being
illusory, but with the understanding that the sovereignty of others is
regarded likewise; so I prefer servitude and privation for all, rather
than liberties and advantages for a few, and, provided the same level is
passed over all heads, I submit to the yoke for all heads, including my
own."

Such is the internal composition of the instinct of' equality, and such
is the natural instinct of Frenchmen. It is beneficial or mischievous
according as one or the other of its ingredients predominates, at one
time the noble sentiment of equity and at another time the low envy of
foolish vanity;[3304] healthy or unhealthy, however, its power in France
is enormous, and the new Regime gratifies it in every possible way, good
or bad. No more legal disqualifications! On the one hand, the republican
laws of proscription or of exception were all repealed: we have seen an
amnesty and the return of the emigres, the Concordat, the restoration
of Catholic worship, the compulsory reconciliation of the
constitutionalists with the orthodox; the First Consul admits no
difference between them; his new clergy are recruited from both groups
and, in this respect, he forces the Pope to yield.[3305] He gives twelve
of the sixty episcopal thrones to former schismatics; he wants them to
take their places boldly; he relieves them from ecclesiastical penitence
and from any humiliating recantation; he takes care that, in the other
forty-eight dioceses, the priests who formerly took the civic oath shall
be employed and well treated by their superiors who, at the same epoch,
refused to take the civic oath. On the other hand, all the exclusions,
inequalities and distinctions of the monarchy remain abolished. Not only
are the Calvinist and even Israelite cults legally authorized, the same
as the Catholic cult, but, again, the Protestant consistories and Jewish
synagogues[3306] are constituted and organized on the same footing as
the Catholic churches. Pastors and rabbis likewise become functionaries
under the same title as bishops and cure's; all are recognized or
sanctioned by the government and all equally benefit by its patronage:
it is an unique thing in Europe to find the small churches of the
minority obtaining the same measure of indifference and good will from
the State as the great church of the majority, and, henceforth, in fact
as in law, the ministers of the three cults, formerly ignored, tolerated
or proscribed, enjoy their rank, titles a