16 CARNOT. 



of the Academy of Dijon, at which the eloge of Vauban 

 was read and rewarded. He expressed, in the most 

 unequivocal terms, the great pleasure that the discourse 

 had given him ; and assured the author of his profound 

 esteem, both verbally and in writing. Piqued with 

 emulation, the Prince de Conde, who presided at the 

 assembly, as governor of Burgundy, outdid the marks of 

 favour which were shown to the young engineer officer 

 by the brother of Frederic the Great. 



Had Carnot then flattered the prejudices of the nobles ? 

 Were his principles in 1784 so different from those which 

 afterwards directed all his actions, as necessarily to re- 

 ceive the suffrages of the great ? Listen, Gentlemen, 

 and judge ! 



The Dime Roy ale (the King's Tithe), that writing 

 which, under Louis XIV., brought about the complete 

 disgrace of Vauban, and of which Fontenelle had the 

 prudence not even to mention the title, in enumerating 

 the works of the illustrious marshal, was called by Car- 

 not a simple and pathetic exposition of facts ; a work in 

 which " every thing is striking by its precision and truth- 

 fulness." The assessment of the taxes, in France, in the 

 eyes of the young officer, was " barbarous ; " the manner 

 of gathering them " more barbarous still." According to 

 him, the true object of a government is to oblige every 

 individual of the State to labour ; the method which he 

 points out for obtaining this result would be (I quote 

 from the text) to cause riches to pass from those hands 

 where they are superfluous, into those where they are 

 necessary. Carnot gives his adhesion unreservedly to 

 this precept of Vauban's ; the laws ought to prevent the 

 frightful misery of the one class and the excessive opu- 

 lence of the other ; he sets his face against the odious 



