The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 21
wvas to be chosen from the commons, or third estate, mical arrangements, by which lie proposed to proand the other named iby the nobles and clergy in vide for this deficiency, without either incurring
equal proportions, and which assemblies, without debt or burthening the subject with additional taxes.
l;aving tihe right of rejecting the edicts imposing new But althougll this general exposur1e ofthe expenses
taxes, were to apportion them amongst the subjects of the state, this appeal from the government to the
ot their several provinces. This system contained people, had the air of a frank and generous proin it much that was excellent, and might have ceeding, and was, in fact, a step to the great conopened the road for further improvements on the stitutional point of establishing in the nation and its
constitution; while, at the same time, it would pro- representatives the sole power of granting supplies,
bably, so early as 1781, have been received as a there may be d(lobt whether it was not rather too
boon, by which the subjects were called to parti- hastily resorted to. Those from whose eyes the
cipate in the royal councils, rather than as a conces- cataract has been removed, are for some time desion extracted from the weakness of the sovereign, prived of light, and, in the end, it is supplied to
or from his despair of his own resources. It af- them by limited degrees; but that glare which was
forded, also, an opportunity peculiarly desirable in at once poured upon the nation of France served to
France, of forming the minds of' the people to the dazzle as many as it illuminated. The Comz7pte
discharge of public duty. The British nation owe Rendet was the general subject of conversation, not
much of the practical benefits of their constitution only in coffee-houses and public promenades, but
to the habits with which almost all men are trained in saloons and ladies' boudoirs, and amongst society
to exercise some public right in head-courts, yes- better qualified to discuss the merits of the last cotries, and other delilberative bodies, where their medy, or any other frivolity of the day. The very
minds are habituated to the course of business, and array of figures had something ominous and terrible
accustomed to the manner in which it can be most in it, and the word dcficit was used, like the name
regularly dispatched. This advantage would have of Marlborough of old, to firighten children with.
been supplied to the French by Necker's scheme. To most it indicated the total bankruptcy of the
But with all the advantages which it promise(i, nation, and prepared many to act with the selfish
this plan of provincial assemblies miscarried, owing and short-sighted policy of sailors, who plunder the
to the emulous opposition of tile Parliament of Paris, cargo of their own vessel in the act of shipwreck.
who did not chuse that any other body than their Others saw, in the account of expenses attached
own should be considered as the guardians of what to the person and dignity of the prince, a wasteful
remained in France of' popular rights. expenditure, which in that hour of avowed necesAnother measure of Necker was of more dubious sity a nation might well dispense with. Men began
policy. This was the printing and publishing of his to number the guards and household pomp of the
Report to the Sovereign of the state of the revenues sovereign and his court, as the daughters of Lear
of France. Tile minister probably thought this dis- did the train of their father. The reduction already
play of candour, which, however proper in itself, commenced might he carried, thought these lprowas hitherto unknown in the French administra- vident persons, yet farther:tion, might be useful to tile king, vhom it represented as acquiescing in public opinion, and appearing
not only ready, bult solicitous to collect the senti- And no doubt some, even at this early period, arments of his subjects on the business of the state. rived at the ultimate conclusion,
Necker might also deem the Conzpte Rezcdte a
Wlhat needs ONE?
prudent measure on his own account, to secure the
popular favour, and maintain himself by the public Besides the domestic and household expenses of
esteem against the influence of court intrigue. Or the sovereign, which, so har as personal, were on
lastly, both these motives might be mingled with the the most moderate scale, the public mind was mtnuclI
natural vanity of showing the world thrat France en- more justly revolted at the large sumo yearly squlaljoyed, in the person of'Necker, a mriniister bold enough dered among needy courtiers and their dependents,
to penetrate into the labyrinth of confusion and or even less justifiably lavished upon, those whose
obscurity which had been thought inextricable by rank and fortune ought to have placed them ftar
all his predecessors, and was at length enabled to above adding to the burthens of the slbjects. The
render to the sovereign and people of France a king had endeavoured to abridge this list of gratuitdetailed and balanced account of the state of their ies and pensions, but the systemi of' corruption w\ich
finances. had prevailed for two centuries was not to be abolishNeither did the result of' the national balance- ed in an instant; the throne, already totter-ing, corld
sheet appear so astounding as to require its being not immediately be deprived of tile band cf' sticoncealed as a state mystery. The deficit, or tile pendiary grandees whom it Ihad so long mllainltained,
balance, by which the expenses of government ex- and who afforded it their countenance in retulrn, and
ceeded the revenue of tie coun:try, by no means in- it was perhaps impolitic to fix the attention of the
dicated a desperate state of finance, or one which public on a disclosure so peculiarly invidious, until
rmust either demand imlense sacrifices, or otherwise the opportunity of correcting it should arrive;-it
lead to national bankruptcy. It did not greatly was like the disclosure of a wastimg sore, useless
exceed the annual defalcation of' two imillions, a and disgusting unless when shown to a surgeon, and
sum which, to a colurtry so fertile as France, miglt for the purpose of' cure. Yet, though the account
even be termred trifling. At the satire timre, Necker rendered by the mninister of the finances, while it
broughlt forward a variety of reductions and econo- passed frorm the hand of one idler to another, and