CM 
NEC 
moft: remarkable circumftances were, bis propofnl of a 
fufperifive veto in the crown, as a middle meafure between, 
an abfolute veto and none at all; and his oppolition to 
the abolition of titles and orders of nobility. He ah'o 
propofed the eftablifliment of a national bank; and, when 
the red book, or private lift''of royal penfions and expen¬ 
ditures had been iniidioufly pubiiffied by the National 
Aflembly, he greatly relented that proceeding, and de¬ 
fended the contents, though there were no expenfes in¬ 
curred in his own adminiftration to be juftified. Such 
was the alteration of fentiments, that he came to be re¬ 
garded as an ariftocrat; and, as the violent party acquired 
the afcendancy, his perfonal fafety was at length endan¬ 
gered. Alarmed and mortified at the fymptoms of his 
lof's of influence, he wrote a letter to the Conftituent 
Aflembly in September 1790, defiring leave to refign, 
and at the fame time offering to leave the money which 
lve had advanced to government, two millions of livres, 
and his houfe and furniture, as pledges for his integrity. 
His refignation was accepted with marks of perfefl indif¬ 
ference ; and he left Paris with the poignant reflexions of 
a man, who had found his utter incapacity of doing the 
gootl he expedited to have done, and who had feen that 
popularity fade away which had fupported him through 
former trials. In his journey towards his eftate of Copet 
in Swifferlnnd, he was arrefted at one place, and with 
difficulty fuft'ered to proceed; and at another he was 
flopped and infulted by the populace. His ftate of mind 
in his retreat may be judged of by the following paffage 
in a letter from Gibbon. “ I palled four days at the 
caftle of Copet with Necker; and could have wifhed to 
have fliown him, as a warning to any afpiring youth pof- 
iefl'ed with the demon of ambition. With all the means 
of private happinefs in his power, he is the moft rnife- 
rable of human beings : the paft, the prefent, and the 
future, are equally odious to him. When I fuggefted 
fome domeftic amufements of books, building, &c. he 
anfwered, with a deep tone of defpair, In the ftate in 
which I am, I can feel nothing but the blaft that has 
overthrown me.” Domeftic affliftion was foon added to 
his political misfortunes. His beloved wife died after a 
long illnefs, in which he attended on her with the moft 
affeftionate aftiduity. His mind fupported itfelf chiefly 
by his favourite occupation of writing ; and feveral works 
of different kinds were the produbt of his folitude. He 
wrote a defence of his public condubt, entitled £C Sur 
1 ’Adminiftration de M.Necker; par lui-meme.” Whilft 
the king’s trial was depending, he endeavoured to ferve 
him by the publication of “ Reflexions addreffed to the 
French Nation.” He gave his ideas on the executive part 
of government in an eflay “ Du PouvoirExecutif,” which 
is much commended even by thofe who are little inclined 
to favour him. His “ Courfe of Religious Morality” 
fliows him in the light of an eloquent preacher. One of 
the laft of his compofitions was a novel, entitled “ The 
fatal Confequences of a Angle Fault,” written at the 
fuggeftion of his daughter, and left in manufcript. In 
all his writings he was extremely attentive to the elegance 
and harmony of his language; and this attention has 
been faid to be difcernible in a pomp of expreflion which 
gives his ftyle an air of ftiffnefs and uniformity. It how¬ 
ever abounds in paffages of true eloquence. 
Though deprived by the French and Swifs revolutions 
of three-fourths of his fortune, he was ftill able to make 
a refpebtable appearance, and to indulge bis benevolent 
difpdfition. He had been placed in the lift of emigrants, 
but the directory unanimoufly erafed his name ; and, when 
the French army entered Swifferland, the generals treated 
him w’ith marked attention. He continued to refide at 
Copet, in the bofom of his friends, till his death, which 
took place in April 1804., at the age of feventy-two. 
The grand feature in Necker’s character was over¬ 
weening vanity; a w'eaknefs which appeared in all his 
abtions and difcourfes. In every meafure, he brought 
K E R. 
forward the author , when the a£l performed fhould alone 
have been fubmitted to attention; and, while thus Iavifh 
of encomiums on himfelf, befeemed, unluckily, to have 
none in ftofe for other perfons. Though he laid great 
claims to fenfibility, he appears to have been almoft a 
total ftrauger to it, unlefs perhaps towards mankind taken / 
collectively. Eagernefs for diftinbtion abforbed all his 
other paffions, and confined his feelings of -aft’ebtion to 
his wife and daughter, who were, in a manner, parts of 
himfelf. It would be difficult to exprefs bow keenly alive 
he w'as to attention from perfons of confequence. A 
flattering reception from M. de Maurepas or the king, the 
applaufe of the people, or of the national aflembly, would 
tranfport him beyond all bounds ; while a contrary treat¬ 
ment appeared to fink him into defpair. On both occa- 
fions-of his difiniffion from,office, in 1781 as in 1791, he 
became ill ; and, when he had finally loft all hope of re¬ 
turning to the miniftry, or of engaging the public notice, 
he grew indifferent about life. His vanity made him 
commence author, and write on a variety of topics, reli¬ 
gion, politics, trade, and finances: but all his compofi¬ 
tions bear the mark of very limited information.; a defebi 
proceeding, not from want of induftry, but from the ne- 
ceffity under which he had laboured of palling a great part 
of his life in the barren details of a banking-houle. Con^ 
earning the hiftory of France, and even the hiftory of her 
finances, his information was very ftender; and, amid all 
his official reports, his pamphlets, and printed volumes, 
we meet with no comparifon of his own ideas with thofe 
of others. As to political views, he feems to have been 
familiarly acquainted with no conftitution except that of 
his native city, Geneva. Of the governments of England 
and America, though quoted by him as models, he feems 
to have had only a fuperficial knowledge ; and it may be 
remarked, generally, that his unacquaintance with books 
was fuch as to prevent him, on almoft all occafions, from 
adducing the fupport of great authorities in behalf of his 
favourite plans. This deficiency of information led him 
to give free courfe to his imagination, and to indulge in 
vaftand romantic projebts. His boldnefs, like that of 
many others, is greatefton the fubjebts of which he knows 
lealt. No man wrote more freely on the plan of a confti¬ 
tution for France, though nobody could know lefs of 
the matter; for he had neither ftudied the theory in his 
clofet, nor partaken in the abtive deliberations of the 
aflembly: but, in treating of the taxes of France, a fubjebl 
with which he was practically converfant, he obferves a 
much more cautious courfe ; and, while he deferibes them 
very perfpicuoufly, both as to their objebts and the. 
amount of their produce, he takes care to avoid propof- 
ing any fclieme for new-modelling them, Clearnefs of 
ftatement is in fabt his fort in compofition, and a quality 
in which few if any writers on finance have furpaffed him. 
His ftyle, though prolix, is not wearifome : but his ego- 
tifm w'as equally confpicuous in his publications and in 
his minifterial proceedings. It is to the prevalence of 
this egotifm that the viciffitudes in his political career are 
to be aferibed. We have feen it bring him in collifion 
with the all-powerful Maurepas; and, in his fecond mi¬ 
niftry, feveral years after the death of that leader, it 
proved equally pernicious to his views. All contradic¬ 
tion of his plans he treated as a puniffiable offence; and 
he made no fcruple of adapting his minifterial meafures to 
the attainment of a popularity which was deiigned to 
render him independent of the court. When called for 
the third time to the miniftry of finance, the flattering 
circumftances attending his re-inftatement proved too 
much for his diferetion, and feduced him into fuch abts 
of prefumption as induced the leading members of the 
national aflembly to let him run his race uninterrupted ; 
fatisfied that he would foon bring himfelf into ridicule. 
It happened as they hadforefeen ; and’Necker fell, for the 
laft time, wholly difregarded by the public. 
In Necker’s perfonal appearance, the moft ftriking.fea¬ 
ture 
