DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 40 ) dissolve. It needed no prophetic gifts to foretell the result of a general election. The extreme views of the clubs, whose vast political organizations were ruling the country, were graphically represented in the revolutionary press. To their tender mercies the welfare of the country would be committed, together with the safety of the throne. Unfor- tunately for themselves, the king and his friends only too effectually assisted the objects of the revolutionaries. Irritated by a mean espionage and the animosity of the populace, galled by ministers who were forced upon him by the Assembly, and dismayed by the increase of the emigration, the king, acting upon the advice of the queen, entered into a correspondence with most of the kings of Europe, appealed to their assistance and claimed their intervention. To a certain extent we may sympathise with the king: the provocation was great, the temptation to free himself at any cost from an untenable and perilous position can be appreciated, but the means employed can hardly be excused. To connive at a policy which might, and even- tually did, lead to an invasion was the result of an exaggerated conception of the relative importance of his own position and the interests of his people. Proofs of this correspondence were not discovered for some time; but when the rumour went about