The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of FranceYonge, Charles Duke
History
The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France
Yonge, Charles Duke
Marie Antoinette, Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France, 1755-1793
"...The situation of affairs here has greatly changed since our journey.
The National Assembly was divided into a multitude of parties. Far from
order being re-established, every day seemed to diminish the power of the
law. The king, deprived of all authority, did not even see any possibility
of recovering it on the completion of the Constitution through the
influence of the Assembly, since that body itself was every day losing
more the respect of the people. In short, it was impossible to see any end
to disorder.
"To-day, circumstances present much more hope. The men who have the
greatest influence in affairs are united together, and have openly
declared for the preservation of the monarchy and the king, and for the
re-establishment of order. Since their union, the efforts of the seditious
have been defeated by a great superiority of strength. The Assembly has
acquired a consistency and an authority in every part of the kingdom,
which it seems disposed to use to establish the observance of the laws and
to put an end to the Revolution. At this moment the most moderate men, who
have never ceased to be opposed to revolutionary acts, are uniting,
because they see in union the only prospect of enjoying in safety what the
Revolution has left them, and of putting an end to the troubles of which
they dread the continuance. In short, every thing seems at this moment to
contribute to put an end to the agitations and commotions to which France
has been given over for the last two years. This termination of them,
however, natural and possible as it is, will not give the Government the
degree of force and authority which I regard as necessary; but it will
preserve us from greater misfortunes; it will place us in a situation of
greater tranquillity, and, when men's minds have recovered from their
present intoxication, perhaps they will see the usefulness of giving the
royal authority a greater range.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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