“None should be exempted, but such only as received nothing but wages of the company, &c. &c.
“According to a calculation made hereupon, 300,000,000, will return into the royal treasury, without imposing any tax upon the people.
“The establishing of an ardent chamber to compel the farmers to produce their accounts, is not (according to this memorial) an infraction of the rights of the people, nor a breach of civil liberty. Fouquet, intendant-general of the finances, in the former reign, was by a private commission adjudged to be divested of those immense sums, which he had accumulated by monopolies,” &c. &c.
This memorial was not put in execution, any more than the greater part of those plans which have since appeared for the re-establishment of the finances. Much has been said in France of demolishing the farmers general; but when this scheme is to be executed no one dare assist, because those people have a great deal of money, and every body stands in need of them. I one day asked Marshal Saxe, who was very intimate with La Poupeliniere, what engaging qualities this farmer-general possessed, that could so much attract the Marshal. Madam, said he, he has one that to me is excellent; for when I have occasion for a hundred thousand livres, I find them in his coffer; whereas when I apply to the comptroller-general, he constantly tells me he has no money.
A prince of the blood said, that these people were beneficial, for the very reason that they appeared pernicious: for that since they were appointed, it is known where the riches of the state lie, whereas before no one knew where they were deposited.
The farmers-general got information of the memorial drawn up against the company, and another was penned to refute it. But this consisted of nothing but mere words. It chiefly displayed the utility of the company, who could instantaneously furnish considerable sums to the government in pressing exigencies: but the memorial took no notice that this money belonged to the state, and that the farmers are nothing more than agents to advance it, the money being raised upon the people.
M. de Belleisle, who read this answer, said to me, “These people, among whom there are many persons of sense, are so prejudiced in favour of their interest, that they are always extravagant when they are upon the subject of the finances. There is a capital error in the contract of the farms, which is, that it puts too much money into the pockets of a few individuals.”
I have often at Versailles met with advocates who pleaded the cause of the farmers-general: but I never met with any judges that were favourable to them.
In the midst of domestic affairs, which occupied the administration and afflicted the King, a thousand different people eagerly endeavoured to present memorials to me for promoting arts, and increasing manufactures. I was unacquainted with the particulars upon which they turned; I desired the minister, who was sometimes busy with the King, to acquaint me with the advantages which the state derived from the prodigious number of manufactures established in France.
“This, madam, (said this statesman) is a matter that would take great time to impart to you: it would be necessary to recur to the age of Lewis XIV. in which he made many alterations in France, and who was called Great, because he struck home great strokes.