at once, and with
as few concomitant complaints, as usually attend the first developement
of that disorder. I suppose a regency will be established, and if it
consists of a plurality of members, it will, probably, be peaceable. In
this event, it will much favor the present wishes of this country,
which are so decidedly for peace, that they refused to enter into the
mediation between Sweden and Russia, lest it should commit them. As soon
as the convocation of the States General was announced, a tranquillity
took place through the whole kingdom: happily, no open rupture had
taken place, in any part of it. The parliament were re-instated in their
functions, at the same time. This was all they desired; and they had
called for the States General, only through fear that the crown could
not otherwise be forced to re-instate them. Their end obtained, they
began to foresee danger to themselves, in the States General. They began
to lay the foundation for caviling at the legality of that body, if its
measures should be hostile to them. The court, to clear itself of the
dispute, convened the _Notables_, who had acted with general approbation
on the former occasion, and referred to them the forms of calling and
organizing the States General. These _Notables_ consist principally
of Nobility and Clergy; the few of the _Tiers Etat_ among them, being
either parliament men, or other privileged persons. The court wished,
that, in the future States General, the members of the _Tiers Etat_
should equal those of both the other orders, and that they should form
but one House, all together, and vote by persons, not by orders. But the
_Notables_, in the true spirit of Priests and Nobles, combining together
against the people, have voted, by five bureaux out of six, that the
people, or _Tiers Etat_, shall have no greater number of deputies, than
each of the other orders separately, and that they shall vote by orders:
so that two orders concurring in a vote, the third will be overruled;
for it is not here as in England, where each of the three branches has
a negative on the other two. If this project of theirs succeeds, a
combination between the two Houses of Clergy and Nobles will render the
representation of the _Tiers Etat_ merely nugatory. The bureaux are to
assemble together, to consolidate their separate votes: but I see no
reasonable hope of their changing this. Perhaps the King, knowing that
he may count on the support of the nation, and a