The king hesitated, from instinctive repugnance and the traditions of absolutism, at anything that resembled an appeal to the people.  He was won, however, by the precedent of Henry IV. and by the frank honesty of the project.  The secret was strictly kept.  The general peace was threatened afresh by the restless ambition of Joseph II. and by the constant encroachments of the Empress Catherine.  The Great Frederick was now dead.  After being for a long while the selfish disturber of Europe, he had ended by becoming its moderator, and his powerful influence was habitually exerted on behalf of peace.  The future was veiled and charged with clouds.  M. de Vergennes, still possessing Louis XVI.’s confidence, regarded with dread the bold reforms proposed by M. de Calonne; he had yielded to the comptroller-general’s representations, but he made all haste to secure for France some support in Europe; he concluded with England the treaty of commerce promised at the moment of signing the peace.  There was a lively debate upon it in the English Parliament.  Mr. Fox, then in opposition, violently attacked the provisions of the treaty; Mr. Pitt, quite young as yet, but already established in that foremost rank among orators and statesmen which he was to occupy to his last hour, maintained the great principles of European policy.  “It is a very false maxim,” said he, “to assert that France and England are not to cease to be hostile because they have been so heretofore.  My mind revolts at so monstrous a principle, which is an outrage upon the constitution of societies as well as upon the two nations.  Situated as we are in respect of France, it is expedient, it is a matter of urgency for the welfare of the two countries, to terminate this constant enmity which has been falsely said to be the basis of the true sentiments felt by the two nations towards each other.  This treaty tends to augment the means of making war and to retard its coming.”

Generous and sound maxims, only too often destined to be strikingly belied by human passions!  When he supported in the House of Commons, in 1786, an alliance with monarchical France, Mr. Pitt did not foresee the terrible struggle he—­would one day maintain, in the name of England and of Europe, against revolutionary, anarchical, or absolutist France.

The treaty had just been signed (September 26, 1786).  M. de Vergennes was not long to survive his latest work:  he died on the 13th of February, 1787, just before the opening of the Assembly of Notables, as if he would fain escape the struggle and the crisis he dreaded.  Capable and far-sighted in his foreign policy, ever conciliatory and sometimes daring, M. de Vergennes, timid and weak as he was in home affairs, was nevertheless esteemed:  he had often served as a connect ing link between the different elements of the government.  The king gave his place to M. de Montmorin, an honest but insignificant man, without influence in France as well as in Europe.