eople, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing;
and therefore being unacquainted with their faults, (which are as many
as those of the great, and much more decisive in their effects, when
accompanied with power,) kings generally regard them with tenderness and
favor, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects,
particularly when hurt by opposition from the higher orders. It was thus
that the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was
ruined. I have it from very sure information, (and it was, indeed,
obvious enough, from the measures which were taken previous to the
assembly of the States and afterwards,) that the king's counsellors had
filled him with a strong dislike to his nobility, his clergy, and the
corps of his magistracy. They represented to him, that he had tried them
all severally, in several ways, and found them all untractable: that he
had twice called an assembly (the Notables) composed of the first men of
the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had himself named
every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he
had not, in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a
compliance with his will than they had been separately; that there
remained for him, with the least prospect of advantage to his authority
in the States-General, which were to be composed of the same sorts of
men, but not chosen by him, only the _Tiers Etat_: in this alone he
could repose any hope of extricating himself from his difficulties, and
of settling him in a clear and permanent authority. They represented,
(these are the words of one of my informants,) "that the royal
authority, compressed with the weight of these aristocratic bodies, full
of ambition and of faction, when once unloaded, would rise of itself,
and occupy its natural place without disturbance or control"; that the
common people would protect, cherish, and support, instead of crushing
it. "The people" (it was said) "could entertain no objects of ambition";
they were out of the road of intrigue and cabal, and could possibly have
no other view than the support of the mild and parental authority by
which they were invested, for the first time collectively, with real
importance in the state, and protected in their peaceable and useful
employments.

[Sidenote: King of France.]

This unfortunate king (not without a large share of blame to himself)
was deluded to his ruin