for the people led them to abolish the duties on corn, to free national industry from the fetters under which it groaned, to take off the burthensome restrictions from the corn-trade, and to dissolve the slavish principle of Corvées.

These noble acts alarmed the partisans of abuses, who excited the people to declare against the very law that provided them with food; a fictitious scarcity was created even in the midst of the greatest plenty; and, at last, the capital, with the neighbouring provinces, broke into open insurrection. The public magazines were forced; the wheat and flour were strewed along the common roads, or thrown into the rivers; every bakchouse was ransacked, and the Paris mob threatened to proceed to Versailles. Go on, my friend," said Louis XVI. to Turgot, embracing him, at the same time investing him with full powers to act, "go "on; with a conscience clear of offence as that "which you and I possess, we need not fear "what men can do." For once the people were quickly undeceived. The words of the King, and the measures of his minister, appeased the murmurs of the capital; the voice of the clergy preserved or restored peace in

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the provinces. The King, in his clemency, was desirous of concealing the names of the instigators of this disturbance; but his attention was soon arrested by another, still more difficult to quell. It had been found necessary to bold a bed of justice, and to issue the royal mandate, in order to compel the Parliament to register the suppression of the Corvées, and the abolition of the taxes upon manufactures. The Parliament, however, came to a resolution to re-establish the Corvée, and to effect the dismissal of the comptroller-general. The fact was, the prime minister began to grow jealous of the influence which Turgot's intelligence and probity had gained over the heart of his virtuous master. His Majesty was therefore taught to dread great troubles; he was told, that Turgot did good in a bad way; and not daring to trust to the affections. of his heart, in concerns of so great import, the young Prince gave up the minister whom he cherished to the importunity of his adversaries. In the meanwhile, Turgot had been suffered to enter upon the execution of his plan, but not to bring it to a conclusion. The economical order of affairs was totally confounded. The burdens, from which the people had been relieved by him, were again heaped upon them,

from his not being allowed time to repair the breaches made in the revenue.

The man appointed by Count de Maurepas Clugny. to succeed him, entered upon his office with the following observation, in which there was more humour than policy-" He knew nothing about "finance, and before he could pretend to under"take the comptrollor-generalship, he must sit "down to learn the duties belonging to its de

partment." He was seized with a disorder of which he died in a few months, having neither learned nor undertaken the duties or the office. The Abbé Terray, who was still alive, asserted that the deficit, which amounted to no more, at his resignation, than five millions, was already increased to thirty-four, and that he saw no possible means of making it less, as there was nothing left to tax, and the public resources were entirely exhausted*.

reau and

The short time that M. Taboureau and TabouM. Necker were jointly in office, but little more Necker. was done than announcing that those resources were not nearly exhausted, and that arrangement was the principal requisite.

* Political Annals of Linguet, vol. 3, page 383.

Necker.

Left by himself at the head of the finance department, M. Necker, after having been three years and a half engaged in it, completed and gave to the world his famous Stated Account, which drew upon him the enthusiastic praises of one party, and the censures of another, but which brought the accounts of the public receipts, and ordinary expenditure, to a balance of twentyseven millions of livres in favour of the former, seventeen of which were employed in paying off unfunded debts.

M. Necker's enemies, however, publicly declared," that he knew the great repugnance "with which Louis XVI. regarded every kind "of tax, and that he took advantage of this "weakness of the Monarch, and having begun "to borrow, still continued to borrow, and would go on borrowing while he continued in office,

leaving to his successors a treasury loaded with "debt, and throwing upon their shoulders the " obligation of providing the means to discharge "it*." They added, moreover, " that the act of publishing his Stated Account was to be entirely

* M. de Limon, Vie de Louis XVI. p. 24 and 25.

"attributed to his ambitious vanity, for that, as "the King's minister, he owed to no one but "the King any account of the state of the

finances; but that the sanction of the Mo "narch was not enough for him, and there"fore he wished to lay before the public a dis

play, more the work of artifice, than the result "of truth, well assured that, by such an appeal, ❝he should gain unbounded popularity."

The advocates of this minister and his measures, on the other hand, replied, " that the repugnance which Louis XVI. testified against every kind of tax, if it were a weakness, was such as his minister ought, at all events, to pay respectful attention to*;" that "the public declaration of the Abbé Terray, and "which he officially added to the last me morial, addressed to Louis XVI. namely"That no more taxes could be levied,' gave "M. Necker the two-fold excuse of necessity " and convenience; since, if the resources of "taxation failed, some other must be found;"

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* M. de Meilhan, on the Government and Manners, &c. page 180.