Brissot intended for the finance department Claviere, a Genevese economist, driven from his native land, a relation and friend of his own; used to intrigue; rival of Necker; brought up in the cabinet of Mirabeau, in order to bring forward a rival against this finance minister, so hateful to Mirabeau: a man without republican prejudices or monarchical principles, only seeking in the Revolution a part, and with whom the great aim and end was--to get on.

His mind, indifferent to all scruples, was on a level with every situation, and at the height of all parties.
The Girondists, new to state affairs, required men well conversant in the details of war and finance departments, and who yet were the mere tools of their government: Claviere was one of these.

In the war office they had De Grave, by whom the king had replaced Narbonne.

De Grave, who from the subaltern ranks of the army had been raised to the post of minister of war, had declared relations with the Girondists.

The friends of Gensonne, Vergniaud, Guadet, Brissot, and even Danton, hoped, through their instrumentality, to save at the same time the constitution and the king.