as came within their reach and abihity. But notwithstanding every thing that was and perhaps could be done, the distresses of the people throughout France were great, fevere, and lafting.

This unforeseen and irresistible ftroke of calamity, coming on at a feafon, already fo ftrongly and unhappily marked, by the violence of faction, by public difcontent, and by political diffention, when all men were looking to, or apprehending fome great convulfion in the fiate, produced fuch an effect upon the people in general, that the nation feemed to have changed its character, and inftead of that levity and gaity by which it had ever been diftinguished, and which was ill concealed even in the most ferious affairs, a fettled and melancholy gloom now feemed fixed in every countenance.

An arret, which had been iffued by the council of state, a few days previous to this misfortune, although only remotely preparatory to the future affembling of the ftates general, yet as it fhewed that the court had not abandoned the defign, and that measures were in train for the execution of that purpose, was so exceedingly popular, that the funds rote three per cent. upon it, and a gleam of hope, fatisfaction, and good humour, was fpread through the country for the short intervening time.

The king found himself at length under a neceffity of abandoning the new constitution, which he held fo much at heart, and from which he had formed the moft fanguine hopes. The oppofition to it was fo great, fo general, and fo determined, that it was impoffible to be furmounted. The dukes de Roche

foucault, De Noailles, Luxemburgh, and feveral others, who stood among the highest of the kingdom in point of rank, weight, and public opinion, rejected the king's nomination, and abfolutely refused to fit in the cour pleniere. There was no alternative. The king was condemned to fubmit to this public infult, and to retract all he had done. Thus was the court funk to the lowest ebb of degradation, while the parliaments were exalted to the pinnacle of triumph and power.

In the mean time the poverty of government was now fo extreme, that it became incapable of dif charging its functions, or anfwering the public demands, through the mere want of money, or of credit to raise it, so that a public bankruptcy feemed faft approaching. In this ftate, the king iflued an arret, in which, after declaring the deplorable fituation of the finances, his own inability to raife taxes, and the total want of confidence in the public, with refpect to loans, he gives notice that in thefe circumftances, only a certain proportian of the demands on the treafury could be paid in cash, and the remainder to be taken in bills payable in a year, and bearing 5 per cent. intereft, the bills likewife to be received as money in the fubfcription to the first loan that was railed.

Though publicity was the first object of fuch a notice, and could alone give it any effect, yet fuch was the confcioufnels of thame or apprehenfion that operated on the court, that the copies of the arret feemed to be diftributed by fiealth on Monday evening, the 18th of Auguft. But neither this precaution, the fairness of the propofals, nor the

goodness

goodness of the fecurity, which (if government was capable at all of fubfifting in any form) muft have been confidered as undeniable, could prevent fuch a general alarm, as was nearly without example, from being fpread through the city of Paris on the following morning. The immediate confequences were a great fall of the ftocks, and a violent run upon the caille d'efcomptes; or, as it was confidered, the national bank. For two days. the crowd who came to change their notes, were fo great and preffing, that the guards were obliged to marfhal and keep them in order, to prevent confufion, and that each might be brought forward in turn to the bank. By procuring all the cafn that was poflible, and ufing much addrefs to make each payment take up as much time as it was capable of admitting with decency, the bank was enabled to weather the tempeft, until an edit from the king relieved them on the third day, commanding all bankers and others to receive their bills in payment as caf; a measure which afforded little fatisfaction to the public, although it faved the caifle d'ef comptes.

In the mean time, public difcontents were heightened by private diftrefs. Want and mifery began to be felt in different parts of the kingdom, and the capital itfelf to grow apprehenfive of a famine. Bread, which is more properly the ftaff of life in that country than any other, and where the confumption of it is fo prodigious as to appear incredible to ftrangers, had already rifen in Paris from two and a half to our fous per pound: and wore being ftill ex

pe@cd, prudent families began to difcharge their fervants, and contract their mode of living, which neceflarily increafed the number of idlers, who through the general ftagnation of business being unable to procure any kind of employment, already crowded the fireets and open parts of the metropolis, and were in a state of the moft deplorable diftrefs.

Under this alarming aspect of affairs, the prime minifter, the archbishop of Sens, looking more to his own fafety than to the duty or gratitude which he owed to his royal mafter, made

1788.

no fcruple of Aug. 25th, leaving him alone to weather the approaching tempeft as he could; and as his predeceffor had found it neceffary to seek an afylum in England upon his own coming into power, fo he now, taking a contrary direction for the fame purpose, departed with the utmoft expedition for Italy. We have heretofore fhewn that this prelate, then archbishop of Tholoufe, fucceeded M. de Calonne in the administration of the finances. His rife from thence to the fummit of power and greatnefs, was rapid. He was appointed prime minifter, an office which conveys fo much authority in France as not be frequently filled. He was promoted to the archbifhopric of Sens, which conveys along with it the primacy of the Gauls, the greatest and most honou rable ecclefiaftical dignity in the kingdom, and which befides fecures the reversion of a cardinal's hat.

The archbishop came into go vernment under very favourable aufpices. He poflefied a very con

fiderable

fiderable share of popularity; and the nation was generally difpofed to bold a favourable opinion both of his ability and difpofition. To this may be added, that the odium and averfion which purfued his predeceffor, was convertible to a fund of public credit and fupport in favour of an immediate fucceffor. Thus far things ftood well on the fide of the minifter. But, having ufed indirect methods to facilitate his afcent to power, thefe in their effect proved his ruin. For having affumed an appearance of patriotifm, he had long embarked deeply with the popular party in their oppofition to the crown, and was initiated in all their fecrets and cabals. When this mark was of neceffity laid by, he was confidered and treated as a renegado, devoid of all honour and principle, and oppofed and purfued with all the ufual virulence and inveteracy of party; at the fame time that his new friends were, from the fame caufe, at all times doubtful of his fincerity and honesty. From hence his defigns were continually defeated in the execution, his fchemes, without any regard to their utility, overthrown, and he foon became the moft unpopular man in France.

Moderate men, who did not look through the medium of party, confidered a total want of fyftem, as the great defect of his adminiftration; they likewife charged him with a hafty adoption of rafh and violent measures, with a fudden and weak dereliction of them, and with a total want of that firmnefs and fortitude which could enable him to fupport any measure or any line of conduct, in the face of oppofition, or under the remoteft appearVOL. XXXI.

ance of danger. To this defect they afcribe the circumftance of his adminiftrations becoming contemptible as well as odious.

The king's fituation was fufficiently difficult and embarrafling ; compelled lately to difmifs a favourite minifter, forfaken now by his fucceffor, who left him involved in all the troubles which the rashness or failure of his measures had occafioned, and deftitute in himself of thofe great and commanding perfonal qualities, which have often wrought fuch wonders in critical affairs, and which were never more neceflary than in the prefent inftance, to enable him to ftem that torrent of difcontent and diforder, which was fpreading with fuch violence through his dominions.

Thus circumftanced, he perceived no other resource, than that of throwing himfelf into the arms of the popular party, and, by coinciding with their propofals, to endeavour to reftore concord and harmony in the kingdom, and to obtain that perfonal quiet which he fought beyond all things. Little difpofed himself to any exertions of arbitrary power, and as little calculated by nature for their fupport, conceffions offered no great violence to his feelings. He law that the fpirit which had been fhewn upon different occafions, by perfons the moft nearly related to him, in their endeavours to fupport the prerogative, or to infpire vigour into the general measures of adminiftration, had rendered them univerfally odious, and that their party was become too weak to admit any farther attempts with a probability of fuccefs.

The first step to be taken, upon this change of fyftem, was in a great meafure declaratory and decitive [c]

with

with respect to thofe that were to follow. This was the recal of the celebrated Mr. Neckar, and the placing him again at the head of the finances. This gentleman was become the idol of the people, in a degree, perhaps without example, with refpect to any man, in any country, under fimilar circumftances. Several caufes concurred in procuring him this extraordinary popularity. His famous" Compte rendu au Roi," in which he laid open to all the world the expenditure, revenue, and refources of France, and difclofed all those arcana of the state and monarchy which had hitherto been deemed moft facred and unrevealable, although a measure, perhaps not very juftifiable, and certainly without precedent in that country, was, how ever, highly captivating to the people. His fubfequent contefts with, and frequent publications againft, M. de Calonne, confidering the popular hatred under which that minifter laboured, could not but greatly increase these effects; nor could the very able defences of his antagonist be of any avail, with judges whole opinions were predetermined. The circumftance of his being, by birth at least, a republican, was fo fortunately adapted to the fpirit and difpofition of the times, that it was not only fufficient to remove all prejudices, with respect to his being a foreigner and a proteftant, but would have rendered him popular if he had not been fo otherwife.

Such was the ftate of things when Mr. Neckar was again placed at the head of public affairs. The joy of the people was undefcribable, and their expectations and hopes paffed. all bounds of reafon and poffibility. It feemed as if they conceived that he poffeffed a magical wand; that

by waving it he could pay off an immenfe public debt without money; and that by another movement he could, with the fame ease, fupply 25 millions of people with corn and bread. Circumftances feemed for a moment to give a fanction to the delufion; the funds fuddenly rofe, and the general goodhumour feemed to difpel all thofe black clouds, which hung fo heavily over the political horizon.

The new minister neglected nothing which could tend to the fupport of that public opinion fo effential to his fame and greatnefs. Fortune favoured him with an opportunity of fignalizing his entrance into office by a grand ftroke, excellently calculated to justify the most fanguine hopes that had been formed of his adminiftration. This was no lefs than the reftoration of public credit, which had been deeply affected by the late arret relative to payments at the treasury. Mr. Neckar foon discovered, and perhaps previously knew, that there were large fums of money lying in feveral of the public departments, deftined to affigned purposes which were not yet in being. Secure of this fupport, he immediately iffued public notice, that all demands on the treafury fhould in future be immediately paid in ready money. Nothing could ever produce greater eclat. He was called the Saviour of the country; the preservation of France from the ruin and difgrace of public bankruptcy univerfally afcribed to him; and all the evils in which the country was plunged, were looked upon as already cured. He likewife ufed all poffible means to draw corn from different parts to the relief of the metropolis, where the natural turbulence of the inha

bitants