e France; but his opening lecture was interrupted by the clamors of the
students, and the course was never resumed. From 1857 to 1861 he held a
position in connection with the superintendence of the Ecole Normale. In
April, 1865, he was raised to the dignity of a Senator. No one, so far
as we know, in France,--no one out of France, so far as we know, but a
Saturday Reviewer,[E]--has ever been foolish enough to insinuate that he
had purchased his elevation by a sacrifice of principle. It seems to us
that the grounds on which such a man defends a system still on its
probation before the world are worth examining. He has stated them more
than once with his usual clearness and frankness. We extract some
passages, with only the slight verbal alterations indispensable for
condensation.

"Liberty! the name is so beautiful, so responsive to our noblest
aspirations, that we hesitate to analyze it. But politics are, after
all, not a mere matter of enthusiasm. I ask, therefore, of what liberty
we are disputing? The word conveys many different ideas. Have we to do
with an article of faith, some divine dogma not to be touched without
sacrilege? Modern liberty, which keeps altogether in view the security
of the individual, the free exercise of his faculties, is a very complex
thing. If under a bad government, though it be in form republican, I
cannot walk the streets with safety at night, then my liberty is
curtailed. On the other hand, every advantage, every improvement, which
science, civilization, a good police, or a watchful and philanthropic
government furnishes to the masses and to individuals, is a liberty
acquired, a liberty not the less practical, positive, and fruitful for
being unwritten, unestablished by any charter. These, I shall be told,
are 'little liberties.' I do not call them such. But we have a greater
and more essential one,--the right of the representatives of the nation
to discuss and vote on the budget; and this supposes others,--it brings
with it publicity, and the liberty of touching upon such questions in
the press. Here the difference of opinion is one of degree; some demand
an unqualified freedom of discussion, others stop at a point more or
less advanced.

"In human society, liberty, like everything else, is relative, and
dependent on a multitude of circumstances. A sober, orderly, laborious,
educated people can support a larger dose than one less richly gifted in
these respects. Liberty is, thank God!