ceived the idea of giving the assembly of the Notables a grand and singular direction. Were it even impossible to obtain the concurrence of the whole assembly, he thought of prevailing at least upon a respectable number to go straight to the King, and say to him-" You demand of us 66 a vote for taxes. We have not really any

power to give it. We are as nothing for the "nation, which has not delegated us. How

66

ever, we will venture to take upon ourselves "to provide for the necessities of the State, if in serving the King we serve also the French people. Let a great charter be granted to us by your Majesty; let the liberty of the subject "and periodical States-General form a part of "it; and we will vote the taxes necessary pre"vious to a meeting of the States, the time of "which shall be determined on mature delibe"ration." La Fayette, thinking himself already sure of several magistrates and of a number of the nobility, applied to the Archbishop of Toulouse to secure some of the clergy. The artful prelate flattered the chimera of the young American major-general, promised him partizans, and only desired a little time to bring them over; meanwhile, he encouraged him to preface the discus-. sion of the future States-General by denouncing in the assembly of Notables the present adminis

Ville deuil

per

tration of the finances. This the Marquis did, and then went to the Archbishop to demand the formance of his promise. All goes on well, said Brienne: come again and see me the day after to-mor row. The day after to-morrow all went on still better; for Brienne was minister. He had taken advantage of La Fayette's enthusiasm, and of his overtures, in two opposite ways, equally useful to himself. In the assembly of the Notables, he excited him to a solemn denunciation of the minister whom it was necessary to remove; and in his private communications with the King, he said: Here is a faction of insurgents forming. The present dangers require a prime minister.

At first Brienne possessed the power without the title. Though simply declared head of the council of finances, he had the disposal of the places of the ministry, and instead of Fourqueux, who resigned, he took M. de Villedeuil, the intendant of Normandy, as comptroller-general. He could not chuse a man more respected for his moral virtues, more zealous for the public good, more recommended than he was by the esteem and gratitude of the province under his administration. Villedeuil, member of the assembly of Notables, had a little before excited their admiration by the disinterestedness with which he had argued for

the establishment of provincial assemblies, notwithstanding the limits which they were to put to the authority of the intendants. Unfortunately neither virtues nor talents could avail in the tempest that was brewing, and with so unskilful a pilot as he who took the helm.

Never did a prime minister, however, enter upon the administration of affairs, attended with more hopes than the Archbishop Brienne. For thirty years he had been marked out for the greatest employments. The opinion of the Duke de Choiseul, who strongly recommended him to Louis XV. was cited, as well as that of M. d'Invaux, who had consulted him with respect, who had modestly written to him these words: I ought to give up to you the office of comptrollergeneral; to which the prelate had ingeniously replied, I prefer your suffrage to your office. Brienne had continued on the same terms with all the succeeding ministers; with the partizans of Colbert as well as with the disciples of Quesnay, with Turgot and Necker, and even with Calonne, whom he had directed in the choice of members for the clergy in the assembly of Notables then sitting. It was said that in Languedoc the Archbishop of Narbonne, reserving for himself the brilliant character in the States, used to

throw the laborious part on the Archbishop of Toulouse. In the assembly of the Clergy his influence was unbounded: on every great occasion he had figured most brilliantly. His diocese praised, if not the fervour of his piety, at least the abundance of his charities, and the utility of his foundations. The French Academy chose him one of their members; and the most eminent societies, whether of rank, or wit, or both, raised the Archbishop of Toulouse to the place formerly held by the Fleuris, Mazarins, and Richelieus.

Both the panegyric before his appointment to the ministry, and the satire after his fall, were exaggerated. Not that too much could be said on the want of foresight and of skill, or on the covetousness, which stained his administration; or on the baseness, cowardice, and infamy, that disgraced his last days: but it has been said that he was incapable, which he was not. A writer of great talents, and whose opinions would have much weight, were not his impartiality shaken by a thousand little personal recollections, said that Brienne, at the head of the council of finances, had never been able to understand the difference between a note and a share of the caisse d Escompte; but nobody believed him. What this

minister wanted, and particularly for the times in which he was to act, was conduct, foresight, frankness, and real strength of mind. He was witty without depth, informed without discernment, cunning without skill, and bold without courage. He took Calonne's plans as well as his place, and modified them according to the observations that had been made by the Notables. But his first fault, and that which was to bring on all the others, was that of dissolving the assembly of Notables, instead of keeping them as a support of the government, during the time taken by the Parliaments to register the edicts discussed in that assembly. His friends, and particularly the prudent Archbishop of Bordeaux, had advised it. He might himself have observed the promptitude with which the Parliament had registered the loan which he had brought forward in the first week of his ministry, on the advice of the Notables, while they were yet sitting. He rejected these counsels of his own experience with saying, that at Verfailles they were tired of all thefe difcuffions. In like manner, to gain for himself the friends of M. Necker, he promised them to replace him at the head of the finances; and, as an apology for not keeping his word, he told them that M. de Maurepas had raised in the King's mind an invincible antipathy to M. Necker. In that