It is even my intention to make the minister ensure that this work is under my protection.." Above all, the attitude of the authors who write should be made sure of.

"Not only must this work be entrusted to authors of real talent, but again to attached men, who will present facts in this true light and prepare healthy instruction by bringing history down to the year VIII." But this instruction can be healthy only through a series of preliminary and convergent judgments, insinuating into all minds the final approval and well-founded admiration of the existing regime.

Accordingly, the historian must feel at each line" the defects of the ancient regime, "the influence of the court of Rome, of confessional tickets, of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, of the ridiculous marriage of Louis XIV.

with Madame de Maintenon, the perpetual disorder in the finances, the pretensions of the parliament, the want of rules and leadership in the administration,..

in such a way that one breathes on reaching the epoch when one enjoys the benefits of that which is due to the unity of the laws, administration and territory." The constant feebleness of the government under Louis XIV, even, under Louis XV.