18] 
sury informed M. de Septreuil, that 
on account of the extreme scarcity 
of money, they could no longer 
give the above sum to his Majesty 
In specie; and that it must in fu- 
ture be paid in assignats, ‘The King 
was no longer able to pay in specie 
several expences foreign to his per- 
sonal service, which he was used 
to draw from his private purse :— 
and he was thus cut off from all 
means of exercising what was so 
pleasing to him, any act of grati- 
tude, of kindness, or compassion. 
The scanty spring of any little in- 
fluence that might have arisen from 
the exercise of the social and be- 
nevolent virtues, with such limited 
means, was thus almost totally dried 
up by the inhuman and unrelenting 
severity of the Jacobins, as they 
were called, or democratical party ; 
which now ruled public affairs with 
despotic sway. The king was 
much affected at this ungenerous 
and cruel act, and mentioned it in 
the council.—A member of the 
council found means of procuring 
a sum of which his Majesty was in 
want. The King accepted it with 
a smile, saying, ‘‘It is not for my- 
self that | want it, for my expences 
are paid in assignats; but it is for 
old servants whom I have always 
paid in money ;—also for charitable 
uses, and to enable me occasionally 
to furnish the Queen and my sister 
with a few Louis, in exchange for 
their assignats, 
Having thus given some account 
of the measures taken by the As- 
sembly for overturning the throne, 
we shall here enumerate the prin- 
cipal of those that were pursued or 
advised by his ministers for their 
counteraction. The ministers of 
the King, or rather some of them, 
propesed measures for saving the 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1702. 
royal family and the constitution. 
M.de Moleville, minister of marine, 
had planned a scheme for obtaining 
a minute knowledge of the public 
disposition, by means of certain 
persons called Observers, who were 
chosen and employed for that pur- 
ose, in nurober thirty-five: some 
attended the tribunes of the Assem- 
bly, others the Jacobin club, and 
that of the Cordeliers; while others 
were ordered to mix in the various 
groups that attended the palace 
royal, the Thuilleries, the principal 
coffee-houses, and the carbarets. 
Their business was to support by 
their applause all constitutional and 
royal motions, and to hiss, and even 
insult whoever should propose a 
measure contrary to the interest of 
the King and the constitution. 
Their custom was to give a daily 
report of whatever they saw or 
heard. The King by this means 
knew all that passed in Paris, and 
might have derived advantages from 
it, at least equal to the whole ex- 
pences of the plan, which amount-: 
ed to 8000 livres.a month, had it 
not been for his aversion to those: 
vigorous measures which the pre- 
sent emergency required; but that 
aversion was so great, that the in- 
formation which he received, only 
served to alarm and torment him. 
It was not pursued con amore, and 
came to nothing:—nor was the 
result more fortunate of another 
establishtnent, more expensive, in- 
tended for the same purpose. A 
person of great subtlety, dexterity, 
and insinuation; always of the opi- 
nion of the person he conversed 
with, but, in reality, attached to 
no party, persuaded M. Mont- 
morin, that from his intimacy with 
the popular characters of the revo- 
lution, it was in his power to be of 
essential 
