marquise de Jeanne Antoinette Poisson Pompadour

“ Incapable of betraying our duty, we should have nothing to offer you in homage but our tears, till time should convince you how advantageous it is for you, that your parliament at no period swerve from the inviolable fidelity they owe to religion, to their country, and to their King; and that in their archives may be found the uninterrupted tradition of conduct and maxims, which secure the tranquility of your kingdom, and the independance of your sovereignty. ”

“ He was an active, vigilant, indefatigable minister; a great statesman; a profound politician; uniting with the sublime qualities of a negociator all those which make a man amiable in society, being a good husband, a good father, and a good friend—in a word, an honest man. Interest, that passion which vilifies the great, found no refuge in his heart. I could willingly compare him to Prince Charles of Lorrain, for the virtues of his mind ”

“ Never did so important an affair lead your parliament to the foot of your throne. The religion, the state, the rights of your crown are equally threatened.{82} A fatal schism has burst forth, less to be dreaded from the blaze of division it kindles amongst your subjects, and the shock it gives to the fundamental laws of the monarchy, than from the prejudice it does to religion. ”

“ I may venture to say, that this performer, by the gaiety that he spread over the King’s mind, was often the mediator of the most important affairs of Europe.
We know that all our resolutions spring from the actual disposition of the soul. A monarch that refuses every thing when his mind is seized with a certain melancholy, grants every thing when this vapour is dissipated. ”

“ What glory, Sire, will ever be comparable to your’s! After having so often conquered your enemies in person, your sole occupation, in the height of peace, is the happiness of your people. You love truth, and you endeavour to be acquainted with it; truth reaches even you, without any other aid than your own understanding: and it is no sooner known to you than it enjoys all its prerogatives.
“Truth alone made you sensible how much the dispersion of all the members of a parliament is a dangerous example, by reason of the blow it levels at all the fundamental laws of the kingdom ”

“ M. de Belleisle, who read this answer, said to me, “These people, among whom there are many persons of sense, are so prejudiced in favour of their interest, that they are always extravagant when they are upon the subject of the finances. There is a capital error in the contract of the farms, which is, that it puts too much money into the pockets of a few individuals.”
I have often at Versailles met with advocates who pleaded the cause of the farmers-general: but I never met with any judges that were favourable to them. ”

“ The self-love of kings who will be absolute, creates disorders, which usually swallows up both states and politics. The Prince, who was desirous of maintaining the peace of his kingdom, and advancing the happiness of his people, yielded, the very instant he saw that, by opposing his parliament, a general revolution might be dreaded. ”

“ If the northern powers of Europe are inclinable to avail themselves of the misunderstandings in America, we must keep our engagements, and send 24000 men into Germany. A more numerous army can only procure us a greater loss without any advantage. These moderate succours will enable us to send more considerable assistance to the new world, to protect our colonies; the revolution in Canada is not a maritime quarrel, it is a land war. The point is to defend the continent, and it is only necessary{222} to land troops there; and this the English cannot prevent. ”

“ That is true, replied the old Courtier; but this same English nation, who thus voluntarily part with their riches for a war, which they think useful to the state, often lose all their advantages at a peace. A Lord who wants to make his way to the administration by a system of pacification, intrigues with the king, gains his confidence, and has his creatures. These set forth, that sieges and battles ruin the state, that commerce is hurt by them, and that industry perishes. ”

“ Struck with dread at the sight of these great misfortunes, we shall not cease, Sire, to rise up against all such proceedings as tend to schism; and we shall not cease to lay before you their shocking consequences. To prevent our acting, to stifle our voices, we must be annihilated. And if by an event which we should consider ourselves as almost guilty to foresee, it should happen that our constancy to support the rights of your crown, those of the state and of religion, we should{102} draw upon ourselves your Majesty’s disgrace, we should lament without altering our conduct. ”

“ Favourable combinations of nature or fortune are necessary to draw it from that state of languor, in which it is almost constantly immersed: and this fatal law must surely be general, when even kings are not exempt from it. But there is a still greater misfortune attendant on humanity, which is, that pleasure is almost constantly counterbalanced by pain. One might say, that in the human heart there are two equal measures of joy and misery, and in proportion as the one is emptied the other is filled. ”

“ A man of much good sense said, like Marshal Belleisle, “that great armies were useless; that land campaigns were not the object, but a sea war; that the colonies should be put in a state of security, which alone could be conquered; that the plan of the English was not to increase their power in Europe, but to extend their limits in America; that all their designs tended that way, and that we should direct ours to the same object; that France was guarantied in Europe by the general balance ”

“ These maxims of France, which form the basis of our liberties, would otherwise soon be destroyed.
“Will you, then, Sire, permit the torch of schism to be lighted up in the heart of your kingdom, on account of the acceptance that is exacted of this bull. There is nothing more menacing to an empire, than divisions in religious matters: They become still more fatal when the cause is unjust. Let them not be introduced into your kingdom, stifle them in their birth, and to that end let your parliaments{100} act. They alone can restore a calm, by the vigilant exertion of their institution. ”

“ If religion itself had fomented a division, it could not have been more animated.
Marshal Belleisle, speaking to me of this war, often told me that the Genoese would never be rulers over the Corsicans; for which he assigned this reason; “When the principal state combats with its subjects, the first battle must decide the quarrel, otherwise it will remain for a long time undetermined. Rebels,{11} who by sieges and battles, poise the sovereign authority, no longer bear the name of subjects, but adopt that of enemies; for the force of arms, which destroys all privilege, restores the level.” ”

“ This is easy to believe, he added, if we consider that the spirit of contention, which springs from dogmas, spreads itself through every class, and that it is this general spirit that forms the genius of nations.
The war relating to the Constitution still continuing, plenipotentiaries were appointed: these were commissaries, who were to decide, whether the curates had a right to let the King’s subjects die without communing. The Bishops said, this was the business of a council; but the parliament were of opinion, that the Bull Unigenitus was in subordination to the police of the state. ”

“ I know I should harden myself against certain bodies, who want to raise their authority upon a level with my throne. But I sacrifice my resentment to the general tranquility. I tremble to think of the misfortunes that the people suffered under the reign of my great grandfather, by the quarrels which arose between the court and the parliament. These quarrels renewed civil wars, which immersed France in the deepest{27} desolation. ”

“ The English ministry are prepared for every thing, except the invasion of Portugal. They have planned all their operations for the German war, and that in America; but no steps are taken for the defence of Portugal.
“But this expedition should be equally secret as speedy: these form the soul of success. The greatest part of our operations miscarry, because they are tardy and public. The enemy is almost constantly acquainted with our designs the very instant that they are projected: this is the certain means of rendering them abortive. ”

“ It is true that the riches of Portugal are in America, and that the English fleets might possess themselves of the mines; but the English would not derive great advantage from this conquest.
“The extraction of gold is a manufacture that must be rendered profitable, to draw advantages from it: and this capacity is not the lot of every one. The Portuguese, naturally sober, and who have but few wants, can alone derive these advantages from it; the English, with whom labour is much dearer, would be losers by it. ”

“ Marshal Belleisle said to the King upon opening the conferences: “Sire, we may enter upon the plan of giving a lasting peace to Italy; but I apprise your Majesty, that the negociation will not terminate but at the end of the world.”
The Prince of Conti said upon this occasion, “That if a king of France were willing to prevent a war in Italy, the Italians would oppose him. This country, which with regard to money, is of itself poor, stands in need of foreign armies, whose military chests may supply their want of cash.” ”

“ It was this same truth that made you acquainted with the feelings of your parliament, at the dread of being for{176} ever banished from your presence, by your refusing to receive their remonstrances, upon the mere view of the nature of the objects that must have been introduced into these important representations.
“In a word, it was this truth that engaged you to remove their fears with that goodness which will transmit to future ages the true love which you have for subjects, whose interests, you know, are inseparable from your own. ”

“ Nevertheless, if things were thoroughly examined with care, it would appear that we have no interest in view by making continual representations to our Prince, and being compelled to say disagreeable things to him. If we did not interest ourselves so much as we do for the good of the people, we must substitute flattery for truth, and should be benefited by the smiles of the court ”

“ Bussy’s partizans said he spoke with resolution, and an absolute tone; qualities that were looked upon as essential at a free court, where moderation and suppleness are always unsuccessful. But the contrary was the truth. Bussy negociated badly to prevent the war, and he failed some years after to restore peace; but I laid it down as a maxim, never to oppose the King’s sentiments.
Orders were dispatched to all the commanders in the American colonies, to fit out as many ships as they could, to oppose the designs of the English. ”

“ Those who aspire to a more elevated sphere than that wherein virtue has placed them, fancy that riches, rank, grandeur and titles, contribute to happiness,{119} and that in these imaginary advantages felicity centers. This is a fallacious opinion; when once we are accustomed to these things, they seldom afford us any gratification. The idea which we frame of them, pleases us more than possession itself. Neither magnificent palaces, superb furniture, nor the most valuable jewels in Europe, which I possessed, could make me happy. ”

“ The liberties of the Gallican church, the maxims adopted by the kingdom upon the authority of kings, upon the independency of their crown, upon the fidelity that is due to them from their subjects, might be annihilated, or at least suspended in the minds of the people, solely by the impression made on them by a menace of excommunication, though unjust. ”

“ I was not much versed in this kind of matters; for the women of Paris have no more religion than what is just necessary to prevent their having none at all.
These able theologists settled it as a principle, “That scandal in a king was the greatest evil he could be guilty of: that he is the mirrour, where every one looks to see himself: that his example carries with it that of the state: that from the time the King did not commune, there were upwards of a million of subjects in France, who no longer partook of the sacraments: that{22} the desertion from the holy table was become general,” &c. ”

“ The condemnation that the constitution has pronounced against the ninety-first proposition, is manifestly contrary to the great maxims of the kingdom, and is absolutely incompatible with the observance of these maxims. Therefore, when we see the ministers of the church, when we see the bishops establish the constitution as a rule of faith, we see that by a fatality, which, Sire, your goodness could not presume, that they want to erect into dogmas the faith of opinions, contrary{95} to the most inviolable maxims of France.
“They in vain protest their attachment to our liberties. ”

“ It is a general rule, that mines always ruin their proprietors, as Spain and Portugal evince, which are continually impoverished in proportion as their mines become fruitful. The only nations that are thereby enriched, are those who barter their industry for the produce.
“The invasion of Portugal would make a change in all the systems of Europe. It would cause a general revolution in cabinets. ”

“ Or, if it is really nothing more than an extravagant zeal for the bull that actuates them, they teach us how dangerous it is for them to decide arbitrarily in causes that may exclude the participation of the sacraments. Their pretended zeal becomes a passion that blinds them; prejudice shuts their eyes to the consequences of their conduct. ”

“ Peace, which had restored political tranquility, of itself produced fresh divisions in the state. Churchmen, the clergy, and the parliament, who in time of war, unite themselves to the administration, to participate of public misfortunes, in their turn create them, when battles and sieges are passed: so that by a fatality, which is, perhaps, derived from the constitution itself, France must always be armed to avoid domestic quarrels ”