"Finish," they said to Louis XVI., "the work which Louis the Great began, and which Louis the Well-beloved continued." The king answered with vague assurances; already MM.

Turgot and de Malesherbes were entertaining him with a project which conceded to Protestants the civil status.
M.de Malesherhes, indeed, had been for some months past seconding his friend in the weighty task which the latter had undertaken.

Born at Paris on the 6th of December, 1721, son of the chancellor William de Lamoignon, and for the last twenty-three years premier president in the Court of Aids, Malesherbes had invariably fought on behalf of honest right and sound liberty; popularity had followed him in exile; it had increased continually since the accession of Louis XVI., who lost no time in recalling him; he had just presented to the king a remarkable memorandum touching the reform of the fiscal regimen, when M.Turgot proposed to the king to call him to the ministry in the place of the Duke of La Vrilliere.

M.de Maurepas made no objection.

"He will be the link of the ministry," he said, "because he has the eloquence of tongue and of heart." "Rest assured," wrote Mdlle.