XXIII. 1787. vering policy of the monarch, commanded to re- BOOK sign the seals. The public clamor and odium rising high against M. de Calonne, whom it was now the fashion to represent as the most extravagant and profligate of ministers, he was exiled by the king to his estate in Lorraine; and he soon afterwards thought it expedient to take refuge in foreign parts from the inveterate rage of his enemies. M. de Calonne was succeeded, after a short interval, by M. Lomenie de Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse, a leading member of the Assembly of Notables, and of great popularity in the kingdom at large, as an undaunted advocate and assertor of the principles of universal liberty. The sacrifice of M. de Calonne produced no concessions in favor of the court. The Assembly of Notables, in their subsequent sitting, declared themselves utterly incompetent either to suggest different taxes, or to adopt and sanction those which had been proposed. The views of the court being thus finally frustrated, the assembly was dissolved (May 25, 1787), with a cold acknowledgment from the sovereign of the services which they had rendered to the public; and the archbishop of Toulouse entered his office with the prospect of encountering difficulties still more insuperable than those which had proved too mighty to be overcome by the far superior ability of his celebrated predecessor. upon BOOK 1787 It is not wonderful that, things being thus circumstanced, no vigorous measures were adopted by France to counteract the united interference of England and Prussia in the affairs of Holland. In the month of July (1787), the states of Holland presented to the States General a proposition for soliciting the mediation of the court of Versailles; soon after which, the French embassador presented also a memorial to the States General, declaring the king his master to be highly sensible of this mark of the confidence of the republic, and ready to co-operate by every means in his power for the restoration of harmony and peace. So late as the month of September, France tardily professed her intention of assisting the Dutch, in case they were England attacked by any foreign power. This only anisupport of mated the court of London to act with the greater arms in Prussia. spirit and decision, and vigorous naval preparations were made to support the king of Prussia, in opposition to the menacing declarations of France. But the object of the Prussian expedition being accomplished in a much shorter space of time than could have been previously imagined, the court of Versailles found itself, probably not without a secret satisfaction, disengaged from all obligations. The duke of Dorset, ambassador at Paris, in consequence of the events which had taken place, presented (October 27th) a memorial to the king of France, signifying, that "no subject of XXIII. 1787. discussion, much less of contest, now remaining BOOK between the two courts, he was authorised to ask, whether it was the intention of his Most Christian majesty to carry into effect the notification made by his Most Christian majesty's plenipotentiary? which, by announcing that succours would be given to Holland, had occasioned the naval armaments on the part of his Britannic majesty, which armaments have been reciprocal. If the court of Versailles is disposed to explain herself satisfactorily on this subject, the ambassador proposes, that all warlike preparations should be discontinued, and that the navies of the two nations should be again placed on the footing of the peace establishment, as it stood on the 1st of January of the present year." To this memorial the count de Montmo- Unexpect rin, the new minister for foreign affairs in France, cence of replied on the very same day, in a style of exemplary forbearance and moderation, " that the intention of his majesty not being, and never having been, to interfere by force in the affairs of Holland, the communication made to the court of London, on the 16th of last month, having had no other object than to announce to that court an intention, the motives of which no longer exist, especially since the king of Prussia has imparted his resolution; his majesty makes no scruple to declare, that he will not give any effect to the declaration above-mentioned; and agrees with pleasure to the VOL. VIII. ed acquies France. BOOK proposal of mutually disarming, made on the part of his Britannic majesty." XXIII. 1787. Session of Thus happily and honorably for England did this important business terminate. Foreign powers were astonished to see that country, which had a few years since been apparently reduced to the verge of ruin under an administration pre-eminently odious and contemptible, reassuming her rank among the nations of Europe, and attaining to a visible superiority over that haughty and ambitious rival, whose recent success was now seen to be dearly purchased by her consequent alarming and inextricable embarrassments. The parliament of Great Britain assembled on the 27th of November 1787. The king remarked," that at the close of the last session he had informed them of the concern with which he observed the disputes unhappily subsisting in the republic of the United Provinces. Their situation soon afterwards became more critical and alarming. The king of Prussia having demanded satisfaction for the insult offered to the princess of Orange his sister, the party which had USURPED the government applied to the Most Christian king for assistance; and that prince having notified to his majesty his intention of granting their request, the king did not hesitate to declare that he could not remain a quiet spectator, and gave immediate orders for augmenting his forces both by sea and XXIII. 1787. land; and in the course of this transaction he had BOOK. concluded a subsidiary treaty with the landgrave of Hesse Cassel. In the mean time the rapid success of the duke of Brunswic enabled the provinces to deliver themselves from the OPPRESSION under which they labored; and all the subjects of contest being thus removed, an amicable explanation had taken place between the courts of London and Versailles." This was the language rather of a zealous partisan of the house of Orange than of a great monarch, who, by a dignified and seasonable interposition, had rescued a country from ruin. It is inconceivable how the existing government of Holland could with any color of justice be stigmatized as an usurpation; for by the constitution of that country the prince of Orange, as stadtholder, was not a sovereign, but a subject possessing no share of the legislative power; and though by the formula of 1747 the office was declared hereditary, it was not therefore irrevocable any more than the hereditary offices of earl-martial or great-chamberlain under the English constitution: and the oppressions alluded to in the speech were plainly nothing else than the usual severities inflicted upon those who presumed to resist the mandates of the supreme government But in the recent measures adopted by the English court there were, notwithstanding this flagrant impropriety of language, so |