dom we find the pioneers of civilization the best mechanics. They
strike down the forest--they turn the undergrowth--they throw a log over
the stream, but they seldom rear factories, or invent tubular bridges.

Amongst the whole of the heroes of the French Revolution, we must admire
the Girondists, as being the most daring, and, at the same time, the
most constructive of all who met either in the Constituent Assembly or
the Convention. The Jacobin faction dealt simply with politics through
the abstract notions of Rousseau: but of what use are "human rights" if
we have to begin _de novo_ to put into operation?--rather let us unite
the conservative educationalism of Socialism with the wild democracy of
ignorance. Politics never can be successful unless married to Socialism.

It was not long after Condorcet's death, before the Committee of Public
Instruction undertook the charge of publishing the whole of his works.
For this they have been censured on many grounds. We consider that it
was one of the few good things accomplished by that Committee. There is
nothing in the works of this writer which have a distinctive peculiarity
to us; few great writers who direct opinion at the time they write,
appear to posterity in the same light as they did to a public inflamed
by passion, and trembling under reiterated wrongs. When we look at the
works of D'Holbach, we find a standard treatise, which is a land-mark to
the present day; but at the time the "System of Nature" was written, it
had not one tithe the popularity which it now enjoys; it did not produce
an effect superior to a new sarcasm of Voltaire, or an epigram of
Diderot. Condorcet was rather the co-laborer and _literateur_ of the
party, than the prophet of the new school. Voltaire was the Christ,
and Condorcet the St. Paul of the new faith. In political economy, the
doctrines of the English and Scotch schools were elaborated to their
fullest extent. Retrenchment in pensions and salaries, diminution of
armies, equal taxation, the resumption by the State of all the Church
lands, the development of the agricultural and mechanical resources,
the abolition of the monopolies, total free trade, local government, and
national education; such-were the doctrines for which Turgot fought, and
Condorcet popularized. If they had been taken in time, France would
have escaped a revolution, and Europe would have been ruled by peace
and freedom. It may be asked, who brought about the advocacy