146 



Travels in France 



What a lesson to princes how they allow intriguing courtiers, 

 women, and fools to interfere, or assume the power that can be 

 lodged, with safety, only in the hands of ability and experience. 

 It is asserted expressly that these mobs have been excited and 

 instigated by the leaders of the commons, and some of them paid 

 by the Due d'Orleans. The distraction of the ministry is 

 extreme. — At night to the theatre Francoise ; the Earl of Essex 

 and the Maison de Moliere. 



26th. Every hour that passes seems to give the people fresh 

 spirit: the meetings at the Palais Royal are more numerous, 

 more violent, and more assured; and in the assembly of electors, 

 at Paris, for send ng a deputation to the National Assembly, the 

 language that was talked by all ranks of people was nothing less 

 than a revolution in the government and the establishment of a 

 free constitution: what they mean by a free constitution is 

 easily understood — a republic ; for the doctrine of the times runs 

 every day more and more to that point; yet they profess that 

 the kingdom ought to be a monarchy too; or, at least, that there 

 ought to be a king. In the streets one is stunned by the hawkers 

 of seditious pamphlets and descriptions of pretended events, that 

 all tend to keep the people equally ignorant and alarmed. The 

 supineness and even stupidity of the court is without example: 

 the moment demands the greatest decision, — and yesterday, 

 while it was actually a question, whether he should be a doge of 

 Venice or a king of France, the king went a hunting! The 

 spectacle the Palais Royal presented this night, till eleven o'clock 

 and, as we afterwards heard, almost till morning, is curious. 

 The crowd was prodigious, and fire-works of all sorts were played 

 off, and all the building was illuminated : these were said to be 

 rejoicings on account of the Due d'Orleans and the nobility join- 

 ing the commons; but united with the excessive freedom, and 

 even licentiousness of the orators, who harangue the people. 

 With the general movement which before was threatening, all 

 this bustle and noise, which will not leave them a moment tran- 

 quil, has a prodigious effect in preparing them for whatever 

 purposes the leaders of the commons shall have in view; con- 

 sequently they are grossly and diametrically opposite to the 

 interests of the court; — but all these are blind and infatuated. 

 It is now understood by everybody that the king's offers in the 

 seance royale are out of the question. The moment the commons 

 found a relaxation, even in the trifling point of assembling in the 

 great hall, they disregarded all the rest and considered the whole 

 as null, and not to be taken notice of unless enforced in a manner 



