III. 1780. CHAP. with such bodies, were actuated by a narrow and parsimonious spirit. Minutely attentive to local interests, they were incapable of extending their views to the general good. Refractory and divided on every other subject, they evinced an united and determined resistance to increased taxation on every occasion, however urgent, which, if it became general, would obviously prove inconsistent with good government, and might endanger the very existence of the monarchy.1 De Stael, i. 76, 78. Lab. ii. 71, 73. Droz, i. 283. 59. Necker, however, who conceived that a remedy, and Necker's the only remedy, for all social evils was to be found in assemblies, the participation of the people in the duties of govern provincial ment, urgently pressed the King to follow this example, and establish provincial assemblies generally throughout the kingdom. He conceived, with reason, that however refractory such local assemblies might prove, especially in matters of taxation, they would be much less formidable than a states-general sitting at Paris, and assembled from all parts of the kingdom. He indulged a sanguine hope that the nation might be thus safely trained to the important duties of self-government, and those numerous abuses be gradually pointed out, and rectified, which could not, in the present temper of the public mind, be longer persisted in, without obvious danger to the stability of the throne. With this view he proposed that these provincial assemblies should be composed of four equal parts-one-fourth of deputies from the noblesse, one-fourth from the clergy, one-fourth from the Tiers Etat of the towns, one-fourth from that of the country. An able memoir was presented by him on this subject to the King, which elicited from Louis a variety of marginal notes, written with his own hand, evincing not only a rare sagacity, but the most profound political wisdom. Though impressed with the dangers of the See the memoir of NECKER and notes of LOUIS, in Correspondance inédite de Louis XVI., ii. 188-200; and in SOULAVIE, Histoire du Règne de Louis XVI., iv. 123–131. III. 1780. proposed change, however, the King, with his usual dis- CHAP. trust of his own judgment when opposed to that of others whom he respected, agreed to let the experiment be tried by degrees. It was commenced accordingly in two provinces, and assemblies on this model were established in Berri and Rovergne; and their success, notwithstanding various difficulties, was on the whole such as appeared to justify the views of the Swiss 123, 129. minister.* This measure deserves particular notice, as it was the model on which Necker subsequently framed the States-general, which was the immediate cause of the overthrow of the monarchy.1 1 Soul. iv. De Stael, i. 80,82. Lab. ii. 72, 73. Droz, i. 284. coalition Necker. The period, however, soon arrived when Necker was 60. assailed by the same coalition of selfish interests-averse General to change because their fortunes were made, dreading against inquiry because their deeds were evil-which had already proved fatal to the ministry of Turgot and Malesherbes. His system of economy, which the state of the finances imperatively required, made reductions necessary in the pensions, offices, and gratifications bestowed on the nobility, by the court; and this of course rendered him unpopular with that body. The clergy were jealous of him because he was a Protestant, and lived surrounded by the literary men and philosophers, whose irreligious opinions were openly proclaimed. The people were tired of hearing him called the Just; and the overweening vanity which was perhaps his greatest weakness, furnished them with too many fair opportunities * They had suppressed the corvées in their provinces, and collected in Berri alone 200,000 francs (£8000,) in contributions for objects of local utility. But it was already observed, that their attention was fixed on local interests to the exclusion of any general objects.-DROZ, Histoire du Règne de Louis XVI., i. 284. Necker, like all the French ministers before the Revolution, was perpetually assailed by women of rank, soliciting offices or pensions for themselves or their relations, and frequently insisting upon their claims as a matter of right. He heard them with politeness, but always insisted on the necessity of economising the funds extracted from the earnings of the poor. He found it impossible, however, to make them enter into his ideas on this subject. "What is a thousand crowns," said they, "to the King?" "It is," replied the minister, "the taille of a village."-DE STAEL, sur la Révolution Française, i. 92. III. 1781. CHAP. of turning him to ridicule. The financiers had recovered from the burst of enthusiasm with which his compte rendu had been received, and had already pointed out, in a multiplicity of pamphlets, the weak points of that skilful semi-exposure of an insolvent exchequer. The Comte d'Artois and the Comte de Provence had sounded the alarm among the higher nobility, as to the dangerous tendency of the provincial assemblies, and the equal representation of the Tiers Etat with the two privileged orders the parliaments viewed with jealousy the proposed institution of deliberative bodies, who might in the end come to overshadow their authority. The King himself had lost his confidence in the representations of the minister of finance as to the flourishing state of the revenue he could not be brought to understand how an exchequer which was represented as enjoying a surplus should be constantly reduced to the necessity of borrowing; and he had in secret consulted several 1 Vergennes, persons as to their opinion of the accuracy of these representations. Influenced by these doubts, the King in April 1781 desired Vergennes, the minister of foreign 303. Lab. i. affairs, to lay before him a memoir on the tendency of Stael, Rev. M. Necker's measures; and that memoir, as might have been expected, was any thing but favourable to the Swiss minister.1 Mem. in 206, 215, 75, 76. De Franc. i. 91, 93. 61. Necker's Matters were at length brought to a crisis, by the publication of a pamphlet by the treasurer to the Comte resignation. d'Artois, in which he criticised, in terms of no measured severity, the statements contained in the compte rendu. Necker was not ignorant that this writer expressed the opinion of the numerous and influential classes in the metropolis who had a share in collecting the revenue. He was in consequence deeply affected by the circumstance; and Madame Necker, with more ingenuousness than knowledge of the world, secretly made a visit to Maurepas to make him the confidant of her grief. The astute old man immediately foresaw the means of over CHAP. III. 1781. throwing a statesman whom he dreaded; and it was resolved by all the ministry, except M. de Castries, that they should resign if Necker obtained a place in the council. This, however, the Swiss minister deemed indispensable; or at least, that he should have the privilege of appearing and defending his measures before that body, when they were the subject of deliberation ; observing with justice, that when his measures were attacked on all sides, the King could not form an impartial opinion regarding them, if he were not permitted to be present to defend them. "What! you in the council-room!" exclaimed Maurepas, "and you do not go to mass!" "Sully," replied Necker, "did not go to mass, and yet he was admitted to the council." Afraid of pushing matters as yet to extremities, Maurepas agreed to make him a councillor if he would abjure his religion; but this he honourably refused to do. Finding that access to the council was resolutely May 19, denied him, Necker sent in his resignation, which the MarmonKing mournfully accepted. But to the latest hour of tel, Mém. ii. his life, the Swiss minister regretted a step taken rather iv. 223, 224. under the influence of pique than reason, and stantly asserted that if he had continued at his and been permitted to continue his progressive oration of the national institutions, he would have prevented the Revolution.1 1781. 219. Soul. Droz, i. 303, ii. 77, 78. con- 304. Lab. post, De Stael, ameli- i. 82, 93. Rév. Franc. 62. leaving the tion. Great was the joy among all the parties who had coalesced to effect the overthrow of Necker, at his having General anticipated their designs by a voluntary retirement. But regret at his it was soon discovered, as it ever is when serious financial Administraembarrassment is the source of ministerial difficulties, that the change of the minister had done little towards improving the situation of the state. It appeared ere long that his popularity had not been the result of the influence of a cabal at Paris, but that it was founded in the general accordance of his system of government with the spirit of the age. So vast was the number of persons III. 1781. CHAP. who went out of Paris to visit him at his country residence at St Ouen, two leagues distant, that the line of carriages formed for several days a continual procession, which extended over the whole distance. Above five hundred letters of condolence were received by him from persons of the highest rank-from magistrates, philosophers, literary men, and corporate bodies in France. Joseph II. of Austria, Catherine of Russia, and the Queen of Naples, hastened to offer him the direction of their finances, which he had patriotic spirit enough to refuse. A minister who, by the mere skill of his finance operations, could, as it was ignorantly supposed he had done, extinguish a huge deficit, and meet the expenses of a costly war without imposing any new taxes, appeared an invaluable acquisition to the needy sovereigns of Europe. A more honourable, because a more sincere tribute of regret, was paid to his character by the poor in the hospitals of Paris, i. 99, 105. whose condition, previously miserable in the extreme, he Droz, i. 303, had essentially ameliorated, and who testified the most unbounded regret at his resignation of power.1* 1 Soul. iv. 183, 185, De Stael, 304. 63. the finance, The members of the parliament of Paris had taken so Successor of remarkable a lead in the systematic war of pamphlets Necker in which at length effected the overthrow of Necker, that and increas- Maurepas deemed it advisable to take the next financeties. minister from that body. M. Joly de Fleuri was accordingly chosen-an ancient and respectable councillor, an ing difficul * 66 The day preceding that on which M. Necker had resolved to send in his resignation if he did not obtain what he desired, he repaired with his wife to the hospital which still bears their name at Paris. They frequently went to that respectable asylum to gather strength to sustain the difficulties of their situation. The Sisters of Charity, the most interesting of all religious communities, attended the patients: M. and Madame Necker, both Protestants, were the objects of their love. These devoted young women presented, and sang to them verses taken from the Psalms, the only poetry with which they were acquainted; they called them their benefactors, because they strove to succour the poor. My father was more touched that day than I ever recollect him to have been before by similar demonstrations of affection; he felt the power he was about to lose, for it conferred such means of doing good."-DE STAEL, Révolution Française, i. 100, 101. Necker, as already noticed, like Turgot, had the disinterested virtue, rare in those corrupted days, to refuse the customary gift called the pot-de-vin, of 100,000 crowns, as usually given to the financeminister by the farmers of the revenue on renewing their bail-bonds.—Ibid. i. 89. |