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AUTOBIOGRAPHY-Part17_THOMAS JEFFERSON(1743-1826)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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the pages of modern history. I have ever believed that had there

been no queen, there would have been no revolution. No force would



have been provoked nor exercised. The king would have gone hand in

hand with the wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by the



increased lights of the age, wished only, with the same pace, to

advance the principles of their social institution. The deed which



closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall neither approve

nor condemn. I am not prepared to say that the first magistrate of a



nation cannot committreason against his country, or is unamenable to

it's punishment: nor yet that where there is no written law, no



regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in

our hands, given for righteousemployment in maintaining right, and



redressing wrong. Of those who judged the king, many thought him

wilfully criminal, many that his existence would keep the nation in



perpetual conflict with the horde of kings, who would war against a

regeneration which might come home to themselves, and that it were



better that one should die than all. I should not have voted with

this portion of the legislature. I should have shut up the Queen in



a Convent, putting harm out of her power, and placed the king in his

station, investing him with limited powers, which I verily believe he



would have honestly exercised, according to the measure of his

understanding. In this way no void would have been created, courting



the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor occasion given for those

enormities which demoralized the nations of the world, and destroyed,



and is yet to destroy millions and millions of it's inhabitants.

There are three epochs in history signalized by the total extinction



of national morality. The first was of the successors of Alexander,

not omitting himself. The next the successors of the first Caesar,



the third our own age. This was begun by the partition of Poland,

followed by that of the treaty of Pilnitz; next the conflagration of



Copenhagen; then the enormities of Bonaparte partitioning the earth

at his will, and devastating it with fire and sword; now the



conspiracy of kings, the successors of Bonaparte, blasphemously

calling themselves the Holy Alliance, and treading in the footsteps



of their incarcerated leader, not yet indeed usurping the government

of other nations avowedly and in detail, but controuling by their



armies the forms in which they will permit them to be governed; and

reserving in petto the order and extent of the usurpations further



meditated. But I will return from a digression, anticipated too in

time, into which I have been led by reflection on the criminal



passions which refused to the world a favorable occasion of saving it

from the afflictions it has since suffered.



M. Necker had reached Basle before he was overtaken by the

letter of the king, inviting him back to resume the office he had



recently left. He returned immediately, and all the other ministers

having resigned, a new administration was named, to wit St. Priest &



Montmorin were restored; the Archbishop of Bordeaux was appointed

Garde des sceaux; La Tour du Pin Minister of War; La Luzerne Minister



of Marine. This last was believed to have been effected by the

friendship of Montmorin; for altho' differing in politics, they



continued firm in friendship, & Luzerne, altho' not an able man was

thought an honest one. And the Prince of Bauvau was taken into the



Council.

Seven princes of the blood royal, six ex-ministers, and many of



the high Noblesse having fled, and the present ministers, except

Luzerne, being all of the popular party, all the functionaries of



government moved for the present in perfect harmony.

In the evening of Aug. 4. and on the motion of the Viscount de



Noailles brother in law of La Fayette, the assembly abolished all

titles of rank, all the abusive privileges of feudalism, the tythes



and casuals of the clergy, all provincial privileges, and, in fine,

the Feudal regimen generally. To the suppression of tythes the Abbe



Sieyes was vehemently opposed; but his learned and logical arguments

were unheeded, and his estimation lessened by a contrast of his






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