ceed from a total ignorance of mankind.[8] Yet, greatly as
financial skill was needed, if the kingdom was to be saved from the
bankruptcy which seemed to be imminent, it was plain that a faculty for
organization and legislation was no less indispensable if the vessel of
the State was to be steered safely along the course on which it was
entering; for the archbishop's last act had been to induce the king to
promise to convoke the States-general. The 1st of May of the ensuing year
was fixed for their meeting; and the arrangements for and the management
of an assembly, which, as not having met for nearly two hundred years,
could not fail to present many of the features of an entire novelty, were
a task which would have severely tested the most statesman-like capacity.

But, unhappily, Necker's very first acts showed him equally void of
resolution and of sagacity. He was not only unable to estimate the
probable conduct of the people in future, but he showed himself incapable
of profiting by the experience of the past; and, in spite of the
insubordinate spirit which the Parliament had at all times displayed, he
at once recalled them in deference to the clamor of the Parisian citizens,
and allowed them to enter Paris in a triumphal procession, as if his very
object had been to parade their victory over the king's authority. Their
return was the signal for a renewal of riots, which assumed a more
formidable character than ever. The police, and even the guardhouses, were
attacked in open day, and the Government had reason to suspect that the
money which was employed in fomenting the tumults was supplied by the Duc
d'Orleans. A fierce mob traversed the streets at night, terrifying the
peaceable inhabitants with shouts of triumph over the king as having been
compelled to recall the Parliament against his will; while those who were
supposed to be adverse to the pretensions of the councilors were insulted
in the streets, and branded as Royalists, the first time in the history of
the nation that ever that name had been used as a term of reproach.

Yet, presently the whole body of citizens, with their habitual impulsive
facility of temper, again, for a while, became Royalists. The winter was
one of unprecedented severity. By the beginning of December the Seine was
frozen over, and the whole adjacent country was buried in deep snow.
Wolves from the neighboring forests, desperate with hunger, were said to
have made their way into the su