LETTER CLXIV

LONDON, April 73, O. S. 1752

MY DEAR FRIEND: I receive this moment your letter of the 19th, N. S.,
with the inclosed pieces relative to the present dispute between the King
and the parliament. I shall return them by Lord Huntingdon, whom you will
soon see at Paris, and who will likewise carry you the piece, which I
forgot in making up the packet I sent you by the Spanish Ambassador. The
representation of the parliament is very well drawn, 'suaviter in modo,
fortiter in re'. They tell the King very respectfully, that, in a certain
case, WHICH THEY SHOULD THINK IT CRIMINAL To SUPPOSE, they would not obey
him. This hath a tendency to what we call here revolution principles. I
do not know what the Lord's anointed, his vicegerent upon earth, divinely
appointed by him, and accountable to none but him for his actions, will
either think or do, upon these symptoms of reason and good sense, which
seem to be breaking out all over France: but this I foresee, that, before
the end of this century, the trade of both king and priest will not be
half so good a one as it has been. Du Clos, in his "Reflections," hath
observed, and very truly, 'qu'il y a un germe de raison qui commence a se
developper en France';--a developpement that must prove fatal to Regal
and Papal pretensions. Prudence may, in many cases, recommend an
occasional submission to either; but when that ignorance, upon which an
implicit faith in both could only be founded, is once removed, God's
Vicegerent, and Christ's Vicar, will only be obeyed and believed, as far
as what the one orders, and the other says, is conformable to reason and
to truth.