Paris 1 47 



of which there were no signs. They lay it down for a maxim 

 that they have a right to a great deal more than what the king 

 touched on, but that they will accept of nothing as the concession 

 of power: they will assume and secure all to themselves, as 

 matters of right. Many persons I talk with seem to think there 

 is nothing extraordinary in this, — but it appears that such pre- 

 tensions are equally dangerous and inadmissible, and lead directly 

 to a civil war, which would be the height of madness and folly, 

 when public liberty might certainly be secured without any 

 such extremity. If the commons are to assume everything as 

 their right, what power is there in the state, short of arms, to 

 prevent them from assuming what is not their right? They 

 instigate the people to the most extensive expectations, and if 

 they are not gratified, all must be confusion; and even the king 

 himself, easy and lethargic as he is, his indifference to power will, 

 by and by, be seriously alarmed, and then he will be ready to 

 listen to measures to which he will not at present give a moment's 

 attention. All this seems to point strongly to great confusion, 

 and even civil commotions; and to make it apparent that to 

 have accepted the king's offers, and made them the foundation 

 of future negotiation, would have been the wisest conduct, and 

 with that idea I shall leave Paris. 



2']th. The whole business now seems over, and the revolu- 

 tion complete. The king has been frightened by the mobs into 

 overturning his own act of the seance royale, by writing to the 

 presidents of the orders of the nobility and clergy, requiring 

 them to join the commons, — full in the teeth of what he had 

 ordained before. It was represented to him, that the want of 

 bread was so great in every part of the kingdom that there 

 was no extremity to which the people might not be driven: 

 that they were nearly starving, and consequently ready to listen 

 to any suggestions, and on the qui vive for all sorts of mischief: 

 that Paris and Versailles would inevitably be burnt; and in a 

 word, that all sorts of misery and confusion would follow his 

 adherence to the system announced in the seance royale. His 

 apprehensions got the better of the party who had for some 

 days guided him; and he was thus induced to take this step, 

 which is of such importance, that he will never more know 

 where to stop or what to refuse; or rather he will find that, in 

 the future arrangement of the kingdom, his situation will be very 

 nearly that of Charles I., a spectator, without power, of the 

 effective resolutions of a long parliament. The joy this step 

 occasioned was infinite: the assembly, uniting with the people. 



