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106 transports of delight. The working-men left their old masters in crowds, and celebrated their emancipation from the bondage of the trade-guilds. After repealing some of the most pernicious laws affecting the circulation of wine and corn in the country, Turgot shifted some part of the imposts on to the shoulders of the privileged classes. These changes, and the prospect of still more daring ones in contemplation, such as the introduction of a new territorial contribution, aroused the animosity of the rich and powerful. Unfortunately Turgot had failed to conciliate the partisanship of the popular party by his opposition to the convocation of the States-General, which was then its unanimous cry. His position having thus become precarious, Marie Antoinette procured his dismissal, and would, if possible, have had him locked up in the Bastile, for no better reason than that he had refused to bestow certain pensions on some of her worthless favourites. Had the nobles and clergy been gifted with some portion of second sight, they would have gone into mourning on that day in May of 1776, the date of Turgot's fall; as it was, they and their opponents were equally jubilant. A few thoughtful minds deplored the event, and among others Marie Phlipon, then a girl of two-and-twenty, wrote to her friend: "I have heard this evening of the resignation of M. Turgot; it vexed and stunned me. One of his financial measures has acted hurtfully on my father's affairs, and therefore on mine also; but it is not by private interest, that I judge him. He was so well thought of, so much was expected of his extensive views!" From his retirement at Ferney came Voltaire's cry, "I am as one dashed to the ground; never can we console ourselves for having seen the golden age dawn and vanish. My