ary of the Bastille he received an
ovation. Forty thousand National Guards assembled from all parts of
France for the feast of Federation. At an altar erected in the Champ
de Mars, Talleyrand celebrated his last Mass, and France sanctioned
the doings of Paris. The king was present, but all the demonstration
was for the hero of two hemispheres, on his white charger. In November
a new Ministry took office, composed of his partisans. Mirabeau
attempted a coalition, but Lafayette did not feel the need of his
friendship. He said, "I have resisted the king of England in his
power, the king of France in his authority, the people in its rage; I
am not going to yield to Mirabeau."

Necker was less tenacious of office, and rather than consent to an
increased issue of _assignats_, resigned, much to his honour, and
retired obscurely. Mirabeau triumphed. He had opposed the _assignats_
at first, although Claviere defended them in his newspaper. He now
changed his attitude. He not only affirmed that the Church lands would
be adequate security for paper, making it equivalent to gold, but he
was willing that the purchase money should be paid in _assignats_,
doing away with bullion altogether. But the cloven hoof appeared when
he assured the king that the plan which he defended would fail, and
would involve France in ruin. He meant that it would ruin the
Assembly, and would enable the king to dissolve. The same
Machiavellian purpose guided him in Church questions. He was at heart
a Liberal in matters of conscience, and thought toleration too weak a
term for the rights inseparable from religion. But he wished the
constitutional oath to be imposed with rigour, and that the priests
should be encouraged to refuse it. He declined to give a pledge that
the Assembly would not interfere with doctrine, and he prepared to
raise the questions of celibacy and of divorce in order to aggravate
the irritation. He proposed to restore authority by civil war; and the
road to civil war was bankruptcy and persecution. Meantime, the court
of inquiry vindicated him from aspersions connected with the attack on
Versailles; as chairman of the Diplomatic Committee, he was the
arbiter of foreign policy. Necker and all his colleagues save one had
gone down before him; he was elected President of the Jacobins in
November, and when he asked for leave of absence, the Assembly, on the
motion of Barnave, requested him not to absent himself. Montmorin, the
only member o