t they are deeply infected with the same distemper of dangerous,
because plausible, though trivial and shallow, speculation.

Ministers, turning their backs on the reputation which properly belongs
to them, aspire at the glory of being speculative writers. The duties of
these two situations are in general directly opposite to each other.
Speculators ought to be neutral. A minister cannot be so. He is to
support the interest of the public as connected with that of his master.
He is his master's trustee, advocate, attorney, and steward,--and he is
not to indulge in any speculation which contradicts that character, or
even detracts from its efficacy. Necker had an extreme thirst for this
sort of glory; so had others; and this pursuit of a misplaced and
misunderstood reputation was one of the causes of the ruin of these
ministers, and of their unhappy, master. The Prussian ministers in
foreign courts have (at least not long since) talked the most democratic
language with regard to Prance, and in the most unmanaged terms.

[Sidenote: Corps diplomatique.]

The whole _corps diplomatique_, with very few exceptions, leans that
way. What cause produces in them a turn of mind which at first one would
think unnatural to their situation it is not impossible to explain. The
discussion would, however, be somewhat long and somewhat invidious. The
fact itself is indisputable, however they may disguise it to their
several courts. This disposition is gone to so very great a length in
that corps, in itself so important, and so important as _furnishing_ the
intelligence which sways all cabinets, that, if princes and states do
not very speedily attend with a vigorous control to that source of
direction and information, very serious evils are likely to befall them.

[Sidenote: Sovereigns--their dispositions.]

But, indeed, kings are to guard against the same sort of dispositions in
themselves. They are very easily alienated from all the higher orders of
their subjects, whether civil or military, laic or ecclesiastical. It is
with persons of condition that sovereigns chiefly come into contact. It
is from them that they generally experience opposition to their will. It
is with _their_ pride and impracticability that princes are most hurt.
It is with _their_ servility and baseness that they are most commonly
disgusted. It is from their humors and cabals that they find their
affairs most frequently troubled and distracted. But of the common
p