Page:The reign of George VI - 1763.djvu/212

 laws on that head, and was declared irrevocable.—It is difficult to conceive the effect which this change had at Paris. A sullen silence had reigned throughout the kingdom; but almost at once, it was succeeded by a boundless torrent of flattery and invective: the King looked on with calmness, and was highly satisfied at the pleasure the whole nation experienced in this new liberty: a multitude of indirect libels on him were printed; but many ingenious men defended George, and gave him excessive praise, for this instance of his clemency and philosophic disposition: the lower people were shocked at the great number of books that swarmed from the press, which ridiculed and subverted the Roman catholic religion; but the sensible part of the nation rejoiced to find that no subject was so sacred as to bar common sense from the consideration of it: every man pub-