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that the beft legiflators have been often fatisfied with the establishment of fome fure, folid, and ruling principle in government; a power like that which fome of the philofophers have called a plastic nature; and having fixed the principle, they have left it afterwards to its own operation.

To proceed in this manner, that is, to proceed with a prefiding principle, and a prolific energy, is with me the criterion of profound wisdom. What your politicians think the marks of a bold, hardy genius, are only proofs of a deplorable want of ability. By their violent haste, and their defiance of the procefs of nature, they are delivered over blindly to every projector and adventurer, to every alchymift and empiric. They defpair of turning to account any thing that is common. Diet is nothing in their fyftem of remedy. The worst of it is, that this their defpair of curing common diftempers by regular methods, arifes not only from defect of comprehenfion, but, I fear, from fome malignity of difpofition. Your legiflators feem to have taken their opinions of all profeffions, ranks, and offices, from the declamations and buffooneries of fatirifts; who would themselves be aftonished if they were held to the letter of their own descriptions. By listening only to these, your leaders regard all things only on the fide of their vices and faults, and view thofe vices and faults under every colour of exaggeration. It is undoubtedly true, though it may feem paradoxical; but in general, thofe who are habitually employed in finding and difplaying faults, are unqualified for the work of reformation:

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formation: because their minds are not only unfurnished with patterns of the fair and good, but by habit they come to take no delight in the contemplation of thofe things. By hating vices too much, they come to loye men too little. It is therefore not wonderful, that they fhould be indifpofed and unable to serve them. From hence arifes the complexional difpofition of fome of your guides to pull every thing in pieces. At this malicious game they difplay the whole of their quadrimanous activity. As to the reft, the paradoxes of eloquent writers, brought forth purely as a sport of fancy, to try their talents, to rouze attention, and excite furprize, are taken.. up by thefe gentlemen, not in the fpirit of the original authors, as means of cultivating their tafte and improving their ftyle. Thefe paradoxes become with them, ferious grounds of action, upon which they proceed in regulating the most important concerns of the ftate. Cicero ludicrously defcribes Cato as endeavouring to act in the commonwealth, upon the school paradoxes which exercifed the wits of the junior ftudents in the ftoic philofophy. If this was true of Cato, thefe gentlemen copy after him in the manner of fome perfons who lived about his time-pede nudo Catonem. Mr. Hume told me, that he had from Rouffeau himfelf the fecret of his principles of compofition. That acute, though eccentric, obferver had perceived, that to ftrike and interest the public, the marvellous must be produced; that the marvellous of the heathen mythology had long fince loft its effect; that giants, magicians, fairies, and heroes of romance

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which fucceeded, had exhausted the portion of credulity which belonged to their age; that now nothing was left to a writer but that fpecies of the marvellous, which might ftill be produced, and with as great an effect as ever, though in another. way; that is, the marvellous in life, in manners, in characters, and in extraordinary fituations, giving rife to new and unlooked-for strokes in politics and morals. I believe, that were Rouffeau alive, and in one of his lucid intervals, he would be fhocked at the practical phrenzy of his scholars, who in their paradoxes are fervile imitators; and even in their incredulity difcover an implicit faith.

Men who undertake confiderable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to prefume ability. But the physician of the state, who, not fatisfied with the cure of diftempers, undertakes to regenerate conftitutions, ought to fhew uncommon powers. Some very unusual appearances of wisdom ought to display themselves on the face of the defigns of those who appeal to no practice, and who copy after no model. Has any fuch been manifested? I fhall take a view (it shall for the fubject be a very short one) of what the affembly has done, with regard, firft, to the conftitution of the legislature; in the next place, to that of the executive power; then to that of the judicature; afterwards to the model of the army; and conclude with the fyftem of finance, to fee whether we can discover in any part of their schemes the portentous ability, which may juftify thefe bold undertakers in the fuperiority which they affume over mankind.

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It is in the model of the fovereign and prefiding part of this new republic, that we should expect their grand difplay. Here they were to prove their title to their proud demands. For the pian itself at large, and for the reafons on which it is grounded, I refer to the journals of the affembly of the 29th of September 1789, and to the fubfequent proceedings which have made any alterations in the plan. So far as in a matter fomewhat confufed I can fee light, the fyftem remains fubftantially as it has been originally framed. My few remarks will be fuch as regard its fpirit, its tendency, and its fitnefs for framing a popular commonwealth, which they profefs theirs to be, fuited to the ends for which any commonwealth, and particularly fuch a commonwealth, is made. At the fame time, I mean to confider its confiftency with itself, and its own principles.

Old establishments are tried by their effects. If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived. In old establishments various correctives have been found for their aberrations from theory. Indeed they are the results of various neceffities and expediences. They are not often conftructed after any theory; theories are rather drawn from them. In them we often fee the end beft obtained, where the means feem not perfectly reconcileable to what we may fancy was the original scheme. The means taught by expeience may be better fuited to political ends than thofe contrived in the original project. They again re-act upon the primitive conftitution, and fometimes

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fometimes improve the defign itself from which they seem to have departed. I think all this might be curiously exemplified in the British conftitution. At worst, the errors and deviations of every kind in reckoning are found and computed, and the ship proceeds in her courfe. This is the cafe of old establishments; but in a new and merely theoretic fyftem, it is expected that every contrivance fhall appear, on the face of it, to answer its end; efpecially where the projectors are no way embarraffed with an endeavour to accommodate the new building to an old one, either in the walls or on the foundations.

The French builders, clearing away as mere rubbish whatever they found, and, like their ornamental gardeners, forming every thing into an exact level, propofe to reft the whole local and general legislature on three bafes of three different kinds; one geometrical, one arithmetical, and the third financial; the first of which they call the basis of territory; the fecond, the basis of population; and the third, the basis of contribution. For the accomplishment of the first of these purposes they divide the area of their country into eighty-one pieces, regularly fquare, of eighteen leagues by eighteen, Thefe large divifions are called Departments. These they portion, proceeding by fquare meafurement, into feventeen hundred and twenty diftricts called Communes. These again they fubdivide, still proceeding by fquare measurement, into finaller districts called Cantons, making in all 6,400.

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At first view this geometrical bafis of theirs fents not much to admire or to blame. It calls

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