the day before, respecting his determination to carry the new ordinances into execution; immediately after which he dismissed the assembly.

The most probable conjecture that was made to account for a scene which seemed so devoid of meaning was, that on receiving the protest and letter, something had been resolved on by the court, which required to be directly announced to the parliament; and that after the members were summoned, the measure so suddenly adopted had been as suddenly renounced, and the king obliged to meet them before a plausible pretext had been thought of for calling them together.

Whatever may be in this, those magistrates met again the same evening, and in a new address to the king confirmed their former resolutions, and ordered the same to be printed and dispersed all over the kingdom. The following paragraph will give an idea of this second declaration.

• Nous declarons que nous persisterons jusqu'à notre dernier soupir dans les arrêtés précédement pris par ladite cour, et dans les principes y contenus.'

The king sent back to each of the six peers his letter with the following answer.

Mon Cousin, pour ne pas vous marquer trop de déplaisir de la lettre que vous m'avez écrite, je vous la renvoie. Je veux bien ne l'attribuer qu'à un premier mouvement, et je vous prie d'y reflechir sérieusement.'+

Whether it was the extreme moderation of this letter, or some other consideration, that produced the effect, is not known; but three of the peers withdrew their support of the parliament's protest immediately after they had received the king's answer.

* We declare that we will persist to our last breath in the protests already taken by the parliament, and in the principles they contain.

My Cousin, That I may not shew too much displeasure at the letter you have written to me, I send it back to you. I am willing to impute it to a hasty impulse, and I desire you will reconsider it with atten, tion.

In the meantime orders had been sent to Paris, for clapping the king's seal upon the bureaus containing the papers and archives belonging to the parliament, and for locking them and carrying away the keys. The other parliaments in the kingdom were also suspended from their functions, from holding any meetings, and from issuing any memorials or resolutions on public affairs.

The court of Chatelet, so far from being intimidated by, or showing obedience to these measures and orders, after a long sitting, published a declaration containing a protest in the strongest terms against them. This example was followed by other courts in the provinces. Strong symptoms of discontent were manifested all over the kingdom, which ended in insurrections in Brittany, Dauphiny, Languedoc, and other parts.

An hurricane of unexampled violence, which happen, ed on the 13th of July 1788, by its extensive devastation in various parts of France, occasioned much private misery, in addition to the public discontent which before existed.

The minister, now archbishop of Sens, being terrified from holding any longer a place which had produced to him so much inward anguish and outward odium, or remaining any longer in a country where the elements as well as the people seemed to declare against him, suddenly resigned, and set out with all possible expedition for Italy.

It is said that he earnestly advised the king to replace M. Necker in his former situation as minister of the fi nance, Whether this was true or not, it is certain that the archbishop's friends took great pains to spread the report, with a view to render him less obnoxious to the people; and it has even been asserted, that to this report the minister was indebted for effecting a safe retreat out of France; as the people were often disposed to stop and insult him-but desisted, upon being assured that it was by his advice that M. Necker was reappointed.

This fact will appear the more curious when it is re

collected, that in the year 1572 a king of France issued an order to massacre all the Protestants in his dominions, and the order was obeyed with alacrity by his Catholic subjects in the capital and in some of the provinces.

In 1593, the most accomplished of all their princes was obliged to abjure the Protestant religion, to render him. self acceptable to the French people.

In 1685, the edict of Nantes in favour of the Protestants of France was revoked, and prodigious numbers of the most industrious inhabitants were driven out of the kingdom by the despicable bigotry of their grand monarch and the furious zeal of the people.

Even so lately as the year 1762, the Protestant clergy were executed legally for the exercise of their profession. One of the name of Rochette was taken up: for that crime at Montauban, and carried to Toulouse, where he was condemned and executed. Three brothers of the name of Grenier, Protestants, of a noble family in Languedoc, having made some endeavours for the release of the mi nister Rochette, when he was first taken up, were apprehended, conveyed to Toulouse with him, and condemned to lose their heads; which sentence was put in execution.

But the spirit of bigotry and persecution which prevailed in the south of France, particularly at Toulouse, appeared in a still more shocking shape, in the cruelties exercised on the unfortunate Calas family, as they are particularized in the writings of Voltaire, and were proved before the parliament of Paris.

One example, among many, of the great and rapid alterations that have taken place in the public opinion within these few last years, is, that notwithstanding some of the instances above mentioned occurred in the year 1762, yet in the year 1788 a prime minister of France, the archbishop of that very Toulouse, found protection in travelling through France, and was skreened from the indignation of the people, through the influence and po

pularity of a man who was at once a stranger, a republican, and a heretic.

Any material alteration in the opinions and prejudices of a whole nation took much longer time in former ages to be brought about. Since material alterations in the public opinions may, for reasons which are so obvious that they need not be pointed out, be effected with infinitely more rapidity than heretofore, it is of more importance now than ever for all governments, particularly those of free countries, to be alert in attending to these alterations as they occur, that they may be able in time to preclude the mischiefs which arise from the current of public opinion bearing one way, and the measures of government another; for, to maintain tranquillity, one of two things must be done a minister must either adapt his measures to the public opinion; or, which is a much more difficult task, and requires very uncommon talents to accomplish, he must turn round the public opinion in favour of his measures—which task, difficult as it is, has sometimes been performed with infinite ability and address.

No minister of this stamp had appeared for a long time in France. The general sentiments of the nation had been flowing for several years in opposition to the nature of the existing government. Many ancient institutions, established by power, cemented by craft, and venerated by superstition, were now looked on as ridiculous, and complained of as oppressive. A few well-judged concessions and alterations, had they been made in time, might have proved satisfactory, and restored tranquillity. But old grievances remained unredressed, new sources of complaint were daily springing up, and such an accumulation of discontent had been formed as obscured the political hemisphere, and threatened an approaching storm.

The vessel of the state never was in a more shattered condition, never was assailed by more violent storms, and never had been intrusted to a pilot less qualified for steering her through the sand-banks and rocks among which she was involved,

The archbishop of Toulouse, although he might have foreseen all the dangers he had to encounter, before he took such pains to supersede M. de Calonne, seemed not to have dicovered them till after he was minister, and to have been deprived of all presence of mind as soon as they opened to his view. He adopted measures equally weak and inconsistent. First he assumes an air of courage, and tries to strike terror by the parade of a bed of justice, and by banishing the parliament. He then recalls the parliament, and seems disposed to court and conciliate the members; and immediately afterwards he quarrels with them again, seizes two of their number, and sends them to distant prisons. But on finding that those rigorous measures no way intimidated the people, who still continued to resist, he himself became intimidated, and suddenly quitted the helm. The archbishop seems in point of courage to have been such a minister as Ancient Pistol was a soldier -fierce and swaggering to a yielding foe, but ready to fly from a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any shew of resistance.

CHAPTER V.

Exhibition in the Street-M. Necker-Political Pamphlets--0pinions respecting the Number of Deputies of the Tiers-EtatSearch for Precedents-Second Assembly of the NotablesFrench Parliaments-The Notables give their Opinion-The States-General are constituted on a different Plan-The Minister's Motives for this.

THE hatred of the Parisians to their late minister, and their joy at his disgrace, appeared by certain exhibitions in the streets of Paris, which are characteristic of a French mob. Some of these scenes were of a ludicrous nature, and some faintly typify the wanton and atrocious transactions on the same theatre at subsequent periods.

A number of idle people, having dressed the stuffed fi. gure of a man in the robes of an archbishop, carried it