This decree appeared to be greeted with applause by all save the old nobles, for the heavy taxes which weighed down the country, were placed to the account of the privy council, and people were offended by the arrogance with which several members looked down on other persons, while they did not hesitate to render themselves the tools of licentious favourites. With the suspension of the council, the members were dismissed from their other offices as well. Rosenkrantz alone received a pension, which he owed to the intercession of his friend Frau von Gähler,--a proof of the still existing influence of certain ladies of the court on public affairs, although it had been announced that firm principles would be followed in everything. Rosenkrantz was also 14,000 dollars in debt to the Treasury. After their dismissal, the four ministers quitted the capital and retired to their estates.[139] On the day after the suppression of the privy council, a privy council of conferences was established. The idea of this council seems to have been derived from what took place in Russia during the reign of the Empress Anne, but it never attained any importance. The members met whenever requested to do so by the king, and then expressed their opinion about matters laid before them. The power was now once more collected in the sole person of the king, as had been the case with the first absolute monarch of Denmark and Norway, in 1660. His advisers in public business were, on the one hand, a man of bourgeois birth, who had not been trained as a statesman, but had risen rapidly; on the other, men, who liked reforms, and hence were regarded with hateful glances by all those whose interests they attacked. The results, however, attained by these advisers displayed some amount of talent. It seemed as if fresh life and order were being re-introduced into the state, if we can admit that such things ever before existed. A very wide field was also opened for ideas by the free Press. Still, months passed ere people ventured to employ it in discussing affairs of state. Numerous pamphlets appeared, but were of slight value. Gradually, however, learned men took up the pen, in order to take advantage of the liberty granted them, and publicly discussed important state matters, such as serfdom, corvées, the system of guilds, monopolies, the bank, the army, the university, Norway, Zeeland, &c. Most of these _litterateurs_ were anonymous, but among them were men of scientific reputation, such as Jacob Baden, Fleischer, Schumacher, &c. The majority of these essays clearly proved, however, how few sound and correct views about government had gained admission into Denmark at that period. That the press should also produce a countless number of pasquinades and abusive pamphlets, was only what was expected, and the good sale of such things, although their price was raised, at any rate furnished proof of a desire to read being