212 CONDORCET : A BIOGRAPHY. 



prescriptions the necessity and tbe justice of which must be acknowl- 

 edged by all, when intent only upon securing to the public, the enjoy- 

 ment of their natural rights. 



I do not know whether, in the present state of opinion, ray apprecia- 

 tion of the worli of the illustrious philosopher will be generally approved. 

 I may at least assert that every loyal man must experience one senti- 

 ment, that of respect, in witnessing with what vigor, since the year 

 1786, the Marquis Caritat de Coudorcet attacked the privileges of the 

 nobility. 



Coudorcet after much study had written, at the dictation of his con- 

 science, the imperative mandate he was prepared to issue, if circumstances 

 ever gave him the political power. I perceive in this programme many 

 points which have never been decided according to his views, either in 

 fact by our assemblies, or in theory by publicists in general. 



Coudorcet did not wish two chambers ; but that which he demanded, 

 particularly that which seemed to him the base of a well considered social 

 organization, was a legal and periodical means of revising the constitu- 

 tion, so as to adjust peacefully the disaffection of parties. 



The combination of two chambers seemed to him a useless com- 

 plication, in some cases leading to results evidently contrary to the 

 wish of the majority. He believed " that in the deliberations of a single 

 assembly are found all the elements necessary to secure to legislative 

 enactments all the consideration and the maturity ot judgment required 

 for their justice and wisdom." Franklin, a decided partisan of a single 

 chamber, confirmed Coudorcet in his views. The eulogy of this great 

 man furnished later to our brother a natural occasion for the devel- 

 opment of his opinion, which he seized with avidity. Also, in this same 

 eulogy the learned secretary proclaimed as an inevitable source of evils 

 and disorder any constitution considered unchangable, any constitution 

 which did- not provide means for modifying such of its regulations as 

 might cease to be in harmony with the state of society. 



With Coudorcet as simple citizen or as member of our assemblies, the 

 political man is concentrated into these two ideas, — natural rights, rights 

 imprescriptible which no law can infringe without injustice, and po- 

 litical constitutions containing in themselves a legal means for the 

 reform of abuses. This was his evangel. Whenever his favorite prin- 

 ciples are combatted or even only questioned he hastens to their defense. 

 His language then becomes animated, passionate. Eead, for example, 

 this passage from a letter he wrote on the 30th of August, 1789, at the 

 time when the constituent assembly had just rejected the proposition 

 made by Mathieu de Montmorency to secure by means of an express 

 proviso the possibility of future impiovements in the fundamental 

 compact : 



"If our legislators aspire to work for eternity, they ought to bring 

 down a constitution from the skies. To Heaven has alone been accorded 



