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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1799 Excerpt: ... CHAP. n. Second Step of the Conspiracy againsl Kings.--Political 8%slems of the Sec7'--D'Argenson and Montesquieu. AMONG the adepts who must have foreseen the D'Argenconsequences which naturally ensued from the ap-son's sysplication of a pretended equality of rights, and of an tcmirreligious liberty, to politics, none could have done so more intuitively than the Marquis D'Argenson. This man, minister of the foreign department, had lived during the greater part of his life near the person of hi9 Sovereign, and enjoyed that favour, to which he was thought to be entitled by having consecrated his life in the Royal service. Yet he was the man who, during the reign of Lewis XV. drew the outlines of those Sophisticated Systems, which were to oppose Regal authority, and gradually metamorphose the French Monarchy into a Republic. We have seen Voltaire, as early as the year 1743, extolling the affection which this Marquis bore to Equality, to Liberty, and to the Municipal Government. These praises of the Premier Chief evidently show, that Mr. D'Argenson had already conceived his Municipalizing System, and all those wild plans, which the future rebels, under the title of a Constituent Assembly, were to adopt as one of the leading features of their Royal Democracy, at once the most senseless and most seditious as well as the most heterogeneous form of government that could be conceived, and more especially for Frenchmen: They also prove, that he made no secret of his plans to his considents and cooperators. His system consists in the division and subdivision of the Provinces into small States, sirst called Provincial Administrations by Necker, and afterwards termed Departments by Target and Mirabeau. According to D'Argenson's plan, resumed and corrected by Turgot and...