CHAPTER I - Turgot's Family - His Childhood - His Education - His Sorbonne

CllAPTER I. TURGOT'S FAMII#Y.-HIS CHILDIIOOD.-HIS F:nUCATION'.-TJlE SORllONNE. T URGOTJS family was one of the oldest in Nor mandy, and Cond<u:.cet tells us that, in the language of the Northern conquerors, his name means the giJd Thor. During the sixteenth century it had become divided into two branches---the Turgot des TouraiUes, and the Turgot de Saint-Clair. Their common ancestor, Louis Turgot, was moUre des nqllctes to Frnn)ois, Duke d'Alen -;on, and councillor at the presidiol (supreme court) of Caen. The eldest of his sons, Jean, was the first Turgot des TouraiHes; and the second, Antoine, was the first Turgot de Saint-Clair. One Turgot des Tourailles had to deal, as a soldier, in 16% I, with a certain l\Iontchretien, and this circumstance, singularly enough, brought into connection (or the first time the name of Turgot with that of the science upon which he has shed so much lustre.

~{ontchretien, son of a Falaise apothecary, a tragic author,and a soldierof fortune, had been commissioned.t nt the time of the rising at La Rochelle, by the Pro testant leaders, to summon together the Huguenots of 16 Tttrgot. Normandy. In a letter to Peiresc, dated Caen, October 14th, 162 I, M:alherbe thus describes the end of his expedition: H The event," says he, "which checkmated the Nor mandy rebels, has been the death of a man named hlontcbretien, who was the manager of all that business. About a week ago he came, at eight o'clock in the evening, accompanied by other fellows of the same quality, to an inn in a place called les Tourailles, twelve leagues off from here. Information was immediately given to the lord of the manor, of which the inn forms a part. He forthwith came with fifteen or twenty musketeers/' The band of rebels was dispersed, and the lord Qf Tourailleswho drove them away and killed their chief bore the name of Claude Turgot.

Now, that ~'Iontchretien, killed by a Turgot, had, besides his tragedies, written on industry and trade a work of remarkable sagacity; and that work bears the title, absolutely unknown then, of Trail;' rl'econo//lie P()lilique. It is the first time (1615) that a similar expression is used in our language to designate the science of politk..al economy, and the man who employed it before anyone else perished miserably by the hands of one who had the very name of the precursor of J. B. Say in France and Adam Smith in England.-the man, in shortJ. who shed so strong and so lasting a light on politiall economy, of which he is one or the founders.

Turgot's Ftl1Jli~y. The grandfather was Turgot the 'minister, descended from .Antoine Turgot de SaintuClair, but belonged to a younger branch. lIe had been ill/aulanl in the gillt.~ raJ/te of ~fetz and in that of Tours. His father, ~'lichel Etienne, was successively maUre des rei/llt/es,prh.l(jf dt"s marcnands (mayor) of Paris, member of the Aeatlbnle Ju itzscnptiollSd belles-ittlres,councillor of stat(~, and president of the grand ((}llSer1. Amongst his ancestors on his mother's side he counted Pierre Pithou, the celebrated jurist, of whom he was especially proud. lIe acquired a legiti~ mate celebrity as jJrl'1.lf)tdu martllal1ds. ' He undertook to improve the sanitary condition of the Paris swampswhich extended between the Houle"'ards and l\lontmartre, and ordered a large drain to be constructed, which bears his name. This drain still exists·~·partly, at least-under the Rue Saint~Lazare. 'Ve owe to l\lichel f~tienne Turgot one of the finest known plans (plans cQ'l.'alitrs; see Notes), and it bears his name; the fountain in the Rue de Grenelle was built, at his suggestion, by Bouchardon, whom he had trusted with the erection of it.

After having vacated his office, the prh..tQ/ dts mar" ellO/ldswas able to de\'ote to the administration of his property part of the leisure left to him by his duties ::lS councillor of state. His family estates were situated between Caen. Falaise~ Bayeux nnd the sea, in that part of Normandy represented now by the department of Calvados. These estates were raised to a marquisate in his honour, under the title of l\Iarquisate of Soumont.; after 18 Tzergot. the decease of the great minister, and with the view of bestowing further honour on his memory, the Turgots, Marquis de Soumont, were authorised to adopt the title of 1\farquis Turgot. The prh.llU des 11Iaychalldr did not reside at Sou mont, but at l.es Bons, Les BonsNTurgot, as Dupont de Nemours used to say, a small district not far distant from Soumont. Amongst the other plots of land, farms, and meadows which he possessed were those of Laulne and Brucourt, of which mty Turgot bore the name. At the Sorbonne he used to be styled the Abbe de Laulne; when he left it he took the name of Turgot de Brucourt.

The (ndteauofLantheuil, situated not farfrom LesBons, and which is, so to say, the cradle of the family, was then in possession of the elder branch, the Turgots de Saint~ Clair. It belonged later on to the ~larquis Turgot. The present ~larquis Turgot has gathered.together at Lan~ theuil all his family papers. He has been kind enough to show them to mc, and he has allowed me to consult them. 1 have had in my hands the first draft written by the great Turgot currente (alamo, and bearing some erasures, of the letter which he addressed to the king, August 26, 1774, for the purpose of placing under his, eyes, as he says, the engagement which he had made with himself to support him in his plans of economy. I thought I could hear the firm but feeling YOice of the great man, that voice so sweet when he was conversing with his friends, so stern when he was speaking to his adversaries. I have found in the same family records Turgot's rtl/llil)l. 19 numerous traces of the examination made by l\tales·· herbes ofTurgot's papers, after his death, for the purpose of selecting the notes, documents, and ~ISS. which were about to he given up to Dupont de Nemours. They were to be published by thnt gentleman's care, and to form the first edition of Turgot's works.

The prh.'ul du m(1r(nands died February 1st, 175I, leaving three sons tlnd one daughter. The eldest son entered the magistracy,tlnd was prhidelll (i lIloT/itT in the Paris parliament at the time of his death. The second, known as Ie Chtt'all~'f' TUTga/, was a sot/onl, an adminis~ trator, nnd a soldier; he was for a time gO~'ernor of Guyan.l. The third, lastly, is the minister. The da.ughter had married the Duke de Saint"Aignan. The third son, the reforming minister, was born in Paris, ~Iay Ioth t 1727. lie was studious) timid, and awkward. The bashfulness which characterised his youth never completely forsook him. ":My words arc somewhat confused,u he said one d~\y to Louis XVI, U but the fact is that I feel troubled.t' H I know thut you are limid,'t answeredthe king. He was educated at the College Louis~le~Grand; t.hen at the theological school of Saint~Sulpicc. As early as 1743, when sixteen )"ears old, he attended the lectures of the theological /acult;. In 1 746 he was obliged to obtai n a special permission, on account of his age, in order to be admittedto the examination.

That permission had been granted to him by the theo· logical/(1('III/(, "owingl)----such were the words·,---uto the 20 Tu'rgot. king's very powerful recommendation, but also in acknowledgment of the most important services rendered during the course of his administration by ~1. Turgot's very illustrious {ather to the city of Paris and to the ,rarious orders of the/act/lie itself." This special permission bears date October 1St, J 746. Six months later, on the 11th of ~larch, 1747, the prit/of des marc/lands wrote to his second son, the chevalier, then at :Malta, that his brother the abbe had maintained his B.A. thesis examination with brilliant success. " Your brother the abbe," snid he, U has maintained his thesis with every possible distinction; he has gone infinitely beyond my expectations, for he did not sho'v the slightest timidity, and received the applause of all persons present. The examination took place in the outer schools of the Sorbonne, the hall of which is im mense. It was perfectly furnished and lighted up; and, extensive as it is, it never ceased to be full of company during the five hours of the examination.

H My Lord the Archbishop of Tours presided. The assembly of the clergy, which is just now held in Paris, and over which he also presides, came likewise, as a body, to hear the thesis. l\fy Lord the Archbishop of Paris, on his part, came In fi(Jcchi. His cross-bearer, dressed in a surplice, carried the cross, sitting near the carriage-door; he walked before him in the han, and occupied a stool opposite him, holding that large and beautiful archiepiscopal cross, which is of silver gilt.

21 ,\rhen the archbishop had left the room the Papal nuncio came imd remained there more than one hour nnd a half. As he went out, he said to the abbe, to the doctors of Sorbonne who accompanied him, likewise to your brother and to ~1. de ercH, that he had often been present at theologk.al disputntions, but that he had never yet heard a thesis maintained like this one. U The Archbishop of Tours, on stepping down fronl hb pulpit, embraced the abbl, saying to him that he caned that maintaining a thesis in a splendid style. He went the next day to Versailles, and the king having asked him whether he was at the assembly of the clergy the day before, he answered in the negative. The king wanted to know why. He said that he was l)residing over a thesis. (\Vhose was it?' 'The Abbe Turgot.' The king thereupon asked whether the discussion was a good one; and the archbishop was kind enough to tell his majesty that he had never seen :l discussion carried on with so much superiority. He added, moreover, that there was not 3 greater and nrore deserving subject than the abb;. All this is most flattering for us, and ought to give you, too, much pleasure."

Two years later, April 7th, 1749, he composed the first of his works on political economy. It is a letter written from the theological school to his (ellow-pupil, the Abbe de Cice,.containing a refutation of the defence of Law'g system, published twenty years before by the Abbe Terrasson. Turgot did not regard metaHic currencyas a sign. U It 22 Tlt1~Ot. is," says he, "as an article of merchandise that money is, not the sign, but the common measure of other merchandise. " \Vhilst refuting the idea, so widely spread, that metallic currency is only a sign founded upon the royal stamp, Turgot did justice to those Utopists who then believed, as they did during the Revolution, and as many still believe at the present day, that the State can meet public expenditure by issuing bills which are not payable in cash, but arc transformed by virtue of a law into compulsory money. "The king," says he, "will enjoy merely a transitory advantage in the creation of bills, or rather in their multiplication; but that advantage will soon vanish away, because commodities will rise in price propor tionately to the number of bills."

Dupont de Nemours, publishing that letter, remarks: "If, forty years later, the majority of the citizens who formed the Constituent Assembly had possessed as much intelligence as he (Turgot) had already at so early an age, France might have been saved from the assigna/s." At the beginning of the year 1749 the young Abbe de Laulne was admitted as Master of Arts (courir sa licence),that is to say, he was allowed to take his last degrees. The house of Sorbonne was a society the members of which followed the studies and exercises of the theolo~ gical jamlles. These members formed an association composed of about one hundred clergymen, chiefly 23 bishops, vlcars"geneml, canons, (uris of Paris and ot the prindpal cities of the realm. The house was a large one; it still exists; it i~ the SQrbonne; it contained thirt}"..six sets o( rooms, together with a church, a fine library, a garden, and servants belonging to the com"

munity. The meals were taken together. As many of thee(~desiastics lived at their own houses or in province, a certain number of apartments were reserved for the ac.:commodation of ten or twelve students. It is one of these ten or twelve places which had been given to the son of the pdr.~ol du marella/Ids. The l\f.A. degree (licc1l(t) for which he was preparing consisted of a certain number of theses :,.--first, the letllali1 't, which qualified you to be a Bachelor: Turgot had already maintained it. Then there were the m,ilturt, the ....wrbomque, and the majture. Six months after his admission at the Sorbonne, that is to say, on December 31, 1749, he had been elected prior. This was a kind of hontage paid to distinguished young men, and to the sons of illustrious parents. Together with the title of prior, they enjoyed the right of presiding over the assemblies; and they were obliged (this was regarded as an honour likewise) to deliver Latin speeches on subjects chiefly connected with religion.

Turgot presided first as prior over the assemblyheld ~{ay 16, 1750, when the Abb~ Morellet was admitted on trial-~Iorellet, who was about to become his friend, and T1u;gOt. who was during his whole liCe his enthusiastic admirer. He then presided over the assembly of the 13th of August in the same year, when the same l\{orellet was definitely received a Fellow of the society. From 1743 to 1750 TurKot had never ceased to prosecute theological studies, and these studies, together with the exercises which were their necessary comple ment, had given to his mind a most wonderful maturity. U To go with some distinction," says r.iorellet, '-through the theological exercises, required some amount of talent, some skill in clearing the objection and answering it. Turgot often said to me, l~ughjng, (~iy dear Abbe, we who have gone through the licence are the only men qualified to reason accurately.'"

'Ve still possess the two speeches made by Turgot at the opening of the Sor!Joni'qlltSfor the )'ear 1750; the subject of the former is the blessings which the establish ment of Christianity has procured to mankind. It is a remarkable piece of composition, but still. resembles a rhetorician's exercise; one of those excellent Latin speeches which, a few years ago, used to be crowned in the same Sorbonne at the general competition between the Paris !ycces. 'Vriting to his brother, the chevalier (July 30, 175~) he says: cc I have had to write a Latin speech, which I delivered on the 3rd of July, and of which the success was most flattering for me. I have now about four speech/ets every week, with twelve arguments, waiting till I deliver a second one on the 27th of November. I am occupied with it now"

Turgot's Falllily. 25 "'riting to the same chevalier, on the 2 3rd of October 1150, his father said to him; H I told you some time ago the prodigious success of the discourse made by the abbt. last July; he is to deliver another one on the ;2 7th of next month.u The a/Jotssuccess was still greater on the 27th of November than it had been on the previous 3rd of July. His second speech, besides, is much more important than the fonner one; it treats of the successive progress of the human mind. It is a sketch of universal history, written with much talent, full of thoughts, wonderfully mature for a young man, characterised by very liberal ideas, and showing in every line an extremely keen sense of human perfectibility. A prop()sof the colonies of the ancients, we read in Turgot's essaythe followingsentence, which has often bee'n quoted, and which preceded, by twenty~five years,the Declaration of Independence of the United States: H Colonies arc like fruits, which remain connected with the tree only till they are ripe. As soon as they became sufficientto themselves, they did what Carthage did, what America will do one day."

lIe wasJ at that time., very busy with translations from the Latin, and he believed that the better to. imitate the ancients one might enlplo~lin.th.e. French languag,e some of the rules of Greek or Latin ,,"ersifkation. lIe would have wished to see in French poetry the a!ternate use of long and of short syllables, in order to produce on delicate and well trained¥ears an effect analogous to c Turgot. that of the melody as the ancients understood it. The investigation· of this new prosody was one of Turgot's most constant recreations; he returned to it whenever his occupation allowed him to do so, and he translated the whole of the fourth book of the .tEneid .in metrical French hexameters. 'Vben writing his poetry he assumed the fictitious name of the AbM de LaalZei and it is under this pseudonym that hp. "p.nt it to Voltaire, asking for his opinion. 'Ve may believe that Voltaire was in no hurry to read the attempt of an unknown a61J1. However, urged by fresh applications, he ended by making the followinganswer:_cc An old man, bowed downby illness, and who has become nearly entirely blind, h~ received the letter of the 28th April, dated from Paris, but he has not received that dated (rom Genoa. He is penetrated With esteem for M. I'Abbe de Laage, and thanks him for his remembrance; but the sad state in which he is hardly allows him to enter into literary discussions. All he can say is, that he is extremely satisfied with what he has read, and that it is the only prose translation in which he has found any enthusiasm.'J The pseudo Abbe de Laage was highly provoked that the great poet should have mistaken his verses for prose, and be wrote, with a bitterness which he did not seek to conceal, to his confidential friend Caillard, that cc the man either scorns to guess, or does not care to explain himself"; then, passing on to a question of political economy, he adds: Ie I am not more surprised at seeing that great poet talk lttrgot's Poetical TaIe11t. 27 nonsense(d;,ai'SQ1111e,)in political economy than in physics and in natural history. Reasoning has never been his strong point."

And yet Voltaire was not wrong. 'Vho could s<-..an the following lines, and find in the arrangement of the so~ called long and short syllables the melody which Turgot thought he had stamped them with?" Entin, lorsque I'Aurore a de ses feux blanchi l'horizon, Lorsque du jour naissant les c1artes ont chasse les ombres, Triste, abattue, eUe accourt a sa sreur, la reveille et dcposant Dans son sein la douleur qui l'accable, en adoudt l'amertume. " If Turgot did not succeed in French poetry, he had, at any rate, the good fortune of composing one Latin line which we all remember; it is the one which he wrote under Franklin's portrait: U Eripuit crelo fulmen, sceptrllmque tyrannis. u However, the young Abbe de l.aulne was not destined to remain long at the Sorbonne; he did not feel called to be a priest. IIis friends had wished to detain him; they said to him that both his name and his acquire ments would quickly push him on in the Church. They assured him that he would very soon become a bishop, and that he could then realise,in the management of a diocese. some of those beautiful dreams of administration which already occupied his mind.

C 2 Turgot. U :My dear friends," he answered to them, U take for your own use the advice you give me, since you can follow it. As for me, I find it impossible to wear on my face a mask all my life long." IIis father, very ill besides, and who was to die three months later, left him free to do what he thought proper. He gave up the Church for ever) and left the Sorbonne in December, 1750.