seize upon their revenues.  There was seen on him a mask only of philosophy, covering the hideous countenance of a greedy despot; and the people ran to arms.  Nothing better than another kind of despotism has been seen in the revolutionary power.

We have seen in the commissioners of the National Convention nothing but proconsuls working the mine of Belgium for the profit of the French nation, seeking to conquer it for the sovereign of Paris,—­either to aggrandize his empire, or to share the burdens of the debts, and furnish a rich prize to the robbers who domineered in France.

Do you believe the Belgians have ever been the dupes of those well-rounded periods which they vended in the pulpit in order to familiarize them to the idea of an union with France?  Do you believe they were ever imposed upon by those votes and resolutions, made by what is called acclamation, for their union, of which corruption paid one part,[9] and fear forced the remainder?  Who, at this time of day, is unacquainted with the springs and wires of their miserable puppet-show? Who does not know the farces of primary assemblies, composed of a president, of a secretary, and of some assistants, whose day’s work was paid for? No:  it is not by means which belong only to thieves and despots that the foundations of liberty can be laid in an enslaved country.  It is not by those means, that a new-born republic, a people who know not yet the elements of republican governments, can be united to us.  Even slaves do not suffer themselves to be seduced by such artifices; and if they have not the strength to resist, they have at least the sense to know how to appreciate the value of such an attempt.

If we would attach the Belgians to us, we must at least enlighten their minds by good writings; we must send to them missionaries, and not despotic commissioners.[10] We ought to give them time to see,—­to perceive by themselves the advantages of liberty, the unhappy effects of superstition, the fatal spirit of priesthood.  And whilst we waited for this moral revolution, we should have accepted the offers which they incessantly repeated to join to the French army an army of fifty thousand men, to entertain them at their own expense, and to advance to France the specie of which she stood in need.

But have we ever seen those fifty thousand soldiers who were to join our army as soon as the standard of liberty should be displayed in Belgium?  Have we ever seen those treasures which they were to count into our hands?  Can we either accuse the sterility of their country, or the penury of their treasure, or the coldness of their love for liberty?  No! despotism and anarchy, these are the benefits which