(Anne Robert James), the famous financier, was born at Paris May 10, 1727, of a very ancient Norman family. His father was for a long time provost of the corporation of merchants. During this period he was the object of general admiration; and the regularity and economy of his administration procured him the particular respect of the citizens. M. Turgot was the youngest of three brothers. The eldest was intended for the rank of magistracy, which had been the station of his family for several generations; the second was destined for the army; and Robert for the church. He had scarcely attained the age at which reflection commences, when he resolved to sacrifice all temporal advantages to liberty and conscience, and to pursue his ecclesiastical studies without declaring his repugnance to their proposed object. At the age of 23 years he took his degree, and was elected prior of the Sorbonne.

The time when it was necessary for him to declare that he would not be an ecclesiastic was now arrived. He announced this resolution to his father by letter, owning the motives which induced him to decline the clerical order. His father consented, and he was appointed master of requests. M. Turgot prepared himself for this office by particular application to those parts of science which are most connected with its functions and duties, viz., the study of natural philosophy, as far as it relates to agriculture and manufactures, to the subjects of merchandise, and the execution of public works, together with such parts of mathematical knowledge as lead to a practical application of natural philosophy, and facilitate the calculations that are frequently necessary in politics, commerce, and law.

About this period he wrote some articles for the Encyclopédie, of which the most capital were, Etymology, Existence, Extensibility, Fair, and Foundation. He had prepared several others, but these five only were inserted; the persecution set on foot against the Encyclopédie hindered him from continuing to write in it, being unwilling that his opinions should be published in a work which was received with disapprobation by some of the most distinguished people of that time.

In 1761 M. Turgot was appointed intendant of Limoges. In this office he did much good. He gave activity to the society of agriculture established at Limoges, by directing their efforts to important objects; he opened a mode of public instruction for female professors of midwifery; he procured for the people the attendance of able physicians during the raging of epidemic diseases; he established houses of industry, supported by charity (the only species of almsgiving which does not encourage idleness); he introduced the cultivation of potatoes into his province, &c., &c. While M. Turgot proceeded with unremitting activity and zeal, in promoting the good of the people over whom he was placed, he meditated projects of a more extensive nature, such as an equal distribution of the taxes, the construction of the roads, the regulation of the militia, the prevention of a scarcity of provision, and the protection of commerce.

At the death of Louis XV. the public voice called M. Turgot to the first offices of government, as a man who united the experience resulting from habits of business to all the improvement which study can procure. After being at the head of the marine department only a short time, he was, August 24, 1774, appointed comptroller general of the finances. During his discharge of this important office, the operations he carried on are astonishing. He suppressed 23 kinds of duties on necessary occupations, useful contracts, or merited compensations. He abolished the corvée (a) for the highways, saving the nation thirty millions of livres annually.—He set aside another kind of corvée, which respected the carriage of military stores and baggage.—He abated the rigour in the administration of indirect impositions, to the great profit of the contributors, the king, and the financiers.—He softened the mode of collecting the territorial imposts.—He stopped the progress of a plague among cattle.—He suppressed a sedition conducted with art.—He provided for the equal distribution of subsistence.—He gave the utmost encouragement to the cultivation of the three chief productions of France, viz., wheat, cattle, and wine, and to the commerce thence resulting.—He reformed a number of abuses, some of which yielded a profit

(a) The word corvée seems to be derived from cura viae, i.e., "the care of the roads." It signifies the call made on individuals to furnish labour and materials in kind for the construction and repair of roads. The same exists to this day in England, under the name of statute duty. It is indeed with us under proper restrictions; but in France, where there are no turnpikes, all the roads, which are very good, were made and repaired by the corvée alone; whence it became an intolerable burden to the labourers.