eir
general agreement we want to know. Would you anticipate this
agreement? Would you oppose an obstacle to it, in order to give rise
to a new political tempest from a state of things so near to peace?

"I am not afraid, for my own part, to anticipate all objections.
Perhaps you suppose, that the occupation of Paris by two of the allied
armies will second the views you may entertain of restoring Louis
XVIII. to the throne. But can an augmentation of the evils of war,
which can be ascribed to this motive alone, be a means of
reconciliation?

"I must declare to your lordship, that every sinister attempt to
impose on us a government, before the allied powers have explained
themselves, would immediately oblige the chambers to take measures,
that would not leave the possibility of a reconciliation in any case.
It is even the interest of the King, that every thing should remain in
a state of suspension: force may replace him on the throne, but cannot
keep him there. It is neither by force, nor by surprise, nor by the
wishes of one party, that the national will can be brought to change
its government. It would even be in vain, at the present moment, to
offer us conditions, to render a new government more supportable.
There are no conditions that can be examined, as long as the necessity
of bending our necks to the yoke, of renouncing our independence, is
not proved to us. Now, my lord, this necessity cannot even be
suspected, before the allied powers are in accord. None of their
engagements have been revoked: our independence is under their
protection: it is we, who enter into their views; and, according to
the sense of their declaration, it is the besieging armies, that
deviate from them.

"According to these declarations, and never were there any more
solemn, every employment of force, in favour of the King, by these
armies, on that part of our territory, which is solely in their power,
will be considered by France as an avowal of the formal design of
imposing on us a government against our will. We may be allowed to ask
your lordship, whether you have received any such authority. Besides,
force is not a pacificator: a moral resistance repelled the late
government, that the King had been made to adopt: the more violence is
employed toward the nation, the more invincible would this resistance
be rendered. It cannot be the intention of the generals of the
besieging armies, to compromise their own governments; and to revoke