thus tempted by this proof of American strength, his wavering
mind was irritated by the apprehension of some sudden outbreak of
English arrogance; for the Ambassador wrote that Whigs and Tories might
yet unite in a war against France in order to put an end to the troubles
in the Colonies,--and no Frenchman had forgotten that England began the
War of 1755 by an open violation of international law, by seizing three
hundred French merchant ships and casting into prison ten thousand
French sailors before the declaration of hostilities. Thus events
prepared the way for American diplomacy, and, more powerful than the
prudence of Vergennes or the pacific longings of Louis XVI., compelled
them to decide and act, when they would still gladly have discussed and
waited.

And, moreover, a new element had been introduced into the councils of
statesmen,--or rather, an element hitherto circumscribed and resisted
had begun to act with irresistible force. Public opinion, speaking
through the press by eloquent pens, through coffee-houses and saloons by
eloquent voices, called loudly for action in the name of humanity and in
the still more exciting name of French honor. Little as most Frenchmen
knew about America, they knew enough about England to believe that in
her disputes with other nations she was apt to be in the wrong,--and if
with other nations, why not with her own colonies? The longing for
revenge, which ever since the Treaty of Paris filled some corner of
every French heart, grew stronger at the near approach of so abundant a
harvest; nor did it lose any of its sweetness from the reflection that
their enemy himself was doing what they never could have done alone to
prepare it for them.

But humanity, too, was a powerful word. Men could not read Rousseau
without being led to think more earnestly, if not always more
profoundly, upon the laws of social organization. They could not read
Voltaire without a clearer perception of abuses and a more vigorous
contempt for the systems which had put the many into the hands of the
few to be butchered or butchers at their will. They could not read
Montesquieu without feeling that there was a future in store for them
for which the long past had been patiently laboring, and longing, as
they read, to hasten its coming. In that future, mankind were to rise
higher than they had ever risen before; rulers and ruled were to act in
fruitful harmony for their common good; the brightest virtues of Gre