[966] ‘Laissant voir dans toute cette loi, qui est assez longue, qu'il regardoit non-seulement l'accroissement, mais l'existence de ces propriétés ecclésiastiques, comme un mal pour le royaume.’ Sismondi, Hist. des Franç. vol. xxix. p. 21. This, I suppose, is the edict mentioned by Turgot, who wished to push the principle still further. Œuvres de Turgot, vol. iii. pp. 254, 255; a bold and striking passage.
[967] Mably mentions the excitement caused by this proceeding of Machault, Observations sur l'Histoire de France, vol. ii. p. 415: ‘On attaqua alors, dans plusieurs écrits, les immunités du clergé.’ On the dislike felt by the clergy against the minister, see Ségur, Souvenirs, vol. i. p. 35; Soulavie, Règne de Louis XVI, vol. i. pp. 283, 310, vol. ii. p. 146.
[968] In 1750, ‘Machault obtint les sceaux en conservant le contrôle-général.’ Biog. Univ. vol. xxvi. p. 46.
[969] ‘Croyait surtout que le temps était venu d'imposer les biens du clergé.’ Lacretelle, XVIIIe Siècle, vol. ii. p. 107. Nearly the same words are used in Biog. Univ. vol. xxvi. p. 46.
[970] On which account, he still further provoked the indignation of the Catholic clergy. See Felice, Hist. of the Protest. of France, pp. 401, 402; a letter written in 1751.
[971] ‘The approach of the year 1760 witnessed a sensible relaxation of persecution…. The clergy perceived this with dismay; and, in their general assembly of 1760, they addressed urgent remonstrances to the king against this remission of the laws.’ Felice, Protest. of France, p. 422. Comp. an interesting letter from Nismes in 1776, in Thicknesse's Journey through France, London, 1777, vol. i. p. 66.
[972] Sismondi says of 1762, ‘Dès lors, la réaction de l'opinion publique contre l'intolérance pénétra jusque dans les provinces les plus fanatiques.’ Hist. des Franç. vol. xxix. p. 296. See also a letter to Damilaville, dated 6th of May, 1765, in Lettres inédites de Voltaire, vol. i. p. 412; and two other letters in Œuvres de Voltaire, vol. lxiv. p. 225, vol. lxvi. p. 417.
[973] Of whom Hume, several years before, had formed a very high opinion. See Burton's Life of Hume, vol. ii. p. 497; a too favourable judgment, which should be contrasted with the opposite exaggerations, in Mém. de Genlis, vol. ix. pp. 360–363, and Barruel, Hist. du Jacobinisme, vol. i. pp. 87, 199.
[974] Lavallée, Hist. des Franç. iii. 516; Biog. Univ. xxiv. p. 656.
[975] Georgel, Mémoires, vol. ii. pp. 293, 294; a violent outbreak against ‘l'irréligieux édit … qui autorise tous les cultes.’