Memoirs of Popular Delusions Vol 1 | Page 7

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 all the
commercial operations of the country were disordered. A trifling
diminution of the taxes silenced the clamours of the people, and for the
slight present advantage the great prospective evil was forgotten.
A chamber of justice was next instituted, to inquire into the
malversations of the loan-contractors and the farmers of the revenues.
Tax collectors are never very popular in any country, but those of
France at this period deserved all the odium with which they were

loaded. As soon as these farmers-general, with all their hosts of
subordinate agents, called maltotiers [From maltote, an oppressive tax.],
were called to account for their misdeeds, the most extravagant joy
took possession of the nation. The Chamber of Justice, instituted
chiefly for this purpose, was endowed with very extensive powers. It
was composed of the presidents and councils of the parliament, the
judges of the Courts of Aid and of Requests, and the officers of the
Chamber of Account, under the general presidence of the minister of
finance. Informers were encouraged to give evidence against the
offenders by the promise of one-fifth part of the fines and confiscations.
A tenth of all concealed effects belonging to the guilty was promised to
such as should furnish the means of discovering them.
The promulgation of the edict constituting this court caused a degree of
consternation among those principally concerned which can only be
accounted for on the supposition that their peculation had been
enormous. But they met with no sympathy. The proceedings against
them justified their terror. The Bastile was soon unable to contain the
prisoners that were sent to it, and the gaols all over the country teemed
with guilty or suspected persons. An order was issued to all innkeepers
and postmasters to refuse horses to such as endeavoured to seek safety
in flight; and all persons were forbidden, under heavy fines, to harbour
them or favour their evasion. Some were condemned to the pillory,
others to the gallies, and the least guilty to fine and imprisonment. One
only, Samuel Bernard, a rich banker, and farmer-general of a province
remote from the capital, was sentenced to death. So great had been the
illegal profits of this man, -- looked upon as the tyrant and oppressor of
his district, -- that he offered six millions of livres, or 250,000 pounds
sterling, to be allowed to escape.
His bribe was refused, and he suffered the penalty of death. Others,
perhaps more guilty, were more fortunate. Confiscation, owing to the
concealment of their treasures by the delinquents, often produced less
money than a fine. The severity of the government relaxed, and fines,
under the denomination of taxes, were indiscriminately levied upon all
offenders. But so corrupt was every department of the administration,
that the country benefited but little by the sums which thus flowed into

the treasury. Courtiers, and courtiers' wives and mistresses, came in for
the chief share of the spoils. One contractor had been taxed in
proportion to his wealth and guilt, at the sum of twelve millions of
livres. The Count * * *, a man of some weight in the government,
called upon him, and offered to procure a remission of the fine, if he
would give him a hundred thousand crowns. "Vous etes trop tard, mon
ami," replied the financier; "I have already made a bargain with your
wife for fifty thousand." [This anecdote is related by M. de la Hode, in
his Life of Philippe of Orleans. It would have looked more authentic if
he had given the names of the dishonest contractor and the still more
dishonest minister. But M. de la Hode's book is liable to the same
objection as most of the French memoirs of that and of subsequent
periods. It is sufficient with most of them that an anecdote be ben
trovato; the veto is but matter of secondary consideration.]
About a hundred and eighty millions of livres were levied in this
manner, of which eighty were applied in payment of the debts
contracted by the government. The remainder found its way into the
pockets of the courtiers. Madame de Maintenon, writing on this subject,
says, "We hear every day of some new grant of the Regent; the people
murmur very much at this mode of employing the money taken from
the peculators." The people, who, after the first burst of their
resentment is over, generally express