Some persons may perhaps be surprized at my comparing exile to
death; but there have been great men, both in ancient and modern
times, who have sunk under this punishment. We meet with more
persons brave against the scaffold, than against the loss of
country. In all codes of law, perpetual banishment is regarded as
one of the severest punishments; and the caprice of one man inflicts
in France, as an amusement, what conscientious judges only condemn
criminals to with regret. Private circumstances offered me an
asylum, and resources of fortune, in Switzerland, the country of my
parents; in those respects, I was less to be pitied than many
others, and yet I have suffered cruelly. I consider it, therefore,
to be doing a service to the world, to signalize the reasons, why no
sovereign should ever be allowed to possess the arbitrary power of
banishment. No deputy, no writer, will ever express his thoughts
freely, if he can be banished when his frankness has displeased; no
man will dare to speak with sincerity, if the happiness of his whole
family is to suffer for it. Women particularly, who are destined to
be the support and reward of enthusiasm, will endeavour to stifle
generous feelings in themselves, if they find that the result of
their expression will be, either to have themselves torn from the
objects of their affection, or their own existence sacrificed, by
accompanying them in their exile.
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