The Duke of Aiguillon, always hostile to the Choiseuls and the House of Austria, had lent his countenance to the murmurs; Marie Antoinette was annoyed, and, in her turn, fostered the distrust felt by the people towards the late ministers of Louis XV.  In the place of the Duke of Aiguillon, who had the ministry of war and that of foreign affairs both together, the Count of Muy and the Count of Vergennes were called to power.  Some weeks later, the obscure minister of marine, M. de Boynes, made way for the superintendent of the district (generalite) of Limoges, M. Turgot.

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, born at Paris on the 10th of May, 1727, was already known and everywhere esteemed, when M. de Maurepas, at the instance, it is said, of his wife whom he consulted on all occasions, summoned him to the ministry.  He belonged to an ancient and important family by whom he had been intended for the Church.  When a pupil at Louis-le-Grand college, he spent his allowance so quickly that his parents became alarmed; they learned before long that the young man shared all he received amongst out-of-college pupils too poor to buy books.

This noble concern for the wants of others, as well as his rare gifts of intellect, had gained young Turgot devoted friends.  He was already leaning towards philosophy, and he announced to his fellow-pupils his intention of giving up his ecclesiastical status; he was a prior of Sorbonne; the majority disapproved of it.  “Thou’rt but a younger son of a Norman family,” they said, “and, consequently, poor.  Thou’rt certain to get excellent abbotries and to be a bishop early.  Then thou’lt be able to realize thy fine dreams of administration and to become a statesman at thy leisure, whilst doing all manner of good in thy diocese.  It depends on thyself alone to make thyself useful to thy country, to acquire a high reputation, perhaps to carve thy way to the ministry; if thou enter the magistracy, as thou desirest, thou breakest the plank which is under thy feet, thou’lt be confined to hearing causes, and thou’lt waste thy genius, which is fitted for the most important public affairs.”  “I am very fond of you,” my dear friends,” replied M. Turgot, “but I don’t quite understand what you are made of.  As for me, it would be impossible for me to devote myself to wearing a mask all my life.”  He became councillor-substitute to the attorney-general, and before long councillor in the Parliament, on the 30th of December, 1752.  Master of requests in 1753, he consented to sit in the King’s Chamber, when the Parliament suspended the administration of justice.  “The Court,” he said, “is exceeding its powers.”  A sense of equity thus enlisted him in the service of absolute government.  He dreaded, moreover, the corporate spirit, which he considered narrow and intolerant.  “When you say, We,” he would often repeat, “do not be surprised that the public should answer, You.”