STUDY XIÎI. 247 



formation, in a State, of two feveral Nations, which 

 come, at laft, to have nothing in common between 

 them ; patriotifm is annihilated, and both the one 

 and the other haftens to a ftate of fubjeftion. 

 Such has been, within our recolledion, the fate of 

 Hungary, of Bohemia, of Poland, and even of 

 part of the provinces of our own kingdom, fuch 

 as Britanny, where a nobility, infufferably lofty, 

 and multiplied beyond all bounds, formed a clafs 

 abfolutely diftind from the reft of the citizens. It 

 is well worthy of being remarked, that thefe coun- 

 tries, though republican, though fo powerful, in 

 the opinion of our political Writers, from the free- 

 dom of their conftitution, have been very eafily 

 fubjedled by defpotic Princes, who were the maf- 

 ters,*they tell us, of flaves only. The reafon is, 

 that the People, in every country, prefer one So- 

 vereign to a thoufand tyrants, and that their fate 

 always decides the fate of their lordly oppreflbrs. 

 The Romans foftened the unjuft and odious di- 

 ftindtions which exifted between Patricians and 

 Plebeians, by granting to thefe laft, privileges and 

 employments of the liigheft refpedability. 



Means, in my opinion, ftill more effectual, were 

 employed by that People, to bring the two clafles 

 of citizens to a ftate of clofer approximation ; par- 

 ticularly the pradice of adoption. How many great 

 men ftarted up out of the mafs of the People, toi 



R 4 merit 



