find to over-charge the fubjects, are but a continuation and extention of a duty, fimple in its origin; and fuch an extenfion, fire, is often divested of any legal authority, and only collected in virtue of the minifter's mandate. Without mentioning, fire, the multiplicity of marks, precautions, and fines, annexed to and attending the duty on ftamped paper, it is certain that it would caufe a delay in public and private bufinefs, and obftruct the common daily tranfactions. All delay is dangerous, and all obftruction mult produce a delay. A bill of exchange, improperly ftamped, would be liable to a fine; the fine must be paid immediately by the poffeffor of the bill; he therefore would be obliged to advance the fum for the fine, pay instead of re ceiving, and be out of his money till the expiration of his unlucky bill. He would be a fufferer for other perfons faults, and fuch faults might be renewed feveral times in one and the fame day, in the very fame hour; his payments must be affected by it, and his credit called in queftion. Thence mistrust and doubts will neceffarily arife; and you know, fire, that there fubfifts a kind of chain in the courfe of exchanges, that strongly binds all the commercial parts of mankind in the known world. Our trading towns would lofe, in the eyes of a foreigner, that level or advantage they were wont to enjoy. In fhort, were not fuch a duty extremely onerous it itself, its unlimited duration must caufe a general alarm. We have often feen taxes, limited. till fuch a time, prolonged even after the intention of the fupply had been amply fulfilled; but we did not expect to fee one that is to Lait perpetually, at the very time when a certain period was mentioned for diminishing the national debt. Lewis XIV. etablished the polltax in 1695, and the tenth in 1710. The misfortunes and heavy loffes fuftained towards the latter end of his reign, and the invasion of the kingdom, made him attempt a step, the fuccefs of which he very much doubted in his own mind. That great monarch, finding himself obliged to lay fuch a duty, seemed to have been doubtful whether he had a right to lay it; and if parlia ment then thought it their duty to have it registered, it was because the contribution was to laft but a fhort time; it was chiefly because the exigencies of the state feemed to require a fpeedy redrefs; had it not been for thefe fubftantial reafons, fire, Lewis XIV. would have owned, "that it was the nation alone, re-united in the three general frates, that can give the neceffary confent for establishing a perpetual tax-that parliament were invefted with fuch a power, and that, charged by the fovereign to announce his will to the people, they had never been charged by the people to reprefent them fo implicitly." never This is what your refpectful par liament takes now the liberty of mentioning to your majefty; and, penetrated with this truth, alarmed at the enormous deficiency, and ruck with the deplorable diforders that have produced it, and might render it perpetual, they with very much to fee the whole nation affembled, before they register any new impost. The nation alone thus affembled, and inftructed in the true ftate of the finances, may extirpate the great abuses that are exifting at prefent, and offer great refources to obviate them in future. 'Tis for you, fire, that the honour was referved of renewing thofe national affemblies which render the reign of Charlemagne fo great and illuftrious; affemblies that repaired all king John's difaftrous calamities, and concurred with parliament to re-establish Charles VII. on the throne. All the world is convinced now of the truth of this maxim-that myfery generally accompanies miftruft and weakness-that the greater authority is, the more confidence and candour it should infpireand that entrusting the provincial afJemblies with part of the adminiftration, infead of weakening it, would en lighten and render it more active. Your notables, fire, fo wifely felected by your majefty, have affifted the throne with their counfels, and unveiled the long hidden countenance of truth, which you were determined to fee. How happy are now the members of this affembly in prefenting you, fire, with the effufions of that truth they ftrongly feel in their hearts! The monarch of France can never be fo great as when furrounded by his hapPy Subjects: he has nothing to fear but the excess of their attachment: he has no other precaution to take but to be upon his guard againft iffuing orders that may be beyond their power to accomplish. By a perfect union beween the fovereign and the people, each party will be the gainer; and a monarch can never err in following the steps of the hero of the fecond race, who forced from the unanimous lips of admiring Europe the name of Great, which he certainly deferved by protecting juf tice and his people with the fame arm that struck terror to his enemies; nor thofe of a Charles V. whom pofterity, the impartial judge of kings, has dignified with the title of Wife; nor thofe of Lewis 3 XII. who in one of those affemblies had the fweet fatisfaction of hearing himself proclaimed the Father of his People; nor those in fhort of Henry IV. whofe name, fill fo cherished by the French, is an honour to humanity, and daily receives from our grateful hearts a copious tribute of tears. Your parliament, fire, waiting with impatience for the happy and wifhed-for moment, when a juft monarch will deign to fpread his benign influence over a faithful nation, and grant their requests, moit refpectfully intreat your majefty to recall and annull the declaration of the ftamp-duty, as altogether incompatible with the present fituation of affairs; a duty, that, were it to be enforced, would cause univerfal discontent and forrow to all the nation, and the name only of which has already spread a general alarm through the kingdom. His Moft Chriftian Majefty's Specch to the Parliament of raris, Nov. 19, 1787. Gentlemen, I am come to this affembly to recall to my parliament thofe principles from which it ought never to deviate; to hear what you have to fay upon two great acts of adminiftration and legiflation, which to me have appeared neceffary; finally to reply to you upon the reprefentations made to me by the chamber of vacations, in favour of my parliament of Bourdeaux. The principles which I mean to recall to your recollection, are a part of the effence of the monarchy, and I will not fuffer them to be unknown or changed. I had no need of folicitations to affemble the notables of my kingdom. I fhall never be afraid of being among my fubjects. A king A king of France is never more happy than when he enjoys their love and fidelity; but it is I only who am to judge of the ufe and neceffity of thofe affemblies, and I will not fuffer myfelf to be indifcretely importuned for that which ought to be expected from my wifdom, and the love I have for my people, whofe interefts are infeparable from my own. The act of administration which I propofe to myfelf is an edict, containing a creation of fucceffive loans for five years. I wifhed to have no farther recourfe to the refource of loans; but order and œconomy must have time to make them effectual. Limited and well calculated loans will retard the operations of the former, but they will not prevent them. No new impofts will be eftablished, and my engagements will be fulfilled. I will ever maintain by the moft conftant and undivided protection, the holy religion in which I have the happinefs to be born, and I will not permit it to fuffer the leaft diminution in my kingdom. But I am of opinion that this fame religion commands me not to leave a part of my fubjects deprived of their natural rights, and what the ftate of fociety promifes them. You will fee in my anfwer upon the fubject of the parliament of Bourdeaux, to what a degree its conduct is reprehenfible. My parliament ought to reckon upon my confidence and affection; but they ought to merit them, in confining themfelves within the functions confided to their execution by the kings my predeceffors; being careful not to depart from, nor refufe them, and more particularly never to fail in giving to my fubjects an example of fidelity and fubmiffion. My keeper of the feals will more fully communicate to you my intentions. The Addrefs of the firft Prefident of Your parliament is come, in obedience to your orders. It has this morning been informed, at the opening of the fitting, that a prince of your august blood has incurred your difpleasure, and that two counfellers of your court are deprived of their liberty. Your parlament, in confternation, humbly fupplicates your majefty, to restore to the prince of your blood, and to the two magiftrates, the liberty which they have loft, having, in your prefence, freely declared what their duty and confciences dictated, in a fitting wherein your majesty had announced that you came to take the fenfe of the affembly by a plu rality of fuffrages. The KING'S Answer. When I put away from my perfon a prince of my blood, my parliament ought to believe, that I have very frong reafons for fo doing. I have punifhed two magiftrates, with whom I ought to be diflatisfied. the truth in the prefence of your majefty. Your majesty came among us to demand our free fuffrages to give them on every occation is the right and duty of your parliament, and the intereft of your majefty to hear them. It is true, the keeper of the feals 'expreffed the fentiments of your ma jetty; but our counfel to you would no longer come from the fanctuary of truth, if restrained by the terror of offending. If the duke of Orleans is guilty, we are alfo. It was worthy the first prince of your blood, to reprefent to your majesty, that you were transforming a meet ing of the parliament into a bed of justice. His declaration has but announced our fentiments; his feelings have judged of ours; and if by the effect of that concord, which nothing can deftroy, between the wifhes and the duty of your parliament, the duke of Orleans has fhewn a courage worthy his birth and rank, he has no lets manifefted a heart zealous for your glory. In fact, fire, foreigners cannot conceive, pofterity will not believe, that we could be expofed to any danger in telling your majefty that truth, which you have demanded in perfon. Your prefence has ever been accompanied with favour: muft it henceforth produce fear and affliction? A bed of justice would be lefs terrible than a fitting of parliament; and our loyalty to your majefty would fupprefs our voices, were our confidence, encouraged by yourself, no other than the fignal of our exile or imprisonment. And what imprisonment, fir? Honour and humanity, as well as juf tice, tremble at it; the bafeft men have laid hands on the perfon of one of your magiftrates *; his houfe has been befieged; inftruments of the police have driven away his family. It was by prayers and entreaties to thofe ungracious men, that he was permitted to fee his wife, his children, and his fifters, on his departure. They have forced him away without a fervant; and that magiftrate, who, on Monday, thought himfelf under the perfonal protection of your majesty, is gone to a diftant prifon, unattended buc by three men, the devotees of arbitrary power. The second of thefe magiftrates feized by your orders, though treated in his own houfe lefs cruelly than the other, has nevertheless been constrained to depart with a fever, and threatened with an inflammatory diforder, to a place where life is a continual punishment. His dwelling is a rock; his prifon beat by the waves of the fea; the air he breathes unwholfome; all affittance is remote, and your majefty, without wifhing it, without knowing it, in figning the order of imprifonment, has perhaps figned that of his death. If exile is the recompence of the fidelity of the princes of your blood; if outrages and captivity threaten the uprightness of the first magiftrates of the kingdom; we may afk ourselves with terror and grief, what will become of the laws, the public liberty, the national honour, and the manners of your majesty's fubjects; those manners fo mild, fo neceffary to be preferved for the common interest of the throne, and of the people. Such defigns, fire, are not in your heart; fuch examples are not the principles of your majefty. They arife from another fource. Your parliament, fire, moft humbly be The officer who arrested the abbé Tratian is faid to have laid his hand upon his shoulder, which is a high indignity in France. 2 feeches feeches your majefty, as you value your glory, your high renown; to remove thofe afflicting counfels, to confult and liften only to your own heart; and then, juftice with hu manity, encouraged by the return of the first prince of your blood, and by the releafe of your two magiftrates, will begin to efface an ex ample which would end by the deftruction of the laws, the degradation of the magistracy, univerfal difcouragement, and the triumph of the enemies to the honour of the French." His Majefty's Anfwer to the foregoing Addrefs, Nov. 26, 1787. When I held a fitting among you, gentlemen, the keeper of the feals told you, by my order, that the more kindness I fhewed when I followed the inclinations of my heart, the more firmnefs I difcovered when I thought I perceived any attempts to abufe that kindness. This might be a fufficient anfwer to your fecond petition; but I will condefcend to add, that if I do not blame the interest you exprefs for the detention of your two magiftrates, I difapprove, however, your exaggerating the circumftances and confequences of it. You feem to attribute the whole of this tranfaction to motives, which the free liberty I permitted you to exprefs your opinions does not warrant. I am accountable to no perfon for the motives of my refolutions. It is time you should separate the particular cafe of thofe I have punifhed from the interest of my other fubjects, and that of the laws. All my fubjects are fenfible that the goodness of my heart is ever watchful for their happiness, and must acknowledge the effects of it, even in my acts of justice. Every individual is interested in the prefervation of public order, and that order effentially depends on the fupport of my authority. If thofe I have charged to execute my orders have behaved in a manner contrary to my intentions, I will punish them; and if the place of confinement can any ways be detrimental to the health of the two magiftrates, I will order them to be removed to more falutary fpots; for the feelings of humanity are infeparable from my heart, even in the execution of my juf tice. In regard to the duke of Orleans' abfence from the capital, and from my court, I have nothing to add to what I have already faid to my parliament. The Third Remonftrance of the Pare liament of Paris to the King, on the fame Subject, Dec. 10, 1787. Sire, Your parliament, the princes and peers of your realms, being feated, have charged us with the commiffion of laying at the foot of your throne their most respectful reprefentations on your majesty's anfwer to their fupplication. The magiftracy of your kingdom, as well as every true citizen, are equally aftonished at the reproaches it contains, and the principles which are manifested in it. We are, however, far from attributing these reproaches to the perfonal fentiments which infpire your majesty. Public decency received a fevere wound in the choice of the executors of your orders. If their crime was not carried to the perfonal arreft of one of your magistrates, the expofition of other facts, far from being exaggerated, is yet incom plete s |