parliament. Anarchy crept into its bosom, the government fell into the
hands of royal mistresses, power was completely on the decline, and the
opposition daily made fresh progress.

The parliaments had undergone a change of position and of system. Royalty
had invested them with a power which they now turned against it. No sooner
had the ruin of the aristocracy been accomplished by the combined efforts
of the parliament and of royalty, than the conquerors quarrelled,
according to the common practice of allies after a victory. Royalty sought
to destroy an instrument that became dangerous when it ceased to be
useful, and the parliament sought to govern royalty. This struggle,
favourable to the monarch under Louis XIV., of mixed reverses and success
under Louis XV., only ceased with the revolution. The parliament, from its
very nature, was only called upon to serve as an instrument. The exercise
of its prerogative, and its ambition as a body, leading it to oppose
itself to the strong and support the weak, it served by turns the crown
against the aristocracy and the nation against the crown. It was this that
made it so popular under Louis XV. and Louis XVI., although it only
attacked the court from a spirit of rivalry. Opinion, without inquiring
into its motives, applauded not its ambition but its resistance, and
supported it because defended by it. Rendered daring by such
encouragement, it became formidable to authority. After annulling the will
of the most imperious and best-obeyed of monarchs; after protesting
against the Seven Years' War; after obtaining the control of financial
operations and the destruction of the Jesuits, its resistance became so
constant and energetic, that the court, meeting with it in every
direction, saw the necessity of either submitting to or subjecting it. It
accordingly carried into execution the plan of disorganization proposed by
the chancellor Maupeou. This daring man, who, to employ his own
expression, had offered _retirer la couronne du greffe_, replaced this