importance to evoke the long essay
with which he favored them. But though he began by denouncing the English
Revolutionists in particular, the subject so inflamed him that before he
had finished, he had written without restraint his opinion of the social
struggle of the French people, and given his definition of the word
Liberty, then in everybody's mouth. As he wrote, news came pouring into
England of later political developments in France which increased instead
of lessening his hatred and distrust of the Revolution. It was a year
before he had finished his work, and it had then grown into a lengthy and
elaborate treatise.

The "Reflections" gives a careful exposition of the errors of the French
Republican party, and the shortcomings of the National Assembly; and, to
add to this the force of antithesis, it extols the merits and virtues of
the English Constitution. Furthermore, it points out the evil
consequences which must follow the realization of the French attempts at
reform. But the real question at issue is the nature of the rights of
men. It was to gain for their countrymen the justice which they thought
their due, that the revolutionary leaders curtailed the power of the
king, lowered the nobility, and disgraced the clergy. If it could be
proved that their conception of human justice was wholly wrong, the very
foundation of their political structure would be destroyed. Burke's
arguments, therefore, are all intended to achieve this end.

In her detestation of his insensibility to the natural equality of
mankind, Mary was too impatient to consider the minor points of his
reasoning. She announces in her Advertisement that she intends to confine
her strictures, in a great measure, to the grand principles at which he
levels his ingenious arguments. Her object, therefore, as well as
Burke's, is to demonstrate what are the rights of men, but she reasons
from a very different stand-point. Burke defends the claims of those who
inherit rights from long generations of ancestors; Mary cries aloud in
defence of men whose one inheritance is the deprivation of all rights.
Burke is moved by the misery of a Marie Antoinette, shorn of her
greatness; Mary, by the wretchedness of the poor peasant woman who has
never possessed even its shadow. The former knows no birthright for
individuals save that which results from the prescription of centuries;
the latter contends that every man has a right, as a human being, to
"such a degree