Had Voltaire really written in such a spirit, not only his reputation as a critic but his honour as a man would have suffered very gravely. For months past d'Argenson had been straining every nerve to defend him from "the literary police;" and to have written to his protector as the historian suggests, would have been an act of black dishonour. It is true that there were men before whom Voltaire could abase and debase himself; but d'Argenson the philosophe, his old school friend, was not one of them. With the exception of Count d'Argental, there is not one of his correspondents to whom Voltaire writes with such openness and freedom.] [Footnote 421: Voltaire to d'Argenson, May 8, 1739 (Garnier).] [Footnote 422: "Ce Traité de Politique a esté composé à l'occasion de ceux de M. de Boulainvilliers, touchant l'ancien gouvernement féodal de la France, 1737" (title-page of manuscripts in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal).] [Footnote 423: "Considérations," edition of 1764, article 41.] [Footnote 424: See "Considérations," p. 189 (1764).] [Footnote 425: Voltaire to d'Argenson, July 28, 1739 (Garnier).] [Footnote 426: So far as is known to the writer, the only full account of it is that of M. de Broglie ("Marie Thérèse," I. pp. 187-90), which is open to grave objection. The scheme is not noticed by, or apparently known to, M. Martin ("Histoire de France"), who examines the Plan of 1764 (1737).] [Footnote 427: This article portrays in brief the spirit of the whole scheme.] [Footnote 428: _I.e._, each district receiver.] [Footnote 429: De Broglie, "Marie Thérèse," I. chap. ii. § 2.] [Footnote 430: See pp. 156-66.] [Footnote 431: See p. 182-3.] [Footnote 432: See Martin, "Histoire de France," XVI.] [Footnote 433: See Plan (above), article XI. There were four from each of the Estates and they had no common organisation.] [Footnote 434: The popular attacks (see Chap. V.) were directed against the person of the monarch and the ministers. The tradition of the monarchy survived the disasters of the Seven Years' War, and only began to crumble with the dismissal of Turgot. The danger to it threatened by the popular attacks was only understood by a few men like d'Argenson.] [Footnote 435: And this wise man knew it. He writes in March, 1756:-- "Cependant le Roi est très mal conseillé; il se donne toujours tort et donne toujours raison au parlement. On le dégrade peu à peu, surtout dans le siécle lumineux et philosophique où nous vivons. Si Henri III. fut obligé de se mettre à la tête de la Ligue, Louis XV. devrait se mettre à la tête de la philosophie, de la justice et de la raison pour rétablir son pouvoir et son bonheur; qu'il se constitue hardiment le chef des réformateurs de l'État pour conduire mieux qu'eux les réparations que demande la situation de la France" (Journal, Rathery, IX. p. 222).] [Footnote 436: See one of her thrice delightful letters to the Comtesse de Baschi ("Lettres de Madame de Pompadour," I. pp. 71-6. Owen. London, 1771).]