t64 history of FRAiVCE. [chap. display and etiquette, were crazy with enthusiasm for his plain garb and grave, simple manners. 4. Necker, 1781. — Onthefirstdayoftheyear, i78l,Necker gave in his budget, where the receipts, for the first and only time, exceeded the expenditure by 10,000,000 livres. Every one was so much delighted that Alaurcpas became jealous of Necker, and set the king against all his plans, until the banker, finding that no confidence was given to him, resigned, and was much regretted as one of the hopes of the nation. The war increased the debt which he had begun to pay oft", and the king put down as much as he could of his guards, and other attendants : it made little difference. Maurepas died soon after, and with him went that power of management and of keeping things together which belongs to an old practised statesman, to whom administration is a sort of trade. Calonne, who had come into office, was a mere courtier, who felt only for the nobles, and not for the people, and who stifled all the dawning scruples of the queen as to vain expenses. What they were may be gathered from the fact that the household of her newborn daughter was with great difficulty reduced to only eighty persons. Under Calonne's management the public debt had enormously increased ; and all this the people imagined to be the effect of the extravagance of the queen. They nicknamed her Madame Deficit, while Calonne declared that all was the fault of Necker. 5. The Assembly of Notables, IzSj. — A new plan of taxing was evidently necessary, and it was hoped that Lewis would call together his States General, as had not been done since the time of Lewis XI IL But he was afraid to do this, and only called the Notables, who had not met since the days of Henry IV. These were persons chosen by the king, mostly from the nobles and clergy, a few only from the commons. They had no desire to tax themselves, and only abused Calonne, so that he threw up his office, and went into exile. Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, then became minister, and a stamp duty was devised, on which the notables would give no opinion ; but the Parliament of Paris was so resolved on forcing the king to call together the States General that it refused to register the edict. Lewis banished its members to Troyes, but they still held out. He then held a bod of jua tj e e, but was defied to his face by his cousin Philip, duke of Orleans, who had thrown himself into the new movement. He sent the duke to his estates, ajid
