According to all the old principles of law and policy, a regency ought
to have been appointed by the French princes of the blood, nobles, and
parliaments, and then recognized by the combined powers. Fundamental law
and ancient usage, as well as the clear reason of the thing, have always
ordained it during an imprisonment of the king of France: as in the case
of John, and of Francis the First. A monarchy ought not to be left a
moment without a representative having an interest in the succession.
The orders of the state ought also to have been recognized in those
amongst whom alone they existed in freedom, that is, in the emigrants.
Thus, laying down a firm foundation on the recognition of the
authorities of the kingdom of France, according to Nature and to its
fundamental laws, and not according to the novel and inconsiderate
principles of the usurpation which the united powers were come to
extirpate, the king of Prussia and the Emperor, as allies of the ancient
kingdom of France, would have proceeded with dignity, first, to free the
monarch, if possible,--if not, to secure the monarchy as principal in
the design; and in order to avoid all risks to that great object, (the
object of other ages than the present, and of other countries than that
of France,) they would of course avoid proceeding with more haste or in
a different manner than what the nature of such an object required.
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