h of
the Assembly, presents the strongest possible contrast.--But most of
these lights remain under a bushel; only a few of them get into the
Assembly; these burn without illuminating, and are soon extinguished in
the tempest.' I. The venerable Machault is not there, nor Malesherbes;
there are none of the old ministers or the marshals of France. Not one
of the intendants is there, except Malouet, and by the superiority of
this man, the most judicious of the Assembly, one can judge the services
which his colleagues would have rendered. Out of two hundred and
ninety-one members of the clergy,[2117] there are indeed forty-eight
bishops or archbishops and thirty-five abbots or canons, but, being
prelates and with large endowments, they excite the envy of their order,
and are generals without any soldiers. We have the same spectacle among
the nobles. Most of them, the gentry of the provinces, have been elected
in opposition to the grandees of the Court. Moreover, neither the
grandees of the Court, devoted to worldly pursuits, nor the gentry of
the provinces, confined to private life, are practically familiar with
public affairs. A small group among them, twenty-eight magistrates
and about thirty superior officials who have held command or have been
connected with the administration, probably have some idea of the peril
of society; but it is precisely for this reason that they seem to be
behind the age and remain without influence.--In the Third-Estate, out
of five hundred and seventy-seven members, only ten have exercised
any important functions, those of intendant, councillor of state,
receiver-general, lieutenant of police, director of the mint, and others
of the same category. The great majority is composed of unknown lawyers
and people occupying inferior positions in the profession, notaries,
royal attorneys, register commissaries, judges and assessors of;
the presidial, bailiffs and lieutenants of the bailiwick, simple
practitioners confined from their youth to the narrow circle of an
inferior jurisdiction or to a routine of scribbling, with no escape
but philosophical excursions in imaginary space under the guidance of
Rousseau and Raynal. There are three hundred and seventy-three of this
class, to whom may be added thirty-eight farmers and husbandmen, fifteen
physicians, and, among the manufacturers, merchants, and capitalists,
some fifty or sixty who are their equals in education and in political
capacity. Scarcely on