...It is a great misfortune for me to see frequently tasks which are more burdensome than this one [the task of finance minister] succeed in my hands only to be told that the care of the royal finances is too laborious for me. This is tantamount to saying that I am not judged capable of anything important, since there is no office where less work is required. It requires foresight, firmness and probity rather than industriousness. No other proof of this is needed than the example of Monsieur de Bullion, who did it very well in his time although he never paid attention to the detail, scarcely did any work, and lacked one of the principal attributes which is probity. Monsieur d'Effiat similarly did not have much application and worked very little. Monsieur d'Hémery and Monsieur des Maisons gave more of their time to intrigues at court and the entertainment of ladies at banquets, at gambling and other pleasures rather than at the work on affairs, for which they relied on subordinates. To tell you the truth we must conclude that a man who is incapable of being finance minister is incapable for all time of holding any great office in the Kingdom, where necessarily more work and assiduousness must be brought to bear than in this office... [Notes rivalry with Le Tellier, whose family boasts that `we have at last excluded Monsieur Servien from the finance ministry.']

[Source: A.A.E. France 891, fo. 54. A.A.E. France 892, fo. 148].