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are confounded; he who made the law has the law dictated to him; those who were wont to give sentence are themselves condemned; and in matters wherein the mind ought to tremble at the pernicious examples it has given to the world, it congratulates itself as having triumphed gloriously. But whenever institutions have been broken through, which it was universally supposed would only fall with the state itself, little else has been effected than to give the fullest force to the common idea that nothing can continue secure, and every thing must come to an end. The power, which one day thinks it has conquered, proves, by its fall the next, that there were those who could overthrow it in its turn.

The foregoing reflections present us with a true retrospect of the interior convulsions of France, ever since the rebellion of the Parliaments of Paris and Rouen, against the royal authority, in 1752 and 1756, to the abrogation of all the Parliaments of the kingdom, by the Chancellor Meaupou, in 1771.

The person who continued the work of the President Hénault, and who wrote under the immediate inspection of the censors of the press,

and, what is more, under the cognizance of the Parliament itself, endeavours to find palliating reasons for the conduct of that body during the seven years' war; and paints, in very strong colours, the unpropitious influence which such parliamentary insurrections had throughout the government; not only did they produce derangement of the finances, not only were they the cause of the lamentable issue of a war begun under the most auspicious circumstances, but, what is still more to be deplored, and what I shall express in the historian's own words, they introduced among the people a spirit of restless insubordination and discontent, and a general relaxation of the restraining ties of the social contract*.

The following is the whole passage:-After having successively remarked upon the bed of justice held by Louis XV. the 13th December, 1756, the system of discipline which this Prince himself brought into Parliament, the 180 presidents or judges throwing up their commissions immediately after, and disputing the right of the sovereign to receive them, the historian terminates his recital with this extraordinary conclusion: "If the step taken by the King surprised "the Parliament, that of the latter no less astonished the "King. This body did no more than conduct itself with "order and firmness, but the propositions of Paris were car"ried. Thus, while Europe wore a very threatening aspect, "these civil dissentions, uniting with foreign attack, rendered "the situation of France most critical, and clogged the wheels

1762.

After the melancholy peace of 1762, the mi- Peace of nisters who had the greatest influence in the council thought it necessary at any rate to conciliate the Parliament of Paris; but they were strangely mistaken as to the measures they thought proper to adopt to obtain that end. The regulation of the finances, and the destruction of the Jesuits were put into their hands; and the conduct of the commander in chief in India, and the delinquents in Canada were submitted to their decision. There was not one of these concessions that was not pregnant with ruin, as well to those by whom it was granted as to those by whom it was wrested, to indivi

"of government, while they introduced among the people a
"restless spirit of insubordination and discontent, tending at
"the same time greatly to derange the finances of the coun-
"try: and, relaxing the restraining ties of the social contract,
"carried their influence even as far as the military operations.
"In a vast empire, eɣents are linked together by those
"secret connections which escape the vulgar conception, and
"are only recognized by more comprehensive understand-
"ings; neither is it easy to calculate, how greatly intestine
"division, and public mistrust, contributed at that time to the
"unfortunate issue of a war, the commencement of which
had been so brilliant."

Chronological Abridgement of the History of France,
4th part, page 304.

duals and the public, to the monarch and the monarchy.

Laverdy. A Judge of considerable knowledge and modesty, of disinterested principles and estimable conduct, was taken from the bench of the Grand Chamber to be made a financier; in which capacity he displayed the very reverse of all these: he was permitted to form from among his late comagistrates, a chamber of finance, formed for the purpose of enforcing the execution of his proclamations. He thus procured all his edicts of supply to be registered in Parliament without any remonstrances, while the members succeeded in getting the reimbursement of their old contracts passed, and salaries were also attached to their new functions. But what the State gained by all this did not so clearly appear. This Administration individually or collectively, produced, first an order forbidding any person whatever to write, print, or publish, any remarks on the finances; secondly, an edict, called the Edict of Discharge, which was, however, nothing less than an augmentation, both of the debt and the impost; thirdly, a multitude of fiscal inventions, the very idea of which brought a blush into every honest man's cheek; fourthly, a dispute with

the province of Bretagne, as dangerous as it was disgraceful, in which the contempt of the various agreements, from time to time entered into, very much weakened the influence of all superior authority; fifthly, a confusion and perversion of measures on the important subject of the corn trade, which were so general and extensive that, in order to prevent insurrection, it was necessary to abolish this department of administration as speedily as possible, and to turn out the minister who was at the head of it. His successor was chosen, by the Duke de Choiseul, from that ticular description of magistrates which the boards of council appointed for the government of the provinces; and the individual administration of the provinces prepared for the general administration of the kingdom.

par

d'Invau.

The name of this person was D'Invau, a man Mainon in whom was combined integrity, moderation, and intelligence. After an office of finance, constituted like that which had been recently abolished, he foresaw the numerous obstacles that would arise from the opposition of particular persons, as well as from the difficulty in which affairs were involved; he looked narrowly into the condition of things, projected a plan of reform, established it by a decree, desired that

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