s of
short duration; they were awaiting a new comptroller-general, calculated
to enlighten them as to the position of affairs. M. de Montmorin and M.
de Lamoignon were urgent for the recall of M. Necker. The king's ill
feeling against his late minister still continued. "As long as M. Necker
exists," said M. de Montmorin, "it is impossible that there should be any
other minister of finance, because the public will always be annoyed to
see that post occupied by any but by him." "I did not know M. Necker
personally," adds M. de Montmorin in his notes left to Marmontel; "I had
nothing but doubts to oppose to what the king told me about his
character, his haughtiness, and his domineering spirit." Louis XVI.
yielded, however. "Well!" he said, snappishly, "if it must be, recall
him." M. de Breteuil was present. "Your Majesty," said he, "has but
just banished M. Necker he has scarcely arrived at Montargis; to recall
him now would have a deplorable effect." He once more mentioned the name
of Leonie de Brienne, and the king again yielded. Ambitious, intriguing,
debauched, unbelieving, the new minister, like his predecessor, was
agreeable, brilliant, capable even, and accustomed in his diocese to
important affairs. He was received without disfavor by public opinion.
The notables and the chief of the council of finance undertook in concert
the disentanglement of the accounts submitted to them.

In this labyrinth of contradictory figures and statements, the deficit
alone came out clearly. M. de Brienne promised important economies, the
Assembly voted a loan: they were not willing to accept the responsibility
of the important reforms demanded by the king. The speeches were long
and vague, the objections endless. All the schemes of imposts were
censured one after the other. "We leave it to the king's wisdom," said
the notables at last; "he shall himself decide what taxes will offer the
least inconveniences, if the requirements of the state make it necessary
to impose new sacrifices upon the people." "The notables have seen with
dismay the depth of the evil caused by an administration whereof your
parliament had more than once foreseen the consequence," said the premier
president of the parliament of Paris. "The different plans proposed to
your Majesty deserve careful deliberation. The most respectful silence
is at this moment our only course."

The notables had themselves recognized their own impotence and given in