Under the administration of Cardinal Fleury (1726-1743) the finances were somewhat improved, since he aimed at economical arrangements, especially in the collection of taxes.  He attempted to imitate Sully and Colbert, but without their genius and boldness he effected but little.  He had an unfortunate quarrel with the Parliament of Paris, and was obliged to repeal a favorite measure.  After his death the country was virtually ruled by the King’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who displaced ministers at her pleasure, and who encouraged unbounded extravagance.  The public deficit increased continually, until it finally amounted to nearly two hundred millions in a single year.  In spite of this increasing derangement of the finances, the court had not the courage or will to face the difficulties, but resorted to new loans and forced contributions, and every form of iniquitous taxation.  If a great functionary announced the necessity of economy or order, he was forthwith disgraced.  Nothing irritated the court more than any proposal to reduce unnecessary expenses.  Nor would any other order, either the nobles or the clergy, consent to make sacrifices.

In such a state of things, a most oppressive system of taxation was the necessary result.  In no country in modern times have the burdens of the people been so great.  Taxes were imposed to the utmost extent that they were able to bear, without their consent; and upon the slightest resistance or remonstrance they were imprisoned and treated as criminals.  So great were the taxes on land, that nearly two-thirds of the whole gross produce, it has been estimated, went to the State, and three-quarters of the remainder to the landlord.  The peasant thus only received about one-twelfth of the fruit of his labors; and on this pittance his family was supported.  Taxes were both direct and indirect, levied upon every article of consumption, upon everything that was imported or exported, upon income, upon capital, upon the transmission of property, upon even the few privileges which were enjoyed.  But not one-half that was collected went to the royal treasury; it was wasted by the different collectors and sub-collectors.  In addition to the ordinary burdens were enormous monopolies, granted to nobles and courtiers, by which the income of the State was indirectly plundered.  The poor man groaned amid his heavy labors and great privations, without exciting compassion or securing redress.

And, in addition to his taxes, the laborer was deprived of all the privileges of freedom.  He was injured, downtrodden, mocked, and insulted.  The laws were unequal, and gave him no security; game of the most destructive kind was permitted to run at large through the fields, and yet the people were not allowed to shoot a hare or a deer upon their own grounds.  Numerous edicts prohibited hoeing and weeding, lest young partridges should be destroyed.  The people were bound to repair the roads without compensation,