Volume VI Part 23 (1/2)
”As soon as I knew the cardinal's sentence, I went to the queen,” says Madame Campan. ”She heard my voice in the room leading to her closet; she called to me. I found her very sad. She said to me in a broken voice: 'Condole with me; the intriguer who wanted to ruin me, or procure money by using my name and forging my signature, has just been fully acquitted. But,' she added vehemently, 'as a Frenchwoman, accept my condolence. A people is very unfortunate to have for its supreme tribunal a lot of men who consult nothing but their pa.s.sions, and of whom some are capable of bribery and others of an audacity which they have always displayed towards authority, and of which they have just given a striking example against those who are clothed therewith.' The king entered at this moment. 'You find the queen in great affliction,' he said to me: 'she has great reason to be. But what then! They would not see in this business anything save a prince of the church and the prince of Rohan, whereas it is only the case of a man in want of money and a mere dodge for raising the wind, wherein the cardinal has been swindled in his turn. Nothing can be easier to understand, and it needs no Alexander to cut this Gordian knot.'”
Guilty in the king's eyes, a dupe according to the judgment of history, Cardinal Rohan was exiled to his abbey of Chaise-Dieu, less to be pitied than the unhappy queen abruptly wrenched from the sweet dreams of a romantic friends.h.i.+p and confidence, as well as from the nascent joys of maternal happiness, to find herself henceforth confronting a deluded people and an ever increasing hostility which was destined to unjustly persecute her even to the block.
M. de Calonne had taken little part in the excitement which the trial of Cardinal Rohan caused in court and city he was absorbed by the incessantly recurring difficulties presented by the condition of the treasury; speculation had extended to all cla.s.ses of society; loans succeeded loans, everywhere there were formed financial companies, without any resources to speak of, speculating on credit. Parliament began to be alarmed, and enregistered no more credits save with repugnance. Just as he was setting out on a trip to Normandy, which afforded him one of the last happy days of his life and as it were a dying flicker of his past popularity, the king scratched out on the registers of the Parliament the restrictions introduced by the court into the new loan of eighty millions presented by M. de Calonne. ”I wish it to be known that I am satisfied with my comptroller-general,” said Louis XVI. with that easy confidence which he did not always place wisely.
When he returned from Cherbourg, at the end of June, 1786, M. de Calonne had at last arrived at the extremity of his financial expedients. He set his views and his ideas higher. Speculation was succeeded by policy.
”Sir,” said the note handed to the king by the comptroller-general, ”I will not go back to the fearful position in which the finances were when your Majesty deigned to intrust them to me. It is impossible to recall without a shudder that there was at that time neither money nor credit, that the pressing debts were immense, the revenues exhausted in antic.i.p.ation, the resources annihilated, the public securities valueless, the coinage impoverished and without circulation, the discount-fund bankrupt, the general tax-exchequer (_ferme general_) on the point of failing to meet its bills, and the royal treasury reduced to two bags of 1200 livres. I am far from claiming credit for the success of the operations which, owing to the continuous support given by your Majesty, promptly established abundance of coin, punctuality in the payments, public confidence proved by the rise in all securities and by the highest degree of credit, abroad as well as at home: what I must forcibly call your Majesty's attention to is the importance of the present moment, the terrible embarra.s.sment concealed beneath the appearance of the happiest tranquillity, the necessity of soon taking some measure for deciding the lot of the state. It must be confessed, Sir, that France at this moment is only kept up by a species of artifice; if the illusion which stands for reality were destroyed, if the confidence at present inseparable from the working staff were to fail, what would become of us with a deficit of a hundred millions every year? Without a doubt no time must be lost in filling up a void so enormous; and that can be done only by great measures. The plan I have formed appears to me the one that can solve so difficult a problem. Solely occupied with this great object, which demands enormous labor, and for the accomplishment of which I would willingly sacrifice my existence, I only beg your Majesty to accord to me, until I have carried it out, so much support and appearance of favor as I need to give me strength to attain it. It will perhaps be an affair of six months or a year at most. After that your Majesty may do as you please with me; I shall have followed the promptings of the heartiest zeal for your service, I shall be able to say,--
'Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domino.'”
This mysterious plan, which was to produce results as desirable as rare, and which M. de Calonne had hit upon to strengthen his shaky position, was the same which, in 1628, had occurred to Cardinal Richelieu, when he wanted to cover his responsibility in regard to the court of Rome. In view of the stress at the treasury, of growing discontent, of vanished illusions, the comptroller-general meditated convoking the a.s.sembly of Notables, the feeble resource of the old French kings.h.i.+p before the days of pure monarchy, an expedient more insufficient and more dangerous than the most far-seeing divined after the lessons of the philosophers and the continuous abas.e.m.e.nt of the kingly Majesty.
The convocation of the Notables was the means upon which M. de Calonne relied; the object was the sanctioning of a financial system new in practice but old in theory. When the comptroller-general proposed to the king to abolish privileges, and a.s.sess the impost equally, renouncing the twentieths, diminis.h.i.+ng the gabel, suppressing custom-houses in the interior and establis.h.i.+ng provincial a.s.semblies, Louis XVI. recognized an echo of his ill.u.s.trious ministers. ”This is sheer Necker!” he exclaimed.
”In the condition in which things are, Sir, it is the best that can be done,” replied M. de Calonne. He had explained his reasons to the king in an intelligent and able note.
”Such a plan,” said the comptroller-general, after having unfolded his projects, ”demands undoubtedly the most solemn examination and the most authentic sanction. It must be presented in the form most calculated.
to place it beyond reach of any r.e.t.a.r.dation and to acquire for it una.s.sailable strength by uniting all the suffrages of the nation. Now, there is nothing but an a.s.sembly of notables that can fulfil this aim.
It is the only means of preventing all parliamentary resistance, imposing silence on the clergy, and so clinching public opinion that no special interest dare raise a voice against the overwhelming evidence of the general interest. a.s.semblies of notables were held in 1558, in 1583, in 1596, in 1617, and in 1626; none was convoked for objects so important as those in question now, and never were circ.u.mstances' more favorable to success; as the situation requires strong measures, so it permits of the employment of strong means.”
The king hesitated, from instinctive repugnance and the traditions of absolutism, at anything that resembled an appeal to the people. He was won, however, by the precedent of Henry IV. and by the frank honesty of the project. The secret was strictly kept. The general peace was threatened afresh by the restless ambition of Joseph II. and by the constant encroachments of the Empress Catherine. The Great Frederick was now dead. After being for a long while the selfish disturber of Europe, he had ended by becoming its moderator, and his powerful influence was habitually exerted on behalf of peace. The future was veiled and charged with clouds. M. de Vergennes, still possessing Louis XVI.'s confidence, regarded with dread the bold reforms proposed by M. de Calonne; he had yielded to the comptroller-general's representations, but he made all haste to secure for France some support in Europe; he concluded with England the treaty of commerce promised at the moment of signing the peace. There was a lively debate upon it in the English Parliament. Mr.
Fox, then in opposition, violently attacked the provisions of the treaty; Mr. Pitt, quite young as yet, but already established in that foremost rank among orators and statesmen which he was to occupy to his last hour, maintained the great principles of European policy. ”It is a very false maxim,” said he, ”to a.s.sert that France and England are not to cease to be hostile because they have been so heretofore. My mind revolts at so monstrous a principle, which is an outrage upon the const.i.tution of societies as well as upon the two nations. Situated as we are in respect of France, it is expedient, it is a matter of urgency for the welfare of the two countries, to terminate this constant enmity which has been falsely said to be the basis of the true sentiments felt by the two nations towards each other. This treaty tends to augment the means of making war and to r.e.t.a.r.d its coming.”
Generous and sound maxims, only too often destined to be strikingly belied by human pa.s.sions! When he supported in the House of Commons, in 1786, an alliance with monarchical France, Mr. Pitt did not foresee the terrible struggle he--would one day maintain, in the name of England and of Europe, against revolutionary, anarchical, or absolutist France.
The treaty had just been signed (September 26, 1786). M. de Vergennes was not long to survive his latest work: he died on the 13th of February, 1787, just before the opening of the a.s.sembly of Notables, as if he would fain escape the struggle and the crisis he dreaded. Capable and far-sighted in his foreign policy, ever conciliatory and sometimes daring, M. de Vergennes, timid and weak as he was in home affairs, was nevertheless esteemed: he had often served as a connect ing link between the different elements of the government. The king gave his place to M. de Montmorin, an honest but insignificant man, without influence in France as well as in Europe.
On the 29th of December, 1786, at the close of the despatch-council, the king at last broke the silence he had so long kept even as regarded the queen herself. ”Gentlemen,” he said, ”I shall convoke for the 29th of January an a.s.sembly composed of persons of different conditions and the best qualified in the state, in order to communicate to them my views for the relief of my people, the ordering of the finances, and the reformation of several abuses.” Louis XVI.'s hesitations had disappeared: he was full of hope. ”I have not slept a wink all night,”
he wrote on the morning of the 30th of December to M. de Calonne, ”but it was for joy.”
The sentiments of the public were very diverse: the court was in consternation. ”What penalty would King Louis XIV. have inflicted upon a minister who spoke of convoking an a.s.sembly of notables?” asked old Marshal Richelieu, ever witty, frivolous, and corrupt. ”The king sends in his resignation,” said the young Viscount de Segur. At Paris curiosity was the prevalent feeling; but the jokes were bitter. ”The comptroller-general has raised a new troop of comedians; the first performance will take place on Monday the 20th instant,” said a sham play-bill: ”they will give us the princ.i.p.al piece _False Confidences,_ followed by _Forced Consent_ and an allegorical ballot, composed by M. de Calonne, ent.i.tled _The Tub of the Danaids_.”
The convocation of the notables was better received in the provinces: it was the first time for a hundred and sixty years that the nation had been called upon to take a part, even nominally, in the government of its affairs; it already began to feel powerful and proud. A note had been sent to the _Journal de Paris_ to announce the convocation of the a.s.sembly. ”The nation,” it said, ”will see with transport that the king deigns to draw near to her.” The day of excessive humiliation was no more, even in forms; M. de Calonne modified the expression thus: ”The nation will see with transport that the king draws near to her.”
Indisposition on the part of the comptroller-general had r.e.t.a.r.ded the preparatory labors; the session opened on the 22d of February, 1787.
The a.s.sembly numbered one hundred and forty-four members, all nominated by the king: to wit, seven princes of the blood; fourteen archbishops and bishops; thirty-six dukes and peers, marshals of France and n.o.blemen; twelve councillors of state and masters of requests; thirty-eight magistrates of sovereign courts; twelve deputies of states-districts, the only ones allowed to present to the king memorials of grievances; and twenty-five munic.i.p.al officers of the large towns. In this a.s.sembly, intended to sanction the abolition of privileges, a few munic.i.p.al officers alone represented the third estate and the cla.s.ses intended to profit by the abolition. The old Marquis of Mirabeau said facetiously: ”This Calonne a.s.sembles a troop of Guillots, which he calls the nation, to present them with the cow by the horns, and say to them, 'Gentlemen, we take all the milk and what not, we devour all the meat and what not, and we are going to try and get that what not out of the rich, whose money has no connection with the poor, and we give you notice that the rich means you. Now, give us your opinion as to the manner of proceeding.'”
The king's speech was short and unimportant. Though honestly impressed with reminiscences of Henry IV., he could not manage, like him, to say to the notables he had just convoked, ”I have had you a.s.semble to take your counsels, to trust in them, to follow them, in short, to place myself under tutelage in your hands,--a feeling which is scarcely natural to kings, graybeards, and conquerors; but the violent love I bear my subjects, the extreme desire I have to add the t.i.tle of liberator and restorer of this realm to that of king, make me find everything easy and honorable.” M. de Calonne had reserved to himself the duty of explaining the great projects he had suggested to the king. ”Gentle men,” said he in his exordium, ”the orders I am under at present do me the more honor in that the views of which the king has charged me to set before you the sum and the motives have been entirely adopted by him personally.” Henry IV. might have said to the notables a.s.sembled by his successor, as he had said regarding his predecessors: ”You were summoned hither not long ago to approve of the king's wishes.”
The state was prosperous, at any rate in appearance; the comptroller-general a.s.sumed the credit for it. ”The economy of a minister of finance,” he said, ”may exist under two forms so different that one might say they were two sorts of economy: one, which strikes the eye by its external strictness, which proclaims itself by startling and harshly uttered refusals, which flaunts its severity in the smallest matters in order to discourage the throng of applicants. It has an imposing appearance which really proves nothing, but which does a great deal as regards opinion; it has the double advantage of keeping importunate cupidity at arm's length and of quieting anxious ignorance.
The other, which considers duty rather than force of character, can do more, whilst showing less strictness and reserve, as regards whatever is of any importance; it affects no austerity as regards that which is of none; it lets the talk be of what it grants, and does not talk about what it saves. Because it is seen to be accessible to requests, people will not believe that it refuses the majority of them; because it has not the useful and vulgar character of inflexibility, people refuse it that of wise discretion, and often, whilst by a.s.siduous application to all the details of an immense department, it preserves the finances from the most fatal abuses and the most ruinously unskilful handling, it seems to calumniate itself by an easy-going appearance which the desire to injure transforms very soon into lavishness.”
So much easy grace and adroitness succeeding the austere stiffness of M.
Necker had been powerless to relieve the disorder of the finances; it was great and of ancient date. ”A deficit has been existing in France for centuries,” the comptroller-general a.s.serted. It at last touched the figure of a hundred millions a year. ”What is left for filling up so frightful a void and for reaching the desired level?” exclaimed M. de Calonne: ”abuses! Yes, gentlemen, it is in abuses themselves that there is to be found a mine of wealth which the state has a right to reclaim and which must serve to restore order. Abuses have for their defenders interests, influence, fortune, and some antiquated prejudices which time seems to have respected. But of what force is such a vain confederation against the public welfare and the necessity of the state? Let others recall this maxim of our monarchy: 'As willeth the king, so willeth the law;' his Majesty's maxim is: 'As willeth the happiness of the people, so willeth the king.'”
Audaciously certain of the success of his project, M. de Calonne had not taken the trouble to disguise the vast consequences of it; he had not thought any the more about pre-securing a majority in the a.s.sembly. The members were divided into seven committees presided over by the princes; each committee disposed of one single vote; the comptroller-general had not taken exception to the selections designated by his adversaries.
”I have made it a point of conscience,” he said, ”to give suitable nominations according to the morality, and talent, and importance of individuals.” He had burned his s.h.i.+ps, and without a care for the defective composition of the a.s.sembly, he set forth, one after the other, projects calculated to alarm the privileged orders. ”More will be paid,”
he said in the preamble printed at the head of his notes and circulated in profusion over the whole of France, ”undoubtedly more will be paid, but by whom? . . . By those only who do not pay enough; they will pay what they ought, according to a just proportionment, and n.o.body will be aggrieved. Privileges will be sacrificed! Yes! Justice wills it, necessity requires it! Would it be better to surcharge the non-privileged, the people?”