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CHAPTER X.

Political troubles of France. Meeting of the Notables. Shay's insurrection in Massachusetts. Newspapers. Thoughts on Government. Navigation of the Mississippi. Visits the South of France. His style of travelling. Nismes. Secret overtures from a Brazilian and a Mexican. His views of the new Constitution of the United States. Debt due to French officers. Is joined by his younger daughter. Note to the French minister. Cultivation of the vine and olive compared. His opinions on the power of coercion on the states-Moral philosophy -Religion-Travelling. Advice in a law question. Statuary costume. Increasing discontents in France. Effects of European wars on the United States. Progress of the French Revolution. Letter to Mr. Wythe. Imports the bones of a Moose. Imputed project of the English ministry.

1787.

At this period, when nearly all Europe wore the face of peace and order; when its two most powerful states, England and France, had apparently laid aside not only their ancient animosity, but even their commercial jealousy, and had entered into a treaty of a more liberal character than the world had before witnessed, there were causes secretly at work to bring about a convulsion, which, besides overturning all former establishments, whether of policy, religion, or morals, in the country where it broke out, agitated to its centre every civilized nation on the globe. Other revolutions have decided the political destiny of nations have given freedom to people, or have transferred them from one set of rulers to another; yet customs, manners, habits, and ways of thinking remained unchanged. Even where conquest has been followed by a change in the institutions and character either of the vanquished or the victors, that

change has been gradual and slow. But in the French Revolution, the changes of power and of property, were not greater than that of opinion, and all these changes were almost immediate. The desire of reform soon became the love of innovation, until a prurient thirst for novelty, seeking gratification in every thing, from the highest to the lowest concerns of life, subverted all that seemed most stable by time, habit or affection.

Those who have speculated on this great event have dwelt on particular circumstances, as its direct causes, such as the financial embarrassments of the nation: the spirit of independence which had been for some years manifested by the Parliaments: the influence of their men of letters, who were mostly free thinkers in religion, and republicans in government: the American Revolution, the success of which, by gratifying the national pride of the French, had endeared its cause to their affections: and some have even supposed that, but for the imbecile character of Louis XVI. and the indiscretions of his queen, the throne of France would have yet retained its ancient splendour, and its monarch his place in the hearts of the people.

That each of these circumstances contributed to bring about the revolution at the precise time it happened, and to give it the very form and character it assumed, will be ready conceded: but it seems probable, that there were causes yet deeper than those, which had been long silently at work, and which must, at no remote period, have wrought an entire change in the civil condition of France, though none of the circumstances referred to had ever existed; though the American Revolution had not occurred; though the reigning monarch had possessed firmness and decision, and the Parliaments had wanted them; though Voltaire and Rousseau had never lived; and though the public debt had not exceeded the resources of the treasury.

If we take a general survey of the progress of society in modern Europe, we shall perceive the following great causes of change, operating steadily and universally, though with unequal steps, in different times and places: science of every description is constantly acquiring new facts, discovering new relations, and settling new principles: all the useful arts of life receive a simi

lar improvement by the invention of new machines, new processes, and by a greater variety of materials. The correspondent increase of the materials of thought have disposed man more to reasoning and reflection, so that he is less under the deceptious influence of his passions; less prone to superstitious fear; less ferocious and implacable in his resentments: the advancement of art, too, and the greater diffusion of wealth has elevated the inferior ranks of society nearer to a level with the highest: and lastly, since such members now desire a support from the exercise of their own industry, rather than from the bounty of a feudal baron, much of that deference for rank which formerly existed has disappeared, and the pride of family has been superseded by the pride of talents and wealth. In a word, knowledge and prosperity, which are yet more efficient in swaying the acts of civilized man than physical force, have greatly augmented, and become more diffused throughout the 'community.

The consequence of this altered state of things was, that political power required a new distribution, correspondent with the changes of moral power, and the discordance between the civil institutions, and the state of society becoming every day greater, such distribution must, sooner or later, necessarily take place. If those institutions were so organized as to admit of partial and gradual amendments, as seems to be the character of the British government, the political change might be both peaceable and safe; but if they were not, revolution and civil convulsion seemed the inevitable consequence. The institutions of France did not possess this conservative principle of amendment. Usage there made the law, and whatsoever had its sanction, acquired thereby an authority which could not be resisted. Now, as the few to whom this supreme law gave exclusive privileges and the power of enforcing them, could not be expected to make a voluntary surrender of their advantages, and those who were excluded more and more felt the grievance, and their power of redressing it, the change that was to ensue could scarcely be brought about except by violence and revolution.

It was in January, 1787, that Mr. Jefferson first mentioned this subject in his official despatches, by noticing those political difficulties which induced the French government to call the Notables of the country-a step which had not been taken for one hundred and sixty years before. The conjectured motives, he says, in his letter to Mr. Jay, were the following: the toleration of the Protestant religion: the removal of the custom houses from the interior to the frontier: the equalization of the gabelles, or duties on salt throughout the kingdom: the sale of the king's domains to raise money, or finally, to effect this last necessary end by some other means. He admits, however, that the pur

pose was known only to the government.

In a letter to a friend, he observes, that "this event, which will hardly excite any attention in America, is deemed here the most important one which has taken place in their civil line, during the present century. Our friend, de La Fayette, was placed on the list (of notables) originally. Afterwards his name disappeared; but finally was reinstated. This shows that his character here is not considered as an indifferent one; and that it excites agitation. His education in our school has drawn on him a very jealous eye, from a court whose principles are a most absolute despotism."

In his remarks on Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts, he expresses principles in favour of popular opinions and feelings to which he seemed to have steadily adhered through life. "The interposition of the people themselves, on the side of government, has had a great effect on the people here. I am persuaded myself, that the good sense of the people will always be the best army. They may be led astray for a moment, but will soon correct themselves. The people are the only censors of their governors; and even their errors will tend to keep them to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely, would be to suppress the only safe guard of the public liberty. The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is, to give them full information of their affairs, through the channel of public papers, and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the peo

ple. The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide, whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean, that every man should receive those papers, and be capable of reading them."

Mr. Jefferson, however, lived to see that these, his favourite means of enlightening and instructing the people, were as potent, and often as ready instruments for the diffusion of falsehood as truth; that if the latter is sure in the end to prevail in the struggle for the mastery between them, it is often only after a long contest, frequent discomfitures, and the most arduous efforts of her adherents; and that if these should chance to have feeble heads, or failing hearts, as is sometimes the case, error may then obtain a triumph, and may long enjoy it. He became, in a subsequent part of his life, so sensible of this, that he almost ceased to read the newspapers, and, as he says to one of his correspondents, confined himself to a single one, the Richmond Enquirer, in which he found nothing politically heterodox, or personally offensive. But while these ephemeral teachers of truth and vehicles of information are, in common with every thing belonging to man, thus imperfect, and liable to abuse, it is not seen how a large community could continue free or intelligent without them; as the air which, though it sometimes conveys offensive odours, sometimes noxious vapours, and, in its greatest agitations, becomes the destructive hurricane, is, nevertheless, the indispensable aliment of life. It was only to this great result that Mr. Jefferson had reference.

The following opinions* savour somewhat of those Eutopian notions of civil society and government, which had been recommended by Rousseau, in the wantonness of conscious eloquence, and which were then much in favour among the literati of France.

"I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which

* In a letter to Colonel Edward Carrington of Virginia.