his materials were new and he had no friends. He believed
that the king was really identified with the magnates, and
that the Commons were totally unprepared to confront
either the court or the approaching Revolution. He thought
it hopeless to negotiate with his own doomed order, and
meant to detach the king from them. When the scheme
of conciliation failed, his opportunity came. He requested
Malouet to bring him into communication with ministers.
He told him that he was seriously alarmed, that the nobles
meant to push resistance to extremity, and that his reliance
was on the Crown. He promised, if the Government
would admit him to their confidence, to support their
policy with all his might. Montmorin refused to see him.
Necker reluctantly consented. He had a way of pointing
his nose at the ceiling, which was not conciliatory, and he
received the hated visitor with a request to know what
proposals he had to make. Mirabeau, purple with rage
at this frigid treatment by the man he had come to save,
replied that he proposed to wish him good morning. To
Malouet he said, "Your friend is a fool, and he will soon have news of me." Necker lived to regret that he had
thrown such a chance away. At the time, the interview
only helped to persuade him that the Commons knew
their weakness, and felt the need of his succour.
Just then the expected appeal reached him from the ecclesiastical quarter. When it was seen that the nobles could not be constrained by fair words, the Commons made one more experiment with the clergy. On May 27 they sent a numerous and weighty deputation to adjure them, in the name of the God of peace and of the national welfare, not to abandon the cause of united action. The clergy this time invoked the interposition of Government.
On the 30th conferences were once more opened, and the ministers were present. The discussion was as unconclusive as before, and, on June 4, Necker produced a plan of his own. He proposed, in substance, separate verification, the crown to decide in last instance. It was a solution favourable to the privileged orders, one of which had appealed to him. He wanted their money, not
