DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

(a4) be initiated without the assistance of the nobles, whose opposition must have led to civil war, or to a palace conspiracy and the assassination of the sovereign. At the very beginning of the reign of Louis XVI. the American War of Independence broke out. The most distinguished and chivalrous youths of France enrolled themselves under the banner of Washing- ton ; and on their return, animated by the enthu- siasm of the cause for which they fought, and imbued with the spirit of Republicanism, they in- oculated their compeers with their own aspirations for liberty, and infected the people with the desire for enfranchisement from the rule of a despotic monarchy. To stay the revolutionary torrent it required, on the throne, a man of action—a man of indomitable energy. No training or circumstances could ever have made a man of action of Louis XVI. Deficient in the qualifications needed for his kingly office, heavy in appearance, shy, em- barrassed, and stolid in manner, he was more at home in the hunting-field, or at his chosen occu- pation of a locksmith, than in the ceremonies of the Court, or the councils of his Ministers. He would have adorned a private station as an honest, upright, and worthy man, the very pattern of a husband and father— qualities for which he de- serves all the more credit, considering their rarity