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and murders-is permitted in great measure to Monsieur Dupont, in his work entitled "Voyage dans l'Amérique," draws attention to the fact that to sell a forbidden book was punished as a crime. offence a bookseller was banished from the place in which his business had been carried on, and was fined one hundred ducats, and he was forbidden to sell or deal in books of any kind for two years. Should he repeat his "crime," -so-called, he received a heavier punishment. As the fines were deposited in the coffers of the Inquisition there was a strong temptation on the part of the so-called "Holy Office" to find in books which they examined, heresy, immodesty, or disrespect to the government. If a person received a catalogue of books from abroad, he had to send it to the "Holy Office," which was not bound to restore it. Any man's house could be visited by the commissioners of the Inquisition, to search for prohibited books. Although in some lands even the poor man can feel that "his house is his castle," yet over an immense area in America commissioners of the so-called "Holy Office" could enter any house at any hour of the day or night, and search in every nook and corner to see whether there was a book which the wretched people had been forbidden to read. Monsieur Dupont points out that monks and the Romish clergy were allowed to read some of the books condemned by the "Holy Office," but not all. In 1790 the number of books which the people were forbidden to read, and which were placed upon the Spanish Index expurgatorius, numbered at least five thousand four hundred and twenty. The works of at least

* See Mr. Charles Lindsey's interesting work entitled “Rome in Canada. The Ultramontane Struggle for Supremacy over the Civil Authority." Sold by Lovell Brothers, Toronto, 1877, Mr. Lindsey quotes from Mr. Dupont's Travels.

that number of authors were on the forbidden list. If a person was merely punished by the public laws of the land-however cruel and tyrannical they were,-he yet escaped much if he was saved from being dragged to the dungeons of the Inquisition!

To a Mr. Coray, who wished to promote the cause of liberty in which the people of Greece were, under very interesting circumstances, engaged, Jefferson wrote a long letter of advice, under date of Oct. 31st, 1823. Alluding to what his correspondent had written respecting the people of Greece, he wrote: "You have certainly begun at the right end towards preparing them for the great object for which they are now contending, by improving their minds and qualifying them for self-government. For this they will owe you lasting honors. Nothing is more likely to forward this object than a study of the fine models of science left by their ancestors, to whom we also are all indebted for the lights which originally led ourselves out of Gothic darkness."

Among Jefferson's correspondents was Lafayette. There was much about Lafayette to make Jefferson love him. Believing that titles of nobility made improper distinctions among men who were created equal, this devoted friend of liberty relinquished the proud title of Marquis. When a young man, although possessed of a splendid fortune, he turned away from the luxurious courts of Europe to give his best efforts to the cause of liberty. Great was the sensation produced in Europe when it was known that Lafayette, a member of one of the most illustrious families of France, had enlisted in the cause of freedom. Congress made him a MajorGeneral, dating his commission from July 1st, 1777. He served on the staff of Washington, who "loved him as if he were his own son." He was at times given important

commands. It is not necessary to here dwell upon Lafayette's great services in the War of Independence and of the honors which he received from the American nation. Suffice it to say that when John Adams and Franklin were arranging terms of peace with Great Britain, Lafayette with twenty-four thousand troops and sixty vessels of the line, was at Cadiz, ready to sail for America, if peace should not be concluded. Partly through the influence of Lafayette, France gave to the American cause-if the estimate of Calonne, the French minister of finance is to be believed,-about twelve hundred millions of francs. It is but just to say, however, that Jefferson, in his Autobiography, declared that Calonne admitted that the United States ought not to be debited with more than forty-five millions of francs.

When a great man is spoken of, it is sometimes interesting to pause for a moment to contemplate his character. From Lafayette's correspondence, some opinion can be formed of his character. On Feb. 22d, 1786, writing to John Adams he said: "In the cause of my brethren, I feel myself warmly interested, and most decidedly side, so far as respects them, against the white part of mankind. Whatever be the complexion of the enslaved, it does not, in my opinion, alter the complexion of the crime which the enslaver commits; a crime much blacker than any African face. It is to me a matter of great anxiety and concern to find that this trade is sometimes perpetrated under the flag of liberty, our dear and noble stripes, to which virtue and glory have been constant standard bearers." On the 10th of May, 1786, Washington, who himself wished the abolition of slavery, wrote from Mount Vernon a letter to Lafayette, in which he said: "The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so con

* "Works of John Adams," vol. viii., p. 376.

spicuous upon all occasions, that I never wonder at any fresh proofs of it; but your late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit might diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country." *

When Jefferson left France he left Lafayette struggling in behalf of civil liberty. The friends of the cause of liberty in France met with such success that Washington in a letter to Madam Graham, dated Jan. 9th, 1790, said: "The renovation of the French constitution is indeed one of the most wonderful events in the history of mankind, and the agency of the Marquis de Lafayette in a high degree honorable to his character. My greatest fear has been, that the nation would not be sufficiently cool and moderate in making arrangements for the security of that liberty, of which it seems to be fully possessed."

To Washington, Lafayette wrote a letter under date of March 7th, 1791, in which he thus spoke: "Whatever expectations I had conceived of a speedy termination of our revolutionary troubles, I still am tossed about in the ocean of factions and commotions of every kind; for it is my fate to be attacked on each side with equal animosity; on the one by the aristocratic, slavish parliamentary, clerical, in a word, by all the enemies to my free and levelling doctrine, and on the other by the Orleans factions, anti-royal, licentious, and pillaging parties of every kind; so that my personal escape from amidst so many hostile bands, is rather dubious, although our great and good revolution is, thank Heaven, not only insured in France, but on the point of visiting other parts of the world, provided the restriction of public order is soon obtained in

* "Works of Washington," by Sparks, vol. x., p. 177.

this country, where the good people have been better taught how to overthrow despotism, than they can understand how to submit to laws." On March 15th, 1792, Lafayette wrote to Washington thus: "The danger for us lies in our state of anarchy, owing to the ignorance of the people, the number of non-proprietors, the jealousy of every governing measure, all which inconveniences are worked up by designing men, or aristocrats in disguise, but both extremely tend to defeat our ideas of public order. *** The Assembly is wild, uninformed, and too fond of popular applause. * * * The farmer finds his cares alleviated and will feel the more happy under our constitution, as the Assembly is going to give up its patronage of one set of priests. * * * Licentiousness, under the mask of patriotism, is our greatest evil, as it threatens property, tranquillity, and liberty itself.” *

The madness of the French at the period of which Lafayette wrote, the manner in which they overthrew their Constitution and beheaded Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette-whose lives Lafayette had once saved; the ease with which a Robespierre and a Napoleon ruled them; the terrible scenes which were enacted in Paris; the wars in which France engaged-wars in which Jefferson estimated that from eight to ten millions of lives were lostneed not here be dwelt upon. When the men known as Jacobins came into power Lafayette was obliged to give up his command in the army and to flee from France. While passing through Austria he was arrested and treated with cruelty worthy of a despotism. He was cast into a dungeon. In this dark Austrian place of confinement he was kept it is said nearly three years. The cell of the illustrious French patriot was three paces broad and five and a half long. Deprived of even a pen and ink he

*Sparks' "Life of Washington," vol. x., p. 502.

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