Category: Biographies
A man of the world who can count his conquests, 23; Schooldays: emancipation, 24; Death of Louis XIV.: a retrospect, 26; Entry into public life: relations with his father, 28; Director of the Press, 30; In battle with the Parlement against the schemes of Law, 31; In the Rue Qu...
"_Celle du Mein_, sous les ordres du Maréchal de Maillebois, a commencé à pousser l'ennemi. Je serais d'avis qu'on lui continuerât ce généralât. Elle pourra aller _jusqu'en West...
2. Part 2René Louis de Voyer d'Argenson was born at Paris in 1694, in the same year as two puissant men whose fortunes were to intersect his own, the Englishman, Henry St. John, and his...
7. Part 7The fall of Fribourg closed the events of the year in Alsace. Thither in August the King had hurried from Flanders upon hearing that as Frederick had predicted, the Austrians, u...
1. Part 1A man of the world who can count his conquests, 23; Schooldays: emancipation, 24; Death of Louis XIV.: a retrospect, 26; Entry into public life: relations with his father, 28; D...
13. Part 13D'Argenson had arrived at the conviction that the causes of the evil from which the country was suffering were the practical nullity of the Crown and the political nullity of th...
11. Part 11"It is averred that everything is preparing in France for a great reform in religion. It will be a very different thing from that rude Reformation, a medley of freedom and super...
5. Part 5It was no such fate that d'Argenson designed for himself; and with keen anxiety did he watch for an opening which would enable him to reap the fruit of his researches. For a lon...
4. Part 4Among the influences which connected d'Argenson with the tradition of the late reign were his relations with that curious and not very admirable person,[144] the Abbé de Choisy....
10. Part 10In his public life, d'Argenson is distinguished rather for what he might have done than for anything he did. In 1745 he was, as it has been necessary to show, in no sense respon...
15. Part 15[Footnote 149: "Essais," II. p. 103 (1785). The meetings were held every Tuesday. The tone prevailing in the little coterie is suggested by the amusing criticism of Perrault's p...
6. Part 6There are two sides to the questions suggested by the government of Fleury. There is no denying that his negative policy conferred great benefits on France; there is equally lit...
16. Part 16[Footnote 312: The memoir is neglected by M. Zevort. It is noticed by M. de Broglie ("Marie Thérèse," I. p. 202, note) and rejected as possibly spurious and certainly unimportan...
3. Part 3"At last, my dear aunt, the taxes are achieving what all the preachers in the world have never dared to undertake. Luxury is no more. The balls of the Opera and Comedy are as de...
14. Part 14(_b_) Chapters VII., IX., and Conclusion. Chapter VII. contains the second of d'Argenson's "plans." Chapter IX. and the Conclusion represent the Chapter VIII., articles 2 and 3,...
12. Part 12One of the most striking features of this Plan of 1737 is the care which is taken to safeguard the royal authority. The local officers are placed under the absolute control of t...
9. Part 9Above all, he made the ambassador clearly understand that he was to listen to no proposal which would tend to deprive Frederick of Silesia, well knowing that with that object on...
17. Part 17As to the destruction of the nobility, nothing could have been further from d'Argenson's mind. He was himself a nobleman; and, if he had none of the prejudice, he had all the pr...