de Pompadour the practice arose that orders for money payments
signed by the King alone should be paid in cash and not passed through
the audit chamber, such as it was. Pensions became a serious drain on
the revenue and rapidly grew to over 50 millions a year at the end of
the reign of Louis XVI. They were not infrequently granted for
ridiculous or scandalous reasons, as in the case of Ducrest,
hairdresser to the eldest daughter of the Comtesse d'Artois, who was
granted an annual pension of 1,700 francs on her death; the child was
then twelve months old; or that of a servant of the actress Clairon,
who was brought into the Oeuil de Boeuf one morning to tell Louis XV a
doubtful story about his mistress; the King laughed so much that he
ordered the fellow to be put down for a pension of 600 francs!

With its finances in such condition the Bourbon monarchy plunged into
war with England {34} in 1778, and, for the satisfaction of Yorktown
and the independence of the United States, spent 1,500 millions of
francs, nearly four years' revenue. At that moment it was estimated
that the people of France paid in taxation about 800 millions annually,
about one-half of which reached the King's chest. But the burden of
debt was so great that by 1789, nearly 250 millions were paid out
annually for interest.

To meet this situation the Government tried many men and many measures.
There were several partial repudiations of debt. The money was
clipped, much to the profit of importers from Amsterdam and other
centres of thrift. Necker made way for Calonne, and Calonne for
Necker. But these names bring us to the current of events that
resulted in the convocation of the States-General by Louis XVI, and
that must be made the subject of another chapter.

[1] The franc comes into use at the period of the Revolution. It will
be employed throughout instead of _livres_ as the standard denomination.

{35}

CHAPTER IV

CONVOCATION OF THE STATES-GENERAL

Louis XVI, grandson of Louis XV, came to the throne in 1774. He showed
some, but not all, of the characteristics of his family. He was of
sluggish intelligence, and extremely slow, not to say embarrassed, in
speech. He was heavy in build and in features. His two great
interests were locksmithing, which he had learned as a boy, and running
the deer and the boar in the great royal forests, St. Germain,
Fontainebleau, Rambouillet. He had all the Bourbon _insouciance_, and