The day after the suppression of the Council of State a new body was established, called the Council of Conferences, but it had no real power. The members, who were the heads of the different departments of the state, and all Struensee's nominees, met when commanded to do so by the King, and expressed their views on such business as was laid before them, advised on matters of form, and sent in their reports in writing. As these reports all passed through Struensee's hands in his new office of Master of Requests, they were very useful to him; they set him right in matters of detail, and gave him the information he required without his seeming to seek it. As that shrewd observer, Gunning, wrote: "This is no ill-timed political scheme for those at the helm, who will, by this method, be able to gain considerable lights without suffering any one to have access to the King, their master, but themselves".[154] [154] Gunning's despatch, January 1, 1771. The abolition of the Council of State, though it was so drastic a measure, was greeted with applause by the people--the burghers and the peasants--who had long groaned under the tyranny of the nobility, and had come to look upon them as the cause of all their ills. The royal decree of course called forth a tremendous uproar from the privileged classes, and if the nobles could have conferred together the situation might have become dangerous. But Struensee hit on a very ingenious plan for driving them out of Copenhagen. Most of them were heavily in debt, and under the old order of things had set their creditors at defiance. Struensee, therefore, obtained an order from the King, decreeing that any creditor could arrest his debtor, if unable to pay at the time of demand, and keep him in prison until the debt was discharged. In a very short time nearly all the nobility were hurrying from the capital to their country seats. Having scattered them, Struensee took a further step to prevent them from returning to Copenhagen. He issued a decree, signed by the King, to the effect that it was undesirable to encourage the flocking to court of persons who hoped to make their fortunes there, for it only tended to ruin and impoverish the country districts, and entail great expense on the King. It would be much better for the nobility, who did not desire official employment, to remain on their estates and spend their money there instead of coming so much to the capital; and those nobles who desired employment in the future must first qualify themselves for it in subordinate posts. In giving these appointments the King, henceforth, would be guided entirely by service and merit, and pay no regard to favour or backstairs influence.