sion on mankind than this, Put not your trust in Princes. In spite of their numerous disappointments, the highest expectations are always formed by the populace of the heir. apparent of the throne. History hardly makes mention of one who died young, who is not said to have possessed all the virtues of humanity. Of how many Marcelli have we heard, each more blooming than the other, whose wonderful spring of talents promised the most astonishing harvest! Even the moster Caligula was, when a boy, the favourite of the Roman army; and if, for the good of mankind, he had died then, the world would probably have been told by some poet or historian, that he was just shewn to the earth, which being unworthy of him, he was soon carried to heaven. If, however, among those born the immediate heirs of empire, so many are endowed in this extraordinary manner, whose virtues would add splendour to the throne, and diffuse happiness among their subjects, how infinitely is it to be lamented, that they should be so early cut off, rather than their survivors!

Many circumstances united in Lewis XV to conciliate the affections and raise the hopes of the nation.

He was the only child of the virtuous duke of Burgundy (the pupil of Fenelon) and Adelaide of Savoy, whose playful character is painted in such amiable colours by the writers of that age. The duke fell a sacrifice to the grief he felt for the untimely death of this princess; and the loss of both filled France, not only with that external mourning which is equally worn for princes at whose death the public rejoice, as for those they lament, but also with real sorrow.

The young king possessed likewise all the charms of comeliness of countenance and symmetry of person: to, these the people added, of course, all the best qualities of the head and heart.

Whatever share of the latter he had was soon rendered useless by indolence, and perverted by the corruptions of

* Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata.

a court.

He possessed not, like his great-grandfather, that lofty reserve, which keeps men at too great a distance to judge of the real worth of the object they contemplate.With more weaknesses to conceal, he had less the power of concealing them; and the more the man was seen, the less was the monarch esteemed.

He appeared at the head of his armies, without endeavouring to acquire any knowledge in the art of war. They gained victories, and his general had the glory.

In peace, he became devoted to an artful woman, who governed the state with as unlimited sway, as his general had done the army. Even when she had lost the charms by which his affections had been seduced; abandoning his person to others, she kept what she most valued in the connection, by maintaining her power until her death.

She who succeeded the marchioness of Pompadour, as the acknowledged mistress of Lewis XV, was not so haughty and ambitious as her predecessor.

Intermeddling less with the affairs of state, she was at more pains to amuse and entertain her lover. With all her good-humour and gaiety, she found it impossible, however, entirely to ward off the tedium to which a vacant mind is peculiarly exposed.

Although no man was ever more oppressed with mental indolence than Lewis XV, he was fond to excess of bodily exercise, and passed great part of his time in hunting, from which he derived the double advantage of repelling the intrusions of reflection, and obtaining sleep.

The wretched monarch was relieved from the burden of existence, by a disease which he had taken great pains to avoid through the whole of his past life, and which he caught wantonly in his old age. He died a memorable proof, that the united advantages of external gracefulness, riches, high birth, quickness of apprehension, and even

* Lewis XV died at the age of sixty-five, of the small pox, which he caught from a young woman, on whom that disease appeared soon after she had been with the king.

benevolence, cannot preclude tedium or misery, and secure public esteem to those whose minds are incapable of laudable exertion.

The death of this prince, who at the beginning of his reign had received the appellation of Lewis the Well-Beloved, was heard at Paris with satisfaction rather than sor

row.

It had been the custom, in times of public danger, to make a procession of the shrine of St. Genevieve, the patroness of that city, in the hopes that by the saint's intercession the threatened calamity might be averted. This ceremony was performed during the last illness of Lewis XV. He expired notwithstanding. When his death was announced in a certain company, one observed that the procession of the shrine seemed to have lost its efficacy. • What happier effect could it have produced,' said another, • Is he not dead?'

CHAPTER II.

Lewis XVI-Diffusion of Knowledge-Of Riches-The Bourgeoisie of France-The Ancient Noblesse-The Modern-The Courtiers-The Queen-American War-Abolition of Household Troops-German Discipline-Practice and Theory. It was not possible for the personal character of the king to be seen, during the greater part of a long reign, in this degrading point of view, without diminishing, in a considerable degreee, the national veneration for royalty.

At the accession of Lewis XVI, however, the public opinion seemed to have a tendency to return to its ancient bias. In the candour, affability, and love of justice, which appeared in the young king, the nation found a resemblance with the character of its last Henry, whose memory was cherished with filial veneration.

The young queen united in her person many qualities, which might have been expected to render her popular in any country, but peculiarly so in France-beauty, good

humour, gaiety, and a great desire of pleasing; preferring affability to etiquette, and the manners of the nation to which she had come, to those of that which she had left; and forming a bond of union between the two, which which promised a termination to long rivalship, and a commence, ment of mutual support and prosperity.

Those circumstances certainly had a tendency to remove the impressions which the conduct of Lewis XV might have made, and to revive the languishing loyalty of the nation.

At this time, however, the spirit of philosophical discussion prevailed very much in France. The English writers on the subject of government were more read and relished than they had ever been before. The works of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Raynal, were universally admired.

Many old prejudices, hurtful to society, though supported by the self-interest of a few, and the ignorance of the multitude, were combated by the authors above mentioned, and others. The writings of Voltaire, distinguished for wit, and a happiness of expression which baffles imitation, contributed more than all the rest to form the taste and bias the opinions of the age. They were more universally read than the works of any other author; because, to borrow the words of one who knew him well, they possessed le précieux avantage d'être toujours clair et simple, sans jamais être insipide, et d'être lu avec un égal plaisir, et par le peuple des lectures et par l'elite des philosophes.'*

While the edge of his ridicule is turned against persecution and hypocrisy, the most virtuous applaud: but Voltaire was not a believer in Christianity-that was his misfortune; but it cannot excuse his attempts to turn into ridicule the established religion of his country. One among many peculiarities of this author is, that he treats. Christianity with becoming respect in his dramas, and

The precious advantage of being always clear and simple, without ever being insipid, and of being read with equal pleasure by a person of plain common sense and by a philosopher.

that some of his plays are at once the most moral and rẻ, ligious of his works.

The Encyclopædia, that great monument of universal science, was finished about this period. The avowed ob ject of this work was the promotion of general knowledge, and men distinguished in every branch of science had been employed in it; but what some of the principal undertakers are supposed to have had chiefly in view, was to promulgate certain free notions on the subjects of government and religion, in which there is no doubt they succeeded, not only in France but in other countries of Europe.

As by these means, and the increasing commerce of the nation, literature and riches became more diffused a mong the middle and inferior orders of society, many ancient prejudices were weakened and effaced. That haughty superiority, which the meanest of the noblesse assumed over their fellow-citizens, became more intolerable to the bour geoisie than before: what had been submitted to by men when poor and ignorant, was not so easily brooked by the same class when they found themselves richer, and thought themselves wiser, than many of those who were ranked their superiors.

That Russian, Polish, and Bohemian peasants, who are attached to the lands, and have no means of improv ing either their minds or fortunes, should continue to bear insult and oppression from those whom they look up to as superior beings, is not wonderful: neither is it sur prising that the Turks continue slaves, because what knowledge exists among them belongs to their rulers: but if a gradual progression of industry and knowledge takes place in that part of any nation which is most oppressed, while dissipation and effeminacy prevail in that part which is most privileged, a speedy revolution in such a nation may with certainty be predicted.

This alteration had, in a great measure, taken place in France. The better sort of the bourgeoisie had gained what a great portion of the noblesse had lost; and that