IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS.

treating them, immeasurably as he falls short of quieu has rendered them greater and more lasting
you in appeals to the sensibility, and in every-service than the fiercest anabaptist in Munster.
thing which by way of excellence we usually
call genius.

Rousseau. Sir, I see no resemblance between a pleader at the bar, or a haranguer of the populace, and me.

Malesherbes. Certainly his questions are occasional: but one great question hangs in the centre, and high above the rest; and this is, whether the mother of liberty and civilisation shall exist, or whether she shall be extinguished in the bosom of her family. As we often apply to eloquence and her parts the terms we apply to architecture and hers, let me do it also, and remark that nothing can be more simple, solid, and symmetrical, nothing more frugal in decoration or more appropriate in distribution, than the apartments of Demosthenes. Yours excell them in space and altitude: your ornaments are equally chaste and beautiful, with more variety and invention, more airiness and light. But why among the Loves and Graces does Apollo flay Marsyas? And why may not the tiara still cover the ears of Midas? Can not you, who detest kings and courtiers, keep away from them? If I must be with them, let me be in good humour and good spirits. If I will tread upon a Persian carpet, let it at least be in clean shoes.

As the raciest wine makes the sharpest vinegar, so the richest fancies turn the most readily to acrimony. Keep yours, my dear M. Rousseau, from the exposure and heats that generate it. Be contented enjoy your fine imagination: and do not throw your salad out of window, nor shove your cat off your knee, on hearing it said that Shakspeare has a finer, or that a minister is of opinion that you know more of music than of state. My friend! the quarrels of ingenious men are generally far less reasonable and just, less placable and moderate, than those of the stupid and ignorant. We ought to blush at this: and we should blush yet more deeply if we bring them in as parties to our differences. Let us conquer by kindness; which we can not do easily or well without communication. Our antipathies ought to be against the vices of men, and not against their opinions. If their opinions are widely different from ours, their vices ought to render them more dissimilar to us. Yet the opinions instigate us to hostility; the vices are snatched at with avidity, as rich materials to adorn our triumph.

Rousseau. This is sophistry; and at best is applicable only to the malicious. At a moment when Truth is penetrating the castle of the powerful, and when Freedom looks into the window of the poor, there are writers who would draw them back and confine them to their own libraries and theatres.

Malesherbes. Whether they proceed from the shelf or from the stage, generous sentiments are prevalent among us; and the steps both of Truth and Freedom are not the less rapid or the less firm because they advance in silence. Montes

Rousseau. Many read him, some are pleased guided. His Lettres Persannes are light and lively. with him, few are instructed by him, none are His Temple de Gnide is Parisian from the steps to no warmth. There is more of fancy in his Esprit the roof; there is but little imagination in it, and des Lois, of which the title-page would be much correcter with only the first word than with all three. He twitches me by the coat, turns me round, and is gone.

also is acute.
Malesherbes. Concise he certainly is, but he

trate? A pin can pierce no deeper than to its
Rousseau. How far does his acuteness pene-
head. He would persuade men that, if patriotism
is the growth of republics, honour is the growth
of monarchies. I would say it without offence,
but say it I will, that honour is feeble and almost
extinct in every ancient kingdom. In Spain it
flourished more vigorously than in any other:
pray, how much is left there? And what addition
was made to it when the Bourbon crossed the
Bidassoa? One vile family is sufficient to debase
a whole nation. Voltaire, perhaps as honest and
certainly as clear-sighted a man as any about the
Tuilleries, called Louis XV. Titus.
between that quality and truth. As I can not
honour? If it be, pray show me the distinction
Is this
think a liar honourable, I can not think a lie
honour.
their lives than be called what they would scarcely
Gentlemen at court would rather give
give a denier not to be. Readiness to display
courage is not honour, though it is what Montes-
quieu mistakes for it. Surely he might have
praised his country for something better than
this fantastic foolery, which, like hair-powder, re-
quires a mask to be worn by those who put it on.
He might have said, justly and proudly, that
while others cling to a city, to a faction, to a
family, the French in all their fortunes cling to
France.

giving me your idea of honour.
Malesherbes. Gratify me, I entreat you, by

stantially and vigorously alive. Justice, Gene-
Rousseau. The image stands before me, sub-
rosity, Delicacy, are the three Graces that
formed his mind. Propriety of speech, clearness,
firmness . . .

Malesherbes. Repress this enthusiasm. If you for ever in my profession. are known to have made me blush, you ruin me

When Edward the Black Prince made your king Rousseau. Look, then, across the narrow sea. his prisoner, he reverenced his age, his station, his misfortunes; attending him, serving him, consoling him, like a son. Many of your countryvictory turn, and the conquerors led into capmen who were then living, lived to see the tide of tivity. Talbot, whose name alone held provinces back from rebellion, was betrayed and taken, and loaded with indignities.

Malesherbes. Attribute it to the times. The

English were as cruel to fallen valour in the person of Jeanne d'Arc.

Rousseau. There neither the genius of the nation nor the spirit of the times is reproachable, but the genius and spirit of Fanaticism, which is violent and blind in all alike. Jeanne d'Arc was believed to be a sorceress, and was condemned to death for it by the ecclesiastical judges of each nation. Nothing but the full belief of the English that she was under the guidance of an invisible and evil power, would have turned to flight those Saxo-Normans, who never yielded to the FrancoGauls when there were only three against one; no, not once in the incessant contest, during three hundred years, which ended in the utter subjugation of your country. As the French acknowledged her to be the inspired of God, they fancied there was no danger in following her as the English thought her instigated by the Devil, they felt the insufficiency of human force in opposing her. Wherever she was not, the field was covered with French bodies, as before: wherever she was, it was covered with English, as it never had been until then. Had Jeanne d'Arc been born in England and fought for England, the people at this hour, although no longer slaves to idolatry, would almost worship her: every year would her festival be kept in every village of the land. But in France not a hymn is chaunted to her, not a curl of incense is wafted, not a taper is lighted, not a daisy, not a rush, is strewn upon the ground throughout the whole kingdom she rescued. Instead of which, a shirt-airer to a libidinous king, a ribald poet, a piebald of tragedy and comedy, a contemner alike of purity and of patriotism, throws his filth against her mutilated features. Meanwhile an edifice is being erected in your city to the glory of Geneviève, which will exhaust the fortunes, and almost the maledictions, of the people. Malesherbes. We certainly are not the most grateful of nations.

who rise up simultaneously against the first indignity offered by their administrators, and who remove, without pause and without parley, trunk, root, and branch.

Malesherbes. As we can not change at once the whole fabric of government, let us be attentive to the unsounder parts, and recommend the readiest and safest method of repairing them.

Rousseau. The minister would expell me from his antechamber, and order his valets to buffet me, if I offered him any proposal for the advantage of mankind.

Malesherbes. Call to him then from this room, where the valets are civiler. Nature has given you a speaking-trumpet, which neither storm can drown nor enemy can silence. If you esteem him, instruct him; if you despise him, do the same. Surely you who have much benevolence, would not despise anyone willingly or unnecessarily. Contempt is for the incorrigible: now, where upon earth is he whom your genius, if rightly and temperately exerted, would not influence and correct? I never was more flattered or honoured than by your patience in listening to me. Consider me as an old woman who sits by the bedside in your infirmity, who brings you no savoury viand, no exotic fruit, but a basin of whey or a basket of strawberries from your native hills, assures you that what oppressed you was a dream, occasioned by the wrong position in which you lay, opens the window, gives you fresh air, and entreats you to recollect the features of nature, and to observe (which no man ever did so accurately) their beauty. In your politics you cut down a forest to make a toothpick, and can not make even that out of it. Do not let us in jurisprudence be like critics in the classics, and change whatever can be changed, right or wrong. No statesman will take your advice. Supposing that anyone is liberal in his sentiments and clear-sighted in his views, nevertheless love of power is jealous, and he would rejoice to see you fleeing from persecution, or turning to meet it. The very men whom you would benefit will treat you worse. As the ministers of kings wish their masters to possess absolute power, that the exercise of it may be delegated to them, which it naturally is, from the violence and sloth alternate with despots as with wild beasts, and that they may apprehend no check or control from those who discover their misdemeanors, in like manner the people places more trust in favour than in fortune, and hopes to obtain by subserviency what it never might by election or by chance. Else in free governRousseau. Unless he did, he could not continue ments, so some are called (for names once given to give a thousand louis daily for the young are the last things lost), all minor offices and emmaidens brought to him. A prodigal man is a ployments would be assigned by ballot. Each thoughtless man; a prodigal prince is a thought-province or canton would present a list annually less robber. Your country endures enough without of such persons in it as are worthy to occupy the war. But oppression and valour, like Voltaire's local administrations. fever and quinquina, grow far apart. Malesherbes. What! and are not our people brave?

Rousseau. You must be, before you pretend to be the most honourable.

Malesherbes. I hope our gratitude in future will be excited by something better than the instruments of war. The nation is growing more civilised and humane: the young have never lapped blood. Rousseau. I prefer the vices of the present king to the glories of his predecessor: I prefer a swine to a panther, and the outer side of the sty or grating to the inner.

Malesherbes. You, being a philanthropist, must rejoice that our reigning prince abstains from the field of battle.

Rousseau. I call those brave, and those only,

To avoid any allusion to the country in which we live, let us take England for example. Is it not absurd, iniquitous, and revolting, that the minister of a church in Yorkshire should be

IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS.

appointed by a lawyer in London, who never knew
him, never saw him, never heard from a single one
of the parishioners a recommendation of any kind?
Is it not more reasonable that a justice of the
peace should be chosen by those who have always
been witnesses of his equity?

in the world, moral or physical, would be removed.
Malesherbes. Almost the greatest evil that exists
A second appeal might be made in the following
session; a third could only come before parlia
ment, and this alone by means of attorneys; the
number of coroners; for in England there are as
number of whom altogether would not exceed the
many who cut their own throats as who would cut
their own purses.

this would disgust the English.
Rousseau. The famous trial by jury would cease:

much augmented: nearly all those who now are
Malesherbes. The number of justices would be
jurymen would enjoy this rank and dignity, and
would be flattered by sitting on the same bench
with the first gentlemen of the land.

Rousseau. What number would sit? five or seven in the second; as the number of Malesherbes. Three or five in the first instance; causes should permit.

intricate and perplexed: such men would be Rousseau. The laws of England are extremely puzzled.

Rousseau. The English in former days insisted more firmly and urgently on improving their constitution than they have ever done since. In the reign of Edward III. they claimed the nomination of the chancellor. And surely if any nomination of any functionary is left to the people, it should be this. It is somewhat like the tribunitial power among the Romans, and is the only one which can intercede in a conciliatory way between the prince and people. Exclusively of this one office in the higher posts of government, the king should appoint his ministers, and should invest them with power and splendour; but those ministers should not appoint to any civil or religious place of trust or profit which the community could manifestly fill better. The greater part of offices and dignities should be conferred for a short and stated time, that all might hope to attain and strive to deserve them. Embassies in particular the perplexity, but, on the contrary, an interest Malesherbes. Such men, having no interest in should never exceed one year in Europe, nor con- in unravelling it, would see such laws corrected. sulates two. To the latter office I assign this Intricate as they are, questions on those which are duration, as the more difficult to fulfil properly, the most so are usually referred by the judges from requiring a knowledge of trade, although a themselves to private arbitration, of which my slight one, and because those who possess any such plan, I conceive, has all the advantages, united to knowledge are inclined, for the greater part, to those of open and free discussion among men of turn it to their own account, which a consul ought unperverted sense, and unbiassed by professional by no means to do. Frequent election of repre- hopes and interests. The different courts of law sentatives and of civil officers in the subordinate in England cost about seventy millions of francs employments, would remove most causes of dis- annually. On my system the justices or judges content in the people, and of instability in kingly would receive five-and-twenty francs daily as the power. Here is a lottery in which everyone is special jurymen do now, without any sense of sure of a prize, if not for himself, at least for some- shame or impropriety, however rich they may be: body in his family or among his friends; and the such being the established practice. ticket would be fairly paid for out of the taxes. Malesherbes. So it appears to me. What other system can present so obviously to the great mass of the people the two principal piers and buttresses of government, tangible interest and reasonable hope? No danger of any kind can arise from it, no antipathies, no divisions, no imposture of demagogues, no caprice of despots. On the contrary, many and great advantages, in places which at the first survey do not appear to border on it. At present, the best of the English juridical institutions, that of justices of the peace, is viewed with diffidence and distrust. would be, and increased in number, the whole Elected as they judicature, civil and criminal, might be confided to them, and their labours be not only not aggravated but diminished. Suppose them in four divisions to meet at four places in every county, once in twenty days, and to possess the power of imposing a fine not exceeding two hundred francs on every cause implying oppression, and one not exceeding fifty on such as they should unanimously declare frivolous.

Rousseau. Few would become attorneys, and those from among the indigent.

Rousseau. Seventy millions! seventy millions! ancers in London who gain one hundred thouMalesherbes. There are attorneys and conveysand francs a-year, and advocates more. Chancellor . . The

Rousseau. The Celeno of these harpies . . greatly more than an archbishop in the church, Malesherbes.. Nets above one million, and is scattering preferment in Cumberland and Cornwall from his bench at Westminster.

in proportion to custom or insuetude. If we had
Rousseau. Absurdities and enormities are great
should think it no more a monster than a canary-
lived from childhood with a boa constrictor, we
bird. The sum you mentioned of seventy mil-
lions is incredible.

letters by the post, and of journeys made by the
Malesherbes. In this estimate the expense of
parties, is not and can not be included.

civil and religious, ought never to bear upon the
Rousseau. The whole machine of government,
people with a weight so oppressive: I do not add
is more costly, nor institutions for the promotion
the national defence, which being principally naval,
of the arts, which in a country like England ought

to be liberal. But such an expenditure should us under them as tightly as the old man kept nearly suffice for these also, in time of peace. | Sinbad. Religion and law indeed should cost nothing: at Rousseau. I would teach them that what are present the one hangs property, the other quarters evils to us are evils to them likewise, and heavier it. I am confounded at the profusion. I doubt | and more dangerous. The rash, impetuous rider, whether the Romans expended so much in that or (to adopt your allusion) the intolerably heavy year's war which dissolved the Carthaginian em- one, is more liable to break his bones by a fall, pire, and left them masters of the universe. What than the animal he has mounted. Sooner or later is certain, and what is better, it did not cost a the cloud of tyranny bursts: and fortunes, piled up tenth of it to colonise Pennsylvania, in whose inordinately and immeasurably, not only are scatforests the cradle of Freedom is suspended, and tered and lost, but first overwhelm the occupier. where the eye of Philanthropy, tired with tears We, like metallic blocks, are hardened by the reand vigils, may wander and may rest. Your sys-petition of the blows that flatten us, and, every tem, or rather your arrangement of one already part of us touching the ground, we cannot fall established, pleases me. Ministers would only lower : the hammerers, once fallen, are annihilated. lose thereby that portion of their possessions which they give away to needy relatives, unworthy dependents, or the requisite supporters of their authority and power.

Malesherbes. On this plan, no such supporters would be necessary, no such dependents could exist, and no such relatives could be disappointed. Beside, the conflicts of their opponents must be periodical, weak, and irregular.

Rousseau. The craving for the rich carrion would be less keen; the zeal of opposition, as usual, would be measured by the stomach, whereon hope and overlooking have always a strong influence.

Malesherbes. My excellent friend, do not be offended with me for an ingenuous and frank confession; promise me your pardon.

Rousseau. You need none.

Malesherbes. Promise it nevertheless. Rousseau. You have said nothing, done nothing, which could in any way displease me.

Malesherbes. You grant me then a bill of indemnity for what I may have undertaken with a good intention since we have been together?

Rousseau. Willingly.

Malesherbes. I fell into your views; I walked along with you side by side; merely to occupy your mind, which, I perceived, was agitated.

Rousseau. In other words, to betray me. I had begun to imagine there was one man in the universe not my enemy.

Malesherbes. There are many, my dear M. Rousseau ! yes, even in France and England; to say nothing of the remoter regions on each side of the Equator, discovered and undiscovered. Be reasonable, be just.

Your remarks, although inapplicable to the Continent, are applicable to England: and several of them, however they may be pecked, scratched, and kicked about, by the pullets fattening in the darkened chambers of Parliament, are worthy of being weighed by the people, loth as may be ministers of state to employ the scales of Justice on any such occasion. But if the steadier hand refuses to perform its functions, the stronger may usurp them.

Malesherbes. Nothing more probable. Often the worst evil of bad government is not in its action but its counteraction.

Rousseau. Is it possible to doubt at what country you now are pointing? I can not see then why you should have treated me like a driveller.

Malesherbes. How so, my friend! how so? Rousseau. To say the least, why you should believe me indifferent to the welfare of your country, to the dictates of humanity, to the improvement of the species.

Malesherbes. In compliance with your humour, to engage your fancy, to divert it awhile from Switzerland, by which you appear, and partly on my account, to be offended, I began with reflections upon England: I raised up another cloud in the region of them, light enough to be fantastic and diaphanous, and to catch some little irradiation from its western sun. Do not run after it farther; it has vanished already. Consider; the three great nations.

Rousseau. Pray, which are those?

Malesherbes. I cannot in conscience give the palm to the Hottentots, the Greenlanders, or the Hurons: I meant to designate those who united to empire the most social virtue and civil freedom.

Rousseau. I am the only man who is either. Athens, Rome, and England, have received on the What would you say more?

Malesherbes. Perhaps I would even say less. You are fond of discoursing on the visionary and hypothetical: I usually avoid it.

Rousseau. Pray why, sir?

Malesherbes. Because it renders us more and more discontented with the condition in which Divine Providence hath placed us. We can hope to remove but a small portion of the evils that encompass us; there being many men to whom these are no evils at all; and such having the management of our concerns, and keeping

subject of government elaborate treatises from their greatest men. You have reasoned more dispassionately and profoundly on it than Plato has done, or probably than Cicero, led away, as he often is, by the authority of those who are inferior to himself: but do you excell Aristoteles in calm and patient investigation? Or, think you, are your reading and range of thought more extensive than Harrington's and Milton's? Yet what effect have the political works of these marvellous men produced upon the world? what effect upon any one state, any one city, any one hamlet? A

clerk in office, an accountant, a gauger of small- convert them, if possible, to months and years. beer, a song-writer for a tavern dinner, produces It is as much at your arbitration on what theme more. He thrusts his rags into the hole whence the wind comes, and sleeps soundly. While you and I are talking about elevations and proportions, pillars and pillasters, architraves and friezes, the buildings we should repair are falling to the earth, and the materials for their restoration are in the quarry.

DON VICTOR SAEZ AND EL REY NETTO.

Saez. The business of an enlightened prince is | him. He looked upon the Saint, and observing twofold; namely, to unite kingdoms and disunite their inhabitants. This is a truth so sound and solid, that it will keep its whole weight for another time and occasion, and indeed half the difficulty is surmounted already. Of a second truth nobody can be ignorant; that it is a kindness to lead the sober; a duty to lead the drunk; in which plight is to be considered a nation that fancies it can rule itself. Your Majesty will now perhaps favour me with what occurred in your interview with the arch-traitor?

Rey Netto. But the Saint might have punished Rey Netto. Quiroga did not place in my word me with the nightmare, or even with his fire, the trust I had a right to expect.