Not one of the intendants is there, except Malouet, and by the superiority of this man, the most judicious of the Assembly, one can judge the services which his colleagues would have rendered.

Out of two hundred and ninety-one members of the clergy,[2117] there are indeed forty-eight bishops or archbishops and thirty-five abbots or canons, but, being prelates and with large endowments, they excite the envy of their order, and are generals without any soldiers.

We have the same spectacle among the nobles.

Most of them, the gentry of the provinces, have been elected in opposition to the grandees of the Court.

Moreover, neither the grandees of the Court, devoted to worldly pursuits, nor the gentry of the provinces, confined to private life, are practically familiar with public affairs.