Gazette Of The United States

France continued without a National Assembly for 175 years, till again called together in May 1789, which was a measure the sovereign would never have agreed to, were it not that the derangement of the public finances, and the internal state of convulsion and discontent, made such a measure indispensably necessary. When convened at the beginning of the 17th century, the Assembly were then proceeding to such unconstitutional lengths, by impeaching the ministers of the crown for all the evils and commotions which had for a series of years distracted, and almost ruined the country, that they were dissolved by the King, and no more assembled. The spirit of liberty was not indeed then so well understood as at present, nor was the country on the verge of national bankruptcy—yet it was on the point of being involved in all the horrors of a civil war.