262 



" Uudoubtedly liberty, as we have not ceased to show, is the first source of light, and 

 liberalism is right in putting itself on guard against all the measures of safety proposed 

 by the government, in examining scrupulously whether the good which it designs by its 

 general means does not weaken the first sources of action and personal responsibility ; it is 

 true also that au important mission of government, even at the present time, consists in 

 repairing the evil and injustice which the governments in the past have done or allowed 

 to be done, in removing the obstacles by which the social movement has been obstructed 

 in all directions. 



"In modern times it is in France that liberty has bsen most profoundly examined in 

 its source, its practical applications and its relations with the action of the State, by the 

 eminent writers cited above, and the existing regime (the imperial) will have had at 

 least the effect of having effected a double moral reaction of the French genius " {Cours 

 de Droit Aaturel, pp. 333, et seq.). 



(h) That the demonetization of silver, and the consequent appreciation of gold, or 

 what is the same thing the resulting fall of prices, is the main factor in producing the 

 existing financial depression, and that, from the same cause, there still remains in store 

 for us a great aggravation of existing evils, is a proposition warmly disputed, but in favor 

 of which the argument seems conclusive. The exp2rience of a few years will, however, 

 definitely determine the question ; and while I believe the result will be as above staled, 

 I will be glad to find myself mistaken. 



