CHAPTER XXI.

M. Necker retires-Reflections on that Event-Inveteracy of the French against Ministers of State and Ecclesiastics-Long Habit more necessary to acquire Excellence in bodily than in mental Exertions-The National Assembly insists that the King shall sanction their Decree, obliging the Clergy to take the Oath to the Constitution-The Pope disapproves of itThe Effect this has on the Minds of the People-The King's Aunts determine to leave France and go to Rome.

M. NECKER, who had for some time seen the decline of his popularity, and had already received several mortifying proofs that his influence in the national assembly was greatly diminished, became alarmed for his personal safety; for in the popular outcry against the ministers, no exception was made in his favour. He thought proper, therefore, to send a letter with his resignation to the assembly, on the pretext that his health required retreat and country air. Immediately after it was read, several members called for the order of the day; which is usually done when the matter actually under consideration is thought unworthy of their attention.

M. Necker had lent above two millions of livres to the public treasury, which his friends had often advised him to withdraw and place in greater security; but he had always refused; and, on his leaving Paris, he declared that he had left that sum, with his hotel and furniture, as pledges for the faithfulness of his administration.

Several of the sections of Paris actually assembled, on purpose to determine whether or not he ought to be permitted to leave the kingdom before his accounts were examined and approved; for he had now so entirely lost his popularity, that those very Parisians who a few months before had considered him as the guardian angel of France, now questioned whether all the fortune which he left behind would indemnify the nation for the money of which he had defrauded it. But Mirabeau, Camus, and

others, who were fully convinced of M. Necker's integri ty, and, sufficiently sensible of the mutability of public opinion, had long wished him out of France, interposed with the sections, and prevented any opposition from being made to his departure.

The calumnies of M. Necker's enemies were not confined to Paris: they were circulated all over France. He had not proceeded on his journey above forty leagues until he was stopped by the municipal officers of a small town. They disregarded his passports, and still more a particular letter from the king which he also shewed them. They insisted that he should remain where he was until they received instructions from the national assembly. He and Madame Necker were accordingly guarded like state prisoners, until two deputies from the municipality returned from Paris with the permission of the assembly for their being set at liberty.

Before they were out of France they were again stopped, not by the magistrates but by the populace of Vesoul, who, after a number of insults, examining their papers and every article in their trunks, and detaining them several hours in the dread of some greater violence, reluctantly allowed them to proceed on the journey at last, although they could find nothing on which to found a pretext for detaining them.

In this manner was M. Necker obliged to fly from the country, where he had but a few months before been almost adored-a man whose exile a short time before had excited universal regret; who, although a Protestant and a foreigner, had enjoyed the confidence of the nation more than any Roman Catholic minister; who was also a native, ever had done: and, what makes the capricious. fickleness of the French appear in a sronger point of view, is, that no change of system or political conduct on the part of M. Necker occasioned this sudden alteration of their opinion. Neither his fidelity nor his diligence was ever called in question; and there is strong reason for believing that his earnest wish and supreme ambition

were to arrange the finances of France; to establish a government free from the tyranny of the old one, and which should guard with impartiality the liberties of the people and the dignity of the crown. The great error into which both he and the nation fell, but for which he was more excusable than the nation, was imagining that he had genius and talents to accomplish such an undertaking: for, however strange it may seem, nothing is more certain than that the public over-rated M. Necker's abilities as much as he himself did. But so many of mankind think highly of themselves without any other mortal to keep them in countenance, that the man who has an exalted notion of his own abilities, knowing that the world in general are of the same way of thinking, may be excused, although both he and the world are mistaken. M. Necker is accused of being ostentatious and vain; but if a man maintains perfect integrity towards the public, is benevolent towards individuals, fulfils the relative duties of life conscientiously, and strives to be useful to mankind, is it not ungenerous to insist so much on his vanity? Would it not be fortunate for mankind, if many more of them had the same kind of vanity?

The uprightness of men's intentions seldom saves them from the enmity of those who think they have suffered by their measures. M. Necker has been abused by one party in France for attempting any alteration whatever in the government; and by another, for not pushing reformation much farther than he did; and that nation in general, after having ranked him among their ablest politicians and greatest ministers, seem now to consider him as little above the level of common bankers or comptrollers of finance.

It has been often observed, that great occasions and hazardous situations have a tendency to create and develop talents; and of course that times of revolution and important struggles in states are the most productive of great men. It is asserted by some, however, that this French revolution forms a contradiction to the general

observation respecting the tendency of revolutions, inas much as, although it has occasioned a long and severe struggle, and given rise to very great crimes, yet it has not produced one man who can be with propriety called great, even allowing that wickedness did not preclude from the title.

Without entering into that discussion, it must be ac knowledged that, if the French revolution has not given rise to any great men, it has had an effect more extraordinary and unexpected; having entirely overset and annihilated the greatness of more men than any other revolu. tion ever did. To enumerate instances would be equally superfluous and invidious; as, without including the great men of France itself whom the revolution has converted into little men, the recollection of every reader at all acquainted with the modern history of Europe, must furnish instances of generals as well as of statesmen, who were supposed to have secured ample and conspicuous places in the gallery of fame, but whose greatness has dwindled so wonderfully in the course of this revolution, that it is now generally believed they will be exhibited only as minia

tures.

So that, in the loss of the admiration he at one time possessed, M. Necker has many fellow-sufferers.

Except the clergy, no set of men have been treated with so much severity by the French since the revolution as their ministers of state. It would seem as if that people had conceived a rancour against all who presumed to govern either their souls or bodies. In this, as in many other particulars, their conduct is the reverse of the English, who have always behaved to their clergy with the respect due to their characters and sacred functions; have on all occasions heaped riches and honours on those statesmen, whose fortunate or wise administration has rendered the country prosperous; and in many instances have behaved to those who from negligence or error have involved it in distress, with a degree of patience and forbearance which astonishes all other nations.

M. La Tour du Pin was obliged to resign soon after

the retreat of M. Necker. His example was followed by all his colleagues in administration, except M. de Montmorin. M. Delessart, the disciple and friend of M. Necker, was joined to M. de Montmorin as part of the new administration. Both were men of principle, though neither were popular; and both afterwards were the victims of popular rage and cruelty: M. Delessart, with the prisoners from Orleans who were slaughtered at Versailles without having ever had any trial; M. de Montmorin at Paris, after he had been tried and acquitted.

Nothing is a more general subject of ridicule than for people who have not been bred to a particular profession to presume to have knowledge in it, or to hold opinions contrary to those of men of the profession who are sup posed to have studied the subject. The folly of this is pretty universally allowed when the case is stated in general; but it is astonishing what a number think themselves individually exceptions to the general rule, and make no scruple of disputing with a physician on medicine, with a barrister on law, or even with a clergyman on divinity; while they laugh at any other person who like themselves has not been educated to those professions for doing the same. The maxim, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, seems more just, however, when applied to such professions as require mechanical exertion only, than when applied to such as require exertions of the mind: for long habit is more necessary for the attainment of excellence in the mechanical arts, than in those which depend on the power and extent of the understanding. A man, however ingenious, who would attempt to make a common chair without having been bred a carpenter, would certainly succeed much worse than one accustomed to the trade, though far his inferior in ingenuity; because the power of using the fingers and applying the tools with dexterity is to be acquired by frequent use and long ha bit only. The experience of every person who can write is a strong proof of this; and though a man has been making use of his fingers all his life, and can do it with