Continue these splendid undertakings, which are an ornament to Paris, Bordeaux, Lyons, Nantes, Marseilles, and Nimes, and which are almost entirely paid for by those flourishing cities.

Look to your ports, fortify Havre, and create a Cherbourg, braving the jealousy of the English.

None of those measures which reveal and do not relieve the straits of the treasury! The people, whom declaiming jurisconsults so vehemently but vainly incite to speak evil of lavishness, would be grieved if they saw any interruption in the expenditure which a silly parsimony calls superfluous." The comptroller-general's practice tallied with his theories; the courtiers had recovered the golden age; it was scarcely necessary to solicit the royal favor.

"When I saw everybody holding out hands, I held out my hat," said a prince.

The offices abolished by M.Turgot and M.
Necker were re-established, the abuses which they had removed came back, the acceptances (_acquits de comptant_) rose in 1785 to more than a hundred and thirty-six millions of livres.