One of the first, as it also was one of the most important and pressing, matters to which the Regent’s attention was demanded, was the financial condition of the country. The adoption of drastic measures was imperative. The national debt amounted to 3500 millions of livres, and while the revenue produced 145 millions, the expenditure of the Government absorbed 142 millions, leaving 3 millions with which to liquidate interest upon the national debt, or 1-10th per cent. A deficit of 150 to 200 millions was thus accumulating each year, and every resource which ingenuity could conceive having long ago been exhausted, the situation was daily becoming more difficult. The Regent, shortly after his accession, called a meeting of the Council for the purpose of devising a means of relieving the intolerable strain. National bankruptcy was suggested by a few of its members, notably the Duc de Saint-Simon. The Regent would give no ear to such a course, and waved the suggestion aside as alike dishonourable and disastrous to all possibility of good government. No one, however, seemed capable of offering any plan of permanent value. The schemes proposed were merely expedients promising temporary relief, and no other policy but one of despair being apparent at the moment, the Regent was eager for their immediate execution. A commission or visa was appointed to investigate the nature of the national debt, and, by classifying the claims, to bring order out of chaos. By methods, in many instances more rigorous than just, the national debt was reduced by 1500 millions, and interest was made uniform at the rate of four per cent. Of the 2000 millions at which the debt now stood, 1750 millions were funded, and the balance of 250 millions was converted into a general floating debt represented by _billets d’état_. A substantial reduction was thus made in the amount of interest payable by the Treasury; but, without an increase of permanent revenue, which, if it were to be accomplished by the imposition of fresh taxation, neither the Regent nor his Councillors would face, or without a reduction in expenditure to an extent which would have rendered the public service inefficient, the solution of the financial difficulty was as distant as ever. Recourse was accordingly had to two measures, which served the purpose of the moment. The first was the old expedient of debasing the coinage. With the ostensible object of having a new currency with the new king’s effigy, the old coinage was recalled. The fresh issue, however, was depreciated in the process to the extent of about 30 per cent., and the Government profited by the transaction sufficient to liquidate one year’s interest of the National Debt. The second device for replenishing the Exchequer was the establishment of a Chamber of Justice, a kind of inquisition for the investigation of the conduct of the tax-collectors. These men by their unscrupulous dealings, had come to be regarded as the evil