honoured, by the concurrence of the provincial assemblies, which were established one after another, and annually increased, after several successful attempts had evinced the advantages of this institution; and one province was led to desire it by witnessing the utility which some other deduced from it. By this plan, every proprietor received, as it were, a political education, which became absolutely necessary to prevent the force of innovating notions from producing dangerous consequences: that force was evidently very great, and its remaining blind was so much the more to be feared. All minds, and all ranks of people, were turned towards the several objects of government. An archbishopric, consisting of five hundred parishes, and having a revenue of two hundred thousand livres, was considered in no higher light than as a wealthy living, if there were not some states to govern, or some civil interests to direct. The young men who had been brought up in the field of battle, threw by the commentaries of Folard, and took up the memoirs of Sully and of Forbonnais; in a state essentially military, the glorious profession of arms became a secondary concern. But, in a little time, this ardour was absorbed, its zeal moderated, and, if we may use the term, royalized by the provincial assem

The

blies. The names of Sovereign and of country were not separated from each other. The different orders engaged in discussion with a salutary reciprocity of just consideration, and manly deference. The members who composed these assemblies, joined the King's party, in opposition to the parliamentary magistracy, which grew jealous of their influence. And the Monarch possessed so strong a claim to the public veneration, in the purity of his manners, in the incorruptible steadiness of his word, in the affectionate interest with which he consulted the welfare of his subjects, that all persons not decidedly of seditious principles, united in supporting him. The patriarch of the philosophers, Voltaire, died blessing the King as the defender of justice. All the academies resounded with the same professions of respect. The people became accustomed to a new order in proportion as the parts of the old gradually fell into disuse: every thing, however, was broken through, before it was completely established; the finances became deranged, and the derangement of the understanding followed.

In speaking upon the subject of the French finances. finances, I shall be careful not to lose myself in

useless discussion of distant periods, nor to venture upon too nice conjectures. It comprizes many questions of much ambiguity, on which even a Frenchman, and much less a foreigner, cannot yet hazard any decision without considerable embarrassment. Men of the most distinguished talents, were seen employing them to oppose one another; it was to be wished that they had applied them with one accord to the furtherance of the general good; every one had his separate calculations, and every one drew a different result; on every side vouchers were talked of. One party was against the new taxes; another declared itself hostile to some loan; this, asserted that the language of truth ought to be employed on all occasions; that, contended that the appearance of penury ought never to be assumed. Even public economy received a different aspect according to the arguments of the various parties. In fact, it belongs but to few persons to take a side in controversies of this description. My purpose is, to confine my detail to the few principal epochs, and incontestable facts, which have either preceded or accelerated the great catastrophe.

The Abbé Terray, when he retired from office, Terray. asserted, that at his commencing comptroller

Turgot.

general, he had found an annual deficit of sixty millions of livres, and thirteen months of the revenue already anticipated. By oppression, bankruptcy, and spoliation of every kind, he at length, according to his own calculations, made up the deficit all but five millions. Fifty-seven were left in the treasury, and fourteen in reserve to meet any unexpected exigency; the anticipations were reduced to three months, and all these savings and supplies effected, notwithstanding he had provided for the usual outgoings of government, for the means of preparing for war, for the incidental expences of three marriages, and for the expensive habits of a favourite.

Turgot, who had recommended himself to the choice of Louis XVI. by his genius, his integrity, and by the blessings of a populous province, of which he had been Intendant, introduced into the administration of the finances, a spirit of justice, and a plan of general beneficence :-“ None love the people, but Mr. Turgot and " myself," said Louis XVI.*; and their affection

* On the Government and Manners of France, before the Revolution, by M. Senae de Meilhan, p. 153.

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 bakehouse 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