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who, in the midst of political agitations, have never lost sight of the great interests of the soul, and of their own thoughts; but my father suffered his work to appear at a moment particularly unfavourable to the opinions he maintained, and all Mr. Necker's precision in matters of calculation was necessary to rescue him from the imputation of a visionary, in employing himself on such a subject. There is, in all periods, a virtue which is deemed silliness; it is that which is truly a virtue, because it can answer no purpose of speculation.

The second administration of Mr. Necker, from the 25th of August, 1788, to the 14th of July, 1789, was precisely the period when a party among the French started into action. The history of the revolution proves that this party was always mistaken as to its true interests, the tendency of events, and the characters of men; but it seems already acknowledged, by all who know the character and conduct of Mr. Necker, that he never harboured a thought of promoting a revolution in France. In theory, it was his belief, that the best social order of a great state was a limited monarchy, resembling that of England: this opinion predominates in all his writings; and whatever may be a reader's political creed, it cannot, I think, be denied that a love of order and liberty shines in them with the united force of wisdom and elevation of soul: but my father's political opinions were, like himself, entirely controlled by morals; he had duties towards his king as a minister; he feared the consequences of any insurrectional movement whatever, which might endanger the repose and the lives of men; and if he was to be reproached as a statesman, in the vulgar sense of the word, it was in being as scrupulous in his means as in his ends, and in placing morality not only in the object desired, but also in the road to its attainment. How could a man of such a character, being the king's minister, suffer himself to be the instrument of a re

volution which was to subvert the throne? Without doubt he loved liberty; where is the man of genius and character that does not! But duty always appeared to him more celestial in its origin, than the noblest of human sentiments; and in the order of duties, the most imperious are those which connect us individually; for the more extensive the relation, the less precise is the obligation.

In accepting the helm of affairs, Mr. Necker told the king, that if the government should ever fall into circumstances that might seem to require the severe and violent will of a Richelieu, he was not the man to suit him; but that if reason and morals were enough, he might yet render him good service. When enlightened men shall study the French revolution, when all those who have had a part in it shall no longer exist, the political conduct and writings of Mr. Necker will revive a question, old it is true, but always worthy the attention of mankind : Whether virtue is compatible with politics; whether it can ever be of advantage to nations that the small number who govern them should sometimes depart from the strict line of moral rectitude? The answer to this question is the verdict on the life of Mr. Necker; but supposing he be on this point condemned as a public man, surely that condemnation is glorious which only implies an excess of virtue: it is a suit which it would be honourable to lose, and on which an appeal might successfully be made to the experience of ages, to that experience which alone is equally weighty with that court on which it is to pass judgment, the conscience of an honest man.

Mr. Necker has continually repeated, in his writings, that the convocation of the states general was solemnly promised by the king, previous to his going into office; that the doubling of the numbers of the third estate was so far urged by the times, that the king must have shown himself uselessly unjust and dangerously unpopular, had he refused it.

Yet, what was my father's aim, in so earnestly repressing some of the claims he might have to the enthusiasm and gratitude of a great portion of the French nation? Was it to achieve the favour of the party called aristocratic? He had not sought that favour when that party was powerful; no doubt he disclaimed it still more in proscription and misfortune, but still he had never written any of those irrevocable maxims on political points which alone conciliate outrageous parties; he has always held those moderate ideas which so much irritate that class of men whose violent opinions are their arms and their standard. "Why then (I have often said to him) do you seek to diminish your merit in the eyes of the popular party; you, who have no pretensions to gain over their opponents?" "I wish (would he answer me) to express the truth, without ever considering my personal interest; and if 1 have any desire relating only to myself, it is, that it may be generally known, that I will never suffer myself, be my individual opinions what they may, to take any step as a minister, contrary to the obligations which, by my office, I have contracted with the king." And what more eminent proof could my father give of this respect for his duty to the king, than his conduct of the 11th of July, 1789!

It was known that in the council Mr. Necker had opposed the order that had been given, to collect German and French troops at Versailles and at Paris; it is known that he was disposed towards a reasonable accommodation with the commons, who, not having provoked any recourse to force, had not revealed the secret of the insurrectionary disposition of the troops, and had not annihilated the royal authority in teaching the people that the army was no longer in its hands; but a party which confidence constantly ruined, and who always ascribed to certain men difficulty which consisted in the general state of things; this party, I say, persuaded the king

that it was sufficient to change the ministry in order to smooth all these difficulties; and this inconsiderate measure, this vehement act, without any real force, without resolution of character to sustain it, led the way to the 14th of July, and from the 14th of July to the overthrow of the royal authority.

On the 11th of July, just as my father was going to sit down at table with a large company, the minister of marine came to his house, took him apart, and gave him a letter from the king, which ordered him to give in his resignation, and to quit France without noise. Every thing was conveyed in these words, sans bruit; in fact, the public was then so agitated, that if my father had suffered it to be discovered that he was exiled for the cause of the people, the nation at that moment would have elevated him to a very eminent degree of power. If he had nourished in his soul a spark of faction, if he had suffered the natural impulse of such a moment to betray him, his departure would have been impeded, he would have been brought in triumph to Paris, and all that the ambition of man could desire would have been at his command. The first cockade which was worn at Paris, after his departure, was green, because it was the colour of his livery: two hundred thousand armed men repeated the name of Mr. Necker in all the streets of Paris, whilst he himself was flying from the popular enthusiasm more carefully than a criminal would shun the scaffold. Neither his brother, myself, nor his most intimate friends, were informed of his resolution. My mother, whose health was very weak, took no woman with her, no travelling habit, for fear of awakening suspicion. They took the carriage in which they had been accustomed to take an airing of an evening, they travelled night and day as far as Brussels, and when I joined them three days afterwards, they still wore the same dress in which, after dining with a numerous party, and when no person suspected their mo

tions, they had silently withdrawn from France, from their home, from their friends, and from power. This dress, all covered with dust, the assumed name which my father had taken that he might not be recognized in France, and consequently retained by that affection which he had every where excited, all these circumstances impressed me with that respect which impelled me to prostrate myself before him on en tering the inn where we met*. Ah! that respect! I have never ceased to experience it in the most trifling circumstances of his domestic life, as well as in the greatest events of his public career. Justice, truth, elevation, simplicity of heart, in the minutiæ of his private life, formed his entire character.

It has been said, there are no he roes to those who see them familiarly, because the greater part of men, who have sustained a great political part, have not possessed any family virtues; but when you find the man of simplicity in the man of eminence, the just man in the powerful man, the good man in the man of genius, the man of sensibility in the illustrious man, the nearer you see him the more you admire him, the more plainly you discover the image of that Providence who presides in the starry heavens, yet disdains not to adorn the lily, or watch over the life of a sparrow.

My father has often been praised in the writings of his wife and daughter, though it had been easy for us to understand and to attain to that modesty in common, which is im posed on families; but we saw into his heart, and discovered in it virtues so constant and so natural, virtues so strictly in harmony with his public speeches and conduct, that our hearts felt a necessity of expressing that sort of domestic worship which was the business of our life, Oppressed by gratitude and love, we braved that vain spirit of ridi.

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cule which might be directed against the truth of our sentiments.

In quitting Versailles, Mr. Nec ker had not even taken a passport, to avoid admitting any individual into his confidence; he scrupulously rejected every pretext and every motive that might retard his jour ney. When arrived at Valenciennes, the governor of that city would not let him pass through without a passport; my father showed him the king's letter, the governor read it, and at the same time recognized my father, from the print of him he had over his chimney; he let him pass, sighing over the irreparable misfortunes which were to result from his departure.

It had been proposed to the king to arrest my father, because nobody could believe that he would take such direct precautions against that enthusiasm which he had excited; but the king, who has never failed to do justice to the perfect probity of Mr. Necker, expressed his assurance that he would secretly depart, if he ordered him. It is clear the king was not deceived.

In the morning of the 12th of July, I received a letter from my father, which announced his departure, and desired me to go into the country, lest I should receive on his account some expressions of public homage at Paris. In fact, deputations from all quarters of the city came the next morning to my house, and held the most exalted language on my father's flight, and on what was necessary to be done to compel his return. I hardly know what line of conduct my age and my enthusiasm might have prompted me at that time to pursue; but I obeyed the will of my father; I immediately retired to some leagues distance from Paris. A fresh courier from him instructed me in his route, of which he had still made a mystery to me in his first letter, and on the 13th of July Į set out to join him.

My father had chosen Brussels as a less distant frontier than that of Switzerland, an additional precau tion, that he might not augment the 6

chance of being recognized. During the four and twenty hours that we passed together, to make preparation for the long journey he had yet to make through Germany to return to Switzerland, he recollected that, a few days previous to his exile, Messrs. Hope, bankers, of Amsterdam, had required him to guarantee from his private fortune, from his two millions deposited in the royal treasury, a supply of grain, which was indispensable for the consumption of Paris in this year of scarcity. The troubles of France excited great anxiety among foreigners, and the personal security of Mr. Necker affording them the most perfect confidence, he did not hesitate to give it on arriving at Brussels, he was fearful the news of his banishment might alarm Messrs. Hope, and that they would suspend their supply. He wrote to them from that place, to renew his guaranty. Exiled, proscribed as he was, he exposed the greater part of what still remained to him, to preserve the inhabitants of Paris from the evil which the embarrassment and inexperience of a new minister might occasion them. Oh! Frenchmen! Oh! France! it is thus that my father has served you!

During the first labours of the short-lived successors of Mr. Necker, the principal secretary of finance, Dufrene de Saint Leon, was called on to present, in the ministerial correspondence, the answer of Messrs. Hope, which accepted of the first security my father had offered them. I do not know what the successor thought of this mode of serving the king without emolument, and of risking too his personal fortune for the good of the state; but can there be an instance of more nobleness, of more antique patriot ism, than even during exile to confirm such a sacrifice, to be so far exempt from sentiments the most natural to man, the desire that their successor should cause them to be regretted, and that their absence should be grievously felt?

My father set out, accompanied

only by Mr. de Stael, to go to Basle, through Germany: my mother and I followed more slowly, and at Frankfort we were overtaken by the messenger who brought letters from the king and the national assembly. These letters called Mr. Necker to the ministry for the third time. We seemed then to have reached the summit of prosperity: it was at Frankfort that I learnt this news, at that same Frankfort where a very different destiny awaited me fourteen years afterwards.

My mother, far from being dazzled with this success, had no desire that my father should accept his recal: we joined him at Basle, and there he made his determination. He suffered me to hear him speak relative to the motives of his decision: and I protest it was with profound grief that he resolved to return. He had learnt the events of the 14th of July, and felt perfectly aware that his part was about to change, and that it was the royal authority and its partizans that he would then have to defend. He foresaw that, in losing his popularity in order to support the government, he should never possess a sufficient power over its chief, surrounded as he then was, to direct him entirely in what he deemed most expedient. At length futurity, such as it was, presented itself to him. One duty, one hope, combated all his fears: he believed that his popularity might yet serve for some time to preserve the partizans of the old regime from the personal dangers that threatened them; and he even flattered himself, for an instant, with the hope of bringing the constituent assembly to make such conditions with the king as might give to France a limited monarchy. This hope, however, was far from being firm. He told himself, and he told us all, the chance that could annihilate it. But he dreaded his own reproaches, if by refusing his endeavours to stem the evil, he might have to accuse himself of all those calamities which he had not tried to prevent. This fear of remorse was all-powerful in

the life of my father: he was inclined to condemn himself whenever success did not attend his endeavours, he was continually passing a new It has judgment on his actions*.

Among the papers, of my father's eldest brother, who did not survive him long, a letter has been found explaining so simply and so naturally what my father then experienced, what he confided

to his most intimate friend at the most

remarkable period of his life, that I have thought it interesting to publish it.

Basle, 24th July, 1789.

I don't know, my dear friend, where you are, having no intelligence from Paris of a late date. I arrived here last Monday, the 20th of this month, and every day I have had some idea of seeing you arrive, because you would have taken this route on finding that I was going to Switzerland from Brussels through Germany. I went before mademoiselle Necker, with M. de Stael for a companion; and we have passed through Germany without accident under borrowed names. Yesterday, mademoiselle Necker and my daughter arrived, who have supported the fatigue of the journey better than I could have hoped. Mr. de St. Leon preceded them by some hours; he had sought me at Brussels, and had followed my route; he has brought me a letter from the king and states-general, pressingly inviting me to return to Versailles and resume my place. These circumstances have made me unhappy; I was just entering port, and I was pleased at it; but this port would have been neither tranquil or serene if I could have reproached myself with having wanted courage, and if I left it to say that such and such a misfortune might have been prevented by me. I return then to France, but as a victim to the esteem with which I am honoured. Mademoiselle Necker partakes this sentiment yet more strongly, and our change of plans is an act of resignation on the part of both.

Ah,

Coppet, Coppet, I shall perhaps soon have just motives to regret it! but we must submit to the laws of necessity, to the fetters of an incomprehensible destiny. In France all is in motion; a scene of disorder and sedition is just opening at Strasburg. It appears as if I were just about to plunge into the gulf. Adieu, my dear friend!

been thought he was proud, because he never bent either beneath injustice or power: but he was humbled by inward regret, by the most delicate temper of mind, and his enemies may learn with certainty that they have had the mournful success of bitterly disturbing his repose, whenever they have charged him with having been the cause of a misfortune, or with having been incapable of preventing it.

It is easy to conceive that with so much imagination and sensibility, when the history of our life is found to be mingled with the most terrible political events, neither conscience nor reason, nor even the esteem of the world, can entirely satisfy the man of genius, who, in solitude, anxiously directs his thoughts toI would advise wards the past. the envious to direct their spleen against fortune, beauty, youth, all those gifts which serve to embellish the exterior of life; but the eminent distinctions of the mind produce such ravages in the bosom that invites them, the human destiny can so rarely harmonize with this superiority, that it is a very unfit object of

hatred.

Yet, what a moment of happiness was this journey from Basle to Paris, journeying as we did, when my father had determined to return. I believe nothing similar to it has ever befallen a man who was not the sovereign of the country! The French nation, so animated in the expression of its sentiments, surrendered itself, for the first time, to a hope it had never before experienced, a hope which it had not yet been taught to limit. To the enlightened class, liberty was known only by the noble sentiments it excited, and to the people only by notions analogous to their troubles and their wants. Mr. Necker then seemed the harbinger of this longexpected blessing. He was hailed at every step by the warmest acclamations; the women fell on their knees at a distance in the fields the prinwhen his carriage passed; cipal citizens of the different places

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