forgotten, and nothing was remembered but his reverses, his
extravagance, and his cruelty.

The finances of the country were in a state of the utmost
disorder. A profuse and corrupt monarch, whose profuseness and
corruption were imitated by almost every functionary, from the highest
to the lowest grade, had brought France to the verge of ruin. The
national debt amounted to 3000 millions of livres, the revenue to 145
millions, and the expenditure to 142 millions per annum; leaving only
three millions to pay the interest upon 3000 millions. The first care
of the Regent was to discover a remedy for an evil of such magnitude,
and a council was early summoned to take the matter into
consideration. The Duke de St. Simon was of opinion that nothing could
save the country from revolution but a remedy at once bold and
dangerous. He advised the Regent to convoke the States-General, and
declare a national bankruptcy. The Duke de Noailles, a man of
accommodating principles, an accomplished courtier, and totally averse
from giving himself any trouble or annoyance that ingenuity could
escape from, opposed the project of St. Simon with all his influence.
He represented the expedient as alike dishonest and ruinous. The
Regent was of the same opinion, and this desperate remedy fell to the
ground.

The measures ultimately adopted, though they promised fair, only
aggravated the evil. The first, and most dishonest measure, was of no
advantage to the state. A recoinage was ordered, by which the currency
was depreciated one-fifth; those who took a thousand pieces of gold or
silver to the mint received back an amount of coin of the same nominal
value, but only four-fifths of the weight of metal. By this
contrivance the treasury gained seventy-two millions of livres, and