Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 117 
before the royal session. His retention in the ministry was 
a matter of temporary expediency. Evidently he had no part 
in shaping the policy of the ministry, in which Barentin main- 
tained his position. It is true that in his De la révolution Necker 
asserts that he regained his old authority and could have secured 
the dismissal of both Barentin and Villedeuil had he not mag- 
nanimously refused to demand this action of the king,!® but 
Barentin denies that such was the case. He claims that Necker 
did ask the dismissal of the other ministers, but the king refused 
to comply with Necker’s request.?® And Necker himself, in his 
earlier work, Sur l’administration, written in 1791, admits that 
he had sought to obtain the dismissal of the ministers, but 
failed.24_ Although some contemporary reports refer to the 
expectation of Barentin’s dismissal,22 more speak of the un- 
certainty of Necker’s tenure in office or of his lack of influence. 
The fact remains that Necker himself, and not Barentin, was 
the first of the ministry to be dismissed. It is reasonable to 
presume that his influence was somewhat proportionate to the 
degree of his security in office. Staél-Holstein wrote on June 25: 
“TI am still ignorant of whether he has secured the necessary 
ascendancy to struggle against the intrigue of the Comte d’Ar- 
tois.”” Biauzat claims to have heard from Necker himself that 
the latter knew nothing, on Saturday, June 27, of the letters 
sent to the intendants of the provinces. Mercy’s despatch of 
July 4 implies that the court had not been heeding Necker’s 
wishes prior to June 27.” 
The action of the court and the Barentin faction indicates 
clearly that they understood that Necker’s retention in the min- 
19 Necker, De la révolution, 309-310; 313. 
20 Barentin, 232. 
21 Necker, Sur l’administration, 114. He admits it by referring to the 
“inutilité de mes efforts pour obtenir le renvoi des ministres dont l’opposition 
a mes projects s’était ouvertement signalée.”’ 
* Dorset, I, 223; Correspondance d’un député ... avec la Marquise de 
Crequy, Documents inédits, Revue de la rév., I1, 38; Eee: footnote of Biauzat, 
II, 139; Duquesnoy, I, 126. 
*3 Biauzat, II, 145; Duquesnoy, II, 136-137; Mercy to Kauniiz, July 4, 
1789, quoted by Wertheimer, Revue historique, XXV, 328; Staél-Holstein, 
103; Jefferson, II, 487. 
231 
