The Parliament
of Paris has quitted its functions, and the other tribunals threaten to
follow the example. Some people say, that Maupeou,[2] the Chancellor,
told the King that they were supported underhand by Choiseul, and must
submit if he were removed. The suggestion is specious at least, as the
object of their antipathy is the Duke d'Aiguillon. If the latter should
think a war a good diversion to their enterprises, I should not be
surprised if they went on, especially if a bankruptcy follows famine.
The new Minister and the Chancellor are in general execration. On the
latter's lately obtaining the _Cordon Bleu_,[3] this epigram appeared:--

Ce tyran de la France, qui cherche a mettre tout en feu,
Merite un cordon, mais ce n'est pas le cordon bleu.

[Footnote 1: Madame du Barri.--WALPOLE.]

[Footnote 2: Maupeou was the Chancellor who had just abolished the
Parliaments, the restoration of which in the next reign was perhaps one
of the causes which contributed to the Revolution.]

[Footnote 3: The _Cordon Bleu_ was the badge of the Order of St. Louis,
established by Louis XIV.; the _cordon not_ blue was the hangman's
rope.]

We shall see how Spain likes the fall of the author of the
"Family-compact."[1] There is an Empress[2] will not be pleased with
it, but it is not the Russian Empress; and much less the Turks, who are
as little obliged to that bold man's intrigues as the poor Corsicans.
How can one regret such a general _Boute-feu_?

[Footnote 1: Choiseul was the Minister when the "Family Compact" of 1761
was concluded between France and Spain. The Duc de Praslin, who shared
his fall, had been Secretary at War, and for some little time neither
his office nor that of Choiseul was filled up, but the work of their
departments was performed by Secretaries of State, the Duc d'Aiguillon,
in spite of the contempt in which he was deservedly held, being
eventually made Secretary for Foreign Affairs through the interest of
Mme. du Barri (Lacretelle, iv. 256).]

[Footnote 2: "_An Empress._" The Empress-Queen Maria Theresa, who
considered herself and her family under obligations to Choiseul for his
abandonment of the long-standing policy of enmity to the house of
Austria which had been the guiding principle of all French statesmen
since the time of Henry IV., and for the marriage of her favourite
daughter to the Dauphin.]

Perhaps our situation is not very stable neither. The world, who are
ignorant of Lord Wey