CONCLUDING REMARKS. In the earlier portion of this work I spoke of the character of the French; and so in later passages I have been able to note various instances in which that character is still displayed. The character of a people is, no doubt, ever visible. But if the dispositions of society depend, in somewise, upon causes which are hereditary and undestructive, the organization of society depends upon a cause which the legislature can change and has changed in an extraordinary degree in France; whatever relates to the propensities of that nation remains the same as formerly; whatever relates to its rights is altered. But to make a general alteration in the rights of a people, you must make a general alteration in the condition of a people. It is not sufficient to legislate at the surface of society, you must strike at its root. In short, in order to affect the general distribution of rights, you must affect the general distribution of property. In all the subjects of which I have just been treating, we trace the effects of this causewhich, widening the public arena, making lite rature more popular, religion less monarchical, has breathed into philosophical speculation a spirit of fraternity and association natural to arise in a land, the proprietors of which possess little and possess alike. |