XVII. 1776. brought against this nobleman, and prohibiting BOOK any farther proceedings against him. The parliament of Paris, on re-assembling, issued an arrêt, by which the duke was forbidden to take his seat in parliament, or to exercise any of the functions of the peerage, till a legal acquittal had taken place. This arrêt was annulled by a decree of the king in council, declaring it to be an infringement of the royal authority. The parliament notwithstanding, by a solemn act, confirmed their former resolution; and strong representations were made to the king by the different chambers, particularly by that of the peers and princes of the blood, against his proceedings, as subversive of all law, justice, and equity. The provincial parliaments also passed arrêts in approbation and confirmation of that of Paris, and the duchy of Aiguillon was sequestered till the trial of the duke should be legally terminated. At length the king in person, attended by his guards, entered without any previous notice the parliament house, and, after reproaching the members in the severest terms, ordered all the judicial acts against the duc d'Aiguillon to be erased from their registers; and, in menacing language, prohibited all revival of the proceedings against him. The parliament nevertheless, unintimidated, issued at their next meeting another arrêt, in which they declare, that the many acts of arbi BOOK trary power exercised both against the spirit and XVII. letter of the constitution of the French monarchy, 1776. and the solemn oath of the king, leave no room to doubt of a premeditated design to change the form of government. The dispute continued with increasing violence to the following year. The king having caused by force an edict to be enregistered, by which the indispensable obligation of the sovereign courts of justice to enregister the royal edicts, even in opposition to their own sentiments and remonstrances, were explicitly declared, the parliament entered a solemn protest against the same, as contrary to the laws they had sworn to defend, and resolved upon a total suspension of the functions of the courts. The mandate of the king to revoke this decree being peremptorily rejected, the members of the parliament were, in the night of the 19th of January 1771, severally arrested by virtue of lettres de cachet, and a new tribunal was erected in the room of the exiled parliament, composed of men entirely devoted to the court. Scarcely had they entered into office when they were formally pronounced, by an arrêt of the parliament of Rouen, to be intruders, usurpers, and enemies to the state. The court, irritated and enraged, had determined on the most violent measures; but the duc de Harcourt, governor of Normandy, refused to take the command of the troops ap XVII. 1776. pointed for this service. The other provincial BOOK parliaments, adopting a similar line of conduct, were in the course of the year suppressed and banished; and new parliaments, wholly dependent on the court, substituted in their room at Besançon, Bourdeaux, Aix, Toulouse, and Rennes. To show the utter contempt of the court for the public opinion, the duc de Choiseul, who had indicated a disposition in some degree favorable to the rising spirit of liberty, was dismissed with unusual marks of resentment and disgrace, and the duc d'Aiguillon succeeded him in the office of first minister. The agitation of the nation at these proceedings cannot be expressed. The monarch became the object of universal reproach and execration; and not the monarch merely, but the monarchy itself—that form of government to which the French nation had been for ages so zealously attached-sunk most sensibly in the public estimation. The tide of opinion began to flow in an opposite direction, and a republican party was visibly forming, which, however small in its beginnings, might well be regarded, under that corrupt and depraved government, as truly dangerous and formidable. Scarcely were the appearances of decorum preserved on the death of the king; and the appellation of Louis le desiré, una BOOK nimously given to his successor, was the bitterest satire on his memory*. XVIL 1776. The young monarch, desirous of recommending himself to the favor of his subjects, began his reign with the dismission of the duc d'Aiguillon, and his detestable co-adjutors, the chancellor Maupcou, and the comptroller-general l'abbé Terrai, which was regarded as the certain prelude of the restoration of the antient parliaments; and on the 12th November, 1774, the recall of the parliament of Paris took place amid the unbounded acclamations of the people. The language of the monarch on this memorable occasion was nevertheless very high and haughty. In his speech on holding the bed of justice, he declared to the parliament, "that he was determined to preserve his authority in all its plenitude, and that he expected they would give to his subjects an example of submission." He told them, "that the king his grandfather was compelled, by their resistance to his repeated commands, to adopt such measures as his wisdom. "The king died at Choisy, May 10, 1774. In 48 hours afterwards his corpse was conveyed to St. Dennis; the public houses upon the road were filled with drunkards singing for joy. He was interred without pomp or ceremony, and the surname of Louis le desiré unanimously given to his successor, clearly evinced how generally he had incurred the contempt and indignation of the people." XVII. 1776. suggested; and that as he had thought proper to BOOK recall them to the exercise of those functions which they ought never to have quitted, he desired them to learn to prize his favors, and never to lose the remembrance of their extent." A royal ordonnance was then read, containing the various limitations by which the monarch thought proper to restrain the authority of this assembly -one very important article of which peremptorily required the parliament to enregister the royal edicts in one month at farthest after the day of their publication, unless the king should graciously permit the repetition of their remonstrances; and his majesty concluded with a promise of "his royal protection and countenance' so long as they exactly conformed to what he had prescribed, and they did not attempt to enlarge the bounds of the power which was granted to them." It very soon appeared, after the accession of the new monarch, though himself of a disposition pacific and unambitious, and extremely limited in his capacity, how little dependence was to be placed on the amity and good faith of France. A powerful party immediately arose at the court, of which the QUEEN, a woman of high spirit, busy, bold, and blind to consequences, was considered as the head. Dissolute in her manners, unprincipled in her morals, faithless in her promises, this princess wanted only the talents |