no matter of wonder with me. The friend of liberty is too feelingly manifested, not to give umbrage to its enemies. We read in it, and weep over, the fatal errors which have lost to nations the present hope of liberty, and to reason the fairest prospect of its final triumph over all imposture, civil and religious. The testimony of one who himself was an actor in the scenes he notes, and who knew the true mean between rational liberty and the frenzies of demagogy, is a tribute to truth of inestimable value. The perusal of this work has given me new views of the causes of failure in a revolution of which I was a witness in its early part, and then augured well of it. I had no means afterwards, of observing its progress but the public papers, and their information came through channels too hostile to claim confidence. An acquaintance with many of the principal characters, and with their fate, furnished me grounds for conjectures, some of which you have confirmed, and some corrected. Shall we ever see as free and faithful a tableau of subsequent acts of this deplorable tragedy? Is reason to be forever amused with the hochets of physical sciences, in which she is indulged merely to divert her from solid speculations on the rights of man, and wrongs of his oppressors? It is impossible. The day of deliverance will come, although I shall not live to see it. The art of printing secures us against the retrogradation of reason, and information. The examples of its safe and wholesome guidance in government, which will be exhibited through the widespread regions of the American continent, will obliterate in time, the impressions left by the abortive experiments of France. With my prayers for the hastening of that auspicious day, and for the due effect of the lessons of your work to those who ought to profit by them, accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect."

As might be supposed the condition of the people of Spain did not altogether escape Jefferson's notice. In that beautiful but benighted country but a very small proportion of the population could read and write. The Roman Catholic Church and the State were united. Only one who has studied the results in such a country as Spain can know what such a union means. While the people were miserably poor the wealth of the hierarchy was almost beyond computation. Wherever the eyes of a traveller turned they would be apt to see oppression and degradation.

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Writing to Lafayette on Nov. 4th, 1823, Jefferson said: Alliances, Holy or Hellish, may be formed, and retard the epoch of deliverance, may swell the rivers of blood which are yet to flow, but their own will close the scene, and leave to mankind the right of self-government. I trust that Spain will prove, that a nation cannot be conquered which determines not to be so, and that her success will be the turning of the tide of liberty, no more to be arrested by human efforts. Whether the state of society in Europe can bear a republican government, I doubted, you know, when with you, and I do now. *** But the only security of all, is a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted, when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary to keep the waters pure."

On Dec. 14th, 1813, Jefferson wrote a letter to Don Valentine de Torunda Corunna, in which alluding to the condition of Spain he said, “Give equal habits of energy to the bodies, and science to the minds of her citizens, and where could her superior be found?"

On April 28th, 1814, Jefferson wrote an encouraging letter to his friend Le Chevalier de Onis, the Spanish

Minister, in which he dwelt upon the Constitution which had been adopted by the Spanish patriots. After expressing a regret at the union of Church and State, for which it provided and an aristocratic feature of the instrument which an American ought not to approve, he continued: "But there is one provision which will immortalize its inventors. It is that which, after a certain epoch, disfranchises every citizen who cannot read and write. This is new, and is the fruitful germ of the improvement of everything good, and the correction of everything imperfect in the present constitution. This will give you an enlightened people, and an energetic public opinion which will control and enchain the aristocratic spirit of the government. On the whole I hail your country as now likely to resume and surpass its ancient splendor among nations."

Jefferson's hopes for Spain's well-being were disappointed. One of the first acts of Ferdinand VII, when the so-called Holy Alliance again put upon his head a crown was to decree, on May 4th, 1814, that the Cortez should be abolished and that its acts should be considered null and void, and that the Spanish Constitution should be publicly burned.

Among Jefferson's correspondents as has been seen was the learned diplomatist and brilliant writer on questions of political economy and agriculture-Monsieur Dupont de Nemours. In 1772 this distinguished Frenchman, who had received various titles and decorations from foreign princes, was invited to Poland by King Stanislas Augustus, and made secretary of the council of public education and governor of the king's nephew—Prince Adam Czatoryski. Dupont, two years later, was recalled to France by Turgot, the Comptroller General who wished his learned countryman's assistance in the man

agement of the finances of France. It is said that most of the principles upon which the French Treasury is conducted to this day were derived from the measures which Dupont attempted to carry out. He it was who negotiated with the English envoy, Dr. James Hutton, the treaty of 1782, which recognized the independence of the United States. In 1786 he also negotiated a highly important commercial treaty. For these services the French Government conferred upon him high distinctions. He took a very interesting part in the French Revolution. In 1789 he was a member from Nemours to the States General and later he was a member of the Constituent Assembly. Twice he was elected President of that body. He, however, being opposed to the extreme revolutionists came near being executed—his life being saved by the downfall of Robespierre. As an illustration of the sad condition of affairs in the Assembly it may here be stated that when the learned Dupont arose to show the evil of a proposed measure respecting the finances of France, he was mobbed on leaving the Chamber and his life was with difficulty saved. Although he declined honors offered him by Napoleon he was instrumental in bringing about the treaty of 1803 by which the vast territory of Louisiana was purchased by the United States. He wrote various papers on highly important scientific subjects for learned societies. In 1814 this distinguished man was Secretary of the provisional government of France and at the restoration he became Chancellor of the State.

About the time that Jefferson was President of the United States, Monsieur Dupont visited America. At Jefferson's especial request Dupont wrote and published a plan of national education for the United States. In the preface to his work he states that he had prepared

and published the work at the instance of, or to use his polite French expression, at the command of, Thomas Jefferson and in the closing lines of his volume he again alludes to Jefferson in a very complimentary manner and states that he had requested him to write the volume. This book is said to have exerted an important influence in France where its recommendations were partially adopted. Dupont enlarged with eloquence upon some of the principles which Jefferson had himself brought forward in the Assembly of Virginia in 1779. Dupont wished the President of the United States to add to his Cabinet a Secretary of Education, and had other plans which would be interesting to dwell upon. Some of the work which he probably would have had a Cabinet officer perform is, at the present day, accomplished by the admirable Bureau of Education in Washington, which was founded largely by efforts of General Garfield. Jefferson himself had a cherished plan for what may be called national education-a plan which it is proposed to unfold in another division of this volume-a plan which is designed to secure public education to all parts of even a continental republic.

In a letter to Dupont de Nemours, under date of April 24th, 1816, Jefferson wrote: "In the constitution of Spain, as proposed by the late Cortez, there was a principle entirely new to me, and not noticed in yours, that no person born after that day, should ever acquire the rights of citizenship until he could read and write. It is impossible sufficiently to estimate the wisdom of this provision. Of all those which have been thought of for securing fidelity in the administration of the government, constant reliance to the principles of the constitution, and progressive amendments with the progressive advances of the human mind, or changes in human affairs,