Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/87

 71

occurred. 1st. What proportion shall the number of deputies of the Tiers etat bear to those of the Nobles and Clergy ? And 2nd. shall they sit in the same or in distinct apartments ? Mr. Necker, de sirous of avoiding himself these knotty questions, proposed a se cond call of the same Notables, and that their advice should be asked on the subject. They met, November 9, 88, and, by five bureaux against one, they recommended the forms of the States General of 1614 ; wherein the Houses were separate, and voted by orders, not by persons. But the whole nation declaring at once against this, and that the Tiers etat should be, in numbers, equal to both the other orders, and the Parliament deciding for the same proportion, it was determined so to be, by a declaration of December 27th, 88. A Report of Mr. Necker, to the King, of about the same date, contained other very important concessions. 1. That the King could neither lay a new tax, nor prolong an old one. 2. It expressed a readiness to agree on the periodical meet ing of the States. 3. To consult on the necessary restriction on Lettres de Cachet; and 4. How far the press might be made free. 5. It admits that the States are to appropriate the public money ; and 6. That Ministers shall be responsible for public expendi tures. And these concessions came from the very heart of the King. He had not a wish but for the good of the nation ; and for that object, no personal sacrifice would ever have cost him a mo ment s regret ; but his mind was weakness itself, his constitution timid, his judgment null, and without sufficient firmness even to stand by the faith of his word. His Queen, too, haughty and bearing no contradiction, had an absolute ascendancy over him ; and around her were rallied the King s brother d Artois, the court generally, and the aristocratic part of his Ministers, particularly Breteuil, Broglio, Vauguyon, Foulon, Luzerne, men whose prin ciples of government were those of the age of Louis XIV. Against this host, the good counsels of Necker, Montmorin, St. Priest, although in unison with the wishes of the King himself, were of little avail. The resolutions of the morning, formed under their advice, would be reversed in the evening, by the influence of the Queen and court. But the hand of Heaven weighed heavily indeed on the machinations of this junto ; producing collateral in cidents, not arising out of the case, yet powerfully co-exciting the nation, to force a regeneration of its government, and overwhelm ing, with accumulated difficulties, this liberticide resistance. For, while laboring under the want of money for even ordinary pur poses, in a government which required a million of livres a day, and driven to the last ditch by the universal call for liberty, there came on a winter of such severe cold, as was without example in