Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/650

Rh sword for the robe. Both his father and grandfather had been in the civil service of the state: his father was "prevot des marchands" at Paris, and won a high reputation as a magistrate and administrator. Turgot in his childhood was timid, and showed in company an absent and embarrassed air, from which he never afterwards entirely freed himself, and which in later life was some times unjustly attributed to hauteur. His mother, through excessive or injudicious efforts to correct these faults, ap pears to have aggravated them. He obtained his early education at the College Louis-le-Grand, and was after wards a student of the College du Plessis. He then entered the seminary of St Sulpice, and thence passed to the Sorbonne with the view of taking his licence in theology. But he decided finally in 1751 not to follow the ecclesiastical profession. His opinions were inconsistent with that calling, and he said " he could not consent to wear a mask all his life." He showed at this time an enthusiastic love of literature and powers of memory which are described as "prodigious," as well as a penetrating intellect and a sound judgment. We have the testimony of the Abb6 Morellet, who was then his intimate acquaintance and constant companion, to the singular purity, the simplicity, modesty, and frank gaiety which characterized him.

As prior of the Sorbonne (an honorary office conferred annually on some distinguished student) he wrote and delivered publicly in 1750 two remarkable pieces, one On the Benefits which the Christian Religion has conferred on Mankind, the other On the Historical Progress of the Human Mind. Having chosen the law as his profession, he was appointed in 1752 "conseiller substitut du procureur general," and afterwards " conseiller au parlement." The controversy arising from the refusal of the sacraments to the Jansenists by the archbishop of Paris being then agitated between the parlement and the clergy, Turgot wrote (1753) Letters to a Vicar-General on Tolei ation and a pamphlet entitled Le Conciliateur, in favour of religious liberty and against the interference of the temporal power in theological disputes. In 1753 he became "maitre des requetes." He discharged his professional duties with scrupulous purity and conscientious industry. He continued at the same time his studies in ancient and modern literature (including English and German), mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, and natural history, and frequented the salons of Madame de Graffigny (authoress of Les Lettres Peruviennes), Madame Geoffrin, and Madame du Deffand. Whilst he enjoyed the acquaintance and society of D Alembert, Baron d Holbach, Raynal, Marmontel, Morellet, Galiani, Helv6tius, and other notabilities of the time, he maintained his intellectual independence and refused to connect himself with any party or political group. About this time he also entered into relations with Quesnay and Gournay the principal members of the physiocrats. He was attracted to them by the similarity of their sentiments on social questions and their opinions on economic policy to those which he himself entertained. Turgot accompanied Gournay in 1755 and 1756 in his official tours of inspec tion as intendant of commerce, and on Gournay's death in 1759 he wrote his filoge. He then made a short visit to eastern France and a part of Switzerland. When he arrived at Geneva he went to see Voltaire at Les Delices, and formed with him what proved to be a lasting friendship. He contributed about this period several articles to the Encyclopedic. In 1761 the controller-general Bertin ap pointed him intendant of the generalite of Limoges. In that district the mass of the people were sunk in poverty and barbarism; the corve"es for the construction of roads and the transport of military equipages were oppressive; the country was depopulated by the requisitions for the militia; the taxation was excessive and unfairly distributed; the state of the roads was wretched; and the general condition of agriculture was deplorable. Turgot's administration of the district lasted for thirteen years, and was marked by a steady pursuit of the public good, and a firm resistance to inertia, prejudice, and corruption. In particular he strongly maintained the cause of the industrious poor, and insisted on a more equitable assessment of the public charges which pressed unduly upon them. With nobly disinterested spirit he refused to be transferred to other generalites in which the salary was higher and the administration easier. Rising above the common prejudices of the philosoplies, he sought the co operation of the clergy, both to inform him of everything relating to the circumstances of the people which it was desirable for him to know, and to explain to their flocks the nature and objects of the measures he proposed to put in operation; and he acknowledges that he found in them earnest and active auxiliaries. But he was not seconded as he ought to have been by the central Government, and had often to remonstrate with the Abbe Terray, minister of finance. During the scarcity of 1770 and 1771, which was particularly severe in Limousin, he devoted himself with untiring assiduity to the relief of the distressed, and, when he had exhausted such public funds as were avail able, incurred for the same object a personal debt of more than 20,000 livres. Shortly after the accession of Louis XVI. Turgot was appointed by Maurepas (19th July 1774) minister of marine, and in that capacity began at once to initiate important reforms and to conceive far-reaching projects. But he filled the post only for five weeks, being then (21st August) promoted to the ministry of finance. In his new office he addressed to the young king a declaration of the principles by which he intended to be guided: " No bankruptcy, no increase of taxation, and no borrow ing." Economy and wise management were to be his only resources. Fearing the opposition he must encounter, he appealed to Louis to support him. By a decree of the 13th September 1774, here-established free trade in grain within the kingdom, which had been suspended by Terray, and authorized the importation of supplies from abroad; the traffic in other alimentary substances was also relieved of many impediments, and various monopolies and exclusive privileges were abolished; the octroi taxation was reformed, public works promoted, and improvements in agriculture encouraged. Some of these measures were made the pretext for disturbances, known as la guerre des farines, which Turgot always suspected the Prince de Conti of having fomented. The riots had to be suppressed by armed force, and the energetic action of the minister against them was made a ground of attack by his enemies. The parlement had been weakly recalled by Louis from the exile to which in the preceding reign Maupeou had condemned it. It now constituted itself the organ of the resistance of menaced interests to the measures of Turgot, who would gladly have abolished it, providing in its place better political securities and courts of justice on a new plan. In January 1776 he presented to the king a memoir proposing, amongst other things, the abolition of the corvee, to be replaced by a territorial tax, from which the privileged classes were not to be exempt, and the suppression of the jurandes (exclusive trade corporations). The edicts for these purposes were submitted to Miromesnil, keeper of the seals, a secret enemy of Turgot, who, spurred on by Maurepas, wrote a memoir against them, and opposed them in the king's council. The courtiers, the nobility, the clergy, and the leading members of the industrial corporations now combined against the minister, and were joined by a large part of the common people, who did not understand his policy. The Count de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII., wrote a pamphlet, entitled The Dream of M. de