ractical step towards
re-establishing order and making reform effective, Mirabeau was the
necessary leader of such a ministry. In the period that followed the
arrival of the King in Paris he amply demonstrated both his
qualifications and his defects for such a position. Urgent questions
pressed the assembly from all sides, and in debating them Mirabeau took
a lion's share.

Finance was most urgent of all. Necker could do no more. A
fundamental remedy for the needs of the exchequer must be found. On
the 7th of October the assembly had voted that the Crown lands should
become the property of the nation, in return for which a civil list
would be assigned to the King. Three days later Talleyrand-Perigord,
the sceptical {96} but able Bishop of Autun, proposed that the property
of the Church should be similarly dealt with. This was, in one sense,
as the previous step had been, the assertion of the national interest
over the special privilege; in another sense it was merely one step
more in those numerous secularizations of Church property which the
utilitarian and unreligious 18th century had carried out. It was
proposed to take over for the use of the State all the property of the
Church and in return to pay salaries to its priests. This represented
the acquisition of real property valued at the capital sum of
2,100,000,000 of francs; but as it only brought in capital value, not
cash in hand, it did not afford any immediate relief for the needs of
the Government. Then another expedient was tried, the appeal for
patriotic gifts, and that, though it resulted in a good deal of
patriotic emotionalism, did little to fill the yawning gulf of
bankruptcy. Finally in December, drastic measures were taken. Some of
the State's payments were provisionally suspended; the sale of Church
and other lands to the value of 400 millions was ordered; a loan of 80
millions was sanctioned; and 400 millions of _assignats_ were issued.

The assignat in this first form was an {97} inchoate mortgage bond. It
bore interest; it was guaranteed by the State; it purported to be
secured in a general way on the national property; and it was to
circulate as money and to be accepted in payment for the national
lands. If it had been strictly secured, on a close valuation, and by a
registered claim against specified property, it would doubtless have
given a permanent support to the finances of the Government. As it was
it proved, at first, a suc