Necessity has recalled this man to the ministry: and it must be
confessed, that he is beyond comparison a less mischievous minister
than his predecessors. I would compare him to a steward, who, by his
management, does not entirely ruin his master, but who enriches himself
at his expense. The desire of glory should inspire him as much as
possible with the energy requisite for the public business. There is
every likelihood that his ministry will not endure long enough, to cause
it to feel the effects of his false principles of administration: and
it is he alone who is able, if any one can, to preserve order in the
finances, until the reform is effected which we hope from the assembling
of the States General. In the mean time, the public estimation of his
talents and virtue is not so high as it has been. There are persons who
pretend that he is more firmly established in public opinion than he
ever was. They deceive themselves. The ambitious desire he has always
manifested of getting again into the administration, his work on the
Importance of Religious Opinions, and the Memoires of M.
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