The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-18

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Of those localities. mostly Protestant, had
fed out OF the country. War and famine
had had even worse consequences. There
were districts, IL seems, like those OF West
Flanders. Tours and Alencon, where the
population was reduced to a half, and cities,
like Troyes, Bordeaux and Lyons, where
the loss was still greater. DR.. Philippson
accepts as moderate the computation that
the population Of France had in the course
of the war which ended with the Peace Of
Ryswick diminished by two millions. The
great cities were overwhelmed with debt.
Inthe country estates were often abandoned
by their tax burdeLed possessors, and an
ordinance was issued permitting any one
to cultivate them, and freeing the new oocu-
pants from land taxes for four years. In
dustries of all kinds. which had been so
carefully fostered by Colbert, had, in con-
sequences OF the exorbitant taxes and the
closing OF the frontiers during the war,
received what seemed their death blow.
One-half OF the northern cloth manufact-
urers and their workmen emigrated to
the Netherlands; the woollen manu- facture
Of Rheims, the linen manufacture Of Nor
dlli dllu tllO an liullu NSbiO vi Sy S'S
and Tours lay all but paralyzed. AS all
these sacrifices had purchased not glory
but defeat, every class Of Frenchman felt
keenly the moral as we'll as material in
juries which despotism had inflicted on the
nation. The grandees murmured over the
in~signi6canoe which was now their lot;
the ordinary mobiles, over their enforced
and u~nremunerated services, and over the
intolerable burdens imposed on their
tenants, which incapacitated the latter from
paying rent; the bourgeois, on his part,
mourned over the decay of business and
general prosperity.
Nv.
Scarcely had France begun slightly to
recover from prostration, when he long,
humilia ting and e1hausting War Of the
Spanish Succession began. When at last
the ~dishonoring and wasteful contest was
brought to an end by the Treaty Of Utrecht
Q713), Louis XIV, had only about two years
to live. France was q wreck, industrially
and financially. The Kings nine and
twenty years Of war had cost the country
about Zoo, 900 human lives, and some
500 millions Of livres. Such expenditures
had at last exhausted even the rich re-
sources Of perhaps the most fertile land in
Europe. To recruit the armies o u
had been made to the long a~ntiquated sum-
mons of the mobiles to feudal service. The
finances were in utter disorder. At the
close of the War OF the Spanish Succession
the national debt amounted to 1882 millions
Of ~livres, Of the payment Of which there
was at that time not the ~faintest prospect,
o-I xraf half - - rra q n aNntirn InHf xuhtnh
the creditors could call in at any time.
Without the least regard to national honor
measures were adopted that amounted
not only TO partial bankruptcy, but to actual
fraud. All who in patriotic response to
a royal call had paid the poll tax six years
in advance were forced to pay it owe sgain.
From the clergy twelve millions of livres,
from the Encouragement nine millions,
were wrested by open violence. All these
and similar expedients, however, were only
palliatives. The financial collapse was
a matter Of high political import. Begun
by the wars Of Louis XIV, the chronic and
ever growing deficit was the main factor
in undermining the royal administration
in France, and ultimately, when this had
beeD paralyzed, in bringing revolution
on the political stage.
Abroad and at home the policy Of Louis
XIV. had proved a failure. Nowhere had
he attained his object. The dominion over
Europe for which he had striven and which
he had exercised for a time, vigorously. and
unjustly, had been wrested from his hands.
He had seen his numerous armies de-
feate1, his proud Marshals humbled, his
cuirass of impregnable fortresses broken
through. No longer had he dictated terms
to his foes, but they to him. Against his
will the Hanoverians had fixed themselves
in Britain, and the German Hapsburgs
had establish ed themselves in Italy.
Against his will Sweden, the ally Of France,
had been thrown down from it's eminent
position, and Russia, the ally of Austria,
had been raised to power in the north.
In England there had been developed an
intellectual tendency and a literature which
we're destined to assail French autocracy
on its own soil, and ultimately to dethrone
In his own country also the system OF
Louis XIV. fell 10 pieces when he ceased
to breathe. By destroying the last re-
mains Of personal independence and self
he had sapped the very monarchy
which he had designed to aggra ndize.
The mobiles, who once had been the repre-
sentatives Of the nations warlike strength,
he had converted into a herd of unsorupu-
lous and low minded courtiers, who sought
10 crafty their pride in the smile Of the
prince, their ambition in snowy court
Offices and their desire for action in profit
gate i~ntrigues. The Parliaments he had
deprived Of all consciousness Of judicial
independence and Of all influence on legis-
lation. On the masses of his people he
down with a contempt which he
could not conceal, and with cool, d%isdainful
Indifference he took from them their last
penny and their last drop Of blood. Against
his royal omnipotence he recognized no
right Of person or property. The result
was that he ~exasperated every class Of
in the kingdom against himself
and his system. Men no longer hated the
King as an individual only; they hated
monarchy. This feeling, which was to
have 30 tremendous consequences, is trace
able directly to the rule of Louis XIV.
Are there only shadows in the picture?
there really nothing eulogistic to be said
n -. - -.. yIUu - -.- "