144 



Memoirs of Mr, N^ecker, by his Daughter. 



[Sept 1, 



reftion of their finances; he refufed them 

 all, from that affe6\ion for France, then 

 the ruling jjadion of his heart, and to his 

 laft moments the principal concern of his 

 life. In his retreat he wrote his work on 

 the Adminiltration of the Finances, which 

 luade the fortunes of three or four book- 

 fellers, fold to the extent of a hundred 

 thoufand copies, and is at this moment 

 confidered as the only clalTic^l work in 

 France on the fubje>5i of adminifiration. 



Mr. de Calonne, in 1787, convoked the 

 sfTembly of the notables, and in his open- 

 ing fpeech attacked the veracity of Mr. 

 Meckel's Compte rendu au Roi. It is eafy 

 to fuppofe that a man of Mr. Necker's 

 charafter muft have repelled an affertion 

 £0 injurious ; he fent a memoir to the kitig, 

 with fome juftificatory papers, which 

 proved vifloriouily the exaflnefs of the 

 Compte Rendu. The king, when he had 

 read it, wi(hed to keep it to hinifelf, and 

 was defiroiis that it fiioulJ not be known ; 

 fuch of my father's friends as were then 

 about the kin?, aflured him that if he 

 would give up the point of publilhing this 

 book, the king had detennined to recal 

 tim to the adminirtration in a flicrt time ; 

 and in fid there appeared every probabi- 

 lity, in all huiTian calculation, that my 

 father would not renounce the chance ot 

 again coming into office, by not yielding 

 under thefe circumllances to the defire ex- 

 prelTtd by the king ; but my fathtr 

 thought his honour comproinifcd by the 

 infuinhat had been publicly odered him in 

 the fpeec'i printed by Mr. de Calonne, 

 and the greater the facrifice of ambition 

 the publication of his anfwer demanded, 

 the more he thought his delicacy engaged 

 to fee it publilhed. As I have faid already, 

 my father's ftrongtft ftntiment in all word- 

 ly concerns, was a Lve ot relpeftand glory ; 

 this fentiment he could facrifice to virtue, 

 but to no confuieration of any other kind. 

 As (bon as the kir^g learnt that Mr. 

 Neckei's Anfv-er to the ipeech of Mr. de 

 Calonne was publiflitd, he barilhed him 

 foity leagues from Par'S, by a letter de 

 cachet. 1 was then very young, a banilh- 



1 am pleafed with thefe words, ' what I have 

 done, I would do again.' A man does not 

 fpcak lo without being a good man, and in- 

 ■»eteratcly a good man, to have forfeited no- 

 tb^og of that charafter in fo many crolFcs." 



merit, a letter de cachet, appeared to me 

 the nioft cruel aft that could be committed ; 

 I uttered cries of defpair, and could not 

 conceive a greater misfortune. All the 

 fociety of Paris, whom loft manners and 

 a long period cf peace had not accultomcd 

 to the light of lufFtrings, came in crowds 

 to tny father, and publicly expreffed their 

 indignation at his exile. My father alone, 

 judged of the king in thefe circuinftancts 

 as he dtrfcrved ; he repeated that he had 

 juft real'on to be riiffatisfied at his not hav- 

 ing fubmitted to his widics, and he has 

 fince often mentioned as a proof of the 

 clemency of Louis XVI. the lenity of his 

 anger in this inftance. An exile to the 

 dilUnce of fortv leagues from Paris was 

 the refult of his firlt emotion, four monthi 

 afterwards he put an end to this exile, an 

 in a fliort time alter, on the 25th Augutt, 

 178S, he recalled Mr. Necker to adminl 

 ftration. 



At this time Mr. Necker had juft pub- 

 liflied his workjon the Importance of Reli- 

 gious Opinions : Is not this work a great 

 proof of the tranquillity of his mind, under 

 circumllances which in an ambitious man 

 fhould have created moft agitation? Men 

 of the world have often written on religious 

 retirement, in the decline of life, when 

 theironly futurity was eternity ; but it is 

 a very rare circuinftance, that in an inter- 

 val of fufpenfe from adminiftraiion, in the 

 midft of all the viciflltudes of fuch a (itua- 

 tion, a flatelman (hould have devoted him- 

 felf to a work having no immediate rela- 

 tion to the atf.iirs of government, to a 

 work which will prove hii glory with pofte- 

 rity, and whicii contributed nothing to his- 

 temporal iiitereits. On the contrary, Mr. 

 Necker expol'ed himfelf by this work to 

 the lofs of fome of his partifans of a very 

 diftinguilhed clafs, for l:e was thefirft and 

 the only one among giLat writers, who at 

 that time pointed out the tendency of irre- 

 ligion. Mr, Necker contended without 

 any afliftance agaii ft this fatal propenfity ; 

 he contended, no; with that deteliation for 

 philofophy, which amounts only to a 

 change of arms in the fame hands, but 

 with that noble enihufiafm for religion, 

 wiihout which reafon has no guide, and 

 imagination no objedl, without which, in 

 fine, virtue herfelf is without charms, and 

 fenfibility without a fource. 



( Thefe '.nierejling Memoirs 'willbefinijbed 

 in our future Numbers. '^^ 



i 



ORIGINAL 



