With respect to myself, weighing the pleasure of
the journey and bare possibility of success in one scale, and the strong
probability of failure and the public disappointment directed on me, in
the other, the latter preponderates. Add to this, that jealousy might be
excited in the breast of a person, who could find occasions of making me
uneasy.
The late changes in the ministry here, excite considerable hopes. I
think we gain in them all. I am particularly happy at the reentry of
Malesherbes into the Council. His knowledge and integrity render his
value inappreciable, and the greater to me, because, while he had
no views of office, we had established together the most unreserved
intimacy. So far, too, I am pleased with Montmorin. His honesty proceeds
from the heart as well as the head, and therefore may be more surely
counted on. The King loves business, economy, order, and justice, and
wishes sincerely the good of his people; but he is irascible, rude, very
limited in his understanding, and religious bordering on bigotry. He has
no mistress, loves his queen, and is too much governed by her.
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