What! to leave to the executive
magistrate the most dangerous of all prerogatives? I know none more
dangerous, nor any one more necessary to be so trusted. I do not say
that this prerogative ought to be trusted to your king unless he
enjoyed other auxiliary trusts along with it, which he does not now
hold. But if he did possess them, hazardous as they are undoubtedly,
advantages would arise from such a constitution, more than
compensating the risk. There is no other way of keeping the several
potentates of Europe from intriguing distinctly and personally with
the members of your Assembly, from intermeddling in all your concerns,
and fomenting, in the heart of your country, the most pernicious of
all factions- factions in the interest and under the direction of
foreign powers. From that worst of evils, thank God, we are still
free. Your skill, if you had any, would be well employed to find out
indirect correctives and controls upon this perilous trust. If you did
not like those which in England we have chosen, your leaders might
have exerted their abilities in contriving better. If it were
necessary to exemplify the consequences of such an executive
government as yours, in the management of great affairs, I should
refer you to the late reports of M. de Montmorin to the National
Assembly, and all the other proceedings relative to the differences
between Great Britain and Spain.
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