ar intervals. Upon the ordinary policy of government,
this, the only representative body, exercised no permanent control. If,
in its occasional sessions, the deputies of the _Tiers Etat_ exhibited a
disposition to intermeddle in those political concerns which the crown
claimed as its exclusive prerogative, the king and his advisers found in
their audacity an additional motive for postponing as long as possible a
resort to an expedient so disagreeable as the assembling of the States
General. Already had monarchs begun to look with suspicion upon the
growing intelligence of untitled subjects, who might sooner or later
come to demand a share in the public administration.

[Sidenote: And rarely convoked.]

[Sidenote: A long break in the history of representative government.]

[Sidenote: Compensating advantages.]

It was, therefore, only when the succession to the throne was contested,
or when the perils attending the minority of the prince demanded the
popular sanction of the choice of a regent, or when the flames of civil
war seemed about to burst forth and involve the whole country in one
general conflagration, that the royal consent could be obtained for
convening the States General. During the first half of the sixteenth
century the States General were not once summoned, unless the
designation of States be accorded to one or two convocations partaking
rather of the character of "Assemblies of Notables," and intended merely
to assist in extricating the monarch from temporary embarrassment.[20]
The repeated wars of Louis the Twelfth, of Francis the First, and of
Henry the Second were waged without any reference of the questions of
their expediency and of the mode of conducting them to the tribunal of
popular opinion. Thousands of brave Frenchmen found bloody graves beyond
the Alps; Francis the First fell into the hands of his enemies, and
after a weary captivity with difficulty regained his freedom; a new
faith arose in France, threatening to subvert existing ecclesiastical
institutions; yet in the midst of all this bloodshed, confusion and
perplexity the people were left unconsulted.[21] From the accession of
Charles the Eighth, in 1483, to that of Charles the Ninth, in 1560, the
history of representative government in France is almost a complete
blank. So long was the period during which the States General were
suspended, that, when at length it was deemed advisable to convene them
again, the chancellor, in his openi