in the King, to try first every pacific measure:  and that country and this were laboring jointly to stop the course of hostilities in Holland, to endeavor to effect an accommodation, and were scarcely executing at all the armaments ordered in their ports; when all of a sudden an inflammatory letter, written by the Princess of Orange to the King of Prussia, induces him, without consulting England, without consulting even his own Council, to issue orders by himself to his generals, to march twenty thousand men to revenge the insult supposed to be offered to his sister.  With a pride and egotism planted in the heart of every King, he considers her being stopped in the road, as a sufficient cause to sacrifice a hundred or two thousand of his own subjects, and as many of his enemies, and to spread fire, sword, and desolation over the half of Europe.  This hasty measure has embarrassed England, undesirous of war, if it can be avoided, yet unwilling to separate from the power who is to render its success probable.  Still you may be assured, that that court is going on in concurrence with this, to prevent extremities, if possible; always understood, that if the war cannot be prevented, they will enter into it as parties, and in opposition to one another.  This event is, in my opinion, to be deprecated by the friends of France.  She never was equal to such a war by land, and such a one by sea; and less so now, than in any moment of the present reign.  You remember that the nation was in a delirium of joy on the convocation of the Notables, and on the various reformations agreed on between them and the government.  The picture of the distress of their finances was indeed frightful, but the intentions to reduce them to order seemed serious.  The constitutional reformations have gone on well, but those of expenses make little progress.  Some of the most obviously useless have indeed been lopped off, but the remainder is a heavy mass, difficult to be reduced.  Despair has seized every mind, and they have passed from an extreme of joy to one of discontent.  The parliament, therefore, oppose the registering any new tax, and insist on an Assembly of the States General.  The object of this is to limit expenses, and dictate a constitution.  The edict for the stamp tax has been the subject of reiterated orders and refusals to register.  At length, the King has summoned the parliament to Versailles to hold a bed of justice, in which he will order them, in person, to register the edict.  At the moment of my writing, they are gone to Versailles for this purpose.  There will yet remain to them, to protest against the register, as forced, and to issue orders against its execution on pain of death.  But as the King would have no peaceable mode of opposition left, it remains to be seen, whether they will push the matter to this extremity.  It is evident, I think, that the spirit of this country is advancing towards a revolution in their constitution.  There are not wanting persons at the helm, friends to the progress of this spirit.  The Provincial Assemblies will be the most probable instrument of effecting it.