in similar circumstances. But man frequently con demns in his enemy what he would approve in his friend. Another custom is introduced to support the first it is that practised by our peasants of kindling great bonfires about Saint John's day, perhaps in memory of the burning of Rome, which happened at this season, according to Plutarch, that is about the summer solstice. I am well aware that religion had in some measure consecrated the fires of Saint John, but I believe they are of antiquity more remote than the Christian Era, as well as many other usages which Christians have adopted.

Whatever be in this, the Departments ought to abolish from among our peasants those inhuman pastimes, and substitute in their room such as exercise both body and mind, like those in use among the Greeks. Such are wrestling, running, swimming, the use of fire-arms, dancing, and above all, music, which has such power toward polishing the human mind. But we hope to treat these subjects more profoundly, when we engage in a plan of national education.

Our men of capital may powerfully second this moral revolution in rural life, by combining their means with the illuminations of the Departments. Instead of monopolizing the money and the bread of the People, whose curses they draw down upon themselves, and sometimes their vengeance, it is easy for them to lay out their money on undoubted security, with profit, honour, and pleasure. They could estab-lish country banks, for the purpose of lending, at a moderate interest, small sums to the farmer, who, for want of a little ready money, frequently sees his pro

perty

perty go to ruin. They could themselves drain marches, clear waste lands, multiply flocks, estab lish manufactures, render small rivers navigable; instead of acquiring immense tracts of landed property producing a small revenue while in the hands of their great farmers, because the half must be every year left in fallow, they ought to divide them into small portions of four, of six, of ten acres, which will yield a perpetual produce, because a single family can cultivate them. They may. plant them out into orchards, enclose them with quickset hedges, less expensive, more durable, more agreeable and more beneficial to agriculture, than the long and gloomy stone walls of parks; they may rear on them little smiling and commodious mansions, or even simple cottages, and sell or let them to tradesmen who may come thither in quest of health and repose. The simple tastes of the country will thus be introduced into the cities, and the urbanity of cities will communicate itself to the country. Our capitalists might extend their patriotic establishments beyond seas, open new channels to commerce and fisheries, discover new islands under the fortunate climate of the tropical regions, and there plant colonies exempted from slavery. The greatest of islands in the bosom of the Ocean, if after all it be only an island, New Holland, invites them to complete the discovery of it's coasts, and to penetrate into it's immense solitudes, where the foot of European never yet travelled. They may, with French liberty and industry, found on it's shores a new Ba tavia, which shall attract to itself the riches of two worlds; or rather like new Lycurguses, may they banish

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banish money from it, and, in it's place, introduce the reign of innocence, concord and happiness!

Of the Nobility and the National Guards.

The ambition of the Nobility had acquired entire possession of honours ecclesiastical, military, parliamentary, financial, municipal, and even of those pertaining to men of letters and artists. Letters of Nobility were requisite to a man's being a Bishop, a Colonel, or even a Subaltern Officer, in the Army, a Privy Counsellor, the Mayor of a Corporation; they were obtained as a qualification for filling the place of Sheriff of Paris; they would soon have become necessary towards obtaining a seat in our Academies, which had all of them Noblemen, or pretenders to Nobility, at their head. M. le Clerc had become M. le Comte de Buffon, and Voltaire, M. le Comte de Ferney: others limited their ambition to the ribbon of St. Michael; all our noted literary characters aimed at present or future Nobility. Poor John James alone was contented to remain a man. Besides, he had not the honour of belonging to any one Academy.

A Nation consisting of Nobles only, would quickly terminate it's career in the loss of it's Religion, it's Armies, it's Justice, it's Finances, it's Agriculture, it's Commerce, it's Arts and it's Illumination: and would substitute in place of these, Ceremonies, Titles, Imposts, Lotteries, Academies. and Inquisitions. Look at Spain and a part of Italy, particularly Rome, Naples and Venice. The French National Assembly has laid open the path of honour to every Frenchman; but in order to keep in it, he must run the race himself,

Liberty

Liberty is nothing but a perpetual exercise of virtue. It is by reposing on corps that citizens lose the habit, and very soon the rewards of it. If so many Bishops and Colonels have been so easily stripped of their credit and their places, it was because they transferred the discharge of their duties from themselves to their subalterns. It was the habit of administering their alms by the hands of, the Clergy which impoverished the People, and enriched so many religious houses. It was by get-· ting themselves replaced in the military service by soldiers that the Citizens themselves had destroyed the Executive Power, and that the regiments had seized it, for the profit of the Nobility. It was by discharging this duty in person that the Spartans maintained their liberty, and by the revolution of it on mercenary soldiers that Athens lost hers. It is necessary therefore that the French Citizens should themselves serve. I have proposed, in my Wishes, the means of easily keeping up in France a very formidable army, which shall not cost the Country a single farthing in time of peace. It is by instituting in the cities and villages military exercises, amusements, and prizes among the young people. Thus they will be formed to subordination, without which it is impossible to have either Army or Citizens. Nothing but obedience to the laws can give security to public liberty; it is the office of virtue and not of ambition to train men to it.

It was the ambition of the Nobility which had engrossed every thing, and which scorned to give up a single point, that had brought the State to the brink of ruin, and has issued in their own de

struction.

struction. In vain have they assembled on our northern frontier, and flatter themselves with the hope of forcing their way back into France in the enjoyment of their exclusive privileges, by the assistance of foreign powers. It is not probable that any one of them imagines it has a right to prevent the French Nation from framing for herself whatever constitution she likes best. All Europe has regarded with admiration Peter the Great polishing his barbarous Empire, and reforming his Clergy and Boyards, who had seized all authority. Would your admiration of him have been diminished, had he brought back a corrupted people towards nature, and had he destroyed the corps which opposed his plans of reform, he, who broke his own guards, and, like another Brutus, inflicted the punishment of death on his own only son, for having conspired against the Laws which he had given to his Country? What a Prince has done, assuredly a Nation is able to do. The sovereignty of a Nation resides in itself, and not in the Prince, who is only it's sub-delegate, It is impossible too frequently to repeat that fundamental maxim of the rights of Mankind: "Kings," says Fenelon, "are made for the People, "and not the People for Kings." The same thing holds good of Priests and Nobles. All the orders of a Nation are subordinate to it, just as the branches of a tree are, notwithstanding their elevation, to the stem which supports them. The French Nation has accordingly been able to suppress the order of Nobility, and it's ecclesiastical orders which dared to shew a spirit refractory to

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