chapter XIX
THE TWILIGHT OF THE ANCJM REGIME
_F
RANCE still exists a little [La France existe encore m
peu] "^l wrote the Prince de Ligne in November 1789; so
far had the great kingdom sunk since the age of Louis XIV.
Mankind is completely at the mercy of its politicians,
arbiters of the destiny of poor mortals, as the Prince de Ligne
called them. Men have to live in one or another of the types
of association called states. The states have to take action and
enact policies; and these decisions can only be made by the
men in charge, the politicians. As a whole, this work has not
been very well done, though better at some times than at
others. The politicians^5 task is very difficult to perform. They
are not all first-rate men, and they are dealing with material
—-the population of their state-^that may be obstinate, pre-
judiced, and unenlightened. Nevertheless, it is by no means
always the fault of the people that their politicians make wrong
decisions. In the nature of things the politicians have fre-
quently to act on their own initiative, without consulting the
people; and it is truly amazing how often and over what long
periods the politicians act wrongly. They are necessary people,
and deserve gratitude for undertaking their heavy task. Grati-
tude, however, cannot deter the observer from concluding,
after a survey of the many avoidable tragedies in the long
history of mankind, that on the whole the politicians have
made a mess of things. They have failed to make consistent
use of the available knowledge and enlightenment.
The eighteenth century believed itself to be an age of scien-
tific government: the Age of Enlightened Despots. It was
indeed an age of reforms and of government by common sense,
^1 Prince de Ligne, M&noire$_t vol. i, p. 165. The following reference to
the Prince de Ligne is from Memaim, vol. i, p. 217.
3Q3