( 3S2 ) [Nov. I, 



MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 



MEMOIRS of the CHARACTER and PRI- 

 VATE LIFE o/MR NECKER,<M;ri»«;6j» 

 his DAUGHTER, MADAME DE STaEL. 



[ [Continued from p. i^ of Number 133.! 



AMONG Statefinen, are to be reckon- 

 ed Ciceio, Chancellor de I'Hoi'pital, 

 and Chi'icellor Bicon, v^ho in the inidlt 

 of political igitauons have never loft fight 

 of the gr. at interefts of the foul, and of 

 their OA-n thoughts; but my father fuf. 

 fered liis work to appear at a moment par- 

 ticulirlv unfavourable to the opinions he 

 maintained, and all Mr. Necker's preci- 

 fion in :Tiat;ers of calculation, was necef- 

 fary to rel'cue him from the imputation of 

 a vili nary, in employing himfelt on luch a 

 fubjed. There is in all periods a virtue 

 which is deemed fiirmefs ; it is that which 

 is truly a virtiie, bccaufe it can anfwer no 

 purpofe ot fpeculauon. 



The fecond adminiftration of Mr. 

 Nicker, fnm the 25th of Augud, 1788, 

 to the i4.ih of July, 1789, was precifcly 

 the period wiien a party among the French 

 ftaitei into a^Mion. 1 repeat here, that I 

 pledge myfelf, when I write the political 

 life of my father, to prove meiely from the 

 hiiloiv of the revolution, that this party 

 vas aKays miltaken as to its true inter- 

 efts, the bias of events, and ihecharafteis 

 of men ; but it feems already ack..owIedg- 

 eil bv all who know the charafler and con- 

 duit ot Mr. N. 'ker, that he never har- 

 boured a thought of promoting a revolu- 

 tion in France. In theory it was his be- 

 lief, that the beft fecial order of a great 

 flate was a limited monarchy, refcmbling 

 that of England : this opinion predomi- 

 natti in all his writings ; and whatever 

 mav be a reader's political creed, itcannot 

 I think, be denied tiiat a love of order and 

 liberty Ihines ir. tiiem with the united 

 frrce of wifdom and elevation of foul: 

 but my father's political pinions were, 

 like himfcif, enurely cnt' Utd by mo- 

 rals j he had duties towan.s his king as a 

 niinifter ; he fearecj the conlequences of 

 any infurrcdlional move:n<.nt whatever, 

 vvhich might end ng-^r lie npofe and the 

 lives of menj and if lie was to be re- 

 proaclied as a itatefnnn, in the vulgar 

 fenfe of the word, it was 'in being as fcru- 

 pulous in his means as 'in his ends, and in 

 placing morality not only in the objeitde- 

 firtd, but alfo n the load toils atfain- 

 men;. How could a man of luch a cha- 

 rafter, being the king's minifler, fufFer 

 {limfelf to be liie inftrument of a T«voltUion 



which was to fubvert the throne ? With- ' 



out doubt he loved liberty ; where is the 

 man of genius a'ld character that does 

 not ! But duty always appeared to him 

 more celeftial in its origin, than thenobleft 

 of human fentimems ; and in the oider of 

 duties, the mod imperious are thole, 

 which connefl us individually ; fur the 

 moie extenfive the relation, the lefs precii'e 

 is the obligation. 



Ill accepting the helm of affairs, Mr, 

 Necker told the king, that if the govern- 

 ment (hould ever tall into circumftances 

 that might feem to require the fevere and 

 violent will of a Richelieu, he was not 

 the man to fuit him as a minifter ; but 

 that if icafoiv and morals were enough, he 

 might yet render him good fervice. In 

 faff, when reflefling and enlightenid mem 

 finll ftudy the hiftory of the French revo- 

 lution, at a time, when all thofe who have j 

 had a part in i» (hall no longer exift, I am fl 

 convinced that the political conducl and 1 

 writings of Mr. Necker will revive a quef- 

 tion, old it is true, but always worthy 

 the attention of mankind : — Whether vir- 

 tue is compatible with politics; whether it 

 can ever be of advantage to nations that 

 the fmall number who govern them (hould 

 fometimes depart from the ftrift Hne of 

 moral reiliiude? The anfwer to this 

 queftion is the verdift on the life of Mr, 

 Necker; but fuppofmg he be on this 

 point condemned as a public man, furely 

 that condemnation is glorious which only 

 reaches to his excels of virtue; it is yet a 

 fuit which it would be honourable to 

 lofe, and on which an appeal might fuc- 

 cefsfully be made to the experience of ages, 

 to that experience which alone is equally 

 commanding with that fentiment on which 

 it is 'o pafs judgment, the confcience of 

 an honeft man. 



Mr Necker has continually repeated in 

 his writings, that the convocation of the 

 States General was folemnly promifcd by 

 the King, previous to his going into 

 oflice ; that the doubling of the numbers 

 of the Tiers Etat was io far urged by the 

 opinion of the times, that the King muft 

 have (liewn himfcif ufelefsly unjult and 

 dangeroufly unpopular, had he refufed 

 it. Yet, what was my father's aim, in 

 fo earneftly repreding fome of the claims 

 he might have to the enthufiafm and the 

 gratitude of a great portion of the French 

 nation ? Was it to atchieve the favour of 

 the party named Ariftocratic .> He had 

 not lcug.1t that favour when that party 



was 



