Note 80 — X
Laura Ensor translation
“It would be necessary,” says the Prince de Ligne, “to prevent the ladies at Court from harming the Government by intrigues in love, in politics, and in society; and also advisable to attract the great lords by all sorts of amusements and distinctions. It would then be possible to retain in the kingdom all the money which the pettiest noble, as soon as he has cut his mustachios and left off his long respectable coat, thinks necessary to carry off to Paris, and spend with women, tailors, hotels, and hairdressers, and in gambling and paying off the police, with whom he is always getting into trouble.” Unfortunately the King himself set the example of thus abandoning the ancient Polish customs in favour of the French.