This same wealth, which is at all times treason and lese nation to
indigent and rapacious despotism, under all modes of polity, was
your temptation to violate property, law, and religion, united in
one object. But was the state of France so wretched and undone that no
other recourse but rapine remained to preserve its existence? On
this point I wish to receive some information. When the states met,
was the condition of the finances of France such that, after
economizing on principles of justice and mercy through all
departments, no fair repartition of burdens upon all the orders
could possibly restore them? If such an equal imposition would have
been sufficient, you well know it might easily have been made. M.
Necker, in the budget which he laid before the orders assembled at
Versailles, made a detailed exposition of the state of the French
nation.*
* Rapport de Mons. le Directeur-General des Finances, fait par
ordre du Roi a Versailles, Mai 5, 1789.
If we give credit to him, it was not necessary to have recourse to
any new impositions whatsoever to put the receipts of France on a
balance with its expenses. He stated the permanent charges of all
descriptions, including the interest of a new loan of four hundred
millions, at 531,444,000 livres; the fixed revenue at 475,294,000,
making the deficiency 56,150,000, or short of L2,200,000 sterling.
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