ed, all that could be expected from such
restoration would in the beginning be but a change of tyranny.
Considering the nature of a Republic in reference to the present
condition of Europe, your Lordship stops here; but a philosopher will
extend his views much farther: having dried up the source from which
flows the corruption of the public opinion, he will be sensible that the
stream will go on gradually refining itself. I must add also, that the
coercive power is of necessity so strong in all the old governments,
that a people could not at first make an abuse of that liberty which a
legitimate Republic supposes. The animal just released from its stall
will exhaust the overflow of its spirits in a round of wanton vagaries;
but it will soon return to itself, and enjoy its freedom in moderate and
regular delight.

But, to resume the subject of universal representation, I ought to have
mentioned before, that in the choice of its representatives a people
will not immorally hold out wealth as a criterion of integrity, nor lay
down as a fundamental rule, that to be qualified for the trying duties
of legislation a citizen should be possessed of a certain fixed
property. Virtues, talents, and acquirements are all that it will look
for.

Having destroyed every external object of delusion, let us now see what
makes the supposition necessary that the people will mislead themselves.
Your Lordship respects 'peasants and mechanics when they intrude not
themselves into concerns for which their education has not fitted them.'

Setting aside the idea of a peasant or mechanic being a legislator, what
vast education is requisite to enable him to judge amongst his
neighbours which is most qualified by his industry and integrity to be
intrusted with the care of the interests of himself and of his
fellow-citizens? But leaving this ground, as governments formed on such
a plan proceed in a plain and open manner, their administration would
require much less of what is usually called talents and experience, that
is, of disciplined treachery and hoary Machiavelism; and at the same
time, as it would no longer be their interest to keep the mass of the
nation in ignorance, a moderate portion of useful knowledge would be
universally disseminated. If your Lordship has travelled in the
democratic cantons of Switzerland, you must have seen the herdsman with
the staff in one hand and the book in the other. In the constituent
Assembly of France was fo