"A deficit has been existing in France for centuries," the comptroller-general asserted.

It at last touched the figure of a hundred millions a year.

"What is left for filling up so frightful a void and for reaching the desired level ?" exclaimed M.de Calonne: "abuses! Yes, gentlemen, it is in abuses themselves that there is to be found a mine of wealth which the state has a right to reclaim and which must serve to restore order.

Abuses have for their defenders interests, influence, fortune, and some antiquated prejudices which time seems to have respected.

But of what force is such a vain confederation against the public welfare and the necessity of the state?
Let others recall this maxim of our monarchy: 'As willeth the king, so willeth the law;' his Majesty's maxim is: 'As willeth the happiness of the people, so willeth the king.'" Audaciously certain of the success of his project, M.de Calonne had not taken the trouble to disguise the vast consequences of it; he had not thought any the more about pre-securing a majority in the assembly.