by foreign force well directed) may be gained and settled.  It must be gained and settled by itself, and through the medium of its own native dignity and property.  It is not honest, it is not decent, still less is it politic, for foreign powers themselves to attempt anything in this minute, internal, local detail, in which they could show nothing but ignorance, imbecility, confusion, and oppression.  As to the prince who has a just claim to exercise the regency of France, like other men he is not without his faults and his defects.  But faults or defects (always supposing them faults of common human infirmity) are not what in any country destroy a legal title to government.  These princes are kept in a poor, obscure, country town of the king of Prussia’s.  Their reputation is entirely at the mercy of every calumniator.  They cannot show themselves, they cannot explain themselves, as princes ought to do.  After being well informed as any man here can be, I do not find that these blemishes in this eminent person are at all considerable, or that they at all affect a character which is full of probity, honor, generosity, and real goodness.  In some points he has but too much resemblance to his unfortunate brother, who, with all his weaknesses, had a good understanding, and many parts of an excellent man and a good king.  But Monsieur, without supposing the other deficient, (as he was not,) excels him in general knowledge, and in a sharp and keen observation, with something of a better address, and an happier mode of speaking and of writing.  His conversation is open, agreeable, and informed; his manners gracious and princely.  His brother, the Comte d’Artois, sustains still better the representation of his place.  He is eloquent, lively, engaging in the highest degree, of a decided character, full of energy and activity.  In a word, he is a brave, honorable, and accomplished cavalier.  Their brethren of royalty, if they were true to their own cause and interest, instead of relegating these illustrious persons to an obscure town, would bring them forward in their courts and camps, and exhibit them to (what they would speedily obtain) the esteem, respect, and affection of mankind.

[Sidenote:  Objection made to the regent’s endeavor to go to Spain.]

As to their knocking at every door, (which seems to give offence,) can anything be more natural?  Abandoned, despised, rendered in a manner outlaws by all the powers of Europe, who have treated their unfortunate brethren with all the giddy pride and improvident insolence of blind, unfeeling prosperity, who did not even send them a compliment of condolence on the murder of their brother and sister, in such a state is it to be wondered at, or blamed, that they tried every way, likely or unlikely, well or ill chosen, to get out of the horrible pit into which they are fallen, and that in particular they tried whether the princes of their own blood might at length be brought