558 



LOUIS XVI. 



nd the people, which was on his side, could not, 

 without representatives, afford any assistance against 

 such n league. The foes of the minister stirred up 

 the populace, and, on occasion of an edict declaring 

 the corn-trade free, scenes occurred resembling those 

 which subsequently marked the revolution. The 

 timid and inexperienced Louis believed himself hated 

 by the nation, and was indulgent towards the sedi- 

 tious ; finally, by the advice of Turgot and Muy, he 

 acted with vigour, and the disturbances, called, in 

 Paris, la guerre des farines, were quieted after the 

 amnesty of May 17, 1775. The coronation of the 

 king, llth June, 1775, was followed by the appoint- 

 ment of the virtuous Malesherbes as minister. He 

 was the friend of Turgot. Their united influence 

 might, perhaps, have done much towards reforming 

 the old abuses, but, unhappily, the new minister of 

 war, the count of St Germain, was too violent in his 

 innovations. The corps that were disbanded or di- 

 minished, and the offended military nobility, loudly 

 expressed their dissatisfaction at the system of innova- 

 tion, which was disliked, moreover, by the higher 

 classes. " The state will perish," was the general 

 cry, and the parliament refused to register five edicts 

 of the king. Louis resolved, indeed, to maintain his 

 authority, by a lit de justice, March 12, 1776; but 

 the queen, a princess who was equally superior to 

 her husband in vivacity of understanding and in wit, 

 and loved splendour and pleasure, supported the op- 

 position together with Maurepas, who was Turgot's 

 secret enemy. Her the king could not resist. He 

 hesitated : the deficit produced by the payment of 

 debts and the expenses of the coronation, in 1775, 

 inspired him with distrust of Turgot's philosophical 

 views. Malesherbes gave in his resignation. Turgot 

 was obliged to follow his example. The privileged 

 party was victorious, but the hatred of the third 

 estate, and the desire of all enlightened and well-dis- 

 posed persons for a thorough reform, was increased. 

 They did not wish to overthrow the whole system, 

 until the North American revolution threw a fire- 

 brand into this inflammable mass. The day on which 

 Louis concluded the treaty with the United States, 

 Feb. 6, 1778, decided his fate ; for the war to which 

 it gave rise, from 1778 to 1782, and which cost 

 France, according to Audouin, 1,400,000,000 livres, 

 accustomed the nation and army to republican ideas, 

 and produced a cureless deficit ; this, a meeting of 

 the states-general ; and this, the fall of the monarch 

 and monarchy. Louis himself was averse to engag- 

 ing in this war ; but he was outvoted in the council 

 of state, the ministers hoping to establish French 

 commerce on the overthrow of the British. 



After Turgot's removal, the extravagance of the 

 court increased : while Louis refused himself any 

 great expenditures he yielded too easily to the tastes 

 of the queen and the princes of the blood. Luxury 

 and splendour made the expenses of the court very 

 great : they played high ; they built ; they exhibited 

 races ; they gratified every whim ; and Louis's dis- 

 satisfaction, which often withdrew him from these 

 entertainments, was regarded as the indication of an 

 ordinary mind. The regularity of his manner of life, 

 in which study and domestic pleasures were inter- 

 mingled with business, made no impression on the 

 gay spendthrifts. Louis did not possess the art of 

 inspiring the court and princes with respect. He 

 paid the debts of count Artois. The queen, also, gave 

 herself up to her love of gayety. Taste and love of 

 the arts, clothed in all the humours of the fashion, 

 reigned in the festivals of Versailles and Petit Tria- 

 non. Maurepas either did not see whither all this 

 must lead, or, with his characteristic levity, yielded 

 to necessity. Pleasure was his element. He remained 

 the directing minister till his death, Nov. 21, 1781. 



sharing the confidence of the king with the talented 

 queen, and with every one who could deceive the 

 monarch under the appearance of zeal for the common 

 welfare. The changes in the ministry of the finances, 

 which was committed, in turn, to Clugny, Taboureau, 

 Necker, Joly de Fleury, and D'Ormesson, increased 

 the confusion. The existence of great abuses was 

 notorious ; but the extirpation of their deep-rooted 

 causes was impossible. The dismissal of Necker, 

 who had become an object of great dislike by his vain 

 compte rendue, was considered as a public misfortune 

 by the third estate, whose favour Necker exerted 

 himself to acquire. Thus, long before the revolution, 

 a real anarchy prevailed in public opinion, which 

 penetrated even to the council of state. After the, 

 peace of Versailles, in 1783, which brought some 

 advantages, not, however, sufficient to repay the 

 expense incurred, the frivolous Calonne, liberal in 

 promises, few of which were redeemed, was appointed 

 minister of finance. In foreign affairs for example, 

 in the dispute about the Scheldt, Vergennes main- 

 tained, though not without sacrifice of money, the 

 honour of the French crown ; but the commercial 

 treaty of 1786, with Great Britain, was deemed the 

 greatest error of his administration, although it was 

 a consequence of the peace of Versailles. He was 

 also blamed for having rejected the closer connexion 

 proffered by Joseph II., and for thus causing the 

 approximation of Austria to Russia. The king him- 

 self betrayed weakness in dismissing the minister 

 before the accomplishment of his plans, which he 

 had at first approved. It is said that he sometimes 

 spent his leisure hours in the labours of a blacksmith, 

 and this led him to the use of strong liquors. Drink- 

 ing and working at the furnace had heated his 

 blood, his understanding was weakened, and, subse- 

 quently, his natural indolence, with his increasing 

 corpulence, destroyed his mental activity, and pro- 

 duced a phlegmatic indifference. Yet it is known that 

 Louis took pleasure in literary occupations, and 

 engaged with fondness in public enterprises. He 

 framed, with much sagacity, the plan and instruc- 

 tions for Laperouse's voyage round the world, in 



1786. Several passages in those instructions 

 express, in a touching manner, the benevolent 

 feelings of this artless prince. He often lamented 

 Laperouse's unhappy fate, with the words, " I see 

 very well that I am not fortunate." His kindness of 

 disposition made him particularly interested for the 

 poorer clergy. He followed, however, the maxim 

 of Louis XV., not to give bishoprics, or rich bene- 

 fices, to any but nobles. He drew aline of division, 

 equally unjust, and far more pernicious, with respect 

 to the army, in which military rank was confined 

 exclusively to the nobility. The third estate could 

 not soeak out ; so much the more bitterly and vio- 

 lently did the populace complain of the court and 

 higher classes, when, in consequence of the infamous 

 affair of the necklace, the process against the cardi- 

 nal prince of Rohan was commenced in 1785. (See 

 Georgel's Memoires, vol. ii.) The libel of the 

 branded countess De la Mothe and her husband, dis- 

 seminated the grossest calumnies against the innocent 

 queen, which were but too easily credited by the 

 people. By this means the throne was disgraced in 

 public opinion ; and the duke of Orleans, the im- 

 placable enemy of the queen, was accused of using 

 the infamous La Mothe as the tool of his hatred. In 

 this fermentation of public sentiment, Calonne per- 

 suaded the king to convene the notables, in order to 

 find some resources for the exhausted treasury. Un- 

 happily, the count of Vergennes died, February 13, 



1787, and on the 22d February, the king opened the 

 assembly with a speech, which was not favourably 

 received. The deficit, which the comptroller-general 



