It
is from them that they generally experience opposition to their will. It
is with _their_ pride and impracticability that princes are most hurt.
It is with _their_ servility and baseness that they are most commonly
disgusted. It is from their humors and cabals that they find their
affairs most frequently troubled and distracted. But of the common
people, in pure monarchical governments, kings know little or nothing;
and therefore being unacquainted with their faults, (which are as many
as those of the great, and much more decisive in their effects, when
accompanied with power,) kings generally regard them with tenderness and
favor, and turn their eyes towards that description of their subjects,
particularly when hurt by opposition from the higher orders. It was thus
that the king of France (a perpetual example to all sovereigns) was
ruined. I have it from very sure information, (and it was, indeed,
obvious enough, from the measures which were taken previous to the
assembly of the States and afterwards,) that the king's counsellors had
filled him with a strong dislike to his nobility, his clergy, and the
corps of his magistracy.
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