[39] "The passion for republican institutions infected even the courtiers of the palace. Thunders of applause shook the theatre of Versailles at the celebrated lines of Voltaire-- "Je suis fils de Brutus, et je porte en mon cœur La liberté gravée et les rois en horreur." SÉGUR, tom. i., p. 253. [40] Plebeians formerly got into the army by obtaining the subscription of four men of noble birth, attesting their patrician descent; and such certificates, however false, could always be obtained for a small sum. But by a regulation of the Count Ségur, after the American war, candidates for the military profession were obliged to produce a certificate of noble birth from the king's genealogist, in addition to the attestations which were formerly held sufficient.--S. [41] Lacretelle, tom. v., p. 341. CHAPTER III. _Proximate Cause of the Revolution--Deranged State of the Finances--Reforms in the Royal Household--System of Turgot and Necker--Necker's Exposition of the State of the Public Revenue--The Red-Book--Necker displaced--Succeeded by Calonne--General State of the Revenue--Assembly of the Notables--Calonne dismissed--Archbishop of Sens Administrator of the Finances--The King's Contest with the Parliament--Bed of Justice--Resistance of the Parliament and general Disorder in the Kingdom--Vacillating Policy of the Minister--Royal Sitting--Scheme of forming a Cour Plénière--It proves ineffectual--Archbishop of Sens retires, and is succeeded by Necker--He resolves to convoke the States General--Second Assembly of Notables previous to Convocation of the States--Questions as to the Numbers of which the Tiers Etat should consist, and the Mode in which the Estates should deliberate._ We have already compared the monarchy of France to an ancient building, which, however decayed by the wasting injuries of time, may long remain standing from the mere adhesion of its parts, unless it is assailed by some sudden and unexpected shock, the immediate violence of which completes the ruin which the lapse of ages had only prepared. Or if its materials have become dry and combustible, still they may long wait for the spark which is to awake a general conflagration. Thus, the monarchical government of France, notwithstanding the unsoundness of all its parts, might have for some time continued standing and unconsumed, nay, with timely and judicious repairs, might have been entire at this moment, had the state of the finances of the kingdom permitted the monarch to temporize with the existing discontents and the progress of new opinions, without increasing the taxes of a people already greatly overburdened, and now become fully sensible that these burdens were unequally imposed, and sometimes prodigally dispensed. [Sidenote: DERANGEMENT OF THE FINANCES.]