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 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MARQUIS D'ARGENSON 
 
 VOLUME I
 
 An^^. . 
 
 ) 
 
 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF THE 
 
 MARQUIS D'ARGENSON 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOLITME I 
 
 BY E. J. B. RATHERY 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY C.-A. SAINTE-BKUVB 
 
 TRANSLATED BY KATHABINE PBE800TT WORMELET 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS FBOM TEE ORIGINAL 
 
 d. r- 
 
 VOLUME II 
 
 P • F • COLLIER & SON 
 
 PUBLISHERS • NEW YORK
 
 Copyright, 1901 
 By Hardy. Pratt & Company 
 
 All Ris:hts Reserved
 
 ^ '"^^.^ 70927 
 
 UNIVERSITV OF CALIFORNIA 
 "AKTA BARBARA COLLEOE LIBRARY 
 
 V' 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Intboduction bt C.-A. Saintk-Beuve 1 
 
 Translator's Note 39 
 
 CHAPTER I. — 1694-1732. 
 
 Family history. — Beginning of his father's fortune. — The latter's 
 character and career. — Education of himself and brotiier. — Col- 
 lege life. — Entrance into the world. — His father's advice. — Char- 
 acteristics of the family. — Decides never to gamble. — Is inteudant 
 of Hainaut in 1720, when twenty-five years old. — Various reforma- 
 tions introduced by him. — Obligations of the regent to his father. 
 
 — Bitter feeling to the Due de Saint-Simon. — Calamities in 
 France at the arrival of Queen Maria Leczinska. — Terrible poverty 
 of the provinces. — Love-affair with Madame de G . . . — Madame 
 de Prie, mistress of Monsieur le Due. — She governs France for two 
 years. — Her portrait and career. — Poisons herself. — Cardinal de 
 Fleury succeeds Monsieur le Due as prime-minister. — D' Argenson 
 returns to Paris and seeks office. — Fermentation in church affairs. 
 
 — The Keeper of the Seals, Monsieur Chauvelin, his portrait and 
 career. — Judgment on him, afterwards revoked. — Description of 
 an intractable intendant. — D'Argenson's own intractability. — Be- 
 comes better known to Fleury and Chauvelin. — Writes memorials 
 for them on various public matters. — "The Entresol." — The Abbd 
 
 de Saint-Pierre. — Suppression of the Entresol 41 
 
 CHAPTER n. — 1732-1737. 
 
 The Keeper of the Seals proposes to advance d'Argenson's interests. — 
 His description of himself . — Portrait of Madame deC . . .; portrait 
 of a valet. — Chauvelin his best friend, advice he gives him. — Com- 
 parison of Chauvelin with Cardinal de Fleury. — Weakness of the 
 government. — Factions on all sides. — Furtlier advice given by 
 Chauvelin. — Mesdames d'AUuye and Foutaine-Martel. — Various 
 
 V'er. 2 — 1 Mem.
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 Paob 
 
 prospects held out to d'Argenson. —Treaty of Vienna of 1733.— 
 Comments on the state of Europe. — Friendship with the Marquise 
 de Lambert. — His marriage, description of, and comments on his 
 wife and children.- The Abbe' de Saint-Pierre. — Study of self- 
 love. — Louis XV.'s dependent position. — Anecdote of Philip V, 
 of Spain. — Hopes of various employments disappointed. — The 
 king takes his first mistress, Madame de Mailly. — Mademoiselle 
 de Charolais, granddaughter of Madame de Moutespan, his go- 
 between. — D'Argenson promised the post of ambassador to Portu- 
 gal. — Rumours of Chauvelin's dismissal. — The Marmouzets. — 
 The king's meanness to Madame de Mailly. — Enmity of Cardinal de 
 Fleury to Monsieur Chauvelin. — Dismissal of Monsieur Chauvelin, 
 Keeper of the Seals. — His policy. — D'Argenson's ardour for 
 Italian freedom. — Monsieur Amelot appointed secretary of State 
 lur Foreign Affairs 74 
 
 CHAPTER III. — 1737-1738. 
 
 Disappointment of d'Argenson and his friends at his not being ap- 
 pointed minister of Foreign Affairs. — His brother in the opposite 
 party. — Rumour that the Due d'Orlcans, son of the regent, would 
 succeed Cardinal de Fleury. — D'Argenson appointed Ambassador 
 to Portugal. — Political speculations on the state of Europe. — De- 
 sires for Italian freedom. — Bachelier, the king's confidential valet. 
 
 — Rush of courtiers for the good-will of Madame de Mailly. — 
 Cardinal de Fleury thought to be near his end. — Will the king 
 govern for himself, or sink further into sloth ? — Discussion of his 
 character. — Quarrel of England and Spain over the West Indies. 
 
 — Discussion at Cardinal de Fleury's on the publishing of books.— 
 D'Argenson remonstrates on his treatment respecting the embassy. 
 
 — Strong feeling at Court against Fleury. — Rumours of all kinds 
 as to his successor. — The king believed to have the secret intention 
 of bringing back Monsieur Chauvelin. — Comte d'Argenson, dis- 
 cussion of his character. — " The calling of an honest man." — 
 Bachelier, the king's valet, Monsieur Chauvelin's agent with his 
 master. — Cardinal de Fleurj^s power over the king. — Singular 
 statement and prophecy as to this. — Affairs between England 
 
 and Spain 10£ 
 
 CHAPTER IV. — 1739. 
 
 Important discussion in the French Academy. — The king urged to 
 show himself more in public. — Bad condition of affairs within the 
 kingdom. — Incident at tlie king's ball. — Mai-riage of the king's
 
 CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 Page 
 
 eldest daughter with the Infant Don Philip of Spain. — Death of 
 the Princesse de Conti. — Love of the regent for Louis XV., and 
 dislike of his own son. — D'Argensou's profession of faith as to 
 Jansenism. — Gambling in Paris. — Cardinal de Fleury's only remain- 
 ing' strength in the party of the hull Unigeuitus. — D'Argenson ap- 
 pointed to settle an affair of tiie University. — Kiots in England 
 against Walpule. — Enforced charity in the French provinces. — 
 The king's determination to recall Cliauvelin on the death of Fleury. 
 — Another sketch of Comte d'Argenson. — The king refuses to re- 
 ceive the sacraments at Easter. — Miserable condition of the country 
 under the decrepit cardinal. — The king's irritation. — Nothing can 
 induce the cardinal to resign. — Letter of d'Argenson to Monsieur 
 Chauvelin. — Political state of things in Holland. — Cardinal de 
 Fleury praises d'Argenson's love of truth. — Tlie king asks him for a 
 memorial on the affair of the bull Unigenitus. — The misery of the 
 provinces. — The people dying of hunger like flies. — The root of 
 the evil of it the condition of the currency. — Proposal to make 
 Cardinal de Fleury pope. — Remonstrances made by seigneurs and 
 bishops on the famished condition of the provinces. — The whole 
 blame lies with the management of the finances. — The king's 
 laziness and indifference. — The cardinal an enigma 139 
 
 CHAPTER V. — 1739-1740. 
 
 The king cold and irritable to the cardinal. — His love for Madame de ' 
 Mailly. — The little suppers. — Poverty of the mistress. — D'Argen- 
 son warned to beware of the ministers. — Discussion of the king's 
 character. — D'Argenson gives up the Portuguese embassy. — Tlie 
 true enjoyment of leisure, philosophy well understood, a great 
 career to run. — Difficult to justify the king's behaviour. — His 
 laziness, frivolous occupations, and neglect of public affairs. — The 
 dauphin. — Mademoiselle de Charolais. — Her wickedness and in- 
 decency. — A protestant English lady desires the conversion and 
 return of the Pretender or his son. — Discussion of this as regards 
 France. — First appearance of Madame de Vintimille, Madame de 
 Mailly's sister. — Voltaire tells the cause of Cardinal de Fleury's ill- 
 will to him. — The king's love for building. — Trouble in Foreign 
 Affairs. — Comparison between France and England in financial 
 matters. — The ministry and the Court. — Bachelier's close relations 
 with the king. — The ministry of Cardinal de Fleury defined. — 
 The king's confessor refuses him absolution. — The king's fear of 
 eternity and its horrors. — The Due d'Orle'ans desires to retire from 
 the world to a monastery. — Death of Monsieur le Due. — Monsieur 
 de Breteuil appointed secretary for war. — The king believed to 
 have a fixed plan for government on the death of the cardinal . . 170
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. — 1740. 
 
 Page 
 
 Cardinal de Fleury a great admirer of Mazarin and a great despiser 
 of Richelieu. — Monsieur de Maurepas, secretary of the navy. — 
 Court intrigues. — The Comtesse de Toulouse the go-between for 
 Louis XV. and his loves. — Violent character of tlie dauphin. — 
 The English take Portobello. — The folly of the Spanish nation. — 
 Foreign affairs. — Comparison of Monsieur Chauvelin with Mon- 
 sieur Fouquet. — Defence of Fouquet. — Everything going wrong 
 in Foreign Affairs. — Within, misery, famine, and the taxes are ex- 
 hausting the iiingdom. — Remonstrances made on all sides by in- 
 tendants and seigneurs on this subject. — Reckless folly and neglect 
 of the government. — Death of the King of Prussia. — Accession of 
 Frederick the Great. — His character — The prospect before him. 
 — His first acts. — D'Argenson troubled at ill-will against him 
 roused by his brother. — No hope of the cardinal's retirement. — 
 Failure of the hopes placed on the king. — The debauchery and idle- 
 ness of his life. — Character of d'Argeuson's son. — Everything at 
 Court a subject for despair. — The king abandons all government 
 to the senile cardinal. — D'Argenson tries to find excuses for him. — 
 The King of Prussia's admirable behaviour after his accession . . 202 
 
 CHAPTER VII. — 1740-1741. 
 
 Defence of the king's buildings at Compiegne. — His conduct becomes 
 more and more unworthy. — Foreign affiairs. — The English fleet 
 at sea. — D'Argenson is made chancellor to the Due d'Orleans. — 
 Morbid nature of the duke. — His son the Due de Chartres desires 
 to marry the king's second daughter. — Crisis in the kingdom. — 
 Famine in Paris and the provinces. — The king assailed with cries 
 of " Misery ! bread ! " — Horrible outbreak at Bicetre. — Love-affair 
 between the Due de Chartres and Madame Henriette de France. — 
 The folly of courtiers, who flock like sheep. — The cardinal odious 
 to the whole kingdom. — What is the king, much or nothing ? — 
 The queen's fault that the king took a mistress. — Her position a 
 cruel one. — The Due d'Orleans outraged at the indecency of the 
 Court. — Death of the Emperor Charles VI. — The whole structure 
 of Fleury 's policy overthrown by the event. — Folly and silliness of 
 the king. — Anecdote of the dauphin. — Combustion in church af- 
 fairs. — Reflections on himself. — Levity of the French nation. — 
 Fleury persists in keeping his office. — Squabbles at the Palais- 
 Royal. — The Duchesse d'Orle'ans, widow of the regent, her 
 character. — Quarrel between the king and Madame de Mailly. — 
 D'Argenson's reflections on his own life. — European affairs. — 
 Bitterness of Cardinal de Fleury against d'Argenson 234
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL — 1741. 
 
 Page 
 
 French frivolity scourged. — Discussion of European affairs. — Conver- 
 sations with the Due d'Orle'ans. — Tlie cardinal and Bachelier 
 combine. — France declares for the Elector of Bavaria as emperor. 
 
 — Fleury foiled in many ways. — Madame de Vintimille begins to 
 supersede Madame de Mailly. — Prospects of war. — Proposal to 
 let loose privateers on the English in the Channel. — Trap laid for 
 the Due d'Orle'ans by the Molinist priests. — Illness of Madame de 
 Vintimille. — The king's devotion to her. — His indiscreet talk on 
 public affairs. — Death of Madame de "Vintimille after the scan- 
 dalous birth of a son. — The king's affliction. — Terrible condition 
 of commerce and credit. — European affairs and the war. — In- 
 creased taxation in spite of the poverty of the people. — D'Argenson 
 still believes that the king's purpose is to await the cardinal's death 
 and then recall Chauvelin. — Meanwhile the helplessness of car- 
 dinal, king, and ministry continues. — Condition of the finances. — 
 Evil results of lowering the value of coin. — Condition of things at 
 Court. — Gloom of the king. — The ministry without head or plan. 
 
 — Schemes for getting money. — European affairs. — Prague taken 
 by France, Bavaria, and Saxony. — Madame de Mailly and Madame 
 de Vintimille. — Indignities shown to the body of the latter. — 
 Italian affairs. — Discussion as to resources of the treasury. — 
 Eecoinage of the currency desirable 267 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— 1742-1744. 
 
 The state of things in Europe reviewed. — Portrait of a secretary. — 
 The cardinal at his last gasp. — Has the king a fixed plan ? — King 
 of Prussia signs a private treaty at Breslau with Maria Theresa. 
 
 — Discussion of the position of France. — Hopeless condition of 
 things as long as the cardinal lives. — King's resolve to recall 
 Chauvelin balked by the cardinal. — Cardinal de Teucin and the 
 Corate d'Argenson appointed ministers. — D'Argenson's financial 
 position. — Is confident that the king will recall Chauvelin. — The 
 king dismisses Madame de Mailly in a cruel manner, and takes her 
 sister, Madame de la Tournelle, as his mistress. — Shameless con- 
 ditions made by the latter. — Character of Madame de Mailly. — 
 The Due de Richelieu the negotiator of the affair. — Discovery of 
 a shameful sale of an office by tlie king. — Death of Cardinal de 
 
 'Fleury. — The king seems resolved to work at last. — Is determined 
 to push on the war. — Review of the condition of Europe. — The 
 ministers in great favour with the king. — Monsieur Chauvelin
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 sent into deeper exile. — Investigation into the character of the 
 king. — "Weakness of the miuistrv. — The extraordinary treatment 
 of Chauvelin partly explained. — The king shows some desire for 
 work. — Death of the Abbe' de Saint-Pierre. — The ministers are 
 confounded by the king's action in driving on the war. — Gossip 
 about the queen. — Disastrous retreat of the French from Germany 
 after the defeat of Marechal de Noailles at Dettiugen. — A revo- 
 lution predicted in France. — The value of contempt. — Parliament 
 registers the letters-patent of the Duchesse de Chfiteauroux 
 (Madame de la Tournelle). — Monsieur de ilaurepas minister of 
 the marine and commerce. — The Comte d'Argenson minister of 
 war. — Miserable condition of the ministry. — Loss of reputation 
 for France. — Dismissal of Monsieur Amelot from the ministry of 
 Foreiirn Affairs. — Tlie king goes to the armv in Flanders. — Takes 
 Madame de Chateauroux with him. to the great scandal of the 
 Flemish people. — The Due de Richelieu. — The Mare'chal de 
 Noailles. — The "smoke of glory." — No one preaches the peace 
 that is the one thing needed. — The king returns to Paris. — His 
 illness at Metz. — Refusal of the priests to give him absolution 
 unless he dismisses Madame de Chateauroux. — Recalls her on his 
 return to Versailles. — Her sudden death. — Manner in which the 
 king and ministers view the question of peace. — The king appoints 
 the Marquis d'Argenson secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
 November, 1744 300 
 
 CHAPTER X. — 17il-1747. 
 
 Jlemoirs of the Marquis d'Argenson 's ministry, from 1744 to 1747. — 
 Characters of the principal personages. — The Court. — The king. 
 — The queen. — The dauphin. — The first dauphiue, the Infanta of 
 Spain. — The second dauphine, the Princess of Saxony. — The 
 Duchesse de Chateauroux. — The Mar([uise de Pompadour. — 
 Monsieur de Maurepas. — The Due de Richelieu. — The Marechal 
 de Belleisle. — First general measures taken by the Marquis d'Ar- 
 genson in the ministry of Foreign Affairs after November, 1744. — 
 The battle of Fontenoy. — Letter of the Marquis d'Argenson to 
 Voltaire. — Reply of Voltaire 335 
 
 APPENDIX 393 
 
 INDEX 397
 
 LIST OF 
 PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 Ren^-Louis de Voyer, Marquis d'Abgensox Frontispiece 
 
 From a portrait in possession of the family. 
 
 Chapter 
 I. Louis-Henri de Boorbon-Conde, "M. le Duo" .... 59 
 
 By Pierre Gobert; Chantilly. 
 
 II. Cardinal de Fleury 82 
 
 By Rigaud; Buda-Pesth, 
 
 III. Makc-Pierre de Yoyer, Comte d'Argenson 108 
 
 From a print of a portrait by Xattier. 
 
 V. The CoiiTESSE de Mailly 172 
 
 From a print in the Cabinet d'Estampes. 
 
 VI. Frederick the Great 223 
 
 By Antoine Pesne; Berlin. 
 
 IX. The Duchesse Chateauroux 310 
 
 By Nattier; Portraits Xatioiiaux. 
 
 X. The Marquise de Pompadour 356 
 
 By Drouais; Maitres Anciens.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 sent into deeper exile. — Investigation into the character of the 
 king. — Weakness of the ministry. — The extraordinary treatnaent 
 of Chauvelin partly explained. — The king shows some desire for 
 work. — Death of the Abbe de Saint-Pierre. — The ministers are 
 confounded by the king's action in driving on the war. — Gossip 
 about the queen. — Disastrous retreat of the French from Germany 
 after the defeat of Marechal de Noailles at Dettingen. — A revo- 
 lution predicted in France. — The value of contempt. — Parliament 
 registers the letters-patent of the Duchesse de Chateauroux 
 (Madame de la Tournelle). — Monsieur de Maurepas minister of 
 the marine and commerce. — The Comte d'Argenson minister of 
 M'ar. — Miserable condition of the ministry. — Loss of reputation 
 for France. — Dismissal of Monsieur Amelot from the ministry of 
 Foreign Affairs. — The king goes to the army in Flanders. — Takes 
 Madame de Chateaurou.K with him, to the great scandal of the 
 Flemish people. — The Due de Richelieu. — The Mare'chal de 
 Noailles. — The "smoke of glory." — No one preaches the peace 
 that is the one thing needed. — The king returns to Paris. — His 
 illness at Metz. — Refusal of the priests to give him absolution 
 unless he dismisses Madame de Chateauroux. — Recalls her on his 
 return to Versailles. — Her sudden death. — Manner in which the 
 king and ministers view the question of peace. — The king appoints 
 the Marquis d'Argenson secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
 November, 1744 300 
 
 CHAPTER X. — 1744-1747. 
 
 Memoirs of the Marquis d'Argenson's ministry, from 1744 to 1747, — 
 Characters of the principal personages. — The Court. — The king. 
 — The queen. — The dauphin. — The first dauphine, the Infanta of 
 Spain. — The second dauphine, the Princess of Saxony. — The 
 Duchesse de Chateauroux. — The Marquise de Pompadour. — 
 Monsieur de Maurepas. — The Due de Richelieu. — The Mare'chal 
 de Belleisle. — First general measures taken by the Marquis d'Ar- 
 genson in the ministry of Foreign Affairs after November, 1744. — 
 The battle of Fontenoy. — Letter of the Marquis d'Argenson to 
 Voltaire. — Reply of Voltaire 335 
 
 APPENDIX 393 
 
 INDEX 397
 
 LIST OF 
 PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 Rene-Louis de Voter, Marquis d'Argenson Frontispiece 
 
 From a portrait in possession of the faiuil}-. 
 
 Chapter 
 I. Louis-Henri de Bourbon-Conde, "M. le Due" .... 59 
 
 By Pierre Gobert; Chantilly. 
 
 II. Cardinal de Fleury 82 
 
 By Rigaud ; Buda-Pesth. 
 
 III. Marc-Pierre de Voyer, Comte d'Argenson 108 
 
 From a print of a portrait by Xuttier. 
 
 V. The Comtesse de Mailly 172 
 
 From a print in the Cabinet d'Estampes. 
 
 VI. Frederick tue Great 223 
 
 By Antoine Pesne; Berlin. 
 
 IX. The Duchesse Chateauroux 310 
 
 By Nattier; Portraits Nationaux. 
 
 X. The Marquise de Pompadour 356 
 
 By Drouais; Maitres Anciens.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Bt c-a. sainte-beuve. 
 
 The Mat'qiiis d'Argenson is by good right one of the 
 most esteemed names among those of the politicians and 
 men of the eighteenth century who concerned themselves 
 with matters of public interest. He wrote much, and the 
 papers that we have of him are many; among other works 
 he has left a book of " Considerations on the Government of 
 France," which was long circulated in manuscript before it 
 was put into print. Voltaire, who had knowledge of it as 
 early as 1739, called it " a work of Aristides," and Eous- 
 seau, who used it later as an authority in his " Social 
 Contract," said : " I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of 
 occasionally quoting this manuscript, although it is not 
 known to the public, to do honour to the memory of an 
 illustrious and respected man, who retained even in the 
 ministry the heart of a true citizen with sound and upright 
 views for the government of his country." 
 
 M. d'Argenson was not yet minister when he wrote that 
 work, and he had left the ministry before he revised it and 
 put the last touches to it. During his ministry of rather 
 more than two years in the Foreign office (November, 1744, 
 to January, 1747) he met with a piece of good fortune that 
 he did not seek. Being present at the victory of Fontenoy, 
 he wrote an account of it to Voltaire, a former college friend 
 of his, who at that time held the title and function of 
 Historiographer of France. This letter, published by Vol- 
 taire, has become historical, and does great honour in the
 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 eyes of posterity to the mind and to the humanity of M. 
 d'Argenson. "You have written to me, Monseigneur," re- 
 plies Voltaire, "a letter such as Mme. de S^vignd might 
 have written had she been in the midst of a battle." That 
 praise was desei-ved ; we have a description, gay, vivid, 
 emotional, of the combat, the danger, the success, more than 
 uncertain at one moment, and the sudden and complete 
 victory. The principal honour is paid to the king; then, 
 after all that a courtier in heart and mind could say, we 
 read these words of a citizen philosopher, or, to say it more 
 simply, a man : — 
 
 " After that — to tell you the evil as well as the good — 
 I noticed a habit too quickly acquired of seeing tranquilly 
 on a battle-field the naked dead, dying enemies, smoking 
 wounds. I observed our young heroes well. I thought 
 them too indifferent on this score. . . . Triumph is the 
 finest thing in this world ; the shouts of Vive le roi ! the 
 hats in the air at the point of the bayonets; the congratu- 
 lations of the master to his warriors; the visit to the 
 intrenchments, the villages, the redoubts, all intact ; the joy, 
 the glory, the tenderness — but, the ground-work of all that 
 is human blood, human flesh in fragments. 
 
 " At the close of the triumph the king honoured me with 
 a conversation on the peace. I despatched the couriers." 
 
 Such words, at such a moment, are enough to honour for- 
 ever a name in history. M. d'Argenson is in politics of the 
 school of Catinat and Vauban, and a worthy predecessor of 
 Turgot. Those of his writings which have been published 
 since his death have only confirmed this idea ; the " Con- 
 siderati(uis on the Government of France," which appeared 
 in 1764 in a very faulty edition (a new edition, called 
 a better one, appearing in 17S4), justifies in the eyes of the 
 public the eulogies of Eousseau and Voltaire, and show
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 M. d'Argenson as the enlightened and prudent partisan of 
 reform within the bosom of the monarchy and by the 
 monarchy, reform without revohition. " Essays " by him, 
 in the style of those of Montaigne, which were printed in 
 1785 (retouched, it is tme, by his son. M. de Paulmy) will 
 make him known on his more varied and literary side. 
 
 Thanks are always due to those who bring to us fresh 
 lights and information on any part of history ; they are due 
 even to those who do so reluctantly and complainingly ; but 
 how much more to those who do it with grace and a single 
 eye to the public, and through zeal for the truth. M. 
 Eathery, who for many years has applied himself to seri- 
 ous and historical literature, and has given proof, in much 
 critical work, of a rare spirit of exactitude and discrimina- 
 tion, has lately done true service by publishing, in the name 
 of the " Socidtd de I'Histoire de France " the Journals and 
 Memoirs of the Marquis d'Argenson. This means the true 
 Journal belonging to the Library of the Louvre, which offers 
 us a series of facts and reflections such as they pressed and 
 hurtled beneath the pen of this upright and singular per- 
 sonage, from the ministry of the Due de Bourbon through- 
 out the whole duration of that of Cardinal de Fleury, and 
 beyond it. It is not without difficulty and some effort that 
 this publication now sees the light, and triumphs over many 
 obstacles which might have arrested it. 
 
 There are books more pleasing than this Journal of dAr- 
 genson, there are none more instructive for whoso knows how 
 to read well. It is the tirst time that we meet with private 
 and political memoirs on this period of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, for which we have had until now no other searching 
 chronicle than the wholly parliamentary and bourgeois Jour- 
 nal of the law}'er Barbier. The author of the present Jour- 
 nal, very well placed to see and to know, is scarcely an
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 author ; he does not think at all of making a book, but only 
 of satisfying himself, of relieving his mind, and rendering 
 account to his own soul of the present state of things, and 
 of the special circumstance that besets him ; in short, to give 
 daylight to his views, his hopes, his humours. It is impossi- 
 ble that, proceeding in this way and with such bluntness, he 
 should fail to open gaps through which we are able to see 
 clearly into things and men. An eminent man, regrettable 
 in so many ways, M. de Tocqueville, wishing to study the 
 old regime and reach the heart of it during the two cen- 
 turies that preceded the French Eevolution, said : " To do 
 this, I have read not only the celebrated books which the 
 eighteenth century produced, I have studied many works 
 less known and less deserving of being so, but which, never- 
 theless, being composed with little art, betrayed even better 
 the true instincts of the period." D'Argenson's journal is 
 one of the works that M. de Tocqueville must have searched ; 
 art is as absent as could be desired; instinct breathes 
 through it. 
 
 "Wlien we take the Marquis d'Argenson at his source, 
 such as he is now given to us, we must make our moan 
 about him in the first place, and pass upon his language. 
 Never was there a writer so alien to Vaugelas and all 
 good usage. Now that lexicons are made of all authors and 
 all provinces, a very curious one might be made of d'Argen- 
 son's patois. But this very man, with his bristling, savage 
 style, has sudden expressions which leap from his heart and 
 paint a person or define some profoimd political truth at a 
 stroke. For instance, speaking of the English colonies of 
 North America, predicting their future emancipation and 
 separation from the mother-State, and prophesying with 
 anticipating enthusiasm the gigantic grandeur of the new 
 United States so soon as they could work for themselves
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 and not for others, " What superiority," he exclaims, " over 
 all the other colonies of mercenaries, selfish governors, ill- 
 disciplined soldiers, lagging recruits, slow orders, little force, 
 little zeal, because those must draw their soul from afar." 
 Could that be better seen, or better said ? 
 
 It has been said that d'Argenson had "no style of his 
 own ; " what think you ? He is not a writer, that is true ; 
 but his manner of speaking and saying things (provided he 
 is allowed his way and his toilet is not made) has character 
 and originality. It is not the style of an academician nor of 
 an essentially polished man, it is rather that of a bourgeois 
 of the time of Aubray in the " Satyre M^nippde," or, if one 
 likes it better, of a country gentleman of good race, fed on 
 books, expressing himself crudely, plainly, and with sap. 
 He recalls the tone of the fathers and gi-andfathers of 
 Mirabeau. He has no elevation, certainly none that is con- 
 tinued; he allows himself at all moments trivialities of 
 expression which make what he says the opposite of noble 
 and dignified language ; certainly, in this respect he was not 
 fitted to be a minister of Foreign Affahs. But he often has 
 flashes of admirable meaning ; even, at times, happy images. 
 Speaking of a man of narrow and false mind, who despised 
 on principle the gentleness and kindness of truly great men, 
 " He admires nothing in iron," he says, " except the rust." 
 Wishing to call and fix attention on the miseries of the 
 poor people in the country, which we feel in the provinces 
 and forget in Paris and Versailles, he said these admirable 
 words, which deserve to be written in letters of gold : " We 
 need firm souls and tender hearts to persevere in pity when 
 the object is absent." 
 
 Made a counsellor of parliament at twenty-one years of 
 age, dArgenson was intendant [civil governor] of Hainaut 
 and Cambrdsis at twenty-six, and served his apprenticeship
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to political life and administration in that province. It 
 has lately been remarked, and those who have done so 
 appear to have discovered with a surprise that seems to 
 me excessive, that there was in the old regime, from the 
 seventeenth century, and especially since Eiclielieu, a system 
 very similar to what was later to be that of the govern- 
 ment, new and reconstituted, after the Eevolution. In fact, 
 there existed, under that old regime, re-formed later by the 
 hand of a master, a modern organization, already very strong, 
 ascending directly to the king, to the council of the king, 
 receiving its orders and impulsion thence, developing its 
 method, extending its net-work over the whole kingdom by 
 means of the intendauts ; but it must be added immediately 
 that, with and in spite of this united and vigorous organiza- 
 tion which performed its functions regularly from the time 
 of Louis XIV., there were, at all moments, points of hindrance 
 and stoppage, claims thwarting it, exemptions, privileges — 
 nobiliary, ecclesiastical, parliamentary, municipal privileges 
 of all kinds ; inclosures of land and islets abstracted from 
 the public rights ; relics of powers and institutions belonging, 
 for the most part, to the earlier feudal system which, though 
 lessened and reduced from time to time, had never been for- 
 mally abolished. This was precisely what the France of the 
 Eevolution, the France of '89, had to pull down, disengaging 
 and completing the sound and living parts of the old regime, 
 pouring into them the spirit of equality, the spirit of good 
 sense and of common rights as opposed to the monarchical 
 principle of divine right ; and this is what France did in thp 
 Constituent Assembly with grandeur and some inexperience, 
 and what, warned and matured, she re-did later under the 
 Consulate with precision and perfection, beneath the eye of 
 Genius, but by the help of modern men who had issued 
 from the old regime.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 D'ArgensoD, dead then for so many years, was fitted to 
 have been of these men ; fitted by mind, by instinct, the 
 most precocious of instincts ; that is his principal title to 
 honour to-day. It is interesting to form to one's self an idea, 
 from the number of significant facts that he reports, of 
 d'Ai-genson the intendant in the days of the regency. He 
 has new and sensible views on a quantity of matters of 
 public utility ; he writes memorials upon them to the mki- 
 isters, hoping to get them approved ; and he resolutely 
 applies them. He tells us of various means and inventions 
 of which he bethinks himself when difficulties in his admin- 
 istrations present themselves. He had fertility of ideas ; he 
 was a man of expedients, and sometimes of execution. Son 
 of a father who was thought to have points of resemblance 
 to the great cardinal, Eichelieu, he had some remains of him ; 
 I say remains, for one does not really know whether in him 
 they are the remains or the beginnings of the great minister, 
 because obscurities, vagaries, oddities of mould or singulari- 
 ties of temper, soon came to complicate the way and clog 
 the machinery ; the gold within him never freed itself from 
 the scorise. Young, and in his intendancies, he appears 
 before us to advantage; he might be a practical statesman 
 developing and forming himself for a greater career. A 
 good citizen, inspired with a true passion for the public 
 good and with a sort of tenderness for the poor people, hav- 
 ing bowels of compassion for the sufferings of the peasantr}-, 
 he was, nevertheless, a man of authority ; a vigorous prefect 
 was d'Argenson the intendant. When the municipalities did 
 not walk straight he brought them to heel, and harshly too. 
 
 One of the maxims of his policy was that while the sense 
 of ownership should be increased in the landed proprietors, 
 public office should never be regarded as property by the offi- 
 cer invested with it. He sometimes went too far, however,
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and from being too zealous for equity he shocked the cuS' 
 toms and habits of his region. He was never afraid of being 
 right to excess ; management of men, tact, was not his distin- 
 guishing quality. He recognized his mistake ; and believed 
 he was corrected by experience ; but was he ? He tells of a 
 valuable intendant, but a man harsh and violent, who became 
 impracticable ; he judges him as if with an eye towards him- 
 self ; adding, however : " If I were prime-minister, I should 
 like to have thhty intendants of that mould ; I could do good 
 work with such disinterested and active agents." 
 
 He often uses, writing, as he does, for himself alone, that 
 form of phrase, that agreeable supposition, which seems quite 
 natural to him : " If I were prime-minister " — he aspired to 
 that office, and more than once he believed himself on the 
 point of attaining it. He was a man, in spite of his honest 
 acknowledgment of early blunders, to undertake to do good 
 despotically, without regard to the manners and customs of 
 others. He belonged to the school of royalty, democratic 
 as he was ; and, if I may employ a modern term, d'Argenson, 
 taken at his source, was a royalist more socialist than liberal. 
 Such at least he seems to me in his youth, and in the earlier 
 part of his Memoirs. I am seeking less to criticise him 
 than to define him. 
 
 Een^-Louis, Marquis d'Argenson, was the eldest son of 
 Marc-Een^, the celebrated lieutenant-general of police dur- 
 ing the last eighteen years of Louis XIV., and Keeper of the 
 Seals under the regency. He was born in October, 1694. 
 His father, who had the genius of administration and the 
 qualities of a true statesman, misunderstood the somewhat 
 reserved merits of his elder son, and much preferred the 
 younger, who was more prepossessing and more amiable. 
 This younger son was the Comte d'Argenson, long minister 
 
 of war under Louis XV., much in favour throughout his 
 
 Ver. 2—1 Mem.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 whole career, much liked by men-of-letters, whose retreat at 
 Ormes after his dismissal gave rise to a curious description 
 by Marmontel. 
 
 D'Argenson the elder brother was at first treated by the 
 world as he had been by his father, and it nick -named him 
 d'Argenson le bete [the stupid] to distinguish him from his 
 brother, the witty man ; he was only serious, reflective, and 
 more concerned to be than to appear, whereas his brother 
 turned wholly to succeeding and pleasing. He trained him- 
 self in a great measure, if we may judge by the glimpse he 
 gives us of his early education. Wlien at some college 
 solemnity, at which his parents and strangers were present, 
 he saw his former friends and women of his_ acquaintance, 
 he sitting on a wooden bench in his scholar's cap and gown, he 
 blushed with mortification and did his best on holidays to 
 recover his position ; he became, as much as he could, a man 
 of the world, but he could never be, like his brother, a man 
 of social distinction, and he did not aim to be. 
 
 Serious at lieart, having tastes of his own which soon 
 became very pronounced, loving study of all sorts, history, 
 engravings, and the instruction they afford on the manners 
 and morals of a past time, judging soundly the men and 
 things he had before his eyes, and solicitous for the amelior- 
 ation of the species in the future, he was at all times very 
 natural, at the risk of not seeming essentially refined nor 
 very lofty. He had in him a principle of mtegrity and a 
 sense of justice which he cultivated and strengthened con- 
 stantly, far from endeavouring to smother it. Let us not 
 ask him for an ideal which was not in him, — neither the 
 true ideal which ennobles the human condition and seeks to 
 give it all the beauty of which it is thought susceptible at 
 certain moments ; nor that false ideal which, attaching itself 
 
 to appearances only, is caught by illusions that are only 
 
 Ver. 2—2 Mem,
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 decorative. He has too good a mind and is too sincere for 
 humbug or brilliant illusions; he is not by nature lofty 
 enough to conceive of great art in anything, nor yet of true 
 beauty. An honest man, he has, in certain ways, the man- 
 ners and morals of his time. It is not what he does at a 
 given moment that surprises me ; but what passes my com- 
 prehension somewhat is that he ever dreamed at times of 
 writing it down and consigning it to his manuscript volumes 
 of observation and remarks. 
 
 It is thus that on himself, on his own race, on the good 
 qualities and the defects of his family, his brother, his 
 wife (let that pass), his daughter, his son, the greater or less 
 sensibility of the latter, his want of imagination, his limits of 
 mind and talent, and "the contraction of his spirit," he says 
 and wi-ites all that he observes, all that he thinks or conjec- 
 tures, though sure to be read by some of those concerned and 
 especiall}^by that very son, after his own death. The ques- 
 tion of paternal delicacy does not seem to have occurred to 
 him. He is so fond of obser\^g, pen in hand, that he has 
 even left a picturesque description of a valet of his, and a 
 detailed and rather ugly sketch of two of his secretaries. 
 
 Entering life, on the eve of the regency, M. d'Argenson, 
 serious as he was, or was to be, did not pass through it with- 
 out acquiring something of its morals and its tone. He had, 
 at twenty-three years of age, an intrigue with a young lady 
 of the same age, a cousin of Mme. de Prie, who was the first 
 to embolden him. He caiTied very little of the ideal into 
 this intimacy, or amorous intrigue, which does not deserve 
 the name of passion and lasted but one year. "\Miile speak- 
 ing with propriety of the lady, who became a widow after 
 their rupture and then remarried, he adds, in ending his re- 
 marks : " I wish her a long life and happiness ; as for me, I 
 have at present better than she in every way."
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 The years of application and labour were now to begin 
 for him. He was from the tirst, as I have said, a coun- 
 sellor to parliament ; in 1720 he entered the Council of State 
 and was - sent to Lille to train himself for the intendancy 
 with his father-in-law, M. M^liand — for they had married 
 him early without consulting him ; and this sulky marriage 
 resulted, after some years, in a separation. He was ap- 
 pointed intendant of Hainaut and Cambr^sis in 1721. There 
 he busied himself at once in efforts to ameliorate the condi- 
 tion of the people and the well-being of the troops. On 
 arriving at Valenciennes, he says, he found almost a mutiny 
 in the garrisons on account of the excessive dearness of every- 
 thing, the after effect of Law's system. To ward it off, he 
 wished to give bread to the garrisons, but the ovens were 
 broken and the commissaries bent on robbery. He was there- 
 fore the first to propose and to put into execution the issue of 
 grain to the troops, which the soldiers themselves were to 
 have ground and made into bread. 
 
 During the time that d'Argenson was intendant in 
 Hainaut, Law crossed that province to escape into foreign 
 lands. D'Argenson had him arrested and held at Valen- 
 ciennes until he received orders from the Court. It was 
 then that Law said to him, in a long conversation which 
 they held together : " Monsieur, never could I have believed 
 what I have now seen during my administration of the 
 finances. Let me tell you that this kingdom of France is 
 governed by thirty intendants. You have neither parlia- 
 ments, nor committees, nor assemblies, nor governors. I 
 might almost add neither king nor ministers. It is on thirty 
 masters of petitions, clerks in the provinces, that the welfare 
 or misery of those provinces, their plenty or their sterility, 
 depends." 
 
 Another time, in his father's salon, d'Argenson had heard
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Law say of France, comparing it with England : " Happy the 
 land where in twenty-four hours a matter is deliberated, 
 resolved, and executed ; in England we take twenty-four 
 years ! " Such was France already, after leaving the hands 
 of Louis XIV. ; the enterprising Scotchman praised us there 
 for a quality which has often proved our defect, and for a 
 habit of celerity and vigour which is our peril, but has also, 
 many a time, made the French action a prodigy. 
 
 After quitting his intendancy, d'Argenson began to feel a 
 species of ennui. Becoming once more a simple councillor of 
 State, this business of judge in which, as he said, " one has 
 but one suffrage for the thirtieth part of a decree," seemed to 
 him a poor compensation for his little vice-royalty in Hainaut. 
 Little by little, however, he came to be distinguished by the 
 Keeper of the Seals, Chauvelin, and by the prime-minister, 
 Cardinal de Fleury. He endeavoured in his own way to 
 make himself useful. He applied liis mind continually to 
 find new and just administrative measures, and always with 
 a view to good; this was a trait of his character. This is 
 not saying that he neglected his fortunes at Court or the 
 care of advancing them. On the contrary, he aspired to 
 advancement in his own way and by means which he 
 thought the best and most solid. He wi'ote memorials 
 on the different matters then under discussion, notably on 
 the strife in parliament so vehemently excited by the 
 ecclesiastical affair of the Constitution [bull Unigenitus]. 
 When at the Council of State some new difficulty arose the 
 king was occasionally heard to say, " Is there no memorial 
 by M. d'Argenson about this ? " He had views, inventions, 
 expedients without trickery, which allowed for regulations 
 and esprit de corps ; he applied his projects with wide and 
 judicious knowledge, to which he added daily by assiduous 
 reading. He thus diverted his mind as best he could, writ-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 ing down his ideas on all subjects daily, and being actively 
 employed on political considerations in the little society of 
 the " Entresol," of which he was an active member ; hoping 
 the while that through the friendship of M. Chauvelin, who 
 had taken a liking to him, he would shortly become a 
 minister. 
 
 The Keeper of the Seals, Chauvelin, had taken d'Argenson 
 into gi-eat esteem and friendship ; he wanted to serve him as 
 a father, he said, and to make his political fortune. He 
 appreciated his qualities as a worker, a man of merit, and 
 fertility of mind ; but he felt his defects and spared no 
 pains to correct them. He told him incessantly, while prais- 
 ing his industry and his ardour to be useful and " a certain 
 firmness of heart and mind in which he sympathized," that 
 he absolutely must be drawn from the species of obscurity in 
 which he lived, for he was well known neither to others nor 
 to himself. D'Argenson answered reminding him of how 
 much he lacked ; that he was shy and timid in meeting people ; 
 that he was badly brought-up in one way, namely : that his 
 father, by preferring for a long time his yoimger brother and 
 misunderstanding him until the last two years of his life, had 
 discouraged him, and led him to shut himself up within him- 
 self, and this had made him torpid in entering society ; that 
 he was dull at amusements and cards, and did not know how 
 to lose his money, etc. To all of which the Keeper of the 
 Seals continually told him to "hold himself ready for all 
 things," and meanwhile to go more boldly into society 
 than he did. 
 
 M. Chauvelin is an important political personage who has 
 never been completely freed in history from the shadow of 
 Cardinal de Fleury ; and we owe it to d'Argenson that we now 
 know him well. It is true that d'Argenson often varies in 
 his views of him ; writing from day to day, his judgments
 
 14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and his degrees of esteem are at the mercy of his present 
 impressions. The interests of his ambition curiously affect 
 the quality and sensitiveness of his barometer. His own 
 hopes, according as they rise and fall, made him see in glow- 
 ing or in ugly colours certain persons who seemed favourable 
 to him or the reverse. Wlien he hopes to succeed through 
 some one in reaching the ministry, that some one (be it even 
 Bachelier, Louis XV.'s valet) takes mstantly to his eyes the 
 colour of a good citizen ; we are all so, more or less, if we do 
 not take care. At times he has flashes of anger, and butts 
 against Fleury, who does not employ him, who will not 
 depart from the ministry or from life, against that gentle old 
 man so obstinate in living, in lasting, and whose longevity 
 is the wiliest of tricks and foils the ambitions that are wait- 
 ing. In his broad and often elevated views of foreign policy, 
 d'Argenson is indignant that France is lowering herself, that 
 the navy is more and more dilapidated, that nothing is done 
 to recover and hold her rank with honour in the maritime or 
 continental struggles which are preparing. The bourgeois 
 policy of Cardinal de Fleury, to which he adhered during the 
 preceding year, hoping to bear a part in it, he now rejects 
 and casts away. 
 
 At first he counted fully on being placed in office by 
 Chauvelin, who had constantly sounded and pumped him 
 (exploited him, as we should now say) for ideas ; even luring 
 him, perhaps ; but certainly endeavouring to polish him, 
 supple him, draw him out of theories, and no doubt despair- 
 ing in the end of doing so. Appointed by him ambassador to 
 Portugal (where he never went), d'Argenson flattered himself 
 he should succeed Chauvelin and obtain a portfolio which was 
 one of his spoils, that of Foreign Affairs. " I did not solicit 
 it," he says ; " others solicited for me. ... I am worth little, 
 but I burn with ardour for the welfare of my fellow-citizens.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 and if that were well known, certainly they would wish me 
 in office." 
 
 About this time, and through the months and years that 
 foUow, we see him successively on the point, or in view, of 
 becoming chief-president of parliament, secretary of State 
 for war, chancellor of France (if the chancellor, then sixty- 
 nine years old, should die), controller-general, or even super- 
 intendent of finances, due a brevet, and prime-minister at last 
 — for he has all these aims and points them out as they 
 come along. To realize these fine dreams he counts as a 
 last resource on the faithful Bachelier, valet to the king and 
 introducer of Mme. de Mailly, the first mistress ; this alcove 
 and antechamber affair seems to him, for a quarter of an 
 hour (as long as he hopes for advancement from it), patriotic 
 and honourable. Letting Bachelier support his interests he 
 calls being " passively " in the intrigue. Thus, like a wolf 
 roaming round the sheepcote he reconnoitres the ministry 
 on all sides by his conjectures ; he will make a place for 
 himself, no matter what; and in the moments when he 
 hopes least he believes himself sufficiently important and 
 dangerous for the cabals to endeavour to get rid of him. 
 " They wiU try to send me off on embassies ; I expect that," 
 he says. ^ 
 
 This Journal, the monument of a personality wholly in 
 the rough, naive and glowing with honesty in his own eyes, 
 this singular and clamorous soliloquy of an unconsciously 
 ambitious man who exalts and extols himself in petto, of a 
 virtuous man who is on thorns of a desire for power, await- 
 ing it from hour to hour, that he may make, whether they 
 will or no, the happiness of men, is curious for the moralist, 
 and not less instructive for the historian. The original 
 being appears in his fulness ; the personage can there be 
 judged to the bottom. D'Argenson says somewhere, with
 
 16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that favourite supposition of his future position : " If I were 
 prime-minister, I would certainly establish an Academy of 
 politics, in the style of that of M. de Torcy." And that is 
 precisely the thing for which he was best fitted, namely : to 
 establish an Academy of the moral and political sciences, to 
 make a " Society of the Entresol " on a large scale and a first 
 floor ; and read there, in company with men of learning and 
 merit, copious and instructive memorials, with numerous 
 and well-furnished views, thick-coming and eager projects, 
 of which others than himself would judge later what to take 
 and what to leave, what was practi^-able and what was not. 
 Such, definitely, was his true vocation. The minister (if he 
 became such later) would always be complicated in him 
 with the academician and the theorist. Above all things 
 he was a rummager of ideas and a seeker for them. 
 
 Towards 1725 there was formed in Paris at the house of 
 the Abb^ Alary of the French Academy, a political confer- 
 ence, which was held every Saturday, and as the abb^ lived 
 in an entresol of the Place Vendome the society took the 
 name of " The Entresol." A valuable paper by d'Argenson 
 has been printed (but not as correctly as it should have 
 been, for why change the phrases without necessity ?) which 
 enters into the closest details of what he calls " that agree- 
 able society." He was there in his element, with the degree 
 of seriousness and unrestraint that suited him ; if none but 
 politicians like himself, sedate and prudent, more Dutch than 
 French, had formed that society, it might have lasted long 
 without giving umbrage. But things were otherwise ; social 
 relations mingled in it ; it became a retailer and judger of 
 the events of the day. " And truly," he says, " we censured 
 sometimes to our heart's content." The Abbd de Pomponne, 
 a witty man but a feather-weight, went about repeating 
 everywhere the opinions he had just heard, retailing with
 
 INTKODUCTION. 17 
 
 an air of mystery the good conversations behind closed 
 doors. The Entresol was accordingly requested one fine 
 day to be more circumspect, and under the tranquil ministry 
 of Fleury this advice given in a low voice was equivalent 
 to prohibition. 
 
 After the closing of the Entresol, d'Argenson still held to 
 the idea of renewing it, and of holding elsewhere with a 
 few friends, parliamentarians chiefly, conferences on public 
 right [droit puhlic] and matters political ; this was his dom- 
 inant taste. He thought himself bound to speak of the 
 revival of the Society to M. Chauvelin, who replied with 
 some heat that " he did not wish it ; that it was beneatli 
 him, d'Argenson, who could find enough to instruct him in 
 his own study; and that all those whom he named to him 
 were fanatics and bad royalists." It is plain from this that 
 Chauvelin, who wished all sorts of good to dArgenson and 
 desired to train him for government, was endeavouring to 
 make him as mundane as possible, and also to provide 
 against his tendency to turn politics into discussion and 
 argument ; he wished, in short, to keep him from becoming 
 an Abbd de Saint-Pierre. 
 
 In the first volume of his Journal d'Argenson seems more 
 ambitious than we find him when we judge of his career as 
 a whole; and he also shows himself less kindly, more 
 brutal, and more disagreeable by nature than we imagined 
 him from his wiitings hitherto published; which are all 
 more or less rearranged and designedly patched. That said, 
 it is right to insist on his good sides ; on the strong and 
 lofty parts of his political intelligence. He has thoughts 
 and observations of the best alloy, which do honour to the 
 French nation of his time and of all times. In a talk one 
 day with M. Chauvelin, July, 1734, the minister explains to 
 him how he has been forced to make war by the low opinion
 
 18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the enemy had taken of the present government. And it 
 is remarkable, said Chauvelin, that Frenchmen themselves 
 have propagated that unfavourable opinion. The French 
 have voluntarily given themselves away to foreigners, and 
 even more willingly than to their compatriots ; " the cavil- 
 ling spirit which rules in good society has led our French- 
 men to say a thousand evil things of the weakness of the 
 nation, the insurmountable carelessness of the ministry in 
 making war, the desperate state, as they pretend, of our 
 finances, the effeminacy of our younger men," — in a word, 
 the decadence of France; and it is not extraordinary that 
 foreigners should have reported in their own country these 
 impressions given in the best company of Paris, and should 
 spread the idea that they could brave us with impunity and 
 need no longer reckon with us. But what happens ? — this 
 is d'Argenson's remark as he replies to the minister, — these 
 little men, puny apparently, and supposed to be enervated 
 by luxury, verified instantly what Voltaire said of the 
 French courtiers in the Henriade: — 
 
 " Peace has not enfeebled their natural valour ; 
 From the shades of repose they are rushing to danger." 
 
 He concludes that on this virile fibre of the nation a true 
 statesman ought to rely to give to policy its elastic energy ; 
 and he desires that the war may go forward at once. 
 DArgenson was not for a bourgeois policy on that occasion. 
 
 Another day (and this relates to one of his favourite 
 ideas) he deplores seeing the occasion lost to drive the 
 emperors of Germany forever out of Italy. He thinks it 
 might have been done at the Peace of 1735 after the success 
 of our arms. " We could have done it, assuredly," he says, 
 "and had all Europe with us if, acting with candour, we 
 had strengthened the third party with the spoils of the house
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 of Austria in Italy, without in any way clothing the Bour- 
 bons with them." Disinterestedness for ourselves would 
 have given us the right to speak loudly and firmly. The 
 death of the last grand-duke (1737), who left no children, 
 opened the way, as d'Argenson thought, to new facilities. 
 He had written upon this subject a first, and then a second 
 memorial, in which he proposed a " plan of division " and 
 declared for the establishment of an " Italian equilibrium," 
 the first condition of which was the expulsion of the Austri- 
 ans. He aspired to see the imperial power concentrated in 
 Germany, and the prayer of Julius II., " Chase the Barbari- 
 ans from Italy," fulfilled. He often devoted himself to 
 projects of reconstruction in this direction, but he did not 
 succeed in realizing them during his passage through the 
 ministry of Foreign Affairs. His views and his intentions 
 on this point, as on many others, should be counted to him 
 to-day. In the great number of ideas and projects of amel- 
 ioration which he agitated, Time has done its winnowing, 
 and some there are which, by a singular turn of the wheel 
 of Fortune, seem to have become expedient. 
 
 That which, to my eyes, forms a great part of the interest 
 of d'Argenson's writings, and which ought to render them 
 precious to all who love truth, is that they are wholly the 
 product of the moment itself. He writes each day what he 
 knows, what he feels; he writes it not with any view to 
 a present or posthumous public, but, at most, for his poster- 
 ity, his children, and, above all, for himself, for himself 
 alone in night-cap and dressing-gown. Dignity may fimd 
 something to say against this ; curiosity profits. 
 
 He^ destined himself, as I have said, to the ministry. 
 There were delays. In 1736. he had almost the certainty of 
 being appointed ambassador to Portugal. There was a ques- 
 tion of opening a great commerce between that nation and
 
 20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 France, and of combating the influence and the interests of 
 England. D'Argenson had long desired to know precisely 
 the direction of his employment, that he might make him- 
 self worthy of it by thorough study and labour. He be- 
 longed to the class of upright natm-es who do not like to 
 treat or reason of things unless they know them to the 
 bottom. He prepared himself conscientiously for his em- 
 bassy, and was soon the best and most capable man, so far 
 as reading goes, whom they could have sent to Lisbon. The 
 dismissal of M. Chauvelin, which happened unexpectedly 
 (February, 1737) was for d'Argent:on a grievous mishap; 
 taking part in this disgrace as a loyal friend, he nevertheless 
 thought he saw a means of advancement. The Seals and 
 the Foreign Affairs were both vacated. The Seals were 
 restored to Chancellor d'Aguesseau, and dArgenson believed 
 that the Foreign Affahs would come to him almost of them- 
 selves. His friends already congi-atulated him. But sud- 
 denly M. Amelot, intendant of finances, appeared, a man 
 so little fitted for Foreign Affairs that he had never even 
 read the " Gazette," as he owned to d'Argenson ; a man, 
 too, who stammered and had no elocution. But he was the 
 follower and ally of M. de Maurepas. He was chosen, and 
 d'Argenson did not succeed him until seven years later. 
 The dismissal of M. Chauvelin weakened the ministry of 
 Cardinal de Fleury and left free course to evil influences. 
 " He had his defects," wrote d'Argenson some years later 
 (1748), "but more greatness and integrity than all the 
 ministers of to-day put together." He lost in him a good 
 guide and a useful counsellor. He continued to study and 
 to wait. 
 
 This position of minister in expectation was prolonged, 
 but M. d'Argenson accommodated himself to it very well; 
 every one about him felt that he must attain some office
 
 INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 sooner or later. " My good intentions," he said, " and the 
 serious meditations I have made on State matters are begin- 
 ning to be known to the world; and this, joined to my 
 retired life which gives me rarity, makes me pass for a man 
 singular in goodness, so that many persons who know me 
 only in imagination cry me up and advance me." 
 
 Wlien he examines himself face to face, and endeavours 
 to define his character to himself, d'Argenson paints his 
 portrait to us, but not so well as when he compares and 
 contrasts himself with his brother, the courtier and future 
 minister. He should be seen under this comparison, in 
 which he takes pleasure, for it casts a distinct light on two 
 figures we are apt to confound. I give no preference to the 
 more virtuous brother over the other as minister. In fact, 
 I think the Marquis d'Argenson was only moderately suited 
 to be a minister, whereas the Comte d'Argenson held office 
 very worthily and with sufficient glory for a number of 
 years, having imdoubtedly some superior qualities and bril- 
 liant parts. The only historical truth which I desire to 
 show here is that the two brothers belong to two races of 
 political men, wholly different and even antagonistic; one 
 being of those who go to the bottom of things and aspire to 
 a real and constant end ; the other to those who proceed in 
 all things by expedients, and are inspired solely by circum- 
 stance. The elder brother has explained this separation of 
 views and inspii-ations in some very fine pages, which need, 
 however, to be slightly cleared and corrected. 
 
 The Marquis d'Argenson was never very seriously ambi- 
 tious. He loved reflection, study, the true for the sake of 
 truth, good for the sake of good ; he had a sentiment of jus- 
 tice, integrity, and sincerity that nothing altered, and he 
 expresses it in terms of incomparable sensibility. 
 
 " I am well accustomed," he says, " to that species of ordi-
 
 22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 nary ingratitude which is the forgetting of benefits, and 
 consists only in not returning good for good, 
 
 "But to that which returns evil for good I can never 
 grow accustomed, however much I have experienced it. My 
 life is a tissue of it ; I will not say that I have loaded cer- 
 tain men with benefits, but I have done them gi-atuitous 
 services; I have acquired some friends by so doing, but I 
 never counted on it; I have counted only on those with 
 whom sympathy and heart have bound me, not benefits; 
 and from these it is amazing what ill-offices I have often 
 received. 
 
 " This comes to me as always fresh ; my heart is wrung by 
 it ; I am overwhelmed when I think of it ; it threatens my 
 life ; injustice revolts me and agitates me ; my voice trembles 
 in speaking of it, and when I think of it I would that I had 
 never been born." 
 
 He wrote this some months before entering the ministry ; 
 what would he have said when he left it ? We see here the 
 defect in the cuirass ; to live and resist in such surroundings 
 he had not the metal. 
 
 I leave details, which would have no interest except in a 
 biography. Cardinal de Fleury, after the dismissal of M. 
 Chauvelin was not as well disposed to M. d'Argenson, and he 
 even became his enemy. He spoke of him openly one day 
 with ill-humour, ending by these words : " In short, to say 
 the whole thing, he is a worthy friend of Voltaire, and Vol- 
 taire is a worthy friend of his." In February, 1741, M. d'Ar- 
 genson succeeded his brother in the office of chancellor to 
 the Due d'Orl^ans, and three years later, in 1744, Cardinal 
 de Fleury being dead, the king appointed him councillor in 
 the Royal Council, on condition that he quitted the business 
 of the Due d'Orldans, it not being proper to serve two mas- 
 ters. Finally, in November, 1744, he was made minister of
 
 INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 Foreign Affairs, his brother being ah-eady in the ministry of 
 War. The history of this ministry, which lasted till Febru- 
 ary, 1747, is that of France during that period. M. d'Argen- 
 son has left the richest and best arranged elements for 
 whoever desires to treat of this part of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury.i Yot: nie, who am seeking in him only the man himself, 
 with his mental and moral qualities, and the philosophical 
 writer, I shall confine myself to remarking that he failed 
 in this active career. He wished for peace, a peace which, 
 to his mind, would have been more advantageous to France 
 than the one subsequently signed at Aix-la-Chapelle ; he 
 believed that it could have been obtained by means of a 
 great defensive war at all points. He had plans for politi- 
 cal reconstitution in foreign countries, especially Italy ; he 
 wanted to form "a republic or eternal association of the 
 Italian powers, just as there is in Germany, a Batavia, an 
 Helvetia, for this is the greatest affair that has been treated 
 of in Europe for a long time." It all failed. He was dis- 
 missed purely and simply, without pension, but without 
 exile. They had finally brought the king to think him " in- 
 capable of all public affairs " (for a Utopian as we now should 
 term it. The Due de Eichelieu called him " the secretary 
 of State of the Eepublic of Plato "). 
 
 All careers were henceforth closed to him. The depths 
 of his heart are revealed to us on this occasion, in a sort of 
 involuntary effusion which will be found in the middle of 
 his " Remarks in reading," and to which he has given the 
 
 1 These papers are all preserred in tlie Library of tlie Louvre ; the 
 following are the most important of them : Essais dans le gout de ceux 
 de Montaigne: Loisirs d'un ]\finistre d'htat; Pense'es stir la reformation 
 de I'Etat; Jusqu'ou la d^mocratie pent etre admise dans le gouvernement 
 monarchique ; Materiaux pour I'Histoire des choses arriv€es de mon temps ; 
 M^moires de mon Ministere de 1744 a 1747 : Pens€es depuis ma sortie du 
 Hfinistere ; Remarques en lisant, depuis Mai \742 jusqu'a Decembre 1756.
 
 24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rather singular title: "Of Providence." — "How delightful 
 is the idea of Providence ! " he suddenly exclaims ; " how 
 sweet its hopes and its consolations are to the unfortunate ! 
 But its decrees are impenetrable ! " And he starts from that 
 to describe the spectacle that presents itself before him 
 when he wi'ites, in 1748, one year after leaving the ministry. 
 Everywhere, to his eyes, is successful iniquity, apparent tri- 
 umphs of the unjust over the innocent. But it would not be 
 just, in our turn, to take quite literally, and in all the excite- 
 ment of its secret outburst, the irritation of this honourable 
 man. I shall confine myself to saying with him : " If one 
 has no intrigue at Court, it is easy to know what will happen 
 there; all that one does of good is little felt, or else at- 
 tributed to others ; and the slightest fault which a man may, 
 perhaps, commit becomes a crime for which he is exposed." 
 And, in another place, finding in his son, M. de Paulmy, then 
 ambassador to Switzerland, some of the qualities of caution, 
 insinuation, and shrewdness which he had not, he says, with 
 a certain self-examination and sense of the contrast : " He 
 praises ... he approves, he knows how to reduce his ideas, 
 and diminish them when need be ; a man is very fortunate 
 to have that suppleness ; to succeed, one must please ; men 
 are more difficult to deal with than affairs." 
 
 The first shock over, he became once more, and easily, on 
 the morrow of his leaving the ministry, what he had been 
 previously, — a studious man, a great reader, reading with 
 delight, making his study his kingdom and his world, and 
 ever full of thoughts and observations on books and on 
 things. In reading what he then wi'ote for himself alone, 
 the collection of which we have in manuscript from 1742 to 
 1756, I am struck with a frequent and sustained remark, 
 namely : a complaint, that returns again and again beneath 
 his pen until 1750, of the spirit of satii'e and malice which
 
 INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 destroys everything, of the absence of heart and of a love of 
 Good apparent everywhere. The vivid and precise manner 
 in which he describes to us this vice, such as he sees it, 
 takes from his complaint all air of commonplace. Never 
 did I better understand what was the malady of the eigh- 
 teenth century, especially the first half of it, than in reading 
 these manuscripts of the Marquis d'Argenson. 
 
 " The heart," he says, " is a faculty, of which we deprive 
 ourselves daily for want of exercise, whereas the mind be- 
 comes keener day by day. We court intellect, we cultivate 
 it, we are becoming wholly mental. It is mind joined to 
 heart that makes heroism, courage, whatever is sublime, and 
 from which results genius. For want of affection and the 
 heart-faculty this kingdom will perish ; I predict it. We no 
 longer have friends, we no longer love our mistress ; how, 
 then, shall we love our country ? " 
 
 He says it and resays it, like a good citizen whom it 
 alarms, like a man who suffers from it in a deep-felt, touching 
 manner ; he discerns an element of death through that in- 
 tellect that scintillates, beneath that social politeness, malig- 
 nant and frigid. In society, in letters, from Fontenelle, La 
 Motte, Marivaux, Duclos, Maupertuis, down to Voltaire him- 
 self ; from the Eichelieus, d'Ayens, Duras, Maurepas, to M. 
 de C\\.o\'&Q\]l, finesse [subtlety, artificiality] was the order of 
 the day, the style of the times, especially caustic ^^iesse, con- 
 tinual epigram, irony — that bugbear of the simple and the 
 good, that mortal enemy of the grand. " Politeness seemed 
 to repress all external violence that inward baseness might 
 thrive the better." 
 
 In all this he makes me comprehend a part of the success 
 of Gresset's comedy " Le M^chant," to-day so little under- 
 stood, but which in 1747 revealed to the eyes of all the 
 reigning vice, inalignancy from vanity, and also that other 
 
 \ er. 2 — 3 Mem.
 
 26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 success, far more fruitful and durable, of Jean-Jacques RouS' 
 seau, bringing to that century precisely what it lacked, — a 
 flood of true sentiment. We can follow in d'Ai-genson the 
 disease that preceded this coming of Rousseau ; the flippancy 
 in fashion, the false affectation of sensibility on the part 
 of those who lacked it utterly. "We see nothing," says 
 d'Argenson energetically, " but people whose hearts are dull 
 as pigs, for this century is given over to paralysis of the 
 heart ; nevertheless, you will hear it said that it is fine to 
 be sensitive to friendship, to vutue, to sorrow ; they play at 
 feeling as if they felt it." The great merit of Rousseau was 
 to feel truly that which he expressed with force, and some- 
 times with emphasis ; for by him men passed abruptly from 
 that " paralysis of the heart " to a sort of sudden aneurism 
 and impetuous swelling of it. It was at least life in place 
 of nothingness. 
 
 D'Argenson gives me in his daily comments a keen sense 
 of the corruption of the middle of that century ; that cold 
 corruption without resource, whereas there was resource in 
 the ardent and newer corruption of the second half. When 
 the generation which had come through the regency was 
 fifty years old, what was it ? We have its picture, not 
 flattered, in d'Argenson. 
 
 The Marquis d'Argenson was a happy man in the nine or 
 ten last years of his life, after leaving the ministry. He 
 died in January, 1757. He lived sometimes in Paris, some- 
 times in the country, at Segrfes, near Arpajon, where he had 
 hired a very pleasant house. He found that a coimtry-house 
 without a domain was more delightful than a chateau in the 
 midst of an estate, because he was free from the cares of 
 management and could give himself wholly to his studies 
 and his books. In his plans for a happy life, which he diver- 
 sified with not a little imagination, many and various things
 
 INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 entered. He received the world of Paris, d'Alembert, La 
 Condamine, Condillac, etc., at his country-house. Voltaire 
 was there in the spring of 1750. He loved long conversa- 
 tions, consecutive, serious — though enlivened with good and 
 merry wit ; he loved them, not to shine, nor for effect, but to 
 communicate ideas, and possess a true commerce of mind ; 
 that is how we extend our horizons. " Whoso does not listen, 
 or listens ill," thought he, " naiTOWs his mind more than the 
 man who never reads. I call it good listening and good 
 reading to do both without bias toward the speaker or writer." 
 That he himself read thus his " Eemarks in reading " prove. 
 He did not bring all things into relation with himself ; he 
 enjoyed his intellect in all directions by forgetting himself, 
 " Caesar said that he was never less alone than when alone. 
 He was right ; and I go farther ; we are never less occupied 
 with ourselves than when we are alone ; and never so occu- 
 pied and hampered by self as when in society." 
 
 Thus, at liberty with his own thought and with that of 
 others, he gave himself a free rein. He read all sorts of 
 books, ancient and novel; it was the food he needed. 
 " Young people," he said, " should get it into their heads that 
 the more they read, the more mind they will have. He who 
 has read will also have more mind if he reads more." He 
 read all the new books and noted down the impression he 
 received of them ; he was not one of those disdainers (as 
 he called them) who declare at a glance that a book is worth 
 nothing. He read to the end every book he began — biogra- 
 phies, collections, anecdotes, even anas, even fauy -tales ; he 
 took them by their good side, and nearly always found some 
 subject for reflection, or pleasure. " I tell our usual friends : 
 * How I pity you for being always critical ! When will you 
 begin to enjoy anything ? ' " But what he preferred to all else 
 were books on politics, considerations on the public good and
 
 28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 on social matters, " things of consistent meaning and genius," 
 by which he meant what the author produced with vigour of 
 his own thought. Books translated from the English inter- 
 ested him particularly. Apropos of the "Discourses on 
 Tacitus " by Thomas Gordon, he exclaims : " With what de- 
 light one reads the strong and forcibly expressed arguments 
 of the English when one loves politics, as I have done this 
 long time ! " 
 
 He asks himself why books translated from the English 
 have such attraction for him ; he sees plainly what they lack 
 in order, in method, and how much " things have declined 
 from rules." French writers seem to him superior ; he feels 
 the need of explaining to himself this efiect, so real, on serious 
 minds. " It is," he says, " that they reason with such force, 
 and that they never say trite things, as our authors do, even 
 when they reason like Englishmen. La Bruyfere alone dis- 
 covers and thinks with freshness. What characterizes Eng- 
 lish writers, and that whole nation, so examining, so reflecting, 
 is their great good sense in all things," 
 
 This does not make him unjust to Frenchmen, however, 
 nor blind to the faults of our neighbours ; and he puts ener- 
 getic correctives to the good sense with which he credits 
 them : " They are philosophical and covetous savages ; even 
 their depth in philosophy is a passion ; gentleness and polite- 
 ness, which the French have by nature, is wanting in them, 
 and this renders them inferior to us in making good principles 
 pass into action." 
 
 Speaking of the novel of " Tom Jones " which every one 
 was reading just then and which he enjoyed greatly, " Who 
 could have told us eighty years ago," he says, " that the Eng- 
 lish would write novels that surpassed ours ? Yes, that nation 
 goes far, because it has liberty in all things. We emulate it, 
 and we shall attain it ; our minds are seeking to show they
 
 INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 are free; and it is known that after imitating we perfect, 
 and then surpass." 
 
 D'Argensou is a philosopher, but a philosopher in his own 
 way, as it is well he should be, not letting himself be influ- 
 enced by any school or cabal. His religious beliefs reduced 
 themselves, pretty nearly, to a belief in Providence ; but he 
 held it, he insisted upon it ; and he found much to blame iu 
 those who did without it. He seems otherwise to have con- 
 tented himself with the distribution of good and evil, which, 
 in spite of appearances is made, according to him, sooner or 
 later in this world. He wishes to see and does see happi- 
 ness within our reach here below : " Having well weighed 
 everything, I find that man is born here principally for his 
 own happiness. Workiug for it, understanding it properly, 
 he serves his neighbour as much as he ought ; not doing 
 injury is a good deal; take away the evil and the good 
 remains." This system of happiness which might lead easily 
 to selfishness is quickened in him by an active nature and 
 a kindliness which extends to all about him. He believes 
 that the unhappiness of man comes from anxiety, and the 
 eternal pursuit of something else, instead of enjoying what 
 he has. " Men," he says, " are always in via, never in man^ 
 sione" He attributes this restlessness to example, to imita- 
 tion, to causes that are foreign to the nature of man. " It is 
 a bad and very extraordinary habit," he thinks, " of which 
 we could be corrected by the progress of universal reason, as 
 we have already been cured of superstition and a quantity 
 of barbarous habits and ways of thinking." For himself 
 he is happy and content to live ; it seems to him that he 
 is present at a fine spectacle, a charming dream ; if at times 
 the spectator has a desire to be an actor it is a mistake; 
 he is hissed (he knows something of that) and he repents. 
 Let us keep to our own place ! D'Argenson is the opposite
 
 30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of Pascal, Byron, Prometheus, and all who torture them- 
 selves. Not that he is wholly without flashes of desire 
 for grandeur and immortality, as when he says : — 
 
 "It is true that we feel within us a gigantic soul, far 
 too great for our body. Every one must say of himself, * But 
 that is not the soul of this body ' — especially when we are 
 fasting and are moderate in meals. [D'Argenson always 
 mixes matter and the senses with his reflections.] 
 
 " This compound of will, exaltation, conception, imagina- 
 tion, invention, genius, disdain of so many things, contempt, 
 passions, etc., all that, I say, composes a soul too strong for 
 our place and times. One might call it a divinity shut up in 
 a mouse-trap. This, no doubt, is what has given such prom- 
 inence to Eeligion, all the more because it flatters one's 
 self-love to find one's soul so large a morsel. The dignity 
 we attribute to it, the great esteem it wins, the personage 
 it plays, the return it gains in the other world for the 
 damage it receives in this, are all encouragements to belief. 
 These reflections have an air of illusion if you choose, 
 but let us agree that the appearances are strong; there is 
 something hidden beneath this disproportion, real and felt 
 as it is ; we have the air of dethroned and imprisoned 
 kings." 
 
 He seems not to be aware that in this he speaks like 
 Pascal; the tone is rare in him. His habitual ideal is far 
 below this order of thought. 
 
 Just as he sometimes had these flashes of desire for 
 spiritual immortality, he felt also, though rarely, the spur 
 of human glory. With a sincere man who tells all, one 
 can go very far in making an analysis of him. This analysis, 
 however, will here take from him the only brilliant aspect 
 under which he has figured ; he does not even keep intact 
 his honours of Pontenoy ; but let him speak for himself :
 
 INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 " Hardly have I thought, for a few moments in my life, 
 of my personal fame ; yet I have never failed to feel how 
 it implores in the heart and in the senses. I was ignorant 
 of what it was that I felt, but that voice made itself heard 
 on all occasions ; I felt a gnawing worm when a suspicion of 
 shame occurred to me, and I could not be consoled if I had 
 nothing of good with which to answer that suspicion. I 
 have taken too little care of this; occupymg myself too 
 much with the bulk of my objects, which are always virtu- 
 ous. In this way it happened that I was not in the dangers 
 of the battle of Fontenoy, and that I arrived only in time 
 to witness the victory ; for I had gone to the camp, three 
 leagues from the battle, the evening before to work at 
 my despatches, which I had not attended to for three days. 
 Thousands of other things have distracted me in the same 
 way at Court." 
 
 In ceasing to be a statesman and possible minister, 
 d'Argenson turned, more and more, to ideas of social reform 
 and pure philanthropy. He was not ill-disposed to Louis 
 XV. ; he had augured better of that prince in his youth, 
 and had believed for a moment that he would make a good 
 king; at the time that Mme. de Mailly was the favourite 
 mistress (December, 1738) it seemed to him that she had 
 only a limited influence, that the king would not yield 
 to her much, " and that, like Henri IV., he loved the affairs 
 of his State more than those of his mistress. Louis XV.," 
 he adds, " through laziness and too much apathy, will never 
 work much for his State, but what he does will be good, 
 shrewd, and profound." This favourable augury, justified 
 perhaps by the good judgment of the king, was balked later 
 by his abandonment and extinction of will, in which lay his 
 great vice. D'Argenson has written some strong pages 
 upon Cromwell, in which, while recognizing his qualities,
 
 32 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 he sets himself to blast his hypocrisy, his machiavelianism, 
 and camiot bring himself to even allow the services that he 
 rendered to his country. " Men," he says, " are under no 
 obligation to him ; no man has ever hated humanity and 
 gratuitous virtue more than he." Among such pages as 
 these, which are very fine and deserve to be read as they 
 are, he drops at times into judgments of mere good-nature. 
 He shows himself as very favourable to the great Frederick ; 
 not only does he admire his writings, but he even admires 
 the apology for his policy. " What a man ! what a great 
 man !" he exclaims, " and with it all he is a philosopher and 
 loves humanity." He takes, without objection, the Philoso- 
 pher of Sans Souci for what he gives himself out to be. 
 
 The judgments and testimonies of d'Argenson on the 
 writers whom he had known and the books he had read are 
 more trustworthy, and of much value to my eyes. On 
 Voltaire, for example, he is more to be listened to than any 
 other. Voltaire was his comrade in college ; he enjoyed 
 him keenly and admired him; when a minister, he did 
 everything to employ him, to bring him before the world 
 and give him value. Voltaire's correspondence with him is 
 full of warmth and interest, and respectful intimacy. To 
 be just, one ought to gather together the numerous articles 
 by d'Argenson in which there is mention of Voltaire, for 
 they complete and correct one another. He makes to him- 
 self no illusion on the eminent man whom he admires ; he 
 qualifies distinctly his faults of character and conduct, and 
 he even uses on this subject words so bald at times that one 
 does not like to echo them at this distance. 
 
 D'Argenson knew and read Montesquieu. What did he 
 think of him ? Very nearly what M. de Tracy thinks of 
 him in the present day. There is in Montesquieu a side of 
 art to which d'Argenson was little sensitive ; on the other
 
 INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 hand, he was much shocked by the rash and too general con- 
 jectures, the incomplete arguments, which never go to a 
 conclusion ; he did not sufficiently consider the historical 
 element, which Montesquieu respected at every turn and 
 brought into relief with such brilliancy — which led 
 d'Argenson to say, after a second reading of the " Considera- 
 tions on the Grandeur and Decadence of the Komans " : — 
 
 " September, 1754. Read for the second time. Famous 
 work of this famous author. He began with the ' Lettres 
 Persanes'; he advanced fi'om that book, and crowned his 
 work by the ' Esprit des Lois.' The chapters are very- 
 unequal. Some are of great superiority. This author is a 
 man of strong imagination, and his judgment comes only in 
 consequence of his mind. Therefore, we find great steps 
 forward in politics, but some that are retrograde and must 
 not be followed. His expression forms a large part of his 
 genius. Magna sonaturus, parva facturus ; nobilis fama, 
 illustris cantator vis (or rei) politicce." 
 
 I am not quite sure that I understand him ; but it seems 
 to me that he makes Montesquieu a virtuoso in politics. 
 
 He himself meditated a great work, of which we have the 
 materials ; the title was to be : " The Laws of Society in 
 their Natural Order." He blames the moderns for knowing 
 only " practical politics," and for not having even an idea of 
 " philosophical politics " ; that science, he says, which has 
 for its principal object to subordinate men to one another, 
 to civilize them and render them happy. The only master 
 whom he knew in that political science was the Abb^ de 
 Saint-Pierre, whom he admu-es without reserve, except as 
 to form, and whose only misfortune, to his mind, was in 
 not being pleasantly eloquent : " What terms fantastically 
 placed ! what minutiie fill his mind on the road to the 
 grand, making him ridiculous ! and ridicule disgusts our
 
 34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 charming country with good." But he declares that "his 
 projects are all good. At first sight we reject them, but, on 
 going to their depths, we find there is not one that is not 
 safe and founded on the only true principles." Such is — 
 to offer it without disguise — the veritable thought of the 
 Marquis d'Argenson. He bore within him the whole of '89, 
 and something beyond it. 
 
 If I could quote a greater number of his judgments 
 I would give them, not as true, but as his, and on 
 that account almost always remarkable. He said of 
 Montaigne : — 
 
 " Montaigne is better if only quoted ; we find fewer graces 
 in him if read consecutively. His passages are more pleas- 
 ing than his treatises ; and his grace is above his authority. 
 More profound than sublime, he is the best moral philoso- 
 pher that we have in France." 
 
 He says of the Mardchal de Saxe, under the head of 
 " Genius, Mind " : — 
 
 " One has never so fully recognized the effects of mind 
 and of genius as in the case of Mardchal de Saxe ; he had 
 not the mind for war, but he had the genius of it ; he 
 debated little, he debated ill; but he seized the good and 
 the great ; feeble in reasons, strong in conviction. Such are 
 great artists, usually bad workers under masters. Genius is 
 much nearer to instinct than to mind ; nevertheless, it is 
 far above mind." 
 
 He has his favourite authors. To some he grants too 
 much, to others too little. His literary judgments, properly 
 speaking, are not always very delicate. Mme, de S^vign^ 
 is judged severely and with some disdain, which she shares 
 with her sex. He contrasts her with Saint-Evrdmond and 
 La Eochefoucauld, " who had a force of genius which made 
 them say great things amid their antitheses; whereas,"
 
 INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 he adds, " women only chiffonncnt, and their levity degene- 
 rates into frivolity, no matter how much judgment, intelli- 
 gence, and good taste they may have." He has read her 
 letters once with some pleasure ; but had " promised himself 
 not to read her again." 
 
 As for Saiiit-Evr(5mond, he has better things to say, 
 having very particular reasons for liking him. 
 
 " He is my favourite author. He is a philosopher of good 
 company. They say he writes hi a rather precieux style ; 
 but his antitheses express great things — like Balzac ; 
 magna sonaturus. What variety ! what lofty and excellent 
 objects tilled that brain untU extreme old age ! Happy 
 man ! great man ! And with it all, the senses served him 
 well; he has enjoyed the highest delights of life and of 
 humanity." 
 
 Beside Saint-Evr^mond in his taste and his esteem he 
 does, nevertheless, j^lace a woman, Mme. de Staal-Delaunay, 
 whose Memoirs, then just published (1755), delighted him. 
 " She writes better than Mme. de S^vign^," he says ; " less 
 imagination, more wisdom, more sentiment, more truth." 
 If we reflect upon it, we shall find that all these judgments 
 harmonize and hold together; they are those of the one 
 man. 
 
 Wliat pleases me in these manuscript " Remarks in 
 Eeading " ^ (which would allow of a very agreeable volume 
 tliat would charm the reader if selected with judgment and 
 discretion) is their natural frankness, and also the manner in 
 which they are said. D'Argenson dares to be himself with- 
 out fear of ridicule, and to speak as he likes, without any 
 
 ^ These "Remarks in reading;," {R^)iiarc/iies en lisrnil) are still unpul)- 
 lished manuscripts in tlie Library of tlie Louvre. Tlie quotations given 
 in this Introduction will not bo found in the text of the "Journal ami 
 Memoirs." — Tr.
 
 36 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of that " petty circumspection " which in France, he says, 
 "tops the heads off all our personages." As for his style, 
 he defines it himself when he remarks that he likes an 
 "entering style, as wine-merchants call an entering wine 
 that which makes itself drunk of itself." Noble or not, I 
 accept his image. His style makes itself read, and has 
 flavour. He says, for instance, in a lively manner which 
 communicates itself: — 
 
 " I have sought to know why I love * Don Quixote ' and 
 to re-read him a score of times in my life, as I have done 
 several other novels ; it is that I love the manners and morals 
 there depicted. I live with the good people in reading 
 them; being novels of manners and customs, the authors 
 paint the manners and customs of their time, and not those 
 of the days when heroes lived. Mile, de Scuddry, in * Cyrus,' 
 paints the manners and the ideas of the hotels de Longue- 
 ville and de Rambouillet. I like those times much ; I would 
 like to have lived in them ; I like alcoves and balustrades ; 
 I collect the drawings of Berain and Mellan. In ' Don Quix- 
 ote ' I find the Spanish manners and morals of the good old 
 times, of the reasonable days of Spain. In comedies I like 
 pictures of manners, just as in drawings or engravings I like 
 the fashion of things. It is not art, nor the difhculty sur- 
 mounted that I seek and admire. My mind has little curi- 
 osity about other minds, but my imagination loves images, 
 and happiness flows from them to me through the senses." 
 
 I cannot omit to say a word about the book called " Con- 
 siderations on the Government of France," which is always 
 cited in speaking of the Marquis d'Argenson. The work 
 does honour to him, inasmuch as it presents the moderate 
 and practical side of his political opinions. The true title 
 and idea of the work was : " How far Democracy can be ad- 
 mitted into Monarchical Government," D'Argenson con-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 ceived the idea of his work in opposition to that of M. de 
 Boulainvilliers, which was wholly in favour of feudality and 
 the noblesse. D'Argenson, who was more an adversary of 
 the noUesse, though his own nobility was good, did not enter 
 into the laments he heard around him. " These gentlemen," 
 he said, " who complain of their rank not being sufficiently 
 supplied with the gifts of fortune, are nothing but poor pond 
 pike who have not enough carp to eat ; no, none are to be 
 pitied but those who lack necessities," 
 
 D'Argenson loved both royalty and the people ; he wanted 
 the good of the public, without, for all that, being a republi- 
 can. " Eepublics have no head ; monarchies will soon have 
 no arms, for the head enervates them. Wliat are we to do ? " 
 he asks himself. He thought that the abuses and evils of 
 the old regime came because it failed to exact that France 
 should be raised " not from beneath her kings, God forbid ! 
 but from beneath an odious aristocracy — not an aristocracy 
 of nobles who think nobly, but a satrapy of officials of all 
 kinds,^ who have put all things into forms, bad regulations, 
 mischievous principles, and ruin." He therefore tliought that 
 " to govern better, it was necessary to govern less," and to 
 organize the monarchy itself by the help of an enlightened 
 democracy, well divided, not dangerous ; that is to say, by a 
 county and municipal system. He forms a detailed plan for 
 this ; attempting in a way to incite to a second establish- 
 ment of commu7ies, as the dhect benefit of royalty. This 
 book would not be unworthy of publication, if placed in 
 a collection of the principal original publicists of the eigh- 
 teenth century. In that case, recourse must be had to the 
 
 1 " Satrapie de roture ; " roture means ordinarily persons of plebeian 
 wealth ; but used by d'Argenson in this connection, it applies to the vast 
 body of office-holders (nobles and others) who, from Louis XIV.'s time 
 down, fattened on the country. — Tk.
 
 38 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 manuscript of the Louvi-e, for as to the two editions of 1764 
 and 1784, the first is riddled with blunders that destroy the 
 meaning ; and the second has undergone the arbitrary cor- 
 rections and softenings of his relative. 
 
 Eighteen months before his death, d'Argenson, who died 
 at sixty -two years of age and was still full of health and vig- 
 our, expected a long old age ; he foretold it indirectly in a por- 
 trait entitled, Tastes of an Old Philosopher, written in June 
 or July, 1755. It is the last aspect under which we see this 
 original man, who has written so much and made so many 
 confidences about himself and his times ; who presents to us 
 in his person such a mixture of the virtuous, the heartfelt, 
 the sensible, the singular, the naive, and even the coarse, and 
 who is so well fitted to call for the study and the explana- 
 tion of more than one moralist. The matter is rich, the 
 mine is deep; I have done no more than reconnoitre it and 
 sound it in a few places. 
 
 I wished, before ending my inquiries, to see the portraits 
 of the Marquis d'Argenson and his brother which are in the 
 Cabinet of Engi-avings. The face of the elder is sad, rather 
 stern, reflective, the lips tighter than I should have expected ; 
 the idea of the kindliness which he really had does not ap- 
 pear. The face of his brother, who resembles him in the 
 nose and chin, is, on the contrary, smiling, agieeable, and the 
 lips are kind.
 
 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 
 
 The " Journal et M^moires du Marquis d'Argenson " was 
 first published by his great-grand-nephew, the Marquis Een^ 
 d'Argenson, in 1825. In 1855 Sainte-Beuve, studying the 
 original manuscript of the d'Argenson papers preserved in 
 the Library of the Louvi-e, discovered that the edition of 1825 
 had been altered, and even garbled, apparently to suit the 
 wishes of the family. In writing his articles on d'Argenson 
 for the " Causeries du Lundi " he stated this fact and proved 
 it. On which the Marquis Eend d'Argenson re-published 
 his edition [Paris. Jannet. 1857-1858J. This, of course, 
 produced a controversy which has no longer any interest 
 for the reader. 
 
 Meantime the " Soci^t^ de I'Histoire de France " had 
 taken up the matter, and, with permission and approval of 
 the Director of the Library, had employed M. E. J. B. 
 Eathery to prepare a correct edition from the autograph 
 manuscripts preserved in the Louvi-e. This edition was 
 published by the " Socidt^ de I'Histoire de France " in 1859, 
 and from it the present translation has been abridged. 
 
 The title " Journal and Memoirs " gives a rather incor- 
 rect idea of the work. It is not a journal, neither is it 
 a memoir in the usual English meaning of the word, namely : 
 a record of the events of a life. It is a collection of Notes 
 and Memoranda, written down occasionally in connection 
 with the events of the date given, but more frequentl}' as 
 the reflections of a man in his study on the men and topics
 
 40 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. 
 
 that filled his mind. They were not, it should be remem- 
 bered, prepared for publication by the writer ; he left them 
 as he wrote them ; jotted down as the thoughts came to him, 
 without any effort to give them form. This being so, there 
 is, naturally, much repetition and much that is of little 
 interest at the present day. The following translation, 
 though abridged, presents all, or nearly all that readers, 
 unless they are historical students, would care for. 
 
 These notes and reflections give an invaluable picture, not 
 elsewhere to be found, of the dull corruption, political and 
 social, of the first forty years of that sixty years' reign — the 
 wonder is that Louis XV. was allowed to reign so long and 
 that Louis XVL ever came to the throne. These notes are 
 the thoughts of an honest many closely connected with the 
 government, seeing that corruption clearly and prophesying 
 a coming revolution; not in the violent form in which it 
 came, but " the crumbling of the nation at its foundations, 
 and falling, so to speak, in pieces." As to the man himself, 
 nothing can be added to Sainte-Beuve's admirable analysis 
 of him.
 
 JOURNAL AND xMEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 
 
 I. 
 
 1694—1732. 
 
 If what I write is destined to be read by my posterity 
 I am not sorry that it should know the beginnings of my 
 father's fortune. 
 
 He was born in Venice, and had the republic for god- 
 mother, and the Prince de Soubise, who was then travelling 
 in Italy, for godfather. I have an original letter from 
 Balzac in wliich he prophesies a great career for " the little 
 Venetian." ^ Certainly there was not much appearance of it 
 when my grandfather retired to his estates, and even after 
 he had paid his debts. He made my father an allowance of 
 five hundred livres annually for his maintenance and for all 
 expenses. Sometimes my father came to Paris with his 
 money, and put what he intended for his stay there on a 
 bassette card ; and when it was lost, he retm-ned the next 
 day. 
 
 My father was for some years deputy to the attorney- 
 general ; but he had to give it up or support himself in 
 
 1 His father, the writer's grandfather, Rene' de Voyer d'Argenson, was 
 ambassador to Venice at the time. He ruined himself during that em- 
 bassy, and withdrew to his estates in 1628, when thirty-two years of 
 
 age. — Fr. Ed. ,j 
 
 Ver. 2 — 4 Mem.
 
 42 JOUKNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 Paris, and lie quitted that line. He returned to Touraine 
 to find something to do. He wanted to serve in the army ; 
 they boggled about it ; he grew too old (though still young) 
 to make a beginning. There was question of his marrying 
 Mile, de Paulmy, afterwards Comtesse de La Rivifere; he 
 might in that way have had the Paulmy estates, but she 
 was not yet the heiress of them, her brother being alive; 
 he did not die till after the marriage of his sister with 
 M. de La Ei\i^re. In this marriage my father feared the 
 education of a yoimg lady brought up at Court near Madame 
 la Duchesse ; this was serious ; besides which, the mother, 
 the Comtesse d'Usfes, was a cruel creature, who died at 
 a great age, in litigation against her whole family. In short, 
 my father had no liking for the family. 
 
 He found resources on the maternal side; my grand- 
 mother was an heiress of the old magistracy of Angoumois. 
 Her father, M. Houlier, still lived and was lieutenant-general 
 of the bailiwick of Angouleme. My grandmother had as 
 much as four hundred thousand livres in marriage, a great 
 dot in those days. My grandfather squandered part of it ; 
 his wife signed pledges for him ; but there still remained 
 funds which were not touched. M. Houlier proposed to resign 
 his office to my father ; it shocked a man like my father to 
 be lieutenant-general of a bailiwick, though it was one of 
 the finest jurisdictions in the kingdom ; but he had passed 
 the age for the army, and the place offered him a subsist- 
 ence and an occupation. 
 
 Though he was not really an ambitious man, the devil 
 had pricked him without his knowing it ; he went natm-ally 
 along the path to action without thinking to act ; when 
 a taste for trifles lessens in such minds, they begin to 
 weary of all that is not the direct road to fortune. The 
 means he took were to make himself very capable and to
 
 1694-17S2] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 43 
 
 practise at hard work. He had what is called the working 
 spirit. I have proofs of his labour : remarks on his reading ; 
 dissertations on gi-eat and political topics; historical ex- 
 cerpts ; studies on public and individual law. I have 
 volumes of such work. Of what good could all that he 
 to a poor country gentleman, or a mere provincial judge ? 
 But the office was a magistracy. If it was not pointing his 
 nose to the fortune his inclinations promised him, it was 
 certainly not turning his back upon it. 
 
 In other ways he was a lively fellow, of good health, 
 given to all pleasures without intemperance or obscenity; 
 the best society in the province sought him; he drank 
 much without being the worse for it ; had relations with all 
 the women he could, snub nose or aquiline, fat or thin; 
 secular or in convents (with rather more liking for the 
 latter) ; said many a witty thing at table, and was thought 
 the best company in the world. His was a vigorous mind, 
 a courageous mind, with a heart almost as courageous ; 
 extreme accuracy, with wide extent ; he did not know him- 
 self all that he had of genius and eminence; and towards 
 the end of his life he had taken a habit of restricting and 
 undervaluing both. 
 
 However, here he was at Angouleme, more abundantly 
 and honourably provided for than he could have expected. 
 M. Houlier died. He had a house in the town and one in 
 the country, which my giandmother lent him. It is called 
 " La Poyade," on the banks of the Charente ; they say it is 
 a charming place ; his office gave him a respectable income. 
 He lived only tolerably well with some of his neighbours ; 
 silly provincials who sucked their pride. My father took 
 cavalier manners with them ; he hurried over forms in order 
 to get at once at essentials and the grandeur of the law ; 
 he reconciled lawsuits ; he spared judge's fees ; he did all
 
 44 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 the good he could to the human species. That is enough to 
 excite base souls and mercenary against their superior, mak- 
 ing pretext of rules, that is to say, forms, and claiming the 
 rights of their offices. They complained, among other things, 
 that my father brought a big dog, a good deal like mine now- 
 dead, named Calot, into the court-room by the collar. 
 
 This was the beginning of my father's fortune ; a rise that 
 he certainly owed only to himself, to his labour, and to his 
 talent for government ; merits which were employed as soon 
 as they were known by great persons. In 1691 or 1692, 
 they sent into the provinces a "king's commission for the 
 reforming of legal abuses in the provinces." One of the com- 
 missioners was my future uncle, M. de Caumartin. WTien 
 the commission came to Angouleme the members were 
 struck with the merits of the lieutenant-general ; he seemed 
 to them very eminent in public affairs and the first of men 
 in his capacity as a man of good company ; they recognized 
 his virtues and his courage. M. de Caumartin piqued him- 
 self on his genealogical knowledge ; he knew that our birth 
 was one of the most ancient in France, the first in Touraine, 
 so that my ancestors were almost always found command- 
 ing at the head of the warrior noblesse of Touraine, con- 
 cerned in our ancient alliances, and employed at Court 
 and on embassies, etc. 
 
 So M. de Caumartin was captivated by my father. He 
 was. an ally and favourite of M. de Pontchartrain and en- 
 trusted with the chief affairs of finance. He urged my father 
 to go to Paris; all the other commissioners joined him; 
 there was but one voice; sincere offers of services. My 
 father refused the temptation; he did not see daylight on 
 account of his want of fortune, and he hated chimeras, 
 Nevertheless, at the end of a few months he was obliged to 
 go to Paris, and there they kept him. The occasion of his
 
 1694-1732J THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 45 
 
 going was a suit against him by his company, on which he 
 wanted a ruling by the council. I had occasion in an affair 
 for which I was commissioner in 1725 to see this ruling 
 which served as precedent for a like affair ; it turned very 
 much to my father's advantage. M. de Caumartin brought 
 about a great intercom-se and friendship between my father 
 and M. de Pontchartrain, at that time controller-general and 
 afterwards chancellor of France. He used to say to people : 
 " Do you know what that M. d'Ai-genson is ? He is a man 
 who will get to everything in the end, and ought to be made 
 administrator of Languedoc now." 
 
 This opinion, justly formed and taken to the king soon 
 bore fruit. They began by giving him certain lucrative but 
 very laborious commissions ; that of reforming the admiral- 
 ties, the regulations of the navy, the council of prizes. In 
 all these affairs of the navy he made himself so capable in a 
 short time that M. de Pontchartrain (the one-eyed one), being 
 promised the survivance of his father as secretary of State, 
 was sent to my father to be instructed. After this my 
 father was given the commission of attorney -general for the 
 investigation of franc-fiefs and sinking-funds ; there he did 
 incredible labour and recovered many millions for the king, 
 obtaining for himself respect and praise for his justice from 
 those he investigated. A reasonable salary was attached to 
 this commission, so that, being now able to subsist in Paris, 
 he resigned his office in Angouleme. M. de Caumartin 
 wished him to marry my mother, and M. de Pontchartrain 
 facilitated the means. They told my mother that hunger 
 and thirst were marrying; she had but thirty thousand 
 crowns ; her courage inspired her with hope ; she believed 
 that my father's merit would carry him farther than all her 
 brothers-in-law who, in the end, were only too happy to have 
 him for patron.
 
 46 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, i. 
 
 My father was thirty-nine years old when he began to be 
 thus employed in Paris. He was ugly, with an intelligent 
 countenance, and was very well made ; my mother wanted 
 him, such as he was. But it was now a question of getting a 
 position ; he wished for that of master of petitions ; he did not 
 know how to set about it, and the marriage took place with- 
 out his bemg well assured on that point. However, the 
 lucky star so willed that the office of master of petitions be- 
 came extremely cheap about this time. A M. Fernd lent 
 my father the necessary money, without interest, for the pur- 
 chase. This M. Fern^ was receiver of taxes at Angouleme 
 and had a great passion for my father. He was willing to 
 risk his property to help him with all he needed. Afterwards 
 my father made M. Feme's fortune, and put him in all the 
 business he could ; he is a man of great property now, and he 
 and his children have always been much attached to us. 
 My father also picked up some means on collateral sides. His 
 uncle, the Abbd d'Argenson, gave him his property, charging 
 his pension upon it. His other uncle, the Vicomte dArgen- 
 son, in view of his marriage, gave him or secured to him, among 
 other things, the house in Paris, Vieille rue du Temple, where 
 my father went to live in 1696. Also, there came to him 
 little by little, some property from the maternal side, with 
 which he made his purchases of land about Argenson. With 
 all this my father established himself, took wife and office. 
 Shortly after, it was a question of giving him the intendancy 
 of Metz, but, just then, they preferred to put him in charge 
 of the police of Paris, M. de La Reynie having retired. It 
 is well known how he acquitted himself of that duty; I 
 refer, as to that, to the eulogy made upon him by M. de 
 Fontenelle before the Academy of Sciences in 1722. 
 
 In that office my father was virtually a minister, for he 
 worked directly with the king and was in constant com-
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 47 
 
 munication with the great monarch. It was a question a 
 dozen times of raising him to the ministry; the intrigues 
 at Court, the league of the ministers excluded him, always 
 on the same pretext, namely : there was no one to replace 
 him in the police of Paris in times so difficult as during the 
 late war. He was believed to be strongly in favour of the 
 Jesuits; a mistaken opinion. As he knew them and their 
 designs he did not esteem them, and did but little for them ; 
 that Order are not fond of those who work for them only 
 half-way. My father also stood only moderately well with 
 Mme. de Maintenon ; she esteemed him, but there was little 
 connection between them ; he was attached by rectitude to 
 the master ; all the ministers feared him ; the courtiers ex- 
 cluded him the more because he showed he could do without 
 them. 
 
 [1709.] At the close of the year 1709 I was sent to school 
 with my brother ; we were then such big fellows, that is to 
 say, so advanced in life, that without being born rakes we 
 had become so ; for we imitate, from age to age, the period 
 just above us ; little boys tread on the heels of youth, just 
 as youths advauced for their years counterfeit men of im- 
 portance. My mother was kind, indulgent, and had some 
 taste ; our way of living did not deter her from letting us 
 follow our own habits. I frequented theatres, assemblies, 
 women ; I made acquaintances, I went to taverns and other 
 places when I was with men in society ; I imagined that 
 I too was a man of the world. 
 
 I do not know why my father took it into his head to give 
 us for tutor one of the silliest men I have ever known ; his 
 name was Andoche Gaillardet. He was crazy, imbecile, ig- 
 norant, a libertine and a hypocrite ; he reported everything 
 to my father, and that was his only weapon to control us. 
 We soon shook off the yoke of what authority he possessed
 
 48 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 of his own. As control must be founded on justice (say the 
 authors of public law) and as he had missed that point through 
 his ungovernable temper, I was the first to think of resisting 
 and destroying him'. The simplest discoveries are the finest. 
 This man took pleasure in mortifying us on our tender 
 points ; he had seized at once on that refinement of tyrants. 
 Having noticed that I loved drawing and collected prints 
 and sketches, some of my own, some of other people, and 
 that I kept them all in careful order in my portfolio and 
 took pleasure in them, once when I had committed a great 
 fault he tore up some of my dear drawings ; that punished 
 me much ; but afterwards his temper led him to do the same 
 out of mere caprice, for trifling faults, or what his bile made 
 him think faults ; he continued the same punishment ; and 
 through that he was dethroned. Feeling that justice was 
 on my side, despising such an executioner and inspired by 
 vengeance, once when he laid violent hands on my desk, 
 I rammed my hat upon my head, prepared for combat by 
 showing him my two fists, and said to him : " Come on, son 
 of a dog ! I '11 receive you as you deserve." I was strong ; 
 he dared not commit himself ; and after that he never ven- 
 tured to threaten me with himself, only with my father. 
 
 We went to school, my brother and I, like men of the 
 world h honnes fortunes, if you please, and were deprived of 
 our divinity and reduced to the humiliating state of becom- 
 ing schoolboys. I was much ashamed of it ; I shut myself 
 up in retreat, and lost a number of acquaintances. At that 
 time I was much allied in friendship with M. de Fronsac, 
 afterwards Due de Richelieu. When I entered school he 
 was just about to establish himself at Versailles, marry, and 
 get himself put in the Bastille for causing jealousy to the 
 Due de Bourgogne; and yet he was only two years older 
 than I. I was also intimate with M. de Melun, the Prince
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 49 
 
 d'Epinoy, killed afterwards by a stag, the Comte de Bavifere, 
 the Prince de Soubise, etc. Some time after I went to 
 school, there was a little tragedy played there by the 
 younger boys, to some of whom the latter was related. 
 I was in the amphitheatre hi my robe, sitting on a 
 wooden bench, and when he spied me I turned my back 
 upon him. I saw in that way certain women of my 
 acquaintance with whom I had been familiar ; what hu- 
 miliation ! But we got out of school sometimes, and then 
 I put all my money into appearing decently and re-establish- 
 ing myself in fine airs, at theatres, promenades, and private 
 houses. If I have ever been guilty of imprudent outlays it 
 was then, to satisfy my little ambition which, not costly in 
 itself, was much out of proportion with the monthly stipend 
 given to a schoolboy. But any one who had treated me as 
 a schoolboy at such times would have found me mutinous. 
 Why should we sneer at such ambition ? Is n't it the 
 very foundation on which that of conquerors is built ? A 
 king wants to seem a hero, and a hero to pass for a god. 
 Nevertheless, I was whipped, or as good as that, in my 
 second year of rhetoric, 1711. The Comte de Boufflers, 
 my friend, who had received the government of Flanders 
 and the colonelcy of his regiment in survivance to his father, 
 being in the class with me was whipped for the same fault ; 
 we had plotted together a sort of revolt against Pfere Lega}-, 
 our head-master ; we fired peas at him through a squirt ; it 
 made a great uproar. The Mar^chal de Bou filers complained 
 to the king, and withdrew his son from college. The poor 
 fellow was mortally hurt; some months later he took the 
 small-pox and died. I shall never forget the character of 
 that lad. He had an unbounded ambition, and means never 
 failed him to obtam all and everything m his little sphere 
 of college life ; he beguiled whom he would, and put them
 
 50 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 on his side in good and evil ; so that in his ideas and his 
 intrigues he had persons of all kinds attached to him, con- 
 fidants, trumpeters, aiders and abettors, ruffians. But with 
 it all, he had great intelligence in his studies ; he carried off 
 all the prizes. He had more esteem than affection for me, 
 and I had more affection than esteem for him. 
 
 [1718.] My late father conducted the affairs of his office 
 with such secrecy that this is what happened to me on one 
 occasion. I came in after supper, at one o'clock ; the porter 
 told me that the lieutenant-general of police desired to see 
 me ; he directed me to write fifteen circular letters from his 
 notes to just so many intendants, and not to go to bed until 
 they were written ; my brother had already done his task, 
 which was the same, and had gone to bed by my father's 
 order. I took coffee and got to bed at four o'clock. The 
 matter concerned an increase of the currency which sur- 
 prised every one, as there had been a rumour of diminishing 
 it. The next day it was made public, but our letters were 
 already sent by couriers. No clerks could be trusted; we 
 ourselves, my brother and I, being little peculating, went to 
 sleep upon it, so that nothing transpired through us ; in such 
 matters the petty interest of some one usually leads him to 
 divulge the secret. 
 
 I shall never forget what my late father said to me the 
 first time that he admitted me to argue with him on the ac- 
 tions that parliament was then taking against the royal 
 authority ; I was counsellor to parliament at the time and 
 he was Keeper of the Seals and president of the council of 
 finance. To all that I related to him of the reasons, argu- 
 ments, and temper of parliament he merely answered : " My 
 son, has your parliament troops ? We have fifty thousand 
 men ; the matter reduces itself to that." There's the speech 
 of a great man !
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 51 
 
 [1720.] We cannot, in my family, define ourselves other- 
 wise than as foUows : Iieart excellent ; mind less good than 
 the heart ; the tongue worst of all ; but as for the latter, it is 
 only a habit. My sister, more than my brother or myself, 
 is made in that way. 
 
 I never played but once at hiribi ; I swore, and I have 
 kept to it, to play but that once. It may be tliought that I 
 lost ; no, much the reverse ; I won two hundred and fifty 
 louis, I who am no gambler. I said : " Here are all the little 
 losses I ever made paid back and more than paid. I cannot 
 blame myself for wasting anything on cards." 1 had gone 
 to Lille, and went in the evening to see M. de Tingri ; they 
 were just beginning a game of hiribi ; the banker was losing 
 his time and getting impatient for want of players ; I took a 
 hand in that ill-famed game out of courtesy and deference. 
 It was a bait that enticed me, that game, for I won with 
 marvellous rapidity two hundred and fifty louis. I won six- 
 teen ylcins running, which they said had never been done 
 before. Then I began to lose. I sacrificed fifty louis and put 
 the two hundred on the sword side and got into my carriage, 
 for a number of other players had arrived by that time. 
 
 I was the first who imagined, proposed, and executed the 
 furnishing of grain to the troops to be gi'ound by the sol- 
 diers and made into bread. Since then many have followed 
 my example. \Vlien I arrived at Valenciennes in my inten- 
 dancy of Hainaut, I foimd much disturbance in the garrisons 
 from the excessive dearness caused by the rise of money 
 under the system of Law. I wished to give bread to the 
 garrisons ; the ovens were broken, the commissaries great 
 knaves. Then I bethought me of giving the wheat to the 
 soldiers ; and everybody cried out against my notion ; as 
 they always do at any novelty. The old war commissaries 
 said it was because I was just out of college where I had
 
 52 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 read that the Eomaus gave grain to their legions. I let 
 them talk ; I began to do it. The regent [Due d'Orleans], 
 who had plenty of intelligence and adored novelties, ap- 
 proved of it; then the critics praised me and the soldier 
 blessed me ; he found himself better off, for he now had 
 bread as good as he wanted ; he no longer dreaded the ras- 
 cality of the commissaries ; the bran paid for the grinding, 
 and something was left for drink. 
 
 Since then my invention has been followed, and in the 
 last war they put it in practice as long as the troops were 
 not camped or in line of battle before the enemy. They 
 ought to give me the honour of that invention, which I can 
 easily prove is mine by my letters and memorials under the 
 ministry of M. Leblanc. I ventured, the following year, to 
 set up a customs-duty on the issue of grain. Every one 
 wanted to issue it for sale to foreigners who were in need of 
 it. The granaries were choked with the old wheat that was 
 rotting. I proposed to sell these permits, and they brought 
 us in a useful duty. 
 
 In the same year, 1720, I made all seditions about the 
 dearness of bread (caused by M. Law's changes in the mone^ 
 tary system) cease. I pacified them at a cost of twenty 
 pistoles to the king. I secretly put the wheat in the king's 
 granaries into the market ; I gained two bidders not much 
 below a market price which threatened to show a large in- 
 crease. The whole market held there ; it lowered much at 
 the succeeding market, and all the other markets followed 
 the rate of that of Valenciennes. 
 
 In the same place I proposed a thing, the execution of 
 which was left to my successor; this was to make boat- 
 bridges of wood not yet put together. Two country bridges 
 over the Meuse had to be replaced ; the cost was high ; the 
 boats rotted when laid up. I took my idea from the Dutch,
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGEXSON. 53 
 
 having seen at Saardam logs in store all ready to put to- 
 gether in rafts; and the older these logs grew, the better 
 they were. I made a report about having boats of logs cut, 
 but not put together, and they were beginning to execute 
 the idea when I returned to Paris. 
 
 [1721.] Philippe d'Orl(ians, regent of Prance, was under 
 every possible obligation to my late father. Here are some 
 instances : The prince, having, so they said, caballed in Spain 
 with an eye, as was then supposed, to the crown, the wife, 
 and the person of Philip V., was hastily recalled from his 
 command of the French army. Philip V. sent a Fran- 
 ciscan friar here, who knew all about the conspiracy, and 
 the Prince de Chalais was commissioned by his aunt, Mme. 
 des Ursins, to carry the reports on which the duke was to be 
 interrogated. Louis XIV. intrusted this terrible inquiiy to 
 my father, who rendered a report of it directly to his Majesty. 
 He certainly kept faith with the king as he ought, but he 
 turned his opinion in such a way that nothing was either 
 done or said to the Due d'Orldans. The late king, no doubt, 
 shut up in his own breast the truths he may have discovered ; 
 but in his heart his Majesty had little esteem for his nephew, 
 and so it appeared in his will, by which the late king took 
 from the regent all that he could think of. 
 
 On other occasions — the lit de justice at the Tuileries, 
 the discovery of the conspiracy of Cellamare, and the 
 chamhre ardeiite of Bretagne — the Keeper of the Seals, my 
 late father, saved the regent's authority, his honour, and 
 perhaps his liberty and his life, as every one knows. Un- 
 happily, this safety, procured in so many ways, only served 
 for misuse, of which my father was the first victim, being 
 dismissed rather hastily after the last important services 
 obtained from him. 
 
 The Due de Saint-Simon is one of our enemies, because he
 
 54 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 wished great ill to my father, taxing him with ingratitude ; 
 and here is the reason of that. He claims that he contrib- 
 uted more than any other to put my father in the ministry, 
 and that my father did not do the things he promised him 
 as bonus on the bargain. Now, what were those things ? 
 That little sulker wanted the Due du Maine brought to trial, 
 and his head cut off, and the Due de Saint-Simon was to 
 have the grand-mastership of artillery. Just see the odious, 
 unjust, and anthropophagous nature of that little bigot, with- 
 out genius, full of vanity and never serving, moreover, in 
 any war ! My father seeing that matters were pacified, the 
 bastards reduced, punished, sent to prison or exile, and their 
 whole party unhorsed (which was one of the great perform- 
 ances of his ministry), he did not choose to go further, nor 
 to mix up private interests with the motives for the great 
 blows he had struck. Hence the little duke and his gang 
 wanted mortal harm to my father, and called him ungrate- 
 ful, — as if gratitude, which is a virtue, can be proved by 
 crimes ! 
 
 [December, 1723.] The Due d'Orldans died suddenly at 
 Versailles. I had talked with him the evening before for a 
 long time ; he made me start during the night for Flanders ; 
 as soon as I reached Valenciennes the next day, about eight 
 in the evening, while I was talking with the Prince de 
 Thigri by his fireside, they came and told him there was a 
 courier at the gates of the town who had brought me a 
 package ; it was to tell me of the sudden death of his Eoyal 
 Highness. 
 
 It seemed to me I still saw him arriving, the evening 
 before his death, from I'^fitoile, a little house which the 
 Duchesse d'OrMans had arranged for herself in the midst of 
 the woods of the great park of Versailles. The weather was 
 vile ; the regent had the beginnings of a cold which gave him
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS B'ARGENSON. 55 
 
 a suffocating catarrh which strangled him ; he wore a thick 
 red overcoat and coughed a great deal ; the neck short, the 
 eyes suffused, the whole face puffy ; even his activity of 
 mind seemed oppressed by his bodily organs; he searched 
 for what he wanted to say. He gave me his orders ; told 
 me to start that night, and I talked with him for half an 
 hour ; then he wished me a good journey, and the next day 
 at the same hour, he died. 
 
 [1724.] The king has never yet ^spoken to me but once — 
 I except from that the time he did me honour to ask my 
 opinion at the council, when I was called to tlie council of 
 despatches. This once happened when he had breakfasted 
 and was about to start on a fox chase ; he spoke of the side 
 on which the fox was, and where it might lead him. I 
 thought to join in the conversation, I, who know nothing 
 about hunting, and I said if he hunted a wolf it might take 
 him as far as Maintenon. He looked at me, and said, " Ah ' 
 monsieur, there 's a wide difference between a fox and a 
 wolf." That is all his Majesty has yet said to me ; though 
 my person must be well-known to him, and I give myself 
 much trouble in his service. 
 
 [1725.] I shall never forget the horror of the calamities 
 suffered in France on the arrival of Queen Marie Leczinska. 
 Continual rains had caused a famine, increased by the bad 
 government under M. le Due. That government, no matter 
 what people say, was even more injurious through its want 
 of comprehension than from any selfish views, which did not 
 enter into it as much as people said. The government took 
 very costly pains to bring in foreign wheat ; which only 
 increased alarm and, consequently, dearness. I went that 
 autumn to my own house, at R^veillon in Brie ; and being 
 then only four leagues from Suzanne I went incognito to see 
 the queen, who was to sleep there, arrive. Impossible to
 
 56 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OP [chap. i. 
 
 represent the unheard-of wretchedness of the country; it 
 was harvest-time, and crops of all kinds could not be 
 gathered on account of the continual rains. The poor 
 labourers were eagerly watching for a dry moment at which 
 to reap them. Nevertheless, the land was trodden down for 
 the width of some rods. They had made the peasantry 
 march in line to flatten the roads along which the queen 
 was to pass ; they were only the worse for it ; so that often 
 her Majesty came near being drowned; she was dragged 
 from her carriage by strength of arm as best they could. In 
 several of her lodging places she and her suite floated in 
 water, which was everywhere, and this in spite of the 
 infinite pains taken by a tyi'annical ministry. 
 
 The horses of the equipages were tired out, and all those 
 of the peasantry were requisitioned for a circumference of 
 ten leagues to draw the baggage. The seigneurs and ladies, 
 seeing their own horses in this plight, had taken a fancy 
 to use the miserable animals of the neighbourhood ; they 
 paid for them as they could, and did not feed them. When 
 the requisitioned relays did not appear, these horses, thus 
 seized upon, were made to do double stages. I went to 
 walk after supper, on the large square of Suzanne ; the rain 
 had stopped for a moment ; I spoke to some poor peasants ; 
 they had their horses with them fastened to the back of 
 their carts without feed for the night. Some told me that 
 their animals had eaten nothing for three days. Ten were 
 harnessed in place of four ; judge how many were thus used. 
 Our sub-delegate ordered nineteen hundred horses to be 
 furnished instead of fifteen hundred which were required ; 
 the wise precaution of an officer who feared the service 
 might fail through him. There was much displeasure at 
 M. Lescalopier, intendant of Champagne, where everything 
 was lacking, and the king's guards had neither rations nor
 
 1694-17321 THE MARQUIS D'AKGENSON. 57 
 
 beds. The Due de Noailles refused to allow this intendant 
 to enter the queen's presence to pay his court. 
 
 On the top of all this toil and drudgery came orders to 
 furnish Paris from a circuit of twenty leagues with a certain 
 quantity of wheat, and the unfortunate region of which 
 I speak was within that circumference. There had been 
 dangerous riots in Paris ; bread was dearer than in 1709. 
 The people believed the grain sent to Paris would never 
 be paid for (it was, however, in the end) ; so this in itself 
 was another scourge on the country. The three parishes 
 dependent on my estate were far enough from Paris on 
 one side and from Suzanne on the other to escape these 
 curses, and were not requisitioned for anything. Tlie in- 
 habitants imagined that it was certainly through my influ- 
 ence ; some regard for me may have been in it ; but I was 
 none the better paid for it. 
 
 [1718-1727.] My affairs with Mme. de G . 
 
 I was twenty-three years old. Mme. de G was the 
 
 same age with nearly two months difference. I began an 
 intrigue with her, which lasted only a year, and ended 
 by my journey and mission to Hainaut as intendant. In 
 
 1721 she became a widow. She then took La R , who 
 
 has since married her. She had a touching face, was 
 sincere and full of feeUng, constant, reasonable, and gener- 
 ous ; extremely seductive in a tSte-h-tete with a lover. As 
 women are always more advanced than men, and as she 
 had been married very young, she had, at first, a superiority 
 over me which made me dread her. Suddenly she cast 
 her eyes upon me, more than I on her. I soon saw that 
 I should succeed, and boldness came to me, little by little. 
 After that I loved her much, and I have often regretted our 
 rupture. I met her afterwards as a friend; but siuce her 
 marriage I do not go to her house. Religion had some 
 
 Ver. 2 — 5 Mem.
 
 58 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 share in her marriage. She was extremely touched by the 
 death of Mme. de Prie.^ 
 
 Mme. de Prie was her cousin. She arrived from the 
 embassy to Savoie in the winter of 1719. At this time 
 
 Mme. de G and I were inseparable. Soon she was a 
 
 third between us. Truly the pink of fashion, was Mme. 
 de Prie at that time ; the prettiest face, adorned with even 
 more grace than beauty ; a free mind that went to all 
 things, genius, ambition, and giddy with much wit. We 
 all know how she governed the State for two years. To 
 say that she governed it well is another thing. At heart 
 she was a gi-eat libertine, and so indifferent to vice that 
 she hid without any effort the great number of her love 
 affairs. When she had loved any one she did not cease 
 to retain much friendship for him and to do what she 
 could for his advancement. 
 
 She arrived in Paris ruined by the embassy. It was then 
 a question of how to mend the fortunes of the family, and 
 she succeeded well in doing so. Mmes. de VeiTue and de 
 Saissac delivered her to M. le Due, and the affair was soon 
 concluded. We were, her cousin and I, in the confidence 
 of all, and for a year none of the details were withheld 
 from me. 
 
 When Mme. de G left me and took another on 
 
 account of my absence, M. le Due quarrelled with her for 
 it and scolded her well, for which I was under an obligation 
 to him. Mme. de Prie went to Versailles, where she fixed 
 her abode while the Court was there. I saw her less ; she 
 always looked pleasantly at me, but little by little her 
 grandeur made her less attentive to former friends. Her 
 
 ^ Agnes Berthelot de Pleneuf, married to the Marquis de Prie, ambas- 
 sador at Turin ; afterwards the mistress of M. le Due during the time he 
 was prime-minister. — Fu. Ed.
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 59 
 
 regard for me came in puffs, though violently. She asked me 
 to bring my brother, who was then in favour with the regent, 
 to see her. I presented him and they became friends ; but 
 evil came of it, and quickly. The regent died; ]\I. le 
 Due was prime-minister; Mme. de Prie governed all, and 
 governed ill; my brother was removed from his office. 
 Mme. de Prie took me aside one day at her house and made 
 a thousand complaints against him. She proposed to me to 
 go as ambassador to England. I left my intendancy at 
 Valenciennes, which cost me heavily and was worth little 
 through lack of firmness of the government. This abdication 
 was taken as a want of attachment to M. le Due. 
 
 That prince had always seemed friendly to me before 
 he became prime-minister ; until then he never appeared 
 pompous, but suddenly l)ecame so ; no one approached him , 
 he was possessed of an evil spirit. An opportunity for ad- 
 vancement came to me. M. Begnon died of apoplexy and I 
 asked for the intendancy of Paris. La Prie preferred to act 
 for Haiiay, who got Strasburg, and for d'Angervilliers, who 
 got Paris. She foolishly thought those men would be useful 
 to her ; she was mistaken. As for me, I was good for noth- 
 insT ; I was an old friend who had been enough of an honest 
 man not to wish to profit by her good gi-aces. She had the 
 appearance of great influence ; but M. de Fr^jus held firm and 
 laughed at her. Vexation possessed her ; she gi-ew thin and 
 hideous. I saw her constantly; my judgment and knowl- 
 edge on matters of State were by this time tolerably formed ; 
 I gave her good advice ; she listened, approved, but by that 
 time she was half crazy. She was haughty to every one. 
 I told her the truth about herself when she did nothing 
 to help me to the intendancy of Paris. After that, I only 
 went to her house as a stranger, often unwelcome; when 
 I fomid her alone, we told each other truths.
 
 60 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 Mme. de La Eau . . ., formerly Mme. de G , bears her 
 
 poverty nobly. Her husband has neither bhth, nor prop- 
 erty, nor intelligence; but he has a regiment and pos- 
 sesses certain advantages, they say. I wish her a long 
 life and happiness ; but I have at present better than she, 
 in every way. 
 
 [October, 1727.] Mme. de Prie died, poisoned by her 
 own act; the circumstances were singular. Some time 
 before the overthrow of M. le Due, her dismissal and exile, 
 she began to grow so thin that she was nothing more than 
 a woman's head on a spider's body. WTien she was exiled 
 to Courbepine, her estate, she resolved to poison herself 
 on such a day, at such a hour, in such a month. She an- 
 nounced her death as a prophecy ; nobody believed it ; she 
 seemed gay; and there is no need to say it was affected, 
 because it was her nature to be gay. The fact is she had 
 not strength of mind enough to profit by her misfortimes ; 
 on the contrary, she felt she could not show herself with- 
 out influence and exposed to her enemies after having 
 had so much authority ; and this silly shame made her 
 wish to imitate the example of English people. 
 
 However that may be, she gathered about her at Courbe- 
 pine all pleasures; the Court people came; they danced, 
 they made good cheer, they acted comedies; she herself 
 played in one two days before her voluntary death, and re- 
 cited three hundred verses by heart with as much feeling 
 and spirit as if she were swimming in a lasting contentment. 
 She took for her lover the nephew of the Abb^ d'Amfreville 
 (from whom I learned these circumstances) ; a sensible, in- 
 telligent fellow, young, with some countenance, and, above 
 all, a very civil lad. She predicted to him her death at a 
 fixed time ; he did not believe it, but exhorted her, in case 
 it were true, to give up the cowardly project. Nothing was
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 61 
 
 ever more determined. She gave her lover a diamond not 
 worth five hundred crowns, and sent him, two days before 
 her death to cany to a secret address in Rouen fifty thousand 
 crowns' worth of diamonds. On his return he found her 
 dead at the appointed hour ; but what she had not foreseen 
 were the ten-ible sufferings in which she died, so great that 
 the toes of her feet turned backward. Here, for those who 
 give heed to it, is enough to make one reflect on compacts 
 with the devil, who comes at an hour agreed upon to twist 
 our necks, though witli her it was her legs. 
 
 [1730.] After M. le Due was dismissed. Cardinal de 
 Fleury became prime-minister. M. d'Angervilliers was re- 
 garded as certain to take the place, as minister of war, of M. 
 Leblanc, who was dying. My brother was a close friend of 
 M. d'Angervilliers and took his measures from afar. He 
 even acted as a good brother, a very good brother, to bring 
 my affairs to a favourable point. But what sort of soul has 
 a contemptible fellow coming out of finance and grafted on 
 the Court ! The said d'Angervilliers did us on this occasion 
 one of the worst rascalities 1 have ever known. All was in 
 it ; ingratitude, cheatery, base selfish interests, and treachery. 
 He had many obligations to my brother, both before and 
 after he was minister of war. It is true that my said 
 brother has not the art of attaching to him those whom he 
 serves. His inattention is the chief cause of this ; it makes 
 him accused of lacking principle in friendship. 
 
 D'Angervilliers assured us he would make my affair his 
 own, and would in the first place work briskly and effica- 
 ciously on Cardinal de Fleury. So far from that, do you 
 know what he did ? He did me all the ill-turns he could. 
 This was discovered later, and acknowledged by those who 
 abetted him, but they were not guilty, they were only tools. 
 
 However, I went myself to the cardinal, and got several
 
 62 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [ckap. l 
 
 of my friends to act. I found him very well disposed to 
 give me the intendancy of Lille. On my second conversa- 
 tion with him nothing could be more certain, short of written 
 papers. But d'Angervilliers warned M. Mdliand, my father- 
 in-law, that there was absolute impossibility and total resist- 
 ance on the part of the cardinal for what I wanted, etc. 
 And that is how it ended; for what cannot influence do 
 when once the plank is laid ? 
 
 The bishops have sent to Rome a goodly number of copies 
 of a memorial signed by lawyers ; ^ they scream like eagles ; 
 the upper clergy are getting Romanized. Everything is in 
 furious fermentation in church affairs ; and Rome, they say, 
 is goiQg to make a fine uproar; so the cardinal is worried, 
 and no longer knows what he is about. The king becomes 
 less capable than ever ; the Keeper of the Seals, Chauvelin, 
 burns with ambition, and, yielding to his bad temper, picks 
 quarrels with every one who can tremble under him. Sor- 
 row to him who has anything to fear, or cannot make secure. 
 
 [End of 1730.] To define the Keeper of the Seals, Chau- 
 velin, you must know that there was never in the world an 
 abler man than he for his own affairs, for working them on 
 a grand scale, for making a gi'eat and noble fortune, and get- 
 ting it by the surest methods; but he is in all things the 
 centre of his circle, the final end and aim of all his medita- 
 tions. If he had but a little willingness for his offices, all 
 would go well ; but that will never be. His mind is very 
 just, but not lofty, seeing the end to which he has confined 
 himself in making use of so many means. I have a fancy 
 to speak fundamentally of him and his fortune. 
 
 He hated his elder brother, whose merit was so brilliant 
 
 1 Forty lawyers had signed a " Memorial on the effects of the decrees 
 of Parliament in the matter of the abuse of appeals." This was sup- 
 pressed by order of the Council ; but on a declaration explaining its mean- 
 ing, a new decree was issued accepting the Memorial. — Fr. En.
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 63 
 
 that it dazzled every one. Partly from this hatred, and 
 partly from sound policy, he took the contrary side to the 
 Jesuits, so as to keep his feet if harm came through his 
 brother's intrigues. The brother died ; the younger became 
 a great worker; (|uitted belles-lettres, modish airs, horses, 
 etc., for he laid claim to bonnes fortunes and danced well. 
 He married an heiress. Mile. Desmont^es, tall and well- 
 made, who had had " affairs " ; her father was a merchant at 
 Orleans, and had done well. Chauvelin has made her ex- 
 ternally so exemplary that she is liked and admired at Court ; 
 he applied himself to form her and gave all his time to it ; 
 he never leaves her a step, charged as he is with public busi- 
 ness ; he watches over her in the houses where she sups ; he 
 follows her still, makes her leave off rouge (so that she now 
 has none except at the end of her nose) ; he changes her 
 maids, and her footmen, and makes her waiting-woman 
 render him an account every morning of Madame's clothes ; 
 she is dismissed before Madame awakes ; he will interrupt a 
 State affair to do this ; it is marvellous. 
 
 Now, this Keeper of Seals must be either a very common- 
 place genius, or a very great one, but he certainly meddles 
 with little things when he throws himself into such pettiness ; 
 for do not doubt that he is petty in this ; to seek his own 
 good in this coarse way is to go against his own good ; he 
 will never make himself a great man except as a financier. 
 But a financier has the style of a prince, and not the condi- 
 tion, mind, and manners of a churl. 
 
 He became president of a court of justice through a shrewd 
 intrigue which gave him the office at a bargain. Let us draw 
 a curtain over the means used by the gentlemen of parlia- 
 ment to make themselves useful to the Court ; he who de- 
 sires to be truly agreeable cannot avoid selling his colleagues, 
 and spying upon them, etc. It is certain that our hero ob-
 
 64 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 tained the chief part of his position from his influence at 
 Court. He did the business of several great seigneurs ; he 
 was guardian of the little Due d'Aumont, whose dilapidated 
 affairs he arranged in a wonderful way ; he is an able econo- 
 mist. He wanted to advance himself under the regent; 
 that prince used to say that everything talked Chauvelin 
 to him ; the very stones echoed that tiresome name, for he 
 sent the great lords and all their creatures to him to sing his 
 praises and ask for a ministry. 
 
 The regent died without having done anything for him. 
 The period of M. le Due seemed to him the burning of 
 straw, and he wisely attached himself to M. de Frdjus, after- 
 wards Cardinal de Fleury ; seeing that he had to do so, he did 
 not do it by halves. The cardinal, old, and full of a womanish 
 spirit, is suspicious to excess of attachments shown to him ; 
 a trifle can strand them. The Mardchal d'Uxelles stood by 
 Chauvelin, and this support did the rest. The old mar^chal 
 obtained from the cardinal permission to make a statesman 
 and a personage of him. He taught him the secrets of State, 
 and put him up to the present situation of foreign affairs. 
 He is a great worker by choice, and of surprising assiduity ; 
 and he worked as much before he was in office as after ; as 
 soon as he has dined he goes back to his desk, and stays 
 there till they tell him dessert is served in his wife's room ; 
 for a long time now he has not supped, — another little thing 
 that has the savour of a great man. Take notice of what it 
 is to resemble great men in little ways. 
 
 In office he meddles with nothing apparently, and every- 
 thing in reality ; he has made himself hated by foreigners 
 and the public ; he made the miserable treaty of Seville — 
 miserable, because we do not choose to execute it ; a violent 
 start-out to end in smoke, pistol words, and acts of snow 1 
 And he throws back all those acts of cowardice on the
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 65 
 
 benignity of the cardinal ! Well, well ! he never persuaded 
 him to the slightest virile action. Nothing of good has ever 
 come from him ; not even the management of the library ; all 
 that we have seen of his doing is hard, miserable, dissembling. 
 He boasts of writing everything with his own hand; he 
 cracks his stomach sitting at his desk ; pettiness of genius, 
 breadth of greed ! Wliat he has done well, has been to en- 
 rich himself magnificently. It is a secret of State that the 
 English pay our ministers largely ; perhaps the throne toler- 
 ates a part of this. What principles ! Until the present 
 time he has committed no mistake against his fortune, and I 
 am awaiting the upshot of so tremendous a cleverness, as of 
 a play which is difficult to end off. He makes his way 
 underground like a mole ; he seems apart from the Court ; 
 but he has supporters there all ready to carry him to the 
 pinnacle as soon as the cardinal is retired. They say it is 
 the house of Cond^ to which he has attached himself, and 
 also that shares in the India Company are the instrument. 
 Poor kingdom ! what have you done to God to be thus 
 trampled under foot ? 
 
 [Since wi-iting this, I have known the Keeper of the Seals 
 better, and I find that a great part of the above is false, and 
 that he deserves real praise for his genius, his virtue, and his 
 love for the good of the State.] 
 
 [1731.] The intendant of Aube has just been dismissed, 
 or rather, he dismissed himself, — and intentionally. He is 
 an intractable, self-willed man, of solid integrity and other 
 virtues of that nature. Proud of these said vii'tues, which 
 are rare, he is a great worker, with a systematic mind and 
 ability to use it. Properly, he ought to have neither superi- 
 ors nor inferiors ; as soon as he has dealings with men he 
 becomes unsocial in business ; he lends himself to none of 
 the foibles of the day. But a business once cut out for him.
 
 66 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 and he having bound himself to do it, he does it better than 
 others. In plain French he is a mill of justice and a me- 
 chanical mill-stream, in which he must go according as he is 
 set a-going. They could make no use of him in the inten- 
 dancy of Caen, because he got himself stoned at the outset. 
 He paid no heed to its being inevitable (until better times) 
 that all about the throne should share in unjust favours. He 
 wanted to be a prompt reformer in special details, without 
 considermg that an intendant is not enough of a great sei- 
 gneur for that. He wanted to change the whole of the as- 
 sessment of the arbitrary taxes, especially that of the poll-tax. 
 Those he thus relieved did not thanK him ; they thought, as 
 usual, it was only justice ; and those whose tax he increased 
 uttered such loud cries, wanting to eat him up, that the echo 
 of them besieged both throne and Court. He was thought 
 a bad intendant because he was a good one. At Soissons he 
 did almost the same thing in his department, where he was 
 indignant at the mconveniences of the Picardy Canal and 
 the injustices surrounding that little enterprise for the 
 public good, which has its spring, they say, in the private 
 interest of a great seigneur. So there he was on ill-terms 
 with the Court. 
 
 And yet if I were prime-minister I would like to have 
 thirty intendants of his stamp ; I could do good with disin- 
 terested and active agents like him. The excellence of my 
 system could be made, please God, acceptable to such minds ; 
 and even if their conviction did not concur at once with 
 mine, I could soon obtain it in various ways without dis- 
 pleasing or constraining them; for we can win men of 
 honour by their good foibles better than villains by their 
 multiplied and inextricable vices. 
 
 I who write tliis came near being unhorsed in my intend- 
 ancy ; or at least, I was so disgusted with governing from a
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 67 
 
 town-hall a great city to which I wished to do the greatest 
 good, that I went, being then young, without phlegm or ex- 
 perience and with brutality and offensiveness, against the 
 torrent; I respected little their customs; I did not regard 
 their patrimonial property as belonging to them ; I ill-treated 
 the provost, who was a man of the people, though a rascal. 
 I recognize my mistake. 
 
 About this time [August, 1731] I began to be better known 
 by Cardinal de Fleury and the Keeper of the Seals. Think- 
 ing much of many things concerning the affairs of the day, I 
 had occasion to widen my ideas by several conversations 
 which I had at Versailles with persons enlightened as to 
 matters of Church and State ; so that I ventured to discourse 
 about them with the ministers, and after a while to give 
 them my opinions, which pleased them, and were, assuredly, 
 more praised than they deserved. 
 
 The affair of the Constitution [bull Unigenitus], those of 
 parliament, of the two powers. Church and State, and of the 
 lawyers, were all making a great noise at this time, and cer- 
 tainly the king's authority was ill-maintained; it was in 
 jeopardy, being obeyed in nothing ; and instead of calming 
 minds on certain points, new subjects of dispute were being 
 constantly brought forward. I wrote a memorial on all this, 
 of which I Iv^ep a copy among my compositions. I sent it to 
 Cardinal de Fleury, then at Issy, and going to Versailles the 
 following Sunday I went to see his Eminence. The Keeper of 
 the Seals came out first and gave me a great greeting ; asked 
 me why it was so long since I had come to see him and Mme. 
 Chauvelin, asked me to dinner, and said he wanted to talk 
 with me. I suspected he had read my memorial ; and this 
 greeting was much observed by those present, to whom he 
 did not speak, except to me. Next came the cardinal, on his 
 way to the king ; he saw me m the crowd, drew me apart,
 
 68 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap.i. 
 
 and said these words : " Very good, monsieur, very good ; 
 I have read and reread your paper ; nothing could be better ! 
 you show yourself trained to great and good principles, 
 thoroughly informed, going even to maxims, and keeping 
 in a state to make use of them in whatever posts it may 
 please the king to place you for his service." I answered 
 that I had tried to prove on this occasion that I wished to 
 be useful, and that I had so few opportunities to show it 
 that I had put myself forward where I was not invited. He 
 continued his expressions of approbation, leading me along 
 with him part of his way. All this did not fail to give me 
 a certain air of favour, and several persons said to me, 
 "You seem to be feted in this region." 
 
 The next day I received in Paris a letter from his Emi- 
 nence, which was no doubt signed before he spoke to me ; it 
 contained very flattering things ; I keep it with the copy of 
 my article. A few days later, appeared the declaration 
 of the king commanding absolute silence about the bull 
 Unigenitus ; and the Keeper of the Seals assured me that 
 this order would be enforced rigorously and steadily. I 
 know, beyond all doubt, that in this they followed my 
 memorial, of which this very injunction forms a section, 
 with the reasons I brought to support it. 
 
 [September 23.] The cardinal stopped me as I was leav- 
 ing his coucher, and again spoke, before one of his fiiends, of 
 my memorial, giving me praises that I do not like to repeat, 
 but which allowed me to augur much ; and the person I 
 mentioned, following me into the gallery, added that he 
 knew no man so chary of praise as his Eminence ; and that 
 those he now gave me were significant of much to follow. 
 His Eminence had invited me to dinner on the following 
 day; he was very gay, and often addressed me; to which 
 I answered in a way that ought to have satisfied him with
 
 1694-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 69 
 
 me, for I think I was pretty good company. After dinner 
 the cardinal held circle for so long that some were oljliged 
 to take leave of him ; I to go to the council, the rest for 
 other reasons. I went, after the coimcil, to see the Keeper 
 of the Seals, who invited me to visit him at Grosbois. 
 
 [December, 1731.] It is fully five years since I was brought 
 into a political conference which was excellent; it was 
 called the " Entresol ; " because the first meetings were held 
 at the apartment of the Abb(5 Alary, of the French Academy, 
 at the present time tutor to the king's children. He lived 
 then in the Place Vendome in President Henault's house, 
 where he hired the apartment on the entresol facing the 
 street. [Here follow the names of the members, twenty- 
 three in all ; the Abb^ Alary being the president.] 
 
 We assembled every Saturday, and were, or ought to have 
 been, in our places at 5 o'clock, remaining till 8. Each 
 session of three hours was divided into three parts : I. The 
 reading of my summary of public matters ; answers to 
 questions; searching and interesting conversation on public 
 news ; arguments and political conjectures ; good elucida- 
 tions, furnished usually by our ex-ambassadors. We always 
 had a large atlas on the table to follow intelligently the 
 locality of events. II. Conversation, in which was discussed, 
 without any reserve but with enthe confidence, all that was 
 said in the world on great and important matters. This 
 conversation on general news certainly never languished, 
 being inspu-ed by the train of curiosity into which the pre- 
 ceding exercise had put us; in fact, we had difficulty in 
 ending the conversation to give place to the third part of 
 our session. III. We read, generally in turn, the essays 
 of our academicians on their special topics. It was notice- 
 able that we often came out of our own departments to 
 make little dissertations on a variety of things; this hap-
 
 70 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 pened several times with me. To these works of our own 
 was added the reading of the newest political articles, which 
 each of us strove to be the first to obtam. Also we read 
 letters from foreign coimtries, where we all kept up as much 
 correspondence as we could ; I had some in Italy that was 
 always very sure. 
 
 Having given this general idea of the Entresol, I must 
 also tell the blame that was cast upon it, which led to its 
 breaking up, — a catastrophe not in any way produced by 
 decadence or degeneration, for we were never so prosperous 
 or so in love with our assembly as when it came to an end. 
 
 Everything is tm-ned into ridicale; the whole society of 
 the present day is supercilious ; it is the fashion to despise 
 good things in proportion as they are better than others. 
 It was said that we governed the State ; that we meddled 
 with matters that did not concern us. I never got up in 
 the morning without thinking to myself : " To-day we shall 
 get our ears boxed." I could see myself various things that 
 were real faults. Our president, the Abb^ Alary, made it too 
 much a feather of his cap to have been the founder and 
 head of the assembly ; he spoke of it everywhere ; it enraged 
 me to see how little we hid our joys. I said, " Let us be 
 content within us, and make ourselves forgotten." 
 
 Cardinal de Fleury showed a great liking for the Entresol ; 
 he often spoke of us, and never lost an occasion to inquire 
 about our occupations, the work of each of us, the topics, etc. 
 But the Keeper of the Seals wished us evil on the sly ; he 
 said good of us ; proposed subjects for discussion and ques- 
 tioned us, in imitation of his master the cardinal ; but all 
 the while he was plotting a coiip de Jarnac. 
 
 The Abb^ Alary was appointed tutor to the king's chil- 
 dren ; he accepted the employment with views far removed 
 from ambition. He became in this way a resident of Ver-
 
 1G94-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 71 
 
 sailles, but he made a bargain, which the cardinal announced 
 himself, tliat it should be without prejudice to the Entresol, 
 and that he should have leave every Saturday to come into 
 Paris, hold the Entresol as usual, and return to Versailles 
 on Sunday. 
 
 At Court they now began to set traps for him ; he 
 had enemies jealous of his favour with the cardinal, 
 who suspected him for the Entresol, and the Entresol 
 through him. They said he told among us things that he 
 learned at Versailles; they did us harm by asserting we 
 were dangerous ; so that finally the evil broke forth. At 
 the beginning of the autumn the Abbd Alary arrived one 
 Saturday when only three of us had come. " I am stabbed 
 to the heart," he said. " The cardinal told me yesterda}- that 
 we were meddling with too many things in the Entresol, 
 and that even foreigners were complaining of us." We 
 agreed to keep this speech extremely secret, even from our 
 colleagues who had not yet arrived; I was of opinion 
 that we ought to continue our meetings and keep silent on 
 the things of the day. But the others thought better to 
 interrupt them and take the pretext of the holidays to see 
 which way the wind lay. I avoided, while they lasted, say- 
 ing a word about the Entresol to the cardinal or the Keeper 
 of the Seals, lest they should give me the same intimation. 
 
 During the holidays the Abbd de Saint-Pierre proposed 
 to call a special Entresol to examine political projects. He 
 was already in possession of the right to send his Eminence 
 political memorials on the affairs of the day ; it was thought 
 that the weariness and impatience of the cardmal had 
 spouted upon the Entresol ; but it was not so. It is true 
 that his Eminence had once said to the Abbd Alary : " You 
 have a sad and disastrous politician in your Conference, and 
 that is the Abbd de Saint-Pierre." But the cardinal's dis-
 
 72 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. i. 
 
 pleasure went no farther, for it is certain that he writes to 
 him and reads his memoranda. The Abbd asserts also that 
 a commission is about to be appointed to reform taxa- 
 tion, based upon his memorials. However that may be, 
 here are two letters which the Abbd de Saint-Pierre received 
 from his Eminence — that is to say, the parts of them which 
 relate to the Entresol : — 
 
 " In regard to the assemblies of your Entresol, I cannot 
 conceal from you that so bad a usage is being made of them 
 by the discussion of news at the meetings, that even 
 foreigners complain ; and you must agree that this sort of 
 thing is very pernicious. . . . 
 
 " I see by your letter of yesterday that you propose to 
 treat in your assemblies of political works. As such mat- 
 ters usually lead farther than is intended, it is not suitable 
 that they should be made a topic ; there are plenty of other 
 subjects which cannot have the same consequences and are 
 not less worthy of attention. Therefore, supposing that you 
 judge it desii'able to continue your assemblies, I beg you to 
 pay attention that nothing is spoken of which any ground of 
 complaint can' be made." 
 
 The Abb^ de Saint-Pierre in sending me these letters 
 wrote me that it was plain all political discussion was for- 
 bidden, and he had written to the cardinal that he submitted. 
 
 The ridicule of all this, which I had greatly dreaded, was 
 that the whole Court soon knew that the Entresol had been 
 forbidden ; which drew down much sarcasm on the minister 
 and gave rise to various lampoons against him, which were 
 of no benefit whatever to us. It was said that the Entresol 
 had penetrated the secrets of State ; that for this reason we 
 were suppressed; that we were a living inquisition on the 
 State, etc. The Due de Noailles, who was endeavouring at 
 that time to make acquaintance with me, shrugged his
 
 r. ijojir^ 
 
 t_yfo€r?z.<H^4<yr ^ ^=/y^ 
 
 y,€^c
 
 IC94-1732] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 73 
 
 shoulders very high and asked me many questions as to 
 the cause of this suspension, which I answered as I chose. 
 
 Having to speak to the Keeper of the Seals on certain 
 matters, he drew me on to the subject of the Entresol, and 
 told me his bad reasons. He began by saying that he had 
 mingled very little in the matter, but that the cardmal, etc., 
 etc ; of which I believed nothing, though a man must seem to 
 believe everything when God has called him into this voca-- 
 tion ; what is most annoying on such occasions is that they 
 tell so badly the lie you must seem to believe that they 
 take you for a simpleton. I clubbed him with reasons, as, 
 for example, that nothing had taken place without authority 
 from the government, for he himself, and the cardinal, had 
 talked to us of the Entresol scores of times, approving and 
 praising us in every way. 
 
 He assured me that I, personally, had not displeased the 
 cardinal, but he said to me, twice over, for he knew we were 
 meeting in spite of the injunction, " Is it quite certain, 
 monsieur, that this is to end ? Will you promise it to me ? " 
 This insistency obliged me to give him my word; and 
 henceforth we had to renounce the Entresol entirely imtil 
 better times. 
 
 Ver. 2—6 Mem.
 
 74 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, ii. 
 
 II. 
 
 1732—1737- 
 
 Some time after the breaking-iip of the Entresol the 
 Keeper of the Seals overwhelmed me with friendly atten- 
 tions and protestations of his desire to employ and advance 
 me. He assured me I stood very well and in the best 
 manner with the cardinal ; admitting that they had not 
 always felt so, believing me little inclined to serious work ; 
 he said I must address myself to him for any views that 
 I might have, and I would see by results how sincere he 
 was, and that he would not say this if it were not so. 
 " Ah ! " he added, " if you would be one of us ! " meaning 
 by that an embassy (and later he let me know that he 
 meant the embassy to England, which would surely have 
 led me to nothing). He added that it was ridiculous I 
 had not been employed already ; that this must be changed ; 
 that they wanted to make much use of me ; that I had 
 just been appointed on several committees of the council 
 which were confidential ; and on New-Year's day he repeated 
 the same things, to which I answered as he wished. 
 
 The Due de Noailles was at this time very anxious to 
 know me more intimately ; he invited me to dinner and 
 expressed a wish that I would often come to him. He had 
 seen a good many things of my doing in my class of work, 
 which entered, it was said, into his own views for the posi- 
 tion of prime-minister, the post he counted on obtaining. 
 
 I gave a new memorial to the cardinal on the subject 
 of finances. He said the other day to some one, in these
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 75 
 
 very words, that there was no one who gave more time 
 to work than I, or made a better use of that time. 
 
 I have an imaginative and eager spirit; if only some 
 novelty or sympathetic desire excites it, it goes extremely 
 far, — to folly if I don't take care. What 1 have of mind, 
 I have it accurate ; my heart and sentiments are slow, but 
 sturdy and tenacious at times, that is to say, obstinate; 
 the memory is quick and capable. I have much taste, 
 which leads me naturally towards the right and the perfect. 
 I am by nature very gay, easily embarrassed, shy and timid, 
 not being sanguine ; but when my bile is stirred I can 
 go through tire; I fear danger at a distance, but when I 
 am in it I can face it. I have always loved projects 
 and their execution pretty well, but little by little, eagerly 
 at first and with great delight while my project is hot; 
 then I slacken and feel distaste ; but I resume it, and bring 
 it to a conclusion if it is good. I take time about it ; and 
 by that means I have brought many a great enterprise to 
 success. 
 
 Mme. de Ch . . . has a slow mind, little or no imagina- 
 tion; the mind is just, but it needs more reflection in 
 its slowness. There are things of which she has no idea 
 except through taste, though belonging to the intellect, — 
 comparative taste, which is not exercised on things little 
 known to her. Her sentiments are very keen, of great 
 force, vigorous, robust like the organs of her body. She 
 is robustly constituted ; but these devilish sentiments, a 
 force surmounting wisdom, facility in following example, 
 eagerness for all flattering things, have destroyed her nobler 
 characteristics. Eectitude, excellent iacliaations, emulation, 
 the idea of the great and the very great, all that being 
 hers by natme might make her worthy of being a veritable 
 heroine of romance or a Eoman matron ; throu"h courage
 
 76 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 alone she ceases to be too facile; she becomes on the 
 contrary, madly intrepid even to peril. 
 
 [June 30, 1732.] I have just dismissed a lacquey named 
 Bourguignon. I have had some regret about it from a 
 reflection that I made the other day of the point to which 
 the fellow was a veritable lacquey, for it would be impos- 
 sible to find a more complete model if one wished to depict 
 the species. 
 
 He was chunky, — insolent, — square-faced, — thick nosed, 
 
 — brownish, — unclean, — long, curling hair, — hard on his 
 clothes, — dirty in linen, — toes turned out so far that his 
 body twisted as he walked; — always in a tavern or a 
 brothel; — drunk on nothing. Speech not heard through 
 his big lips swollen with wine, — chercheur de midi d, 
 quatorze heures ; great arguer on all that is said to him ; 
 
 — and, to cap the climax of perfection in his state of life, 
 married to a cook who beats him. 
 
 [July 28.] During the first half of this year [1732] 
 I was several months without taking any part in public 
 affairs; I did not wish to give myself out as a maker of 
 memorials. But the agitation in parliament concerning 
 the manifesto of the Archbishop of Paris condemning the 
 " Gazette Eccl^siastique " brought the attention of the 
 ministers back to me. 
 
 The Keeper of the Seals has become my best friend and 
 gives me all sorts of confidences ; he instructs me on 
 the present state of affairs. He invited me to Grosbois ; 
 I dined there to-day and spent the evening. He told me 
 that he had spoken to the cardinal of me ; and that if 
 I were sent on any mission I need not be troubled about 
 expense, for my good conduct and disinterestedness were 
 known, and I should be aided as to costs ; meantime I must 
 be useful to the service in all ways, inform myself of what
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 77 
 
 was going on, see the best and the highest company, go 
 much to his house, where all France abounded, and to 
 Fontainebleau ; I was to regard his house as mine ; I could 
 make acquaintances there, which I now lacked, to keep me 
 more au fait of secret affairs and of the Court. 
 
 He spoke much of himself and of the manner in which he 
 had behaved towards the world. He told me that I must 
 make more acquaintances and be known for what I was 
 worth. That I must also study principles in the manu- 
 scripts to which he had already given me access, and that 
 he had certain treatises on agreements between two powers, 
 and maxims on the power of the king, on ecclesiastical af- 
 fairs, etc., which it was almost necessary to know by heart, 
 and he would let me copy them (which I did later). He 
 even descended to giving me lessons on the manner in which 
 I should pay my court and succeed with the cardinal ; also 
 on cards and the occasions when I ought to play ; as to 
 which I told him I was so dull at cards that I was always 
 bored and scolded and laughed at, and infallibly lost my 
 money. 
 
 I also told him that it was necessary I should go and 
 attend to my affairs in Touraine ; to which he made gi-eat 
 resistance. He said, " Why go, when you see wliat need we 
 have of you ? " It was then a question of a cliamhrc dc va- 
 cation, to sit instead of that of the parliament of Paris, which 
 would apparently be refused. This chamber was to be com- 
 posed of councillors of State and masters of petitions ; and he 
 wished me to be of it and to take the presidency, which he 
 was certaiu I could properly fulfil. I represented to him that 
 I was not brought up to that sort of thing, such as making 
 harangues, attending to matters of form, procedures, and so 
 forth, I told him he must, at bottom, have seen my defects, 
 and that among many I had that of being what is called shy
 
 78 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 and shame-faced ; that I had been badly brought up, for my 
 late father in my youth gave all his preference to my brother, 
 so that he never knew me till the last two years of his life, 
 after I had been employed in the public service. He 
 shrugged his shoulders at what I said about my brother, 
 adding that he knew my father had felt great esteem and 
 confidence in me. I repeated that this had only been at the 
 last, but that when he did know me the change was from 
 black to white. 
 
 He gave me many obliging denials of my humble opinion 
 of myself, and said he should always repeat the same thing ; 
 that I ought to make myself better known in the world, and 
 he would guarantee the rest; that he was determined that 
 my capacity should be made known by distinguished com- 
 missions, such as a treaty of peace or something of that sort. 
 What was quite certain, he said, was that the king knew me 
 now very well ; he always read my memorials himself, and 
 said that no one could read my handwriting better than he ; 
 at every event in the affairs of parliament he would say : " Is 
 there no memorial by M. d'Argenson about this ? " His 
 Majesty, he said, knew many things about me, more than I 
 supposed ; he knew, for instance, what I had just said about 
 the way my father changed in his opinion of me, and that I 
 was too shy to make an appearance, etc. Adding that the 
 cardinal said no one had more solid principles for governing 
 than those I had formed for myself. 
 
 [July-August, 1732.] The situation of the Keeper of the 
 Seals and Cardinal de Fleury in relation to each other is 
 very curious at the present time. The cardinal, disinter- 
 ested, compassionate, with upright views, but too weak in exe- 
 cution, with too little courage, does nothing unless under stress 
 of importunity, portioning his willingness to the number, not 
 the weight, of the said importimities ; this minister, I say,
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 79 
 
 believes he will stay in the ministry as long as he lives in 
 the world ; meantime his defects are hindrances to all good, 
 both by his counsels and by the situation in which he places 
 his colleagues. For from the moment his Eminence puts 
 any one in ottice he distrusts them much more than he did 
 the night before ; and having placed Ohauvelin, Keeper of 
 the Seals, on a pinnacle, the latter is forced to conduct him- 
 self with more dexterity than ever ; that is to say, he must 
 make neither friends nor enemies. Friends would give um~ 
 brage to the cardinal and thus undo the good opinion he has 
 formed of a creature all his own ; whom he has advanced to 
 such heights only because he believed him wholly his, good, 
 amiable, and of solid worth without the aid of any intrigue. 
 By making enemies, Chauvelin would only prepare his fall 
 at the moment when the cardinal abandoned him to himself 
 either by death or retirement. 
 
 Moreover, the said Keeper of the Seals must take no part 
 between Molinists and Jansenists, but preserve a neutrality 
 very difficult with people as clever as the Jesuits in making 
 others take colour, and who hate, worse than they hate Jan- 
 senists, all amphibious beings, neither flesh nor fish. They 
 have never yet failed to do so with any one ; sooner or later 
 all will feel it. 
 
 What is the upshot of this ? That no good comes to the 
 kingdom, no reform, no firm resolution on present matters, as 
 we have lately seen, and shall see again when, authority 
 being totally compromised, flashes of courage are too often 
 useless. But there do come circumstances that corner us, 
 and then the sword must be unsheathed. This is how things 
 are, and we can only replaster and whitewash as long as the 
 government is such as it is. 
 
 This situation is a sorry one for the king, for the State, 
 and for our two prime-ministers. For it follows from this
 
 80 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. n. 
 
 that, little by little, all is breaking up ; factions are forming, 
 and even the leading men are ready to put themselves at the 
 head of factions, though they say, foolishly, that there are 
 none. What stupidity ! They are being formed, and will be, 
 merit or none, among princes and nobles. Inflammable 
 matters are on all sides : and already we can see the sparks 
 glittering. There are factions now ready formed in parlia- 
 ment of divers parties ; the party of the legitimatized bas- 
 tards, Eambouillet, and Sceaux; the partisans of Sceaux, 
 Cardiaal de Polignac especially, talk haughtily, with all 
 manner of bravadoes which are tolerated and endured to-day ; 
 already the people are beguining to show their affections and 
 their aversions openly. 
 
 Then we have at Chantilly a continual assemblage of 
 nobles and of the greatest seigneurs. M. le Due lives 
 grandly and like a king, honoured in that centre, where 
 every one seems bound to him. That old House of Cond^ 
 is a powder-magazine of faction and avarice ; when it cannot 
 act for one it acts for the other. If the Keeper of the Seals 
 desires to win its affection he must buy it dearly with the 
 blood of the people, as was actually done by the Company 
 of the Indies, misplaced confidence in Moras, and horrible 
 jobbing in shares. 
 
 In the end the cardinal will be obliged to install the 
 Keeper of the Seals in his place and retire himself, that 
 Chauvelin may act without fear and show what he can do. 
 The cardinal has already done too much not to complete 
 his work. To do this, the first steps to be taken in the 
 State, vigorous ones, and the result of the present state of 
 things, will be : 1. Complete retreat of the cardinal to Issy. 
 2. Installation in an absolute manner of the Keeper of the 
 Seals ; 3. Change of at least three of the present ministers 
 for followers entirely loyal to the Keeper of the Seals. Con-
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 81 
 
 sequently another " day of dupes " may be looked for. The 
 question now is to know to what point the king esteems and 
 likes the Keeper of the Seals. Here are Scylla and Charybdis. 
 On one side the evils that I have just named to remedy ; 
 and by what remedies ? on the other, the fear that the 
 Keeper of the Seals may not be firmly anchored on the 
 king, and will need the favour and support of the cardinal, 
 without which he might soon be overthrown. 
 
 On the 18th of September, in the evening, I had a long 
 conversation with the Keeper of the Seals on the present 
 state of affahs, which I have reported elsewhere. [M^moires 
 de I'Etat.] The following is what he said that concerned 
 me personally : He told me that what he chiefly valued in 
 me was a firmness of heart and mind in which he sympa- 
 thized ; that it was visible in all my opinions on public mat- 
 ters ; that inasmuch as my late father had for a long time 
 valued my brother's talents in preference to mine, and had 
 thus blocked my entrance into the world, he intended him- 
 self to repair all that. I said to him, after other remarks : 
 " Monsieur, the esteem and confidence you express in me 
 signify something; I have never questioned you much; but 
 now fix me, for I cannot fix myself to anything, not knowing 
 to what you destine me by all this ; if I knew it, I would 
 study ardently to make myself more capable of some special 
 employment." He answered, " I' faith, I don't know of any 
 at present ; " giving me to understand that he had met with 
 no success for various ideas concernmg me. 
 
 Some time later, he again suggested the place of president 
 to the parliament when it next became vacant ; to which 
 I repeated my objections. He would not admit himself 
 beaten. " If you were employed," he said, " in some foreign 
 negotiations, you would come out of them in a short time 
 much emboldened. For example, I wanted to send you to
 
 82 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 England for a year, or even two. What are your domestic 
 arrangements ? " I explained them to him candidly, and 
 said, in relation to my wife, that she had not been willing 
 to make herself fit for presentation in the great world ; about 
 which he appeared to be already informed. He thought, 
 however, that having enough furniture and silver-ware, I 
 should not need to make a great outlay. He told me what 
 salary in money and profits the king gave to his ambassa- 
 dors, also that they were exempted from public entries ; 
 saying that it was very certain I should not conduct my- 
 self, as some of my predecessors did, who enriched their 
 coffers in \illainous ways, frauds, commerce, etc. He added 
 that I ought to consider everything, though he had noticed 
 that I had not much ambition, and, iu truth, my present 
 place was a fine one in itself, being, at my age, seventh in 
 the Council. He said he did not speak to me of the office 
 of Keeper of the Seals because he held it himself and ex- 
 pected to do so for a long time ; but there was that of coun- 
 sellor to the Council which could not fail me ; meantime he 
 would make me proficient by the use of his papers, none of 
 which should be kept from me, nor anything that he knew 
 himself, in order to instruct me ; but especially he desired 
 me to go more boldly into society than I did at present. It 
 ended in my telling him that my fate was a very lucky one 
 as it was, with so much honour and confidence from him ; 
 that two or three years in this way would teach me many 
 things that I now lacked for the king's service. He told 
 me that while I stayed at Fontainebleau I must have no 
 house but his to dine and sup at ; an order which I followed. 
 They made me play high. I won at first, and then lost more 
 than I won. 
 
 On the eve of my departm-e Cardinal de Fleury asked me 
 to dinner ; it was a state dinner given to the Marquis Doria,
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 83 
 
 who was taking leave of the king. His Eminence paid me 
 great attention, thanked me with effusion for several things, 
 and asked me many questions about the estate I was going 
 to visit, and other personal matters. 
 
 [December, 1732.] On my return the Keeper of the Seals 
 told me all that had happened as to the affairs of parliament 
 during my absence, and after remarking on the doubt, that 
 I felt myself, as to the false appearances of tranquillity that 
 reigned, he added, in relation to me : "I shall continue 
 to work for you more than ever, and with the views I have 
 already told you." I told him that though I dwelt but little 
 on myself, it was true that I had not wasted my time at my 
 country-house ; that I had read and made notes ; " which is 
 a good habit," he said. I added that I remembered what 
 he had said to me about the Foreign Affairs, the embassy to 
 England, or similar things. " Yes, that, or something analo- 
 gous " he replied. 
 
 [1733.] The late Comtesse d'Alluye lodged in the Palais- 
 Eoyal; she was poor, and never well-conducted. Mme. 
 de Fontaine-Martel, who also belongs to the Palais-Koyal 
 Court, still lives ; she has a house on the garden ; but she 
 is rich and miserly, and spends but little on victuals. At 
 the d'Alluye's one breakfasted well on black puddings, sau- 
 sages, force-meat patties, Muscat wine, and chestnuts. At 
 the Fontaine-Martel's they dined little, never breakfasted, 
 but supped every evening; the suppers piqued themselves 
 on being bad ; much gambling at both places. They were 
 very old, both of these women. The Fontaine-Martel had 
 the most friends, and the d'Alluye was the most loved ; she 
 was so kind a woman people never ceased to tell her they 
 loved her. The Fontaine-Martel has outbreaks which dis- 
 gust one with her sometimes, though we laugh at them. 
 She is hated in her household, which is a great sign. The
 
 84 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 Bishop of LuQon declares that the Fontaine-Martel has out- 
 done the d'AUuye. Good company went every morning at 
 twelve o'clock to breakfast with the d'Alluye ; I call them 
 good company, gay people, busy people, lovers, householders, 
 and that amused the good woman, who took interest in it all ; 
 whereas, the Fontaine-Martel collects the heau-esprits, about 
 whom she understands nothing, though she did write a story 
 called " Mother Goose." She piques herself on not receiving 
 women who have lovers ; but I think worse goes on, in God's 
 eyes, for affairs begin at her house. Both of them have re- 
 ceived and entertained poor men in the greatest necessity and 
 decrepitude. The d'Alluye took care of poor M^rinville, the 
 old mousquetaire ; she gave him his soup and paid for a cab 
 to bring him to her because she was afraid of his muddy feet 
 on her sofa; but he walked home. The Fontaine-Martel 
 entertained a great number with a like economy and as sens- 
 ibly ; though for the last few years she has the conscience 
 not to be amply served, on account of her erysipelas, and 
 contents herself with getting pleasures through her imagina- 
 tion. God bless them both ! 
 
 My brother has long wanted me to have the place of chief 
 of council to H. K. H. the Duchesse d'Orldans [widow of the 
 Eegent, daughter of Louis XIV. and Mme. de Montespan]. 
 I did not wish to take up the idea without communicating it 
 to the Keeper of the Seals. \VTien I spoke of it this evening 
 I had an opportunity to discover something of his intention 
 to employ me. " Do nothing of the kind," he said ; " your 
 brother is furious with his own shackles, being tied to the 
 Due d'Orldans [her son] : he has intelligence, and, between 
 ourselves, ambition ; he wants to put the same shackles on 
 you ; there is a maintenance in it, but to you it would bring 
 no good. A court of old women, a princess who never comes 
 to Versailles, and may quarrel with the king ; what would
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 85 
 
 you do then ? Keep out of it, I advise you. For," he went 
 on, " the king may send you ambassador to Spain, and this 
 affair would only commit and hamper you. Besides, I expect 
 to send you to England in a couple of years." I asked him 
 if I could know positively about that, in order to leave all 
 other studies and prepare myself for it, not having then too 
 much time before me to make myself less incapable when I 
 should be put to work. He told me to leave everything and 
 think only of English affairs; and advised me as to the 
 books I should read. He told me that although he had had 
 many other things to do, he had, from his youth up, made 
 extracts from all the treaties, and he drew out his notes to 
 show them to me; in this way he finds in marginal notes 
 all he needs to put himself at once au fait of each treaty 
 cited to him. 
 
 [Treaty of Vienna, of March, 1733.] We can see how 
 faulty is the established policy of the present day, and how, 
 more and more, the great absorb the small. Nothing but 
 the expansion of the third party in Europe can arrest the 
 daily progress of this evil. I understand by third party all 
 that is not House of Austria or House of Bourbon; and I 
 mean also by House of Austria that which has taken its 
 place, such as that of Lorrame. We see at the present time 
 that no vacancy occurs in the smallest little State in Europe 
 that the great powers do not dispose of it ; and how do they 
 do it ? By giving it to themselves or to one of their House. 
 The Emperor, or his allies visibly in concert with him, has 
 committed a crying injustice in suff'ering the Muscovites 
 to enter Poland. . . . How he could be so blind as to give 
 this hold against him is a great subject of astonishment. 
 
 I heard M. de Chateauneuf say, a few days before his 
 death, that during the last four years of his embassy at Con- 
 stantiaople, he received but one letter a year from the king
 
 86 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 [Louis XIV.], which was always the same, and said in four 
 lines, " You cannot do me a greater service in your embassy 
 than to induce the Grand Signor to continue his war with 
 the Emperor of Germany." Whatever may be said, I cannot 
 doubt that the three powers, wise, and content with what they 
 have, and free from private passions, as the French, English, 
 and Dutch now are, have already agreed on all this, and will 
 rectify the equilibrium of Europe, such as Henri IV. devised 
 it. . . . Would to God we could take from the Emperor his 
 Italian States, remains and traces of the influence of the pri- 
 vate interests that governed France under the regency. Let 
 us strengthen the third party, — there lies the happiness of 
 France and the world. You can strengthen it by giving the 
 Milanais [Lombardy] to the King of Sardinia; we should 
 thus be faithful to him, as he will certainly be to us. 
 
 [August, 1733.] The Keeper of the Seals treated me 
 to-day more like a friend than ever, and he seemed to have 
 in view making me minister of finance. He detailed to me 
 some of his ideas to raise money for the war we are about to 
 undertake, particularly by means of the India Company. 
 He said he had lately seen one of my best friends, M. Bernard 
 [Samuel Bernard, the famous banker] ; that they had talked 
 about me, and had promised each other to talk with me. 
 This was apropos of the ministry of finance. I replied that 
 Bernard was much attached to him. Our two prime-min- 
 isters are having more recourse to Bernard than ever, both 
 in commerce and for loans ; so that I shall see more of the 
 latter in future than I have done, as thev affect to consult 
 him, and really do so. 
 
 My brother has often told me that the Keeper of the Seals 
 speaks, as they say, far from his thought, and that he 
 employs himself in acting a part from morning till night. 
 As for me, whose sincere attachment to his interests he
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 87 
 
 knows, I have never known him to contide anything to me 
 that was not the truth. But, as minister, he has acquired a 
 habit of not being wholly frank, and one can often see 
 farther into things than he has chosen to tell, — by which 
 he puts me on a scent. 
 
 I have lost, this month, the Marquise de Lambert, who 
 though eighty-six years old, had been my friend for a long 
 time. Learned men and honest men will long remember 
 her. See her eulogy in the " Mercure Galant " of this 
 month. Some one printed, without her permission, " The 
 counsels of a mother to a son and daughter," and " Senti- 
 ments on women." These works contain a complete and 
 perfect summing up of the morals of society at the present 
 day. For fifteen years I was one of her particular friends, 
 and she had done me the favour to draw me to her house, 
 which did great honour to all those admitted there. I dined 
 with her regularly on "Wednesdays, which was one of her 
 days ; there we talked and reasoned, without any question 
 of cards, as at the famous Hotel de Kambouillet so cele- 
 brated by Voiture and Balzac. 
 
 She tried to persuade me to present myself for a place 
 in the French Academy ; an honour which she declared 
 suited me and which I suited ; and she assured me of the 
 suffrages of all her friends, of whom she had a great number 
 in the Academy. A ridiculous air had been given to a 
 real influence by pretending that no one would be received 
 into the Academy unless they were received at her house. 
 It is quite certain, however, that she had made half the 
 Academicians. 
 
 I di-eaded the noise, the envy, and the satire of the 
 little minds who aspired to the place, whether authors or 
 men of the world ; also the burden of making an harangue 
 in public ; so much fiddle-faddle repelled me, and probably,
 
 88 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [ouAr. ii. 
 
 now that I have lost Mme. Lambert without accepting her 
 offer, the fortunate moment will never come again, and all, 
 even the temptation, is, thank God, taken from me. Per- 
 haps, however, some day, reputation made, etc. — 
 
 [December IS, 1733.] To-day I took my seat for the first 
 time in the Academy of Belles-Lettres. 
 
 [1734.] I have had occasion lately to observe more 
 closely the character of my wife, on the occasion of the 
 separation which she is absolutely determined to make. 
 The passion which takes possession of us in events so per- 
 sonally interesting, and many very singular circumstances 
 had led me at fii-st to think very ill of her ; but since then 
 I think better ; and this better explains in itself the con- 
 tradictory points of which I here speak. 
 
 I find that she has an extraordinarily strong will and what 
 is called gi'eat obstinacy, — a defect which is seen onl}- in 
 small minds, the nerves of which are strong in the brain, 
 while their intellectual faculty is so limited that they see 
 things in one aspect only, never extending then gaze far, 
 and above all, never retiring within themselves to reflect and 
 judge afresh what has already been done. Tliis firmness of 
 will depends therefore solely on nerves and fibres ; it is 
 virtue in persons who judge rightly, and who hold to their 
 salutary decisions or to their taste for goodness ; but when 
 this temperament is given to petty spirits, it makes stubborn 
 heads. We see many children like this ; it belongs to 
 childhood. 
 
 With this, she has mind, a great deal of mind if you like, 
 but it is all of the small order; it is an army of p}-gmies, 
 with arms so short, hands so small, eyes so near-sighted 
 that they take in nothing but very small objects, though full 
 of details. This class of mind likes mechanical art; it is 
 fitted to execute manual work, it learns it readily, but it
 
 (i^^rrV^^/^VZ/ ^Z^' r_>%/^V 

 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 80 
 
 invents nothing. My wife is thus : she has learned music 
 very well ; manages her voice well ; I believe she has 
 learned languages ; I have known her begin Italian fairly 
 well. She cuts out figures ; does varnish-work ; makes very 
 finished things in that style and does a great deal of it; 
 she likes medicine; has many birds and animals; under- 
 stands their ailments and cures them herself. 
 
 I fear that our two children will feel the result of this 
 dwarfing of spirit ; I have seen much pettiness in my son in 
 proportion to other operations of the mind which he took to 
 in his earliest years. My daughter shows little intelligence, 
 but a very good heart. It must be admitted that the 
 Mdliands have little minds, but good behaviour and virtue. 
 On the Le Bret side, Mme. M^liand's brother has some 
 ideas of the grand with a certain facility of intellect ; but 
 he does not go far. My mother-in-law has less mind than 
 he; she is undecided. Wliat makes her shine is that she 
 follows with ardour and accuracy whatever she once under- 
 takes. These two families are both absolutely devoid of 
 imagination, which is the luminous part of the soul, leading 
 it to heights, and broadening it. 
 
 Our faculties once established, they lead us to good or 
 evil according to circumstances. For instance, from the 
 character given of my wife have resulted avarice and inde- 
 pendence. The state of my affairs when I came back from 
 my intendancy may have given some cause for this ; it was 
 rather bad, but not incurable, inasmuch as I have restored 
 my affairs naturally. 
 
 She loves her private hoard, her allowance, and her dia- 
 monds ; and as her character did not allow me to wholly 
 confide my affairs to her (after trying to do so), she imagined 
 that I was ruined and should become so more and more. A 
 
 mistaken jealousy increased her bad opinion of my affairs, 
 
 Ver. 2—7 Mem.
 
 90 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 and she set about amassing, urging me to do so, and saving 
 all she could, but in a way to be sole mistress of what she 
 thus acquired. She has the spirit of a miser about that, 
 which is to imagine, falsely, that she is doing it for her 
 children, while at heart it is only from a love of collecting, 
 the stupid enjoyment of which is the only real object. 
 Hence she has become the most miserly woman in Paris, 
 and is gradually being led to deny herself everything. 
 
 This is also what has led her to a taste for independence. 
 She conceives with littleness of mind all that concerns the 
 honourable subordination of wife ; and is indignant at what- 
 ever dethrones women in the world. She carries her opinion 
 of the dignity of the mistress of a household far beyond the 
 little way it really goes, and reduces to a very small matter 
 that of the father of the family ; she believes that it is not 
 being a good husband to fail in perpetual and indefatigable 
 attentions to one's wife. 
 
 Measuring everything by patterns and principles con- 
 ceived by obstinacy and pettiness, she has come to be sin- 
 cere in her greatest contrariness — for I never doubted her 
 sincerity, seeing the manner in which she took up certain 
 quarrels. You cannot sham truth with that nicety of per- 
 fection which belongs only to truth itself. 
 
 The petty things I have now mentioned have led her to 
 sequester herself from good company, in fact, from all com- 
 pany. Now, we need these adraonishers to tell us when we 
 do well or ill in matters about which we miglit know the 
 truth, but do not tell it to ourselves as the world and society 
 tell it to us. Hence she has come to desire ardently for 
 a withering condition which she alone desires, but she 
 desires it with a persevering ardour as if it were paradise. 
 I mean a divorce, about which society has done me full 
 justice, for not having deserved it, for doing all I could to
 
 1732-1737] THE MAKQUIS D'ARGENSON, 9 J 
 
 avoid it, and for proceeding in the matter with virtue and 
 rare generosity. 
 
 [1734] During the winter of 1734 much was said in 
 public of the grand prospect wliich would open if the 
 Emperor gave his daughter to Don Carlos. All good citi- 
 zens ought to shudder at the idea of that project. We 
 owe our blood to our French princes as long as they govern 
 us and can govern us, but when they have expatriated them- 
 selves, and endeavour to procure foreign sovereignties, I think 
 that we ought not to sacrifice to them one drop of our blood 
 nor one obole of our money. In the condition of grandeur 
 to which France has attained, Frenchmen ought to put away 
 from them all that increases jealousy against the House of 
 France. Upon this I wrote a memorial and gave it to the 
 Keeper of the Seals, with observations upon it by the Abb(5 
 de Saint-Pierre. It has been seen that I liked to communi- 
 cate to the abbi^ my work of this nature. That worthy 
 citizen is not duly known, and he does not know himself. 
 He has given a quantity of political works to the public ; he 
 aims for a good too far beyond us ; hence he repeats himself, 
 turns forever on one axis, and is not read with pleasure. 
 And yet, he is well-informed as to the modern past and 
 present ; he has much intelligence, and has devoted him- 
 self to a species of profound philosophy now abandoned by 
 all the world, which is, nevertheless, true politics destined 
 to procure the gi'eatest happiness. It is on this ground that 
 I like to consult him, whatever answer, broad or limited, he 
 makes me. 
 
 I should like to examine here whether I have or have 
 not self-love : and of what species it is — for everybody has 
 some ; it is like bile and gall, disagreeable liquids wliich 
 ought not to get the upper hand, but the absence of which 
 would kill the individual. We must have self-love if only
 
 92 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 to keep us from destroying ourselves by taking no pains for 
 our preservation ; we need it to accompany that source of 
 emulation, and hence of all virtue, which the Creator has 
 put within us, namely : the desire to be distinguished among 
 our equals, the allurement of praise, the fear of blame. 
 Honest men, good citizens love self, but with honourable 
 intentions, as we love a woman we respect. But the vicious 
 and the ambitious love themselves for evil, as they love a 
 strumpet. 
 
 Whoso loves himself virtuously and has a noble and great 
 soul has much, and to spare, but has more still in loving 
 something other than himself — his country, his compatriots, 
 virtue, the perfection of the arts, and especially the work he 
 undertakes. It is in this last matter that we find the touch- 
 stone of self-love. How do we treat that work ? Is it as a 
 mercenary, as a man who brings all things to bear upon 
 himself, his advancement, his well-being, or as a man who 
 loves the good, who desires that his work be well done even 
 if this is never known ? We are placed here below to make 
 ourselves happy and our compatriots with us, as much as in 
 us lies ; in that way we honour the Creator, whom we do 
 not lose from sight. We ought therefore to train our self- 
 love, if ovir heart does not incline that way itself. I began 
 this note by saying I should speak of myself ; it is true that 
 the good and evil I have said of self-love, the cases in which 
 I have praised or blamed it, I could only have drawn from 
 nature, and that nature to me unveiled can only be my 
 own. 
 
 [March.] The queen had much at heart to obtain a com- 
 pany of cavalry for an officer whom she knew. M. d'Anger- 
 villiers answered that she must say a word to the cardinal. 
 The latter frowned, made difficulty, said the man was a fool, 
 though he was known to be a brave officer. The queen.
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGP:NS0N. 93 
 
 rebuffed, told her griefs that evening to the king, who vSaid 
 to her : " Wliy don't you do as I do ? I never ask anything 
 of those men." Louis XV. regards himself precisely like 
 a prince of the blood, who has no influence. 
 
 Cardinal de Polignac told me an anecdote that he lieard 
 from Cardinal Alberoni himself. The King of Spam 
 [Philip v.] never dreamed of returning to reign in France, 
 whatever event might happen ; his piety deterred him from 
 violating his oath. Yet sometimes passions do smother the 
 idea of duty, and persuasion does the rest. The manner in 
 which the Due d'0rl(5ans was conducting the regency and 
 himself, his irreligion, his ridicule of morality was soon 
 known in Spain. The most saintly men are subject to the 
 influence of passions, especially from the side of religion, 
 which has its owti passions through the medium of malig- 
 nant and extravagant pietists. Philip V., thus acted upon, 
 turned his thoughts to the throne of France, having motives, 
 in the present and the past to wish evil to the regent. Had 
 a good understanding existed between them, no room would 
 have been left for thoughts and persuasions under which 
 Philip V.'s integrity succumbed. But Alberoni denied that 
 he had ever seriously thought of the throne of France during 
 the minority. 
 
 [July.] Kumours of a coming congress for a general 
 peace being strong, I wrote to the Keeper of tlie Seals 
 offering myself as one of the plenipotentiaries, and he 
 replied with a positive promise on the subject of that 
 employment, to which he destmed me, and on which he 
 has made me work for a year past. 
 
 I went on the 24th before the council of despatches on 
 a matter relating to M. de Bassompierre. I there repre- 
 sented to the king all the injustices done to many of his 
 subjects who plead before it. The king talked to me
 
 94 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 much. Cardinal de Fleury and the Keeper of the Seals 
 approved the manner in which I gave my opinion before 
 til is council. 
 
 [August.] Foreign political affairs require two things, 
 which will discourage me henceforth from giving all my 
 care to them as in the past : one is the extreme secrecy 
 towards every one ; the other is the difficulty of being cog- 
 nizant of exactly what is happening at the moment. Hence, 
 while my memorials have been received with a good deal of 
 eagerness by M. Chauvelin, I do not know what becomes of 
 them, unless something should transpire through M. Pec- 
 quet, head-clerk of the ministry of Foreign affairs, or I 
 should see some of my ideas followed or some of my phrases 
 used. These reflections iacline me to work no longer except 
 for myself ; I shall continue to watch what happens, and I 
 expect, in accordance with events, to put on paper material 
 fitted to become useful if I am questioned or employed ; 
 otherwise it will not leave my portfolio. 
 
 [March, 1735.] Here is another affair which has failed 
 me, and which I fully thought would carry me on a long 
 journey. The Mardchal de Noailles has done me the 
 honour to wish to be one of my friends during the two years 
 since I first knew him. The last time that I dined with 
 him at Versailles before the war he preached ambition to 
 me, and said that he should begin by making me an inten- 
 dant [commissary-general] in the army. I regarded that as 
 mere talk in the air. Nevertheless, I received while at 
 Argenson a letter from my cousm Balleroy, lieutenant of 
 the company of de Noailles and very intimate with the 
 mardchal, telling me that I was to receive the intendancy of 
 the army in Alsace. I replied saying how much I felt the 
 value of that favour, coming as it did from such an illustri- 
 ous source. . . . But three weeks before the departure of the
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 95 
 
 said mardchal for Italy this is what happened to me — 
 which no one has ever known, thank God. 
 
 He sent for my brother, who sees him oftener than I. The 
 latter came to me that evening and told me that the mard- 
 chal was determined not to start for Italy miless he liad 
 a staff that was wholly devoted to him, that is to say, com- 
 posed of good fellows, and had me as commissary-general of 
 his army, and he wanted to know whether the place would 
 suit me before he proposed it, for after that it would be a 
 settled affair ; as he had already prepared the way with the 
 Keeper of the Seals, and had told him that they could never 
 succeed with the present commissary, a man so suspected, 
 hated, and unsuccessful as Fontanieu, whom it would be very 
 disagreeable to have to dismiss in the middle of a campaign. 
 
 After some deliberation I agreed to this proposal. My 
 brother went the next day to carry my consent to the mard- 
 chal. We waited eight days ; the answer was that arrange- 
 ments were changed; not as regarded me, but as regarded 
 the influence the mar^chal thought he had in making con- 
 ditions, and my name liad not even been mentioned to the 
 ministers. The mar^chal having begun to speak to M. Chau- 
 velin about the intendancy of his army and his desire to 
 remove Fontanieu, the Keeper of the Seals said to him : 
 " Monsieur le mar^chal, you will never succeed in getting 
 our cardinal to remove his Fontanieu. I know the man's 
 inefficiency and even his base actions ; but he is a writer of 
 memorials which convince the cardinal. He has made him- 
 self white as snow on all the matters about which he is 
 accused, and his friends are making him out to be the 
 greatest commissary of the century." On which the mar^- 
 chal did not venture to pronounce my name, for fear he 
 might make me suspected of intrigue. 
 
 [June, 1736.] To-day, after working with the cardinal
 
 96 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 over a great affair which concerns the union of all the bene- 
 fices in Franche-Comt^, the Keeper of the Seals made me a 
 sign to speak to me privately, and said in a low voice : " You 
 think we are parting for a long time because I am going to 
 Compifegne, but I am thinking about you ; I have an idea, 
 but at present I shall not say more." I think this relates 
 to the embassy to Portugal, or to be the head of affairs in 
 Lorraine when King Stanislas goes there to take possession. 
 
 [September.] The Due de Nivernais said the other day 
 that he had gone through some convent, I don't know where, 
 of nuns, and they were all as noble as the king and as ugly 
 as the queen. 
 
 The king, no longer able to confine himself to the sole 
 attractions of the queen, has, for the last six months, taken 
 a mistress, Mme. de Mailly, daughter of the Marquis de 
 Nesle. She is well-made, young, but ugly, a great mouth, 
 well-furnished with teeth, and with it all, comical. She has 
 little mind and no views; so the cardinal gave in to the 
 aiTangement, seeing that the king required a mistress. He 
 made him give her twenty thousand francs paid once for all, 
 and the proof of it is that her husband, who went about in 
 hackney-coaches, now has a pretty equipage in good taste ; 
 people always betray themselves in some way. The affair, 
 however, is managed secretly, as all gallantries should be. 
 Matters are carefully looked to ; the entresols and little 
 cabinets of the king have many issues ; La Muette is excel- 
 lent for that. The alleys that lead from La Muette to the 
 apartments of Mile, de Charolais at the Madrid, are narrow 
 and closed by gates ; the tracks of carriages are always seen 
 when the king has slept at La Muette, for Mile, de Charo- 
 lais is confidant of it all.^ It is said that the queen knows 
 
 1 Louise-Anne, daughter of Louis III., Due de Bourbon, and Louise, 
 daughter of Louis XIV. and Mme. de Montespan. She is mentioned later 
 as " Mademoiselle." — Tr.
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 97 
 
 nothing, but suspects the affair, and consoles herself with 
 M. de Nangis, old as he is; ugly as the queen is, he finds 
 his good in it, being used to Ixion's fame in the days of the 
 Duchesse de Bourgogne, and the queen not bemg able to do 
 better. 
 
 [September 3.] The Keeper of the Seals told me to-day 
 that nothing was more certain than my appointment as 
 minister to Portugal ; that it would be made next month, and 
 my departure fixed for the spring. He said it was desired to 
 unite the two nations closely, and above all to open a great 
 commerce with Portugal ; that all the resources of policy and 
 negotiations would be employed for that object, and that the 
 cardinal often spoke of me in connection with this work. 
 He added that to sell certain merchandise cheaper than the 
 English (about which there was misunderstanding) the 
 government would sacrifice two or three millions if neces- 
 sary, by letting into the secret a few of the great merchants, 
 and that he would soon communicate to me certain papers 
 on the subject. He added that the object was to make the 
 controller-general supply the king with sufficient funds to 
 establish two or three large commercial houses at Lisbon, and 
 then that smaller merchants could go there when the great 
 ones had broken the ice. As it was, the English were imitat- 
 ing all oiu" manufactures of silk, cloth, jewelry, etc., and sell- 
 ing them at lower prices, about which he would tell me 
 when the time came. He said that an ambassador under 
 these circumstances ought to be a man of society, in order to 
 be on close terms with those who managed the internal gov- 
 ernment of Portugal, for all would go well for our nation if 
 he were well received. 
 
 [November 13.] The Keeper of the Seals sent for me to 
 say that I had spoken to my brother of my destination to 
 this employment. I answered that as he himself had not
 
 98 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 told me anything positive I could not have done so myself; 
 but, as I would never deceive him, I would admit that I had 
 said in a general way that I was about to be employed. He 
 said that in this profession neither blood, nor tenderness, nor 
 woman should induce a man to speak ; and it is true that his 
 tone made me tremble, not for the consequences, but for my 
 indiscretion in itself. I said : " Well, monsieur, do, as to my 
 fault, what you please." He replied that no other harm had 
 yet come of it except that the cardinal felt more coldly towards 
 me; that the thing would get about and compromise me, 
 because what he wanted to do for me he had several times 
 refused to my brother ; but he added that he would try to 
 mend matters. As I was leaving the room he called me 
 back to say, " Don't go and repeat what I have said." I 
 promised, but I felt ashamed. 
 
 Since then he has written to reassure me ; and I have told 
 him that m speaking to my brother I had shown him so 
 many difficulties in the way for me that he now thought the 
 affair would never take place. The truth still is that this 
 secret has not got about at all, and the proof is that none of 
 my friends have mentioned it to me ; but one must let 
 ministers say what they like, and not contradict them when 
 they are wrong — so long as the public does not suffer, only 
 our own little vanity, as at present. 
 
 [January, 1737.] There is much talk at Court and in 
 Paris of the approaching displacement of the Keeper of the 
 Seals, Chauvelin. Even if the rumours go no farther, he is a 
 discredited man ; for bis ministry is so delicate that it 
 depends wholly on reputation; he can sustain himself as 
 things are now, but never in the first place after the death of 
 the cardinal. All sorts of things are told about the dissatis- 
 faction of his Eminence with this follower of his own ; he 
 now detests him, they say ; he has detected him in cheatery,
 
 1732-1737] THE MAEQUIS D'AKGENSON. 99 
 
 falsehood, and bad faith. On tliis, the Court and the public 
 are applauding the idea of a change. I must pronounce 
 upon him that in lesser things he has made a good cause a 
 bad one. He has genius, he works indefatigably, he has 
 views, he has skill, he is not malignant, he has never caused 
 great wi-ongs to any one. Nevertheless, he is universally 
 hated, and in a manner without precedent, for no one dares 
 to come out and call himself his friend. "Wliy is it ? To my 
 thinking it is because he has mingled feigned caresses with 
 the indifference he really felt, and has injured truth by 
 artifice, and this from natural inclination and habit. 
 
 We are spectators at this moment of a positive phenome- 
 non in politics : a minister discredited, defamed, undermined, 
 whose fall seems inevitable, who yet remains in office a 
 whole month (the time the situation has now lasted), sleeping 
 neither night nor day, and constraining himself continually. 
 The cardinal wants to compel him to ask for his retirement, 
 but he resists ; he will either die in office or be dismissed. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is a rumour of a beginning of resist- 
 ance on the part of the king, and here is the cause of it. At 
 the first show of dislike on the part of the cardinal for his 
 dependant, M. Chauvelin (whose temperament it must be 
 owned is not sympathetic or analogous with that of his 
 Eminence), and perhaps without waiting for the first dislike, 
 M. Chauvelin laid plans to please and so master the king ; he 
 cultivated him ; he promoted the fortunes of what were called 
 the " Marmousets ; " meaning certain of our young seigneurs, 
 small in height, well-powdered, and of very little merit. 
 They himt with the king, they sup in his cabinet, and may 
 have some influence. At the time of the troubles of the bull 
 Unigenitus, the parliament and other matters, the ministry 
 was attacked ; MM. d'Epernon and de Gesvres were at the 
 head of the conspiracy, which was called the " Conspiracy of
 
 100 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. n. 
 
 the Marmousets ; " but it came to nought. The two leaders 
 were exiled ; they had composed a memorial, which the king 
 himself transcribed, the better to possess it ; I have a copy, 
 and it was pitiable. The Keeper of the Seals was very 
 little attacked in this memorial, but the cardinal much. 
 Some wise-heads pretended that the Keeper of the Seals 
 was in some way in concert with the cabal, the object of 
 which was to disgust the cardinal and force him to retire. 
 But the Keeper of the Seals had been accused of the same 
 thing several times, whether by exciting troubles in parlia- 
 ment or by bringing on the late war, in order to stir up 
 events that would trouble and disgust the cardinal and force 
 him to resign. 
 
 It must always be remarked that the Keeper of the Seals, 
 from a certain point of view, holds firmer in place than the 
 cardinal ; for the latter, at the first sign of dislike on the 
 part of the king, would retire to Issy to learn how to die, 
 and delay the moment of it ; but the former will bear all, is 
 supple, has a strong back, and needs cannon to force him to 
 retreat. 
 
 M. Chauvelin had won over a number of the little rou^s 
 among the " Marmousets ; " he used the occasion of the last 
 
 war to push their fortunes. The Comte de B made 
 
 rapid strides through his assistance, and others of that com- 
 pany are devoted to him. But further than that : the king 
 having a desire for some otlier woman than the queen, they 
 fixed on Mme. de Mailly. After many false rumours about 
 it, they are now founded and realized. Mile, de Charolais 
 was the first to pander to it by the convenience of her house, 
 " Madrid," in the Bois de Boulogne and close to " La Muette," 
 where the king sups often. It has happened that in riding out 
 myself, on horseback, early in the morning, I have seen fresh 
 wheel-marks in certain narrow roads leading from " La
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 101 
 
 Muette " to " Madrid " which are always kept barred and 
 locked. But since the great affair has been consummated 
 Mademoiselle is no longer anything and the two lovers con- 
 duct their own affairs for themselves. 
 
 The Keeper of the Seals, having known of the progress of 
 this affair, has become the sole counsellor of the Mailly. 
 After the second meeting she spoke to the king of her 
 poverty, which is great; he gave her, liberally, forty louis 
 which he had in his pocket ; then a second liberality ; but 
 the third time he told her he had nothing at his disposal 
 but the money of his privy purse, and on that he had more 
 claims than it could pay ; we know well that whoever calls 
 himself Bourbon is mean. This made trouble between the 
 lovers. 
 
 That is where M. Chauvelin awaited them; he had the 
 king told by Mme. de Mailly that the Keeper of the Seals 
 was a very able man, who agreed to make Mme. de Mailly's 
 fortune without its being known by the cardinal or the 
 other ministers ; that he had the means through his depart- 
 ment of foreign affairs, inasmuch as the accounts and funds 
 passed through his hands, either for gifts, or for secret ser- 
 vice ; and to give the whole thing an air of regularity, he 
 would supply the lady with forty louis for every rendezvous, 
 so that the total might be expected to amount to a hundred 
 thousand francs a year. M. Chauvelin obtained two advan- 
 tages in this way : first, the confidence of the king and the 
 necessity he became to him ; and secondly, by this advance 
 of the secret funds he explained to his Majesty the accusa- 
 tions begmuing to be made against him of levying assess- 
 ments on foreign gifts, of robbery and misappropriations, etc., 
 so that the king could reply to the cardinal's charges, " I 
 know about that." 
 
 The question now is, therefore, to know what passes in 
 
 U-NTVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE LIBRARY
 
 102 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 the conversations of the kmg with the cardinal on the sub- 
 ject of the Keeper of the Seals. Will the king resist little 
 or be firm ? Does he like M. Chauvelin as they say he does ? 
 Will the cardinal put the game in his hands and resign? 
 Does the king dread the cardinal's virtue ? Up to what point 
 does he love him for himself ? Will the monarch who 
 allowed the first companions of his pleasures, d'li^pernon, La 
 Trdmouille, de Gesvres, to be exiled, who granted so little in- 
 fluence to the queen, do more for his mistress ? Will he, or 
 will he not listen to the public talk agamst the Keeper of 
 the Seals ? Will the universal distrust of the latter and 
 the hatred of all foreigners be overlooked by him because 
 he prefers vice to virtue ? If the Keeper of the Seals carries 
 the day in this manceuvi-e he becomes absolute master; 
 meantime no one should stake upon it. 
 
 [February 20, 1737.] Dismissal of the Keeper of the Seals, 
 who is exiled to Bourges. It would be boast fulness to say, 
 as all writers of memoirs do, that I foresaw the disgrace of 
 M. Chauvelin; but it is true that I had predicted to him 
 something of the kind, and that in the political memoranda 
 which I made for myself I announced it as inevitable, and 
 gave my reasons, which have proved the true ones. 
 
 The populace and everybody else have said a hundred 
 things about it, which have not common-sense. The truth 
 is this : M. Chauvelin is more frank than people think ; he 
 does not conceal his dislikes and his contempts, and many 
 persons have been unnecessarily known to stand ill on his 
 records. His auxiliary relation to the prime-minister set all 
 the other ministers against him. He took upon himself the 
 refusals, and left to the cardinal the honour and credit of the 
 benefits and favours. He carried himself in imagination to 
 the days when he should govern alone, and he wanted that 
 things should go forward on the footing he expected to give
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 103 
 
 to them. It must be gi-anted, as to this, that his thoughts 
 had too much elevation and grandeur for the good of the 
 State; he would have liked to shake Europe as other great 
 ministers have done ; they accuse him of resembling M. de 
 Louvois, whose relation he is. 
 
 All this leads me to see that there is no great harm m his 
 being no longer our minister ; for I like none but the bour- 
 geois policy that makes us live well with our foreign neigh- 
 bours and be only their umpke, in order that we may work, 
 once for all and consistently, to perfect the interior of the 
 kingdom, and to render all Frenchmen happy. 
 
 The Com-t has been much mistaken in disliking M. 
 Chauvelin ; he has been more favourable to the aristocracy 
 than any other minister. Cardinal de Fleury's nature is exactly 
 the contrary to that of his late auxiliary. M. Chauvelin em- 
 barked him on three enterprises : the Swiss treaty ; the affair 
 of the parliament ; and the last war. Hardly has his Emi- 
 nence embarked on any project, no matter what passion in- 
 cites him, when a chill supervenes, and the anxiety to get out 
 of the affair becomes another passion within him. 
 
 They accuse M. Chauvelin of that old policy for which 
 Cardinal de Eichelieu was so often blamed, namely : that of 
 tangling affairs expressly to make himself necessary and kill 
 Cardinal de Fleury with disgusts. But I am certain that in 
 this he only followed the bent of his own strong and im- 
 petuous nature. In this way all the evil has been laid to 
 his account and the Court has made him a scapegoat. As 
 for foreigners, it is easy to understand the war they have 
 made upon him, so that all Europe, except Spain, has been 
 against him, and in concluding the peace they were unwill- 
 ing to negotiate with him [preliminary treaty of Vienna, 
 1735]. Without having been present, I can well believe 
 that he made important remonstrances to the cardinal against
 
 104 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. n. 
 
 the species of peace whicli his Eminence patched up, and 
 which has been so strongly criticised; but, for my part, 1 
 think it intrinsically good because of three things : (1) we 
 have peace and its fruits ; (2) we acquire Lorraine ; (3) Don 
 Carlos is removed to the extremity of Italy. 
 
 But I cannot help regretting that so fine an opportunity 
 [Treaty of Vienna] was lost to drive the Emperors of Ger- 
 many forever out of Italy. It could assuredly have been done 
 then, and all Europe would have been with us, if, acting with 
 candour, we had strengthened the third party with the spoils 
 of the House of Austria in Italy, without in any way making 
 them over to the Bourbons. It was only necessary to make 
 this resolution understood at Madrid by some firm envoy, 
 who should say distinctly : " Do you insist on all, or noth- 
 ing ? — Do you want to give Don Carlos the Two Sicilies, or 
 form a general league against Spain and the Emperor ? " 
 What better time could there be than this to make Italy 
 flourishing and exclude her forever from all wars ? 
 
 I have shown this in my project for pacification written 
 in July, 1735. 
 
 His Eminence must answer before God for having missed 
 this opportunity, the rise of which cost us so much blood, 
 and, possibly, the exliaustion of our star. 
 
 With regard to the affairs of the Court, what happened ? 
 The king, after slightly resisting in M. Chauvelin's favour, 
 acknowledged all to the cardinal, and his Eminence said : 
 " That is the man who only existed, as he said, by me ! He 
 has made himself supporters on all sides, and of whom ? 
 Of my enemies, if I have any." One discovery led to a score 
 of others. No sooner had his Eminence opened the door to 
 the enemies of the Keeper of the Seals than they all filed in 
 and overwhelmed him. 
 
 This disgrace was publicly determined two months before
 
 1732-1737] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 105 
 
 it was consummated, and nothing of the kind was ever more 
 novel. M. Chauvelin was resolved not to retii-e of his own 
 accord, but to await the blow ; and this course gave him an 
 air of innocence and firmness. At last, on the 20th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1737, they asked him to return the Seals and dismiss 
 his two ministers ; and they suppressed the office of Keeper 
 of the Seals. 
 
 M. Amelot succeeded him the same day in the ministry 
 of Foreign Affairs ; a man of no experience, nor trained to 
 administration, but whom they believed of the right stuff to 
 acquire it, and virtuous. As he was talked of before his ap- 
 pointment, the cardinal was enlightened about his defects, 
 but he was eagerly demanded by the other ministers, and the 
 cardinal took him for what he was. 
 
 Ver. 2— S Mem.
 
 106 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. hi. 
 
 III. 
 
 1737 — 1738. 
 
 I NEVEK doubted that the Seals would be returned to the 
 chancellor, but the ministry of Foreign Affairs remained for 
 solicitation. I did not solicit, but my friends did for me. 
 What chiefly occupied my mind at first, was to have nothing 
 to reproach myself with that looked like applauding or seek- 
 ing to profit by the misfortune of my friend. On that I have 
 not only the testimony of my conscience, but that of M, 
 Chauvelin himself. The poor man wi-ites me that one of his 
 consolations is that I am known at present for what I am 
 worth. 
 
 I am worth but little, but I burn with ardour for the wel- 
 fare of my fellow-citizens ; and if that were really known, 
 certainly they would want me in office. My friends and 
 even I myself believed that I should be secretary of State 
 for Foreign Affairs ; I saw no competitor, so to speak, how- 
 ever little right I had to pretend to the office. A legal man 
 was needed, according to present custom ; I am, moreover, a 
 man of condition ; my father served the king well, and had 
 been a great officer of the crown ; and I have studied polit- 
 ical affairs assiduously for the last seven years. The cardinal 
 knows this, for he has read my memorials. M. Chauvelin 
 testified to him of me at all times. His Eminence boasts of 
 me to every one, and has proposed to me a delicate embassy. 
 These were reasons, surely, if not rights at this conjuncture. 
 I may add also, from the rumours that flew about, that the 
 public would have applauded the appointment on all sides.
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 107 
 
 I was the first to come into the cardmal's mmd, and it was 
 long decided in my favour. His best friends let me know 
 that they had spoken for me, but I did not ask any one to 
 do so. Finally appeared M. Amelot de Chaillou, intendant 
 of finance, having the department of subsidies in charge, and 
 never having read the " Gazette," as he told me himself. 
 
 I was very eager to know what they had to say against 
 me ; it reduced itself to this : that I belonged through my 
 brother to the party of the princes and seigneurs ; for my 
 brother, who has the mania of ambition, got himself recom- 
 mended by all the great people, failed himself, and then 
 caused me to fail, so that I appeared to be that which I was 
 not at all. For I never saw any of those people. It is fifteen 
 years since I last went to see the Comte de Toulouse, and 
 six months since I have seen the Mar^chal de Noailles. I 
 do not know why his Eminence did not reject that argument. 
 However, a brother is always a brother, they say ; thougli 
 I do not intrigue, I must let myself be injured by some 
 one as intriguing as he. 
 
 M. Amelot de Chaillou should not be painted as an iso- 
 lated man ; he is not that at all, for he works undergroimd 
 like a mole, and no one is more eager to succeed. 
 
 [March, 1737.] My brother has flung himself headlong 
 into the party of the Molinists, Jesuits, or doctors of divinity 
 and devotees of the Jesuits, like the Duchesse de Gontaut 
 and her mother the Mardchale de Gramont. Those people 
 are always crying out hypocritically to the cardinal : " Ah ! 
 religion is ruined, Monseigneur ; what will become of us ? " 
 And all this solely to exclude some and serve others. 
 Though the chancellor [dAguesseau] bent the knee to the 
 golden calf, id est the bull Unigenitus, his family did not, and 
 are now being brought up on Jansenist principles. This 
 has made his Eminence fear to leave the two administra-
 
 108 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ih. 
 
 tions in the hands of that family, and my brother has been 
 proposed to him as alone capable of being a little Keeper 
 of the Seals. 
 
 Oh ! how unfortunate I am to have a brother who thiuks 
 only of himself ; — who wants for himself only, and who in 
 everything is the centre of his circle ! Such a passion ex- 
 cludes virtue and that love of the public good which we 
 ought to adore after our mere happiness and far before our 
 own grandeur — for what folly is grandeur and the thirst to 
 command ! That is how conquerors seize upon provinces 
 only to devastate them, govern them badly, and destroy their 
 own lives as well as those of others. 
 
 So here is my brother, fi"antic to succeed, acheronta moveho. 
 He wants every one, mistress, friends, brother, to serve him 
 as stepping-stones ; and too lucky shall I be if some advance- 
 ment for me does not fall in the way of one of his passions 
 — the result of selfishness, the particular passion of which 
 is envy. He will no doubt prostitute himself to the Molin- 
 ists, and by that means get himself inveighed against by the 
 Jansenists, who soon dishonour you before the public in their 
 " Gazette Eccl^siastique." 
 
 [End of March, 1737.] There has been a great rumour, 
 first in Paris, then at Court (which shows there is some 
 foundation for it), that the Due d'Orl^ans [son of the regent] 
 is to be put at the head of affairs. At first I could not 
 believe it ; but I see great appearances of it, though this pro- 
 posed object be only a delusion ; but chcumstances alter 
 rules. What a sight that of a king twenty-seven years old 
 willing to give himself for master or guardian a prince of 
 thirty-three, only six years his elder, who has no more expe- 
 rience of the world than himself, and even less, for the king 
 has at least lived with men, while the Due d'Orl^ans has 
 lived with books, ascetic and dogmatic books, and is, more-
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 109 
 
 over, neither a soldier, nor a statesman, but a man of ordi- 
 nary capacity, and in small ways. 
 
 He is, nevertheless, a good man; being a saint, he can 
 have none but good intentions; people will be made to 
 believe that it is only a question of making an idol of 
 royalty, of enabling it to give from time to time a stroke of 
 the tiller, of holding the ministers in equilibrium when any 
 of them emerge from equality ; in a word, to serve the king as 
 chief counsellor, as Cardinal de Fleury ought to serve him. 
 But great strokes of the tiller have passed in these days 
 from grand things to details. This argument was made to 
 me the other day by my brother, who got it from Cardinal 
 Dubois. 
 
 They will make the king believe that saintliness will 
 bring a blessing into public affairs and acclamation from the 
 people ; and that this saintliness makes the Due d'Orl^ans a 
 great man beyond his natural capacity, and therefore that 
 the king does not lower himself in submitting to him. It is 
 true that the public, especially the lower classes, will applaud 
 it ; and, in truth, vu'tue cannot be brought too closely to the 
 throne. The cardinal would have reason to like it ; he could 
 rest a little ; less at first, more later, and say his Nunc dimit- 
 tis. This scheme would produce at first a worthy, sober 
 government, but never a very fortunate one, for want of 
 ability and expedients. A prince like the Due d'Orl^ans 
 will either govern by himself, and then incompetence, un- 
 certainty, hesitation, and pettiness everywhere; or he will 
 yield to his courtiers, and then a reign of hypocrites and 
 ambitious men, petty in all things, but bad in many, inquisi- 
 tion, gloom, languor, vile passions of envy and malignity, 
 whited sepulchre, pattern without, corruption within. 
 
 And yet, this Due d'Oii^ans is a man who wills ; he de- 
 cides, he has a will of his own ; which distinguishes the man
 
 110 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. hi. 
 
 of action from the useful man more than does the stuff of 
 his mind and spuit ; men of much mind and great acquhe- 
 ments, if undecided, or not having will enough of their own, 
 are null in the world and above all in offices ; whereas the 
 man who wills reigns. M. le Due [de Bourbon] did not will ; 
 the king wills less, and would rather will never ; the cardinal 
 wills often and reigns by it. 
 
 A union of the cardinal and the Due d'Orl^ans would 
 make a pretty good combination ; but the new ministers are 
 not of the fashion of the Due d'Orl^ans ; he would certainly 
 want to put in his chancellor, M. d'OiTy, on the first occa- 
 sion. As for me, who am brother-in-law of that chancellor, 
 I have the prospect of never being anything, for I am pro- 
 nounced in my views ; and I shall always pronounce myself 
 as liking better to be nothing than to be something creeping 
 and intriguing. I have ideas enough to aim at the great 
 good of a special object without deferring in any way to 
 intrigue; by this I should become too dangerous to cabals, 
 either with the king or with a virtuous prince like the Due 
 d'OrMans. They would get me away no doubt on embas- 
 sies ; I expect that. 
 
 [April.] Mme. Amelot has been to see our princesses ; 
 they asked her when she was coming to Versailles; to 
 which she answered that she wished she could say, but 
 she had so many things to do ; she had to furnish her house 
 at Versailles, then at Fontainebleau, at Marly, and at Com- 
 pifegne. The princesses looked at each other, thinking it 
 very bourgeois; Mile, de Charolais remarked: "It is not 
 surprising ; she is the upholsterer in the Marais." 
 
 [April 14.] Cardinal de Fleury told me to-day that a 
 week from to-morrow, that is, Tuesday, 21st, my appointment 
 as ambassador to Portugal would be announced and that 
 I must be at Versailles by Monday evening.
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. Ill 
 
 [April 28.] This has beeu a great day for me ; the king 
 appointed me as his ambassador to Portugal. This is how- 
 it took place. 
 
 I went to the lever of his Eminence the cardinal, who told 
 me that the king had something to say to me. After the 
 king's mass and just before the Council, his Majesty ad- 
 vanced towards me, and did me the honour to say : " Mon- 
 sieur, I have made choice of you to be my ambassador in 
 Portugal." I made a profound bow, and said : " Sire, I shall 
 make every effort to justify the confidence your Majesty has 
 placed in me." The cardinal added that I was already 
 prepared by the work I had done to fit myself for that 
 employment. 
 
 All the courtiers congratulated me. I consulted those 
 whom I thought well-informed as to the visits I ought to 
 pay; and in consequence, I have been to see the princes 
 and the ministers. 
 
 The queen was alone ; she said she would give me some 
 commissions for Portugal, trifles of the country that pleased 
 her. The dauphin received me very prettily, and said : 
 " Monsieur, I am convinced that the king could not have 
 made a better choice." Then I went to the Due d'Orl^ans, 
 who surprised me by saying that my appointment was news 
 to him. 
 
 My sole intention, in accepting the employment which 
 the king has just conferred upon me, is to render myself 
 worthy and put myself within reach of some office in the 
 ministry, to which my seniority in the Council would natu- 
 rally raise me if I do not cease to deserve it ; how much 
 more, therefore, if I show merit and courage. Having been 
 for five years intendant on the frontiers, with sufficient ap- 
 proval, then fourteen years in the Council, always assiduous 
 and with a good reputation for integrity, if, after joining
 
 112 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, hi 
 
 to these things a knowledge of foreign countries and of 
 negotiations, I obtain a place in the ministry, no one can 
 say of me that I am promoted like so many others, and 
 I can sustain myself in it more easily by justice and right 
 than by favoiir. 
 
 [July.] News has come that the King of England has 
 suddenly ordered the Venetian minister to leave his king- 
 dom, because the son of the Pretender, travelling in Italy, 
 has been received at the college of Venice with distinguished 
 honours, such as not taking off his sword or his hat, which 
 marks, they say, the sovereign prince. It is thought that 
 this step on the part of the English government is a heed- 
 less one, because the Venetians have not a penny's worth 
 of goods in England, whereas the English have a great 
 commerce in Venice and the gulf. The English consul will 
 be driven from Venice with all the \dce-consuls of the 
 Venetian States, and they may seize the effects of the 
 English for this marked and little deserved affront. What 
 will the English government do about it ? Will it send 
 a fleet of fifty vessels to the gulf ? If there is talk in 
 England of the harm this does to commerce, and of all this 
 fresh expense, then the Jacobites will have a fine pretext 
 to act for their true passion, covering it with the interests 
 of commerce. 
 
 When they came to annoimce to the king the bu-th of a 
 seventh daughter, instead of a Due d'Anjou as he expected, 
 they asked him if they should call her " Madame Septifeme," 
 to which he replied, " No, Madame Dernifere." Hence it is 
 concluded that the queen will be neglected in future. 
 
 A subject of political speculation : The Grand-duke of 
 Tuscany has just died ; Spain is advancing her troops 
 towards Catalonia ; Don Carlos, King of Naples, has just 
 pardoned his rebellious subjects ; couriers are trotting every-
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 113 
 
 where ; the Emperor is busy in Hungary ; the Venetians 
 are arming without saying why — with what object? The 
 King of Sardinia has not discharged a man, but has recruited 
 and bought Swiss soldiers ; our controller-general is work- 
 ing continually with his Eminence, and I know that certain 
 sums he had promised for commerce have now been witli- 
 drawn. To what does all this point ? League between 
 Spain, the King of Sardinia, Venice, the Elector of Bavaria 
 (who has just been travelling in Italy and has promised his 
 troops to the Venetians) — all this with a view of driving 
 the Emperor for the second time out of Italy. We can pull 
 a few chestnuts and get Savoie ; in which case we quarrel 
 with the Emperor, Portugal, and England, but without giving 
 them a chance against us. The occasion should be seized 
 to make ourselves armed umpires. 
 
 Eh quoi ! is Italian courage crushed to the point that 
 there is no man in Florence or Padua who has the heart 
 to rise to recover his liberty, and bring about a republic ? 
 Spain would help the revolt under pretext of the freehold 
 lands \dt8 allodiaux]. Venice, the King of Sardinia, and the 
 King of Naples would join forces to drive the Emperor from 
 Italy for aU time. Venice and Sardinia would divide 
 Lombardy between them and thus the freed Italian genius 
 would be brought within compass of sustaining itself alone, 
 safe from the two great ambitious Houses of Austria and 
 the Bourbons. I am convinced that it depends only on 
 Spain to form this league and maintain it; provided all 
 possible good faith is observed. But if she wants to put 
 the world on her side in driving out her enemy, she must 
 not seek to gain the spoils for herself. In this case, should 
 we not do well to remain neuter ? The Emperor is more 
 occupied than ever in Hungary. "VVTiat a fine and oppor- 
 tune occasion !
 
 114 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. hi. 
 
 The Sieur Baclielier, first valet de chamhre to the king, is 
 a philosopher content with his fortune, which is good ; he 
 has 50,000 francs from rentes, a house in the country, and a 
 mistress ; he loves his master, is beloved by him, and desires 
 the good of the State. Men of this stamp are difficult to 
 displace ; this is just what makes the strength of the car- 
 dinal ; happily for France, the king likes men of this species. 
 It is true that Bachelier is what is called a pimp ; but it 
 goes with his trade, as killing goes with that of a soldier. 
 Perhaps he can persuade the king to keep to one mistress as 
 he has so far done with the little Mailly, and to give her 
 only moderate and suitable gifts. Bachelier is faithful to 
 his master, as much so perhaps as the cardinal. To this he 
 adds intelligence, views, firmness, philosophy, and, above all, 
 a love for the State, all of which in a man without birth or 
 family produces satiety of his own prosperity, and fixes his 
 ideas by concentrating them on the public good embodied 
 in the person of the king. 
 
 The cardinal, whose ideas for the good of the State are 
 fixed, followed a course of conduct which the Court intri- 
 guers took for great shrewdness, ability, and sublime policy, 
 whereas it was derived wholly from that love of the State 
 which never loses its one object from sight. His Eminence 
 may have feared Bachelier's favour at first, not from jealousy 
 but for the things of his trade ; but later his Eminence, con- 
 sidering that sooner or later the king would have a mistress, 
 and consequently a Mercury and a confidential valet (the 
 preceding kings had their Fouquet-la-Varenne, Beringhen, 
 and Bontemps), his Eminence preferred Bachelier to any 
 other as soon as he found him a philosopher and an honest 
 man. His Eminence therefore approved the choice and 
 became himself attached to Bachelier. 
 
 Cardinal de Eleury practises a sort of spying over tlie
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 115 
 
 ambassadors of foreign coimtries whicli our courtiers thiiik 
 extremely clever. His ministers of the second class are the 
 spies; such men manage to learn much and tell it readil}-. 
 They frequent the ambassadors in the pretended interests of 
 their several masters, and by comparing one with the others 
 they learn the whole. His Eminence caresses these little 
 ministers. There is not one of them that does not believe 
 himself the special friend of the minister; he treats them 
 familiarly, tells them scraps of the secrets of great courts, 
 and even of ours ; after which they boast in private of 
 making great progress. 
 
 The year 1737 has been very singidar as to weather ; the 
 end of the winter and the beginning of the spring were 
 unusually fine and very warm ; then came frosts which 
 ruined the best vineyards on the Loire. Nevertheless, the 
 harvest, and especially the vintage, promised unparalleled 
 abundance ; but when the dog-days came we had an actual 
 winter, fires every day, rain continually, bad roads, severe 
 cold, and this lasted into September ; and the fine vintage 
 promised to men was only a take-in, all was verjuice. And 
 this is the fourth vintage that has proved a failure in 
 France. 
 
 At the present time ambassadors are selected by their 
 faces, according as they offer analogies with the nations to 
 whom they are sent. This summer three such were ap- 
 pointed at the same time : I to Lisbon because I am said 
 to have a Portuguese air ; M. de Saint-S^verin to Sweden, 
 because he has the stern and pallid look of a Swede ; and 
 Courtois to Switzerland, for it is true that he really has the 
 Swiss countenance. 
 
 [November, 1737.] During the Court's stay at Fontaiue- 
 bleau, there has been a rush of people, a mysterious affluence, 
 greater even than in the days of the late king; and this is
 
 116 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, hi 
 
 attributed to the following causes : first, it is believed that 
 Mme. de Mailly is to be openly declared the king's mis- 
 tress ; it is not doubted that she is so in fact. Our greatest 
 princes of the blood have taken possession of her ; they give 
 her the place of honour in their carriages when they hunt ; 
 and they foretell other grandeurs for her, which the cardinal 
 witliholds and will withhold as long as his ministry lasts. 
 The highest courtiers have flocked to Court for this reason ; 
 persons greedy for false grandeur ; they all believe that this 
 elevation of a mistress will have an influence on the govern- 
 ment, and produce changes which each believes, chimerically, 
 will be advantageous to himself. 
 
 Besides this, many financiers have hurried to Fontaine- 
 bleau for the renewal of the leases of the fermes generales ; 
 each believing there will be great changes and hoping to 
 gain a share in them. But there has not been any change, 
 unless it be an increase of three millions five hundred thou- 
 sand livres demanded from the former incumbents. 
 
 [1738.] There is talk about M. de Maurepas becoming 
 prime-minister, or rather, holding that office without the 
 title, having thereby the chief management of affairs. It is 
 thought that the cardinal draws to his end ; he is ill of a 
 decline; he abstains almost entirely from work. But the 
 king is now beginning to take upon himself to decide ; he 
 shows intelligence and capacity ; he has put many things in 
 liis pouch during the period of his timidity. Unfortunately 
 for M. de Maurepas, his Majesty is informed of the too vast 
 ■sdews of the said Maurepas, and this joined to other defects, 
 keeps him from the desired end. Now, the king will either 
 govern the kingdom himself after the death of the cardinal, 
 or he will abandon himself to laziness. In the latter event 
 we must have a stronger head than that of M. de Maurepas. 
 If the king himself governs, everything will depend on his
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 117 
 
 choosing ministers of sincerity and holding them in equilib- 
 rium. Thus he ought to guard himself from ever permit- 
 ting that subordination of order, of creation, of rank, and 
 advancement from one to the other which M. de Maurepas 
 aims to establish. 
 
 The Cardinal d'Auvergne, being at the supper of Mgr. the 
 dauphin, they did him the honour to invite him to say the 
 prayer ; on attempting to do so, he found he knew his Pater 
 badly, very little of the Ave, and mixed up the Credo with 
 the Coiifiteor, showing that he was not in the habit of saying 
 such ordinary prayers as those. People laughed about it; 
 but what a horror that a prelate so richly paid should thus 
 have broken from his duties as a Christian. 
 
 The king works at present with his ministers, acquits him^ 
 self well, and decides with judgment ; he has a well-stored 
 memory for details and for locality ; more than that, he shows 
 great humanity and justice. People ask whether he will 
 continue to work, and if what he is now doing since the car- 
 dinal's illness is not the fervour of a young priest. The 
 answer made is that we must consider that the king is 
 almost without passions and has no dominant taste ; it is 
 those who are carried away by tastes for music, hunting, 
 the table, women, pleasures, and even idleness (which is a 
 taste), — it is they, I say, who are distracted from work and 
 feel repugnance to it. Apathy, on the contrary, leaves in 
 men a void which must be filled. The care of public affairs is 
 brought to kings stripped of its thorns ; then* ministers come 
 to them with business cleared of all incumbrance, and about 
 which they have only a yes or a no to pronounce. This is 
 enough to fill that void and yet demand no efforts on the part 
 of his Majesty. Besides this, the king loves economy ; con- 
 servation rather than acquisition, a turn of mind that I like 
 much in government. The king is kind, he is shrewd, he is
 
 118 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, iil 
 
 sovereignly discreet; he is the son of a father and mother 
 who both had much intelligence ; that of his maternal grand- 
 mother was only too extended ; he says things with tact, as 
 I have observed ; he listens to everything, even the smallest 
 details. He has a robust mind on the side of memory for 
 locality, personality, and facts ; the operation of his mind is 
 quick as lightning ; it is true that he goes but little to the 
 bottom of things, so far, never lending himself to a long dis- 
 cussion. They accuse him of laziness and want of feeling ; 
 he shows himself a natural worker by the various tastes he 
 takes up, though without affection for them ; thus he works 
 of himself and not by effort, which is good. As for his sen- 
 sibility, he showed it during the illness of the dauphin, and 
 that of the cardinal. He has long had his system of amusing 
 himself and relying upon the cardinal as long as he lives to 
 govern the kingdom, knowing his integrity, and having a high 
 opinion of his capacity ; but after that he intends to govern 
 himself ; we shall see if he keeps his word ; at any rate, he 
 understands men, and he likes honest ones. See his choice 
 of the cardinal, and among the valets, the Sieur Bachelier, 
 who has firmness, judgment, and integrity. His young fa- 
 vourites are MM. de Soubise and de Coigny, both worthy 
 lads. All this promises a fortunate reign ; God keep it so ! 
 It is this soul, therefore, that we must seek to please, and 
 not the villanous subjects becoming kings who have all the 
 passions of envy, pride, and malevolence. 
 
 The queen likes to play lansquenet on Sundays, and 
 usually no players appear. It is preposterous how little 
 alacrity and civility there is among the courtiers. People 
 are becoming republican even at Court ; they are getting dis- 
 abused of all respect for royalty ; they measure their atten- 
 tions too much by their wants and power to supply them. 
 The queen was walking up and down, waiting ; there were
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 119 
 
 but two ladies in her room, the Comte de Noailles, and my- 
 self, — desertion of even her ladies ! The queen said : " They 
 pretend it is I who will not play lansquenet, or begin early ; 
 you see how fine it is to say that / won't, when it is they who 
 won't. I was thinking about it just now, and even, I admit, 
 during the sermon." Mme. de Boufflers remarked that it was 
 that which had brought her ill-luck. I said, " Perhaps the 
 sermon was on gambling." The queen replied, " No, it was 
 on evil-speaking." " Precisely, Madame," I said ; " when they 
 preach against evil-speaking, it is as good as exhorting to 
 play cards ; for while we are playing we can't backbite." 
 The queen answered, very brightly, " Then should preachers 
 against cards exhort to backbiting ?" Her Majesty proposed 
 that I should play ; I said I would obey her ; but she had the 
 kindness to add immediately : " No, I remember that you do 
 not usually play; and besides," she added, laughing, "you 
 need all your money for your embassy." 
 
 [May, 1738.] England is going to quarrel with Spain for 
 the captures which the Spaniards are continually making in 
 America of English vessels. The English call this " Spanish 
 depredations," and the Spaniards call it righteous defence 
 against English smuggling in Spanish colonies. It is true 
 that, under pretext of "permitted vessels" in the South 
 Sea [vessels of 500 tons], England is continually pouring 
 merchandise into the Spanish colonies. Sometimes the ex- 
 cuse is a vessel short of water, or the rigging out of order, or 
 the winds were contrary, until at last the Spaniards have 
 made a rule, of their own authority and against all mari- 
 time laws, that every English vessel found within ten leagues 
 of the coast shall be captured. 
 
 We offered our mediation, but what good is that without 
 arms to enforce our words ? We need a navy to reach an 
 honest settlement, without which Spain will succumb under
 
 120 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. hi. 
 
 the great maritime power of England and the English will 
 usurp all the commerce and wealth of the world. Besides 
 their maritime forces, the English are very prosperous in their 
 colonies, where they swarm like ants ; whereas the Spaniards 
 are getting more and more dilapidated in theirs. To all this, 
 I keep saying the same thing : We need a navy. When I hear 
 it said in public that M. de Maurepas has great influence at 
 Court and will govern it, I should like to see that the first fruit 
 of his favour was the restoration of the navy ; I think, on the 
 contrary, it is diminishing ; this year we have only two or 
 three frigates at sea, whereas last year we had squadrons ; but 
 M. de Maurepas assures me that I shall see, this coming year, 
 a squadron of fourteen or fifteen large French war-ships in 
 the Lisbon Eiver. 
 
 It really seems as if we turned our backs on the oppor- 
 timities that come to us, so governed are we by little 
 minds ! And what nation is it of which this is true ? — a 
 nation which ought to have men of the first order at her 
 head. 
 
 On the other hand, that crazy Spain is about, they say, 
 to form a triple alliance to go and invade Italy while the 
 Emperor is hampered with the Turks. It is also said that 
 the latter has asked us, in virtue of our treaties with 
 him, for troops to guard his Italy; and that the succour 
 we have sent to Corsica is only a blind to reconnoitre this 
 ridiculous step. The triple alliance will consist, they say, 
 of Savoie, Naples, and Spain (father and son), and Sar- 
 dinia, a son known to live on a father's alms ; fine forces 
 indeed ! And what will be the upshot ? Spain had much 
 better think of herself, pay her officers, mend her shattered 
 finances, and, above all, keep Lisbon opulent, her useful 
 colonies in America, and lower the tyi'annical ambition of 
 English commerce.
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 121 
 
 What are we doing in all this? I ask. What measures 
 have we taken ? What forts have we ? Foiled in our 
 arbitration of Juliers, alarmed by the King of Prussia, 
 stopped in our projects at the North, Sweden and Denmark 
 deceived, how great is our need at this moment of a Cardi- 
 nal Richelieu, firm and effectual, or at least of a Chauvelin 
 — a man, in short ! 
 
 [May 11.] I was to-day at the cardinal's lever, where 
 there was talk of the printing of books, which is very bad 
 in Paris; it was said that the proper expedient was to 
 take away licenses, and to grant none except for new books 
 and those on which the publishers risked their money ; but 
 that for well-known books, bought by every one, the trade 
 should be open, — such as " Don Quixote," Racine, Molifere, 
 etc. ; to which I added : " History of Henri IV.," by Pdrdfixe, 
 the " Discourse on Univei-sal History," by M. de Meaux 
 [Bossuet], and Tdldmaque. The cardinal said : " M. d'Argen- 
 son makes me observe that all the preceptors of kings and 
 dauphins have for the last century written books, and good 
 books ; whereas I ..." I interrupted him by saying : " Mon- 
 seigneur, you put into example what the others have put 
 into precepts ; facts are always more convincing than words." 
 The flattery succeeded. 
 
 [June 1.] Sunday, June 1, I went to see M. d'Acimha 
 [Portuguese ambassador]. Mendez followed me as soon 
 as he knew I was there, and we had a conversation of 
 two hours. Speaking with him of my salary, he said I 
 was well off, inasmuch as it was running. I replied 
 that it ran so well I could not catch it. Mendez [sub- 
 minister of Foreign Affairs in Portugal] said that the con- 
 troller-general had assured him I was paid regularly by 
 the quarter. I answered that no doubt the controller was 
 
 better informed on other parts of the finances than on 
 
 Wr. 2 — 9 Mem.
 
 122 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, iii 
 
 tliis.^ On which Mendez said, jesting : " Monsieur, I have 
 influence ; how much will you give me ? I will have you 
 paid." I answered seriously : " Monsieur, all for the good 
 of the service, nothing for mine." 
 
 [June 9.] I have been to see M. Amelot, with whom 
 I had an appointment this morning at ten o'clock. He told 
 me he had spoken the evening before to his Eminence about 
 my departure, saying that I had asked for a few days in 
 which to reflect. The cardinal answered, "He does well 
 to reflect." 
 
 I told M. Amelot that these reflections had led me more 
 and more to see that they were treating me unworthily, 
 which 1 did not deserve, and (if I might say a foolish thing) 
 as they ought not to treat a man like me ; and, for that 
 reason, I requested him to convey to his Eminence, with 
 all the civility and circumspection of which I was capable, 
 my refusal to go upon this embassy, after waiting so long 
 for orders to proceed to my post. 
 
 As for the rest, I offered to return what I had received 
 for it ; though that was hardly just, because by my functions 
 as Coimcillor of State I was not obliged to hire a palace 
 in Lisbon for two years, and support pages, equerries, secre- 
 taries, etc., as I had done. M. Amelot tried to argue on 
 various quibbles and said very pitiful things. Finally, to 
 end it, I said to him : " Monsieur, I am doing only what 
 you would do in my place, — you who are so wise." He 
 replied : " Monsieur, that would be according to the state 
 of my aff'airs." " Ah ! monsieur," I retorted, with some heat, 
 " I will bet against all that there is not a more limited com- 
 
 1 D'Argenson says elsewhere that he considers he had right to an 
 indemnity, having spent ninety-seven tliousand francs uselessly in pre- 
 parations for his embassy. Instead of vehicli they had withdrawn fifteen 
 thousand francs from his salary. — Fr. Ed.
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 123 
 
 petence than mine. I glory in it, after the offices my father 
 filled and the economy with which I have lived ; it will 
 become much more limited through this affair ; but I shall 
 know how to attend the Coimcil on foot." He seemed 
 touched, and said he would write me the decision. 
 
 [July.] When a prime-minister finds a party formed 
 beside him which resists him at Court, if he cannot destroy 
 it he is himself overthrown, and while awaitmg that result 
 he can only languish. That was how M. le Due viewed his 
 approaching fall when M. de Frdjus succeeded him; and 
 also how the latter, now Cardinal de Fleury, must see in the 
 party of Bachelier and Mme. de Mailly that which precedes 
 his overthrow. This party of the valet and the mistress 
 has strengthened itself and has behaved and still behaves 
 with great ability. 
 
 Bourges directs it, but it depends on M. le Due and his 
 whole family. What that family [of Condd] chiefly holds 
 to is its hatred of the House of Orldans and of all the 
 legitimatized princes. The satisfaction of that hatred can 
 alone content them. M. le Due does not care to bring 
 himself nearer the throne. If the dauphin were to die, 
 he would call with all his might for the Spanish branch 
 rather than let that of Orleans reign. He begins to feel 
 easy about the bastards ; MM. de Dombes and d'Eu [sous 
 of the Due du Maine] do not marry, being wise, considerate, 
 and little ambitious. Moreover, M. le Due likes the at- 
 tentions shown to him by the king, who often visits him at 
 Chantilly on his way to and from Compifegne. He occupies 
 his place at the Council for the sole reason that the Due 
 d'Orldans occupies his. 
 
 On the last journey to Compifegne (which still continues) 
 the cardinal seems to have been despised and scouted by 
 all the courtiers. Wlien he enters the circle nothing
 
 124 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS Of [tinxF. iit 
 
 is said to him, and everybody is silent ; the moment his 
 heels are turned there is loud laughter, and the contagion 
 of such manners is quickly taken ; the courtiers no longer 
 restrain themselves. No one now goes to him in the morn- 
 ings with an account of what the king has been doing the 
 night before. The young courtiers even venture to say aloud 
 to his Majesty : " When will you be rid of your old tutor ? 
 Are not you of an age to govern yourself ? The late king 
 began at twenty-one; your Majesty is twenty-eight. It is 
 true he let Cardinal Mazarin end first; but that cardinal 
 had the kindness to end in good time, while this one is 
 endless and in his dotage." 
 
 As for me, who seek always to judge soberly of the men 
 who govern us, I say to those who see all this in black for 
 the cardinal, that I cannot believe him so changed since his 
 decay in health as to become either mad or wicked. He 
 has ever shown himself the contrary of all that up to this 
 time; he took part in public affairs against his will; and 
 he has never been impatient to advance his family. He 
 loves the king and the State ; if he persists in still govern- 
 ing it is because he believes the conduct of affairs already 
 begun needs his supervision for some time longer. 
 
 It seems to be believed that the king will take a liking to 
 work ; already he likes papers, study, reading, and even to 
 write with his own hand notes after the manner of M. 
 Chauvelin, who first inspired him to do so. He has had 
 closets made in a private cabinet, and there his papers are 
 arranged in careful order and ticketed in his own hand- 
 writing; he makes lists of everything, — products, weights, 
 expedients, means, plans. Let us believe that nothing can 
 better prove a taste for work, and an inclination to occupy 
 himself with public affairs, than these trifles. 
 
 The best minds at Court think that the approaching death
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 125 
 
 of Cardinal de Fleury will not at first bring about great 
 changes in the ministry. Of the six ministers now in office 
 we must put aside the chancellor [d'Aguesseau] and M. de 
 Saint-Florentin, who have only a small share in great affairs, 
 not being ministers with departments; but the four others 
 govern all, to wit: MM. de Maurepas, Amelot, Orry, and 
 d'Angervilliers. 
 
 M. de Maurepas is the elder ; he is more a man of the 
 Court, more experience, better birth, more familiar with the 
 king; the others regard him as a protector. He supported 
 M. d'Angervilliers against M. Chauvelin. M. d'Angervilliers 
 is on the descent to ruin and is ridiculed at Court ; 
 M. Amelot is a little fellow of small mind, no friends, a 
 creature of Maurepas, and placed in office by him. M. de 
 Maurepas being their elder, it will be proposed to his 
 Majesty that the four ministers should assemble at his house 
 twice a week, as they do at the cardinal's at present, and 
 that State matters should be settled there and the result 
 taken to his Majesty all cooked. He will find this sweet 
 and tranquil; he will go a-hunting and waste his time on 
 his usual frivolities ; they will put him to sleep in the flat- 
 tering delusion that all is going on as well as in the days of 
 his great-grandfather ; this scheme seems very pretty to the 
 four little ministers. Things may really go fairly well if 
 they choose, but feebly. M. de Maurepas has none but 
 common ideas, little head, indiscreet, talker, laugher ; some 
 perception, little meditation, or rather none ; a true courtier, 
 a coxcomb, and moreover impotent, which reacts on public 
 business. He may soon be master of affairs. As for the 
 poor Due d'Orl^ans, ne verhwn, quidem that the ball will 
 ever go to him. 
 
 Bachelier is strongly against M. de Maurepas ; not that 
 there is any intention of removing him from the naval
 
 126 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, iit 
 
 department, where he does well, but because of his disaffec- 
 tion and injurious action against M. Chauvelin; for with all 
 his cleverness in making others pull the chestnuts from the 
 fire, it was plainly seen that it was he who placed his hench- 
 man M. Amelot in the ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 [August, 1738.] At the beginning of this month the 
 rumour was great in Paris that the Due d'Orleans was about 
 to govern the kingdom by the retirement and the advice of 
 Cardinal de Fleury, or by his death, which was thought im- 
 pending, seeing his great age and the extreme weakness that 
 constantly seizes him. It was also said that M. d'Argenson, 
 the chancellor of the Due d'Orleans' appanage, would have a 
 great part in the administration. 
 
 There are many things to say against the truth of this 
 rumour. In the first place, as to the king, it would be 
 taking out letters of imbecility. What ! at his age — twenty- 
 eight years old — to put himself under tutelage ! And to 
 whom ? To a cousin only five or six years older than him- 
 self ; a worthy man, it is true, but a rabid pietist and misan- 
 thrope, who has never studied anything but theology, does 
 not know men, and has never paid attention to public 
 affairs. M. le Due will make furious opposition to this 
 arrangement ; he will mutiny, — he, and his whole family 
 and party. 
 
 The reasons for it are : that the king is facile ; that he 
 lets himself be persuaded in everything by the cardinal ; 
 that the latter fully intended placing at the head of affairs 
 the Comte de Toulouse [Louis XIV.'s son] : and it would 
 have been arranged, for this bastard had talents and the 
 friendship of the king, when he suddenly died; that the 
 king is giving himself up once more to indolence, to pleas- 
 ui-es, excursions, and all that distracts from work; that he 
 wants an honest man to relieve him of it, and where can he
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 127 
 
 find a better than this saintly prince ? that the latter is to 
 be named only chief of the Council, which he is already, 
 and the ministers will transact business with him instead of 
 going with everything to the cardinal ; in short, that this is 
 a piece of good policy, as much in regard to parties at Court, 
 which it will repress (especially that of the house of Condd), 
 as with regard to external affairs, — the king having no heir 
 but the dauphin, and the queen being soon past age to have 
 children, yet without its being possible to repudiate her 
 either for morals or sterility, like Queen Marguerite. Then 
 would come the claims of the Spanish branch, which is now 
 courted more than it has ever been since the kmg's child- 
 hood. All foreigners in consequence distrust our alliance. 
 What could be wiser, then, than a complete adoption of 
 the house of Orleans, regarding the Due d'Orldans and the 
 Due de Chartres as younger brothers of the dauphin, and 
 admitting them to all the affairs of the kingdom ? 
 
 What is very sure is that our present ministers, especially 
 the cardinal, are doing their best to bring this about, in the 
 fear they have of the return of M. Chauvelin, about which 
 the king does not declare himself, and there is much appear- 
 ance that it may take place. On the other hand the Jesuits 
 and all those rabid buUists, true remnant of the Ligue, are 
 working for the same purpose : that is, to deprive M. le Due 
 of all influence and prevent the retm-n of M. Chauvelin, both 
 of whom they regard as opposed to their cause, and who, in 
 truth, were only justly tolerant, the wise and politic enemies 
 of persecution — which was the sentiment of M. de Thou, 
 the historian, who has been so vehemently accused of being 
 a disguised heretic. 
 
 Meantime pressing affairs besiege the kingdom; such as 
 the misery of the provinces, the quarrels in the Church, the 
 ambition of the constitutionalists, the bigotry of parliament,
 
 128 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. in. 
 
 the dissatisfaction of Spain, the league of the Emperor with 
 Eussia, the ambitious commerce of England, her excessive 
 wealth, the shrinkage of our commerce, the quantity of privi- 
 leges which daily make the weight of their abuse tell upon 
 us. These are the things to which we must find remedies ; 
 and the feebleness of our four present ministers can never 
 do so. 
 
 The king puts his confidence in Bachelier in all things ; 
 after being necessary to him in his secret affairs, such, for 
 instance, as his amours with Mme. de Mailly, and the dis- 
 posal of the two children whom he is said to have had by 
 her, he now consults him on the affairs of the kingdom, and 
 the ruin that threatens it if he does not make choice after 
 the death of the cardinal, and even during his lifetime, of 
 other men than the present ministers. 
 
 The cardinal sees with grief that the morals of the king 
 have escaped him, and that he has his confidence only in 
 affairs of the State. This change in the king's conduct 
 towards him can only be attributed to M. Chauvelin, as to 
 whom the king uses great dissimulation with the cardinal. 
 He listens to the shafts that are aimed against the late 
 Keeper of the Seals and makes no answer, or very little; 
 but there is evidence that he steadily opposes all increase of 
 his exile, such as shutting him up in the castle of Saumur, 
 which his Eminence was so urged to do two months ago. 
 We may, perhaps, feel sure that his Majesty has resolved to 
 recall him on the death of the cardinal, and thus make a total 
 overthrow of the system of government introduced by his 
 Eminence. 
 
 The cardinal has no doubt penetrated with his somid good 
 sense the designs of the king as to this change in the minis- 
 try. He does not wish to see it in his lifetime ; if he merely 
 retired, M. Chauvelin would return to Court triumphant, and
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 129 
 
 all his poor little favouiites would be undone. This is the 
 sole reason now of his persistence in governing in the miser- 
 able condition he is now in, almost nonogenarian, the old 
 machine supporting itself solely by elixirs and the " drops " 
 of General Lamothe. It cannot go on much longer; and 
 this last consideration determines the king to let him bury 
 the synagogue with honour. That explains everything. 
 
 It has often been a question of my brother for places va- 
 cant or likely to become vacant in the ministry ; but I doubt 
 if he succeeds otherwise than through a certain consideration 
 which in the end runs to seed and gives a man an air of dis- 
 missal without his having been in real favour. His merits 
 consist in much intelligence, but no genius (by intelligence 
 I mean the facility to seize an idea and render it), boldness, 
 com-age, tranquillity before great objects, which is taken for 
 strength of soul and is only strength of nerve, a taste for the 
 grand and the lofty as concerns himself; but here is the 
 great defect, — the concentration of all to his own advantage. 
 
 Every one has self-love ; it is the source and the main- 
 spring of emulation and even of virtue, unhappily for man- 
 kind ; but we must love ourselves in all honour and not with 
 vile aims, as we love a girl to marry her and not to corrupt 
 her. Thus some love themselves to rise, some to enrich 
 themselves, etc. ; it all depends on innate tastes. The ques- 
 tion is to have within the heart heneficence ^ enough to love 
 others after ourselves ; and this second love is what is called 
 pure love ; a species of love we do wrong to deny, because 
 nearly all of us have it ; those who have absolutely none are 
 monsters. Why then did theologians deny it in regard to 
 God on the occasion of M. de Cambrai's [F^nelon's] heresy ? 
 God is so kind towards us why should there not be in us 
 
 1 " Blenfaisance ; d'Argenson underlines this word, lately created by his 
 friend the Abb^ de Saint-Pierre, which he was fond of using. — 1'k. Ed.
 
 130 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [cuap. hi 
 
 some portion of disinterested love for God, over and above 
 the acts that we address to Him in the interests of hope or 
 of fear? Certainly we love the poor when we assist them 
 secretly ; we love our mistress beyond the needs of volup- 
 tuousness ; a good coachman loves his horses beyond the 
 strictness of paid duty; we certainly have the senti- 
 ment when we are touched by feeling for some present 
 object, though absence makes that emotion instantly cease 
 within us. 
 
 I have laid down these principles to explain what my dear 
 brother is. 
 
 He loves himself honourably ; he loves his elevation, the 
 highest elevation. Beyond this he loves his race; he has 
 also the sentiment of the moment for his relatives and stran- 
 gers. These are the only motions of his love ; they fill his 
 heart, which has either to be narrow or much occupied with 
 the sentiments I have just mentioned. He is not susceptible 
 of hatred, his bile is never stirred, but he dislikes having 
 equals, and is naturally inclined to sarcasm on his superiors. 
 Hence his mind is equable at all times, for his passions are 
 gentle ; his ambition is only a delicate, untrammelled intel- 
 lectual advance toward the grand, where nothing awes him ; 
 from his youth he has been like this. Those who do not 
 know him think that he is eaten up with ambition ; no, he is 
 only occupied by it and reflects upon it gaily, because of the 
 opinion he has of his own superiority. He believes he sees 
 the wire of the puppets, he laughs at everything and perpet- 
 ually attacks in the depths of his thoughts his superiors, 
 though humble, shame-faced and embarrassed in approaching 
 them ; but for all that he never unbends with his inferiors, 
 as is the nature of men who are truly generous ; on the con- 
 trary, he assumes an important, abstracted manner, which 
 imposes on his equals and makes his inferiors respect him.
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 131 
 
 From all this there results in him but little thirst for 
 justice ; and as he never restricts himself in any way, by 
 his easy way of living and the habit of following his fancies 
 he has made himself no principles of moralit}-, justice, or 
 public right ; he sees such rules according only to occurrences 
 and the suggestion of each case, which renders his conduct 
 faulty and of little depth, not being guided by the mind. 
 He has never for a moment meditated on the public good ; 
 he has always shown indifference to it ; he has taken only 
 a few features of it, here and there, from this one and that 
 one ; just as I know a few Greek roots that I have picked 
 up I don't know where. Indifference has, unfortimately, 
 caused this ignorance, rather than want of capacity. Xever- 
 theless, it must be admitted that faculty is lacking as well 
 as study and acquirement. 
 
 If faculty were there, I would not deny him, as 1 do, 
 Genius, which is Invention and Inspiration, — that glorious 
 celestial fire that makes a poet of a cobbler, a general of a 
 labourer like Sforza, and, in statesmanship, a monk into an 
 Ximenez, when the passion of the Good of the monarchy is 
 joined to the genius of the inventor. Then the heart is 
 filled with many other things than self ; usually self forgets 
 and abandons itself wholly. Thus do men with ardent 
 passions, passions of taste and inquiry, violent loves — like 
 that of Moses for his people ; thus do learned men who seek 
 the object of their studies to the visible destruction of 
 themselves. 
 
 Without that faculty there can be no statesmen; only 
 mercenary servants ; intelligent if you will, but being only 
 in the round of their chcle they work solely for what is seen, 
 for what does them honour, for what brings them recom- 
 pense ; all the rest is neglected ; and presently a clear- 
 sighted master is disgusted with such servants.
 
 132 JOURNAL AND IVIEMOIRS OF [chap, iu 
 
 This is what I believe I can say respecting my brother ; 
 such he is absolutely ; and to verify the conjecture by proof 
 we may consider how he has filled three posts, — the inten- 
 dancy of Tours, the police of Paris, and the administration of 
 the household of the Due d'Orl^ans. 
 
 A just vanity requires me to add that neither my father 
 nor my ancestors were like him. They passed, in their day, 
 for frank, noble, courageous men, worthy of ancient Eome ; 
 above all incapable of Couit intrigue, loving a country life 
 after first having distinguished themselves in the world by 
 the brilliancy of their minds and the goodness of their hearts. 
 Nothing can be more proper than to strive to draw to our- 
 selves in the world the same consideration by which our 
 race is known ; we should preserve its qualities as we do 
 its name and its arms. 
 
 The foundation of my fortune has for its text these words, 
 which I have already declared to several persons : There is 
 a calling to follow in which there is an immensity to gain ; 
 it is to he a perfectly honest man. Joining to that, industry, 
 which must, necessarily, bring some intelligence, it is impos- 
 sible that a man should not, by degrees, be sought for the 
 highest employments, for he is needed. 
 
 [September, 1738.] The king is a man of very good sense 
 who, with some laziness about work, nevertheless desires 
 that work shall be well done. He is dissimulating and 
 discreet, as all great kings have been ; he understands men 
 perfectly and naturally, without study or effort, and that is 
 the great science of kings. Had he merely a part of these 
 qualities, which are known, it seems singular that the only 
 man in whom he to-day confides all his affairs should be 
 his valet de chamhre, Bachelier; for whatever virtue, merit, 
 and good sense the said Bachelier may possess, it is amaz- 
 ing that this exclusive choice of discussing together at
 
 1 737-1 738j THE MARQUIS D*ARGENSON. lS3 
 
 gi-eat length all the affairs of State should have fallen upon 
 him. 
 
 But a fact which no one even suspects is that Bachelier 
 is really the agent or the representative of M. Chauvelin 
 beside the person of the king. His Majesty has so carefully 
 concealed this that everybody says (and the cardinal at the 
 head of them) that the king has an unconquerable aversion 
 to M. Chauvelin, that he had never been able to endure him, 
 and other falsehoods by which public silliness is easily made 
 the dupe of the dissimulation of great people. 
 
 Bachelier is a steady man, a firm mind inclined to virtue, 
 in which he confirmed himself on seeing that he was called to 
 take the part of confidant to our master. He is rather rich, 
 quite so in income ; he has a pretty house between Ver- 
 sailles and Marly, and a mistress whose society pleases him ; 
 he desires nothing in the world for himself, but everything 
 for the glory of his master ; for that, he listens to all, he 
 seeks to know all ; born to little education, he has made 
 himself geographer and politician enough to give him mate- 
 rials for conversing with the king ; he talks little, is always 
 thinking, and notes ideas as he finds them. He does not 
 wish to remarry and make himself a race; and this takes 
 from him all design of profiting by his favour to raise him- 
 self like the Beringhens and Fouquet-la-Varenne, who came 
 of like origin and favour. Bachelier was wardrobe valet 
 before he became head valet. His father held the latter 
 office, and before that he had been valet to the late M. de 
 La Eochefoucauld. 
 
 Wlien Bachelier found himself thus in favour with the 
 king he shut himself within himself and became inacces- 
 sible to every one. He admits no one to see him but 
 one or two friends, whom he sends out from his retreat to 
 learn what is going on in the world, with which he informs
 
 134 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, iit 
 
 the king, thus becoming an antidote to the bulletins which 
 M. Herault, lieutenant of police, carries to the cardinal. It 
 must not be thought, however, that this role and all this 
 favour has not been guided by a more experienced hand in 
 politics, cabinet affairs, the world and the Court than that of 
 this servant. It is, as I have said, M. Chauvelin who, cast- 
 ing his eyes upon this man led him by degrees to his present 
 position. 
 
 Between them, they found nothing better to give as mis- 
 tress to the king, who was seeking practice, than Mme. de 
 Mailly. More pretty than beautiful, when the king took 
 her she was very poor; she is kind, docile, and gay, with 
 a very ordinary mind. The king found in her the ready 
 compliance necessary to overcome his shyness ; since then 
 she amuses him, and no affah of the kind has ever been 
 conducted with more mystery and less scandal. Mme. de 
 Mailly is directed by the wise counsels of M. Chauvelin 
 and the valet ; she has become reserved ; she never meddles 
 in any public matters ; she seems to have quarrelled with 
 her family, who are greedy for favour, fortune, and wealth. 
 Bachelier says, with the best faith in the world, that Mme. 
 de Mailly needed only to be relieved from poverty and given 
 some ease in her affairs, and God forbid that good servants 
 of the king should ever allow the renewal of the horrible 
 scandals of the preceding reign : the enthroning of a reign- 
 ing mistress at Court, the elevation of bastards to the level 
 of princes of the blood, usurping all the great dignities of 
 the State. Certainly such talk is good and fine, and it 
 comes from M. Chauvelin ; but it is true that we may expect 
 selfish interests to make their proper influence useless and 
 that the mistress might issue in the end from all depend- 
 ence on them. 
 
 [September 20.] It is said that the cardinal had, on
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 135 
 
 Monday, 15Lh, a conversation of two liours with his Majesty, 
 from which lie issued with a radiant face, and the king with 
 a mortified and contrite air. The okl preceptor, they say, 
 has some secret spring by which he stirs his pupil and 
 makes him go the way he chooses ; preaching to him at 
 times and even compelling him to confess his past faults.^ 
 At any rate, since then the king does not sup in the cabi- 
 nets with the women, and Mile, de Charolais has gone to 
 her " Madrid " before going to Fontainebleau, where it is 
 doubted if she goes at all. They say that his Eminence 
 represented to his Majesty what would happen if he con- 
 fided his affairs to women, who appear to have been talking 
 of them with the kmg. But I prefer to believe that all this 
 is like the fine scene of Burrhus and Nero in Eacine's 
 tragedy of " Britannicus ; " I do not admit that there was 
 any base attempt like that, or that our king bears the least 
 resemblance to Nero, being destined, on the contrary, to be 
 more like Titus. 
 
 The Chancellor d'Aguesseau has just made a most absurd 
 rule for the procedure of the Council; it is his mania to 
 make laws, and no genius was ever less fit for it. He is an 
 erudite man, and for the reason that he has successfully 
 
 1 See " Memoirs of the Due de Saint-Simon " Vol. IV. of the present 
 Historical Series. He says : " We have from him (the Abbe de Vitte- 
 ment, rector of the University and sub-preceptor of the Due de Bour- 
 gogne) an astounding prophecy, of which the key has been vainly sought ; 
 he made it to Bidault, and Bidault related it to me. . . . Referring to tlie 
 first rays of the omnipotent power of the Abbe de Frejus [Cardinal de 
 Fleury] over Louis XV., Vittement said: 'His omnipotence will last as 
 long as his life, and his reign will be without limit and without trouble. 
 He has bound the king to him by ties so strong that the king can never 
 break them. What I tell you now is what I know well. I cannot tell 
 you more; but if the cardinal dies before me I will then explain what I 
 cannot tell during his life.' Unfortunately the Abbe de Vittement died 
 before the cardinal, and lias carried this curious secret with him. Results 
 have only too plainly shown that he sj)oke the truth." — Tk.
 
 136 JOtJRNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. hi. 
 
 and eagerly filled his head with the ideas of other people he 
 has invented and created very little of his own. It is thus 
 that these great learned men have usually vast comprehen- 
 sions and limited minds. But for legislation one must see 
 things in the large; one must detach one's self from what 
 one has learned best ; and that is precisely what one feels to 
 possess above others ; it is therefore attacking self-love, with 
 which small minds are more tainted than great ones. The 
 chancellor has made children like himself, who even exag- 
 gerate their father's character; men who see all things in 
 small ways, never in large ones ; lovers of our ancient forms, 
 and constantly inventing new ones to plaster over the 
 abuses of the old. All these Messieurs d'Aguesseau, from 
 having had morals too good and being too long buried in 
 study, have become unsocial or anthropophagous, and are 
 not friends of the people ; never having been to the theatre, 
 or drinking a bottle, or seeing women; hence, they do not 
 know men, nor how to take them, nor how to defer to them, 
 nor how to establish power over submission. These are cer- 
 tainly great defects in statesmen. 
 
 What do we need for our laws ? 1st. To work in a large 
 way ; that is to say, to abrogate a quantity of regulations 
 dictated in their day by the inequality of authority, but 
 which to-day are very hurtful to the general welfare. 2d. 
 To allow more arhitrio judicis, as in Turkey, where some of 
 the features of distributive justice are divine ; and for this 
 effect to put honour into the administration of justice. 
 
 I call it putting honour into it, when you put in office 
 men who are con^mendable for honour; this forms others, 
 as a coward, they say, becomes brave when he finds himself 
 in the regiment of Navarre; set aside the interests of the 
 Palais ; inspire the judges with a spii-it of expedition and a 
 thirst for justice.
 
 1737-1738] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 137 
 
 [October, 1738.] My brother stirs me up on the affairs 
 of parliament and the Comicil in relation to those of the 
 Chm'ch : " You are a bit of a Jansenist, brother," he says. 
 " Far from it," I answer ; " but here is my confession of 
 faith : I shall always be very keen against persecution and 
 against hypocrites who, without having any religion them- 
 selves, make use of it for their cupidity and their ambition ; 
 and I shall always make every effort to get them set aside 
 from even the audiences at Versailles." 
 
 The settlement of affairs between England and Spain has 
 never been so far advanced as it is now. It has been signed 
 and ratified ; but his Catholic Majesty hi ratifying it added 
 some restrictions which occasioned several conferences in 
 London, and in the meantime the season is much advanced. 
 It has been determined that Admiral Haddock with his 
 formidable fleet shall winter in the Mediterranean. The 
 English see their concession for licensed vessels for five 
 years about to expire, and then a gi-eat void will appear in 
 their commerce and in their national debt, part of which has 
 been placed on the South Sea Company. If the Walpoles 
 obtain the renewal of this lucrative privilege for thirty more 
 years in return for the help that England will give Spain 
 to reconquer portions of Italy dming the absence of the 
 imperial forces, what praises for the Walpoles ! what satis- 
 faction for all those grasping English ! 
 
 How else is to be explained the enormous expenditure 
 of England on her fleets merely to settle in a poor way 
 the affairs of America; spending ten times more to obtain 
 indemnity than the indemnity itself. These goings and com- 
 ings, these tergiversations, these delays of a settlement 
 already agreed to without admitting any mediators, these 
 advancements and retreats according as the cardinal's health 
 
 is better or worse, this sending of the English fleet to the 
 
 Ver. 2 — 10 Mem.
 
 138 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. hi. 
 
 Mediterranean instead of to America, the seat of discussion, 
 this wisdom of the Spaniards, all ready to bite but biting 
 nothing of Italy on so fine an occasion — how are these to 
 be explained ? Is the game postponed for the present ? Cer- 
 tainly we should take the part of the King of Sardinia in 
 such an attempt; without which he will take sides in de- 
 fence of the Emperor, But the question is, what shall be 
 abandoned to him ? The English have the ruling fit ; they 
 play the fine role, and we the villanous one.
 
 1739J THE MAKQUIS D'ARGENSON. 139 
 
 IV. 
 
 1739- 
 
 The French Academy has been engaged for a whole year 
 in deliberating on a great question: ought we to say the 
 patton of a shoe or pdton — the a short or long ? This 
 was considered so important and so embarrassing, that they 
 have finally separated without being able to decide. 
 
 My brother has just been appointed president of the grand 
 Council for one year. The rumour is strong that during this 
 year of his presidency they will pass the great stroke of des- 
 potism which has long threatened to consider all appeals to 
 parliament as abuses, and bring them before the Council. The 
 great Council has become a mere committee, delivered over 
 to all the influences of the mmistry. The councillors con- 
 sider themselves as so many masters of petitions ; they 
 pique themselves on their defects; they see their revenues 
 and their consideration increasing, as the otHcers of the 
 parliament are reduced, and provided a few more intendants 
 are sacrificed to them, their heads, or rather their hearts, 
 will be wholly turned and they will be so many Mahouls 
 and Chopins, that is to say, rascals. To arraign appeals 
 as abuses is to take away the finest if not the only jewel in 
 the parliamentary crown, and justice delivered over to the 
 Court will be at the mercy of all the intrigues of bigots and 
 hypocrites. Men can always triumph by false politics in 
 the debilitated times that come so often; ultramontanism 
 will take the place of our boasted Gallican liberties, called 
 the palladium of France. For a long time the bishops
 
 140 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 have been ruminating this miserable stroke of authority, 
 and are pushing it in every way, even by money, so that 
 they are close upon attaining to their scheme of referring all 
 to the Council. It is impossible that this change can take 
 place without a great uproar. Parliament will stake its 
 all upon it ; every one must expect that ; it will drive 
 things to extremities and put the Court at bay as in 1732, 
 for a little mandamus. WTiat vexes me is that my brother 
 should be at the head of this army destructive of our liber- 
 ties and of the true resource of the throne ; and this wrong- 
 doing is the greater because he seems to wish it and solicit 
 for it eagerly. He is very unfortunate to be possessed 
 by such ambition and impatience for grandeurs as to take 
 these evil means, 
 
 I have been talking with a man well informed in Court 
 affairs who said to me to-day at Versailles that M. Chauve- 
 lin's great defect, and perhaps his only one, was the habit 
 he had of promising (as they say vulgarly) more butter than 
 bread; and that he had treated even the Due d'Orldans 
 in this way. From this, they call him a cheat and a 
 false man; but if we examine this defect we shall find 
 it is only an indiscreet enthusiasm to win those with whom 
 he wants to live on good terms, and to whom he really 
 does good. He is returning to favour ; and some friend 
 ought to preach to him well about this, in order that 
 he may lessen this excess of caresses and promises. But 
 to whom did he ever do harm ? and what great qualities 
 he had for office ! 
 
 They are urging the king to show himself more in public. 
 He has been twice to the Opera, and the second time he 
 was charming, brilliant, in full dress, and gallant. He was 
 in his box between two princesses ; and he paid all sorts 
 of attention to people. On Monday next his Majesty gives
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 141 
 
 a beautiful ball at Versailles ; all the apartments and the 
 gallery will be illuminated ; he desires that everything shall 
 be very beautiful and that all the masks in Paris who wish 
 to come should be invited. All this is visibly done to 
 please the public, for it is not to the king's taste ; they 
 urge him to it, and he consents out of good judgment. 
 I see in this the advice of M. Chauvelin, his taste, his 
 wisdom, his strong measures; it shows the king to his 
 people ; unknown as he has been, he now lets himself be 
 seen as a king and, above all, as a man. It is openly 
 remarked upon as showing that he is coming out of the 
 tutelage of his old preceptor, for all these things have 
 been ordered without the cardinal and by the king's own 
 will. 
 
 Within the kingdom things are going in a manner to 
 make one tremble; no morality, selfish interests eveiy- 
 where ; hypocrisy and the zeal of the violent buUists tor- 
 ment the poor subjects of the king and honest men; they 
 are driving us to a schism through the decrepitude of the 
 cardinal, who is the dupe of all the villanous priests who 
 surround him. In the provinces men are dying of himger 
 or eating grass ; bread costs five sous a pound in the Vendo- 
 mois, and three sous in Paris, and these prices will increase 
 in the spring. What reasons to make the king weary of 
 his present ministry ! and to make the virtuous cardinal 
 retire to Issy and allow his Majesty to follow his design 
 of governing himself and of putting in office the men he 
 chooses ! 
 
 [January 31.] The king volunteered to tell, on the mor- 
 row of the beautiful ball he gave at Versailles on the 26th 
 of this month, a naive incident worthy of Henri IV., and 
 which would have delighted the great king. As his Maj- 
 esty, being masked, was standing near the buffet from which
 
 142 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 refreshments were given, a stout mask, a bon vivant, asked 
 the attendants for Spanish wine ; then he took a lemonade 
 glass and ordered them to fill it fuU. The king said to him : 
 " That is a heavy draught." The mask replied : " Mask, 
 what is that to you ? It is not at your expense ; it is at that 
 of our good king who gives it to me as willingly as I drink 
 it ; here 's to his health ! " The king was charmed, and 
 laughed the next day in telling of it. 
 
 The ball was very fine; foreigners thought it worthy of 
 the Court of France and its regal magnificence, especially the 
 ball at night, from the grandeur and beauty of the apart- 
 ments, the superb gallery of Versailles, the illumination, the 
 quantity of masks, the refreshments, the order, politeness, 
 ease, etc. It is true that at a ball with ranks there is always 
 great confusion, for places that are taken at first by persons 
 who are nobodies, and the king himself was obliged to make 
 some persons leave them ; which was wholly the fault of M. 
 de La Tr^moille. Apropos of that duke I will say here: 
 Of what use to him are his wit and his face ? He does ill 
 wherever he is, at war, in his office, and, in Paris, mischief. 
 
 [February.] All talk about a cardinal's hat for the Arch- 
 bishop of Embrun, the would-be Cardinal Tencin, has ceased, 
 and appearances are that the king has opposed it by the ad- 
 vice of the man of Bourges [Chauvelin], conveyed through 
 Bachelier ; in truth, nothing could be wiser than refusal, or 
 retraction of a promise which scandalized all decent men. 
 I know nothing more dishonourable than those who are the 
 head of the Molinist party, excepting always a small number 
 of sincere bigots frantic for that party. They are not thought 
 so, generally, but the favours they receive at Court betray 
 them ; such was Cardinal de Bissy, and such to-day is the 
 Bishop of Langres. 
 
 As for me, I would rather make myself a Mussulman than
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 143 
 
 visibly sacrifice and use my religion for ambitious objects ; 
 for that adds hypocrisy, knavery, tyranny, the lust of oppress- 
 ing one's neighbour to treachery and imbelief. It is worse 
 than apostacy ; it deprives one of honour ; without which 
 one is not a man. 
 
 [February 22.] To-day, after the rising of the Council of 
 State, the marriage of Madame de France [Marie-Louise- 
 Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Louis XV.] with the Infant 
 Don Philip of Spain was announced ; they say he may one 
 day become King of Naples ; the Prince of Asturias having 
 no children, he and his wife being equally sterile. The 
 dauphin is rejoicing in his sister's marriage ; he says that in 
 eighteen months he shall be an uncle; Madame Sdconde 
 [Madame Henriette] weeps at the thought of parting from 
 her twin. The journey and marriage are to take place next 
 year when Madame will be twelve years old. Madame 
 Seconde is learning Italian ; additional assurance of her mar- 
 riage to the Due de Savoie. 
 
 In consequence of these new favours of France to Spain it 
 is thought that a general peace will immediately be signed 
 by Spain and made public. By these alliances with Spain it 
 is seen that we are drawing nearer to M. Chauvelin's sys- 
 tem. Kumours, through which matters transpire before 
 being realized, prove that mystery is no longer the soul of 
 our affairs, as in the days of his ministry ; but there is every 
 appearance that his secret counsels inspire the king to take 
 these steps. 
 
 The Princesse de Conti, daughter of the king [Louis XIV. 
 and Mile, de La Vallifere] is at the last extremity, and can- 
 not recover ; they think she has an abscess, or else water, on 
 the brain ; she is in a continual stupor, from which powerful 
 remedies withdraw her for a moment, after which she drops 
 into it again.
 
 144 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, iv. 
 
 It is arranged that the king is to be at Compifegne for two 
 months next summer, and return to Versailles early in August 
 for Madame's marriage. She will be twelve years old August 
 24th, and she is to be married on the 15th. This will cause 
 fetes at Court, and the king is already talking of the fine 
 clothes the courtiers are to wear; it will render summer 
 dressing very dear this year. The princess is to leave a few 
 days later for Spain, and Mme. Tallard is to accompany her 
 to the river of Bidassoa. 
 
 The king looked closely at me during his unbooting to- 
 day, and told me afterwards that he thought me much 
 changed by my attacks of fever. The cardinal asked me 
 what I thought of the affair of the University ; about which 
 he had charged me with rendering an account. I told him 
 in a few words ; it is to be hoped that the matter will be 
 arranged and the public satisfied. 
 
 [February 25.] There is great talk about M. de Fulvy, 
 brother of the controller-general, and his wife, who, being at 
 supper with Houel, the gambler, lost twenty thousand louis, 
 and his wife ten thousand; in all seven hundred thousand 
 francs ; the wife lost her part of the great sum first ; then 
 the husband tried to recover it and went too far. A few 
 days later all these sums were paid in ready money, which 
 has scandalized the public, inasmuch as M. de Fulvy, who 
 married for love, did not have twelve hundred francs a year 
 of his own when his brother became controller-general ; and 
 to-day he robs to spend ; for they say that in the end he will 
 be as poor as. he ever was. But he is now in much danger if 
 we may judge by the fury with which the public has fas- 
 tened on these rumours, which may perhaps be much exag- 
 gerated, in spite of the general discredit of the family. 
 
 An anecdote which historians will not notice, or not 
 enough, is that Philippe d'Orl^ans, the regent, towards the
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 145 
 
 end of his days and after the majority of the king, felt a 
 true love for the king, and for his own son, the Due de 
 Chartres, a terrible aversion. He said of the latter that he 
 imited all the defects of the princes of the blood — the hump 
 of the Prince de Conti, the hoarse voice and silliness of M. le 
 Due, and the rudeness of the Comte de Charolais. " What ! " 
 they affirm that he said, " shall I wish that my son should 
 reign to the injury of this amiable lad who is to-day my 
 natural master ? Ah ! all my wishes go to the contrary." 
 The regent had made himself prime-minister on the death 
 of Cardinal Dubois, and he took his portfolio to the king 
 every evening at five o'clock. He amused the young prince 
 by telling him many applicable facts, instructing him by this 
 method and by the curiosity it inspired in him. The king 
 enjoyed these conversations and awaited with impatience the 
 hour for this tete-h,-tete work, which he loved, and therefore 
 made the duke love him, for we like those who show a liking 
 for us ; besides which, the king was then a charming figure. 
 We shall long remember how he reminded us of Cupid that 
 morning of his coronation at Keims in his long robe and 
 silver cap, — the dress of a neophyte or royal candidate ; the 
 king himself stDI speaks of it. I never saw anything more 
 affecting than the regent's face that day ; his eyes growing 
 moist with tenderness for the poor little prince who had es- 
 caped so many dangers in his youth. The king pleased the 
 regent also by his natural cleverness, lively and naive. He 
 certaioly has wit, and a pretty memory, and he likes intelli- 
 gent men, and honest men. 
 
 The Prince de Chalais is to-day one of the courtiers who 
 stands best with the king ; he discusses affairs at length witli 
 him, and talks good sense to him. This courtier plumes him- 
 self on his attachment to M. Chauvelin, and seeks every 
 occasion to speak of him to the king. But that dismissed
 
 146 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 minister, now so near to a return to favour, has stronger 
 strings to his bow, and the king does not need to hear more 
 on that head, but simply to keep the grand secret. 
 
 My profession of faith on the subject of Jansenism and 
 the bull Unigenitus has always been sound and worthy of 
 respect, as to dogma and ecclesiastical discipline, but very 
 heretical and open to rebuke as to politics. On the first 
 point, I think that a layman ought to be submissive to the 
 Church, the pope, and the greater number of the bishops; 
 consequently that the bull is good; that it has been suffi- 
 ciently received, pure and simple ; that the pastoral instruc- 
 tions have been a good commentaiy, and a sure preservative 
 against abuses, — but this without regard to acceptance. I 
 think that a layman ought not to enter into these matters, 
 nor even an ecclesiastic of the second order, who is bound to 
 submit himself blindly to his superiors, appointed to instruct 
 the bulk of the Church ; and if they absolutely compel him 
 to sign pledges of acceptance, he ought to do so, since faith 
 has become doubtful; and I should do it myself without 
 hesitation. 
 
 But, politically speaking, my business being that of a mag- 
 istrate and a statesman, I think that what I have last said 
 on acceptance by laymen is very bad ; that every one should 
 be left in peace ; that they are doing wrong to stir up the 
 Jansenists as they do; they should let them die out, and 
 meantime prevent their swarming and propagating, by refus- 
 ing them all Court favours, rebuffing and disgusting them in 
 that way. They would never make trouble at Court ; it is 
 those rascally Molinists who incite with fury to persecutions, 
 through ambition. I would brand such persecutors with pro- 
 found contempt ; I would prevent then- approach to Versailles ; 
 I would coldly repress all innovators among the Jansenists, 
 but my punishments would go only to repression, not to ven-
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'AKGENSON. 147 
 
 geance ; I would take all weapons away from enterprising 
 Jansenists, and that is all. I would not try to hurry by vio- 
 lence the extirpation of this heresy ; and in that way I should 
 cause it to be forgotten. That is the conduct that ought to 
 be constantly maintained against Calvinism in France. For 
 want of it, we have had dreadful wars, which we shall soon 
 see renewed against Jansenism ; and the treacherous and 
 ambitious Molinists, together with our whole ministry of 
 to-day, wicked in policy and without principles, will be the 
 cause of it. 
 
 [March.] Paris is inundated with public gambling, with 
 houses where games of chance are played, and miserable sup- 
 pers given ; the bankers pay three louis a day to the mistress 
 of the house ; companies are formed in which numbers of the 
 high players of Paris are interested. I have seen these agree- 
 ments; the capital is a hundred louis, and the shares are 
 usually six louis. There are more than three hundred such 
 houses in Paris, where they play at pharaon and hirihi ; all 
 the young men are getting ruined. The play at the hotel de 
 Soissons and the hotel de Gesvres is the cause of this evil ; 
 one cannot rebuke any particular house without being told 
 of the tolerance shown to those two schools of gambling. The 
 Abb^ Gaillande, confessor of the hanged criminals, told the 
 cardinal that he ought, in conscience, to state that three- 
 fourths of those criminals and rou^s confessed to him that 
 the first cause of their misdoing came from losses made at 
 play in those two hotels. It is proposed to give MM. de 
 Carignan and de Gesvres an equivalent, namely : remission 
 of tax on cards, and by this means to make good to them 
 forty thousand crowns. Thuret, director of the Opera is also 
 manager of those two gambling houses ; he pays ten thousand 
 francs a month to each of those gentlemen, which makes two 
 hundred and forty thousand francs a year in all.
 
 148 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 Besides these profits, Thuret, backed by M. de Carignan, 
 has six shares in each of the gambling houses I mentioned 
 above; otherwise he has the right to denounce them and 
 ask redress for the injury they do to his ; but they grease 
 his paw and do not fear his opposition, though they are still 
 exposed to the inquisition of M. Hdrault and the police of 
 the quarter, whose paws they must also grease. At the 
 beginning of the regency I saw an irruption of universal 
 gambling ; but at any rate, it adorned Paris, for everywhere, 
 in the courtyards and before the doors were pots of fire, 
 which made Paris very brilliant at night. But the regent 
 stopped all that. 
 
 Every now and then they make an example of some poor 
 defenceless lady and descend upon her with a show of 
 severity, as they did on Mme. de Sailers, a woman of qual- 
 ity, but without influence. They placarded her sentence of 
 condemnation to pay a fine in all quarters of Paris at the 
 very time when M. de Fulvy's loss of four hundred and 
 eighty thousand francs was in the mind of every one. She 
 went out to Versailles to complain openly to the cardinal 
 and said to him : " I am a woman of rank ; I amuse myself 
 in my own house with a few friends ; never did any one 
 hear tell of great and ruinous losses taking place at my 
 house ; and I am maltreated (as I have just told you) ; 
 whereas the wife of the controller-general, in whose house 
 M. de Fulvy has just lost an enormous sum, at the expense 
 of the State, is sustained and approved." 
 
 Either forbid these games entirely, or allow everybody to 
 play them ; at any rate, they might pay careful attention 
 to see that no new houses are established and to punish in 
 an exemplary manner those that attempt to establish them. 
 But never were the police of Paris so ill-managed, and never 
 were the assistants of the lieutenant of police so rich,
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 149 
 
 [March 4.] It is known that the king gave the cap to 
 Cardinal de Tencin, archbishop of Embrun, in his cabinet ; 
 so there he is, the peaceable possessor of the coveted dignity. 
 One's mind is confounded before this action ; evidently the 
 king has evaded his best counsellors. To what can such 
 a step be attributed if not to the very vicious facility with 
 which the king lets himself be taken advantage of by his 
 old tutor, who must have made him see the matter from the 
 Rome, the Vatican side, and the impossibility of otherwise 
 having an ambassador at Rome after M. de Saint-Aignan, 
 who is about to retire. Bad practice, however, to have car- 
 dinals at Rome charged with our affairs ; for who will then 
 maintain om- Gallican liberties ? Subtle politicians will say 
 that in consequence of this appointment to the cardinalate 
 the public will revolt against the ministry of Cardiual de 
 Fleury: dotage, indignity, threats against the public of an 
 inquisition and a Saint-Bartholomew against the Jansenists, 
 flames everywhere, parliament capable of some great stroke 
 as to this, because, trusting only to the hope of a coming 
 better reign, it sees the king letting himself go in this affair. 
 And, in truth, to honourable men what a choice ! what an 
 unworthy object ! The selections of Cardinal de Fleury have 
 always caused surprise and nearly always indignation. 
 
 [March 9.] I had to-day a long conversation with M. 
 Pecquet, clerk of the Foreign Affairs, who told me sincerely 
 what he thinks of the condition of the kingdom ; and he is 
 equally enlightened and penetrating. 
 
 According to him, there has never been so little system in 
 the ministry; they pique themselves on hating the very 
 word ; and yet that word " system " simply means plan ; they 
 are wrong to take it ill, and suppose it means a bad plan. 
 How is it possible to build without a design ? Is it not a 
 characteristic of a dwarfed mind to work only from day to
 
 150 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 day and to foresee nothing ? They cite M. de Pomponne as 
 the author of the political maxim that things would go amiss 
 in Foreign Affairs if they made plans for more than fifteen 
 years : the fact is he was only M. de Pomponne, that is to 
 say, above M. de Morville, who saw but two years before 
 him, and far below Cardinal Eichelieu, who looked into 
 future ages, and Ximenes, who saw still farther and more 
 accurately. 
 
 The hat given to Cardinal Tencin discredits our govern- 
 ment more and more, that is to say, the ministry of the 
 cardinal ; morals despised ; the public insulted in its fears ; 
 fulminating blows about to descend on the Jansenists, that 
 party being swelled to-day by all the honest men in the 
 kingdom who detest injustice and persecution, those two 
 shafts flung by imbecile and pusillanimous hands ready to 
 draw back at the fh-st show of resistance — for parliament 
 no longer spares the Court, because it believes it is on the 
 point of changing sides. 
 
 The whole strength of the party of Cardinal de Fleury 
 rests to-day on that of the constitution [bull Unigenitus]. 
 The poor old man, dejected, abandoned by all since his ill- 
 ness, his incapacity, his senility, with his faults, the dislike 
 of the king and the Court, the shining of M. Chauvelin's 
 party — these are the points on which the Molinists offer 
 to support him, advise him, and even make him formidable. 
 But the condition they make is like a compact with the 
 devil ; he must give himself up to them wholly, and serve 
 them with all his might. Such has the cardinal become in 
 regard to these rabid ultramontanes, men whose boundless 
 ambition, vengeance, exclusion of all honest persons, in a 
 word, all the views and the practice of Jesuitical Italians, 
 are the mainspring of their conduct. Some have a sense of 
 behaviour ; others are fools, sincere, but loving their personal
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 151 
 
 good ; others again, are malignant by nature, rejoicing in the 
 ills of others, and aggrieved by public welfare. 
 
 One of the enterprises of this party is the destruction of 
 the parliament of Paris ; they are about to treat them as 
 advocates to the Council. My brother has made himself 
 formidable in the Council, as the great promoter of this 
 work, and the transference is expected to be immediately 
 made to the Council of all the authority and functions of 
 the parliament of Paris and the destroyed court of appeals. 
 With this conspiracy is combined that of blowing up the 
 hatred of the rival houses of Orleans and Cond^ ; the house 
 of Orleans belongs to the Molinist party ; through the Due 
 d'Orl^ans they expect to destroy M. Chauvelin and keep 
 him in perpetual confinement. 
 
 This rabid Molinist party are to-day carrying things 
 along with more boldness, eagerness, and fury than Pfere 
 Tellier ever did in the bigotry period of the late king ; 
 they are using the decrepitude and facility of our masters 
 to drive them onward by fears, and by the terrors of religion 
 viewed in a petty way. His Majesty has religion, but 
 is too lazy to work or to distinguish religion from supersti- 
 tion ; he needs at least a guide along this new path, and, 
 as the safest way, he lets the cardinal guide everything 
 as soon as it becomes a question of religious matters. 
 
 [March 10.] The cardinal had done me the honour to 
 make the king appoint me to be commissioner on the 
 affair of the University, with no one but M. de Portia, and 
 M. d'Arnouville as committee-reporter. To render a brief 
 account, this is the matter in question : — 
 
 The University of Paris has appealed from the bull Uni- 
 genitus to the Council. In the Council they are working to 
 please Kome by the external victories which they win over 
 the Jansenists; and by means of persecutions, oppression,
 
 152 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 and injustice they are increasing visibly the number of the 
 Jansenists. They are playing the same game by which 
 all France was convulsed on the matter of Calvinism. Cow- 
 ardly and treacherous ambitions are dri\dng the poor, 
 decrepit cardinal, and adding to these horrors, they obsess 
 him and make him believe all they choose. Instead of watch- 
 ing that the Jansenist party shall not spread, they irritate 
 and increase it ; they talk of suppressing parliament, and 
 other extreme measures, while the Jansenists are leaguing 
 together and rendering themselves capable of striking blows. 
 It was thus that they roused the whole parish of Saint- 
 Eoch, by changing all its rectors, and first, all its vicars; 
 thus that they stirred the affair of the Calvary by changing 
 its chief superiors and then dispersing them like the 
 nuns of Port-Koyal ; and thus they are proceeding in the 
 matter of the University. 
 
 There was some dispute as to the continuation of M. Piat 
 as rector, and the poor chancellor, d'Aguesseau, persecuted 
 by M. Herault and the other imbeciles and scoimdrels of 
 the bull, issued a decree forbidding the members of the 
 University to plead in the matter before parliament, and 
 ordering that aU papers and minutes should be brought 
 to the Council; and, later, he appointed us three commis- 
 sioners to give account of our opinion and render it to his 
 Majesty. The affair was examined at my house (I being 
 the head of the commission) on Sunday, March 8, for three 
 hours during the morning. I found in MM. Foiiia and 
 d'AmouviUe all the integrity that could be desired ; the 
 first, being suspected by honest persons in other matters, 
 wished, no doubt, to recover his reputation. We found the 
 affair as bad a scheme on the Court side as it could be. We 
 went at once to Versailles, and that evening from five 
 o'clock till nine we worked at the affair and gave a report
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 153 
 
 of details and of our reflections to the chancellor at a length 
 which may be judged by the time employed. The poor 
 chancellor made us pity him ; he hunted and fingered on 
 all sides to find how to handle a bad business — it was 
 he who had issued the mischievous decree of suspension 
 of the court of appeals of parliament. Parliament decreed 
 to make remonstrances on this spoliation of its authority, 
 above all, it said, at a time when sound maxims and good 
 doctrine were attacked throughout the kingdom. 
 
 The next day, Monday, we had a rendezvous at the cardi- 
 nal's at four o'clock to work over and decide the affair. 
 I went at half-past three, as he was taking his coffee. 
 You should have seen that room all full of frowning and 
 hideous bishops, awaiting tlie dead body to devour it, like 
 vultures after carrion ; each was slipping in his word for 
 some favour. But above all, there was Cardinal de Rohan, 
 with M. Hdrault and my brother giving him his cue to prepare 
 him against us ; they went from him to us, and we were 
 presently sent into the antechamber with all the others 
 to leave his Eminence alone. The parleys then went on at 
 a gi-eat rate to seduce us, but we held firm. My brother 
 only advised me to say little to his Eminence and let the 
 others pick bones with him, but M. Hdrault told me sublime 
 things, such as this : that private rights should always yield 
 to superior views ; that for this reason a judge ought not 
 to feel scruples in condemning to death an innocent person 
 if it was plain that there would result in a few days some 
 great general good: this great general good is, they say, 
 that in two months the appeal of the University will be 
 revoked. 
 
 The bottom of all this is that Cardinal de Eohan means 
 
 to commit the stupidity of getting his nephew, the Abbd 
 
 de Ventadour, elected rector of the University; so that 
 
 Ver. 2—11 Mem,
 
 154 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 lie will have the credit of the revocation of the appeal, and 
 thus merit from the Court of France, and that of Kome es- 
 pecially, the coadjutorship of Strasburg, and subsequently 
 the cardinal's hat. 
 
 I shall not say more on the details of this meeting, which 
 lasted two whole hours. The cardinal, biased as he was, 
 entered into the whole difficulty, and felt it. He recognized 
 that the affah had been badly reported; that quantities of 
 facts denied by both sides were not sustained by docu- 
 ments; and thereupon the decision was postponed to 
 another time, although the matter was pressing, as the elec- 
 tion of rector takes place on the twenty-fourth of this 
 month. I tried to say little, but I said things; I tried to 
 place them as best I could; I set myself to hear and get 
 the value of all that the cardinal said, in order to refute 
 him politely. 
 
 There is great uproar in England ; they have had riots 
 among the people on hearing that two English vessels 
 have been sent to the bottom by the Spaniards. This, they 
 said, this, is Walpole's treaty of peace ! we gave him all 
 power to arm the forces of England ; he has spent twenty 
 millions for us (French money) in armaments, and for all 
 that he gets only a miserable treaty in which Spain keeps 
 back almost as much as she restores for our vessels ! — To 
 this is added the love of the people for the Prince of Wales 
 and their contempt for the king, the national debt, which 
 is finely increased since the last parliament, the recon- 
 ciliation of France with Spain, and the great number of 
 lords in the Chamber of Peers who have declared against 
 Walpole. 
 
 "Within the kingdom, the archbishops and bishops of the 
 provinces most scourged by famine have orders to write a 
 circular to their parish priests instructing them to write to
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 155 
 
 all the lay seigneurs requesting them to assist the poor. 
 These letters outdo everything; that of the prelates is im- 
 prudent, that of the priests is insolent ; it speaks of a decree 
 of the Council to enforce these charities, and of the " humili- 
 ating orders" which persons will draw upon themselves 
 imless they obey the Church in this matter ; and it also says 
 that constant accounts will be rendered to the government 
 of the manner in which each person behaves respecting it. 
 These parish priests, who are usually on bad terms with the 
 seigneurs, thought they were so many little ministers 
 charged with these orders, and were pleased to think them- 
 selves raised above the seigneurs. In my province of Tou- 
 raine, the latter all revolted against this innovation ; and 
 through this insolence of the priests charity was chilled 
 instead of being warmed. Quantities of worthy persons 
 who were helping the poor protested against this coercion, 
 and gave nothing more. They thought they saw in this an 
 approaching reign of priests, the cardinal being now sur- 
 rounded entirely by that villanous class. 
 
 The Abb^ de Ventadour, nephew of Cardinal de Eohan, 
 has been elected rector of the University, as I said before. 
 It was not done without disturbance ; but the young men 
 who went to the assembly made such an uproar that they 
 carried the day. It remains to be seen what the best heads, 
 the leaders of the University, parliament, and the people 
 will say about it ; and to what degree of heat these violent 
 innovations will give rise. 
 
 The king's course is settled as to what his Majesty will 
 do when deprived of Cardinal de Fleury, and nothing can 
 change it. He has said that the Foreign Affairs wiU be 
 conducted by some one able to govern them well ; and that 
 some one can be no other than M. Chauvelin, as he is de- 
 scribed. M. Bachelier has let himself out of late on the
 
 156 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OY [chap. iv. 
 
 subject of the dismissed minister, and has admitted him to 
 be the man in the world who is dearest to the king and 
 most esteemed by him. His Majesty sees that it was only 
 through envy and by a cabal that he was displaced and his 
 character blackened, but finding nothing against him this 
 passing through the crucible has only shown his purity. 
 Bachelier swears he has held no communication with him. 
 The king has long, as I have heard said by persons in his 
 Majesty's intimacy, had his plan made in regard to M. Chau- 
 velin. He believed at first that Cardinal de Fleury had all 
 the ability of Cardinal de Eichelieu joined to the integrity of 
 a Joseph ; he still believes in the last quality, but the first 
 has vanished, to his mind, since the dismissal of M. Chau- 
 velin. As long as the cardinal's days and power for work 
 lasted the king resolved to profit by his youth to divert him- 
 self, hunt, go about, and amuse liimself as he pleased ; and 
 during this time to learn, profit, reflect, and inform himself 
 about public affairs, as a private speculator might do, and 
 thus acquire age, force, maturity with these ideas. Notliing 
 could be wiser nor more just than this project, and every- 
 thing induces belief that Ms Majesty will execute it. 
 
 [April.] We have long argued, my brother and I, on 
 affairs of State and of ambitious views for him, and even for 
 me who think no more about them. I have noticed that the 
 real defect which will always cause my brother to fail in 
 grand objects, even if he had them, is that he never thinks 
 of persuading his superiors except through their weaknesses, 
 not by their true interests; the great good, public utility, 
 has not even a fragment of the meditations of his mind ; he 
 scarcely thinks of it. In this way he pleases for the 
 moment, but he is never useful enough to be at the same 
 time and steadily liked and esteemed. My brother has a 
 strong soul, stronger than mine, but with that boldness he
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 157 
 
 has a mind more petty than I can tell. He goes at great 
 things by little means. How many men there are whose 
 conception is mistaken for genius ! such conception moves 
 quickly and leads their passive faculties to listen readily to 
 the ideas of others ; it rises even to great ideas, but in criti- 
 cism ; they take it as an external nourishment which their 
 stomach rejects. From this littleness of soul combined 
 with this boldness and force of mind it results that my 
 brother can only work in sight and when his work is des- 
 tined to be quickly seen. Hence also he prefers the sciences 
 that stimulate curiosity, like physics and geometry, to politi- 
 cal, moral, and metaphysical studies; and among political 
 subjects he likes the science of law according to our forms 
 and legal methods of proceeding, which are worse than the 
 abuses from wliich they pretend to protect the public. I 
 have not his boldness of temperament ; if I am worth any- 
 thing it is because to my laziness and my shyness is joined 
 a rectitude of heart and mind wliich makes me like better 
 to he than to appear. I need loftiness in objects to inspire 
 me with the boldness necessary for undertakings, and, above 
 all, perseverance and constancy of impulse. But then the / 
 is forgotten, and I think only of others. 
 
 [April 17.] The king has declared openly that he will 
 not receive the sacrament at Easter. Our fool of a grand 
 provost asked for his orders about touching scrofulous 
 patients ; our kings do not perform this miracle until after 
 they have made their Easter devotions. The king answered 
 the provost curtly, " No." People groaned at this scandal 
 Appearances at least might have been saved by a low mass 
 said by Cardinal de Eohan in the king's cabinet, Pfere de 
 Liniferes being present, and they could mysteriously have 
 held their tongues about the king's not presenting himself 
 for confession or the Eucharist; but the king disdained
 
 158 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 that ridiculous comedy, being plunged in adultery and not 
 intending to give it up. Truly honourable men hold the 
 opinion that his Majesty has religion and is openly honest 
 in not being willing to take the sacrament unworthily, nor 
 to play a comedy more unworthy of his rank than it is 
 scandalous not to fulfil his duty. This leads fmther still to 
 his shaking off the yoke of the old preceptor. 
 
 The ill-humour of the cardinal increases and his spirit of 
 decision lessens daily ; he involves us in a quarrel with Hol- 
 land minecessarily ; he refuses an adjustment with Portugal, 
 who has sent her own ambassador carte-blanche. The pub- 
 lication of the peace has just been postponed, no doubt for 
 certain difficulties that show the sort of men who govern us. 
 The king is much dissatisfied with the incompetence shown by 
 M. Amelot, minister of Foreign Atfairs, who takes no coun- 
 sel except that of his memory and his barren mind. His two 
 head, and excellent, clerks, M]\I. du Theil and Pecquet, are 
 doing nothing ; he does not give them a quarter of an hour's 
 work a day. M. Amelot has di'awn up very badly the min- 
 utes and project of a treaty with Corsica. He is full of neg- 
 ligence and impracticable things. 
 
 The king endm-es the cardinal with more and more vexa- 
 tion and impatience daily ; he shows it to him at every turn ; 
 he is brusque to him ; he does not answer liim. But all 
 these rebuffs will not avail ; the cardinal is governed by his 
 habit of reigning, by the hypocritical Molinists, who tell him 
 incessantly that for the good of religion he must govern the 
 kingdom to the end, otherwise this poor Prance will be 
 ruled by irreligion. They support themselves by the fact 
 that the king has declared he will not perform his duties at 
 Easter this year, that France will be more and more delivered 
 over to heterodox}- and to schism with Rome, everything 
 yielding to the influence of the house of Condd, which is
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSOX. 159 
 
 known to be Jansenist. But what retains him most in his 
 office, now so precarious, is the certainty, of which he daily 
 convinces himself, that M. Chauvelin will step into his place 
 the moment his Eminence turns his back, and this thought 
 turns his head. 
 
 The public is alarmed by a rumour put about that Cardi- 
 nal de Tencin is to become the assistant of Cardinal de 
 rieury. The former has made himself absolutely a cardinal- 
 valet ; he is always at the lever and the coucher of the prime- 
 minister ; he supplies him with memorials about everything ; 
 but the devil of it is to make the king like him, and that 
 goes backward instead of advancing. 
 
 [April 28.] Expecting to start for Lisbon I ^\Tote M. 
 Chauvelin the following letter : — 
 
 Paris, April 24, 1739. 
 
 I cannot, Monseigneur, leave the kingdom without taking leave 
 of you, and without speaking to you of my prospects and even of 
 yours, in order that I may assure you of the continuation of my 
 sentiments. 
 
 According to the answer with which you honoured me on the 
 20th of last month, I see that you were ignorant of even my resi- 
 dence ; that idea has grieved me, although I understand it. Your 
 brother-in-law sent me your letter, and if I could not find an 
 equally safe way of sending this I would deprive myself of writing 
 it, however great a pleasure that is to me. 
 
 I seem fated not to leave a career for which I have never had 
 either taste, talent, or advancement. To this I have resigned 
 myself for the last fourteen years. There has been for me no 
 means of getting out of it but that of being known to you, or 
 rather of being divined by you through the kindness and the 
 friendship with which you have honoured me, and which I ar- 
 dently desire may be justified by results. 
 
 I am not summoned, they make no use of me except upon the 
 memorials you have given them; which were, assuredly, the least 
 of the inspirations derived from your illustrious ministry. To end
 
 160 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 what concerns my fate : I was destined to another embassy when 
 that of Portugal was thought to have failed ; I did not ask for it ; 
 I have proposed myself for nothing, thank God ; I am content to 
 be in all things for myself only. All that I can claim of my own 
 getting for my fortune is the memory of your wisdom, your moder- 
 ation, your attachment to the king and the State, and the love I 
 have for such virtues. I have heard talk of several other things 
 for me ; and I have always recognized their source. I have lis- 
 tened, I may confess with some curiosity ; but, thank God, I kept 
 to that, and nothing lias interfered with my tranquil resignation. 
 
 In truth, monsieur, Avhat I desire most in the world is to see the 
 State well-governed; and as my wishes are not at all blind, I join 
 to them what means I can of which I am sure. Our master de- 
 serves for his virtue to be served according to his desires. I think 
 I have conjectured them truly during the past year. I know on 
 whom he has placed his choice for chief confidence. Fortunate 
 and virtuous are those who work to confirm him in it. I did not 
 need this inducement to feel attached to them. I admire the wis- 
 dom that suffers, endures, and awaits the moment with so much 
 patience, fearing nothing so much as to return through the forget- 
 ting of old services and the insulting of old age. But such scruples 
 have their limit ; irreparable faults, destructive evils, bad selections 
 that stain even noble reigns should be feared. You know to what 
 extent the poverty of the provinces has gone, and j'our capacity 
 shows you how much farther it may go. We know what party 
 has prevailed at Court since your departure. ]\Ien, whose sole 
 merit is to hate you and to be openly interested in opposing your 
 return, pique themselves on serving the religion their wicked am- 
 bition betrays, and are ready to violate the constitution of the king- 
 dom. Without any necessity for violence in their councils, they 
 corrupt morals by the choice of unwortliy persons, to which they 
 persuade daily. Foreign affairs move no longer, except through 
 the impulsion you gave to them ; the rest is committed to chance 
 and a star that may pale ; the harmon}"^ of parties with one another 
 is being lost ; general plans of system are treated as chimerical, 
 and so are grand questions which effectually and sincerely frighten 
 the smallest heads that our nation ever saw at hers. 
 
 That, monsieur, is the state in which I leave this kingdom when
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 161 
 
 I depart about the 1st of next June. I am more uneasy about it 
 than about what concerns me personally. A right temper of duty 
 and reflection, will it put sufficient curb upon the progress of these 
 evils ? As for me, I shall acquit myself as best I can, and with all 
 the industry of which I am capable in my consulate (supposing I 
 am fortunate enough to bring one about), and especially with the 
 memory of your counsels, of which I have forgotten none. 
 
 This letter is only good to express my sentiments, and merely 
 demands the fire and no reply, unless it may be to hear that you 
 are well and that your genius has still many years in which to serve 
 the State, in spite of those now being consumed in a political exile 
 which I will not qualify as it deserves out of my great respect for 
 him who tolerates it. 
 
 [April 25.] I had to-day a long conversation about Hol- 
 land with M. de Ville, secretary to the embassy of the Mar- 
 quis de r^nelon, our ambassador at the Hague. He told me 
 that we held Holland by the fear the Dutch have of foreign 
 oppression ; that the intrigues of the Prince of Orange, that 
 is to say, the secret practices of his father-in-law the King of 
 England, make our real strength there ; for that king, made 
 powerful in money and corruption in his own land by Wal- 
 pole, has a great affection for his daughter, the Princess of 
 Orange, who resembles him more than she did her late 
 mother. Thus his Britannic Majesty openly supports in 
 Holland the party of the Prince of Orange for the purpose 
 of carrying him to the generalship and tyranny. That pro- 
 duces disunion between the two maritime powers, and im- 
 doubtedly it will happen that some of these mornings the 
 party in Parliament opposed to the Court will reproach it for 
 the wrong thus done to the nation. The Dutch have there- 
 fore need of us, and are treating us accordingly, in fear of the 
 oppression that this union of interests with England against 
 Prance may bring upon them. 
 
 The present Grand Pensioner is insignificant, — a small
 
 162 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, iv 
 
 mind, busy about little things; he understands one thing, 
 and that is finance, to which he was brought up. That is 
 another reason for deterring Holland from great enterprises 
 against us, which would begin by a union of the English 
 Protestant party with Prussia. 
 
 [April 28.] I was greatly embarrassed when the difficul- 
 ties ended in Portugal; on one side the exterior ministers 
 said to me, " Go, and go quickly ; " on the other the secret 
 and interior ministers said, " Do not go ; the king wants to 
 keep you for better things." I asked for a decision, and at 
 last it came. They told me that his Majesty did not think 
 me very unfortunate in seeing the beautiful country watered 
 by the Ebro and Tagus, that I should return in a short time, 
 and that while I was to seem to hurry my departure as much 
 as possible, I was to carry things along until the beginning 
 of July. And, in fact, after a short time, I foimd the eager- 
 ness of the ministers to get me off much chilled. There is 
 no penetratiug what words were said about this between his 
 Majesty and his Eminence. But for all that, the payment 
 of my orders on the royal treasury are postponed from 
 day to day. 
 
 [May 3.] I think I have spoken heretofore of the affair 
 of the University, in which the cardinal was at first dis- 
 pleased at my opinion being against his scheme, to which he 
 was incited by those vile, ambitious, and treacherous Molin- 
 ist priests ; nevertheless, the good man felt the difficulties, and 
 also my fidelity and frankness. But since then it has hap- 
 pened that their object, which was to revoke the power of 
 appeal from the University, has absolutely failed ; hence the 
 cardinal has reflected on the correctness of my opinion, and 
 he now sings my praises everywhere, and even in circum- 
 stances which show that the affau- of the University is ia his 
 mind, for he said the other day to Don Luis d'Acunha : " You
 
 3739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 163 
 
 could hardly believe how much that man loves truth ; he 
 likes to tell it and displease." 
 
 At the same time the king asked me, through Bachelier, 
 for a memorial as to the management of the affair of the 
 Constitution Unigenitus, saying that that was the only thing 
 that embarrassed him as to the future government ; that his 
 Council of to-day was ill-informed on these matters ; but he 
 felt that the late Due d'Orl^ans, regent, had given in too 
 much to Jansenism and that the cardinal was to-day giving 
 in too much to Molinism ; and that he was satisfied on this 
 point only with the government of M. le Due, who punished 
 equally the passions of one side and of the other. There- 
 upon, I have just sent in the memorial, which will be found 
 in my portfolio of "Affairs of State." Bachelier read it 
 through three times and almost knew it by heart ; then he 
 gave it to the king who also re-read it, and put it among his 
 papers, from all of which he makes extracts. 
 
 It appears to have brought fruit ; for the i-umours about 
 Jansenism, the affair of the " Calvaire," that of the Univer- 
 sity, the bitterness against parliament have all stopped short 
 They have put a milder rector in Saint-Eoch in place of the 
 defunct. It is beyond a doubt that his Majesty spoke to the 
 cardinal as it was needful he should, and I ought to feel 
 much flattered at being the cause of this salutary peace. 
 
 The interior of the kingdom is in a state without example ; 
 the towns, particularly the capital, have drawn everything 
 into them, especially since the diminution of the currency 
 made under M. le Due. This was first felt in 1725, when 
 there was a very inclement season. M. le Due then raised 
 the value a little, and things went better. The cardinal kept 
 the currency in this state ; the rich have lost, because of the 
 injustice there is in having to pay three francs in gold or 
 silver instead of the two they agreed to pay when money was
 
 164 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, iv, 
 
 higher ; and as it has happened that commodities have not 
 risen in proportion, universal bankruptcy has followed. As 
 this last act of the tragedy bears upon the lower class of people, 
 they are exposed to frightful misery when the crops are poor ; 
 what would happen, therefore, if we had another famine like 
 that of 1709 ? And yet, the cardinal having set that brutal 
 and imbecile M. Orry over the finances, the more the latter 
 is threatened with disgrace (especially through the pillage of 
 his brother), the more he opposes everything with fresh in- 
 humanities and stupidities, sustaining his credit with the 
 cardinal by flattering him. 
 
 The misery within the kingdom has increased during the 
 last year to an incredible degree ; people are dying off like 
 flies from poverty, eating grass, especially in the provinces 
 of Touraine, Maine, Angoumois, Haut-Poitou, P^rigord, Orld- 
 annais, Berry, even up to the environs of Versailles. It is in 
 vain to tell all this ; the impression made is momentary ; M. 
 Orry persuades the cardinal that they are mere tales, insinu- 
 ated by M. Chauvelin's party to oust him and discredit him. 
 
 The selfish interests of the said Orry in part led him 
 to this gross flattery, but also, in part, the talk of finan- 
 ciers, through whose eyes alone he sees the kingdom. He 
 considers the intendants as so many curates or charitable 
 women, who exaggerate the evil by silly soft-heartedness. 
 In this way he has disgusted the intendants ; he treats the 
 kingdom precisely like an enemy's country on which to 
 levy contributions, and matters are seen only through the 
 eyes of those who draw the highest contributions. 
 
 This political evil, the full import of which is not known, 
 through the conditions of the currency which I have just 
 stated is a phenomenon which our best reasoners hold to 
 be incomprehensible ; for it is not seen that there is famine 
 everywhere ; it has occurred only biennially in the most
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 165 
 
 ill-used provinces, with prosperous years in others ; it is 
 the lack of money, the lack of means to buy provisions 
 which does the harm. Whence comes it ? With all this 
 poverty, grains and provisions are getting dearer every- 
 where ; no one employs laboui'. But M. Orry enforces 
 the taxes with more rigour than ever, the taille-tax is 
 raised very high ; he shows the cardinal an abundance in 
 the treasury which makes the latter congratulate himself 
 and continue his political projects; and so the same thing 
 goes on. 
 
 A year ago I began, on returning from my province of 
 Touraine to expose the horrors of this poverty. The cardi- 
 nal said to me, "But talk to the controller-general" (Orry). 
 Then the dowager Duchesse de Eochechouart wrote to the 
 cardinal and made an impression. The Due de La Roche- 
 foucauld coming from the Angoumois did the same thing ; 
 and later the Bishop of Mans came from his bishopric to 
 Versailles expressly to say that every one was dying there ; 
 and finally, the Bailli de Froulay, who has much access 
 at Court, came from Maine to cry aloud still more power- 
 fully. All this made impressions, and then no more was 
 heard of it. 
 
 [May 13.] They say that the cardinal is thinking of 
 being pope after the death of the reigning pope, who is 
 only two years older than himself, being born in 1651, and 
 Cardinal de Fleury in 1653, although the Royal Almanach 
 gives the date of his birth as June, 1655. This explains a 
 quantity of enigmas. Here may be what makes the king put 
 up with him. His Majesty is flattered by the glory of 
 making his old tutor pope, as Charles V. did for his; so 
 he shoulders time along and will not dismiss him until 
 that moment arrives. Here, too, is explained both the 
 spirit of persecution (with which his Eminence was not
 
 16G JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 originally tainted), and his friendship with Cardinal de 
 Tencin, whom he knows to be a clever scoundrel, capable 
 of great intrigues at Eome, whereas an honest man would 
 not have served him as well. 
 
 Nota : Cardinal Mazarin was also destined for the papacy 
 when he died. 
 
 Famine has occasioned three uprisings in the provinces ; 
 at Euffec, Caen, and Chinon. They murdered women on 
 the high-roads who were caiTying bread. That simple food 
 is more coveted to-day than purses of gold in former times, 
 and indeed, pressing hunger and the desire to preserve life 
 excuses crime more than the avarice of accumulating for 
 needs to come. Xormandy, that excellent country, succumbs 
 under excessive taxes and the extortions of the collectors. 
 The race of farmers is extinct. I know persons who are 
 compelled to work then excellent lands by valets ; all is 
 perishing, succumbing. The Due d'OrMans brought to the 
 Council the other day a bit of bracken bread ; at the open- 
 ing of the session he laid it on the table before the king 
 saying, " Sire, see the sort of bread on which your subjects 
 are fed to-day." They have just established in Touraine 
 what they call le trop bu ["the too-much drimk"]. Agents 
 come to a gentleman's house and measure how much wine 
 of his own making he has in his cellar. They say : 
 " You can drink only twenty puncheons ; we brand the 
 surplus and will pay you for it at a certain time." This 
 is borne out of respect for the formidable name of the 
 king; but before long all will rise against tyranny. 
 
 JVote about these present Memoirs : They might be written 
 down in order of dates and as a journal in the style of the 
 " Journal de I'Estoile," but my articles are often more ex- 
 tended ; there will be a quantity of faults for an editor to 
 correct, and much to reform and prime in the style.
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 167 
 
 The Bishop of Chartres made some singularly bold state- 
 ments at the lever of the king and at the queen's dinner 
 yesterday ; everybody has urged him to continue them. 
 The king questioned him as to the state of his people ; he 
 answered that famine and mortality prevailed ; that men 
 were eating grass like sheep and dying like flies, and that 
 soon there would be a pestilence, which would be for all, 
 even his Majesty. The queen having offered him a hundred 
 louis for his poor, the good bishop answered : " Madame, 
 keep your money till the king, his finances, and mine are 
 exhausted ; then your Majesty shall assist my poor people, 
 if you have any money left." 
 
 The whole blame for this falls more and more, and neces- 
 sarily, on M. Orry. It is a certain fact that the brothers 
 Paris offered to import seven millions' worth of wheat, the 
 cost of which they would advance, asking but little on 
 account, and by a bargain with the English they could 
 then have bought it for thirteen francs the setter. M. Orry 
 rejected the proposal harshly ; but a few months later, the 
 famine making itself felt, he had recourse to the same 
 proposal; but the Paris now asked twenty-four francs for 
 what they had offered at thirteen. To all this the authori- 
 ties answer that the season is fine, and the fields promise 
 much. But what will a good harvest do for the poor ? 
 Is the wheat theirs ? It belongs to the rich proprietors, 
 and when they gather it they will be overwhelmed with 
 demands from their masters, their creditors, and the col- 
 lectors of the royal commodities, who have only suspended 
 their persecutions to make them harder than ever. 
 
 [June, 1739.] The aversion of the king for the cardinal 
 increases daily. When the hour comes for work he drops 
 the gaiety which he now has at all other times ; he frowns, 
 seems vexed, and tells Balon, the usher, to go and fetch
 
 168 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iv. 
 
 " that cardinal." During their work together he says little. 
 He lets the old man talk, and refuses by silence or a mere 
 " No " what the cardinal proposes. In short he shows him, 
 and even affects to do so, that he annoys him and would 
 like to disgust him so much that he would retire of his own 
 accord ; but no hint is taken. 
 
 The minister is no longer the cardinal once master of him- 
 self, accepting the ministry against his own wishes, virtuous, 
 moderate, disinterested, seeking nothing for himself or his 
 family, in despair at the king's evasion of work, striving to 
 conquer it and to make himself useless (as Fontenelle said 
 falsely of Cardinal Dubois) and the object of the sincere 
 benedictions of the people who regarded him as the author 
 of all good ; everything is now precisely in contradiction of 
 all these things. The king knows this ; indeed, it is told to 
 him all day long. He sees his old tutor, now eighty -eight 
 years old and in his dotage, he sees him, I say, only two or 
 three times a week, jDerhaps for one quarter of an hour alone. 
 We can only explain the king's course by two defects attrib- 
 uted to him : laziness of mind and timidity. I do not deny 
 that he has given great signs of both these defects ; and yet 
 he likes trouble and fatigue of body ; he works alone, as I 
 have said ; he feels a need to occupy himself ; he has a fine 
 memory, and a quick mind; he has, finally, prepared the 
 way for M. Chauvelin, a hard-working, industrious minister, 
 wise and faithful, known to him to be such, and fitted to 
 relieve him of everything. His Majesty has also cast his 
 eyes on a minister of finance, and a minister of the interior, 
 whose fidelity he knows, and who are capable of repairing 
 the disasters within the kingdom. 
 
 As for timidity, I admit that it was born in the king's 
 nature ; but he seems to be surmounting it. He is brave in 
 heart, and shows himself on horseback, in himting and
 
 1739] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 169 
 
 everywhere, as if he feared nothing ; at present he speaks 
 out boldl}^ before every one ; he begins a conversation ; he 
 answers others. What is it that he does not do ? — say a 
 word to an old vegetating pedagogue, or at least write him 
 during his absences and tell him to remain absent. After 
 that, what would hinder the king from reforming the affairs 
 of the country by a new ministry ? 
 
 On the other side (I mean the cardinal's side), what a 
 great enigma it is ! Why does he stay in office ? What 
 does he do there ? What can he hope ? A dying man, 
 shunned, detested by all, seeing himself reduced to half a 
 dozen rascals who remain attached to him for the sake of 
 their own interests, and to a few bankers whom he foolishly 
 courts for their money, and whose rights he has extended 
 in contempt of famine, liberty, and humanity. 
 
 The cardinal was born with gentleness and discernment ; 
 he has lost them through the ill-humours and intoxication 
 of office ; but something must remain which will surely lead 
 him to make a return upon himself ; he sees that the king is 
 escaping him, he refuses him many things ; and he feels 
 himself at all moments on the eve of dismissal. Many 
 persons thought that he was waiting for the general peace to 
 pull off his shoes and make an honourable retreat ; assuredly 
 there is nothing better for him to do in this world than to 
 find some good moment in which to sing Saint-Simeon's 
 canticle : Nunc dimittis servum tuitm, Domine. 
 
 But peace has been proclaimed, and the cardinal has not 
 retired ! 
 
 Vcr. 2—12 Mem.
 
 170 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 V. 
 
 1739 — 1740. 
 
 [July.] The king has hastened his return from Com- 
 pi^gne to Versailles ; it was to have been the 8th of August, 
 then the 2d, and now it is fixed for the 27th of this month. 
 There is more and more chilliness and sulk between his 
 Majesty and his Eminence, and it is secretly whispered that 
 it will not be a week before something happens for the great 
 good of the public. Nobody wishes the cardinal's death, 
 honourable persons do not wish a man such harm ; neither 
 his natural death nor his civil death are desired, only his 
 political death. The king's real plan is to give him so many 
 l^etty annoyances that he will force him to leave all and 
 retire to Koyaumont, or elsewhere. The cardinal has pass- 
 keys to enter everywhere, at Versailles, Fontainebleau, 
 Marly, or at Compifegne. He lately found at Compifegne 
 that all the locks had been changed, so that the day after 
 his arrival he said to Barjac [his valet] : " This key wont 
 unlock — unlock it, Barjac." The latter said they must 
 have changed the lock. The cardinal was furious ; he sent 
 for one of the builders, who hesitated what to say ; but as 
 the cardinal insisted on knowing by whose order the change 
 was made, " By order of the king, monseigneur," he said at 
 last; "but his Majesty forbade its being mentioned." Cer- 
 tainly there is civility in that ; it is dismissing a man with 
 great politeness. 
 
 Compifegne has fallen into disfavour. The queen wants 
 to go everywhere ; it was the cardinal who induced the king
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 171 
 
 to take the queen there, and this has annoyed his Majesty, 
 although it procures him more assiduity from Mine, de 
 Mailly, who does not have many weeks of amusement. But 
 the queen chooses to hunt on horseback, and that spoils 
 everything ; on the other hand the stags are frightened away 
 from the forest by the cannon fired from the School of Artil- 
 lery and the attack on the polygonal. 
 
 The king is thinking of building at Blois something small, 
 a hunting-box like La Muette, which would not cost much. 
 Meantime his Majesty has Petit-Bourg and Choisy he might 
 use for this establishment, which is to be in sight of the 
 forest of Senay. For all these consolations they await the 
 end of the cardinal, who grumbles at everything. The king 
 has drawings of the buildings made constantly in his pres- 
 ence, specially by yoimg Gabriel. 
 
 The king loves Mme. de Mailly more and more ; he even 
 allows her to say cavalier thiiigs to him. The other day 
 she lost at cards ; the king expressed regret ; and she replied : 
 " It is not surprising, for you were there." She takes a tone 
 of grandeur as an acknowledged mistress, and everybody 
 sees that her influence increases, but the poor woman has 
 not a louis in her pocket. Here 's another insolence of the car- 
 dinal : it is ridiculous that the mistress of any farmer-general 
 should be in better condition than that of the king. 
 
 A few days ago, Mile, de Clermont gave a supper at 
 Luciennes ; it lasted till two in the morning ; they drank 
 and amused themselves much. The king was pleased ; 
 they handled the cardinal without gloves and said to his 
 Majesty several times, " When are you going to get rid of 
 your old tutor ? " 
 
 At this supper the king looked at the sleeve-buttons of 
 the Due de Chartres, and told him it was ridiculous that 
 they were false, and it was his opinion that they ought to
 
 172 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 be real diamonds. His Majesty took upon himself to speak 
 to the Due d'Orldans on the subject ; all this unknown to 
 the cardinal ; and when the suggestion was accepted bv 
 the Due d'Orldans in presence of his niggardly and aged 
 Eminence the latter's visage elongated terribly. 
 
 The king has insensibly taken a fancy to the Due de 
 Chartres, who is much to his taste and his inclinations ; he 
 loves hunting and walking like his Majesty, and does not 
 like, any more than he, steady application ; also he likes 
 honourable men and dignity. The king often talks to him 
 as a father who frolics with his boy, and the young prince 
 behaves admirably and is really attached to the king ; which 
 is the surest means of attracting his friendship. 
 
 Mme. de Mailly is beginning to fire at the queen, and 
 fails in proper respect, which may bring trouble upon her. 
 They say that the only person who is to-day truly a friend 
 of the cardinal is the queen, because he goes now and then 
 to dry her tears about the king's amour with Mme. de 
 Mailly. As their affliction is sincerely in common, this 
 consolation is also sincere, and nothing binds people more 
 firmly together. Here are two Com-t personages, their hearts 
 afflicted by the loss — one of the caresses of her husband 
 which that of others cannot replace, the second of his dear 
 despotic authority, now become tyranny, but enervated and 
 not able to last much longer, seeing his age, and the abuse 
 he has made of it. 
 
 They are making great talk here about M. Chauvelin at 
 Bourges because he is giving help to all the poor about him, 
 and keeping a skilful surgeon to attend them. They say 
 that all this is done for ostentation ; the fashionable notion 
 among the partisans of the cardinal is that all the present 
 talk of poverty is nothing, and is much exaggerated by the 
 Chauvelinists. If the said Chauvelin had not given these
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 173 
 
 alms, the same people would have said he was a hard mau. 
 The wheat harvest is very bad everywhere; it seems as if 
 the heavens were contributing to our ruin as long as we 
 have this detestable ministry to govern us so ill, Never 
 did one hear of hail in so many directions and such losses in 
 consequence; elsewhere it is the wheat-smut, the fog, the 
 sudden heat upon corn after cold rains and northerly winds, 
 so that the ears turn black. Quantities of rye have been 
 frozen which was not observed at first ; so that taking out 
 from this harvest, estimated at a quarter less than usual, 
 enough for next year's sowing, we shall, by the end of 
 autumn, fall back into fearful misery, worse than before. 
 
 But even if that should not happen, I say that a kingdom 
 like this, reduced to such a point that one harvest, good or 
 bad, decides the general misery, is condemned to a state 
 of continual wretchedness, because many other things are 
 needed to support it; and I say also that poverty ought 
 not to be so general that other prosperities cannot sustain 
 some portion at least of the lower classes which suffer 
 through the cost of wheat. 
 
 [July 15.] A new danseuse appeared last night at the 
 Opera. She is Italian, and calls herself La Barberini; she 
 springs very high, has stout legs, but dances with precision. 
 She is not without grace in her twirlings, she is pretty and 
 much applauded, so it is to be feared that her style of danc' 
 ing will be followed. We have seen already what success 
 Camargo had among foreigners for the perilous leaps she 
 produced here. Our light, graceful, noble dancing, worthy 
 of the nymphs, will be turned into vaulting taken from 
 the Italians and English. Thus has degenerated and is 
 degenerating in our day the celestial music of Lulli ; the 
 artist supersedes the man of taste; the merit of difficulty 
 overcome gives vogue to foreign art, and we yield the pas
 
 174 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 foolishly, when we are, in truth, in possession of higher 
 things. 
 
 The king is more in love than ever with Mme. de Mailly ; 
 and she is openly more and more against the cardinal and 
 appears to have undertaken his ruin. She is impatient to 
 be declared mistress and made a duchess ; meanwhile, she 
 has not a penny. Her husband, who at first set up his 
 carriage, goes about once more in a hackney-coach. The 
 Spanish ambassador is often at her toilet. But she is poorer 
 than ever ; so a man who frequents her much told me. 
 Her chemises are all wearing out and in holes ; and her 
 maid is ill-clothed, which reveals real poverty. She had 
 not five crowns the other day to pay a loss at quadrille. 
 She is as disinterested as can be ; she renders willing service 
 to her friends ; but knows nothing about money matters and 
 will not even listen to them. She is frank, she is true ; but 
 she is lofty as the clouds and long remembers an affront. 
 All this is in good keeping -^dth the character of the king, 
 who likes frankness and honest persons. 
 
 A man at Court, who has been, they tell me, in high oflfice 
 (though they will not yet name him), says that my reputa- 
 tion is increasing at every step, both before the public and at 
 Court ; that the ministers fear me and not only wish to keep 
 me at a distance (as I should have been in Portugal) but by 
 depriving me of that embassy to prevent me from obtaining 
 any post in the ministry ; that I ought to beware of them ; 
 that the course I have taken has put every one on my side, 
 and has given a sample of the extreme dotage, injustice, and 
 t}Tanny of the cardinal ; and that I have what is called the 
 pit for me. 
 
 [July 30.] A courtier who has just arrived from Com- 
 pifegne tells me it is still possible to define the king's nature 
 as good in spite of what is happening in the State and with
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 175 
 
 his Majesty himself ; that he shows hitelligence more and 
 more ; that he plainly intended to do well at the camp ; but 
 that every one noticed he was a child from head to foot, 
 amusmg himself readily with childish things, like the Due 
 de Chartres, although he is nigh upon thirty years old. To 
 be a child is to have that sort of imagination which leads to 
 gaiety over trifles and to svidden inconstancy ; it is a pretty 
 defect, which may last till the fiftieth year, but no longer. I 
 remember, however, seeing Cardinal de Polignac, in his exile 
 at Auchin, skip for joy because I had procured for him two 
 fine cows from Fumes. 
 
 Besides the above, the king is obstinate on four or five 
 points, and nothing in the world could make him give them 
 up; which comes partly from his childishness, partly from 
 an opinion that firmness is good for kings ; and this is begin- 
 ning to get him out of the said childhood. Among his points 
 of obstinacy is the idea that he ought to be absolute master 
 of all that concerns his personal life, such as his journeys, 
 suppers, mistress, valets, etc., into which he will not allow, by 
 sudden and total revolt, that the cardinal should put his nose 
 for an instant. 
 
 In the same way (and this the worst of his obstinacies) 
 he is convinced that it is for his honour not to show himself 
 ungrateful to the cardinal, and that he would kill him dead 
 if he took the affairs of the State away from him. But he 
 gives the cardinal, as he goes along, any quantity of mortifi- 
 cations, which may make him leave his post at the risk of 
 what will happen after him ; for, as all men feel, it is better 
 to live tranquil than die in obtaining vengeance. 
 
 [August, 1739.] Enjoying at this time a fairly good leisure 
 after dismissing my ambassadorial household, and having ar- 
 ranged my affairs as much as they were susceptible of being 
 settled, I found a quantity of tastes with which to occupy
 
 176 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 myself in gratifying them. These tastes turn gladly to with- 
 drawal of the mind into retirement and my cabinet, such as 
 reading, composition, painting, etc. I remark as to this that 
 what is called void of mind, which makes men drop into 
 such deep depression, comes not only from lack of applying 
 the mind to anything, but also from dearth of views even 
 when such application is made by men who have only senses 
 and little soul. Such men must have objects of sensual 
 pleasure or of avarice which appeal to low, coarse souls, and 
 affect the prosperity of their family and their neighbour; 
 that is, if their heart is well-turned and they wish for that 
 family and that neighbour the same good things as for them- 
 selves, — wealth, possessions, a rich and lucrative wife. When 
 such souls rise to pride (which is still a baseness) they want 
 offices undeserved, without hesitating a moment at their in- 
 capacity, because they regard such advancements as patri- 
 monies, and because our system of government has lent itself 
 only too much to that misrule. 
 
 But noble souls have other views, and such views are 
 necessary for health, for quick and easy action, for using 
 time, for taking pleasures. Whatever such views and objects 
 may be, they must be analogous with our tastes, natural or ac- 
 quired. Happy those who have none that are not \Trtuous ! 
 
 Dismissed ministers usually perish for want of such views 
 and tastes; they no longer have any but commonplace 
 objects; they are spoilt, they are blas^ by the career they 
 have run ; they are like a gambler at a louis a counter who 
 is forced to come down to a six-sous stake. The discarded 
 minister ought to put before his mind the care of the good 
 that remains to him as an important object, and forget the 
 great and slippery grandeur that has just escaped him. How- 
 ever this may be, he needs tastes and views well reasoned 
 out to preserve his life, and into them he should plunge at
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'AKGENSON. 177 
 
 once, that his activity be not chilled ; otherwise the bile 
 which passes into the blood will be black and acrid and will 
 kill him promptly. 
 
 Philosophy, well understood, restrains tastes, but does 
 not extinguish them ; it leads direct to mediocrity, in which 
 more pleasure will be found than in gold and grandeur ; for 
 in the latter excessive desires are infinite and torture in- 
 finitely ; great passions multiply great cares, oppositions, 
 and frauds which anger the defrauded. 
 
 In the mediocrity of a philosopher are views innumerable, 
 but they can be reckoned when we choose; we can stop 
 short at will, and the infinity of desires no longer tortures 
 infinitely. We may plan for ourselves extreme order, great 
 cleanliness, methods that save trouble, the care of health, the 
 acquirement of acquaintances, the power to shine in conver- 
 sation, to correct the ideas of others, to satisfy our conscience 
 and stir our emulation, or, if you choose, our self-love (rich 
 gift of heaven when used and not abused) by reasoning 
 better than others on all topics. Thus we can enjoy all that 
 nature and art offer in this low world for the delight of our 
 senses and our soul ; we relish all, we reason of all, we per- 
 fect all for ourselves and for others ; and philosophy in its 
 mediocrity enjoys, almost alone, all that, at the cost of great 
 ambitions. 
 
 But here is the great career to run, — that of doing good 
 to our neighbour, preserving him from evils, procuring him 
 the greatest good, necessaries, utilities, adornments (accord- 
 ing to the distinctions of Eoman law), shedding benefits on 
 the greatest number of persons and principally on the nation 
 which includes the neighbour in its body, the glory and hap- 
 piness of which has a charm inexpressible. 
 
 I will suppose myself here endowed with native qualities 
 and acquired ideas, fitted to draw my country from great evil,
 
 178 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 and lead it to great good, like Moses, called to draw his from 
 captivity in Egypt. I say that here is a great object to fill the 
 heart and mind, and room for action in consequence of such 
 views, action that is nimble and delightful, and yet tranquil, 
 which gladdens the soul, and does not agitate it to fury or 
 bitterness. 
 
 To-day France is groaning under an oppression of evils, 
 not of too hard a yoke which demands that it be drawn from 
 beneath its kings, — God forbid ! but from beneath an odious 
 aristocracy ; not an aristocracy of nobles who think gener- 
 ously, but that of a satrapy of officials of all kinds, who have 
 put all things into forms, bad regulations, mischievous prin- 
 ciples and ruin. The parvenus of the law and finance have 
 so arranged our government that to-day every remedy has 
 grown to be a new evil ; and evils have gone so far as to 
 undermine and ruin the interior of the provinces, which have 
 now become a great poorhouse. To bring back right prin- 
 ciples, to revive happiness and plenty, are surely objects 
 worthy of the hardest toil. 
 
 This, then, is the object that I propose to myself ; I can 
 tend towards it by my studies and my actions ; this, assuredly, 
 is enough to give me views and objects until the farthest 
 known age, say eighty, if I were not called upon till then 
 (as Cardinal de Fleury was) to redress the affairs of 
 State. Meantime I shall occupy myself with all that leads 
 to this desirable and urgent reformation, and that means 
 studying to he prime-minister. Everything enters into it, 
 with more or less importance, politics, army, navy ; the ad- 
 ministration of justice as they exercise it to-day only enters 
 ad duritiem cordis eorum, so as not to seem ignorant of 
 present customs, and for a few reforms of present abuses. 
 In all things I propose for myself the objects I have men- 
 tioned : health, affairs mediocre and in good order ; cleanli-
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 179 
 
 ness and order in all things ; the good of our neighbour in 
 detail (when great occasions do not present themselves), 
 the good of our friends by helping them first to evade evil ; 
 then we can act vigorously, nimbly, and with pleasurable 
 emotions. Otherwise, all I could do would be to leave my 
 chamber, and go vacantly to walk about hither and thither. 
 I must have objects, everybody needs them ; but let people 
 think, in studies, conversations, and promenades, and objects, 
 near or far, will be found. These rules are for every one, for 
 everybody ought to have a business, a metier ; he will find de- 
 sires everywhere, and their tendency ought to be attended to ; 
 every man is made to be occupied by continual desires ; but 
 philosophy renders those desires charming, while corruption 
 and folly render them painful and destructive. 
 
 Nota : I think I have written the above in the tone of my 
 Seneca, whom I read constantly. 
 
 [August 11.] People do not know how to justify the king 
 for his present behaviour. There is no use at all in citing the 
 example of Louis XIV., who was of little account until the 
 death of Cardinal Mazarin, whom he allowed to govern, after 
 which he showed himself a great king. Louis XIV. made 
 his reign felt by France when he was only twenty-one years 
 old. Louis XV. is nearly thirty ; Louis XV. feeds his mind 
 on nothing ; he rises at eleven o'clock ; he leads the life of 
 a dandy and a useless being. It is true that his health is 
 running no risks, for he takes much exercise to disperse his 
 morbid humours and makes only one real meal a day. He 
 tears himself from his frivolous occupations for one hour's 
 work on his papers and books, and that is all ; for what he 
 does with his ministers does not count ; he lets them do all 
 and contents himself with listening, or talking like a parrot. 
 
 The dauphin is much better brought-up than his father 
 was ; none of his tricks are overlooked, and he is made at
 
 180 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 once to give satisfaction ; whereas the king was a mischiev- 
 ous lad until he was twenty-two years old, and he is still 
 very childish. The king must have a good nature at bottom 
 not to have been spoiled by his bad education. The dauphin 
 has intelligence, and he likes to occupy himself. His mas- 
 ters do not vex him ; on the contrary, he likes to keep them 
 longer and learns gaily. In this way he prevents oppositions 
 of will which are so injurious to education. It must be ad- 
 mitted that honourable men have been placed above him, 
 though they are not men of intellect ; they do not seek to 
 flatter him or gain anything from adulation ; this may also 
 come from the fact that the king is very young and will him- 
 self reward them. 
 
 Mme. de Mailly is in danger of being displaced from her 
 position of mistress to the king. She is behaving like a 
 crazy woman. It is true that, lacking absolutely everything, 
 she is out of temper ; not that she seeks to make profits, but 
 the total want of money made her throw herself into the 
 hands of Mademoiselle and the Mar^chale d'Estrdes, who 
 talk to her of the means of getting more influence than she 
 has. People can say of the king what they said of Czar 
 Peter when he stayed in France, that he made love like a 
 porter and paid in the same way. The king only keeps to 
 Mme. de Mailly by a carnal and corporeal habit ; Bachelier 
 has entirely withdrawn his advice from her ; so that every- 
 thing is going very badly in her affairs. 
 
 A man belonging to the Court, who sees things very closely 
 and has sense, thinks that on the death of the cardinal the 
 king will give himself up entirely to Mademoiselle and will 
 be governed by her, not through love, but by the force of her 
 haughty will and her favour, to which she adds, they say, 
 much intellect. It is not that the king does not know her 
 vices, and he particularly hates her indecency, for no one in
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 181 
 
 the world was ever more indecent than she. She has neither 
 principles nor respect for order and virtue. What a race is 
 that whole house of Condd ! — to which in her case is added 
 the bastard folly of the Mortemarts. Mademoiselle would 
 have been a thief, a receiver of stolen goods, a flower-girl if 
 she had been born among the people. The king likes noth- 
 ing of all that ; but boldness and daring stun soft and timid 
 natures when they have once admitted an ascendency. 
 Mademoiselle has for counsellors, that is to say, for lovers, 
 the Bishop of Eennes, and the Abbe D^dit, the king's chap- 
 lain. There is always a time when vicious women give 
 themselves to churchmen as a natural destiny. She expects 
 to give us his Eminence of Eennes as minister of Foreign 
 Affairs, and the abbd will be appointed to some great 
 church. 
 
 This is to-day the celebrated party of Mademoiselle de 
 Charolais. She serves as a convenience to the king ; keeps 
 company with Mme. de Mailly, in the midst of which she 
 proposes to the king from time to time a prettier mistress, 
 all the while exhorting Mme. de Mailly to profit by her 
 reign and get a better share of wealth and grandeur. Wliat 
 Mme. de Mailly has that is superior to Mademoiselle is 
 sincerity and a very upright little sense, with a rather good 
 heart; this is what sustains her against her own feather- 
 head and the diversity of counsels with which she is tor- 
 mented. But as she is rather indifferent to her poverty, and 
 is noble in the midst of her needs, her demands have not 
 been shrill, nor her intrigues underhand and tortuous. 
 Nevertheless, Bachelier has abandoned her to her own 
 devices ; doubtless M. Chauvelin knows at Bourges all that 
 happens at Versailles. So able a man laughs at these tem- 
 pests, being himself the maker of most of the waves that 
 compose them. This whole party of Mademoiselle and
 
 182 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 Mme. de Mailly are but phantoms more easy to disperse 
 than people imagine as soon as their suppression is facili- 
 tated to the eyes of his Majesty — those lazy, timid eyes, 
 though accurate and kind. 
 
 [September, 1739.] An English lady who is closely 
 allied to the party of the Pretender tells me that the 
 English nation regards Walpole as a Catilina, and believes 
 he has resolved to give the money of England to the Hano- 
 verians, and arbitrary power to their German monarch, the 
 narrowest and most obstinate of men. They think that 
 Walpole has an understanding with France and Spain for 
 this horrible operation of destroying the rights and laws of 
 a nation of which we are jealous. This lady was a favourite 
 of Queen Anne ; a great Jacobite, but a good Protestant ; 
 therefore she wants to see the Pretender, or his son, restored. 
 But they must be good Protestants ; she insists that it is not 
 merely a question of liberty of conscience (which popish 
 priests and the bigotry in which those poor Stuarts have been 
 educated would never permit), it is absolutely necessary, in 
 order to profit by an impending revolution, that the Stuarts 
 should say, as our Henri IV. did of the mass, " A crown is 
 worth more than a sermon." 
 
 As for me, I revert in all this to our general principles ; 
 what good will it produce to France and the world ? We 
 want nothing from the English except that their commerce 
 shall not be rapine; that they shall not be conquerors in 
 America ; that their navy shall not be so flourishing and 
 with such exclusive privilege that they alone have a navy 
 and we none. It is true that they need a rather larger one 
 than we do, because it is (as the Delphic oracle said to the 
 Athenians) their wooden walls ; but France and Spain 
 ought to be able to oppose them, if need be, by increasing 
 theirs. We ought to profit by this honourable opportunity
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 183 
 
 to re-establish our navy without scandal, and take from the 
 English the exclusive commerce with Portugal, which they 
 now have. 
 
 And, for all this, what ought we to desire ? An English 
 government a little tottering is perhaps a good thing; but, 
 in truth, we must not believe that a tragic revolution is 
 desirable. The very bad present government of England 
 would be necessary to us if we had conquering designs like 
 the late king ; but to-day I believe that a legitimate, tran- 
 quil king, reigning according to the laws of his nation, and 
 having no foreign sovereignty like that of Hanover, would 
 repress rapine and jewishness, and content himself with 
 legitimate commerce; whereas Walpole and the Hanover- 
 ians are combining together for rapine, instead of suppress- 
 ing it. 
 
 If the Stuarts can brmg about such times as these, let us 
 favour then- return ; without, however, spending much effort 
 or making many sacrifices for a result which, after all, is un- 
 certain. But if their restoration could produce the effect I 
 have just mentioned, the obligation they would thus contract 
 towards us would turn, I hope, to the profit of England and 
 the world. We should, besides, gain tliis : that the Stuarts 
 would have no duty to Austria, like the Hanoverians, and 
 no son-in-law in the Prince of Orange. 
 
 The other day, the cardinal, ending his work with the 
 king, said to him : " Sire, I have but one thing to ask of 
 your Majesty before dying, and that is, to remember what I 
 have told you from your youth, namely, that if ever your 
 Majesty listens to the covinsels of women in public affairs, 
 you and your State will be ruined beyond recovery." The 
 king made no reply. Shortly after, his Majesty went up 
 to the cabinet where he sups with Mademoiselle and Mme. 
 de Mailly, and said to them : " Just now a man said thus
 
 184 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 and so to me, and I reply to that, if any woman dares to 
 speak to me on public affairs I will order my door shut in 
 her face immediately." Thereupon they blushed, or turned 
 pale, or were disconcerted ; that is to say, Mademoiselle was, 
 for she has great intentions, but not Mme. de Mailly, who 
 is content with everything. It was that little Lebel [one of 
 the king's valets] who heard and repeated this speech. 
 
 [September 14.] The marriage of Mile, de Nesle the 
 favourite sister of Mme. de Mailly, to M. de Viatimille, son 
 of the Marquis du Luc and nephew of the Archbishop of 
 Paris, has just been announced. One himdi'ed thousand 
 crowns have been taken from the royal treasury for this 
 marriage, and the king gives a pension of six thousand 
 francs. There is no doubt that the cardinal has agreed to 
 this maniage ; by which it appears that the old tutor comes 
 to terms with the mistress ; an infamous thing, after saying 
 so often that he would quit the ministry if the king took a 
 mistress. It is also believed, in consequence of this affair, 
 that Mme. de Mailly's dismissal draws near. 
 
 [October 4, 1739.] Voltaire has acknowledged to me 
 the cause of his disgrace with the cardinal and M. Hdrault. 
 Those gentlemen, seeing him prejudiced against the Jansen- 
 ists and a friend of Pfere Tournemine (as appears by 
 certain verses of his scattered through his works), wanted 
 to engage him to write for the cause and against Jansenism, 
 and he began something of the kind at then request in the 
 style of the " Anti-Provincial Letters." But he went soon 
 after to M. H^rault and told him he could not continue 
 it, that he would dishonour himself, and be suspected of 
 using his talents for mercenary purposes ; consequently, he 
 had thrown his work into the fire. Inde irce. 
 
 I said to Voltaire, " Monsieur, be a Jansenist like me." 
 There is but one side for a good citizen, who is always
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'AKGENSON. 185 
 
 ill keeping with the good Christian : it is that of tolerantism, 
 which is destructive of parties in France. Henri IV., by 
 the real and de facto peace which he maintained between 
 the two parties gave a mortal blow to heresy ; at his death 
 it was nothing more than politics, to support a few ambitious 
 men. Never will there be a fuier persecution than the 
 Saint-Bartholomew; it was that that made heresy swarm 
 so in France that every one became Calvinist. 
 
 The king loves to erect buildings. They are going up 
 everywhere at the present moment ; at Compifegne the sum 
 has reached eight millions ; at Fontainebleau they are build- 
 ing a wing ; the new wing at Versailles is being finished ; 
 and considerable work is being done at Choisy. But every- 
 ' thing is restrained by the villanous little economy of the 
 cardinal, and the bad and very bourgeois taste of M. Orry ; 
 this is noticeable everywhere, but especially in what is being 
 done at Fontainebleau. 
 
 [November 6.] Indications are very strong that dis- 
 turbances are about to arise in our Foreign Affairs. France 
 is being encouraged to a serious war against England. They 
 assure us that the sea-coasts of France and Spain, which 
 serve as a veritable stage for a maritime war, these coasts, 
 I say, are as good to us as a hundred vessels ; that is to say, 
 with fifty vessels, the English or Dutch having one hundred 
 and fifty, we should be on equal terms, and there would be 
 no necessity to make other use of the Spanish navy than 
 to charge it witli the defence of their own America ; for we, 
 with our fifty vessels divided into squadrons, should suffice 
 to defend our coasts, those of Spain, and the Mediterranean. 
 With that, giving free rein to our privateers and re-estab- 
 lishing Dunkerque, we should soon bring security from 
 England at fifty per cent, which is the thermometer of this 
 
 maritime war. But all that is very fine and good if nothing 
 
 Ver. 2—13 Mem.
 
 186 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 happens to determine the rest of Europe to arm against us, 
 considering our superiority on all sides and our close union 
 with Spain. 
 
 They keep saying that there is no one in Europe, no head 
 strong enough, to conduct such a work as a general league 
 against France ; but why go so far without finding the Wal- 
 poles ? Who shows more head than those two brothers ? 
 Cold heads, which never get heated by anything : multa 
 agentes pauca agendo. The elder, Eobert, seems never busy, 
 but he guides all. He lias forced his new master to take 
 him back and increase his confidence, though he hated him 
 in the days of his father. The younger, Horace, imder- 
 stands perfectly foreign affairs, thanks to his long embassies 
 and travels. He is diligent and laborious. Robert is the 
 more able financier, and the greater corrupter of men; 
 knowing well how to take the middle course between 
 authority and persuasion; from which we may conclude 
 that he knows men, especially the men of his nation. Who 
 goes better than he does to his ends ? Everything turns 
 to success with him ; he will contrive to reconcile the father 
 with the son, by slow means but sure ; he has to manage the 
 smallest little king's mind that ever was known ; and yet 
 he wants to glorify the reign by a war which shall lead 
 to the humiliation of the house of France ; he lets the 
 English people desire this war, and all out of jealousy 
 for commerce; he lets himself be threatened with that 
 idea; he appears to be of their mind, and he will draw 
 from this impatience and jealousy of the English the means 
 with which to push his dream of glory. What can be 
 grander than that in a minister ? 
 
 Til ere is no doubt that a league with the Emperor against 
 us is already made, but conditionally on our not yielding 
 anything. His Imperial IMajesty asks nothing better than
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 187 
 
 to spare himself a cruel war. It is certain that a general 
 war is greatly to be dreaded, and in no way to be desii-ed 
 after two years of calamities such as we have just passed 
 through. 
 
 I am assured that the king, in view of all this, has per- 
 mitted the cardinal a renewal of influence that is greater 
 than ever, and that he relies on him to save him by his 
 wisdom from a grievous war. The cardinal has given in 
 to all his Majesty desired for his little pleasures and for 
 the benefit of his mistress, Mme. de Mailly, so that the 
 latter loves him since the marriage of her sister. The king, 
 they say, cares little for the affairs of the kingdom so long 
 as they do not go too ill and are not definitively ii'reparable ; 
 and his Majesty has resolved to let the cardinal die at 
 his post. The olJ priest has recovered his health since 
 he sees himself once more so well with his master, and 
 he now looks as if he were able to live some years yet. 
 
 [December 13.J It is pitiable to see the little consistency 
 of our Frenchmen in reasoning. They said, during the 
 general war of 1733, that the English and Dutch were 
 careful not to tlirast themselves into it; that both those 
 nations were too deeply in debt nationally ; that we could 
 recover Dunkerque; that our privateers alone could ruin 
 them, without speaking of what we could do against them 
 by supporting the Pretender. 
 
 Then we were at war elsewhere. To-day here we are, 
 Spain and ourselves, against England only ; we tremble, we 
 are backing out, we are dishonouring ourselves. No one 
 gives any reasons ; our finest reasoners continue to talk of 
 their national debt as being more considerable than ours; 
 in comparison of the extent of the two kingdoms. I reply 
 to that that we should always distinguish the Treasury from 
 the wealth of individuals. To-day, in France, the Treasury
 
 188 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 has some system which puts the expenditures on a level 
 with the revenue, paying at the same time the arrearages of 
 national or fiscal debt ; and thus, it is said, the king can 
 put something to war by increasing the taxes ; reducing 
 them to relieve the people as soon as peace is made. But 
 private persons are exhausted, and their exhaustion increases 
 daily, even in times of peace. Our taxes are cruel. The 
 tariff is still enforced in that arbitrary manner which takes 
 all sense of proprietorship from individuals, thus discouraging 
 and drying up the sources of industry and labour. 
 
 In England, on the contrary, though the Treasury may be 
 in a bad state, if you choose, private persons have increased, 
 and are increasing more and more, in opulence, industries, 
 and labour. And such we ourselves were, or nearly so, 
 when M. Colbert administered the finances after M. Fouquet. 
 Then the Treasury was ill-managed, but private persons were 
 rich through the lessened authority of a timid ministry in 
 the midst of civil wars and the troubles of the minority. 
 
 And let us compare our efforts in this nation of ours, so 
 powerful and so well-ordered, they say, with English values, 
 and we shall see that we only levy and obtain the ordinary 
 royal revenues by an awful exhaustion of the provinces ; 
 that already they are depopulated and are depopulating 
 more and more ; that men are dying like flies ; that com- 
 merce is forgotten ; and that consumption is becoming next 
 to nothmg. The English, on the contrary, furnish to their 
 Treasury the required and enormous subsidies on the con- 
 sumption of drink, which goes on increasing ; the population 
 is increasmg; manufactures are doing well, and foreign 
 commerce is better and better. Why, then, do we flatter 
 ourselves that our neighbours are exhausted, inasmuch as 
 their period of war expenditure does not approach the 
 wretched condition of our period of disarmament ?
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 189 
 
 [December, 1739,] For the last week perfect security 
 reigns in Court and city ; absolute confidence has arisen in 
 favour of the cardinal; he is regarded as a god on earth; 
 people assure each other that his wisdom is profound ; that 
 he is about to give us a wise peace ; that he is beloved 
 by his master, and that we no longer have the slightest 
 jars with Spain. Oh ! my too amiable and light-minded 
 countrymen ! 
 
 The cardinal will never be anything but a perpetual and 
 harmful maker of compromises and palliator of the faults 
 of the government, when he himself has introduced those 
 faults. It is thus that he palliates the affairs with parlia- 
 ment, soothing it to-day when angry. He only gives a few 
 thrusts now into Jansenism. Misery increasing in the prov- 
 inces, he sends down some meagre relief (long promised), 
 such as rice, a certain diminution of the taille-ta,x, and a 
 little money for work upon the roads ; but all that does not 
 prevent the poverty and exhaustion from mcreasing. They 
 conceal this from Paris, and that is all the ministry cares 
 about. 
 
 It is useless for the Court to ridicule the persons of the 
 ministers, for everything turns upon them, on their displace- 
 ment or elevation. On that ground are the Court battles, 
 defeats, victories, sieges, cabals to displace, intrigues to 
 advance towards the ministry; and all with a view to 
 money; for no one supposes that a minister placed by his 
 hand or by his help will fail to enable him to do transac- 
 tions or make his fortune unfairly by um-ighteous favours 
 and perquisites; and all such favours and places bring 
 money. Those who are made ministers are an extraordinary 
 species; they are never judged before they enter office. Are 
 they sought for among the men of the Council who have 
 the most talent and the best birth ? Not at all ; those chosen
 
 190 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, v 
 
 are the greatest fools and the most obscure, as the she-wolves 
 choose the ugliest wolf. 
 
 And with it all, the levity and violence of the French 
 imagination makes us dart suddenly from contempt to con- 
 fidence. To the notions that bring us to one or other of 
 those affections we add a hundred others of the past, and 
 still more of the future which are furnished by our memory 
 and our taste for prophecy — prophecy rather than foresight. 
 A shrewd man in authority easily puts others on a wrong 
 scent about all these little revolutions at Court. 
 
 What I say is that our Court is delivered over more than 
 ever to this state of things, and that we shall never compre- 
 hend the proceedings as to favour or disfavour which we see 
 in our ministers, beginning with the cardinal, by listening 
 to the talk of courtiers ; and that the whole thing comes 
 either from profound dissimulation on the part of the king, 
 with a systematic and ever constant design as to the 
 future arrangement of his ministry, or else from very great, 
 and almost incredible silliness in his Majesty, who cer- 
 tainly shows intelligence in all other things than external 
 authority. 
 
 Bachelier keeps himself more to himself than ever; he 
 scarcely salutes the courtiers. With his best friends he is 
 silent, and especially with those to whom he has hitherto 
 confided matters relating to the king's confidence ; he has 
 so effaced the traces of this confidence that many persons 
 doubt if his favour will be continued, and believe that he 
 is on the verge of succumbing to some fresh persecution of 
 the cardinal. And yet, whoever will reflect maturely upon 
 this must say : Where is the security of the king ? What 
 plan has he for his action on the death of the cardinal ? — for 
 he has one; it would be deceptive to suppose he means to 
 follow the torrent of bad habits left by this ministry.
 
 1739-1740] THE MAKQUIS D'AKGENSON. 191 
 
 Whose are those invisible counsels the influence of which 
 is felt, tliough it cannot be defined, around his Majesty ? 
 And finally, what favour could the said Bachelier have with 
 his master if it concerned only the simple intrigue with 
 Mme. de Mailly ? 
 
 [December 20.] Some one has gone closer to the source 
 of the rumours about changes in the ministry. One is sure 
 to hear nothing that is false from Bachelier ; he is one of tlie 
 most honest men there are in France, and the king's confi- 
 dence in him increases daily. I have said elsewhere that he 
 is like Proteus, and only talks when he is bound ; this wise 
 favourite never speaks unless he is irritated by some ques- 
 tion of his master's honour, or from his indignation at the 
 fools and knaves the cardinal has set up and would fain set 
 higher as the reward of their treachery to M. Cliauvelin. 
 Bachelier hates all these men and despises them, calling 
 them rascals. He laughed much, so they say, at a list of 
 imaginary promotions to the ministry, exclaiming : " Ah ! 
 how fine ! Eascal for rascality ; that 's what they want. Ha ! 
 the fine selection ! Oh ! the admirable combination ! What 
 well-informed men ! " etc. Especially in relation to M. Orry 
 he said : " He stand well with the king ? Pretty knowledge 
 of the map of the king's cabinet ! Assuredly no man is so 
 much despised." 
 
 Bachelier's mistress told H . . . , confidentially, that she had 
 known certain things of the king, traits of character, writings, 
 arguments, and what not, which had changed her opinion 
 and that of her lover, and that she now did not doubt that 
 the kmg had gi-eat good sense and would soon appear as a 
 very great king. Bachelier also told H . . . not to worry 
 about anything ; that all would be seen at a given time at 
 once ; and that nothing in the world could change his Majesty's 
 plans. It is a regular stage scene, of which they want to
 
 192 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 suppress all the parts and let nothing be seen in advance, in 
 order to pass suddenly from obscurity to light ; and mean- 
 time the cardinal is to be allowed to do all, though some of 
 his most impertinent and harmful strokes will be warded off. 
 But all that is mere puppet-show ; and we must not be un- 
 easy at anything, not even changes of ministry, if such 
 became necessary by the deatli of M. d'Angervilliers. 
 
 IJachelier added (on M. H. telling him tliat of late my 
 bad terms with his Eminence caused me to be ill-received at 
 Court, and that on Tuesday last the king at his lever had 
 called my brother and talked to him a long time, but did not 
 do me the honour to say a single word to me, though he saw 
 me before him), — liachelier, I say, answered that I must not 
 be troubled at anything ; that I must go on paying my court 
 to his Majesty with modesty and assiduity, but withou't osten- 
 tation ; and that he could answer for it that the king held 
 me " in the highest esteem." Those were his words. 
 
 The king is reading at present the " Memoirs of Sully, or 
 Royal Economies." I know who had most part in leading 
 him to this long and assiduous reading, by telling him that it 
 was the best study a statesman could make, and that the 
 reign of Henri IV. was the best of models and far above the 
 splendid fatuity of that of Louis XIV. They tell that the 
 other day. Cardinal de Fleury, being present at this reading, 
 turned over the leaves of the book and showed the kmg tlie 
 passage in which Henri the Great replied to the beautiful 
 Gabrielle : " I could find in my kingdom two hundred women 
 as beautiful as you, but I could not find two men like Sully ; 
 therefore, be certain that between you two I shall decide for 
 him." (The good Henri was not in a lover-like frame of mind 
 at that moment.) The cardinal claimed to be Sully, but as- 
 suredly that is not the opinion of the public. 
 
 M. du Luc has written to Mme. de Mailly to ask her to
 
 17,!9-1740l TIIK MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 193 
 
 place a man of his in the administration of tlie estate of 
 Choisy (whicli the king has just bought), saying, " One word 
 from the beautiful lips of a beautiful woman will settle the 
 affair." When the mistress showed the letter to the king he 
 said, " All ! as for a beautiful mouth, you do not pique your- 
 self on that, I believe." Which shows that passion does not 
 blind the king. One loves one's mistress as she is; but 
 sorrow to the blind in love ! 
 
 Let us define here, with truth, the ministry of Cardinal de 
 Fleury. All that wisdom Imgesse] can do when separated 
 from ability, he has shown in himself and in those whom he 
 has used. I speak of that wisdom only which excludes folly 
 and imprudence, but leaves free course to evils, crimes, vices, 
 and througli them to dishonour and ruin, by reason of laxity, 
 delays, corruption of morals and of hearts, treachery, cheatery ; 
 all of which have increased immensely among subaltern ad- 
 ministrators and inferiors. The interior of the kingdom has 
 been so outraged in this way that the devastation is visible 
 from year to year. Other misfortunes have been added, but 
 no remedies have been applied. Surely we ought to-day to 
 import some millions of foreign wheat to fill the depots in 
 the provinces and fix the price of wheat. No one thinks of 
 it ; all such projects are rejected. And yet one half of the 
 necessary wheat could not be sown this autumn, on account 
 of incessant rain. The monopolizers know this and are 
 locking up their wheat ; imagine the dearness t)f that essen- 
 tial food in the coming month of March ! 
 
 [January 5, 1740.] I learn horn my brother that when it 
 was a question of appointing a chief-president to the Grand 
 Council for the year 1740 the Chancellor [d'Aguesseau] in- 
 sisted strongly that 1 should be appointed, as the only man 
 of the Council fitted for the post and desired by the company 
 to follow my brother, whose year had expired, after succeed-
 
 194 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 ing well in every respect. The chancellor told him that all 
 others proposed for the place were displeasing and had de- 
 fects of ill-humour or incapacity, but that he had fovmd an 
 invincible opposition to me in the cardinal, who cannot hear 
 my name without making frightful grimaces since om- rupture 
 on the embassy to Portugal, when he so ill-used me in my 
 domestic affairs, and joined thereto manners so tyrannical 
 and misplaced that I have never set foot in that old imbe- 
 cile's house since then ; and shall continue not to do so, 
 please God, unless some oiiicial affair requires it. 
 
 [January 16.] M. le Due is very ill of a dysentery with 
 fever. He has had a bad night. They dare not give him 
 ipecacuanha, for they fear inflammation, and they have bled 
 him twice. His stomach has been ruined for a long time ; he 
 exists only by going without dkmer, but supping heartily; 
 singular phenomenon of a stomach, which at any rate has suc- 
 ceeded well with him ; making him able for continual hunt- 
 ing ; which proves that the evil is not in the humours, but in 
 the membrane ; so that his danger is now apparent. In case 
 of this death the anti-cardinalist and Chauvelinist party lose 
 a great deal. Though the prince himself had little mind of 
 his own, he represented well at Court, through his rank, his 
 weight, Ms firmness, and his necessary surroundings. People 
 are saying it is a question whether the house of Orleans loses 
 or gains by this death. The cardinal will be more persistent 
 than ever in barring the way to its elevation. Hitherto he 
 has let the rivalry of M. le Due battle with it, but now he 
 must fight in the open and oppose the marriage of the Due 
 de Chartres with Madame Vainee. 
 
 [January 24.] Bachelier has become of such extreme 
 discretion that to neither mistress nor friend does he tell 
 what he does with the king. He confers with his Majesty 
 more than ever and longer than ever. But he also sees the
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 195 
 
 cardinal from three quarters of an hour to an hour a day. It 
 is thought that this relates to putting the king once more in 
 love with the queen, and that the cardinal is negotiating this 
 with much fervour as the crown of his glory ; after which, 
 would to God he would sing his nunc dimittis. Mme. de 
 Mailly is daily losing her empire over the heart of the king ; 
 he endures her only through force of habit ; it is a common 
 remark that the king will never be given over to the empire 
 of women. Nevertheless he fears the devil. P^re Lini^res, 
 sustained by the cardinal, holds out firmly in refusing him 
 absolution ; which often gives rise to great uneasiness in the 
 king's mind. At the slightest ailment he is frightened at 
 the thought of eternity and its horrors. He does not take 
 religion in an absolutely petty way ; he has a real conviction 
 about it ; but he does not take it in a sufficiently grand way 
 to see that there are no gi-eat sms but those that do wrong to 
 our neighbour ; on that his spirit is neither gi-eat nor small. 
 
 They told me to-day, under the strictest secrecy, that the 
 Due d'Orl^ans is seriously thinking of retiring from the 
 world and living a monastic life. They give him two years 
 to adopt that course, he having no ambition except for holi- 
 ness. This will take place, they say, after the marriage of the 
 Due de Chartres, or even before if that is long delayed ; he 
 desires to see his son at the age of reason and settled behav- 
 iour, and his plan is to make over to him his establishment 
 just as it is. The Due de Chartres comes of his mother's 
 side, and is German to the tips of his nails. He has no 
 imagination, no mental tastes ; bon-mot, repartees, verses, all 
 that does not affect him ; the senses have no hold upon him ; 
 but he is firm, has good sense, is kind, just, upright, a man 
 of his word, and lofty as princes ought to be. He is brought- 
 up to haughtiness towards the ministers, especially towards 
 Cardinal de Fleury.
 
 196 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 The king is holding out firmly against the cardinal in the 
 matter of appointing some other Councillor of State than 
 M. Gibert, named by the cardinal in place of M. Harlay. 
 The king postpones the appointment from week to week; 
 but that is the only weapon he employs against the cardinal, 
 silent resistance, a means his old tutor taught him himself. 
 In truth, the cardinal really makes the king's life hard ; he 
 ought to remember the example of Queen Anne, who 
 endured for ten years the Duchess of Marlborough ; and at 
 the end of that time an embroidered petticoat which she 
 refused to give her overflowed the cup and she shook off the 
 yoke. 
 
 The domestic affairs of young Vintimille with his wife, 
 the favourite sister of Mme. de Mailly, are going very ill. 
 He is in love with his sister-in-law, Mme. de Flavancourt, and 
 spends all his time at the house of the Duchesse de Mazarin. 
 He complained to his uncle, the Archbishop of Paris, of his 
 having induced him to make such a marriage. The prelate 
 answered that as it was made he had better make the best 
 of it, and not frequent Mme. de Mazarin, which displeased 
 the king. The nephew retorted that to suggest such courses 
 so little became an arclibishop that they had brought him 
 evil. Mademoiselle was sent by the king to speak to Vinti- 
 mille on the state of his household, to which he answered 
 that it was neither for her nor for the king to meddle with 
 what passed between him and his wife. 
 
 [January 28.] M. le Due died the night before last 
 at two in the morning. They kept him alive for the last 
 twenty-four hours with an elixir which gives vigour to the 
 blood ; but it shortens animal life while prolonging by a 
 trifle the life of the spirit. He died by his own fault, as 
 always happens with those who die in the flower of their 
 age (he was only forty-seven). He had made himself a bad
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 197 
 
 stomach ; all that he did to cure it was to go without dinner 
 and eat a gieat supper, to hunt violently in order to get an 
 appetite for the evening, and to take various elixirs of his 
 own making. He had had a continual dysentery for two 
 years, and increased it by such bad regimen instead of 
 strengthening nature by a good one. 
 
 The Court is left almost without princes of the blood, if 
 we except the Due de Chartres, who is growing up to figure 
 there with excellent sense and dignity ; we must also except 
 extreme petty piety like that of the Due d'Orldans and 
 extreme debauchery, intemperance, and folly in the persons 
 of MM. de Charolais, Clermont, and Conti. 
 
 M. le Due had a patrimony of nine hundred thousand 
 francs a year, and his government, offices, and pension went 
 to another million, so that he had fully three millions a 
 year. All the authority of this branch will now fall to the 
 old and wicked dowager duchess [Louise, daughter of 
 Louis XIV. and Mme. de Montespan]. The Prince de 
 Condd is only three years old. 
 
 Another senility of the cardinal, another indignity ! The 
 day after the death of M. le Due he went to see the queen. 
 Mme. de Luynes said to him with her well-known grace, 
 " Well, monseigneur, that poor M. le Due is dead." The car- 
 dinal put on his burial face, and said he was an honest man, 
 that it was pitiful, dying thus in middle life with all his 
 faculties, and he seemed sorry. Just then Mmes. de VUlars 
 and de Bouzols came to tell him, " Poor M. le Due is dead." 
 He turned round to them and said, " M. de la Palisse is 
 dead, and if he were not dead he would be living," — an old* 
 song, a vulgar joke to repeat about a prince who had the heart 
 of the king, and for whom his Majesty wept and was ill. 
 
 Pecquet [in the ministry of Foreign Affairs] thinks 
 Bachelier is not yet strong enough to get the cardinal dis-
 
 198 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 missed, no matter what may happen, or what ill-success 
 attends our arms ; not even if famine attacks Versailles ; no, 
 not if his Eminence talks such drivel that the children run 
 after him in the streets. He saj^s that there was some 
 jarring between the king and cardinal last year, and then 
 they made a treaty that the cardinal should never again 
 meddle with what concerns the " little interior " and the 
 pleasures of the king, and on the other hand the king would 
 leave the cardinal to conduct the affairs of the kingdom as 
 he pleased until his end. 
 
 Persons claim to know a very singular anecdote in rela- 
 tion to this. The Abb^ de Wittement, it is said (the same 
 who was joined with the Mar^chal de Villeroy in the king's 
 education), knew a secret which he was bound not to reveal 
 until after the death of the cardinal, but as he was the one 
 to die first, that secret was buried with him. It was a pledge, 
 an obligation, a service of some sort between the king and 
 the cardinal of such a nature that the king could never free 
 himself of his bonds. Imagine what it could be : having 
 saved him from poison ; substitution of persons ; anything 
 you please — but nonsense, all that. 
 
 [February 16.] M d'Angervilliers, minister and secre- 
 tary of State for war, died yesterday at nine o'clock in the 
 evening. He passed away suddenly, without a crisis in his 
 illness ; he was smothered, having water on the chest, and 
 one lung gangrened. I saw M. de Breteuil this morning, 
 and inspired him with more hope of recovering this ministry 
 than he had. I know that the king had imparted to M. le 
 Due his plan for government after the cardinal's death, and 
 there is every appearance that M. de Breteuil is in it. 
 
 It is therefore a question whether the king will follow 
 this plan, or whether his timidity will lead him to put into 
 that ministry some other petty creature w^hom it will be
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 199 
 
 against the majesty and royal honour to displace later, on 
 the decease of the cardinal. As for me, I am convinced that 
 the king will break a lance and appoint Breteuil ; that he will 
 even say he wills it, and no one will reply to that. What 
 is fortunate is that Breteuil's cause is good on all sides ; he 
 is an honest man, he has clean hands, he has the spirit of 
 order and system, he pleases the officials, he is just; and 
 finally, he showed sufficient intelligence during the three 
 years he was in the office, without having actually gi-eat 
 views. 
 
 We made this reflection together : that his appointment, 
 or that of another, would decide on this occasion the good 
 or the evil of the future reign. The king may well have 
 left a few subaltern places to the jealous distrust of the 
 cardinal since he determined on his future plan ; but these 
 great important places cannot be given outside of that plan 
 without showing total imbecility in the person of the king, 
 and a blind devotion to his old tutor, which would render 
 desperate his people and his foreign neighbours. If, on the 
 contrary, his Majesty shows on this occasion a firm and 
 resolute will, he can easily be supported by the excellence 
 of the cause ; and men will feel that he takes care himself 
 of the important selections. 
 
 BouUongne [first clerk of the Treasury] came and inter- 
 rupted us, and M. de Breteuil took him into a rear cabinet, 
 where BouUongne told him a number of false things : ardent 
 wishes for him, offers of service, assurances of the friendship 
 of his gentle master Orry, though all the world knows that 
 the said Orry is openly intriguing to get the place and still 
 keep his own in the finances and hand it over later to his 
 brother. M. de Breteuil said to me after he had gone, 
 "These men of the Court, or rather the court-yard, never 
 tell you anything but lies."
 
 200 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. v. 
 
 The pope is dead; the news came, night before last by 
 courier. The Cardinals de Eohan and d'Auvergne start for 
 Eome in two weeks ; but Cardinal de Polignac excuses him- 
 self from going on accoimt of his age, his health, and the 
 inclemency of the season. 
 
 [February 18, 1740.] M. de Breteuil has been appointed 
 secretary of State for war ; no one knows as yet what took 
 place between his Majesty and the cardinal, but all appear- 
 ances show that the cardinal did not solicit the appointment, 
 and that his Majesty said the great word, " I will." 
 
 This returns to what I have so often said, that the king 
 has a fixed plan for the government of the country after the 
 death of the cardinal. This plan includes those whom M. 
 Chauvelin recommended to him. M. de Breteuil was among 
 them. If this occasion had not arisen, his Majesty wished 
 to await the preliminary of the death of the cardinal ; having 
 arisen, his Majesty so far anticipates on his plan. My role 
 is not to see M. de Breteuil oftener than all his friends see 
 him, and to keep mj'self from any demonstration. I could 
 not, however, conceal my joy before a large company when 
 I heard the news. M. de Breteuil has accepted a counsel 
 from me and will execute it, namely, to seem to hold every- 
 thmg from the cardinal, and to show him externally as much 
 obedience as M. Amelot himself. The king does not wish 
 to be penetrated ; he wants everything to roll to the credit 
 of the cardinal as long as he lives ; we must serve the king 
 in his own way, and keep from either acting or speaking 
 otherwise before the world. 
 
 [February 21.] The king played his part with M. de 
 Breteuil marvellously well when the cardinal presented him 
 as secretary of war to thank his Majesty. The king scarcely 
 looked at him, and did not say one word to him. In the 
 evening the new minister supped with the king, and this is
 
 1739-1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 201 
 
 all the monarch then said to him : " M. de Breteuil, you have 
 an inflamed leg ; you ought to have it cauterized." 
 
 I have been advised to hold my tongue about the cardinal, 
 and to say nothing offensive about him that can reach his 
 ears. I am assured that he desires nothing better than to 
 be reconciled with me, little by little, knowing that the king 
 has designs about me, and that I cannot be suspected of any 
 bad intentions, but, on the contrary, am frank and sincere. 
 He has made it up with Bachelier on the same grounds, and 
 if he knows the truth at last, he knows that my refusal to go 
 to Portugal could only have come from superior orders. On 
 all this my conduct must conform to that of M. de Breteuil ; 
 I must show no warmth for M. Chauvelin to any one, not 
 even to the said Breteuil ; never to sound a word to him, M. 
 Chauvelin, but be ready to serve him at once on the death 
 of the cardinal. M. de Maurepas conducts himself in the 
 same manner; but he has certain stains on him, having 
 dipped to the other side and now being penitent. The king 
 likes to be served thus. The appointment of these two 
 gentlemen requires more and more caution in the matter of 
 M. Chauvelin ; and I ought not to be less circumspect about 
 him. Bachelier behaves thus, so that his nearest friends 
 have been unable to decide whether he is Chauvelinist or 
 not. The king likes to disseminate these inclinations, but 
 not, as yet, to see any fruits of them. It is with this mean- 
 ing and these principles that M. de Breteuil was appointed. 
 
 They are beginning once more with great parade the 
 ceremonies of the Free Masons, and the Grand Chapter is 
 held at the house of the Comte de Mailly, which the police 
 dare not search. They say that M. de Maurepas belongs to 
 the fraternity. 
 
 Ver. 2—14 Mem.
 
 202 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 VI. 
 
 1740. 
 
 [March 1, 1740.] The rumour runs and grows that Car- 
 dinal de Fleury may be elected pope ; Spain may concur with 
 France to get rid of him, and Louis XV, with his secret 
 council may, in the present state of things, consider the 
 glory it would be to him to make his old preceptor pope. 
 And what a good riddance ! Besides, he is gentle, and those 
 who do him justice forgive him as Christ did the Jews, be- 
 cause he knows not what he does. He is more mischievous 
 than wicked, he is very old, he is veiy popable ; and as for 
 transplanting him, people always make themselves terrifying 
 ideas about a long journey. What of it ? how fatiguing is it ? 
 To go to Italy at the best season is nothing ; he goes in the 
 first place to his native country, Languedoc, there he embarks 
 on a galley and goes straight to Rome ; it is nothing at all 
 in fine weather ; the air of Italy is soft and excellent for old 
 people. 
 
 One thing I remarked more than four years ago in Car- 
 dinal de Fleury, at the time that I was on good terms with 
 him, is that he is a great admirer of Cardinal Mazarin and 
 his ministry, and a great despiser of Cardinal de Richelieu. 
 Such admirations suppose a desire for imitation, but imita- 
 tion is proportioned to the powers of the copyist ; so that the 
 monkey, having little mind and small resources, is only a 
 copyist of the low and the little ; that is what has happened 
 here, as may be judged by all things. 
 
 M. de Maurepas pleases the king extremely, and if he is 
 not destined to govern the State as its leader, at least he will
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 203 
 
 have, as a great means of favour, his comprehension and 
 compliance in the true designs of liis Majesty, into which 
 will enter, when the time comes, the return of M. Chauvelhi. 
 It is to him and to M. de Breteuil that the king will confide 
 that desire ; and already these two gentlemen have pene- 
 trated the mystery, as much by conjectures as by divers 
 revelations, — a half-word said by Bachelier, and by certain 
 subaltern friends, such as Salle, M. de Maurepas' new clerk, 
 son of a doctor and an actress, the whole coming from Bach- 
 elier through his mistress, Mme. de La Traverse, who was 
 an actress herself. Thus M. de Maurepas, if he is not actu- 
 ally prime-minister, will at least be a great recruiter of 
 ministers. 
 
 Mme. de Mailly and Mademoiselle are on visibly bad 
 terms. The apparent diminution of Mademoiselle's influence 
 is another decline of the cardinal's party, while that of M. 
 Chauvelin is strengthening. Nothing is wanting but the 
 exile of Mademoiselle, whose indecency is likely to bring it 
 about. Mademoiselle's party is only that of the Noailles 
 and the legitimatized princes, hidden behind this procuress, 
 to whom the cardinal had given in, secretly, in order to form 
 a battery against the party of M. le Due and M. Chauvelin. 
 The Mar^chale d'Estrees was ui it only as a second pander, 
 and from the natural opposition of a woman to the designs 
 of her late husband. 
 
 My brother is one of the principal deputies of Made- 
 moiselle's party to the cardmal ; he holds the ball at his foot, 
 and is treated with great consideration accordingly ; he sees 
 Mademoiselle and the Marechale d'Estrees secretly ; he has 
 dragged the poor chancellor into it, also M. de Fresnes, and 
 he bustles around both of them. They thought they had 
 won over Mme. de Mailly ; she plays at this intimacy, while 
 at heart she holds to M. Chauvelin and Bachelier, tliough she
 
 204 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 knows but little of the king's secrets on that point. How- 
 ever, her external alliance with Mademoiselle cannot last; 
 in the midst of pleasures and amusements the real thought 
 at bottom is too much opposed to present practices. The 
 cardinal had continual hiterviews with Mademoiselle at Fon- 
 tainebleau, who came to him by a secret staircase. That 
 convenience lacking at Versailles, third parties go between 
 them with proposals and facts, and certainly my brother lias 
 his share in it. 
 
 I talked to-day with a friend of M. le Due who had his 
 whole confidence. She told me that the prince had been be- 
 trayed a hundred times by the dowager duchess, his mother, 
 and even in vital matters ; but for all that, he had never failed 
 towards her, and had shown her the respect of an honourable 
 son. Mrae. la Duchesse (dowager) said at liis death, 
 " Alas ! he was the only one of my children who never in- 
 sulted me /" — a fine eulogy on the race of Condd, and the 
 bastardy mingled with it ! 
 
 The instant M. le Due was dead, Mademoiselle seized up- 
 on the mind of the young duchess and on that of her brother 
 the Comte de Charolais, who is a lunatic with some lucid in- 
 tervals of furious reason, though he soon wearies of them. 
 Mademoiselle has alienated that young fool from his mother, 
 and placed at the head of the household old Fortia, a man 
 much discredited for his dishonesty and odious to M. le Due. 
 Everything is turned topsy-turvy under this tutelage, on 
 pretence of bringing tilings into good order. The cardinal 
 sees what is going on, having a critical and satirical mmd, if 
 he has no other, but the fury with wliich he is engaged 
 against M. Chauvelin makes hini give in to the party of 
 Mademoiselle, from which he will get all he can as long as 
 it lasts. 
 
 [March 23.] Mademoiselle's party is absolutely sapped.
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 205 
 
 Mile, de Clermont said to her the other day, speaking of the 
 king's suppers, " Sister, let us retire from them ; we shall 
 soon be dismissed if we do not withdraw." In fact, Mme. de 
 Mailly has been ordered to quarrel with her about some 
 women's trumpery, and the quarrel has reached sucli a point 
 that they will soon be at daggers drawn. The king no longer 
 speaks to Mademoiselle, and everybody applauds him. The 
 other day he was starting for the hunt in his berlin with 
 Mme. de Mailly and Mme. de Vintimille on the back seat 
 and himself and the Due d'Ayen on the front, leaving 
 Mademoiselle standing without a word. 
 
 Nevertheless, a royal go-between is needed; Mme. de 
 Mailly must have a company; and all things point to the 
 Comtesse de Toulouse [a Noailles, widow of the son of Louis 
 XIV. and Mme. de Montespan]. Her apartment leads into 
 that of the king by a secret staircase. His Majesty goes 
 down there at all hours ; and it will end in his giving this 
 lodging to Mme. de Mailly. It was formerly that of Mme. 
 de Montespan, aud tlien passed to her son the Comte de 
 Toulouse. His widow is devout (like all carriage panders) ; 
 she will sustain her part pretty well, provided she does not 
 go to the private suppers, — though it might be a tasty dish 
 for the king, who is young, to make such use of a devout 
 woman. But this place of favour being given to the count- 
 ess, and she having behind her the Noailles, it begins to be 
 seen that the said Noailles are all makmg merry at the pros- 
 pect of building this high favour of the coimtess on the ruins 
 of that of Mademoiselle. 
 
 Pfere Neufville, a great Jesuit preacher, who conducts the 
 Lenten services at Versailles, preached last Sunday against 
 promotion on recommendations without regard to merit. 
 
 One should have seen, they say, at this sermon Mme. de 
 Mailly, the king's mistress, seated with her own ladies at the
 
 206 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 foot of the preacher's pulpit, so that the king had in front of 
 him not only the preacher but the lady. At a glance his 
 Majesty could see the fer and the contra, the way and the 
 counter-way, the poison and its antidote. 
 
 Nothing is talked of but the dismissal of the two sister- 
 princesses. Mile, de Charolais and Mile, de Clermont from 
 the private suppers. Mademoiselle tried, they tell me, to 
 make some arrangement for suppers with the king at La 
 Muette and Choisy, she being a past mistress, through ex- 
 perience, in ridiculous and extraordinaiy pleasures ; but the 
 others know as much about them now as she does, and she 
 was dismissed in this sacred Lenten season. They only invite 
 the Marechale d'Estr^es on Mondays with the two sisters, 
 Mme. de Mailly and Mme. de Vintimille, and these with one 
 or two courtiers suffice for these little suppers, for the privacy 
 of which the king has a liking. All this began with a 
 quarrel between Mme. de Mailly and Mademoiselle (they 
 now call Mme. de Mailly " Madame la Comtesse " and noth- 
 ing else). That wicked Mademoiselle had to be sacrificed 
 to her ; at which all honest persons at Court fire salvos of 
 
 joy- 
 
 Mme. de Mailly has appeared in a yellow gown trimmed 
 with Siberian sable, and a little head-dress of yellow flowers 
 and an aigrette ; she looks a mask at a ball. The king, on 
 seeing her enter at the sermon, said to the Mardchale de 
 Villars, " I think the Czarina must be dressed like that." 
 Before the world Mme. de Mailly's manners with the king 
 are externally haughty and imperious ; in private, she is all 
 compliance and submission. At the public dinner to-day the 
 king looked at her all he could, and when she went away 
 backward he twisted his neck to see her. She has made him 
 believe she has a great passion for him ; temperament and 
 liabit do the rest ; for her want of beauty, one may say her
 
 740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 207 
 
 agliness, is a great scandal in the eyes of foreigners, who ask 
 on arriving which is the king's mistress. The cardinal has 
 even said to friends that he was vexed at this weakness by- 
 reason of such ugliness. But certainly she is well-advised 
 as to her behaviour, in the main and in detail. It remains to 
 be discovered who does it ; I have no doubt it is Bachelier, 
 though little quarrels are affected to put people off the scent. 
 
 The dauphin is frightfully violent ; and instead of this dis- 
 position becoming corrected, it increases, although he is now 
 ten and a half years old. He strikes everybody about him ; 
 and the other day he gave a great box on the ear to the 
 Bishop of Mirepoix, his tutor, for having contradicted him. 
 He has had, previously, outbreaks of the same kind with the 
 Chevalier de Cr^qui, who obliged him to apologize, having 
 complained to his governor M. de Chatillon, with a threat of 
 complaining of him to the king. The dauphin has an air of 
 excitement and irrationality which tlireatens the world with 
 something dangerous. 
 
 A courier has just arrived from Berlin bringing word that 
 the King of Prussia [Frederick William I.] is at the last 
 extremity and must be dead by this time. His gout became 
 dropsy, and the dropsy gangrene. And still that singular 
 star of the cardinal, who stays in the world to see every one 
 die ! But why should the King of Prussia precede the 
 Elector-Palatine ? To ward off, they say, all danger of that 
 Juliers war which his Prussian Majesty had taken so strongly 
 into his head. However, if people are not mistaken, the 
 prince-royal, his successor, a very reasonable man and of 
 great intelligence, will take a course that is conformable to 
 glory and to reason. He loves letters and the fine arts, it is 
 true ; but his philosophy will lead him to reason, and he will 
 not neglect either his forces or his rights. The King of 
 Prussia leaves, they say, a magnificent treasure, — a mass of
 
 208 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 savings amounting to one hundred and fifteen millions, kept, 
 closely guarded, in a cellar, in which there is a hole, like 
 that in a charity box, through which they throw in bags of 
 gold and silver ; and within the cellar are shelves on which 
 the bags are ranged like books in a library. But the grand 
 treasure must be that of Holland, where his Britannic 
 Majesty sends so much English money ; though they do say 
 that, out of avarice, he turns it over himself in England 
 and that he owns under different names three-fourths of the 
 public funds. 
 
 Two persons, who are assiduously close to the dauphin, 
 tell me in confidence that he is the worst-hearted child they 
 ever knew ; no attachment for his servants past or present ; 
 enjoying maliciously the misfortunes of others ; proud, bold, 
 rebellious, and a mind such as the fire and violence of his 
 imagination foretells. These are so many menaces to the 
 kingdom. They have not however, seen anything in him as 
 yet to show vicious inclination. He makes little account of 
 either father or mother, and the king, timid by nature, fears 
 his son, and will not let the tutors threaten to complain 
 of him. 
 
 [April 1.] M. Bachelier now goes openly and without 
 mystery to M. de Breteuil, and has long conversations with 
 him of an hour and two hours, as we foresaw. M. de Bre- 
 teuil will now become the depositary of the king's secrets 
 concerning his plans for the future ministry, — all counsels 
 emanating from M. Chauvelin at Bourges and reaching the 
 king through the said Bachelier. M. de Maurepas has done 
 his best to be admitted into these secrets, and as he serves 
 usefully to-day he is regarded as a friend. But he ought to 
 reflect that he was among the first to declare for M. Chau- 
 velin's dismissal, and that, solely from the desire to put in 
 his place a tool of his own, M. Amelot. M. de Maurepas
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 209 
 
 has always, therefore, borne the stain in the Bachelier party, 
 that he once worked against it, and even against Bachelier, 
 to make him declare himself. 
 
 To return to M. de BreteuU; in the matter of the pro- 
 motion of eight brigadier-generals and sixty-seven brigadiers 
 he did all he could to bring things back to equity and to fol- 
 lowing the order of the service. He held out against the 
 cardinal, and spoke vigorously to the king in presence of his 
 Eminence, giving powerful arguments, so that the king said, 
 " M. de Breteuil is right." 
 
 The news is confirmed that the English have taken Porto- 
 bello in America, and have pillaged everything, razed the 
 two forts, taken the best cannon and spiked the rest, amount- 
 ing to more than one hundred pieces. They have also taken 
 eight vessels that were in port, and carried off everything of 
 value. As it is only two hundred leagues from Portobello 
 to Jamaica, Admiral Vernon can get there in force at any 
 moment, and even to Panama, and take Carthagena, Vera- 
 Cruz and all the other fortified places; and, besides, they 
 have just made an embarkation of eight thousand men, 
 pressed in England, with which those English can conquer, 
 if they choose, the whole of Spanish America. What a silly 
 nation that Spanish nation is ! While she is busying herself 
 in Europe with foreign conquests, building palaces for the 
 King of Naples, threatening Ireland with the Pretender, 
 undertaking the siege of Port-Mahon to thwart Admiral 
 Haddock, compelling Portugal to declare herself, all this 
 while, I say, and amid her boasts of her advantages in 
 war, and her capture of funds in the factories, behold ! here 
 is Portobello, her chief place, where she loads and unloads 
 her galleons, taken by five hundred Englishmen ' To what 
 a state is a nation reduced when it has not a dozen men 
 faithful enough to be governors of its West Indies without
 
 210 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 favouring English smuggling, — for that is the whole founda- 
 tion of this war. 
 
 By means of this conquest (abandoned, if you will, after 
 razing the place) the English have now full freedom of com- 
 merce in America ; at their ease they can everywhere inun- 
 date that laud with European merchandise, and will do so 
 cheaply. Tliis is what is regarded as a great evil by modern 
 politics, which founds all solid gains on the misfortunes of 
 others. I ask why the King of Spain is not content with 
 his tariff on the merchandise that goes in and out of Spain 
 and with the product of his mines, leaving other nations to 
 carry to his American subjects what they need, and do it 
 cheaply. Gains founded on tyranny are not, as we see, 
 blessed of God. 
 
 It is to be remarked that in repressing this smuggling in 
 Spanish America everything is against his Catholic Majesty : 
 1st, the cupidity of the Spanish officers ; a selfish nation, 
 greedy of money in order to shine stupidly in their own 
 covmtry ; 2d, the convenience of the American inhabitants, 
 whether Indians or Spaniards born in that country; not 
 that they want to have the English for their masters, but be- 
 cause tliej^ have great interest in seeing themselves delivered 
 from Spanish tyranny over commerce. Thus they are 
 charmed to see English smuggling, because it procures them 
 merchandise at a cheap rate. 
 
 On that, what is to be hoped ? WTiat will be henceforth 
 the defence of Spain in those countries ? Have we a navy 
 ready to take part ? No. Our dawning navy ought not to 
 get a shock which might dishonour it at starting. And what 
 an expense for us such a sea-war! 
 
 [April, 1740.] Of late the king has talked of nothing but 
 the history of the wis faineants, who would not govern for 
 themselves. "What does that mean ? Does he not feel his
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 211 
 
 own state, or does he mean soon to pull himself out of it ? 
 This is how they talk at Court. 
 
 There is a great outcry against the cardinal for the shame- 
 ful and dangerous inaction in which this country remains 
 since the taking of Portobello by the English. Those insu- 
 laries are seizing the whole commerce of America, and will 
 soon seize that of the whole world ; they have swarming 
 colonies in North America; their Jamaica holds them in 
 force between the chief places of the Spaniards ; they do not 
 seek to possess those places, but to do all the commerce they 
 choose with them, in spite of prohibition. Little by little, 
 they will accustom Europe to their imiversal usurpation of 
 commerce ; having ruined all the defences of Spain, intimi- 
 dated the garrisons, razed the forts, carried off the artillery, 
 they are now about to pierce the isthmus of Panama, obtain 
 vast riches there and construct vessels in the South Sea. 
 
 The cardinal opposes to all this hesitations, mortifying 
 laxity ; not the slightest order has been given to protect 
 Spain, totis veribus, as our honour, our duty, and our safety 
 demand. We see now all tlie unskilfulness of a ministry 
 which, al)le obstare pri7icipiis^ has allowed the evil to grow 
 to such a point and has even seemed to favour its progress. 
 And now comes the horror of proposing an advantageous 
 treaty of commerce for us with Spain, when the question was 
 to succour her honourably. Terrible condition ! to ask one's 
 brother for his goods and favours by contract when we see 
 him in the claws of his enemy, or rather our common enemy ! 
 Our provinces are suffering considerably in their manufac- 
 tures from this injury to Spanish America; they feel and 
 complain everywhere. 
 
 Conticuere omnes on the departure of the Spanish squadron 
 from Cadiz, which picked up eight ships at Ferrol and eight 
 at Santander, making m all twenty-eight vessels. The
 
 212 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 Spaniards put the English famously on the wrong scent by- 
 feigning to attack Port-Mahou, which drew Admiral Haddock 
 to Minorca, and left the seas free to the Spaniards to come 
 out of Cadiz and go where they chose. It is thought they 
 are aiming for Ireland, that the younger son of the Pretender 
 is aboard, and that the young prince will first declare himself 
 of the religion of that country, and then raise a rapid revo- 
 lution in England in favour of the Stuarts. 
 
 Are we to remain with our arms crossed ? The cardinal 
 is capable of it. Still, they say that orders have just been 
 given for our squadron at Toulon to leave port ; and that the 
 officers are all collecting there secretly ; but who can believe 
 our ministry capable of any stroke of courage ? How long 
 will the king permit this deplorable thing of letting the 
 action be governed by an old imbecile who dishonours the 
 king and the kingdom ? 
 
 B told me the other day that the policy of M. Chauve- 
 
 lin and Bachelier was that all changes should be made at 
 one time, and that it was neither from evangelical virtue nor 
 as a means of persuading the king that M. Chauvelin had 
 frequently caused it to be said to his Majesty, " Keep your 
 cardinal to the end," but really from shrewdness and good 
 sense, fearing that if the cardinal retired, the king would put 
 a long interval before his, Chauvelin's, recall, dreading to 
 kill the retired cardinal, and that during this period the min- 
 isters would anchor themselves securely on his Majesty. 
 
 Whoever knows well, as I do, the true groimds of the dis- 
 grace of M. Chauvelin will find in it complete resemblance 
 to that of M. Fouquet, with this difference, that M. Chauvelin 
 was an abler minister, more faithful, more laborious than M. 
 Fouquet, and that the agents of his fall were less capable 
 and less fortunate than M. Colbert, who was the author of 
 that of Fouquet. In these two falls, Louis XIV., Louis XV.,
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 213 
 
 Cardinal Mazarin and Cardinal de Fleury were deceived by 
 their dependants. Colbert coveted Fouquet's place. H^rault 
 was born M. Chauvelin's enemy. Colbert was fortunate ; he 
 started from his unworthy accusation of Fouquet on the work 
 of a great and prosperous ministry, lasting twenty-four years. 
 Louis XIV. was never punished for that injustice ; he began 
 at that moment a brilliant and magnificent reign. 
 
 Fouquet had all the -noble qualities of a great seigneur, if 
 he had not the birth of one ; although in fact he had claims 
 to nobility by descent, in Bretagne. He thought nobly, he 
 had a lofty soul, much mind, courage, and all the inclinations 
 born of such a character. He had done marvels in the office 
 of attorney-general to the parliament ; he had risen to the 
 ministry and there proved himself a man of resource and 
 great expedients. A minister such as Cardinal Mazarin 
 could bear only small men around him, — and this is true of 
 Cardinal de Fleury. Nevertheless, having more intelligence 
 than the latter, he admitted at first men of stronger stuff, 
 whom, little by little, he came to distrust. Mazarin had 
 drained the State, in the midst of its terrors, temerities, and 
 rebellions ; timid pilot he was ever seeking, as they say, to 
 pluck the fowl without its shrieking ; to get one crown, one 
 hundred were charged to the people's pockets. AVith this 
 he was extremely avaricious and niggardly; he mixed up 
 his private affairs with those of the king; he fished in 
 troubled waters; he evaded order instead of seeking and 
 maintaining it in the rules and the administration of the 
 royal treasury. Poor M. Fouquet was held accountable for 
 all this disorder, though he preached continually against it ; 
 he proposed order and rules; he insisted upon them con- 
 tinually with Mazarin. It is even to be supposed that in 
 this way he first displeased him. Thus he became, after 
 Mazarin's deaths the \dctim of the disorder to which he had
 
 214 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 been a martyr. It is this that makes it odious to honest 
 men to be employed under tyrants and with knaves. The 
 base valets, the clerks who served under Mazarin in the 
 finances gave themselves up entirely to the grasping cardinal 
 and, rascals like himself, they pillaged the State, made profits 
 for themselves and for the cardinal's hoard, and sapped poor 
 Fouquet underhand. 
 
 I have said Fouquet had a lofty soul, and being born for a 
 Court he came to it from the legal profession by frequenting 
 great personages, from whom he did, undoubtedly, acquire 
 defects. He liked ostentation, and certainly succeeded 
 through Court intrigue, to which he did not sufficiently 
 oppose that philosophy which accommodates itself to the 
 times, retreating or resuming according as we are free to 
 practise it. Every one likes what he thinks he can do suc- 
 cessfully, and in which he sees he has acquired ability; 
 Fouquet always followed the practices of the Court. 
 
 In all the storms he encountered from Cardinal Mazarin 
 he took refuge in Court intrigue. He owed his vices and his 
 faults to his enemies and his habits. He sought to win the 
 great, and the means he took were not innocent. Thus, we 
 find that he profited by the disorder in the finances and 
 the want of rules in the administration of the Treasury to 
 give presents to persons of influence and to help them to 
 undertake enterprises. It is much, however, that he never 
 increased his own property, and nothing marks more plainly 
 his integrity. 
 
 They obliged him to borrow for the State ; to advance 
 money, and be security. He was born to great wealth ; his 
 office of attorney-general of the parliament was sold for six- 
 teen hundred thousand livres. It was then the custom for 
 the superintendents of finance to advance money to the 
 State; they were accredited in this way. Therefore his
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 215 
 
 magnificent exterior, his expenditure in buildings strengthened 
 his credit, so that he was seen to be very rich and people 
 were glad to lend to him. In later times, finding himself 
 pressed and threatened with the persecution that he met with 
 after the death of Mazarin, his patience was driven to ex- 
 tremities and he put on paper a plan of resistance, which was 
 found, and a great crime made of it. His military measures 
 taken for the fortress of Belleisle, Concarneau, ships, cannon, 
 naval actions, all that seems to us astonishing, but we must 
 remember the customs of those days, when the governors of 
 regions were well-nigh sovereigns, and also had teeth with 
 wliich to bite. The royal authority was not perfected in the 
 provinces as it has been since. 
 
 After the death of Mazarin, Colbert followed his aim ; he 
 found himself well installed in the king's mind by Mazarin's 
 recommendation, and, in fact, he had all the materials ready 
 and well-meditated for a better system, to which he joined 
 great talents for the work. It is easy to shine by contrasts 
 when liberty to act, instead of hindrance and distrust, make 
 a great merit apparent. Fouquet claimed that he could 
 equally well have corrected the disorders, and substituted 
 great system and great ameliorations in the kingdom if they 
 had given him time, and if he had had the confidence of a 
 gi-eat king instead of the distrust of a vile minister ; and I 
 believe that he would have done so and done better still, for 
 he had a soul far loftier than Colbert's, and consequently, 
 more justice and more dexterity in governing Frenchmen. 
 
 Perhaps, however, he might have failed, by trying to mask 
 his preceding faults. Everybody accuses him of doubting 
 whether Louis XIV. would continue to apply himself to 
 governing; he regarded it as a flash in the pan, and thus, they 
 say, duped himself. He would not show the king the bottom 
 of the sack ; he had taken a taste for governing, and wanted
 
 216 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 to govern still further. But when the head doctor has mis- 
 managed the patient it is better to change doctors, lest the 
 former should only palliate the evU. instead of thoroughly 
 curing it ; the former is not fitted to cut to the quick, whereas 
 the new doctor boldly contradicts the past and takes a 
 wholly new method. Fouquet maintained himself under 
 Mazarin, only half-pleased him, and was destroyed by scoun- 
 drels who pleased him better ; he took measures towards the 
 nobles, he took none towards the person of the king. 
 
 [May 20.] M. Pecquet does not refi-ain from telling 
 openly to what point everything is going wrong in the ad- 
 ministration of our Foreign affairs. He spoke of it yesterday 
 to the Chevalier de Plaisance before several of our friends. 
 Letting affairs go, when there is such offensive malignity on 
 the part of the principal powers of Europe, is bringing ruin 
 and destruction, at first insensibly and then with great strides, 
 to the House of France. The role of the republic of Lucca 
 or Eagusa is not possible for us, because we are doubted and 
 attacked the moment we cease to take measures for defence, 
 as we have done under our cardinal. He sustains France 
 neither by good faith towards our friends nor by vigour in 
 arms ; he is a rotten joist, worthless and untrustworthy. 
 He changes his system from day to day. Here is Spain, 
 ruined and attacked on all sides in America. Her fleet is at 
 Ferrol ; it might go from there to England, but it is thought 
 that if Spain has any design it is that of attacking the 
 Eomans in Eome. She has about twenty-eight large vessels. 
 There are fifteen to twenty thousand men in Galicia all ready 
 to be embarked. If, under better times, we desired to join 
 in the former project we have quantities of troops in Flan- 
 ders, and we only need merchant-vessels to transport them 
 suddenly into England, adding our squadrons from Toulon 
 and Marseille to annihilate the British coast-guard, their
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 217 
 
 fleets being dispersed. This operation could be rapid; we 
 should give a Stuart to England, a tolerant Stuart, whom 
 England would never have gained otherwise; the English 
 would find they had lost all the great advantages stipulated 
 for them in the Peace of Utrecht ; we should re-establish 
 Dunkerque; the Assiento of Spain ^ would be taken from 
 them ; we should make war to the death by sea and land ; 
 and what other neighbouring powers, denuded as they are, 
 so miserable and so preoccupied, the Emperor exhausted, 
 Savoie under restraint, the Empress busy with Sweden, what 
 other power, I say, no longer beuig assisted by England's 
 money, could thwart om- attack ? 
 
 But at bottom, we desire the good of England ; in place of 
 the exorbitant privileges of exclusive rights, we would leave 
 them the common right of commerce and, to govern them, 
 we would give them then- legitimate king, who has no States 
 elsewhere for which to piUage England and export her 
 grease, and no foreign and Germanic interests in which to 
 involve her. 
 
 Meantime misery is exhausting the kingdom ; the scarcity 
 of wheat this year will be much worse than that of last year, 
 for the provinces of Picardy and Soissons, which were then 
 our granary, lack wheat this year. Mortality is decimating 
 our inhabitants ; there is less money than there was a year 
 ago, — that is to say, none. 
 
 [May 22.] The king has made us tremble by his cold ; 
 but all colds have a dangerous character this year ; the poor 
 are dying of them for want of succour; the rich languish 
 but get well by dint of care. Perspiration checked by this 
 villanous northwest wind and cold rains, at a season when 
 the sun is at its hottest, is the cause. The king himted 
 
 1 An English company which had a monopoly of supplying negroes for 
 
 the Spanish colonies. — Fr. Ed. 
 
 Ver. 2—15 Mem.
 
 218 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 Saturday and took his stag near Kosny; he retm-ned very 
 weary, havmg taken hot and cold, and supped heavily. 
 The next day, cough and some fever; they dare not bleed 
 him, nor even speak to him on the subject. These spring 
 colds are worse than those of winter, especially when one 
 has escaped them so far. 
 
 Who knows of what crimes ambition and revenge may 
 not be capable ? If the queen became regent, though for 
 a few years only, I see her surrounded by sinful and hypo- 
 critical women, such as the Duchesses de Villars, Mazarin, 
 Gontaut ; behind them all the Unigenitus bishops, intrigu- 
 ing and treacherous. Cardinal de Tencin, the Noailles, the 
 crazy and ambitious Mar^chal de Noailles, the Abbd de 
 Broglie, Du Mesnil — these are they who would govern the 
 State imder a foreign and imbecile queen. Farewell all hope 
 of purity and integrity ! farewell that reign of Titus for 
 which we hope under the government of Louis XV. 
 
 [May 26.] The king took good care of himself during his 
 cold, and yet he looks somewhat changed, which is rather 
 the effect of treatment than of the malady itself. He still 
 keeps his chamber, has been bled twice, purged, and dieted ; 
 he wants to live. The old tyrant, on his side, is getting 
 better and better, and younger instead of older at the age of 
 eighty-nine. He has just had an inflammation of the eye, 
 his tribute to the spring. 
 
 The King of England has gone to Hanover, which aston- 
 ishes all Europe and makes the lower English classes say 
 that he abdicates, for whoever quits a country loses it. It 
 is much the contrary ; he knows what he is about ; he goes 
 to enter upon new intrigues and make more sure of the 
 emperor, the czarina, Prussia, and Denmark. 
 
 In France, the misery of the provinces increases ; in every 
 town, each bourgeois is ordered to feed one or two poor
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 219 
 
 persons, and to give them fourteen pounds of bread per week. 
 In the single little town of Cliatelleraut there were eighteen 
 hundred poor persons on that footing the past winter, which 
 will accustom our people to become do-nothings. 
 
 Let it not be said that this comes from the sterility of the 
 earth, for the harvest of 1739 was not so bad, and the one in 
 prospect for this year promises magnificent returns, but the 
 poverty is greater. Last winter the collectors of the taille- 
 tax exacted it with horrible rigour. But worse still : wheat 
 crossed our frontiers to the relief of the Austrian provinces, 
 and this, by permission of our Court; the more disastrous 
 these exports were for the people, the more money they 
 brought to the Orrys. 
 
 [May 31.] The king no longer coughs ; a broth of turnips 
 cured him ; this broth was prepared by the hands of love, by 
 Mme. de Mailly herself. His Majesty had a dressing-gown 
 which annoyed him. Mme. de Mailly went out immedi- 
 ately, chose a charming stuff and had it made up during the 
 night, and the next morning the king found it at his toilet. 
 The king has given the tolls of the bridge of Neuilly to the 
 lady; they amount to 20,000 livres a year; it is true that 
 they have belonged for all time to the family of Hautefort ; 
 the period of their cession was about to end, but they might 
 have been continued to the Marquis d'Hautefort, if there 
 had been no favourite. I wish the mistress, being that of 
 the king, should be favoured, but not by doing wrong to 
 others. The regiment ci-devant Condd, given to the Cheva- 
 lier de Mailly by taking it from young d'Argens, is another 
 case. I do not like these things ; they grieve me for love of 
 my master ; the mistress will soon be hated. 
 
 It is thought that after her, and even before her, the Com- 
 tesse de Toulouse will have the largest share of the king's 
 favour ; her character pleases him ; she is a kindly woman
 
 220 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 and affable, they say. If the king wants another mistress 
 she is conveniently at hand ; if his Majesty wants piety, 
 she is pious; thus he would be suited on all hands. She 
 has, they say, determined on pushing Grandville for the 
 ministry ; she has made him Councillor of State, and loves 
 him much. 
 
 It is known that the true reason of the journey of his 
 Britannic Majesty to Hanover is because Mme. de Walmo- 
 den, his mistress, is about to be confined, and her child must 
 be born in Germany in order to make a great seigneur of 
 him. Moreover, the king, seeing troubles at home, is glad to 
 have them go to Walpole's accoimt and let him suffer if evil 
 comes of them ; besides which, he puts upon us the ridicvde 
 of the great confidence he shows in our neutrality. The 
 Duke of Argyle, who has had a quarrel with the king, has 
 retired to Scotland, where he plays the devil to raise the 
 kingdom and favour the Pretender. 
 
 They are striking at the Mint gold crowns of the value of 
 a crown of six livres ; and besides this new coin, more 
 louis d'or and crowns of the same name and weight as the 
 old ones, but with a finer imprint than that of Varin, and 
 of the age the king now is. But these gold crowns, what 
 swagger, what vanity in this air of Asiatic magnificence at 
 a time when poverty is unexampled ! Will they be monu- 
 ments of present calamity, avarice, and financial pride ? 
 
 M. Bignon, cousin of M. de Maurepas, arriving from Sois- 
 sonnais, his intendancy, where he had gone to receive the 
 Queen of Poland, has written letters of remonstrance on the 
 miserable state of that province and on the abuses which 
 take place in consequence. I know from him that M. de 
 Maurepas has prescribed this conduct to him. He is not a 
 worker, but he is a man on good terms with every one, of 
 sound sense, liking details about human life, and having
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 221 
 
 very clean hands. He has boldly laid before the cardmal 
 a strong accusation against M. de Sechelles, intendant of 
 Maubeuge ; he says that the estate of Vervins, belonging to 
 Sdchelles' niece, preserved, to his knowledge, large stores of 
 wheat, and that this wheat was being slipped into Hainaut 
 and the Low Countries all last winter ; and for that reason 
 Sechelles would not establish a chain of troops along the 
 frontier as he, Bignon, had requested him to do. To this 
 accusation the good cardinal replied in these very words : 
 " But it is natural that every one should seek his own profit." 
 A fine answer, truly ! 
 
 M. Orry was boasting the other day, before the assembled 
 Council, of the firmness with which he had taxed the com- 
 munes of Bretagne more than was necessary, in order to 
 make them pay so much a year on then- debts assigned to 
 the province. The communes, on the other hand, said that 
 he ought to let the people breathe. He also said that in 
 Languedoc and Bourgogne, and among the clergy he was 
 carrying on the same operation. 
 
 I told him that was what was called in England a 
 sinking-fund ; and it was a very good thing in a prosperous 
 country, where they could lay by certain sums to pay off 
 debts to capital. But that when communities were pressed, 
 as ours to-day, it was too much to pay up arrearages ; and 
 that this was the great folly advised by Duverney, which 
 led to the overthrow of M. le Due when, in 1725, the people 
 being crushed down and dying of hunger, they held a lit de 
 justice at which the king caused to be registered a quantity 
 of edicts on taxes, and especially that of the cinquantieme ; 
 to this was applied the fine argument that as nothing could 
 fan in France except through the credit of the king, that 
 credit should therefore be maintained by making a sinking- 
 fund of the cinquantieme, to be faithfully applied to extiu-
 
 222 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 guishing the king's debt ; as if when one could not pay 5 
 the remedy was to make us pay 15 ! 
 
 Our administrators exhibit daily the abuse of the old 
 maxims of public credit which they take awry ; the proof is 
 that, in applying them, things go to ruin. It is well to pay 
 debts, but days of plenty must be awaited in which to do so. 
 A little good sense and regard for circumstances would 
 dictate this course ; but when will the days of plenty come ? 
 Assuredly not under the ministry of MM. Fleury and 
 Orry. 
 
 [ Jime 3.] They have just brought twenty-five thousand 
 bullocks from Ireland, which will cost a great deal. M. 
 le Nain, intendant of Poitou, and M. de Tourny, intendant 
 of Limoges, have represented, on leaving Paris for their 
 departments, that those two provinces, already so poverty- 
 stricken, would be definitively ruined if this purchase of 
 beeves took place ; that they could no longer pay the taille, 
 and the difficulty of feeding the animals would complete the 
 work of rendering both departments frightful deserts. They 
 each stated in their memorial, without the other's knowledge, 
 that their provinces were still in a condition to furnish Paris 
 with meat at ordinary prices, though poverty had somewhat 
 checked the sending of it ; that it was help to the people 
 themselves that was needed, — their relief by the lessening 
 of taxes, and by some loans of money, and not the anni- 
 hilation of their earnings which was proposed. 
 
 The controller-general held firm; or rather he paid no 
 attention ; his course was taken. But why this stupid 
 obstinacy ? Before sending so much money out of the 
 kingdom ought we not to exhaust all other expedients — 
 relief, encouragement, loans ? I learn that M. de Maurepas 
 has given the same advice to all the other intendants, 
 namely, to depict the frightful state of their provinces, and
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 223 
 
 cry aloud to the cardinal against Orry's untruthful reports, 
 and against their negligence in meeting the occasion. 
 
 [June 11.] We have just heard in Paris of the death of 
 the King of Prussia, which took place June 2. M. de Valory, 
 our minister at Berlin, has written me the details by the 
 courier whom he despatched with the news ; he also writes 
 me a great eulogy of the first steps of his son and successor 
 [Frederick the Great]. 
 
 This prince has great intelligence, merit in all dnections, 
 much application, and philosophy. He will do what he has to 
 do. That is a great point. He will have soldiers for fight- 
 ing ; instead of which the late king, with his tall men, never 
 knew how to give a blow fi-om the shoulder, thanks to his 
 extreme irresolution and cowardice. He leaves great wealth 
 to his son. The latter will love learned men and the arts ; 
 he will seek peace, but with glory ; he is eager, active, full of 
 honour. Beware lest such a prince should give us many 
 a knot to untangle if we oppose his designs ! Without 
 liking war by nature, he can be led to it by a point of honour. 
 His rights are of a kind to need war to sustain and strengthen 
 his dawning greatness in the midst of jealous enemies, 
 neighbours who hem him in, and before an oppressing em- 
 peror. He will be made indignant by the vexations borne 
 on all sides by the Protestant communion. 
 
 He wdl find in the arrangements of his father much oppor- 
 tunity for becoming a great power in Europe. By changing 
 his giants into warriors he can make a considerable saving, 
 enough to put his troops into activity. His natural tastes 
 and his principles will lead him to render his people happy 
 and to make the arts flourish and especially belles-lettres, 
 which he loves. But it will be shameful in him, having jus- 
 tice and honour, if he abandons the Juliers affair, begun and 
 so far advanced in preparation by his father. The universe
 
 224 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 would then regard as baseness in the young prince all he 
 might seek to do for the delight of the human race. He 
 owes himself to a great rivalry for the repression of the 
 greatness of Eussia and the designs of her tyrannous league 
 with the Emperor. That is, before all else, the menace of 
 the North to him, and for this reason he ought to enter our 
 alliance with Sweden and be among our friends. 
 
 He will meet within the Empire jealousies of State to 
 State, forces being nearly equal ; jealousies of the Houses of 
 Bavaria and Saxony, quarrels of equality, neighbourhood, and 
 even of boundaries, daily embittering that jealousy. At first 
 he will be closely allied and friendly with his uncle, the king 
 of England ; a tie sharpened by youth and by love, which 
 seeks to marry one of the king's daughters and is thwarted 
 by the father, rendering it the more ardent. The grand 
 views, the tenor of the political meditations of the King 
 of Prussia will turn in three opposite directions : 1. The 
 maintenance, propagation, and triumph of the Protestant 
 religion in Germany ; a healthy view to procure him internal 
 calmness and the maintenance of privilege ; a false view, if 
 he wishes to rise, for that party is too imequal to Catholicity ; 
 great statesmen ought to put aside such points of opinion, 
 and reduce all to tolerance and free worship. It is true, 
 however, that to maintain himself at the head of the reli- 
 gious party he will have to do something in favour of that 
 party. 2. The succession to the Emperor. To whom will 
 it fall ? Shall he favour his own party ? Shall he profit 
 by it to diminish the power of the Germanic Chief, and to 
 aggrandize himself, the King of Prussia ? By what pretext 
 of a right of succession can he aggrandize himself without 
 Bavaria and Saxony claiming still more of the spoils, they 
 who have such potent rights to this inheritance ? Still, it is 
 to his interest that these two rivals should make themselves
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 225 
 
 powerful at the cost of the Emperor. 3. The greatness and 
 power of the House of France, which England, Holland, 
 Hesse, the King of Sweden (but not the nation, nor the 
 Elector of Saxony) will exaggerate to him, as they have 
 preached for the last ninety years in Germany ; leading his 
 predecessors, the Electors of Brandenbourg and others, into 
 forming perpetual leagues against us ; by which they forged 
 fetters for themselves in working for the Emperor, without 
 doing us much damage. 
 
 If the King of Prussia were devout in his commimion, he 
 would concern himself about the subdivisions among the 
 Protestants and the reformers, which would diminish his zeal 
 for those two parties against Catholicism, — such are the de- 
 vout of that arbitrary communion. Let him content himself 
 with calmness in his religion. His morality, his philosophy, 
 his benevolence will lead him away from all views of self- 
 aggi^andizement ; unless his equals aggrandize themselves 
 before his eyes, he will not be led to do so. But all his 
 views, all his political forces will, on the death of the Em- 
 peror (which will happen after a few attacks of apoplexy), go 
 to diminishing the vicious power of the Chief of the Ger- 
 manic body, and making that body thrive on the fragments 
 of its head ; which would bring about more power, more re- 
 sistant force, more solidity, and no connivance at any time 
 against the power and grandeur of the House of France. 
 Hence I conclude that the closest alliance of the King of 
 Prussia should be a maxim with us and that he should 
 remain, or become, more our friend than our enemy during 
 his whole reign. 
 
 [June 23.] Here 's the Spanish fleet out of Ferrol, naviga- 
 ting the seas at large. Where is it going ? To England ? 
 We shall know soon. 
 
 The King of Prussia has done so many things since his
 
 226 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 accession to the throne, that it is really incomprehensible. 
 He has written the most beautiful letter to Voltaire, telling 
 him to write to him as usual as to a man who was not a king. 
 He has given freedom to commerce. He has written to M. 
 Chambrier, his minister in Paris, to send him Yaucanson, — 
 who made our wonderful automatic flute-player, and whom 
 we have so neglected to reward and encourage. Chambrier 
 is making a bargain with him, and we shall let him go. 
 
 [June 24.] The Due de La Eochefoucauld has said to the 
 king that his Majesty was perhaps ignorant of the state of 
 the pro\TLnces ; that it went beyond all that could be said of 
 it; that this was forgotten amid the plenty of the capital; 
 that all is glossed over here ; that the ministry strive only to 
 hide the ills of the kingdom and make a show of abundance 
 in Paris, but that the provinces where so much misery 
 existed last year, were doubly miserable this year, and that 
 those provinces which were better off last year were now 
 equal in misery with the others. The king answered that he 
 knew all that, and that he also knew that his kingdom had 
 diminished one sixth during the past year. 
 
 I have had a great source of grief. I am told on all sides 
 that my brother envies my sort of reputation, namely, a cer- 
 tain general esteem for constancy to my friends, for good 
 sense and a desire for the public good ; but more especially 
 for solid and lasting ties, which seem likely to put me in 
 office at the cardinal's death. No doubt he avoids speaking 
 ill of his own brother, but he has tools so adroit that malig- 
 nant talk is disseminated against me, the source of which 
 is recognizable, especially to the persons who report them, 
 chiefly the low valets of the House of Orleans. 
 
 That nothing may be wanting to my pain, I hear, with 
 certainty, that these manceu^Tes are discovered, have reached 
 our chief master, and will grievously recoil upon their author.
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 227 
 
 SO that he will be upon his guard against him and against 
 all that comes from him. Lately the Due d'Oiidaus has 
 seemed to be against me ; and to have received bad impres- 
 sions when M. de Balleroy and the Due de Chartres told 
 him that the latter admitted me to hold political conversa- 
 tions with him in order to accustom him to speak on public 
 affairs. The Due d'Orl^ans seemed to think me a man of 
 little worth, and said that all he believed of me was that I 
 had a good stomach, for which he honoured me. The Due de 
 Chartres seemed troubled that his father knew me so ill, and 
 at first he threw the blame on my brother. I defended him 
 as best I could ; but there will always remain this blame : 
 that he did not make me better known to the Due d'Orl^ans, 
 being well worth that trouble, as the young prince said. 
 
 The cardinal still thinks actually of being pope ; hence the 
 horrible muddle in the conclave and its extraordinary dura- 
 tion. The whole Court of Vienna is against this project ; the 
 Emperor alone likes the cardinal. It is thought that the 
 admission of the Imperial troops into Corsica will be the fee 
 for the bargain. What is betraying your country called ? 
 
 [July 4.] Cardinal de Polignac assm^es me that this 
 papacy of the cardinal is an impossibility ; that the Italian 
 faction will always carry the election ; and that even if the 
 three factions, France, Spain, and Naples and Austria united 
 for this purpose they would only have thirty votes, and the 
 Italian faction would hold firm. There are now present at 
 the conclave fifty-thi-ee cardinals, which is the same as fifty- 
 four ; two-thirds are required for an election, which is thirty- 
 six, and a third (eighteen votes) for exclusion ; so that the 
 combined factions can succeed in excluding, but never in 
 electing. 
 
 Two courtiers were talking confidentially at Versailles 
 yesterday, and they said what follows : " Wlien one asks
 
 228 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 what the news is at Court, people answer, there is none at 
 all; and they are right in point of fact; all is lethargy, noth- 
 ing goes on, nothing is done. There is no comprehending 
 the king any longer; he lets everything go to the cardinal, 
 and the cardinal does absolutely nothing; which might 
 arise from want of power, though he appears to have sole 
 power." 
 
 Faith is tempted . at every moment to fail on the hopes we 
 have conceived of the king personally. He lives in an inex- 
 cusable debauchery and obscurity with his mistress; he 
 seems to have no good time except that in which he is 
 alone with Mme. de Mailly at Choisy, La Muette, or Ram- 
 bouillet. M. de Beringhen [chief equerry] has prevented, as 
 much as he could, Mme. de Mailly from sleeping at La Mu- 
 ette, of which he is governor. At Choisy there are eight 
 rooms, and Madame de Mailly and Mme. de Vintimille sleep 
 there openly. The king never speaks now of the state of his 
 kingdom ; he repeats, they say, like a parrot, word for word, 
 what the cardinal tells him. They are going to represent at 
 Court a ballet with music and words by M. de La Tr^mou- 
 ille ; this will attract the approbation of Voltaire, who 
 constantly preaches that our seigneurs ought to concern 
 themselves with art and letters ; he will be much pleased. 
 
 That poor M. de Maurepas is in bad repute with every one 
 at Court, for he has put his foot into such a quantity of 
 shoes. He sees nothing correctly, and lets himself be led 
 into things that are ridiculous, and offensive to his Majesty. 
 The king dislikes him and will not keep him long when he 
 is master. Lazy masters like above all others sincere and 
 trusty men ; whoso misleads them once loses them forever. 
 
 [July 9.] My son has just left college; he now lives 
 with me ; he studies. He was very delicate in childhood, 
 and still is, though healthy at present, and free from mala-
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 229 
 
 dies, lie eats little, from want of appetite and without effort 
 at moderation ; what he eats is only trash, — pastry and milky 
 food ; he hates butcher's meat. He has not grown since he 
 was sixteen years old, and is not as tall as I am, who am 
 only of medium height ; he likes no bodily exercise. 
 
 From his infancy all his powers have passed to his brain, 
 but I do not see that anything has gone to liis imagination, 
 or his senses, or to that most subtle and laudable of the 
 senses, the heart. His heart is good, but it is not a feeling 
 one ; it says nothing to him ; his heart is dull, the faculty is 
 dead within him. He lilves the theatre, and has acquired a 
 vast erudition on the subject ; but at comedies he only laughs 
 with his mind, and at tragedies he never weeps ; at the most 
 touching scenes he admires the art of the author, and feels 
 nothing, — so he says himself. 
 
 All this comes from the fact that the poor boy has no 
 sensibility of the senses, and that all his wits have gone to 
 the brain, where they work and have gi-eat power. He has 
 a prodigious memory ; he thinks, he judges, he distinguishes, 
 he conceives, he is eager for knowledge. He began young, 
 and is far advanced in mind and in acquirement. I have 
 turned his studies to modern things, to recent history and 
 matters more within range of society ; inclinations which he 
 has had from birtli have carried on this system to a good 
 choice of reading ; that is to say, what is chiefly in the mode 
 of to-day. 
 
 With it all, I see in him a mediocre imagination, for he is 
 not absolutely without any ; he is not sterile, but not fruit- 
 ful ; he never feels himself inspired ; he never wants to write ; 
 he was a whole week with me without asking for an ink- 
 stand, satisfied to roam my library and read the whole time. 
 He never feels the need to write verses ; I have known him 
 do so in childliood, but it was always from imitation, copy-
 
 230 JOUKNAL AND JNIEMOIllS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 iiig, and without spii'it, without taste ; their chief fault was 
 want of thought. 
 
 This is what it is to lack sense through feebleness. He 
 will have neither taste, nor imagination, nor pleasures ; all 
 will go by mind ; and his mind will merely judge, without 
 that prompt, natural, loftier method which we call taste ; his 
 mind will be a combiner and comparer, without genius, which 
 is the inspiring, revealing divinity that generates the sub- 
 lime. He will never have any ideas but those of others ; he 
 will gather them in rich abundance ; he may produce a few 
 little fruits, but they will be small and dry, no flowers, — in 
 short, he will have no pleasures. With this, his nature is 
 gentle, happily not crabbed. His reflections have led him to 
 a certain urbanity in order not to displease, and, without the 
 desire of pleasing, he is and will be a man of worth ; he will 
 never waste his means, from lack of imagination and passion. 
 
 This will make a pedant, if care is not taken, but a pedant 
 without harshness or obstinacy. He is diffuse, and cannot 
 make an analysis. His notes are longer than the text, from 
 the quantity of ideas he has received and which he faithfully 
 preserves all together. I forgot to say that he has no joy ; 
 neither has he any sadness. 
 
 As to usefulness, he will make what is called a good subject, 
 without being a great subject. The first suffrages of his fel- 
 lows will be for him and will produce great effect ; but, little 
 by little, the tie of society lacking, — I mean that amiable 
 bond that makes us interested in one another, the love or 
 friendship (they are the same thing) that lights up chaos 
 according to a divine mythology, — that lacking, as I have 
 said, my son will not be hated, but will never be loved ; 
 especially when, growing colder himself, he will give to so- 
 ciety only what a dictionary gives, just ideas without novelty. 
 
 He will be a good judge, a virtuous intendant, a compe-
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 231 
 
 'tent administrator, a good preserver of the state of things 
 when it is good, but never a reformer, gifted with a few 
 views, but common ones. Those views will, however, be ac- 
 curate, and that is much. Speaking generally, he will be 
 virtuous, committing no follies ; he will preserve his property, 
 and acquire more. 
 
 Is not that a son such as every father must desire? 
 Beyond that are chimeras with great risks and giievous 
 chances. It is still possible to turn him towards the things 
 in which he is most deficient, in order that he may acquire 
 something of them. He may catch a few passions which 
 will draw him a trifle from his apathy, and warm him a little. 
 But education does no more than turn the nose to the path, 
 it never compels to follow it. 
 
 [July 13.] Everything at Court is becoming a new sub- 
 ject of speculation, or rather, of despair. For the last year 
 the king has the interests of his kingdom less at heart, and 
 abandons himself more to the old and imbecile control of the 
 cardinal. He had given some signs of being master and so- 
 licitous about public affairs; he did of his own accord cer- 
 tain admirable things, all of them without his minister ; he 
 gave some shocks to the irksome old man, each tending to 
 the desired end, namely, to disgust him and induce him to 
 resign. But now, instead of that, we have seen for the last 
 six months enough to lay on Louis XV. the charge of being 
 another Louis XIIL, quod Deus avertat, for Flemy is not 
 Eichelieu ! But this parallel of our king, who is dear to us, 
 whom I love with all my heart, to an imbecile prince, poor 
 in spirit, with all the virtues of a valet and not one of a mas- 
 ter, is absolutely false. The king has within himself the 
 virtues which make a happy reign ; he has intellect, a good 
 mind ; he is an honest man, and consistent ; he likes honest 
 men. He has been put upon his guard against the rancour,
 
 232 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vi. 
 
 the pettiness of spirit, and the other defects of the cardinal. 
 It is much to have sown these first impressions, from which, 
 with one of his Majesty's character, there is no return. 
 
 And yet, in the midst of all that is happening in public 
 affairs, the king seems to idle and to discourage himself from 
 doing anytliing at all. He scarcely gives a few moments of 
 the day to business, and then with evident regret ; he mul- 
 tiplies his journeys, he is always on the road ; he does noth- 
 ing, he no longer reads ; he is seen to be wasting his time all 
 day long. Totus in nugis versatur. Bachelier tormented 
 him a whole week to sit down at his desk and write a few 
 signatures ; he was twelve days unwilling to sign a single 
 paper. 
 
 How shall we explain this increasing abandonment of all 
 the affairs of the kingdom, at a time, too, when their need is 
 greatest ? As for me, I can find no other reason than this : 
 he is like a card-player with a miserable partner, who plumes 
 himself on being very clever, and in that situation he can 
 only await the end of the game impatiently ; scarcely will he 
 hold his own cards in his hand. Poor Bachelier, who is in 
 the secret of everything, talks less than ever, even to his best 
 friends ; but he is often seen to be furious, desperate at the 
 state of things, writhing his arms at what he sees and hears. 
 He has made H write to me that if, in my present dis- 
 tress, I need money, he can procure for me as much as I 
 wish. I have answered, with many thanks, that in spite of 
 the cardinal and his seizure of my income, I have enough to 
 go on with until next Easter. It is certain that this offer 
 came from high places, from the master of all ; which puts 
 my affairs in a smiling condition 
 
 The King of Prussia is attracting the greatest praise for 
 his behaviour during the few weeks that have elapsed since 
 his father's death. God grant that he may become an object
 
 ^-^^'€^:Ce^t^A> ^le t_5^W<«^
 
 1740] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 23 
 
 o 
 
 of emulation to our king, and that a monarch of twenty- 
 eight years of age may inspire one of thirty with the duties 
 of royalty and the glory of working himself. While he was 
 still only the prince-royal, King Frederick wrote memorials 
 on the interests of princes ; they have been in the hands of 
 Mme. du Chatelet, who is not too discreet ; she has shown 
 them to friends, who have shown them to others. 
 
 People say that the ecliptic leans more this year towards 
 the equator, and if it continues to turn in that way, we 
 shall, in a few years, have the same climate in France that 
 they have in Sweden. We learn that in Eome, and espe- 
 cially in Naples there has been unprecedented cold last 
 winter, which continued into spring. Here we are now in 
 midsummer and we have fires all the time ; in the middle 
 of the day the sun is hot, but morning and evening one dies 
 of cold. The wind is due north; hence dryness of the 
 chest and stoppage of perspiration, which are causing every- 
 where dangerous illnesses. All our ministers are ill at 
 once ; M. Amelot with a rooted fever that never leaves him 
 for a moment. M. de Maurepas is the most in danger; 
 they are not able to cut his fever ; it is continued, and very 
 strong in its paroxysms; his illnesses are never moderate; 
 they have bled him in the arm, and this morning in the 
 foot. For the ministry, it would be the loss of the only 
 man it has to-day. 
 
 Vcr. 2—16 Hem,
 
 234 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS 01^ [chap, vn 
 
 VII. 
 
 1740— I74I. 
 
 [July 24.] Every day brings to persons without preju- 
 dice new features in the king's character which it is impor- 
 tant to understand. But it is necessary to have eyes that are 
 unoccupied and, above all, devoid of impatience. 
 
 I had heard the buildings at Compifegne much blamed. I 
 am here now ; I examine them ; nothing denotes otherwise 
 than that the king knew the obstacles, has surmounted them, 
 and carried out his object. That object certainly is a con- 
 stant change of residence. The king is young, likes hunting 
 and excursions. He finds at Compifegne the finest forest for 
 hunting that he has in his possession, and he wanted to have 
 a habitable hunting-lodge ; he is contented with the habi- 
 table ; he wanted also to have his mistress ; for that he had 
 to have other ladies, and after them, the ministers, and 
 finally our Council. He built houses here and there, at 
 various angles, following the streets of Compifegne. The 
 houses of the ministers are sufficient and convenient ; they 
 are near the chateau and are all panelled ; what need of any- 
 thiag else ? Throughout the place, and for everybody alike, 
 are habitable and agreeable lodgings, good air and health, 
 magnificent promenades; the terrace is a rampart thus ap- 
 plied, fine view, and the river. I like this simplicity and 
 convenience ; I like to see things in keeping with the place 
 where they are ; the conventional is wearisome. It is useless 
 to say that the beautiful would not have cost more, that the 
 ministers ought to have been lodged in the old chateau;
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 235 
 
 that his Majesty ought to have built himself a new chateau, 
 worthy of a king, which might have cost twenty millions. 
 His Majesty wished for the enjoyment at once and more 
 quickly than such arrangements would allow. I like the 
 wisdom that sees where things lead, the economy that saves 
 millions in these difficult times, and accommodates itself, 
 to needs. There will soon be little left to do at Compifegne ; 
 a jplace d'armes for the guard, and a garden before the 
 house, and that is all. We shall be fortimate if the king 
 keeps to this and laughs at his critics. 
 
 People insist that the king has only obstinacy in place of 
 firmness, but he certainly has reserved to himself some 
 decisions which have been correct. They did not want the 
 dauphin to come to Compifegne, because some children here 
 have had the small-pox; there was corn-age in braving the 
 terrors of the nurses. Still, it is difficult to comprehend the 
 character of the king; the cleverest and most decided 
 minds are at sea about it. If his Majesty has arranged the 
 retirement of the cardinal via the papacy with the secrecy 
 and persistency which I attribute to him, then he is already 
 one of the great men of France. But if we are to believe 
 those who see him and judge him he is inconceivably weak ; 
 he changes liis purposes, he is flaccid in all things ; Bache- 
 lier is no longer influential ; this head-servant has just had 
 a quarrel with little Lebel, another servant, and the king 
 has not supported him ; Bachelier is depressed and says 
 nothing ; the king is more subjugated than ever, they say, 
 to the cardinal One passes one's life here at Compifegne in 
 watching the utter abandonment by the king of the affairs 
 of the kingdom ; in thinking him another Louis XIII., and 
 lower still, and yet, at the same time, seeing in him certain 
 traits which proclaim one of the great men that history 
 lauds. If he meditates showing himself as we all imagine
 
 236 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 he will after the death, or retirement, or papacy of the car- 
 dinal, surely no one was ever so impenetrable. 
 
 [August 2.] The king has had the kindness to play a 
 trick on the cardinal in my behalf. The latter had sus- 
 pended all payments to me from the royal treasmy, as resti- 
 tution for the little I had received for the embassy to Portu- 
 gal, and this from unjust resentment which every one has 
 blamed, inasmuch as it cost me over twenty thousand 
 crowns to prepare for the mission on which his Eminence 
 embarked me. When the matter of the ordering of the pen- 
 sions for 1739-1740 came up, mine was for the month of 
 June and my brother's for the same month, and the king on 
 signing the orders, the cardinal being present, called out, name 
 by name, the receiving parties. When he came to ours, he 
 justly and expressly left out that of my brother, and signed 
 mine for ready money on the royal treasury. 
 
 It followed that this order was given into my hand by 
 M. de Maurepas, who is one of my friends. Mesnard, his 
 head-clerk, told me I had only to draw the money all hot, 
 and Gedion, one of the guards of the royal treasury, a depend- 
 ant of my late father, has taken upon himself to get this 
 sum of money for me by a secret agent. Certainly this 
 little trick is very flattering for me on the part of the 
 master. 
 
 We learn that the English fleet imder Admiral Norris, 
 consisting of twenty-five ships of the line, has sailed, with 
 eight thousand five hundred men to disembark. They have 
 that splendid vessel "The Victory," of 112 guns. This fleet 
 will hold in check our squadron at Brest, and burn, they 
 say, that of the Spaniards which is at Eerrol, an unsafe port, 
 where it can be easily bombarded. 
 
 The great folly that we have committed is putting our 
 two squadrons in roadsteads, whence they must retire, one to
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 237 
 
 Toulon, the other to Brest, especially the latter. There, we 
 have only a dozen vessels of the line and one frigate. 
 " Wliat would happen," said an able man yesterday, " if 
 under present circumstances the Elector palatine should 
 die ? The present King of Prussia is going to put all his 
 powers to policy and gi^eatness; who can say how far he 
 will go, while there is no longer a single mind in Europe at 
 the head of affahs ? He could easily carry off half of Juliers 
 and the Berg before the cardinal comes to a decision about 
 anything. Conceive of a nation like this twirling its thumbs 
 during all these great affairs ! " 
 
 We have another very terrible extremity to expect; the 
 calling in of the debts to the treasury will become this au- 
 tumn and winter an insurmountable difficulty, it will pau- 
 perize our provinces. And so the burden of my song is 
 ever : shame without, misery within. 
 
 My brother has quarrelled irretrievably with the Due 
 d'Orl^ans ; he has insulted him to his face. On arriving at 
 Compiegiie he asked for a conversation with me, and told 
 me (concealing some things, however) that he had obtained 
 the intendancy of Paris without saying a word of it to the 
 Due d'Orldans, who is his master, and who feels himself out- 
 raged by this impertinence. He went at once to see the 
 prince, whq received him very ill. My brother did not tell 
 me how much he was mauled, only that he was Hi-received. 
 
 As they were parting, the Due d'Orleans spoke of soften- 
 ing their separation as much as he could, and mentioned in 
 the first place his desire to give me the post, that of his chan- 
 cellor. It has now been agreed upon not to make this 
 arrangement until next September, and not to place me in 
 full exercise of the office till January 1, so that my brother 
 may have ample time to make up his accounts as treasurer 
 and finish apportioning the shares of the Orleans family.
 
 238 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 Some time later, I went to the supper of the Due d'Orleans 
 at Fontainebleau ; after supper he made me stay alone with 
 him in his cabinet, and said as follows : " Monsieur, your 
 brother has told me of the engagement that you are willing 
 to make with me." I answered as gratitude and modesty 
 dictated. He then said the arrangement would begin on the 
 first of next January, and meantime we would continue not 
 to mention it. I wrote at once to my brother to inform him 
 that the matter was settled. 
 
 The Due d'Orleans is at any moment on the point of retir- 
 ing from the world, no attraction retaining him there any 
 longer. He sees the Due de Chartres a man, strong and 
 doing well ; he thinks himself no longer necessary to him and 
 that he may now say nunc dimittis. A man in the intimate 
 confidence of all this has confided everything to me, presum- 
 ing that I need to know all in the post I am about to occupy. 
 This devout prince has more of madness than devotion; in 
 his misanthropy he hates men, and those he endures enjoy 
 only a passing tolerance which he himself does not expect to 
 last. He knows himself sufficiently well to be aware of the 
 inconstancy of his likings. Sometimes he talks reasonably 
 and eloquently, but oftener he wanders from the point and 
 falls into veritable um-eason ; and this unreason goes even 
 into minutiae, which proves that his mind is of small calibre. 
 He thinks he has discovered that his tastes and his talents 
 are for criticism and for the ancient oriental languages ; he 
 spends his time at Sainte-Genevieve discussing with certain 
 erudite fathers Hebrew or Chaldaic passages, or the punctua- 
 tion of a Hebrew verse. At present he is engaged in fixing 
 the exact situation of the Garden of Eden. 
 
 His piety is not consistent ; he lets out at times sugges- 
 tions of a policy too independent of religion, as for instance, 
 when he wanted the Due de Penthifevre to enter the Church,
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 239 
 
 be made a cardinal, and loaded with benefices, without 
 examining his vocation. As for me, I should be of opinion 
 that he ought not to enter the Church to get possession of 
 the property of others, and especially that of the poor ; that 
 neither should he marry and perpetuate a race of bastards 
 with false and precarious honours ; but take a pretty mistress, 
 well paid, and incite to that course MM. de Dombes and 
 d'Eu [sons of the Due du Maine]. 
 
 The Due d'OrMans is the son of a mother of much intelli- 
 gence, who never said anything without a design, but little 
 to be trusted, vindictive, and with constant passions : mater 
 Gracchorum, grande sujjercilium. The quartering of Morte- 
 mart brought to the son a certain madness; and there is 
 every appearance that he is the son of Fervaques Bullion, 
 .where there was often insanity. All this has been in the 
 mind of the poor prince ; everything in liim is explained by 
 madness, devout madness, and enmity to society. 
 
 With that, he has become on his guard and very touchy 
 about his mother's empire over him ; he tries to escape it in 
 every way and is continually on the defensive. He is also 
 very sensitive on the subject of the succession to the throne, 
 desiring to guard the stipulated right against the birthright 
 of the Spanish branch. As to this, he would like to do what 
 in him lies, but he cannot, he says, attend to the duties of a 
 prince of the blood ; his taste for retirement and study are 
 too strong for it ; and he adds to this the disgust he feels at 
 the Council of State, where they deliberate only on things 
 already decided, and where nothing is read but the " Gazette ; " 
 for which reasons he declines to give good advice which he 
 knows will not be followed. 
 
 The same person who told me the above said also : " M. le 
 Due de Chartres ought not to be considered as a mere prince 
 of the blood, to procreate other princes, make himself agi-ee-
 
 240 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 able to the noblesse, and live in the delights procured by 
 rank, wealth, and idleness. No, he has other things to do ; 
 he may soon be called to the throne. The king has only 
 one son, the dauphin, not yet married, and he ought to 
 regard the Due de Chartres as another Due d'Anjou. What, 
 then, ought the young man to do ? Please the king, behave 
 to him with great respect, and please the dauphin as well." 
 
 The king ought certainly, from this point of view, to make 
 him his son-in-law, give him the honours of a son of France, 
 and strengthen in the eyes of Europe the stipulated rights 
 [under the " renunciations "], which would reassure her. If 
 this were done the Orleans branch would have all Europe 
 with it. The Due de Chartres ought to behave with great 
 dignity, and the most should be made of his character, which 
 is not caressing but solid. He will please wherever he is 
 known, because he will be respected. He ought to give satis- 
 faction to the nobles as occasions arise, and at times help 
 them in some matters secretly ; above all, he ought to check 
 the influence of the Spanish ambassadors at our Court, and 
 that of their attendants ; but in all things prefen-ing the 
 good of the kingdom he may one day possess, when our 
 interests are mingled with those of Spain, as to-day in the 
 war between Spain and England. The Due d'Orl^ans has 
 always been of opinion in the Council that we ought to 
 support Spain in this war. We must suppose that the 
 marriage of Madame Sdconde to the Due de Chartres will 
 not be accomplished without continual tergiversations of the 
 cardinal who, not willing to do anything for Spain in the 
 present war, is also unwilling to offend her in exterior 
 things, as this marriage would do. 
 
 My brother possesses at present the whole confidence and 
 friendship of the cardinal, since his Eminence has succeeded 
 in giving him the intendancy of Paris ; that puts him far on
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 241 
 
 the way to be controller-general in place of M. Ony, who 
 fulfils that office so ill. It also tends to ruin M. Chauvelin 
 more and more and prevent his return ; he having no greater 
 enemy than my brother. 
 
 [August 29.] Here is the pope elected and he is an 
 Italian (Prospero Lambertini, Benedetto XIV.). They tell 
 me that for the last six weeks the cardinal had given up 
 hopes of it, but before that he hoped it, and had lured the 
 king to do so. The violence of the two parties in the con- 
 clave is to be attributed to the French and German car- 
 dinals, neither of whom would yield to the other. It is 
 thought at Court that, this affair having failed, the king will 
 drop back into the signs of disgust he showed formerly to 
 Cardinal de Fleury ; they were only suspended, and merely 
 gave way to an affected deference founded on this hope of 
 the papacy. Already his Majesty is beginning to rove and 
 fly about more than ever. He was to have spent the whole 
 of September at Versailles and give liimself up to work ; 
 but they now think he will not stay there five whole days. 
 The trips to Choisy and La Muette multiply, that to Fon- 
 tainebleau is hastened by a week; his Majesty flees the 
 cardinal, seeing the evils of his administration. 
 
 [September 16.] Things are coming to a crisis: famine 
 in the interior of the kingdom ; Paris about to lack bread, 
 which grows dearer day by day, riots everj^where, the prov- 
 inces at their last gasp, and still the tailles are increased 
 and the kingdom being depopulated. The English, Spanish, 
 and Dutch are driving us to war ; a formidable English 
 fleet has left their ports, and ours are forced to put to sea ; 
 the cardinal is at an end of his tergiversations which have 
 brought nothing but dishonour to the nation. He no longer 
 knows where he is, and people expect at any moment the 
 news of his voluntary retirement. Sunday, Monday, and
 
 242 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [cuap. vii. 
 
 Tuesday he shut himself up suddenly at Issy, and would 
 not suffer any one to enter the place. I know persons who 
 had business with his secretary and Barjac, who could speak 
 to them only in their carriage, and the two men said they 
 were all locked in and that their brains were turning in the 
 depths of the seminary with their dear master. What was 
 he doing ? Was he wi-iting ? was he ill ? was he burning 
 papers ? That is what no one yet knows. 
 
 Fear is felt for next Wednesday, September 21, There is 
 no bread in Paris, except some damaged flour which has 
 arrived and is being parched. They are working day and 
 night at the mills in Belleville to make over this old decayed 
 flour. The people know it, and the cry is everywhere that 
 the government wants to poison them. All are rising, and 
 everything is to fear. The danger is that on Wednesday 
 floods of people may rush to Issy, where the cardinal is, or 
 even to Choisy, where the king is. The two villages are 
 close to Paris, and hunger knows no law. 
 
 [September 23.] They have sent for quantities of wheat ; 
 two thousand hogsheads are arriving from Havre ; and more 
 is ordered from Sicily and Dantzig. If only it comes in time ; 
 but the fear is, as winter is approaching, that the rivers may 
 rise and the sea be too boisterous ; yet, only that provision 
 can be relied on if the supply should fail suddenly in Paris. 
 Horrible depredations are being committed in the ministry 
 of finance ; quantities of passports have been given for 
 foreign parts since the height of this calamity, either by 
 M. Orry, or M. Fulvy, their mistresses and minions ; every- 
 where is favour given to improper and criminal enrichment. 
 The people know this, and all is ready for revolt. Bread 
 grows dearer here by a sou a day; no merchant dares to 
 bring in his wheat. On Wednesday, the market being 
 almost in revolt, there was no bread after seven in the morn-
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 243 
 
 ing. The commissaries went about haranguing the people 
 and telling them that the controller had come expressly to 
 Paris to consult with M. de Marville ; on which the people 
 cried out : " Hey, the dogs ! we have only to set fire to that 
 Orry's house and burn him and his people, and we shall have 
 bread. It is that old dog of a cardinal who hinders labourers 
 from working, and that is what makes us go without bread." 
 
 The king stopped on Sunday at Issy to see the cardinal 
 on his way to Choisy. He passed through the faubourg 
 Saint-Victor; it was known, and the people collected in 
 masses shouting — not " Vive le roi ! " but " Misery ! misery ! 
 bread ! bread ! " The king was mortified, and on reaching 
 Choisy he dismissed all the labourers in his gardens, which 
 he did from goodness of heart, feeling scandalized at incur- 
 ring such unnecessary expense while there was so much 
 misery about him. He wi'ote that night to the cardinal and 
 told him what he had done ; the cardinal wrote back, prais- 
 ing his good heart, but representing that he must take back 
 the workmen, otherwise he was depriving them of their 
 subsistence. 
 
 [September 25.] All is crumbling on every side. They 
 know not how to provide for the subsistence of Paris until 
 the wheat expected from Sicily arrives; as for that from 
 Dantzig, they say now it is held back by the King of Poland. 
 On the other side, war is at our heels; the English nation 
 desires to harm us even more than she desires harm to the 
 Spaniards. Surely, all this is enough to give the king mortal 
 anxiety. 
 
 The king heard yesterday of a horrible thing which has 
 happened close to Choisy — a riot in Bicetre [the mad- 
 house]. They lessened the food of the poor people there 
 confined from three quarterns of bad bread to half a pound. 
 They all revolted and overcame the guards; numbers have
 
 244 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 escaped and are coming to Paris. All the patrols and the 
 mounted police are called out in order of battle against the 
 poor wretches, with guns, bayonets, and sabres ; forty or fifty 
 bodies have been counted on the ground, and the riot was 
 not over yesterday morning. 
 
 The gi-eat secret of the Orleans family was confided to me 
 to-day. It concerns the marriage of the Due de Chartres, 
 The Due d'Orleans is absolutely resolved upon it ; two mo- 
 tives impel him: first, the desire for his own retirement; 
 secondly, his piety, which makes him fear that the Due de 
 Chartres may take a mistress. The great object is that he 
 should marry Madame Henriette, the next younger sister 
 of Madame Infanta, married last year to the Infant Don 
 Philip. It has always been seen that the cardinal was op- 
 posed to this; nevertheless, the Due d'Orleans, following 
 good advice, addressed the king himself about it. At first 
 his Majesty was inclined to it, then he slackened, and finally 
 gave a species of negative, and the Due d'Orldans could say 
 no more. The Due de Chartres then spoke to the king while 
 himting, and made him a little harangue as follows : " Sire," 
 he said in a low voice from horse to horse, " I have had a 
 great hope ; your Majesty has not taken it wholly from my 
 father; it is to find in your Majesty a father as well as a 
 master. I would contribute to the happiness of Madame 
 Henriette, who would thus remain in France with your Maj- 
 esty. Am I permitted to hope for this ? " On which the 
 king leaned over to the young prince and pressed his hand 
 sadly, twice; which meant a positive refusal. 
 
 It is known since, from sure sources, that it is the cardinal 
 who has the heart to bar this marriage. He wishes to marry 
 Madame to the Emperor as soon as the Empress is dead ; the 
 latter is all swollen up, and they say she has not six months 
 to live. The Emperor must already have made sure of this.
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 245 
 
 " It will be a fine thing," the cardinal has said, " for the House 
 of France to raise that of Austria, which is now regarded as 
 extinct." The sentiment is generous, but too forced to be 
 much support to the cardinal's ministry. 
 
 [September 27.] What fools, worse than sheep, courtiers 
 are ! They see just what the powers choose them to see ! 
 Fear leads them more than hope ; and evidence has none of 
 its rights at a Court. Certainly one could find few ministries 
 worse than our present one; and it should be judged the 
 more severely because it is not great mishaps, disappoint- 
 ments, or disasters which have produced our misery; the 
 weakness and shame of France to-day is from pure incompe- 
 tence joined to frightful insensibility to the public woe. 
 
 In Paris men are more republican and more true. I go to 
 the Court at Fontainebleau ; there I find everything regarded 
 as fine, even the dearness of bread. " The king heard no more 
 cries of famished people as he passed through Paris," they 
 say. " No more dishevelled women have stopped the cardinal's 
 carriage. There was only one leg broken in the Bicetre riot. 
 The controller-general has given the best of orders about the 
 dearness of bread. Such a quantity of wheat is coming that 
 soon there will be too much in Paris, and it will get too 
 cheap. The English fleet is afraid of ours ; it returns to port 
 constantly; ours has joined that of Brest and that of Toulon; 
 it is going to Cadiz, thence to America to bring back galleons 
 in triumph. We are on the best terms with the English 
 ministry; we shall declare peace in six weeks; we shall 
 threaten Holland if she dares to arm against us. The Eng- 
 lish nation is crushed down by Walpole ; all revolution is 
 impossible against this ministry ; we govern everything ; we 
 have subjected Spain to our will and to the fear of our 
 power. The Emperor relies upon us ; we are luring him to 
 marry Madame on the death of the Empress."
 
 246 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 We must believe from such discourse of sucli delusions 
 that the king is held in the shameful chains of the cardinal. 
 I see nothing but complete blindness which can explain to 
 me my king. I find his best servants discouraged, and soon 
 they will sincerely believe that the king is beneath confi- 
 dence. Insensible to the public miser}% lazy, more possessed 
 than ever by his old tutor, incapable of anything, he amuses 
 himself, he laughs, he flutters about, he hunts, he reflects on 
 nothing. 
 
 And yet the cardinal has become odious to the whole 
 kingdom. Let not this be compared to the hatred and the 
 cabals of the nobles against Cardinal Mazarin, nor to the 
 firmness of Anne of Austria in sustaining him. Mazarin 
 conducted gloriously the affairs of the kingdom without, and 
 within it was not injured except by a few taxes the more to 
 parliament. It was the slyness and knavery of Mazarin that 
 shocked the French. But all that is happening to-day fills 
 the nation, and justly, with despair ; it is enervated, it is 
 being aimihilated; none but the farmer-generals are still 
 living. 
 
 [September 29.] It has been confided to me that Madame 
 Henriette and the Due de Chartres love each other passion- 
 ately. They were allowed, and even encouraged, to do so 
 fi-om childhood ; the powder took fire easily, and now it is a 
 question of quenching it for fear of explosion. Nevertheless, 
 they know what obedience they owe to the will of a king 
 and father. As they have grown up, reason has grown too ; 
 but love also has grown between two young persons of the 
 same age, brought up as if destined for each other. The 
 king will make them infinitely unhappy if he manies Ma- 
 dame elsewhere, as that vile cardinal is constantly pushing 
 him to do. This is how romances begin. "When the king 
 answered the Due de Chartres so sadly, the poor prince,
 
 1740-1741] THE MAllQUIS D'ARGENSON. 247 
 
 returning to his governor, choked and sobbed. The Due 
 d'Oiieans then reverted to the Bavarian marriage, but the 
 answer being unfavourable, the Due de Chartres is relieved 
 and gay ever since Sunday, when he heard of it. 
 
 But it was the king himself who encouraged the Due de 
 Chartres to seek Madame ; he approved of their love, and he 
 told them positively they could think of it, and then, by 
 degrees, he has been brought to refuse it. He is really more 
 desirous than ever of the marriage, but he sees that the car- 
 dinal is against it, and puts off the affau- until the time when 
 it will depend on himself alone. In short, all things refer 
 themselves more and more to the character of the king, and 
 that character becomes more and more problematical, — or 
 rather, it is not so at all in the eyes of nine-tenths of the 
 Court. They think the king an imbecile who will never be 
 worth anything. The cardinal makes him tremble, and casts 
 him into the insensibility that he wants. Wliat a Richelieu 
 is this minister ? Is Louis XV. to Louis XIII. what Fleury 
 is to Richelieu ? No, I think not. The moment is approach- 
 ing when the king will govern for himself ; or rather will 
 choose ministers such as he needs, and will work with even 
 balance among the six. 
 
 I admit that it needs the faith of Abraham to believe this. 
 Every day the dilemma increases, and its propositions are 
 more contrasted, and more extreme : either the king is much, 
 or the king is nothing. 
 
 M. de Breteuil tells me that M. Orry does not know where 
 to turn in the matter of provisions. He has written a threat- 
 ening letter to the intendant of Soissons telling him he must 
 send wheat to Paris, although that department is dying with 
 hunger. He sent one of his clerks to buy wheat at Soissons, 
 which carried it up to an excessive price in that department 
 and the quantity needed for sowing the earth will be lack-
 
 248 JOURNAL AND ISIEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 ing. He has also taken a quantity of wheat from the pur- 
 veyors of the army, threatening them in the same manner. 
 M. de Breteuil complains of the risk the troops will run from 
 this if the Elector palatine should die and the army be re- 
 quired to move suddenly into the Juliers region. M. Orry, 
 when he talked to him about it, stammered and did not 
 know what he said. 
 
 Charmazel, the queen's head-steward, is ill with vexation ; 
 he told me in confidence that she made him miserable with 
 her fretfulness; that his duties taking him to her twice a 
 day, he was the sink into which were poured all the ill- 
 humours that often took possession of her, especially during 
 the weeks when Mme. de Mailly is in waiting ; he says that 
 the queen is always on the watch to find out who are friends 
 to that lady and who are not, and if she hears the slightest 
 thing, he has to bear very cruel speeches, for a man who 
 respects himself. 
 
 [October 4] The king rose very early yesterday morning 
 and started with Mme. de Mailly and Mme. de Vintimille 
 for the forest of Fontainebleau to see the rut of the stags ; 
 but unfortunately they did not fight and lock horns before 
 them, they were only heard belling. Such are the royal pas- 
 times; meanwhile the cardinal is continuing to ruin the 
 State. 
 
 [October 10.] One of the palace ladies tells me that 
 it is the queen's fault that the king has taken a mis- 
 tress; she behaved to him like a haughty prude. No one 
 in the world had ever less mind than the queen; there is 
 nothing of her ; she is only what she sees others be ; the 
 force of example is stronger on her than on any one; she 
 saw that in France it was good style to disdain your hus- 
 band ; she assumed that style. She used to say : " Wliat ! 
 always pregnant, always lying-in ! " And she put the king
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 249 
 
 under long fasts on pretence of her health ; disdaining that 
 which she now bitterly regrets. In the matter of society, 
 the king, at the beginning of their marriage, wanted to play 
 cards with the queen in the evenings and converse in her 
 apartments. The queen, instead of making herself agreeable 
 and coaxing him, putting him at his ease and amusing him, 
 always played the disdainful and silly jester, trying to seem 
 as if she held the king under her yoke ; also her talk was 
 extremely dull, and she made no effort to make it, or allow 
 it to be made, more suitable ; all of which alienated the king 
 after a time, and led him, first, to spend his evenings in his 
 own apartments with men, and then with women like his 
 cousin Mile, de Charolais, and the Comtesse de Toulouse. 
 The king is very shy, and his principal want is to find 
 persons who put him at his ease ; when he finds them we 
 see, by his relations to the cardinal and to Mme. de Mailly, 
 to what point he is a creature of habit. It thus happens 
 that the king and queen have said very little to each other 
 in the course of their lives, and that they have met only for 
 the good of the State ; which ought to have resulted in dull 
 and sulky children ; though the contrary has happened, for 
 the dauphin is very pretty and clever, and so are Mesdames 
 his sisters. To-day the queen is in a cruel position as 
 regards Mme. de Mailly, whom she is forced to keep as lady 
 of the palace. During the latter's weeks of service the 
 queen's temper is dreadful, and her servants feel it. Cer- 
 tainly, it is doing her a great service to find a third person 
 for after supper between the queen and the mistress. The 
 queen knows that Mme, de Mailly is on the watch every 
 week to find some new thing in her to ridicule and to laugh 
 at with the king as soon as she has left her. 
 
 The cardinal wishing to persuade the kiag at Compifegne 
 to renew relations with the queen in order to have more 
 
 Ver. 2—17 Mem.
 
 250 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, vil 
 
 children, the king replied that he was certain to have 
 nothing but daughters, which was as good as saying, " My 
 good man, hold your tongue ! " The queen has had her bed 
 turned at Fontainebleau so as to leave but one side to it, 
 which people regard as an act of ostentatious divorce, of 
 which she boasts out of season. 
 
 [October 15.] The Due d'Orl^ans is at Fontainebleau, 
 furious at all he sees. He comes from his retreat and burns 
 with the desire to get back to it, finding indecency in- 
 creased, the cardinal more tyrannical and more imbecile 
 than ever, the king less decent though pretending to decency 
 with his mistress; the court of the roi Petau — bedlam 
 broke loose, he calls it ; and the crown of all evils is that 
 the king seems to care so little for his kingdom and for 
 the affliction and unspeakable misery into which his people 
 have fallen. Every day increases this misery by some new 
 evil ; the vineyards have just failed throughout the kingdom 
 from a premature frost which has lasted for fifteen days. 
 And with it all, no remedies proposed to save the suffering 
 people, not even palliatives, nothing more than a few ship- 
 loads of wheat bought at a great price in Holland. The 
 cost of bread having increased two Hards in the Paris 
 markets on Wednesday last, they told the cardinal, to which 
 he replied that " he could not understand it at all." A fine 
 answer for the conductor of a State ! 
 
 The Comte de Camas, envoy extraordinary of the new 
 King of Prussia, is so fascinated by the cardinal that he is 
 acting directly against the intentions of his master. He 
 sings everywhere in a sickening maimer the praises of this 
 old minister, so odious to every one. He has even fallen 
 into the folly of saying harm of Voltaire ; he told the car- 
 dinal, who repeated it freely, that Voltaire was ill-received 
 by the King of Prussia, whereas they write on all sides that
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 251 
 
 the poet-philosopher was welcomed and treated by the 
 monarch better than the classics say the divine Plato was 
 treated by Dionysius the Tyrant. This has made a good 
 squabble for M. de Camas at his own Court. 
 
 [October 31.] The greatest event that could have hap- 
 pened for the consummation of centuries has taken place. 
 The Emperor [Charles VI.] died suddenly on the 19th of 
 this month. Indigestion, gout striking in, carried him off 
 at a moment least expected. The news was at first con- 
 cealed at Court ; a great emotion was observed at Fontaine- 
 bleau ; the cardinal was very gloomy. The king seemed so 
 likewise, but as the event is favourable to us, this sadness 
 must be because his Majesty is embarrassed at continuing to 
 employ the cardinal at this juncture : oh ! quantum i7npar 
 Idbori ! How shall that feeble old head, uncertain, without 
 principles, with its little Amelot, how can it disentangle 
 itself from so many complicated interests ? And how can 
 we trust in any consecutive course followed by an old man 
 of his age ? Yet we need here a comprehensive and far- 
 extending plan. 
 
 Here, suddenly, is the whole structure of the cardinal's 
 system overthrown to its base ; he relied, for the duration of 
 the peace and the empire of France in foreign negotiations, 
 on our intimate friendship with the Emperor; for that 
 prince had need of us in the affairs of his succession ; and 
 now, here are the affairs of that succession in a state of 
 total impossibility. As for the Grand-duke,^ it woidd be 
 madness to propose him to-day as the imiversal successor of 
 the Emperor in the hereditary countries, and hence of the 
 empire. Let us examine for a moment the event that has 
 
 1 Francis of Lorraine, Grand-duke of Tuscany, husband of Maria- 
 Theresa, daughter of the Emperor Charles VI. who became by her father's 
 death Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and heiress of his Austrian 
 possessions. — Tr.
 
 252 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 jusfc happened and see whether all the materials could be 
 less ready : — 
 
 1. The Emperor leaving all his forces exhausted by his 
 two unfortunate wars against the Turks. 
 
 2. His two nieces married to the two least powerful 
 princes in Germany, who have pretensions to succeed him. 
 
 3. The maritime powers, jealous of France and Spain, 
 combined at sea at the present moment to strike at England 
 to leeward. 
 
 4. England furious at the ill-success that has followed her 
 expenditures and at the wiliness of France, and also at the 
 apparent treachery of her king and minister in having thrice 
 refused the mediation of France and the neutrality of Naples, 
 while France, having managed the re-establishment of her 
 marine service, was secretly sending fleets to America, so 
 that England now finds herself confronted with a French 
 navy. 
 
 5. Holland not knowing what to say to our maritime 
 actions and our connivance with Spain. 
 
 6. The King of Prussia, a young man of intellect, armed 
 and prodigiously rich. 
 
 7. England, in recent alliance with Prussia and Russia, now 
 increasing that alliance, with Denmark to increase her troops. 
 
 8. Bavaria, powerful in men and money, and the Elector, 
 a wise, and high-minded prmce, having the inside of the 
 pavement at Vienna to the point of making himself feared 
 and of stopping all ulterior execution of the " pragmatic." 
 
 9. The King of Sardinia, captain and soldier, having many 
 troops and much money, ready to fling himself on the Milan 
 provinces already ceded to him by our treaty of 1733. 
 
 10. Spain covetous of Italy; the Queen of Spain furious 
 at what she calls her petticoat, Parma and Tuscany, being 
 taken from her.
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 253 
 
 11. The King of Naples rather powerful at home, aud 
 ready to fling himself upon Italy. 
 
 12. The succession of the old Palatine disputed and liti- 
 gated between the Prince de Sulzbach, the King of Prussia, 
 and Saxony. 
 
 And finally (see the singularity of this), the sole universal 
 heir of the Emperor, the Grand-duke of Tuscany, according 
 to the " pragmatic " sole heir to all the hereditary states, is 
 without a man, without a sou, without officers, without gen- 
 erals, and, what is worse, without reputation. 
 
 This is how our great cardinal thouglit things so prepared 
 that the present event could happen without bringing on a 
 war ! Either he aimed for peace and has missed his mark, 
 or he aimed for our gi-andeur by shuffling the cards, in which 
 case he has mismanaged matters for France. We must agree 
 that the character of his policy has been cleverness in obtain- 
 ing little things, rather than broad views and what is called 
 skill and genius. 
 
 [November 5.] All those who come from Fontainebleau 
 say that our ministers do not know where they are; they 
 have no plan, not the slightest ; they are gloomy and worried 
 by this blow — the death of the Emperor. They add that a 
 movement toward M. Chauvelin is felt everywhere, and they 
 think his return will not be long delayed, either under the 
 nose of the cardinal (his Eminence enduring it and seemmg 
 to demand it) or by the quiet retirement of the said cardinal, 
 who must admit himself iiiipar oneri, by age and genius. 
 Another pretext for quitting him: the cardinal has rested 
 his whole policy on our alliance with the Emperor; that 
 monarch dying suddenly, all is changed. It was well, they 
 say, to remove M. Chauvelin when it was desirable to be 
 reconciled to the Emperor and make him trust us ; for that 
 minister was regarded as his chief enemy ; he had been sac-
 
 254 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 rificed to the Emperor ; but now, on the contrary, the point 
 will be to have a perfect understanding with Spain ; this re 
 quires M. Chauvelin, whom Spain believes to be in her best 
 interests. 
 
 The Archduchess-grand-duchess [Maria Theresa] has begun 
 by taking the title of Administratrix-general of the heredi- 
 tary dominions. This fashion of letting the masculine fiefs 
 of Germany fall to the distaff will certainly shock and revolt 
 the world before long. They say the Elector of Bavaria is 
 not as strong to-day as the Grand-duke. The King of Prussia 
 takes counsel and sounds England and Holland. It is 
 thought that the English incline towards him; in a word, 
 that all Europe reunited will combine to make an emperor as 
 strong as the last, to counterpoise the House of France. But, 
 I ask, on whom will they agree ? Will it be Bavaria, which 
 is strong, or Prussia, which is rich and Protestant (but may 
 be made Catholic) ? Will it be the Grand-duke, for whom 
 they would guarantee the " pragmatic " ? I hold that such an 
 agreement is impossible for humanity ; too many views, too 
 many interests, too much imcertainty in the forces of all to 
 make the balance clear for any. 
 
 I say that we shall be accused of malice if we support the 
 weakest — which is the Grand-duke, because he has only the 
 precarious authority of opinion and general expectation, while 
 the others have forces acquired and in possession. 
 
 Things seem, however, to be going for the Grand-duke. 
 They have declared the Archduchess-grand-duchess Queen of 
 Bohemia and Hungary and Administratrix-general of the 
 hereditary countries. They affect to say that, the Grand-duke 
 having asked M. de Zinzindorff what he should be, the latter 
 answered, " The husband of the Archduchess." 
 
 And we, shall we let pass this great event of the death of 
 the Emperor without gaining anything for ourselves or Spain ?
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 255 
 
 All are about to league themselves against France. They 
 will make use of the present moment of maritime war, when 
 we have just managed to revive our navy and surreptitiously 
 help Spain, they will, I say, make use of this to represent, as 
 was done at the election of Charles VI. how urgent is the 
 necessity of lowering the House of France, and, every one re- 
 garding that as a point of honour, the necessity of electing a 
 'powerful emperor becomes paramount. To this our imbecilr 
 ministry has led us, imder a pretext of frankness and love for 
 universal peace ! 
 
 The king is pensive, and full of gloom, which increases 
 hourly at the sight of such enormous misery within, and of 
 all the dangers that threaten us without, at least with the 
 total loss of his glory. He sees that the cardinal is the sole 
 cause of this evil ; that under him honest and able men are 
 proscribed, and knaves advanced. But he himself is losing 
 more and more in reputation. He sees his kingdom in 
 danger, but instead of making a change he lets things go. 
 One might almost say that he wilfully exhibits imbecility 
 and folly, for at present he talks much of State affairs with 
 his little friends, as an equal with equals, and this is much 
 worse than when he did not talk at all. He repeats word for 
 word what the cardinal prompts him. Here are a few of his 
 foolish sayings : His chasseurs said to him in his carriage, 
 " Sire, we are going to have war." The king answered, 
 " Oh ! when a great king does not choose to have war you 
 will not have it ! " " But," they said, " your Majesty guaran- 
 teed the Pragmatic sanction." To which the king replied : 
 " We are several powers who have guaranteed that, and we 
 shall get out of it as best we can." "But," they said again, 
 " the Grand-duke cannot be elected emperor." " Faith ! " 
 exclaimed the king, " let it be anybody, provided it is not a 
 Protestant, for as to that, I shall stand no nonsense."
 
 256 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 [November 22.] The dauphin is charming, and his 
 governor, M. de Chatillon, the silliest of mortals. Here is 
 an instance. A few days ago M. de Chatillon went to 
 Paris ; the dauphin was to write to him ; they gave him a 
 table and paper, and M. de Muy, sub-governor, went to sleep. 
 The dauphin took it into his head to write a great sheetful 
 of news, and he imitated the writing of M. de Chatillon. 
 The news was invented capitally ; he gave a minute accormt 
 of the death of the czarina, of events that he said were pre- 
 paring at Court, of the Swedish alliance, and so forth. Then 
 he went into the antechamber to show his letter to the two 
 gentlemen of the Bedchamber who sit there. They thought 
 the letter was really from M. de Chatillon, and they kept it 
 as a great secret. On the governor's return they spoke of it ; 
 he frowned and said it was horrible that the dauphin should 
 play the newsmonger and forge handwriting, and that such 
 an offence was punishable by the laws. He went up to the 
 king and laid the matter before him. The king did not know 
 what to say. As for the cardinal, he took the thing in the 
 right way ; he told the dauphin that the editor of the " Mer- 
 cure Galant " was going to give it up and he would procure 
 the place for him. M. de Chatillon is, they say, an autom- 
 aton which folly makes talk and pride makes walk. 
 
 The Due de Eichelieu gave a great supper last night at 
 his little house beyond the barrifere of Vaugirard. All is 
 gallantry and obscenity in that establishment, especially the 
 walls, which have, in the middle of each panel very im- 
 modest figures in bas-relief. The beauty of this supper was 
 to see the old Duchesse de Brancas trying to see these 
 figures, putting on her spectacles and, with her lips pinched, 
 considering them coldly while the Due de Eichelieu held a 
 candle and explained them to her. 
 
 All is in combustion in the diocese of Sens, Eighty rec-
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 257 
 
 tors have denounced to the Church the Catholicism of their 
 archbishop, whom disinterested persons declare to be exe- 
 crable. [Formerly Bishop of Soissons, and noted for his acts, 
 orders, and writings in favour of the Constitution Unigeni- 
 tus.] They say, these priests, that their archbishop is 
 Manichean, andaccordingtohimtherearetwoGodson earth. 
 To these eighty rectors others are added daily, and no one 
 knows what will come of it. They denounce, as I have said, 
 him and his works to the Church as heretical, and they 
 appeal to a future council. I doubt the latter. If these men 
 are clever and well-advised they will not lay themselves 
 open to attack from the side which the Court has undertaken 
 to sustain. M. de Maurepas laughs at them maliciously ; he 
 is not sustained himself this long time, and he feels it ; so 
 that, under the circumstances, he is very foolish to mix him- 
 self up in such difhculties. This affair, and tlie other com- 
 bustion that reigns in the diocese of ]\Ioutpellier, through 
 the efforts of the new bishop, are just what the persecuting 
 and ambitious prelates desire, and what they called fclix 
 culpa. A quantity of them are arriving in Paris and gather- 
 ing up then* thunderbolts to stun the poor cardinal and 
 represent to him that this is the effect of the pacific conduct 
 he has tried to hold. 
 
 [December 18.] The cardinal made a sudden journey to 
 Issy last week, which surprised every one ; the king said 
 openly that the cardinal had many reflections to make on the 
 affairs of the time ; and every one was taken in and thought 
 that an innocent speech. Nevertheless, the Court is deserted ; 
 people feel there is nothing to be done there for their own 
 interests, in view of the footing on which the king has al- 
 lowed his authority, his personal consideration, and his affairs 
 to be placed. 
 
 At the Council of Wednesday the 7th of this month, the
 
 258 JOUENAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 Due d'Orleans issued at last from his retirement and was 
 present. They talked over all affairs in general and espe- 
 cially the wheat question. The session lasted a long time, and 
 shortly after the Due d'Orleans went back to Sainte-Gene- 
 vieve to remain till the Epiphany. 
 
 I do not wish to be praised, only ai^proved : that is the 
 food for my success ; and if I lived steadily with men whose 
 approbation I continually felt, I do not know how far I could 
 go. Praise disconcerts me more than blame. I can intrench 
 myself in some safe corner under blame, but praise — I do 
 not know how to bear it. In a word, to do well, I want to 
 ignore myself ; I want not even to perceive that I am there, 
 but to have the way lighted before me and to be told, " Go, 
 go straight, go sure ! " 
 
 [December 20.] The Due d'Orleans has declared me 
 his chancellor in place of my brother, who was thanked. 
 The good understanding between my brother and myself has 
 sufficiently rebuffed the calumny which tried to say that I 
 contributed to his expulsion ; on the contrary, he had pre- 
 pared the way in my favour, and I should not have been 
 chosen without him. I knew nothing of this choice except 
 from him ; he told it to me at Compi^gne, as I have said 
 above. When I thought that it was upon his ruins that 
 I was to be established, I did not wish it. He told me that 
 it was all his consolation, and another would have it if I 
 refused it. I let myself be guided by him, and I have kept 
 the secret faithfully. 
 
 At my first interview with his Eoyal Higlmess I saw he 
 was an excellent man. Dissatisfied as he was with the car- 
 dinal, and justly so, he nevertheless told me it was to him 
 that I should pay my first visit, and that I must go to see 
 him. As he knew the cold terms on which I am with his 
 Eminence, he told me one should never scowl at men in
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'AKGENSON. 259 
 
 such office, and that this was part of the respect one owes to 
 the king. 
 
 I was received by the cardinal at first with an open face ; 
 then, when I had told him what brought me, he began to 
 gesticulate and mutter between his teeth in a way I am 
 accustomed to interpret, and which meant that what could 
 not be prevented must be endured. 
 
 [December 27.] Whatever misfortunes happen, somebody 
 says a bon-mot, a sharp thing, and nowadays a stupid one, 
 and lo ! the French nation laughs at it all ! How amiable 
 our dear nation is ! The Seine overflows, Paris is inundated, 
 the country submerged; on which they say that the river 
 re-covers ; that she has left her bed ; that she is out of con- 
 dition and is " on the pavement ; " that she will soon have 
 leaves because she is in Sfeve [sap] etc. This liking for 
 platitudes, this playing on words, has increased immensely 
 in the nation of late. A man named Du Parquet, attached 
 to the suite of the Due d'Orleans, excels in it, and seems to 
 have set the fashion — which is a great honour. This play 
 on words has taken the place to-day of the former songs on 
 all events. During the youth of the late king it was called 
 turlupinades, and a great deal is said about it in Molifere 
 and other satirists on the manners of the times. 
 
 [December 30.] Barjac [the cardinal's confidential valet 
 de chamhre] told one of his best friends yesterday, who liad 
 said he thought his Eminence much changed and in his 
 dotage, that it was only too true, that he could not go on 
 much longer, and it was greatly to be wished that he would 
 retire soon ; adding that his Eminence thought of doing so, 
 but feared in that case that M. Chauvelin would return, and 
 that he never lost sight of that for a moment, seeing the 
 danger ; but he had a sure means of preventing it, for which 
 he worked ; and that means was to make my brother con-
 
 260 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, vii 
 
 troller-general, which was not an easy thing to do. " But," 
 said his friend, " the cardinal need only say the word and 
 the thing is done ; he is the master." " Oh, yes ! " answered 
 Barjac ; " his Eminence has more influence than ever — 
 nevertheless, this affair does not advance." 
 
 [January 2, 1741.] A confidant of the cardinal told me 
 yesterday that one of the greatest vexations of his Eminence 
 during his ministry was my appointment as chancellor to 
 the Due d'Orldans, a post of consideration and authority 
 which has fallen to me visibly in spite of him, — to me, 
 whom he had tried to ruin in credit and fortune ; a post, 
 too, belonging to my brother, his declared favourite. 
 
 The Due d'Orldans tells me that the marriage of the Due 
 de Chartres to the Princess of Bavaria, second daughter of 
 the Elector, is arranged, and when the Court returns from 
 Saint-Germain to Versailles it will probably be announced. 
 This affair comes veiy apropos for the welfare of Germany, 
 and looks like a stroke of great ability. We shall thus be 
 closely allied with Bavaria, which we ought to sustain in 
 the election to the empire, and the parcelling out of the 
 hereditary lands of Austria. On the other hand, the parties 
 interested cannot blame us, because they will see that it is 
 a suitable marriage for the son of the Due d'Orl^ans, and 
 one for which the king has done no more than give his 
 consent. 
 
 The Due d'Orldans thinks that after the cardinal's death 
 it will be M. de Maurepas who will govern the kingdom. 
 He says that the little secretaries of State, closely united, 
 have carefully excluded all seigneurs from the Council, and 
 will call in themselves, one after the other ; that it is like a 
 puppet-show dancing together, one getting up on the shoul- 
 ders of another. He added that if the king proposed to put 
 him at the head of affairs he would not accept ; that it was
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 261 
 
 right only in the days when the king had good morals, but 
 now he could not govern imder the orders of a king whose 
 amours were drawing down upon the kingdom the visible 
 anger of God. 
 
 [January 7.] Never did I see the smallest provincial 
 town so full of squabbles as the Palais Koyal [residence 
 of the Due d'Orldans]. It is to-day, and in accordance with 
 the politeness of the times, a den of backbiting, calumny, 
 gossip, bad pictures, and detestable papers. Her Eoyal 
 Highness [Francoise de Bourbon, daughter of Louis XIV. and 
 Mme. de Montespan, widow of the Eegent] is there like a 
 dethroned queen. She has lost, after several years of widow- 
 hood, all authority over her son. She groans under this, she 
 rages. The son is determined to preserve his independence ; 
 the mother is alert to recover her dominion. She has intel- 
 ligence, and, above all, much woman's wit ; every one ought 
 to beware of her as to that ; I can say with certainty that 
 she adds insincerity to her practice ; in spite of her pre- 
 tended piety, she lies often to the Holy Spirit, and will give 
 bad testimony against those whom she knows deserving of 
 good. She encourages hatreds and unwarranted contempt; 
 she herself is irreconcilable in her aversions and in all the 
 passions that blacken her heart — witness her horrible ran- 
 cour against her daughter, the Duchess of Modena. 
 
 We see, more than ever, two parties of the noblesse inhabit- 
 ing the Palais-Royal; that of the son, that of the mother. 
 They can be distinguished and pointed out by the linger ; 
 they rend one another, they do ill-turns to one another, and 
 it is this august princess who keeps up these divisions with 
 care, while the son employs silence only ; but he has himself 
 kept informed of everything, and conducts matters rather 
 firmly, appointing no one in the household but those who are 
 not his mother's people.
 
 262 JOURNAL AND MEMOIES OF [chap. vii. 
 
 [January 13.] The king has suddenly taken to tapestry 
 work. The fancy was so sudden that it was a masterpiece 
 of courtiership to have gratified it. They had recourse to 
 M. de Gesvres, whose chief occupation it is ; and the courier 
 who went to Paris for what was needed, wools, needles, and 
 frame, was only two hours and a quarter in going and com- 
 ing. This will increase the favour of M. de Gesvres, and be 
 a triumph to the cardinal's partisans. 
 
 [January 17.] The king and Mme. de Mailly have quar- 
 relled like children. They are both taken with a fancy for 
 tapestry ; Mme. de Mailly was so absorbed in that occupation 
 that she did not answer the king when he spoke to her and 
 questioned her. At last, the king, being impatient, threat- 
 ened her, took a knife and cut her tapestry in four pieces : 
 horrible quarrel, and wrangle ! Then it was necessary to 
 make it up, and for that an extraordinary party took place, 
 wliich is being much talked about. The king went to 
 supper at Mme. de Mailly's, in her little room ; she borrowed 
 a cook and gave a rather nice supper to her lover. There 
 were only five or six guests. 
 
 [January 26.] M. de Belleisle said to a man in the legal 
 profession who wants to make his fortune, " Monsieur, if you 
 have great designs, make yourself a friend in M. d'Argenson." 
 " No doubt," said the man, " M. d'Argenson the younger, the 
 intendant of Paris." " No," said M. de Belleisle, " the elder ; 
 manage to get his good-will." And he said to another man 
 whom I know, and who is more in his confidence : " I have 
 every reason to congratulate myself on M. d'Argenson's cour- 
 tesy ; I am a friend to him ; but I have orders not to be so 
 too openly." His friend said, " But with all his good reputa- 
 tion, the king does nothing for him; all he has obtained 
 comes from the Due d'Orldans, and the king had no part in 
 it." M. de Belleisle answered: "He will be compensated;
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 263 
 
 for the last two years the office of controller-general has 
 been destined for him, and to such a point that M. Orry 
 is only kept on for his sake as long as the cardinal lives." 
 M. de Belleisle is appointed ambassador to Francfort, and 
 takes his real instructions from Bachelier, who is directing 
 with the king the affairs in Germany on secret instructions 
 from M. Chauvelin at Bourges. 
 
 [February 14.] I have always conducted myself with as 
 much wisdom as I could, especially in the principal opera- 
 tions of my own fortunes; and yet it has happened that 
 nearly everything that I have done has stood in need of 
 apology; for instance: — 
 
 Wlien I married I had a long argument to sustain with my 
 then mistress on the motives of my marriage. 
 
 When I separated fi-om my wife I had to have defenders 
 before the world. 
 
 When I went to my intendancies everybody asked why I 
 did so, inasmuch as I was already Councillor of State. 
 
 When I returned I had to state that I was the senior of 
 the Council ; that I had spent much money at Valenciennes, 
 and saw no prospect of getting Lille. 
 
 When I was appointed ambassador to Portugal another 
 explanation as to why I took it. 
 
 When it was announced that I was not to go, great expla- 
 nations against Cardinal de Fleurv, who thwarted me from 
 ill temper. 
 
 And finally, wiien I came to have the place of Chancellor 
 to the Due d'Orl^ans, then I required the patience of an 
 angel to bear the air that my brother gave to it before the 
 world, though it was he who proposed it to me, advised me 
 to take it, and led me as it were by the hand. 
 
 [March 12.] To-night I saw the cardinal come out of the 
 king's room with the air of a young fool, a giddy-brained
 
 264 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 youth, liair in disorder blowing about, and laughing at the 
 company ; but he is shrinking day by day ; from his good 
 height of live feet seven he has shrunk to five feet three; 
 moreover he crooks his legs like a foundered horse, he is 
 knock-kneed, his toes turn out, and he quavers when he walks ; 
 he trots ; he seemed to slip as he came through the crowd, 
 gi\ing bits of wisdom and applauding himself for everything. 
 It is amazing how he keeps at work after his fashion — that 
 is to say, passing his time without deciding anything, or 
 undertaking anything that has a plan or fixed principles. 
 
 The Due d'Orleans has been talking to me of his design to 
 make himself a priest. " As for monk," he said," I shall never 
 be that." I opposed so fantastic a plan with the strongest 
 reasons, of which I have just made a special memorial for the 
 occasion. I told him the cardinal might subscribe to it out 
 of malignity, but never the king ; I maintained to him that 
 the king had a soul and thought for himself. To all of which 
 his Eoyal Highness answered : " I dc not say when it will 
 he, but it must be, sooner or later." 
 
 He says of me : " My chancellor is vehement, too hot ; he 
 wants to drive every one out of my house, for he finds them 
 all unfaithful or not zealous. Not that I do not think as he 
 does, or that I do not come round to his opinion, but I get to 
 it by milder, slower ways than his; as for example, with 
 Vernier my attorney ; I led that affair to a good end, but 
 by slower methods than his." — The prince thought he put 
 great prudence into that A^ernier affair, but I flatter myself 
 that I alone conducted it by my ad\ice and actions. He 
 found the affair settled when he at least expected it. 
 
 [May 11.] There is every assurance that the agreement 
 between the Coiu"t of Vienna and the King of Prussia is 
 absolutely settled ; that the conditions are miserable ; that 
 they only cede to him trzo duchies in Silesia, with promise
 
 1740-1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 265 
 
 of deciding in his favour his right to make the claim to the 
 contested succession of Berg and Juliers, These are small 
 matters to result from so much success, measures so well 
 taken, such large provision of men and money, while his 
 enemy had nothing of all that and was in du-e poverty. 
 The House of Austria has reason to say that Providence 
 protects it. When she is most threatened with a fall, sud- 
 denly some reversal takes place which puts her higher than 
 ever ; such, for instance, as the peace we granted her in 1735, 
 by which we made her more powerful in Italy than she ever 
 expected to be. This agreement between Austria and Prus- 
 sia (let us not hide it from ourselves) will be shortly followed 
 by an attack of the league against the House of France, 
 which will drive Don Carlos from Naples and Sicily, at 
 slight cost. Behold the advent of a new House of Austria, 
 more powerful than the last, which will have shown in this 
 matter what her strength is and what ties bind her to the 
 rest of Europe. The courier who was to bring the treaty 
 between Prussia and Austria has not arrived. I shall have 
 more certain news Friday; meantime I know the above 
 from the Prussian ambassador, M. Chambrier. 
 
 The Grand-duke will be elected emperor in consequence 
 of this affair. Instead of that, had we accepted the treaty 
 we could have elected the Bavarian emperor. Om" proposed 
 league was of six powers : France, Spain, Naples, Prussia, 
 Bavaria, and Saxony. In it the King of Prussia stipulated 
 that Spain should not again attack Italy, but Spain could 
 have made a private treaty with Sardinia to do so. 
 
 The cardinal stayed all yesterday at Versailles and did 
 
 not go to Marly, where he was expected. He said he had 
 
 too much work to do ; he has a passion for dictating little 
 
 epistles to his secretaries, by means of which he fancies 
 
 he does everything. He drivels as much in operations 
 
 Ver. 2—18 Mem.
 
 266 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii. 
 
 of the mind as in those of the sentiments ; his hatred is 
 aroused at times and then sinks down again. It has been 
 reported to me that the other day he was in very bad 
 humour and some one was with him who thinks well of 
 me and said so, pretending to be ignorant of his unjust 
 animosity; on which he suddenly began a thade against 
 me personally, iii which he did not forget my invasion in 
 my brother's stead into the house of Organs ; winding up 
 thus : " In short, to say the whole thing, he is a fit friend 
 for Voltaire, and Voltaire is a fit friend for him." A person 
 who wanted just then to come in and talk with the cardinal 
 on public matters was advised by Barjac to put it off till 
 another time, as his Eminence was in great wrath and 
 ezcitement. 
 
 [May 16.] I cannot devote myself to any purpose with- 
 out at the end of a very short time my heart entering into 
 the matter, either for or against, be it for public matters or 
 for men ; I attach myself to it with delight or I become 
 indignant. Perhaps this is a defect ; I recognize it as such 
 on occasions when the first impulse of anger overcomes my 
 coolness ; but as for the affection, usually that gives me joy 
 and success in what I do ; also it pleases those who serve 
 with me, attaches them closer to me, and especially to their 
 work.
 
 1741J THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 267 
 
 VIII. 
 
 I74I. 
 
 [May 20.] The weather is beautiful for the last few 
 days, after a drought with frosts which they feared had 
 killed everything ; at last it rained, and we have had heavy 
 dews, so that the country is revived and also our mag- 
 nificent hopes ; consequently, Sainte Genevieve has great 
 credit ; the oracles of ancient times did no better ; the wind 
 changed two days ago and came round to the southeast, 
 and the shrine was immediately uncovered ; never was any 
 success more felt ; people cry miracle ; and they are right, 
 for we enjoy the effect and what matters the cause ? 
 
 Certainly, the providence of God, which I seriously 
 watch and in which I have a material faith, sways the 
 happiness of men according to their deserts, and awards 
 them pains and recompense in this world ; it touches them 
 in the future by the treatment given to their race. We 
 Frenchmen do not deserve to be giievously punished and 
 crushed down ; we are a chosen people who cultivate reason 
 and the progress of true philosophy; we are gentle and 
 beneficent, without rancour and merciful; but we are fool- 
 ish, light-minded, and lazy ; we believe what anybody says, 
 and trivial theories are hard to overcome in us. We need 
 that Providence should diminish om- powers in order to lower 
 our pride and our jeering frivolity ; that is what has been 
 happening to us through the scourges of the past year. 
 
 We are going now to make war against the Pragmatic 
 sanction which we guaranteed, and this is why : Every one
 
 268 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vin. 
 
 cried out on the death of the Emperor that now this colossus 
 of Austrian grandeur must be broken ; very good, if it is for 
 the advancement of the happiness of the world to take from 
 Germany a restless, tyrannical power which undermines all 
 . to arrogate everything to itself ; which foments restless- 
 ness in others (such as the aggrandizement of Eussia and 
 the change of government in Poland) only to profit by it. 
 But let us not deceive ourselves; when we have succeeded 
 in this object of destroying the imperial grandeur of Austria, 
 all we shall have done will be to procure happiness and 
 equality for Germany, and our House of France wiU not be 
 the greater for that; for then these well-governed peoples, 
 each in its own right, great Germanic powers, developing 
 still farther from this very affair, such as Saxony, Prussia, 
 and Bavaria, will become far more insurmoimtable barriers 
 to our ambition than the Emperors of Austria have ever 
 been. 
 
 But our designs are much more culpable ; I do not know 
 what may happen as concerns Italy ; the best for us would 
 be to let Spain and Naples do as they please and meddle 
 little, or not at all, even for worthy purposes. We ought to 
 favour the King of Sardinia, and work for his aggrandize- 
 ment; also for that of the republics of Venice, Genoa, and 
 the Duke of Modena, etc. 
 
 But the great argument made in France is that if the 
 Grand-duke becomes emperor, with all the forces pledged to 
 him by the Pragmatic sanction, he will attack us and over- 
 whelm us on the morrow. This is how for some time past our 
 French ambition hides itself beneath precaution ; our leaders 
 have imposed upon a silly people. No, we have nothing to 
 fear, especially since we are leagued with Spain ; nor had we 
 even before that; all Europe would make with us what is 
 called " the prayer of the good soldier ; " to whatever degree
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 269 
 
 of power the new House of Austria attains, or could attain, 
 it will never go to the point of demanding of us Alsace and 
 the Metz territory. We can always force justice to be done 
 us ; above all if we take the tone that we can do so, and if 
 we are always ready to arm to obtain that justice ; but not 
 by setting up unjust pretensions, as did Louis XIV. after the 
 peace of Nimeguen. And finally let us calculate what a new 
 war of ambition would cause us in domestic disasters, and 
 we shall lind that never could the Emperor do as much harm 
 as this war, if we go into it, will do. 
 
 [June 10.] I proposed yesterday to the Due d'Orldans to 
 engrave a medal with his portrait for the Academy of Ville- 
 Franche; he granted the permission unwillingly, and gave 
 me his reasons with touching modesty ; he said : " Ah ! what 
 am I for such a thing ? I do nothing, I have done nothing ; 
 it might be well for my son if he ever commands armies and 
 wins battles." 
 
 He was lately talking with me about a quantity of events 
 in the life of his father, the Eegent of France, and of his 
 character. He described him as very indiscreet, speaking of 
 everything imprudently ; adding, however, that about certain 
 important matters about which he had resolved not to speak 
 he kept silence absolutely. He gave me as an example of 
 this the marriage proposed for himself to the infanta in 
 case the king died ; by which he ran the risk of having no 
 posterity, and therefore did not let him marry her. The 
 Due d'Orl^ans heard this secret from another source; the 
 Eegent only admitted it when he spoke of it to him. By 
 this policy the Eegent ran the risk I mention, but he would 
 have balked Spain in case the king died, for the House of 
 Orleans would then have taken possession of the throne of 
 France and the infanta would become queen, which would 
 have calmed the anger of the Queen of Spain.
 
 270 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, viii. 
 
 The Due d'Orl^ans is giving himself up daily more and 
 more to his taste for monastic devotion ; he spends his days 
 at Sainte-Genevieve ; there he falls into the smallest practices 
 of devotion ; he hears the children their catechism with the 
 priests of Saint-Etienne ; he walks in the most insignificant 
 processions, he works continually at his criticism of Holy 
 Scripture. His sister, Mme. de Chelles, has the monkish 
 character, — all the shuffling trickery and petty intrigue of 
 cloisters. The Duchesse d'Orleans, their mother, is entirely 
 given over to the rights of the bastards, and so to the 
 Noailles. 
 
 A man belonging to the Court was depicting the other day 
 to a provincial the condition of our Court. " You must re- 
 member," he said, "that there are precisely two parties at 
 Court, that of the Noailles, and that of the Chauvelin. The 
 first aims to have Cardinal de Tencin succeed Cardinal de 
 Fleury ; it is composed of the Comtesse de Toulouse and her 
 family the Noailles, the Unigenitus bishops, the bastards, and 
 the devout people. The other party is the favourite ; it has 
 ways and means that are more solid and more sure. This 
 party has the largest share in the principal deliberations of 
 the Council ; it has the mistresses and the favourites, though 
 Mme, de Mailly frequents the Noailles, Mademoiselle, and 
 the Comtesse de Toulouse ; in that she follows the commands 
 of her lover, who plays this comedy." 
 
 The Due d'Orleans has a gi-eat air of belonging to the 
 party of the Noailles, and this displeases the king greatly, 
 though he sees them himself continually, out of policy. All 
 his heart, his esteem, and his feelings are for Bachelier, M. 
 Chauvelin, and his secret party. Thus his Majesty imagines 
 that the Due d'Orldans wishes to be to him a new and im- 
 portunate organ of the Noailles and the other hypocrites who 
 are seeking to put Cardinal de Tencin into the ministry ; and
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 271 
 
 SO tliinkiug, he treats him coldly aud refuses what he 
 considers a new career of dissimulation. He also thinks 
 that the duke desires to preach to him about his mistress. 
 The Due d'Orldans, in telling me this, said, " The good lad," 
 meaning the king; he never speaks of him in any other 
 way. 
 
 The king had passed his word to Mme. de Mailly and 
 other ladies of his society to give the place of first gentleman 
 of the Bedchamber, iyi cmtodi nos, to M. de Luxembourg, 
 until the little de La Trdmouille was old enough to fill it. 
 
 The cardinal asked for the place with eagerness, and even 
 with intolerable arrogance; his Eminence thought this a 
 party thrust, after losing as he has done the post of comman- 
 der of the regiment of the guards. He told the king there 
 was nothing for him but to retire as soon as it became known 
 in the world that his Majesty disposed without him, and in 
 spite of him, of the great offices of the Court. The king 
 stayed till three in the morning with Mme. de Mailly, behav- 
 ing like a madman ; at last, at three o'clock, Mme. de Mailly 
 said to him : " Sire, you are in too violent a state ; well ! we 
 will give you back your word ; do what you like for your 
 cardinal." And on that the king, before going to bed, wrote 
 a letter to the cardinal, which he gave in the morning to the 
 Due de Fleury, before all present at his lever, declaring that 
 he gave him the office. 
 
 [June 24.] The evil of the thirst for gold is that it de- 
 populates the world and plunges into slothfulness those who 
 remain ; it is a chimera to have all without doing anything 
 for it, and above all to satiate passions easily. The discov- 
 ery of the Indies realized that chimera. Philip II., King of 
 Spain, thought himself god of the thunderbolts; heaven 
 punished him by the failure of his scheme, by the depopu- 
 lating and real enfeeblement of his monarchy. The same
 
 272 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, viil 
 
 fate spreads necessarily over all the nations which seek to 
 share in the commerce of the West Indies. Look at the 
 situation of Portugal, which obtains so pure a gold from 
 her mines of Saint-Paul. "WTiat combats those Indies have 
 caused since the beginning of the century, and about to be 
 renewed to-day. No, that is not commerce, and I have said 
 so a hundred times. We see the interests of commerce 
 solely through the suborned eyes of some rich men who 
 want to be richer. Let us forget the Indies, let us forget 
 that miserable gold, let us regard it as we do expired notes 
 of merchandise and useful products; we shall still have 
 enough for om- exchanges; let us not seek to have some- 
 thing for nothing, or for very little : God forbid it ! Yet in 
 this is placed nowadays the whole essence of commerce ; 
 the Dutch have been seen to make these great profits ; French 
 impatience has hitherto put up with it ; but this will not last 
 long. The ordinary profits of commerce are step by step, 
 gradual; and it is to these that the peoples should be led. 
 And yet this wealth is what makes Spain so considered ; 
 without the beaux yeux de sa cassette she would be looked 
 upon as a very inferior power to France, which she could 
 neither harm nor serve. This is what I was saving the 
 other day about the present war to a man who can do much 
 in the deliberations thereon. 
 
 The Due d'Orldans was at first governed by his mother; 
 little by little, he recognized the sort of a woman she is : 
 haughty, ambitious, unreasonable, preferring herself in all 
 things, putting her rights always above those of the House 
 of Orleans, lowering those of her son to elevate her own. 
 For instance, she thought only of keeping down the rights of 
 her daughter-in-law, as long as the latter lived, of putting 
 a great difference between the prerogatives of the first prin- 
 cess of the blood and those of the Daughters of France.
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 273 
 
 The Kegent could never live with her, no matter how much 
 he sometimes desired to do so. No two persons were ever 
 more like each other than this princess and Marie de Medici ; 
 thus the same misfortunes would have attended her on the 
 throne had she reigned ; and in her sphere, she now finds 
 herself deprived of all authority in the House of Orleans; 
 what remained to her being lost daily. She has intelligence 
 and tastes ; she loves order, but with expense and no econ- 
 omy ; her passions are revenge and secret anger ; she is 
 unjust and obstinate ; she does good solely to exhibit her 
 power ; no one sees more clearly than she in a conversation ; 
 she speaks only from a design, every syllable has an object ; 
 she unravels and reads into others ; all these gifts are merely 
 feminine cleverness, and their superiority leads only to ill- 
 success when passions contrary to society are in her soul; 
 thus divine Providence has willed it. She derives her nature 
 from that of her mother, Mme. de Montespan, to which she 
 adds a certain spu'it of order, and perversities of injustice and 
 hardness, characteristic of Louis XIV. Do we not always 
 see in bastards a misplaced pride ? They carry the preroga- 
 tives of their rank farther than that rank allows, no matter 
 how high parental affection may have placed it. In this 
 they are like financiers and parvenus who, full of then- 
 new rank, are always fearing lest it should not be properly 
 recognized; whereas the old nobles are so accustomed to 
 their rank, and even so bored by it, that they let it 
 drop. 
 
 The Due d'Orl^ans pays respect to his mother from reli- 
 gion and natural piety ; but he does not allow one particle 
 of his authority in his house to pass into her hands. It was 
 a masterly stroke to dispossess my brother and install me, 
 although it was the result of my brother's own action. As 
 for me, since I have held the office her Eoyal Highness's
 
 274 JOUKNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. viii. 
 
 authority is still further diminished, as she honours me with 
 no orders, although she does not openly oppose me ; it is 
 pitiable, all that. 
 
 Her son is very susceptible of the small vices contrary to 
 society ; his birth and a certain foundation of nobleness and 
 pride which he takes from the Bourbons alienates him from 
 social life ; his birth through his mother and even the petti- 
 ness of mind which his piety induces give him those vices. 
 Eeligion is never hypocrisy in princes, but it is always petti- 
 ness. He is privately very jealous of his son ; anything that 
 would show particular attachment to the Due de Chartres 
 would displease him, especially in an officer who ought to 
 be wholly his own. My brother lost grovmd with him be- 
 cause he was too much with his mother. 
 
 [July 3.] The cardinal has taken up a veritable affection 
 for M. Bachelier, or rather, has seemed to do so. As no one 
 in the world hates the Noailles more than the latter their 
 mutual hatred has united them ; for the cardinal is ending 
 his days in hatred of the Noailles, ever since they made the 
 Comte de Gramont colonel of the Guards in spite of him. 
 His Eminence cannot recover from that blow ; he thinks the 
 perfidy of that party and its triumph over him too notori- 
 ous. He opens his heart about it continually to Bachelier ; 
 he weeps, he tells him he is betrayed on all sides. So here 
 are the anti-Chauvelinists furious ; they are trying to detach 
 M. Bachelier from M. Chauvelin ; no doubt the cardinal has 
 taken that idea into his head, and perhaps this is all a trick 
 on the part of the old monkey. 
 
 [July 5.] War is declared ; we send 25,000 infantry into 
 Bavaria, by means of whom the Elector will at last declare 
 an irruption into Bohemia, Upper Austria, Tyrol, etc. The 
 officers are appointed ; the MM. Paris have the provisioning, 
 but no one yet knows where our magazines are to be stationed.
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 275 
 
 What will our proclamatious say now, after our guarantee of 
 the Pragmatic and our great fraternizing with the House of 
 Austria ? What clumsiness in the government to have 
 boimd itself only to have to unbind itself nimbly ! 
 
 [July 15.] I see very few persons who have fixed princi- 
 ples as to what produces events ; they see just before them 
 only, like horses who have two bits of leather beside their 
 eyes ; at each event they change convictions ; or rather they 
 have none, they let themselves go to popular talk, which 
 judges of these causes as we judge of that of the wind. One 
 of my friends who has intelligence, and a quantity of other 
 men who pass for gi-eat connoisseurs of intrigues at Court 
 (without mixing in them themselves) weary me with their 
 constant variations about MM. Chauvelin, Bachelier, Belle- 
 isle, and Breteuil; the shares of those gentlemen rise and 
 fall according as it pleases the forgers of news and the 
 friends of the parties, who support the rumours as they 
 please. Here is the news of to-day, and many persons of 
 intelligence believe it. They say that M. Bachelier is dis- 
 gusted with M. Chauvelin, that he abandons M. de Breteuil, 
 that M. de Belleisle is becoming master of everything, that 
 M. de Breteuil fears him, that he has insulted the cardinal 
 by putting on cavalier ahs with him, etc. 
 
 It is certain that the cardinal himself is not wholly in the 
 secret of affairs. He tells his friends that there will be no 
 war ; he is deceived and misled in the very orders he gives ; 
 he complains of M. Amelot because he gave him orders quite 
 the contrary of those that were executed. He is convinced 
 that the army which is going into Germany goes merely to 
 support the election of the Elector of Bavaria to the dignity 
 of Emperor, whereas it is really going for the invasion that 
 Bavaria is about to make into the Austrian States. The King 
 of Prussia has said everywhere that he should not trust
 
 276 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. viii. 
 
 France in anything so long as she is governed by the 
 cardinal. 
 
 Every day the cardinal is foiled in other matters than pub- 
 lic affairs. Here is Mme. de Vintimille clever enough to ob- 
 sess the king, while her sister Mailly was only a goose. The 
 cardinal is resolved to drive away Mme. de Vintimille, but 
 he does not succeed ; she attacks in front, and jjrevents the 
 cardinal from seeing the king for more than one quarter of 
 an hour a week ; for that reason she keeps him at Choisy 
 and he is never at Versailles for a whole day. His Eminence 
 expects to get his revenge at Compifegne, where he will keep 
 the king three months and push her off — but he will not 
 succeed. 
 
 [July 27.] It is thought that the king may go to the war 
 in Flanders ; very grand equipages are being prepared which 
 can only be for the king. They say that the other day, at 
 Choisy, he said to his liead-cook : " Pajot, are you brave ? 
 Will you go to the war ? " and the cook replied that he feared 
 nothing for himself, but only for his Majesty, and he would 
 make him just as good ragouts with the army as at Choisy. 
 
 [Jidy 29.] The king abruptly declared yesterday after 
 supper at Choisy that he would not go to Compifegne, and all 
 orders have been countermanded, a resolution which covers 
 mysteries and u'resolution. It is supposed to be Mmes. de 
 Vintimille and de Mailly who are determined to have this 
 triumph and keep the king tranquil at Choisy and sheltered 
 from the cardinal. This will come hard on a quantity of 
 persons who had made great provisioning for the sojourn at 
 Compifegne, the king having promised to stay there three 
 months this year. 
 
 [July 30.] The declaration of war against England will 
 soon appear and the attack will be made at the same time. 
 The Bailli de Givry has received this news, and is ordered to
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 277 
 
 arrange everything for the re-establishment of the port of 
 Dunkerque, and to permit privateers to fall upon the English 
 in the Channel. Our squadron consists of thirteen large 
 vessels; we shall join at Cadiz that of Spain, vi^hich has 
 twelve; total, twenty-five. That of England has thirteen 
 under Haddock, and fifteen under Noriis ; total, twenty-eight. 
 It has always been said as a true maxim that two French 
 vessels were certain of beating three English vessels ; but 
 here we are mixed with the Spaniards whose navy has never 
 yet been tried against that of England. The latter is, it 
 is true, badly equipped in sailors and marines, but their 
 guns are better than ours. 
 
 At any rate, we shall let loose on England our privateers, 
 now at Dunkerque and Saint-Malo, which will harass these 
 insularies ; and if the Hanoverian army marches to the help 
 of the Queen of Hungary, ours, with the Prussian camp at 
 Magdeburg, has orders to intercept it and attack it. Thus 
 we take the English on all sides and march to the total 
 destruction of England and her influence. 
 
 M. Vanhoey, the ambassador from Holland, assures us of 
 the neutrality of his country; but though I believe it will 
 last some time, until the attack and first checks of the Eng- 
 lish, I cannot doubt that the Dutch nation will soon come to 
 the help of the others and that the greater number of votes 
 will insist upon it, both from jealousy and for safety. 
 
 [August 4.] I have had information conveyed (not wish- 
 ing to appear in it myself) to the Due d'Oiidans that these 
 cursed priests are deceiving him and will make him fall into 
 a vulgar trap. They have let loose upon him the Abbd Cou- 
 turier, general of the Oratoire, and other Sulpicians; they 
 have told him that a pious, religious prince, learned in the- 
 ology like him, owed a statement to the public of his doctrine 
 on the questions of the times ; that he was suspected of Jan-
 
 278 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vii:. 
 
 senism because he stayed at Sainte-Genevifeve ; that his sister, 
 Mme. de Chelles, was a declared Jansenist ; that he had long 
 confessed to the rector of Saint-Paul. In short, all this has 
 filled his head with the Unigenitus and made him zealous for 
 the bull — that is to say, for the dogma only ; but one soon 
 passes from dogma to a taste for persecution through zeal. 
 They have taken him o i the side of his vanity, and have 
 urged him to compose a great work on first propositions ; he 
 is half way through it, and is correcting it with the Abb^ de 
 Hauteville, former secretary of Cardinal Dubois ; they pro- 
 pose to have it printed, and tell him it is very fine. These 
 men are furious at seeing liow well the prince stands with 
 the people. This work is a ruse of Cardinal de Fleury, who is 
 only seeking to get a prince of the blood decried. It is the 
 same manoeuvre by which he ruined Cardinal de Noailles, 
 his benefactor. 
 
 The Due d'Orldans has at least gathered this return for 
 his retirement and his generous charity: he is beloved by 
 all the lower classes in Paris and the provinces. But if he 
 declares himself an extravagant bullist, he will have upon 
 his shoulders four-fifths of Paris, who are in the ranks of 
 Jansenism. Such was the case with the Archbishop of 
 Cambrai, P^nelon, who was loved and pitied by all the 
 world in his exile, which was solely caused by his opposing 
 the declaration of the king's marriage to Mme. de Main- 
 tenon, and by his noble submission to the condemnation of 
 his so-called quietism. Weary of his exile, persuaded that 
 the condemnation of Quesnel was just, he wrote with zeal 
 in favour of Molinism, and from that moment he was dis- 
 honoured before the public, he had friends no longer, he was 
 despised as a miserable slave to Kome, seeking to hook 
 himself once more to the Court in that way. 
 
 All this I have had represented to the Due d'Orldans by
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 279 
 
 an ecclesiastic in whom lie has confidence, and to whose 
 vivid and zealous remonstrance he listened, promising to 
 reflect upon it; and already he is slackening his work. I 
 expect to appear myself upon the scene before long. 
 
 [August 11.] Great event at Court ; Mme. de Vinti- 
 mille was taken ill at Choisy, with fever only. The king 
 came to pass two days at Versailles and received four 
 couriers a day from the sister of his mistress. He returned 
 to Choisy on Thm'sday, and remained there three days, in 
 spite of a promise he had made to the cardinal. 
 
 [August 13.] Mme. de Vintimille is dying at Choisy; 
 the king does not leave, even for an instant, her sister, Mme. 
 de Mailly, who is in despair at losing so good a sister. 
 According to other people, Mme. de Vintimille is one of the 
 wickedest women ever known. No one can tell to what this 
 intimacy would have led in the government after the death 
 of the cardinal ; it was the great resource of the Noailles tribe. 
 That party is the more dangerous because it furnishes all 
 sorts and species of people. Do you want libertines, male 
 and female ? atheists ? devotees ? they are all there in that 
 batch, especially persons of wit and imagination — the party 
 swarms with them. Mme. de Vintimille has marked in- 
 fluence; she is the mind of her sister Mailly as the latter 
 is the sister's body, performing the functions of favourite to 
 the Very Christian king. 
 
 [August 18.] There are times when the gi^eatest calm 
 reigns within and without a kingdom; I have frequently 
 observed that this lull foretells events of the utmost conse- 
 quence to humanity (though in themselves they are no gi-eat 
 things). Nothing is being talked of now, nor for some 
 weeks, neither foreign affairs nor those of the kingdom. 
 'Yet it is certain that everything is preparing for our armies 
 to enter Germany and declare war agamst England. The
 
 280 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. riii. 
 
 king has been flattered with the idea of enterprises that will 
 make his reign glorious; at present he is at Choisy where 
 women and favours detain him, not allowing him to go to 
 the cardinal for more than a few half-hours a week. Mme. 
 de Vintimille is still hanging between life and death ; at any 
 rate her health is made the pretext for the king's stay at 
 Choisy, in spite of the efforts of the cardinal to keep him 
 at Versailles. He pays all attentions (and more) to Mme. 
 de Vintimille, as though she were his declared mistress. She 
 has acquired, they say, an ascendency over his mind and 
 inspires jealousy in her sister; people think there is an 
 antipathy between them. I think the king too mild and 
 with too little inclination for libertinism to fall into an 
 infidelity of this kind, and pass from one sister to the other, 
 and one with so few attractions. But if their bodies are 
 exempt from jealousy, theu' minds may justly be jealous, 
 for the superiority of Mme. de Vintimille, such as they 
 describe it, must eclipse the poor Mailly, who is nothing 
 but a kind woman with a tender heart and common mind. 
 Mme. de Vintimille's fortune is the king' s own work, and 
 this, no doubt, is one of her attractions for him. What 
 ought to repel him is a reputation for malignity, which goes 
 on increasing when indulged; from malignity of language 
 people pass to that of the mind, thence to that of the heart. 
 A king should love kind persons only. 
 
 [August 28.] At last the king has retiu-ned to Versailles 
 for a long stay, — Mme. de Vintimille being brought on a 
 litter. The king gave her at Choisy every mark of the 
 gi-eatest affection ; she enraged the Faculty by not taking 
 the remedies they ordered; the king went on his knees 
 beside her bed to implore her to recover. It was Bachelier 
 who made the king return from Choisy and bring back 
 Mmes. de Mailly and de Vintimille after him. They did
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 281 
 
 not expect it. The king had begun by telling the said 
 Bacheliev that they were to stay another montli, but the 
 latter proved to liim by sound argument and persuasion that 
 a speedy" return was necessary. I know that Bachelier is 
 with him more than ever, in the same intimate confidence. 
 He says that the cardinal is beginning to take other views of 
 M. Chauvelin, to admire his wise conduct during his exile, 
 and to say it was his greatest enemies who caused his dis- 
 missal. Wliat is chiefly bringing the cardinal to forgive 
 M. Chauvelin and his friends is the passion of resentment 
 and contempt into which he has fallen against the whole 
 Noailles party, since it tricked him in the matter of the 
 Comte de Gramont. Having his eyes opened as to all con- 
 cerning them, he discovers daily fresh dangers for himself 
 and the State. 
 
 [September 4.] Last evening the king, returning from 
 vespers with some twenty-five persons about him, allowed 
 himself to repeat all that the cardinal had told liim the night 
 before about public affairs ; he talked much and at random, 
 to the great scandal of those who care for him and desire 
 that he should put into his conversation more reflection and 
 less chatter. He said that the naval fight of M. de Caylus 
 against four English vessels had gone off very well on our 
 side, for the English were not brave at sea, the Dutch were 
 much more so. He said also that the King of Prussia and 
 the Comte de Neuperg were face to face ; that the King of 
 Prussia ought to have waited for us, but he chose to go 
 briskly into that affair alone, because people talked ill of 
 his boldness, or rather his valour, at the battle of Molwitz. 
 In such talk there is indecent insult to om- enemies, indis- 
 cretion as to our secret opinions, and slander on our best 
 friend. 
 
 [September 5.1 Mme. de A^intimille, the beloved sister of 
 
 Ver. 2— 11> Mem,
 
 282 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, viii 
 
 the favourite sultana, has at last given birth to a son with 
 success, much as they feared for her health. The king goes 
 to see her four or five times a day. They have lodged her 
 in the apartment of Cardinal de Eohan, which covers that 
 chaplain of France with ridicule. 
 
 There is no longer any doubt of our treaty with Prussia 
 and Bavaria to despoil at our mutual cost the Queen of 
 Hungary, and also to clothe the Elector of Bavaria with 
 the imperial dignity ; though it is to be wished that kings 
 only should rule in Germany. This last promise, made no 
 doubt to the Elector of Bavaria, may be annulled by obsta- 
 cles brought forward by the King of Prussia, who, finding 
 that he cannot be emperor himself, and that Bavaria in- 
 creases in possessions, may oppose that House, already so 
 powerful, in becoming stronger still through the imperial 
 dignity. I may add to this that the Queen of Hungary 
 herself, becoming aware that her husband, the Grand-duke 
 of Tuscany, cannot be elected emperor, would be charmed 
 that no other should be so; and thus would be abolished 
 that inconvenient dignity perpetuated since Charlemagne, 
 the rights of which have tyrannized equally over Germany 
 and Italy, which obscures the grandeur of our monarchy, 
 though it issued from us and was invented to decorate the 
 empire of the lilies.^ 
 
 [September 10.] Mme. de Vintimille died yesterday at 
 seven in the morning, after being safely delivered of a son 
 a week earlier. She was seized with what is called in 
 
 1 The Grand-duke of Tuscany, Francis, Duke of Lorraine, husband of 
 Maria Theresa, was elected emperor of the " Holy Roman and Germanic 
 Empire " so called, as Francis I. in 1745. Their two sons, Joseph IL and 
 Leopold IL, succeeded them ; and Francis IL, son of Leopold IL, after be 
 ing elected to the Empire in 1702, resigned the title (bringing that empire 
 to an end) and took that of Francis I., Emperor of Austria, in 1804- 
 1806. — Tr.
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 283 
 
 Piedmont a miliary fever, which is common, and the Queen 
 of Sardinia died of it two months ago. This malady is little 
 known in France ; the name comes from the innumerable 
 little spots like grains of millet that come out upon the 
 skin ; it is apt to seize women in their confinements rather 
 than others. 
 
 There is no doubt now about a journey to Fontainebleau. 
 Judging the attiiction of the king by the care he took upon 
 himself during Mme. de Vintimille's illness, he must be in- 
 consolable. They attribute this extraordinary care to love, 
 and a condemnable infidelity to the sister. But how mali- 
 cious the world is ! His Majesty's friendship for the de- 
 ceased called forth those cares ; for my part, I believe they 
 came from his love for his mistress, Mme. de Mailly; for 
 the pair were the most united sisters ever seen, and the king 
 felt what would be the grief and anguish of his mistress 
 if sh-e lost her mate. To any one knowing the personages, 
 what likelihood is there that the two sisters would have 
 remained united had there been the least suspicion of the 
 robbery of a heart so illustrious and precious ? Mme. de 
 Vintimille was under great obligations to her sister ; she was 
 ugly, even repulsive ; she had had already two or three 
 known lovers. Our master is so faithful to friendship, so 
 much a man of habit, etc., that if we reflect we shall not 
 believe this thing — but people want to believe whatever is 
 bad. 
 
 Her pregnancy and the birth of her son were scandalous ; 
 as soon as the birth took place and there was a question 
 of baptizing the child, the rector of Versailles notified the 
 king that there was opposition, or rather protestation, on 
 the part of M. de Vintimille, who had signified it to the 
 said rector, declaring that, having been informed that his 
 wife was pregnant, he disavowed all presentation of the
 
 284 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. viii. 
 
 child for baptism as his son. But the king chose that the 
 child should be baptized as the son of M. de Vintimille, 
 and it was so done by his express order. The Archbishop 
 of Paris and the Marquis du Luc, uncle and father of M. 
 de Vintimille came, as good politicians, to see the mother 
 and acknowledge the child. ]\1. de Vintimille, however, 
 had said before the birth : " I do not know who the father 
 of that child is ; it is certainl}' not I ; it is either the king, 
 or the Due d'Ayen, or Forcalquier, or my lacquey Saint- 
 Jean." 
 
 Mme. de Mailly was given as mistress to the king by the 
 clever politicians who meddled in his affairs solely because 
 she is a woman of no consequence, kind in temper, and not 
 interfering. Her sister went too far ; it was she who allied 
 her with Mademoiselle, with the Mardchale d'Estr^es, and 
 finally with the Comtesse de Toulouse ; which gave so much 
 trouble to the secret council of the king. She had a strong 
 mmd, hard and extensive ; she was violent and daring ; and 
 though she kept to her engagements for M. Chauvelin's 
 party, she gave that party much trouble and followed its 
 instructions very badly; she openly declared against the 
 cardinal and attacked him face to face. Every one will 
 therefore rejoice at this death, but the party of M. Chauvelin 
 and Bachelier have the most to be thankful for. The 
 Noailles party loses everything, for the Due d'Ayen founded 
 his influence upon her, whUe the Comtesse de Toulouse 
 by the same means had obtained the confidence of the 
 king. 
 
 The Due d'Orl^ans is becoming daily more and more 
 misanthropic; and the vexations he has to bear increase 
 that disposition. He wants to retire and live on his pension 
 as prince of the blood, and he says he shall still have 
 enough left for charity.
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 285 
 
 [September 11.] The king was in a frightful state of 
 affliction at the death of Mme. de Vintimille ; he sobbed, 
 he choked ; the cardinal dared not speak to him, though 
 finally he preached to him on human frailty, — which was 
 very ill-received. At last, not being able to bear it any 
 longer, his Majesty started at eleven o'clock night before 
 last, with Mme. de Mailly, the Due d'Ayen, and the Due 
 de Villeroy, and went to sleep at Saint-Leger, near Kam- 
 bouillet. Such friendship, they say, is too like love; yet 
 Mme. de Mailly takes it in good part; her grief is more 
 sUent. It is not known when the king will return to 
 Versailles. 
 
 Financiers interested in many sous-fermes [system of leases 
 and loans upon landed property under the old monarchy] 
 have explained to me the unheard-of condition, getting daily 
 worse and worse, of the commerce of money and credit. In- 
 stead of the confidence necessary for loans, a distrust reigns 
 the equal of which was never yet seen in France. The most 
 opulent, the richest, those who have tlie best reputation for 
 punctuality can scarcely find 2000 livres to be borrowed in 
 the market; people will not renew the notes of financiers, 
 every one wants payment when they mature. Before the 
 end of the month there will be a dozen more bankruptcies ; 
 the companies of the farmers-general will fail together, hav- 
 ing made notes in common. The farmers-general have 
 hitherto sustained those who could not meet their notes 
 when due ; but the companies themselves will now fail as 
 well as individuals. And yet, at the key to which things 
 have gone up, the royal treasury can be sustained by credit 
 only; the expenditures of the king cannot be met by the 
 actual revenue ; as is done with those of the Due d'Orldans, 
 for which I employ only that which is actually in hand, with- 
 out advances or credit. Here is the dixieme [tithe] just ira-
 
 286 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, viu 
 
 posed as was done in 1733. "WTien it was then levied the 
 receivers-general advanced the first quarter for war expenses ; 
 now it is imposed for October 1, and they cannot count 
 on any actual receipt for more than nine months from now, 
 and even then with the frightful exactions the Declaration 
 announces ; the preamble of which is singular : it states as 
 the cause of the imposition of this tax the misery into which 
 the kingdom has fallen, and the necessity under which the 
 king is, to relieve that misery. So, then, this misery, which 
 is not yet over, is the cause of a new tax which increases it ! 
 What logic ! Meantime the payments into the royal treasury 
 will come in worse and worse, and the rentes on the city will 
 be retarded. 
 
 The king ordered on the morning after the death of Mme. 
 de Vintimille that her face should be moulded (ugly as it 
 was) in wax. As she had died in a convulsion her mouth was 
 open and the chin pendent, and it required two strong per- 
 sons to hold it in position to make the cast. WTiatever may 
 be said, I cannot see anj-thing in all this but a share taken 
 by the king in the affliction of his mistress at the death of a 
 sister whom she loved. In this cursed century they turn aU 
 virtues to vices, and vices to virtues ; the good feeling and 
 good heart of the king have won him a detestable reputation 
 as to this, which he does not deserve ; this last act I have 
 just mentioned bears the mark of a woman's grief. Mme. de 
 Mailly believes it would comfort her to have the image of 
 her sister before her ; the king is impressed by this, and not 
 by an unworthy love ; it is the sign of a feeling heart ; the 
 king has the best heart in the world. He and Mme. de 
 Mailly have shut themselves up at Saint-Leger to weep to- 
 gether; only four or five persons are admitted; though his 
 Majesty hunted yesterday with the little pack of Prince 
 Charles of Lorraine.
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 287 
 
 The day of Mme. de Viutimille's death when the king was 
 so plunged in sorrow, he stayed in his bed till four o'clock ; 
 the cardinal entered, but was there only a moment, as the king 
 could not speak to him ; he choked and sobbed ; the queen 
 wished to enter, but they refused her at the door. At last 
 the king rose and went to the rooms of the Comtesse de Tou- 
 louse, whence he started at five o'clock, without guards or 
 torches, to go to Saint-Leger. 
 
 [October 10.] We continue on all sides to make war 
 against England without declaring it. Our troops of the 
 army of the Meuse are on the way from Dusseldorf to Miin' 
 ster and from Miinster to Hanover ; we shall enter the States 
 of that ridiculous king and get our subsistence from them, as 
 we shall also do in Bohemia ; presently our privateers will 
 descend on the English in the Channel, and compel that 
 maritime power and Holland to make an equitable agreement 
 with Sj)ain for the security of the commerce with America — 
 fortunate, indeed, if that does not involve the cession of 
 Jamaica ! 
 
 But, people will say, here are all our old troops out of the 
 country ; suppose some lucky adventurer should defeat one 
 of our armies in Bohemia or Westphalia, what would happen 
 to us ? The kingdom would be left without defence. If some 
 of our provinces revolted, what forces have we to re-establish 
 authority ? I answer that our militia would fight like little 
 devils ; that we still have some old troops in the kingdom ; 
 and that, lastly, such defeat is impossible. By whom ? The 
 Queen of Hungary is without succour; her domains are 
 hemmed in on all sides. 
 
 France reigns everywhere without; all goes well by sea 
 and by land ; and from north to south Sweden is arresting in 
 time the Muscovite power. But if we turn our eyes to the 
 interior of the kingdom, what ruin ! what misery ! what in-
 
 288 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. viii. 
 
 humanity ! Things are now driven to such a point that 
 rigour is impossible. I was arguing yesterday with one of 
 the best friends of the controller-general Orry, who told me, 
 of his own accord, that every operation had failed ; that M. 
 Orry has never known how to make economic arrangements, 
 good receipts, equal expenses, as in a judiciary account ; that 
 he has relied entirely on the rigour of fiscal exactions. He 
 has foreseen nothing, prepared for nothing. From the death 
 of the Emperor he ought to have foreseen the expenditure we 
 should have to make this summer and the following years ; 
 for he must know that the expense of troops marching 
 through a foreign land is great. Besides which, we have 
 naval armaments to keep up which exhaust our finances. 
 
 In the condition to which our provinces have been reduced 
 it is necessary to reduce the taxes ; instead of which they are 
 increased by forty-seven millions ; and with the old debit on 
 the iaille, which is now to be exacted with the utmost rigour, 
 how is this new demand to be raised, no matter what rigorous 
 measures are employed ? 
 
 Mme. de Vintimille was the king's best friend ; she had 
 intelligence, she amused him and filled the vacuum of Mme. 
 de Mailly's conversation ; she piqued herself on her great at- 
 tachment to the king ; she defined him the characters around 
 him ; she made everything subserve him ; hence his present 
 tears. Mile, de Montcavrel, yoimgest sister of Mme. de 
 Mailly, has just arrived at Court ; they expect to admit her 
 into society ; but she is only a little chatterer. 
 
 Mme. de Vintimille piqued herself, they say, on becoming 
 a second Mme. de Maintenon, a solid friend who would 
 counsel the king solely for his own good. I have had a long 
 conversation with M. Bachelier, chiefly in relation to the 
 marriage of the Due de Chartres. "We reviewed the letters 
 from Bavaria in which Bachelier is urged to speak to the
 
 1741] tup: marquis d'akgenson. 289 
 
 cardinal and get him to propose the second Bavarian prin- 
 cess for the young prince ; and asking to have his, Bachelier's, 
 opinion (meaning that of the king) on this negotiation. 
 Bachelier is of opinion the matter ought to be delayed, if 
 possible, two months longer; the difficulty is that we are 
 taken at a word on this affair, which only came about through 
 the little hope there was then of obtaining Madame Henri- 
 ette de France. Bachelier therefore wants to gain two 
 months, after which, he says, we shall know the king's real 
 will, — his ideas being much concealed ; here lies the real 
 difficulty. 
 
 Bachelier says that the cardinal will take the king by his 
 vanity ; that after conducting him to the point of glory in 
 which he now is before Europe, he will involve him in a 
 whirl of it, the effect of which will be to carry him out of 
 his personal inclinations, which are to keep his daughter, 
 whom he loves very much, at his own Court. 
 
 For the rest, I perceived in this conversation that Bachelier 
 is more close-mouthed than ever ; and that the king and M. 
 Chauvelin, who inspire him in everything, have thought best 
 to arm him with reserve in this matter. To all he told me I 
 replied only by praises of the king and assurances of my 
 strong belief that the king took more part in his own affairs 
 than he said he did, that he attributed all to the cardinal in 
 order to support him as long as he lived ; but that I knew 
 perfectly well where the honour was due, and that I was 
 a firm believer, etc. He admitted to me that the king 
 had worked hard while at Saint-Leger, writing despatches 
 himself of four pages in reply to those the cardinal sent 
 him by couriers, giving him all particulars of events in 
 Germany. 
 
 I place in the rank of affected mysteries what Bachelier 
 told me about the late Mme. de Vintiraille, namely : that
 
 290 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. viii. 
 
 she governed the king's mind; that she would certainly 
 have interfered in the appointment of ministers; that, in 
 a word, she meant to play the role of Mme. de Maintenon ; 
 and that the king was more infatuated than ever with the 
 cardinal. I asked how it was possible to attribute to that 
 old and feeble head the vigorous actions that France was 
 doing in Europe to-day ? To which he answered that it was 
 her star which had led him to find men who suggested to 
 him these great things. With such answers I could only 
 laugh in his face ; I put off till another time the confidence 
 he owes me. 
 
 [October 25.] M. Orry, controller-general, is very ill, but 
 his finances are more so. Nothing enters the coffers, and 
 credit is extinct to an unheard-of degree. They flatter them- 
 selves it will return, but they are mistaken; discredit and 
 want of money will increase ; I have long shown this. It 
 has all come from having lowered the value of coin after it 
 had been high during the eight years of the regency ; the 
 debt of debtors is thereby doubled, or, to speak accurately, 
 the silver marc of seventy francs has fallen to fifty francs. 
 Thus we need in metal seven to pay what we really owe on 
 the footing of five. The illusion continues; all is paid on 
 the same scale; the people especially are doubled in their 
 tribute to the king; they have not known what they were 
 doing, and they continue to be deceived. Every one is ex- 
 hausted. Paris goes on drawing in all the money of the 
 kingdom, until at last the provinces have no more to render ; 
 poverty is there, — less the actual want of food than the total 
 want of money ; and all this because they have never seen 
 that they were paying more than they owed. And finally 
 even Paris was exliausted by the last famine, the king draw- 
 ing more than he could obtain and increasing the taxes, and 
 the two armies in Germany canying much money out of the
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'AKGENSON. 291 
 
 kingdom ; all of which has exhausted the Parisian treasury, 
 which cannot be refilled from our present arid sources. 
 
 I can say that money is wholly lacking after what I see 
 of the condition of the Due d'Orleans' finances. This prince 
 has the finest property to be found in the world, worth two 
 millions three himdred thousand livrcs ; he has a million 
 a year from the finest woods, a canal with toll rights, and 
 pensions with preferred payments, etc. ; and yet for the 
 last two months we have been dry, and we have made 
 no inventory of dividends. The royal treasury is in a 
 worse state than ours. Soon its essential receipts will 
 fail, then the rentes on the city, and then the pay of the 
 troops. 
 
 And yet, here are all our old troops out of the country and 
 farther away than they have been since Charlemagne. Should 
 riots arise in the provinces, who is there to quell them ? with 
 what forces can we resist them ? must we bring out the 
 militia for that ? and is it suitable ? Already riots are be- 
 ginning. There was one at Eamorantin when wheat was 
 carried through, as I myself was passing through the place ; 
 and I found the intendant of Orleans much harassed. The 
 mounted police were not sufficient. We talked of this at a 
 species of council we held at his house in Orleans, and agreed 
 that the exactions to enforce the dixieme and the taillc might 
 occasion riots this winter ; that it needed only an assault on 
 a collector and the pillage of one coffer to give rise to a 
 revolt that might become general, and if so, that we had no 
 troops to crush it. 
 
 The Due d'Orleans thinks that as soon as the Elector of 
 Bavaria is elected emperor we shall instantly withdraw our 
 troops from Germany. I think, too, that we shall withdraw 
 them from Austria, but not from Hanover where they are 
 necessary to ward off the ill-will of England and Holland,
 
 292 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. vin. 
 
 who will always endeavour to revive the Austrian power to 
 oppose that of France.^ 
 
 [October 29.] People are unjust enough to blame the 
 king for being pensive when he sees the affairs within the 
 kingdom in such penury. They blame him also for economy, 
 when everything warns him to be economical even in the 
 smallest ways. Yesterday he sat down to supper at Mme. 
 de Mailly's, she being the only woman, with the Due de 
 Gramont, M. de Meuse, and the Comte de Noailles. The 
 king still felt his dinner and ate little ; he drank one glass 
 and said he could eat no more. After which he fell into a 
 black melancholy that seemed like despondency, from which 
 they could not rouse him, however gay they were. For my 
 part, I know that he has good reason to think. The state in 
 which the kingdom is, the impossibility of bringing it out 
 of it under the administration of the cardinal, and the vow 
 he has made to keep the cardinal until he dies — here is 
 food enough for reflection. 
 
 When the king was arranging to give Mme. de Maill}- a 
 little apartment where she could stay all day with her little 
 society and have, for herself, a little cook who would give 
 her a little dinner and a little supper, he kept asking on 
 each of these items how much it would cost. And yet they 
 preach economy to him, while he thus preaches it to himself. 
 Yesterday the Court musicians went to M. Orry and repre- 
 sented to him that they were not paid and were starving ; that 
 they were poor devils who had nothing but their pay to live 
 on, and, even so, provisions were very dear at Versailles. 
 To which M. Orry replied : " Eeally, messieurs, the king has 
 plenty of other musicians in Germany." A worthy reply for 
 the controller-general of finance ! 
 
 1 The War of the Austrian Succession had begun in December, 1740, by 
 the invasion of Silccia by Frederick the Great. — Tb.
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 293 
 
 The cardinal has given the prettiest definition of the Due 
 d'Orl^ans ; he says he catches ideas as children catch butter^ 
 flies, the wings by two fingers, and then lets them go again 
 The duke has frequent conversations with that crazy creature 
 the Mar^chal de Noailles, who gives him plans and ideas 
 about all sorts of things ; this delights our excitable head, and 
 I see various traces of an influence that puts me in despair ; 
 for instance : there is every appearance that he is quitting the 
 Council because he foresees the return of M. Chauvelin, and 
 it is I who have the most assured him of that ; but in his 
 heart his Royal Highness knows the futility of the mardchal. 
 
 [November 8.] It is in good faith that Bachelier deplores 
 the present situation of the king, and he joins with the car- 
 dinal for a plan of union and in weeping over his state. 
 " No one in the kingdom," he says, " leads such a dull, sad 
 life. You should see that circle ; " and the cardinal saw it 
 the other day ; he saw ennui and Morpheus reigning every- 
 where. This circle, this society, to which our monarch is 
 reduced, forever as it would seem, is composed as follows : 
 The Comtesse de Toulouse, who is or is not of the suppers as 
 she chooses ; Mme. de Mailly, dull and wearisome ; the Due 
 d'Ayen and the Comte de Noailles, more jargon than mind, 
 the Due de Gramont, and little Meuse. 
 
 There is no more dignity, no more state at Court. The 
 necessity of economy in these times, which his Majesty feels 
 like others, is another pretext for shutting himself up in 
 obscure pleasures. And yet, adds Bachelier, his Majesty 
 has talent, and it is the gi-eatest pity in the world that he 
 does not use it. Sometimes he retires into his cabinet after 
 dinner or after supper to answer a letter of two columns from 
 his Eminence. He often reads his despatches, and it costs 
 him less trouble than most persons to write much and well. 
 
 [November 9.] The Due de Eichelieu (who is at present
 
 294 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap.viii. 
 
 one of the king's favourites and goes to all the little suppers 
 at Mme. de Mailly's) says that his Majesty is plunged in 
 continual gloom. He says infinite good of his Majesty's 
 nature ; he told me just now that it is the greatest pity in 
 the world that such a good disposition has been spoilt by 
 education ; that he has much intelligence and is gentle and 
 kind, but the misfortune is that he has been taught to 
 distrust every one ; that his gi'eat lack is an apparent want 
 of sensibility, though he showed feeling on the death of 
 Mme. de Vintimille. 
 
 The King of Prussia has declared through his minister at 
 The Hague that, far from concluding a private treaty with 
 the Queen of Hungary, he regards those rumours, which are 
 set about by her ministers, as injurious to his fame, and that 
 he shall never make any but a general peace. 
 
 Our ministry is without head or plan. It has found it 
 necessary to have recourse to the ideas of the Mardchal de 
 Belleisle, whose brains I do not think very good ; he has more 
 ideas than judgment, more fire than force. This is enough to 
 ruin France from top to bottom. I laugh with pity when I 
 hear our gi-eat politicians and great warriors, scarcely listening 
 to the objections made to them on the state of the finances, 
 say : " Oh ! as for money, they must find it ; in a great king- 
 dom like this, money can't be lacking ; it is only a question 
 of two or three hundred millions ; they have only to force out 
 the money, tax those farmer-generals who are so rich," etc. 
 All such talk is very weak, for things are now at such a 
 pass that, with the best will in the world to get money, it 
 cannot be had. 
 
 There is talk of a lottery of fifty millions, in which the 
 great prizes are to be annuities, for which they would create 
 eight millions of such rentes ; poverty and hope would make 
 every one take shares.
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 295 
 
 They are working slowly at levying the tithe tax 
 [dixifeme] ; they feel the impossibility of collecting it, espe- 
 cially in the electoral regions and with the rigour M. Orry 
 orders for its enforcement. There is great talk of the king's 
 extreme economy in the matter of his table, and in the 
 management of his amours. It is decided that for this 
 winter his Majesty will only dine twice and sup once in 
 public ; the rest of the time the dinners and suppers will be 
 at Mme. de Mailly's, with the little cook who serves her 
 ordinarily ; and there are never to be more than three dishes 
 and the small company I have already named. 
 
 [November 21.] The king inclines to devotion since the 
 death of Mme. de Vintimille. In the small society to which 
 he has confined his life they now talk spirituality and reli- 
 gion. The king said to M. de Meuse, " At your age, so close 
 to sixty, you may soon be overtaken by death." They talk 
 of spiritual books. His Majesty imagines he can bring him- 
 self to live with Mme. de Mailly as M. le Due lived, they 
 say, with Mme. d'Egmont, as a friend, almost without carnal 
 relations, unless by accident, and then the sin can be quickly 
 confessed. It is true that M. le Due was advanced ill age 
 compared with his Majesty, so that this project of continence 
 may not last long. From all this, however, we see a great 
 point : the king has feeling ; he has a heart that speaks to 
 him (how little his subjects have to-day !). He is sensible 
 of sincere attachment when he recognizes it is felt for him ; 
 he likes kind hearts ; possibly he is made to form the happi- 
 ness of the country. They say he has a mind turned to 
 petty things ; but it must be considered that he encounters 
 only petty things in his surroundings ; it remains to be seen 
 whether he will follow a taste for the petty in great things, 
 like that good Due d'Orl^ans, in whom I see no other 
 tendency.
 
 296 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chaf. viii. 
 
 I say this from the words of a man who is, for some time 
 past, in the closest familiarity with the king. One of the 
 king's great maxims, which is the most grounded ia his 
 nature, is to separate the areas of his confidence; for in- 
 stance : he would not make a friend of his minister, nor a 
 minister of his friend ; he would not confide matters of finance 
 to the minister of Foreign Affairs, ncqiie vicissim. They say, 
 very improperly, that this shows inferiority ; but I maintaiu 
 that it shows, on the contrary, superiority of mind. 
 
 [December 10.] The army of the three powers, France, 
 Bavaria, and Saxony, has taken Prague by assault; every- 
 thing passed with surprising decency after the assault suc- 
 ceeded; the governor was taken in his bed; ladies were 
 returning from balls, and the officers flattered them like gal- 
 lant cavaliers ; the rights of distinction superseded the rights 
 of war. We did not lose a single Frenchman ; the Saxons lost 
 six men. The Elector of Bavaria despatched the news here 
 by M. de Tavannes, a colonel of his army, who had been 
 previously condemned to death in France for having seduced 
 and married Mile, de Brun, though with her consent.^ 
 
 [December 14.] I am assured that the king has changed 
 his mistress, that nothing is more certain, and that it is 
 kept in the deepest mystery. It is added that in consequence 
 of this, the Comtesse de Toulouse will lose her wages, which 
 excludes the idea that the new mistress is the Duchesse 
 d'Antin, as many say; nevertheless she is among the best 
 at Court; it would be reviving the name of Montespan as 
 
 1 Louis-Henri de Saulx, Marquis de Tavannes-Mirbel. His life was a 
 romance. He eloped with and married in 1732 his cousin Ferdinande, 
 Marquise de Brun, who loved him, and was promised to him in childhood. 
 Nevertheless, on complaint of her father, he was condemned to be be- 
 headed. He escaped and served in Hungary against the Turks, and then 
 attached himself to the Elector of Bavaria. In 1742 he obtained a pardon 
 and returned to France. But after an interview with his cousin, which 
 was not what he had hoped, he died of grief February 13, 1743. — Tb.
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 297 
 
 mistress of the king, — another feature of resemblance to 
 Louis XIV. It is certain that the king has resumed his 
 liking for Bachelier, and is shut up with him three or four 
 hours a day. Bachelier is working also with M. Poniatowski, 
 on the affairs of Germany ; he forbids him to see the Mai(^chal 
 de Nuailles, who is very anxious to poke his nose into all this. 
 
 If poor Mme. de Mailly is dismissed it is only what her 
 mediocrity of nature deserves. She is a perfect goose ; she 
 did not know how to retain her first protectors ; her sister, 
 Mme. de Vintimille, ruled her absolutely. The latter fired 
 openly on Bachelier and M. Chauvelin ; she used to say to 
 the king, " Well, well ! sire ; are you going to tell it all to 
 your valet de chamhre ? " 
 
 Horrors happened to Mme. de Vintimille's body before it 
 was buried. The people of Versailles were full of joy at her 
 death, saying she was a vile creature and prevented the king 
 from living at Versailles ; and that she had stolen the king 
 from her sister, who was a good woman. She was carried 
 with a simple shroud on her body from the palace to the 
 hotel de Villeroy; there the servants left her to go and 
 drmk, as often happens ; the populace got in and seized her 
 and flung petards upon her body and did all sorts of insults 
 to it; which shows little respect for the king, and is 
 barbarism. 
 
 [December 16.] Here is the King of Sardinia flinging him- 
 self into the Milan provinces with twenty-two thousand men, 
 and a reserve in case of a check. From all I hear from well- 
 informed ministers, this is a league of the Italian princes to 
 gain their liberty and prevent Spain or the House of France 
 from encroaching further. It is long since I have imagined 
 this Italian league to secure the liberty of the world, and 
 establish an equilibrium in Italy as we are establishing it 
 
 to-day in Germany. And how are we doing that ? By 
 
 Ver. 2 — 20 Mom.
 
 298 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. viii. 
 
 facilitating the Germans to recover what is thehs, and break- 
 ing a great colossus which chained their liberty. Well, then ! 
 let us do the same for Italy. Here is the King^ of Sardinia 
 at the head of Italians, who have never until now dared to 
 show heart for fear of being crushed ; but Italian courage 
 having been preserved in Piedmont, the other regions will 
 recover theirs beneath the banners of the King of Sardinia, 
 by the very impulsion of the liberty to be won. The League 
 will consist of Sardinia, Venice, Genoa and Modena, and 
 the Pope J to which England will lend support. These 
 allies will share among themselves the States of the House 
 of Austria. 
 
 But what will France do in all this ? Let things be done; 
 that is all I ask ; not displease Spain, if we can avoid it, but 
 not seek to please her only to betray her, as we basely sought 
 to do. Let Don Carlos keep the Two Sicilies ; I am willing 
 for that ; but for the other States that are to be conquered, 
 it is advantageous for us that they be shared among Italians, 
 as we are now letting Germany belong to the Germans. 
 
 [December 26.] There is great talk of resources for the 
 treasm-y. The best means, in my system, is a re-coinage of 
 the currency, with reduction of the old coins and augmenta- 
 tion in the new. Would to God it were already done ! It 
 is long since I made the discovery that the internal evils of 
 the country came originally from the unfortunate anxiety 
 and false science which, after the death of the regent, 
 reduced the currency ; since then debtors have become insol- 
 vent and tax-payers are crushed. The extreme need of 
 money for the armies will lead the ministry (always, since 
 M. Colbert, stupid on general and far-seeing views) to make 
 this increase, but with the unfortunate intention of lowering 
 it as soon as they can. Here is where I hope that able men 
 will stop them. Meanwhile they will seek, through this
 
 1741] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 299 
 
 operation, easy loans and recoverable payments. They will 
 find theui, with a great profit, in re-coinage. 
 
 We are undertaking great expenses for the affairs of 
 Germany, and shall soon be doing so for those of Italy ; 
 people ask what return we shall get. The answer is that it 
 is much to have broken our rival to pieces, but the greatest 
 of all points is to avert wars. Let us be wise as to that. Let 
 us cease to put our glory in the loss and injury of other 
 nations; let us convince ourselves that we shall be most 
 prosperous when our neighbours are most so.
 
 300 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, ix 
 
 IX. 
 
 1742—1744- 
 
 [January 21.] It is long since I have written down the 
 state of things ; it has varied much. The Frenchman, ex- 
 treme in his hopes, extreme in his despau-, has believed our 
 armies lost in Bohemia, and the Comte de Neuperg about to 
 reduce us to beggary and captivity ; it was said that M. de 
 S^gur's corps was lost without redemption. To-day the 
 face of things is changed ; the Comte de Neuperg is gomg 
 into winter-quarters, the Prussian army is advancing to take 
 the Austrians in the rear, and all is going on well. 
 
 [January 31.] Here is the Elector of Bavaria an emperor 
 of our making [elected emperor by the Germanic Diet as 
 Charles VII. Jan. 24, 1742]. With regard to Italy, the 
 King of Sardinia will have more or less of Lombardy and 
 the Milan region. Don Philip is to have a state composed 
 of Parma and Piacenza, Cremona and Mantua, to which 
 may perhaps be added Corsica and Sardinia, in exchange for 
 what he cedes to the Due de Savoie. Tyrol is to be con- 
 quered for the Emperor, also the southern States of Austria, 
 and Vienna is to be besieged. In a word, the Queen of 
 Hungary will keep nothing at all except Hungar}^ and Tran- 
 sylvania, with the Grand duchy of Tuscany belonging to her 
 husband. 
 
 At Court, Bachelier plays more than ever being the 
 cardinal's friend, though he despises him as much as ever ; 
 the king has planned this with him ; they want to stop this 
 air of division among the king's friends, about which too
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 301 
 
 much is being said; but the replacement of M. Chauvelin 
 on the death of the cardinal is only the more certain. 
 
 I have a secretaiy, named M. Gigon, who always looks to 
 the ends of the earth, and can't see the end of his nose. He 
 contemplates the heavens with long, narrow spectacles ; sen- 
 sations vast, sense narrow, no judgment. He was long an 
 excellent advocate to the Coimcil, writing very well ; I won- 
 dered at his clear way of stating the facts and means of an 
 affair without ever conveying a word of the decision ; fallible, 
 too, in his classic quotations ; for men of so little sense can- 
 not be learned. He pretends to great things, without power 
 to do them, and with it all, as he is a Breton, his temper is 
 strong and ardent ; his defects are to rebuff, to keep people 
 waiting, to despise rather than dislike. There is nothing so 
 high that it does not come within the sphere of his instinc- 
 tive contempt, and the poor lad does not know why ! He 
 likes to appear, and not to be (see the " Baron de Foeneste " 
 on that) ; he sees nothing but the show window ; he likes 
 great men for their bad things ; he believes that a great 
 man must be a knave, haughty, gi-asping, above all hated, 
 detested, reviled, provided the said great man glories in it 
 and is not troubled by it for a moment ; he despises on prin- 
 ciple the kindness and gentleness of those who are truly 
 great ; he admu-es no part of iron but its rust ; I have always 
 seen him interested by pride. 
 
 [March 7.] The cardinal is at his last gasp ; nature giving 
 way, voice choked by a cold that has lasted a month, the 
 stomach no longer performing its functions ; he weakens, he 
 is dying, he is emaciated and withered as a mummy, he is 
 returning to earth ; he has gone for a fortnight to Issy. 
 
 He being in this state, a man of sense at Court observed to 
 me the other day that if the cardinal had laid out a plan of 
 government with the king, we should surely see his Majesty
 
 302 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 begin it, and work with the ministers and at business ; 
 instead of which we see him evading this more and more, 
 which shows that he must have some other system and plan 
 than those of the cardinal. The man I speak of said, " We 
 shall see, on the death of the cardinal, whether the king is 
 below the beast or above mankind." 
 
 [June 30.] Certainly I have been too long without writ- 
 ing in my journal, though matters for noting are finer than 
 ever. 
 
 We have just learned that the King of Prussia has 
 signed his private treaty of peace with the Queen of Hun- 
 gary at Breslau. He keeps Silesia, Upper and Lower, with 
 some exchanges in Bohemia; he repays the English and 
 Dutch the sums lent by them to the Queen of Hungary 
 and hypothecated on Silesia, by means of which he obtains 
 their guarantee, which to-day means nothing less than full 
 consent. 
 
 So here is the fashion introduced and received among 
 allies to separate and do their own business well by being 
 the first to make a treaty ! This was not done formerly ; 
 the English separated themselves first from the great alli- 
 ance in 1711 and derived from it great advantages; we 
 followed that terrible example in 1735 and obtained Lor- 
 raine ; and now the same operation is done by the King 
 of Prussia, but under far more odious circumstances, inas- 
 much as he leaves us in terrible embarrassment ; our armies 
 in the middle of Germany starved and vanquished, the 
 Emperor despoiled of his hereditary States, and his em- 
 pire, his property, too, in danger. All is at the mercy of 
 the maritime powers, who have pushed things to the con- 
 clusion that we now see; for the English, miscarrying if 
 you choose in their conquests in America, have, neverthe- 
 less, seized possession of the entire commerce of America
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 303 
 
 and are rolling in the wealth of that country, which is 
 what they were aiming for. And we — France — alone 
 capable of resisting this torrent, here we are exliausted 
 and out of condition to repress this seizure even by join- 
 ing ourselves more closely with Spain. 
 
 But wliat will come of all this ? The true interests 
 must prevail in Germany ; the German princes will prefer 
 a puny emperor, like the Elector of Bavaria. I conclude, 
 therefore, that they will maintain him in the hereditary 
 States for some time ; supported before long by the authority 
 which the imperial dignity will give him. Let us leave 
 them alone ; let us not mix in the matter any longer ; 
 this is the greatest service we can do to-day to our German 
 allies. 
 
 [July 11.] The Duchesse d'Orldans has declared to her 
 son that she will overlook her displeasure at the will of the 
 Queen of Spain [her daughter, widow of the son of Philip 
 v., and residmg in Paris], by which the prince is left 
 sole heir and herself passed over ; also the summons sent 
 to her to deliver up the property, — on the one condition 
 that he will take from me his confidence and the post I fill. 
 To which the prince replied that he should certainly 
 not do so ; that I managed his affairs very well ; that they 
 had never been so well managed. Mrae. de Chelles is 
 furious against me. I ask them why ; but there is no 
 reason, unless it be that I attend properly to the said 
 affairs. 
 
 [July 31.] There are but three words in our language 
 to be used as to the present state of things : tliis cannot last. 
 It is now a question of a total change of ministrj'. The 
 cardinal is childish, he lets himself be governed, he no 
 longer knows what he does, and yet he still ^^ants to 
 do.
 
 304 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 Bachelier reassures me ; he is not troubled ; he praises 
 the king and says that our affairs will mend in certain 
 hands ; whence I conclude that the king is determined to 
 apply the prompt remedy, which is a change of ministry. 
 
 [August 27.] The public is in the utmost consternation 
 at what was announced last night: Cardinal de Tencin 
 and my brother are made ministers of State. 
 
 This had been preceded by an au' of total defeat for 
 Cardinal de Fleury and his partisans, and an air of triumph 
 for the party of M. Chauvelui.^ This is the result of 
 the powerful cabal against M. Chauvelin. It is with great 
 grief that I have recognized in my brother from his youth 
 up a courtier, with all the characteristics of that role : 
 insincerity, contempt for virtue, hatred of the public good. 
 Allied at first with all the ministers, but soon alienated 
 from them by the double-dealing of his actions and his 
 unfaithfulness towards them, he made his earliest advance 
 through M. Chauvelin, who presently distrusted him and 
 war was declared between them. My brother contributed 
 to M. Chauvelin's disgrace, and united himself with the 
 most malignant persons at Court ; hence his great intimacy 
 with the Tencins. 
 
 Cardinal de Fleuiy has always used as his great gun, 
 when the king would not do as he chose, an ardent entreaty 
 for his own retirement; that was his argument by which 
 he obtained these two places. The king is resolved on 
 certain things from which he will not varj^; one is the 
 return of M. Chauvelin, but never during the lifetime of 
 the Cardinal. He will not allow the cardinal to retire, 
 
 1 In La Chronique du regne de Louis XV., vol. v., we read : " The letter 
 was written recalling Chauvelin ; it was in the hands of the Due de Vil- 
 leroy, his friend ; the courier was booted and ready to start ; but at the 
 last moment the king opened the matter to the cardinal, who insisted on 
 Argenson and Tencin." — Fr. Ed.
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 305 
 
 and so long as he lives and vegetates he will put only 
 men of a certain force into the management of affairs. 
 The public groans and will groan at seeing vice and vicious 
 persons raised to the conduct of affairs; it corrupts, more 
 and more, the morals of the nation. It is now for Provi- 
 dence to shorten the days of Cardinal de Fleury, who is caus- 
 ing us so many and such great evils, even if they are only 
 passing evils. 
 
 I regard the character of Cardinal de Tencin as that 
 of the Jesuits in general : never dangerous under a firm 
 government, because they cling to ancient principles, and 
 tm-n flexibly to whatever maintains them, with a fidelity 
 more politic than moral. 
 
 [September, 1742.] I recall the difficulties of my career 
 as to property, and I do not see how I ever pulled through 
 them. It is to be said m the first place that I am not eco- 
 nomical nor yet prodigal, neither wise nor foolish. I have no 
 passion for property. I have, or rather I have had, a quantity 
 of tastes ; these I forbade myself for want of means. I have 
 often meditated on what was seemly for appearance in one's 
 state of life ; and this is what saved me most, having acquired 
 much knowledge on this point and much skill Ln the means 
 of making an appearance. My grandfather was ruined by 
 embassies ; no one ever knew what became of my mother's 
 dot, through the embarrassments of the MM. Caumartin. 
 My father acquired the legal inheritance of his uncles, aunts, 
 and maternal grandmother, and purchased property in Tou- 
 raine. With this accumulated fortune and some gifts from 
 the king, my father, being in a great office, determined to 
 make two branches of his family and put them both in the 
 law, so that he about divided his property in two. My share 
 was an income [rentes] of 20,000 francs, and this is all that 
 I have had, or ever shall have on my side. It is singular
 
 306 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 wtat demands there have been and still are on that poor 
 20,000 francs a year. 
 
 I do not know how or why they arranged to marry me 
 (certainly without consulting me) to all that would make 
 me most unliappy. My children will be rich from their 
 mother's property; but they doomed me to suffer poverty 
 from that direction all my life. My father was then min- 
 ister of finance and Keeper of the Seals. He was an actual 
 prime-minister for six months ; and it was during that time 
 that they married me without consulting me. My father 
 gave me an estate with a rental of 5000 francs, and a pension 
 of 4000 francs, and that was all. I was to choose a rich 
 marriage. They said they raised me by making me marry 
 Mile. M^liand rather than the daughter of a financier ; though, 
 with my birth, neither could have honoured me much. 
 Now this Mile. Mdliand to whom they married me had an 
 office of master of petitions, which came to me, and 40,000 
 crowns on the city at four per cent. That was all ; so that 
 hunger and thirst were maiTying ; and they gave me three 
 years' subsistence at Lille, of which I received but six 
 months : also, promise to pay me 100,000 francs one year 
 after the death of Madame M^liand, my wife's grandmother ; 
 which M. M^liand had the goodness to advance me in bank 
 bills precisely at the moment of the decree of May 21, 1720 ; 
 that is to say, in oak-leaves [en feuilles de chene]. All this 
 fine dot came to me in paper of that kind ; I replaced it by 
 rentes on the city, and that is all that passed, or ever will 
 pass through my hands from that sad dot. My wife proved 
 to be what those who knew us know ; I suffered all that any 
 one could suffer ; at last I returned her to herself, her and 
 her property to the last penny and more too ; to keep my 
 two children from being educated by her, I paid the whole 
 cost of their education myself.
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 307 
 
 With this, I had a pension from the king, the treasury 
 having withdrawn that which had been given me for the 
 services of my father ; but it has been only that of a bureau 
 of finances which could not be refused to my seniority. The 
 cardinal, however, has prevented my receiving anything at 
 all from the royal treasury for the last three years ; but for 
 two years the Due d'Orl^ans has made me his chancellor, 
 which place is worth 22,000 francs' income ; and the above is 
 all my fortune. 
 
 My father did not leave me a house in Paris, nor a piece 
 of furniture, nor even a silver fork (all the furniture went 
 into my sister's share), not even a country house; and 
 all his estates were going to wreck and ruin through the 
 rascality and deceitfulness of his agents; the old chateau 
 d'Argenson was abandoned to the farmer ; I did not have 
 so much as a house in the town, that of my father having 
 gone into my brother's share of the property. Yet out of 
 my little means I have succeeded in — 
 
 Paying my debts as a bachelor — a period during which 
 my father allowed me only 800 francs a year to supply my- 
 self with everything, and no equipage ; in furnishing myself 
 decently; in supporting for five years an expensive intend- 
 ancy and making a noble's appearance ; in furnishing a house 
 in Paris with everything ; in restoring Argenson, little by 
 little, nobly, both as to park and chateau; in bringing up 
 two children to marriageable age, in returning my wife's dot 
 intact ; in buying back my father's library, adding to it, and 
 making it one of the best in Paris ; in getting a fine collec- 
 tion of coins and engravings; in fitting myself out for a 
 distant embassy, the whole cost of which for three years I 
 bore without going to it. 
 
 And for all that, I have only 200,000 francs of debt, in- 
 cluding the 60,000 the embassy cost me. I cannot therefore
 
 308 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 have been foolish or imprudent. I swear that I do not love 
 money, and am not attached to it, as may be seen by all my 
 proceedings ; but I take care of what I have ; I think I am 
 the contrary of Catilina, of whom Sallust said, Cupidus 
 alieni sui prodigus ; but I have much order and I know how 
 to make an appearance. My affairs are now in such a state 
 that with one quarter of an hour's work and attention a day, 
 I never think of them at other times. 
 
 [October 10.] The king cannot endure his new ministers ; 
 he shows this outwardly by holding some conversation with 
 my brother, whom he knows, but saying nothing to Cardinal 
 de TencLn ; and he does not allow either of them to approach 
 him in private. Mme. de Mailly turns her back on the 
 cardinal, and my brother looks much disconcerted. The two 
 ministers are humiliated at Court ; no one speaks to them or 
 goes to see them. The ministers with departments treat 
 them superciliously and thwart their imdertakings. The 
 king declares he never dreamed of anything else than making 
 them simple ministers like the Mardchals de Tallard and 
 d'Estr^es, idle courtiers, who have nothing to do but attend 
 the Council. 
 
 Cardinal de Fleury has spoken to the king about M. 
 Chauveliu : he told him he would put his private aversion 
 to him underfoot if he thought his services could be useful 
 to the affairs of his Majesty; but there was one point on 
 which he saw danger and ruin if he were ever recalled, and 
 that was religion ; that M. Chauvelin was the protector oi 
 all Jansenists. But I know that the king is armed against 
 all such talk as much as he should be. M. Chauvelin and 
 his partisans have only a wise toleration which tends to 
 extinguish all parties and encourage none. He will repress 
 Jansenism, little by little, and bring peace into the Church ; 
 instead of which the cardinal is lettmg himself go to all that
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 309 
 
 those perfidious, ambitioiis, and villanous Molinist priests 
 insinuate into him ; already persecution is increasing since 
 Cardinal de Tencin entered the ministry. 
 
 [November 5.] Great news ! the king has dismissed Mme, 
 de Mailly to take her sister, Mme. de la Tournelle. This 
 took place with a harshness not to be understood in a Very- 
 Christian king. It was the sister who made him drive out 
 the sister ; she exacted her exile ; and this third sister, taken 
 as mistress, makes one believe that the second, Mme. de Vin- 
 timille, passed the same way, which makes our master a vi- 
 cious man. As for me, I have always maintained that his 
 extreme grief at the death of Mme. de Vintimille was laud- 
 able sensibility for the grief of his friend ; but farewell now 
 to virtuous sensibility; he deceived his mistress; he led 
 Mme. de Vintimille to ingratitude ; he was mourning his il- 
 legitimate loves, although this Vintimille was ugly, lean, and 
 offensive. They say that if she had lived the king would 
 have dismissed both Mme. de Mailly and the cardinal. He 
 considers the son she left his, and has it often brought to him 
 secretly in his cabinet. 
 
 Before the death of the Duchesse de Mazarin (a fourth 
 sister, who was like a mother to Mme. de la Tournelle) the 
 king had coveted her, but Mme. de Mazarin was odious to him 
 from having been the first to tell the queen of his amour 
 with Mme. de Mailly, bringing shame and dishonour upon 
 him. He would not, therefore, seek Mme. de la Tournelle 
 while her sister lived ; but on her death he wrote the latter 
 a consoling letter, in which there was much that was tender. 
 She made a reply, surprising in style ; the Due de Eichelieu, 
 who is her adviser and lover, dictated it ; and the following 
 evening the king went in a blue chair to see her, disguised in 
 an overcoat and square wig; and then and there it was a 
 question of the lady's bargain and conditions. Well ad-
 
 310 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS 'OF [chap. ix. 
 
 vised,^ she desired to be a declared mistress on the footing of 
 Mme. de Montespan; she had the advantage of being a 
 widow, which gave more decency to the affair. She de- 
 manded a fine apartment, worthy of her position, and not to 
 be required, like her sister, to sup and sleep in small and 
 secret apartments; that the king sliould openly hold his 
 Court in her rooms, and sup there with the same publicity ; 
 that when she wanted money she was to send her notes and 
 obtain it at the royal treasury ; that at the end of the year 
 she should have her letters-patent as duchess verified in par- 
 liament ; and that if she became pregnant it should be pub- 
 licly and without concealment, and that her children should 
 be legitimatized. 
 
 At first, the king was alarmed at these conditions, and it is 
 not known how much they were modified ; but the conclu- 
 sion took place. I forgot to say that the most essential con^ 
 dition was that poor Mme. de Mailly should be dismissed 
 and exiled to four leagues from Court. 
 
 Mme. de Mailly is frankness itself; she is gifted with a 
 kind heart; she is tender to her friends and relations, and 
 has never done harm to any one; jargon and naivete take 
 the place in her of intelligence ; she owns that she took the 
 king only from extreme poverty and was two months with- 
 out loving him ; but after that her love had daily increased, 
 and the fear of troubling her lover had caused the extreme 
 disinterestedness of which she is to-day the victim, for she 
 is penniless and leaves heavy debts in Paris, which the sole 
 necessity of pleasing the king led her to incur. The king re- 
 fuses to pay these debts, but it is thought that the cardinal 
 
 1 The Duchesse de Brancas gives, shamelessly, in her Memoirs a full 
 account of this affair, which was negotiated by herself in concert with the 
 Due de Richelieu. She states that Cardinal de Fleury was their confidant, 
 and in part their adviser. — Tr.
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 311 
 
 has secret orders to pay them after abating the bills con- 
 siderably. Every one witnessed her tears. She had orders 
 to leave last Saturday and she came to the hotel de Toulouse, 
 . where they prepared the apartment of M. de Penthi^vre. 
 She leaves to-morrow for her father's house at Nesle in 
 Picardie. 
 
 Every one regrets her at Versailles; they dare not speak 
 out, for they fear the king's character. Certainly the public 
 morals and decency will suffer much from such an example. 
 The cardinal triumphs and thinks he has nothing more to 
 fear ; his court is resplendent ; he has overthrown his enemy 
 and M. Chauvelin's friend. Cardinal de Tencin claims to 
 have a share in this intrigue. There will now prevail at 
 Court the counsels of intriguing and treacherous persons. 
 
 [November 22.] It was the Due de Richelieu who ar- 
 ranged the parting of the king and Mrae. de Mailly. The 
 king sent for him to return here from the army in Flanders 
 much sooner than he would otherwise have done ; he advised 
 the king to begin by writing a note every day to the mistress 
 he wished to discard, then one every eighth day ; and when 
 told the king had already done that, he said, " That is accord- 
 ing to my principles." In short, he is the consulting lawyer 
 in it all, son professore di pazzia} 
 
 [January 6, 1743.] An affair, horrible for the reputation 
 of the king has just happened which must distress all citi- 
 zens. It is told in two ways ; I have clung to the best, but 
 I see we must renounce it, and forget the worst if we can. 
 
 An agreement or bond, signed by the king's own hand, for 
 the office of farmer-general at the next vacancy has appeared ; 
 it is running the market ; five or six persons have been asked 
 
 1 See the character of the Due de Richelieu given by Madame, mother 
 of the regent, in Vol. VIII. of these Historical Memoirs. — Tr.
 
 312 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 if they will take it ; the sum is at present 50,000 livres and as 
 much more when installed. Many sensible men have refused 
 to risk their money on this entanglement. It is said that 
 Mabille, formerly my brother's secretary, has given in to it ; 
 and also that the matter has reached the ears of the cardinal, 
 who has written a long letter of reprimand to the king, which 
 has stung his Majesty very much. As soon as he received 
 the letter he sent for MM. Orry and Maurepas, and com- 
 manded the latter to go instantly to Paris and order M. de 
 Marville to discover and punish in an exemplary manner 
 such insolence. Many persons were arrested, women, and 
 lawyers, as if they had been guilty of forging this document. 
 This was at first believed, and I myself stated everywhere 
 the fact ; but presently the prisoners were released, and the 
 matter has stopped there, — a certain proof that the bond was 
 genuine. They now say that the king was drunk when they 
 made him sign it ; that he leads secretly a disreputable life ; 
 that he cannot live if it goes on much longer ; that his morals 
 are growing more corrupt daily ; I turn away from belief in 
 such rumours ; I persuade myself that fear of his old precep- 
 tor causes his Majesty an inertness and dread which have 
 given him an appearance of these things, out of which he will 
 rise on the death of this old man so execrable to France. 
 
 [January 17.] The king has at last been to see the car- 
 dinal, who is now at death's door ; he was there but a mo- 
 ment ; they counted the time as eleven minutes. The fear 
 is universal that in that short moment the king may have 
 been persuaded to make Cardinal de Tencin prime-minister. 
 
 [January 30.] Cardinal de Fleury died yesterday at mid- 
 day. Never was a death made more comic by songs, epi- 
 grams and demonstrations. As soon as the death was 
 announced to the king, his Majesty said, " Messieurs, I am 
 now prime-minister ! " And he instantly sent for the former
 
 jtallier 
 
 ^JyAe ..Jl^cuA^^i^^ yde XgAa/ecu/y^Trnlv
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'AllGENSON. 313 
 
 Bishop of Mirepoix (Jean-Frangois Boyer), the dauphin's pre- 
 ceptor, and gave him the portfolio of benefices, which means 
 the ministry and chief direction of the affahs of the Church 
 in France. Certainly a more honest man could not have been 
 chosen. Cardinal de Tencin and his party have had what is 
 called a slap in the face, and there is talk now of sending 
 that Eminence to govern his diocese of Lyon. 
 
 The reputation of the king is hourly being restored in the 
 public mind, and so rapidly that it may soon burst forth 
 brilliantly, like that of Henri IV. Every one is applauding 
 the first acts of this d^but; what will it be if other good 
 selections of honest men in place of those who are odious 
 follow ? What will it be if we see a good and solid peace 
 this spring? 
 
 [February 22.] The king works much and has heart in 
 his business ; it does not appear that his ministers govern 
 him ; they say this will happen and that he will become in- 
 accessible to otliers ; and that all will be confined to what the 
 said ministers choose. He has taken a strong resolution to 
 push the war as much as possible, and beyond it. Our 
 enemies refuse us the most reasonable peace in the world 
 which we offer them, namely : to return to them everything, 
 keeping only the imperial crown on the head of the Elector 
 of Bavaria. Thus the storm forces us to extreme measures ; 
 we may now deliver ourselves up wholly to the anger of the 
 Queen of Spain, after having protested against it, and act 
 thus : — 
 
 1. Gain the King of Sardinia at whatever price it costs, 
 give him Lombardy, that is to say, more than the ]\Iilan ter- 
 ritory, and let Don Philip have the rest. 
 
 2. Order Mardchal de Broglie and his army to quit Bavaria 
 fall back on Tyrol, conquer the southern provinces of Ger- 
 many, and occupy the gorges of the entrance to Italy. 
 
 Ver. 2 — 21 Mem.
 
 314 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 3. Encourage Spaniards, Neapolitans and Piedmontese, 
 acting promptly in concert, to drive out the twelve thousand 
 men the Queen of Hungary has in Italy, and make them- 
 selves masters of the whole of Italy, in which case Don 
 Philip would have Tuscany and Parma. 
 
 4. We ourselves to remain on the defensive in Alsace, 
 Lorraine, and Flanders. 
 
 When I told the Due d'Orl^ans that there was a project 
 of uniting France and Spain, and associating the latter with 
 our attack, and not with hers, he answered, " That is the 
 way to make both monarchies perish." 
 
 [March 15.] M. Orry is now in great favour, above that 
 of the other ministers. Everything turns towards peace, 
 foreigners begin to believe in it ; M. Chauvelin is dismissed 
 from favour.^ The Mar^chal de Belleisle well-nigh dismissed, 
 all other fire-eaters also ; the other ministers interested in 
 the war, such as those of the army and navy, little favoured. 
 This pleases England ; honourable conditions are offered, 
 everything is returned, the Emperor is driven to discontent, 
 and thus to come to terms. Perhaps this was done intention- 
 ally ; perhaps, also, it is only the effect of chance. 
 
 Wlien Cardinal de Fleury alone governed the king's mind, 
 his Majesty often escaped the old man ; now that his favour 
 is divided among several eloquent personages, they relay one 
 another to persuade him on mild measures, and that is what 
 is leading us to peace. 
 
 [March 19.] The character of the kmg is being investi- 
 gated as much as possible ; in doing so people pass from 
 known truths to unknown ones ; but every day they are 
 mistaken in the consequences. Brought up by the cardinal 
 (whom he must have admired, since he was so long obsequi- 
 
 1 He received orders at Bourges, February 5, to go into exile, at the mo- 
 ment that his friends were expecting to see him recalled to Paris. — Fr. Ed.
 
 ■ 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 315 
 
 ous to him), he has contracted much of his pettiness, for the 
 cardinal had nothing but pettiness ; and if the king had had 
 real superiority of spirit he would never have been so long 
 subservient to him. Some of these petty things may properly 
 enter a system and be useful to a good government, — grav- 
 ity, mystery, the character of order, and imitation of the late 
 king, which have been adopted. The kmg had more intelli- 
 gence than the cardinal, and a soul in proportion to his 
 birth ; but he is timid, retaining people from habit, and be- 
 cause he shrinks from new acquamtance; he loves honest 
 men from laziness only, because those who are false trick 
 you, and it is a labour to be always on guard. With tliat 
 exception, the king's mind gave hopes that he would under- 
 stand men better than the late cardinal. What a phenom- 
 enon, therefore, to prefer M. Amelot to M. Chauvelin for 
 Foreign Affairs, and the Mardchal de Noailles to Mar^chal de 
 Belleisle for the military operations and for the great Ger- 
 manic negotiations ! 
 
 Here is Mar^chal de Noailles general of all the forces of 
 France from the Ehine to the sea, and master of moving 
 our troops arbitrarily for the defence of our frontier. Here 
 is Mar^chal de Belleisle wholly dismissed and almost exiled 
 to Bizy. Here is M. Amelot master of all negotiations, 
 except those with Eome, which are conducted by Cardinal 
 de Tencin. We shall see what fruits all this will produce, 
 what peace, what glory. Certainly we can procure peace 
 by abandoning the Emperor, as they are doing now; will 
 the nation be spiritless enough after that to pour incense on 
 the foolish leaders of the State ? Wisdom does not consist 
 only in abstention from folly ; nor even in abstention from 
 too lofty designs ; it asks for sagacity in difficult times, such 
 as the Noailles, Orrys, Amelots, and Boyers have not, nor 
 even certain minds more trained in the jargon of the world
 
 316 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 and the intrigues of a Court, such as M. de Maurepas, my 
 brother, and Cardinal de Tencin. Wliat is needed is frank- 
 ness [_candei(r'] naive and sincere, reputation well-deserved, 
 penetration to the bottom of designs, and skill in execution. 
 We have only to look at the administration of the finances 
 by M. Orry to know what sort of fruits will be gathered : 
 great expedients, fine calculations ; but all the means em- 
 ployed will be to the detriment of the kingdom, the interior 
 of which is infected with irreparable poverty. 
 
 [March 23.] For myself I propose to exhibit poverty 
 without misery. All the places in my household will become 
 single ; I have one fine porter with much gold lace ; one 
 valet de chmnbre, one footman, one coachman, two horses 
 and one servant-woman. I give my people the money to 
 spend and I live on a pot-au-feu and a chicken. I keep the 
 same furnished apartment as it is, a very honourable one, 
 and, above all, very convenient and near to the public 
 bureaux. I shall devote myself to the bureaux of the 
 Council, hold them all, and go there regularly ; I shall con- 
 fine my studies to their service for the next few years, 
 resummg what I have left behind me in knowledge of that 
 kind. I have an honest lawyer, named Estfeve, retired like 
 myself from the tumult of affairs ; I consult him, and look 
 over with him the ordinances. In this way I shall pass 
 in this century for a man of moderation, a philosopher, 
 attached to my duty, enlightened nevertheless, and capable, 
 more fitted for offices than those who are in them. This 
 role has its beauty ; and if ambition fed it, it might result 
 in some great elevation. 
 
 [April 4] M. de B . . . describes the king as much to be 
 feared in the species of intercourse that goes on between 
 him and the ministers ; he roars sometimes with anger, and 
 only restrains himself at other times by an effort of habit.
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 317 
 
 The cardiual affected great calmness iu order to inspire the 
 king with proper moderation of his temper ; h is Eminence 
 never showed any vivacity himself for this reason. 
 
 It is certain that after the new opening of tlie reign, or a 
 little before it, two extraordinary and very harsh acts were 
 done ; one, the dismissal of Mme. de IMailly ; the other, the 
 aggravation of M. Chauvelin's exile. His Majesty might liave 
 sent away a mistress of whom he was weary ; but the wrong 
 consists in the manner of doing so, — the harshness, the 
 hardness, the implacability ; and then the want of generosity 
 with which the future of that miserable woman has been 
 arranged. But for the other matter, the increased exile of 
 M. Chauvelin, here is what M. de 1) . . . lias told me : — 
 
 It is certain that the king had much correspondence with 
 the said M. Chauvelin during the last year of his ministry. 
 They say now, after events, that this correspondence was 
 entered into for the purpose of unmasking M. Chauvelin, 
 proving his ingratitude to the cardinal, and involving him iu 
 error for all time. They have also since asserted tliat the 
 king had taken a positive aversion to the unfortunate minis- 
 ter ; that he, his jests, his familiarity, his laugli, in fact all 
 his person had gi-eatly displeased the king. As to that, I ask 
 if a State can be properly governed by giving way, in the 
 choice of men, to capricious tastes or distastes for their 
 persons. 
 
 The king received a package from M. Chauvelin, and it 
 was this which caused his further exile ; lie received it from 
 an under-valet, who had himself received it from one of the 
 king's servants, but who this man was is not known. Tlie 
 king has said that he shall never tell his name ; that they 
 may open M. Chauvelm's lips if he is willing, but he 
 requests that he himself may hear no more about it. It 
 is known that there were four documents in the package :
 
 318 JOURNAL AND JSIEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 1. A letter of envoi from M. Chauvelin in four lines, which 
 ended thus : " You know, monsieur, the sentiments with 
 which," etc. ; 2. A long and noble letter to the king, written 
 recently at Bourges, whicli greatly touched his Majesty ; 
 3. A long memorial dated from Grosbois concerning the war 
 of 1734 and the peace of 1735, in which all the faults of the 
 cardinal were exposed, and all that M. Chauvelin had done 
 to repair them — as to this the king said that all the state- 
 ments therein made were false ; 4. A memorial more secret, 
 and sealed with a talisman, which reminded his Majesty of 
 his secret correspondence with M. Chauvelin and explained 
 what had happened since. 
 
 The king received this package at midnight, and read the 
 papers till two in the morning. The next day, on leaving 
 the Council, he gave them to M. de Maurepas to read, telling 
 that minister to give him his opinion upon them. At the 
 end of fifteen minutes the king sent for the papers, regretting 
 that he had given the minister the secret memorial. M. de 
 Maurepas brought them back and, like a shrewd man, told 
 the king he had had time to read only the long memorial, 
 but not the secret one. The king took them back and 
 ordered M. Chauvelin into deeper exile at Issoire. 
 
 Within a day or two the king has changed that exile to 
 Kiom, a more convenient and agreeable town, saying that he 
 did so on account of j\Ime. Chauvelin's health, and that it 
 was not to be regarded as a favour done to her husband. 
 Nothing could be proposed for M. Chauvelin's son ; for the 
 king has always an uncontrollable aversion to him as a 
 little boy because, without being presented to his Majesty, 
 he never stirred from his side durmg a hunt, and behaved 
 like a little scamp. 
 
 It appears from these facts that the king is very hard, and 
 insensible to humanity ; that he cares but little how his
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 319 
 
 kingdom is governed, inasmuch as the ministers, good or 
 bad, are chosen or rejected from petty prejudice or temper ; 
 that he has the self-will of a chQd, and that liis vanity puts 
 him ridiculously on his guard against allowing it to be said 
 that he is governed. He may have been annoyed by some 
 air of authority taken, as he thought, by M. Chauvelm as a 
 former and able minister; he may have thought of tlic 
 shame attached to having disgraced this man at the bidding 
 of the cardiaal. But, in truth, he loves only mystery, witlb 
 out caring for good effects. For the last two months that 
 his Majesty has governed for himself, what effects have we 
 seen ? What strokes of able policy under circumstances so 
 urgent ? What allies have we won ? Of what enemy have 
 we rid ourselves ? 
 
 [May 19.] The king shows for his work and in his 
 conduct to the ministers a disgust and irritability that do 
 not seem natural. To look at his Majesty's person and 
 to know him one cannot conceive how he could have fallen 
 into such indifference as to all that is most important 
 to his honour and his interests. The rumour runs of a 
 total change in the ministry, particularly in regard to M. 
 Amelot, whom the king, they say, will no longer listen 
 to, not being able to understand him on account of his 
 stuttering. 
 
 The Abb^ de Saint-Pierre, when dying, performed his 
 Christian duties, having his family and his valets around 
 him. But here is a smgular thing : having finished these 
 duties, he recalled the chaplain and told him he had noth- 
 ing to reproach himself with except this very action; that 
 he did not believe a word of such things ; that for a long 
 time he had not been false to truth except on this occasion ; 
 that he had so acted as a vile compliance to his family and 
 household; that he had endeavom-ed to be the confessor
 
 320 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ii. 
 
 of truth all his life, etc. I do not believe that such an 
 avowal was ever made by any one but him. 
 
 He spoke during his last days only in monosyllables. 
 When he said, " Fin ; " they thought he asked for food ; but 
 he repeated, " Fin-is." They told him he would recover ; he 
 said, " Resource, no ; hope, yes." He was eighty-six years 
 old. 
 
 The Cardinal de Tencin and my brother, now minister of 
 war, have given each other mutual pledges ; it is to be hoped 
 they will keep them ! The cardinal was in Rome when 
 raised to the ministry. Since then he has played the modest 
 with a proud and haughty countenance ; he dismisses audi- 
 ences, and wishes only to prove himself useful without ap- 
 pearing necessary. The Mar^chal de Noailles is with the 
 army, and, as our satirists say, when the grand plumes are 
 gone the pin-feathers show. But this bond between my 
 brother and Cardinal de Tencin, though concealed externally, 
 will cause jealousy and aversion on the part of the other 
 ministers towards the mar^chal, whom they do not regard 
 as their choice ; hence will come leagues ofifensive and 
 defensive. 
 
 But all depends on the character of the king. \Vliat 
 is he at bottom ? — impenetrable and indefinable. As for 
 me, I give him still a year and a day. There may be 
 something consistent in his course if he has only kept on 
 the ministers of the cardinal to avoid the reputation of 
 a fool oppressed by an old pedagogue seekmg at once to 
 play the free man; he may use for six months or a year 
 these ministers of Cardinal de Fleury, to test them, to show 
 their vacuity, to let them lose credit with the public, and 
 then dismiss them to take others, — all this, however, at 
 the risk of injuring his kingdom. 
 
 So these poor ministers find themselves to-day, M. Amelot
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 321 
 
 especially, absolutely confounded, and awaiting some blow 
 about to strike them ; it is said that the king neither listens 
 nor attends to them, and it is thought that the change will 
 be made at Whitsuntide. That great feast is often the 
 time for change of ministry. 
 
 [June 7.] Very singular things are reported of tlie king : 
 a cruel obstinacy about the war in Bavaria, total inability 
 to arrest the course of our reverses, or retire wisely from 
 this unhappy enterprise, so that we are now sending more 
 troops down, to our last man, and to certain death. None 
 of the ministers dare to speak to his Majesty of the neces- 
 sity of stopping this evil ; it must indeed be very difficult 
 if men like them, of some courage rather than any virtue, 
 dare not break the ice. This is what it is to be valets. 
 People say below their breaths that all this must end in 
 some catastrophe — what will it be ? 
 
 Sometimes they excuse the king, oftener they condemn 
 him ; as for me, who by nature love him with passion, 
 I seize eagerly on whatever can whiten and raise him. 
 
 His Majesty has just given his nomination to the cardina- 
 late to the Archbishop of Bourges and has appointed him 
 his ambassador to Eorae, — a choice much applauded and 
 not instigated by the Jesuit cabal ; also that of the Bishop 
 of Soissons, who obtains the nomination of the King of 
 England at the king's request. Honest men in every way, 
 who will not be fire-eaters. But, they say, the king dis- 
 missed Mme. de Mailly with inhumanity. How many 
 things may be excused by human passions, especially in 
 youth. The place was taken, the sister had won him, he 
 could not have the one unless the other went ; I would 
 rather excuse him for voluptuousness than for ingi-atitude 
 and indifference. 
 
 Every one flings a stone at the ministers for what is
 
 322 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 going on; my brother is especially the butt of everybody 
 for the ill-success of a war so badly managed ; all the world, 
 they say, knows this except the ministers. 
 
 I am surprised sometimes to find I have more perspicacity 
 than recepti\-ity ; I comprehend the ideas of others, but 
 having comprehended them I usually go beyond them. 
 That can come only from a certain fruitfulness of mind, 
 rather than from mental vivacity. I prefer to produce, 
 rather than receive. My lack of ordinary vivacity of mind 
 causes me to have less memory in the morning than in the 
 evening, when the mind, being more in motion, acts through 
 the effect of the relation of ideas. 
 
 [July 9.] One of the palace ladies, who gossip about 
 their mistress just as lady's-maids do about theirs, tells 
 me that the queen has an extremely susceptible heart, 
 though religion manages the rest of her individuality. She 
 is more coquettish than any woman of her Court ; she likes 
 to please men, and to have them show it, to ogle and to 
 be ogled. My brother is on the best terms with her; he 
 spends three or four hours at a time in her apartments — 
 for her Majesty has liberty to receive whom she likes. 
 She calls him " Cadet," and Cardinal de Tencin, who has 
 the same pri\dleges with her Majesty as he, calls him so 
 likewise. 
 
 The queen is never willing to be alone in her room, nor 
 to stay there after supper ; she must go and talk in the 
 room of some lady of the palace, especially that of the 
 Duchesse de Yillars, her lady-in-waiting. There she finds 
 the said cardinal, M. de Moncrif, the Abb^ de Broglie, and 
 Tressan, ensign of the body-guards. There they all slander 
 politely, but the best of it is that they tell smutty things, 
 which the queen likes much. 
 
 Last year the queen had a long conversation with the Due
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 323 
 
 d'Oii^ans, who suddenly flung himself on his knees and 
 asked pardon of God for the improper thoughts he had had 
 of her. She told this to her dearest friends. The queen 
 still regrets not having married him as she expected to do, 
 instead of being Queen of Prance. " We should have led," 
 she says, " such a pretty life ; while my husband was at 
 Sainte-Genevifeve, I could be at the Carmelites." 
 
 [July 30.] The pen falls from the hand at all that we 
 now see happening to our France. The Mar^chal de Broglie 
 has just completed the ruin of our affairs in Germany and 
 has brought back our troops, abandoning baggage and 
 wounded, who have been killed in cold blood. It was all 
 the same to him provided he ruined the affairs of the 
 Emperor and put a rope round his neck ; he has been more 
 than satisfied ! 
 
 The Due de Gramout and the Mar(^clial de Xoailles have 
 rendered our shame at Dettmgen irremediable [June 27] ; 
 we are without resources and at the mercy of our enemies, 
 who may now measure our destruction by their desires. 
 How have we been led ? iSTo, consanguinity cannot prevent 
 me from saying that there never was so bad a ministry of 
 war as the present, so little attached to the country, so 
 willing for public losses, so desirous for its own particidar 
 little good, so stupidly caustic, and with so few resources. 
 
 A revolution is certain in this country ; it is crumbling at 
 its foundations. There is nothing to do but to detach one's 
 self from one's country and prepare to pass under other 
 masters and another form of government. 
 
 [October.] Contempt is a very useful passion to certain 
 men, essential to some men. By it, shyness is overcome ; 
 a sense of superiority is acquired which brings a man 
 through the worst places ; he becomes what is called self- 
 confident, and if that is founded on some solid qualities he
 
 324 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 turns them to account, he puts them in the light, and he 
 represses in others what arrests his progress. 
 
 As for me, I have always lacked that quality ; and if I 
 could ever acquire it by meditation and effort I should be 
 sure of success. I was badly brought-up ; they repressed in 
 me certain flashes rare in a modest nature, — they made me 
 ashamed of them ; thus, too ready to esteem fine qualities in 
 others, too despondent of myself, I have shone little, I have 
 yielded willingly to all that was superior to me ; hence, ill- 
 success in all that I have wished for ; whereas my brother, 
 with views less just, less strong, more mediocre, has passed 
 for an eagle, and risen in proportion. Sometimes I have 
 taken upon me to esteem myself more highly, and to force 
 myself to despise others, and I have, all of a sudden, found 
 in this what was lacking to my freedom of action ; and then, 
 adding some attention to myself, some design of pleasing, 
 I have found that I rose to be what I really am. 
 
 [January 17, 1744.] The Chambers of parliament were as- 
 sembled this morning to register the letters-patent of the gift 
 of the Duchy of Chateauroux to Mme. de la Tournelle ; this 
 patent gives the duchy not only to her, but to her male 
 children, declaring that it reverts to the crown in case of 
 failure of male issue. The preamble of the letters-patent 
 contain the motives of the gift : the great services rendered 
 to France by the House of IMailly, the personal attachment of 
 the lady and the services she has rendered to the queen, the 
 virtues and rare and singular qualities of mind and heart 
 with which the said lady is endowed. Parliament listened 
 gi-avely to these flowery encomiums of the king upon his 
 mistress, and concluded by enregistering the document. 
 
 [April 2.] The Princesse de Carignan tells me that a few 
 days ago, the king being with Mme. de Chateauroux, M. de 
 Maurepas went there to see him, accompanied by M. Amelot ;
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSO^f. 325 
 
 that the king, coming hack after speaking with them, re- 
 marked that assuredly he could not stand them much longer ; 
 that he must change those two ministers and take some one 
 whom no one doubted. Whereupon people have cast their 
 eyes on Cardinal de Tenciu ; but what appearance is there 
 that he was referred to ? for the public doubts him thoroughly. 
 Others think that it must be M. Chauveliu. In answer to 
 the prospect of Cardinal de Tencin for prime-minister, some 
 one said : " At least we shall regain in him a reputation for 
 ability, if he cannot restore to us that of good faith. It is 
 recovermg something, at any rate ; we shall not be despised 
 in both directions." 
 
 But let us not impute everything to the monarch ; his 
 greatest defect is obstinacy ; and this defect is a great one. 
 Louis XV. is not lazy, as people think ; accustomed though 
 he is to lead a useless life, he lends himself to work, if he 
 does not give himself; he is too weak in public matters to 
 govern by his own head, but, with assistance, he will do as 
 well as others. He showed his docility under a minister by 
 his conduct under Cardinal de Fleury ; all that he lacked 
 then was an abler guide. But consider what the ministrv is 
 which the king to-day maintains and which is hurryiug us 
 onward to a universal upheaval of the State : — 
 
 M. de Maurepas, a dandy, frivolous, a man of common 
 ideas, to whom the cupidity of the government has given 
 a chance. To-day everything is made to rest on the pros- 
 perity of a commerce that is grasping and odious to our 
 neighbom-s, and on this basis they believe with the faith of 
 mart}TS that England can never be sufficiently crushed, nor 
 our league with Spain too close. M. de Maurepas is minister 
 of marine and commerce ; he inspires M. Araelot, minister of 
 foreign affairs ; the latter owes him his being and his support, 
 and, incapable of any views of his own, he has no soul but
 
 326 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 that of M. de Maurepas. These two little personages, com- 
 mon and mconsiderable, have dragged us towards Spain as 
 the only safety of this comitry; but this political maxim 
 being combated (without their perceiving it) by other inter- 
 ests, they are patching up and replastering with difficulty 
 our alliance with Spain. Nothing is done on principles. 
 
 The other ministers are afraid of the king 's sulks, and yet 
 they want to attract to themselves some favour and some 
 power. He of the war ministry [d'Argenson the younger] is 
 in this plight; he of the finance [Orry] is not listened to 
 except in his own domain. He fears the displacement with 
 which he has been threatened even during the time of the 
 late cardinal ; he is short of political views, is tainted from 
 the first with the false ideas of commerce that exist only in 
 Cadiz and the galleons. 
 
 Obstinacy prevailing over all things, the king brings mere 
 self-will where he ought to show prudence joined to firmness. 
 At every moment they are playing double or quits, and we 
 are on the eve of a revolution. The war is to be carried into 
 Flanders; that is precisely the strong field of the maritime 
 powers, where their forces can best overcome our weakness. 
 Without king, without ministers, almost without generals, 
 without troops, without officers, without courage, without dis- 
 cipline, without money, without men in the kingdom — such 
 is the situation into which the imbecility of the late cardinal 
 and the mischievous self-will of his pupil have placed us. 
 Add to that that we are without reputation for good faith, 
 ability, or force. 
 
 Seek another such pomt in history — where will you find 
 it ? And with what are we not threatened if our neighbours 
 know enough of our situation to profit by it ! The English do 
 know it. What did Lord Stairs say last year in his harangues 
 at The Hague ? They are keeping silence to-day, but their
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 327 
 
 undertakings are none the less dangerous ; we excite them by 
 the temptation of our fleets in Toulon and by the pretended 
 introduction of Prince Edward Stuart. 
 
 [April 23.] M. Amelot, minister of Foreign Affairs, was 
 dismissed last night; M. de Maurepas, his friend, was charged 
 with delivering the order. He is crushed with grief ; he col- 
 lected his more important papers and sent them to the king. 
 When M. de Maurepas announced his downfall to him, he 
 said, Hodie tihi, eras mihi. Cardinal de Tencin worked two 
 hours to-day with M. de Maurepas, which was regarded as 
 indicating his approaching appointment to the ministry of 
 Foreign Affairs ; but this evening it is certain that it will not 
 be either he or M. de Chavigny, 
 
 The king is about to go to the army in Flanders. Here is 
 what my brother [minister of war] tells me : The king said 
 to him yesterday that there would be more business during 
 the campaign than he expected ; and this morning his ]\Iaj- 
 esty explained what it was, namely : that he should himself 
 sign the despatches on foreign affairs. My brother said to 
 him, "But shall I not write them?" The king answered 
 that he himself would compose them. He takes du Theil to 
 the army ; and this head-clerk of the foreign office will prob- 
 ably draw up the despatches. 
 
 The king begins to-morrow to give audiences to the am- 
 bassadors, to hear them and reply to them, which will make 
 a great stir. 
 
 I said to my brother, " But are you going to this cam]iaign 
 to play the part of prime-minister ? " He answered : " You 
 may believe that all this means the destruction of the min- 
 istry ; it is the little cabinets, the Noailles, M. de Richelieu, 
 and the mistress who want to destroy us that they may 
 reign; you see how they treat us." 
 
 M. de Maurepas is sent to inspect the sea-ports while the
 
 328 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 king is at the war, which gives him an air of dismissal ; and 
 they say that Cardinal de Tencin is to go to his archbishopric 
 of Lyon during the same period. 
 
 [May 3.] The minister of war started yesterday at six 
 o'clock in the morning for Flanders ; the king was to start 
 to-day, but we have heard no cannon, therefore he has not 
 passed through Paris ; the roads have been mended dhect 
 from La Muette to Bourget. Every one goes to the army : 
 the giand-master, the chamberlain, the kitchen department 
 and provisions ; there is only the mistress to follow. 
 
 [May 5.] The king supped at Peronne with the minister 
 of war, and slept at Valenciennes. The Duchesse de Chateau- 
 roux and her sister slept at Plaisance, Duverney's house ; 
 from there they go to S^chelles, and thence to Lille, where 
 M. de Boufflers is arranging houses for them at government 
 cost ; so that the king can go to his suppers at Lille as he does 
 at Versailles. This gives him the air of a subjugated man 
 rather than one of eager passions. 
 
 [May 14.] I have a copy of a letter written by the king to 
 the dauphin m reply to one in which the latter begged per- 
 mission to follow him to the army. His Majesty replies that 
 the safety of the dauphin is too precious until he is married ; 
 he promises that after that he will make no journey like the 
 present without him, although it is to be hoped that, in 
 future, wars may not be common in France; and he must 
 learn to love liis people, etc. 
 
 The Due de Pichelieu is more of a favourite than ever; 
 he is now regarded as the author of everything. It was he 
 who inspired the elevation of Mar^chal de Noailles, certain 
 that he could let him fall by withdrawmg his hand ; in this 
 way he clears his own path towards becommg prime-minister. 
 It was he who wrung from the king the favours and gran- 
 deurs granted to Mme. de Chateauroux (of whom, they say,
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 329 
 
 Iiis Majesty is very weary) ; and it is he who has caused the 
 generalship to be given to the I'rkice de Conti. 
 
 [May 23.] The king has done me the honour to appoint 
 me his counsellor at the royal Council ; a place which gives 
 me a session and work with his Majesty in person once a 
 week. The condition, written by the king's own hand, is 
 that I shall quit the affairs of the Due d'Orl^ans. This con- 
 dition is in the letter to the chancellor, which I have read, 
 and it is even wiitten twice, as if from fear of its beiug for- 
 gotten; and a postscript to the letter to the controller- 
 general adds that one cannot serve two masters. I am 
 therefore obliged to leave the household of the Due d'Oii^ans, 
 imder the most honourable and fortunate circumstances. 
 
 [June 30.] The king has begun to show himself a king 
 at the head of his armies ; and it must be allowed that this 
 is done in good taste. Since the death of the cardinal he 
 has still seemed in leading-strings; he has awaited, as I 
 foretold, a glorious moment ; he now seems attentive, brave, 
 talks to his troops, is prudent, punctual, hard-working, and, 
 above all, discreet. No one knows as yet what that discre- 
 tion covers. As for me, I think there will be a change of 
 ministry for the better all arranged for his return. It is 
 thought a blemish on his fame to have brought his mistress 
 to the army, thus degrading the princesses and the other great 
 ladies who accompany him. Let us agree that this can be 
 judged only by prejudice ; and what a foolish prejudice it is to 
 oppose pleasures that do no wrong to any one. The Flemish 
 are superstitious ; they have been told that three sisters have 
 been the king's mistresses, and they are scandalized at the 
 arrival of this one at Lille. Two hours after his arrival 
 the barracks took fire, and they declare it was the effect of 
 divine wrath. 
 
 [July 31.] The Due de Kichelieu came to see me a 
 
 Ver. 2—22 Mem.
 
 330 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. iz. 
 
 moment as he passed through. Paris on his way to join the 
 king, who is seriously ill at Metz. How well I knew the 
 woes of my country in listening to the talk on which I 
 started him touching the course we ought to follow to obtain 
 peace ! It is with such talk that the king is rocked continu- 
 ally. Let us remember that he is always surrounded by 
 courtiers whose whole fortime turns on this war. The 
 Mar^chal de iSToailles, a man of intelligence, but seldom 
 accurate, of moderate worth, who piques himself on under- 
 standing the interior affairs of the kingdom better than 
 any one, is the only man, perhaps, who sometimes preaches 
 peace ; but his mind is sophistical ; and he proposes bad 
 means to it ; he wants an alliance with Spain, and that 's 
 enough. Thus, all the army, all the people on promotion, 
 the favourites, the minister of war, they all preach this 
 smoke of glory ; no one preaches the need of peace, which 
 is great; they would not allow the controller-general to 
 meet the king anywhere on the march, for he knows the 
 evils within the kingdom, and he might give the king an 
 account of them. The only sight that the king is allowed 
 to see is that of abundance, plaudits, and joy. 
 
 The duchess-mistress has fallen ill at Eeims ; it was 
 thought to be an eruption ; but it prolonged the sojourn at 
 Eeims, so that there was none at Chalons. The king, during 
 Mme. de Chateauroux's illness, talked of nothing else but 
 how and where she should be buried, and what her tomb 
 should be. 
 
 [August 5.] Were I to-day a favourite of the king, his 
 prime-minister, or in charge of the finances and the most 
 highly trusted of the ministers, such as Maximilien de Sully 
 was to Henri IV., I would persuade his Majesty to think 
 solely, for the next ten years, of paying his debts and ameli- 
 orating the condition of his kingdom ; for, by so doing, at tlie
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON 331 
 
 end of ten years he would be the greatest king on earth. T 
 should add the advice to live in Paris, in which there would 
 be economy. He could inhabit the Louvi'e and Tuileries, such 
 as they are, driving out the sellers in the temple, — jieople 
 who have nothing to do there, but to whom lodgings have 
 been given, — on paying a few indemnities. 
 
 [October, 1744.] The place of secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs is not yet given; this interruption of that 
 ministry still continues. They said it was the high favour 
 of Mar^chal de Noailles that caused it to be kept for him ; 
 my brother tells me it means the fall of the present minis- 
 try, which the favomites and seigneurs are resolved to destroy. 
 But it is to be observed that the influence of the Noailles 
 has fallen, yet the same arrangement continues. There must, 
 therefore, be some other cause ; what can it be, if not that 
 it concerns Chauvelin, and that his Majesty is following his 
 former plan by very dissimidating and impenetrable ways. 
 
 [November 7.] The news is spread that the king has 
 appointed as minister of Foreign Affairs M. de Villeneuve, 
 counsellor of State and formerly ambassador to the Ottoman 
 Porte. He is not here, he is at Marseille, his native place ; 
 they say that he is much vexed at the appointment and 
 will refuse it. The king has declared that he wishes to fill 
 this office by men who have been on embassies, and all the 
 other ministries by those who have passed certain degrees 
 in them; for instance, for the ministry of the navy, it is 
 desirable to have been intendants of the navy, and for a 
 cure in a city, to have studied five years in a famous uni- 
 versity. M. de Villeneuve is seventy-one years old, ugly as 
 sin, four feet tall, but lively, with a Provengal accent. He 
 gained 80,000 francs in rentes during his Turkish ministry. 
 He is a clever man, — very great if he proves as good a 
 negotiator as he is a merchant.
 
 332 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 [November 14.] The king returned to Paris to-day 
 where his Majesty is to remain four days. There were few 
 cries of " Vive le roi ! " the rumour that he has taken back 
 the Chateam'oux does harm. Certainly the appearance of 
 the Tuileries seemed to me very line ; it was a striking 
 spectacle, this assemblage of all the grandees, and above all, 
 the great ladies of the Court in the galleries of the Tuileries 
 to see their king return a conqueror from his first campaign. 
 The illuminations of the good city were disturbed by a high 
 wind, which put them all out at the end of an hour. 
 
 [November 15.] M. de Villeneuve has done this morning 
 a most unheard-of action, never yet seen, and never to be 
 seen again. He has begged the king to excuse him, alleging 
 a quantity of reasons why he should not accept the office of 
 secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The king said to 
 him, " Monsieur, your reasons are only too good, — age, 
 health, and other an-angements." 
 
 [November 17.] The king was much diverted to-day to 
 see the Jesuit fathers' gowns very wet as they received him 
 on their portico in the pouring rain, when his Majesty went 
 to their " Salut " service, and stood himself a long time in 
 the rain. 
 
 It is certain that the kmg has taken back Mme. de 
 Chateam'oux ; that such has been the object of his stay in. 
 Paris ; that were it not for an inflammatory cold the beauti- 
 ful duchess would have appeared as usual at the queen's 
 circle ; and that the two exiles have been sacrificed to her, 
 without which she refused to see the king again. Love is 
 a furious master who knocks down all obstacles.^ 
 
 ^ During an alarming illness of the king at Metz, the priests exacted, 
 before giving him the sacraments, that Mme. de Chateauroux should be 
 dismissed. The king ordered the Due de Richelieu to remove her ; but on 
 his return he recalled her. At the moment of receiving this summons she 
 was taken ill and died in Paris, December 8, 1744. — Tr.
 
 1742-1744] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 333 
 
 [November 18.] My brother told rae this morning that 
 the king talked to him a long time yesterday respecting 
 men who might be capable of tilling the office of minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, vacant since M. de Villeneuve declined it. 
 His Majesty went over the whole list of the Council who 
 might be available; it was principally a question of M. le 
 Nain, intendant of Lauguedoc, and the last who was named 
 was I ; on which the king said a good deal about me ; and 
 my brother said in reply all that could make this choice of 
 me acceptable ; on which his Majesty kept perfect silence as 
 to his wishes and that of others. The following is what my 
 brother afterwards told me on the views held about the peace 
 in case I was appointed : that he himself desired it strongly, 
 but saw the innumerable and increasing difficulties ; that the 
 king desired it also, but it would not be done by the Coun- 
 cil ; that it would be for me to judge what I should carry 
 about it to the Council, and what I should reserve ; that the 
 Council, though not corrupted, was full of very extraordinary 
 opinions on the elevation of the House of Bavaria ; that 
 some of the members were too devoted to Spain and pushed 
 too far their fears of the Cadiz commerce ; that peace would 
 never be made by the council, but by the king alone ; that 
 the ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded the greatest 
 secrecy, the greatest mystery, which must be pushed to a 
 greater degree than could be believed, partly to suit the 
 king's taste, partly for the good of the thing itself ; that as 
 for the composition of the bureaux, there was one man of 
 whom it would be necessary to make gi-eat use, namely, 
 the Abbd de la Ville, whom I had already thought of myself. 
 He added that the Mar^chal de Noailles was only a fool 
 who changed his ideas at every moment; that the Mar6chal 
 de Belleisle was too Bavarian and Prussian ; that Cardinal de 
 Tencin was a priest of mediocre abilities and a great ma-
 
 334 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. ix. 
 
 noeuvrer; that the King of Prussia sincerely desired peace, 
 but only such as should leave him master in the empire; 
 that he was guided by great political convictions ; that the 
 present state of things woidd be followed by a Protestant 
 league, at the head of which he would put himself. 
 
 [November 18, 1744] The king has appointed me this 
 evening Secretary of State for Foreign Affans. 
 
 [Here the Journal stops abruptly,, and is not resumed 
 until February, 1747, the period at which the Marquis d'Ar- 
 genson's ministry ended and he retired to private life. This 
 void in his Journal he filled by what he called " Memoirs 
 of my Ministry, beginning at the End of 1744 and finishing 
 at the Beginning of 1747." These papers, which are pre- 
 served in manuscript in the Library of the Louvre, were to 
 have been incorporated in a work of four volumes with the 
 above title.^ Though written by the Marquis d'Argenson 
 they are ostensibly addressed to him by one of his secre- 
 taries, M. C , a fictitious personage ; this was doubtless 
 
 done to enable him to speak of himself and his ministry 
 with greater freedom than he could use if writing in the first 
 person. The preliminary sketch of the Court and its princi- 
 pal personages was written under his own name. 
 
 A selection from these papers is given in the next and 
 concluding chapter of this volume.] 
 
 1 See Appendix.
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 335 
 
 X. 
 
 1744—1747- 
 
 Memoirs of the Ministry. 
 
 Characters of the principal personages. 
 
 The events that I am about to relate will be better uuder- 
 stood if the personages whose influence bore upon them are 
 better known. Let us speak first of the stage on which they 
 played their parts. 
 
 [The Court.] The best king is he who has most people 
 and least Court. We can judge of this from Louis XIV., to 
 whom flattery gave the name of Great : he was great through 
 his pride, but not from any benefits he did the nation ; he 
 founded, so to speak, the Court by building for it a private 
 capital [Versailles] ; he wished to make it numerous, mag- 
 nificent, and mistress of the government. The expense and 
 the disorders thus entailed become unbearable in the long 
 run ; and the misfortune is that under kings who are simple 
 and kind such abuses will increase as a matter of honour, 
 while under haughty and supercilious kings they will in- 
 crease through the effervescence of their passions. No one 
 remarked to Louis XIV. that in this he imitated Darius, and 
 neglected the example of Alexander and all the other great 
 princes celebrated in history; for in proportion to the aug- 
 mentation of the Court our two kings, who appear to be 
 adored there, have seen prosperity become extinct in the
 
 336 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 provinces, morals become corrupt, luxury impoverish the 
 nation, our armies less well commanded, the laws less well 
 administered, and the finances embarrassed. 
 
 Henri IV. did truly deserve the title of Great ; not only 
 for his bravery, but for his goodness [hojite'\ ; he knew how 
 to choose and to sustain a great minister for the details 
 of the interior; his prudence and his experience presided 
 over everything. He resided in Paris in the midst of 
 his people ; no one had inspired him to hate the Parisians, 
 and distrust the submission of his subjects. As he was with- 
 out fear he ivcnt about without escort ; he kept a guard for 
 show only, not for protection, and the necessary number 
 of servants. The courtiers lived in their own houses ; they 
 Were not involved in ruinous expenses in order to be at 
 Court ; consequently, favours were not due to them, as they 
 are to-day. The princes and princesses of the Court found 
 enough society among the nobility of the city. Henri IV. 
 went to his country-houses without a Court and without 
 ministers ; the capital of the kingdom was not changed 
 week by week as it is to-day, when the seat of public busi- 
 ness moves about with the monarch ; no one talked then 
 of the suffrage of the cabals and cabinets in great affahs, 
 • — all was managed from one centre ; economy was great 
 because of good order and good sense ; the royal dignity was 
 admired and respected for itself, and not for the false 
 varnish of a vain prodigality. 
 
 The present numerous and magnificent Court (the bait 
 of fools and wicked persons) will never make the splendour 
 of royalty ; there is always enough stateliness in decency ; 
 the gi-eat officers and the rich inhabitants of the city should 
 share it; the capital attracts foreigners, the Court repulses 
 them by its disdainfulness. The Court and city united 
 would always have enough splendour for a monarchy ;
 
 1744-1 747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 337 
 
 republics lack this, but they present better lessons to the 
 inquiring traveller. 
 
 Let us convince ourselves, therefore, that the greatest vice 
 of monarchical governments is what is called the Court. To 
 begin with tlie monarch : it is thence that he draws his 
 vices, and thence that the vices of his subjects pour out 
 as if from the box of Pandora. It is there that kings per- 
 petually hear it said to them : " Abuse your autliority ; the 
 laws obey your will ; immolate all to your supreme gran- 
 deur; the people are born to toil and tears, they must be 
 governed by a rod of iron ; if not oppressed they will op- 
 press you." Flattery is there disguised as wisdom and as 
 love ; poisons are there refined, and virtue is there despised ; 
 there, too, the piety of princes becomes a scourge ; it destroys 
 religion and morals because it inspires only hypocrisy and 
 persecution. 
 
 And so there is not a man of honour at Court : if any 
 one begins a reputation for integrity he soon degrades it ; 
 esteem, and he who desires to be the object of it, are infected 
 by the morals of a Court. The two idols there are fortune 
 and fashion ; how can we expect that their worship should 
 not manifest the vices and caprices that are adapted to 
 them ? (Virtue, even without rigidity, admits nothing that 
 is contrary to it; all infraction is vice.) Thus, customs 
 have prevailed over principles, and judgment disapproves 
 in the depths of the conscience what habit and fear have 
 made us tolerate in the great. 
 
 Whatever there is of emulation in serious affairs goes 
 no farther than to works of outward shoiv ; it is useless, 
 and even injurious to he ; to appear is the necessary thing, 
 though it would often cost less effort to be of actual value 
 than to make one's self seem of value. The first of talents 
 is cleverness; the last, and most dangerous is to be a great
 
 338 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 man. In republics great merit attracts jealousy ; in Courts 
 it excites wrath ; it is not reputation that is wanted, it 
 is the good offices of others; one must know how to 
 advance a person, how to give one's self an appearance of 
 being useful to others and able to sustain one's self. All 
 is subjected to the commerce and calculations of private 
 interests ; and the more refined and intelligent our courtiers 
 become, the more horrible and fraudulent is this commerce 
 of protection. 
 
 Damon was born \drtuous, his ancestors had served the 
 State well in times when men were admitted to serve 
 it with freedom and virtue ; he opened his eyes, he made 
 reflections; it will be thought they were on the means 
 to do better still ; no, they were solely to imagine palliatives 
 against rules of morality and the inconveniences of in- 
 tegrity ; he conformed himself to his century, and the 
 more he found himself advanced at Court, the more dis- 
 coveries he made in this career of relaxations, the more 
 his sophistries hid from him his corruption beneath the 
 appearances of fashionable honour. 
 
 Devout piety at Court is only a gloomy cabal, miserly 
 and inimical to pleasure; its censure blackens all that 
 does not belong to its sect, — its final object seeming to be 
 to make the king a Jesuit or at least a Capucin, and 
 to repeat often the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. The 
 little virtue that one still sees at Court can sustain itself 
 only by stupidity ; those who still profess it are laughed 
 at, but endured ; they are the fools of the Court. Some- 
 times they get a little credit by a few evil deeds that escape 
 them, and then they are rated as men, like the rest. 
 
 The path of ruin at Court is full of roses and praises ; but 
 open ruin is thought ridiculous ; not even pity is gi'anted 
 to those who once pleased so well, but have ended in this
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 339 
 
 way ; contempt terminates the admiration of magnificence. 
 The beauties of the Court have the same fate. Their 
 brilliancy brought them adorers, their frailty and tlieir 
 pliancy increase the worship paid to tliem; but discredit 
 follows close, and the loss of their cliarms would render 
 them the most odious of beings were it not for the hypoc- 
 risy of devotion by which they sustain themselves. 
 
 The " Misanthrope " of the comedy tells all this, from 
 which he concludes that men should leave the Court and 
 retire to a desert ; steadfast and courageous virtue ought to 
 conclude otherwise. Men who by their birtli and their 
 offices are inseparably bound to the Court, like the Due 
 d'Orl^ans, ought to live there more, in order to correct what 
 they can by their example and by the encouragements that 
 depend upon them ; if they did this their authority would be 
 further increased by the frequentation of men of virtue with- 
 out excess. At present there is a total lack of such havens 
 of reason. 
 
 The basis of the character of ministers is that of chief 
 courtiers ; the well-being of the reign depends on the will 
 the monarch may have to draw them out of this state, which 
 must be done by shrewd discernment and a firm will to 
 support them in their true fimctions. The ministers ought 
 to be the censors of the Court, the judges, but they are now 
 the trucklers to that multitude of courtiers and valets : how 
 can they be expected to judge and command equals who are 
 able to injure and ruin them ? Consequently, they court 
 them and depend upon them ; a minister who stands ill with 
 courtiers soon has ill-turns done him with the king ; nothing 
 but the public voice could defend him ; but no one at Court 
 ever speaks of or stipulates for the public. 
 
 Henri III. took his ministers from among his minions. 
 Henri IV. found by chance in ]\I. de Sully a minister who
 
 340 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 became the enemy of courtiers as soon as he was in office ; 
 the king often thwarted him, but he always sustained him. 
 Louis XIII. was subjugated by Cardinal de Eiclielieu (whom 
 he killed with worry over his petty bickerings). Louis XIV. 
 gave much dignity and money to his ministers, and obtained 
 in return great furtherance of his designs. Louis XV. let 
 Cardinal de Fleury reign for seventeen years ; this minister, 
 in spite of his great power, always feared the Court, always 
 remembered his first estate of priestling and humble courtier ; 
 since his death the Court of France has resembled in its 
 intrigues the harem of Constantinople. 
 
 The vices of courtiers go farther in a minister, for he has 
 in power what the courtiers have only in influence ; disabili- 
 ties and injustices are the current coin of his intrigue ; from 
 judge he comes down to be attorney and solicitor ; his flattery 
 is more dangerous for the king; he desires the monarch's 
 weakness, and makes it his hope and his reliance. Will it 
 be believed that there is nothing exaggerated in this picture l 
 
 It is a harsh word, that of tyranny ; it is a blasphemy on 
 the lips of a subject ; the harslmess of it can be saved only 
 by separating it wholly from the person of a kind prince, 
 beloved, but facile through kindness. Tyranny might be 
 excused under Titus, and under Louis XIL, if they had 
 despoiled themselves of their power to the point of having 
 personally no more than the Doge of Venice, — by whose 
 mere name all is done in that government. The counteraction 
 of the kind nature of such a prince by the treachery of his 
 ministers spreads a certain politeness over their injustice ; it 
 becomes a specious tyranny, a sly and malignant afifabUity 
 which softens harshness and quits iniquity for a moment 
 only to resume it, reserving to itself stigmas and vengeance ; 
 it is an uncertain power which well knows its moments of 
 impunity ; it exercises its cruelties without violence ; it spares
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 341 
 
 bodies and rends hearts. Men are no longer beheaded as 
 under Cardinal de Eichelieu, and only factious and turbulent 
 hotheads are exiled now; but men are dishonoured on the 
 slightest chance ; all respect is cut off from those whose 
 influence is gone ; all the evil that enemies choose to say of 
 them is whispered in the ear of their friends : " Do not fre- 
 quent that man, iion eris amicus Cccsaris" and lo ! he is a 
 man with the plague in the midst of that society of slaves. 
 
 As for governing the people, ministers stop revolts in their 
 very beginning ; they apply themselves to make the cause of 
 such murmurings forgotten for a few months ; then, when 
 they are renewed the habit of discussing them has made 
 minds docile. The ministers triumph over Frenchmen by 
 calmness and obstinacy ; they disarm the foreign enemy by 
 deceptive benefits — for all our treaties of peace during the 
 last hundred years have been more the seeds of war than war 
 has ever been the preparer of peace. The tradition of a 
 ministry is reduced to making all artifices accepted as politi- 
 cal maxims. In truth, we shall not see riots or general 
 revolutions in France ; this is for the kingdom a slow fever, 
 not violent ; we shall see the nation crumbling at its founda- 
 tions, and falling, so to speak, in pieces. 
 
 [The King.] Louis XV. has had in his favour all the 
 miracles of Providence. Chosen above his elders to reign, 
 his life preserved, his health strengthened, escaping many 
 dangers in his childhood and youth, — all these things 
 mark in him the finger of God, as he is the Lord's Anointed. 
 The devout say that in these wonders there is enough to 
 convert the most hardened sinner; wise men think him 
 more bound than others to love God and his people. 
 
 It is the goodness [bo7ite] of princes that makes them great ; 
 from that comes justice ; otherwise it is violence that com-
 
 342 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, x 
 
 mands by making itself feared ; its reign is passing, it has 
 but that moment of use and of illusion. But, if we examine 
 carefully in what way royalty has prevailed in the world, we 
 shall find that the founders of monarchies have won con- 
 fidence by meriting esteem and by benefits ; that their suc- 
 cessors have lived, so to speak, on the reputation of their 
 authors ; that power is shaken by tyranny and is re-established 
 by happy reigns. 
 
 Princes are badly brought-up ; everything flatters them, 
 nothing corrects them ; above all, they learn to ignore and 
 to mistake the essential thing, namely, knowledge of men. 
 If they had that discernment, they would choose, even though 
 their natures were bad, good men to second them, because 
 their interests demand it ; if they are good they will choose 
 honest men like themselves; then let them follow their 
 bent and all will go well. But here comes in an unfortu- 
 nate affectation to trouble this chain of consequences. They 
 have no brilliancy of mind, but they wish to have about 
 them heaux esjorits and men of fashion ; they believe and 
 they discern on the word of others ; in this way confidence 
 is given to malicious and perverse persons ; virtue is rejected 
 on the slightest imputation of ridicule. 
 
 Louis XV. would have wished for peace, tranquillity, and 
 even for the glory of his reign ; but men are deceived on that 
 very point of glory as soon as they are on a throne, or in 
 possession of great riches. The intoxication of grandeur 
 and the snares of flatterers present the essence of honour, 
 its means and its obstacles, as quite other than they are; 
 nevertheless, nature prevails. Morpheus awakened goes to 
 sleep again, the false conqueror desists, impetuous action 
 ill-sustained is worse than indolence. If we apply these 
 principles to the reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. we 
 shall find the imprudence of kings and the unhappiness of
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 343 
 
 peoples ; we shall couelude that the second has had more 
 mind, more goodness, but less energy than the first. 
 
 In the art of reigning we ought to distinguish the points 
 that go well of themselves — and even better if let alone or 
 with the simplest inspection rather than anxious cares — 
 from those which demand watchfulness and activity. Alas ! 
 our present government holds in continual contempt these 
 two classes of management; they curb and reprimand 
 liberty, and they reform no abuses. A king asleep on the 
 throne would at least be serviceable for letting alone those 
 things that go well of themselves ; in such things this 
 nation has great advantages, — situation, climate, the hon- 
 our and the intelligence of our inhabitants. Society, like 
 Nature, sows and restores for itself ; we have not, like the 
 Eoman empire, an inimdation of barbarism to fear from 
 without ; religion, in order to flourish, only asks from govern- 
 ment to stop fanaticism and persecution by repressing the 
 intrigues of hypocrites. 
 
 All these things will accomplish themselves if nothing is 
 done injudiciously. G-reat enterprises are impossible or 
 harmful to such a reign ; let it never hearken to the insinu- 
 ations or the restless desires of intrigue ; let it turn away the , 
 projects of so-called great ministers (like Alberoni) zealous 
 for the grandeur of sovereign houses and so devoid of care 
 for the happiness of the people ; let it prune out and abro- 
 gate useless laws; and with these negative qualities, doing 
 no harm, it will do an immensity of good. 
 
 But, when the vessel leaks, much activity, much labour is 
 needed, or it founders. Such is the case in dangerous foreign 
 alliances, when views are contrary to our interests and an 
 enemy's counsel has seduced our own. Such was the case 
 with Louis XIII. when Cardmal de Richelieu took the helm 
 of affairs ; such is the case when evils are rife throughout the
 
 344 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, x 
 
 land, when one party weakens the other, when Court and 
 cabinet exhaust the provinces, and when the rich alone are 
 heard, to the prejudice of other citizens. 
 
 Then the king ought to awake and not to yield again to 
 repose until the evil is exthpated to its roots. He ought to 
 change his ministers and Council ; there is all danger m de- 
 lay ; he ought to load with confidence those who deserve it, 
 and dismiss those whom he distrusts; he ought to unite 
 second causes. The views of ministers decide the govern- 
 ment in monarchies. We spoke above of the famous Due de 
 Sully; without him the great Henri might perhaps have 
 been confounded in the crowd of kings, and France, unhappy 
 at the time of his accession, might have become still weaker. 
 Enough said ; let us apply it, and we shall have shown the 
 character of Louis XV. with as much fidelity as respect.^ 
 
 The personal work of the king ought not to be estimated 
 by the hours he gives to it, nor by his assistance at the coun- 
 cils, but by the interest he takes in it. It is not by slight 
 desires or momentary devotion that the affairs of a great 
 office can be conducted, but by a constant will always bent 
 to that object. Eecreation, relaxation, may be allowed, fal- 
 terings, feebleness may interrupt the work, but these must 
 ever hold rank as exceptions ; the serious purpose must be the 
 rule and the practice. 
 
 Oh ! how well that word " feebleness " [faihlesse] expresses 
 the passions of certain men endowed with kindness and pli- 
 ancy; they sin only in lacking strength to resist; they see 
 and approve the better, and follow the worse ; their manhood 
 is merely a prolonged childhood ; they often take the shadow 
 
 1 In some places d'Argeiison's style is obscure ; wliere this is the case 
 the translation is made as literal as possible, so that the reader may judjje 
 of the meaning for himself. It must be remembered that these papers are 
 notes and memoranda jotted down as the reflections occurred, and were 
 never prepared by the writer for publication. — Tr.
 
 1744-1747] THE MAEQUIS D'ARGENSON. 345 
 
 of pleasure for pleasm-e itself ; juvenility, childish play, van- 
 ity without pride, acts of tirmuess which are nought but 
 obstinacy and unruliness — they think without reflecting ; 
 they deduce consequences without applying them or act- 
 ing in view of them; they have opinions without will or 
 desires; a deceitful calm makes them forget all foreseen 
 dangers. 
 
 With this sad nature a prince believes that he governs 
 well when he does not govern at all; everything deceives 
 him, and he is the first of his own seducers ; he has favour- 
 ites without predilection for them, and ministers without 
 confidence in them. 
 
 Louis XV. is cherished by his people without his ever, as 
 yet, having done them any good ; Louis XIII. was even more 
 so, after causing many woes to France by his ill-conducted 
 and unfortunate wars. Let us consider from this that our 
 Frenchmen are the people of all others most given to love 
 their kings ; they penetrate their character ; they take their 
 intenticms for actions ; certainly, it is by some extreme 
 fatality that they are not the richest and most fortunate 
 people on earth ; we must attribute the chief cause of this to 
 those remains of aristocracy which still rule the Court, and 
 to the pretensions of a rfiilitary government. 
 
 The first of expedients to save a government infected with 
 abuses would be to appoint a prime-minister, and lay upon 
 the legal tribunals the enforcement and odium of the laws. 
 Thus did the Eomans when they gave themselves a dictator 
 and created commissioners from the senate under the names 
 of triumvirs, dece'invirs, etc. ; thus they did in Venice with 
 the " Council of Ten." But the very reasons which demand 
 this here hold within them precisely that which will defeat 
 it, namely the self-love (ill-understood) of the king, the au- 
 thority of favom-ites, and the false interests of the ministers. 
 
 Ver. 2 — 23 Mem.
 
 346 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 Do you want the details of this character ? You will find 
 them in all Frenchmen, as is well known to foreigners ; con- 
 trasts in all things, effects of an imagination too volatile and 
 too much mistress of the judgment; talents wasted; good 
 taste that cannot be fixed ; punctuality in little things, in- 
 constancy and lack of plan in gi^eat ones ; the gift for draw- 
 ing and a taste for architecture in small conveniences, 
 nothing granted to grand designs; a spirit of toying impru- 
 dently in public affairs; the habit of saying witty things 
 and silly ones ; memory without recollection ; patience and 
 anger; promptitude and kindness; habit and inconstancy; 
 mystery and indiscretion ; eagerness for new pleasures, dis- 
 gust and ennui ; sensibility of the moment, general and abso- 
 lute apathy succeeding it ; despair at the loss of a mistress, 
 infidelity which outraged her ; favourites without friends, es- 
 teem without confidence ; a kind master without humanity. 
 
 [The Queen}'} The Marquise de Prie, mistress of M. le 
 Due de Bourbon raised the queen to the throne, where she 
 gives nothing but good examples. Mme. de Prie made an 
 excellent choice according to her views: fecundity, piety, 
 gentleness, humanity, and, above all, a great incapacity for 
 public affairs. It was stiQ fiu-ther needful to this Court pol- 
 icy that the queen should be a woman without attractions 
 and without coquetry, who should retain her husband 
 through duty only and the necessity of giving heirs to the 
 throne. 
 
 The queen is ignorant of the art of attaching her people to 
 her ; she is neither loved nor hated ; she attracts by some 
 attentions, but she repels by making her regard too common. 
 Mind is wanting to the heart ; she puts nothing of herself 
 
 1 Marie Leczinska, daughter of Stanislas, King of Poland ; born 1703; 
 married to Louis XV. in 1725, when he was 15 years old, and she 22.
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 347 
 
 into what she says or what she pretends to feel ; she scarcely 
 has any countenance, so to speak, of her own ; she is often 
 mistaken in laughter or tears, she laughs at fatal events and 
 is grieved by comic ones ; she is charitable from bigotry, 
 and devout with a foreign superstition that is more ridicu- 
 lous than edifying in the eyes of Frenchmen. She is 
 not without intelligence; but Nature has refused her all 
 genius and the spirit of system. 
 
 Her rank is a rallying banner, and since the king has 
 taken declared mistresses, those who cry scandal attach 
 themselves to her to displease the king and the favourite. 
 Their mutterings are proportioned to the royal patience ; the 
 king is wise and kind ; he endures their talk, provided it 
 does not go so far as insolence ; but he deceives himself as 
 to the intrigue and the hypocrisy, he does not perceive all 
 the dangers and evil consequences. From his youth he has 
 been made to endure them ; he may even think he finds 
 political counterpoise and ideas in them, also some support 
 to religion. It is true, however, that these Court cabals 
 would embarrass him if they had at their head stronger souls 
 and minds more dissimulating and enterprising. 
 
 Thus the queen, without wishing it, has a party ; the 
 dauphin and Mesdames [her daughters] have the confidence 
 of ill-trained children in her ; and, as Nature is malignant in 
 women and children, they talk more ill than well of the 
 king when together ; they groan about his amours, and they 
 maltreat his mistress. Priests, monks, and devout persons 
 are united with them ; the queen's jealousy, and the bidl 
 Unigenitus are the two features of this cabal. A few minis- 
 ters enter it with guilty views ; they are always supposing 
 the greatest misfortune of a State, namely, the death of the 
 king ; but his Majesty makes no objection. These ministers, 
 on leaving the Council, go to the queen and tell her the
 
 348 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 secrets of State; they make themselves useful at times in 
 smoothing the domestic quarrels. 
 
 King Stanislas comes every year to see his daughter ; he 
 gives her hardly any advice, thinking her on the right path 
 and as circumspect as she is docile. He is not a man of 
 intrigue, that good prince ; he is ignorant of a Court, knows 
 the means of good government, is skilful in morals as a 
 Chinese, an excellent statesman, a true patriot-king, know- 
 ing how to make himself served, and ordering none but 
 useful undertakings in his little sovereignty of Lorraine. 
 
 [The Dauphin}'] No one can tell the cause that makes 
 the minds of Parisians brilliant in their childhood only 
 to render them secretive and stupid in their youth; later, 
 passions speak, and waken them only to make them liber- 
 tines; they do not acquire maturity until they attain old 
 age. 
 
 Princes, far from being exempt from this rule, are more 
 subject to it than others ; I believe that this comes from the 
 species of education given to them; the most expensive 
 masters are the worst in France; the governors and tutors 
 in great families are chosen by intrigue and on false reputa- 
 tions ; they all have aims to advance, whether by the protec- 
 tion of the royal parents or by the ascendency they gain 
 over the minds of their pupils; French impatience presses 
 forward these aims and renders their means coarse and per- 
 nicious. Such masters boast much of the little they have 
 done ; they exaggerate some prettiness they have put into 
 the child. This education is mere humbug ; precepts have 
 less influence than example ; we need virtuous and intellect- 
 ual men as teachers and comrades, conversations intelli- 
 
 1 Louis de France, born 1729, died 1763 married (1) the Infanta Maria 
 Theresa of Spain, (2) the Princesse Marie-Josephe de Saxe, the mother of 
 Louis XVI., Louis XVIII., Charles X., and Madame i:iisabeth. — Tr.
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 349 
 
 gent, amusing, and profitable; insinuating all, commanding 
 nothing, permitting gaily, remonstrating with interest and 
 friendship ; rigidity as to honour and affairs of the heart ; 
 tolerance on all that relates to the mind and to innocent 
 pleasures. 
 
 The education of gi-eat people has one admirable thing ; 
 it preserves baptismal purity and ignorance of all theory and 
 practice contrary to chastity until marriage; the youth is 
 kept in sight, his body profits and his mind awakes in other 
 ways than in dissipation ; but just as they have been passed 
 from women to men for their education, so they return to 
 women at their entrance into the world, and the more they 
 have been restrained, the more they escape and the more 
 they become dupes of the artfulness of coquettes. In 
 Catholic countries we give children a wholly clerical educa- 
 tion, we surround them with priests, who spare no pains in 
 convincing them of the interests of the Church rather than 
 of the love of God ; in this way princes are trained to be 
 superstitious, bigots, and persecutors. 
 
 But there was worse than this in the education of the 
 heir-presumptive to the throne. Cardinal de Fleury was 
 not a tyrant ; but his want of genius often inspired him 
 with the maxims of tyranny, which he followed, unconscious 
 that he did so. He believed himself immortal ; he was con- 
 vinced that the good of the State demanded the continuation 
 of his absolute power ; for this reason he took pains to place 
 about the dauphin none but men of no merit, in order that 
 by meddling in nothing they should give no umbrage to his 
 authority. He succeeded in his first object; he chose the 
 most foolish men in the kingdom for these important em- 
 ployments ; but, as for intrigues at Court, he found out that 
 it is the ordinary minds that cabal the most, and meddle 
 most with what does not concern them.
 
 350 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 It was under such masters that the dauphin at first 
 showed in his childhood much intelligence and curiosity 
 after knowledge ; at that time more advanced than others, he 
 has since become more backward than he should be at his 
 age. Yet those who see him closely insist that his mind 
 maintains itself. He is extremely stout, dislikes all motion 
 and all exercises, is without passions, without even tastes ; 
 everything stifles him, nothing animates him; if the mind 
 still sparkles with a few flashes it is a dying fire, which fat 
 and piety will soon extinguish ; he will presently have 
 passed the heyday of life without pleasures, and his youth 
 without love. Nature will scarcely have been known to 
 him ; how should he know how to discern men, their char- 
 acters, their craft (which is the great science of kings) ? 
 Loving nothing, men come in old age to hating every one 
 from sheer ill-humour, and so hating, they are hated them- 
 selves. They have learned to criticise before they have 
 acted, before they know whether they could do better than 
 those they criticise; they do not make for themselves a 
 character, which La Bruy^re says is the worst thing of all. 
 
 [The late Dauphine, Infanta Maria Theresa of Spam.] 
 We possessed this princess in France for eighteen months 
 only; her loss was great; she would have been very fruit- 
 ful, which is the first quality to desire in women of that 
 rank ; she would never have done harm in the kingdom, and 
 that is all we ask of them. As for usefulness, we release 
 them from that, — " the lilies spin not." Nevertheless our 
 queens are regents when the king their son is a minor; this 
 is a bad custom of our laws ; the regency of our queens has 
 always been unfortunate. The ascendency they obtain over 
 their husbands is one of the great troubles of a monarchy. 
 We have just seen an instance of it in Spain in the case
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 351 
 
 of Philip v., and there is another in Naples with Don 
 Carlos. 
 
 All influence of women is bad ; we have said above that 
 the less Court a king has, the better he governs ; the more 
 that Court becomes a harem, the worse it is. One dares not 
 advance the following opinion, out of respect for religion and 
 morals, namely : that the ascendency of legitimate wives over 
 devout husbands has caused gi-eater evils than the influence 
 of favourites. 
 
 This princess was grave and taciturn ; she had externally 
 that Spanish pride which so little suits the French tempera- 
 ment ; she was red-hahed, but concealed it carefully, even 
 from her husband (that colour is dishonouring in France). 
 To console the dauphin after her death, persons have never 
 ceased revealing to him, or inventing, her defects. She be- 
 haved towards him with the one intention of governing him, 
 — a difficult enterprise in France, where passions have no 
 constancy. She never left him, amusing him as best she 
 could without contradicting him ; she had a sinister counte- 
 nance, a delicate skin, and a well-distributed plumpness. She 
 left Spain with ample instructions from her mother to cap- 
 tivate her husband and be useful to Spanish interests. One 
 ought to say in her praise that all she retamed of these 
 lessons was the part that related to the dauphin ; she be- 
 came as good a Frenchwoman as if she had been born at 
 Versailles ; she knew all the horrors of her mother's char- 
 acter [Elisabeth Farnese, second wife of Philip V.] ; they 
 were beginning to hate her in the Council of Madrid, and 
 she would have been beloved in France had she lived longer. 
 After her death, the king found in her desk a secret cipher, 
 of which she had made little use. 
 
 [The second Bauphinc}] The second marriage of the 
 
 ^ Marie-Josephe, Princess of Saxony, married to tlie dauphin at Ver- 
 sailles, February 9, 1747. — Tr.
 
 352 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 Dauphin was urgent, and very important to decide: he 
 needed a healthy and prolific princess. Her personal quali- 
 ties were of more importance than the political conditions of 
 the alliance, and if the latter were found advantageous to 
 our designs, they were only in the second order of interest. I 
 can say that the king took this laudable view, and it was as 
 a father rather than as a king that he examined with me the 
 various maniages which were suitable for his son, after put- 
 ting aside that of Spain. I had several conversations with 
 his Majesty on this subject. . . . 
 
 To the Princess of Saxony fell the destiny of this great 
 marriage. No one was ever more in luck than the Princesse 
 Josfephe, now the dauphine ; for this fate would naturally 
 have fallen to her sister, who was three years her elder ; but 
 her star willed that on the very day of the Spanish dauphine's 
 death the sister's marriage to the Elector of Bavaria was 
 announced at the Dresden Court. What a difference in 
 destiny between the two sisters ! The youngest passed in 
 all ways before the eldest, whose marriage did not take place 
 till the month of May following; but she bore the great 
 spectacle of the happiness and gi-andeur of her younger 
 sister with an heroic courage of which women are seldom 
 capable. The Princesse Josfephe is tall and well-made; 
 they call her suspiciously blond (like the late dauphine) ; 
 her great gentleness comes, they say, from mediocrity of 
 mind. 
 
 As soon as my courier was despatched to Warsaw, where 
 the Saxon Court then was, to announce the agreeable news 
 of the king's choice, I had orders to work at the contract, 
 the ceremonial, and all preparatives, so that the marriage 
 might take place before Lent. I can say that few such 
 orders have ever been better or more promptly executed 
 in so little time. I will not enter here upon the details
 
 1744-1747] THE MAKQUIS D'ARGENSON. 353 
 
 of this illustrious affair. I obtained from the Court of 
 Dresden all I wanted ; there was not, I may say, a cadence 
 lost, nor an advantageous point in the ceremony omitted. 
 I conformed principally to that of the Dauphine of Bavaria 
 [wife of Monseigneur, Louis XIV.'s son]. I shut myself up 
 in the afternoons at Fontainebleau with two clerks, with 
 whom I made all the scrutinies and drew up all the neces- 
 sary orders for this work, which was immense, considering 
 how pressed for time we were. It is true that the king 
 never refused me extra hours when I went to ask him 
 for decisions, and his Majesty encouraged me by tlie ap- 
 probation he gave to my diligence and accuracy. 
 
 Moreover the affair was secret ; divine it who could, but 
 it was not acknowledged beforehand to any but those who 
 were absolutely necessary to it. The king said no word of 
 it to his Council; M. de Maurepas questioned his Majesty 
 a score of times to obtain an avowal of it ; finally it 
 was not told to him until it was necessary to engrave 
 the sHver plate for the dauphine and to give precise orders 
 for the departure of her household, which belongs to his 
 department. Everything passed through me alone until 
 the matter was accomplished, and without the slightest 
 mistake. Wlio would have thought then that the measures 
 of a Court cabal were so well taken that I should receive 
 my dismissal on the very day that the marriage took place 
 in Dresden ! Yet that is what actually happened. My 
 enemies thought that I had gained too much honour in 
 this affair ; that I had played the leading role, and that 
 of a prime-minister rather than that of simple secretary 
 of State. Courtiers envy above all the advantage of stand- 
 ing well with princesses, and through them with foreign 
 courts ; they are always founding plans for the future 
 on that ; they consider grandeur to come, through intrigue,
 
 354 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 greater than all reality that ministers may attain. My 
 friends advised me to attach myself to the dauphin; on 
 the contrary, I drew myself further away. I said that 
 God would preserve me from ever having to work with any 
 other prince than the king, who is fifteen years younger 
 than I and has good health. 
 
 I could foresee that the dauphin would like his new 
 wife better in the end than he did before he knew her; 
 for he went with a very ill grace to this marriage. During 
 the lifetime of his first wife, all his prejudices were in 
 favour of Spain ; the Queen of Spain governed him abso- 
 lutely in those days. "WTien I took the proxies for him 
 to sign I saw his ill-humour by his manner of doing so ; 
 it was a purely childish fit of temper, which soon passed 
 off. To-day (October, 1747) he loves the dauphine much ; 
 she does not govern him like the other ; she yields entirely 
 to his humour ; the king and Mesdames love her tenderly ; 
 she has conquered the ill-temper of the queen, who affected 
 for some time to hate in her the fortunate rival of her 
 father. They are awaiting with impatience the fruits of 
 the marriage. 
 
 The King of Poland knew well the obligations he was 
 under to me. My son went to Dresden with M. de Eiche- 
 lieu, and he met with all the attentions he could expect. 
 The Saxon Court was saddened by my dismissal ; they 
 had resolved to make me a considerable present. 1 had 
 procured for the Comte de Bruhl a magnificent Gobelins 
 tapestry, which I sent him in the name of the king. They 
 offered me the order of the Black Eagle ; I refused it, not 
 approving that ministers should wear any other orders than 
 those of their king. I received the gift of a Dresden service 
 which is worth more than twenty thousand crowns. It 
 was manufactured expressly for me that it might be the
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 355 
 
 more elegant and each piece perfect; consequently, it did 
 not reach me till three months after my dismissal. As 
 it had been given to me during the time when I was 
 still in othce I begged the king to accept it to be placed 
 in one of his coimtry-houses, and was not altogether refused. 
 When it arrived, I renewed the request ; my brother took 
 charge of presenting it, and brought me word from the 
 king that he desired me to keep the service. My son, 
 who was at the celebration of the marriage in Dresden, 
 also had a present of ten thousand livres in the shape 
 of a snuff-box set with diamonds. 
 
 \_The late Duchesse dc Chdteauroux — Marie-Anne de 
 Mailly-Nesle.'] This favourite was haughty, proud, with an 
 assumption of gi-eat dignity ; they declare that she had good 
 sense and even much judgment ; nevertheless, one would not 
 think so from her conduct. To explain this contradiction 
 we must look for the passions which ruled her and consider 
 the vicious causes which triumphed over duty and even over 
 nature. Beauty, birth, want of means in a sumptuous 
 Court, some objects of vengeance, friends and dependants 
 to advance, these were the passions which metamorphosed, 
 shamelessly, a well-born woman into a courtesan — that 
 term is due to all those who give themselves for gain ; 
 though they think there is glory in a prostitution that 
 will live in history. 
 
 Mme. de Chateauroux quitted a lover whom she loved, 
 to give herself to the king without love ; she did not even 
 take the trouble to feign it. He adored her very caprices ; 
 in that she recalled the memory of ^Ime. de Montespan 
 at the old Court. She was not devoted to the vile interest 
 of enriching herself, like the woman who succeeded her. 
 but her business man took care of that and worked our
 
 356 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, x, 
 
 finances finely. She herself had higher aims; the Due 
 de Eichelieu was her principal adviser. To govern, to reign, 
 to incite to the greatest injustice, to counsel fatal wars, this 
 is what filled the soul of this proud mistress of the king, 
 as usurpations fill the minds of conquerors ; and while 
 the laws punish far less crimes in plebeian courtesans and 
 robbers, those that destroy the human species are made 
 famous. 
 
 She exacted the dismissal of her sister (Mme. de Mailly) 
 as the first price of her favours ; yet she owed her the great- 
 est obligations. She followed the king to the army in the 
 campaign in Flanders of 1744, that she might not lose 
 the thread of her influence. This proceeding displeased the 
 nation. During the first attack of the great illness the king 
 had at Metz, which was expected to be fatal, she took pos- 
 session of him, but was publicly driven away by an express 
 order from the lips of the king himself when he got into the 
 hands of the priests. On his return to Versailles, the king 
 recalled her to Court, and her influence would have triumphed 
 more than ever, but that God willed otherwise ; in the act of 
 receiving that recall she was struck with the illness of which 
 she died. 
 
 This event happened a few weeks after my installation as 
 minister ; and I was witness of the extreme grief of the king. 
 
 [_The Marquise de Pompadour, Jeanne-Antoinette Foisso7i.'j 
 Shortly after Mme. de ChSteauroux's death a new connection 
 extinguished the king's affliction. At the wedding of the 
 dauphin, February 9, 1747, a young Parisian beauty ap- 
 peared, to whom the kmg flung the handkerchief like the 
 sultan to his odalisques, no sooner in love than gratified. 
 The pleasure of the senses was the sole attraction of this 
 love ; neither the heart nor the character were known, and
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 357 
 
 perhaps they are not yet known. Ephemeral loves among 
 the prettiest Parisian women were now resolved upon, pro- 
 vided no risks to health were run ; there was no longer any 
 pretence of escaping the empire of love; but practice such 
 as this is impossible to feeling hearts. 
 
 The king found in Mme. d'Etioles (soon after made Mar- 
 quise de Pompadour) a mistress well-prepared to govern 
 him; alluring his nature by the charm of gentleness, she 
 soon won all and obtained the most extreme authority that 
 can be procured by confidence, comfort, secrecy, and all the 
 manoeuvres that render courtesans by profession more com- 
 pletely mistresses of their lovers, without the help of intel- 
 ligence, than are women of capacity and worth. 
 
 Her mother, a noted prostitute of the Palais-Eoyal, had 
 brought her up to fill some considerable post of the same 
 kind. She married her to a farmer-general, M. d'Etioles, 
 but her ambition was not satisfied ; she lived to see her 
 daughter's triumph, and died soon after. 
 
 Mme. de Pompadour is therefore of the lowest extraction. 
 She is fair and white, without features, but gifted with graces 
 and talents. She is tall, but rather ill-made. All the Court 
 ballets roll to-day on the same subject as the pastoral of 
 Issd ; in them she represents a shepherdess beloved of 
 ApoUo, who loves him without knowing his divinity; she 
 bears away the prize of dance and song; she acts comedy; 
 she imitates and counterfeits whom and what she will, 
 passions, and even virtue if necessary; education has per- 
 fected nature to excel in the role she means to play; she 
 is the graceful instrument of sad designs. She has enor- 
 mously enriched herself, and is now the object of public 
 hatred. The king thinks he rules her ; she rules him, she 
 makes him see merit in those who have no reputation, nor 
 the appearance of any. It is an adroit, imperious friendship
 
 358 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 rather than a real passion which is to-day producing such 
 great effects on our government; were it a violent passion 
 there might be some hope of change, of the reproaches of 
 conscience, of the efficacy of the public outcry. 
 
 \_M. de Maurepas}'\ A French petit-maitre, brilliant, 
 witty, installed into the ministry when twenty-six years 
 old ; senior of the council at thirty-five, decided yet always 
 mistaken ; talking much, listening little ; treating trifles 
 seriously and great objects with levity — there is what con- 
 stitutes the essence of that man. 
 
 M. de Maurepas, gifted with quick perception and an 
 accurate memory, has acquired extensive knowledge, but 
 the bad taste of the Court has presided over his fickle 
 studies. He possesses much curious information, but he 
 has never given close attention to serious objects which he 
 ought to fathom. All goes off in utterance ; he listens badly, 
 and speaks before he thinks ; the exercise of his soul consists 
 wholly in that of the imagination and the memory; his wit 
 seems unwearying ; he is more brilliant at night than in the 
 morning; he feels no need of being wound up by food or 
 sleep ; it is movement that he wants ; repose is good only 
 for those who meditate. Hence no accuracy, no judgment, 
 no foresight in affairs, no plan; all is the system of the 
 moment; epigram, repartee, concetti, glitter, wiles, sarcasm, 
 satire, disdain, and contempt without examination. 
 
 Sometimes virtue attracts his praise, but such eulogies are 
 without enthusiasm ; these external approbations are only 
 part of the eloquence of the century; they are uttered in 
 spite of himself, as the devil praises the saints through the 
 mouth of the possessed of devils. 
 
 1 Jean-Frederic Phelypeaux, Comte de Maurepas ; horn 1701, died 1781. 
 He was made minister of the Marine in 1723, at tlig.ji^e of 22, not 26 as 
 stated above. Prime-minister in 1774 under Louis'A^IVy— Tr.
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 359 
 
 The heart is formed on the taste. That of M. de Maure- 
 pas became paralyzed very early, like those of other cour- 
 tiers ; he regarded his friends as toys and his neighbours as 
 sheep. Harshness soon succeeded, however, to indifference ; 
 he now claims that all shall be subject to his pretended 
 superiority of mind, which abases others without elevating 
 itself. He despises not only God, but divinity ; not only the 
 king, but royalty ; he is a free-thinker with levity, he denies 
 fate and providence, but he adores fashion and frivolity. At 
 a Court like ours such a personage must inevitably become 
 a lawgiver, and this has happened ; he gives the tone ; he 
 has formed a thousand ridiculous imitators ; this has given 
 influence to vice and suppressed virtue and good sense. 
 
 They attribute to him much intellect ; and this reputation 
 is a passport which secures admh-ation for his faults and 
 follies ; no ministry has ever been worse than Ms. He 
 laughs at the woes of the 'State; he sees and foresees no 
 remedies ; and he practises that which increases these woes 
 all he can. He and Mardchal de Noailles plume themselves 
 on their great hatred to the King of Prussia, our sole ally. 
 They are always for the interests of Austria in the Council ; 
 they spare the Court of Spain for the favours and revenge 
 they hope to get from it. It is said that the clerks of the 
 ministry of the Marine are pensioners of the British Court; 
 secrets of State are divulged by the indiscretion of these 
 two ministers, who would never remain united unless it 
 were to do harm ; I have the honour of having them as 
 enemies. . . . 
 
 Through the department of Paris [joined to the ministry 
 of Marine] M. de Maurepas has the police of this great city 
 and the protection of sciences and the fine-arts mider his 
 care. His inspection of the police is wholly confined to an 
 unofficial spying; in the arts he has promoted a reign of bad
 
 360 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 taste and flattery ; he has sown squabbles in the academies 
 and hritated learned men and artists about their work — he 
 has knocked off our spectacles. The king fears him and has 
 never liked him. I have said above how his Majesty re- 
 spects the bad discernment of the Court. He has personal 
 reasons for hating this minister, who has been accused of 
 poisoning the Duchesse de Chateauroux.^ No one has ever 
 spoken of the king with such irreverence; he has opposed 
 intrigues to intrigues in order to maintain himself; he has 
 attached himself to the royal family by detaching it from 
 him who is the head of it; he forms factions amid even 
 gentleness and virtue. In spite of all this, the faults of his 
 ministry found excuses m its luck and in the hope of its 
 resources, when the hatred of the Due de Richelieu broke 
 the ice around the king and accused M. de Maurepas openly 
 under several heads. The king has listened to him, and 
 results may follow. 
 
 [The Due de Richelieu?''] The Due de Richelieu (since 
 Mar^chal de France) is the favourite of the king every time 
 that he takes the trouble to be so ; but he is not content with 
 the most flattering familiarity with his master if he does not 
 get out of it the increase lie covets for his fortunes, espe- 
 cially a ministry ; he is possessed with a desire to enter the 
 Council. He governed for some months during the favour of 
 the late Duchesse de Chateauroux ; he had with his Majesty 
 all the credit of that vicious negotiation, and all the shame 
 of it with the public ; he had to bear the risks and the dis- 
 likes it brought him. 
 
 1 Mrae. de Chateauroux was his enemy ; on the king's return from the 
 campaign in Fhinders he sent M. de Maurepas to her with an order (which 
 she was awaiting) for her return to Court. In the act of receiving it she 
 was taken ill, and died within a few hours — Tk. 
 
 ^ Louis-Frangois-Armand Duplessis, Due et Marechal de Richelieu; 
 born IGOO, died 1788.
 
 -/tt^a^^/^-C^ yc/e^ <.y^/n^.^u^u^€/?^-
 
 1744-1747] THE MAKQUIS D'ARGENSON. 361 
 
 He now confines himself to the ambition of some day 
 commanding the armies ; he hopes for this, and is preparing 
 for it more by presumption than by labour. The military 
 fear this promotion; they all say they do not wish to be 
 of his army; they accuse him of levity, precipitation, and 
 heedlessness. 
 
 Though he has personal merit, he places all his hopes on 
 blind favour, — on the graces that please, on seduction and 
 charm, not on justice nor on the merit of his actions ; he ex- 
 aggerates the opinion we ought to have of the defects of the 
 monarchy and the frailties of our century ; he esteems what 
 he disdains, but he dissuades his friends from good intentions 
 and virtue ; he is a misanthrope of the Court, which he hates 
 and follows. He possesses all the experience and sagacity 
 necessary to fathom men, but he reckons them more by then- 
 foibles than their good qualities ; he studies the first and 
 casts the second aside as out of place; he despises our 
 ministers, but takes good care not to offend them ; neverthe- 
 less, his satu'ical humour shows through his specious com- 
 pliances and affabilities; he is feared and detested. 
 
 His history has been singular down to the present day ; 
 ever since he was twelve years of age he has made himself 
 talked of in the world ; before his majority he had been 
 three times sent to the Bastille for causes that made him 
 illustrious as a Court hero : once for playing the lover to the 
 Duchesse de Bourgogne, once for a duel, and lastly for a con- 
 spiracy against the State. Since then he has restored and 
 raised himself ; he has been in favour and in disgrace. His 
 love of voluptuous pleasures has more of ostentation in it 
 than of real delight ; he is prodigal without magnificence or 
 generosity; he is saving but without prudence; in his 
 domestic affairs he shows both skilful management and dis- 
 order Such is the practical side of a French Alcibiades — 
 
 Ver. 2 — 24 Mem.
 
 362 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 they call him thus, and this likeness has a reduced value in 
 France to what it had in Greece ; ours is a spirited and 
 courageous petit-maitre, but he is not yet known to be a 
 general or a statesman. 
 
 He has been much the fashion among women. The pre- 
 tensions and jealousies of coquettes have procured him a 
 quantity of bonnes fortunes, — never a passion, but much de- 
 bauchery ; he has deceived a weak sex ; he has taken senses 
 for heart ; he is not fortunate enough to possess a friend ; he 
 is frank through heedlessness, distrustful through contempt 
 of mankind and shrewdness, disobliging from insensibility 
 and misanthropy. Such is the sad character of a nation gay 
 and volatile as ours ; the more superiority there is, the more 
 contrasts there are in qualities which destroy each other. 
 A soaring mind without breadth and without application 
 sends a man born for great things into the class of ordinary 
 ones ; pride has destroyed in him all semblance of the citi- 
 zen ; successful wrong has arrested maturity at an age when 
 other men usually console themselves for the loss of vigour 
 by the loss of passions and errors also, leaving him an old 
 butterfly, dabbling in politics, with some wit, false enthu- 
 siasms, importance without consideration, — in short, a sorry 
 old age ; such is the career of our old seigneurs who have 
 played the role of personages. 
 
 [2Vi6 Marechal de Bclleisle}'] This general, negotiator, in- 
 tendant, and haranguer is one of the greatest geniuses of the 
 little century in which we live — the rarity makes the value. 
 He would have shone but little in Greece or Eome, in those 
 times of antiquity when love of country and of liberty de- 
 veloped early the talents and the heroism of men ; but, under 
 
 1 Charles-Louis-Auguste Fouquet, Comte and Due de Belleisle, Mare- 
 chal de France; born 1684, died 1761.
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 36 
 
 Q 
 
 an absolute monarchy, under ministers changing perpetually 
 through the caprices of a seraglio, it is best to guard gen- 
 erosity from envy, advance by sapping only, work under- 
 ground like moles, and enter public affairs for self-interests 
 only. One has to be a long time valet to become master ; 
 and even then there is always tribute to be paid to intrigue, 
 always reverses to bear with prosperities, if Fortune ceases to 
 uphold the side we have fastened to. This is what the cele- 
 brated Fouquet, grandfather of the Marechal de Belleisle, ex- 
 perienced ; and is what he himself has had to bear in prison 
 and exile. 
 
 Hence our French personages have a certain cringing air 
 mingled with haughtiness, which does not proclaim a hero, 
 more circumspection than prudence, more dexterity than ur- 
 banity, more caresses than affability, few sentiments, heed- 
 lessness in enterprise, slowness in action, ill-luck in decisions, 
 and especially no patriotism. Every man is the centre of 
 his own circle. Vast minds may possess the details of many 
 departments at once, but they gather them all in to the profit 
 of their own ; thus the soldier wants to put everything in a 
 blaze, the negotiator everything into craft, the financier cares 
 only for filling his coffers ; who cares for the welfare of the 
 people ? No one. If the people murmur, they say that is the 
 usual way ; they think only of repressing them, not of satis- 
 fying them. 
 
 Thus what our statesmen have of genius is only one 
 scourge the more on earth ; they had better never have been 
 born, inasmuch as they are solely employed on the public in- 
 jury, M. de Belleisle is eloquent, persuasive, and of great 
 courage; his ambition is not fixed; friend of excess in all 
 things, if he were prime-minister he would want to be regent, 
 master of the palace, and usurper of the throne. Master 
 of all power, what must we suppose he would aspire to ? — to
 
 364 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 vain glory for the nation, that which destroys instead of eleva- 
 ting, which acquires always and enjoys never. He governs 
 his own affairs with the same uneasy and vicious ambition ; 
 more solicitous of honours and magnificence than of happi- 
 ness ; more concerned about show than good order ; borrow- 
 ing always, never economizing ; fruitful in resources, devoid 
 of foresight ; rushing after the future, and blind to the pres- 
 ent state of things. 
 
 He piques himself on his constancy and loyalty to old ac- 
 quaintances; he is not absolutely devoid of all feeling; he 
 divides his heart between nature and ambition ; from this 
 division he has obtained a domestic happiness unknown to 
 other courtiers ; he has friends, and he is adored by his ser- 
 vants. His high position and influence have procured him 
 followers devoted to his interests. He has made it a habit 
 to conceal his extravagant pretensions behind a composed air 
 of wisdom and even apathy ; yet the inward fire of imagina- 
 tion sparkles the more for this restraint. You see in him an 
 erect and motionless statue proposing to you the devastation 
 of empires, the agitation of republics, and conducting you by 
 reasoned consequences to the most dangerous troubles for the 
 State, which must prosecute these purposes according to its 
 means. The great defect of his character is not knowing 
 where to stop; he can find perfection nowhere but in the 
 infinite. 
 
 Charged with conducting the election of an emperor who 
 was not of the new House of Austria, he persuaded oiu- 
 Court to follow a system of destroying wholly the Pragmatic 
 sanction, and of relegating to Hungary the heiress of Austria. 
 Governor of Metz, he wanted all the roads and all the com- 
 merce of Europe to concentrate in that city, and so make it 
 the metropolis of the universe. This is his manner of being 
 carried away by whatever he takes into in his mind ; execu-
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 365 
 
 tioij is always lacking in what he proposes, in spite of the 
 fecundity of means and the activity he spends upon it. 
 Worthy of being a leader by his talents, he should never, 
 because of his defects, be employed otherwise than as a 
 second. 
 
 His brother, the Chevalier de Belleisle, is thought to be 
 his Minerva; people are mistaken; the younger, far from 
 inspiring the views of the elder, simply plays the part of 
 moderator to him ; he restrains him as much as he can. He 
 is a pedantic man, with a narrow brain, prudent and of little 
 virtue, but filled with a great love for his brother. 
 
 l^First general measures taken in the ministry of Foreign 
 Affairs after November , 1744] It is impossible to say which 
 had done most harm to our Foreign Affairs, the vacancy 
 in this ministry of six months, caused by the dismissal of 
 M. Amelot, or the seven years of his ministry under the 
 secret, but absolute, direction of M. de Maurepas. This 
 minister, smaller in mind than he was in body (though 
 he was a dwarf), possessed no faculty in his soul but that 
 of perception; he would have made a savant of the first 
 order, a critic (but without sagacity and without wit), if he 
 had kept himself to the study of letters. He could render 
 with much clearness, although he stuttered, the ideas of 
 others, but he had none of his own. Never was there a 
 mind more sterile or a storehouse of memory so full of little 
 particulars of all kinds. His mind was literally a vacant 
 space into which ideas were put without taking root or ger- 
 minating ; plagiarist and echo, it was a pleasure to hear him 
 repeat, word for word, as if from his own store, what others 
 had put into him some days earlier ; and the same thing was 
 always said by him in the same way, unless some new suc- 
 cour had reached him. Such a man was easy to govern ; M, 
 de Maurepas had, with much cleverness, brought the cardinal
 
 366 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 to accept liim ; his protector was therefore his oracle ; every 
 decision, every despatch, every plan emanated from that 
 oracle ; a secret door had been made in the partition wall 
 between their cabinets, and through it they consulted ; the 
 guidance thus obtained was as capricious and volatile as the 
 mind of the man who gave it. 
 
 No principles, no consistency had regulated our French 
 negotiations since the dismissal of M. Chauvelin. Cardinal 
 de Fleury, adding decrepitude to mediocrity, had formed 
 what we call " committees," at which the ministers as- 
 sembled, often in his Eminence's cabinet. The ordinary 
 affairs of their departments were then and there dealt with 
 under the eyes of the old minister, who said not a word and 
 let things alone. Foreign affairs, as being the most impor- 
 tant, took the first place, but the secretary of State of that 
 department did little more than the functions of a clerk. 
 To resist the influence of a clamorous crowd, strong lungs are 
 needed, an imposing gesture, an air of importance and bold- 
 ness, even more than reason and experience. M. Amelot 
 could seldom have carried the day in these committees ; nor 
 could you, monseigneur.^ 
 
 The death of the cardinal gave the Mar^chal de Noailles 
 entrance to the Council ; there he made use of Mme. de 
 Chateauroux and M. de Eichelieu, who were influenced by 
 his hypocrisy, but soon repented themselves. He stunned 
 the committee by the noise and petulance of his speeches ; 
 he hesitated at nothing, and changed his system weekly. He 
 meddled with everything, in the civil as well as the military 
 government ; he stormed in the committees and in the Coun- 
 
 ^ This account of the Marquis d'Argenson's ministrj' is supposed to be 
 written by the fictitious secretary already mentioned, — doubtless to enable 
 the former to speak more freely of himself ; but the effect is clumsy and 
 irritating. — Tr.
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 367 
 
 oil ; he introduced a variation of principles and measures 
 daily, and a pusillanimity of methods which hardly existed 
 under Henri III. Poor M. Amelot was unable to say a 
 word ; all was done without him, thus destroying the little 
 merit he still had in the eyes of his master, before whom he 
 became more timid than ever. He foresaw his coming dis- 
 missal, and M. de Maurepas, as the only remedy for that 
 danger, prescribed to him humble compliance. Creator and 
 creature lost their heads in the tumult. 
 
 M. de Rothembourg [lieutenant-general, and trusted friend 
 of Frederick the Great] arrived from Berlin to negotiate 
 secretly a new alliance with the King of Prussia. He con- 
 fen-ed in private with Mme. de Chateauroux and M. de 
 Richelieu. The latter's principal ardour at the moment was 
 to get M. de Maurepas dismissed ; he said that, at any rate, 
 it was " putting out one of his eyes " to drive out M. Amelot, 
 and he got M. de Rothembourg to demand it on behalf of 
 the King of Prussia as a condition of the treaty (dangerous 
 concession in politics) ; M. Amelot was accorduigly dis- 
 missed two days before the departme of the king for the 
 army. 
 
 M. de Richelieu aimed for the chief ministry ; he believed 
 he had cleared his way there by placing the IMardchal de 
 Noailles in the Coimcil, and, with the class-spirit of a great 
 seigneur he intended to begin by amiihilatLug the influence 
 of the secretaries of State. He had conceived a gi-eat respect 
 for the Sieur Du Theil, one of the clerks at the ministry of 
 Foreign Affairs, but he was not long in perceiving that this 
 old clerk was worth very little. The king often told you 
 that he had never known such a dull man; and yet his 
 Majesty was induced to have no other secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs than he (though without the title) during 
 the seven months of the campaign of 1744.
 
 368 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 Thus nothing was done, nothing was despatched during 
 that time ; the ministers of foreign countries did not know 
 whom to address ; our ministers received despatches of four 
 lines only, dry and ungracious, such as clerks might draw up 
 if allowed to do so. The Mar^chal bawled in the Coimcil as 
 usual, and did nothing ; Chavigny and San-Sevdrin governed 
 him, and inspired him with the little he did do. The first 
 seized upon the negotiation of Frankfort; he stipulated for 
 the House of Bavaria advantages which would redound to 
 his own credit, for he expected to he made secretary of State 
 for Foreign Affairs on the king's return to Paris, As for 
 M. de San-Sev^rin, he wanted another appointment as am- 
 bassador for the wealth and honours he could get out of it. 
 The Mar^chal de Noailles had inspired the king with the 
 highest opinion of that wicked Italian, and a post for him 
 had to be found. Just at this moment the Comte de Bruhl 
 made some complaints of M. Desalleurs, envoy of France to 
 Saxony and Poland : they seized the opportunity to recall 
 him, without any consideration for the minister or the min- 
 istry ; the business suffered much. The clerk M. Desalleurs 
 left in Dresden saw notliing, did nothing, and sent no in- 
 formation to France of what was happening. Everything at 
 that Court was turning against us and in favour of our 
 enemies ; the Austrians and the English seized this moment 
 to win over the Saxons completely, and they signed, January 
 8, 1745, the treaty of "Warsaw, to which we may principally 
 attribute the refusal of the empire on the part of the King of 
 Poland, and the election of the Grand-duke [of Tuscany] to 
 that high dignity. M. de San-Sev^rin arrived just in time 
 to see that treaty signed under his nose ; he has since been 
 largely suspected of doing his best to serve the Queen of 
 Hungary. 
 
 At this very time occurred the disgrace of M. de la Chdtar-
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 369 
 
 die in Eussia ; he was arrested as a criminal, his papers seized, 
 the Eussian orders and all the presents with which the Czar- 
 ina had loaded him taken from him. France, under very bad 
 advice, received this affront gently and civilly ; and they sent 
 in his place the Sieur Daillon, formerly his secretary, for no 
 other reason than because, having had a notorious quarrel 
 with M. de la Chdtardie, he was supposed to be agreeable to 
 Chancellor Bestuchef, who at that time governed Eussia. 
 
 At Cologne, our envoy, the Comte de Sade, had quarrelled 
 with the Elector and his minister, having previously been 
 high in their good graces ; but he abused them ; the Elector 
 complained that the envoy had sold his favour for money, 
 and had done several other base things of self-interest. M. 
 de Sade asked permission to make a journey in France, 
 which was granted without due attention being paid to the 
 matter. He took final leave of the Elector and received his 
 present, but carefully concealed this ceremony, so that his 
 salary might be continued. He was represented at Bonn by 
 a man named Beaumez, his secretary, one of the vilest crea- 
 tures that were ever mixed up in our affairs ; a man who was 
 sold to all who would give him money, and who ended by 
 notorious rascalities which brought him to die in prison. 
 Nevertheless, we never had greater need of influence at the 
 Court of Cologne than at this time ; but, our embassy being 
 thus rendered vacant, the English made a treaty of subsidy 
 with the Elector, by which he proved himself the greatest 
 enemy of the Emperor, his brother; and he would have 
 lent all the troops that could be raised in his States, and 
 have voted against him in the Diets, if you, monseigneur, 
 had not promptly interfered. 
 
 The foregoing is a specimen of the management of 
 Foreign Affairs during the seven months that preceded 
 yom- ministry.
 
 370 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 The Prussian General Schmettau was sent to be near the 
 king while he was ill at Metz ; this was for the purpose of 
 observing and counteracting, on the part of the King of 
 Prussia, our military operations. Never was there better 
 seen than on this occasion the effects of our levity and our 
 sense of need, in the degrees of consideration and of con- 
 tempt that were shown to this general during the six months 
 that his mission lasted : for the first three months he might 
 have been the King of Prussia himself, but after liis master 
 had evacuated Bohemia he was treated as little else than a 
 lawyer's clerk. The Queen of Hungary intercepted some of 
 his despatches, in which he told very bad things of the gen- 
 tlemen of the Council; and this brought down upon him 
 all the partisans of the ministry ; that is to say, those who 
 were seeking their fortunes and feared the dismissal of the 
 ministers. The Council took no heed of the fact that we 
 had long been under a necessity to treat with caution the 
 King of Prussia, that he still might turn against us for the 
 rest of this war and in that way consolidate his conquests 
 the better, reserving the power to take back our alliance 
 when peace was made, because the sentiments of princes are 
 at the bidding of their interests. We followed in this our 
 passions of levity, dazzled by our first successes, and weigh- 
 ing little our true interests. The King of Prussia had a 
 treaty with us (of June, 1744) to conquer and despoil the 
 Queen of Himgary ; by that treaty we were to keep a part 
 of the conquests we expected to make in the Low Countries. 
 But the King of Prussia, having been driven out of Bohemia 
 at the point of the bayonet, wrote a letter to the king to 
 which was joined a very fine memorial, in which he con- 
 fessed his mistakes, declared that he meant to correct him- 
 self of deviating from his line \faire des pointes] ; and, in 
 truth, he did so correct himself. He advised us to do the
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 371 
 
 same, to work for peace at once, on the footing where affairs 
 then were, and to renounce all desire for further conquests, 
 and to keep none. Thus he released us from the article in 
 the treaty of June which stipulated for them, renounciag 
 them also for himself, being content with Silesia which he 
 promised to defend, and which he has defended. 
 
 The King of Denmark was in a very doubtful state of 
 mind in regard to us, and our enemies were openly counting 
 twelve hundred Danish cavalry among their troops for the 
 coming campaign. 
 
 Sweden groaned, so did Poland, under the tyranny of Eussia. 
 Our partisans in Sweden and Poland were seeking only to 
 draw all the money they could from us, on the pretext of being 
 offered a higher price by the English ; but their pm'pose was 
 solely to feed their luxury and do nothing decisive. 
 
 The Dutch entered this war reluctantly; necessity alone 
 led them to support the House of Austria lest France and 
 Spain, united in one House, might possibly, if on good terms, 
 become too powerful and threaten their liberty, their com- 
 merce, and their religion ; at least, this is what their leaders, 
 corrupted by England, preached to their people, already ex- 
 cited against us by their passions. Since the establishment 
 of their barrier of the Low Countries, the body of the republic 
 earnestly desires peace; but England continues her machi- 
 nations in the State assembly, and we serve her marvellously 
 in her designs by our imprudence. 
 
 England is no less weary of the war. The Council and 
 the whole Britannic Court united to drive from the ministry 
 John Carteret, Earl Granville, a great fire-eater, the impla- 
 cable enemy of the House of France through the principles 
 he has formed for himself. This took place in December, 
 1744 ; nothing seemed more likely to put us on the road to 
 peace; to reach it, it was necessary not to further irritate
 
 372 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap, x 
 
 the maritime powers — we did just the contrary by an attack 
 on the Low Countries. We shall never obtain peace b}' 
 means of injuries and insults. In view of our marked suc- 
 cesses in the war, we have now only to stretch out our arms, 
 and relax in a few demands, to gain what we wish, provided 
 we show justice and sincerity ; but it will be otherwise when 
 we seem to defy all Europe at the close of an unjust war. 
 You proposed, therefore, to the king, as the true means of 
 peace, a thorough and foreseeing defensive on all sides during 
 this campaign ; a vigorous resistance which would make our 
 worst enemies lose all desire to attack us, and cause the tri- 
 umph of pacific opinions in Courts where those opinions are 
 daily gaining more and more influence. 
 
 Such was your plan on taking the helm of Foreign Affairs ; 
 and you have never followed any other, accommodating that 
 plan to the different events as they occurred. Cardinal de 
 Fleury would have seconded you well in this, if you had 
 been employed in his day; and you regi-et him for this 
 reason, although you were on very bad terms with him 
 during the last years of his life. Since his death, the voices 
 that prevail in the Council are much changed by self-interest 
 and influence ; they talk of peace, but all their determinations 
 are for war. During the whole period of the cardinal's rule 
 arms were subordinate to politics, but since the king governs, 
 they say, for himself, his Majesty listens willingly only to 
 those who have an interest in promoting war. The king, 
 young, and more venturesome than people think, places his 
 honour in not desisting from anything that he has once 
 undertaken ; he often says in council, " AYlioso risks nothing 
 has nothing ; " he respects the courage of those who tell him 
 that the " shortest follies are the best ; " he is bored by argu- 
 ments ; he likes brief sophistries disguised in terms of wisdom 
 and honour.
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 373 
 
 You often met in Paris M. de Torcy, former minister of 
 the late king ; his Majesty permitted you to confide to him 
 the most secret affairs of State and to consult him upon them 
 as you thought proper. When you quoted him to the king 
 his opinion had much weight, his Majesty liking nothing so 
 much as to follow the spirit and the usages of Louis XIV. 
 M. de Torcy often told you that he attributed the faults and 
 disasters that happened in his day principally to the little 
 influence allowed to the ministry of Foreign Affairs during 
 that reign. The other departments were always more lis- 
 tened to than his. First, M. de Louvois for war, then the 
 department of building, and lastly the Jesuits, who stirred 
 to piety and took as a means the entire expulsion of Jansen- 
 ists and Calvinists, — these three interests carried the day 
 with Louis XIV., and all else yielded to them. That prince 
 never liked to enter tete k tete on political arguments ; per- 
 sonal work with the minister was therefore much abridged ; 
 the plans and ideas of the minister on such topics were sent 
 to the Council, where the other ministers carried matters as 
 they chose against him, and he could only obey. 
 
 You once proposed to the king to call M. de Torcy to the 
 Council, as a personage highly considered by foreigners and 
 whose very name would give influence to your views ; but his 
 Majesty replied with the old prejudice inspired into his mind 
 in youth, namely, that " he was the brother of the leader of 
 Jansenism (the Bishop of Montpellier), and that he was a 
 little inclined to it himself." 
 
 Your plan of reaching in this way a prompt conclusion, 
 and the only one you followed, was based on the followmg 
 reasoning: We wished to ruin the House of Austria; we 
 have not profited by the time when that house was off its 
 guard against our forces ; we were repulsed, and di-iven home ; 
 Europe now pretends to break in upon us and put us out of
 
 374 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 condition to attempt new enterprises. Our first designs re- 
 sembled those of Cardinal de Eichelieu in the Thirty Years 
 War, ended by the peace of Westphalia ; our present situation 
 may resemble that of 1704 after our first defeats at Hochstedt 
 and Ramillies, with this difference, that our government is 
 worse than that of the late king. All Europe conspiring 
 against us may lead us far in the long run ; for let us take 
 things at their worst so as not to deceive ourselves. Let 
 peace, then, such as we can now make it, be our principal 
 object ; we can indubitably bring it about by defending our- 
 selves properly and undertaking no new offensive war. Let 
 us increase our forces and diminish our insults; let us make 
 our enemies recognize that we are formidable in defence, just 
 and wise in attack. They desne tranquillity themselves ; let 
 them see a prospect of it, let their peoples see the evils of 
 such expense, and we shall soon reach what is called the 
 fin de guerre lasse — peace for peace' sake. Let us keep 
 what we have won; we have conquered enough to make 
 very honom-able terms at a general peace. 
 
 It is by viewing things at then- worst that we reach our 
 ends safely; certainly a speedy peace would have been se- 
 cured to us at the beginning of your ministry if your advice 
 had been followed wholly. I say wholly, for it is a case 
 of the maxim, Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quorum- 
 que defectu. The farther we advance in ill-concerted and 
 badly executed enterprises, and the more we experience of 
 the evil on one side and feel the good of the other, the 
 more your principles will be verified as sound and indu- 
 bitable. You carried the day in the Coimcil of the follow- 
 ing year for conducting the war on these principles in Ger- 
 many, doing no harm, making no threats against the Empire ; 
 consequently none were made against France ; and this, to 
 the great astonishment of everybody, resulted (without
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 375 
 
 treaty) in complete nevitrality ; it lasted, and continued to 
 grow stronger in youi* time, in spite of the anger of the 
 Court of Vienna. 
 
 At the first Council of State at which you were present 
 the king made his ministers a speech on the authority he 
 confided to you ; he declared that henceforth the ministers 
 of foreign countries would confer with you alone, and that 
 the past system would no longer be allowed. Truly the 
 utmost confidence was thus shown to you in the discharge 
 of your duty ; but it is to be desired that it had extended 
 to your intercourse with the other ministers, because of 
 the connection they have with your ministry. 
 
 For example : shortly after your first steps towards peace 
 were taken (according to the principles I have just ex- 
 pressed) you heard talk of the bankruptcy which M. Orry, 
 controller-general, was about to compel our Company of 
 the Indies to make ; you went at once to the king to repre- 
 sent the injury this would do to the reputation of our 
 powers abroad ; you presented a method of suspension only ; 
 you were listened to by the king, you seemed to have con- 
 vinced him; M. Orry was immediately sent for, and he 
 destroyed in the end all you had begun. 
 
 During the two campaigns you made with the king, 
 you and your brother, the Comte d'Argenson, each played 
 literally the role of prime-minister; on the first campaign 
 Mar^chal de Noailles made a third ; but on the second, 
 he being in Spain, you two brothers alone formed the whole 
 Council of the king. The chancellor addressed himself in 
 preference to you when he needed to ask decisions from 
 the king or explanations on points not made sufficiently 
 clear in the marginal notes to his documents made by his 
 Majesty's own hand ; you have many letters from this 
 magistrate for the present Correspondence.
 
 376 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 You began by coming to a clear imderstanding with the 
 king on two things which were truly at the foundation of 
 your labours : first, whether it was true, as so many of 
 the courtiers had assured you, that the king had a passion- 
 ate predilection for Spain which threatened with disgrace 
 and dismissal whoever told him the truth and served the 
 State well by opposing the Court of Madrid. As to this, 
 liis Majesty assured you he was incapable of such infatua- 
 tion ; that he knew how irrational the Queen of Spain 
 was, and in what degree Spain might be useful or incon- 
 venient to us. His Majesty added that he had signed the 
 treaty of Fontainebleau in 1743 against his will, for it 
 bound us to impossible conquests in favour of Spain ; but, 
 to persuade him, they kept repeating to him the assurance 
 that he would otherwise be left without allies during the 
 war, and that, Spain being the only one he could acquire, 
 it was necessary to do so at any cost. 
 
 You then assured the king that so long as Philip V. 
 reigned and his wife governed it was impossible to con- 
 clude a general peace with Europe, — because in the Spanish 
 Court means were never proportioned to the end ; that they 
 thought only of their own interests, coarsely, harshly, with- 
 out the slightest regard to those of others ; and that all 
 was conducted by passions of pride, cupidity, and revenge ; 
 consequently that we must resolve to treat of peace secretly 
 without this ally; and having made the best terms we 
 could, with pure intentions such as his Majesty brought 
 into all things, Spain must not be informed of the condi- 
 tions until they were positively secured, no matter what 
 she might say and do. 
 
 On the second point you asked his Majesty if lie really 
 wished for 'peace now, and with what degree of impatience. 
 You proposed to him to reflect upon this question further,
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 377 
 
 and to write to you a species of instruction whieli would 
 serve you as guide in the future, that you might not lose 
 any occasion for putting his wishes into execution. It may 
 be said that none of his ministers ever made gi'eater prog- 
 ress with him than you ; foreigners observed it at the 
 time. When M. de Champeaux returned from Turin at 
 the close of 1 745 to render an account of his negotiation 
 he had a conference of an hour and a half with the king 
 at Choisy, and he was extremely surprised to find that 
 he could talk of his affairs with all the intelligence, shrewd- 
 ness, and active interest of a prime -minister. The said 
 Champeaux observed that you put a most happy and inno- 
 cent art into this, presenting at the right moment points 
 for discussion, beginning the discussion yourself, then re- 
 tiring, as it were, to make the prince think and say what 
 he had in his heart. His mind is naturally good and just ; 
 he needs only to have it set in motion, and for those who 
 address him to refrain from all flattery and censure ; it was 
 a true passion with you to bring out the good qualities 
 of the king in all things, to make the work turn on him, 
 and to give to him the whole honour of it. Cardinal de 
 Fleury was accused of doing just the contrary. As for the 
 other ministers in your time, they sought, visibly, to increase 
 his foibles in order to profit by them. 
 
 The first letter the king wrote to you on his ideas for peace 
 was as f oUows : — 
 
 "December 23, 1744. 
 
 ' ' I send you my ultimatum as to peace. Let us not say 
 we wish peace, but let us wish it as the greatest good, pro- 
 vided it can last long. Let us await what is said to us, and 
 let us negotiate nothing on this subject at present with our 
 allies. The King of Prussia wants nothing new for himself; 
 
 as for the two others, they will have to come in the end to 
 
 Vcr. 2 — 25 Mem.
 
 378 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 what we think best for them. If we are valued to-day, it is 
 because we are feared. Let us not seem to desire anything 
 but the most vigorous war ; nothing but that can ever bring 
 about the 'peace which I desire as much, and more, than all 
 others." 
 
 On a separate slip of paper was written : — 
 
 " Below is my ultimatum ; but I desire that all shall come 
 from others. To listen and say nothing is my will. 
 
 " 1st. That the Emperor be emperor without confirmation, 
 having no need of it, but only of a simple recognition by the 
 Queen of Hungary, the only power who has not yet recognized 
 him. 
 
 " 2d. His complete re-establishment in Bavaria. 
 
 " 3d. Eecognition for him and his descendants from the 
 anterior Austria. 
 
 " 4th. Cession to the Infant Don Philip of Savoie and the 
 county of Nice by the King of Sardinia as indemnity for 
 the Milanese provinces ; Finale to remain to the Genoese. 
 
 " 5th. Eestitution by France of the fortified places in 
 Flanders, on condition that she be allowed to do what she 
 may judge best for the security of Dunkerque. 
 
 " 6th. France and Spain being contented with the above 
 terms, it is just that England should enjoy the right of pri- 
 vateering, and that the treaty of Assiento be renewed with 
 her ; and I hold myself willing to be the mediator on their 
 other differences." 
 
 We must observe here, on the predilection of the king for 
 Spain, that his Majesty, like all other men, can often be 
 shaken by the ideas of others that are contrary to his own 
 and against the knowledge of experience. A score of secret 
 influences surrounding him at hours when he is least on 
 his guard make more impression than a minister can destroy
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 379 
 
 in a serious conference which he has with his Majesty per- 
 haps once a week. His daughter, the Infanta of Spain, writes 
 to him regularly very long letters, and the king answers in 
 the same way. The Mardchal de Noailles and M. de Maure- 
 pas are devoted to the system of blind obedience to Spain. 
 The Spanish ambassador, Campo-Florido, often has long con- 
 versations with the king, without the intervention of the 
 minister of Foreign Affairs (which never happened in the 
 days of the late king) ; he is even admitted into the king's 
 familiarity; and if all this was not absolutely enough to 
 make the kmg do whatever the Court of Spain desired, it 
 certainly lessened the consistency and firmness of conduct 
 that were requisite in such delicate conjunctures. 
 
 As to the desire for peace which the king so fully indicates 
 in the letter just copied, it is to be observed that ideas of 
 glory may often be mistaken if they are not corrected. A 
 prince born with the prerogative to command obedience 
 cannot weigh things as the subaltern who is charged with 
 their execution must do. In this " ultimatum " there are 
 many things which were inspired in the king by the minister 
 of War during the campaign of 1744, at a time when that 
 ministry could not be opposed by that of Foreign Affairs ; it 
 is as if the police dictated to the courts their sentences, 
 whereas they are only appointed to execute them. The king 
 saw himself at that moment a conqueror on all sides; he 
 thought he had an invincible general in the Corate de Saxe ; 
 they represented to him the conquest of the Catholic Low 
 Countries as an inexhaustible source of advantages for a 
 general peace. 
 
 Though the king really thought he was making a great 
 effort for moderation in dictating the conditions we have 
 now read, some of them were impossible, — such as the one 
 he repeats several times: to say nothing and leave to the
 
 380 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 enemies or the mediators the burden of proposing terms. 
 The nations of Europe, it must be said, pique themselves on 
 the craft they employ on us, because we are reputed to be 
 more crafty than we are. They always wanted, therefore, 
 just the contrary of what the king urged on this occasion ; 
 they wanted that we should speak first, and they would 
 rather have let themselves be injured than yield on that 
 rule. 
 
 If the king was really inspired with a desire for peace, as 
 he wrote, he was still more so with a desire for glory, as we 
 may see in the words of his letter, " a vigorous war." He 
 wanted to get away from Versailles; he had just lost the 
 Duchesse de Chateauroux and felt a gi-eat need of distraction ; 
 thus all things worked to give great advantages to the war 
 department. Wise men had warned you, monseigneur, not 
 to oppose his will too much at this crisis; whoso dis- 
 pleases is always thought in the wrong. 
 
 Nevertheless, you did not refrain from giving the king 
 a few days later a memorial in which you entreated him to 
 make serious reflections ; but it had no success in convincing 
 him. It was based on the principles already mentioned. 
 You proposed a siinjjle defensive in Flanders, partly from fear 
 of increasing a dangerous storm in that du-ection, partly to 
 be able to turn with greater advantage to the other theatres 
 of war, Germany and Italy (these containing our principal 
 objects), where, far from being able to master them, our 
 defensive even was not secure. The Queen of Hungary had 
 sent all her principal troops into Germany, leaving the 
 defence of the Low Countries to the maritime powers. In 
 Italy we ought to have been superior to the Spaniards in 
 order to guide them, but we were just the contrary. What 
 we needed was a solid defensive on all sides; maintaining 
 firmly the conquests made by us or by our allies over the
 
 1744-1747] THE MAKQUIS D'ARGENSON. 381 
 
 Queen of Hungary, in a manner that should make our ene- 
 mies despau- of regaining them. A part of these conquests 
 we should have kept ; the rest would have served as the price 
 of peace, when the enemy wearied of a useless war. 
 
 We had not then lost Louisburg in America ; therefore we 
 were iatact on all sides. The King of Prussia had conquered 
 Silesia ; we were to help in its preservation by the nearest 
 diversion. The king had taken Menin, Ypres, Courti-ay, and 
 Furnes in Flanders, and Fribom-g in Germany ; an emperor 
 had been elected by the strength of our power in the em- 
 pire ; we held anterior Austria in the Suabian circle, which 
 we destined for the Emperor. The latter occupied Bavaria 
 as far as Passau, but that position was hazardous and even 
 regarded as certain to be lost if we did not support it by a 
 better disposition of our forces. We needed Ingolstadt and 
 magazines ; the army of the Marechal de Maillebois occupied 
 Franconia and the electoral circle ; but he had to be sup- 
 ported either to save him from recrossing the Ehine, or to 
 make a diversion to the attack of Bavaria. On the Italian 
 side we held Savoie ; the Spaniards had a good army there 
 under the orders of Comte de Gages, a general of reputation ; 
 a French army, inferior in numbers, was on the point of 
 joining it, through facilities we had just obtained by our 
 treaty with the Genoese. We might have looked for fortu- 
 nate conquests there, provided . . . [name of some general 
 omitted in the manuscript, probably Mardchal de Maillebois 
 or the Prince de Conti] conducted them solidly and in a 
 manner, as our old warriors used to say, " not to advance the 
 left foot untn the right is firmly planted." The Queen of 
 Himgary having but few troops in Italy, the principal 
 defence fell on the King of Sardinia. 
 
 Nothing would then have been easier in negotiating for 
 peace than to have obtained recognition everywhere for the
 
 382 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 election of the Emperor, and even to have procured for him 
 the cession of anterior Austria ; the foreign powers concerned 
 in a peace were advancing towards both points ; we had only 
 to let them speak, as the king prescribed to you in his letter. 
 
 To procure Savoie and the county of Nice for the Infant 
 Don Philip of Spain [husband of Louis XV.'s eldest daughter] 
 presented more difficulties ; for we had to find means of com- 
 pensating the King of Sardinia for the Milanese provinces, 
 which would have reduced to almost nothing the Austrian 
 dominion in Italy and been far from easy to make accept- 
 able to Europe. The liberty to restore the fortifications of 
 Dunkerque as we pleased was an article almost impossible 
 to obtain from England, and it became even more so when 
 they knew that they had conquered Louisburg. Those proud 
 insularies, who think themselves the arbiters of the world 
 and who employ immense sums in their arbitrament, had 
 not received any check, but, on the contrary, had success- 
 fully succoured the Queen, of Hungary ; how could we induce 
 them to consent to sacrifice their stipulation as to Dun- 
 kerque, precious and important relic left them by the peace 
 they gave us at Utrecht against their national interests ? 
 The promise to renew the treaty of "Assiento" could not 
 be offered with any security ; for the peace the king desired 
 was to be made without Spain, who would then be in bad 
 humour and unwilling to lend herself to anjl^hing. 
 
 But in spite of these difficulties, it is certain that peace 
 might have been signed before the opening of the campaign 
 of 1745, if the newly elected Emperor Charles VIL had not 
 died suddenly at that moment. His death opened to the 
 Queen of Hungary a fiesh career of advantages in Germany, 
 which she wished to grasp before speaking seriously of peace, 
 convinced, and justly so, that her final bargain would be 
 much the belter. The election of the Grand-duke in spite
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 383 
 
 of France, the results of this coronation among the Germanic 
 powers, the re-taking of Silesia, our expulsion from Germany, 
 all these were considered by the Court of Vienna as events 
 certain to happen. 
 
 We left them a free course, instead of interfering with 
 them ; the Mar^chal de Maillebois was sent to Italy, and 
 in his place they substituted the Prince de Conti, who did 
 nothing of value and only showed extreme prudence where 
 temerity was needed. They withdrew twenty thousand men 
 from his army, whereas they ought to have reinforced it and 
 turned all our efforts on the Ehine ; but this was done to 
 procure for the king a glorious campaign in Flanders ; behold 
 what flattery produces in the council of kings ! 
 
 When you proposed the defensive in Flanders, the pro- 
 posal was very ill-received; his Majesty told you that you 
 did not understand war, which was very true ; that a defen- 
 sive was ruinous and dangerous ; that we ate up our own 
 country instead of living on that of the enemy by an of- 
 fensive war ; that we could then only attack the Queen of 
 Hungary directly through the Low Countries ; that we should 
 frighten the maritime powers, etc. To this you replied: 
 " But why frighten them ? Let us cease to insult, let us 
 lessen fears, and we shall gain peace. We shall plead (as 
 they say in law) with mains garnies. Let us keep what we 
 have ; we shall tire out the enemy ; he has no hope of doing 
 us damage except through our new enterprises ; they will put 
 all to risk " (in point of fact the battle of Fontenoy, fought 
 a few months later, came very near being fatal to us). 
 " Instead of which, a defensive war, carried on by a great 
 power like us, risks nothing, assm-es all ; the late king liad 
 recourse to it after the defeats of Kamillies and Malplaquet, 
 and obtained great advantages; how much more shall we, 
 who hold the superiority and olTer peace."
 
 384 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 The king, however, was so obsessed and prejudiced that 
 these suggestions, often repeated, wearied him and did not 
 make even the beginning of an impression. You believed 
 that you might say openly a part of what }^u thought on 
 the means of obtaining peace, speaking only of justice and 
 of the general repose which the king desired for all Europe ; 
 you said this often to the foreign ministers. Yes, France 
 desires peace, with passion even ; if it is refused, our enemies 
 will see that we know how to make war, but only on the 
 refusal of peace. It seemed to you that your country played 
 the nobler role in this resolve. Results confirmed your 
 opinion ; at Com-t you were called " M. d'Argenson of peace ; " 
 and youi' brother, " M. d'Argenson of war ; " the king himself 
 distinguished you by these two names ; and you took great 
 pleasure in yours. 
 
 All that has happened has justified your system, however 
 little attention was given to it at the time ; although at the 
 date when this is written (1747) we do not know what will 
 be the final upshot. The Mar^chal de Saxe besieged Toumay 
 at the end of the following April with an army inferior to 
 that of the enemy and without an army of observation : our 
 able warriors of the Coimcil and the Court assured us that the 
 enemy would not be ready so soon, and that they could not 
 succour Tournay ; nevertheless, the king had scarcely time to 
 reach his camp from Douai before the battle began. I leave 
 history to tell how near it came to being lost ; it was lost for 
 two hours, and the kingdom was within a hair's-breadth of 
 its ruin. The Mar^chal de Saxe has talents and capacity, 
 but luck surpassed his prudence, and zeal for the new country 
 he serves does not always inspire his plans. He could easily 
 have pursued the enemy after Fontenoy; he could have 
 accomplished during the campaign of 1745 all that he did 
 in the following one, or even in that of 1747. The battle of
 
 1744-1747] THE MAKQUIS D'ARGENSON. 385 
 
 Mesle in June, 1745, was given by liis soldiers and was 
 purely the result of chance. Without that luck the Ghent 
 enterprise would have failed and our conquests would have 
 been much upset. All these marvellous, multiplied, and un- 
 expected circumstances were needed to justify the system of 
 " frightening our enemies by the rapidity of om- conquests in 
 Flanders." We did not even employ celerity. After Fon- 
 tenoy we piqued ourselves on great prudence on this field 
 of the war ; all the while abandoning imprudently the other 
 fields, so that taking the total of the war we had more dis- 
 advantages on one side than advantages on the other. It is 
 these unfortunate set-offs that are calculated to, and will, 
 decide the peace ; it was quite otherwise in the wars which 
 preceded the peace of Westphalia and those of Nimeguen 
 and Eyswick. 
 
 During this conquest of Flanders the minister of war per- 
 suaded the king to dismantle several of the conquered forts, 
 which destroyed the barricade of the United-Provinces, so 
 that whenever we form a new enterprise on the Low-Coun- 
 tries we can march straight into Holland over a vast plain 
 almost without obstacle. It is a great question whether 
 that barrier was not more useful to us, by facilitating a 
 neutrality with the republic of Holland, than necessary to 
 the same republic, which is not at heart our enemy (being 
 so only by misunderstandings), and which we ought to pro- 
 tect, for it has everything to fear from England in regard to 
 its commerce, and from the House of Austria in regard to its 
 liberty. Another great question : would this increase of 
 terror inspired by France add to her power and her happi- 
 ness ? It is the War department which counsels these views 
 without consulting that of politics. Such counsels are dan- 
 gerous ; we saw this well enough during the ministry of ]\I. 
 de Louvois. Our intendants, clerks, aud military purveyors
 
 386 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 have made their profit out of these rich conquered countries 
 while they were in our possession ; they rendered scarcely 
 any accounts ; they have enriched themselves, under pretext 
 of laying up subsistence for our troops in winter. They have 
 sent a dagger to the heart of those good Flemings whom the 
 late king, on the contrary, spared and considered on a like 
 occasion. They have intimidated the Dutch, they have irri- 
 tated Europe, and they have given much to say to the nego- 
 tiators on the enemy's side, who thwart the peace that you 
 evoked by reason and justice on all sides. 
 
 By this system, France abandoned the affairs of Germany 
 at the very moment that her support was most deserved. 
 Shortly after the battle of Fontenoy, they obtained (without 
 a word to you) twenty thousand men from the army of the 
 Prince de Conti, which forced the latter to recross the Ehine 
 and leave free course to the election of the Grand-duke as 
 emperor. 
 
 The new Elector of Bavaria, receiving very insufficient 
 assistance from us, was driven out and made his treaty of 
 Fuessen, which gave him to our enemies. By that, also, 
 the King of Prussia, abandoned to his own forces, and receiv- 
 ing no diversion from our war in Flanders (which occupied 
 only the maritime powers, and not those of Germany), came 
 four times very near to being destroyed, and owed his safety 
 only to his luck and his activity. He loaded us with re- 
 proaches, and made peace without us, through the mediation 
 of England. 
 
 Our government, economizing all the French troops in 
 order to concentrate them in Flanders, refused to send any 
 into Italy. It was necessary, however, either to abandon the 
 Spaniards, or to carry out the great designs we had bound 
 ourselves to undertake with them. The private peace of the 
 King of Prussia having enabled the Queen of Hungary to
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 387 
 
 reinforce her army in Italy, the two crowns of France and 
 Spain were entirely driven out the following year, and the 
 Genoese territory conquered by the implacable enemy we 
 had drawn down upon it. 
 
 Such were the products of the offensive war in. the Low- 
 Countries, against which you had said so much ; a vain glory, 
 without solidity ; advantages composed of a hundred defeats on 
 other sides ; a work of flattery and cupidity. You have a hun- 
 dred times had reason to note the truth of what M. de Torcy 
 said to you, namely : the ministry that you filled, that of 
 Foreign Affairs, was a head without arms and without force ; 
 it is that of stern but impotent reason, which is opposed to 
 all, but can surmount nothing. To persuade, we must please ; 
 and to please princes, we must flatter, not by words, but by 
 things which directly gi-atify their passions ; foresight, jus- 
 tice, a distant good are not among the number of those 
 direct things that appeal to their vanity or their fears. 
 We can reason with our master. Louis XV. listens with 
 amiable patience ; but that patience does not mean the senti- 
 ment of a victorious persuasion. Let no one deceive him- 
 self : the king is even more absolute than Louis XIV. ; he 
 commands more by keeping silence than other masters by 
 speaking loudly; his silence means injunction not to con- 
 tinue, prohibition to insist. A wise minister wdl not forget 
 for a moment his subjection. 
 
 [The Battle of Fontcnoy : Letter of the Marquis d'Argcnson 
 
 to Voltairey] 
 
 " May 15, 1745. 
 
 " Monsieur I'historien, you must have heard by Wednesday 
 
 evening the news about which you send me so many con- 
 
 1 The famous letter of the Marquis d'Argenson on tlic battle of Fon- 
 tenoy to his school-comrade and friend Voltaire, and jjiiblished by the 
 latter, was apparently not among liis papers; but the rough draft, or 
 germ, of it was found, together witli Voltaire's reply, as they are given 
 above. — Tr.
 
 388 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OF [chap. x. 
 
 gratulations. A page started from the battlefield on Tuesday 
 at half-past two o'clock to take the letters; I learn that 
 he arrived at Versailles Wednesday at five o'clock. It was 
 a fine spectacle to see the king and the dauphin writing 
 on a drum, surrounded by victors and vanquished, dead, 
 dying, and prisoners. Here are some incidents that I 
 observed. 
 
 " I had the honour of meeting the king on Sunday close 
 to the battlefield. I arrived from Paris at the Chin head- 
 quarters. I was told that the king was out riding ; I asked 
 for a horse and joined his Majesty close to the spot from 
 which could be seen the enemy's camp. I learned then 
 from his Majesty, for the first time, what was intended to 
 take place immediately. Never did I see a man so gay at 
 the thought of an adventure as the master. We discussed 
 the very point you refer to in your four lines : which of our 
 kings had won the greatest royal battles ? I assure you that 
 the courage did not wrong the judgment, nor the judgment 
 the memory. From there, we all went to sleep on straw. 
 Never was a ball-night so gay ; never so many witty say- 
 ings ! We slept all the time that was not interrupted by 
 couriers, grassins [soldiers of Grassins' regiment], and aides 
 de camp. The king sang a song with many couplets, which 
 is very droll. As for the dauphin he went to battle as if to 
 a hunt, and seemed to be saying, ' What ! is this all it is ? ' 
 A cannon-ball ploughed up the mud and spattered a man 
 who was close to the king. Our masters laughed heartily 
 at the daubing. One of my brother's grooms was wounded 
 in the head by a musket-ball; this man was behind the 
 company. 
 
 " The true, the certain, the non-flatteiing is that it is the 
 king himself who won the battle by his will, by his firmness. 
 You will have the tale and the details ; you will know that
 
 1744-1747] THE MAKQUIS D'ARGENSON. 389 
 
 there was a terrible hour, in which we saw the second 
 volume of Dettingen, our Frenchmen humbled before that 
 British firmness whose rolling fire resembled hell, and, I own, 
 dumfoimded inactive spectators. Then we despaired of the 
 republic. Some of our generals, who have more courage of 
 heart than of mind, gave very prudent counsels ; they sent 
 orders to Lille, they doubled the guard around the king, and 
 they made ready to send him off ; but the king only laughed 
 at them all ; he rode from the left to the centre and called 
 for the reserves and the brave Lowendalil ; but there was no 
 need of them. Another reserve charged. It was the same 
 cavalry which had charged in the beginning uselessly, — the 
 king's household troops, the carbineers, those of the French 
 guards who had remained stationery, and the Irish, excellent 
 above all when they march against the English and Hanoveri- 
 ans. Your friend M. de Richelieu is a true Bayard. It was 
 he who gave the advice, and executed it, of advancing on the 
 enemy like hunters, or like foragers, pell-mell, hands low, 
 arms shortened, masters, valets, officers, cavalry, infantry, all 
 together. This French vivacity, of which so much is said, 
 nothing resisted ; it was an affair of ten minutes to win the 
 battle with that thrust. The big English battalions turned 
 their backs to it, and, to tell it briefly, we killed fourteen 
 thousand. It is true that the cannon have the honour of 
 that hoiTible butchery. Never have so many cannon and 
 such heavy ones been fired in a general battle as at Fon- 
 tenoy. There were one hundred, monsieur. It seems that 
 these poor enemies had allowed all sorts of things most in- 
 jurious for them to be brought up, — cannon from Douai, 
 gendarmerie, mousquetaires. 
 
 " At this last charge of which I was telling you, one inci- 
 dent must not be forgotten : Monseigneur the daupliin, from 
 a natural impidse, took sword in hand with the prettiest
 
 390 JOURNAL AND MEMOIRS OP [chap. x. 
 
 grace in the world, and wanted to charge ; they begged him 
 to do no such thing. After that (to tell you the evil as well 
 as the good) I remarked a habit, too quickly acquired, of 
 seeing tranquilly on a battlefield the naked dead, enemies in 
 their death-throes, smoking wounds. For myself, I own my 
 heart failed me and I needed a flask. I observed our young 
 heroes well; I found them too indifferent in this respect; 
 I fear, as the result of such a life, that a taste will develop 
 for this inhuman butchery. 
 
 " Triumph is the finest thing in the world ; the Vive le 
 Roi! the hats in the ah on the points of the bayonets, the 
 compliments of the master to his warriors, the visit to the 
 intrenchments, the redoubts, the village all intact, the joy, 
 the glory, the tenderness ! — But the ground of all this is 
 human blood and fragments of human flesh. 
 
 " At the close of the triumph the king honoured me with 
 a conversation on peace. I despatched the couriers. The 
 king amused himself much in the trenches yesterday; he 
 was often fired at ; he stayed there three hours. I worked 
 in my cabinet, which is my trench ; for I own that I with- 
 draw to my routine from all these dissipations. I tremble 
 at the volleys that I hear. But I went yesterday to see the 
 trenches in my own little private way. They are not very 
 interesting by day. This morning we are to have a Te Deum 
 in a tent, with a general salvo from the army, which the 
 king is to view from Mount Trinity. It will be fine." 
 
 [Reply of Voltaire.^ 
 
 " May 20, 1745. 
 
 " You tiave written, Monseigneur, a letter such as Mme. de 
 S^vigne would have written had she been on a field of battle. 
 I have just given battle also, and I have had more trouble 
 in singing the victory than the king had in winning it.
 
 1744-1747] THE MARQUIS D'ARGENSON. 391 
 
 M. Bayard de Eichelieu will tell you the rest. You will 
 see that the name of Argeuson has not been forgotten. 
 [Allusion to his 'Poeme de Foutenoy.'] In truth you 
 have rendered that name very dear to me ; the two brothers 
 are rendering it glorious. Adieu, monsieur ; I have a fever 
 as the result of having sounded the trumpet. I adore you."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Projected Memoirs of Ministry beginning at the end 
 OF 1744, AND ending at the beginning of 1747, IN 
 
 FOUR volumes. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 Preface and plan of the work. Art. 1. Maxims of the ministry 
 of Foreign Affairs. Art. 2. Characters of the princijDal person- 
 ages. Art. 3. Tableau of general affairs in November, 1744. 
 Art. 4. Pirst measures taken by this ministry. Art. 5. Jubilee 
 of April, 1745. Art. 6. Interests of France with Spain at the 
 close of the reign of Philip V. Art. 7. How the declaration 
 of a general peace became difficult after France declared war 
 against England and the Queen of Hungary. Art, 8. Affairs 
 of Scotland. Enterprises of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Use- 
 less attempts for reconciliation with England. Art. 9. Affairs 
 with the Republic of the United Provinces. Art. 10. State of 
 our affairs with Bavaria. Federal Union of Frankfort. Death of 
 the Emperor Charles VII. Treaty of Fuessen. Art. 11. Affairs 
 of Prussia. Her alliances with France. Difficulty of preserving 
 them. Art. 12. Affairs with the Elector Palatine, with the 
 Elector of Cologne and the Governor of Hesse. 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 Art. 1. Affairs with the Empire in general. Election of the 
 
 Grand-duke of Tuscany to the Empire of Germany. Art. 2. 
 
 Affairs with the Court of Saxony and with Poland. Art. 3. 
 
 Affairs with Sweden. Art. 4. Affairs with Denmark, renewal of 
 
 Ver. 2 — 26 Mem.
 
 394 APPENDIX. 
 
 the treaty. Art. 5. Affairs with Russia. Art, 6. Affairs with 
 Genoa. Treaty of Aranjuez. Art. 7. Affairs with the Duke of 
 Modena. Art. 8. Affairs Avith Naples. Art. 9. Affairs of Rome, 
 i\Ialta, Venice, and the Helvetic body. Art. 10. Affairs of Portu- 
 gal. Art. 11. Affairs with the Ottoman Porte. Art. 12. Nego- 
 tiations at Dresden for a general peace. 
 
 VOLUME III. 
 
 Art. 1. Negotiations of Champeaux at Turin, Articles signed. 
 Art. 2. Affairs of Spain till the death of Philip V. and our first 
 Dauphine. Embassy of Marechal de Noailles to Madrid. Art. 3. 
 Continuation of the affairs of England and Scotland. Art. 4. 
 Negotiations for a general peace. Conference at Dresden. Art. 5. 
 Conduct of Prance with the King of Prussia after the private 
 peace signed at Hanover and Dresden. Art. 6. Continuation of 
 the affairs of Bavaria from the treaty of Fuessen to February, 1747. 
 Means proposed to re-establish the electorate. Art. 7. Continua- 
 tion of affairs with the Elector-Palatine. Affair of Seltz. Art. 8. 
 Affairs with Cologne, Liege, and Wlirtemberg. Art. 9. Neutral- 
 ity of the empire. Art. 10. Continuation of affairs with Sweden. 
 General Diet. Negotiation for a treaty of subsidies. Art. 11. 
 Affairs with Denmark. Observations on our treaty with the new 
 King of Denmark. Art. 12. Continuation of affairs with Russia. 
 Art. 13. Continuation of affairs with Genoa. 
 
 VOLUME IV. 
 
 Art. 1. Affairs with the Duke of ]\Iodena. Art. 2. Continua- 
 tion of affairs with Rome, Venice, Malta, and Switzerland. Art. 3. 
 Court of Naples, change of prime-minister. Art. 4. Affairs with 
 the Court of Spain after the death of Philip V. Art. 5. Affairs 
 with Portugal. Negotiations of the Court of Spain at Lisbon for 
 a private peace with England. Art. 6. Diet of Poland. Court of 
 Dresden. Art. 7. Second marriage of the dauphin with the 
 Princess of Saxony. Art. 8. Continuation of affairs with the 
 Ottoman Porte. Art. 9. Retirement of the Marquis d'Argenson. 
 Chronology of the principal political aud military acts during his
 
 APPENDIX. 395 
 
 ministry. Incidents of the Eight Years' War, drawn from tlie 
 negotiations of Sweden and Prussia. 
 
 These manuscript Memoirs, the greater part of which are in the 
 form of mere Notes, with verifying documents inserted here and 
 there among them, bear the number 57 in the Collection of the 
 Marquis d'Argenson's papers preserved in the Library of the 
 Louvre. Parts of them are missing altogether.
 
 INDEX TO VOL. I. 
 
 Academy (The French), its occupatiou 
 for one year, 139. 
 
 Aguesseac ( Henri-Frangois d'), chan- 
 cellor, learned, but ignorant of men, 
 135, 136. 
 
 Amelot (M.), succeeds M. Chauvelin 
 as minister of Foreign Affairs, 10.5; 
 his wife's silly speech, 110; a tool of 
 Maurepas, 325 ; dismissed, 327. 
 
 Appendix. Projected Memoirs of 
 d'Argenson's Ministry, 393-395. 
 
 Argenson (Rene de Voyer d') grand- 
 father of the Marquis d'Argenson, 
 ambassador in Venice, 41. 
 
 Argenson (Marc-Rene' de Voyer d'), 
 lieutenant-general of police and 
 Keeper of the Seals : the beginning 
 of his fortune, 41 ; his characteris- 
 tics, 43 ; comes to Paris and rises to 
 be lieutenant-general of police 45, 
 46, 47 ; secrecy with which he con- 
 ducted his office, 48 ; his services to 
 the Regent, 53. 
 
 Argenson (Rene'-Louis, Marquis d'), 
 quarrel with tutor, 47 ; school life, 
 48, 49; gives up playing cards, 51 ; 
 is intendant of Hainaut, useful in- 
 ventions, 51-53 ; affair with Mme. 
 de G., 57-60 ; with Mme. de Prie, 
 58-61 ; description of an arbitrary 
 intendant, 65-67 ; writes a memo- 
 rial on affairs of Church and State 
 which brings him into notice, 67, 
 68 ; connection with the " Entresol," 
 69-73 ; M. Chauvelin's interest in 
 him, 74, 76-78, 81-83, 97, 104; polit- 
 ical views, 85, 86 ; takes his seat at 
 the Academy of Belles-Lettres, 88 ; 
 
 description of his wife and their 
 relations to each other, 88-90; self- 
 examination, 91,92; expectation of 
 being Minister of Foreign Affairs 
 disappointed, 106, 107; appointed 
 Minister to Portugal, 111; declines 
 to go there, 122; the motto for his 
 fortune m life, 1 32 ; confession of 
 faith, 137, 146, 147; appointed with 
 two others a committee on affairs of 
 the University of Paris, 151-154; 
 arguments with his brother on State 
 Affairs, 156, 157 ; his letter to Chau- 
 velin, 159-161; is asked by king 
 for a memorial on bull Unigenitus, 
 163; enjoys leisure, his philosophy, 
 the career he desires to run, 175-179 ; 
 advised to hold his tongue about de 
 Fleury, 201 ; describes his son, 228- 
 231 ; succeeds his brother as chan- 
 cellor of the Due d'Orle'ans, 237; 
 discussion of his own character, 258, 
 262, 263, 264, 266 ; statement as to his 
 property and difficulties, 305-308 ; 
 poverty without penury, 316; self- 
 judgment, 322, 323,324; advised by 
 his brother in case he should be made 
 minister of Foreign Affairs, 333 ; 
 is appointed by the king secretary of 
 State for Foreign Affairs, Nov. 18, 
 1744, 334 ; his journal stopped during 
 his ministry, 334 ; Memoirs of his 
 ministry, 334, 335 ; his letter to 
 Voltaire after the battle of Fontenoy, 
 387-391. 
 Argenson (Marc-Rene', Comte d'), 
 school days, 48 ; flings himself into 
 the Molinist party, 107, 108 ; sketch
 
 398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 of his character, 129-132; appointed 
 to the Council, 139 ; his ways of 
 thinking on public affairs, 156, 157 ; 
 his office of chancellor to Due 
 d'Orleans transferred to his brother, 
 237 ; made minister of State ; the 
 beginning of his career due to M. 
 Chauveliu, 304. 
 Aegensox (Marc-Antoine-Rene d', 
 Marquis de Paulmy), his character as 
 a youth, 228-230. [See Paulmt.] 
 
 Bachelier (Louis XV.'s valet), his 
 character and life, 114, 115; the 
 king's confidential relations with 
 him, 128-132 ; his character, 132- 
 134 ; keeps to himself ; is there really 
 a plan concocted between the king 
 himself and Chauvelin 1 190-192; 
 more and more the king's confidant, 
 194, 208; his secret manoeuvres, 274; 
 d'Argeuson's conversations with him, 
 288-290; deplores the king's miser- 
 able life, 293. 
 
 Belleisle (Charles-Louis-Auguste- 
 Fouquet, Due et Mare'chal de), char- 
 acterized, 362-365. 
 
 BouRBON-CoNDE (Louis-HeDri de), 
 " Monsieur le Due," prime-minister 
 after the death of the Regent, 59 ; his 
 life at Chantilly, 80, 123; his illness 
 and characteristics, 194 ; death of, 196. 
 
 Breteuil (Comte de), expectation of 
 being minister of war, 198, 199; 
 appointed such, 200. 
 
 Charolais (Mile, de), daughter of 
 Louis Due de Bourbon-Conde and 
 Louise, daughter of Louis XIV. and 
 Mme. de Montespan, lends her house to 
 Louis XV. aud Mme. de Mailly, 96 ; 
 her vile characteristics, 180, 181; on 
 bad terms with Mme. de Mailly, her 
 party sapped, 203-205. 
 
 Chartres (Louis-Philippe, Due de), 
 king takes a fancy to him, 171, 172; 
 his characteristics, 195; love affair 
 with Madame Ileuriette, 244 ; Cardi- 
 nal de Fleury thwarts it, 244-246 ; 
 his father jealous of him, 274. 
 
 Chauvelin (Germain-Louis de), Keeper 
 of the Seals, defined, 62-65 ; defini- 
 tion corrected, 65 ; pays attention to 
 d'Argenson, and advises him, 74, 
 76-78, 81-83, 97 ; rumours of his 
 dismissal, 98-101 ; his dismissal, 
 102-104; is supposed to influence 
 the king and direct affairs from his 
 exile at Bourges, 123 ; d'Argenson 
 expects his return, 127, 143; Bache- 
 lier, the king's valet, supposed to be 
 his agent, 133 ; d'Argenson's letter to 
 him, 159-161 ; his supposed influ- 
 ence over Louis XV. from his exile, 
 181 ; his disgrace like that of Fou- 
 quet, 212; his exile deepened, 314; 
 cau.se of this, 317-319. 
 
 Chateauroux (Marie-Anne de Mailly- 
 Nesle, Duchesse de), the king takes 
 her as his mistress ; her conditions, 
 309,310; parliament registers her 
 letters patent for the duchy of Cha- 
 teauroux, 324 ; is taken by the king 
 to the campaign in Flanders, 328 ; 
 dismissed by him on the insistence 
 of the priests, recalled on the king's 
 return, dies before she can go to him, 
 332 ; characterized, 355-356. 
 
 CoNTi (Louise, Princesse de), daughter 
 of Louis XVI. and Mile, de la 
 Vallicre, 143. 
 
 Court (The), folly and delusions of it, 
 245 ; depicted by a courtier, 270 ; the 
 ministry without head or plan, 294; 
 analy,sis of it, 335-341. 
 
 Dauphin (The), Louis XV.'s son, his 
 violent temper, 207, 208 ; anecdote 
 of, 256 ; characterized, 348-350. 
 
 Dauphine (Infanta Maria Theresa, the 
 first), characterized, 350, 351. 
 
 Dauphine (Marie Josephe, Princess of 
 Saxony, the second), characterized, 
 351-355. 
 
 England, quarrels with Venice, 112; 
 quarrels with Spain about the Ameri- 
 can colonies, 119. 
 
 "Entresol" (The), its brief history, 
 69-73.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 399 
 
 European Affairs, England and 
 Spain, 137; Italy, 104, 113; riots in 
 England, 154 ; Holland and England, 
 161; England and the Stuarts, 182, 
 183 ; England, France, and Spain, 
 185-187 ; comparison of the finances 
 of France and England, 187, 188, 216, 
 217, 220, 236, 237, 264, 265, 267-269, 
 276, 277, 282, 291, 296, 298, 300, 
 302. 313, 314; French defeated at 
 Dettingen, 323. 
 
 Fleurt (Andre' Hercule, Cardinal de), 
 friendliness to d'Argenson, 67, 68, 
 82; his relations with M. Chauvelin, 
 64, 78, 79, 98, 99 ; interferes with the 
 "Entresol," 71, 72; falls into the 
 hands of the Moliuists, 150, 158; talk 
 of making him pope, 165; king 
 shows aversion to him, 167, 168, 170; 
 why does he stay in office? 169; 
 request to the king about women, 
 183, 184 ; miserable state of his 
 ministry, 189, 190; his ministry de- 
 fined, 193 ; his enmity to d'Argenson, 
 193, 194; his vulgar joke on the 
 death of M. le Due, 197; compact 
 with the king, the Abbe de Vitte- 
 ment's prophecy, 198; renewed 
 rumour that he may be pope, 202 ; 
 his imbecility, impatience of every 
 one for his death, 246 ; his fear of 
 Chauvelin's return, 259 ; dislike of 
 d'Argenson, 260, 266 ; his ruse to 
 injure the Due d'Orle'ans, 278; his 
 feebleness, 301 ; still persists iu gov- 
 erning, 303, 304; his death, 312. 
 
 Foreign Affairs (The ministry of), 
 general measures taken by d'Argen- 
 son after his appointment in 1744, 
 365. 
 
 FouQDET (Nicolas), his fall, his char- 
 acter, and defence of him, 212-216. 
 
 France (state of), calamities, 5.5-57 ; 
 evils of the government, 79 ; need of 
 a navy, 119, 120; internal condition, 
 127, 128, 141, 154, 155, 163-165, 166, 
 167, 178; misery in, 217-223, 226, 
 241-243 ; riot at Bicetre, 243 ; misery 
 of the people, 247, 285, the evils re- 
 
 sulting from depreciation of the coin- 
 ago, 290, 298. 
 
 Gambling, in Paris, 144-148. 
 GiGON (M.), d'Argcuson's secretary, 
 description of him, 301. 
 
 Henriette (Madame), twin daughter 
 of Louis XV. ; twin of Madame Louise, 
 Infanta ; her love affair with the Due 
 de Chartres, 244, 246, 247. 
 
 Holy Roman and Germanic Empire 
 (Charles VI. Emperor of the), death 
 of, 251 ; discussion of the consequence 
 of his death, 252, 253 ; helpless alarm 
 of the French ministry, 253 ; War 
 of the Austrian Succession begun 
 December, 1740. 
 
 Infanta (Marie-Louise-Elisabeth de 
 France, Madame), her marriage to the 
 Infant Don Philip of Spain, 143. 
 
 Italy, d'Argenson's desire to see it re- 
 cover its independence, 104, 113. 
 
 Lambert (Marquise de), her death, 
 influence on the French Academv, 
 87. 
 
 Louis XV., 93 ; takes Mme. de Mailly 
 as his first mistress, 96 ; his nature, his 
 apatliy, 117, 118 ; shows some inclina- 
 tion for work, 124; his confidences 
 with his valet, 128, 132; appears in 
 public, 141, 142; his supposed inten- 
 tions on the death of Cardinal de 
 Fleury, 155-1.56 ; refuses to take the 
 sacraments at Easter, 157 ; shows 
 aversion to Cardinal de Fleury, 167, 
 170; fondness for building, 171, 185; 
 meanness to Mme. de Mailly, 175; 
 childishness and obstinacy, 175; otiier 
 characteristics, 179, 180; reads the 
 "Memoirs of Sully," 192; a mis- 
 taken prophecy as to the influence of 
 women over him ; the sacraments 
 refused to him, 195 ; how will he act 
 on the death of Cardinal de Fleury 1 
 198-200; incompreliensible nature, 
 228 ; discussion of his character and 
 conduct, 231, 232, 234-236; what is
 
 400 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 his real nature ? 246, 247 ; gloom, 
 foolish talk, 255; takes to tapestry 
 work and quarrels about it with 
 Mme. de Maillv, 262 ; yields to fear 
 of cardinal, 271 ; ruled by Mmes. 
 de Vintimille and de Mailly, 276, 
 280; distress at the death of the 
 former, 285, 286-288 ; his gloom, no 
 dignity or state at Court, 292-294; 
 inclines to piety after Mme. de Vin- 
 timille's death, 295 ; acknowledges his 
 son by her, 309 ; takes the third sister 
 for his mistress, 309 ; her terms ; dis- 
 misses Mme. de Mailly harshly, 310; 
 disgraceful sale of patronage by him, 
 311, 312; on Cardinal de Fleury's 
 death declares himself prime-minister, 
 312 ; works at first, 313 ; sends Chau- 
 veliu into deeper exile, 314 ; his 
 character investigated, 314, 315; is 
 his nature incomprehensible ? 320, 
 321 ; his sulkiness, his fatal self-will, 
 326 ; goes to the war in Flanders and 
 takes Mme. de Chateauroux with him, 
 328 ; alarming illness at Metz, dis- 
 misses Mme. de Chateauroux to ob- 
 taiu absolution, returns to Paris and 
 recalls her, 332. 
 
 Mailly (Louise de Mailly-Nesle, Com- 
 tesse de), first mistress of Louis XV. 
 96 ; rush of courtiers to pay their 
 court to her, 115, 116; her appearance 
 and nature, 134, 135; sharp answers 
 to the king, 171, 172; her condition, 
 174 ; behaves crazily (on discovering 
 king's amour with her sister Pauline), 
 180; her behaviour and gaudy ap- 
 parel, her ugliness, 206, 207 ; a broth 
 of love, 219; witness of the king's 
 amour with her sister Mme. de Vin- 
 timille, 228, 276-283, 285, 288; dis- 
 missed cruelly as a condition of the 
 king's amour with another sister, 310, 
 311. 
 
 Marie Leczisska (wife of Louis XV.), 
 calamities on her arrival iu France, 
 55-57 ; neglect of her by the courtiers, 
 118, 119; what would happen if she 
 were regent, 218 ; her irritability, 248 ; 
 
 mistaken treatment of king. 248-250; 
 her coquetry, regrets that she did not 
 marry the Due d'Orleaus, 322, 323 ; 
 analysis of her, 346-348. 
 
 Maria-Thekesa (Archduchess and 
 Queen of Hungary and Bohemia), 
 takes her hereditary possessions on 
 the death of her father, Charles VI., 
 254. 
 
 Madrevas (Jean-Frederic Phelypeaux, 
 Comte de), talk of his becoming 
 prime-minister, 116; characterized, 
 125 ; pleases the king, 202, 203 ; min- 
 ister of the marine and commerce, 
 his character, 325, 358-360. 
 
 Memoirs of the Ministry of the Marquis 
 d'Argenson from November, 1744, to 
 February, 1747, 334, 335 ; the Court, 
 335-341 ; the Kiug, 341-346 ; the 
 Queen, 346-348; the Dauphin, 348- 
 350; the first Dauphine, 350, 351; 
 the second Dauphine, 351-355 ; Mme. 
 de Chateauroux, 355-356 ; Mme. de 
 Pompadour, 356-358 , the Comte 
 de Maurepa-s, 358-360 ; the Due de 
 Richelieu, 360-362 ; the Mare'chal de 
 Belleisle, 362-365 ; general measures 
 taken by d'Argenson after his ap- 
 pointment to this ministry in 1744, 
 365-387 ; D'Argenson's letter to Vol- 
 taire after the battle of Fontenoy, 
 387-390; Voltaire's reply, 390, 39l' 
 
 NoAiLLES (Andrc'-Maurice, Marechal 
 Due de), makes friendly advances to 
 d'Argenson, 94, 95 ; his character, 
 333. 
 
 Orleans (Louis Due d'), son of the Re- 
 gent, proposal to make him prime- 
 minister, his character, 108-110; 
 unfounded rumour that he was to be 
 j)rime-minister, 126, 127; inclined to 
 monastic life, 195 ; his mental peculi- 
 arities, 238-240 ; disgust at what he 
 sees at Court, 250 ; makes d'Argenson 
 his chancellor, 259 ; quarrels in his 
 family, 261 ; characterizes his father 
 the Regent, 269 ; the Jesuits en- 
 deavour to entrap him, 277.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 40: 
 
 Orleans (Fran9oise de Blois, Duchesse 
 d'), widow of Regent, daughter of 
 Louis XIV. and Mme. de Moutespan, 
 239 ; her dark passions, 261 ; her 
 character, 272-274 ; animosity to 
 d'Argenson, 303. 
 
 Paulmt (Marc-Antoine-Rene, Marquis 
 de), son of the Marquis d'Argenson, 
 description of him and discussion of 
 his character, 228-230. 
 
 Pompadour (Jeanne-Antoinette Pois- 
 son, Marquise de) characterized, 356- 
 358. 
 
 PoRTOBELLO, taken by the English ; af- 
 fairs of Spanish America, 209-212. 
 
 Prie (the Marquise de), mistress of M. 
 le Due, governs France for two years, 
 her suicide, 58-61. 
 
 Prussia (Frederick William I. King of), 
 illness of, his hoarded wealth, 207, 
 208 ; death of, 223. 
 
 Prussia (Frederick the Great, King of), 
 his character, discussion of his future 
 acts, 223-226 ; wise conduct, 232 ; 
 signs a private treaty of peace with 
 Maria Theresa at Breslau, 302. 
 
 Regent (Philippe d'Orle'ans, the), his 
 obligations to d'Argenson's father, 
 53 ; his death, 54, 55 ; anecdotes to 
 show his affection for Louis XV., 144, 
 145. 
 
 Richelieu (Louis-Francois Armand 
 Duplessis, Due and Marechal de), a 
 schoolmate of d'Argenson, 48 ; inde- 
 cency of his house, 256 ; arranges the 
 king's amour with Mme. de la Tour- 
 nelle (Duchesse de Chateauroux), 
 311 ; becomes a great favourite in con- 
 sequence, 328 ; characterized, 360-362. 
 
 Sainte-Beuve, ( Charles- Augustin), es- 
 say on the Marquis d'Argenson, 1-38. 
 
 Saint-Pierre (Charles-Ire'ue'e-Castel, 
 
 Abbe de), his coiuiectiun with the 
 "Entresol," 71, 72; his conduct on 
 his death-bed, 319. 
 SouBisE (Charles de Rohan, Prince de), 
 a schoolmate of d'Argenson, 49. 
 
 Tencin (Gue'rin, Cardinal de), king's 
 bad choice of him for the hat, 149, 
 150 ; his character that of the Jesuits, 
 305; his dislike to d'Argenson, 320. 
 
 Toulouse (Louis-Alexandre, Comte 
 de), son of Louis XIV. and Mme. de 
 Moutespan, Cardinal de Fleury's in- 
 tention to make him prime-minister 
 stopped by his death, 126. 
 
 Toulouse (Marie-Victoire-Sophie de 
 Noailles Comtesse de), the king's 
 pious go-between with his mistresses, 
 206. 
 
 Translator's Note, 39, 40. 
 
 Unigenitus (the bull), agitation about 
 it renewed, 67 ; d'Argenson's two 
 opinions regarding it, 146 ; king asks 
 him to write a memorial on it, 163. 
 
 Vintimille (Pauline de Mailly-Nesle, 
 Comtesse de), marriage, 184 ; auger of 
 her husband at being married to her, 
 196 ; rules the king, 276; her illness 
 and death, 279-282 ; scandalous birth 
 of her child, 283 ; her plain speaking 
 to the king, insults offered to her body 
 after death, 297 ; the king acknowl- 
 edges his son by her, 309. 
 
 Vittement (Abbe de), his mysterious 
 prophecy regarding the king and 
 Cardinal de Fleury, 135, 198. 
 
 Voltaire, urged by Cardinal de Fleury 
 and He'rault to write for the Molinists, 
 begins to do so, but destroys what he 
 writes, 184; d'Argenson's letter to 
 him after Fontenoy, and his reply, 
 387-391.
 
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