 There are two other references to women in the Second Letter. In a discussion of what could be termed military and foreign affairs, Condorcet compares the unjust treatment of women to the position of subject populations within republics: in such circumstances, “they cannot speak of freedom as a right” (McLean and Hewitt 1994, 312). In another passage, Condorcet sums up and defends himself against the charge of triviality concerning the arguments he has made on behalf of women’s rights: “This examination may seem very long”, he writes, “but we are discussing the rights of half of the human race which have been neglected by all legislators. Besides, it cannot harm men’s freedom to show how to overcome the only possible objection against republics, and to mark out a real difference between them and States which are not free”. But tellingly, men are not the only audience Condorcet fears may deride his arguments: he worries about women’s reactions, since they have been led astray by none other than Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s enticements to remain in the domestic sphere (McLean and Hewitt 1994, 299).