be so, since, even after she became queen, her income
continued to be far too narrow for her rank. The nominal allowance of all
former kings and queens had been fixed at an unreasonably low rate, from
the pernicious custom of drawing on the treasury for all deficiencies; but
this mode of proceeding was inconsistent with the notions of propriety
entertained by the new sovereigns, and with those of the new finance
minister.

Maurepas himself had never been distinguished for ability, but he was
sufficiently clear-sighted to be aware that the principal difficulties of
the State arose from the disorder into which the profligacy and
prodigality of the late reign, ever since the death of the wise Fleury,
had thrown its finances; and he had made a most happy choice for the
office of comptroller-general of finance, appointing to it a man named
Turgot, who, as Intendant of the Limousin, had brought that province into
a condition of prosperity which had made it a model for the rest of the
kingdom. In his new and more enlarged sphere of action, Turgot's abilities
expanded; or, perhaps it should rather be said, had a fairer field for
their display. He showed himself equally capable in every department of
his duties; as a financial reformer, as an administrator, and as a
legislator. No minister in the history of the nation had ever so united
large-minded genius with disinterested integrity. He had not accepted
office without a full perception of its difficulties. He saw all that had
to be done, and applied himself to putting the finances of the nation on a
healthy footing, as an indispensable preface to other reforms equally
necessary. He easily secured the co-operation of the king and queen, Louis
cheerfully adopting the retrenchments which he recommended, though some of
them, such as the reduction in the hunting establishment, touched his
personal tastes. But at the same time, as there was no illiberality in his
economy, or, rather, as he saw that real economy could only be practiced
if the sovereigns had a fixed income really adequate to the call upon it,
he placed their allowances on a more satisfactory footing than had ever
been fixed for them before, the queen's privy purse being settled at a sum
which Mercy agreed with him would prove sufficient for all her expenses,
though it was but 200,000 francs a year.

And so it was generally found to be; for, with the exception of an
occasional fancy for some splendid jewel, Marie Antoi