HOTES

MACKINTOSH, PAIIfE ET GODWIH

1. Vindicte Gallicœ. Defence of the Fivnch Révolution and ils Rngtfeh admirera, agaiost the accusations of the Rigbt Hoo. Bdnmnd Barfce. including some strict ures on the late production of Hons. de Calonne, by James Mackintosh, London, 1791.

2. The Hirjhts of Man ; being an answer to Mr. Burke's attack on the Frenrh Révolution, by Thomas Paine, secretary for fbreign afTairs to congress in the American war : première partie, 13 mars 1791 ; seconde partie, 7 fer. 1792.

3. An Enquiry œncerning Polilical Justice, and Us influence on gênerai virtue and happiness, 1793. La préface est datée du 7 janvier. — 2» éd.,

4. Heflertions, Works, vol. V, pp. 124-125. The nature of man rs intricate; the objects of society arc of the gréa test j»ossible complexity ; and therefore no simple disposition or direction of power ean be suitable either to uian's

nature», or to the quality of his affaire The simple governments are

fundamentally defeetive, to say no worse of theni. If you were tocontem plate society in but one point of view, ail those simple modes of polity are infinit<"lv captivating. In efTect each would answer its single end much more perfeetly than the more complex is able to attain ail its complex purposes. But it is better tliat the whole should be imperfectly and anomalously answered, than that, while some parts are provided for with great exaetness, others might l>e totally neglceted, or perhaps materially injured, by the over care of a fa\ourite member. — p. 81 : In jour old s ta tes you possessed that variety of parts eorresponding with the various descriptions of which your comrnunity was happily composed : you iiad ail that combinat ion, and ail that opposition of interests, you hud that action and counteraction which, in the nature and in the polit ical world, from the -reciprocal struggle of discordant ]>owers, draws out the' harmony of the universe. Thèse opposed and conilicting interests \> h ich you considered as so great a blemish in your old and in our présent constitution, interpose a salutary cheek to ail precipitate resolutions. They rentier délibération, a matter not of ehoiee, but of necessity ; they make ail change a subject of compromise. which naturally begets modération ; they produce tempéraments... — V. 304 : \Ye com]>ensate, \ve reconcile, \ve balance. We are cnablcd to unité into a consistent whole the various anomalies and contending prin-

(Pp. 55-58) NOTES. 315

ci pies tfaat arc fourni in the minds and affairs of m en. From hence anses, not an excellence in simplicity, but onc far superior, an excellence in composition.

5. Letters on a Régicide Peace, letter H, on tbe genius and character of the French Révolution as it regards other nations. Works, vol. VIII, p. 182.

— Cf. pp. 179, 181. — Cf. Vindicat. of Not. Soc, (vol. I, p. 37) : The simplest forra of government is dcspotism, where ail the inforior orbs of power are raoved merely by the will of the Suprême, and ail that are subjected to the m, directed in tbe same manner, merelv bv the occasional "will of the magistrate.