Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet, known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, political economist, politician, and mathematician. His ideas, including support for free markets, public education, constitutional government, and equal rights for women and people of all races, and a welfare state have been said to embody the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment, of which he has been called the "last witness", and Enlightenment rationalism. As he was a critic of the constitution proposed by Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles in 1793, the Convention Nationale - and the Jacobin faction in particular - voted to have Condorcet arrested. He died in prison after a period of hiding from the French Revolutionary authorities.
London, March 20. 1774. Sir, I am ashamed that my late continued Embarras in public Affairs, should have so long prevented my answering the Letter you honoured me with, of…