5429. MONOPOLY, Farmers General.—[further continued].
The Count de Vergennes
said that the difficulty of changing so ancient
an institution [Farmers General] was immense;
that the King draws from it a revenue
of 29 millions of livres; that an interruption
of this revenue at least, if not a
diminution, would attend a change; that
their finances were not in a condition to bear
even an interruption, and in short that no
minister could venture to take upon himself
so hazardous an operation. This was only
saying explicitly what I had long been sensible
of, that the Comptroller General's continuance
in office was too much on a poise to
permit him to shift this weight out of his
own scale into that of his adversaries; and
that we must be contented to await the completion
of the public expectation that there
will be a change in this office, which change
may give us another chance for effecting this
desirable reformation.—
To John Jay.
Ford ed., iv, 234.
(P.
1786)
