d suppressed the
majority of them, thus irritating, likewise, all the privileged. "M. de
St. Germain," wrote Frederick II. to Voltaire, "had great and noble plans
very advantageous for your Welches; but everybody thwarted him, because
the reforms he proposed would have entailed a strictness which was
repugnant to them on ten thousand sluggards, well frogged, well laced."
The enthusiasm which had been excited by the new minister of war had
disappeared from amongst the officers; he lost the hearts of the soldiers
by wanting to establish in the army the corporal punishments in use
amongst the German armies in which he had served. The feeling was so
strong, that the attempt was abandoned. "In the matter of sabres," said
a grenadier, "I like only the edge." Violent and weak both together, in
spite of his real merit and his genuine worth, often giving up wise
resolutions out of sheer embarrassment, he nearly always failed in what
he undertook; the outcries against the reformers were increased thereby;
the faults of M. de St. Germain were put down to M. Turgot.

It was against the latter indeed, that the courtiers' anger and M. de
Maurepas' growing jealousy were directed. "Once upon a time there was
in France," said a ,pamphlet, entitled _Le Songe de M. de Maurepas,_
attributed to Monsieur, the king's brother,--"there was in France a
certain man, clumsy, crass, heavy, born with more of rudeness than of
character, more of obstinacy than of firmness, of impetuosity than of
tact, a charlatan in administration as well as in virtue, made to bring
the one into disrepute and the other into disgust, in other respects shy
from self-conceit, timid from pride, as unfamiliar with men, whom he had
never known, as with public affairs, which he had always seen askew; his
name was Turgot. He was one of those half-thinking brains which adopt
all visions, all manias of a gigantic sort. He was believed to be deep,
he was really shallow; night and day he was raving of philosophy,
liberty, equality, net product." "He is too much (trop fort) for me," M.
de Maurepas would often say. "A man must be possessed (or inspired--
_enrage_)," wrote Malesherbes, "to force, at one and the same time, the
hand of the king, of M. de Maurepas, of the whole court and of the
Parliament."

Perhaps the task was above human strength; it was certainly beyond that
of M. Turgot. Ever occupied with the public weal, he turned his mind to
every subject, issuing a