_To His Royal Highness, Monseigneur le Duc d’Orléans, Regent of the
Kingdom._
MONSEIGNEUR,--This work, which I have the honour to present to your
Royal Highness, has for its aim: to give an idea of the personal
qualities and general knowledge necessary in all good negotiators;
to indicate to them the paths which they should follow and the rocks
which they should avoid; and to exhort those who destine themselves to
the foreign service of their country, to render themselves capable of
discharging worthily that high, important, and difficult office before
entering upon it.
The honour which the late King did me in charging me with his commands
and his full powers for foreign negotiation, and particularly for
those which led to the Treaty of Ryswick, has redoubled the attention
which I have ever paid since my youngest years to my own instruction
in the power, the rights, and the ambitions of each of the principal
monarchies and states of Europe, in their divergent interests and
the forms of their government, in the causes of their understandings
and misunderstandings, and finally in the treaties which they have
made one with another; in order to employ this knowledge to the
best advantage whenever occasion offered in the service of my King
and Country. After the loss which France has just suffered of that
great King, whose reign was so full of glory and triumph, she did
indeed need that the Hand of God, which has always upheld her in her
necessities, should continue to guide her. We had indeed to look for
Divine Help to support us during the minority of his present Majesty,
so that we might hope that the All-Powerful Hand should mould a prince
of like blood and spirit to him who has gone. The Regency needed an
intelligence of the highest order, a capacity without limit, a clear
insight into the character of persons and events, and an indefatigable
activity which would increase at every new demand made by the interests
of state--all these united in the person of a prince at once just,
lovable, beneficent, whose character might earn for him the title of a
veritable father of his country. These are the traits so strongly and
so profoundly marked in you, Monseigneur, which have brought all France
on its knees in homage before you, with full confidence and happiness,
and a glorious prestige which shall pass undimmed to our remotest
descendants as a worthy symbol of your great rule.
I am, with profound respect, and with a zealous and affectionate
attachment to your Person, Monseigneur,
Your Royal Highness’s most humble, obedient, and faithful servant,