Paris 143 



and given them the idea of such total changes, that nothing the 

 king or court could do would now satisfy them; consequently 

 it would be idleness itself to make concessions that are not steadily 

 adhered to, not only to be observed by the king, but to be 

 enforced on the people, and good order at the same time restored. 

 But the stumbling-block to this and every plan that can be 

 devised, as the people know and declare in every corner, is the 

 situation of the finances, which cannot possibly be restored but 

 by liberal grants of the states on one hand, or by a bankruptcy 

 on the other. It is well known that this point has been warmly 

 debated in the council : Monsieur Necker has proved to them 

 that a barikruptcy is inevitable if they break with the states 

 before the finances are restored; and the dread and terror of 

 taking such a step, which no m nister would at present dare to 

 venture on, has been the great difficulty that opposed itself to 

 the projects of the queen and the Count d'Artois. The measure 

 they have ta ;en is a middle one, from which they hope to gain a 

 party among the people and render the deputies unpopular 

 enough to get rid of them : an expectation, however, in which they 

 will infallibly be mistaken. If on the side of the people it is 

 urged that the vices of the old government make a new system 

 necessary, and that it can only be by the firmest measures that 

 the people can be put in possession of the blessings of a free 

 government, it is to be replied, on the other hand, that the 

 personal character of the king is a just foundation for relying 

 that no measures of actual violence can be seriously feared : 

 that the state of the finances under any possible regimen, 

 whether of faith or bankruptcy, must secure their existence, at 

 least for time sufficient to secure by negotiation what may be 

 hazarded by violence: that by driving things to extremities, 

 they risk a union between all the other orders of the state, with 

 the parliaments, army, and a great body even of the people, who 

 must disapprove of all extremities; and when to this is added the 

 possibility of involving the kingdom in a civil war, now so 

 familiarly talked of that it is upon the lips of all the world, we 

 must confess that the commons, if they steadily refuse what is 

 now held out to them, put immense and certain benefits to the 

 chance of fortune, to that hazard which may make posterity 

 curse, instead of bless, their memories as real patriots, who had 

 nothing in view but the happiness of their country. Such an 

 incessant buzz of politics has been in my ears for some days past 

 that I went to-night to the Italian opera for relaxation. Nothing 

 could be better calculated for that effect than the piece per- 



