t to the King, admitted that he had
no money, that he could borrow no more, and that the only hope lay in
fundamental reform. He proposed, therefore, a number of measures, of
which the most important were that money should be raised by a stamp
tax, that a land tax should be the foundation of the revenue, and that
it should apply to all proprietors, noble, cleric, and of the Third
Estate, with no {42} exceptions. There was no chance, however, as
matters stood, of persuading the Parlements to register decrees for
these purposes, so Calonne proposed that the King should summon an
assembly of the notables of France to give their support to these
reforms. Here again, although Calonne and Louis did not realize it,
was an appeal to public opinion; the monarchy was unconsciously
following the lead of the philosophers, of the dramatists, and of
Necker.

In January, 1788, the Notables assembled, "to learn the King's
intentions," one hundred and fifty of them, mostly nobles and official
persons. In February Calonne put his scheme before them, and then
discovered, to his great astonishment, that they declined to give him
the support, which was all he wanted of them, and that, on the
contrary, they wished to discuss his project, and, in fact, held a very
adverse opinion of it. In this the Notables were not factious; they
merely had enough sense of the gravity of the situation to perceive
that a real remedy was needed, and that Calonne's proposal did not
supply it. His idea was good enough in the abstract, but in practice
there was at least one insurmountable objection, which was that the
land tax could not be established until a cadastral survey of France
had {43} been undertaken--a complicated and lengthy operation. Very
soon Calonne and the Notables had embarked on a contest that gradually
became heated, until finally Calonne appealed from the Notables to the
public by printing and circulating his proposals. The Notables replied
by a protest, and declared that the real reform was economy and that
the Controleur should place before them proper accounts. This proved
the end of Calonne, his position had long been weak, he now toppled
over, and was replaced by Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse.

Lomenie was an agreeable courtier, and well liked by the Queen, but he
was also a liberal, an encyclopedist, and a member of the Assembly of
Notables. He succeeded in getting the approval of that body for a loan
of 60,000,