Part 7

My husband loudly complained of my living at Versailles, and wrote to me a very passionate letter, full of reproaches against me, and still more against the King; amidst other indiscreet terms, calling him tyrant. As I was reading this letter, the King came into my apartment; I immediately thrust it into my pocket; the emotion with which I received his Majesty, shewed me to be under some disorder; I was for concealing the cause, but on his repeated instances, I put my husband’s letter into his hands. He read it through without the least sign of resentment: I assured him that I had no share in his temerity; and the better to convince him of it, desired that he would punish the writer severely. _No, Madam_, said he to me, with that air of goodness which is so natural to him, _your husband is unhappy, and should rather be pitied_. History does not afford a like passage of moderation in an injured King. My spouse, on being informed of it, left the kingdom to travel.

Though the peace had diffused quiet through Europe, it caused violent agitations in the political bodies of France. The parliament of Paris, amidst its many remonstrances to Lewis XV. exhorted him in a very fine speech, to take off the _twentieth denier_. The deputies of that body expressed themselves in this manner:

_So many millions of men now in indigence, stand in need of immediate ease and relief; whereas, should they be still obliged to pay the twentieth denier, they will be quite unable to lift up their heads again, and repair their shattered fortune, and hence a general despondency._

_Whole families will be reduced to the most dreadful distress, and thus be afraid of leaving behind them a numerous issue, which would be a burden to them whilst living, and to whom they can transmit no other inheritance than their wretchedness._

_The number of children, who are the hope and support of the state, will be continually decreasing, the villages will be thinned, trade languish, and the culture of land in a great measure at a stand. The ruin of the farmers will necessarily be followed by that of the nobility, as their estates will suffer a very considerable diminution; and thus these people, and that brave nobility, whose valour is their soul and chief resource, will be involved in one common ruin._

Count Saxe used to call the deputies of the parliament the great-chamber pedants. _They are for teaching the administration_, says he, _what it knows better than themselves. They are always harping on the distempers of the state, without any word of a remedy._ Once, as the first president was delivering a pathetic harangue before the King, proving the necessity of lessening the weight of the taxes, his Majesty cut him short with these words: _Mr. President, let but the parliament enable me to pay off the state debts, and defray the present expences of the Monarchy, and very readily will I abolish every, tax, duty, and impost._

A man of wit, and who knows the French temper, used to say, that these useless representations were become necessary, as keeping up the people’s spirits, who, without a declared Protector, would think themselves for ever undone.

In Cardinal de Fleury’s indolent ministry, and the subsequent wars, the government had not been able to take into consideration an abuse which manifestly tended to dispeople the monarchy. Religion, in all wise governments, a source of population, was thinning the human species. All France was mouldering away in convents: every town and village had numerous communities of girls, who made vows against having children. The following letter, which I received from a nun at Lyons, and communicated to the King, occasioned deliberations for reforming this abuse.

“MADAM,

“I was at first for writing to the Pope, but, on farther reflection, I thought it would be full as well to apply to you. The point is this: when I was but seven years of age, my parents shut me up in the convent where I now am; and on my entering into my fifteenth year, two nuns signified to me an order to take the veil. I deferred complying for some time; for though quite a stranger to every thing but the house I was in, yet I suspected there must be another kind of world than the convent, and another state than that of a nun; but the sister of _Jesus’s heart_, our mother, in order to fix my call, said to me, that all women who married were damned, because they lie with a man, and bore children: this set me a-crying most bitterly for my poor mother, as burning eternally in hell for having brought me into the world.

“I took the veil; but now that I am twenty years of age, and my constitution formed, I daily feel that I am not made for this state, and think I want something; and that something, or I am much mistaken, is a husband.

“My talking continually of matrimony sets the community a-madding; the sister of the _Holy Ghost_ tells me, that I am Jesus Christ’s spouse; but, for my part, I feel myself much inclined to a second marriage with a man.

“On a young girl’s coming into a convent, half a dozen wheedlers get about her, and never leave her till they have persuaded her to take the veil. Children are buried every day in monasteries, whilst their early age does not admit of any solid reflections on the vows they are drawn to make.

“Let me intreat you, Madam, to persuade the King to reform this abuse; it is a reformation which both religion and the prosperity of the state call for. The sacrificing so many victims to the avarice of parents, is a great loss of people to the state, and the kingdom of heaven is not the fuller. God requires voluntary sacrifices, and these are the fruit of reflection. It is surprising, that the laws, in settling the age for our sex’s passing a civil contract, should forget the age for making vows: is reason less necessary for contracting with God, than with men? This I submit to yours and his Majesty’s reflections: in the mean time, give me leave to be,

Madam,

Your most humble servant,

Sister JOSEPH.”

The King thought that sister _Jesus’s heart_, and sister _Holy Ghost_, had done wrong in drawing sister Joseph into the state of celibacy, as with such happy dispositions for marriage, she bid fair to have been a fruitful mother, and thus have benefited the state.

To suppress the aforesaid abuse, his Majesty issued an arret, forbidding all religious communities to admit a novice under twenty-four years of age and a day.

Other bodies, besides the parliament, continued setting forth to the court the impossibility the people were under of paying the _twentieth denier_. The states of Languedoc, with a peremptory kind of humility, represented that it was a load the province could by no means bear: the bishops, who usually employ their pens only in mandates, now wrote memorials on the public distress. The King ordered them not to meddle with money matters, and dissolved the assembly. The Duke de Richelieu, who was then at Montpellier, seconded the court’s injunctions, and restrained the bishops pens as much as he could.

On being thus debarred from writing or meeting, they appointed an extraordinary deputation to lay before the King the condition of the kingdom. They were admitted to audience; they made their speech, returned home, and the _twentieth denier_ was levied.

A minister of state used frequently to say, that these representations only increased the public charges. Were the provinces to pay at first, they would save themselves the no small expences of journies, correspondencies, and deputations, not to mention monopolies, which, on these occasions, are unavoidable.

The states of Bretagne likewise offered their difficulties; but all the effect of the representations of both was, that the court appointed two intendants of the finances to go and settle the levying of that tax on those refractory provinces.

These dictatorial proceedings of the states led the council to take their meetings into consideration; and, for some days, it was deliberated, whether they should not be totally laid aside. A counsellor of state, who was for the dissolution, drew up a memorial, which the King was pleased to communicate to me. This piece having never been printed, consequently not known to the public, I shall give it a place here.

“The provincial states are of no use to France; such assemblies might have been necessary in those times, when each province formed a separate kingdom; but France being now united under one single government, can regulate its concerns sufficiently for itself, without any need of assemblies.

“These provincial states only keep a division between the Prince and the subject, and are an obstacle to the expeditious levying and collecting of the imposts.

“On his Majesty’s ordering a tax, however necessary it be, to defray the extraordinary expences, these states are sure to oppose it; and immediately the court is deluged with remonstrances, and Versailles crowded with deputies: the general affairs must be delayed to issue fresh orders, and answer those sent by the states, for their writings are rather orders than memorials.

“This suspension of ordinances has other very bad effects; the subjects, become accustomed not to obey, look on the wants of the state with the coldest indifference, and the public affairs go on heavily.

“The members of these assemblies are like so many petty sovereigns; their ascendency over the minds of the people being without bounds. An Archbishop of Narbonne, on his coming to Montpellier to open the states, is received with greater pomp than if Lewis XV. was to make his public entry.

“In a monarchical state, where the whole authority should proceed only from one centre, it is dangerous to divide it by subordinate bodies.

“These provincial states likewise affect morality and religion; those of Languedoc consist of twenty-four bishops, or archbishops, who thus are absent from their dioceses three months out of the twelve; leaving in their stead their vicars, who have neither the like regard or zeal for their flock; and in this interval, a relaxation in discipline and manners spreads every where.

“The luxury of these assemblies is equally scandalous, every bishop there having his court and courtiers, and keeping open table. Today the bishop of Alaix has thirty covers on his table; and to-morrow my Lord of Nismes gives an entertainment, to which fifty persons of distinction are invited; and so on.

“The dissolution of the states will be attended with no diminution in the finances. The free gift, which is the principal business of these assemblies, may be regulated like a common tax levied from year to year.”

The door of the provincial states being thus shut up, that of the assembly of the clergy immediately burst open: it was still the same object, but here discussed in great.

The business, as in the other assemblies, was the _twentieth denier_, and the free gift: though this body, whenever called on by the King, pleads indigence, yet it knows that it is so far accounted rich, that all its studied speeches, on those occasions, cannot bring the public to think it poor.

It endeavours therefore to compound with the King, and this time offered seven millions and a half to be exempted from the impost. I have heard a person, very well skilled in such affairs, say, that the clergy should not be allowed to compound for taxes; but that if any composition were to be admitted, it ought to be with the commonalty; which, as being most burthened, should be preferred before all the other bodies put together.

The affairs of the closet did not interrupt the court entertainments: the King hunted as usual, came to the plays, and every day supped with me in the little apartments. A tender and affectionate friendship now closely united us; desire was superseded by a calm inclination; the friend had succeeded the mistress; our hearts glowed with all the complacency arising from passions, without any of the disagreeable circumstances accompanying them. Several women had inspired Lewis XV. with love, but not one had he met with of a turn to make him feel the delights of friendship, which a generous soul will always prefer. The former is a commerce of pleasures, the gratification of which is almost ever followed by disgust: the second is a mild settled delight, resident in the mind, and if it does not minister any relish to the senses, is more lasting, lively, and refined. The King himself, at this time, assured me, that had he at first felt the delights of friendship, he should never have given himself up to those of love. All passion was now subsided in him; for this name is not to be given to those desultory gallantries, when the constitution only prompts to pleasure, without any concurrence of the heart.

This excellent Prince often said to me, that he was happy in having a real friend, to whom he could communicate his satisfactions and his troubles, for kings have theirs like other men; one of his greatest was the distresses of the people, and the impossibility of relieving them so speedily as he could have wished. He laid open to me the whole state of his mind, without any reserved secrets; all his heart was as well known to me as my own: it was an uneasiness for us to part, and we always met again with redoubled pleasure.

The King, as I said in the beginning of these Memoirs, had, soon after my first appearance at court, made me Marchioness de Pompadour; and, that I might remain there with the greater decency, created me _a Lady of the palace_. This new place should have convinced all Europe, that there was no other commerce between his Majesty and me than what arose from esteem and friendship. But ill-nature pursues its point, regardless of all probabilities; and the state-malcontents picked out this passage of my life to mangle my reputation, &c.

To return to politics: business went on at Versailles with great dispatch, that the King might the sooner have the satisfaction he so passionately desired, of diminishing the imposts, and making his people enjoy the benefits of peace.

The marine was the principal point in view: M. Rouillé had hastily got together a little fleet, which, putting to sea, gave no small umbrage to the English. The British nation, with all its natural composure, is all in flames at the bare mention of a French navy: concerning this, I remember a jest at that time, _that the Britons could not close their eyes since France had an eye to its maritime concerns; and that were we to build a hundred ships of the line, not a soul in England would have any sleep_.

This navy, however, was but a-beginning, and far short of what was intended. Yet could England ask France, “what was the destination of these ships?” M. de Puisieux gave my Lord Albemarle for answer, “that the King of France was not accountable to any power in Europe; that France was at peace with Great Britain; and that, consequently, the latter had nothing to apprehend from those ships.”

The court of St. James’s seemed satisfied; yet more closely watched our measures.

The government’s attention was for some time taken up with books; the French, than whom perhaps no people in Europe are more restrained in their speeches, sillily affect to be the first in their thoughts. They print their notions on what comes uppermost, and the government is ever the first thing to fall under their pen. It is said that this licentiousness is owing to the above restraint; and I have heard that were not so many authors sent to the Bastile, Paris would not swarm with them as it does.

Very few of these seditious writings will bear reading, some of them are not so much as worth a _lettre de cachet_. To make the authors of mere trash the King’s pensioners, is doing them too much honour.

Though the assembly of the clergy granted every thing required, it did not give every thing. On which the court sent a remonstrance to that body, which it answered with another remonstrance; but herein it so little observed the bounds of moderation, that the King dissolved the assembly, and confined the bishops to their dioceses. The next day a courtier said in the King’s anti-chamber, “that they ought to be sent out of the kingdom, and priests put in their places:” this act of prerogative so humbled the prelates, that they offered to comply with all his Majesty’s pleasure.

A nobleman said to the King, _Sir, if your Majesty will be no more troubled with the clergy’s remonstrances, a sure way will be, to forbid the bishops coming to Paris; they will assent to the free gifts, or to any terms, only allow them to live there_.

However, this affair of the bishops disturbed the King; and one day he said to me, with some emotion, _They are perpetually vexing me. No sooner have I raised a poor ecclesiastic to a dignity of a hundred thousand livres a year, than he sets up for a leading man among the clergy, and votes against the free gift. Sir_, said I to him, _methinks there is a way of satisfying all. The crown should, on the death of the present possessor, appropriate to itself half of the revenue of the larger benefices. This would be no tax on any one. There is not a subject in France, designed for the church, who would not think himself under the highest obligations to your Majesty, in conferring on him an abbey, or a bishopric, with a revenue less, by half, than what the present possessor makes of it. I take upon me to bring about the composition; I make no doubt but that I shall find, in the kingdom, two hundred ecclesiastics, who will gladly set their hands to such an agreement._

_This diminution cannot be accounted unjust, your Majesty having the nomination to all the large benefices in the kingdom; and the giver is always master of his gifts. No complaint lies against a Prince, who, instead of a hundred and twenty thousand livres a year, which he can bestow on one of his subjects, gives him sixty thousand, &c. &c._

These few words, spoken only cursorily, were, a few days after, followed by an express memorial addressed to the Count de St. Florentine, and which he presented to the King.

MEMORIAL

On the inequality of the taxes raised on the Clergy.

“It is a received maxim in economics, that a geometrical equality in the levying of taxes lessens the weight of them. A burden borne by all the members of a body is always light.

“The uneasiness of the clergy concerning the free-gift, and other impositions, towards answering the necessities of the state, proceeds not so much from the impositions, as from the assessments. The dignitaries, who should pay the most, always pay the least, considering their incomes. The whole load falls on the poor parish priests, and other country incumbents, who have scarce a subsistence, and are more burthened as clergymen than as subjects.

“That the assembly of the bishops tax themselves, and the whole ecclesiastical body, is not a privilege belonging to the clergy, but a mere indulgence of the Kings of France, granted then with a proviso, that the assessments should be equitable, and that the inferior priests, who are the King’s subjects no less than the greater ecclesiastics, should not be overcharged.

“The tax is rated by the income, which is an iniquitous assessment: a priest with only a hundred crowns a year, paying a crown, in effect, is rated much higher than a bishop, who, with a hundred thousand livres a year, pays a thousand: a yearly income of ninety-nine thousand livres being ever more or less superfluous; whereas he who has only a hundred crowns, by being deprived of one, must feel it in the very necessaries of life.

“The inferior clergy are the King’s subjects equally with the higher. To allow the bishops to tax priests, because they are subordinate to them, is a manifest error in government, the spiritual power having no claims in temporals. The imposition and assessments of taxes appertains to the crown, the mitre has nothing to do in it.

“The whole body of the clergy should be taxed once for all, like the body of the laity: what tax the clergy can pay may be easily known; it is only taking an account of the several sums which the clergy has paid for these last twenty years; the twentieth part of the amount will be a fair yearly tax, as in twenty years an exact calculation may be made of the periodical wants of the state. In this interval, all the revolutions may be reduced to a general sum.

“It may be left to the clergy’s choice to pay the tax, without holding an assembly: this might be done by a tarif on the large and small dignities and benefices, or the tax might be levied by the King’s officers, as on the other subjects of the state.

“The latter most comports with the dignity of the crown, and will likewise be more advantageous. As the church is daily making acquisitions, and its general opulence is continually increasing by donations, the clergy’s payments should be raised in proportion to their aggrandizement.

“This rise of the clergy’s tax would be no more than what takes place in the common imposts. Artificers and tradespeople pay more in proportion to their thriving, though this be by their own labour and industry.”

The American affairs, of which not a word had been heard since the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, now began to employ the court’s attention. The English complained, by their ambassador, my Lord Albemarle, that the French countenanced the Indians in their practices, and, underhand instigated them to molest their settlement in Nova Scotia. M. de Puisieux told the British minister, that the people at London were mistaken; “The court of France, said he, knows nothing of this supposed instigation; and, very probably, it exists only in the suspicious minds of the English.”

However, the first sparks of that fire, which was to kindle the war a fresh, already began to appear. Advice came from Canada, that the Indians were in motion; and though the cabinet of Versailles did not give direct orders to the French to oppose any such motion, neither did it tell them not to do so. This silence left the commanders to guess how they were to act; accordingly, they did not declare openly, but let second causes take their course.

A minister of a foreign court, formerly allied with France, and who, at that time, was frequently with M. de Puisieux, put into his hands a memorial on this head, which the King never saw, and it was not till long after that I read it.

“France, said that piece, is not yet in a condition to go to war again: things should be left to remain as they are, till she is able to cope with England; otherwise every thing will be ruined. The war by sea will give the turn to that by land: Great Britain will chuse this juncture for inducing the King of Prussia to declare against France, which thus will have two weighty wars on its hands, and only for a continent of no great importance, and which, at last, it will certainly lose, for the events of this war may be easily foreseen.

“The English navy is much superior to that of France; and the King of Prussia has two hundred thousand well disciplined men, ready, at the first order, to march, and make a powerful diversion in Germany; and, with the addition of those in England, will unquestionably turn the scale in the north. France is very well as it is, and should aim at nothing beyond keeping itself so, till a favourable opportunity shall enable it to do better.

“Nothing in America calls for haste; you will always have time enough to make good your claims there: the Savages are your friends; they cannot endure the English. At present interfere no farther than fomenting this variance without promoting it; the time will come when you may make your own use of it: precipitancy spoils the most promising affairs; whereas time and patience bring every thing to bear.