condorcet: a biography. 203 



" It will be told you that I am director of the canals of navigation with 

 a salaiy of G,000 francs. This is not true. We, Condorcet, Bossut, and 

 myself have undertaken, through friendship for M. Turgot, to give him 

 our advice in regard to these canals, but we have refused the salary 

 oflered to us by the coojptroller of the finances." 



Wben Turgot, as minister, wished to carry out the reforms he had 

 conceived as simple citizen ; when the comptroller-general found himself 

 assailed by the cupidity of courtiers, the powers of parliament, and the 

 generally conservative spirit of routine, which when great changes were 

 to be made threw doubt upon the wisdom of his plans, Condorcet did 

 not remain a mere spectator of the struggle; he on the contrary, en- 

 tered into it with the utmost ardor ; to a refutation of the work of Necker 

 against the free traflic in grain, he especially devoted his pen, and for 

 the first time he resorts to irony in the assumed Letter of a laborer 

 of Ficardyto M.Neclccr, proMMiionist. Voltaire writes thus to our con- 

 frere August 7, 1775 : 



"Ah, what a good thing, what a reasonable thing, and even what a beau- 

 tiful thing is that Letter to the prohibiiionist ; it must attract all enlight- 

 ened minds, although there are few such left in Paris, by its good sense 

 and taste." I would not dare to say that good sense and good taste had 

 deserted the capital, but I know that the witty Letter to the prohibitionist 

 received little notice, and that Condorcet was obliged to publish a new 

 refutation, more detailed, more methodical, and more complete, of the 

 work of the celebrated and rich banker of Geneva. This second article 

 was modestly entitled. Reflexions upon the commerce in grain. The author 

 in it considers successively how these cereals are produced, how the 

 difference sometimes occurring between the harvests of one place and 

 another can be alleviated, and the regulation effected in iiroportion to 

 wages. He treats also of the mean price and of its influence, and of the 

 equalization of prices ; of the effects of unbounded liberty in commerce, 

 and the political advantages of such liberty. Condorcet then examines 

 the prohibitions, both in a general way and in their relations to the 

 rights of property and legislation. Descending, finally, from these 

 abstractions to questions more personal, without mentioning names, ho 

 inquires how the authors of the prohibitory measures acquired popu- 

 larity ; he seeks for the origin of the prejudices of the people, and com- 

 pletes his work by some critical reflections, touching certain prohibitory 

 laws, and the obstacles opposed to the good that liberty could produce. 



All the aspects of a very diificult problem are frankly considered in a 

 severe and simple style. The work is not a mere pamphlet ; it extends to 

 more than two hundred printed pages. Its publication excited general 

 opposition among the numerous partisans of Necker. Writers of the 

 highest rank became from the time of its appearance the implacable 

 enemies of Condorcet. The Academy of Sciences and the French Acad- 

 emy were unpleasantly affected for many years by the consequences of 

 the discords it produced. 



