They represented to him, that he had tried them
all severally, in several ways, and found them all untractable: that he
had twice called an assembly (the Notables) composed of the first men of
the clergy, the nobility, and the magistrates; that he had himself named
every one member in those assemblies, and that, though so picked out, he
had not, in this their collective state, found them more disposed to a
compliance with his will than they had been separately; that there
remained for him, with the least prospect of advantage to his authority
in the States-General, which were to be composed of the same sorts of
men, but not chosen by him, only the _Tiers Etat_: in this alone he
could repose any hope of extricating himself from his difficulties, and
of settling him in a clear and permanent authority. They represented,
(these are the words of one of my informants,) "that the royal
authority, compressed with the weight of these aristocratic bodies, full
of ambition and of faction, when once unloaded, would rise of itself,
and occupy its natural place without disturbance or control"; that the
common people would protect, cherish, and support, instead of crushing
it.
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