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 THE EFFORTS AND PROGRESS H^^^^- 
 
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 9 
 
 DURING THE LAST TWENTY-FIVE YEAES. 
 
 BY J. C. L. DE SISMONDL 
 
 ^ic/trwcsKr-vO\ '^^^-^■ 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE TRENCH, 
 
 3r FUTZSR S. BUFONCEAU, 
 
 FHlLJiDELPBM: r 
 
 HARRISON HALLj 64^ SOUTH FOURTH-STREET. 
 
 M. Wright, Printer. 
 
 1825- 
 

 
 iVb/e* hy the Editor of the Port Folio. 
 
 The following Translation was prepared for the Port Folio. 
 For the accommodation of readers who are not subscribers to 
 that journal, a few copies have been printed in the form of a 
 pamphlet. In this form the original came from Paris to the 
 hands of Mr. Duponeeau, who kindly obliged us with this 
 translation. 
 
THE TRAirSIiATOIl'S PREFACB, 
 
 The name of the author of the following essay, is 
 alone sufficient to recomnriend it to the American public. 
 Were it anonymously published, it would still sufficiently 
 recommend itself; for it is impossible after perusing it, not 
 to perceive that it is the production of a man of no ordi- 
 nary genius, who is thoroughly master of his subjects 
 The mind and the pen of Sismondi discover themselves 
 in every line of this vivid picture of the recent progress 
 and advancement of mankind. It is a moral panorama 
 of the whole world, reduced to the compass of a few 
 pages. It is a panorama of time as well as of space\ it 
 spreads out before the reader the first quarter of a new 
 century which announced itself as pregnant with the 
 most important events, and which has fulfilled its pro- 
 mise. Well may we say with the great man who usher- 
 ed it into the world, " that the nineteenth century is not 
 like any of those that preceded it.'' 
 
 The French revolution had held up to mankind the 
 delusive hope of universal and unbounded freedom^ 
 which, like Mahomet's religion, was to be established 
 and spread abroad by scenes of devastation, and by means 
 destructive of its object. At the beginning of this 
 century, while that experiment was in its full career, an 
 extraordinary man appeared, who undertook to stop the 
 revolutionary chariot in its wayward course; he took his 
 seat undaunted upon the furious whirlwind; but instead 
 pf firmly and gently guiding it into the plain and obvious 
 
■patli of knowledge, liberty, and virtue, he gave it ano- 
 ther headlong direction, in which he kept it for sometime 
 with astonishing success; but in the end was precipitated 
 by the united force of Europe, combined to restore what 
 they called legitimate order and tranquillity to the world. 
 The consequences of these convulsions have been gradu- 
 ally displaying themselves within the last ten years, and a 
 magnificent spectacle has been opening within this pe- 
 riod to the view of the present generation, and the won- 
 der of posterity. 
 
 Whatever immediate causes speculative men may be 
 pleased to assign to the various revolutions that we have 
 witnessed, there is one which has been at work for more 
 than two centuries, and to which all other secondary 
 causes have been subservient. The floods of light which, 
 since the discovery of the art of printing, have been dif- 
 fused over the earth, have raised a new and universal 
 monarch, who, seated on an imperishable throne, is 
 henceforth to govern mankind. This monarch is Public 
 Opinion, It is in vain to deny his power; the proofs of 
 it are too evident to be doubted. It is he who effected 
 the religious reformation; who gave to Great Britain her 
 free constitution; who spread its most vahiable principles 
 over this vast continent; separated by means of them 
 these states from the mother country; threw back from 
 hence upon Europe the light which the new world had 
 received from it, and which after once more agitating 
 the old hemisphere, recoiled with double vigour upon 
 the new, and filled the land of Columbus with independ- 
 ent republican states. 
 
 Yet in Europe, the old sovereigns, untaught by the 
 experience of ages, are still waging a feeble war against 
 this immense Colossus, to whom they are doomed at last 
 to submit. This essay contains a lively picture of the 
 various successes of this warfare within the last twenty- 
 five years. — The author shows how public opinion has 
 hitherto resisted all the efibrts that have been made to 
 destroy it^ how it has advanced; is advancing, and h like- 
 
5 
 
 ly to conquer in the end. In England, it has been found 
 unassailable; in France, while encroachments were 
 making in various quarters upon constitutional liberty, 
 the freedom of the press has suddenly blazed forth and 
 illumined the whole atmosphere. He shows that al- 
 though in Germany, Spain, and Italy, the eftbrts of the 
 retrograde party appear to have been more successful, 
 yet that the lights of those great nations have been only 
 smothered, not extinguished; he points to Greece, to 
 glorious Greece, as a proof of the vanity of the attempts 
 that are making to put out a flame, which, while it ap- 
 pears to be subdued in one quarter, is still bursting out 
 with greater splendour in another; and at last he cheers 
 the hopes of the friends of liberty and of mankind, with 
 the noble spectacle which this favoured continent for the 
 first time exhibits since the creation of the world, that 
 
 of A WHOLE REPUBLICAN HEMISPHERE. 
 
 In the back ground he shadows out another continent, 
 situated between Asia and America, whose destinies can 
 only be viewed at a long distance, but which promises 
 to be another great asylum of knowledge, virtue, and 
 liberty. 
 
 Such is the cheering and interesting picture which 
 Mr. SiSMONDi offers to the view of his European read- 
 ers. I have thought that it would not be less so to 
 Americans; particularly as the United States occupy 
 in it a distinguished place, and are delineated there by 
 no unfriendly hand. 
 
 This essay is extracted from the Revue Encyclopedique 
 for last January: — a literary journal, published monthly 
 at Paris, which is well known in the United States, but 
 not as much, perhaps, as it deserves to be. It is un- 
 doubtedly the best of the kind published on the conti- 
 nent of Europe, and perhaps elsewhere. It is not on 
 the same plan with the English Reviews, and therefore 
 it cannot be well compared with them; at the same time, 
 I cannot help observing, that it is entirely free from that 
 flippant style, and sometimes vulgar obloquy, which too 
 
6 
 
 often disgraces some of the British journals. Justice also 
 compels me to say, that its reviews of scientific and lite- 
 rary works are always what they profess to be, and that 
 the reader who expects a critical and impartial analysis 
 of a book, is not disappointed by finding in lieu of it a 
 dissertation by the nominal reviewer^ sometimes com- 
 piled from Encyclopedias and elementar}^ works on the 
 subject treated of by the author pretended to be review- 
 ed, and sometimes even on topics but distantly connected 
 with it. 
 
 The Revue Encyclopedique proceeds on a quite dif. 
 ferent system. It contains but few reviews, properly so 
 called, that is to say, disquisitions in which the book re- 
 viewed is analysed and criticised fully and at large; this 
 honor is reserved for the most distinguished works, and 
 it cannot be supposed that many v/ill appear of that de- 
 scription in the course of a single month. Of the mass 
 of other writings notices are given, the length of 
 which is proportioned to the merit of the work.* Some- 
 times, indeed, these come very near to a full review, 
 but as they are printed in a different part of the journal, 
 and in a different type, they are only entitled to be con- 
 sidered as notices. The result of this mode of proceeds 
 ing is, that the reader finds in this compilation an ac- 
 count of every thing that appears in the literary world 
 upon every subject, and at the end of every month can 
 take a complete view of the progress of the human mind. 
 The last part of the journal consists of literary and scien- 
 tific news from every part of the globe, among which 
 are recorded all the recent inventions aud discoveries, 
 and every thing else that can tend to the benefit of man- 
 kind. 
 
 Such is the plan on which the Revue Encyclopedique 
 is and has been conducted for several years, under the 
 
 * This plan has been adopted by our own excellent North American 
 lleview; at the end of each number there is a department of critical fiotices^ 
 in which works of lesser importance are analysed more or less at leng-thj 
 or simply noticed according" to their merits. — Translator. 
 
direction of M. Jullien, a gentleman of distinguished 
 talents, assisted by a number of the most eminent men in 
 every branch of literature and science. Among those are 
 to be found the well known names of Brogniart, the two 
 Champollions, Chaptal, Coquebert Montbret, Dupin, de 
 Gerando^ Lanjuinais^ Magendie, Oriila, Say, Segur^ 
 Sismondi, and many others, all more or less distinguished 
 in the literary and scientific world. Its political princi- 
 ples are those of constitutional freedom, or what are called 
 in Europe, liberal principles. Although living under a 
 monarchy, the editors of this journal treat republics and 
 and the republican system with proper respect. 
 
 Indeed, as Americans, we owe a debt of gratitude to 
 the conductors of the Revue^ which I feel happy to have 
 it in my power thus publicly to acknowledge. They 
 seldom miss an opportunity of noticing the gradual im- 
 provement of this country, and their reviews of Ameri- 
 can works (which are very frequent) are written in a 
 spirit of candour, and I might even say of partiality^ 
 highly flattering to us. No sarcastic reflections are 
 thrown out against us, no discouraging observations, no 
 invidious comparisons between the state of literature 
 in this country and in Europe; on the contrary, the re- 
 viewers seem anxious to exhibit American productions 
 to the best advantage, and to place us on a footing 
 with the other members of the republic of letters. No 
 latent merit escapes their observation, and praise is sure 
 to be bestowed, where in any degree it appears to be 
 deserved. And as if they could not sufficiently show the 
 respect which they entertain for our nation, they inva- 
 riably place it at the head of ail others in their notices of 
 foreign works. Not that they mean by this to intimate 
 that the United States are entitled to any scientific or 
 literary pre-eminence; but they have fallen on this de- 
 licate method to encourage us to persevere in our en- 
 deavours to reach the sutnmit of literature and science^ 
 by keeping the goal constantly in our view. 
 
 ■^ 
 
8 
 
 I have long wished for an opportunity to e^cpress the 
 feeling which I know to be entertained wherever the 
 ^ facts are known, for the liberal treatment which our 
 country and literature have received from the literati of 
 the continent of Europe; particularly of France and Ger- 
 many. If this little effusion should have the good fortune 
 to reach any of them, they will know that their kindness 
 has not been lavished upon an ungrateful people, and that 
 their friendly conduct towards us is justly appreciated. 
 We were once colonies, under subjection to an Euro- 
 pean power. Our literary emancipation did not follow 
 close upon our political independence. We have lonot 
 worn shackles which we are gradually throwing off, and 
 are beginning to set up in the literary world for our- 
 selves: Our first efforts required friendly encourage- 
 ment; we have received it from quarters whence we had 
 the least right to expect it, and we feel grateful towards 
 those who have not disdained to regard our infant pro- 
 ductions with a favourable eye. The best and the only 
 way in which we can properly requite these favours, is 
 by exerting ourselves to deserve them more. The gra- 
 dual but visible progress which American literature has 
 made within the last ten years, is a pledge of future ex- 
 ertions, which I hope will be aided by Irequent transla- 
 tions of such excellent models, as that which I now lay 
 before the public. 
 
A 
 
 REVIEW^ 
 
 OP THE 
 
 EFFORTS AND PROGRESS OF NATIONS. 
 
 It has pleased the Roman Catholic Church to distinguish 
 the year that we are just now entering upon, by the celebra- 
 tion of a jubilee: abandoning the secular festivals which the 
 greatest number of the faithful did not live to see, it has 
 considered the fourth part of a century as a sufficiently im- 
 portant portion of the life of man, to require all men to pause 
 at this period, to reflect on and review the past. It is a fit 
 moment to acknowledge the errors that have been committed, 
 to examine the progress that has been madl^ and to seek, in 
 the remembrance of past efforts, fresh hopes for the future. 
 Those who wish for the perfection, or at least the melioration 
 of the human species, who ardently desire its further pro- 
 gress in knowledge, virtue, and liberty; those who are anxir= 
 ous to see man always improving the faculties which raise 
 him above the brutes; his conscience, his intelligence, hi§ 
 will;— such persons will do well to celebrate this jubilee with 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 the Church of Rome. They, also, will find it beneficial to 
 take a retrospective view of the past, to examine the course 
 which they have run, to repent of their errors, to confirm 
 their faith in the truths already known, and lastly, to derive 
 fresh hopes from the lessons of experience. 
 
 The first twenty-five years of the nineteenth century have 
 passed away; they had a character peculiar to themselves; a 
 single interest exclusively occupied them: that of the struggle 
 between two opinions which divide the world, and dispose 
 of the power of nations. The one tends to make the human 
 species march forward, the other to keep it stationary, or 
 make it trace back its steps. In various countries, each of 
 those opinions has in turns been victorious; violent revolu- 
 tions, overthrowings of empires, have, within tliis quar- 
 ter Df a century, signalized the alternate triumphs of the 
 two parties. They are still in array before each other; the 
 issue of their contest is yet uncertain; and although we are 
 far from pretending to remain neutral between them, we 
 think that we may, without bitterness, without partiality, 
 and without any hostility in our language, take a fair view 
 of their respective positions. 
 
 And first, in the midst of various fatal events, and of several 
 discouraging experiments, it is a ground of hope for the 
 friends of humanity, that the cause of this struggle is at last 
 clearly defined, the character of both parties, their aims, and 
 their hopes, are fu^Iy developed, and no longer susceptible of 
 any ambiguity, /if has not always been thus during the twen- 
 ty-five years that we have travelled over. Each party has 
 played the tyrant in its turn; each, in the intoxication of pow- 
 er, has braved the light of reason, the dictates of morality, 
 and the proud feeling of liberty; virtuous men have been 
 seen arrayed from conscientious motives, under opposite ban- 
 ners; both were animated by the same desire of saving all 
 that ennobles man, of checking revolutionary or despotic fana- 
 
11 
 
 ticism, of preserving civilization, virtue, liberty, which it 
 appeared to them that their adversaries were treading under 
 foot. Men have not different opinions on the value of these 
 treasures; they differ only as to the means of obtaining them, 
 the character by which they may be distinguished, and the 
 alloy with which they are sometimes debased; but no one has 
 ever thought of repelling from himself knowledge, virtue, or 
 freedom. " We are fighting for liberty,'^ said a republican 
 soldier to the imperialists. " And we," answered an Aus- 
 trian officer, " do you think we are fighting in order to be 
 slaves?" 
 
 It was for a long time a source of error, to make a distinc- 
 tion between the progressive faculties ©f man, as if the whole 
 interest of the present generation depended on liberty, or 
 knowledge, or virtue; whereas, on the contrary, they are 
 closely united and almost undivisible. Man must be en- 
 lightened, in order to distinguish good from evil: he must be 
 virtuous, in order to adhere to the former; and free, that he 
 may effect hi-^ choice; but the same knowledge which must 
 direct his moral election, will point out to him all the other 
 good things that he may desire, and all the means of obtain- 
 ing them; and each progressive step of his intelligence will 
 produce a corresponding advancement of virtue and liberty. 
 A great cause of ambiguity and confusion has been done away 
 since the friends of humanity have made known the intimate 
 connexion which exists between these three developments of 
 the human faculties. Then the retrograde party was compelled 
 to take its stand, and must have said: " We believe know- 
 ledge, virtue and liberty to be good things; we believe that 
 from them results an increase of riches, population and pow- 
 er, which also are good things; but we want those good things . 
 for ourselves alone:" while the progressive party have an- 
 swered: '^ Because we believe all those things to be good, we 
 want them for all mankind; for, what we are seeking is the 
 greatest good of the greatest number." 
 
12 
 
 Language has been so much perverted by the tools of pov\'- 
 fer, and the words of which it is composed have been so much 
 Employed in sophistical reasonings, that however clearly the 
 question which divides the world may be now defined, it will 
 hot be impossible for an artful orator to involve it in doubt, 
 and to confound simple minds by words skilfully ptit together; 
 but facts are novv before the world which may explain the 
 two principles, and serve as a standard to the two opinions. 
 
 The United States of America represent the progressive 
 tendency which the promoters of one of these opinions are striv- 
 ing to give to mankind. Since their emancipation, and particu-* 
 larly during the last quarter of a century, their government has 
 shown no hesitation in its firm resolution to march forward, to 
 favour with all its might the progress of knowlege, virtue and 
 liberty; and the rapid increase of the prosperity of the United 
 States has surpassed all that has ever been known on the face of 
 the earth. In order to judge of this, we must not lose sight of the 
 point from which they started. The founders of the colonies 
 were fugitives of all political and religious sects, each of which 
 had been persecuted in its turn; they carried with them the 
 germs of every animosity, they were filled with deep resent- 
 ment, fraught with fanaticism of every description, and dis- 
 posed to every kind of exaggeration. For a long time they 
 were reunited by the scum of the English population, by in- 
 dividuals transported for their crimes; at a later period, their 
 country became the refuge of fortune-seekers, of intriguers 
 and adventurers of all nations; the colonies received from the 
 governments of Europe the most fatal of all institutions — 
 slavery; a part* of their population is dispersed in forests, 
 or in immense prairies, beyond the reach of courts of jus- 
 tice, or of social protection. With such elements, the Ame- 
 
 * The original says, "the greatest part/' which is evidently a mistake. 
 The portion of our population so situated, is, on the contrary, very small, 
 compared to the whole. Translator. 
 
13 
 
 Hcans would have been, under our European governments, the 
 most vicious of all people; they are entitled, on the contrary, 
 to rank amongst the most virtuous. There are few nations 
 among whom the sent\ ^t of what is right, just and 
 honourable, is more univer\, ^ .ead; where crimes are more 
 rare; where domestic virtues are more in honour; where re- 
 ligion, which, however, has no other sanction than every 
 man's conscience, exercises a more general influence. No 
 doubt there are yet to be found traces of the stain which 
 their founders fixed upon them; but they are every day ra- 
 pidly disappearing. In the same manner, in the career of in- 
 telligence, it must not be forgotten that the Americans are 
 but just beginning; they must have been colonists, agricul- 
 turers, mechanics, traders, before they had leisure to devote 
 to the pursuits of philosophy, or literature. We cannot yet ex- 
 pect from them those masterly productions W'hich at once 
 charm and enlighten mankind; but they have had the sagacity 
 to appropriate to themselves all the arts and sciences of Europe; 
 they have spread, over the whole of their population, more 
 reason, more positive knowledge, more aptness to imbibe 
 correct ideas, than is found in the mass of the people of any 
 of the old nations of Europe. The liberty of America has 
 developed and strengthened itself with its knowledo-e and 
 virtue. No citizen of any other country has so many rights 
 and so many securities; and those rights have never produced 
 the abuses with which we are constantly threatened; no popu- 
 lar commotions, no insurrections, no civil wars; they have 
 enjoyed perfect security in the midst of perfect liberty. What 
 is now the result of this treble progression.^ At the beffinnino- 
 of the present century, the American population amounted to 
 four or five millions; they are now eleven millions.* At the 
 
 ♦ The president of the United States, in his late inaugural speech, esti- 
 mates our present population at twelve millions. Transcator, 
 
14 
 
 beginning of this century, their towns were yet small and 
 poor; they now vie in extent, in population, and in beauty, 
 with the capitals of Europe. At the beginning of this century, 
 the United States bore with difficulty the weight of their na- 
 tional debt; now their funds are no longer quoted at the 
 London Exchange; their debt is reduced to almost nothing, 
 and they are indebted only to themselves. At the beginning 
 of this century, their commerce, their industry, and even 
 their agriculture, were fed by British capitals: at present, 
 notwithstanding the immensity of their undertakings, their 
 own capitals are sufficient to support them; they overflow in 
 the trade of Europe and India, they throng in the states of 
 America that were lately Spanish, and impart to them all 
 the arts of civilization. This is what the Americans have 
 done during the last twenty-five years; they have advanced 
 and are advancing: is it then to be wondered at that we should 
 wish to advance likewise? 
 
 Unfortunately, it is not difficult to find, also, examples of 
 the retrograde tendency. In order to ofiend as little as possi- 
 ble those who do not like to hear home truths, we shall chuse 
 one of those examples at a distance from ourselves, in a coun- 
 try, the government of which does not disguise its intentions 
 by hypocritical language. That country, situated between the 
 three monarchies of Europe, that are styled empires, belongs 
 properly to neither; but all three, b}^ their protection, keep it 
 in the situation in which it now is, and are determined that it 
 shall so continue. It includes Moldavia^ Wallachia, Bulga- 
 ria and Servia, four principalities on which nature has bestow- 
 ed the richest soil in Europe, the most temperate climate, the 
 noblest river, and the most ancient commercial road, that 
 fomerly connected the East and the West, and the civiliza- 
 tion of Constantinople with that of Germany and France. 
 But that country, where Providence had implanted the 
 g^rm of every kind of prosperity calculated to produce 
 
15 
 
 ]i3ppinGss and gloiy, has constantly been under the retro- 
 g;rade system; and since Trajan, who made it flourish, since 
 Charlemagne, who restored the communication between the 
 two empires, it has never ceased to pursue a retrograde course. 
 In those unfortunate provinces, there is no safety for persons, 
 nor for property; there is neither commerce, nor industry, 
 nor agriculture; the population is reduced below one twenti- 
 eth of what the soil could maintain; it is more savage and more 
 unhappy than the wild beasts that share with it the products 
 of the valley of the Danube. There is no country, (particular- 
 ly Bulgaria and Servia), whence liberty, knowledge, and vir- 
 tue, have been more carefully excluded; the peasantry are 5e?y^ 
 and their masters do not even protect them as their proper- 
 ty; instruction there is impossible, for their language is not 
 written; virtue is entirely unknown: it is not to be sought for 
 in the peasantry; — men who have no rights to enjoy, have nib 
 duties to perform; and as to the noblemen, or Bayards, as 
 they are called, the low debauchery of the men, and the 
 shanjeless profligacy of the women, form a shocking contrast 
 to the luxury with which they endeavour to surround them- 
 selves. The state of war? which for ages has continued with- 
 out interruption in those principalities, occasions to their 
 neighbours frequent losses, 9nd requires from them constant 
 watchfulness. Those neighbours are the most powerful mo- 
 narchs of Europe: yet they have never called a congress; 
 they never have even availed themselves of the influence 
 secured to them by treaties, in order to stop the effusion of 
 human blood, and put an end to the lawless state of society 
 which exists in those countries. What is now the result 
 which they have obtained from such a state of thino-s? It is 
 this:— -To whatever degree of oppression the Wallachian or 
 Moldavian peasant may be subjected, there is no apprehen- 
 sion that he will rise in rebellion: you may impale him, but 
 
16 
 
 you cannot compel him to defend himself. As to us, who 
 have not the same interest, it is well now and then to 
 cast our eyes on the WaJlachian and Moldavian peasantry; 
 if such is the end of the retrograde movement, surely we 
 ought not to be disposed to retrace our steps. 
 
 Let us not suffer ourselves to be misled by those who em- 
 ploy other words to express the two opposite tendencies: 
 those words have exercised a lamentable influence on the 
 quarter of a century which we have just passed through, and 
 have produced a great number of errors. The two parties 
 have deceived themselves by assuming principles which did 
 not well express their real sentiments; some hav^e laid down, 
 as an axiom, the principle o^ ihe sovereignty/ 0^ the people, 
 but this dogma (for such it is in fact) constantly led them 
 into error.* If they were obliged to give the name of people 
 to the aggregation of all men, if they acknowledged in all 
 an equal right to govern, they themselves opposed the 
 greatest obstacle to the progress of society, for the ignorant 
 mass is far more numerous than the enlightened part of the 
 community, it does not know what is good, and frequently 
 rejects it; and the sovereign multitude has not shown itself 
 less disposed to retrograde than despots. The adversaries 
 of this party have opposed to this dogma that of legitimacy, 
 which they attempted to make the foundation of the sove- 
 reign power. The inventor of this doctrine did not mean to 
 make it the standard of the retrograde system throughout Eu- 
 rope; he only thouo'ht of France; and considering as tainted 
 every power derived from revolutionary violence, he sought 
 the right where it was before force was exercised; he recog- 
 nized it in the sovereign as well as in the subject, by its 
 most permanent sign, its regular and quiet transmission 
 
 * It must not be forg-otten that this is written under a monarchical g-o- 
 Yernment. Translator^ 
 
17 
 
 tiirough several successive generations; in short, what jurists 
 call prescription. But when the retrograde party laid hold of 
 this term, they applied it in the most absurd manner to other 
 countries and to other governments; even to those in which 
 the principle of legitimacy had been most flagrantly vio- 
 lated. For, have they forgotten, who insist on legitimacy 
 for Germany and Italy, that the legitimate constitution of 
 the Holy Roman Empire, that which existed there prior to 
 the revolution, founded on treaties, on a regular and quiet 
 transmission of rights, in short, on prescription, gave to those 
 two countries an elective sovereign, and a body of electors, 
 three of whom were elective in their turn? That constitu- 
 tion has been entirely subverted; while all the rights, all 
 the claims which this party contends for, are founded on the 
 Revolution. The rest of Europe would not be less embar- 
 rassed to show in the powers to which they are now subject- 
 ed, the character of legitimacy: almost every where the an- 
 cient laws, on which power was formerly founded, have been 
 abolished/* 
 
 After all, the partisans of the retrograde system need only 
 a watchword, with or without meaning, to recognize each 
 other by, while the friends of the progressive system are 
 bound to use more precision. The dogma of the sovereignty 
 of the people can serve but to perplex and confound them.t It 
 is useless to go back to the origin of power, it must be con- 
 sidered as a y«c^; it exists; it has been instituted, therefore 
 it has duties to perform: those duties are the advancement of 
 the ends of human society, the happiness of the governed^ 
 their progress in virtue, in knowledge, in liberty; the fulfil- 
 ment of these duties gives to governments the character of 
 legitimacy, and is the noblest evidence of their title. Those 
 
 * Witness Genoa, Venice, the Ionian Islands, Malta, part of Saxony, Po- 
 land, Sweden, Holland, Belg-ium, &c. — Sismondi. 
 f We find no such perplexity or confusion in this conxAvy , ■^-Translator, 
 C 
 
1^ 
 
 duties are common to all, they may be fulfilled by all, what- 
 ever may be the form of the government. All forms, it is 
 true, are not equally calculated to guaranty their fulfilment; 
 but we must be contented with imperfect securities; those 
 have not yet been found which could be adapted to all coun- 
 tries, and protect the just and reasonable rights of men united 
 in society. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to show what is the object of 
 the struggle in which mankind has been engaged during 
 this quarter of a century, we shall now proceed to esti- 
 mate its results.. No doubt, during that period, the human 
 race has experienced great misfortunes and cruel catastrophes; 
 yet it may still applaud itself for the progress it has made, 
 
 France, of course, is uppermost in our thoughts; France 
 gave the impulse to all the other nations; France has dear- 
 ly paid for her experience; conquering or conquered, she 
 has seen professed, in her name, the most opposite doc- 
 trines; and she vvas forced to submit to the governments which 
 were given to her by all the extreme parties. No doubt she 
 may express her regret; no doubt she may still entertain 
 fears; no doubt she may complain that recent periods have 
 been strongly marked with a retrograde character; but if 
 she places herself at the distance of twenty-five years back, 
 and from that point of view considers what has taken place 
 within this quarter of a century, she will perceive that she 
 has gained more than she has lost. Ideas of justice and pub- 
 lic order have been developed and strengthened; political 
 knowledge has been universally spread; the two parties have 
 in a great measure abandoned their prejudices; the classes 
 which repelled constitutional forms have become attached to 
 the power which they have acquired under them, even while 
 they abused it. Morality, it is true, has suffered by the pro- 
 gress of hypocrisy and venality; knowlege, by tlie opposi- 
 
19 
 
 tion which has been made to the best mode of public instruc- 
 tion,* and liberty, by encroachments which it is unnecessary 
 to recapitulate here. The efforts of corruption have been di- 
 rected at the same time, as they always are, against the heart, 
 against the mind, against the free exercise of the will; but 
 the progress of prosperity has restored more to the French, 
 than the abuse of power has taken from them. The advance- 
 ment of every kind of industry, the general welfare, and the 
 national wealth, have raised again the national character; for 
 citizens can only feel their independence, and their moral 
 dignity, when they are above want: the late improvement 
 of the people's pircumstances has given to all classes a great" 
 er desire of information, and more leisure to acquire it. And, 
 lastly, by way of compensation for the part of her rights that 
 she has lost, France is in possession of the liberty of the 
 press; this valuable privilege secures the empire of thought, 
 and of elevated sentiments, and is, consequently, the most 
 powerful engine towards the improvement of the human race. 
 Thus, notwithstanding her many reverses, France is in a pro- 
 gressive state of melioration. She has marched gloriously 
 forward. 
 
 Germany has experienced a shock not less severe than 
 that which visited France. During the greater part of this 
 quarter of a century, her fields were the theatre of the war; 
 she has seen all her institutions overthrown, all her states have 
 received new denominations, new laws, or new boundaries; 
 and if the epithet legitimate is applicable only to the order 
 of things which preceded the convulsions of this quarter of 
 a century, there remains nothing in that country entitled to 
 it. But France made her own revolutions, while Germa- 
 ny only yielded to foreign impulses; therefore, instead of 
 
 * The Lancasterian System.— ^Trara^/af or. 
 
20 
 
 advancing, she has retrograded. 'At the beginning of tiiis cen- 
 tury, each state was endeavouring to amend its own institur 
 tions, to introduce into them somewhat more of liberty, a few 
 more securities; each government wished to acquire the love 
 ©f its subjects, which, in the common danger, was its only 
 source of strength. The people, confiding in their princes, 
 and in return obtaining their confidence, was proceeding for- 
 ward in concert with them, with slow but sure steps. The 
 universities were full of life and spirit; it was on the progress 
 of science, on the development of the intellectual powers, that 
 Germany wished to settle the foundation of her dignity; the 
 greatest freedom existed in the department of public instruc- 
 tion. Nay, more, the universities were a political power; it 
 was they, who after having enlightened and directed public 
 opinion, ijndertooli to disseminate and make it knowd; the 
 press, saving direct questions of state policy, was almost en- 
 tirely free; and the spirit of association which had taken its 
 birth in Germany, and which the sovereigns had strongly 
 encouraged, gave to the speculations of philosophers an im- 
 mediate action on the mass of the people. All this has been 
 changed: fear, as a principle of obedience, has been substitut- 
 ed for affection; morality has been impaired by the encourage- 
 ment given to informers and spies, and still more by great and 
 striking breaches of public faith, which have enriched those 
 who thus violated their promises; literature and science have 
 been checked in their noble progress; the universities have 
 been fettered, the press is enslaved, and associations are 
 punished as state offences; the ancient constitution, anomalous, 
 indeed, and often barbarous, but which required only amend- 
 ments, has been suppressed, without being replaced by any 
 other; yet, faulty as it was, it restrained absolute power in 4 
 great degree; it accustomed sovereigns to speak of liberty; 
 it secured the rights of electors, princes and prelates, of 
 the immediate nobility, and of the free cities. Henceforthe, 
 
21 
 
 thepe are no rights in any manner established, and Ger- 
 many has ceased to be a nation. Nothing is now to be 
 found there but princes more or less weak or powerful, and 
 more or less trembling on their thrones before their subjects 
 or their neighbours. The ancient country of war and politics 
 has no longer any weight in the balance of Europe. 
 
 Italy has been more unfortunate than Germany. In the 
 course of these five-and-twenty years, Italy might well have 
 entertained the fairest hopes. Awakened at last from the 
 torpor and effeminate corruption in which she had forgotten 
 her enslaved situation, she had risen through military virtue 
 and patriotism to other virtues, and by applying herself to 
 the science of government, she had felt anew the importance 
 of study, and had restored the former elasticity to that intelli- 
 gence with which her people is so eminently endowed. In 
 the midst of this period, her government was changed, but 
 the country did not abandon its hopes; for, in order to obtain 
 the co-operation of the people, the most solemn promises had 
 been lavished, that they should participate in the progress of 
 the age. Those promises having been forgotten, two revolu- 
 tions broke out at the two extremities of Italy, and in the 
 midst 0. those national fevers, always terrible, the improve- 
 ment of the Italian nation might be perceived. Their revo- 
 lutions were accomplished without effusion of blood, without 
 pillage, without insult, without violence: in both of them, 
 the presumptive heir to the throne put himself at the head of 
 the reformers, and if this double experience is for ever to dis- 
 suade nations from royal revolutions, it also proves that the 
 Italians knew how to unite gratitude for the past, with hope 
 for the future. In the struggle with foreigners which followed, 
 the retrograde system prevailed: Italy w^as punished for her 
 wishes and her efforts by public executions: her proscribed 
 citizens sought an asylum in all the cities of Europe; they 
 
22 
 
 were men distinguished by their knowledge, their virtues, 
 and the sacrifices they had made for the happiness of their 
 country: they were noblemen of high rank, who had devoted 
 their fortunes and their talents to the introduction of new 
 branches of useful industry, which they brought from other 
 countries, to the founding of public schools, institutions for 
 the deaf and dumb, and the publication of scientific journals. 
 Military tribunals, police commissioners, still more terrible, 
 annihilated all legal guarantees, made terror sit heavy on all 
 classes of society: morality was attacked by the examples 
 given of the contempt of oaths, by the encouragement offered 
 to informers and domestic traitors, by the state of despair 
 into which the minds of men were thrown, which made them 
 seek to forget the public misfortunes by indulging in luxury 
 and vice; knowledge was attacked, by taking away the means 
 of instruction, by the suspension or suppression of lectures in 
 the universities, by the proscription of foreign books, and the 
 mutilation of those which were published in the country; 
 war was declared against intellectual pursuits as openly as 
 against liberty: the liberal sciences and the liberal arts shared 
 in the proscription that was denounced against liberal ideas. 
 Nevertheless, we believe that in the midst of these frightful 
 reverses, Italy is still in a progressive state: institutions are 
 corrupting, but reason is expanding; the nation is advancing, 
 in spite of the efforts of power to drive it backwards: there is 
 in Italy, at the present moment, more misfortune and more 
 oppression, but there is also more virtue, more knowledge 
 and more patriotism than there was in ISOO. In proportion 
 as it is compressed, the Italian mind seems to have acquired 
 a greater elasticity. 
 
 The state of Spain is still more dreadful. This proudest of 
 all nations was intoxicated by the applause which Europe 
 bestowed upon her resistance to Napoleon. Beyond the 
 
23 
 
 Pyrenees, fanaticism had allied itself to liberty, for the defence 
 of the country: in the rest of Europe, the partisans of the 
 two systems, progressive and retrograde, had celebrated, in 
 concert, successes for which the Spaniards were still more 
 indebted to their climate and their poverty than to their 
 bravery or their talents. All the passions were excited in 
 the Peninsula, but they were subject to two opposite impulses. 
 Spain could neither remain in her ancient barbarism under 
 the yoke of every abuse and disgraced by every kind of igno- 
 miny, nor could she proceed forward, such was the disunion 
 between the different classes of the nation. She, however, 
 attempted a revolution; it was not soiled by any crime, neither 
 was it signalized by any great national development of ability or 
 talent. The only class which had made some progress, wished 
 to advance still further; but the great mass of the population, 
 which had been kept forages in habits of ferocity, ignorance 
 and abject dependence, repelled with stupid horror the ad- 
 vancement of morality, knowledge, and liberty. The popu- 
 lace never can comprehend the benefits that are intended for 
 it until after it has been in the enjoyment of them: the revo- 
 lutionists should, therefore, in the first place, have enabled 
 it to participate in the benefits of the revolution, but they 
 had neglected to secure the means of doing so. Confounding 
 the equilibrium which preserves institutions with the power 
 that establishes them, they had annihilated the government 
 without daring to take it into their own hands: they kept the 
 prince in subjection, but had not reserved to themselves any 
 means to satisfy the people. As soon as they were attacked, 
 they succumbed, because they had not a nation to back them; 
 and that populace which they could not enlist on their side, 
 now reigns over them. Let us not be deceived; Spain has 
 now reached that period of the French revolution, which 
 we cannot look upon without horror, the reign of all that 
 is the most abject and the most ferocious in the nation; but 
 
she has come to it by the opposite road to that which tli© 
 French followed; the tyranny of the lowest class is the result 
 of a counter-revolution made by the ministers of kings, under 
 the pretence, and no doubt with the intent, of serving the royal 
 cause. They speak of a furious Camarilla ^"^ their fury is 
 that of cowardice. The court sycophants, conscious of their 
 insignificance, have sought every where for an auxiliary 
 force, but they have found no other than the blind fury of the 
 populace: they endeavour to lean upon that wretched rabble; 
 they flatter them; they boast of sharing their passions; but it 
 is doing too much honor to the Camarilla to suppose that 
 they have passions; they are what they have always been, 
 intriguing and abject before the power of the moment, and 
 that power, they well knowj no longer inhabits palaces, but 
 dwells in lanes and blind alleys. 
 
 Nevertheless, the triumph of the retrogrades has been sa 
 complete in Spain, that they themselves are frightened at their 
 own success. All that was formerly respected is now trod- 
 den under foot; religion is subjected to a disgrace from which 
 she had until now been exempt; she is called in as auxiliary 
 to the police, and the depositaries of the secrets oi confession 
 are ordered to give information of the most private thoughts 
 Qi\\\^\Y penitents. It is strange that the court of Rome never 
 should have protested against this sacrilegious ordinance: 
 never was a more fatal blow given to her power. Besides, 
 the terrorist government of Spain disgraces the magistrates 
 as well as the priests; every where the courts of justice are 
 called upon to issue proscriptions in lieu of sentences; and 
 authority does nothing more than echo the language of the 
 ferocious chiefs of the factions. 
 
 * " A back-stairs junta.'' — A secret council of courtiers and favourites, by 
 whom the king" is governed, and whose plans are followed, in preference t< 
 those of his regular and ostensible counse-llors. — Translator. 
 
25 
 
 But, whatever grief we may feel for the condition of three il- 
 lustrious nations, let us not, on that account, despair of the fate 
 of the human race; let us not even despair of those nations 
 themselves; the human race is marching forward while they 
 are going back; it will continue to march on, it will raise 
 them up and carry them along in its course. 
 
 And first, England should alone be sufficient to re-animate 
 our hopes; England, which has so nobly placed herself at the 
 head of the progressive movement of the human mind; En- 
 gland, which teaches us how the developments of liberty^ 
 virtue, and knowledge, may be combined with all the ancient 
 institutions, and the most deeply rooted habits of subordina- 
 tion. Let us not hearken to those morose men, who, among 
 a thousand brilliant qualities, can only perceive defects; neither 
 let us listen to those who, mistaking their jealousy for patriot" 
 ism, think that they are raising France by lowering her rival 
 in the public estimation. We would have profited very little 
 by the events that we have witnessed, if we had not learned 
 that nations have ceased to be rivals; that they have now but 
 one interest, being engaged in a common struggle against 
 those who would wish to make them retrograde, and that con- 
 sequently the progress of their neighbours is the commence- 
 ment of their own success. 
 
 England, on her side, has but lately learned this lesson of 
 the age: her cabinet, adhering to the ancient policy, of the 
 fallacy of .which many statesmen are yet hardly convinced, 
 brought her to the brink of ruin, by attending to these absurd 
 and immoral maxims of national rivalship. Long did it act 
 under the persuasion that the enemies of its enemies were its 
 friends: and England saw at Waterloo the reins of Europe fall 
 from her hand. On the eve of that battle the English were 
 the chiefs of the coalition; the next day, they were only its 
 pay-masters. Those who for twenty years had been the allies 
 of Great Britain, gave the British cabinet to understand that, 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 being no longer in need of her assistance, they cared no more 
 for her advice. 
 
 It was then, while groaning under the weight of an enor- 
 mous debt, contracted more for the benefit of others than her 
 own; it was in the midst of a commercial revolution which 
 threatened the destruction of her riches, that England display- 
 ed the resources of a nation which had never ceased to de- 
 velop, at the same time, her knowledge, her liberty, and her 
 virtue. The sceptre of P^urope, which she thought she had 
 fast hold of, was broken in her hands; she grasped, in lieu of 
 it, 'he torch with which she enliiL-htens the whole of the 
 universe. Asia, Africa, America, press forward to the scene 
 of Civilization, and for this ihey are indebted to the British 
 nation. 
 
 We may, it is true, point out as defects in England, the 
 excess of the inequality of ranks and fortunes, the corruption 
 of elections, the increasing influence of ministers, the enor- 
 mous expense of legal proceedings, by means of which the 
 poor are in a manner excluded from courts of justice; but let 
 it not be said that England is losing her liberty. We are far 
 from denying the existence of abuses; w^e are far from 
 wishing the postponement of reforms: those which have 
 taken place render the others still more necessary; they 
 exhibit^ in a still more shocking point of view, the contrast 
 between the wrecks of ancient barbarism, and the institutions 
 of an enlightened age; but such as she is, England holds the 
 first rank among nations, by the union of liberty, knowledge, 
 and virtue; by her long enjoyment of those prerogatives; by 
 the progress in all three of them, that she has not ceased to 
 make; by the empire of opinion which becomes every day 
 more powerful in that country; by the spreading of national 
 education, which daily calls more and still more numerous 
 classes of people to know, and knowing, to understand, the 
 interests of their country; to have, in respect to those inter- 
 
27 
 
 ests, a will conformable to reason and virtue, and to manifest 
 that will. Not only England is more free than she was tive- 
 and-twenty years ago, butshe understands better what liberty 
 is, she is disposed to make a better use of it, and has become 
 enabled to acquire a greater degree of it. 
 
 The lesser states of Europe, — Sweden, which can only 
 consolidate her new government by an intimate union with 
 the people; Holland, which is endeavouring to make noble 
 and ancient recollections accord with recent experiments; 
 Switzerland, astonished at having slumbered five centuries 
 after the generous efforts she made to free herself from tyran- 
 ny, — are all likewise animated with a progressive impulse; 
 but, perhaps, it is not expedient for weak nations to display 
 too broadly the advantages which they have over the strong, 
 or to show too clearly by their exam.ple the intimate union of 
 liberty, knowledge, and virtue, and that the development of 
 the one, necessarily produces that of the two others. 
 
 The Colossus which sits heavy on Europe, is itself in a state 
 of progression — Russia sees increasing, with a prodigious ra- 
 pidity, not only the number of her inhabitants, but their 
 riches, their knowledge, their moral feelings, and even 
 their rights. In the state of barbarism and absolute ignorance 
 into which that country was plunged, it was not possible to 
 put her immediately in possession of the prerogatives of civil- 
 ized nations; it would have been dangerous to confer upon 
 them too precipitately the rights of citizenship; but that is the 
 reproach which all governments deserve the least:* neverthe- 
 less, instruction is rapidly spreading in Russia, and the go- 
 vernment favours it; the nobility, by their hopes, by their 
 reading, and by their travels, take part in the general course 
 of European improvement: the peasantry have been enlighten- 
 
 * The author might have excepted, the government of the United States, 
 
 Translator. 
 
28 
 
 ed in their turn, by a collision which they had little reason 
 to expect: as soldiers, they have overrun Europe, and have 
 beheld the advantages which the more civilized nations en- 
 joyed; returning home, they brought with them, as prisoners, 
 thousands of Frenchmen, Italians, and Germans, who made 
 the name of liberty resound in their ears; on the other hand, 
 the government, by a hazardous experiment, is forming in its 
 military colonies, a class of men who will have rights and 
 force to assist them: morality must follow the progress of 
 knowledge; in this respect, no doubt, the Russians are most 
 backward; but if a gradual enfranchisement of the people take 
 place, the moment will be at hand when the civil, military, 
 and judicial organization of Russia will cease to be the most 
 venal in the universe. 
 
 Notwithstanding her internal improvement, Russia has se- 
 veral times employed her strength and her influence in pro- 
 moting and hastening the retrograde movement among other 
 nations. She has been misled by a false policy, and other 
 powers more enlightened than she is, have not been free 
 from the same errors. Civilization may yet for some time 
 fear the armies of Russia, but the progress itself of her 
 strength must give reasonable hopes to the friends of humani- 
 ty; because she must be advancing at the same time in the 
 path of morality and liberty. The time is not far distant 
 when the Russians will become a truly European nation, and 
 when the caprice of a monarch will not be sufficient to employ 
 them in stifling all knowledge, liberty, and virtue. 
 
 And lastly, Greece is in Europe,— that glorious Greece, 
 which, groaning under the most degrading and cruel oppres- 
 sion, sought in the first place virtue, by the sacrifice of all 
 her interests to the preservation of the christian religion,— 
 knowledge, in an intercourse with the European nations, and 
 who will very soon be indebted to both for her liberhj, 
 Greece proves to u& chat the days of heroism are not at an 
 
29 
 
 end, and that the weakest nations, by a firm resolve, may be 
 the arbiters of their own fate. What can be the object of 
 those whose wishes are opposed to the success of the Greeks? 
 Do they wish to encourage apostacy? The Turks, it is true, 
 reward the apostate by granting to him a pardon for all the 
 crimes he has committed, by admitting him to a share of 
 honours and power. Do they wish that the sons and daugh- 
 ters of Greece should continue to be at the mercy of the 
 Turks, in order to satiate their infamous passions? Do they 
 wish that the only distinction allowed to the Greeks should 
 be that of the Fanariots,* power purchased by perfidy, exer- 
 cised by pillage, and soon to be lost by the fatal bow-string? 
 Do they wish that commerce, the only means of acquiring 
 property in Greece, should continue to be polluted by the 
 avarice and bad faith which they themselves charge the 
 Greeks with, and to which they have been reduced by the 
 excess of oppression? Do they wish that, every other road to 
 heroism being closed, no means should be left for the exercise 
 of their courage but in the character of klephts or robbers? Do 
 they wish that every distinction between right and wrong 
 should be obliterated in the hearts of the subjects, by the 
 venality which is known to be common to all the Turkish 
 judges? Is it the morality of Greece that they wish to pre- 
 serve, or is it her knowledge? they are the most ingenious 
 people upon earth; they are the nation to whose ancestors we 
 are indebted for all we know, and all we are; but since they 
 have been under trhe dominion of that government, which 
 they are now struggling to overturn, they have not added a 
 single discovery to the intellectual riches of mankind; they 
 have not. advanced one step in the most innocent sciences, in 
 
 * The more ancient and wealthy Greek famiUes, who inhabit a part of 
 Constantinople, called the Fanar, and from whom are selected the Hospo- 
 dars of Moldavia and Wallachia. — Translator. 
 
30 
 
 medicine, chemistry, natural history; they have no longer any 
 literature, academies or schools, and how could they do any 
 thing towards the general improvement of the human race? 
 They are driven beyond the bounds of civilization, they are 
 not permitted to approach the threshold of those sciences of 
 which every one of us is in possession. 
 
 But, perhaps, the Turks care little for virtue and intelli- 
 gence, the noblest prerogatives of our species, — and their 
 friends would prefer for them more substantial advantages, 
 such as peace and wealth. Is it, then, the peace of Greece 
 that they wish to preserve; of Greece, where the scymetar of 
 the mussulman alone governs; where a barbarous soldiery has 
 behaved during four centuries, and still behaves as in a town 
 taken by storm; w^here large cities are reduced to heaps of 
 ruins; where, during four hundred years, nothing has been 
 built, nothing repaired, nothing planted, nothing cultivated; 
 where the population does not reach the twentieth part of the 
 number of inhabitants that the soil might maintain; where 
 there is no possible industry for the cultivator of the land, 
 but the pasturing of sheep and goats in the wilderness? Sure- 
 ly we would have been afraid to calumniate the partisans of 
 the retrograde system, if we had before-hand supposed that 
 they took part with the Turks, and wished to assimilate to the 
 government of Turkey those whose defence they undertook. 
 Europe, in fact, is unanimous in her wishes for the deliverance 
 of the Greeks, although most of those who dispose of her forces 
 and her treasures refuse to apply them to that object. In two 
 countries of Europe, only, that which has the least and that 
 which enjoys the most liberty, some public journals have ex- 
 pressed an opinion in favour of the Turks. As to the A^is- 
 trian Observer, his conscience is not his own, and he must 
 not be held accountable for the opinions he expresses. In 
 England, on the other hand, precisely in consequence of the 
 liberty that exists there, degrading ieeiings and passions find 
 
31 
 
 suitable organs. Since there are men who will neither have 
 virtue, liberty or knowledge, there must also be journals, 
 suci> as the New Times, and sometimes the Courier, to ex- 
 press their sentiments. Thus, air-holes are made in mines 
 in order to give a free passage to mephitic exhalations. 
 
 But the progress of civilization is no longer confined to 
 Europe; the whole universe participates in it, and within this 
 quarter of a century, its development has been prodigious. 
 We have already shown* how seventy millions of East In- 
 dians have begun to receive from the English East India 
 Company the benefits of European cultivation. We will not 
 speak here of that colony of New South Wales, still in its 
 cradle, still contaminated by the impure elements of which 
 it is composed, but which, established in a temperate climate, 
 larger than Europe, aided by the vivifying power of England, 
 appears as if it should one day cover its whole surface, and 
 prove that from the refuse of the hulks may arise a free, en- 
 lightened, and virtuous nation. Neither shall we speak of 
 the colonies destined to spread civilization over the vast con- 
 tinent of Africa^ and which, from the Cape of Good Hope 
 and Siera Leone, will gradually carry knowledge and virtue 
 into the interior, in order to make amends for the long series 
 of European crimes, and for the fatal consequences of the 
 negro slave trade: their destiny is yet concealed under the veil 
 of futurity. 
 
 The career which has been run by the new Haytiaii Na- 
 tion at St. Domingo, is still a subject of greater triumph for 
 humanity. There the sons of Africa have proved that 
 they are men, that they deserve to be free, and that they 
 know how to appreciate knowledge and virtue. A frightful 
 crime of the Europeans transported the Africans into the is- 
 lands of America; a series of crimes maintained them there in 
 
 * Revue Encyclop^dique, torn. xxiv. p, 635. 
 
slavery, and made them ferocious; if they also committed 
 crimes when they burst their fetters, the whole responsibility 
 lies upon those who forged their chains. While slavery con- 
 tinued at St. Domingo, immorality and ignorance were in pro- 
 portion to the absolute privation of liberty. In the islands 
 where slavery still subsists, almost all the masters are openly 
 opposed to the marriage of their slaves, to their conversion 
 to the Christian Religion, and to the establishment of schools. 
 Smce Hayti has been free, and the blacks their ow- n masters, 
 their eagerness for instruction has even exceeded that which 
 they had before shown for liberty. One quarter of a century 
 has been sufficient to transform those who were considered as 
 cattle in the human shape into a civilized people, among whom 
 schools are opening on all sides, where thought makes a rapid 
 progress; where every year, in spite of the climate, an evident 
 improvement takes place in the morals of the people; where 
 crimes are rare; where justice is administered with promptness 
 and impartiality; where agriculture, industry and commerce 
 prosper; where riches accumulate with rapidity, and where the 
 population has increased two fold, even in the midst of the ter- 
 rible wars that have accomplished and followed the emanci- 
 pation. This is what negroes have been able to do in five 
 and twenty years; while in the Eastern part of Europe, an 
 all powerful government, repelling the knowledge of its neigh- 
 bours,. and disregarding its own experience, has detained, dur- 
 ing four centuries, one half of its provinces in slavery, pov- 
 erty and barbarism, because it is hostile to all improvements, 
 even to those from which it derives its strength and its 
 riches in the other half of the empire.* 
 
 The most gigantic step, however, that hunianity has made 
 
 * Could not the same observation be applied to the conduct of another 
 government in the West of Europe, towaixls a numerous and unfortunate 
 class of their subjects. — Translator, 
 
33 
 
 within the last year, is the emancipation of five great Airiei-i" 
 ean republics, Columbia, Buenos Jiyres, Chili, Peru, and 
 Mexico; each of them surpassing in extent the space which, 
 three centuries ago, was occupied by ancient civilization. 
 They have just burst into light, and already their power and 
 their riches place them on an equality with the greatest states. 
 
 In those vast regions, which, by an absurd policy, their gov- 
 ernment endeavoured to retain in ignorance, poverty and bar- 
 barism, in order to secure their obedience, every European, 
 even from a country in alliance with Spain, who landed with- 
 out permission, was declared guilty of a capital crime; every 
 vessel in distress, which, driven by adverse winds and storms, 
 sought an asylum in their harbours, was confiscated, and her 
 crew confined in dungeons for life. Now the ports of both Ame- 
 ricas, on an extent of four thousand leagues of coast, are open 
 to all nations: they are particularly frequented by the English 
 and the North Americans, whose funds give animation to 
 their industry, and who^ with all the products of the arts, 
 disseminate among them every sort of social and useful know- 
 ledge. Formerly, no American was entrusted with power, 
 offices were sold at Madrid to the highest bidder: now, every 
 career is opened, and employments are given to those who 
 make the greatest efforts and prove themselves to be best en- 
 titled to the confidence of their fellow citizens. Formerly, 
 no university, no public school, was allowed in those coun- 
 tries; no book was admitted without the approbation of the 
 inquisition, and not five years ago, in Chili, a father was ex- 
 communicated for having made his daughters learn the French 
 language: at present, every kind of study is encouraged, all 
 the presses are free; all the states, all the provinces, vie with 
 each other'in establishing new seminaries of education. For- 
 merly the culture of the vine and olive tree was prohibited, as 
 well as the production and fabrication of every thing that 
 might be imported from Spain: now every branch of indus- 
 
 E 
 
try and commerce is protected; and property increases in 
 value from year to year to an astonishing degree. Formerly, 
 bull fights, with refinements of cruelty unknown even in 
 Spain, were encouraged by the Ge'rffi'aps in all the large towns; 
 and in 1820, Lima then resounded with the wild shouts of joy 
 of men, women, and children, at the sight of the blood, the tor- 
 ments and the agonies of the bulls, the horses and the To- 
 readores, (bull fighters:) now, wherever the patriots have 
 triumphed, they have abolished those brutal spectacles. For* 
 merly, the slavery of the Indians and negroes accustomed 
 man to despise his fellow man, and to abuse the power 
 he bad over him: now, all the new republics have enacted 
 laws for the abolition of slavery. 
 
 No doubt there remains much yet to be done for those new 
 republics; but all could not be accomplished at once. It 
 would have been absurd and unjust to require of a new gov- 
 ernment, that it should reach the end almost at the moment 
 of departure. All that can be fairly expected, is, that it should 
 advance and be disposed to continue advancing; it ought not 
 to be blamed for proceeding slowly, if that slowness is com- 
 manded by prudence, and if there is danger of establishing 
 nothing by making too rapid innovations. 
 
 The new American states find no longer in their government 
 an obstacle to advancement in their noble career, but many 
 still in the people: the ignorance, intolerance and ferocity, with 
 which their ancient masters have impregnated and disgraced 
 their character, cannot be dissipated in a moment. We must 
 expect that the multitude will repel, for some time, many of 
 the benefits with which civilization would bless them; but we 
 must not be discouraged; the tree is planted in a fertile soil, 
 it will blossom and fructify in due time. 
 
 By showing how the retrograde system has been, through- 
 out the world, in hostile opposition to virtue, knowledge, and 
 liberty, we do not mean to assert that its supporters intended 
 
35 
 
 aill the mischief that they have done. Perhaps they werethem- 
 selves deceived in the same manner that they deceive others, 
 when they affirm that they are not inimical to the improve- 
 ment of the human race; that they even wish it to be encour- 
 aged, but not with too much haste: they will take time to do 
 good, and they would find even eternity too short. They ap- 
 prove of knowledge, provided it be confined to the first class 
 of society, thus depriving even that class of the benefit of emu- 
 lation, and denying reason to the common people. They pro- 
 fess great zeal for morality; but with such modifications that it 
 may serve the purposes of the rulers, and be binding only on 
 those who are governed.* Perhaps they have deceived their 
 own judgment; but the germs of reason which God has im- 
 planted in the minds of men are not always to be thus misdi- 
 rected. The Supreme Being indicates the road of improvement 
 as the way to happiness; he has given noble faculties to man, 
 and so united them that they must be developed or perish to- 
 gether; he has made man perfectible, that is to say, susceptible 
 of becoming better, but also of becoming worse; and leaving 
 men afterwards to re-act on each other, he has erected a whole- 
 some limit against tyranny, on which humanity rests its hope; 
 
 * " Speak to the people of their duties, never of their rights," said one 
 of Napoleon's ministers to the editor of a country newspaper. " Since you 
 are writing upon politics,'* said the same minister on another occasion, 
 " be very careful not to speak of the duties of the government to the peo- 
 ple, but insist strongly on the rights of the chief magistrate of the state and 
 his delegates, and on the obedience due from the subject." It was not thus 
 that Sully, Fenelon, Massillon, thought and spoke; those noble models of 
 counsellors, such as kings ought always to have in order to be great and just, 
 and make their people happy. They knew how to make the monarch and 
 his courtiers listen to the firm and severe language of truth. The power 
 that fears knowledge, and will only have servile and obedient machines, 
 wantsa/w/crwrn to bear upon, and will succumb in the end. 
 
 Note by M. Jullien. 
 
30 
 
 he has ordered, by an infallible decree, that evefy poVey 
 which degrades those that are subjected to it, must thereby 
 be weakened and ultimately fall. 
 
 J, C. L, DE SISMONDL 
 
 
 RD-181 
 
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