hey would send up their members with express
instructions to agree to no tax and to no adoption of the public
debts, and the court really wishing to give them a moiety of the
representation, this was decided on ultimately. You are not to suppose
that these dispositions of the court proceed from any love of the
people, or justice towards their rights. Courts love the people always,
as wolves do the sheep. The fact is this. The court wants money. From
the _Tiers-Etat_ they cannot get it, because they are already squeezed
to the last drop. The clergy and the nobles, by their privileges and
their influence, have hitherto screened their property, in a great
degree, from public contribution. That half of the orange, then, remains
yet to be squeezed, and for this operation there is no agent powerful
enough, but the people. They are, therefore, brought forward as the
favorites of the court, and will be supported by them. The moment of
crisis will be the meeting of the States; because their first act will
be, to decide whether they shall vote by persons or by orders. The
clergy will leave nothing unattempted to obtain the latter; for they see
that the spirit of reformation will not confine itself to the political,
but will extend to the ecclesiastical establishment also. With respect
to the nobles, the younger members are generally for the people, and the
middle aged are daily coming over to the same side: so that by the time
the States meet, we may hope there will be a majority of that body,
also, in favor of the people, and consequently for voting by persons,
and not by orders.

You will perceive, by the report of Mr. Necker (in the gazette of
France), 1. a renewal of the renunciation of the power of imposing a new
tax by the King, and a like renunciation of the power of continuing any
old one; 2. an acknowledgment that the States are to appropriate the
public monies, which will go to the binding the court to a civil list;
3. a consent to the periodical meeting of the States; 4. to consider of
the restrictions of which _lettres de cachet_ are susceptible; 5. the
degree of liberty to be given to the press; 6. a bill of rights; and 7.
there is a passage which looks towards the responsibility of ministers.
Nothing is said of communicating to them a share in the legislation. The
ministry, perhaps, may be unwilling to part with this, but it will be
insisted on in the States. The letters of convocation will not appear
till towards t