26 Julia Crezvitt Stoddard 



his fears j 1 good, if goodness consists in kind intentions impos- 

 sible of accomplishment; irresolute, yet possessed at times of a 

 spirit of obstinacy only equaled by his incompetence ; could France 

 have had a greater misfortune at this critical period than the 

 guidance of such a king? The ministers of Louis XVI. were no 

 more competent to direct the course of events through such dan- 

 gerous times than the king himself. Necker had followed a 

 faint-hearted policy that contented nobody. The moderates and 

 aristocrats were offended by his support of the suspensive veto, 

 and the patriots by his action on the 4th of August decrees. The 

 portrait of him drawn by Morris is pronounced by Mathiez "true 

 to life." 2 "He is utterly ignorant of politics, by which I mean 

 politics in the large sense, or that sublime science which embraces 

 as its object the happiness of mankind. Consequently he neither 

 knows what constitution to form nor how to obtain the consent 

 of others to such as he wishes. From the moment of the con- 

 vening of the states general, he has been afloat on the wide ocean 

 of incidents. But what is most extraordinary is that M. Necker 

 is a very poor financier. This I know will sound like heresy in 

 the ears of most people, but it is true. The plans he has pro- 

 posed are feeble and ineptious." The other ministers were no 

 better. Montmorin a "mere clerk," Saint-Priest "a blunderer," 

 La Tour du Pin lacking in energy, and the Archbishop of Bor- 

 deaux, to whom alone was conceded some intelligence, was said 

 to use it only in intrigue." 3 And these were the official advisers 

 of the king! 



. It has always been believed that Louis XVI. acted habitualh 

 under the influence of the queen or his counselors. 4 Marie An- 

 toinette was a thorough aristocrat in her sympathies. The fail- 

 ure of counter-revolutionary intrigues had humiliated her. 

 Necker's recall was an offense. Moreover she had no taste for 

 government. But under the influence of Mercy, the Austrian 



1 Morris, Diary and Letters, I, 142. 



* Revue historique, LXVII, 277; Morris, Diary and Letters, I, 283. See 

 also Young's Travels in France, 108, 109, for the character of Necker. 

 & J?evtie historique, LXVII, 278. 

 *Ibid. t LXVII, 275. 



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