George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

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Chapter 48:

The towns of Massachusetts hold Correspondence.

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August, 1772—January, 173.

‘we must get the colonies into order, before we

Chap. XLVIII.} 1772. Aug.

engage with our neighbors,’ were the words of the king to Lord North in August; and though nothing could be more unlike than the manners of George the Third and Louis the Fifteenth, a cordial understanding sprung up between them, and even a project for a defensive alliance, that monarchy might triumph in France over philosophy, in America over the people.

If in other affairs Louis the Fifteenth was weak of purpose, on the subject of royal authority he never wavered; impatient to be obeyed in all things and by all, he prepared to destroy whatever checked his absolute will, and an ordinance of 1769 condemned to death every author of writings that tended to disturb the public mind. To him Protestants were republicans; and he not only refused to restore for them the edict of Nantz, but would not even legalize their marriages. Bold in doing ill, he violated the constitutions of Languedoc and Brittany without scruple,