In the course of the year, the Duc de Richelieu endeavoured to secure from the Allies a more solid and more general reduction of the army of occupation, in order to lessen the financial strain that burdened France, at a moment when she was oppressed by debt and afflicted by a bad harvest. He hoped thereby to render the King more popular. But he experienced considerable reluctance on the part of the British Government and of Wellington to agree to any such proposition, until the Chambers had proved by their acts that they were prepared to support the rule of Louis XVIII., and so “dissipate all reasonable apprehension as to the fulfilment of the late Treaty.”[99] The Duke, indeed, was at first much opposed to it, and wrote strongly against it from Cambrai even as late as December, 1816, being of opinion that any real reduction of the Allied forces would tend to excite the French malcontents, and do harm to the Royal cause and to good government, and that “we ought to reduce only gradually and in proportion to our casualties.”[100] A little later, however, being in Paris (January 9th), he modified his opinion on account of the successful negotiation of a French loan in London, which might “recall to the recollection of public men in France the obligations they owe to the Allied Sovereigns, and again reconcile them to measures which France herself, and not foreign Powers, rendered necessary.”[101] Under these circumstances, he proposed a reduction of 30,000 men (or one-fifth from each contingent), to be made on the 1st of April, 1817, and to be announced “in the manner most likely to produce a favourable effect on the public mind,” as soon as the budget passed and the measures for ensuring the loan were definitely adopted.[102] These proposals were accepted by the Allies, and were embodied in an official note, which was presented to the French Government on the 10th of February, 1817.[103] ----- Footnote 99: _Supplementary Despatches, etc._ , xi. 485, 506. Footnote 100: _Ibid._ , xi. 573. Footnote 101: _Ibid._ , xi. 592. Footnote 102: _Ibid._ , xi. 589, etc. Footnote 103: See _Annual Register_ , 1817, “General History,” p. 103, where the note is given _in extenso_. ----- In pursuance of these arrangements, six battalions returned to England, proceeding there by Calais, to which were added detachments of 200 men from each of the Guards Battalions, or about 6000 men in all. The staffs, moreover, of the Third Division (Sir C. Colville) and of two brigades (Sir R. O'Callaghan and Sir J. Keane) were broken up.[104] ----- Footnote 104: