* Qualitas, relatio, actio, passio, ubi, quando, situs, habitus.
So far from this able disposition of some of the old republican
legislators, which follows with a solicitous accuracy the moral
conditions and propensities of men, they have leveled and crushed
together all the orders which they found, even under the coarse
unartificial arrangement of the monarchy, in which mode of
government the classing of the citizens is not of so much importance
as in a republic. It is true, however, that every such classification,
if properly ordered, is good in all forms of government, and
composes a strong barrier against the excesses of despotism, as well
as it is the necessary means of giving effect and permanence to a
republic. For want of something of this kind, if the present project
of a republic should fail, all securities to a moderated freedom
fail along with it; all the indirect restraints which mitigate
despotism are removed, insomuch that if monarchy should ever again
obtain an entire ascendancy in France, under this or under any other
dynasty, it will probably be, if not voluntarily tempered at setting
out by the wise and virtuous counsels of the prince, the most
completely arbitrary power that has ever appeared on earth. This is to
play a most desperate game.
The confusion which attends on all such proceedings they even
declare to be one of their objects, and they hope to secure their
constitution by a terror of a return of those evils which attended
their making it.
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