1798.J 
truly national, m accordance with the 
government which it is defired. to create. 
er confirm. 
Citizen BoucHaAup has been em- 
ployed in hiftorical and critical refearches 
onthe police of the Romans, refpeéting 
the high roads, the ftrects and the mar- 
kets. 
In giving an account of a manulcript 
communicated to the clafs, Cltizen Cam- 
BACERES complains of the neglect into 
which the ftudy of civil legiflation has. 
fallen. He thinks it is time to refer to 
the rich colleétions which the antients 
have bequeathed to us, in order to ex- 
tract from them what they contain ana- 
Jogous or neceflary to our republican or- 
ganization. He defires that the labours 
which are direéted towards this end may 
be encouraged, and he traces the advan- 
tages which may refult from them, for 
‘the inftru€tion of law ftudents, and the 
progrefs of the focial fcience. 
Two memoirs have been addreffed to 
the clafs by Citizen DiANNYERE, an al- 
fociate member, the firlt relative to the 
neceflity and the means of reanima- 
ting the manufactures of Aubuffen, 
formerly fo flourifhing; and: the {e- 
cond on divorce, coniidered in its re- 
lation to the liberty of the married par- 
ties, and to the intereft of the children. 
Citizen Diannyere collects in his laft me- 
moir many refults of political arithmetic, 
contained in a work of Lavoifier : he con- 
cludes, firft, that marriage fhould never 
ceafe to be indiffcluble, at the pleafure 
of each of the parties; fecondly, that each 
child has a natural right toa portion of 
the fortune of his divorced parents ; third- 
ly, that if the number of the children is 
four, or under four, this part is equiva- 
Jent to an eighth of the faine fortune. 
Citizen Lacuee addrefled the clafs 
en the organization which it. would be 
proper to give to the armed force in the 
French republic. Undoubtedly, to judge 
of our actual military fyftem by its effets, 
it is very difficult not to conceive of it 
as perfect. It is afked, after fo many 
triumphs, in prefence of fo many tro- 
phies, what other organization could be 
happier, and what is the new order of 
prodigies which it would be right to 
éxpect from it? Accordingly Citizen 
LAcueEE is perfuaded, that till the ge- 
neral peace nothing thould be changed in 
the actual regimen of our armies, and 
that we mift abandon them to that genius 
of liberty, which without ceafing prepares 
for them the career of heroifm and vic- 
tory. Lut anticipating in thought, times 
National Inftitute, 15th Nivofe, 1798. 
353 
in which defs prefing dangers, interedts lefs 
facred, circumftances lefs imperious, 
fhould call for lefs enthufiafm and de- 
votednefs, the author inquires how far 
the wifdom of the military laws may fe- 
cure to the French people all the glory 
and power that its invincible defenders 
have acquired for it. ‘The work of Citizen 
LACUEE is divided into fix memour's: in 
the firft, the only one which he has yet read 
to the clafs, he lays down the difference 
which ought to exift between the organiza- 
tion of the public force of a tree people, and 
that undera government which ufurps the 
fovereignty ; he treats of the divifion of 
this force contidered as a ftationary or 
fedentary national guard, and a national 
guard in activity; and particularly ex- 
amining this laft, and the mode of its’ 
formation, he endeavours to point out 
the dangers of voluntary enrollments, the 
greater dangers of enrollments for money, 
and the advantages of the military con- 
{cription. 
Citizen Dupont has confidered the 
enfemble of focial organization in a work 
on the principles and the bond of con- 
federated republics, and more particularly 
on the conftitution of the United States 
of America. The clafs has yet only 
heard the firft chapters of this work: the 
author firft lays it down, that civil laws 
have more influence on the happinefs of 
man than political or conftitutional laws ;. 
he does not conclude, however, that thefe 
laft are without importance, fince, on the 
contrary, there exift between the one and 
the ether, as Montefquicu has thewn, re- 
lations fo intimate, that the legiflation 
of a people always bears more or le{s the 
{tamp of the form of government. ‘The 
perfection of a focial fyftem depends, 
therefore, principally, on the trtith and 
the empire of the principles on which it 
is founded ; and thefe principles, accord- 
ing to Citizen DUPONT, confift in this, 
that juftice, for the fupport of which all - 
governments are initituted, is equally eafy 
to be recognized, ,at al! times, and in aif 
conjunétures, and that it maintains an 
inviolable refpeét for liberty and pro- 
perty. 
Social happinefs depends alfo on the 
purity of the public morals, and on the 
precifion of the ideas attached to the 
names which defignate the human vir- 
tues. This precifion ts the obje& which 
Citizen DuronT cenfiders in two other 
memoirs; one intitled, ‘* The Vayage of 
Wifdom; and the other, ‘* Reflections on 
Courage.”* ‘The firft is an imitation of 
Plato: this is an allegory in the poetic 
pier laa Can 7 fiyles 
