DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

solicitor; Diderot, the son of a cutler ; Rousseau, the son of a clockmaker; and d’Alembert, a found- ling—four men of genius who headed the new philo- sophical school. They exposed and attacked the economic and religious evils of the day, laid bare all the foul diseases of society, were hailed by the nobility as the apostles of a new political and philosophical doctrine, and thus assisted by them in becoming the founders and leaders of public opinion. Blinded by their love for literature and art, excited by a vague and utopian desire for reform and improvement, they failed to perceive the danger which underlay their patronage of these writings, which assumed the place and power now possessed by the Press. Disseminated among the masses, the writings of that school sowed the seeds of lawlessness, atheism, and anarchy. Possessing no rights, having no liberty, the people were compelled to pay all the taxes, to till the ground, and work the estates of their absent land- lords, with little remuneration, save kicks and abuse. They held barely one quarter of the land, and this they held by a tenure which resembled the English copy- hold, and was subjected to many vexatious duties ; the payment of a fowl or a pound of cheese, or the obligation of beating at night the marshes which sur- rounded the manors in order to keep the frogs quiet during the time the lord slept. a