ceased, the former re-appeared, and made his retreat inevitable. Obtaining
neither taxes nor loans, unable to make use of the plenary court, and not
wishing to recall the parliaments, Brienne, as a last resource, promised
the convocation of the states-general. By this means he hastened his ruin.
He had been called to the financial department in order to remedy
embarrassments which he had augmented, and to procure money which he had
been unable to obtain. So far from it, he had exasperated the nation,
raised a rebellion in the various bodies of the state, compromised the
authority of the government, and rendered inevitable the states-general,
which, in the opinion of the court, was the worst means of raising money.
He succumbed on the 25th of August, 1788. The cause of his fall was a
suspension of the payment of the interest on the debt, which was the
commencement of bankruptcy. This minister has been the most blamed because
he came last. Inheriting the faults, the embarrassments of past times, he
had to struggle with the difficulties of his position with insufficient
means. He tried intrigue and oppression; he banished, suspended,
disorganized parliament; everything was an obstacle to him, nothing aided
him. After a long struggle, he sank under lassitude and weakness; I dare
not say from incapacity, for had he been far stronger and more skilful,
had he been a Richelieu or a Sully, he would still have fallen. It no
longer appertained to any one arbitrarily to raise money or to oppress the
people. It must be said in his excuse, that he had not created that
position from which he was not able to extricate himself; his only mistake
was his presumption in accepting it. He fell through the fault of Calonne,
as Calonne had availed himself of the confidence inspired by Necker for
the purposes of his lavish expenditure. The one had destroyed credit, and
the other, thinking to re-establish it by force, had destroyed authority.

The states-general had become the only means of government, and the last
resource of the throne. They had been eagerly demanded by parliament and