ABSTRACT
This extract is from a speech delivered by Chrétien-François de Lamoignon (1735-89), Garde des sceaux, at a royal sitting of the Parlement of Paris, on 19 November 1787. The Garde des sceaux, literally ‘keeper of the seals’, was the Minister of Justice. Earlier in 1787 an Assembly of Notables and the Parlement of Paris had rebuffed ministerial appeals for reform and financial assistance to the State. Lamoignon, a leading Notable and former president of the Parlement, here reminds his peers of Louis XVI’s pre-eminence by dismissing their call for a meeting of the EstatesGeneral in return for approval of a loan. The following May Lamoignon issued six edicts aimed at undermining the judicial and political power of the Parlements, provoking rioting in Paris and provincial centres. In July Louis decided that he would, after all, convoke an Estates-General in May 1789, and Lamoignon was dismissed.
