Upon the arrival of the dispatches from London, a great council was held at Versailles, and the King expressed himself in the following manner to his ministers. “I am resolved I will not begin the war, and if the English break the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Europe, who shall be witness to my moderation, shall see that they are the aggressors.”
M. de Maillebois, the father, said publicly at court, that it were better to prevent them, than to give them an opportunity of doing it.
The King’s moderation met with no advocates but those whose interest it was to avoid sieges and battles; for every one was concerned in the event according to his particular views of interest. Military people wanted war, merchants and financiers wished for peace.
The court of London sent my Lord Hertford to Paris, to replace the Earl of Albemarle. This Ambassador was compared to a herald at arms: it was said that he was come to declare war against France. He spoke, in fact, in such a tone, as testified that every thing was ready in England to invade America. M. Rouille was so intimidated, that he said to the King: “Sire, Great Britain must have resolved to declare war, for her Ambassador talks in such a stile, as if the English were ready to open the campaign.”
Upon the first report of the preparations of an armament, the military men, who, since the last campaigns in Flanders, had deserted Versailles, came in shoals to make their court to me. All my apartments were lined with officers, who, in intreating my interest to recommend them to the Prince, set forth their talents in the military art.
The Bishops war, nevertheless, still continued. The Archbishop of Paris, banished to Conflans, was not thereby rendered more submissive. He, from the extremity of his exile, braved the court and the city. He was removed to Lagny sur Maine, a little town that had neither the grandeur nor magnificence of Conflans. This retreat, by diminishing his episcopal pomp, no way changed his character, which remained inflexible. The other rebellious bishops were treated with more severity: but these lettres de cachet had a very opposite effect to what was intended. They served only to make them more important in the eyes of their partizans, which increased their arrogance.
A courtier said to the King, that a seminary should be built at Rome, to which should be sent all the French bishops who rebelled against his orders, with an establishment of 100 Roman crowns per head, for supporting their grandeur.
It is certain that too much respect was paid to these people; and the very chastisements that were inflicted on them, when they swerved from their duty, were tempered with so much consideration, as to prevent their returning to it.
The bishops having nothing to do in their exile but to write, and being unable to employ any other arms than their pens, France was deluged with letters and mandates. These were so many manifestoes against the royal authority. The King was often advised to hang the Printers, who were instrumental in the circulation of these seditious papers; but Lewis XV. would never have recourse to these violent methods.
The English, at length, explained themselves with respect to their warlike preparations, the news of which Fame had trumpeted throughout Europe. They declared to the government, that the French in Canada had made incursions upon lands under the dominion of Great Britain, and that England was not inclined to suffer such usurpations. We have seen that the two crowns, when peace was concluded, left the decision of this affair to commissaries. Count de Argenson had foreseen, at first, that these commissaries would completely ruin the interests of the two courts. “Sir, said he, when two powers, with arms in hand, cannot agree upon certain differences, it is impossible for individuals to reconcile them.”