However, they will soon recover themselves, and will tell his
Grace, or his learned council, that all such property belongs to the
_nation_,--and that it would be more wise for him, if he wishes to live
the natural term of a _citizen_, (that is, according to Condorcet's
calculation, six months on an average,) not to pass for an usurper upon
the national property. This is what the _serjeants_-at-law of the rights
of man will say to the puny _apprentices_ of the common law of England.
Is the genius of philosophy not yet known? You may as well think the
garden of the Tuileries was well protected with the cords of ribbon
insultingly stretched by the National Assembly to keep the sovereign
_canaille_ from intruding on the retirement of the poor King of the
French as that such flimsy cobwebs will stand between the savages of the
Revolution and their natural prey. Deep philosophers are no triflers;
brave _sans-culottes_ are no formalists. They will no more regard a
Marquis of Tavistock than an Abbot of Tavistock; the Lord of Woburn will
not be more respectable in their eyes than the Prior of Woburn; they
will make no difference between the superior of a Covent Garden of nuns
and of a Covent Garden of another description. They will not care a rush
whether his coat is long or short,--whether the color be purple, or blue
and buff. They will not trouble _their_ heads with what part of _his_
head his hair is out from; and they will look with equal respect on a
tonsure and a crop.
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