me for deliberation in the Parliament. "The nation
represented by the States-general," the court declared, "is alone
entitled to grant the king subsidies of which the need is clearly
demonstrated." At the same time the Parliament demanded the impeachment
of M. de Calonne; he took fright and sought refuge in England. The mob
rose in Paris, imputing to the court the prodigalities with which the
Parliament reproached the late comptroller-general. Sad symptom of the
fatal progress of public opinion! The cries heretofore raised against
the queen under the name of Austrian were now uttered against Madame
Deficit, pending the time when the fearful title of Madame Veto would
give place in its turn to the sad name of the woman Capet given to the
victim of October 16, 1793.

The king summoned the Parliament to Versailles, and on the 6th of August,
1787, the edicts touching the stamp-tax and territorial subvention were
enregistered in bed of justice. The Parliament had protested in advance
against this act of royal authority, which it called "a phantom of
deliberation." On the 13th of August, the court declared "the
registration of the edicts null and without effect, incompetent to
authorize the collection of imposts, opposed to all principles;" this
resolution was sent to all the seneschalties and bailiwicks in the
district. It was in the name of the privilege of the two upper orders
that the Parliament of Paris contested the royal edicts and made appeal
to the supreme jurisdiction of the States-general; the people did not see
it, they took out the horses of M. d'Espremesnil, whose fiery eloquence
had won over a great number of his colleagues, and he was carried in
triumph. On the 15th of August the Parliament was sent away to Troyes.

Banishment far away from the capital, from the ferment of spirits, and
from the noisy centre of their admirers, had more than once brought down
the pride of the members of Parliament; they were now sustained by the
sympathy ardently manifested by nearly all the sovereign courts.
"Incessantly repeated stretches of authority," said the Parliament of
Besanccon, "forced registrations, banishments, constraint and severity
instead of justice, are astounding in an enlightened age, wound a nation
that idolizes its kings, but is free and proud, freeze the heart and
might break the ties which unite sovereign to subjects and subjects to
sovereign." The Parliament of Paris declared that it needed no