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III.

1774.

1 Weber, i. 42, 45. Soul. ii. 139, 147. Campan, i. 79, 80.

17. Character of Mau

repas.

took no part in the affair: the King was indisposed towards the Duc de Choiseul, from the representations of his aunts, and the character given of his immoralities in a secret memoir which his father, the Dauphin, had bequeathed to him on the subject. M. de Machault, formerly Keeper of the Seals, was first fixed on, and the letter containing his appointment was actually sent off, when the representations of the Princess Adelaide obtained a change in favour of M. de Maurepas, formerly Minister of Marine, and the letter to M. de Machault was intercepted before the page who bore it had left the royal stables. The destiny of France and of Europe hung on that occurrence; for M. de Machault was a man of profound thought and enlightened observation, who would probably have done as much to avert, as Maurepas did to bring on, the Revolution.1 *

The choice which the King thus made, on his accession to the throne, of Maurepas for prime-minister, was in every point of view prejudicial to his reign. This old man, though not destitute of some good, and with many pleasing qualities, was in no respect adapted for the duties of

* The Queen at the same time gave a striking proof of the generosity of her disposition. The Marquis de Pontecoulant, major of the gardes-du-corps, had given offence to her soon after her arrival in France, on a point of etiquette, and her resentment had been such that, with girlish vivacity, she said she would never forget it. This expression became known to the Marquis, who, deeming himself obnoxious to her, sent in his resignation on her accession to the throne, by the Prince of Beauveaux, his superior officer, who first took it to the Queen, to explain the motive of such an unexpected proceeding. "Tell M. de Pontecoulant," said the generous Princess, "that the Queen does not recollect the quarrels of the Dauphiness, and that I request him to retain his situation."-WEBER, i. 44.

The Queen was much attached to the Duc de Choiseul, to whom she with reason ascribed her elevation to the throne of France. "Je n'oublierai jamais," said she, when she first saw him at court after the death of Louis XV.,-“ Je n'oublierai jamais que vous avez fait mon bonheur."-" Et celui de toute la France," was the happy reply of the Duke. It was a great misfortune for Louis that his original appointment of M. de Machault had not taken effect, for he was the very reverse of Maurepas, and possessed the qualities necessary to supply the defects of the King's mind, and give vigour and solidity to his councils. He was distinguished by profound thought, extensive foresight, and unshaken firmness-qualities of which the monarchy never stood more in need than in that eventful crisis. Had he become the prime-minister of Louis XVI., he would soon have been his mentor.-WEBER, i. 116.

III.

1774.

a minister in such arduous times. By accustoming the CHAP. King to half measures, and a system of temporisation, he contributed early to fix that character of irresolution upon his proceedings which was already too much the defect of his own disposition. Having suffered a banishment of nearly twenty years from court, in consequence of some satirical verses on Madame de Pompadour, he returned to power with no other principle but the desire of maintaining his ascendency. Frivolous in all his ideas of government, he neither formed his opinions of men by their conduct, nor of measures by their utility, but of both by their tendency to uphold his own influence at court. His ideas were all half a century back; he was an old courtier of Versailles, but not a minister of France. His character has thus been delineated by the able hand of a contemporary observer :-" "Superficial, and incapable of serious and profound attention, but gifted with a facility of intelligence and apprehension, which seized in an instant the thread of the most complicated affairs, he supplied in council by skill and dexterity what he wanted in study and meditation. Insinuating and mild in manners, flexible and fertile in resources, alike for attack or defence; inexhaustible in anecdotes and bonmots, to lead the serious into pleasantry, and turn aside an onset which he could not openly withstand-he possessed a lynx eye to seize the weak or ridiculous in men, and an imperceptible art to draw them into a snare, or wield them to his purposes; a power, still more formidable, to make sport of every thing, even of merit itself, when he wished to bring it into contempt; in fine, the faculty of enlivening every thing, and simplifying, to an inconceivable degree, the labours of the cabinet. He was believed to be a great man, because he had written four cutting verses on a detected favourite." The King was 1 Marmonnot ignorant of his weaknesses when he made choice of 196. him for prime-minister, but he trusted that age, misfortune, and exile, must have given more firmness and

tel, Mem.

III.

1774.

d'Anglas,

Vie de Male

sherbes, ii. 37. Michaud,

xxvii.

18.

of govern

CHAP. solidity to his character, when, in truth, they had just done the reverse. He did not possess the mind on which solitude or adversity could act with any salutary effect. Naturally indolent and fond of ease, he returned to power with no other feeling but a determination not again to fall into the error by which he had been formerly driven from it. Regarding politics merely as a game of hazard, he looked upon every profession of disinterested virtue as folly or boasting, which was absurd or insincere. Desirous of 1 Weber, i. retaining the helm of affairs during the remainder of his 115. Boissy life, and conducting the government, at least during his own time, without shock or collision, he made it his principal care to study the signs of the times; and, regulating himself Biog. Univ. by convenience, not principle, he carefully abstained from (Maurepas.) every act, whatever its ultimate consequences might be, which threatened to induce present opposition or embarrassment.1 With these talents and dispositions, Maurepas was His system not long of acquiring the entire direction of the King's mind. His system was, to study his disposition, and secretly or unobservedly discover his wishes; never to contradict him openly, but to give him the appearance of deciding himself upon every thing, when, in truth, he was only yielding to the statements and representations which he had previously, and with sedulous art, laid before him. Accustomed to economy and simplicity of life during his long retreat, he affected no pomp or state as minister, was easy of access to all, and gave in readily, so far as he was personally concerned, to the plans of economy which the King had so much at heart. Aware of the growing influence of public opinion, and the philanthropic ideas which were generally afloat, as well as the sincere desire for reform which animated the breast of the sovereign, he at once encouraged those dispositions. on the part of the monarch, and constantly represented him to others as the lover of justice, order, and peace, as animated by a sincere love for his people, and ready to sacrifice every thing to the public good. His great object

ment.

III.

1774.

was to avoid difficulty, and prevent collision, by bringing CHAP. the system of government into unison with the spirit of the age. With this view he even outstripped the wishes of the people, and placed the ministers in correspondence with the principal learned societies in Paris, and the other great towns, in order to suggest measures that might acquire popularity and give present satisfaction, without any consideration of their ultimate consequences. This change, inconsiderable as it may appear, was in reality vital, and attended with the most important consequences. It was no longer the court of Versailles which governed the existing generation, but the existing generation which governed Versailles-a system of government better 1 Soulavie, calculated to insure present tranquillity, and bequeath ii. 151, 156. future danger, than any that could have been devised.1

19.

of Abbé

and recall

liaments.

Oct. 21,

1774.

The new system speedily appeared in the measures of government. Hardly had the King ascended the throne, Dismissal when the Duke of Orleans, with his son, the Duke of Terray and Chartres, presented to him memorials, having for their Maue object the recall of the old parliaments, exiled by Louis of the parXV. Louis hesitated what part to take in this important affair. On the one hand, the restoration of the magistrates was warmly supported by the Orleans family, part of the nobility, by Maurepas, the whole philosophers of the capital, and the Queen, who was induced to espouse their side by the influence of the Duc de Choiseul; on the other, it was strongly opposed by the Princesses Adelaide and Louisa, and the King's brothers. princesses threw themselves at the King's feet, besought him not to blast their father's memory by so decided a condemnation of his measures, and represented the recall of so heated and factious a body as likely to overturn the monarchy. In this they were supported by the great body of the courtiers, the Chancellor Maupeou, and M. Vergennes, who had recently been admitted into the ministry, and had already become distinguished by his abilities. Maurepas, seeing the King thus beset on all

The

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1774.

CHAP. sides, and still remaining undecided, while the majority of the council inclined to range itself on the side adverse to the parliament, took the bold step of overturning altogether the ministers of the late king. The Abbé Terray, M. de la Vrillière, and the Chancellor Maupeou, the leading ministers in opposition to Maurepas, were dismissed, and the project adopted of restoring the parliaments. This decisive step was taken on the anniversary of the massacre of St Bartholomew. The Parisians, transported with joy, called it "the St Bartholomew of the ministers," and openly insulted the fallen statesmen in the streets. Still, however, the resistance continued ; the Comte D'Artois and the princesses renewed their entreaties and remonstrances, and invoked the shades of his august ancestors to dissuade the King from adopting a measure which could not fail to prove fatal to his house. TURGOT, Miromesnil, and MALESHERBES, who had been introduced into the ministry in the room of the Abbé Terray, La Vrillière, and Maupeou, strongly maintained the opposite opinion. The King, sensible of the imporii. 180, 229. tance of the question, and unable to make up his mind on the subject, had it repeatedly debated, both orally in the council, and in written memorials of no common ability.1*

1 Soulavie,

Weber, i. 115, 120.

* On the part of the parliament, it was urged by the Abbé Mably and others, "That the noblesse of the kingdom, the princes and peers of the blood-royal, were entitled to be judged only by the first body of an immovable, indestructible, and national magistracy; that under whatever form that magistracy had existed in France,-whether under that of an assembly called champ-de-Mars, cour-plénière, states-general, or parliament,-it had been, in all ages, an essential part of the monarchy, the concurrence of which was indispensable to the completing and publishing the law: that immovability was the essential quality of a magistracy to which functions thus supreme and important were intrusted : that it had been regarded in all ages as the chief safeguard of the public liberties, and rampart against arbitrary power in fine, as an inherent part of the fundamental laws of the state. That functions so august imperatively required in the magistrates, peers, and princes of the blood, the greatest security in their exercise, in order that they might be the better enabled to administer justice to the people, and not have to fear the influence of authority in deciding according to their conscience: that the most valuable part of the public law of France was that which secured to immovable bodies, recognised at all times both by the king and the nation, the stability necessary to the preservation of the general law of the realm, and of individuals to the sanctioning of such enactment, the reclamation of rights, and the consideration of the

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