ts pay more than England, on a
computation of the wealth of both countries; that her taxes are more
injudiciously and more oppressively imposed; more vexatiously collected;
come in a smaller proportion to the royal coffers, and are less applied
by far to the public service. I am not one of those who choose to take
the author's word for this happy and flourishing condition of the French
finances, rather than attend to the changes, the violent pushes and the
despair of all her own financiers. Does he choose to be referred for the
easy and happy condition of the subject in France to the remonstrances
of their own parliaments, written with such an eloquence, feeling, and
energy, as I have not seen exceeded in any other writings? The author
may say, their complaints are exaggerated, and the effects of faction. I
answer, that they are the representations of numerous, grave, and most
respectable bodies of men, upon the affairs of their own country. But,
allowing that discontent and faction may pervert the judgment of such
venerable bodies in France, we have as good a right to suppose that the
same causes may full as probably have produced from a private, however
respectable person, that frightful, and, I trust I have shown,
groundless representation of our own affairs in England.

The author is so conscious of the dangerous effects of that
representation, that he thinks it necessary, and very necessary it is,
to guard against them. He assures us, "that he has not made that display
of the difficulties of his country, to expose her counsels to the
ridicule of other states, or to provoke a vanquished enemy to insult
her; nor to excite the people's rage against their governors, or sink
them into a despondency of the public welfare." I readily admit this
apology for his intentions. God forbid I should think any man capable of
entertaining so execrable and senseless a design. The true cause of his
drawing so shocking a picture is no more than this; and it ought rather
to claim our pity than excite our indignation; he finds himself out of
power; and this condition is intolerable to him. The same sun which
gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine
upon disappointed ambition. It is something that rays out of darkness,
and inspires nothing but gloom and melancholy. Men in this deplorable
state of mind find a comfort in spreading the contagion of their spleen.
They find an advantage too; for it is a general, pop