ce. She would have felt
ashamed to receive praise or gratitude to which she was not entitled. She
rejected the proposal, insisting that the king's gift should be attributed
to himself alone, and expressing her intention to add to it by curtailing
her personal expenditure, by abridging her entertainments so long as the
distress should last, and by dedicating the sums usually appropriated to
pleasure and festivity to the relief of those whose very existence seemed
to depend on the aid which it was her duty and that of the king to
furnish. For there was this especial characteristic in Marie Antoinette's
charity, that it did not proceed solely from kindness of heart and
tenderness of disposition, though these were never wanting, but also from
a settled principle of duty, which, in her opinion, imposed upon
sovereigns, as a primary obligation, the task of watching over the welfare
of their subjects as persons intrusted by Providence to their care; and
such a feeling was obviously more to be depended upon as a constant motive
for action than the most vivid emotion of the moment, which, if easily
excited, is not unfrequently as easily overpowered by some fresh object.

Meanwhile events were gradually compelling her to take a more active part
in politics. Maurepas had been jealous of her influence, and, while that
old minister lived, Louis, who from his childhood had been accustomed to
see him in office, committed almost every thing to his guidance. But, as
he always required some one of stronger mind than himself to lean upon, as
soon as Maurepas was gone he turned to the queen. It was to her that he
now chiefly confided his anxieties and perplexities; from her that he
sought counsel and strength; and the ministers naturally came to regard
her as the real ruler of the State. Accordingly, we find from her
correspondence of this period that even such matters as the appointment of
the embassadors to foreign states were often referred to her decision; and
how greatly the habit of considering affairs of importance expanded her
capacity we may learn from the opinion which her brother, the emperor, who
was never disposed to flatter, or even to spare her, had evidently come to
entertain of her judgment. In one long letter, written in September of the
year 1783, he discussed with her the attitude which France had assumed
toward Austria ever since the dismissal of Choiseul; the willingness of
her ministers to listen to Prussian calumnies;