vil list to
the mass of consumers, the great inequality of which I speak would form
an exact equation with the whole nation. Of this no economist needs a
demonstration. Consequently, there would be no more fear of cliques,
courtiers, and appanages, since no new inequality could be established.
The king, as king, would have friends (unheard-of thing), but no family.
His relatives or kinsmen,--_agnats et cognats_,--if they were fools,
would be nothing to him; and in no case, with the exception of the heir
apparent, would they have, even in court, more privileges than others.
No more nepotism, no more favor, no more baseness. No one would go
to court save when duty required, or when called by an honorable
distinction; and as all conditions would be equal and all functions
equally honored, there would be no other emulation than that of merit
and virtue. I wish the king of the French could say without shame,
"My brother the gardener, my sister-in-law the milk-maid, my son the
prince-royal, and my son the blacksmith." His daughter might well be an
artist. That would be beautiful, sir; that would be royal; no one but a
buffoon could fail to understand it.

In this way, I have come to think that the forms of royalty may be
made to harmonize with the requirements of equality, and have given
a monarchical form to my republican spirit. I have seen that France
contains by no means as many democrats as is generally supposed, and
I have compromised with the monarchy. I do not say, however, that, if
France wanted a republic, I could not accommodate myself equally well,
and perhaps better. By nature, I hate all signs of distinction, crosses
of honor, gold lace, liveries, costumes, honorary titles, &c., and,
above all, parades. If I had my way, no general should be distinguished
from a soldier, nor a peer of France from a peasant. Why have I never
taken part in a review? for I am happy to say, sir, that I am a national
guard; I have nothing else in the world but that. Because the review is
always held at a place which I do not like, and because they have fools
for officers whom I am compelled to obey. You see,--and this is not the
best of my history,--that, in spite of my conservative opinions, my life
is a perpetual sacrifice to the republic.

Nevertheless, I doubt if such simplicity would be agreeable to French
vanity, to that inordinate love of distinction and flattery which makes
our nation the most frivolous in the world. M. Lamar