NECKER, James, a well-known statesman and financier of France. He was born on the 30th of September 1732, at Geneva, being descended of a respectable family, originally from the north of Germany. At the age of fifteen be quitted Geneva, and proceeded to Paris with a view to push his fortune in that city. He entered first into the banking-house of Vernet, and afterwards into that of Thelluson, of which he became the cashier, and at length a partner. On the death of Thelluson, he established a bank on his own account, by which he accumulated a very large fortune. After twenty years of unremitting attention to business, he married a Protestant lady of respectable family, but in reduced circumstances, the patrimonial estate having been lost in consequence of the revocation of the edict of Nantes. With this lady he appears to have enjoyed the highest degree of domestic happiness. A short time after his marriage, he was named minister of the republic of Geneva at Paris. In accepting of this employment he refused the emoluments which were attached to it, a degree of forbearance not very usual in public men, but in which he resolutely persisted during the whole course of his political life. Two works which he published, namely, an Eulogium on Colbert, and a treatise on the Legislation and Trade of Corn, greatly extended the reputation of his political talents; and he had fortunately succeeded in adjusting some differences between the East India Company and the crown, in such a manner as to receive the approbation of both parties, a circumstance which added to the weight of his character.

About this time the disorder in the state of the French finances had become so alarming, that it was found necessary to break through the routine of official promotion, and to choose able men for the public service wherever they could be found. These inducements so far outweighed the objections to Μ. Necker, as a foreigner and a Protestant, that, after some conversations with Μ. Maurepas, he was, in the year 1776, appointed director of the royal treasury, and, in the following year, director-general of the finances. The great object of Μ. Necker was to introduce order and economy in the public management. With this view he found himself compelled either to suppress useless offices, or to diminish emoluments; and his retrenchments drew upon him the enmity of all those who suffered by his economical reforms. A party was formed against him, chiefly composed of rapacious courtiers; and though the repeal of several most oppressive imposts had conciliated the general good will of the people, he was daily the object of malicious libels. His severe measures of economy had also excited the dislike of the minister Μ. Maurepas, although others ascribe his hostility to a different cause, namely, to his disappointment at not finding in Necker that subserviency which he expected from a person of his comparatively obscure origin, and a Protestant. Whatever was the reason, the minister was amongst the number of his enemies; and he is charged by Madame de Staël with secretly instigating those libellous attacks of which Μ. Necker now became the object. To enable him, according to Madame de Staël, the better to struggle with his opponents, he requested some signal mark of royal favour, such as a seat in the council, which was granted. This demand on the part of Necker gave rise to new and acrimonious discussions, in the course of which he tendered his resignation, after having been five years in office. Others give a different account of this transaction. Under the influence, it is said, of that passion for popular applause, which proved the torment of his life, he published, in 1781, the well-known piece on the state of the finances, entitled Le Compte Rendu au Roi, of which an immense number of copies were sold. Elated by this success, he made a demand for a seat in the council, but was objected to on the ground of his religion. Being persuaded that this scruple would be abandoned, he persisted, and offered his resignation, which was accepted; and in this manner, as is alleged, he became the dupe of his own presumption.

The enemies of Necker reproached him with indulging, during his short administration, his passion for popularity at the expense of the public interest. The great point which he laboured to establish in his Compte Rendu was, that there was no deficit in the public revenue, and that there was no necessity for additional taxes. In lieu of new impositions, he is charged with supplying the public necessities by the expedient of large loans; postponing, in this manner, the evil day, but accumulating on posterity an increasing load of debt, which, sooner or later, must be provided for by adequate taxes, and all this to procure a temporary popularity at the expense of his rivals. Notwithstanding these objections, he had numerous partisans, especially amongst the men of letters, who regarded his elevation to power as the triumph of philosophy and liberal principles over aristocratical prejudice.

After his resignation, he retired to Switzerland, where he purchased the barony of Coppet. In 1784 he published an able work, further illustrating his financial policy, entitled De l’Administration des Finances. This work, of which 80,000 copies were speedily sold, served to support the reputation of his plans, and also to keep together his adherents, whose numbers formed a counterpoise to the influence of his enemies at court.

In 1787 Μ. de Calonne convoked the Assembly of the Notables, and, in his opening speech to that body, impeached the accuracy of the statements contained in the Compte Rendu. It was not to be supposed that Μ. Necker would quietly submit to this charge. He sent a memorial upon the subject to the king, with various other papers, for the purpose of proving the correctness of his calculations. His majesty having read these documents, requested that they might not be published, a proposition which by no means suited the views of Μ. Necker. His statements were accordingly printed, and for this offence he was exiled, by a lettre de cachet, forty leagues from Paris.

Μ. de Calonne did not, however, remain long in power; and the Archbishop of Toulouse, by whom he was succeeded, was also obliged to resign, and to make way for Μ. Necker, the favourite of the people, who was reinstated in his former post in August 1788. A new and remarkable era was now about to open in the history both of France and of the world. The writings of the French philosophers and men of letters had gradually given currency to notions of constitutional freedom. The people could no longer endure, like their forefathers, the bondage of feudal privileges, by which the few acquired the power of oppressing the many. They had become jealous and discontented, and were deeply irritated at the insolence and oppression of the aristocratical body; and with those indignant feelings were mingled, in the minds of the popular leaders, the brilliant visions of speculative reform. But as long as the people wanted a legitimate organ through which their voice could be heard, it was clear that whatever[7:16:71] might be their feelings, they could make little impression on the measures of the state. What was wanting in this respect was now about to be supplied; and the popular voice, hitherto so little considered, was, through the representative body, to become the pre-eminent influence in the government. At this period the French government was assailed by a complication of difficulties, the chief of which was the impracticability of raising the necessary supplies, and the danger of an immediate bankruptcy. A great scarcity also prevailed at Paris, which rendered the populace unusually discontented and tumultuous. In this emergency various expedients were suggested; and the convocation of the states-general, which had long been talked of, was advised by Μ. Necker, as likely to give general satisfaction to the people. In assenting to this proposition, it was the plan of the court that the different orders of the clergy, nobility, and commons, should vote in separate chambers, in order that the deputies of the commons might be controlled by the other two bodies. But the popular leaders were by far too penetrating to allow their influence to be annihilated by this device. They determined, from the beginning, that the three orders should sit and vote together; and it is well known that, after various fruitless efforts to bring about this union, the commons resolved to form themselves into an assembly for the despatch of business, without regard to the other two chambers. This decisive step proved effectual, and the three chambers at length all met and voted in one house, by which the whole power was thrown into the hands of the commons.

During these transactions, the king and his advisers pursued a weak and vacillating policy. They perceived, when it was too late, the error they had committed, or supposed themselves to have committed, in putting into the hands of the people the powerful weapon of a representative body. But instead of yielding to the necessity of circumstances, and conciliating this new power, which could no longer be resisted, by conceding with a good grace every just demand of constitutional right, they endeavoured to recover the ground which they had for ever lost, vainly struggling against the power of the commons, and meditating even the most violent measures for the recovery of their authority. It was in pursuance of these views that troops were drawn from the most distant parts, and encamped around Paris; a measure, the only construction that could be put upon which was, that it was intended to overawe the deliberations of the assembly, or, perhaps, to dissolve it at once at the point of the bayonet. These violent courses Μ. Necker opposed, and he was accordingly dismissed on the 11th of July 1789, and ordered to quit the kingdom in twenty-four hours. This order he obeyed with equal secrecy and despatch, and had arrived at Brussels before it was generally known in Paris that he was out of office.

It is impossible to describe the consternation which prevailed in the capital when the dismission and exile of this favourite minister was made known. The person who first communicated the intelligence was considered as a madman, and with difficulty escaped some harsh treatment; and the event was no sooner confirmed, than all the shops and places of amusement were shut up, and his bust, along with that of the Duke of Orleans, was paraded through the streets, dressed in mourning. These proceedings were interrupted by a German regiment; the busts were broken in pieces; and in the course of the tumult one man lost his life, whilst others were wounded. Fresh troops arriving, a serious conflict now ensued; and an old man being cut down in the Tuilleries by an officer of distinction, the populace were enraged to the highest pitch, and being joined by the French guards, who deserted their officers, they at last succeeded in overpowering the Germans. New outrages and tumults succeeded; the Bastille was stormed; and the capital became the scene of bloody massacres, whilst the people’s minds were at the same time filled with dismay at the near approach of foreign troops, from whom they apprehended nothing less than the sack of the city. In the midst of these alarms, they beseeched the assembly to intercede with the king for the recall of their favourite minister. The necessity of complying with this demand was at length perceived by the king, and a letter was written to Μ. Necker, requesting him to return.

Μ. Necker was at Basle when he received this letter, with the request contained in which he resolved immediately to comply. His progress to Paris was one continued triumph. He was cheered as he passed through the different towns by the acclamations of multitudes, who hailed him as their deliverer. This popularity, however, was not of long duration. Being alarmed by the·excesses which had already taken place, Μ. Necker became desirous to support the authority of the sovereign; and, without conciliating the confidence of the king’s friends, he lost that of the popular party. By the royalists he was always hated; he now became an object of suspicion to the more violent patriots, and was reproached as an aristocrat. Seeing his popularity on the decline, he resolved to retire; and he accordingly wrote a letter to the assembly, pleading the necessity of repose for the restoration of his health. No notice was taken of this letter; and his personal safety being now in danger from the violence of the people, he quitted Paris in the month of December 1790, having withdrawn in the most private manner possible.

i After the loss of his power and popularity, Μ. Necker seems to have sunk into the greatest dejection. “I could have wished,” says Mr Gibbon, who passed some days with him about this period, “to have exhibited him as a warning to any aspiring youth possessed with the demon of ambition. With all the means of private happiness in his power, he is the most miserable of human beings; the past, the present, and the future, are equally odious to him. When I suggested some domestic amusements, he answered with a deep tone of despair, ‘ In the state in which I am, I can feel nothing but the blast which has overthrown me.’”

But his mind was soon diverted from the disappointments of ambition by domestic griefs of a more poignant nature; his wife, to whom he was deeply attached, dying after a long illness, in which he attended her with great affection. He had now recourse to writing to divert his melancholy; and several works, which he published, were the fruits of his labours. He died at Coppet, on the 9th of April 1804, after a short but painful illness. His public character is, of course, differently estimated, according to the political views of parties. In his private and domestic relations he was amiable and affectionate, and appears to have been greatly beloved.

His writings, besides those already mentioned, are the following: An Answer to the Memorial of the Abbé Morellet, on the East India Company, 1769; Memorials on the Provincial Administrations, 1781; Answer to the Speech pronounced by Μ. de Calonne to the Assembly of Notables, 1787; New Explanations on the Compte Rendu, 1788; Of the Importance of Religious Opinions, 1788; Observations on the Introduction to the Red Book, 1790; On the Administration of Μ. Necker, by Himself, 1791; On the Executive Power in Great States, 1791; On the French Revolution, 1796; Course of Religious Morality, 1800; Last Views of Politics and Finance. (See Dictionnaire Universelle, article Necker ; Biographie Universelle, article Necker ; Mémoires sur la Vie Privée de mon Pere, par Madame la Baronne de Staël-Holstein, suivis des Mélanges de M. Necker.) [7:16:72]Necker Isles, a group of small islands in the South Pacific Ocean, nine in number. They were discovered and so denominated by Perouse. The principal island is about 500 toises in length, and sixty in elevation. Long. 162. 32. W. Lat. 23. 31. N.