Peace is re-established.--Embarrassments of the Ministry.--Distress of the
Kingdom.--M. de Calonne becomes Finance Minister.--The Winter of 1783-'84
is very Severe.--The Queen devotes Large Sums to Charity.--Her Political
Influence increases--Correspondence between the Emperor and her on
European Politics.--The State of France.--The Baron de Breteuil.--Her
Description of the Character of the King.
The conclusion of peace between France and England was one of the earliest
events of the year 1783, but it brought no strength to the ministry; or,
rather, it placed its weakness in a more conspicuous light. Maurepas had
died at the end of 1781, and, since his death, the Count de Vergennes had
been the chief adviser of the king; but his attention was almost
exclusively directed to the conduct of the diplomacy of the kingdom, and
to its foreign affairs, and he made no pretensions to financial knowledge.
Unluckily the professed ministers of finance, Joly de Fleury and his
successor, D'Ormesson, were as ignorant of that great subject as himself,
and, within two years after Necker's retirement, their mismanagement had
brought the kingdom to the very verge of bankruptcy. D'Ormesson was
dismissed, and for many days it was anxiously deliberated in the palace by
whom he should be replaced. Some proposed that Necker should he recalled,
but the king had felt himself personally offended by some circumstances
which had attended the resignation of that minister two years before. The
queen inclined to favor the pretensions of Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop
of Toulouse; not because he had any official experience, but because
fifteen years before he had recommended the Abbé de Vermond to Maria
Teresa; and the abbé, seeing in the present embarrassment an opportunity
of repaying the obligation, now spoke highly to her of the archbishop's
talents. But Madame de Polignac and her party persuaded her majesty to
acquiesce in the appointment of M. de Calonne, a man who, like Turgot, had
already distinguished himself as intendant of a province, though he had
not inspired those who watched his career with as high an opinion of his
uprightness as of his talents. He had also secured the support of the
Count d'Artois by promising to pay his debts; and Louis himself was won to
think well of him by the confidence which he expressed in his own capacity
to grapple with the existing, or even with still greater difficulties.
Nor, indeed, had he been possessed of steadiness, prudence, and principle,
was he very unfit for such a post at such a time. For he was very fertile
in resources, and well-endowed with both physical and moral courage; but
these faculties were combined with, were indeed the parents of, a
mischievous defect. He had such reliance on his own ingenuity and ability
to deal with each difficulty or danger as it should arise, that he was
indifferent to precautions which might prevent it from arising. The spirit
in which he took office was exemplified in one of his first speeches to
the queen. Knowing that he was not the minister whom she would have
preferred, he made it his especial business to win her confidence; and he
had not been long installed in office when she expressed to him her wish
that he would find means of accomplishing some object which she desired to
promote. "Madame," was his courtly reply, "if it is possible, it is done
already. If it is impossible, I will take care and manage it." But being
very unscrupulous himself, he overshot his mark when he sought to
propitiate her further by offering to represent as hers acts of charity
which she had not performed. The winter of 1783 was one of unusual
severity. The thermometer at Paris was, for some weeks, scarcely above
zero; scarcity, with its inevitable companion, clearness of price, reduced
the poor of the northern provinces, and especially of the capital and its
neighborhood, to the verge of starvation. The king, queen, and princesses
gave large sums from their privy purses for their relief; but as such
supplies were manifestly inadequate, Louis ordered the minister to draw
three millions of francs from the treasury, and to apply them for the
alleviation of the universal distress. Calonne cheerfully received and
executed the beneficent command. He was perhaps not sorry, at his first
entrance on his duties, to show how easy it was for him to meet even an
unforeseen demand of so heavy an amount; and he fancied he saw in it a
means of ingratiating himself with Marie Antoinette. He proposed to her
that he should pay one of the millions to her treasurer, that that officer
might distribute it, in her name, as a gift from her own allowance; but
Marie Antoinette disdained such unworthy artifice. She would have felt
ashamed to receive praise or gratitude to which she was not entitled. She
rejected the proposal, insisting that the king's gift should be attributed
to himself alone, and expressing her intention to add to it by curtailing
her personal expenditure, by abridging her entertainments so long as the
distress should last, and by dedicating the sums usually appropriated to
pleasure and festivity to the relief of those whose very existence seemed
to depend on the aid which it was her duty and that of the king to
furnish. For there was this especial characteristic in Marie Antoinette's
charity, that it did not proceed solely from kindness of heart and
tenderness of disposition, though these were never wanting, but also from
a settled principle of duty, which, in her opinion, imposed upon
sovereigns, as a primary obligation, the task of watching over the welfare
of their subjects as persons intrusted by Providence to their care; and
such a feeling was obviously more to be depended upon as a constant motive
for action than the most vivid emotion of the moment, which, if easily
excited, is not unfrequently as easily overpowered by some fresh object.
Meanwhile events were gradually compelling her to take a more active part
in politics. Maurepas had been jealous of her influence, and, while that
old minister lived, Louis, who from his childhood had been accustomed to
see him in office, committed almost every thing to his guidance. But, as
he always required some one of stronger mind than himself to lean upon, as
soon as Maurepas was gone he turned to the queen. It was to her that he
now chiefly confided his anxieties and perplexities; from her that he
sought counsel and strength; and the ministers naturally came to regard
her as the real ruler of the State. Accordingly, we find from her
correspondence of this period that even such matters as the appointment of
the embassadors to foreign states were often referred to her decision; and
how greatly the habit of considering affairs of importance expanded her
capacity we may learn from the opinion which her brother, the emperor, who
was never disposed to flatter, or even to spare her, had evidently come to
entertain of her judgment. In one long letter, written in September of the
year 1783, he discussed with her the attitude which France had assumed
toward Austria ever since the dismissal of Choiseul; the willingness of
her ministers to listen to Prussian calumnies; the encouragement which
they had given to the opposition in the empire; and their obsequiousness
to Prussia; while Austria had not retaliated, as she had had many
opportunities of doing, by any complaisance toward England, though the
English statesmen had made many advances toward her. It is a curious
instance of fears being realized in a sense very different from that which
troubled the writer at the moment, that among the acts of France of which,
had he been inclined to be captious, he might justly have complained, he
enumerates her recent acquisition of Corsica, as one which, "for a number
of reasons, might be very prejudicial to the possessions of the house of
Austria and its branches in Italy." It did indeed prove an acquisition
which largely influenced the future history, not only of Austria, but of
the whole world, when the little island, which hitherto had been but a
hot-bed of disorder, and a battle-field of faction burdensome to its
Genoese masters, gave a general to the armies of France whose most
brilliant exploits were a succession of triumphs over the Austrian
commanders in every part of the emperor's dominion. His letter concludes
with warnings drawn from the present condition and views of the different
states of Europe, and especially of France, whose "finances and resources,
to speak with moderation, have been greatly strained" in the recent war;
embracing in their scope even the designs of Russia on the independence of
Turkey; and with a request that his sister would inform him frankly what
he is to believe as to the opinions of the king; and in what light he is
to regard the recent letters of Vergennes, which, to his apprehension,
show an indifference to the maintenance of the alliance between the two
countries.[1]
It is altogether a letter such as might pass between statesmen, and proves
clearly that Joseph regarded his sister now as one fully capable of taking
large views of the situation of both countries. And her answer shows that
she fully enters into all the different questions which he has raised,
though it also shows that she is guided by her heart as well as by her
judgment; still looks on the continuance of the friendship between her
native and her adopted country as essential not only to her comfort, but
even in some degree to her honor, and also that on that account she is
desirous at times of exerting a greater influence than is always allowed
her.
"Versailles, September 29th, 1783.
"Shall I tell you, my dear brother, that your letter has delighted me by
its energy and nobleness of thought and why should I not tell you so? I am
sure that you will never confound your sister and your friend with the
tricks and manoeuvres of politicians.
"I have read your letter to the king. You may be sure that it, like all
your other letters, shall never go out of my hands. The king was struck
with many of your reflections, and has even corroborated them himself.
"He has said to me that he both desired and hoped always to maintain a
friendship and a good understanding with the empire; but yet that it was
impossible to answer for it that the difference of interests might not at
times lead to a difference in the way of looking at and judging of
affairs. This idea appeared to me to come from himself alone, and from the
distrust with which people have been inspiring him for a long time. For,
when I spoke to him, I believe it to be certain that he had not seen M. de
Vergennes since the arrival of your courier. M. de Mercy will have
reported to you the quietness and gentleness with which this minister has
spoken to him. I have had occasion to see that the heads of the other
ministers, which were a little heated, have since cooled again. I trust,
that this quiet spirit will last, and in that case the firmness of your
reply ought to lead to the rudeness of style which the people here adopted
being forgotten. You know the ground and the characters, so you can not be
surprised if the king sometimes allows answers to pass which he would not
have given of his own accord.
"My health, considering my present condition,[2] is perfect. I had a
slight accident after my last letter; but it produced no bad consequences:
it only made a little more care necessary. Accordingly I shall go from
Choisy to Fontainebleau by water. My children are quite well. My boy will
spend his time at La Muette while we are absent. It is just a piece of
stupidity of the doctors, who do not like him to take so long a journey at
his age, though he has two teeth and is very strong. I should be perfectly
happy if I were but assured of the general tranquillity, and, above all,
of the happiness of my much-loved brother, whom I love with all my
heart.[3]"
Another letter, written three months later, explains to the emperor the
object of some of the new arrangements which Calonne had introduced,
having for one object, among others, the facilitation of a commercial
intercourse, especially in tobacco, with the United States. She hopes that
another consequence of them will be the abolition of the whole system of
farmers-general of the revenue; and she explains to him both the
advantages of such a measure, and at the same time the difficulties of
carrying it out immediately after so costly a war, since it would involve
the instant repayment of large sums to the farmers, with all the clearness
of a practiced financier. She mentions also the appointment of the Baron
de Breteuil as the new minister of the king's household,[4] and her
estimate of his character is rendered important by his promotion, six
years later, to the post of prime minister. The emperor also had ample
means of judging of it himself, since the baron had succeeded the Cardinal
de Rohan as embassador at Vienna. "I think, with you, that he requires to
be kept within bounds; and he will be so more than other ministers by the
nature of his office, which is very limited, and entirely under the eyes
of the king and of his colleagues, who will be glad of any opportunities
of mortifying his vanity. However, his activity will be very useful in a
thousand details of a department which has been neglected and badly
managed for the last sixty years." And though it is a slight anticipation
of the order of our narrative, it will not be inconvenient to give here
some extracts from a third letter to the same brother, written in the
autumn of the following year, in which she describes the king's character,
and points out the difficulties which it often interposes to her desire of
influencing his views and measures.
It may perhaps be thought that she unconsciously underrates her influence
over her husband, though there can be no doubt that he was one of those
men whom it is hardest to manage; wholly without self-reliance, yet with a
scrupulous wish to do right that made him distrustful of others, even, of
those whose advice he sought, or whose judgment he most highly valued.
"September 22d, 1784.
"I will not contradict you, my dear brother, on what you say about the
short-sightedness of our ministry. I have long ago made some of the
reflections which you express in your letter. I have spoken on the subject
more than once to the king; but one must know him thoroughly to be able to
judge of the extent to which, his character and prejudices cripple my
resources and means of influencing him. He is by nature very taciturn; and
it often happens that he does not speak to me about matters of importance
even when he has not the least wish to conceal them from me. He answers me
when I speak to him about them, but he scarcely ever opens the subject;
and when I have learned a quarter of the business, I am then forced to use
some address to make the ministers tell me the rest, by letting them think
that the king has told me every thing. When I reproach him for not having
spoken to me of such and such matters, he is not annoyed, but only seems a
little embarrassed, and sometimes answers, in an off-hand way, that he had
never thought of it. This distrust, which is natural to him, was at first
strengthened by his govern--or before my marriage. M. de Vauguyon had
alarmed him about the authority which his wife would desire to assume over
him, and the duke's black disposition delighted in terrifying his pupil
with all the phantom stories invented against the house of Austria. M. de
Maurepas, though less obstinate and less malicious, still thought it
advantageous to his own credit to keep up the same notions in the king's
mind. M. de Vergennes follows the same plan, and perhaps avails himself of
his correspondence on foreign affairs to propagate falsehoods. I have
spoken plainly about this to the king more than once. He has sometimes
answered me rather peevishly, and, as he is never fond of discussion, I
have not been able to persuade him that his minister was deceived, or was
deceiving him. I do not blind myself as to the extent of my own influence.
I know that I have no great ascendency over the king's mind, especially in
politics; and would it be prudent in me to have scenes with his ministers
on such subjects, on which it is almost certain that the king would not
support me? Without ever boasting or saying a word that is not true, I,
however, let the public believe that I have more influence than I really
have, because, if they did not think so, I should have still less. The
avowals which I am making to you, my dear brother, are not very flattering
to my self-love; but I do not like to hide any thing from you, in order
that you may be able to judge of my conduct as correctly as is possible at
this terrible distance from you, at which my destiny has placed me.[5]"
A melancholy interest attunes to sentences such as these, from the
influence which the defects in her husband's character, when joined to
those of his minister, had on the future destinies of both, and of the
nation over which he ruled. It was natural that she should explain them to
a brother; and though, as a general rule, it is clearly undesirable for
queens consort to interfere in politics, it is clear that with such a
husband, and with the nation and court in such a condition as then existed
in France, it was indispensable that Marie Antoinette should covet, and,
so far as she was able, exert, influence over the king, if she were not
prepared to see him the victim or the tool of caballers and intriguers who
cared far more for their own interests than for those of either king or
kingdom. But as yet, though, as we see, these deficiencies of Louis
occasionally caused her annoyance, she had no foreboding of evil. Her
general feeling was one of entire happiness; her children were growing and
thriving, her own health was far stronger than it had been, and she
entered with as keen a relish as ever into the excitements and amusements
becoming her position, and what we may still call her youth, since she was
even now only eight-and-twenty.