Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/261

 Frencli Reports of Parliamentary Debates 251 possede de grandes charges sous ses ordres. Outre cela je sais qu'apres que nous eumes choisi M. Seymer, il alia trouver Sa Majeste a Withal [Whitehall], pour Ten informer, qui approuva fort le choix qu'on en avail fait. Je demande a M. Seymer si cela n'est pas vrai. Mais ce dangereux avis a ete donne depuis ce temps-la par quelqu'un que j'appre- hende qu'il n'approche trop la personne du Roi et qu'il n'ait cause ce changement si prompt. Je ne dirai rien a present des prerogatives: mais songeons a nous separer. M. Pozvlc [Potcr/Z]. C'est une chose honteuse que le moindre inci- dent nous fasse broncher. II faut que cet avis vienne de quelques personnes qui sont trop proches de celle du Roi, et que nous devons craindre : nous devrions nous accorder. Je veux croire qu'il n'y a pas un homme ici qui represente son pays qui apprehende de parler hardiment en faveur de ceux qui lui ont confie leurs interets. ni qui craigne d'etre casse demain pour maintenir les droits de ceux qui Font choisi pour venir ici prendre seance pour eux ; je ne pretends pas toucher aux prerogatives, ni consentir a rien qui puisse prejudicier a la liberte de mon pays. Ne faisons rien de trop precipite et sans le bien considerer, et separons-nous jusqu'a demain neuf heures du matin. — A quoi la Chambre a consenti.' We see that the French envoy sent to his government reports of two kinds : some consist of hardly more than a list of business transacted and decisions agreed to'; others, rather less numerous, give us abstracts of the debates, with the names of the members who took part in them, and the general sense of the arguments. •* We shall find both kinds of reports in the correspondence of the eigh- teenth century. II. Before we quote them and compare them with the other texts, we must first clear up several points. About what time did these repdrts become customary, and to what degree were they so ? W'hat is their form? Above all, how were they drawn up, and how far can we trust them? Down to 1733 they were sent intermittently and rather excep- tionally. The bodies of " news from London ", frequent mention of which is made in the Invcntairc, and which were contained in separate biiHctiiis sent along with the weekly despatches, are but ' C/. Grey's Debates of the House of Commons from 1667 to ibgy, VI. 405- 408. The men are the same, and speak in the same order. But the arguments are not always put in the same mouth. In Grey's Debates it is Sir Thomas Clarges (instead of Birch) who relates Seymour's conversation with the King; and it is Powell (instead of Garroway ) who mentions the case of a speaker whose election the sovereign refused to sanction on account of his physical unfitness. ^A series of these, almost completely preserved, will be found in vol. 170 of the Correspondance Politique (1689). ff. 28-31. 90-92, 189-191. 195-196. 226-230, 242-246, 264, 310-314. 337-338, etc. 'He sent also an abridgment of acts recently passed. Cf. ibid. vol. 133, ff. 319 et seqq. AM. HIST. REV., VOL. Xll.— 17.