one evening. "In England the people had already great power in
the state. The parliament had always been a check upon the royal
authority; and it was because the king tried to overrule parliament
that the trouble came about. Here our kings, or at least the ministers
they appointed, have always governed; often unwisely I admit, but
is it likely that the mob would govern better? That is the question.
At present they seem bent on showing their incapacity to govern
even themselves."

The Marquis de St. Caux had, in some respects, the thoughts and
opinions of the old school. He was a royalist pure and simple. As
to politics, he troubled his head little about them. These were a
matter for ministers. It was their business to find a remedy for
the general ills. As to the National Assembly which represented
only the middle class and people, he regarded it with contempt.

"Why it was from the middle class," he said, "that the oppressors
of the people were drawn. It is they who were farmers -general,
collectors, and officials of all kinds. It is they who ground
down the nation and enriched themselves with the spoil. It is not
the nobles who dirtied their hands with money wrung from the poor.
By all means let the middle class have a share in the government;
but it is not a share they desire. The clergy are to have no voice;
the nobility are to have no voice; the king himself is to be a
cipher. All power is to be placed in the hands of these men, the
chosen of the scum of the great towns, the mere mouthpieces of the
ignorant mob. It is not order that these gentry are organizing, it
is disorder."

Such were the opinions of the marquis, but he was tolerant of other