have an eye to the pox.`6 T h e gout is such a harlequin, that it wears

T o H E R T F O R D 10 M A R C H
1766
55
6
have an eye to the pox.' T h e gout is such a harlequin, that it wears
any dress, and skips from one place to another. It is not quite prudent to write with this disorder, but it is going off, and I a m impatient to show you that m y ingratitude is gone off too.
There has been a violent clap of thunder here. T'other morning?
the King, with all his lightnings about him, appeared suddenly in
the parliament, ordered four privy councillors, not peers,8 to follow
him into the chamber and sit at his feet,9 where he bid them read
a Discours,10 in which he informed the giants, that they are nothing
but magistrates and rebels, and that he alone is Jupiter Omnipotent
and Omniscient.11 H e forbids union with the Titans of other parliaments,12 and prohibits their forging and printing any more remonstrances in ./Etna. They m a y whisper in his divine ear, but n o more
murmurs.^ H e then dispatched a courier to Roan,1* for three presidents, w h o m he sent back again still more haughtily, only referring
them to his Discourses As he crossed the Pont Neuf, he met his
neighbour the B o n Dieu, lighted from his eagle, kneeled d o w n in the
(ibid. 557). T h e siance of this day became
6. For other anecdotes of Lady Dorchester, see O S S O R Y ii. 528-9 and n. 25,
famous as the 'seance de la flagellation'
(E. Glasson, Le Parlement de Paris, 1901,
and Works iv. 315-16 and n. 1.
ii. 315).
7. 3 March.
12. 'Je ne souffrirai pas qu'il se forme
8. Jean-Baptiste Paulin d'Aguesseau,
dans m o n royaume une association qui
Pierre Gilbert de Voisins, Louis-Jean Berferait degenerer en une confederation de
tier de Sauvigny, and Jean-Francois Joly
resistance le lien naturel des . . . devoirs
de Fleury, conseillers d'etat, along with
et des obligations communes' (Flammerthe Comte de St Florentin, ministre et
secretaire d'etat (Mercure historique, 1766, mont and Tourneux, op. cit. ii. 556).
13. 'Les remontrances seront toujours
clx. 295-6, 303; Almanach royal, 1766,
recues favorablement quand elles ne repp. 142-64 et passim).
spireront que cette moderation qui fait le
9. 'In a place where they had no right'
caractere du magistrat et de la verite,
(Mem. Geo. Ill ii. 177); see Mercure, clx.
quand le secret en conservera la decence et
297l'utilite, et quand cette voie si sagement
10. Printed in Remontrances du Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe siecle, ed. Julesetablie ne se trouvera pas travestie en
libelles' (ibid. 558).
Flammermont and Maurice Tourneux,
14. Sic in M S ; presumably 'Rouen.' See
1888-98, ii. 556-9. It was read by Joly
next note.
de Fleury (ibid. 556), and was in re15. O n 4 March the King received a
sponse to a series of remonstrances of the
deputation of 13 members of the parliaparliament of Paris against the King's
ment of Rouen, rebuked them for their
treatment of the parliaments of Rennes
remonstrances of 22 Aug. 1765 and 15
and Pau; see ibid. 485-530, 534-54.
Feb. 1766, and referred them to 'les vrais
11. 'C'est en m a personne seule que
reside la puissance souveraine . . . C'est principes' contained in 'la reponse que
j'ai faite a m o n parlement de Paris.
de moi seul que mes cours tiennent leur
Qu'elle vous serve de regie' (Mercure, clx.
existence et leur autorite ... la plenitude
de cette autorite, qu'elles n'exercent qu'en 304-5; A. Floquet, Histoire du parlement
m o n nom, demeure toujours en moi,' etc. de Normandie, 1840-2, vi. 529-31).