of the King, to send four members to the
Bastile, of whom the Marquis de la Fayette was one, to banish twenty
others, and two of his Ministers. The King found it shorter to banish
him. His successor went on in full concert with the Assembly. The
result was an augmentation of the revenue, a promise of economies in
its expenditure, of an annual settlement of the public accounts before a
council, which the Comptroller, having been heretofore obliged to
settle only with the King in person, of course never settled at all; an
acknowledgment that the King could not lay a new tax, a reformation
of the Criminal laws, abolition of torture, suppression of _corvees_,
reformation of the _gabelles_, removal of the interior custom-houses,
free commerce of grain, internal and external, and the establishment of
Provincial Assemblies; which, altogether, constituted a great mass of
improvement in the condition of the nation. The establishment of the
Provincial Assemblies was, in itself, a fundamental improvement. They
would be, of the choice of the people, one third renewed every year, in
those provinces where there are no states, that is to say, over
about three fourths of the kingdom. They would be partly an Executive
themselves, and partly an Executive Council to the Intendant, to whom
the executive power, in his province, had been heretofore entirely
delegated. Chosen by the people, they would soften the execution of
hard laws, and, having a right of representation to the King, they
would censure bad laws, suggest good ones, expose abuses, and their
representations, when united, would command respect. To the other
advantages, might be added the precedent itself of calling the Assemblee
des Notables, which would perhaps grow into habit. The hope was, that
the improvements thus promised would be carried into effect; that they
would be maintained during the present reign, and that that would be
long enough for them to take some root in the constitution, so that they
might come to be considered as a part of that, and be protected by time,
and the attachment of the nation.

The Count de Vergennes had died a few days before the meeting of the
Assembly, and the Count de Montmorin had been named Minister of foreign
affairs, in his place. Villedeuil succeeded Calonne, as Comptroller
General, and Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, afterwards of
Sens, and ultimately Cardinal Lomenie, was named Minister principal,
with whom the other Min