TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
IN presenting the translation of this work
to the public, preceded by an Introduction in
which the author calls the attention of the
reader to the present social state of France,
I may perhaps be allowed to say a few words
on the inferences which are to be drawn from
the democratic institutions of America relative
to our own political condition. We live
at a time when so many of the maxims of
government are worn out, that in casting our
eyes upon the aphorisms of the great statesmen
of Europe, we are astonished to find that
the authority they attempted to defend is
vanished, and the principles by which they
defended it are no more. The book of ‘The
