858 MODERN CIVILIZATION the decision in general and in important affairs; they left the administration, that is, the decision in local and in affairs of minor importance, to agents chosen by them. Into each province they sent an agent, whose business it was to inform the minsters of what was taking place, to receive their orders and to see that they were carried out. He was called the intendant of police, justice and finance (this title indicates that he united in one all these functions). Like the minis- ters, the intendants were only bourgeois or those who were ennobled by their office; they were taken from among the niaitre des requetes, that is, from the magistrates, who presented the reports to the council. But, like the ministers, they were all-powerful in their provinces because they were the king's men. The minister was in regular correspondence with them, and had them send to him secret reports concerning the great personages and the magistrates of the country. He had confidence in them only, and supported them against the established powers, the parlements and the governors. As their functions were vast and not clearly defined, they constantly augmented their pow- ers. By the end of the seventeenth century they had full authority. The Scotchman, Law, who was minis- ter in 1718, said to d'Argenson: "Never would I have believed what I saw when I was controller of finance. You must know that this kingdom of France is gov- erned by thirty intendants. You have neither parle- ments nor estates, nor governors; there are thirty niaitre des requetes, provincial clerks on whom depends the happiness or unhappiness of these provinces/' In order to facilitate their labor the intendants had