tael admits
of her father that he was "se fiant trop, il faut l'avouer, a l'empire de
la raison," and adds that he "etudia constamment l'esprit public, comme la
boussole a laquelle les decisions du roi devaient se conformer."--
_Considerations sur la Revolution Francaise_, i., pp. 171, 172.

[8] Her exact words are "si ... il fasse reculer l'autorite du roi" (if he
causes the king's authority to retreat before the populace or the
Parliament).

[9] "Histoire de Marie Antoinette," par M. Montjoye, p. 202.

[10] Madame de Campan, p. 412.

[11] This edict was registered in the "Chambre Syndicate," September 13th,
1787.--_La Reine Marie Antoinette et la Rev. Francaise, Recherches
Historiques_, par le Comte de Bel-Castel, p. 246.

[12] There is at the present moment so strong a pretension set up in many
constituencies to dictate to the members whom they send to Parliament as
if they were delegates, and not representatives, that it is worth while to
refer to the opinion which the greatest of philosophical statesman, Edmund
Burke, expressed on the subject a hundred years ago, in opposition to that
at a rival candidate who admitted and supported the claim of constituents
to furnish the member whom they returned to Parliament with "instructions"
of "coercive authority." He tells the citizens of Bristol plainly that
such a claim he ought not to admit, and never will. The "opinion" of
constituents is "a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative
ought always to rejoice to hear, and which he ought most seriously to
consider; but _authoritative instruction_, mandates issued which the
member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for,
though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and his
conscience; these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and
which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our
constitution. Parliament is not a _congress_ of embassadors from different
and hostile interests...but Parliament is a _deliberative_ assembly of
_one_ nation, with _one_ interest, that of the whole, where not local
purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good
resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member
indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he
is a member of Parliament."--_General Election Speech at the Conclusion of
the Poll at Bristol_, November 3d, 1774, Burke's Works,