of
foreign extraction, ventured once to recommend to her greater caution in
her display of liking for the foreign nobles, as what might excite the
jealousy of the French;[8] and she replied that "he might be right, but
the foreigners were the only people who asked her for nothing."

Meanwhile, the war went on in America; the colonists themselves were
making but little, if any, progress, and the French contingent were
certainly reaping no honor, M. de La Fayette, the only officer who came in
contact with a British force, showing no military skill or capacity, and
not even much courage. But in the course of the spring France sustained a
far heavier loss than even the defeat of an army could have inflicted on
her, in the retirement of Necker from the ministry. As a statesman, he was
certainly not entitled to any very high rank. He had neither extensive
knowledge, nor large views, nor firmness; the only project of
constitutional reform which he had brought forward had been but a
mutilated and imperfect copy of the system devised by the original and
statesman-like daring of Turgot. At a subsequent period he proved himself
incapable of discerning the true character of the circumstances which
surrounded him, and wholly ignorant of the feelings of the nation, and of
the principles and objects of those who aspired to take a lead in its
councils. But as yet his financial policy had undoubtedly been successful.
He had greatly relieved the general distress, he had maintained the public
credit, and he had inspired the nation with confidence in itself, and
other countries also with confidence in its resources; but he had made
many and powerful enemies by the retrenchments which had been a necessary
part of his system. As early as the spring of 1780, Mercy had reported to
the empress that both the king's brothers and the Duc d'Orleans complained
that some of his measures infringed upon their established rights; that
the Count d'Artois had had a very stormy discussion with Necker himself,
and, when he could neither convince nor overbear him, had tried, though
unsuccessfully, to enlist the queen against him. The count had since
employed the controller of his own household, M. Boutourlin, to write
pamphlets against him, and, in point of fact, many of the most elaborate
details of a financial statement which Necker had recently published were
very ill-calculated to endure a strict scrutiny; but M. Boutourlin did his
work so badly that Nec