III. 1787. Aug. 10. CHAP. to offensive measures. Duport, at a solemn meeting of both chambers, brought forward an accusation against Calonne, on the ground of "his dilapidations and abuses of authority," which the parliament ordered their public prosecutor to take up. The decree to that effect was afterwards annulled; but such was the violence with which the tide ran against the ex-minister, that, seeing a fair trial was out of the question, he left the country, and retired to England. His poverty bore decisive evidence to the integrity, if not the wisdom, of his administration, so far as he was personally concerned; he retired from office poorer than he entered upon it.* Meanwhile the public indignation against the court rose to the highest pitch, although Louis, to weaken it, had recommended Calonne to leave the country. Pamphlets multiplied, and were devoured with ominous rapidity. The Queen, to whom the whole was ascribed, was now universally 1 Droz, ii. called Madame Deficit; she was insulted even in the 9,10. Soul. vi. 177, 178. park of St Cloud; and by the advice of the lieutenant of police, she abstained from going to the capital while the effervescence continued.1 Lac. vi. 183, 184. 98. tinue to refuse to Edicts. If the parliament of Paris had made use of the vast influence they had now acquired to establish a just and equal system of taxation, which might at once have register the relieved the public necessities, and removed the unjust exemptions which the privileged classes still enjoyed, they would have deserved the title of generous and intrepid patriots. But this was very far indeed from being their object; and it soon appeared that, amidst all their * Calonne was so poor when he left office that he owed his means of subsistence to the rich Madame D'Harvelay, who had now become a widow, and bestowed on him her hand and her fortune.-DROZ, ii. 10. The exaggerations of which Calonne was the object would be beyond belief, if any thing was incredible of popular credulity and passion. It was stated, and generally believed, that he had absorbed in four years 3,000,000,000 francs (£120,000,000.) The parliament of Grenoble said—“If you assemble in one mass the whole dilapidations of which our annals have preserved a record, from the commencement of the monarchy, and during the course of fourteen centuries, it would hardly compose a sum so enormous as in his hands has disappeared in four years."-DROZ, ii. 10, 11. CHAP. 1787. zeal for a restraint on the royal authority, they had no intention of making any sacrifice of their own pecuniary immunities. Brienne, far from being discouraged, for a third time sent back the proposed edict for a tax on stamps; and with it one for the equal imposition of the land-tax on all classes. This was the touchstone of patriotic or selfish opposition; and the parliament failed at the test. By a slender majority, the assembled Aug. 12. chambers, including the peers, decided "that the Statesgeneral alone had the power to consent to such measures ; and that the parliament was incompetent to register them." In coming to this decision, the majority had no intention of really compelling the convocation of that body-which they were well aware would speedily extinguish at once their own influence and their popularity; they thought the King would do any thing rather than convoke that dreaded assembly; that this was the most popular ground on which to rest their opposition, and that thus, without losing their reputation for patriotism, they would preserve the substantial advantages of immunity from the heaviest of the direct taxes. But the people, passionately desirous of the States-general, and delighted at the unusual spectacle of a successful resistance Lac. vi. to the royal authority, were entranced with the decree of Droz, ii. 12, the parliament; and d'Espréménil, the leader of the vi. 177, 178. Opposition, was drawn home in triumph in his carriage.1 Brienne, thus defeated a third time, had recourse to 99. measures of severity. By a royal edict on the 15th Banishment August, the parliament was exiled to Troyes, the chief liament to town of Champagne; and the Comte de Provence was sent to the one court of the parliament, the Comte d'Artois to the other, to register the edicts by force, as in a lit de justice. The former, known for his liberal principles, was loudly applauded as he passed through the streets on this mission; the latter, deemed attached to arbitrary Aug. 15. maxims, was assailed with such a storm of hisses and abuse, that the commander of his guard ordered the men 1 183, 185. 13. Soul. of the par Troyes. CHAP. to carry arms, which alone dispersed the mob. III. 1787. Aug. 22. This event deserves to be noticed as the first collision between the crown and the people which occurred during the Revolution. The decrees were registered by force, in the face of formal protests entered on their books by both chambers of the parliament; but the parliament obeyed the mandate, and retired to Troyes, where they commenced their sittings, after passing a decree, declaring all judgments legal pronounced there. None, however, of the practitioners followed them; and, though the courts were opened, no one appeared as a suitor, and no business was done. The magistrates, however, were consoled for this defection by laudatory addresses, which showered in upon them from all the parliaments of France, in which their firmness was extolled to the skies. All concurred 1 Droz, ii. in demanding the abolition of arbitrary acts, the diminuvi. 185, 186. tion of the public charges, the recall of the magistrates, the prosecution of Calonne, and the convocation of the States-general.1* 32,33. Lac. Lab. ii. 175, 180. 100. A compromise But too material interests were at stake on both sides to permit this state of hostility between the crown and the parliament of Paris to be of long continuance. The Crown and magistrates beheld with pain the suspension of business between the the parlia ment. and entire desertion of their courts, for which the laudatory addresses from the other parliaments of France afforded but a poor compensation; the councillors sighed for the pleasures and the profits of the capital; all were soon wearied of the monotony of life in a retired provincial town. One by one, after a residence of some weeks, they began to drop off, and reappear in the streets of Paris. Brienne had not less pressing motives for desiring * The parliament of Grenoble said: "The continued renewal of coups-d'état, the forced registrations, the exile of members of parliament, the substitution of constraint and rigour for the course of justice, create astonishment in an enlightened age, hurt a nation that loves its king even to idolatry, but which is proud and free; they freeze the hearts, and may in the end break the bonds which unite the sovereign to his subjects and the subjects to their sovereign." -Adresse du Parlement de Grenoble au Parlement de Paris, Sept. 2, 1787; DROZ, ii. 33. III. 1787. an accommodation. The want of money was daily CHAP. becoming more urgent at the treasury: the fermentation throughout France was alarming: the forced registration of the edicts had excited universal dissatisfaction; and, in the temper of the public, it was doubtful whether the taxes registered by force could be generally collected. In this state of matters, it was not long difficult to come to an accommodation. Brienne adroitly proposed a compromise, by virtue of which the two edicts registered by force were to be withdrawn, and the parliament was to consent to the additional vingtième for two years, to be levied equally on all classes, not excepting even the princes of the blood-royal. D'Espréménil vehemently opposed this concession. "You went out of Paris," said he, "covered with glory, and you will return covered with mud." But the methods of seduction at the disposal of the court prevailed with the majority, and the compromise took place. The edict imposing the territorial tax equally on all was registered, and the parliament made a solemn Oct. 5. entry into Paris amidst the acclamations of the people. This was the first example given in France of the great 1 Droz, ii. and just principle of the equal taxation of all classes; 35,37. Lac. and the first great victory over the exclusive privileges of Lab. ii. 398, the aristocracy, gained by the crown, in the face of the vi. 180. strenuous resistance of the parliaments and the impassioned hostility of the people.1 vi. 226, 228. 402. Soul. proposes loans. Although, however, the principle involved in the mode 101. according to which the new tax was to be levied was in Brienne the highest degree important, and though it was the first large new step towards a just and equal distribution of the public burdens, yet the relief, in the first instance, afforded by so trifling an addition to the receipts of the treasury, was very inconsiderable. It was soon apparent that a much more extensive measure was necessary; and Brienne, overjoyed at his recent success, came to the parliament with a proposal which revealed at once the necessitous state of the exchequer, and the magnitude of the burdens. CHAP. III. 1787. Nov. 19. on the nation which would be necessary to relieve it. He proposed to borrow immediately 420,000,000 francs, (£16,800,000,) to be paid up in the course of five years; and in order to induce the magistrates to record, that is, give legal validity to those large loans, he pledged the royal word that the States-general should be assembled before that time expired. As a reason for not convoking them at an earlier period, he stated, that by the year 1792 the income of the state would be equal to its expenditure; and that thus the national representatives, without being disquieted by the pressing concerns of finance, would be able to give their undivided attention to the means of social amelioration. An edict was also proposed giving additional liberty and security to the Huguenots. To give greater solemnity to this proposal, it was determined that the King should attend in person, and announce the fundamental principles of the constitution, and in ii. 37, 38. particular assert, in the most unqualified manner, for the crown, the right of determining where and when the States-general were to be assembled.1 1 Soul. vi. 181. Droz, Lab. ii. 180, 184. 102. rejected, and the Duke of Orleans exiled. Nov. 19. "It belongs to me alone," said Louis, " to judge of the The loan is utility or necessity of these assemblies; and I will never permit that you should demand with indiscretion what you should await from my judgment. The Keeper of the Seals will inform you, that as soon as the state is liberated from its debts, I will with pleasure communicate the measures which I shall have taken to render that situation durable. The nation will then see its finances re-established; agriculture and commerce encouraged under the auspices of liberty; a formidable navy, a regenerated army, a new harbour in the Channel, to secure the glory |