… through printed works like the encyclopédie , but also the discursive space for a new form of political authority apart from the Crown: public opinion. 2 Characterised as rational and uniform, appealing to and gaining authority from … designs. 3 Perhaps none were as keenly aware of the piercing gaze of ‘the public’ and the importance of its support - particularly regarding matters of government finance - as Necker, who welcomed public opinion as a new means to check the … 3 . See Keith Baker, Inventing the French Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 190-199; Roger Chartier, Cultural Origins of the French Revolution (Duke University Press, 1991), pp. 20-37. 4 . Jacques Necker, ‘De …