mbassy the head quarters of the Jacobite party. It would be wise in
Tallard to say and to charge his agents to say, on all fit occasions,
and particularly in societies where members of Parliament might be
present, that the Most Christian King had never been an enemy of the
liberties of England. His Majesty had indeed hoped that it might be
in his power to restore his cousin, but not without the assent of
the nation. In the original draft of the instructions was a curious
paragraph which, on second thoughts, it was determined to omit. The
Ambassador was directed to take proper opportunities of cautioning the
English against a standing army, as the only thing which could really
be fatal to their laws and liberties. This passage was suppressed, no
doubt, because it occurred to Pomponne and Torcy that, with whatever
approbation the English might listen to such language when uttered by a
demagogue of their own race, they might be very differently affected by
hearing it from a French diplomatist, and might think that there could
not be a better reason for arming, than that Lewis and his emissaries
earnestly wished them to disarm.

Tallard was instructed to gain, if possible, some members of the House
of Commons. Every thing, he was told, was now subjected to the
scrutiny of that assembly; accounts of the public income, of the public
expenditure, of the army, of the navy, were regularly laid on the table;
and it would not be difficult to find persons who would supply the
French legation with copious information on all these subjects.

The question of the Spanish succession was to be mentioned to William at
a private audience. Tallard was fully informed of all that had passed in
the conferences which the French ministers had held with Portland; and
was furnished with all the arguments that the ingenuity of publicists
could devise in favour of the claim of the Dauphin.

The French embassy made as magnificent an appearance m England as the
English embassy had made in France. The mansion of the Duke of Ormond,
one of the finest houses in Saint James's Square, was taken for Tallard.
On the day of the public entry, all the streets from Tower Hill to Pall
Mall were crowded with gazers who admired the painting and gilding of
his Excellency's carriages, the surpassing beauty of his horses, and
the multitude of his running footmen, dressed in gorgeous liveries
of scarlet and gold lace. The Ambassador was graciously received at
Kensing