hodical, formal, lawyer-like system, still less that of a showy,
superficial, trifling, intriguing court, guided by cabals of ladies, or
of men like ladies, least of all a philosophic, theoretic, disputatious
school of sophistry,--none of these ever will or ever can lay the
foundations of an order that can last. Whoever claims a right by birth
to govern there must find in his breast, or must conjure up in it, an
energy not to be expected, perhaps not always to be wished for, in
well-ordered states. The lawful prince must have, in everything but
crime, the character of an usurper. He is gone, if he imagines himself
the quiet possessor of a throne. He is to contend for it as much after
an apparent conquest as before. His task is, to win it: he must leave
posterity to enjoy and to adorn it. No velvet cushions for him. He is to
be always (I speak nearly to the letter) on horseback. This opinion is
the result of much patient thinking on the subject, which I conceive no
event is likely to alter.

A valuable friend of mine, who I hope will conduct these affairs, so far
as they fall to his share, with great ability, asked me what I thought
of acts of general indemnity and oblivion, as a means of settling
France, and reconciling it to monarchy. Before I venture upon any
opinion of my own in this matter, I totally disclaim the interference of
foreign powers in a business that properly belongs to the government
which we have declared legal. That government is likely to be the best
judge of what is to be done towards the security of that kingdom, which
it is their duty and their interest to provide for by such measures of
justice or of lenity as at the time they should find best. But if we
weaken it not only by arbitrary limitations of our own, but preserve
such persons in it as are disposed to disturb its future peace, as they
have its past, I do not know how a more direct declaration can be made
of a disposition to perpetual hostility against a government. The
persons saved from the justice of the native magistrate by foreign
authority will owe nothing to his clemency. He will, and must, look to
those to whom he is indebted for the power he has of dispensing it. A
Jacobin faction, constantly fostered with the nourishment of foreign
protection, will be kept alive.

This desire of securing the safety of the actors in the present scene is
owing to more laudable motives. Ministers have been made to consider the
brothers of the late