entatives. We have never accepted the gospel of
Jean Jacques Rousseau; Priestley and Price are almost the only names that
can be mentioned as disciples of Rousseau before the advent of Mr. H.
Belloc.

France, still following Rousseau, does not associate political sovereignty
with representation as England does. It never invests the doings of its
Cabinet with a sacred importance, and it readily transfers the reins of
government from Ministry to Ministry. France has submitted to the
sovereignty of an Emperor and to the rule of kings since the great
Revolution, and though its Republic is now forty years old, and at present
there are no signs of dictatorship on the horizon, the Government of the
Republic is never safe from a revolutionary rising of the sovereign people,
and only by the strength of its army has revolution been kept at bay. If
Louis XVI. had possessed the army of modern France he too might have kept
the revolution at bay. All this revolution and reaction, disbelief in the
authority of representative government, and lively conviction that
sovereignty is with the citizens, and must be asserted from time to
time--to the confusion of deputies and delegates--is Rousseau's work, the
reaping of the harvest sown by the "Social Contract." Let us sum up the
character of Rousseau's work, and then leave him and his doctrines for ever
behind us.

"Rousseau's scheme is that of a doctrinaire who is unconscious of the
infinite variety and complexity of life, and its apparent simplicity is
mainly due to his inability to realise and appreciate the difficulties of
his task. He evinced no insight into the political complications of his
time; and his total ignorance of affairs, together with his contempt for
civilised life, prevented him from framing a theory of any practical
utility. Indeed, the disastrous attempt of the Jacobins to apply his
principles proved how valueless and impracticable most of his doctrines
were. He never attempted to trace social and political evils to their
causes, in order to suggest suitable modifications of existing conditions.
He could not see how impossible it was to sweep away all institutions and
impose a wholly new social order irrespective of the natures, faculties,
and desires of those whom he wished to benefit; on the contrary, he
exaggerates the passivity and plasticity of men and circumstances, and
dreams that his model legislator, who apparently is to initiate the new
society, will be able