[1] On which account, I am the more struck by the ignoble argument of
those statesmen who have contended in the House of Commons that such and
such classes of men in this nation are not accessible to any loftier
influences. Supposing that there were any truth in this assertion, which
is a libel not on this nation only, but on man in general,--surely it is
the duty of lawgivers not to perpetuate by their institutions the evil
which they find, but to presume and gradually to create a better spirit.
[2] Of which degradation, let it never be forgotten that France but thirty
years ago presented as shocking cases as any country, even where slavery
is tolerated. An eye-witness to the fact, who has since published it in
print, told me, that in France, before the revolution, he had repeatedly
seen a woman yoked with an ass to the plough; and the brutal ploughman
applying his whip indifferently to either. English people, to whom I have
occasionally mentioned this as an exponent of the hollow refinement of
manners in France, have uniformly exclaimed--'_That_ is more than I
can believe;' and have taken it for granted that I had my information from
some prejudiced Englishman. But who was my informer? A Frenchman, reader,
--M. Simond; and though now by adoption an American citizen, yet still
French in his heart and in all his prejudices.