Louis XVI., under the guidance of the courtiers, would CHAP. be either that of Charles I. or Charles IX.* III. 1776. 45. Early his Necker. The obvious incapacity of Clugny for the arduous duties of comptroller-general of the finances, soon obliged Maurepas to look out for an assistant to him; and his choice tory of M. fell on a man destined to immortal but melancholy celebrity in the history of the Revolution,-M. NECKER. This eminent philosopher, but unhappy statesman, was born at Geneva on the 3d September 1732, of respectable parentshis father, who was descended from an old family in the north of Germany, having been a professor of public law in that city. His own inclination prompted him to the study of philosophy and politics; but the wishes of his parents led him to follow commerce as a profession, and he early settled in Paris in the capacity of clerk, in the banking-house of M. Vernot. His abilities and assiduity soon raised him to a lead in that firm; and he afterwards became a partner in the great banking-house of M. Thelusson, where he was engaged in immense speculations, in the course of which he realised a large fortune. The chief sources of his fortune were vast transactions in the corn trade, and important finance operations under the government, which commenced in the administration of the Duc de Choiseul. In proportion as he became affluent in circumstances, he gradually devoted himself more and more to his favourite political and philosophical pursuits; and several pamphlets which he published had already acquired for him a considerable reputation, when one he published in 1775, on the freedom of commerce in grain, at the time of the dreadful riots, owing to the scarcity of that year, at once raised him to the highest eminence. Such was the impression produced by this celebrated attack on Turgot's edicts for establishing freedom in the corn trade, that the friends of that statesman have not hesitated to ascribe those disorders to the machinations of Necker to effect his *The author of the massacre of St Bartholomew. Turgot died a few years after, on 20th March 1781, at the age of fifty-four. CHAP. Overthrow.* III. 1776. But, though the upright character of the Swiss financier forbids the belief that he had any hand in the stirring up of that formidable insurrection, a compari1 Biog. Univ. son of dates demonstrates that he had no hesitation in xxxi. 9, (Necker.) taking the earliest possible advantage of the distress which Droz, i. produced it, to inflame the public mind against the minister to whose change of system he conceived the general calamities to be owing.1 216, 217. Soul. iv. 27, 29. 46. Madame the society she was sur rounded. Necker's reputation at Paris was in great part owing to the celebrity of his wife, Madame Necker: there is no Necker, and character so great in France as to be independent of female with which influence. It was the fate of this remarkable woman to be intimately connected with three of the most eminent persons of her own or almost of any age; for in early youth, while still dwelling under her father's roof, a humble pastor in the solitudes of the Jura, she attracted the notice, and, but for the refusal of his relations to consent to the connexion, would have been united to Gibbon, the greatest of modern historians.+ Subsequently she married M. Necker, who, at the most critical period of its fate, was-prime minister of France, and mainly contributed, for good or for evil, to bring about its Revolution; and she was the mother of Madame de Stael- the first of female, and second to few of male authors. The saloons * Necker's pamphlet was approved of by the censors on the 18th April 1775; its publication was sanctioned by the King: on the 28th it was published. Symptoms of the insurrection appeared at Dijon on the 28th April; and it broke out with extreme violence at Versailles and Paris on the 2d May :- -"La cause de l'émeute des blès est toute dans l'ambition de M. Necker, qui se pressait de faire renvoyer mon frère pour occuper sa place."-Discours du Chevalier Turgot, (frère du Ministre ;) SOULAVIE, iv. 28, 29. "The personal attractions of Mademoiselle Susan Curchod were embellished by the virtues and talents of the mind. Her fortune was humble, but her family was respectable. Her mother, a native of France, had preferred her religion to her country. The profession of her father did not extinguish the moderation and philosophy of his temper, and he lived content with a small salary and laborious duty in the obscure lot of minister of Crassy, in the mountains that separate the Pays de Vaud from the country of Burgundy. In the solitude of a sequestered village, he bestowed a liberal and even a learned education on his only daughter. She surpassed his hopes by her proficiency in the sciences and languages; and in her short visits to some relations at Lausanne, the wit, beauty, and erudition of Mademoiselle Curchod were the subject of III. 1776. of this accomplished lady, who, to a prepossessing person, CHAP. united the solid acquirements of learning and talent, were not frequented by the nobility of the court circle; but, even before Necker was made minister, they were the centre of union to a society much larger, and, as was soon felt, more influential. There were assembled that section of the noblesse, now by no means inconsiderable, which had embraced with ardour the new opinions, and was ready to adopt any projects of philanthropy or social regeneration which were suggested by fancy and supported by eloquence; the higher class of persons in office, or connected with the administration of the finances; the richest and best informed of the bankers, merchants, and Tiers Etat, and all the men of distinction in literature, science, and philosophy. There never had been formed in Paris a circle where so much talent, knowledge, and enthusiasm were combined, and it had a material influence, as will appear Gibbon, in the sequel, on the progress of the great convulsion. Works, i. Yet was it sensibly different from the usual character 106, 108. of French society. It was more grave and sedate 217, 218. Biog. Univ. abounded less with the brilliancy of wit, the elegance of xxxi. 9, manner, or the keenness of repartee, and already gave De Stael, token of the serious thoughts and profound passions which i. 56, 64. were to agitate the country during the Revolution.1 universal applause. The report awakened my curiosity; I saw and loved. I spent some happy days at Crassy, in the mountains of Burgundy; she listened to the voice of truth and passion, and her parents honourably encouraged the attachment. But on my return to England, I found my father would not hear of this strange connexion; without his consent I was myself destitute and helpless; after a painful struggle I yielded to my fate-I sighed as a lover, but obeyed as a son. The minister of Crassy soon after died; his stipend died with him his daughter retired to Geneva, where, by teaching young ladies, she earned a hard subsistence for herself and her mother; but in her lowest distress she maintained a spotless reputation and a dignified behaviour. A rich banker of Paris, a citizen of Geneva, had the good fortune and good sense to discover and possess this inestimable treasure; and in the capital of taste and luxury she resisted the temptations of wealth, as she had sustained the hardships of indigence. The genius of her husband has raised him to the most exalted situation in Europe. In every situation of life he has reclined on the bosom of a faithful friend; and Mademoiselle Curchod is now the wife of M. Necker, the minister, perhaps the legislator, of the French monarchy." - GIBBON, Autobiography, Miscellaneous Works, i. 106-108. Miscel. Droz, i. (Necker.) Rev. Franc. CHAP. III. 1776. 47. Causes to Necker's appointment to the ministry. The continual embarrassment of the finances, to which the economy and reforms of Turgot had been able to apply only a temporary and most inadequate remedy, was the immediate cause of the elevation of M. Necker to the which led ministry. He had composed, and transmitted to Maurepas, in 1776, a memoir on the finances, in which he developed a plan for supplying the deficit, which he estimated, at that period, at 27,000,000 francs (£1,080,000) a-year. This plan was in a peculiar manner agreeable to the adroit minister, coming, as it did, on the eve of the war with England to support the insurgent colonies of America, when extensive loans were indispensable, and from the man in France who, from his credit in the commercial world and his position as a financier, was best qualified both to form a correct opinion on the subject, and to carry his designs for the relief of the finances into execution. The idea of making him comptroller-general immediately presented itself to the mind of the primeminister; but such a choice, however desirable in some points of view, was not without grave inconvenience in others. Necker was a foreigner and a Protestant, neither noble nor of historic descent; and his connexion with the liberal party, notwithstanding his controversy with the late comptroller-general on the corn trade, threatened to revive that formidable coalition of vested interests to which Maurepas had been obliged to sacrifice Turgot and i. 221, 222. Malesherbes, and from the hostility of which he himself had made so narrow an escape. 1 1 Soul. iv. 1,16. Droz, 48. ment as Finance Minister. The war, however, which it was foreseen was approachHis appoint- ing, absolutely required money; Necker alone could revive the credit of the crown; and Maurepas fell upon the following plan to calm the jealousy of the church and privileged classes. A respectable man, of mild and inoffensive manners, long councillor of state, Taboureau des Réaux, but of no abilities, was named comptroller-general of the finances, and Necker had the subordinate situation of director of the treasury. It was understood that, in Oct. 22, 1776. III. 1776. 1777. that capacity, he was to have the entire direction of the CHAP. finances, though without a seat in the council. But his disposition was too aspiring to permit him to remain in a subordinate capacity; and Taboureau, finding that Maurepas coincided with the Swiss banker in his projects of reduction, resigned, and Necker was appointed director- June 29, general of the finances. The distinction between this situation and that of comptroller-general was more than nominal: the former had no seat in the cabinet, the latter had; and this, it was hoped, would allay the apprehensions 1 Buchez of the privileged orders. The clergy, however, murmured and Roux, at the appointment of a Protestant to an office of such Droz, i. 220, importance. "I will give him up to you,” replied iv. 16, 17. Maurepas, "if you will pay the debts of the state."1* i. 168, 171. 222. Soul. first finance tion against The accession of Necker to the ministry speedily made 49. itself felt, not only in various reforms in subordinate Necker's matters of detail connected with the finances, but in an measures, entire change of system. New regulations were established and opposiin the post-horse duties; the receivers-general and inten- them." dants of the finances suppressed; the administrators of the lottery reduced in number; and, by a simple letter of the minister, the vingtième was extended to heritable property of every description. All these measures, and particularly the last, excited violent opposition; the parliament of Normandy solemnly protested against them; and the clamour became so violent, that the author of an energetic pamphlet against the proposed changes was sent to the Bastile.+ Monsieur, afterwards Louis XVIII., began to * It was Necker's acknowledged talent as a financier, and the credit he enjoyed in the commercial world, which ultimately raised him to the ministry; but the manner in which he first became known to the King and Maurepas was curious, and not quite so creditable. An obscure intriguer, possessed of considerable address, named the Marquis de Pezai, had introduced himself to the King, by some anonymous letters on the means of promoting the happiness of the people, and afterwards obtained his confidence in some private interviews. Pezai was under pecuniary obligations to Necker, and, to promote his benefactor, he recommended him to Maurepas. Such are the obscure means by which, in a country without free institutions, talent is frequently made known to the throne. See SOULAVIE, iv. 1, 17; and BUCHEZ and Roux, Histoire Parlementaire de France, i. 169, 170. + M. Pelesseri. |