1805.] 



Memoirs of Mr. Neckerj ly his Daughter, 



333 



was powerful; no doubt he difclaimed it 

 ftill more in his profcription and in his 

 misfortune, but ftill he had never written 

 any of thofe irrevocable maxims on politi- 

 cal points which alone conciliate outrage- 

 eus parties ; he has always held thofe mo- 

 derate ideas which ib much irritate that 

 clafsofmen whole violent opinions are 

 their arms and their ftandard. Why 

 then, r have often faid to him, do you 

 feek to diminifh your merit in the eyet of 

 the popular party ; you, who have no 

 pretenfions to gain ovtr their opponents ? 

 I wi(h, would he anfwer me in this cafe, 

 to expre'.s the truth, without ever conli- 

 dering its rel.ition to my peri'onal intereft ; 

 and if I have any dcfire relating only to 

 myi'elf it is, that it may be geneially 

 knovun, that I will never IVifFer myfelf, be 

 my individual opinion's what they may, to 

 take aiiy ftep as a minifter, contrary to 

 the obligations which by my office I have 

 contrafted with the King. And what 

 more eminent proof could my father give 

 of this refpeft for his duty to the Kmg, 

 than his conduct of the nth of July, 

 1789 ! 



It was known that in the Council Mr. 

 Necker had oppofed the order that had 

 been given, to collect German and French 

 troops at Vcrfailles and at Paris ; it is 

 known that he was difpofed towards a rea- 

 fonable accommodation with the Com- 

 mons, who, not liaving provoked- any re- 

 courfe to force, had not revealed the fecret 

 of the infurreflionary difpofition of tiie 

 troops, ard had not annihilated the roval 

 authority in teaching (he people that the 

 army was no longer in its har.ds; but a 

 party which confidence conftantly ruined, 

 and who always afcribed to certain men 

 difficulty which canfificJ in the general 

 ftate of things; this party, I f;iy, periuad- 

 ed the King, ihit it was fufhcient to 

 change the minilivy in order to fmooth all 

 thefe difficuhiei ; and this inconfiderate 

 meafure, tlii* vehement acf, witliout any 

 real force, without refoluiion of character 

 to fiiltain it, led ihe way to the i4ih of 

 July, and from the i^di of July to the 

 overthrow of the royal authority. 



On the nth of July, juft as iny father 

 was going to fit down at table with rather 

 a large company, the Minifter of Maiine 

 came to hit hcufe, took him apart, and 

 gave him a lettT from the King, which 

 ordered him to give in his refigi.ation, and 

 to quit France without noife (fms bruit), 

 Evtry 'iiiiig was conveyed in thefc words, 

 fans bruit ; in fail the public mind was 

 Chrii lo agitated, that if my fathrr had 

 luffcicd it C9 be difcov^red, that he wat 



exiled for the caufe of the people, there is 

 no doubt that at that moment the nation 

 would have elevated him to a very eminent 

 degree of power. If he had nourifhed in 

 his foul a (park of fafiion, if he had fuf- 

 fertd the natural fentiraents of fuch a mo« 

 ment to betray him, his departure would 

 have been impeded, he would have been 

 brought in triumph to Paris, and all that 

 the ambition of man could defire would 

 have been at his command. The firft 

 cockade which was worn at Paris, after hii 

 departure, was green, becaufe it was the 

 colour of his livery : two hundred thou- 

 fand armed men repeated the name of Mr. 

 Necker in all the ftreets of Paris, whilllhe 

 himfelf was flying from the popular en- 

 thullafm more carefuily than a criminal 

 wculd avoid the fcaffold. Neither his bro- 

 ther, myfelf, nor his molt intimate friends, 

 were informed of his refolution. My 

 mother, whofe heahh was very weak, 

 took no woman with her, no travelling 

 habit, for fear of throwing out a fui'pici.jn 

 of her departure. They both afcended 

 the carriage, in which they had been ac- 

 cuftomed to take an airing of an evening, 

 they travelled night and day as far as 

 BrulTels, and when I joined them three 

 days afterwards, tliey Itill wore tht; fime 

 drefs, in which after dining with a nume- 

 rous party, and when no perfon fufpefted 

 their motions, they had filently withdrawn 

 from France, from their home, from their 

 friends, and from power. Thisdrefs.aH 

 covered with duft:, the aftumed naine 

 which my father had taken that he 

 inight not be renognized in France, and 

 confequently retained by that affeitioa 

 which he had every where exrited, all 

 thefe circumltances impreiftd me with a 

 feiitiment of refpeft v/hich impelled me 

 to proltiate myfelf before him on t-n;ering 

 the inn where we met. Ah ! thtit fent- 

 ment ! I have never ceafed lo experience 

 it in the moft tnfli' g circumliances of his 

 domcftic ii'e, as well as in the greated 

 epoch of his public career. Juftice, 

 truth, ehviition, limplicity of fentiijient, 

 in the minutias cf his private life, pre- 

 fented the emblem of his entire charac- 

 ter. 



It has been vulgarly faid that there are 

 no heroes to thole who fee ihem familiar- 

 ly : it is becaufe the greater part of men 

 who have fuftained a great pcditical part, 

 have not pjIftlTcd fhe virtues of the indi- 

 vidual ; but when you fi^rd the man of 

 frmplfcity in the man of eminence, the 

 juft inan in the powerful man, the go.td 

 man in the man of genius, the man of I'en-i 

 fibility in the illulliious man, the nearer 



