if the
financial affairs should fall into such discredit that your Majesty finds
yourself forced at last to make a change, I dare entreat you to think of
the valuable man who is now left unemployed; I do beg you to reflect
that, without Colbert, Louis XIV. would never perhaps have been called
Louis le Grand; that the wish of the nation, to be taken into account by
a good king, is secretly demanding, Sir, that the enlightened,
economical, and incorruptible man whom Providence has given to your
Majesty, should be recalled to his late functions. The errors of your
other ministers, Sir, are nearly always reparable, and their places are
easily filled. But the choice of him to whom is committed the happiness
of twenty-four millions of souls and the duty of making your authority
cherished is of frightful importance. With M. Necker, Sir, even in
peace, the imposts would be accepted, whatever they might be, without a
murmur. The conviction would be that inevitable necessity had laid down
the laws for them, and that a wise use of them would justify them, . .
. whereas, if your Majesty puts to hazard an administration on which all
the rest depend, it is to be feared that the difficulties will be
multiplied with the selections you will be obliged to have recourse to;
you will find one day destroy what another set up, and at last there will
arrive one when no way will be seen of serving the state but by failing
to keep all your Majesty's engagements, and thereby putting an end to all
the confidence which the commencement of your reign inspired."

The honest zeal of Marshal de Castries for the welfare of the state had
inspired him with prophetic views; but royal weakness exhibits sometimes
unexpected doggedness. "As regards M. Necker," answered Louis XVI., "I
will tell you frankly that after the manner in which I treated him and
that in which he left me, I couldn't think of employing him at all."
After some court-intrigues which brought forward names that were not in
good odor, that of Foulon, late superintendent of the forces, and of the
Archbishop of Toulouse, Lomenie de Brienne, the king sent for M. de
Calonne, superintendent of Lille, and intrusted him with the post of
comptroller-general.

It was court-influence that carried the day, and, in the court, that of
the queen, prompted by her favorite, Madame de Polignac. Tenderly
attached to his wife, who had at last given him a son, Louis XVI.,
delivered from the predominan