Protestantism in France From Death of Francis I to Edict of Nantes - James Aitken Wylie

their blood. Some two millions of lives had
perished since the breaking out of the civil wars.
Summoning all his powers, Henry set himself to
repair this vast ruin. In this arduous labor he
displayed talents of a higher order and a more
valuable kind than any he had shown in war, and
proved himself not less great as a statesman than he
was as a soldier. There was a debt of three hundred
millions of francs pressing on the kingdom. The
annual expenditure exceeded the revenue by
upwards of one hundred millions of francs. The
taxes paid by the people amounted to two hundred
millions of francs; but, owing to the abuses of
collection, not more than thirty millions found their
way into the treasury. Calling Sully to his aid, the
king set himself to grapple with these gigantic
evils, and displayed in the cabinet no less fertility
of resource and comprehensiveness of genius than
in the field. He cleared off the national debt in ten
years. He found means of making the income not
only balance the expenditure, but of exceeding it
by many millions. He accomplished all this without
adding to the burdens of the people. He understood
the springs of the nation's prosperity, and taught
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