68 ENGLISH MEANS OF KNOWING SUCH OPINIONS.

ence, according to the measure of their individual zeal, knowledge, or assurance. In England, there were no such novelties to be hazarded, either in 1640 or in 1688. The people of this country have had an elective parliament from the earliest period of their history-and, long before either of the periods in question, had been trained in every hamlet to the exercise of various political franchises, and taught to consider themselves as connected, by known and honourable ties, with all the persons of influence and consideration in their neighbourhood, and, through them, by an easy gradation with the political leaders of the State; while, in Parliament itself, the place and pretensions of every man were pretty accurately known, and the strength of each party reasonably well ascertained by long and repeated experiments, made under all variety of circumstances. The organization and machinery, in short, for collecting the public opinion, and bringing it into contact with the administration, was perfect, and in daily operation among us, from very ancient times. The various conduits and channels by which it was to be conveyed from its first faint springs in the villages and burghs, and conducted in gradually increasing streams to the central wheels of the government, were all deep worn in the soil, and familiarly known, with all their levels and connections, to every one who could be affected by their condition. In France, when the new sluices were opened, not only were the waters universally foul and turbid, but the quantity and the currents were all irregular and unknown; and some stagnated or trickled feebly along, while others rushed and roared with the violence and the mischief of a torrent. But it is time to leave these perplexing generalities, and come a little closer to the work before us.

It was the Cardinal de Richelieu, according to Madame de Staël, who completed the degradation of the French nobility, begun by Louis XI.;-and the arrogance and Spanish gravity of Louis XIV., assumed, as she says, pour eloigner de lui la familiarité des jugemens," fixed them in the capacity of courtiers; and put an end to that gay and easy tone of communication, which, in the

66

MAD. DE STAËL.

66

-SOURCES OF FRENCH REVOLUTION. 69 days of Henri IV., had made the task of a courtier both less wearisome and less degrading. She has no partiality, indeed, for the memory of that buckram hero-and is very indignant at his being regarded as the patron of literature. "Il persécuta Port-Royal, dont Pascal étoit le chef; il fit mourir de chagrin Racine; il exila Fénélon; il s'opposa constamment aux honneurs qu'on vouloit rendre à La Fontaine, et ne professa de l'admiration que pour Boileau. La littérature, en l'exaltant avec excès, a bien plus fait pour lui qu'il n'a fait pour elle."— (vol. i. p. 36.) In his own person, indeed, he outlived his popularity, if not his fame. The brilliancy of his early successes was lost in his later reverses. The debts he had contracted lay like a load on the nation; and the rigour and gloominess of his devotion was one cause of the alacrity with which the nation plunged into all the excesses and profligacy of the regency and the succeeding reign.

That reign-the weakness of Louis XV.-the avowed and disgusting influence of his mistresses and all their relations, and the national disasters which they occasioned -together with the general spread of intelligence among the body of the people, and the bold and vigorous spirit displayed in the writings of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, created a general feeling of discontent and contempt for the government, and prepared the way for those more intrepid reformers who were so soon destined to succeed.

Louis XVI., says Madame de Staël, would have been the mildest and most equitable of despots, and the most constitutional of constitutional kings-had he been born to administer either an established despotism, or a constitutional monarchy. But he was not fitted to fill the throne during the difficult and trying crisis of a transition from the one state to the other. He was sincerely anxious for the happiness and even the rights of his people; but he had a hankering after the absolute power which seemed to be his lawful inheritance; and was too easily persuaded by those about him to cling to it too long, for his own safety, or that of the country. The

70

ADMINISTRATION OF NECKER.

Queen, with the same amiable dispositions, had still more of those natural prejudices. M. de Maurepas, a minister of the old school, was compelled, by the growing disorder of the finances, to call to his aid the talents of Turgot and Necker about the year 1780. We hear enough, of course, in this book, of the latter: But though we can pardon the filial piety which has led the author to discuss, at so great length, the merit of his plans of finance and government, and to dwell on the prophetic spirit in which he foresaw and foretold all the consequences that have flowed from rejecting them, we have too much regard for our readers to oppress them, at this time of day, with an analysis of the Compte Rendu, or the scheme for provincial assemblies. As an historical personage, he must have his due share of notice; and no fame can be purer than that to which he is entitled. His daughter, we think, has truly described the scope of his endeavours, in his first ministry, to have been," to persuade the King to do of himself that justice to the people, to obtain which they afterwards insisted for representatives." Such a counsellor, of course, had no chance in 1780; and, the year after, M. Necker was accordingly dismissed. The great objection to him was, that he proposed innovations-" et de toutes les innovations, celle que les courtisans et les financiers detestent le plus, c'est l'ECONOMIE." Before going out, however, he did a great deal of good; and found means, while M. de Maurepas had a bad fit of gout, to get M. de Sartine removed from the ministry of marine-a personage so extremely diligent in the studies belonging to his department, that when M. Necker went to see him soon after his appointment, he found him in a chamber all hung round with maps; and boasting with much complacency, that "he could already put his hand upon the largest of them, and point, with his eyes shut, to the four quarters of the world!"

Calonne succeeded-a frivolous, presumptuous person, -and a financier, in so far as we can judge, after the fashion of our poet-laureate: For he too, it seems, was used to call prodigality "a large economy;" and to

CALONNE CONVOKES THE NOTABLES.

71

assure the King, that the more lavish he and his court were in their expenses, so much the better would it fare with the country. The consequence was, that the disorder soon became irremediable; and this sprightly minister was forced at last to adopt Turgot's proposal of subjecting the privileged orders to their share of the burdens and finally to advise the convocation of the Notables, in 1787. The Notables, however, being all privileged persons, refused to give up any of their immunities—and they and M. de Calonne were dismissed accordingly. Then came the wavering and undecided administration of M. de Brienne, which ended with the resolution to assemble the States-General ;—and this was the Revolution!

Hitherto, says Madame de Staël, the nation at large, and especially the lower orders, had taken no share in those discussions. The resistance to the Court- the complaints-the call for reformation, originated and was confined to the privileged orders-to the Parliaments-the Nobles and the Clergy. No revolution indeed can succeed in a civilised country, which does not begin at least with the higher orders. It was in the parliament of Paris, in which the peers of France had seats, and which had always been most tenacious of the privileges of its members, that the suggestion was first made which set fire to the four quarters of the kingdom. In that kingdom, indeed, it could hardly fail, as it was made in the form of a pun or bon mot. They were clamouring against the minister for not exhibiting his account of the public expenses, when the Abbé Sabatier said "Vous demandez, messieurs, les états de recette et de depense -et ce sont les Etats- Généraux qu'il nous faut!"-This was eagerly repeated in every order of society; addresses to that effect were poured in, in daily heaps; and at last M. de Brienne was obliged to promise, in the King's name, that the States-General should assemble at the end of five years. This delay only inflamed the general impatience: and the clergy having solemnly reclaimed against it, the King was at last obliged to announce that they should meet early in

72

RECALL OF NECKER- THE STATES-GENERAL.

the following year. M. Necker at the same time was recalled to the ministry.

The States-General were demanded by the privileged orders: and, if they really expected to find them as they were in 1614, which was their last meeting, (though it is not very conceivable that they should have overlooked the difference of the times,) we can understand that they might have urged this demand without any design of being very liberal to the other orders of the community. This is the edifying abstract which Madame de Staël has given of the proceedings of that venerable assembly.

"Le Clergé demanda qu'il lui fût permis de lever des dîmes sur toute espèce de fruits et de grains, et qu'on défendît de lui faire payer des droits à l'entrée des villes, ou de lui imposer sa part des contributions pour les chemins; il réclama de nouvelles entraves à la liberté de la presse. La Noblesse demanda que les principaux emplois fussent tous donnés exclusivement aux gentilshommes, qu'on interdit aux roturiers les arquebuses, les pistolets, et l'usage des chiens, à moins qu'ils n'eussent les jarrets coupés. Elle demanda de plus que les roturiers payassent de nouveaux droits seigneuriaux aux gentilshommes possesseurs de fiefs; que l'on supprimât toutes les pensions accordées aux membres du tiers état; mais que les gentilshommes fussent exempts de la contrainte par corps, et de tout subside sur les denrées de leurs terres ; qu'ils pussent prendre du sel dans les greniers du roi au même prix que les marchands; enfin que le tiers état fût obligé de porter un habit différent de celui des gentilshommes."vol. i. p. 162.

The States-General, however, were decreed;—and, that the whole blame of innovation might still lie upon the higher orders, M. de Brienne, in the name of the King, invited all and sundry to make public their notions upon the manner in which that great body should be arranged. By the old form, the Nobles, the Clergy, and the Commons, each deliberated apart-and each had but one voice in the enactment of laws;-so that the privileged orders were always two to one against the other-and the course of legislation had always been to extend the privileges of the one, and increase the burdens of the other. Accordingly, the tiers état had long been defined, "la gent corvéable et taillable, à merci et à miséricorde;"-and Madame de Staël,