“Civil government is the will of all, executed by one or by many in virtue of laws for which all have voted.” “The republican is undoubtedly the most tolerable of all governments, because it is that which brings men most nearly to natural equality.”[165]
In another place the same illustrious teacher said:—
“The people never desire, and never can desire, anything but Liberty and Equality.”[166]
Advancing in time, the Republic becomes more manifest. Omitting the fervid words of Jean Jacques Rousseau, I adduce Condorcet, whose consecration to truth was sealed by a tragical death:—
“I have ever thought that a Republican Constitution, having Equality for its basis, was the only one in conformity with Nature, with reason, and with justice,—the only one which could preserve the liberty of the citizens and the dignity of the human race.”[167]
Belonging to the ancient system of France, and, like Lafayette, with the rank of Marquis, Condorcet, again like Lafayette, not only accepted the Republic, but declared its true basis.
Another French authority, of eminent experience in diplomacy, who wrote coldly and only according to the requirement of reason, Gérard de Rayneval, asserts the same law of Equality:—
“Political Liberty consists in the right to participate in public affairs. This participation is direct or indirect, and it is more or less extended according to the form of government. It is, then, necessarily unequal. For example, in a Democracy all the citizens participate in the legislative power. If they delegate it, they have only a very indirect part in it; but all can become delegates or representatives, all can arrive at administrative employments, and all have the right to protest against abuses. In aristocratic republics political liberty is exclusively concentrated in the body of Notables; they alone exercise all the power; subjects have only civil liberty.”[168]
Such, in France, is the voice of political science.