FRANCE.

IN treating of France, a subject in itself of great magnitude, but one which, in a work like this, embracing the entire circle of human knowledge, can only be delineated in outline, we shall endeavour to observe the same method which was followed in treating of England, and to place before our readers condensed abstracts of the History, Statistics, Government and Laws of that great country, long remarkable for its high civilization, and now happily blessed with political institutions in some measure adapted to the opinions and wants of its people.

I. HISTORY.

About half a century before the commencement of our era, Gaul, then inhabited by a race of Celtic origin and descent, was subdued by Caesar, and for the space of nearly five centuries continued under the sway of the Romans. During the first half of this period, which was in a great measure one of repose, the country made considerable advances in improvement, and in fact received its full share in that civilization with which Rome usually repaid the turbulent independence destroyed by her conquests. Political union, internal tranquillity, and the security resulting from the firm and impartial administration of an admirable system of laws, were amongst the direct advantages which the people derived from their subjugation; whilst, collaterally, agriculture was improved, commerce extended, industry encouraged, wealth accumulated, and the general happiness promoted. To the wild and pernicious liberty enjoyed by warlike savages had succeeded the vigorous but wise government of an enlightened conqueror, whose policy it was to efface the recollection of independence by positive benefits conferred, and to secure to the people those substantial advantages without the enjoyment of which liberty is no better than an empty name. Even the climate was ameliorated in proportion as industry extended its dominion; and the soil, rendered capable of producing and maturing the choicest fruits, amply repaid the labour employed in its cultivation. The vine, the olive, and other useful plants, were introduced by the Romans; and even Christianity itself was amongst the boons which this people latterly conferred on the subject nations in return for their political independence. But during the latter half of the period above mentioned, when the ancient Roman valour and discipline had begun to decline, and degeneracy of manners had sapped the foundations of Roman power, the province of Gaul became exposed to the incursions, and was finally overwhelmed by the settlement, of barbarian invaders.

Of the natural boundaries of the Roman province of Gaul, the Rhine was by far the most important, as forming the line of demarcation between the empire on the one hand, and the multitudinous tribes of savage nations which swarmed beyond the stream on the other. On one side were wealth and civilization; on the other, want and barbarism. Principles the most irreconcilable, and inveterately hostile, were only separated by the breadth of the river. But the genius of barbarism, hanging on the outskirts of civilization, is essentially aggressive, and continually seeking to destroy the monuments which the latter has reared. In a word, the natural state between such neighbours is one of war. As long, however, as the Roman legions preserved their ancient discipline and spirit, the turbulence of the German tribes was repressed, and the barrier of the empire maintained; one or two defeats, which imprudence or temerity had entailed, were severely avenged; and the Roman generals, penetrating at different intervals into the country of the barbarians, chastised their audacity, and taught them to regard with salutary awe the power which they had dared to defy. But the Germans, though little versed in policy, began in time to be sensible that their frequent defeats were owing to their disunion; that whilst dispersed in different tribes, without any solid or permanent bond of connection, they could never hope to contend with success against the disciplined force of a great empire, impelled by and obedient to one supreme directing mind. They now perceived that their former leagues, hastily [7:10:2]formed, were as easily dissolved; that something more than a sort of wild, irregular co-operation was necessary; and that without coherence and consistence, it would be vain to expect success in any offensive enterprise. The consciousness of this defect produced in the third century those extensive confederacies in which many tribes united permanently under one common name, and frequently under one chief or sovereign, some assuming the appellation of Alemanni, descriptive of the combination which had been formed, and others taking that of Franks, indicative of the spirit or freedom in which they rejoiced.

The first mention made of the Franks by the historians of the empire is about the middle of the third century. Of their origin various and discordant accounts have been given; but the most probable supposition seems to be that, about the time of the emperor Gordian, the people inhabiting the banks of the Lower Rhine entered into a confederacy with those who dwelt on the Weser, and that the tribes thus united assumed the name of Franks or Freemen. The chief seat of this confederacy, therefore, appears to have been the marshy territory overflowed and divided into islets by the Rhine, from the spot where the river begins to run in a westerly direction, to its junction with the sea. Their first irruption took place in the year 254, and the second in the reign of Valerian. On the latter occasion they were but few in number, and were easily repulsed by Valerian, who afterwards became emperor. Not discouraged by this check, however, they returned in greater numbers about two years afterwards, and were again defeated by Gallienus, whom Valerian had now chosen as his associate in the empire. But as fresh swarms still continued to pour in from their native fastnesses, Gallienus, being no longer in a condition to expel them by force of arms, adopted the perilous expedient of negotiation, and, by means of advantageous offers, engaged one of their chiefs to defend the frontier against his own countrymen as well as against other invaders. Such an admission of weakness, however, could only have the effect of provoking further aggression. In the year 260 the Franks, taking advantage of the defeat and captivity of Valerian in Persia, broke into Gaul, and afterwards into Italy, committing everywhere the most dreadful ravages; and five years afterwards they invaded Spain, which they occupied, or rather desolated, for the space of twelve years. But in the year 275 they were completely overthrown and driven out of Gaul by the emperor Probus, who pursued them into their own country, and there built several forts to keep them in awe. Intimidated by this defeat, they remained quiet until 287, when, in conjunction with Saxon pirates, they plundered the coasts of Gaul, and carried off from thence an immense booty. To revenge this insult the emperor Maximian, the following year, entered their country, which he laid waste with fire and sword, at the same time compelling two of their chiefs to submit to his arms; whilst to such of the common people as chose to remain in Gaul he allotted lands in the neighbourhood of Treves and Cambray. The restless disposition of the Franks, however, did not suffer them to remain long at peace; and about the year 293 they made themselves masters of Batavia and part of Flanders; but they were once more entirely defeated, and compelled to surrender at discretion, by Constantins, the father of Constantine the Great, w " 0 allotted them settlements in Gaul. In 306 their countrymen in Germany renewed their depredations, though with little success; for having been overtaken by Constantine, they were completely routed, and two of their kings who fell into his hands were thrown to wild beasts during the sports exhibited in honour of the victory. All these reverses, however, were insufficient to prevent the incur-õľe 8 u this .restless and turbulent people. In the year t , l . e X a S a ' n >∏vaded Gaul, and made themselves masters of forty cities in that province. But they were soon afterwards defeated by the emperor Julian, who also drove the Alemanni within their ancient boundaries; and again by Theodosius, father of the emperor of that name, who expelled the invaders, and pursued them with great slaughter. They returned, however, in the year 388, when they ravaged the province with greater fury than ever, cut off the Roman army which was sent against them, and in some measure established themselves in the country which they had so frequently overrun. In fact, the western empire was now reduced to so low an ebb that the Franks, until their progress was checked by Aetius, experienced more interruption from other barbarians roving in quest of new settlements, than from the armies of Rome, which had so often repulsed preceding invaders.

The commencement of the fifth century was marked by an overwhelming irruption into Gaul of the barbarian hosts, who, pouring in from different points, rolled on like a sudden inundation, sweeping away every thing in their destructive course. The church alone towered aloft above the general desolation; her bulwarks were strong enough to resist the shock of that fierce torrent of barbarism by which they were assailed; and had it not been for this circumstance, all the records and traditions of the past must have perished amidst the general ruin. But the progress of the invaders was nevertheless destined to experience a vigorous check. When the contest with Aetius commenced, the Franks were governed by Pharamond, the first of their kings or leaders of whom any distinct account has been preserved. This chief or prince is supposed to have reigned from the year 417 or 418 to 428, and is generally believed to have been killed in the war with Aetius. He is understood to have compiled the Salic laws, with the assistance of four sages named Ŵisegast, Losegast, Widegast, and Solegast; but Valesius is of opinion that the Franks had no written laws until the time of Clovis. Pharamond was succeeded by his son Clodio, who is said to have received a terrible overthrow from Aetius near the city of Lens. But notwithstanding this defeat he advanced to Cambray, of which he made himself master, extended his conquests as far as the river Somme, and destroyed the cities of Treves and Cologne, Tournay and Amiens. He died in the year 448, and was succeeded by Merovaeus. It is uncertain whether the new king was brother, or son, or in fact any relation at all, to Clodio; it seems probable, indeed, that he was of a different family, as from him the first race of French kings were styled Merovingian. He was honoured and respected by his people, but did not greatly enlarge the boundaries of his kingdom. Merovaeus, who died in 458, was succeeded by his son Childeric, who being no longer kept in check by Aetius, made war upon the Romans, extended his conquests as far as the river Loire, and took the city of Paris after a lengthened siege. Childeric was succeeded by Clodovaeus, Clovis, or Louis; and as the Roman power in Italy had now been totally destroyed, the latter set himself to make an entire conquest of Gaul. Part of the province was still retained by a Roman named Syagrius, the son of Aegidius, who, like his father, governed and was even said to have reigned at Soissons, where the former had established himself on the downfall of the western empire in 476. But Syagrius was defeated and taken prisoner by Clovis, who afterwards caused him to be beheaded, and soon reduced his dominions under subjection.

The French monarchy was thus established in the year 487 by Clovis, who possessed all the country situated between the Rhine and the Loire. The secret of the rise of this conqueror, originally the chief or king of a small colony of Franks established at Tournay, may be easily explained. Of all the nations which overran Gaul, that which eventually subdued all the others, and gave its name both to the country and the people, was the most disunited and the least advanced in the arts of life. The Goths and the Burgundians were much more civilized than the Franks; for, [7:10:3]whilst the former constituted each a separate nation and race, which obeyed one monarch or family of monarchs, the latter consisted of different tribes united in a species of temporary confederacy, the ties of which became more and more relaxed in proportion as they advanced from the lthine. Each town or territory had its petty independent sovereign; and, anterior to the time of Clovis, they do not appear to have had any supreme chief or a general capital. Whether this was or was not an advantage, we do not pretend to determine. But it obviously leit them in a great measure free to engage in any enterprise in which they chose to embark; and it also laid open the chieftaincy to the ambition of the first leader distinguished for boldness and preeminent talents; whilst, on the other hand, the vague comprehensiveness of their name was calculated to congregate under their banner such roving bands as might be in search of either plunder or establishments. The principle of their confederacy was such that any tribe or race might easily be admitted within its pale. Of this Clovis skilfully took advantage, and, by availing himself of its elasticity (if we may be allowed the expression), became the founder of the French monarchy.

Clovis had been educated in paganism, and continued to profess it until the thirtieth year of his age; but notwithstanding this circumstance, he allowed his subjects full liberty of conscience. When he married Clotilda, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, this princess, who was a zealous Christian, used all her influence to persuade him to embrace her religion. For some time, however, he continued to waver between Christianity and paganism; but having gained a battle against the Germans near Cologne, where, when in great danger, he had invoked the God of Clotilda and the Christians, he afterwards lent a favourable ear to the discourses of Remigius bishop of Rheims, and having declared himself a convert, was baptized in the year 496. But his acknowledgment of the truths of Christianity was not followed by any amendment of life; on the contrary, he employed the remainder of his life in aggrandizing himself, and extending his dominions, by means of treachery, fraud, and violence. In his attacks on Armorica or Bretagne, however, he proved unsuccessful. The inhabitants of this country, which comprehended the maritime part of ancient Gaul, had united for their common defence, and, though abandoned by the Romans, made a vigorous resistance against the barbarians, who assaulted them on all sides. Clovis, finding them too powerful to be subdued by force, proposed an union with his people, which they readily accepted, chiefly on account of his professing Christianity. Thus the new religion of Clovis proved subservient to the purposes of his ambition, and his power became gradually formidable. At this time the Burgundians, under Gondebaud, the uncle of Clotilda, possessed all the country from the forest of Vosges to the sea at Marseilles; and their chief, to secure his own authority, had put to death two of his brothers, one of whom was the father of the French queen. But the third brother, Godagesil, whom he had spared and allowed to possess the principality of Geneva, conspired with Clovis to expel Gondebaud from his dominions. A war accordingly commenced between the French and Burgundian monarchs, and the latter being deserted in battle by the faithless Godagesil, was obliged to fly to Avignon, leaving his antagonist undisputed master of the cities of Lyons and Vienne. The conqueror next laid siege to Avignon; but the place was defended with such vigour, that Clovis thought proper to accept of a large sum of money and an annual tribute from Gondebaud, who was likewise obliged to cede to Godagesil the city of Vienne, and several other places taken during the war. Gondebaud, however, no sooner found himself at liberty from his enemies, than he assembled a powerful army, with which he advanced towards Vienne, where Godagesil then resided. The place was garrisoned by five thousand Franks, and might have made considerable resistance; but Gondebaud being admitted into the city through an aqueduct, massacred most of the Franks, sent the rest as prisoners to the king of the Visigoths, and put Godagesil to death. This was speedily followed by the submission of all the other places which had owned the authority of Godagesil; and Gondebaud considering himself in a condition to resist the power of Clovis, intimated his determination to withhold the promised tribute; a defection which Clovis, though exceedingly mortified, found himself obliged for the present to overlook.

The next expedition undertaken by Clovis was directed against the Visigoths, who possessed considerable territories on both sides of the Pyrenean mountains. Ĳis motives for this enterprise were expressed in a speech which he delivered to his nobility when assembled in the city of Paris, which he considered as the capital of his dominions. “It is with concern,” said the monarch, “that I suffer the Arians to possess the most fertile part of Gaul; let us, with the aid of God, march against them, and, having conquered them, annex their kingdom to our dominions.” The nobility approved of the scheme; and Clovis marched against a prince for whom he had lately professed the greatest regard, vowing to erect a church in honour of the holy apostles if he succeeded in his unrighteous enterprise. Alaric the king of the Visigoths, though personally brave, was destitute of military experience, and therefore hesitated not to engage with his antagonist; but, unable to contend with the veteran troops of Clovis, his army was utterly defeated on the banks of the Clain, near Poictiers, in the year 507, and Alaric himself slain. After this victory the province of Aquitaine submitted; Toulouse soon afterwards surrendered, and the royal treasures of the Visigoths were transported to Paris. Angoulême was next reduced, and the city of Arles invested. But here the victorious career of Clovis was stopped by Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who had overturned the dominion of Odoacer in Italy. He had married the sister of Clovis, but having also given his own daughter in marriage to the king of the Visigoths, he had endeavoured, as far as possible, to preserve a good understanding between the two sovereigns. This, however, he found to be impossible; and, convinced that no bounds could be set to the ambition of Clovis by peaceful means, he sent against him one of his generals with a powerful army, by which the French monarch was defeated with the loss of thirty thousand men. This discomfiture obliged Clovis to raise the siege of Arles; but the Franks still retained the greater part of their conquests, and the province of Aquitaine was indissolubly annexed to their empire. In 508 Clovis received the title of Roman consul, and was thus supposed to be invested with a just title to all his conquests, in whatsoever manner they had been acquired. He was solemnly invested with the new dignity in the church of St Martin, in the city of Tours. Clovis now proceeded to confirm his power by the murder of his kinsmen the princes of the Merovingian race. Amongst those who perished in virtue of this bloody policy were Sigebert king of Cologne, with his son Cloderic; Cararic, another prince whose do-ņiinions have not been accurately pointed out by historians; Ranacaire, who governed the diocese of Cambray , and Renomer, king of the territory of Maine. All these murders, however, were supposed to be expiated by the zeal which he expressed in behalf of Christianity, and his liberality towards the church. Clovis died in the year 511, after having reformed and published the Salic laws; a few lines of which, excluding women from inheriting any part of the Salic lands, have been extended so far as to deprive the females of the royal family of France of their right of succession to the throne of that kingdom.

Clovis has been compared to Constantine, and they had [7:10:4]certainly this in common, that each embraced Christianity in circumstances nearly similar, and from motives much more closely allied to self-interest than conviction. In both cases, too, the change of religion, instead of tempering their passions, or exercising a benign influence over their conduct, appears rather to have exasperated their natural ferocity and blood-thirstiness. The domestic murders committed by Constantine find their parallel in the assassinations perpetrated by Clovis, who equalled the Roman emperor in cruelty, and perhaps surpassed him in perfidy. In the abuse of the doctrines of confession and absolution each found an opiate to lull the remonstrances of conscience; and as the church encouraged errors calculated to augment its wealth and extend its power, the natural obstacles to the commission of crime were thus removed, and eventual impunity secured to the greatest offender, provided his means bore any proportion to his criminality. The founder of the French monarchy, therefore, is to be regarded rather as a daring and fortunate ruffian than as a great conqueror or an able leader; one who reaped the fruits of the crimes he had committed, and around whom success had thrown that false glare which so much misleads the moral judgments of men.

The dominions of Clovis were divided amongst his four sons. Thierri, or Theodoric, the eldest, received the eastern part of the empire, and as he made the city of Metz his capital, he is commonly styled the king of Metz; Clodomir, the eldest son by Clotilda, obtained the kingdom of Orleans; whilst to Childebert and Clotaire, both infants, were allotted the kingdoms of Paris and Soissons, under the tutelage of their mother. During eight years the prudence of Clotilda maintained tranquillity in all parts of the empire; but about the year 520 a numerous fleet of Danes arrived at the mouth of the Meuse, and their king Cochi-hac having landed his forces, began to desolate the country with fire and sword. Against the invaders Thierri sent his son Theodobert, who defeated the Danish army, killed their king, and forced the remainder to retire with precipitation. In 522 Hermanfroi, king of Thuringia, having put to death one of his brothers named Berthaire, and seized on his dominions, applied to Thierri for assistance against his other brother Balderic, whom he intended to dispose of in the same manner. Thierri assented, and embarked in this creditable enterprise, upon condition that he should have one half of Balderic’s dominions; but after the unhappy prince had been overcome and killed in battle, Hermanfroi, forgetting or despising the compact, seized upon all his dominions. Thierri had no opportunity of revenging himself till the year 531, when, perceiving that the power of the Ostrogoths, whom he greatly dreaded, had been considerably lessened by the death of king Theodoric, he engaged his brother Clotaire to assist him. They accordingly entered Thuringia with two powerfill armies, which formed a junction as soon as they had passed the Rhine, and were soon afterwards reinforced by a considerable body of troops under the command of Theodobert. The army of Hermanfroi was advantageously posted; but being attacked by a superior force, it was totally defeated, and Hermanfroi himself forced to fly from place to place in disguise.. His capital was soon afterwards taken, and Hermanfroi himself being invited to a conference by Thierri, was treacherously murdered; after which his extensive dominions became feudatory to the murderer. In the mean time Clotilda had excited her children to make war on the Burgundians, in order to avenge the death of her father Chilperic, whom Gondebaud, king of Burgundy, had caused to be murdered. Gondebaud, who was now dead, had left his dominions to his sons Sigismund and Godemar. The former was speedily defeated, and soon afterwards delivered up to Clodomir, who caused him to be thrown into a pit, where he perished miserably. Clodomir now marched against Godemar, who, by the death of his brother, had become sole master of Burgundy, and completely defeated him also; but having pursued his victory too eagerly, he was surrounded by his enemies and slain. After the reduction of Thuringia, however, Childebert and Clotaire entered the kingdom of Burgundy at the head of a powerful army, and in 534 completed the conquest of that country.

In 560 Clotaire having murdered the sons of Clodomir, who had been killed in Burgundy as already related, and Thierri and his children, as also Childebert, being now dead, became sole heir to the dominions of Clovis. He had five sons, the eldest of whom, named Chramnes, had some time previously rebelled against his father in Auvergne. As long as Childebert lived he had supported the young prince; but on his death Chramnes was obliged to implore the clemency of his father, by whom he was pardoned. But he soon began to cabal afresh, and engaged the Count of Bretagne to assist him in another rebellion. The Bretons, however, were defeated, and Chramnes resolved to make his escape; but perceiving that his wife and children were surrounded by his father’s troops, he made an effort to rescue them. In this attempt, however, he failed, and being taken prisoner, he was with his family thrust into a thatched cottage near the field of battle, which the king commanded to be set on fire, and all that were in it perished in the flames.

Clotaire did not long survive this barbarous execution, but died in 562, and after his death the French empire was divided amongst his four remaining sons, Caribert, Gontran, Sigebert, and Chilperic. Caribert, the eldest, received the kingdom of Paris; Gontran, the second, obtained Orleans; Sigebert got Metz, or Austrasia; and Chilperic had Soissons; whilst Provence and Aquitaine were possessed by all of them in common. The peace of the empire was first disturbed in 563 by an invasion of the Abares, a barbarous nation, believed to have been the remains of the Huns. They entered Thuringia, which belonged to the dominions of Sigebert, but were totally defeated, and obliged to repass the Elbe. Sigebert pursued them closely, but on hearing that his brother Chilperic had invaded his dominions, and taken Rheims, with some other places in the neighbourhood, he concluded a peace with the vanquished barbarians. Sigebert then marched with his victorious army against Chilperic, made himself master of Soissons, and seized his eldest son Theodobert. He then defeated Chilperic in battle, recovered the places which he had seized, and conquered the greater part of his dominions; but, on the mediation of the other two brothers, Sigebert abandoned all his conquests, set Theodobert at liberty, and thus restored peace to the empire.

Soon after this event Sigebert married Burnehaut, daughter to Athanagilde, king of the Visigoths in Spain; and Caribert, king of Paris, having died, his dominions were divided amongst his three brothers. In 567 Chilperic married Galswintha, Brunehaut’s eldest sister, and before her arrival dismissed his mistress, Fredegonde, a woman of great ability and firmness of mind, but ambitious, and capable of committing the darkest crimes to gratify her ambition. The queen, who had brought with her immense treasures from Spain, and who made it her sole study to please the king, was for some time entirely acceptable to him. But by degrees Chilperic suffered Fredegonde to re-appear at court, and was even suspected of having renewed his intercourse with this profligate woman; a circumstance which gave such offence to the queen, that she desired permission to return to her own country, at the same time promising to leave behind her all the wealth she had brought. Aware that this would render him extremely odious, the king found means to dissipate his wife’s suspicions, and soon afterwards caused her to be privately strangled, upon which he publicly married the harlot Fredegonde. Such an atrocious action could [7:10:5]not fail to excite the greatest indignation against Chilperic. His dominions were immediately invaded by Sigebert and Gontran, who conquered the greater part of them; but having effected this, they suddenly made peace, on Chilperic consenting that Brunehaut should enjoy those places “hich he had bestowed upon Galswintha, namely, Bordeaux, Limoges, Cahors, Bigorre, and the town of Bearn. The French princes, however, did not long continue at peace among themselves; and a war having ensued, Gontran and Chilperic made common cause against Sigebert. But the latter prevailed, and, having forced Gontran to conclude a separate peace, seemed determined to make Chilperic pay dear for his perfidy, when he -was assassinated by a contrivance of Fredegonde, who thus saved herself and Chilperic from the most imminent danger. Immediately on his death Bmnehaut fell into the hands of Chilperic; but Gondebaud, one of Sigebert’s best generals, having made his escape into Austrasia with Childebert, the only son of Sigebert, an infant of about five years of age, the latter was immediately proclaimed king. In a short time, however, Merovaeus, eldest son to Chilperic, fell in love with Bitinehaut, and married her without acquainting his father. On receiving information of this, Chilperic went to Rouen, where Merovaeus and his consort were living; and having seized them, sent Brunehaut and her two daughters to Metz, and carried Merovaeus to Soissons. Soon afterwards one of his generals being defeated by Gontran, who had espoused Brunehaut’s cause, Chilperic in a fit of rage caused Merovaeus to be shaved and confined in a monastery 7 . From this he found means to make his escape, and arrived in Austrasia, where Brunehaut would gladly have protected him; but the jealousy of the nobles proved so strong that he was forced to leave that country; and being betrayed into the hands of his father’s forces, he was murdered at the instigation of Fredegonde.

The French empire was at this time divided between Gontran king of Orleans, called also king of Burgundy, Chilperic king of Soissons, and Childebert king of Austrasia. But Chilperic found his affairs in a very disagreeable situation. In 579, having a dispute with Varoc count of Bretagne, who refused to do him homage, he dispatched against his vassal a body of troops, who were defeated, and he was in consequence forced to submit to a disadvantageous peace. Meanwhile his brother and nephew, whom he had reason to dread, lived in the strictest union; his subjects, oppressed with heavy taxes, were poor and discontented; Clovis, his son by a former queen named Andovera, hated Fredegonde, and made no secret of his aversion; and, to add to his embarrassment, the seasons were for a long time so unfavourable that the country was threatened with famine and pestilence. The king and queen were both attacked by an q>idemic which then raged; and though they recovered, their three sons Clodobert, Samson, and Dagobert, all died. After this, the sight of Clovis became so hateful to Fredegonde that she caused him to be murdered, as she likewise did his mother Andovera, lest Chilperic’s affection for that lady should return after the tragical death of her son. In 583 Chilperic himself was murdered by some unknown assassins, when his dominions were on the point of being conquered by Gontran and Childebert. After his death Fredegonde implored the protection of Gontran, which he readily granted, and obliged Childebert to put an end to the war. Contran died on the 28th of Marell 593, having lived upwards of Mxty years, and reigned thirty-two; and Childebert succeeded to the kingdom without opposition, but did not long enjoy it. His dominions were on his death divided between his two sons Theodobert and Thierri; the former being declared king of Austrasia, and the latter king of Burgundy. But as Theodobert was only in his eleventh, and Thιem m his tenth year, Brunehaut governed both kingdoms with absolute sway. Fredegonde, however, avail ing herself of the opportunity offered by the death of Childebert, made herself mistress of Paris and some other places on the Seine; upon which Brunehaut sent against her the best part of the forces in Austrasia. The latter, however, were totally defeated; but Fredegonde died before she had time to improve her victory, leaving her son Clotaire heir to her dominions.

For some time Brunehaut preserved her kingdom in peace; but her own ambition in the end proved her ruin. Instead of instructing Theodobert in what was necessary for a prince to know, she took care to keep him in ignorance, and even suffered him to marry a young and handsome slave of his father’s. But the new queen being possessed of ability and good nature, so gained the affection of her husband that he consented to the banishment of Brunehaut. Upon this disgrace she in 599 fled to Thierri king of Burgundy, by whom she was kindly received; and, instead of exciting jealousies or misunderstandings between the two brothers, she engaged Thierri to attempt the recovery of Paris and the other places which had been wrested from their family by Fredegonde. This measure was so acceptable to Thcodobcrt, that he likewise raised a numerous army, and in conjunction with his brother invaded Clotaire’s dominions. A battle ensued, in which the forces of Clotaire were completely defeated, and he himself obliged to sue for peace, which was not granted except on condition of his yielding up the best part of his dominions. This treaty was concluded in the year 600; but three years afterwards it was broken by Clotaire, who was again attacked by the two brothers. The war was carried on with great vigour until the next spring, when Thierri having forced Landri, Clotaire’s general, to accept battle, overthrew him, and put to death the king’s infant son Merovaeus, whom he had sent with Landri. After this victory, Thierri, intent on the destruction of his cousin, marched directly to Paris. But Theodobert no sooner heard of the victory gained by Thierri, than, becoming jealous of his success, he offered Clotaire such conditions as speedily compelled Thierri also to listen to terms of accommodation. This conduct of Theodobert greatly provoked his brother; and his resentment was still more inflamed by Brunehaut, who never forgot the disgrace of having been banished from his court. A war was therefore commenced in 605; but being disapproved of by the nobility, Thierri found himself obliged to put an end to it. The tranquillity which ensued, however, was again disturbed in 607, when Theodobert sent an embassy to demand part of Childebert’s dominions, which by the will of that monarch had been added to those of Burgundy. But the nobility of both kingdoms were exceedingly averse to war, and constrained their kings to consent to a conference, attended by an equal number of troops. By a scandalous breach of faith, however, Theodobert brought double the number agreed on, and compelled his brother to submit to whatever terms he pleased to dictate. This act of treachery instantly brought on a war. Thierri was bent on revenge, and his nobility no longer opposed him. Having secured the neutrality of Clotaire by a promise of restoring those parts of his dominions of which he had formerly been despoiled, Thierri entered Theodobert’s territories, defeated him in two battles, took him prisoner, and treated him with the greatest indignity. Meanwhile Clotaire, thinking that the best method of making Thierri keep his word was to seize upon those places which the latter had promised to restore to him as the price of his neutrality, did so accordingly; upon which Thicrri sent to him a messenger to require him to withdraw his forces, and in the event of a refusal, to declare war. Clotaire was prepared for such a proceeding, and immediately assembled his forces. But before Thierri could reach his enemies, he was seized with a dysentery, of which he died, in the year 612.
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On the death of Thierri, Bnmehaut immediately caused his eldest son Sigisbert, then in the tenth year of his age, to be proclaimed king. It is probable that she intended to govern in his name with an absolute sway; but Clotaire did not allow her time to discover her intentions. Knowing that the nobility both in Burgundy and Metz were disaffected to Brunehaut, he declared war against her; and the unfortunate queen having been betrayed by her generals, fell into the hands of her enemies. Clotaire gave her up to the nobles, who generally hated her, and treated their captive in the most barbarous manner; for, after having led her about the camp, exposed to the insults of all who had the meanness to insult her, she was tied by the leg and arm to the tail of an untamed horse, which, setting off at full speed, quickly dashed out her brains. Thus, in the year 613, Clotaire became sole monarch of France, and quietly enjoyed his kingdom till his death, which happened in 628.

This prince was succeeded by Dagobert, who proved a great and powerful sovereign, and raised the kingdom of France to a high degree of splendour. Dagobert was succeeded by his sons Sigebert and Clovis; the former of whom obtained the kingdom of Austrasia, and the latter that of Burgundy. Both the kings were minors at the time of their accession to the throne, which gave an opportunity to the mayors of the palace, the highest officers under the crown, to usurp the whole authority of the state. Sigebert died in 640, after a short reign of one year, leaving behind him an infant son named Dagobert, whom he strongly recommended to the care of Grimoalde, his mayor of the palace. The minister caused Dagobert to be immediately proclaimed king, but did not long suffer him to enjoy that honour. He had not the cruelty, however, to put him to death, but sent him to a monastery in one of the western islands of Scotland; and then, giving out that he was dead, advanced his own son Childebert to the throne. Childebert was expelled by Clovis king of Burgundy, who placed on the throne Childeric, the second son of Sigebert. Clovis died soon after the revolution, and was succeeded in his dominions by his son Clotaire, who also died in a short time without issue. He was succeeded by his brother Childeric, who, after a brief reign, was murdered, with his queen, at that time big with child, and an infant son named Dagobert, though another, named Daniel, had the good fortune to escape.

The affairs of the French were now in the most deplorable situation. The princes of the Merovingian race had been for some time entirely deprived of their power by their officers called mayors of the palace. In Austrasia the administration had been totally engrossed by Pepin and his son Grimaulde, whilst Archambaud and Ebroin followed the same course in Neustria and Burgundy. On the reunion of Neustria and Burgundy with the rest of the French dominions, this minister ruled with such despotic sway that the nobility of Austrasia, provoked to a revolt, elected as their dukes two chiefs named Martin and Pepin. The forces of the confederates, however, were defeated by Ebroin; and Martin having surrendered upon a promise of safety, was treacherously put to death. Pepin lost no time in recruiting his shattered forces; but before he had an opportunity of trying his fortune a second time in battle, the assassination of Ebroin delivered him from all apprehensions in that quarter. Pepin now carried every tiling before him; overthrew the royal army under the command of the new minister Bertaire; and having obtained possession of the capital, caused himself to be declared mayor of the palace, in which station he continued to govern with absolute sway during the remainder of his life. Pepin, who had obtained’ the surname of Heristal, from his palace on the Meuse, died in the year 714, having enjoyed unlimited power for twenty-six years; and appointed his grandson

Theudobalde, then only six years of age, to succeed him in his post of mayor of the palace. This happened during the reign of Dagobert already mentioned; but as the latter had too much spirit to suffer himself to be deprived of his authority by an infant, the adherents of the young mayor were defeated in battle; and this discomfiture was soon followed by his death.

But Charles, the illegitimate son of Pepin, was now raised to the dignity of duke by the Austrasians; and by his great qualities he seemed in every respect worthy of this honour. The murder of Dagobert freed him from a powerful opponent; and the young king Chilperic, who after Dagobert’s death had been brought from a cloister to the throne, was not qualified to cope with so experienced an antagonist. On the 19th of March 717, Charles had the good fortune to surprise the royal camp as he passed through the forest of Ardennes; and soon afterwards a battle ensued, in which the king’s forces were entirely defeated. Upon this Chilperic entered into an alliance with Eudes duke of Aquitaine, whose friendship he purchased by the final cession of all the ∞untry which Eudes had seized for himself. Charles, however, having placed on the throne another of the royal family, named Clotaire, advanced against Chilperic and his associate, whom he entirely defeated near Soissons. After this disaster Eudes, despairing of success, delivered up Chilperic into the hands of his antagonist; having stipulated for himself the same terms which had been formerly granted him by the captive monarch. Charles being now advanced to the summit of power, treated Chilperic with the greatest respect, and on the death of Clotaire caused him to be proclaimed king of Austrasia; but by this proceeding his own power was in no degree diminished, and henceforth the authority of the kings of France became merely nominal; indeed so inactive and indolent were they accounted, that historians have bestowed upon them the epithet of rois fainéant, indolent or lazy kings. Charles, however, had still one competitor to contend with. This was Rainfroy, who had been appointed mayor of the palace, and who made so vigorous a resistance, that Charles was obliged to allow him to retain peaceable possession of the country of Anjou. But no sooner had he thus set himself at liberty from domestic enemies, than he was threatened with destruction by foreign invaders. The Suevians, Frisians, and Alemanni, were successively encountered and defeated; Eudes also, who had perfidiously violated the treaties by which he had bound himself, was twice repulsed; after which Charles invaded Aquitaine, and obliged the treacherous duke to hearken to reason. This however had scarcely been accomplished when he found himself engaged with a more formidable enemy than any he had yet encountered. The Saracens having overrun the greater part of Asia, now turned their victorious arms westward, and threatened Europe with total subjugation. Spain had already received their yoke; and having crossed the Pyrenees, they next invaded France, appearing in vast numbers under the walls of Toulouse. Here they were encountered and defeated by Eudes; but this proved only a partial check. The barbarians having once more passed the Pyrenees, entered France with a powerful army, which Eudes was no longer able to resist. He encountered them indeed with his accustomed valour; but being obliged to yield to superior force, he solicited the protection and assistance of Charles. Upon this occasion the latter, on account of his valour and personal strength, acquired the name of Martel, or the Hammer, in allusion to the violence of the strokes which he bestowed on his enemies. Three hundred and seventy-five thousand Infidels, amongst whom was their commander Abderrahman himself, are said to have perished in a single battle fought near Poictiers. But notwithstanding this slaughter, they soon made another irruption, though with no better success, being again defeated by [7:10:7]Charles, who by so many victories established his power on the most solid foundation. Having also defeated the Frisians, and with his own hand killed their duke, he assumed the sovereignty of the dominions of Eudes. At length his fame became so great that he was chosen by Gregory III. as his protector. The latter also offered to shake off the yoke of the Greek emperor, and to invest Charles with the dignity of Roman consul, sending him at the same time the keys of the tomb of St Peter; but whilst this negotiation was going on successfully, the pope, the emperor, and Charles Martel himself, all died.

After the death of Martel, which happened in the year 741, his dominions were divided among his three sons, e Carloman, Pepin, and Grippon, according to dispositions which he had made in his ufetime. Carloman, the eldest, received Austrasia; Pepin, the second, obtained Neustria and Burgundy; but Grippon, the third, had only some lands assigned him in France. This inequality displeased him so much that the tranquillity of the empire was soon disturbed. With the assistance of his mother Sonnechilde he seized upon the city of Lahon, where he sustained a siege; but in the end he was obliged to submit; when Sonnechilde was put into a monastery, and Grippon imprisoned in a castle at Ardennes. The two brothers, having thus freed themselves from their domestic enemy, continued to govern the empire with uninterrupted harmony, until its tranquillity was disturbed by the intrigues of Sonnechilde. That enterprising and ambitious woman having negotiated a marriage between Odilon duke of Bavaria, and Hiltrude the sister of the two princes, instigated Odilon, who, alarmed at the growing power of the two princes, entered into an alliance with Theodobald duke of the Alemanni, and Theodoric duke of the Saxons. Having assembled a formidable army, he advanced directly against the princes, and took post in an advantageous manner, with the Lech in front. But Carloman and Pepin having passed the river at different fords in the night time, attacked the camp of the allies, and entirely routed the Bavarians and Saxons, and compelled the vanquished dukes to submit to the clemency of the victors. During their absence on this expedition Hunalde duke of Aquitaine passed the Loire, ravaged the open country, and burned the magnificent cathedral of Chartres. But the invader was speedily obliged to retreat, and afterwards to withdraw into a convent, after resigning his dominions to his son. This was soon followed by the resignation of Carloman, who, notwithstanding his uninterrupted success, suddenly took the resolution of retiring into a convent, and persisted in his design, in spite of the entreaties of Pepin, who ostensibly did all he could to dissuade him.

By the resignation of Carloman, which happened in the year 746, Pepin became sole master of France; and in this exalted station he acquitted himself in such a manner as to render his name deservedly illustrious. One of his first acts was to release from prison his brother Grippon. That treacherous prince, however, had no sooner regained his liberty than he again excited the Saxons to take up arms. But his enterprise proved unsuccessful. The Saxons were defeated, their duke was taken prisoner, and his subjects “ere obliged to submit to the will of the conqueror. Grippon then fled to Hiltrude, whom, in requital of a favourable reception, he betrayed, and afterwards assumed the title of Duke of Bavaria; but being driven by Pepin from the throne he had usurped, he was obliged to implore his clemency, which was once more granted. Pepin having thus subdued all his enemies within and without, resolved to assume the title of king, after having so long exercised the regal power. His wishes in this respect were quite agreeable to those of the nation in general; but the nobility were bound by an oath of allegiance to Childeric the nominal monarch, and this oath could not be dispensed with except by the authority of the pope. A dispensation was therefore procured; the unfortunate Childeric, degraded from his dignity, was sent to a monastery; Pepin assumed the title of King of France, and the line of Clovis was finally set aside.

This revolution took place in the year 751. The first claim on the attention of the new monarch was a revolt of the Saxons; but they were soon reduced to subjection, and obliged to pay an additional tribute. In the mean time Pepin continued to advance his fortune. The submission of the Saxons was soon followed by the reduction of Bretagne, and the recovery of Narbonne from the Infidels. His next exploit was the protection of Pope Stephen III. against the king of the Lombards, who had seized on the exarchate of Ravenna, and insisted on being acknowledged king of Rome. The pope, unable to contend with so powerful a rival, hastened to cross the Alps and implore the protection of Pepin, who received him with all the respect due to his character, and attended him in person during a dangerous sickness with which he was seized. On his recovery Stephen solemnly placed the diadem on the head of his benefactor, bestowed the regal unction on his sons Charles and Carloman, and conferred on the three princes the title of patricians of Rome. In return for these honours, Pepin accompanied the pontiff into Italy at the head of a powerful army, and obliged Astolphus to renounce all pretensions to the sovereignty of Rome, as well as to restore the city and exarchate of Ravenna, and to pay an annual tribute. Pepin returned to France in triumph; but the peace of his dominions was soon disturbed by another revolt of the Saxons. Their attempt, however, proved unsuccessful; and they were obliged to submit and purchase their pardon by a renewal of their tribute, and an additional supply of three hundred horse. But whilst the king was absent on this expedition, Vaisar duke of Aquitaine ravaged Burgundy, carrying his devastations as far as Chalons. Pepin returned, and entering the dominions of Vaisar, committed similar devastations, and would have reduced the whole of Aquitaine, had he not been interrupted by the hostile preparations of the Duke of Bavaria. This, however, was ultimately effected, and the duchy of Aquitaine once more annexed to the crown of France. But Pepin had scarcely time to indulge himself with a view of his new conquest when he was seized with a slow fever, which in 768 put an end to his life, in the fifty-fourth year of his age and seventeenth of his reign. Being of short stature, he had the surname of Le Bref; but his great actions justly entitled him to the character of a hero. Under the succeeding reign, however, his own fame seemed to have been entirely forgotten; and on his tomb was only inscribed, “Here lies the father of Charlemagne.” Pepin was succeeded by his sons Charles and Carloman, to whom he bequeathed his dominions, and who continued to reign jointly for some time; but the active and enterprising spirit of Charles gave such umbrage to the weak and jealous Carloman, that he regarded him with envy, and was on the point of coming to an open rupture with him, when he himself was removed by death, and thus the tranquillity of the empire was preserved.

The death of Carloman, which happened in the year 771, left Charles sole master of France; but the revolt of the Saxons involved him in a series of wars, from which it required thirty-three years to extricate himself. The latter had long been tributaries to the French, but frequently revolted; and now, when freed from the terror of Pepin’s arms, they thought they had a right to shake off the yoke altogether. Charles entered their country with a powerful army; and having defeated them in a number of small engagements, advanced towards Eresburg, near Paderborn, where was the image of their god Irminsul, represented as a man completely armed, and standing on a column. The [7:10:8]Saxons made an obstinate defence, but were at last obliged to submit; and Charles employed his army three days in demolishing the monuments of idolatry in this place. But the news which Charles now received from Italy induced him to relax a little the severity with which he was otherwise disposed to treat the Saxons. He had concluded a marriage with the daughter of Didier king of the Lombards, but this had been dissolved by the pope; and as the Lombard monarchs appear to have had a kind of natural antipathy to the popes, this feeling now broke out with uncommon fury. Didier having seized on and terrified to death Pope Stephen IV. used his utmost endeavours to reduce his successor Adrian I. to a state of entire dependence. The pontiff applied to the French monarch, who was inclined to grant the necessary assistance; but as the nobility were averse to an Italian war, he was obliged to act with circumspection. Several embassies were therefore sent to Didier, entreating him to restore to the pope those places which he had taken from him, and even offering him a large siun of money if he would do so. But these propositions being rejected, Charles obtained the consent of his nobility to make war on the Lombards. Didier, however, disposed his troops with such ability, that the officers of Charles were of opinion it would be impossible to force a passage; but, either by the superior skill of Charles, or from the effect of panic, this was accomplished; after which Didier, with the Duke of Aquitaine, who had taken refuge at his court, shut themselves up in Pavia, whilst Adalgise, the only son of the Lombard monarch, together with the widow and children of Carloman, fled to Verona. The latter city was immediately invested, and in a short time obliged to submit; but Adalgise had the good fortune to escape to Constantinople. After paying a short visit to Rome, Charles returned to the siege of Pavia. The place was vigorously defended, but famine and pestilence ultimately obliged the inhabitants to implore the clemency of the conqueror. Hunalde fell a sacrifice to his own obstinacy in opposing the intention of the people; Didier was taken prisoner and carried into France; his kingdom was totally dissolved, and Charles crowned king of Lombardy at Milan in the year 774.

Having received the oaths of allegiance from his new subjects, Charles set out for Saxony, the inhabitants of which had again revolted, and re-possessed themselves of Eresburg, their capital. The king however soon recovered this important post; but a detachment of his army having been cut off, and new troubles having arisen in Italy, he was obliged to accept the proposals of the Saxons, though distrustful of their sincerity. Having strengthened the fortifications of Eresburg, and left a sufficient garrison in the place, he set out for Italy, where his presence restored tranquillity; but the Saxons having in the meanwhile retaken Eresburg, and destroyed the fortifications, threatened to annihilate the French power in that quarter. On his return Charles found them employed in the siege of Sige-burg. But his sudden arrival struck them with such terror that they instantly sued for peace, which the king once more granted; but, to secure their obedience, he constructed a chain of forts along the river Lippe, and repaired the fortifications of Eresburg. An assembly of the Saxon chiefs was then held at Paderborn, and a promise extracted from them that the nation should embrace the Christian religion.

His next enterprise was an expedition to Spain, undertaken in 778 at the request of Ibunala, the Moorish sovereign of Zaragoza, who had been driven from his territory. Having reduced the cities of Pampeluna, Zaragoza, and Barcelona, and also the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon, Charles restored Ibunala; but, on his return, he met with a severe check from the Gascons, who attacked and defeated with great slaughter the rear-guard of his army, in a pass of the Pyrenean mountains. This encounter, the result of which seems to imply some defect in the prudence or military skill of Charles, has been much celebrated among romance writers, on account of the death of Roland, which took place on this occasion.

The following year Charlemagne paid a visit to Italy with his two sons Carloman and Louis, and having passed the winter at Pavia, entered Rome next spring amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. Here, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, he divided his dominions between his two sons Carloman and Louis; the former, who now took the name of Pepin, receiving Lombardy, and the latter Aquitaine. Having then received the submission of the Duke of Bavaria, he set out for Saxony, where the people had once more revolted, and where he now inflicted a severe chastisement for the many treacheries of which they had been guilty. This insurrection had been stirred up by a chief named Witikind, who having twice before fled from the victorious arms of Charles, and taken refuge at the court of Denmark, had returned in the king’s absence, and roused his countrymen to arms, whilst the generals of Charles, divided among themselves, and neglecting to take the proper measures for putting down the revolt, were entirely defeated on the banks of the Weser, in the year 782. Charles arrived in time to prevent the total destruction of his troops, and having penetrated into the heart of the country, Witikind, unable to resist his antagonist, once more fled into Denmark; but four thousand five hundred of his followers perished at once by the hands of the executioner. A general insurrection ensued; and though during three years the French monarch was constantly successful in the field, he found it impossible to subdue the spirit of the people, and was at last obliged to have recourse to negotiation. Witikind and several other chiefs were invited to an interview, and Charles having represented to them in strong colours the ruin which must ensue to their country from persisting in an obstinate and fruitless opposition, they were induced not only to persuade their countrymen finally to submit, but also to embrace the Christian religion.

Having thus brought his affairs in Saxony to a satisfactory conclusion, Charles turned his arms against Tassilon duke of Bavaria, who had secrectly supported the Saxons in their revolts; and having entered that country with a powerful army in the year 787, he advanced so rapidly, that seeing his destruction inevitable, Tassilon privately entered his camp, and threw himself at his feet. Charles looked with pity on his faithless kinsman; but no sooner did the latter find himself at liberty, than he stirred up the Huns, the Greek emperor, and the fugitive Adalgise, and also fomented the discontents of the factious nobles of Aquitaine and Lombardy. His subjects, however, fearing lest these intrigues should involve them in destruction, made a discovery of the whole; upon which Tassilon was arrested by order of the French monarch, and being brought to a trial, and found guilty, he was condemned to lose his head; a sentence which was afterwards mitigated to perpetual confinement in a monastery. The duchy of Bavaria was then annexed to the dominions of Charles.

But the Huns and other enemies of the French monarch, disregarding the fate of Tassilon, continued to prosecute their enterprises against him. Their attempts, however, only served to enhance the fame of Charles, who defeated the Huns in Bavaria, and the Greek emperor in Italy, at the same time obliging the latter to renounce for ever the fortunes of Adalgise. As the Huns, not disheartened by their defeat, continued to infest the French dominions, Charles entered their country at the head of a formidable army; and having forced their intrenchments, penetrated as far as Raab on the Danube; but he was compelled by an epidemic to retire before he had completed the conquest of this people. On his return to his own dominions, [7:10:9]he had the mortification to learn that his eldest son Pepin had conspired against his life. The plot having been discovered by a priest, Pepin was seized, and condemned to expiate his offences by spending the remainder of his days in a monastery. But Charles was no sooner freed from this danger than he was again called to arms by a revolt of the Saxons on the one hand, and a formidable invasion of the Moors on the other, whilst the Huns at the same time renewed their predatory attacks on his dominions. As to the Moors, the king foresaw that they would be called off by their Christian enemies in Spain; and this accordingly happened, the victories of Alonso the Chaste having obliged them to quit France. Charles then marched in person to attack the Saxons and Huns, the former of whom again consented to receive the Christian religion, and were likewise obliged to deliver up a third part of their army to be disposed of at the king’s pleasure; but the latter defended themselves with incredible vigour, and the war was only terminated by the death of their king, and an almost total destruction of the people.

These exploits occurred between the years 793 and 798. Charles next invaded and subdued the islands of Majorca and Minorca. But the satisfaction he received from this new conquest was soon damped by the troubles which broke out in Italy. After the death of Adrian, his nephew aspired to the papal dignity; but a priest named Leo having been preferred, the disappointed candidate determined en revenge, yet managed matters so well as to conceal for four years his design. At last, on the day of a procession, a furious assault was made on the person of Leo, and the unfortunate pontiff was left for dead on the ground. But having with difficulty recovered, and made his escape to the Vatican, he was protected by the Duke of Spoleto, general of the French forces, and his cause was warmly espoused by Charles, who invited him to his camp at Paderborn in Westphalia. Leo accepted the invitation, and not long afterwards returned, with a numerous guard, to Rome, which the French monarch promised soon to visit, and there redress all grievances. Having constructed forts at the mouths of most of the navigable rivers, and further provided for the defence of his territories against the descents of the Normans, by instituting a regular militia, and appointing proper squadrons to cruise against the invaders, he set out for the fourth and last time to Rome, where he was received with the highest possible honours. Leo was now permitted to clear himselt by oath of the crimes laid to his charge by his enemies, whilst his accusers were sent into exile.

At length, on the festival of Christmas in the year 800, after Charles had made his appearance in the cathedral of "St Peter, and assisted devoutly at mass, the pope suddenly put a crown on his head; and the place instantly resounded with acclamations of “Long life to Charles the August, crowned by the hand of God; long life and victory to the great and pacific emperor of the Romans.” His body was then consecrated and anointed with the royal unction; and after being conducted to a throne, he was treated with all the respect usually paid to the ancient Caesars; from this time also he was honoured with the title of Charle-niagne, or Charles the Great. In private conversation, however, he usually protested that he was ignorant of the pope’s intention, and that, had he known it, he would have disappointed it by absenting himself; but these protestations were not generally believed, and the care he took to have his new title acknowledged by the eastern emperors evidently showed that the conduct of his holiness on this occasion was neither unexpected nor disagreeable. Being now raised to the supreme dignity in the west, Charlemagne proposed to unite in his own person the whole power of the first Roman emperors, by marrying Irene, the empress of the east. But in this he was disappointed by the marriage of that princess to Niceþhorus, who, however, acknowledged the new dignity of Augustus bestowed on his rival, and the boundaries of the two empires were amicably settled. Charles was further gratified by the respect paid him by the renowned Haroun Al-Raschid, caliph of the Saracens, who yielded to him the sacred city of Jerusalem, together with the holy sepulchre. But in the mean time his empire was threatened with the invasion of a formidable enemy, whom even the power of Charles would have found it difficult to resist. We allude to the Normans, who were at this rime under the command of Godfrey, a celebrated warrior, and who by their adventurous spirit and skill in maritime affairs threatened all the western coasts of Europe with desolation. From motives of mutual convenience, a temporary peace was concluded, and Charles employed the interval thus afforded to settle the final distribution of his dominions. Aquitaine and Gascony, with the Spanish Marche, were assigned to his son Louis; Pepin had Italy confirmed to him, to which was added the greater part of Bavaria, with the country now possessed by the Grisons; whilst Charles, the eldest, had Neustria, Austrasia, and Thuringia. This division, however, had scarcely taken place when the princes were all obliged to defend their dominions by force of arms. Louis and Pepin were attacked by the Saracens, and Charles by the Sclavonians. All these enemies were indeed defeated; but whilst Charles hoped to spend the remainder of his days in tranquillity, he was once more called into the field by the hostile demeanour of the Norman chief. Charles sent him a message of defiance, which was returned in the same style by Godfrey; but, by artfully fomenting divisions amongst the northern tribes, Charles prevented for a time the threatened danger. When these disturbances were quelled, however, the Normans renewed their depredations, and Charles was obliged to confront them in the field. But an engagement was prevented by the death of Godfrey, who was assassinated by a private soldier; and the Norman army having retreated, the dominions of the empire remained free from these invaders. Still the latter days of Charles were embittered by domestic misfortunes. His favourite daughter Rotrude died, as did also Pepin king of Italy; and these misfortunes were soon followed by the death of his eldest son Charles. The emperor then resolved to associate with himself in the government his only surviving son Louis; and this was formally executed at Aix-la-Chapelle. But Charles survived the transaction only a few months; and his death, which happened on the 27th of January 814, in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-seventh of his reign, removed the last remaining barrier against the confusion and anarchy which ensued.

By the martial achievements of this hero the French monarchy was raised to the highest pitch of splendour. He had added tire province of Aquitaine to the territories of his ancestors; he had confined the inhabitants of Bretagne to the shores of the ocean, and obliged them to submit to annual tribute; and he had reduced under his dominion all that part of Spain which extends from the Pyrenees to the Ebro, including the kingdoms of Roussillon, Navarre, Aragon, and Catalonia. He possessed Italy from the Alps to the borders of Calabria; but the duchy of Beneventum, including the greater part of the present kingdom of Naples, escaped from his yoke after a transitory submission. Charles also added to his territories the whole of Germany and Pannonia; so that the French jurisdiction extended from the Ebro in Spain to the Vistula in Poland, and from the duchy of Beneventum in Italy to the river Eyder, the boundary between Germany and the dominions of Denmark. ìn acquiring these extensive dominions, Charles had committed frequent and barbarous massacres, for which he had no other excuse than the fierce and rebellious disposition of the people with whom he had to deal. But in [7:10:10]establishing schools throughout the conquered provinces, he showed an inclination to govern his subjects in peace, and to take means for promoting their civilization; though many parts of his conduct still evinced no small inclination to cruelty, particularly the fate of the sons of Carloman, of whom no distinct account could ever be obtained. His advice to his son Louis was indeed excellent: in exhorting the latter to consider his people as his children, to be mild and gentle in his administration, but firm in the execution of justice, to reward merit, to promote his nobles gradually, to choose ministers deliberately, and not remove them capriciously or without sufficient reason, he displayed a degree of sense and wisdom worthy of his fame. But these prudent maxims were insufficient to enable Louis to govern dominions so extensive, or to restrain people so turbulent as he had to deal withal.

At the time of the decease of his father this prince was about thirty-six years of age, and had married Ermengarde, daughter of the Count of Hesbai, of the diocese of Liege, by whom he had three sons, Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis. Lothaire, the elaest, was associated with himself in the empire, and the two others were intrusted with the governments of Aquitaine and Bavaria. But these princes proved unfaithful to their father, as well as enemies to one another. The death of Ermengarde, and the marriage of the emperor with Judith, a princess of Bavaria, artful but accomplished, proved the first source of calamity to the empire. In the year 823 was born Charles, the emperor’s youngest son; and his pretensions eventually became more fatal to the public tranquillity than the ambition and disobedience of all the others. Various parts of the imperial dominions were likewise attacked by foreign enemies. The inhabitants of Bretagne and Navarre revolted, and the Moors invaded Catalonia; whilst the ambition of Judith produced a war amongst the brothers themselves. Charles at first had been appointed sovereign of that part of Germany which is bounded by the Danube, the Maine, the Neckar, and the Rhine, together with the country of the Grisons and Burgundy, comprehending Geneva and the Swiss Cantons; but this was opposed by the three elder sons. Pepin and Louis advanced with the united forces of Aquitaine and Bavaria, whilst the imperial forces deserted their standard and joined the malcontents. The emperor was taken prisoner, and the empress retired to a monastery. Lothaire, the eldest of the young princes, was the person who retained the emperor in his possession; but, notwithstanding his breach of duty, his heart was touched with remorse on account of the crimes he had committed. Dreading the reproach of the world at large, and threatened with the censures of the church, he threw himself at his fathers feet, begged pardon for his offence, and consented to relinquish the power he had unjustly usurped. Being thus re-established in his authority by the diet of the empire, which had met to depose him, Louis recalled his empress from the monastery to which she had retired; but this princess, implacable in her resentment, so persecuted Lothaire that he was obliged to join his two brothers Pepin and Louis in a confederacy against their father. The old emperor attempted to check this rebellious disposition by revolting his grant of Aquitaine to Pepin, and bestowing it on his youngest son Charles, then only nine years of age; but Pope Gregory IV. conferred the imperial dignity itself on Lothaire, deposed the unhappy monarch, and again sent the empress to a nunnery in the forest of Ardennes. As the unnatural behaviour of his son, however, had once more excited the compassion of his subjects, Dreux, the bishop of Mentz, used his interest with Louis of Bavaria to arna in defence of his father and sovereign. In this enterprise the Bavarian monarch was joined by the French and the Saxons; and the aged emperor was again restored, the empress being released from her nunnery, and Charles from his prison, in the year 833. But the ambition of Judith again kindled the flame of discord. Taking advantage of the affection of her husband, she persuaded him to invest her son Charles with the sovereignty of Neustria, as well as the dominions formerly assigned him; a proceeding which was productive of great discontent on the part of Lothaire and Pepin. But their power was now too much broken to enable them to accomplish any thing by force of arms; and the death of Pepin, which happened soon afterwards, produced a new division of the empire. The claims of Pepin and Charles, the sons of the deceased prince, were entirely disregarded, and his French dominions divided between the two brothers Charles and Lothaire, the latter of whom was named guardian to his infant nephew. This enraged Louis of Bavaria, whose interest was entirely neglected in the partition, and induced him to revolt; but the unexpected appearance of the Saxons obliged him to submit and ask pardon for his offence. Still, however, the ambition of the empress kept matters in a continual ferment, and the empire was again threatened with all the calamities of civil war; but this was prevented by the death of the emperor, which took place in 841, after a most unfortunate reign of twenty-seven years. Louis was eminent for his mild manners and peaceful virtues, which procured him the title of Le Débonnaire; but such was the excessive turbulence and barbarity of the age in which he lived, that his virtues, instead of procuring him respect and esteem, were productive only of contempt and rebellion.

The decease of the emperor was followed by a civil war among his sons. In 842, the united forces of Lothaire and his nephew Pepin were defeated by those of Charles and Louis in a bloody battle on the plains of Fontenoy, where a hundred thousand Franks perished. This victory, however, did not decide the fortune of the war. The conquerors having, from motives of interest or jealousy, retired each into his own dominions, Lothaire found means to recruit his shattered forces, and even pressed the other two princes so vigorously that they were glad to consent to a new partition of the empire. By this Lothaire was allowed to possess the whole of Italy, with the tract of country situated between the rivers Rhone and Rhine, as well as that between the Meuse and Scheldt; Charles obtained Aquitaine, with the country situated between the Loire and the Meuse; whilst Louis received Bavaria, with the rest of Germany, and from this was distinguished by the appellation of Louis the German. By this partition Germany and France were disjoined in such a manner as never afterwards to be united under one head. That part of France which was allowed to Lothaire was from him called Lotharingie, and afterwards, by the gradual corruption of the word, Lorraine. The sovereignty, however, which that prince had pursued at the expense of every filial duty, and purchased with so much blood, afforded him so little satisfaction, that, disgusted with the cares and anxieties of his situation, he sought relief in a monastery in the year 855. On his retreat from the throne, he allotted to his eldest son Louis II. the sovereignty of Italy; to his second son Lothaire the territory of Lorraine, with the title of king; and to his youngest son Charles, surnamed the Bald, Provence, Dauphine, and part of the kingdom of Burgundy; so that he may be considered as properly the king of France. From the year 845 to 857 the provinces subjected to his jurisdiction had been infested by the annual depredations of the Normans, from whom Charles was at last glad to purchase peace at a greater expense than might have carried on a successful war. The people of Bretagne had also revolted; and though obliged, by the appearance of Charles at the head of a powerful army, to return to their allegiance, they no sooner perceived him again embarrassed by the incursions of the Normans, than they threw off the yoke, and under the conduct of their dukt [7:10:11]Louis subdued the neighbouring diocese of Rennes; nfter which the latter assumed the title of king. By this bold usurper Charles was totally defeated; and his subjects, perceiving the weakness of their monarch, put themselves under the protection of Louis the German, whose ambition prompted him to give a ready ear to the proposal. Taking the opportunity of Charles’s absence in repelling an invasion of the Danes, he marched with a formidable army into France, and was solemnly crowned by the Archbishop of Sens in the year 857. But being too confident of success, and fancying himself already established on the throne, he was persU⅛ded to dismiss his German forces; upon which Charles marched against him with an army, and compelled Louis to abandon his new kingdom. Notwithstanding this success, however, the kingdom of Charles still continued in a very tottering condition. Harassed by the Normans on one side, and by the king of Bretagne on another, he marched against the latter in 860; but had the misfortune to sustain a total defeat, after an engagement which lasted two days. The victory was chiefly owing to a noted warrior named Robert le Fort, or the Strong, who commanded the Bretons; but Charles found means to gain over the latter to his interest, and for some time the abilities of Robert afforded support to his tottering throne. The difficulties, however, returned on the death of that hero, who was killed in repelling an invasion of the Danes. Some amends were indeed made for his loss by the death of the king of Lorraine in 869, by which event the territories of Charles were augmented by the cities of Lyons, Vienne, Tou!, Besançon, Verdun, Cambray, Viviers, and Urez, together with the territories of Hainault, Zealand, and Holland; whilst Cologne, Utrecht, Treves, Mentz, Strasburg, with the rest of the territories of Lothaire, were assigned to Louis the German.

All this time the Normans still continued their incursions; but Solomon king of Bretagne having joined his forces to those of Charles, in order to repel the common enemy, the Normans were besieged in Angiers, and obliged to purchase leave to depart by relinquishing all the spoil they had taken. Thus freed from a formidable enemy, Charles began to aspire to the imperial crown, which soon became vacant by the death of Louis. This indeed belonged of right to Louis the German; but Charles, having assembled a powerful army, marched into Italy; and being favourably received at Rome, the imperial crown was placed on his head by the pope, in the year 873. Enraged at his disappointment, Louis discharged his fury on the defenceless country of Champagne; and though the approach of Charles obliged him to retire, he continued his preparations with such vigour that Charles would probably have found him a formidable adversary, had he not been removed by death in 877. Informed of his brother’s decease, Charles invaded the dominions of his son Louis, who possessed Franconia, Thuringia, and Lower Lorraine, with some other territories. But the enterprise proved unsuccessful. Charles, though at the head of superior numbers, was defeated with great slaughter, and had scarcely time to reunite his scattered forces when he received information that the Normans had invaded his territories, laid waste part of the country, and taken possession of Rouen. These disasters affected him so deeply that he fell dangerously ill, and he had scarcely recovered when he was called into Italy to assist the pope against the Saracens. Charles passed into Italy with a few followers; but when he arrived at Pavia, where the pontiff had appointed to meet him, he was informed that Carloman, king of Bavaria, son of Louis the German, was already in Italy with a powerful army, and laid claim to the imperial title. Charles accordingly prepared to oppose him by force of arms; but his generals conspired against him, and rhe soldiers declared their resolution not to pass the Alps. This obliged him to retire to France at the moment when Carloman, dreading his power, was preparing to return to Germany. This was the last enterprise of Charles. His journey brought on a relapse of illness, which was rendered fatal through the treachery of a Jewish physician named Zedechius, who administered poison to him under the pretence of curing his malady; and he expired in a miserable cottage upon Mount Cenis, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and thirty-eighth of his reign over the kingdom of France.

The ambition of Charles had been productive of much distress both to himself and to his subjects. His son Louis, 1 surnamed the Stammerer, from a defect in his speech, was' of a different disposition; but his feeble administration was ill calculated to retrieve the fortunes of his country. He died on the 10th of April 879, whilst on a march to suppress some insurrections in Burgundy, leaving his queen Adelaide pregnant; and some time after his decease the latter was delivered of a son, named Charles. His death was followed by an interregnum, during which a faction was formed for setting aside the children of Louis the Stammerer, in favour of the German princes, sons to Louis the brother of Charles the Bald. But this scheme proved abortive; and the two sons of the late king, Louis and Carloman, were crowned kings of France. But in 881 both princes died; Louis, as was suspected, of poison; and Carloman of a wound he had received whilst hunting. This produced a second interregnum, which ended in calling in Charles the Gross, emperor of Germany, whose reign was even more unfortunate than that of any of his predecessors. The Normans, whom he had allowed to settle in Friesland, having sailed up the Seine with a fleet, and laid siege to Paris, Charles, unable to force them to abandon their undertaking, prevailed on them to depart by a large sum of money. But as he could not advance the money at once, he permitted them to remain during the winter in the neighbourhood of Paris, which they in return plundered without mercy. After this disgraceful transaction Charles returned to Germany in a declining state of health; and having quarrelled with his empress, he was abandoned by all his friends, deposed, and reduced to the greatest distress.

On the deposition of Charles the Gross, Eudes count of< Paris, chosen king by the nobility during the minority of* Charles son of Adelaide, afterwards named Charles the Simple, defeated the Normans, and repressed the power of the nobility. On this account a party was formed in favour of Charles, who was sent for from England; but Eudes having peaceably resigned the greater part of the kingdom, consented to do homage for the remainder, and died soon after the agreement, in 898. During the reign of Charles the Simple, the French government declined. By the introduction of fiefs, those noblemen who had obtained the possession of governments, and got these confirmed to themselves and their heirs for ever, became in a manner independent sovereigns; and as the great lords had others under them, and these in like manner others who again had their vassals, instead of the easy and equal government which formerly prevailed, a vast number of insupportable little tyrannies was erected. The Normans, too, ravaged the country, and desolated some of the finest provinces of France. But Charles at length ceded the duchy of Neustria to Rollo, the chief of these barbarians, who having become a Christian, changed his own name to Robert, and that of his principality to Normandy.

During the remainder of the reign of Charles the Simple, and the entire reigns of Louis IV. surnamed the Stranger, Lothaire, and Louis V. the power of the Carlovingian race continually declined, till at last they were supplanted by Hugh Capet, who had been created Duke of France by Lothairc. This revolution happened in the year 987, and was brought about much in the same manner as the former [7:10:12]one had been by Pepin. Capet proved an active and prudent monarch, and possessed other qualities requisite for keeping his tumultuous subjects in awe. He died on the 24th of October 997, leaving his dominions in perfect quiet to his son Robert.

The new king inherited the eminent qualities of his father. In his reign the kingdom was enlarged by the death of Henry duke of Burgundy, to whom he became heir. This new accession of territory, however, was not obtained without a war of several years continuance; and had it not been for the. assistance of the Duke of Normandy, it is doubtful whether the king would have succeeded. As Robert was of opinion that peace and tranquillity were preferable to wide and extended dominions held by a precarious tenure, he refused the kingdom of Italy and the imperial crown of Germany, both which were offered him, and died on the 20th of July 1030.

Robert was succeeded by his eldest son Henry I. In the beginning of his reign he met with great opposition from his mother, who had always hated him, and preferred his younger brother Robert, in whose favour she now raised an insurrection. With the assistance of Robert duke of Normandy, however, Henry overcame all his enemies, and established himself firmly upon the throne. In return for this service he supported William, Robert’s natural son, and subsequently king of England, in the possession of the duchy of Normandy. Afterwards, however, having become jealous of the power of the future conqueror, he not only supported secretly the pretenders to the duchy of Normandy, but actually invaded that country. This enterprise, however, proved unsuccessful, and Henry was obliged to make peace; but no sincere reconciliation ever followed; for the king retained a deep sense of the disgrace he had met with, and the duke never forgave him for invading his dominions. The treaty was therefore speedily broken; and Henry once more invaded Normandy with two armies, one commanded by himself, and the other by his brother. The first was harassed by continual skirmishes, and the last totally defeated; after which Henry was obliged to agree to such terms as the duke thought proper to dictate. But the rancour which had been generated between them never ceased, and was in reality the cause of that implacable aversion which for a long series of years produced perpetual quarrels between the kings of France and those of the Norman race in England.

Henry died in 1059, not without suspicion of being poisoned, and was succeeded by his eldest son Philip, at that time in the eighth year of his age. Baldwin earl of Flanders was appointed his guardian, and died in the year 1066, about the time that William of Normandy became king of England. After the death of his tutor, Philip began to show an insincere, haughty, and oppressive disposition. He engaged in a war with William the Conqueror, and supported his son Robert in a rebellion against him. (See article England.) But after the death of William, he assisted Robert’s brothers against him, by which means the latter was forced to consent to a partition of his dominions. In 1092, Philip, being wearied of his queen Bertha, procured a divorce under pretence of consanguinity, and afterwards demanded in marriage Emma, daughter of Roger, count of Calabria. The treaty of marriage was concluded; and the princess was sent over, with jewels and a considerable sum in ready money. But the king, instead of espousing her, retained her fortune; dismissed the princess herself; carried off the countess of Anjou, esteemed the handsomest woman in France, from her husband, and, not satisfied with the illegal possession of her person, procured a divorce from her husband, whilst he prevailed upon some Norman bishops to solemnize a marriage with her. But these transactions were so scandalous, that the pope, having caused them to be revised in a council held at Autun in the year 1094, pronounced sentence of excommunication against Philip in case he did not part with the countess. On his professing repentance, however, the censure was taken off; but as the king paid no regard to his promises, he was in 1095 excommunicated a second time. He again professed repentance, and was again absolved; but as he still lived with the Countess of Anjou as formerly, he was soon afterwards excommunicated a third time. This unworthy conduct exposed him to the contempt of the people. But too many of the nobility followed his example, at the same time that they despised his authority. In the year 1100 Philip prevailed on the court of Rome to have this affair reviewed in an assembly at Poictiers; where, notwithstanding his utmost efforts, sentence of excommunication was a fourth time pronounced against him. Yet, in spite of all these sentences, as Bertha was now dead, and the Count of Anjou offered, for a large sum of money, to give whatever assistance might be requisite for procuring a dispensation, Philip at last prevailed, and the countess was proclaimed queen of France. But though his domestic concerns were now in some measure arranged, his negligence in public matters had thrown the affairs of the nation into the greatest disorder. He therefore associated with him in the government his eldest son Louis, a prince the reverse of his father, and who by his activity and resolution kept constantly in the field with a considerable body of forces, reduced the rebellious nobility to subjection, and saved the state from being utterly subverted. For these services the queen looked upon the prince with so jealous an eye, that he found it necessary to retire for a time into England; but he had not been long at the English court before Henry I. received a letter from Philip, urging him, for certain important reasons, to throw his son into close confinement, or even to dispatch him. The king of England, however, instead of complying with this infamous request, showed the letter to Louis, and sent him home with all imaginable marks of respect. Immediately on his return he demanded justice; but the queen caused poison to be administered to him, which operated so violently that his life was for a time despaired of. A stranger, however, undertook the cure, and succeeded. On his recovery, the prince was on the point of avenging his quarrel by force of arms; but his father having caused the queen to make the most humble submissions to him, his resentment was appeased, and a reconciliation took place.

Philip died in the year 1108, and was succeeded by his son Louis, surnamed the Gross. The first years of his reign were disturbed by insurrections of his lords, which proved the more troublesome as they were secretly fomented by Henry I. of England, that by weakening the power of France his duchy of Normandy might be the more secure. This quickly brought on a war, in which Henry was defeated, and his son William obliged to do homage for Normandy. As the kings of England and France, however, were rivals, the latter espoused the cause of William the son of Robert duke of Normandy, whom Henry had unjustly deprived of that duchy; and this brought on a new war, in which Louis, having sustained a defeat, was obliged to make peace upon such terms as his antagonist thought proper to prescribe. The pacification, however, was but of short duration. Louis renewed his intrigues in favour of William, and endeavoured to form a confederacy against Henry; but the latter found means not only to dissipate this confederacy, but to prevail upon Henry V. emperor of Germany to invade France with the whole strength of the empire on one side, whilst he prepared to attack it on the other. But Louis having collected an army of two hundred thousand men, both thought proper to desist from the attempt. Upon this the king of France desired to march into Normandy to put William in possession of that duchy; but his great vassals refused to assist in such an [7:10:13]enterprise, alleging that they had assembled to defend the territories of France from the invasion of a foreign prince, and not to enlarge his power by destroying the balance produced by the king of England possessing Normandy, which they reckoned necessary for their own safety. This was followed by a peace, which was concluded on pretty equal terms, and maintained during the life of Louis, who died in 1137, leaving the kingdom to his son Louis VII.

The young king was not endowed with any of those qualities which constitute a great monarch. From the superstition of the age in which he lived, he undertook an expedition into the Holy Land, whence he returned without glory. In this expedition he took his queen Eleanor along with him: but was so much offended with her gallantries during her stay in Palestine, as well as her behaviour afterwards, that he divorced her, and returned the duchy of Guienne. which he had received as her portion. Six weeks after this she married Henry duke of Normandy, count of Anjou and Maine, and heir apparent to the crown of England. This marriage proved a very great mortification to Louis, and, on account of the folly of his conduct, procured him an unenviable cognomen. His reign was wholly undistinguished. He died on the 18th of September 1180, leaving the kingdom to his son Philip.

This prince, surnamed The Gift of God, The Magnanimous, and The Conqueror, during his life-time, and styled Augustus after his death, is reckoned by some historians one of the greatest princes who ever sat on the throne of France. It does not appear, however, that these titles were at all deserved. In the beginning of his reign he was opposed by a strong faction excited by his mother, which he suppressed with a vigour and spirit that did him honour; but his having taken part with the children of Henry II. of England, in their unnatural contests with their father, and his treacherous combination with John to seize his brother’s kingdom when he was detained in prison by the emperor of Germany, are indelible stains in his character. In military skill and personal valour he was inferior to Richard I. of England; nor can his recovering the provinces held by the English in France from such a mean and dastardly prince as John entitle him with any justice to the surname of Conqueror. In politics he was evidently the dupe of the pope, who made use of him to intimidate John into a submission, by promising him the kingdom of England, which he never meant that he should enjoy. For an account of these transactions, see the article England.

Philip died in 1223, and was succeeded by his son Louis VIII. who, again, was, in 1226, succeeded by Louis IX. afterwards styled St Louis. This prince was certainly possessed of many good qualities, but deeply tinctured with the superstition of the times, which induced him to engage in two crusades. In the first of these, against the Saracens of Egypt, he was taken prisoner, and treated with great cruelty; but ultimately obtained his deliverance, on condition of paying a million of pieces of gold, and surrendering the city of Damietta. No sooner had he regained his liberty than he entered Syria with a view of doing something worthy of his character. But from this expedition he was obliged to return sooner than he intended, by the news of the decease of his mother, Queen Blanch, whom he bad appointed regent in his absence, and who had managed the national affairs with great prudence. Upon his return, however, the king found many and great disorders in the kingdom, which he set himself to reform with the utmost diligence. The reputation of this monarch for candour and justice was so great that the barons of England, as well as King Henry III. consented to make him umpire of the differences which subsisted between them. But though he decided this matter justly, his decision was not productive of any good. At last the king, having settled every thing relating to his kingdom, set out on another crusade for Afřiċa, where he died of the plague, on the 25th of August 1270.

Notwithstanding the misfortunes of Louis, his successor Philip, βurnamed the Hardy, continued the war against the Infìdeis with great vigour. Being reinforced by his uncle Charles king of Sicily, he brought the contest to a more fortunate conclusion than his predecessor; the Saracens were defeated in two engagements; and the king of Tunis was obliged to sue for peace, offering at the same time to double the tribute which he formerly paid to the crown of Sicily, to reimburse the expenses of the war, and to permit the Christian religion to be freely propagated throughout his dominions. Having accomplished this, the two princes set sail for Europe; but the distemper which had infected the army in Africa not being eradicated, it broke forth on their arrival in Sicily, and for some time raged with great violence. On his return to France, Philip took possession of the counties of Provence and Toulouse; married his second son, though then very young, to the only daughter of the king of Navarre; and himself espoused Mary the daughter of the Duke of Brabant, reckoned one of the most bean-tiful princesses of the age. He steadily enforced the regulations of his predecessor, who had prohibited the barons from making private wars upon one another; secured the friendship of Edward I. of England, by ceding to him the county of Agenois; and entered into a war with Spain in support of the pretensions of his nephews, the Infants de la Cerda, to the throne of Castille. The events of this war were of no great importance; and the king’s attention was quickly called away from them by the death of his eldest son Louis at the age of twelve years. This event happened in the year 1275, not without a suspicion of poison, which is common enough when princes are cut off by sudden deaths, and the king and queen were themselves loudly condemned. Meanwhile the Sicilians, over whom Charles of Anjou had established his authority, instigated by John of Procida, a noble exile, came to a determination of freeing themselves from the French yoke by a general massacre. This resolution was accordingly carried into execution, and the French, to the number of eight thousand, were murdered in one night; after which Pedro of Aragon sailed to the island, where he was received by the inhabitants as their king and deliverer. Charles was sensibly affected by this misfortune; and having laid siege to Messina, sailed directly to Marseilles, where he obtained a powerful reinforcement. But during his absence, his son, to whom he had entrusted the conduct of the siege, having rashly ventured an engagement with the Spanish fleet, was entirely defeated and taken prisoner. This so much affected the father that he died of grief, and Sicily became inseparably attached to the house of Aragon. The misfortunes of Charles were followed by others which equally affected Philip himself. Pope Martin IV. in the warmth of his zeal for the cause of the Duke of Anjou, had excommunicated Pedro of Aragon, and bestowed his kingdom on Charles of Valois, a younger son of the king of France. In attempting to defend himself against the execution of this unjust sentence, Pedro was mortally wounded; but, soon afterwards, the French fleet being defeated by that of Aragon, the king was so much affected by the misfortune that he fell sick, and expired at Perpignan, in 1285, in the forty-first year of his age and sixteenth of his reign.

By the death of Philip the Hardy, the French crown devolved on his second son Philip the Fair, who had espoused the princess of Navarre, and who at the time of his accession was in his seventeenth year. By the marriage with this princess he had obtained the counties of Champagne and Brie; yet even with this increase of territory he found himself unable to support the war in which his predecessor had engaged, for which reason he abandoned the interest of the Infants de la Cerda, and settled the differences with Castille. The [7:10:14]treaty was concluded through the mediation of Edward I. of England, by whose intercession Charles the Lame, son of the Duke of Anjou, was released from captivity, Edward himself paying part of his ransom. Charles consented to renounce his claim on Sicily; and Philip himself promised that his kinsman Philip of Valois should renounce all pretensions to the crown of Aragon. The tranquillity resulting from this treaty was, however, soon interrupted by differences with Edward, Pope Boniface VIII. and Guy de Dampier, count of Flanders. The difference with England arose by accident. A Norman and an English vessel having met off the coast of Bayonne, and having both occasion to water, the crews met and quarrelled at the same spring, and in the squabble a Norman was killed with his own weapon by an Englishman, whom it was alleged he had assaulted with it. But however this may have been, a complaint was made by the Normans to Philip, who, without giving himself much trouble to inquire into the merits of the cause, instantly allowed them to redress their supposed injuries. The consequence was, that a kind of piratical war commenced between the two nations; the Irish and Dutch seamen taking part with the English, and those of Flanders and Genoa with the French. Thus the force on both sides was gradually augmented, until at last the affair became so serious that in one engagement fifteen thousand French are said to have perished. Alarmed at such a carnage, Philip summoned the king of England as his vassal to attend; and, on his refusal, declared his estates in France forfeited. After a great deal of negotiation, however, Philip declared that he would be satisfied with the nominal cession of the province of Guienne; and Edward complied with his demands; but no sooner had the French monarch obtained possession of that country than he persisted in the forfeiture of the English possessions in France; and this treacherous proceeding instantly produced a war between the two nations. Edward, that he might the better defend himself against so formidable an adversary, concluded a treaty with the emperor Adolphus, and the courts of Bretagne, Holland, Bar, Juliers, Gueldres, and Flanders; whilst Philip strengthened himself by an alliance with John Baliol of Scotland, and thus laid the foundation of that intimate union which subsisted between France and Scotland for about two centuries. During this war the French made a descent upon the coast of England, and destroyed the town of Dover; whilst Edward, in revenge, landed in Gascony with a powerful army. But no great exploits were performed with this armament; and the belligerents, finding themselves equally matched, consented to a suspension of arms for two years, during which time a peace was finally concluded through the mediation of Boniface VIII. Guienne was restored; Edward espoused Margaret the sister of Philip; and his daughter Isabelle was given in marriage to the prince of Wales. Philip and Edward treated the allies whom they had engaged in their cause with equal perfidy. Baliol was abandoned by Philip to the resentment of Edward; and Guy, earl of Flanders, was left equally exposed to the vengeance of Philip.

The reconciliation between the French and English monarchs was soon followed by a difference with Pope Boniface, whom they had appointed mediator between them. Sensible of his assuming disposition, they had inserted in the reference made to him a provision, to the effect that he was chosen as a private individual, and not as the successor of St Peter. The pontiff, however, soon showed that he was not to be treated as a private person; and a contest with Phi lip quickly ensued. Boniface began with forbidding the clergy, under pain of excommunication, to grant the king any subsidies, without first obtaining the consent of the Holy See; and Philip revenged himself by prohibiting ecclesiastics from sending money out of the kingdom without his leave, and by protecting the Colonnas, the implacable enemies of Boniface. Irritated at this decided proceeding, his holiness sent an abusive letter to Philip, and then summoned the clergy of France to attend a council at Rome. Philip retaliated, by seizing the temporalities of those who obeyed the summons, and recalling his brother Charles of Valois, who was styled the pope’s general. Sensible of the danger which attended this contest, however, Philip dispatched two emissaries under the pretence of conciliating differences, but in reality to levy a body of troops sufficient to execute his hostile purposes against the holy father; and with these he suddenly invested the pope in his native city of Anegnia; so that, whilst the bull was preparing to excommunicate Philip, and release his subjects from their obedience, the pope himself was obliged to surrender to the troops of the prince whom he intended to anathematize. But although Boniface had been delivered up to the troops of Philip through the treachery of the people of Anegnia, he was no sooner taken prisoner, and reduced to distress, than they rescued him from his guards, and conveyed him to Rome, where he soon afterwards died of chagrin and disappointment. Benedict, his successor, revoked the excommunication prepared by Boniface, and attempted to conciliate the good-will of Philip; but, before this could be effected, he was himself cut off by death, not without strong suspicions of poison. After the decease of Benedict, Philip offered to procure the papal chair for Bertrand, archbishop of Bordeaux, provided the latter would condemn the memory of Boniface, restore the honours and estates of the Colonnas, which had been forfeited, allow him the tenths of the clergy of France fe” five years, and 'rant other concessions which at that time it was not thought proper to divulge. Bertrand complied with the terms proposed by the king, and ascended the papal throne by the name of Clement V.; but narrowly escaped being killed on his return from the cathedral of Lyons, by the falling of a wall, by which accident the Duke of Bretagne was killed, and the king and Count of Valois were considerably bruised. The new pope fixed his residence at Avignon, where he punctually complied with all the conditions of the treaty, except that of condemning the memory of Boniface, which, instead of attainting, he vindicated with much solemnity. The condition which Philip had at first concealed was discovered by the death of the emperor Albert of Austria, after which he sought the assistance of Clement to place his brother Charles of Valois on the imperial throne. But his holiness, apprehensive of the danger which might arise from being surrounded with the powerful relations of Philip, urged the diet to proceed instantly to an election, and recommended to them Henry of Luxemburg as a proper person to fill the imperial throne. This scheme succeeded, and the election was concluded before Philip could arrive at Avignon; but, as some consolation for his disappointment, the latter took possession of the city of Lyons, which had hitherto been independent, but which was now induced to submit to the authority of Philip.

In the mean time, Guy earl of Flanders having been abandoned by his ally Edward king of England, was obliged∣ to throw himself on the clemency of the French monarch, who had sent his brother, Charles of Valois, with a powerful army to invade his dominions. From the latter indeed he had obtained a promise, that if he could not, within a year, settle the differences subsisting between him and Philip, he should be at liberty to retire and pursue whatever measures he pleased. But Philip, to gratify the resentment of his queen against the captive prince, detained him, with two of his sons, in close confinement; whilst he himself, having entered Flanders in triumph, was everywhere received as sovereign of the country, and at his departure appointed John de Chatillon, a relative of the queen, as governor of the newly-acquired territory. This person, however, being of a haughty and tyrannical disposition, [7:10:15]treated the people so harshly that an insurrection speedily broke out. The commotion, nevertheless, was not general, and would have been effectually auelled by the diligence of the magistrates, had not Chatilíon entered Bruges, and publicly displayed two hogsheads of ropes, which he threatened to employ in the execution of the inhabitants. Upon this the people flew to arms, and massacred fifteen hundred French, whilst Chatillon himself escaped their fury only by swimming across the town ditch. The insurgents daily gathered strength, and having assembled an army of sixty thousand men, laid siege to Courtray. Here they were rashly attacked in their trenches by the Count d’Artois, who met the reward of his temerity in being cut off, with twenty thousand of his troops. Determined on revenge, Philip, by debasing the coin of the kingdom, raised another army, and was thus enabled to enter Flanders with a force which would probably have subdued the whole country, had not Edward artfully communicated to the queen of France, as a secret, a feigned correspondence between the French nobility and the court of Rome; by which false intelligence the king was induced to abandon the enterprise without performing any thing worthy of the preparations he had made. The war was continued some time longer, but the attempts of Philip were constantly defeated by the steady valour of the Flemings; and the only recompense Philip obtained for all his trouble and expense was the city of Courtray.

The other remarkable transactions of this reign were the expulsion and confiscation of the estates of the Templars, who at that time enjoyed immense possessions in France. These confiscations took place without any form of trial, and upwards of fifty of the knights were put to death in a cruel manner. The grand master, with three of his principal officers, were burned by a slow fire in the presence of the king and his attendants. The whole body of these unfortunate knights had been accused of the most gross and abominable sensualities. The particulars were revealed, or pretended to be so, by two criminals, who received their pardon for the discoveries they made; and these discoveries were confirmed by the confession of the Templars themselves. But this confession was afterwards retracted, as being extorted from them by the fear of absolute destruction; and those who suffered asserted their purity to the last; so that, on the whole, it was believed that Philip consulted his avarice more than his justice by this cruel execution.

The latter part of his life was embittered by domestic misfortunes. His three daughters-in-law were accused of infidelity to their husbands, and, after a severe examination, two of them were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, whilst their paramours were flayed alive, and afterwards hung upon a gibbet, together with an usher of the chamber, who had been their confidant. The uneasiness of mind which Philip suffered on this account is supposed to have impaired his health, and he died of a consumption in the year 1314, being the forty-seventh of his age and thirtieth of his reign.

On the accession of Louis surnamed the Boisterous, he found his treasury so much exhausted that he was obliged to delay for some time the ceremony of his coronation, and that of his queen Clemence, daughter of the king of Hungary. Having found die kingdom otherwise in a distracted state, he applied himself diligently to appease the discontents of his subjects, and conciliate their affection by every means in his power; and in this he was assisted by his uncle Charles of Valois, on whom he at length entirely devolved the government of the kingdom. This regent, however, behaved with a degree of cruelty which is supposed to have proved fatal to the king himself; for having put to death a nobleman who had enjoyed the confidence of the former king, this act was so much resented by his friends that they were thought to have administered poison to the king, who expired suddenly after drinking a glass of cold water, in the twenty-sixth year of his age and second of his reign. Immediately after his death, Charles prepared to dispute the sovereignty with the brothers of the deceased sovereign. Philip count of Poitou, the eldest brother, was at that time at Rome assisting in the election of a new pope; but on his arrival in France, the throne was assigned to him by the unanimous voice of the people. His prospects, however, were for a short time clouded by the queen dowager Clemence being delivered of a son, who has been enrolled amongst the kings of France under the name of John I.

The death of this infant in three weeks secured the throne to Philip. The conduct of this monarch, who, on account of his stature, was surnamed the Long, proved superior to that of his predecessor, who had unsuccessfully attempted to subdue the Flemings, and had even suffered himself to be duped by their count. By his vigorous policy Philip compelled their sovereign to consent to a peace upon honourable terms. He also summoned Edward II. of England to do homage for his possessions in France; but that monarch finding himself involved in difficulties which rendered the visit inconvenient, sent excuses to Philip, which the latter was pleased to sustain. As the French monarch had formerly taken the cross during the life-time of his father, he now proposed to perform his vow; but he was dissuaded by the pope himself; and, at the instance of the pontiff, he sent an army into Italy to put an end to the contending factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, who had long filled the country with violence and bloodshed. The event proved unfortunate; and the disgrace was rendered the more mortifying by a contagious distemper, which swept off many thousands of the French. The remaining part of the reign of Philip was spent in attempting to regulate the internal concerns of his kingdom. A design having been formed by his predecessors of establishing a certain standard for the coin, and also of weights and measures, throughout France, this was adopted by Philip, who, in order the more effectually to carry it into execution, purchased from the Counts of Valois, Clermont, and Bourbon, the right of coinage within their respective dominions. But notwithstanding all his endeavours the scheme misgave, and having failed to conciliate the affection of his subjects, he died of a fever and dysentery in the year 1322, being then in the twenty-eighth year of his age and sixth of his reign.

By the death of Philip the crown of France devolved on his brother Charles IV., who had obtained the surname of the Fair. After settling some disputes with the Duke of Burgundy, he obtained the dissolution of his marriage with Blanch, who still continued in prison, and espoused Mary the daughter of Henry emperor of Germany. This marriage was contracted with a view to the imperial crown, which had been so long separated from that of France; and in 1325 an opportunity for Charles to gratify his ambition presented itself. At that time the imperial dignity was disputed between Louis of Bavaria and Frederic of Austria, the latter of whom had been taken prisoner in a battle with Louis. But Pope John, who entertained an implacable hatred towards Louis, fulminated sentence of excommunication against him; and the king of France was induced to embark in the same cause, by a promise of the spoils of Bavaria; whilst Frederic consented to relinquish his pretensions. Louis, however, by instantly releasing his prisoner, and dismissing him in an honourable manner, secured his friendship, and disarmed his most formidable antagonist. But the pope was not to be disappointed. A considerable sum of money induced Leopold, w ho had been intrusted with the execution of the excommunication, to persevere in hostilities; and it was determined that a new council of electors should be held in order to transfer the imperial [7:10:16]crown to Charles. In pursuit of this scheme, the ting of France set out with a splendid army for the frontiers of Ger- , many; but he soon found it impossible to attain the object of his ambition. Leopold alone remained his friend, from motives of interest; the others showed the greatest indifference, and even his brother in-law, the king of Bohemia, absented himself from the diet; whilst in a short time the death of the queen put an end to all connection with that crown. On the decease of Mary, Charles espoused Joanna, daughter of the Count d’Evreux, and, to avert the calamity of an infant succession, he entered into an alliance with Robert, king of Scotland, by which it was provided, that should either of the sovereigns die without an heir apparent, the states of the kingdom should fill the vacant throne, and the survivor of the two kings should with his whole force support the legality of such nomination against any other competitor. But even this proved insufficient to avert the danger which now threatened the kingdom.

Charles died in the year 1328, leaving his queen pregnant; and as the succession depended on the fruit of the queen’s pregnancy, a regent was in the mean time necessary. Two candidates accordingly appeared for this important office, urging at the same time their right to the crown as well as to the regency. These were, Philip of Valois, cousin-german of the deceased king; and Edward III., king of England, who aspired to the throne in right of his mother, and as nephew of Charles the Fair. The pretensions of the latter, however, were easily set aside, and Philip was confirmed in the regency; from which, on the queen being delivered of a daughter, he soon stepped on the throne, and acquired the surname of Fortunate. But though the pretensions of Edward, both to the regency and the crown, were rejected by the people, it was still impossible for Philip to think of the claims of such a formidable rival without uneasiness. He therefore summoned the English monarch to do homage for his possessions in France; and, upon the latter not answering his summons, forfeited them, and seized his revenues. This at last induced Edward to cross the sea and pay homage, which Philip consented to receive in any form, upon condition of a proper explanation being afterwards given; but as this was studiously delayed after the return of the king of England, the province of Guienne was again seized by the French monarch. Unwilling to lose his continental dominions, or involve himself in a war for the sake of a mere ceremony, Edward sent over a formal deed, by which he acknowledged that he owed liege homage to France. The flame was thus smothered for the present, and would perhaps have been entirely extinguished, had it not been for the intrigues of Robert of Artois, brother-in-law to the king of France himself, who had been expelled his country, and had taken refuge in England. For some time, indeed, neither party made any open declaration of hostility; but as both monarchs possessed great sagacity, they soon penetrated each other’s designs. Philip, under pretence of taking the cross, began to make great preparations, strengthening himself at the same time by alliances on every side; whilst Edward, determined to renew his claim to the crown of France, projected the conquest of Scotland. Ί his, however, he failed to accomplish; and in the mean time Philip, in order to favour die Scotch, with whom he was in alliance, suffered his subjects to make irruptions into Guienne.

But at length, in 1337, the war broke out in earnest. Philip having detached a squadron of his fleet against the Infidels, employed the rest, consisting chiefly of Genoese vessels, against the English. In this contest the Flemings, whose aid was of importance, were courted by both parties. Louis count of Flanders declared for Philip, but his subjects were more inclined to Edward. James ArteviUe, a brewer, the most able and artful man in the country, governed them at that time as if he had been their prince; and as the advantages arising from the English commerce determined him in favour of Edward, that prince, at his request, embarked with a numerous army for Sluys, where he arrived in 1338. Upon his landing it was resolved that the German princes in alliance with him should act against France. But for this a pretext was wanting. The vassals of the empire could not act by Edward’s orders, nor even as his allies, without directions from the emperor, and he was in league with France. This difficulty, however, was soon overcome. The French had made themselves masters of Cambray, and the emperor resolved that it should be retaken. With this view he created Edward vicar-general of the empire; an empty title, but one which seemed to give him a right to command the services of the princes of Germany. The Flemings, who were vassals of France, likewise pretended scruples at invading the territories of their liege lord; but, to allay these, Edward, by the advice of Arte-ville, assumed the title of king of France, and in virtue of this claim challenged their assistance to dethrone Philip of Valois, the usurper of his kingdom. Such a step, which could scarcely fail to beget endless jealousies and animosities, Edward did not take without hesitation; and from this time may be dated the commencement of that animosity which the English have until very recently borne towards the French. Edward’s first attempt was upon the city of Cambray, to which he laid siege; but in a short time he was prevailed upon by Robert of Artois to raise the siege and march into Picardy, which he entered with an army of about fifty thousand men, composed chiefly of foreigners. Philip came in sight with an army of nearly a hundred thousand men, composed chiefly of native subjects; and it was daily expected that a battle would ensue. But the English monarch was averse to engage against a force so greatly superior; and Philip thought it sufficient to elude the attacks of his enemy, without running any unnecessary hazard. The two armies faced each other for several days, and mutual defiances were exchanged; but Edward at last retired into Flanders, and dispersed his army. Such was the fruitless and almost ridiculous conclusion of Edward’s first expedition, which had plunged him into the greatest difficulties. He had contracted nearly L.300,000 of debt; he had anticipated all his revenue; he had pledged every thing of value which belonged either to himself or his queen; and he was obliged in some measure even to pawn himself to his creditors, by desiring their permission to go over to England in order to procure supplies, and by promising on his word of honour to return in person if he did not remit their money. On his arrival in England, however, he obtained a large supply, sufficient to enable him to make all the necessary preparations for a new invasion; and so certain were the English that France would now be conquered, that the parliament, before Edward’s departure, protested that they owed him no obedience as king of France, and that the two kingdoms must remain for every distinct and independent.

The king of England set out on his second expedition with a fleet of two hundred and forty vessels. Philip had prepared a fleet of four hundred vessels, manned with forty thousand men; which he stationed off Sluys, in order to intercept Edward on his passage. The two fleets met on the 13th of June 1340; but the English, either by the superior abilities of Edward, or the greater dexterity of his seamen, gained the wind of the enemy, and with this advantage began the action. The battle was fierce and bloody. The English archers, whose force and address were now much celebrated, galled the French on their approach; and when the ships grappled together, the example of the king and his nobility so animated the seamen and soldiers, that they maintained everywhere a superiority over the enemy. Meanwhile the Flemings observing the battle, hurried [7:10:17] out or their ports, and brought a reinforcement to the English, which contributed to decide the fate of the action. Two hundred and thirty ships were taken, and thirty thousand Frenchmen, including two of their admirals, were killed; whilst the loss of the English was inconsiderable compared to the greatness and importance of the victory. After this brilliant victory Edward landed his forces and laid siege to Tournay. Philip marched to its relief with a numerous army, but acted with so much caution that Edward found himself in a manner blocked up in his camp. At length the Countess Dowager of Hainault, sister of Philip, and mother-in-law of Edw^ard, interposed with so much spirit and address, that she engaged all parties to agree to a truce for a year, and might perhaps have brought about a peace if she had survived.

In 1341, however, Edward’s ambition was once more excited by the invitation of the Count de Montfort, who had possessed himself of the province of Bretagne, and applied to Edward to second his claims. An offer of this kind entirely coincided with Edward’s views. He was happy in the promised assistance of Montfort, which thus opened to him an entrance into the heart of France. But this flattering prospect was for a time damped by the imprisonment of Montfort, who, on the discovery of his intentions, was besieged in the city of Nantes, and taken prisoner. But Jane of Flanders, his wife, courageously undertook to support the falling fortunes of her family. Having assembled the inhabitants of Rennes, where she then resided, she appeared before them carrying her infant son in her arms, and having deplored her misfortunes, attempted to inspire the citizens with an affection for her cause. The inhabitants of Nantes instantly espoused her interests, and all the other fortresses of Bretagne embraced the same resolution. The king of England being apprised of her exertions, was entreated to send succour with all possible expedition to the town of Hennebone, in which place she had resolved to sustain the attack of the enemy. Charles de Blois, Philip’s general, anxious to make himself master of so important a fortress as Hennebone, and still more to take the countess prisoner, sat down before the place with a large army, and conducted the siege with indefatigable industry. But the defence was not less vigorous than the attack, and several sallies were made by the garrison, in which the countess herself led the assailants. But at length the besiegers made several breaches in the walls, and a general assault was hourly expected. A capitulation was therefore proposed, and a conference already commenced, when the countess, who had ascended a high tower, and was looking with great impatience towards the sea, descried some ships in the distance, and, immediately exclaiming that reinforcements had arrived, forbade any further ne-ciation. Nor was she disappointed. The fleet which she

I descried carried a body of English gentlemen, with six thousand archers, whom Edward had prepared for the relief of Hennebone, but who had been long detained by contrary winds. This seasonable relief entered the harbour under the conduct of Sir Walter Manny, one of the most gallant commanders of his time, and served to keep up the spirits of the Bretons until the expiration of the truce, when Edward would be at liberty to renew the war in regular form.

The succours under Sir Walter Manny were speedily followed by a more considerable reinforcement commanded by Robert of Artois, who soon after his arrival made himself master of Vannes; but the French speedily recovered that city, and Robert was compelled to relinquish his prize after receiving a mortal wound. Edward, eager to revenge the death of his ally, soon landed at Morbihan, near Vannes, at the head of an army of twelve thousand men; and with this small force he undertook at once the siege of Vannes, Nantes, and Rennes; but having divided his troops, he failed in every enterprise, and gave John duke of Normandy, the king of France’s eldest son, an opportunity of besieging him in his camp. In this situation his provisions began to fail; and, notwithstanding all his valour, Edward would have been obliged to surrender, had he not, by a train of artful negotiations, induced Philip to relinquish the advantage he had obtained, and consent to a truce of three years, which was brought about by the mediation of the court of Rome.

Philip now endeavoured to secure himself against the power of his rival by alliances, and by purchasing the city of Montpellier from the king of Majorca. But in the mean time the English, under the command of the Earl of Derby, invaded Guienne, and, having twice defeated the French army, commanded by the Count de Lisle, made themselves masters of a great number of towns. Philip, by reason of the exhausted state of his treasury, was for some time incapable of making any opposition; and, to recruit his finances, he was obliged to impose a duty on salt, which gave great offence to his subjects. But when these discontents were allayed, he soon raised an army of a hundred thousand men, whose courage was excited by the presence of the Dukes of Normandy and Burgundy. The English general was therefore compelled to act on the defensive, and one fortress after another surrendered to the French, until at length the total extinction of the power of England upon the Continent appeared inevitable. In this situation Edward resolved to bring relief in person to his distressed subjects and allies; and accordingly embarked in 1346, at Southampton, on board a fleet of near a thousand sail. Besides the chief nobility of England, he carried along with him his eldest son the prince of Wales, afterwards surnamed the Black Prince, from the colour of his armour, a youth of about fifteen years old, and already remarkable for understanding and valour far above his age. His army, which consisted of four thousand men at arms, ten thousand archers, ten thousand Welsh infantry, and six thousand Irish, were all landed in safety at La Hogue, a port in Normandy. The intelligence of Edward’s landing, and the devastation caused by his troops, who dispersed themselves over the whole country, soon spread consternation in the French court. The rich city of Caen was taken and plundered by the English; the villages and towns as far as Paris shared the same fate; and the French had no other resource but to break down the bridges, in order to check the advance of the invader. In the mean time Philip was not idle in making preparations to oppose the enemy. Having stationed one of his generals, Godemar de Faye, with an army on the opposite side of the river Somme, which Edward had to cross, whilst he himself, at the head of a hundred and twenty thousand fighting men, advanced to give the English battle, he so hemmed in Edward that the latter found himself exposed to the danger of being enclosed and starved in an enemy’s country. In this dilemma he offered a large reward to any one who should bring him information of a passage across the river Somme; and a peasant of the country, named Gobin Agace, having discovered a ford, Edward had just time to get his whole army across the river, when Philip appeared in his rear. A battle ensued, in which the French were overthrown with great slaughter, and which, under the name of Crescy, the place where it was fought, is equally memorable in the annals of England and France. Edward next laid siege to Calais, which was then defended by John de Vienne, an experienced commander, and supplied with every thing necessary for defence; but it was nevertheless taken, after a twelvemonth’s siege, the defenders having been reduced to the last extremity by fatigue and famine.

From the beginning of this unfortunate war, Philip had invariably showed himself desirous of peace, and the victory of Crescy rendered him still more so. Edward also, notwithstanding[7:10:18] his successes, found himself unable any longer to support the expenses of the war. The mediation of ’ the court of Rome was therefore readily accepted, and a truce for three years concluded. At the same time, Philip met with some recompense for the losses he had sustained, by the acquisition of Dauphiné, which afterwards gave the title of Dauphin to the eldest son of the king of France. The subsequent events of his reign are unimportant, and he expired in the year 1350, at the age of fifty-seven.

• On the death of Philip, his eldest son John took possession of the kingdom; but scarcely was he seated on the throne when he disgusted his nobility by a most unseasonable act of severity. Robert de Brienne, count of Eu and Guisnes, had been taken prisoner by the king of England at Caen, and, under pretence of negotiating his ransom, had passed several times between France and England; but being accused of maintaining a treasonable correspondence with Edward, he was suddenly arrested, condemned, and beheaded, without any form of trial. At his death he is said to have confessed his treasonable practices, but this has not been authenticated by any historian of credit. Having been constable of France, the sword, the badge of his office, was delivered to Charles de la Carda; but the fate of the latter was not less unfortunate than that of his predecessor, inasmuch as he was soon afterwards assassinated by Charles king of Navarre, surnamed The Wicked. This prince, celebrated for his personal qualifications, but detested for his crimes, was the son-in-law of John. He had demanded the duchy of Angoulême of the king; but as the latter had thought proper to bestow it upon Carda, he sought to revenge himself by assassinating his rival. John did not fail to show a proper resentment; but such was the weakness of his government, that the king of Navarre set him at defiance, and would not even condescend to go through the ceremony of asking pardon until John had sent him his second son as an hostage for his personal security. To these offences the king of Navarre added another still more atrocious, namely, that of aiming at the crown of France, to which, as grandson by the female side to Louis the Boisterous, he pretended a title in right of his mother. But his more immediate demand was that the countries of Champagne and Brie should be given up to him. To obviate all difficulties on this head, however, John bestowed the duchy of Normandy on his eldest son Charles, and commanded him to seize the estates of the king of Navarre; upon which the latter soon made his appearance at Faris, and John found himself obliged to appease his opposition at the expense of a hundred thousand crowns.

During all this time the truce with England had been but ill observed on both sides; the French had possessed themselves of the port of St Jean d’Angeli, and the English had surprised the town of Guisnes. The rival houses of Montfort and Blois also indulged their animosities, whilst Edward continued to threaten war. The king of Navarre also persevered in his intrigues, and even the dauphin was drawn into a confederacy against his father; but John, being informed of their machinations, found means to defeat them. The dauphin was reclaimed by pointing out to him the impropriety of his conduct, and the disadvantage which must unavoidably ensue to himself from the connections which he had formed. The king of Navarre, with his principal adherents, were invited to an entertainment, where they were unexpectedly arrested; the former being sent prisoner to Chateau Gaillard, and several of the most obnoxious of the latter put to death. But the rest of the conspirators, instead of being dismayed by this check, immediately broke out in open rebellion; and finding themselves unable to gain their point without further assistance, they immediately invited Edward to come over from England.

That warlike and enterprising monarch had never lost sight of the object which he had originally contemplated; and on the expiration of the truce had sent his son, the prince of Wales, surnamed the Black Prince, with a squadron towards the coast of France. With this force the prince entered the mouth of the Garonne, burned the towns and villages of Languedoc, and then retired with his plunder into the country of Guienne, whilst Edward himself, who had likewise passed over to the Continent, wasted the country as far as St Omer; but the French king, notwithstanding all these provocations, determined to avoid a battle, and accordingly prohibited his general, the constable of Bourbon, from coming to an engagement, though his army was much superior to that of the prince of Wales. With the flower of his troops, however, he pursued Edward from St Omer to Hesdin, where he defied him to a pitched battle; but the latter, without minding his bravadoes, continued his march towards Calais, whence he embarked for England. After his departure, John called an assembly of the states at Paris, where he explained the distressed situation of his finances, and showed so fully the necessity of their assisting him in the defence of the kingdom, that they consented to maintain an army of thirty thousand men during the war. To supply the other exigencies of government, they revived the duty upon salt, and added a variety of other imposts; but at the same time appointed a committee of their own number to take care that the money should be strictly appropriated to the public service. But the satisfaction which John received from these grants, and from the suppression of some disturbances which happened about this time, was soon overcast by the news that the prince of Wales had marched with an army of twelve thousand men from Bordeaux, and, after ravaging the Agenois, Quercy, and the Limousin, had entered the province of Berry. The young warrior had penetrated into the heart of France with this trifling body of forces, in hopes of joining the Duke of Lancaster in Guienne. But he soon found that his scheme was impracticable. The country before him was teo well guarded to permit him to advance further; and all the bridges behind were broken down, which effectually barred a retreat. In this embarrassing situation his perplexity was increased by being informed that the king of France was actually marching at the head of sixty thousand men to intercept him. He at first thought of retreating; but soon finding it impossible to retrograde, he determined calmly to wait the approach of the enemy, and, notwithstanding the disparity of forces, to commit all to the hazard of a battle.

At a place called Maupertuis, near Poitiers, both armies arrived in sight of each other. The French king might easily have starved the English into terms; but such was the impatient valour of the French nobility, and such their confidence of success, that it might have been equally fatal to attempt repressing their ardour to engage. In the mean time, whilst both armies were drawn up in'order of battle, and expecting the signal to advance, they were stopped by the appearance of the Cardinal of Perigord, who attempted to act as mediator between them. But as John, who made himself sure of victory, would listen to no terms which did not include the restitution of Calais, the Black Prince refused to listen to such a proposition, and the combat was deferred till the next morning, for which both sides waited in anxious suspense. During this interval the young prince strengthened his position with new intrenchments, and placed three hundred men in ambush, with as many archers, who were commanded to attack the enemy in flank during the heat of the engagement. Having taken these precautions to ensure success, he drew up his army in three divisions; the van commanded by the Earl of Warwick, the rear by the Earls of Salisbury and Suffolk, and the main body by himself. The king of France also arranged his forces in three divisions; the first commanded by the Duke of Orleans, and the second by the dauphin, attended by [7:10:19]his younger brothers, whilst he himself directed the main body, seconded by his youngest son, then about fourteen years of age. As the English could be attacked only by marching along a narrow defile, the French suffered greatly from the English archers, who were posted on each side behind the hedges. Nor were they in a better situation upon emerging from this pass, being met by the Black Prince himself at the head of a chosen body of troops, who made a furious onset upon their troops, already in great disorder. A dreadful overthrow ensued. Those who were as yet in the defile recoiled upon their own forces; whilst the English troops who had been placed in an ambush took the opportunity, by a flank attack, to increase the confusion and confirm the victory. The dauphin and the Duke of Orleans were amongst the first who fled. The king of France himself made great efforts to retrieve by valour what rashness had forfeited; but his courage was unable to check that panic which had now become general throughout his army; and his cavalry soon flying, he found himself exposed to the whole fury of the enemy. At length, overpowered with fatigue, and despairing of success, he thought of yielding himself a prisoner, and frequently cried out that he was ready to deliver himself to his cousin the prince of Wales. But the honour of taking him was reserved for a more ignoble hand; he was seized by Dennis de Morbec, a knight of Arras, who had been obliged to fly from his country for murder.

This defeat, which happened in the year 1356, almost entirely ruined the French affairs; and the miseries which ensued were greatly augmented by internal commotions. The dauphin, who had now assumed the government, was altogether unfit to govern a turbulent and seditious people at a crisis like this. An assembly of the states, which he called, took the opportunity to limit the power of the prince, to impeach the former ministers, and to demand the liberty of the king of Navarre; and the treasurer of the crown was basely murdered by one Marcel, a partisan of that worthless prince, who had filled the city of Paris with confusion by his intrigues. The public disorders were also augmented by the escape of the king of Navarre; and, though the dauphin was even assured that this royal ruffian had administered poison to him, he was nevertheless obliged to pay him some appearance of regard. A scheme was even formed by the chiefs of the sedition to change the government, to vest all the power in the commons, and to leave the king no more than an empty title; but though this was favourably received by the city of Paris, the other cities of the kingdom refused to concur in the project. The dauphin was likewise recognised as regent by the states-general, and the inhabitants of Picardy and Champagne took up arms in his cause. In this disastrous state of affairs, the miseries of the people were heightened by a new and unexpected evil. The peasants, who had all along been oppressed by the nobles, were now treated in such a manner that, having risen in great numbers to revenge themselves, the castles of the nobility were razed to the ground, their wives and daughters ravished, and themselves put to the most cruel torments. At last they were obliged to arm in their own defence. The Duke of Orleans cut off ten thousand of the insurgents in the neighbourhood of Paris; twelve thousand were massacred by the king of Navarre; and nine thousand who had laid siege to the town of Meaux, where the dauphiness and three other ladies of ,the first rank resided, were routed and pursued with dreadful slaughter by an officer in the service of Edward. Amidst these confusions, Marcel, the seditious leader already mentioned, perished in a tumult of his own raising; and the most virtuous and prudent people of the nation supported the pretensions of the dauphin. But his most dangerous enemy was the king of Navarre, who had enticed to his standard numbers of those Norman and English adventurers who had followed Edward into France, and remained there to seek their fortunes, having associated themselves under the name of the Companions. By this formidable competitor the dauphin was reduced almost to the last extremity, when his hopes were revived by an unexpected proposal of peace upon equitable and moderate terms. Historians in general have ascribed this to the natural levity of the king of Navarre; but some have been of opinion that he acted from prudential motives, and that he justly supposed it would be more easy to deal with the dauphin, who was his own kinsman, and humbled by so many misfortunes, than with a haughty and imperious conqueror like Edward.

On the expiration of the truce in the year 1359, Edward, having again set sail for France, anchored before Calais with a fleet of eleven hundred sail, assumed the title of King of France, and augmented his army to a hundred thousand men. The dauphin, finding himself unable to oppose so great a force, was obliged to act upon the defensive; and having chosen the city of Paris as his station, he allowed the English to ravage the open country. Thus they were suffered to penetrate through Picardy into Champagne; but the city of Rheims, where Edward designed to have been crowned king of France, baffled his utmost efforts. From Champagne, therefore, which had already been laid waste, the English monarch marched into Burgundy, pillaging Tonnere, Gaillon, and Avalon. Burgundy was saved by the payment of a hundred thousand merks, and an equal sum was paid for Nivernois. At last, after a long and destructive march, Edward arrived at the gates of Paris; but the prudence of the dauphin and the citizens had rendered it impregnable to the attacks of famine as well as the assaults of an army. The war proceeded, however, till the year 1360, when the king of England showed himself inclined for peace. Notwithstanding all the victories he had gained, the French nation evinced not the least favour to his claim of succession; the king of Navarre was a dangerous rival; and the caution of the dauphin, in avoiding an engagement, deprived him of the advantages he expected from his valour and military skill. Conferences for a peace were accordingly opened at Bre-tigny in the Chartraine, and it was at last concluded, on the conditions that King John should pay for his ransom, at different periods, three millions of crowns of gold, or about a million and a half of our money; and that Edward should for ever renounce all claim to the kingdom of France, and remain possessed of the territories of Poitou, Xaintonge, l ’ Agenois, Perigord, the Limousin, Quercy, Rouvergne, l’Angoumois, and other districts in that quarter, together with Calais, Guisnes, Montreuil, and the county of Ponthieu. Some other stipulations were also made in favour of the allies of England, as a security for the execution of these conditions. But, upon John’s return to his dominions, he found himself unable to ratify the terms of peace which had just been concluded. At the head of an exhausted state, his soldiers were without discipline, and his peasants without subordination. The latter had in fact risen in great numbers, and one of their chiefs had assumed the title of The Friend of God and the Terror of Man, A citizen of Sens, named John Gouge, also got himself acknowledged king, by means of his robberies, and soon caused almost as many calamities by his depredations as the real king had brought on by his misfortunes. Such was the state of France on the return of its captive monarch; yet so incredible was his absurdity, that he had scarcely been replaced on the throne when he prepared for a crusade into the Holy Land. But this folly was prevented by the exhausted state of the country, and the misery of the people, who, in fact, were even unable to pa; the king’s ransom. In these circumstances, however, th« conduct of John was truly noble. “Though good faith [7:10:20]should be banished from the rest of the earth,” said he, ' “yet she ought still to retain her habitation in the breasts of kings.” He accordingly returned once more to' England, and yielded himself a prisoner, since he could not be honourably free. It has indeed been said by some, that his passion for the Countess of Salisbury was the real cause of his journey; but there seems to be no foundation for a report so injurious to his honour. During his captivity he resided in the Savoy, and afterwards closed a long and unfortunate reign by his death, which happened in the year 1364.

Charles, surnamed the Prudent, succeeded his father upon the throne of France; and by a finely-conducted policy, even though he suffered some defeats, restored his country once more to tranquillity and power. He dispersed a horde of banditti, who having associated themselves under the name of Companions, had long been a terror to the peaceable inhabitants. He had them even enrolled into a body, and led them into the kingdom of Castille against Peter, surnamed the Cruel, whom his subjects had dethroned, and who, by means of an alliance with the English, endeavoured to get himself reinstated in power. The consequence was, that the English and French again came to an engagement; the army of the former being commanded by the Black Prince, and that of the latter by Henry of Transtamarre, and Bertrand du Guesclin, one of the most consummate generals and accomplished men of the age in which he lived. The usual good fortune of the English prince however prevailed, and the French lost above twenty thousand men, whilst only four knights and forty private men were slain on the side of the English. Nevertheless these victories were attended with but little effect. The English, by frequent levies, had become quite exhausted, and were unable to continue an army in the field. Charles, on the other hand, cautiously avoided coming to a decisive engagement, but contented himself with allowing his enemies to waste their strength in attempts to plunder a fortified country; and when they retired, he then sallied forth, possessing himself of such places as they were not strong enough to defend. He first fell upon Ponthieu; the citizens of Abbeville opened their gates to receive him; those of St Valois, Rue, and Crotoy, imitated the example; and the whole country was in a little time reduced to submission. The southern provinces were in the same manner invaded by his generals with equal success; whilst the Black Prince, destitute of supplies from England, and wasted by a cruel disorder, was obliged to return to his native country, leaving affairs in the south of France in a desperate condition. In this exigency the resentment of the king of England was excited to the utmost pitch, and he resolved to take signal vengeance on his enemies of the Continent. But the fortunate occasion had now passed, and all his succeeding designs were unsuccessful. The Earl of Pembroke and his whole army were intercepted at sea, and taken prisoners, by Henry king of Castille. Sir Robert Knolles, at the head of thirty thousand men, was defeated by Bertrand du Guesclin; and the Duke of Lancaster, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, had the mortification of seeing his troops diminished without even coming to a battle. At length, when the affairs of the English were totally ruined by the death of the Black Prince and of King Edward, the armies of Charles attacked the English on all sides. One, under the command of the Duke of Burgundy, entered Artois; another, under the command of the Duke of Berry, penetrated into Auvergne; that which acted in Guienne was commanded by the Duke of Anjou; the forces in Bretagne were under the constable Guesclin; and the king put himself at the head of a powerful body of troops, that he might be able to repair any accident to which the chance of war might give rise. The constable having found it difficult to oppose Sir Thomae Felton and the seneschal of Bordeaux, was joined by the Duke of Burgundy, and soon afterwards attacked and defeated both, making them prisoners of war. At the close of the campaign of 1377, Bayonne and Bordeaux, with the surrounding districts, and the fortress of Calais with its dependencies, were all that England had now left on the Continent. But Charles having thus once more established the house of Valois on the throne of France, did not long live to enjoy his good fortune. He died in the year 1379, at the age of forty-four, in consequence of the poison formerly administered to him by the king of Navarre, and the immediate operation of which had been suspended by the skill of a physician sent by the emperor Charles IV.

Charles V. was succeeded by his son Charles VI. sur-∣ named the Well-beloved, who, at the time of his accession to the throne, was only twelve years of age. The Duke of Anjou, eldest brother to the late king, had been appointed guardian during the minority of the prince; but being totally unfit for the office, and distinguished only for his ambition and rapacity, he resigned his charge to the Dukes of Burgundy and Bourbon, the former being uncle to the king by his father’s side, the latter by his mother’s. None of these tutors, however, proved faithful to the trust reposed in them. At this time Joan, infamous for her profligacy, reigned in Naples, where she had appointed one Charles Durazzo, her relation, to succeed her on the throne; but the inhuman wretch murdered his benefactress, who with her last breath revoked her grant of the kingdom to him, and bestowed it upon the Duke of Anjou. The influence of the latter at the French court enabled him to waste the treasures of the kingdom in support of his pretensions; but he proved ultimately unsuccessful, his forces having been defeated, and his designs frustrated, by the superior skill of his adversary. Meanwhile the citizens of Paris, oppressed with taxes, broke out into tumults, and were with difficulty quelled; and the mal-administration of the duke soon involved the nation in hostilities with the Flemings, whose country he invaded at the head of an army of eighty thousand men, accompanied by the young king and by the principal nobility of France. The first operations of the war were favourable to the Flemings; but they were at length totally defeated on the banks of the river Lis, where their leader, with twenty-five thousand men, perished in the field. This victory was followed by the submission of the whole country; but the satisfaction which this event afforded the king was disturbed by new seditions and revolts in Paris and other great towns. His return, however, at the head of a victorious army soon reduced them to their duty, and several of the revolted cities were severely punished; at the same time that the death of the Duke of Anjou having freed him from the immediate dependence on his tutors, enabled him to assume the reins of government, in the year 1384.

The genius which Charles displayed in his early years raised the hopes of the nation; but these were soon overcast, and greater misfortunes than any which had yet occurred were in reserve. His administration was for some time prudent and vigorous. He conciliated the affections of his people by restoring their privileges, punishing their oppressors, and relieving them from the taxes which had been imposed in his minority. He compelled the Flemings to submit to the authority of his uncle the Duke of Burgundy, and detached fifteen thousand archers and fifteen hundred men-at-arms to assist the Scotch in their incursions into England. Lastly, in 1385 he fitted out a mighty armament against England. A vast fleet assembled in the harbour of Sluys, and a numerous army was collected in the neighbourhood. According to some writers, the armament consisted of twelve hundred ships, twenty thousand foot variously armed, twenty thousand cavalry, and twenty [7:10:21]thousand cross-bow men. There was besides a vast wooden edifice or floating town, which had been contrived for the • protection of the soldiers when landed. But all these preparations came to nothing through the obstinacy of the Duke of Berry, who, having been originally opposed to the expedition, conducted his part of the armament so slowly that he did not arrive at Sluys till the middle of September, when the season was too far advanced, and an invasion impracticable. In addition to this, a storm which happened soon afterwards drove the greater part of the fleet on shore, and beat down the wooden edifice, and completely shipwrecked the whole project.

But the destruction of the French fleet was only a prelude to calamities of a more extraordinary description. The Sieur de Craon, a profligate nobleman, having been intrusted by the court of France with a considerable sum destined for the support of the Duke of Anjou during his Italian expedition, had dissipated this money at Venice; but, by the credit of the Duke of Orleans, the king’s brother, he had obtained his pardon, and even returned to court, where he sought to gratify his private resentment by the assassination of the constable Oliver Clisson, whom he suspected of having promoted his disgrace. The latter was attacked on his return from the Hôtel de St Pol, by a band of twenty ruffians, against whom he defended himself with wonderful intrepidity, but at last fell, after receiving more than fifty wounds. Happily, however, the veteran recovered from his wounds; and the assassin, in order to screen himself from vengeance, fled for protection to the Duke of Bretagne. The king demanded the surrender of Craon; and the duke having professed that he knew nothing of him, he marched with all his forces into Bretagne. But when the army had arrived at Mons, the king was seized with a slow fever, during which he became delirious, and killed several persons with his own hand. When the excitement subsided he fell down and lay as if he had been dead; upon which he was taken up, bound in a waggon, and carried back to Mons, where he lay two days in a lethargy, from which he recovered a little, and expressed great sorrow on account of the blood he had shed in his delirium. But it was soon discovered that he no longer possessed that strength of judgment and understanding for which he had formerly been remarkable; and hence a regency became indispensably necessary. The competition for this office brought to light the characters of the queen and the Duke of Orleans, which had not hitherto been displayed to public view. The former was a beautiful and accomplished princess, but vindictive, suspicious, and intriguing, insensible to natural affection, but easily accessible to flattery, and ready to yield to every impulse of lawless passion. The latter was equally remarkable for personal accomplishments, and had married Valentina, daughter of the Duke of Milan; but his engagements with that princess did not prevent him from engaging in a number of licentious amours, and amongst the rest, as was supposed, with his sister-in-law Isabelle. During the king’s illness he openly aspired to the regency; but his pretensions were overruled by the stetes, and the administration of affairs for the present conferred on the Duke of Burgundy. In a few months indeed the health and understanding of the king seemed to be sufficiently restored; but in the year 1393 it was again disturbed by a sudden alarm, which occasioned a relapse, and he continued delirious at intervals as long as he lived. During his lucid intervals Charles frequently assumed the government into his own hands; and as the war with England still continued, though in a languid manner, the French monarch in one of those intervals of reason had an interview with Richard of England, in order to put an end to hostilities. But their respective claims were so difficult of adjustment, that, as an intermediate arrangement, Aey concluded a truce for twenty-five years; during which time it was hoped that a lasting peace might be established. Richard gave up Cherbourg to Charles, and Brest to the Duke of Bretagne; and a marriage was also concluded between the king of England and Isabelle the daughter of Charles, but, by reason of the tender age of the princess, this marriage was never consummated. During this reign France was still further weakened by the succours sent to the Hungarians against the Turks. On this expedition upwards of one thousand of the bravest and most experienced knights were sent under the conduct of John count of Nevers, eldest son of the Duke of Burgundy; the Count of Eu, constable of France; John de Vienne, admiral of France; and the Count of Marche, a prince of the blood royal; together with De Courcy, one of the most experienced captains in Christendom. But the prudent counsels of this veteran were not obeyed by the youthful warriors by whom he was accompanied, and who, having attacked the enemy rashly, whilst heated with wine, were all either killed or taken prisoners. Notwithstanding this disaster, however, assistance was in the year 1400 sent to Wances-laus, emperor of Germany; and the Duke of Orleans, who commanded the army on this occasion, acquitted himself so well that he acquired the duchy of Luxembourg for himself, and left his ally satisfied.

But whilst the friendship of France was thus courted by foreign powers, the kingdom itself was in the most miserable situation. The king’s distemper daily gained ground; and the discordant interests of the contending parties kept the whole nation in a ferment. The most violent animosity broke out between the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy. The former, by means of his interest with the queen, and the ascendency which his duchess possessed over the king, had for some time got the advantage of his rival, and was made lieutenant-general and governor of the kingdom; but presuming on his power to levy new imposts on the people, and oppress the churchmen, whom in that age he ought to have conciliated, he was deprived of his authority, and obliged to yield to the Duke of Burgundy. For some time, however, these powerful rivals were kept within some bounds by the mediation of the Duke of Bourbon, the only grandee who appears to have maintained a pure and unspotted character; but by his death in 1404, the unhappy nation was left totally exposed to their relentless fury. In 1405 the queen and the Duke of Orleans again seized on the administration, which, however, they were soon deprived ofby the unanimous voice of the people. During this period Charles and his children were neglected and abandoned to distress; but they were relieved by the Duke of Burgundy on his obtaining the regency, whilst Isabelle and the Duke of Orleans were obliged to retire from Milan. But a sudden return of the king’s reason now deprived both parties of power, and the administration was vested in the queen and a council composed of princes of the blood. The rival dukes being thus prevented from interfering in public affairs, exercised themselves in committing hostilities against the English, with whom the truce had lately been concluded. They were encouraged to commit this infraction of the treaty by the unsettled situation of affairs under Henry IV.; but their attempts having proved unsuccessful, the truce was renewed after obtaining the restoration of the princess, who, as has already been mentioned, had been betrothed to Richard II. The failure of their enterprises produced a new scene of discord between the dukes, and led to mutual recriminations. By the interposition of the Duke of Berry they were apparently reconciled; but the Duke of Burgundy pretended friendship only in order to take a more signal vengeance, to which he was now inflamed by jealousy as well as by political animosity. The Duke of Orleans was accordingly attacked one evening by eighteen ruffians hired for the purpose, who set upon him whilst attended by only two pages. A Norman gentleman [7:10:22]who had been deprived of an employment headed the assassins, and in person attacked the duke; at the first blow he cut off his grace’s hand, at the second he struck him from his mule, and at the third put an end to his life. Ί he Duke of Burgundy escaped to Flanders; and the whole nation was rent into two factions, called the Burgundians and Armagnacs, the latter being the title of the party of the Duke of Orleans, from Armagnac, the father-in-law of that prince. A state of dreadful confusion and anarchy ensued. The Duke of Burgundy soon returned into France, and extorted a pardon from the unhappy king, who was now no longer able to resist him; and some notion may be formed of the state of the kingdom from the circumstance that two thousand people perished in one tumult in the capital. The king himself was alternately the prisoner of both parties, and transferred the power from the one to the other as he happened to fall into their hands.

Henry V. of England judged this a favourable opportunity to recover from France those possessions that had been formerly surrendered by treaty. But, in order to give his Intended expedition the appearance of justice, he sent ambassadors to Paris, offering perpetual peace and alliance, on condition of being put in possession of all those provinces which had been ravished from the English during former reigns, and of espousing Catharine, daughter of the French king, with a suitable dowry. Though the French court was at this time extremely averse to war, yet these demands were too extravagant to be complied with; and Henry probably made them in hopes of meeting a refusal. He therefore assembled a fleet and army at Southampton, and having drawn all the military men of the kingdom to his standard, he put to sea, and landed at Harfleur at the head of an army of six thousand men-at-arms, and twenty-four thousand foot, mostly archers. His first operations were directed against Harfleur, which being hard pressed, promised to surrender by a certain day, unless relieved before that time. When the day arrived, and the garrison, unmindful of their engagement, resolved to defend the place, Henry ordered an assault, took the town by storm, and put the garrison to the sword. The victor then advanced further into the country, which had been already rendered desolate by factions, and which he now laid totally waste. But although the enemy made a feeble resistance, the climate seemed to fight against the English; and a contagious dysentery carried off three fourths of Henry’s army. In this situation he had recourse to an expedient common enough in that age, in order to inspire his troops with confidence in their general. He challenged to single combat the dauphin, who commanded the French army, offering to stake his pretensions on the event. But this challenge, as might have been expected, was refused; and the French, notwithstanding their internal dissensions, at last seemed to unite at the appearance of a common danger. A numerous army of fourteen thousand men-at-arms and forty thousand foot had by this time assembled under the command of Count Albert, and been placed so as to intercept Henry’s weakened forces on their return. The English monarch, when it was too late, began to repent of his rash inroad into a country where disease and a powerful army everywhere threatened destruction, and he therefore determined to retire on Calais. In this retreat, which was at once painful and dangerous, Henry took every precaution to inspire his troops with patience and perseverance, and showed them in his own person the brightest example of fortitude and resignatum. He was continually harassed on his march by flying parties of the enemy; and when he attempted to cross the nver Somme, he observed troops on the other side ready to oppose his passage. He was, however, fortunate enough to seize by surprise, near St Quintin, a passage which had not been sufficiently guarded, and thus carried ov< it his army in safety. But the enemy being sti∏ resolved to intercept his retreat, after he had passed the river Tertrois, at Blangi, he was surprised to observe from the heights the whole French army drawn up in the plains of Agincourt, and so posted that it was impossible for him to proceed on his march without coming to an engagement. A battle accordingly took place, in which the English gained a victory, the most remarkable perhaps of any recorded in history (see Agincourt), and which deserves to be classed with the triumphs achieved at Crescy and Poitiers. This victory, gained on the 25th of October 1415, was however attended with no immediate effects. Henry still continued to retreat after the battle of Agincourt, and carried his prisoners first to Calais and thence to England.

In 1417, the king of England once more landed an army of twenty-five thousand men in Normandy, and prepared to strike a decisive blow for the crown of France, to which the English monarchs had long made pretensions. That wretched country was now reduced to a most deplorable condition. The whole kingdom appeared one vast theatre of murder, injustice, and devastation. The Duke of Orleans had been assassinated by the Duke of Burgundy; and the Duke of Burgundy, in his turn, fell by the treachery of the dauphin. At the same time the son of the duke, desirous of revenging his father’s death, entered into secret negotiations with the English; and a league was immediately concluded at Arras, between Henry and the young Duke of Burgundy, in which the king promised to revenge the murder of the late duke, and the son appeared to insist on no further stipulations. Henry therefore proceeded in his conquests without much opposition from any quarter. Several towns and provinces submitted on his approach; the city of Rouen was besieged and taken; and he soon became master of Pontoise and Gisors. He even threatened Paris, and obliged the court to remove to Troyes, where the Dμke of Burgundy, who had taken upon him the protection of the French king, met Henry in order to ratify the treaty by which the crown of France was to be transferred to a stranger. The imbecility into which Charles had fallen made him passive in regard to this treaty, and Henry dictated the terms throughout the whole negotiation. The principal articles of the treaty were, that Henry should espouse the Princess Catharine; that King Charles should enjoy the title and dignity of king for life, but that Henry should be declared heir to the crown, and intrusted with the present administration of the government; that France and England should be for ever united under one king, but should still retain their respective laws and privileges; and that Henry should unite his arms with those of King Charles and the Duke of Burgundy, to depress and subdue the dauphin and his partisans. Not long after this treaty had been concluded, Henry married the Princess Catharine; upon which he carried his father-in-law to Paris, and took formal possession of the capital. He next obtained from the estates of the kingdom a ratification of the late compact, and then turned his arms with success against the adherents of the dauphin, who now wandered about a stranger in his own country, and to the success obtained by his enemies opposed only fruitless expostulations.

But Henry’s supplies were not provided in such abundance as to enable him to carry on the war without returning in person to prevail with his parliament to grant fresh aid; and on his arrival in England, although he found his subjects highly pleased with the splendour of his conquests, they seemed somewhat doubtful as to the advantage to be derived from them. A treaty, which in its consequences was likely to transfer the seat of empire from England, was not much relished by the parliament, which, therefore, on various pretences, refused his majesty a supply equal to his exigencies. But he was bent on pursuing his schemes of ambition; and, having joined the supplies granted at home to the contributions levied on the conquered provinces, he [7:10:23]was able once more to assemble an army of twenty-eight thousand men, with which he landed safely at Calais.

In the mean while, the dauphin omitted no opportunity of repairing his ruined fortunes. Taking advantage of Henry’s absence from France, he prevailed upon the regent of Scotland to send him a body of eight thousand men; and with t!ιese, and some few forces of his own, he attacked the Duke of Clarence, who commanded the English troops in the king’s absence, and gained a complete victory. This was the first action which turned the tide of success against the English. But it was of short duration; for Henry having soon afterwards appeared with a considerable army, the dauphin fled at his approach; and many of the places which held out for the latter in the neighbourhood of Paris surrendered to the conqueror. Henry, everywhere victorious, now fixed his residence at Paris; and whilst Charles had only a small court, he was attended with one of great magnificence. In the mean while the dauphin, driven beyond the Loire, and almost totally dispossessed of the northern provinces, was pursued into the south by the united arms of the English and Burgundians, and threatened with total destruction. In this exigency, he found it necessary to protract the war, and to evade all hazardous actions with a rival who had long been accustomed to victory. His prudence was everywhere remarkable; and, after a train of persecutions from fortune, he found her at length willing to declare in his favour by the death of the king of England. Charles VI. died a short time afterwards; and Charles VII. succeeded his father on a nominal throne.

Nothing could be more deplorable than the situation of France when this monarch assumed his title to the crown. The English were masters of almost all France; and Henry VI. though yet an infant, was solemnly invested with regal power by legates from Paris. The Duke of Bedford was at the head of a numerous army in the heart of the kingdom, ready to oppose every insurrection; whilst the Duke of Burgundy, who had entered into a firm confederacy with the English commander, still remained stedľast, and seconded his claims. Yet notwithstanding these unfavourable appearances, Charles found means to break the leagues formed against him, and to bring back his subjects to their natural interest and duty. His first attempts, however, were totally' destitute of success. Wherever he endeavoured to face the enemy he was overthrown, and he could scarcely rely even on the friends next his person. His authority was insulted by his own servants; advantage after advantage was gained over him; and a battle fought near Verneuil, in which he was totally defeated by the Duke of Bedford, seemed to render his affairs altogether desperate. But, from the impossibility of the English keeping the field without new supplies, Bedford was obliged to retire into England; and in the absence of this commander his vigilant enemy began to recover from his late consternation. Dunois, one of his generals, at the head of a thousand men, compelled the Earl of Warwick to raise the siege of Montargis; and this advantage, slight as it was, served to convince the French that the English were not invincible.

But they had soon still greater reason to triumph in their change of fortune, and a new revolution was produced, by means apparently the most unlikely to bring about such a result. In the village of Domremi, near Vaucou-lt∙urs, on the borders of Lorraine, there lived a country girl, about twenty-seven years of age, called Joan d’Arc. This girl had been a servant in a cabaret or small inn, and in t>ιat humble station had submitted to those hardy employments which fit the body for the fatigues of war. She was of an irreproachable life, and had hitherto exhibited nor.e of those enterprising qualities which she soon afterwards displayed. She contentedly fulfilled the duties of her station, and was remarkable only for her modesty and love of religion. But the miseries of her country seemed to have occupied the thoughts of this lowly maiden; and her mind, inflamed by the subject, and brooding with melancholy stedfastness thereon, began to feel impulses, which she was willing to mistake for inspirations of heaven. Convinced of the reality of her own visions, she had recourse to one Baudricort, governor of Vaucouleurs, whom she informed of her destination by heaven to free her native country from its fierce invaders. Baudricort treated her at first with neglect; but her importunities at length prevailed, and, willing to make trial of her pretensions, he gave her some attendants, who conducted her to the court, which at that time resided at Chinon. The French courtiers were probably sensible of the weakness of her pretensions, but they were willing to make use of every artifice to support their declining fortunes. It was therefore given out that Joan was actually inspired; that she had been able to discover the king amongst the number of his courtiers, although he had laid aside all the distinctions of his authority; that she had told him some secrets, which were only known to himself; and that she had demanded, and minutely described, a sword in the church of St Catharine de Herbois, which she had never seen. The minds of the vulgar being thus prepared, she appeared armed cap-à-pied, and was shown in that martial dress to the people. She was then brought before the doctors of the university, who, tinctured with the credulity of the times, or willing to second the imposture, declared that she had actually received her commission from above. When the preparations for her mission had been completely blazoned, the next object was to send her against the enemy. The English were at this time besieging the city of Orleans, the last resource of Charles, and every’ thing promised them a speedy conquest. Joan undertook to raise the siege; and, in order to render herself still more remarkable, girded herself with the miraculous sword, of which she had before had such extraordinary notices. Thus equipped, she ordered all the soldiers to confess themselves before they set out, displayed in her hand a consecrated banner, and assured the troops of certain success. Such confidence on her side soon raised the spirits of the French army; and even the English, who pretended to despise her efforts, felt themselves secretly influenced with the terrors of her mission. A supply of provisions was to be conveyed into the town; Joan, at the head of some French troops, covered the embarkation, and entered Orleans at the head of the convoy which she had safely protected. Whilst she was leading her troops along, silence and astonishment reigned amongst the English; and they regarded with religious awe that temerity, which they thought nothing but supernatural assistance could inspire. But they were soon roused from their state of amazement by a sally from the town; Joan led on the besieged, bearing the sacred standard in her hand, encouraging them with her words and actions, bringing them to the trenches, and overpowering the besiegers in their own redoubts. In the attack of one of the forts, she was wounded in the neck with an arrow; but instantly pulling out the weapon with her own hands, and getting the wound promptly dressed, she hastened back to head the troops, and to plant her victorious banner on the hostile ramparts. As these successes continued, the English found it impossible to resist troops who were animated by such superior energy; and Suffolk, who conducted the attack, thinking that it might prove extremely dangerous to remain any longer in the presence of snch an enemy, raised the siege, and retreated with all imaginable precaution. From being attacked, the French now became in turn the aggressors. Charles formed a body of six thousand men, and sent them to besiege Jergeau, whither the English, commanded by the Earl of Suffolk, had retired. The city was taken; Suffolk yielded himself a prisoner; and Joan marched into [7:10:24]the place in triumph at the head of the army. A battle was soon after fought near Patay, where the English were ’ again worsted, and Generals Scales and Talbot were taken prisoners.

The raising of the siege of Orleans formed one part of the promise which the maid had made to the king of France, the crowning him at Rheims was the other; and as she now declared that it was time to complete that ceremony, Charles, in pursuance of her advice, set out for Rheims at the head of twelve thousand men. The towns through which he passed opened their gates to receive him; and Rheims sent him a deputation, with its keys, upon his approach. The ceremony of his coronation was there performed with the utmost solemnity; and the Maid of Orleans, as she was now called, seeing the completion of her mission, desired leave to retire, alleging that she had now accomplished the end of her calling. But her services had been so great that the king could not think of parting with her; he pressed her earnestly to remain, and she at length complied with his request. A train of success followed the performance of this solemnity; Laon, Soissons, Château-Thierri, Provins, and many other fortresses in that neighbourhood, submitted to him on the first summons.

On the other hand, the English, discomfited and dispirited, fled in every direction, not knowing whether to ascribe their misfortunes to the power of sorcery or to a celestial influence, but equally terrified at both. They now found themselves deprived of the conquests they had gained, in the same manner as the French had formerly submitted to their power. Their own divisions, both abroad and at home, unfitted them entirely for carrying on the war; and the Duke of Bedford, notwithstanding all his prudence, saw himself divested of his strongholds in the country, without being able to arrest the enemy’s progress. In order, therefore, to revive the declining state of his affairs, he resolved to have Henry crowned king at Paris, knowing that die natives would be allured to obedience by the splendour of the ceremony. In 1430 Henry was accordingly crowned, all the vassals who still continued under the English power swearing fealty and homage. But it was now too late to give a turn to the affairs of the English by the ceremonies of a coronation; the generality of the kingdom had declared against them, and the remainder only waited a convenient opportunity to follow the example. An accident which soon afterwards occurred, though it promised to advance the English cause in France, served in the end to render it odious, and conduced to the total evacuation of that country. The Duke of Burgundy, at the head of a powerful army, had laid siege to Compeigne; and the Maid of Orleans had thrown herself into the place, contrary to the wishes of the governor, who desired not the company of one whose authority would be greater than his own. The garrison, however, were rejoiced at her appearance, and believed themselves invincible under her protection. But their joy was of short duration; for Joan having the day after her arrival headed a sally, and twice driven the enemy from their intrenchments, was at last obliged to retire, placing herself in the rear, to cover the retreat of her forces. But in the end, attempting to follow the troops into the city, she found the gates shut, and the bridge raised, by order of the governor, who is said to have long wished for an opportunity of delivering her up to the enemy. Nothing could exceed the joy of the besiegers, in having taken a person who had been so long a terror to their arms. The service of Te Deum was publicly celebrated on the occasion; and it was hoped that the capture of this extraordinary person would restore to the English their former victories and successes. The Duke of Bedford was no sooner informed of her being taken, than he purchased the heroine of the Count Vendome, who had made her his prisoner, and ordered her to be committed to close confinement.

The credulity of both nations was at this time so great, that any tiling which coincided with their passions was not too absurd to gain belief. As Joan had a little before, when successful, been regarded as a saint, she was now, on her captivity, considered as a sorceress, forsaken by the demon who had given her a temporary and fallacious assistance. It was accordingly resolved in council to send her to Rouen to be tried for witchcraft; and the Bishop of Beauvais, a man wholly devoted to the English interest, having presented a petition against her, the university of Paris was mean enough to join in the request. Several prelates, amongst whom the Cardinal of Winchester was the only Englishman, were appointed her judges, and held their court at Rouen, where Henry then resided; whilst the maid, clothed in her military apparel, but loaded with irons, was produced before the tribunal. Her behaviour on this occasion in no way disgraced her former gallantry; she betrayed neither weakness nor womanish submission, but appealed to God and the pope for the truth of her former revelations. Nevertheless she was found guilty of heresy and witchcraft, and sentenced to be burned alive, the common punishment for such offences. But previously to the execution of this sentence, they resolved to make her abjure her former errors; and at length, by terror and rigorous treatment, so far prevailed, that her spirits were entirely broken by the hardships she was forced to endure. Her former visionary dreams began to vanish, and a gloomy distrust took place of her late inspirations; she publicly declared herself willing to recant, and promised never more to give way to the vain delusions which had hitherto misled her, and imposed upon the people. This was what her oppressors desired; and, willing to show some appearance of mercy, they changed her sentence into that of perpetual imprisonment, and to be fed for life on bread and water. But the rage of her enemies was not yet satiated. Suspecting that the female dress, which she had consented to wear, was disagreeable to her, they purposely placed in her apartment a suit of men’s apparel, and watched the effect of this temptation. The despicable artifice succeeded. Joan, struck with the sight of a dress in which she had gained so much glory, immediately threw off her penitent robes, and put on the forbidden garment. Her enemies caught her equipped in this fashion; and her imprudence was considered as a relapse into her former transgressions. No recantation would now suffice, no pardon could now be granted. She was condemned to be burned alive in the market-place of Rouen; and this disgraceful sentence was executed with most rigorous severity.

One of the first misfortunes which befel the English after this sacrifice was the defection of the Duke of Burgundy, who had for some time seen the error of his conduct, and wished to break an unnatural connection, which only served to involve his country in ruin. A treaty was therefore concluded between him and Charles, in which the former agreed to assist him in driving the English out of France. This proved a mortal blow to the cause of the latter; and such were its effects upon the populace of London when informed of it, that they killed several of the Duke of Burgundy’s subjects who happened at the time to be living amongst them. It might perhaps also have hastened the Duke of Bedford’s death, who died at Rouen a few days after the treaty had been concluded; and the Earl of Cambridge was appointed his successor to the regency of France. From this period the English affairs were irretrievably ruined. The city of Paris returned once more to a sense of its duty, and Lord Willoughby, who commanded it, was contented to stipulate for the safe retreat of his troops to Normandy. Thus ground was continually, though slowly, gained by the French; and notwithstanding that their fields [7:10:25]were laid waste, and their towns depopulated, they yet found protection in the weakness and divisions of the English. • At length both parties began to grow weary of a war, which, though carried on feebly, was still a burden greater than either could support-But the terms of peace insisted upon by both were so exorbitant that little hopes of an accommodation could reasonably be entertained. In 1443, therefore, a truce for twenty-two months was concluded, which left every thing between the parties on the footing upon which it actually stood. And no sooner had this been agreed upon, than Charles applied himself with great industry and judgment to repair the numberless evils to which, from the continuance of wars both foreign and domestic, his kingdom had so long been exposed. He established discipline amongst his troops, and justice amongst his governors; he revived agriculture, and repressed faction. Having prepared once more for taking the field, he seized the first favourable opportunity to break the truce. Normandy was at the same time invaded by four powerful armies; one commanded by Charles himself, a second by the Duke of Bretagne, a third by the Count of Alençon, and a fourth by the Count Dunois. Every place opened its gates almost as soon as the French appeared before them. Rouen was the only city which threatened to hold out; but the inhabitants clamoured so loudly for a surrender, that the Duke of Somerset, who commanded the garri-on, was obliged to capitulate. The battle, or rather skirmish, of Fourmingi, was the last stand which the English made in defence of their French dominions; but here they were put to the rout, and above a thousand slain. Normandy and Guienne, which had so long acknowledged subjection to England, were lost in the space of a year; and the English saw themselves entirely dispossessed of a country which for above three centuries they had considered as annexed to their native dominions. Of all their conquests Calais alone remained to them; but this was a small compensation for the blood and treasure which had been lavished in France.

In the year 1450, accordingly, the power of the English in France was entirely destroyed; and Charles obtained the surname of Victorious, on account of the vigour which he had shown in expelling the invaders of his country. But his satisfaction was greatly diminished by domestic misfortunes. The dauphin, forgetting the allegiance and filial duty which he owed to his father, had already impeded his conquests by his seditious intrigues. He had used every effort to thwart the designs of the king’s ministers, and it was even supposed that he had destroyed by poison Agnes Soreille, his father’s favourite mistress. He had also married Charlotte, daughter of the Duke of Savoy, which Charles had resented by a declaration of war against the duke; but he had been persuaded to recall this denunciation, in order to prosecute the war against Guienne. At length, weary of the disobedience of his son, he commanded him to be arrested; but Louis, informed of his design, withdrew to Franche Comté, and afterwards to Brabant, where the Duke of Burgundy, then sovereign of the country, ordered him to be supplied with every necessary, and treated with all imaginable respect. The duke, however, refused to see him until he had obtained the approbation of his father; upon which Louis employed himself in sowing dissension between his benefactor and the Count of Ċharolois, his son, at the very time that he himself was receiving a pension of twelve thousand crowns annually from the father. He thus destroyed the domestic peace of his benefactor, whilst his unnatural conduct created continual suspicions in the mind of his father. Being repeatedly informed that his own domestics, along with his undutisul son, were in a conspiracy against his life, the miserable monarch lived in continual fear of being poisoned, and, having none in whom he could repose confidence, obstinately refused for some days to receive any sustenance; and when at last prevailed upon by the importunities of his attendants to take some food, his stomach had become incapable of receiving it, and he died of inanition, in the year 1461. His body, neglected by his unnatural son, was interred at the expense of Tannegui de Chastel, who had ever been his faithful companion.

On the death of Charles, his son Louis succeeded to the throne to which he had so long aspired. He was reckoned one of the greatest politicians that ever existed, though his character was not upon that account the more amiable; on the contrary, there are few princes whose character appears in a more detestable light. So destitute was he of natural affection, that he did not even attempt to conceal his joy at his father’s death. He pretended much friendship for the Count of Ċharolois, son to the Duke of Burgundy, on account of the protection which he had received at his father’s court, and even conferred upon him a pension of twelve thousand crowns annually. But all this show of affection soon degenerated into a mortal aversion upon both sides. Some differences which took place between the courts of France and Castille produced an interview between the two monarchs, Louis, and Henry surnamed the Impotent. They met at Mauleon, on the confines of Navarre; but their negotiations came to nothing, and they parted with a feeling of mutual contempt; Henry despising the mean and sordid appearance of Louis, and the latter in his turn deriding the gaudy magnificence of Henry. In his negotiations with the Duke of Burgundy, Louis proved more successful, having persuaded him to restore some towns situated on the river Somme which had been ceded by Charles VII., and by the possession of which the duke was in effect master of Picardy. This cession was opposed by the Count of Ċharolois; but Louis, by corrupting John de Croy, the duke’s minister, succeeded in his object, and for the sum of four hundred thousand crowns the cities were delivered to him. In this transaction, by which he effectually ensured the hatred of Ċharolois, the duplicity of Louis was eminently displayed; for though he had agreed to retain in those towns the officers appointed by the duke, he had no sooner obtained possession than he displaced all of them, and appointed others in their stead.

The duchy of Bretagne was at this time governed by Francis, a weak but generous prince, whose defect of capacity was supplied by the abilities of his ministers. This prince Louis had insulted in the grossest manner; and as Francis found himself unable alone to oppose such a powerful adversary, he formed a close alliance with the Duke of Burgundy and the Count of Ċharolois, who had also been grievously offended by Louis. The confederacy was joined by several of the principal French nobility, who had been oppressed by the king; and though the secret was confided to upwards of five hundred persons, not one of them ever divulged it. Finding matters becoming very critical, Louis marched with an army towards the capital, which the Count of Ċharolois had already threatened; and a battle ensued, in which both princes exerted themselves to the utmost, though their valour was but ill seconded by the bravery of their troops. About fifteen hundred men perished on each side, but the Count of Ċharolois remained master of the field. Louis, however, after this engagement entered the capital, where he endeavoured, by every kind concession, to conciliate the affection of his subjects; and in this he succeeded so well, that though the army of the insurgents was soon augmented to a hundred thousand men, they were unable to make themselves masters of the city. At last a treaty was concluded between Louis and the Count of Ċharolois, by which the latter obtained the towns which had been formerly ceded, with the districts of Boulogne, Guisne, Peronne, Mondidior, and Roye, as a perpetual inheritance[7:10:26] for himself; and by granting favours to the other confederates, the league was completely broken. But as soon as Louis found himself freed from danger, he protested against the whole treaty, as contrary to the interest of his crown; and therefore waited the first favourable opportunity to crush one by one those who by their united efforts had been ready to destroy him. The Duke of Bourbon, one of the most able of the confederates, was gained over, by bestowing upon him in marriage, Jane, a natural daughter of the king, with the dowry of Usson in Auvergne, together with Moras, Beaurepaire, and Cormil-lon in Dauphine; and, by the discontents between the Dukes of Bretagne and Normandy, he was enabled tp secure the neutrality of the former, and to recover from the latter some territories which had been unwillingly ceded to him.

In 1467, Philip duke of Burgundy, surnamed from his amiable qualities the Good, died, and left his dominions to his son Charles, count of Charolois. That fiery and impetuous prince, jealous of the growing power of France, and an implacable enemy of Louis, had entered into a secret treaty with Francis; but Louis had driven the Bretons from the posts which they had occupied in Normandy before the Duke of Burgundy could pass the Somme. The king, however, alarmed at the power of the confederates, concluded a peace with Bretagne; and, confiding in his talents for negotiation, determined to risk a personal conference with the Duke of Burgundy. This memorable interview took place in the year 1468; and Peronne, a fortified town of Picardy, belonging to the Duke of Burgundy, was appointed as the place of rendezvous. Thither the politic Louis repaired with a slender train, being attended only by Cardinal Balue, the Duke of Bourbon, and the Count de St Pol, constable of France; apparently without reflecting that he was entering a hostile city, where he might be confined for any length of time, or treated at the pleasure of the duke, who was his mortal enemy. Nor had he been long in the place when he began to perceive the extent of his error; and, by the daily concourse of Burgundian lords and other persons of rank, his avowed enemies, he became alarmed for his personal safety. His fears even suggested to him more serious apprehensions; and he requested apartments in the castle, where it was in the power of his rival in a moment to make him a close prisoner. This event accordingly took place, through the machinations of Louis himself. From the first his policy had been to keep the Duke of Burgundy constantly employed in domestic wars; and with this view he had, immediately before his interview with Charles, excited the inhabitants of Liège, who were subject to the Duke of Burgundy, to revolt against their sovereign. It is probable, indeed, that he did not anticipate that the effects of this treachery would so soon begin to manifest themselves. But at the very time when Louis was in the castle of Peronne, the people of Liège revolted, seized the bishop and governor, and having massacred many of the adherents of Charles, retired with their prisoners to the capital. Charles was soon informed of this massacre, with the additional circumstance that the emissaries of Louis were seen animating the insurgents to their work of destruction. Transported with rage, he commanded the gates of the castle to be shut and strictly guarded, and denounced the severest vengeance on the perfidious monarch who had so often deceived him. Louis, however, though justly alarmed for the consequences of this premature explosion, did not neglect to take the proper methods for securing himself. He distributed large sums of money amongst those officers to whom he imagined the duke was most inclined to pay any regard, and by splendid promises and presents endeavoured to allay the resentment of his other enemies. The resentment of Charles, as short-lived as it was violent, quickly subsided, and he entered into a treaty with the king, upon much the same terms as those which had been agreed to before. He insisted, however, that Louis should be present at the punishment he inflicted upon the inhabitants of Liège for the massacre they had committed; and this being acceded to, these princes in conjunction formed the siege of the city, which, notwithstanding the obstinate defence of the people, was at length taken by storm, and delivered over to a general massacre.

But, as might have been foreseen, the new alliance was soon dissolved. A confederacy against Louis, whom neither promises nor treaties could bind, was formed between his own brother the Duke of Normandy and the Duke of Burgundy; but before their measures were ripe for execution, Louis had already commenced hostilities. The Duke of Burgundy, as a peer of France, was summoned to parliament, and on his refusal the Constable St Pol made himself master of St Quintin. Several other cities were also reduced; and Baldwin, the natural brother of Charles, having, at the instigation of Louis, deserted his cause, the duke, notwithstanding his haughty spirit, was at last obliged to solicit a peace. This, however, was not of long duration. Charles, encouraged by the success of Edward IV. of England, his brother-in-law, began once more to league against Louis, with the Dukes of Bretagne and Guienne, the king’s brother, and formerly Duke of Normandy, but who had exchanged that duchy for the territory of Guienne. But whilst the affairs of the confederates seemed likely to prosper, their prospects were suddenly overcast by the death of the Duke of Guienne, who was universally supposed to have been poisoned by order of Louis. The abbot of St Jean d’ Angeli was fixed upon as the immediate perpetrator of the deed; but upon the day appointed for his trial he was found strangled in his cell; and as the dead tell no tales, Louis escaped the ignominy which the trial would probably have fixed on him, and was enabled to seize upon the territory of Guienne, which he annexed to the dominions of France.

By this unexampled vi)lany Charles was so much exasperated that he vowed the most dreadful vengeance against the people of France, and threatened to sacrifice to the memory of the Duke of Guienne every one who fell into his hands. The citizens of Nesle were massacred without distinction of sex or age; but Beauvis resisted his attacks, after which Charles wreaked his fury on other places. Having entered the country of Caux, he reduced the cities of Eu and St Valery, burned Longueville, and wasted the whole country as far as Rouen. Louis, on the other hand, steady and constant in his designs, determined to dissolve the league between the Duke of Bretagne and Edward IV. of England, encamped with his army on the frontiers of Bretagne; whilst the duke, not meeting with the assistance promised by Edward, was obliged to consent to a truce for a year. In a little time, however, he began again to conspire with the king of England against Louis, and a powerful invasion was determined upon. Edward was to cross the sea with an army of ten thousand men, whilst Charles assembled all his forces to join in the attack. The former was also to set up a claim to the crown of France, and at all events to obtain the provinces of Normandy and Guienne; whilst the duke was to have Champagne, with some adjacent districts, and to free his dominions from homage; and neither party was to make peace without the consent of the other. It was supposed that the Duke of Bretagne would naturally accede to the confederacy; and the Count de St Pol, constable of France, had engaged to deliver up the town of St Quintin and others which he occupied on the river Somme. Louis, however, had still the good fortune to avoid the storm. Charles, instead of advancing to the assistance of Edward, who had entered France at the head [7:10:27]of fifteen thousand archers and fifteen hundred men-at-arms, laid siege to the city of Nuiz on the Rhine; whilst , the Constable St Pol, instead of delivering up the towns as he had promised, deceived his allies, and enabled Louis to dissolve a confederacy, which, had it been vigorously maintained, might have involved him in the greatest difficulties. To procure the departure of Edward, however, he was obliged to consent to a tribute of seventy-five thousand crowns, as well as to settle on the king himself fifty thousand crowns for life, and also to betrothe the dauphin to the eldest daughter of the king of England. The Dulce of Burgundy exclaimed loudly against this treaty; but Edward presiβting in his resolution, it was executed, at a place called Pecquigny, near Amiens, though in such a manner as showed the little confidence which the two sovereigns reposed in each other. A power was reserved by Edward for the Duke of Burgundy to accede to the treaty; but the latter haughtily replied, that he was able to support himself without the assistance of England, and that he would make no peace with Louis until three months after the return of Edward to his own country. To this resolution he adhered; but no sooner had the term expired than he concluded a truce with Louis for nine years. The Constable St Pol having rendered himself obnoxious to all parties by his complicated treachery, fled to Mons in Hainault; but the Duke of Burgundy had already consented to deliver him up, upon condition of receiving his estates and moveables as the price of his treachery.

Thus had Louis, without any other remarkable qualification than the mere arts of dissimulation and falsehood, got rid of all his enemies excepting the Duke of Burgundy, whose growing power rendered him a constant object of jealousy and terror. The imprudence and temerity of the latter, however, soon proved his ruin. Having rashly engaged in a war with the Swiss, he was defeated in the first encounter, with the loss of his military chest and baggage, and of his plate and jewels, supposed to be the richest in Europe. His disappointment on this occasion was so great that he was seized with a severe sickness; but he had hardly recovered when he resumed his insane scheme of conquering the Swiss. Another battle ensued, in which, after an obstinate struggle, Charles was defeated with the loss of eighteen thousand men; a disaster which was followed by the defection of most of his allies. The Duke of Lorraine recovered the city of Nancy, and the greater part of his dominions, which Charles had seized; whilst the latter, overwhelmed with shame and disappointment, spent his time in solitude and inactivity. But from this state he was at length roused by the misfortunes which fell upon him in rapid succession. He now invested the city of Nancy, acting in this, as in every other instance, against the advice of his best officers. The Duke of Lorraine advanced with a strong body of Germans to the relief of the city, whilst Charles had scarcely four thousand men to oppose him. His troops were therefore defeated, and he himself, notwithstanding the most heroic efforts of valour, was hurried away in the crowd. The Count de Campobasso, an Italian nobleman, in whom he put great confidence, but who was in reality a traitor, had deserted with about eighty men at the commencement of the action; but he left twelve or fifteen fellows about the duke ♯ person, with strict orders to assassinate him in the tumult; and this order they punctually obeyed. The body of Charles was found two days after the battle, pierced with three wounds. This occurred in the year 1477.

The news of Charles’s death was received with the most unfeigned joy by Louis, whose sole object it now was to unite the territories of the Duke of Burgundy to those of his own. This might be done in two ways; either by a match between the dauphin and Mary, the heiress of Burgundy, or by marrying this lady to the Duke of Angoulême, a prince of the blood royal of France. The king, however, to whom duplicity and falsehood seem to have been absolutely necessary, chose a third method, which was more agreeable to his character. The match with the dauphin, for various reasons, might be considered as impracticable. The disparity of age was great, the dauphin being only eight years old, and the princess twenty; the Flemings were besides averse to submit to a prince whose powerful resources would enable him to oppress their liberties. But, notwithstanding these difficulties, Louis chose to insist upon the match, at the same time that he endeavoured to make himself master of her dominions by force of arms. He addressed circular letters to the principal cities of Burgundy, representing that the duchy had been given by King John to the heirs male of his son Philip, and that now, when these were extinct by the death of Charles, the territory reverted of course to the crown; and, to render this argument more effectual, he corrupted the governors of some towns, and seduced the inhabitants of others, whilst he himself at the head of an army prepared to enforce obedience from those who could not be worked upon by other methods. And by these means the province of Burgundy was entirely reduced. But Flanders could not be brought under subjection either by fraud or force. In this, as on almost all other occasions, Louis displayed the most detestable falsehood, and the meanest treachery. In order to render Mary odious to her subjects, he negotiated with her ministers, and having prevailed on them to disclose the most important state secrets, he communicated their letters to the states of Flanders. This double treachery, however, did not answer his purpose. The two ministers he had betrayed were indeed put to death in the presence of their sovereign; but Mary was induced to bestow her hand upon the emperor Maximilian, and Louis had the mortification to find that all his arts had contributed only to aggrandise a rival power, whom he had already sufficient cause to dread. To repair this oversight, he entered into an alliance with Edward IV. of England, whom he had inspired with a jealousy of his brother Clarence; and thus a peace was concluded between the two monarchs, intended to continue during the life of each, and a year thereafter. Meanwhile the marriage of Mary with Maximilian secured the independence of Flanders; whilst the return of the prince of Orange to the party of that princess once more extended the war to the cities of Burgundy, and the French were on the point of being expelled from that country. But Maximilian unexpectedly made proposals of peace, and a truce was concluded, but without any term fixed for its duration, or without stipulations in favour of the Burgundians; so that the whole country was soon afterwards reduced by Louis.

The king being now freed from the apprehensions of foreign enemies, turned his vindictive disposition against his own subjects, and, under pretence of former rebellions, exercised the most insupportable tyranny. The principal victim of his sanguinary disposition was James d’Armagnac, duke of Nemours, one of the first noblemen in the kingdom, who had formerly been a zealous confederate in the league with Edward and Charles. This unfortunate nobleman, knowing that vengeance was determined on, fled to the fortress of Carlat, in the mountains of Auvergne, where he was besieged by the Seigneur de Beaujeu, who had married Anne the daughter of Louis. The place, however, being almost impregnable, his enemies were obliged to make the most solemn promises of safety in order to induce him to surrender, and he was at last persuaded to trust himself in the hands of the faithless tyrant. But no sooner had the latter got the unfortunate nobleman in his power than he shut him up in an iron cage [7:10:28]in the Bastille, and reprimanded the judges for having released him from this close confinement during his exami- ' nation. He was condemned to be beheaded; but the king’s cruelty extended beyond the sentence, for he ordered the two sons of the duke, though yet in childhood, to be placed directly under the scaffold, that they might be covered with the blood of their father. Four thousand persons are supposed to have perished upon this occasion without any form or trial; and were it not for the concurring testimony of the historians of that age, the inhuman barbarities of this monster would scarcely be credited. By these means he broke the spirit of the French nobility, and gradually extended the power of the crown, until at last it was limited only by the pleasure of the sovereign.

In 1479, the emperor Maximilian, who had lightlyaban-doned the duchy of Burgundy when he might have reduced it, now renewed his claims when it was no longer in his power to enforce them. After a variety of actions of little note, and the destruction of cities on both sides, a battle was fought at Guinegate, where the Flemings were routed; but as the French pursued with too great ardour, the infantry of the enemy rallied, and the battle was renewed with great slaughter on both sides. A more decisive advantage was afterwards gained by the capture of eighty Flemish vessels, which induced that commercial people to think of peace.

In the mean time, Louis, after a life spent in continual deceit, hypocrisy, and cruelty, received warning of his approaching end by a fit of apoplexy, with which he was seized in. the year 1480. He lay speechless and motionless for two days; after which he in some degree recovered, but never completely regained his health and strength. His illness, however, neither prevented him pursuing the schemes of his ambition, nor using the same methods as formerly to attain them. He seized, without any pretence, the estates of the Duke of Bourbon, the only nobleman in the kingdom whose power gave him any cause of suspicion; and, notwithstanding his assiduity for the interest of the dauphin, kept him a kind of prisoner in the castle of Amboise. He banished his own consort, the mother of the dauphin, to Savoy, and endeavoured to inspire the prince with aversion for her. By the death of Charles, titular king of Naples, and the last of the second house of Anjou, he became master of the county of Provence; but his satisfaction on this occasion was marred by a second stroke of apoplexy. Still, however, he revived, and again began to pursue his ambitious intrigues. The death of Mary of Burgundy, who perished by a fall from her horse, inspired him with new views; and he betrothed his son to the infant daughter of the emperor, by which means he deeply offended Edward IV. whose eldest daughter had previously been contracted to the dauphin, and a war would in consequence have ensued, had it not been for the death of the king of England. This event was ere long followed by that of Louis himself, who had m vain exhausted the skill 0 f his physician, and wearied the clergy with prayers and processions to avert the impending stroke. He expired in the year 1483, after a reign of twenty-three years, during which he was detested by his subjects, whom he had continually oppressed, and equally dreaded and hated by his neighbours, whom he had constantly deceived. But, in spite of all this, he obtained from his holiness the title of Most Christian King, which his successors retained until the year 1830, when a sudden revolution placed a new and more popular dynasty on the throne. Notwithstanding the dark character of this prince, it must be allowed that he laid the foundations of the future greatness of the French monarchy. By his arts he deprived the common people of their liberty, depressed the power of the nobility, established a standing army, and even induced the states to render many taxes perpetual which formerly were only temporary. From this time the people became accustomed to submit entirely to the voice of their sovereign as their only legislator; and being always obedient in matters of the greatest consequence, they cheerfully contributed whatever sums were required to fulfil the king’s pleasure.

Charles VIII. who succeeded his father Louis XI. in 1483, was only fourteen years of age at the time of his father’s death. But though he might, even at that age, have ascended the throne without any material violation of the laws of France, yet it was judged necessary to appoint a regent, on account of the king’s delicacy of constitution and want of education. Three competitors appeared as candidates for this important trust: John duke of Bourbon, a prince of the blood, and who had, till the age of sixty, maintained the most unblemished character; Louis duke of Orleans, presumptive heir to the crown, but who from his youth seemed incapable of undertaking so important an office; and Anne, the eldest daughter of Louis, to whom he had in the last moments of his life committed the charge of the kingdom. The claim of this lady was supported by the assembly of the states-general at Tours; and though she had only entered the twenty-second year of her age, the office, it appears, could not have been more properly bestowed. Being married to Peter of Bourbon, seigneur of Beaujeu, she was styled the Lady of Beaujeu; but she seems to have acted independently of her husband, who was a man but of moderate capacity.

Her first step was to ingratiate herself with the people by some popular acts, and particularly by punishing the instruments of her father’s cruelties. One of these, Oliver le Dian, who, from the humble station of barber, had raised himself to the confidence and favour of the king, and had distinguished himself by the invention of new modes of torture, was publicly hanged. Another, named Jean Doyac, who by continual acts of violence and rapacity had oppressed the people, after being whipped in all the public places and squares of Paris, was condemned to have one of his ears cut off, and his tongue pierced through with a hot iron; upon which he was conveyed to his native city of Montferrand, where he was again whipped, and had his other ear cut off. Jacques Coitier, the physician of Louis, who had availed himself of the terror of death, with which the king was strongly influenced, to extort large sums of money from him, was ordered to account for the immense wealth he had acquired; but he prudently averted the danger by paying a fine of fifty thousand crowns. Thus the Lady of Beaujeu secured the affection of the people at large, and was equally successful in gaining those who had at first been averse to her government. The Duke of Bourbon was made constable, an office which he had long desired; the Duke of Orleans having behaved in such a manner as to exclude all hopes of favour. Incensed at the determination against him of a trifling dispute at tennis by the Lady of Beaujeu, he furiously had exclaimed, that whoever had decided in that manner was a liar if a man, or a strumpet if a woman. After this insolent declaration he fled to the castle of Beaujency, where, however, he was soon forced to surrender. He then applied to Henry VII. who had newly ascended the throne of England; but that prince, naturally cautious and deliberate, paid little attention to his application. On this he next made application to the court of Bretagne, where he was received with great marks of esteem, and began to entertain hopes of marrying the daughter of the duke; but he was looked upon with a jealous eye by the nobility, who entered into secret negotiations with Anne, and even solicited her to invade the country, stipulating that only a certain number of troops should enter the province, and [7:10:29]that no fortified place should remain in the hands of the French; conditions which were indeed agreed to by the regent, though she determined to keep them no longer than it suited her purpose so to do. Bretagne was therefore invaded by four armies, each superior to the stipulated number, who quickly made themselves masters of the most important places in the country; whilst the troops of the duke retired in disgust, leaving the invaders to pursue their conquests as they pleased. Finding, however, that the entire subjection of their country was determined upon, the nobility at last began to exert themselves in its defence, and, inflamed by the enthusiasm of liberty, they raised an army of sixty thousand men, by which the French were compelled to abandon the siege of Nantes. But this proved only a transient gleam of success. Anne persevered in her design of completing the conquest of the country, and the state of Europe was at that time favourable to the design. Of all the European nations, England alone was then capable of affording effectual assistance; but the slow caution of Henry prevented him from giving the aid which in this case he ought to have afforded. The Bretons were thus left to defend themselves as they best could; and having ventured a .battle, they were entirely defeated, most of their leaders being taken prisoners, whilst a small body of English who assisted them were entirely cut to pieces. The duke soon afterwards died by a fall from his horse, leaving his dominions to his daughter Anne, at that time only thirteen years of age. A marriage was now negotiated between this princess and Maximilian king of the Romans, who had previously been married to Mary of Burgundy; but, by reason of the poverty of that prince, it was never completed. The Lady of Beaujeu then determined to conclude a marriage between the young king of France and the duchess, though the former had already been married to Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Maximilian. But this marriage was not consummated, by reason of the tender age of the princess, who had been sent to Paris for her education, and for several years treated as queen of France; and in 1491 Margaret was returned, like rejected goods, to her father. Anne of Bretagne, however, long refused to violate the engagement into which she had entered; but at last, finding herself pressed on all sides, and incapable of resisting the numerous forces of France, she reluctantly consented to the match. Maximilian, whose proverty had prevented him from giving any assistance to his bride, or even from coming to see her, enraged at the double disgrace which he had suffered, began, when too late, to bethink himself of revenge. France was now threatened with an invasion by the united forces of Austria, Spain, and England. But this formidable confederacy was soon dissipated. Henry, whose natural avarice had induced him to withhold the necessary assistance, was bought off with the immediate payment of 745,000 crowns, and the promise of 25,000 annually ever afterwards; Ferdinand king of Spain had the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne restored to him; whilst Maximilian was gratified by the cession of that part of Artois which had been acquired by Louis XI.

The young king of France agreed to these terms the more readily, that he was impatient to undertake an expedition into Italy, in order to conquer the kingdom of Naples, to which he laid claim. Most of his counsellors were opposed to this expedition; but the king was inflexible, even though Ferdinand king of Naples offered to do homage for his kingdom, and to pay him a tribute of fifty thousand crowns a year. He appointed the Duke of Bourbon regent in his absence, and then set out for Italy, with few troops, and but little money. On the march he fell ill of the small-pox, but in a short time recovered, and having entered Italy with a force of twelve thousand foot and six thousand horse, the greater part of which consisted of regular troops, he obtained the most surprising success, traversing the whole country in six ’ weeks, and rendering himself master of the kingdom of Naples in less than a fortnight. To vulgar observers, his extraordinary good fortune seemed miraculous; and he was reckoned an instrument raised up by God to destroy the execrable tyrants by which Italy was at that time afflicted; and had Charles availed himself of this prepossession in his favour, and acted up to the character generally ascribed to him, he might have raised his name as high as that of any hero of antiquity. But his conduct was of a very different description. Instead of following up his successes, he amused himself with feasts and shows, leaving his power in the hands of favourites, who abandoned it to such as chose to purchase titles, places, or authority, at the rates imposed; and the whole force he proposed to leave in his newly conquered dominions amounted to no more than four thousand men. But whilst Charles was thus idly losing precious time, a league was forming against him at Venice, to which the pope, the emperor Maximilian, the archduke Philip, LudovicoSforza, and the Venetians, were all parties. The confederates assembled an army of forty thousand men, commanded by Francis marquis of Mantua, and waited for the king in the valley of Fornova, in the duchy of Parma, into which he had descended with nine thousand men. On the 6th of July 1495 he attacked the allies, and, notwithstanding their great superiority of numbers, defeated them, with but little loss on his part. By this victory he got safe to France; but his Italian dominions were lost almost as soon as he departed. Some schemes were proposed for recovering these conquests, but they were never put in execution; and the king died of an apoplexy in 1498.

By the death of Charles VIII. the crown of France ] passed from the direct line of the house of Valois, and Louis duke of Orleans succeeded to the throne. At the time of his accession he was in his thirty-sixth year, and had long been taught prudence in the school of adversity. During the administration of the Lady of Beaujeu he had been constantly in disgrace, and, after his connections with the Duke of Bretagne, had spent a considerable time in prison; and though afterwards set at liberty by Charles, he had never possessed any share of that monarch’s confidence or favour. Towards the close of the preceding reign he fell under the displeasure of the queen; and afterwards continued at his castle of Blois till he was called thence to take possession of the throne. He had been married in early life, against his will, to Jane, the youngest daughter of Louis XI. a princess of an amiable disposition, but deformed in person, and supposed to be incapable of bearing children. He afterwards entertained thoughts of having his marriage dissolved, and was supposed to possess the affections of the Duchess of Bretagne before she became queen of France. After the death of her husband, that princess retired to Bretagne, where she pretended to assume independent sovereignty; but Louis having got his marriage with Jane dissolved by Pope Alexander VI. made proposals to the queen dowager, which were accepted without hesitation, though it was stipulated that, if she had two sons, the younger should inherit the duchy of Bretagne.

As Louis, while Duke of Orleans, had some pretensions to the crown of Naples, he now set about realizing them by conquest, and found circumstances favourable to his design. The pope, Alexander VI. was devoted to his interests, in the hope of getting his son Caesar Borgia provided for. Louis had conciliated the friendship of the Venetians by promising them a part of the Milanese; he had also concluded a truce with the archduke Philip, and renewed his alliances with the crowns of England, Scotland, and Den·
[7:10:30]

mark. He then entered Italy with an army of twenty thousand men; and, being assisted by the Venetians, con- • quered one part of the duchy, whilst they conquered the other, the archduke himself being obliged to fly with his family to Inspruck. He then attacked Ferdinand of Spain with three armies simultaneously; but as none of these performed any thing remarkable, he was obliged to evacuate the kingdom of Naples in 1504. But in 1506 the people of Genoa revolted, drove out the nobility, chose eight tribunes, and declared Paul Nuova, a silk dyer, their duke; after which they expelled the French governor, and reduced a great part of the Riviera. This induced Louis to return into Italy, where, in 1507, he obliged the Genoese to surrender at discretion, and in 1508 entered into a league with the other princes who at that time desired to reduce the overgrown power of the Venetians. But Pope Julius II. who had been the first contriver of this league, soon repented of his contrivance, and declared that if the Venetians would restore the cities of Faenza and Rimini, which had been unjustly taken from him, he would be contented. This was refused, and in 1509 the forces of the republic received an entire defeat from Louis, in consequence of which they agreed to restore not only the two cities demanded by Pope Julius, but whatever else the allies required. The pope, instead of executing his treaties with his allies, made war on the king of France. Upon this Louis convoked an assembly of his clergy, at which it was determined that in some cases it was lawful to make war upon the pope. The king therefore declared war against his holiness, and committed the command of his army to the Marshal de Trivulce, who soon obliged the pope to retire to Ravenna. In 1511, Gaston de Foix, duke of Nemours, gained a great victory at Ravenna, but was himself killed in the engagement. After his death the army was disbanded for want of pay; and the French affairs in Italy, and indeed everywhere else, fell into great confusion. The duchy of Milan was recovered and lost again in a few weeks. Henry VIII. of England invaded France, and took Terruenne and Tournay; whilst the Swiss invaded Burgundy with an army of twenty-five thousand men. In this desperate situation of affairs the queen died, and Louis put an end to the opposition of his most dangerous enemies by negotiating marriages. To Ferdinand of Spain he offered his second daughter for either of his grandsons, Charles or Ferdinand, and promised to renounce, in favour of that marriage, his claims on Milan and Genoa. This proposal was accepted; and Louis himself married the princess Mary, sister of Henry VIII. of England. But he did not long survive this marriage; and having died on the 2d of January 1514, he was succeeded by Francis I. count of Angouleme and duke of Bretagne and Valois.

The new king had no sooner been seated on the throne than he resolved to undertake an expedition into Italy. In this he was at first successful, having defeated the Swiss at Marignon, and reduced the duchy of Milan. In 1518 the emperor Maximilian having died, Francis showed himself ambitious of becoming his successor, and thereby restoring to France a splendid title which had been so long lost. But Maximilian, before his death, had exerted himself so much in favour of Charles V. of Spain, that Francis found it impossible to succeed; and from that time an irreconcilable hatred took place between these two monarchs. In 1521 this bad feeling produced a war, which, however, might perhaps have been terminated, if Francis could have been prevailed upon to restore the town of Fontarabia, which had been taken by his admiral Bonivet. But this being refused, hostilities were renewed with greater vigour than ever; nor were they concluded till France had been brought to the very brink of destruction. The war was continued with various success until the year 1524, when Francis having invaded Italy, and laid siege to Pavia, was utterly defeated before that city, and taken prisoner, on the 24th of February. This disaster threw the whole kingdom into the utmost confusion. The Flemish troops made continual inroads; many thousand boors assembled in Alsace, in order to invade the country from that quarter; Henry VΠI.had assembled an army, and also threatened France on the side of the Channel; and a party was formed in the kingdom to dispossess the duchess of the regency, and confer it upon the Duke de Vendome. This prince, however, who after the constable was the head of the house of Bourbon, proceeded to Lyons, where he assured the regent that he had no view but for her service and that of his country; and he then formed a council of the ablest men of the kingdom, of which the queen appointed him president. Henry VIII. acting under the influence of Cardinal Wolsey, resolved not to oppress the oppressed, and therefore assured the regent that she had nothing to fear from him; at the same time that he advised her not to consent to any treaty by which France was to be dismembered. To the emperor, however, he is said to have held different language, telling him that the time had now arrived when this puissant monarchy lay at their mercy, and that therefore an opportunity so favourable should not be lost; that, for his part, he would be content with Normandy, Guienne, and Gascony; that he trusted the empire would make no scruple of owning him as king of France; and that he expected the emperor would make a right use of his victory, by entering Guienne in person, in which case he was ready to bear half the expenses of the war. Alarmed at these proposed conditions, and not caring to have Henry as a neighbour, the emperor agreed to a truce with the regent for six months. In Picardy the Flemings were repulsed; whilst the Count de Guise and the Duke of Lorraine, with a handful of troops, defeated and cut to pieces the German peasants.

In the mean time Francis was detained a captive in Italy; but being wearied of his confinement in that country, and the princes of Italy having begun to cabal for his deliverance, he was carried to Madrid, where, on the 14th of January 1525, he signed a treaty, the principal articles of which were, that he should resign to the emperor the duchy of Burgundy in full sovereignty; desist from the homage which the emperor owed him for Artois and Flanders; renounce all claim to Naples, Milan, Asti, Tournay, Lisle, and Hesdin, and certain other places; persuade Henry d’Albert to resign the kingdom of Navarre to the emperor, or at least to give him no assistance; restore within forty days the Duke of Bourbon and all his party to their estates; pay the king of England five hundred thousand crowns which the emperor owed him; and, when the emperor went to Italy to receive the imperiaí crown, to lend him twelve galleys, four large ships, and a land force, or instead of it two hundred thousand crowns. All these articles the king of France promised on the faith and honour of a prince to execute, or, in case of non-per-sormance, to return as a prisoner into Spain. But, notwithstanding these professions, Francis had already protested, before certain notaries and witnesses in whom he could confide, that the treaty he was about to sign was compulsory, and therefore null and void. On the 21st of February the emperor released him from his prison, in which he had been closely confined ever since his arrival in Spain; and, after receiving from his own lips the strongest assurances that he would literally fulfil the terms of the treaty, sent him under a strong guard to the frontiers, where he was exchanged for his two eldest sons, who were to remain as hostages for his fidelity.

But when the king returned to his dominions, his first care was to get himself absolved by the pope from the oaths which he had taken; and when this had been accomplished, [7:10:31]he entered into a league with the pontiff, the Venetians, the Duke of Milan, and the king of England, for preserving the peace of Italy. In the month of June he received publicly remonstrances from the states of Burgundy, in which they told him without ceremony, that by the treaty of Madrid he had done what he had no right to do, in breach of the laws and his coronation oath; and that if he persisted in his resolution of placing them under a foreign yoke, they must appeal to the general states of the kingdom. The viceroy of Naples and the Spanish ministers were present at these remonstrances, and, perceiving the end at which the king aimed, expostulated with him in pretty warm terms. The viceroy, in fact, told him that be had now nothing left but to keep his royal word in returning to the castle of Madrid, as his predecessor John had done in a similar case. To this Francis replied, that John acted rightly, because he returned to a king who had treated him like a king; but that at Madrid he had received such usage as would have been unbecoming to a gentleman, and he had often declared to the emperor’s ministers that the terms they extorted from him were unjust and impracticable. However, he was still willing to do all that was fit and reasonable, and to ransom his sons at the rate of two millions of gold in lieu of the duchy of Burgundy.

Hitherto the treaty for tranquillizing Italy had been kept secret, in hopes that some mitigation of the treaty of Madrid would have been obtained; but now it was judged expedient to publish it, though the viceroy of Naples and the Spanish lords still remained at the French court. The emperor was to be admitted as a party to this treaty, provided he accepted the king’s offer of two millions for the release of his children, and left the Duke of Milan and other Italian princes in quiet possession of their dominions. But it is the common misfortune of all leagues, that the powers which enter into them keep only their own particular interests in view, and thus defeat the general intention of the confederacy. In the present instance, the king’s great aim was to obtain his children upon the terms he had proposed; and he was desirous of knowing what hopes there were of accomplishing that object, before he acted against the monarch who had them in his power. Thus the Duke of Milan and the pope were both sacrificed. The former was obliged to surrender to the Duke of Bourbon, and the latter was surprised by the Colonnas; disasters which would have been prevented if the French succours had entered Italy in time. See Italy.

According to an agreement which had been entered into between Francis and Henry, their ambassadors entered Spain, attended each of them by a herald, to summon the emperor to accept the terms which had been offered him, or in case of refusal to declare war. But as the emperor’s answer was foreseen in the court of France, the king had previously called together an assembly of the Notables, to whom he proposed the question, whether he was bound to perform the treaty of Madrid? or whether, if he did not perform it, he was obliged in honour to return to Spain? To both these questions the assembly answered in the negative, declaring that Burgundy was united to the crown of France, and could not be separated by the king’s own authority; that his person also was the property of the public, of which therefore he could not dispose; but as to the two millions, which they looked upon as a just equivalent, they undertook to raise it for his service. When the ambassadors delivered,their propositions, Charles treated the English herald with respect, and the French herald with contempt; a circumstance which induced Francis to challenge the emperor. But all differences were at length adjusted, and a treaty concluded at Cambray on the 5th of August 1528. By this treaty, instead of actual possession, the emperor contented himself with reserving his right to the duchy of Burgundy, and the payment of the two millions of crowns already mentioned. Of these, he was to receive one million two hundred thousand in ready money; the lands in Flanders belonging to the house of Bourbon, valued at four hundred thousand, were to be delivered up; and the remaining four hundred thousand were to be paid by France in discharge of the emperor’s debt to England. Francis was likewise to pay the penalty of five hundred thousand crowns which the emperor had incurred by not marrying his niece the Princess Mary of England, and further to release a rich jewel which many years before had been pawned by the house of Burgundy for fifty thousand crowns. The town and castle of Hesdin were also surrendered, together with the sovereignty of Flanders and Artois, and all the king’s pretensions in Italy. As for the allies of France, they were, as usually happens, abandoned to the emperor’s mercy, without the least stipulation in their favour; but Francis consoled himself for this disgraceful dereliction by protesting against the validity of the treaty before he ratified it, as did also his attorney-general before he registered it in parliament, though in both instances with the greatest secrecy imaginable. The remainder of this reign was not distinguished by any events of consequence. The war was renewed by Charles, who invaded France, though without success; nor was peace fully established until the death of the French king, which happened on the 3d of March 1547.

Francis was succeeded by his son Henry II. who ascended the throne at the age of twenty-nine. In the beginning of his reign an insurrection broke out in Guienne, owing to the oppressive conduct of the officers who levied the salt-tax, and was not put down without considerable difficulty. In 1548 the king began to enforce the edicts issued against the Protestants with the utmost severity; and, thinking even the clergy too mild in the prosecution of heresy, he for that purpose erected a chamber composed of members of the parliament of Paris. At the queen’s coronation, which happened this year, he caused a number of Protestants to be burned, and was himself present at the horrid spectacle, which, however, shocked him so much that he never forgot it. In 1549 a peace was concluded with England, and Henry purchased from the latter Boulogne, for the sum of four hundred thousand crowns, one half to be paid on the day of restitution, and the other half a few months afterwards. Scotland was included in the treaty, and the English restored some places which they had taken in that country. This was the most advantageous peace which France had hitherto concluded with England; the vast arrears due to that crown being in effect remitted, and the pension, which looked so like tribute, being tacitly extinguished. The Earl of Warwick himself, who had concluded the peace, was in fact so sensible of the disgrace suffered by this nation on this occasion, that he pretended to be sick, in order to avoid setting his hand to so scandalous a compact. This year, also, an edict was made to restrain the extravagant remittances which the clergy had been in use to make to Rome, and for correcting other abuses committed by the papal notaries. With this edict Pope Julius III. was highly displeased; and the following year, 1550, war was declared by the king of France against the pope and the emperor, on the ground that Henry protected Octavio Farnese, duke of Parma, whom the pope was desirous of depriving of his dominions. In this war the king was threatened with the censures of the church; but as the emperor soon found himself in such danger from these new enemies, that he could not support the pope as he intended, the latter was obliged to sue for peace. Henry continued the war against the emperor with success; and having reduced the cities of Toul, Verdun, and Metz, entered the country of Alsace, and [7:10:32]reduced all the fortresses between Hagenau and Wissenburg. He failed, however, in his attempt on Strasburg; - and was soon afterwards obliged by the German princes and the Swiss to desist from all further conquests on that side. This war continued with little interruption, and but small success upon the part of the French, till the year 1557, when a peace was concluded; and soon afterwards the king was killed at a tournament by the Count de Montgomery, one of the strongest knights in France, who had done all he could to avoid this encounter.

The reign of his successor Francis II. was remarkable only for the persecution of the Protestants, which became so grievous that they were obliged to take up arms in their own defence. This occasioned several civil wars, the first of which commenced in the reign of Charles IX. who succeeded to the throne in 1560. This contest continued until the year 1562, when a peace was concluded, by which the Protestants were to have a complete amnesty, and enjoy entire liberty of conscience. But in 1565 the war broke out afresh, and was continued with little interruption until 1569, when peace was again concluded, upon terms advantageous to the Protestants.

After this, Charles, who had now taken the government into his hands, caressed and flattered the Protestants in an extraordinary manner. Their destruction had been resolved on, but as they were too powerful to be openly attacked, it was judged necessary to lull them into security by means of systematic dissimulation, and to fall upon them when off their guard. With this view the king invited to court Admiral de Coligni, the head of the Huguenot party, and so effectually cajoled him, that the gallant veteran was lulled into a fatal security, notwithstanding the warnings given by his friends that the king’s fair speeches were by no means to be trusted. And he had soon reason to repent his confidence. On the 22d of August 1571, as he was returning from court to his lodgings, he received a shot from a window, which carried away the second finger of his right hand, and wounded him grievously in the left arm. This he himself ascribed to the malice of the Duke of Guise, the head of the Catholic party. After dinner, the king went to pay him a visit, and amongst other things observed, “you have received the wound, but it is I who suffer ;” at the same time desiring that he would order his friends to establish themselves around his residence, and promising to prohibit the Catholics from entering that'quarter after dark. This satisfied the admiral of the king’s sincerity, and prevented him from complying with the wishes of his friends, who desired to carry him away, and were strong enough to have forced a passage out of Paris if they had attempted it.

In the evening of the same day, the queen-mother, Catharine de’ Medicis, held a cabinet council to fix the execution of the massacre of the Protestants, which had long been meditated. The persons of whom this council was composed, were Henry duke of Anjou, the king’s brother; Gonzagua duke of Nevers; Henry of Angoulême, grand prior of France, the bastard brother of the king; Marshal de Tavannes; and Albert de Gondi, count de Uetz: and the direction of the whole was intrusted to the Duke of Guise, to whom the administration had during the former reign been entirely confided. The guards were appointed to be in arms, and the city officers were ordered to predispose the militia to execute the king’s orders, of which the signal was to be the ringing of a bell near the Louvre. It is said, indeed, that when the fatal hour, which was that of midnight, approached, the king grew undetermined, and expressed great horror at the idea of shedding so much blood, especially considering that the people about to be destroyed were his subjects, who had come to the capital at his command, and in dependence on his word, and particularly the admiral, whom he bad so lately detained by his caresses. The queen-mother, however, reproached him with cowardice, and representing to him the danger which he incurred from the Protestants, at last induced him to consent. According to others, the king himself urged on the massacre, and, when it was proposed to him only to take off a few of the leaders, exclaimed, “If any are to die, let there not be one left to reproach me with breach of faith.”

As soon as the signal had been given, a body of Swiss troops, headed by the Duke of Guise and the Chevalier d’Angoulême, accompanied by many persons of quality, attacked the admiral s house; and having forced open the doors, the foremost of the assassins rushed into the apartment. One of them asked if he was Coligni; to which he answered that he was, adding, “Young man, respect these gray hairs.” The assassin replied by running him through the body with a sword. The Duke of Guise and the chevalier growing impatient below stairs, loudly demanded if the business was done; and being answered in the affirmative, commanded the body to be thrown out at the window. As soon as it fell on the ground, the chevalier, or, as some say, the Duke of Guise, wiped the blood from the face, and kicked it with his foot. The body was then abandoned to the fury of the populace, who, after a series of indignities, dragged it to the common gallows, to which they chained it by the foot, whilst the head, being cut off, was carried to the queen-mother, who, it is said, caused it to be embalmed and transmitted to Rome. The king himself went to see the body hanging upon the gibbet, where a fire being kindled under it, part was burned, and the rest scorched. In the Louvre, the gentlemen belonging to the king of Navarre and the prince of Condé were murdered under the king s own eye. Two of them, wounded and pursued by the assassins, fled into the bedchamber of the queen of Navarre, and jumped upon her bed, beseeching her to save their lives; and as she proceeded to solicit this favour of the queen-mother, two more, under the same circumstances, rushed into the room, and threw themselves at her feet. The queen-mother repaired to the window to enjoy these dreadful scenes; and the king, seeing the Protestants who lodged on the other side of the river flying for their lives, called for his long gun, and fired upon them. In the space of three or four days many thousands were destroyed in the city of Paris alone. Peter Ramus, professor of philosophy and mathematics, after being robbed of all he had, was cruelly mutilated in the abdomen, and thrown from a window. During the first two days, the king denied that the massacre was done by his orders, and threw the whole blame upon the house of Guise; but on the 28th of August he went to the parliament, avowed the incomparable atrocity, was complimented on it, and directed a process against the admiral, by which he was stigmatized as a traitor. Two innocent gentlemen suffered as his accomplices in a pretended plot against the life of the king, in order, as was alleged, to place the crown on the head of the prince of Condé. They were executed by torch light; and the king and the queen-mother, together with the king of Navarre and the prince of Condé, who were forced to be present, were spectators of the horrid deed. Nor was the massacre confined to the city of Paris alone. On the eve of St Bartholomew, orders had been sent to the governors of provinces, either to fall upon the Protestants themselves, or to let loose the people on them; and though an edict was published before the end of the week, assuring them of the king’s protection, and protesting that he by no means designed to exterminate them on account of their religion, yet private orders were issued of a directly contrary nature, in consequence of which the Matins of Paris were repeated in Meaux, Orleans, Troyes, Angers, Toulouse, Rouen, and Lyons; so that in the space of about two months thirty thousand Protestants were butchered[7:10:33] in cold blood.^[1. Dr Lingard has in vain attempted to extenuate the guilt and dispute the leading facts of this atrocious massacre. All his learn, ing and ingenuity have been foiled in the attempt; and the result of his controversy with Mr Allen has only been to confirm and settle general belief on the subject. The “vindication” of the able writer last mentioned is a masterpiece of historical research and strong reasoning. ] The next year Rochelle, the only fortress which the Protestants occupied in France, was besieged and taken, but not until twenty-four thousand of the besiegers had fallen before its walls. After this a pacification ensued, on terms nominally favourable to the Protestants; but as a body they had been destroyed; St Bartholomew had completely broken their power; and those who survived the massacre had no alternative but to accept whatever terms were offered them.

This year the Duke of Anjou was elected king of Poland, and soon afterwards set out to take possession of his new kingdom. Charles accompanied him to the frontiers; but during the journey he was seized with a slow fever, which from the commencement portended death. Ĳe lingered for some time under the most terrible agonies both of mind and body; and at last expired on the 30th of May 1572. It is said that ever after the massacre of St Bartholomew, this prince had a fierceness in his looks, and adeadly paleness in his cheeks; he slept little, but never soundly, and waked frequently in agonies, which the soft music employed to lull him into repose often failed to allay. The sting of remorse was deeply infixed in his soul, and in a little time its poison drank up his spirit.

During the first years of the reign of Henry III. who succeeded his brother Charles IX. die war with the Protestants was carried on with indifferent success upon the part of the Catholics. In 1575 a peace was concluded, which by way of eminence was called the Edict of Pacification. The treaty consisted of no fewer than sixty-three articles, the substance of which was, that liberty of conscience, and the public exercise of religion, were granted to the reformed, without any restriction except that they were not to preach within two leagues of Paris, nor in any other part where the court might be. The judgments against the admiral, and others who had either fallen in the war or been executed, were also reversed; and eight cautionary towns were given up to the Protestants.

This edict induced the Guises to form an association in defence (as was pretended) of the Catholic religion, which afterwards became known by the name of the Catholic League. This confederacy, though the king was mentioned with respect, struck at the very root of his authority; for, as the Protestants had their leaders, so the Catholics were in future to be entirely dependent on the chief of the league, and to execute whatever he commanded, for the good of the cause, without exception of persons. In order to neutralize the bad effects of this association, the king, by the advice of his council, declared himself the head of the league; and in this character he recommenced the war against the Protestants, which was not extinguished as long as he lived. In the mean time the faction of the Duke of Guise resolved to support Charles cardinal of Bourbon, a weak old man, as presumptive heir of the crown; and having entered into a league with Spain, they in 1584 took up arms against the king; and though peace was concluded the same year, yet in 1587 they again proceeded to such extremities that the king was forced to fly from Paris. Another reconciliation was soon afterwards effected; but it is generally believed that the king from this time resolved on the destruction of the Duke of Guise. Accordingly, finding that this nobleman still behaved with his usual haughtiness, the king caused him to be stabbed by his guards on the 23d of December 1587. But Henry himself did not long survive this deed, being stabbed by one Jacques Clement, a Jacobin monk, on the first of August 1588. His wound was not at first thought mortal; but his frequent swooning quickly discovered his danger, and he died the following morning, in the thirty-ninth year of his age and sixteenth of his reign.

Before the king’s death he had nominated Henry Bourbon, king of Navarre, as his successor on the throne of France; but as the latter was a Protestant, or at least one who greatly favoured their cause, he was at first owned by very few except those of the Protestant party. He met with the most violent opposition from the members of the Catholic League, and was often reduced to such extremities that he went to people’s houses under colour of visits, when in reality he had not a dinner in his own. By his activity and perseverance, however, he was at last acknowledged by the whole kingdom, a consummation to which his abjuration of the Protestant religion not a little contributed. As the king of Spain had laid claim to the crown of France, Henry no sooner found himself in a fair way of being firmly seated on the throne, than he formally declared war against that kingdom; and having proved successful, he, in 1597, entered upon the quiet possession of his kingdom.

The king’s first care was to put an end to the religious disputes which had so long distracted the kingdom. For this purpose he passed the famous edict, dated at Nantes, 13th April 1598, which re-established in a solid and effectual manner all the favours which had been granted to the reformed, and added some which had pot been thought of before, particularly that of allowing them a free admission to all employments of trust, profit, and honour, establishing chambers in which the members of the two religions were equal, and the permitting their children to be educated without restraint in any of the universities. Soon afterwards he concluded peace with Spain upon advantageous terms; an event which afforded him an opportunity of restoring order and justice throughout his dominions, repairing the ravages occasioned by the civil war, and abolishing all those innovations which had been made, either to the prejudice of the prerogatives of the crown or the welfare of the people. His schemes of reformation, indeed, he intended to have carried much beyond the boundaries of France. If we may believe the Duke of Sully, he had in view no less a design than the new-modelling of all Europe. He imagined that the European powers might be formed into a kind of Christian republic, by rendering them as nearly as possible of equal strength; and that this republic might be maintained in perpetual peace, by bringing all their differences to be decided before a senate of wise, disinterested, and able judges. The number of these powers was to be fifteen, the Papacy, the empire of Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, Great Britain, Bohemia, Lombardy, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, the republic of Venice, the States General, the Swiss Cantons, and the Italian commonwealth, comprehending the states of Florence, Genoa, Lucca, Modena, Parma, Mantua, and Monaco. In order to render the states equal, the empire was to be given to the Duke of Bavaria; the kingdom of Naples to the pope; that of Sicily to the Venetians; Milan to the Duke of Savoy, who, by this acquisition, was to become king of Lombardy; the Austrian Low Countries were to be added to the Dutch republic; and Franche Comté, Alsace, and the country of Trent, were to be given to the Swiss. With the view, it is now thought, of executing this grand project, but under pretence of reducing the exorbitant power of the house of Austria, Henry made immense preparations both by sea and land; but [7:10:34]if he really entertained such a design, he was prevented by death from attempting its execution. He was stabbed in his coach by Ravaillac, on the 12th of May 1608.

On the death of Henry IV. the queen-mother assumed the regency. Ravaillac was executed, after suffering the most exquisite tortures. It is said that he made a confession, which was so written by the person who took it, that not a word of it could be read, and thus his instigators and accomplices were never discovered. The regency, during the minority of Louis XIII. was only remarkable for the cabals and intrigues of the courtiers. In 1617 the king assumed the government, banished the queenmother to Blois, caused Marshal d’Ancre, her favourite, to be put to death, and chose as his minister the celebrated Cardinal Richelieu. In 1620 a new war broke out between the Catholics and Protestants, which was carried on with the greatest fury on both sides. Of this we have an instance in what took place at Negreplisse, a town in Quercy. This place was besieged by the king’s troops, and it was resolved to make an example of the inhabitants, who had absolutely refused to surrender upon any terms. They defended themselves with desperate valour; and when at last the city was taken by storm, they were all massacred, without distinction of rank, sex, or age. But both parties soon became weary of so destructive a war; and a peace was concluded in 1621, by which the edict of Nantes was confirmed. This treaty, however, was not of long duration. A new war broke out, which lasted till the year 1628, when the edict of Nantes was again confirmed; but the Protestants were deprived of their cautionary towns, and consequently of the power of defending themselves in time to come. This put an end to the civil wars on account of religion, in which a million of men lost their lives, 150,000,000 livres were expended, and nine cities, four hundred villages, two thousand churches, two thousand monasteries, and ten thousand houses, were burned or otherwise destroyed. The next year the king was attacked with a slow fever, extreme depression of spirits, and swelling in the stomach and abdomen. But the year following he recovered, to the great disappointment of his mother, who had hopes of regaining her power. Meanwhile Richelieu, by a masterly system of policy, supported the Protestants of Germany and Gustavus Adolphus against the house of Austria; and, after suppressing all the rebellions and conspiracies which had been formed against him in France, died some months before Louis XIII. in 1643.

Louis XIV. surnamed the Great, succeeded to the throne of France when he was only five years of age. During his minority, the kingdom, under the administration of his mother, Anne of Austria, was thrown into confusion by the factions of the great, and the divisions between the court and parliament. The prince of Condé blazed like an erratic star; sometimes a patriot, sometimes a courtier, sometimes a rebel. He was opposed by Turenne, who from being a Protestant had become Catholic. The kingdom of France was involved both in civil and domestic wars; but the queen-mother having made choice of Cardinal Mazarin as her first minister, the latter found means to turn the arms even of Cromwell against the Spaniards, and so effectually divided the domestic enemies of the court, that when Louis assumed the reins of government he found himself the most absolute monarch who had ever sat upon the throne of France. On the death of Mazarin he had the good fortune to put the administration of affairs into the hands of Colbert, a minister who formed new systems for improving the commerce and manufactures of France, which he carried to a surprising height of prosperity. The king himself, ignorant and vain, was blind to every patriotic duty, promoting the interests of his subjects only that they might the better answer the purposes of his greatness; and, actuated by an overweening ambition, embroiled himself with all his neighbours, and wantonly rendered Germany a scene of devastation. By his impolitic and unjust revocation of the edict of Nantes in the year 1685, with the dragonade which followed it, he obliged the Protestants to take shelter in England, Holland, and different parts of Germany, where they established the silk manufacture, to the great prejudice of their own country. He was so blinded by flattery, that he arrogated to himself the heathen honours paid to the emperors of Rome; he made and violated treaties for his convenience; and in the end raised up against himself a confederacy of almost all the princes of Europe, at the head of which was King William III. of England. He was so well served, however, that for some years he made head against this alliance; and France seemed to have attained the highest pitch of military glory. But having provoked the English by his repeated perfidy, their arms under the Duke of Marlborough, and those of the Austrians under Prince Eugene, rendered the latter part of his life as miserable as the beginning of it had been splendid. From 1702 to 1711 his reign was one continued series of defeats and disasters; and he had the mortification of seeing those places reduced, which in the former part of his reign were acquired at an enormous expense of blood and treasure. But when Marlborough and Eugene were preparing to invade France at the head of their victorious troops, and to march directly to the capital, Louis, now tottering on the verge of destruction, was saved from ruin by the English Tory ministry deserting the cause, withdrawing from their allies, and concluding the inglorious peace of Utrecht in 1713. (See article Britain.) The last years of Louis were also embittered by domestic misfortunes, which, added to those of a public nature which had befallen him, impressed him with a deep melancholy. He had been for some time afflicted with a fistula, which, though successfully cut, ever afterwards affected his health. The year before the peace was concluded, his only son, the Duke of Burgundy, died; a blow which was the more severely felt because it admitted of no alleviation. The king himself survived till the month of September 1715, when he expired, leaving the kingdom to his grandson Louis, then a minor. The reign of Louis XIV. is considered as the Augustan age of French literature.

By the last will of Louis XIV. the regency during the minority of the young king devolved upon a council, at the head of which was the Duke of Orleans. That nobleman, however, disgusted with an arrangement which gave him only a casting vote, appealed to the parliament of Paris, who set aside the will of the late king, and declared him sole regent. His first acts were extremely popular, and gave a favourable impression of his government and character. He restored to the parliament the right which had been taken from them of remonstrating against the edicts of the crown, and compelled those who had enriched themselves during the former reign to restore their ill-gotten wealth. He also took every method to efface the calamities occasioned by the unsuccessful wars in which his predecessor had engaged; promoted commerce and agriculture; and, by a close alliance with Great Britain and the United Provinces, seemed anxious to lay the foundation of lasting tranquillity. But this happy prospect was soon overcast by the intrigues of Alberoni the Spanish minister, who had formed a design of recovering Sardinia from the emperor, and Sicily from the Duke of Savoy, and also of establishing the Pretender on the throne of Britain. To accomplish these objects he negotiated with the Ottoman Porte, Peter the Great of Russia, and Charles XII. of Sweden; the Turks were to resume the war against the emperor, and the two latter [7:10:35]powers to invade Great Britain. But, as long as the Duke of Orleans retained the administration of France, he found it impossible to bring his schemes into play. To remove this obstacle, therefore, he fomented divisions in the kingdom. An insurrection having taken place in Bretagne, Alberoni sent small parties into the country in disguise to support the insurgents, and even laid plots to seize the regent himself. But the intrigues of the Spanish minister misgave in every direction. His partisans in France were put to death; the king of Sweden was killed at Frederickshall in Norway; the Czar, intent on improving his own institutions, could not be persuaded to make war upon Britain; and the Turks refused to engage in a war with a power from which they had recently suffered so deeply. The cardinal, however, persevered in his intrigues, which soon produced a war between Spain on the one hand, and France and Britain on the other. But the Spaniards, unable to resist the union of two such formidable powers, were soon reduced to the necessity of suing for peace; and the terms were dictated by the regent of France, one of which was the dismission of Alberoni.

The spirit of conquest having now in a great measure subsided, that of commerce came in its stead, and France became the scene of as remarkable a project as ever was known in any country. John Law, a Scotchman, who had found it convenient to leave his own country, formed the plan of a company which by its notes was to pay off the debt of the nation, and reimburse itself by the profits. Law had wandered throughout various parts of Europe, and had successively endeavoured to engage the attention of various courts. The same proposal had been made to Victor Amadeus, king of Sicily; but the latter dismissed Law with the reply, that he was not rich enough to ruin himself. In France, however, it was looked upon in a more favourable light; and as the nation was at this time involved in a debt of two hundred millions, the regent and the people in general were ready to embark in almost any new scheme which might be proposed. The bank thus established proceeded at first with some degree of caution; but having gradually extended its credit to more than eighty times its real stock, it soon became unable to answer the demands made upon it, and the company was dissolved the very same year in which it had been instituted. The confusion into which the kingdom was thrown by this fatal scheme required the utmost exertions of the regent to put a stop to it; and scarcely had this been accomplished when the king, in the year 1723, took the government into his own hands. The duke then became minister, but did not long enjoy this office. His irregularities had broken his constitution, and brought on a number of maladies, under which he in a short time sunk, and was succeeded in the administration by the Duke of Bourbon. The king, as we have already remarked, had been married when young to the infanta of Spain, though by reason of his tender years the marriage had never been completed. This princess, however, had been brought to Paris, and for some time treated as queen of France; but as Louis grew up, it was easy to perceive that he had contracted an inveterate hatred against the intended partner of his bed. The minister, therefore, at last consented that the princess should be sent back; an affront so much resented by the queen her mother, that it had almost produced a war between the two nations. The dissolution of the marriage of Louis was the last act of Conde’s administration, and the negotiating a new match was the first act of his successor Cardinal Fleury. The princess pitched upon was the daughter of Stanislaus Leczinski, king of Poland, who had been deposed by Charles XII. of Sweden. This princess was destitute of persona) charms, but of an amiable disposition; and though it is probable that she never possessed the affections of her husband, her excellent qualities could not but extort his esteem; whilst the birth of a prince soon after their marriage removed all the fears of the people, if they had any, concerning the succession.

Cardinal Fleury continued the pacific policy pursued by his predecessors, though it was somewhat interrupted by the war which took place in the year 1733. But notwithstanding the connection between the sovereign of Poland and the French nation, Fleury was so parsimonious of his assistance, that only fifteen hundred soldiers were sent to relieve Dantzick, where Stanislaus was at that time besieged by the Russians. This pitiful reinforcement was soon overpowered by the Russians; and Stanislaus was at last obliged to renounce all thoughts of the crown of Poland, though he was permitted to retain the title of king. Fleury so steadily pursued his pacific plans, that the disputes between Spain and England in 1737 but little affected the peace of France; and it should be remembered to his praise, that instead of fomenting quarrels between the neighbouring potentates, he laboured incessantly to maintain peace and concord. He reconciled the Genoese and Corsicans, who wer e at war; and his mediation was accepted by the Ottoman Porte, which, through his intercession, concluded a treaty with the emperor. But all his endeavours to preserve the general peace proved at last ineffectual. The death of the emperor Charles VI. in 1740, the last prince of the house of Austria, set all Europe in a flame. His eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, claimed the Austrian succession, comprehending the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, the duchy of Silesia, Austrian Suabia, Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, the four forest towns, Burgau, Brisgau, the Low Countries, Friuli, Tyrol, the duchy of Milan, and the duchies of Parma and Placentia. Amongst the many competitors who pretended a right to share, or wholly to inherit, these extensive dominions, the king of France was one. But as he cared not to awaken the jealousy of the European princes by preferring directly his own pretensions, he chose rather to support those of Frederick HL, who laid claim to the duchy of Silesia. This brought on the war of 1740 (see articles Britain and Prussia), which was terminated in 1748 by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. But Louis, who had secretly meditated a severe vengeance against Britain, only consented to give his aid, that he might have time to repair his fleet, and put himself somewhat more upon an equality with so formidable a power. Meanwhile the internal tranquillity of the kingdom was disturbed by violent disputes between the clergy and parliaments of France. In the reign of Louis XIV. there had been vehement contests between the Jansenists and Jesuits, concerning free will, and other obscure points of theology; and the opinions of the Jansenists had been declared heretical by the celebrated bull Unigenitus, the reception of which was enforced by the king, in opposition to the parliaments, the Archbishop of Paris, and the great body of the people. The archbishop, with fifteen other prelates, protested against it as an infringement of the rights of the Gallican church and the laws of the realm, and also as an infringement of the rights of the people themselves. The Duke of Orleans favoured the bull by inducing the bishops to submit to it, but at the same time he stopped a persecution which had been commenced against its opponents. Matters continued in this state until the conclusion of the peace. But a short time afterwards the jealousy of the clergy was awakened by an attempt of the minister to inquire into the wealth of individuals of their order. To prevent this they revived the contest about the bull Unigenitus, and it was resolved that confessional notes should be obtained of dying persons; that these notes should be signed by priests who maintained the authority[7:10:36] of the ball; and that, without such notes, no person could obtain the viaticum, or extreme unction. On this occasion the new Archbishop of Paris and the parliament of that city having taken opposite sides, the latter imprisoned such of the clergy as refused to administer the sacraments. Other parliaments followed the example of that of Paris; and a contest was instantly kindled up between the civil and ecclesiastical departments of the state. But the king having interfered in the dispute, forbade the parliaments to take cognizance of ecclesiastical proceedings, and commanded them to suspend all prosecutions relative to the refusal of the sacraments. Instead of acquiescing, however, the parliaments presented new remonstrances, refused to attend to any other business, and resolved that they could not obey this injunction without violating their duty as well as their oath. They cited the Bishop of Orleans before their tribunal, and ordered all writings in which its jurisdiction was disputed to be burned by the executioner. With the assistance of the military they enforced the administration of the sacraments to the sick, and ceased to distribute that justice to the subject for which they had been originally instituted. Enraged at their obstinacy, the king arrested and imprisoned four of the members who had been most obstinate, and banished the remainder to Bourges, Poitiers, and Auvergne; whilst, to prevent any impediment to the administration of justice in their absence, he issued letters patent, by which a royal chamber for the prosecution of civil and criminal suits was instituted. But the counsellors refused to plead before these new courts; and the king, finding that the whole nation was about to fall into a state of anarchy, thought proper to recall the parliament. The banished members entered Paris amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants; and the archbishop, who still continued to encourage the priests in refusing the sacraments, was banished to his seat at Conflans, as were also the Bishops of Orleans and Troyes; and for the present tranquillity was restored to the kingdom.

But the tranquillity thus established was not of long duration. In the year 1756, the parliaments again fell under the displeasure of the king, by their imprudent persecution of those who adhered to the bull Unigenitus, and even proceeded so far in this opposition as to refuse to register certain taxes absolutely necessary for carrying on the war. Louis was so provoked at this, that he suppressed the fourth and fifth chambers of inquests, the members of which had distinguished themselves by their opposition to his will. He commanded the bull Unigenitus to be respected, and prohibited the secular judges from ordering the administration of the sacraments. On this, fifteen counsellors of the great chamber resigned their offices, and a hundred and twenty-four members of the different parliaments followed their example; and the most grievous discontent pervaded the kingdom. Meanwhile an attempt was made by a fanatic, named Damien, to assassinate the king; and he was actually wounded, though slightly, in the midst of his guards. The assassin was put to the most exquisite tortures, under which he persisted in declaring that he had no intention to kill the king, but that his design was only to wound him, that God might touch his heart, and incline him to restore peace to his dominions. But these expressions, which undoubtedly indicated insanity, had no effect on his judges, who consigned him to one of the most horrid deaths which the ingenuity of man ever invented. This attempt, however, seems to have produced some effect upon the king; for he soon afterwards banished the Archbishop of Paris, who had been recalled,and once more accommodated matters with his parliament.

The unfortunate issue of the war of 1755 had brought the nation to the brink of ruin, when Louis implored the assistance of Spain; and upon this occasion was signed the celebrated Family Compact, by which, with the single exception of the American trade, the subjects of France and Spain were naturalized in both kingdoms, and the enemy of the one sovereign was to be invariably looked upon as the enemy of the other. At this time, however, the assistance of Spain availed but little, for both powers were reduced to the lowest ebb, and the arms of Britain were triumphant in every quarter of the globe. See the article Britain.

The peace which was concluded at Paris in the year 1763, though it freed the nation from a most destructive and bloody war, did not restore internal tranquillity. The parliament, eager to pursue the victory which they had formerly gained over their religious enemies, now directed their efforts against the Jesuits, who had obtained and enforced the bull Unigenitus. But that once powerful order was now on the brink of destruction. A detestation of its principles, and even of its members, had for some time prevailed; and a conspiracy, formed, or said to have been formed, by this order against the king of Portugal, and from which he narrowly escaped, roused the indignation of Europe, which was still further inflamed by some fraudulent practices of which they had been guilty in France. La Valette, the chief of their missionaries in Martinico had, ever since the peace at Aix-la-Chapelle, carried on an extensive commerce, insomuch that when the war with Great Britain commenced in 1755, he even aspired to monopolize the whole West India trade. Leonay and Gouffre, merchants at Marseilles, in expectation of receiving from him merchandise to the value of two millions, had accepted bills drawn by the Jesuits to the amount of a million and a half. But unhappily, owing to the vast number of captures made by the British, the returns were not made; in consequence of which the missionaries were obliged to apply to the society of Jesuits at large. But the latter, either ignorant of their true interest, or too tardy in giving assistance, suffered the merchants to stop payment, and thus not only to bring ruin upon themselves, but to involve a great many others in the same calamity. Their creditors demanded indemnification from the society at large, and, upon the refusal of the latter to satisfy them, brought the cause before the parliament of Paris. And that body, again, being eager to avenge itself on such powerful adversaries, carried on the most violent persecutions against them, in the course of which the volume containing the constitution and government of the order itself was appealed to, and produced in court. It then appeared that the order of Jesuits formed a distinct body in the state, submitting implicitly to their chief, who alone was absolute over their lives and fortunes; and it was likewise discovered that, after a former expulsion, they had been admitted into the kingdom upon conditions which they had never fulfilled, and to which their chief had obstinately refused to subscribe; and consequently, that their actual existence in the nation was merely the effect of sufferance. The result was, that the writings of the Jesuits were found to contain doctrines subversive of all civil government, and injurious to the security of the sacred persons of sovereigns; the attempt of Damien against the king was attributed to this body; and every thing seemed to prognosticate their speedy dissolution. At this critical moment, however, the king interfered, and by his royal mandate suspended all proceedings against them for a year. A plan of accommodation was then drawn up, and submitted to the pope and the general of the order; but the latter, by his ill-timed haughtiness, entirely destroyed all hope of reconciliation. The king withdrew his protection, and the parliament redoubled its efforts against them. The bulls, briefs, constitutions, and other regulations of the society, were declared to be encroachments on the [7:10:37] public authority, and abuses of government; the society itself was finally dissolved, and its members were declared • incapable of holding any clerical or municipal offices; their colleges were seized, their effects confiscated, and the order itself in fact annihilated.

The parliament, having gained this victory, next made an attempt to set bounds to the power of the king himself. They now refused to enregister an edict which Louis had issued for the continuation of some taxes which should have ended with the war, and likewise to conform to another by which the king was enabled to redeem his debts at an inadequate rate. The court attempted to get the edicts enregistered by force, but the parliaments everywhere showed a disposition to resist to the uttermost. In 1766, the parliament of Bretagne having refused the crown a gift of seven hundred thousand livres, were in consequence singled out for royal vengeance; but whilst matters were on the point of coming to extremities, the king thought proper to drop the process altogether, and to publish a general amnesty. The parliaments, however, now affected to despise the royal clemency; a circumstance which exasperated the king so much that he ordered the counsellors of the parliament of Bretagne who had refused to resume the functions of which he deprived them, to be included in the list of those who were to be drafted for militia, which was accordingly done. The parliament of Paris remonstrated so freely against this proceeding that they also fell under the royal censure; but Louis in the most explicit manner declared that he would suffer no earthly power to interfere with his will.

The interval of domestic tranquillity which now ensued was employed by the king in humbling the pride of the pope. The French monarch reclaimed the territories of Avignon and Venaissin; and whilst the pontiff denounced his unavailing censures, the Marquis de Rochecouart, with a single regiment of soldiers, drove out the troops of his holiness, and took possession of these territories. But a much more formidable opposition was made by the natives of the small island of Corsica, the sovereignty of which had been transferred to France by the Genoese, its former masters, on condition of Louis reinstating them in possession of the island of Caprala, which the Corsicans had lately reduced. These islanders defended themselves with desperate intrepidity; and it was only after two campaigns, in which several thousands of the bravest troops of France were killed, that they could be brought under subjection.

The satisfaction which this unimportant conquest afforded to Louis was clouded by the distress of the nation. The East India Company bad totally failed, and most of tile principal commercial houses in the kingdom were involved in the same calamity. The minister, the Due de Choiseul, by one desperate stroke, reduced the interest of the funds one half, and at the same time took away the benefit of survivorship in the tontines, by which means the national credit was greatly affected; the altercation between the king and his parliaments also revived, and the dissensions became worse than ever. The Due de Choiseul attempted in vain to conciliate these differences; but his efforts tended only to bring misfortunes upon himself, and in 1771 he was banished by the king, who suspected him of favouring the popular party. This was won afterwards followed by the banishment of the parliament of Paris, and by that of a number of others; new parliaments being chosen in the room of those which had been expelled. But the people were by no means disposed to pay the same regard to these new parliaments as they had done to the old ones, though every appearance of opposition was at last silenced by the absolute authority of the king. In the midst of this plenitude of power, however, his majesty’s health daily declined, and the end of his days was evidently at no great distance. As he had all along indulged himself to excess in sensual pleasures, so now these proved the immediate means of his destruction. His favourite mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who for a considerable time governed him with an absolute sway, had been long dead, and the king had become equally enslaved by the charms of Madame du Barry. But even her beauty at length proved insufficient to excite desire; and a succession of mistresses became necessary to rouse the languid appetites of the king. One of these, who happened to be infected with the small-Įiox, communicated the disease to the king, who in a short time died of it, notwithstanding all the assistance which could be afforded him by the physicians.

The new king, Louis XVI., grandson to the former, ascended the throne in the year 1774, in the twentieth year of his age; and, to secure himself against the disease which had proved fatal to his predecessor, submitted to inoculation, together with several other members of the royal family. Their quick and easy recovery contributed much to extend the practice throughout the kingdom, and to remove the prejudices which had been entertained against it.

The king had no sooner regained his health than he applied himself diligently to extinguish the differences which had arisen between his predecessor and the people. He removed from their employments those persons who had given just cause of complaint by their arbitrary and oppressive conduct; and he conciliated the affection of his subjects by discharging the new and recalling the old parliaments. But though the prudence of Louis had suggested to him these compliances, he still endeavoured to preserve entire the royal authority. He explained his intentions in a speech delivered in the great chamber of parliament. The step which he had taken to ensure the tranquillity and happiness of his subjects ought not, he observed, to invalidate his own authority; and he hoped, from the zeal and attachment of the assembly, an example of submission to the rest of his subjects. Their repeated resistance to the commands of his grandfather had compelled that monarch to maintain his prerogative by their banishment; but they were now recalled in the expectation that they would quietly exercise their functions, and display their gratitude by their obedience. He declared that it was his desire to bury in oblivion all past grievances; that he should ever behold with extreme disapprobation whatever might tend to create divisions and disturb the general tranquillity; and that the chancellor would read an ordonnance to the assembly, from which they might be assured he would not suffer the smallest deviation to be made. This ordonnance was conceived in the most explicit terms, and immediately registered. It limited within narrow bounds the pretensions of the parliament of Paris. The members were forbidden to look upon themselves as one body with the other parliaments of the kingdom, or to take any step or assume any title which might tend towards or imply such an union. They were enjoined never to relinquish the administration of public justice, excepting in cases of absolute necessity, for which the first president was to be responsible to the king; and it was provided, that in the event of disobedience, the grand council might replace the parliament without any new edict for the purpose. They were still, however, permitted to exercise the right of remonstrating before the registering of edicts or letters-patent which they might conceive injurious to the welfare of the people, provided they preserved in their representations the respect due to the throne. But these remonstrances were not to be repeated, and if they proved ineffectual, the parliament were to enregister the edict objected to within a month at furthest from the day of its publication. They were forbidden to issue any arrets which might tend to excite trouble, or in any manner retard the execution of the king’s ordonnances; [7:10:38]and they were assured that, as long as they adhered to the bounds prescribed, they might depend upon the coun- tenance and protection of the sovereign. In short, the terms on which Louis consented to re-establish the parliaments were such that they were reduced to mere ciphers, and the will of the king still continued to be the only law in the kingdom. The Archbishop of Paris, who had likewise presumed to raise some commotions regarding the bull Unigenitus, was obliged to submit, and severely threatened if he should afterwards interfere in such a matter.

The final conquest of the Corsicans, who had once more attempted to regain their former liberty, was the first event of importance which took place after the restoration of tranquillity. But, from various causes, the kingdom was still filled with disorder. A scarcity of corn having taken place at the time when some regulations had been made by Μ. Turgot, the new minister of finance, the populace rose in great numbers, and committed such outrages that a military force became necessary to quell them; and it was not until upwards of five hundred of these starving creatures were destroyed that they could be reduced. The king, however, by his prudent and vigorous conduct on this occasion, put a stop to all riots, and displayed his clemency as well as prudence in the methode which he adopted for the restoration of the public tranquillity. He also seized the first moments of peace to fulfil those promises of economy which on his accession he had given to the people. Particular attention was likewise paid to the state of the marine. TheappointmentofM.de Sartine in 1776 to the naval department did honour to the penetration of the sovereign. That minister, fruitful in resources, and unwearied in application, was incessantly engaged in augmenting the naval strength of his country; and the various preparations which filled the ports and docks created no small uneasiness on the other side of the Channel. The next appointment made by the king was equally fortunate, and in one respect singular and unprecedented. Μ. Turgot, though possessed of integrity and industry, had not been able to command the public confidence. On his retreat, Μ. Clugny, intendant-general of Bordeaux, had been elevated to the vacant office; but the latter having soon afterwards died, Μ. Taboureau des Reaux was appointed his successor; and the king associated with him in the management of the finances Μ. Neckar, who was a Swiss and a Protestant. In the preceding reign that gentleman had been chosen to adjust some differences between the East India Company and the crown, and had discharged his trust in a manner which gained him the approbation of both parties. Possessed of distinguished abilities, his appointment would have excited no surprise, had it not been contrary to the constant policy of France, which had carefully excluded the aliens from exercising any control in matters of revenue.

f Although the French monarch was of a pacific disposition, and not destitute of generosity of sentiment, yet his own and the public exultation had been openly and constantly proportioned to the success of the Americans in their contest with Britain. The princes of the blood and the chief nobility were eager to embark in support of the cause of freedom; and the prudence of the king and his most confidential ministers alone restrained their ardour. The fatal events of the former war were still impressed on the mind of Louis; and he could not readily consent to expose his rising marine in a contest with a nation which had so frequently asserted the dominion of the seas, and had so lately broken the united strength of the house of Bourbon. At the same time he was sensible that the opportunity of humbling England should not be entirely neglected, and that some advantage should be taken of the present commotions in America. Two agents from the United States, Silas Deane and Dr Benjamin Franklin, had successively arrived at Paris; and though all audience was denied them in a public capacity, still they were privately encouraged to hope that France only waited for a favourable opportunity to assist in conquering the independence of America. In the mean while, the American cruisers were hospitably received in the French ports; artillery and all kinds of warlike stores were freely sold or liberally granted to the colonists; and, with the connivance of government, French officers and engineers entered their service.

Some changes were about this time introduced into the different departments of state. The conduct of Μ. Neckar in the finances had given general satisfaction; and Μ. Taboureau des Reaux, his colleague, had resigned his situation, but still retained the dignity of counsellor of state. To afford full scope to the genius of Μ. Neckar, Louis determined that he should no longer be clogged with an associate, and, with the title of director-general of the finances, submitted to him the entire management of the revenue of France. In the ensuing year the Count de St Germains, secretary at war, died; and the Prince de Montbarey, who had already filled an inferior situation in that department, was now appointed to succeed him. In the mean time negotiations with foreign courts were not neglected. Louis concluded a new treaty of alliance with Switzerland; and, on the death of the elector of Bavaria, vigilantly observed the motions of the different princes of Germany. When closely questioned by the English ambassador, Lord Stormont, respecting the warlike preparations which were diligently continued throughout the kingdom, he replied, that at a time when the seas were covered with English fleets and American cruisers, and when such armies were sent to the New World as had never before appeared there, it became prudent for him also to arm for the security of his colonies and the protection of the commerce of France. The king was not ignorant that the remonstrances of Great Britain, and the importunities of the agents of the United States, would soon compel him to adopt some decisive line of conduct; and this was accelerated by an event most disastrous to Britain, namely, the failure of General Burgoyne’s expedition, and the capture of his army. The news of that calamity was received at Paris with unbounded exultation. Μ. Sartine, the minister of marine, was eager to measure the naval strength of France with that of Great Britain; the queen, who had long seconded the applications of the American agents, now espoused their cause with fresh ardour; and the pacific inclinations of Louis being overborne by the suggestions of his ministers and the influence of his queen, it was at length determined openly to acknowledge the independence of the United States. Accordingly Dr Franklin and Silas Deane, who had hitherto acted as private agents, were now acknowledged as public ambassadors from those states to the court of Versailles; and a treaty of amity and commerce was signed between the insurgent colonists and France in the month of February 1778. The Duke of Noailles, ambassador to the court of London, was in the month of March instructed to acquaint that court with the above treaty, and at the same time to declare that the contracting parties had not stipulated any exclusive advantages in favour of France, and that the United States had reserved the liberty of treating with every nation whatsoever upon the footing of equality and reciprocity. But this declaration was treated with contempt by the British; and the recall of Lord ‘Stormont became the signal for the commencement of hostilities.

In the year 1780 new changes took place in the French: ministry. Μ. Bertin had resigned the office of secretary ∣ of state; and the Prince de Montbarey had retired from the office of secretary at war, in which he was succeeded by the Marquis de Segur. But the most important re-moral[7:10:39] was that of Μ. Sartine, who had for several years presided over the marine department, and whose ability and unwearied application had raised the naval power of France to a height which astonished Europe. His colleagues in the cabinet, however, had loudly arraigned a profusion which would have diverted into one channel the whole resources of the kingdom; and his retreat opened a road to the ambition of the Marquis de Castries, who was appointed in his stead. This year the king abolished the inhuman custom of putting the question by torture; a custom which had been so established by long practice that it seemed an inseparable part of the constitution of courts of justice in France. At the same time, in order to defray the charges of war, he diminished his own expenditure; and sacrificing splendour to popularity, dismissed at once above four hundred officers belonging to his court.

But unhappily the popular discontents were next year excited by the dismission of Μ. Neckar. He had conceived the arduous but popular project of supporting a war by means of loans without taxes; and the rigid economy which he had introduced into all the departments of the royal household, together with the various resources which were thus rendered available, had supported him amidst the difficulties that attended this system. But his austerity of temper had not rendered him equally acceptable to the sovereign and his subjects; and the repeated reforms which he had recommended were represented as inconsistent with the dignity of the crown. He was therefore, in 1781, dismissed from his office of comptroller-general; and Μ. Joli de Fleury, counsellor of state, was appointed to that important department. But the defeat of the Count de Grasse, which happened the following year, produced general grief and consternation. The victory of Rodney was indeed the most severe blow which the navy of France had ever yet sustained, and its effects were felt in every part of the kingdom. Immense preparations were, however, made for the operations of 1783; and, in conjunction with the courts of Madrid and the Hague, Louis determined this year to make the most powerful efforts to bring the war to a conclusion. But in the midst of these preparations the voice of peace was again heard; and Louis was induced to listen to the proffered mediation of the emperor of Germany and of the empress of Russia. The Count de Vergennes, who still held the portfolio of foreign affairs, was appointed to treat with Mr Fĭtzherbert, the British minister at Brussels, who had lately proceeded to Paris to conduct this important negotiation. The way was already smoothed by provisional articles, which had been signed at the close of the preceding year between Great Britain and the states of America, and which were now to constitute the basis of a treaty of peace between Great Britain and France. Preliminaries were accordingly agreed upon and signed at Versailles; and these were soon afterwards succeeded by a definitive treaty, so that France, throughout her extensive dominions, beheld peace once more established. Though the war had been attended by the most brilliant success, and the independence of America seemed to strike deep at the sources of British power, yet France herself had not by any means been free from difficulties. The retreat of Neckar bad diminished the public confidence, and the failure of the celebrated caisse d’ escompte completed the consternation of the people.

The bank of this name had been established in the year 1776. The plan of it was formed by a company of private adventurers, and its capital was fixed at L.500,000 sterling. The professed design of the company was to discount bills at short dates, at the rate of four per cent, per annum; but as this interest was not an equivalent for the capital sunk by the proprietors, they were intrusted with the additional power of issuing notes to the amount of their capital, which, as these were made convertible into specie, might often be voluntarily taken instead of cash. The reputation acquired by the bank soon caused its stock to rise above par; and its credit still continued unimpaired, when, to the astonishment of the nation, it suddenly stopped payment on the 2d of October 1783. The cause assigned was an uncommon scarcity of specie. But the public suspected that the failure arose from a loan secretly made to government; and what confirmed the suspicion was, that government about the same time stopped payment of the bills drawn upon them by their army in America. But, whatever was the cause of this catastrophe, the king was prevailed on to extend his protection to the company. By four successive edicts the banks in Paris were ordered to receive the notes of the caisse d’escompte as currency; and a lottery with a capital of one million sterling, redeemable in eight years, was established, the tickets of which were made purchasable in notes of the caisse d’escompte. By these expedients the public confidence in the bank was in some measure revived, while its business increased, and its stock rose to above double the original subscription; the bills from America were at the same time put in a train of payment, and public credit was in a great degree restored throughout the kingdom. Some compensation also for the expenses which had been incurred during the war was derived from a treaty concluded with the United States of America. The latter engaged to reimburse France in the sum of eighteen millions of livres, which had been advanced in the hour of their need; and Louis, for the convenience of the States, consented to receive the money, in the space of twelve years, by twelve equal annual payments.

The general peace was soon afterwards followed by a' particular treaty between France and Holland, which was I effected by the Count de Vergennes. It included all the ’ principles which can serve to cement nations in the closest 1 union, and by which, in peace or in war, they may mutually participate in good or evil, and in all cases administer to each other the most perfect aid, counsel, and succour. If their united good offices for the preservation of peace should prove ineffectual, it also fixed the assistance which they were to afford each other by sea and land. France was to furnish Holland with ten thousand effective infantry and two thousand cavalry, and with twelve ships of the line and six frigates. Their high mightinesses, on the other hand, in case of a naval war, or of France being attacked by sea, were to contribute to her defence six ships of the line and three frigates; and in the event of an attack on the territory of France, the States General were to have the option of furnishing their land contingent either in money or troops, at the rate of five thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry. And further, if the stipulated succours should prove insufficient for the defence of the party attacked, or for procuring a proper peace, they engaged to assist each other with all their forces if necessary; but it was nevertheless provided, that the contingent of troops to be furnished by the States General should not exceed twenty thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry. Finally, it was agreed that neither of the contracting parties should disarm, or make or receive proposals of peace or even truce, without the consent of the other, nor directly or indirectly contract any future alliance or engagement whatsoever, contrary to the present treaty; and if any treaties or negotiations which might prove detrimental to their joint interest were proposed, they pledged their faith to give notice to each other of such proposals as soon as made. Thus 1 Holland was converted into the firm ally of that power against the encroaching spirit of which she had formerly armed the most powerful kingdoms of Europe; whilst France having asserted the independence of America [7:10:40]against Great Britain, and converted an ancient and formidable foe into an useful friend, seemed to have attained '•an influence over the nations of Europe which she had never before been possessed of.

But, however exalted her present situation might appear, the seeds of future commotion had already been extensively sown. The applause which had attended the parliament of Paris in their protracted struggle· with the late king might be considered as the first dawn of freedom; the language of that assembly had boldly indicated to their countrymen their natural rights, and taught them to look with a less enraptured eye upon the splendour which encompassed the throne. The war in America had contributed to enlarge the political ideas of the French; they had on that occasion stood forth as the champions of liberty, in opposition to regal power; and the officers who had served in the struggle for independence, accustomed to think and speak without restraint, and familiarized with republican institutions, on their return imparted to the provinces of France a portion of the'spirit which had been kindled in the wilds of America. From that moment the French, instead of silently acquiescing in the edicts of their sovereign, canvassed each action with bold inquisition; whilst the attachment of the army, which has ever been considered as the sole foundation of despotism, gave way to the noble enthusiasm of liberty.

We have already noticed the public dissatisfaction which had attended the dismission of Neckar. His successor, Μ. de Fleury, had retired from the management of the finances in 1783, and.the still more short-lived administration of M, d’Ormesson had expired in the same year which gave it birth. Upon the retreat of the latter, Μ. de Calonne, who had successively filled with acknowledged reputation the office of intendant of Mentz, and afterwards of the provinces of Flanders and Artois, was nominated to the office of comptroller-general. This person, who was flexible and insinuating, eloquent in conversation and polished in his manners, fertile in resources and liberal in the disposal of the public money, soon rendered himself acceptable to the sovereign. But he did not enter upon his new and arduous station favoured by the breath of popularity; he was, in fact, reported to be more able than consistent, and not to have tempered the ardour of his spirit by the severity of deep research; and the people, amidst repeated loans, regretted that severe simplicity which had characterized the administration of Neckar. It was, however, by the bold and judicious measures of Calonne that credit was restored to the caisse d’escompte, which had stopped payment a few weeks before his accession. His next measure, in 1784, the establishment of the caisse d’amortissement, or sinking fund, was entitled to a still higher degree of applause. The plan of that fund was simple and moderate. It was, that government should pay annually into the hands of a board set apart for that purpose, the entire interest of the national debt, whether in stock or annuities, together with an additional sum of L.120,000. The annuities which would thus be extinguished every year were estimated at L.50,000, and in that proportion the sum set apart for the redemption of the national debt would annually increase. The operation of this new fund was limited to the term of twenty-five years; and during that period the annual receipt of the caisse d amortissement was declared unalterable, and incapable of being diverted to any other object.

The principal measure of the following year was the establishment of a new East India Company, a measure which did not fail to excite violent complaints. The time, however, was now approaching, when the necessities of the state compelled the king to adopt measures still more unpopular, and destined to undergo a severer scrutiny. Although peace had for three years been re-established throughout Europe, yet the finances of France seemed scarcely affected by this interval of tranquillity, and it was found requisite to close every year with a loan. The public expenditure of 1785, indeed, seemed to sanction this measure; for it had been thought proper to fortify Cherbourg upon a 1 grand scale.; the claim of the emperor to the navigation of the Scheldt had obliged the French to increase their land forces; and the Marquis de Castries, fond of war, and profuse in his designs, had not suffered the navy which Μ. Sartine had surrendered into his hands to decline during the interval of peace. The treaty of commerce concluded with Great Britain in the year 1786 was also a new source of discontent. Though regarded by the English manufacturers as far from advantageous, it excited in France still louder murmurs, and was represented as likely to extinguish those infant establishments, which were yet unable to compete with the manufactures of England, that had attained to maturity. The market which it held out for the wines and oils of France was passed over in silence, whilst the distress of the artisan was painted in the most striking colours. But when the edict for registering the loan of the preceding year, amounting to three millions three hundred and thirty thousand pounds, was presented to the parliament of Paris, the murmurs of the people, through the remonstrances of that assembly, assumed a more legal and formidable aspect. The king, however, signified to the select deputation commissioned to convey to him their remonstrances, that he expected to be obeyed without further delay. The ceremony of the registration accordingly took place on the following day; but it was accompanied with a resolution, importing, that public economy was the only genuine source of abundant revenue, the only means of providing for the necessities of the state, and of restoring that credit which borrowing had reduced to the brink of ruin. The king was no sooner informed of this step than he commanded the attendance of the grand deputation of parliament, when he erazed from their records the resolution which had been adopted; and observed, that though it was his pleasure that the parliament should communicate, by its respectful representations, whatever might concern the good of the public, yet he never would permit them so far to abuse his clemency as to erect themselves into the censors of his government. At the same time, in order the more strongly to mark his displeasure at their expostulations, he superseded one of their officers, who had appeared most active in forwarding the obnoxious resolution.

Μ. de Calonne, however, though gratified by the approbation of his sovereign, could not but feel himself deeply mortified by the opposition of the parliament. His attempts to conciliate that assembly had proved ineffectual; and he experienced their inflexible aversion at the critical juncture when their acquiescence might have proved of the most essential service. An anxious inquiry into the state of the public finances had convinced him that the expenditure far exceeded the revenue. In this situation, to impose new taxes was impracticable, to continue the method of borrowing was ruinous, to have recourse to economical reforms would be found wholly inadequate; and he hesitated not to declare, that it would be impossible to place the finances upon a solid basis, except by the reformation of whatever was vicious in the constitution of the state. But, to give weight to this reform, Μ. de Calonne was sensible that something more was necessary than even the royal authority; he perceived that the parliament was neither a fit instrument for introducing a new order into public affairs, nor would submit to be a passive machine for sanctioning the plans of a minister, even if those plans were the emanations of perfect wisdom. Though originally a∙ body of lawyers, indebted for their appointment to the king, there was not an attribute of a legislative assembly which they did not seem desirous to engross to themselves; and they had been supported in their pretensions by the approbation of the people, who were sensible that there was no other body in the nation which could plead their cause against [7:10:41]either royal or ministerial oppression. To suppress, therefore, the only power of control that remained, and to render the government more arbitrary, was deemed too perilous a measure; yet to leave the parliament in the full possession of an influence which the minister was convinced would be exerted against him, was at once to render his whole system abortive. In this dilemma, the only expedient which suggested itself was to have recourse to some other assembly, more dignified and solemn in its character, and which should in a greater degree consist of members selected from the various orders of the state and the different provinces of the kingdom. This promised to be a popular measure; it implied a deference to the people at large, and might be expected to prove highly acceptable.

But the true and legitimate assembly of the nation, the • States General, had not met since the year 1614, nor could the minister flatter himself with the hope of obtaining the royal assent to a meeting which a despotic sovereign could not but regard with secret jealousy. Another assembly had occasionally been substituted in the room of the States General. This was distinguished by the title of the Notables, and consisted of a number of persons from all parts of the kingdom, chiefly selected from the higher orders of the state, and nominated by the king himself. This assembly, which had been convened by Henry IV. and also by Louis XIII. was now once more summoned by the authority of Louis XVI. The writs for calling them together were dated the 29th of December 1786, and addressed to seven princes of the blood, nine dukes and peers of France, eight field-marshals, twenty-two nobles, eight counsellors of state, four masters of requests, eleven archbishops and bishops, thirty-seven of the heads of the law, twelve deputies of the paysd états, the civil lieutenant, and twenty-five magistrates of the different towns of the kingdom. The number of members was thus a hundred and forty-four; and the 29th of January 1787 was the period appointed for their meeting.

Upon the arrival of the Notables at Paris, however, the minister found himself as yet unprepared to submit his system for their consideration, and therefore postponed the opening of the assembly until the 7th of February. A second delay until the 14th of the same month was occasioned by the indisposition of Μ. de Calonne, and that of the Count de Vergennes, president of the council of finance and first secretary of state; and a third procrastination necessarily resulted from the death of the count on the day previous to that which had been fixed for the opening of the assembly. Μ. de Vergennes was succeeded in the department of foreign affairs by the Count de Montmorin, a nobleman of unblemished character; but his loss at this critical juncture was severely felt by Μ. de Calonne, as he alone, of all the ministers, had entered with warmth and sincerity into the plans of the comptroller-general. The Chevalier de Miromesnil, keeper of the seals, was avowedly the rival and enemy of Calonne; the Marshal de Castries, secretary for the department of marine, was personally attached to Μ. Neckar; and the Baron de Breteuil, secretary for the household, was the creature of the queen, and deeply engaged in what was called the Austrian system.

It was under these difficulties that Μ. de Calonne, on the 22d of February, first met the Assembly of the Notables, and unfolded his long-expected plan. He began by stating, that the public expenditure had for centuries past exceeded the revenue, and that a very considerable deficiency had of course existed; that the Mississippi scheme of 1720 had not, as might have been expected, restored the balance; that under the economical administration of Cardinal Fleury the deficit still existed; that the progress of this derangement under the last reign had been extreme, the deficiency amounting to three millions sterling at the appointment of the Abbe Terray, who, however, reduced it to one million six hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds; that it decreased a little under the short administrations which followed, but rose again, in consequence of the war, under the administration of Μ. Neckar; and that upon his own accession to office it amounted to three millions three hundred and thirty thousand pounds. In order to remedy this growing evil, Μ. Calonne recommended a territorial impost, of the nature of the English land-tax, from which no rank or order of men was to be exempted; and an inquiry into the possessions of the clergy, who hitherto had been exempted from bearing their proportion of the public burdens. It was also proposed that the various branches of internal taxation should undergo a strict examination; and a considerable resource was anticipated in mortgaging the demesne lands of the crown.

The necessity for these reforms, however, was combated with a degree of boldness and force of reasoning which could not fail to make a deep impression on the assembly; and, instead of meeting with a ready acquiescence, the comptroller-general found that he had launched into the boundless ocean of political controversy. Μ. Neckar, previously to his retirement, had published his compte rendu au roi, in which France was represented as possessing a clear surplus of above four hundred thousand pounds sterling. This performance had been read with avidity, and probably contributed to deprive the author of the royal favour; but the credit of the work was ably vindicated by Μ. de Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse. Μ. de Calonne met with a still more formidable adversary in the Count de Mirabeau. This extraordinary man, restless in disposition, licentious in morals, but bold, penetrating, and enterprising, had occasionally visited every court in Europe. He had been admitted at one time to the confidence of the minister, and had been directed, though not in an ostensible character, to observe at Berlin the disposition of the successor of the great Frederick; but whilst employed in this capacity he was frequently exposed to neglect and disappointment, and his letters were often left unanswered. Disgust succeeded to admiration; and he who had entered the Prussian court the intimate friend, returned to Paris the declared enemy, of Μ. de Calonne. Accordingly, whilst the archbishop arraigned the understanding, Mirabeau impeached the integrity, of the comptroller-general.

The eloquence of Μ. de Calonne, however, might have successfully vindicated his system and reputation against the calculations of Brienne and the invectives of Mirabeau; but he could not support himself against the influence of the three great bodies of the nation. The ancient nobility and the clergy had ever been free from all public assessments; and had the evil gone no further, it might still perhaps have been borne with patience; but, through the shameful custom of selling patents of nobility, such crowds of new noblesse started up, that every province in the kingdom was filled with them. The first object with those who had rapidly acquired fortunes, was to purchase a patent, which, besides gratifying their vanity, afforded an exemption to them and their posterity from contributing to the exigencies of the state. The magistracies likewise throughout the kingdom enjoyed their share of these exemptions; so that the whole weight of taxation fell upon those classes who were least able to bear it. Hence the minister’s design of equalizing the public burdens, and diminishing the load borne by the lower and most useful classes of the people, by rendering the taxes genera), though undoubtedly great and patriotic, at once united against him the nobility, the clergy, and the magistracy. And the result was such as might have been expected. The intrigues of these three bodies raised against him so loud a clamour, that finding it impossible to stem the torrent[7:10:42], hė not only resigned his office on the 12th of April, but soon afterwards withdrew to England from the storm of persecution which now impended over him.

In the midst of these domestic transactions, the attention of Louis was called to the state of affairs in Holland. The prince of Orange having been, stripped of all authority by the aristocratic party, had retired from the Hague, and now maintained the shadow of a court at Nimeguen. But his brother-inrlaw, the new king of Prussia, exerted himself to promote the interests of the stadtholder, and offered, in concert with France, to undertake the arduous task of composing the differences which distracted the republic. The proposal was received with much apparent cordiality by the court of Versailles. At the same time it was scarcely to be expected that France would become the instrument of restoring the prince of Orange to that share of power which he had previously enjoyed, and thus abandon a favourite object of∙policy, namely, establishing a supreme and permanent control in the councils of Holland. In fact, the conditions framed as the basis of reconciliation by the Louvestein saċtion, were such as plainly indicated their design of reducing within very narrow limits the influence and authority of the stadtholder. On his renouncing the right of filling up occasional vacancies in the town senates, he was to be restored to the nominal office of captain-general; but he was to be restrained from marching troops into any province, or out of it, without leave from the respective provinces concerned; and he was also to subscribe a resolution passed some time previously by the senate of Amsterdam, that the command should at all times be revocable at the pleasure of the states. Had the prince acquiesced in these preliminaries, France would have completely attained the object of her lengthened negotiations, and by means of the Louvestein faction acquired the ascendency which she had repeatedly sought to obtain in the councils of Holland. But, under the difficulties which surrounded him, the prince of Orange was admirably supported and assisted by the genius, spirit, and abilities of his consort, who firmly rejected every measure tending to abridge the rights attached to the office of stadtholder; and Μ. de Rayneval, the French negotiator, having in vain endeavoured to overcome her resolution, broke off the correspondence between the Hague and Nimeguen, and returned to Paris about the middle of January 1787.

But the republican party were totally disappointed in the hopes which they had formed of assistance from France. The court of Versailles had indeed long trusted to the natural strength of this party, and had been assiduous during the summer in endeavouring to second them by every species of succour which could be privately afforded. Crowds of French officers arrived daily in Holland, and either received commissions in the service of the states, or acted as volunteers in their troops; several hundreds of tried and experienced soldiers were selected from different regiments, furnished with money for their journey, and dispatched in small parties to join the troops, and assist in disciplining the burghers and volunteers; and a considerable corps of engineers were also directed to proceed in disguise towards Amsterdam, in order to assist in' strengthening the works of that city. But these aids, which might have proved effectual had the contest been confined to the states of Holland and the stadtholder, were rendered unavailing by the rapid invasion of the Prussians; the court of Berlin had taken its measures with so much celerity, and the situation of the republicans had already become so desperate, that it was doubtful whether their affaire could be restored by any assistance which France was capable of immediately affording. Nevertheless, on Great Britain fitting out a strong squadron of men of war at Portsmouth, to give confidence to the operations of the king of Prussia, the court of Versailles sent orders to equip sixteen sail of the line at Brest, and recalled a small squadron which had been commissioned to cruise on the coast of Portugal. But in these preparations Louis seemed rather to regard his own dignity, than to be actuated by any purpose of effectually relieving his allies. All opposition in Holland might already be considered as extinguished. The states assembled at the Hague had officially notified to the court of Versailles, that the disputes between them and the stadtholder were now happily terminated; and as the circumstances which gave occasion to their application to that court no longer existed, they intimated that the succours which they had formerly requested would not now be necessary. Under these circumstances, as the chief concern of France was to extricate herself with honour from her present difficulty, she readily listened to a memorial from the British minister at Paris, in which it was proposed that, in order to preserve a good understanding between the two crowns, all warlike preparations should be discontinued, and that the navies of both kingdoms should again be reduced to the footing of a peace establishment; a proposition which was gladly acceded to by the court of Versailles, and the harmony which had been transiently interrupted was thus restored.

But though the French king could not but sensibly feel the mortification of thus relinquishing the ascendency which he had obtained in the councils of Holland, the internal situation of his kingdom furnished matter for more serious reflection. The dismission of Μ. de Calonne had left France without a minister, and almost without a system of government; and though the king bore the opposition of the Notables with temper, yet the disappointment he had experienced sunk deep in his mind. Without obtaining any relief for his most urgent necessities, he perceived when too late that he had opened a way for the restoration of the ancient constitution of France, which had been undermined by the craft of Louis XI. and nearly extinguished by the daring councils of Richelieu under Louis XIII. The Notables had indeed conducted themselves with respect and moderation, but at the same time they had not been deficient in firmness. The appointment of the Archbishop of Toulouse, the avowed adversary of Μ. de Calonne, to the office of comptroller-general, probably contributed to preserve the appearance of good humour in that assembly; but notwithstanding this, the proposed territorial impost or general land-tax, an object so ardently desired by the court, was rejected. Deprived of all hope of rendering the convention subservient to the relief of his embarrassments, and also dreading the spirit which it had on several occasions evinced, Louis determined to dissolve the assembly, which he did accordingly, in a moderate and conciliatory speech addressed to the members on their dismission.

Being thus disappointed of the advantage which he had hoped to derive from the acquiescence of the Notables, the king was now obliged to revert to the usual mode ol raising money by royal edicts; and amongst the measures proposed for this purpose were the doubling of the poll-tax, the re-establishment of the third-twentieth, and a stamp duty. But, as might have been expected, this summary method was strongly disapproved by the parliament of Paris; and that assembly refused, in the most positive terms, to register the edict. In the last resort, therefore, Louis was obliged to have recourse to his absolute authority; and, by holding what is called a bed of justice, he compelled the parliament to register the impost. Bui the latter, though defeated, were not subdued; and or the day after the king had held his bed of justice the, entered a formal protest against the edict, declaring thaï it had been registered against their approbation and consent, by the express command of the king; that it neither [7:10:43] should nor ought to have any force; and that the first person who presumed to carry it into execution would be adjudged a traitor, and condemned to the galleys. This spirited declaration left the king no alternative, but either to proceed to extremities in support of his authority, or to relinquish for ever afterwards the power of raising money upon any occasion without the consent of the parliament. But though naturally of a mild disposition, and averse to violent measures, Louis determined not to surrender, without a struggle, that authority which had so long been exercised by his predecessors. Ever since the commencement of the discontents, considerable bodies of troops had been gradually marched into the capital; and, about a week after the parliament entered their protest, an officer of the guards, with a party of soldiers, proceeded at daybreak to the house of each member, to signify to him the king’s command, that he should immediately get into his carriage, and withdraw to Troyes, a city of Champagne, about seventy miles from Paris, without writing or speaking to any person out of his own house previously to his departure. These orders were all served at the same instant; and before the citizens of Paris became acquainted with the transaction, their magistrates were already on the road to their place of banishment. Previously to their relegation, however, they had presented a remonstrance on the recent measures of government, and the alarming state of public affairs. In stating their opinions on taxes, they declared that neither the parliaments nor any other authority, excepting that of the three estates of the kingdom collectively, could warrant the imposition of any permanent tax on the people; and they strongly urged the renewal of those national assemblies which had rendered the reign of Charlemagne at once so illustrious and beneficent.

This demand for the convocation of the national council or States General was the more honourable to the parliament, as the latter assemblies had uniformly sunk under the influence of the former, and returned to their original condition of mere courts of registration and law. The confidence and attachment of the people therefore rose in proportion to this disinterestedness; their murmurs were openly expressed in the streets of the capital, and the general dissatisfaction was augmented in consequence of the stop put to public business by' the exile of the parliament. Meanwhile the cabinet appeared weak, disunited, and fluctuating; and continual changes took place in every department of the state. Averse to rigorous counsels, Louis wished to allay the growing discontent by every concession consistent with his dignity; but the queen, it was believed, strongly dissuaded him from taking any step which might tend to diminish the royal authority. The influence of this princess in the cabinet was undoubtedly great; but the popularity which she had once enjoyed was no more, and some imputations of private levity, which had been scattered through the capital, were far from rendering her acceptable to the majority of the people. The Count d’Artois, the king’s brother, who had expressed himself in the most unguarded terms against the conduct of the parliament, also stood exposed to all the consequences of popular hatred. Nor was it in the capital alone that the flame of liberty burst forth; it blazed with equal strength in the provincial parliaments. Amongst various instances of this, the parliament of Grenoble passed a decree against lettre» de cachet, declaring the execution of these odious instruments of arbitrary power, within their jurisdiction, by any person, and under any authority whatsoever, to be a capital crime.

The king had endeavoured to soothe the Parisiansby new regulations of economy, and by continual retrenchments in his household; but these proofs of a desire to lessen the public burdens, though they would at one time have been received with the loudest acclamations, were now disregarded, and the absence of the parliament was considered as an evil for which nothing could atone. In order therefore to regain the affections of his subjects, his majesty consented to restore that assembly, and at the same time to abandon the stamp duty and the territorial impost, which had been the chief subjects of dispute. But these measures were insufficient to establish harmony between the court and the parliament. The necessities of the state still remained unprovided for; nor could the deficiency of the revenue be supplied, except by extraordinary resources or a long course of rigid frugality. About the middle of November 1787, in a full meeting of the parliament, attended by all the princes of the blood and the peers of France, the king entered the assembly, and proposed for their approbation two edicts; one for a new loan of four hundred and fifty millions of francs, or about nineteen millions sterling, and the other for the re-establishment of the Protestants in all their ancient civil rights, a measure which had long been warmly recommended by the parliament, and which was now brought forward to procure a better reception for the loan. On this occasion the king delivered a speech of unusual length, filled with professions of regard for the people, but at the same time dwelling strongly upon the obedience he expected to his edicts. An animated debate ensued, and was continued for nine hours, when the king, wearied by opposition, and chagrined at some freedoms used in the course of the discussion, suddenly rose and commanded the edict to be registered without further delay. But this order was most unexpectedly opposed by the Duke of Orleans, first prince of the blood, who protested against the whole proceedings of the day, as an infringement on the rights of parliament, and therefore null and void. The king, though he could not conceal his astonishment and displeasure at this decisive step, contented himself with repeating his commands, and immediately afterwards left the assembly. On his departure, the parliament confirmed the protest of the Duke of Orleans, and declared, that as their deliberations had been interrupted, they considered the whole business of that day as of no effect.

But as it could not be supposed that Louis would suffer so bold an attack on his power to pass with impunity, a letter was next day delivered to the Duke of Orleans, commanding him to retire to Villars-Cotterel, one of his seats, about fifteen leagues from Paris, and to receive no company there except his own family; and at the same time the Abbé Sabbatière and Μ. Fréteau, both members of the parliament, who had distinguished themselves in the debate, were seized under the authority of lettres de cachet, and conveyed, the former to the castle of Mont St Michel in Normandy, and the latter to a prison in Picardy. This act of despotism immediately roused the indignation of the parliament, which on the following day waited on the king, and expressed their astonishment and concern that a prince of the blood-royal should have been exiled, and two of their members imprisoned, for having declared in his presence what their duty and consciences dictated, and at a time when his majesty had announced that he came to take the sense of the assembly by a plurality of voices. The answer of the king was reserved, forbidding, and unsatisfactory. But this did not prevent the parliament from attending to the exigencies of the state; and, convinced of the emergency, they consented to register the loan for four hundred and fifty millions of livres, which had been the principal cause of this unfortunate difference. This concession contributed to soften the mind of the king; and the sentence of the two magistrates was in consequence changed from imprisonment to exile; Μ. Fréteau being sent to one of his country seats, and the Abbé Sabbatière to a convent of Benedictines.
[7:10:44]

The parliament, however, was not so far propitiated by this measure as to give up the points against which they had originally remonstrated. In a petition, conceived with great freedom, andcouched in the most animated language, they boldly reprobated the late acts of arbitrary violence, and demanded the entire liberation of the persons against whom these had been exercised. At the court of Versailles there, was nothing but uncertainty and fluctuation; now vigour and now weakness; violence one day and attempts at conciliation the next; a king without energy or decision of character, and counsellors destitute alike of wisdom, prudence, and moderation. In the beginning of the year 1788, Louis recalled the Duke of Orleans, who soon afterwards obtained permission to retire to England; whilst the Abbé Sabbatière and Μ. Fréteau were about the same time allowed to return to the capital.

But the parliament had not confined their demands to the liberation of these gentlemen; they had also echoed the remonstrances of the parliament of Grenoble, and had loudly inveighed against the execution of lettres de cachet. These repeated remonstrances, mingled as they were with personal reflections, seconded the suggestions of the queen; and Louis was once more instigated to adopt measures of severity. MM. d’Espremenil and Monsambert, whose bold and pointed harangues had given the greatest offence, were doomed to experience the immediate resentment of the court. A body of armed troops having surrounded the hôtel in which the parliament were convened, Colonel Degout entered the assembly and secured the persons of the obnoxious members, who were instantly conducted to different prisons. This new instance of arbitrary violence drew forth a remonstrance from parliament, which in boldness far exceeded all the former representations made by that body. They declared they were now more firmly convinced than ever, that the entire subversion of the constitution was aimed at; but they added, that the French nation would never sanction the despotic measures which the king had been advised to adopt; that the fundamental laws of the kingdom must not be trampled on; and that the royal authority could only be esteemed as long as it was tempered with justice.

Language so pointed and decisive, asserting the con- trolling power of the laws above the regal authority, could not fail to alarm the king; and, with a view to diminish the influence of the parliament, it was determined again to convene the Notables. Accordingly, about the beginning of May, Louis appeared in that assembly, and after complaining of the excesses in which the parliament of Paris had indulged, and which had drawn down his reluctant indignation on a few of the members, he declared his resolution, instead of annihilating them as a body, to recall them to their duty and obedience by a salutary reform. Μ. de la Moignon, as keeper of the seals, then explained his majesty’s intention to establish a plenary court, or supreme assembly, composed of princes of the blood, peers of the realm, great officers of the crown, the clergy, marshals of France, governors of provinces, knights of different orders, a deputation of one member from every parliament, and two members from the chambers of council, which should be summoned as often as any public emergency should, in the royal opinion, render it necessary to do so.

But if the Assembly of the Notables listened in silent deference to the project of their sovereign, the parliament of Paris received it with undisguised aversion. That body protested in the strongest manner against the establishment of any other tribunal, and declared their unalterable resolution not to assist at any deliberations in the supreme assembly which his majesty proposed to institute. A more unexpected mortification occurred to the king in the opposition of several peers of the realm, who expressed their regret at beholding the fundamental principles of the constitution violated; and, though lavish in professions of attachment to the person of the sovereign, concluded with apologizing for not entering on the functions assigned them in the plenary court, which, in their opinion, was inconsistent with the true interests of his majesty, no less than with those of the nation at large. Nor was this opposition confined to the parliament. The flame quickly spread throughout the more distant provinces. At Rennes in Bretagne, and at Grenoble in Dauphine, the populace broke out into acts of the most daring outrage. In the latter city several hundred of the inhabitants perished in a conflict with the military; but they nevertheless maintained their ground against the regulars, and the commanding officer, on the entreaty of the first president, withdrew his troops from a contest into which he had entered with reluctance. The different parliaments of the kingdom at the same time expressed their feelings in the most animated language, strongly urging the necessity of calling together the States General, the lawful council of the kingdom, as the only means of restoring public trau· quillity and promoting needful reforms.

It now became evident to the king, that a compliance with the public wishes for the convocation of the States General was absolutely necessary,, to avoid the calamities of a civil war, which a refusal would render inevitable. In such event he must have expected to encounter the majority of the people, animated by the exhortations and example of their magistrates; the peers of the realm had also expressed the strongest disapprobation of his measures; nor could he even depend on the support of the princes of the blood. But what afforded the most serious ground of alarm, was the spirit recently displayed by the military, who, during the disturbances in the provinces, had with difficulty been brought to act against their countrymen; whilst many of their officers, who had been engaged" in assisting to establish the independence of America, publicly declared their abhorrence of despotism. It was not, however, until after many a painful struggle that Louis could bring himself to restore an assembly, the influence of which would naturally overshadow that of the crown, whilst its jurisdiction would confine within narrow limits the uncontrolled power which he had inherited from his predecessors. In the two preceding reigns the States General had been wholly discontinued; and though the queen-regent, during the troubles attending the minority of Louis XIV. had frequently expressed her intention of calling them together, she was constantly dissuaded by the representations of Mazarin. It is probable, however, that Louis XVI. still flattered himself with the hope of alluring the members of that assembly to the side of the court, and, having employed them to establish some degree of regularity in the finances, and to curb the spirit of the parliament, of again dismissing them to obscurity.

But be this as it may, an arrêt was issued in August, fixing the meeting of the States General for the first day of May in the ensuing year; and, during the interval, every step was taken to secure the favourable opinion of the public. New arrangements took place in the administration; Neckar, who had long enjoyed the confidence of the people, was again called to the management of the finances; the torture, which by a former edict had been in part restricted, was now entirely abolished; every person accused was allowed the assistance of counsel, and permitted to avail himself of any point of law necessary to his defence; and it was decreed, that in future sentence of death should not be passed on any person, unless the. accused had been pronounced guilty by a majority of at least three judges.

As the time appointed for the convention of the States General approached, the means of assembling them formed[7:10:45] a matter of very grave deliberation in the cabinet. The last meeting, in 1614, had been convened by application to the bailiwicks. But this mode was liable to strong objections, as the bailiwicks had been increased in number and jurisdiction, several provinces having since that period been united to France; and as the numbers and quality of the members were no less an object of serious attention, it was not till the close of the year that the proposal of Neckar, which fixed the number of deputies at a thousand and upwards, and ordained that the representatives of the third estate or commons should equal in number those of the nobility and clergy united, was adopted. Meanwhile the eyes of all Europe were turned towards the States General; but the moment of their meeting was far from being auspicious. The minds of the French had long been agitated by various rumours; the unanimity which had been expected from the different orders of the states was destroyed by the jarring pretensions of each; and their mutual jealousies were attributed by the suspicions of the people to the intrigues of the court, which, it was supposed, already repented of the hasty assent which had been extorted from it. A scarcity which pervaded the kingdom increased the general discontent; and the people, pressed by hunger, and inflamed by resentment, were ripe for revolt. The sovereign also, impatient of the obstacles which he continually encountered, could not conceal his chagrin; whilst the influence of the queen in the cabinet manifested itself by the immediate removal of Neckar. The dismission of this minister, who had so long been the favourite of the public, was the signal of open insurrection. The Parisians assembled in great numbers; the guards refused to stain their arms with the blood of their fellow-citizens; the Count d’Artois and the most obnoxious of the nobility thought themselves happy in eluding by flight the fury of the insurgents; and in a moment a revolution was accomplished, which, in all its circumstances, is the most remarkable of any recorded in history.

The moral history of man is always more important than the mere recital of such physical occurrences as diversify his existence. It is not the fall of a mighty monarch and the overthrow of his dynasty, it is not the convulsion of empires, and the rivers of human blood which have been shed, that render the French Revolution peculiarly interesting. Such events, however deplorable, are far from being without example in the history of mankind. In the populous regions of the East, where superstition and slavery have always prevailed, these are regarded as forming part of the ordinary course of human affairs, because an intrepid and skilful usurper always finds it easy to intimidate millions of ignorant and credulous men. But in Europe the case is very different indeed. No adventurer can advance far without encountering thousands as artful and as daring as himself. Events are not the result either of blind hazard or of individual skill. Conspiracies or plots produce but little effect. Like other arts, that of government has been much improved; and an established constitution can only be shaken by a strong convulsion produced by national passions and national efforts. The wonderful spectacle which we are now to contemplate, is that of an enlightened and polished people becoming in an instant fierce and sanguinary; a long established government, fortified by the recollections of ages, and forming as it were part of the national character, overturned almost without a struggle; a whole nation apparently uniting to destroy every institution which time had hallowed or education had taught them to revere; a superstitious people treating the religion of their forefathers with contempt; a long-enslaved race, whose very chains had become dear to them, occupied in the discussion of refined and even visionary schemes of freedom; in short, twenty-five millions of men suddenly treading under foot every sentiment and every prejudice which they themselves had once regarded as sacred and venerable.

Like the other nations of Europe, France was anciently governed by a rude and fierce aristocracy, the different members of which were feebly united by the authority of a succession of kings destitute of power or influence. The nobles, within their own territories, enjoyed privileges almost royal. They made peace and war; they coined money; they were judges in the last resort; their vassals were their slaves, whom they bought and sold along with the lands; and the inhabitants of cities, although freemen, were poor, depressed, and dependent on the protection of some baron in their neighbourhood. But, by the progress of the arts, the cities at length rose into importance, and their inhabitants, along with such freemen of low rank as resided in the country, were considered as entitled to a representation in the States General of the kingdom, under the appellation of tiers état, or third estate. When in process of time, however, the power of the crown had crushed that of the barons, and the sovereign became despotic, the meetings of the States General were discontinued. But absolute authority on the part of the crown was not acquired, as it was in England under the house of Tudor, by abolishing the pernicious privileges of the nobles, and elevating the commons: it was obtained by skilful encroachments, by daring exertions of prerogative, and by the employment of a regular military force. In France, therefore, the monarch was absolute, whilst the nobles retained their feudal privileges, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy also enjoyed its peculiar rights and immunities.

But the kingdom of France, previously to the Revolution, had never been reduced to one homogeneous mass. It consisted of a variety of separate provinces acquired by different means; some by marriage, others by legacy, and others again by conquest. Each province retained its ancient Jaws and privileges, whether political or civil, as expressed in the capitularies or conditions by which it was originally acquired. In one part of his dominions the French monarch was a count, in another he was a duke, in a third he was a king; whilst the only bond which united his vast empire was the strong military force by which it was overawed. Each province had its barriers; and the intercourse between one province and another was often more restricted by local usages than the intercourse of either with a foreign country. Some of the provinces, as Bretagne and Dauphiné, even retained the right of assembling periodically their provincial states; but these constituted no barrier against the power of the court.

The clergy formed the first estate of the kingdom in point of precedence. In number they amounted to about a hundred and thirty thousand. The higher orders enjoyed immense revenues; but the curés or great body of the working clergy seldom possessed more than about L.28 sterling a year, whilst their vicaires had only about half that sum. A few of the dignified clergy were men of great piety, who resided constantly in their dioceses, and attended to the duties of their office; but by far the greater number passed their lives at Paris and Versailles, immersed in all the intrigues and dissipation of a corrupt court and a profligate capital. They were almost exclusively selected from amongst the younger branches of the families of the high nobility; and it had even come to be accounted a species of dishonour for any persons of low rank to be admitted into the episcopal order. The lower clergy, on the contrary, were for the most part persons of mean birth, who had little chance of preferment, but who, by living constantly among the people, naturally participated in their feelings and opinions. As a body, the clergy possessed, independently of the tithes, a revenue arising from their property in land, which amounted to four or [7:10:46]five millions sterling annually, and they were at the same time exempt from taxation. The crown had latterly attempted to break down this privilege; but, to avoid the danger, the clergy had presented to the court, as a free gift, a sum of money somewhat short of a million sterling every five years.

The nobility was nominally the second order of the state, but it was in reality the first. The nobles amounted to no less than two hundred thousand in number. The title and rank descended to all the children of the family, but the property went to the eldest alone; and hence vast multitudes of penniless nobles were entirely dependent upon the bounty of the court. They regarded the useful and commercial arts as dishonourable, and even the liberal professions of the law and physic they considered as in a great measure beneath their dignity, disdaining to intermarry with the families of their professors. The feudal system in its purity was favourable to the production of respectable qualities in the minds of those who belonged to the order of the nobles; but the introduction of commerce had rendered its decline equally unfavourable to that class of persons. Instead of the ancient patriarchal attachment between the feudal chieftain and his vassals, the nobility had become greedy landlords in the provinces, that they might appear in splendour at court and in the capital, where, plunged in intrigue and sensuality, their characters became frivolous and contemptible. Such of the French nobility, however, as remained in the provinces, regarded with indignation this degradation of their order, and still retained a proud sense of honour and of courage, which has always rendered them respectable. The order of the nobles was exempted from the payment of taxes, although the property of some of them was immense. The estates of the prince of Conde, for example, were worth L.200,000 a year, and those of the Duke of Orleans nearly twice as much. The crown had indeed imposed some trifling taxes upon the nobility, but these they contrived, in a great measure, to elude.

Next to the nobles, and as a privileged order possessing a secondary kind of nobility of their own, may be mentioned the parliaments. These consisted of large bodies of men, in different provinces, and served as courts of law for the administration of justice. In consequence of the corruption of the officers of state, the members purchased their places, which they held for life; but the son was usually preferred when he offered to purchase his father’s place. Practising lawyers had but little chance of ever becoming judges. In courts thus constituted, consisting of a motley mixture of old and young, learned and ignorant, justice was of course indifferently administered. The judges allowed their votes in depending causes to be openly solicited by the parties or their friends. No wise man ever entered into a litigation against a member of one of these parliaments, and no lawyer would undertake to plead his cause; such a suit never came to a successful issue, and usually came to no issue at all. But after the States General had fallen into disuse, the parliaments acquired a certain degree of political consequence, and formed the only check upon the absolute power of the crown. The laws, or royal edicts, before being put in force, were always sent to be registered in the books of the parliaments. Taking advantage of this practice, in favourable times and circumstances, the latter often delayed or refused to enregister the royal edicts, and presented remonstrances against them. And this was done under cover of a legal fiction. For they pretended that the obnoxious edict, being injurious to the public welfare, could not be the will of the king, but must either be a forgery or an imposition by the ministers. Objections of this kind were, however, got rid of, either by a positive order from the king, or by his coming in person and ordering the edict to be registered. The parliaments, nevertheless, often carried their opposition a great length, indeed even to the ruin of themselves and their families as individuals. This rendered them extremely popular with the nation, and enabled them to embarrass a weak administration. But, after all, the opposition of the parliaments proved so feeble, that it was not thought worth while to abolish them entirely till towards the end of the reign of Louis XV.; and they were restored as a popular measure at the beginning of that of Louis XVI.

The tiers état, or commons, formed the lowest order of the state in France, and they were depressed and miserable in the extreme. To form a conception of their situation, it is necessary to observe that the whole pecuniary burdens of the state were laid on them. They alone were liable to taxation. An expensive and ambitious court; an army of two hundred thousand men in time of peace, and twice that number in war; a considerable marine establishment; public roads and works; all were supported exclusively by taxes levied from the lowest of the people. The revenues also were collected in a wasteful and oppressive manner. They were farmed out at a certain estimated sum, over and above which the farmers-general not only acquired immense fortunes for themselves, but were also enabled to advance enormous presents to those favourites or mistresses of the king or the minister by means of whom they procured their contracts. In raising all this money from the people, they were guilty of the most cruel oppression; as they had it in their power to obtain whatever revenue laws they pleased, and to execute these in the severest manner, their exactions were measured by their own cupidity alone. For this purpose they kept in pay an army of clerks, subalterns, scouts, and spies, amounting, it is said, to about eighty thousand. This class of persons were equally detested by the king, whom they deceived and kept in poverty; by the people, whom they oppressed; and by the ancient nobility, whom they eclipsed by the splendour of their establishments and the prodigality of their expenditure. But the court of France could never contrive to dispense with these financial middle-men. The peasants were also liable to be called out by the intendants of the provinces, in what were called corvées, to work upon the high roads for a certain number of days in the year. This was a source of severe oppression, as the intendant had the choice of the time and place of their employment, and was not bound to accept of any commutation in money. They were moreover subject to the nobles in a great variety of ways. The latter retained all their ancient manorial or patrimonial jurisdictions. The common people being anciently slaves, had obtained their freedom upon different conditions. In many places they and their posterity remained bound to pay a perpetual tribute to their feudal lords; and such tributes formed a considerable part of' the revenue of many of the provincial nobles. By a recent regulation, no man could be appointed an officer of the army until he had produced proof’s of nobility for four generations. The parliaments, although originally of the tiers état, attempted also to introduce a rule that none but the nobility should be admitted into their order. It will not be accounted surprising, therefore, that the common people of France were extremely ignorant and superstitious. They were, however, passionately devoted to their monarch, and all that concerned him. In 1754, when Louis XV. was taken ill at Metz, the whole nation was thrown into a kind of despair. The courier who brought the news of his recovery to Paris was almost suffocated by the embraces of the populace, who even extended their loyal endearments to the horse which had carried him.

The French monarch was, in every sense of the word, despotic. His power was supported by the army, and by [7:10:47]a watchful police with an infinite Kost of spies and other servants in its pay· In France no man was safe. The secrets of private families were searched into. Nothing, in feet, escaped the jealous inquisition of tKe police. Men were seised by lettres de cachet when they least expected it, and their families had no means of discovering their fate. The sentence of a court of law against a nobleman was usually reversed by the minister. No book could be published without the license of a censor-general, appointed by the court, and the minister was accountable to none but the king. No account was given of the expenditure of the public money. Enormous gratifications and pensions were often bestowed as the reward of the most infamous services. The supreme power of the state was commonly lodged with a favourite mistress, who was sometimes a woman taken from the stews. This was not indeed the case under Louis XVI., but it was nevertheless one of the misfortunes of his life that he was far from being absolute in his own family. Still, however, with all its manifold faults, the French court was the most splendid and polished in Europe. It was more the resort of men of talents and literature of every kind, and there they met with more ample protection, than anywhere else. The court was often jealous of their productions; but they met with the most distinguished attention from men of fortune and rank; insomuch that for a century previous to this the French had given the law to Europe in all questions of taste, literature, and polite accomplishment. The gaiety and elegance which prevailed at court diffused itself throughout the nation, and, amidst much internal misery, gave it an external appearance of happiness, or at least of levity and vanity.

But, such as it was, this government had stood for ages, and might have continued much longer, had not a concurrence of causes contributed to its overthrow. The inferior orders of the clergy, excluded from all chance of preferment, regarded their superiors with jealousy and envy, and were ready to join the laity of their own rank in any popular commotion. The inferior provincial nobility beheld with contempt and indignation the vices and the power of the courtiers, and the higher nobility desired to diminish the power of the crown. The practising lawyers, being almost entirely excluded from the chance of becoming judges, wished eagerly for a change of system, not doubting that their talents and professional skill would render them necessary amidst any alterations which might occur; and accordingly they were the first instruments in producing the Revolution, and amongst its most active supporters. The monied interest eagerly longed for the downfall of the ancient nobility. With respect to the great mass of the common people, they were too ignorant, too superstitiously attached to old establishments, and too much depressed, to have any distinct conception of the nature of political liberty, or any hope of obtaining it; but their minds were nevertheless in some measure prepared tor change, by the contagious influence, as it were, of the passions which were fermenting around them.

For forty years the principles of liberty had been disseminated with eagerness in France by men of great talents, as Rousseau, Voltaire, Helvetius, and Raynal, to whom the celebrated Montesquieu had led the way. Besides these, there was in France a vast multitude of what were called men of letters, or persons who gave this account of the manner in which they spent their time; and all these were deeply engaged on the side of some kind of political reform. The men of letters in Faris alone are said to have amounted to twenty thousand. One of the last acta of the administration of the Archbishop of Toulouse was to publish a resolution of the king in council, dated 5th July 1780, inviting all his subjects to give him their advice with regard to the state of affairs. This was considered as the concession of an unlimited liberty of the press; and it is scarcely possible to form an idea of the infinite variety of political publications which from that period diffused amongst the people a dissatisfaction with the order of things under which they had hitherto lived. The established religion of France had for some time past been gradually undermined. It had been solemnly assaulted by philosophers in various elaborate performances; and the men of wit, amongst whom Voltaire took the lead, had attacked it with the dangerous weapon of ridicule, which in France is so much more effective than argument. The Roman Catholic religion is much exposed in this respect, in consequence of the multitude of false miracles and legendary tales with which its history abounds. But, without discriminating between the principles on which it rests, and the superstitious follies by which these had been defaced, the French nation learned to laugh at the whole, and rejected instead of reforming the religion of their fathers. Thus the first order in the state had already begun to be regarded as useless, and the minds of men were prepared for important changes.

Upon the whole, then, it appears that a great variety of causes contributed, some more and others less directly, to bring about that grand social and political movement which, in the early part of its career, dashed in pieces the oldest monarchy in Europe, and gave to the regenerative principle an impulse which has been felt even in distant nations, and the ultimate effects of which no one can as yet compute. In the first place, the destruction of the power of the great vassals of the crown, and the consolidation of the monarchy into one great kingdom, during the reigns of Louis XI, Francis I., and Henry IV., was essential to the Revolution; for, had the central power been weaker, and the privileges of the great feudatories remained unimpaired, France, like Germany, would most probably have been split into a number of independent principalities, all unity of feeling or national energy would have been lost in the division of interests, and a revolution would no more have happened in France than in Silesia or Saxony. Secondly, the military spirit of the French, and the native valour which a long series of national triumphs had sustained, inspired them with the moral courage to commence, and the fortitude to maintain, a conflict, under which a people differently circumstanced would have speedily sunk. Thirdly, the spirit of free investigation which distinguished the eighteenth century, and which, from expatiating in the regions of taste and philosophy, passed, by an easy transition, into those of politics and religion, no doubt contributed powerfully to produce that change of opinion which sooner or later brings about important alterations in the institutions of a country. This freedom of inquiry and discussion, which assumed its greatest latitude in the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, Rayna), and the Encyclopaedists, existed by sufferance, it is true, and was confined to abstract questions alone; yet the fact of its having been tolerated is a proof that the minds of men were prepared to rc-consider all received opinions, and that the religious and political speculations which are commonly supposed to have created the revolutionary spirit, were in reality the symptoms of a change already operated, but which they contributed incalculably to extend and confirm. Fourthly, the church in France experienced the fate of all attempts in an advancing age to fetter the human mind by the shackles of an antiquated creed, or the tyranny of an overgrown and corrupt hierarchy; the resistance to its authority became general, the good and the bad parts of its doctrine were indiscriminately rejected, and blind belief gave place to the most uncompromising scepticism. Infidelity became a test of mental independence; and the progress of philosophical speculation, as evinced in the writings of Raynal, [7:10:48]Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau, served more an< more to confirm the tendency to which we have alluded Fifthly, the exclusive immunities enjoyed by the nobility the grievances which the French nation suffered in conse quence, and the insolence of privileged tyranny, which iι even more keenly resented than the tyranny itself, wen mainly instrumental in bringing about the Revolution “Numerous and serious as the grievances of the French nation were,” says Rivarol, “it was not these that occasioned the Revolution. Neither the taxes, nor the lettret de cäcħet, nor the other abuses of authority, nor the vexations of the prefects, nor the ruinous delays of justice, irritated the nation: it was the prestige of nobility which excited all the ferment, a fact which proves that it was the shopkeepers, the men of letters, the monied interest, in a word, all those who were jealous of the nobility, who roused against them the lower classes in the towns, and the peasantry in the country. In truth, it was an extraordinary circumstance that the nation should say to a child possessed of parchment, ’ You shall one day be either a prelate, or a marshal, or an ambassador, as you choose,' whilst it has nothing to offer to its other children.” And to all these may be added, as concurring and co-operating causes, first, the unprecedented inequality of taxation; secondly, the state of the labouring poor, who had been reduced to the most abject misery; thirdly, the non-residence of the landed proprietors, drawing after it, as is almost invariably the case, a discontented tenantry and a neglected country; fourthly, the local burdens and feudal services due by the tenantry to their feudal superiors, which were to the last degree vexatious and oppressive; fifthly, the royal prerogative, which, by a series of successful usurpations, had reached a height inconsistent with any thing like real freedom; sixthly, the corruption which had long tainted the manners of the court, and poisoned all the sources of influence; seventhly, the American war, which, whilst the minds of the people were in a ferment, lighted a spark that speedily set fire to the train; eighthly, the state of the army, both in pointof feeling and discipline; and, lastly, the spirit of innovation, which may justly be considered as “the joint effect and full result” of all the causes we have enumerated. But so many causes of disaffection did not come all at once into action; many of them had long been in operation. During the whole reign of Louis XV. the discontents of the people were gradually increasing, and it was already foreseen that the reign of his successor would be one of anxiety and trouble. “I have had great difficulty,” said Louis XV. “in extricating myself from the quarrels with the parliaments during my whole reign; let my grandson take care of them, for it is more than probable they will endanger his crown.” Subsequently to the peace of 1763, a growing discontent prevailed in the nation; headed, in the first instance, by a portion of the nobility, who were either impelled by the force of public opinion, or ambitious of f>opular applause, and augmented latterly by the number-ess faults of the government, the corruption of the court, and the misery of the country.

The immense population of the city of Paris rendered it an important engine in the hands of the fomenters and conductors of the Revolution. An overgrown capital has always proved dangerous to a government which is or attempts to be despotic; as appears from the history of ancient Babylon and Rome, as well as that of modern Constantinople, London under Charles I., and Paris in the times of the League and the Fronde. The general scarcity of grain which occurred about this period also assisted not a little in producing many of the convulsions attending the Revolution. On Sunday the 13th of July 1788, about nine in the morning, without any eclipse, darkness suddenly overspread several parts of France; a phenomenon

1 which formed the prelude to a tempest unexampled in the . temperate region of Europe. Wind, rain, hail, and thun- , der, seemed to contend in impetuosity; but the hail proved

- the greatest instrument of destruction. Instead of the 9 rich prospects of an early autumn, the face of nature in

* the space of an hour presented the dreary aspect of uni- . versai winter. The soil was converted into a morass, and i the standing corn beaten into the quagmire; the vines

- were broken to pieces, and the fruit trees demolished; í whilst unmelted hail lay in heaps like rocks of solid ice.

• Even the most robust forest trees were unable to with-

, stand the fury of the tempest. The hail was composed of i large, solid, angular pieces of ice, some of them weighing i from eight to ten ounces. The country people, beaten l down in the fields on their way to church, amidst this concussion of the elements, concluded that the last day had

I arrived; and, scarcely attempting to extricate themselves, lay despairing and half suffocated amidst the water and

I the mud, expecting the immediate dissolution of all things. But the storm was irregular in its devastations. Whilst several rich districts were laid entirely waste, some intermediate portions of country remained comparatively little injured. One district of sixty square leagues had not a single ear of corn or fruit of any kind left. Of the sixty-six parishes in the district of Pontoise, forty-three were entirely desolated; and of the remaining twenty-three some lost two thirds and others half their harvest. The Isle of France, being the district in which Paris is situated, and the Orleannois, appear to have suffered most severely. The damage done there, upon a moderate computation, amounted to eighty millions of livres, or between three and four millions sterling. Such a calamity must at any period have been severely felt; but occurring on the eve of a great political revolution, and amidst a general scarcity throughout Europe, it was peculiarly unfortunate, and occasioned more embarrassment to the government than perhaps any other event whatever. Numbers of families found it necessary to contract their mode of living for a time, and to dismiss their servants, who were thus left destitute of bread. Added to the public discontent and political dissensions, this calamity produced such an effect upon the people in general, that the nation seemed to have changed its character; and instead of that levity by which it had ever been distinguished, a deep gloom seemed now to settle down on every countenance.

The spring of the year 1789 was a period of much political anxiety in France. The superior orders wished to reduce the power of the crown, but were jealous of their own privileges, and determined to retain them; whilst the popular philosophers and others were endeavouring to render them odious, and to rouse the people to a love of freedom. Still, however, the great body of the common people remained careless spectators of the struggle, and unconscious of the approaching convulsion. Such was their indifference, indeed, that few of them took the trouble even to attend and vote at the elections of the deputies to the States General. In many places where a thousand voters were expected, scarcely fifty came forward; but such of them as did appear showed that a seed had been sown which might one day produce important fruits. In the instructions which they gave to their deputies, the British constitution formed in general the model upon which they wished their government to be reconstructed. They demanded equal taxation, the abolition of lettres de cachet or arbitrary imprisonment, the responsibility of ministers, and the extinction of the feudal privileges of the nobles; but they wished that the whole three orders of the state should sit and vote in one house, well knowing that their nobility were not prepared to act the moderate part of the British House of Lords. The nobles, on the [7:10:49]other hand, though willing to renounce some of their pecuniary immunities, and to sacrifice the power of the crown, were most decidedly resolved neither to surrender their feudal prerogatives, nor to give up the right of sitting in three separate assemblies; by means of which each of the orders could easily resist the encroachments of the two others. Μ. Neckar has been severely censured for not deciding this last and important question previously to the meeting of the States General; but it must be observed, that the very purpose of calling that assembly together was to overturn, through its medium, and without any direct interposition on the part of the ministers, the unjust privileges of the higher orders. Had the king positively decided in favour of three chambers, the nobles and the clergy would have retained all those ancient privileges established in their favour, of which it was his wish to deprive them, and the crown and its prerogatives would have been the only objects of sacrifice. It was therefore thought safer to leave the tiers état to fight its own battle; nor was it yet imagined that the commons of France, depressed, and poor, and dispersed over a multitude of provinces, could ever unite in enterprises dangerous to the power of the sovereign.

f The States had been summoned to meet at Versailles • on the 27th of April, and most of the deputies arrived at that time; but as the elections for the city of Paris were not concluded, the king deferred the commencement of their sessions until the 4th of May. During this period the members, left in idleness, began to find out and form acquaintance with one another. In particular, a few from Bretagne formed themselves into a club, into which they gradually admitted such other deputies as were found to be zealous in the popular cause, and also many persons who were not deputies. This society, which took the name of the Comité Breton, was originally established at Versailles, and was destined, under the appellation of the Jacobin Club, to give laws to France, and to diffuse terror and alarm throughout Europe. On the other hand, the aristocratic party established conferences at the house of Madame de Polignac, for the purpose, as was alleged, of uniting the nobles and the clergy. An event occurred at this time which all parties ascribed to some malicious motive. In the populous suburb of St Antoine, where a person named Réveillon carried on a great paper manufactory, a false report was spread that this individual intended tp lower the wages of his workmen, and that he had declared that bread was too good for them, and that they might subsist well enough on patato-flour. A commotion was raised, Réveillon was burned in effigy, and his house thereafter burned and pillaged by the mob, who were not dispersed till the military had been called in, and many lives lost. The popular party asserted that this commotion had been artfully excited by the party of the queen and the Count d’Artois, to afford a pretence for bringing great bodies of the military to the neighbourhood, in order to overawe the States General, or induce the king to resolve on assembling that body at Versailles in preference to Paris, where they and the popular minister Neckar wished the assemblage to take' place.

On the 4th of May the States General assembled at Versailles, and commenced business by going to church in solemn procession, preceded by the clergy, and followed by the king, according to ancient custom, to perform an act of devotion. The nobles were arrayed in splendid robes, and, like the higher clergy, glittered in gold and jewels. The commons appeared in black, the dress belonging to the law. The assembly was thereafter opened by a short speech from the throne, in which the king congratulated himself on thus meeting his people assembled; alluded to the national debt, and the taxes, which were severely felt because unequally levied; and noticed the general discontent and spirit of innovation which prevailed, but declared his confidence in the wisdom of the assembly for remedying every evil. Μ. Barretin, the keeper of the seals, next addressed the assembly in a congratulatory speech, and was followed by Neckar. The latter spoke for three hours; but though much applauded on account of the clear financial details which his speech contained, he encountered a certain degree of censure from all parties, on account of the cautious ambiguity which he observed regarding the future proceedings of the States General.

The following day the three orders assembled separately. The deputies of the tiers état amounted to six hundred in number, and those of the nobles and clergy to three hundred each. During the earlier sittings much time was spent in unimportant debates about trifling points of form; and the first important question which came under discussion was the verification of their powers, or production of the commissions of the members, and the investigation of their authenticity. The commons laid hold of this as a pretext for opening the grand controversy, whether the States General should sit in one or in three separate chambers; and they sent a deputation inviting the nobles and the clergy to meet along with them in the commonhall, for the purpose of verifying their powers in one common assembly. In the chamber of the clergy a hundred and fourteen members voted for the performance of this ceremony in the general assembly, and a hundred and thirty-three against it; but in the order of the nobles the resolution for the verification in their own assembly was carried by a majority of a hundred and eighty-eight to forty-seven. The commons, however, paid no regard to this. Conducted by bold and skilful leaders, who discerned the importance of the point in contest, they resolved not to abandon it. Hence the latter, though fully cognisant of the exigencies of the state, and aware that, owing to the deficiency in the revenue, a short delay might lead to the absolute dissolution of the government, suffered five weeks to pass away in total inactivity. During this period proposals were made on the part of the ministry for a pacification between the three orders, and conferences were opened by commissioners from each; but no art could induce the commons to abandon their original purpose, or prevail with them to enter upon the business of the state.

The nation having expected much from the assembling of the States General, received the intelligence of their in-< action with no small degree of concern. But as the tiers ' état was naturally popular, public censure could not readily fall upon that favourite order. Besides, from the period of their assembling, the commons had made every effort to augment their own popularity. They admitted all persons promiscuously into the galleries, and even into the body of their hall; no restraint was attempted to be laid upon the most vehement marks of popular applause or censure; lists of the names of the voters were publicly taken and sent to Paris upon every remarkable occasion; and thus the members suddenly found that, according to their political sentiments, they became objects of general execration or applause. The new and bold notions of liberty which were daily advanced by the leaders of the tiers état were received with acclamation by their hearers; the capital became interested in the issue of every debate; and the political fervour thus generated thrilled along every nerve and sinew of society. The commons accused the nobles of obstinately impeding the business of the state, by refusing to verify their powers in one common assembly; and the accusation was greedily swallowed by the multitude. The nobles accordingly became every day more unpopular. Their persons were insulted; and new publications daily appeared, in which their order was reviled, and represented as an useless or pernicious incumbrance, not to be tolerated in a free state. Whoever adhered to them was [7:10:50]branded with the odious appellation of aristocrat. The clergy, from the influence of the parish curés or parsons, seemed ready to desert their cause; and they were even opposed by a minority of their own body, which derived lustre from having at its head the Duke of Orleans. Still, however, the majority of the nobles remained firm; well aware, that if they once consented to sit in the same assembly, and to vote promiscuously, with the more numerous body of the commons, their whole order, with all its exclusive privileges, must speedily be overthrown.

Meanwhile the leaders of the commons saw that a change was taking place in the minds of men; and regarding the period as at length arrived when they might emerge from their inactivity, and seize the whole legislative authority, they declared that the representatives of the nobles and the clergy were only the deputies of particular incorporations, who might sit and vote along with them, but who had no title in a collective capacity to act as the legislators of France. For conducting business with more facility, twenty committees were named. On the suggestion of the Abbé Sieyes, a final message was sent to the privileged orders, requiring their attendance as individuals, and intimating that the commons, as the deputies of ninety-six out of every hundred of their countrymen, were about to assume the exclusive power of legislation. None of the nobles obeyed the summons; but three curés, named Cesve, Ballard, and Jallot, presented their commissions, and were received with loud acclamations; and the following day these were followed by five more, amongst whom were Grégoire, Dillon, and Bodineau. After some debate concerning the appellation which they ought to assume, the commons, with such of the clergy as had joined them, solemnly voted themselves the sovereign legislators of their country, under the name of the National Assembly. When the result of the vote was declared, the hall resounded with shouts, from an immense concourse of spectators, of Vive le Roi et vive l’Assemblée Nationale. Μ. Bailly was chosen president for four days only, MM. Camus and Pison de Galand were appointed secretaries, and the assembly proceeded to business.

The first acts of the National Assembly were decisively expressive of its own sovereignty. All taxes imposed without the consent of the representatives of the people were declared to be null and void; but a temporary sanction was given to the existing taxes, though illegal, till the dissolution of the assembly, and no longer; and it was added, that as soon as the assembly should be able to fix, in concert with his majesty, the principles of national regeneration, it would take into consideration the national debt, and place the creditors of the state under the safeguard of the national honour.

The popular cause now gained ground so fast, that on the 19th of June a majority of the clergy voted for the verification of their pow ers in common with the National Assembly, and resolved to unite with them on the following day. Affairs had thus come to a crisis, and the nobles perceived that they must instantly make a decisive stand, or yield up their cause as utterly lost. So great indeed was their alarm, that Μ. d’Espremenil proposed, at one of the sittings of their order, to address the king, entreating him to dissolve the States General. Hitherto that prince had gone along with Neckar in favouring the popular cause in opposition to the aristocracy. But every art was now used to alarm his mind regarding the late assumptions of power on the part of the commons; and these arts were at length successful. Repeated councils were held; and as Neckar was absent attending a dying sister, the king was prevailed upon to enter into the views of the aristocratical leaders. But the first measure which they adopted was so ill conducted as to afford little prospect of final success to their cause. On the 20th of June, when the president and mem bers were about to enter as usual into their own hall, they found it unexpectedly surrounded by a detachment of the guards, who refused them admission, whilst the herald at the same time proclaimed a royal session. Alarmed at this unforeseen event, the meaning of which they knew not, but apprehending that an immediate dissolution of the assembly was intended, they instantly retired to a neighbouring tennis-court, where, in the heat of their enthusiasm, they took a solemn oath never to separate until the constitution they had promised the country should be completed. On the 22d a new proclamation intimated that the royal session was deferred till the following day. It was now alleged that the assembly had been excluded from their hall merely because the workmen were occupied in preparing it for the intended solemnity. But this information was not calculated to excite favourable expectations of the measures about to be adopted at a royal session, ushered in by such circumstances of disrespect to the representatives of the people. The assembly, after wandering about in quest of a place of meeting, at length entered the church of St Louis, and were immediately joined by the majority of the clergy, with their president the Archbishop of Vienne at their head. Two nobles of Dauphine, the Marquis de Blaçon and the Count d , Agoult, at the same time presented their commissions. Encouraged by these events, and by the applause of the multitude, the assembly now waited with firmness the measures about to be adopted.

The royal session was held in the most splendid form, ] but altogether in the style of the ancient despotism. Sol-c diers surrounded the hall. The two superior orders were seated, whilst the representatives of the people, who had been left standing a full hour in the rain, were in no humour, when at last admitted, to receive with much complacency the commands of their sovereign. The king read a discourse, in which he declared null and void the resolutions of the 17th, but at the same time presented the programme of a constitution for France. This scheme contained many good and patriotic principles, but preserved the distinction of orders, and the exercise of lettres de cachet; it said nothing about any active share in the legislative power to be possessed by the States General, and was silent respecting the responsibility of ministers and the liberty of the press. The king concluded by commanding the deputies immediately to retire, and to assemble again on the following day; after which he then withdrew, and was followed by all the nobles and a part of the clergy. The commons remained on their seats in gloomy silence; but this was at length interrupted by the grand master of the ceremonies, who reminded the president of the intentions of the king. The words were scarcely uttered wlu?n Mirabeau, starting from his seat, exclaimed, “The commons of France have determined to debate. We have heard the intentions which have been suggested to the king; and you, who cannot be his agent with the States General, you, who have here neither seat nor voice, nor a right to speak, are not the person to remind us of his speech. Go tell your master, that we are here by the power of the people, and that nothing shall expel us but the bayenet.” The applause of the assembly seconded the enthusissm of the orator, and the master of the ceremonies withdrew in silence. Μ. Camus then rose, and having in a vehement speech stigmatized the royal session by the obnoxieus appellation of a bed of justice, he concluded by moving that the assembly should declare their unqualified adherence to their former decrees. This motion was followed by another, declaring the persons of the deputies inviolable; and both were unanimously decreed. The assembly accordingly continued their sittings in the usual form. On the following day the majority of the clergy attended as members; and on the 2ŏth the Duke of Orleans, along with forty-nine of the deputies belonging to the order ofnobility, also joined [7:10:51]them. The remaining nobles, as well as the small minority of the clergy, now found themselves awkwardly situated; but whether on this account, or because their leaders had by this time formed a plan for carrying their point by the aid of a military force, the king, by a pressing letter, invited both orders to join the commons; and this request was immediately complied with, though many of the nobility highly disapproved of the measure.

The situation of France had now become truly alarming. When the king retired from the assembly after the royal session, he was followed by more than six thousand citizens, with loud clamours and every mark of disapprobation. At Versailles all was speedily in an uproar. Neckar had repeatedly solicited his dismission, the report of which increased the popular clamour. The court was in consternation. The king nnw discovered that his minister was more popular than himself. At six o’clock in the evening the queen sent for Μ. Neckar; and when he returned from the palace, he assured the crowd who waited for him that he would not abandon them, upon which they retired satisfied. At the same time the news of the royal session had thrown the city of Paris into violent agitation. The peace of that capital was at this time endangered by a variety of causes. A dreadful famine raged throughout the land, and, as is usual in such cases, was most severely felt in the capital. This prepared the minds of men for receiving unfavourable impressions as to the political state of the country; and, besides, every effort was made to disorganize the government, and produce a dislike of the ancient order of things. The press poured forth innumerable publications, filled with new and seducing, though generally impracticable, theories of liberty; and these were not only distributed gratis amongst the people of Paris, but dispersed in the same manner throughout the provinces. Philip duke of Orleans, presumptive heir to the crown after the children and brothers of the king, is with good reason believed to have supplied out of his more than princely revenues the expense of these publications. In the gardens of the Palais Royal, which belonged to him, an immense multitude was daily assembled, listening from morning till night to orators who descanted upon the most exciting topics of popular politics, and many of whom were suspected to be in his pay. It was even believed, we wish we could say without reason, that his money found its way into the pockets of some of the most distinguished leaders in the National Assembly.

But the government was, if possible, still more endangered by the methods which were now employed to seduce the military from their duty. Every officer of the French army belonged to the order of nobility; and hence it might have been imagined that but little danger was to be apprehended from a body so commanded. But this very circumstance became the means of disorganizing that great engine of despotism. As the soldiers could not avoid imbibing the new opinions, their officers became the first objects of the⅛ jealousy, especially in consequence of the impolitic edict of Louis XVI. which required every officer to produce proofs of four degrees of nobility, and thus insulted, by avowedly excluding, the plebeians from promotion. With a view to what might eventually occur, the instructions to the deputies of the tiers état had recommended an increase of the pay of the soldiers; and now every art was employed to gain them to the popular cause. They were conducted to the Palais Royal, and there caressed and flattered by the populace, whilst they listened to the popular harangues. Nor were the arts of corruption unsuccessful. On the 23d of June the military refused to fire on the mob in a tumult; and when some of their number were on the 30th reported to be in confinement for this offence, a crowd instantly collected and rescued them, the dragoons who were brought to suppress the tumult grounding their arms. A deputation of the citizens solicited the assembly to obtain the pardon of the prisoners; and the assembly applied to the king, who ' pardoned them accordingly.

All these events, together with the tumultuous state of the capital, which was daily increasing, rendered it necessary for the king to call out the military force, in order, if possible, to restore the public peace. That his intentions were to re-establish order, the actual state of affairs will not permit us to doubt; but the aristocracy, with the Count d’Artois at their head, were engaged in bringing forward other measures, which ultimately contributed to ruin the king and the monarchy. Crowds of soldiers were collected, from all parts of the kingdom, around Paris and Versailles; and it was observed, that these consisted principally of foreign troops. Camps were traced out, and Marshal Broglio, an officer of exaggerated reputation, was placed at the head of the army. The king was supposed to have entirely yielded to new counsels, and every thing betokened a desperate effort to restore the energy of the ancient government. This was indeed the most interesting and important period of the French revolution; it formed as it were the pivot on which the whole movement turned; yet the specific designs of the leading actors have never been clearly understood, though their general tendency has always been perfectly intelligible. It was rumoured at the time, that Paris was to be subdued by a bombardment, and that the assembly was to be dissolved, and its leaders put to death. But although such reports were entitled to small credit, the crisis of French liberty was at hand, and the existence of the National Assembly as an independent body, at least upon any other footing than that proposed by the king on the 23d of June, was also involved. An able and eloquent address.to the king against the assemblage of foreign troops in their neighbourhood was in the mean time brought forward by Mirabeau, and voted by the assembly. The king replied that the state of the capital was the cause of assembling the troops, and offered to transfer the States General to Noyons or Soissons. “We will remove neither to Noyons nor to Soissons,” exclaimed Mirabeau; “we will not place ourselves between two hostile armies, that which is besieging Paris, and that which may fall upon us through Flanders or Alsace: we have not asked permission to run away from the troops; we have desired that the troops should be removed from the capital.”

Thirty-five thousand men were now stationed in the neighbourhood of Paris and of Versailles. The posts which commanded the city were occupied, and camps were marked out for a greater force. The Count d’Artois and his party regarded their plans as ripe for execution; and Neckar received an order from the king, ordaining him to quit the kingdom in twenty-four hours. That popular minister dined with his family after receiving the commands of his sovereign, and the same evening set out for Brussels. In his dismission the democratic party perceived that a resolution had been adopted to accomplish their ruin. The assembly therefore again addressed the throne, and requested anew the removal of the troops, offering to become responsible for the public peace, and to proceed in a body to Paris to encounter personally every danger which might occur. But they were coolly told that the king was the best judge of the mode of employing the troops, and that the presence of the assembly was necessary at Versailles. On receiving this reply, it was instantly decreed, on the motion of the Marquis de Lafayette, that the late ministry had carried with them the confidence of the assembly; that the troops ought to be removed; that the ministry should be held responsible to the people for their conduct; that the assembly persisted in all its former decrees; and that as it had taken the public debt under the protection of the nation, no power in France was entitled to pronounce the degrading word bankruptcy.
[7:10:52]

The city of Paris was thrown into great consternation by the news of Neckars retreat. His bust and that of the Duke of Orleans were dressed in mourning, and carried through the streets. But the royal Allemand, a German regiment, having broken in pieces the busts, dispersed the populace; and the Prince de Lambesc, grand-ecuyer of France, was ordered to advance with his regiment of cavalry, and take post at the Tuilleries. Being a man of a violent temper, and enraged at the appearances of disapprobation which were visible around him, the latter furiously cut down with his sword an old man who was walking peaceably in the gardens. The consequences of this inhuman act were such as might have been expected. A shout of execration instantly arose; the cry to arms was heard; the military was assaulted on all sides; the French guards joined their countrymen, and compelled the Germans, overpowered by numbers, and unsupported by the rest of the army, to retire. All order was now at an end, and as night approached universal terror diffused itself throughout the city. Bands of robbers were collecting; and from them, or from the foreign soldiery, a general pillage was expected. The night passed away in consternation and tumult; and it was found in the morning that the hospital of St Lazare had already been plundered. The alarm bells were rung, and the citizens having assembled at the Hôtel de Ville, adopted a proposal which was there made for enrolling themselves as a militia, under the appellation of the National Guard. This day and the succeeding night were spent in tolerable quietness, without any attempt being made on the part of the army. But on the morning of the 14th of July it was discovered that the troops encamped in the Champs Elisées had moved off, and an immediate assault was therefore expected. The national guard now amounted to a hundred and fifty thousand men; but they were in general destitute of arms. They assumed a green cockade; but on recollecting that this was the livery of the Count d’Artois, they adopted one of red, blue, and white; and this was the origin of the tricoor cockade. Μ. de la Salle was named commander in chief; officers were chosen; and detachments were sent round in quest of arms. In the Hôtel des Invalides were found upwards of thirty thousand stand of arms, together with twenty pieces of cannon. Avariety of weapons were also procured from the garde-meuble de la couronne, and from the shops of armourers, cutlers, and others.

The too famous fortress of the Bastille was an object of natural hatred to the Parisians. Within its walls, courage, genius, and innocence, had long wept unseen, and its doleful echoes had often responded to the stifled cries of despair. At eleven o’clock in the morning, Μ. de la Rosière, at the head of a numerous deputation, waited upon Μ. Delaunay, the governor, who promised, along with the officers of his garrison, that they would not fire upon the city unless they were attacked. But a report was soon spread throughout Paris that Μ. Delaunay had a short time thereafter admitted into the fortress a multitude of persons, and then treacherously massacred them. The origin of this rumour has never been discovered. The fact itself has been denied; but it was attested at the time by the Duke of Dorset, then British ambassador at the court of France. The effect of it was the adoption of a resolution to assault the Bastille; in consequence of which an immense and furious multitude rushed into its outer, and soon forced their way into its inner, courts, where they received and returned a severe fire for the space of an hour. The French guards, who were now embodied into the national guard, conducted the attack with equal skill and coolness. They dragged three waggons loaded with straw to the foot of the walls, and there set them on fire, by which means the garrison were prevented from taking aim, whilst the smoke proved no hindrance to the assailants. The besieging multitude pressed the attack with incredible obstinacy for the space of four hours; the garrison was thrown in confusion; the officers served the cannon in person, and fired muskets in the ranks; whilst the governor in despair thrice attempted to blow up the fortress. A capitulation was at length sought, but refused to the garrison, and an unconditional surrender demanded. This at length took place, and the governor, with Μ. de Losme Salbrai, his major, became victims of the popular fury, in spite of every effort which could be made for their protection; but the French guards succeeded in saving the lives of the garrison. Only seven prisoners were found in the Bastille. A guard was placed in it, and the keys were sent to the celebrated Μ. Brissot, who a few years before had inhabited one of its dungeons. The remaining part of this eventful day was spent at Paris in a mixture of wild triumph and excessive alarm. In the pocket of the governor of the Bastille there had been found a letter written by Μ. de Flesselles, the prévôt des marchands, or chief city magistrate, who had pretended to be a most zealous patriot, encouraging him to resistance by the promise of speedy support. This piece of treachery was punished by instant death; and the bloody head of Flesselles was carried through the city on a pole, along with that of Μ. Delaunay. On the approach of night a body of troops advanced towards the city by the Barrière d’Enfer; but the national guard hurried thither, preceded by a train of artillery, and the troops withdrew upon the first fire. Barricades were everywhere formed, the alarm-bells were rung, and a general illumination continued throughout the night.

In the mean time it was obvious that the new ministry were entering upon a difficult scene of action, where one false step might lead to ruin, and where their own plans of conduct required to be maturely digested. Marshal Broglio was appointed minister of war; the Baron de Breteuil, president of finance; Μ. de la Galezière, comptroller-general; Μ. de Laporte, intendant of the war department; and Μ. Foulon, intendant of the navy: but they were only destined to act as official men under the Count d’Artois, and the other leaders of the aristocracy. To the latter there scarcely remained even a choice of difficulties; in fact no resource was left but that of overawing by military force the National Assembly and the capital, and risking the desperate measure of a national bankruptcy, to avoid which the court had convoked the States General. But no trace exists of any attempt to employ this last and desperate resource. The evening after the departure of Μ. Neckar was spent by the court of Versailles in festivity, as if a victory had been gained; and the courtiers of both sexes went round among the soldiery, striving to secure their fidelity by caresses, and every species of flattering attention. The ministry, however, not only failed to support the Prince de Lambesc in the post which he had been sent to occupy, but suffered the whole of the 13th to pass in indecision, whilst the capital was in a state of rebellion, an army formally mustering within its walls, and the names of the principal nobiKty publicly exposed in lists of proscription. They accordingly received with confusion and dismay the news of the capture of the Bastille; and these feelings were increased by information received from Marshal Broglio that the troops refused to act against the Parisians or the National Assembly. In this perplexity they adopted the miserable device of concealing from the king the real state of public affairs; and that unfortunate prince was thus perhaps the only person who remained ignorant of the convulsions in which his country was involved. At length, about midnight, the Duke of Liancourt forced his way into the king’s apartment, and informed him of the revolt of the capital and the army, and of the surrender of the fortress of the Bastille. The Count d’Artois, who was present, still attempted to retain the monarch under the fata) delusion which it had been the object of this communication to destroy[7:10:53]; but the Duke of Liancourt, turning round, exclaimed, “As for you, Sir, your life can only be saved by instant flight; I have seen with horror your name in the bloody list of the proscribed.” The count, with the members of his short-lived administration and their adherents, accordingly fled to the frontiers; and thus commenced an emigration which, depriving the throne of its natural supporters, left the field open to the declared enemies of the monarchy. This ministry had, no doubt, many difficulties to contend with; but an accurate examination of their conduct excites a suspicion which, whilst it exculpates them from much that has been laid to their charge, does little honour either to their talents or their character, namely, that they had come into office without having formed any regular plan of conduct, and that, acting without decision, they became the sport of events which they wanted skill and vigour to direct or control.

But in spite of all that had occurred, the monarch was still personally beloved. Early the following morning the king went to the assembly, though with none of the usual solemnities. He regretted the commotions of the capital, disavowed any knowledge of an intention against the persons of the deputies, and intimated that he had commanded the removal of the troops. A deep silence prevailed for some moments, but this was succeeded by vehement and universal shouts of applause. When the king rose to depart, the whole assembly instantly crowded around him, and attended him to his palace. The queen appeared at a balcony with the dauphin in her arms; and the music played the pathetic air Où peut on itre mieux qu’au sein de sa famille. The enthusiasm of loyalty communicated itself to the surrounding multitudes, and nothing was heard but acclamations of joy. On the following day the king declared his resolution to visit in person the city of Paris; and accordingly he set out, attended by some members of the assembly, and by the militia of Versailles. He was met by Lafayette at the head of a body of the national guard, of which he had been chosen commander in chief; and Μ. Bailly, in whose person the ancient office of mayor of Paris had been revived, received the king at the gates, and delivered to him the keys. During all this time no shout was heard from the innumerable crowd of spectators but that of Vive la Nation. The king advanced to the Hôtel de Ville, where the tricoor cockade was presented to him, which he put on, and with this badge on his breast presented himself at the window. At the sight of the patriotic emblem an universal shout of Vive le Roi burst forth from every quarter, and Louis returned to Versailles amidst loud demonstrations of apparent loyalty and attachment. But much confusion still prevailed in the capital, notwithstanding there was more appearance of order than might have been expected at such a crisis. This arose from a casual concurrence of circumstances. In order to conduct the elections with facility, Paris had been divided into sixty districts, each of which had a separate place of meeting. The people did not elect the members of the States General, but they chose delegates, who, under the name of electors, voted for the members. At the commencement of the disturbances, the electors, at the request of their fellow-citizens, assumed a temporary authority; but of this they speedily became weary, and as soon as possible procured the public election of a hundred and twenty persons, as municipal officers, for the government of the city. The citizens, having acquired the habit of meeting in their districts, grew fond of doing ∙o; and assembling frequently, they made rules for their own government, and sent commissioners to communicate with other districts. The tumultuous nature of these meetings, and the vehemence of debate which prevailed in them, were incredible; but they gradually ripened into clubs, which ere long assumed the whole power of the state.

The banishment of Neckar was of short duration. He returned to France in consequence of an invitation by the king, and was received with equal joy by the assembly and the capital. But on this occasion he committed what has been considered as a great political error. In deploring the late excesses and murders, and in noticing the arrest of Μ. Bezerwal, an officer of the Swiss guards, he recommended to the electors at the Hôtel de Ville, in a solemn harangue, that the past should be forgotten, that proscriptions should cease, and that a general amnesty should be proclaimed. In a moment of enthusiasm, this was agreed to, and the electors decreed what unquestionably exceeded their powers. The districts of Paris were instantly in commotion. The electors, alarmed, declared that they only meant that henceforth the people would punish no man except according to law; and to prove that they themselves were free from ambition, they formally renounced all their own powers. The assembly now took up the question, upon which Lally-To-lendal, Meunier, Clermont-Tonnerre, Garat, and others, declared that no person ought to be arrested without a formal accusation; whilst Mirabeau, Robespierre, Barnave, and Gleizen, alleged, on the contrary, that the people were entitled to lay hold of any man who had publicly appeared at the head of their enemies. The debate ended by admitting the explanation of the electors, and by a declaration that it was the duty of the assembly to see justice executed in all cases.

The commotions and enthusiasm which distracted the capital were speedily communicated to the provinces. In every quarter the people seized upon all the arms which could be found, and the military uniformly refused to act against them. Many acts of outrage were committed in Bretagne, at Strasbourg, in the Lyonnois, and elsewhere, in which the nobility were the sufferers. The mischiefs which occurred were usually magnified at a distance; but that very circumstance constituted an additional evil. It was stated in the National Assembly that Μ. de Mesmay, lord of Quincey, had invited to his house a number of patriots, amongst whom were the officers of a neighbouring garrison, to a splendid entertainment, in celebration of the happy union of the three orders; and that in the midst of the feast the master of the house contrived to withdraw unnoticed, and to set fire to a train previously laid, which communicated with a quantity of gunpowder in the cellars, by the explosion of which the whole company were blown into the air. On inquiry, however, it was found that the story was utterly destitute of truth. But before the fact could be ascertained, all France had resounded with accounts of the bloody tragedy; and the whole nobility of the kingdom suffered in a greater or less degree from the prejudices excited by this unhappy report, the origin of which has never been well explained. It would be vain to state all the idle rumours to which at this time the blind credulity of the multitude gave currency. At one time the aristocrats were cutting down the green com; at another they were burying flour in the common sewers, or casting loaves into the river Seine. One report had no sooner been proved to be false than another was invented, and the whole nation was agitated by suspicion and alarm. The National Assembly were engaged in framing the declaration of the Rights of Man, which was to form the basis of the new constitution, when the alarming accounts, received from all quarters, of the state of anarchy into which the kingdom was falling, obliged them suddenly to turn their attention to questions of practical necessity. The privileged orders finding themselves objects of universal jealousy and hatred, became convinced that something must instantly be done to save their families and property, which were menaced on every side with persecution and pillage: and regarding the popular torrent as irresistible, they resolved to sacrifice a part in order to save something oui of the general wreck.
[7:10:54]

On the afternoon sitting of the 4th of August the Viscount de Noailles, seconded by the Duke d’Aguillon, opened one of the most important scenes in the French Revolution, or in the history of any country. These noblemen stated, that the true cause of all the commotions which had convulsed the kingdom was to be found in the misery of the people, who groaned under the double oppression of public contributions and of feudal services. “For three months,” said Μ. de Noailles, “the people have beheld us engaged in verbal disputes, whilst their own attention and their wishes are directed only to things. What is the consequence? They have armed to reclaim their rights, and they see no prospect of obtaining them except by force.” He therefore proposed to do justice, as the shortest way of restoring tranquillity, and for this purpose to decree that henceforth every tax should be imposed in proportion to the wealth of the contributors, and that no order of the state should be exempted from the payment of public burdens; that feudal claims should be redeemed at a fair valuation, but that such claims as consisted of personal services on the part of the vassal should be abolished without compensation, as contrary to the imprescriptible rights of man. The extensive possessions of the noblemen with whom these proposals originated, added lustre to the disinterested sacrifice which they had made; the speeches delivered on the occasion were received with the most enthusiastic applauses by the assembly and the galleries, and their proposals were decreed by acclamation. In fact, no nation is so powerfully influenced by sudden emotions as the French. On this occasion the patriotic contagion spread with inconceivable rapidity, and a contest of generosity ensued. The hereditary jurisdictions possessed by the nobles within their own territories were unconditionally sacrificed. All places and pensions granted by the court were suppressed, unless given as the reward of merit or of actual services. The game laws, which condemned the husbandman, under severe penalties, to leave his property a prey to infinite multitudes of animals preserved for pastime, having always been numbered amongst the most severe grievances of the French peasantry, were renounced, along with the exclusive rights of rabbit-warrens, fisheries, and dove-cots. The sale of offices was abolished, and the fees exacted from the poor, together with the privilege of holding a plurality of livings, were relinquished by the clergy. The deputies of the Pais d’Etat, or privileged provinces, with the deputies of Dauphine at their head, next came forward, and offered to surrender their ancient privileges, requesting that the kingdom might no longer remain parcelled out amongst Dauphinois, Bretons, Provençaux, and others, but that they should all form one great mass of French citizens. They were followed by the representatives of Paris, Marseilles, Lyons, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and other places, who requested leave to renounce all their separate privileges as incorporations, for the sake of placing everyman and every village in the nation upon a footing of equality. And thus the assembly proceeded, until every member had exhausted his imagination upon the subject of reform. To close the whole, the Duke of Liancourt proposed that a solemn Te Deum should be performed, and a medal struck in commemoration of the events of that night of sacrifices; and that the title of Restorer of Gallic Liberty should be bestowed upon the reigning monarch. Several days were necessary to form into laws the decrees of the 4th August, and committees were appointed to make out reports for the purpose. But as one of these included the tithes and revenues of the clergy amongst the abuses which were to be done away with, and proposed in lieu of these to grant to the different ministers of religion a certain stipend payable by the nation, the clergy now attempted to make a stand in defence of their property; and violent debates ensued, in which they were ably supported by the Abbé , Sieyes. As the clergy, however, had formerly deserted i the nobles, so they were now in their turn abandoned to their fate by the hereditary aristocracy; and the popular i party had long regarded the wealth of the church as an; easy resource for supplying the wants of the state. Ne-

ver, indeed, was there a more complete proof of the in- , fluence of opinion over the affairs of men. The Catholic clergy of France, though possessed of more property than ’ at the time when princes took up arms or laid them down , at their command, now found so few defenders, that they i were terrified into a voluntary surrender of all which they . and their predecessors had enjoyed for ages. In their , overthrow they had not even the barren honour of falling i the last of those privileged orders which had so long! ruled over this ancient kingdom. They, as well as the nobles and the king, still possessed their former titles and nominal dignity; but all of them were now subdued, and completely at the mercy of the commons of France, who could now dismiss them at pleasure.

As a short season of tranquillity in the country and in the National Assembly succeeded these great popular sacrifices, the king thought it a fit opportunity for the appointment of a new ministry, consisting of the Archbishop of Vienne, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Μ. Neckar, the Count de St Priest, Count de Montmorin, the Count de la Luzerne, and the Count de la Tour du Pin Paulin. Μ. Neckar, as minister of finance, stated the distressed situation of the revenue, and presented the plan of a loan of thirty millions of livres. But Mirabeau prevailed with the assembly to alter and narrow the conditions to such a degree that very few subscribers were found, and the loan could not be tilled up. This failure involved the assembly in considerable unpopularity, and they allowed Μ. Neckar to prescribe his own terms for the purpose of obtaining a loan of eighty millions. But the moment of public confidence had been allowed to pass away, ' and the loan was never more than half filled up. Recourse was next had to patriotic contributions; and great numbers of gold rings, silver buckles, and pieces of plate, were presented to the assembly. The royal family themselves sent their plate to the mint, either to give countenance to these donations, or, as Neckar has since asserted, through absolute necessity, for the purpose of supporting themselves and their family. The confusion into which the nation had been thrown by recent events had produced a suspension in the payment of all taxes. There existed, in fact, no efficient government; and if society escaped dissolution, it was only in consequence of those habits of order which are produced by a state of long-continued civilization. The business of government could not be transacted without money, and many vain efforts were made by the ministry to procure it. At length Μ. Neckar was driven to the desperate resource of proposing a compulsory loan, by which every individual possessed of property was to advance to the state a sum equal to one fourth of his annual income. This bold but unwise proposition was supported by Mirabeau, and adopted by the assembly; but it does not appear to have ever been effectually executed.

In the mean time the assembly was busily occupied in framing the celebrated declaration of the Rights of Man, which was afterwards prefixed to the new constitution; and this was followed by the discussion of a point of much delicacy and difficulty, namely, what share of legislative authority the king ought to possess under the new constitution, whether an absolute veto or negative, a suspensive veto, or no veto at all. This question operated like a touchstone for trying the sentiments of every person; and the assembly, consisting of twelve hundred men, was now seen to arrange itself into two factions, which [7:10:55]soon came into violent conflict. The debates, which were vehem'ent and tumultuous, continued for several days. But as the assembly sat in public, and as multitudes of people of all descriptions were admitted into the galleries, and even into the body of the hall among the members, the public at large became speedily interested in the discussion; the city of Paris took a side in opposition to the veto; and the whole empire was thrown into agitation by new and speculative questions. In fact, rumours of plots were spread throughout the country, and a new storm was obviously gathering, when the question was got rid of by a sort of compromise, which, however, involved an abridgment of the royal authority. Mounier observed, that the executive power could possess no negative against the decrees of the present assembly, which had been nominated by the nation with supreme powers for the express purpose of framing a constitution, to remain binding on all orders of men in the state; and with regard to future legislatures, the king by a message declared that all he desired to possess was a suspensive veto. It is not a little remarkable that Mirabeau concluded a speech in favour of the absolute veto of the crown, by declaring that it would be better to live in Constantinople than in France, if laws could be made without the royal sanction. He is, however, accused of having caused a report to be circulated in Paris that he had opposed the veto with all his influence; and, to give credit to the story, he is said to have quitted the assembly immediately before the division, that his vote might not appear on record against him.

The month of August was spent in the debates about the veto; but in the beginning of September a new constitutional question was presented to the assembly by one of its numerous committees. This was, whether the legislative body should consist of one or of two chambers. Mounier,Lally-Tollendal, Clermont-Tonnerre, and others, who were zealous lovers of freedom upon moderate principles, supported eagerly the idea of establishing two independent chambers, in imitation of the British constitution; but they were deserted both by the democratic and the aristocratic parties. The former regarded an upper house or senate as a refuge for the old aristocracy, or at least as the cradle of a new one; whilst the nobility and clergy were afraid lest such an arrangement might prevent the future re-establishment of the ancient division into three orders. Accordingly, of a thousand members who voted, only eighty-nine supported the proposal for dividing the legislature into two chambers. Soon after this the king gave his sanction to the important decrees of the 4th of August, though not without hesitation, and expressing doubts of the wisdom of some of them in a letter to the assembly. At the same time were decreed the inviolability of the person of the monarch, the indivisibility of the throne, and its hereditary descent from male to male in the reigning family.

In consequence of the debates on the subject of the veto and that of the two chamb« rs, the minds of parties had become much excited. Paris wore the same threatening aspect as it had done in the months of June and of July preceding; and everything seemed tending towards a crisis. The aristocratic party accused their antagonists of a design to excite new insurrections; and the charge was retorted by circulating a report that a plot for conveying the king to Metz was already ripe for execution. From the period of the defection of the French guards, who were now in the pay of the capital, the protection of the royal family had been intrusted to the militia or national guard of Versailles, together with the regiment of the gardes du corps,, which was composed entirely of gentlemen. But when the report of the intended flight of the king was circulated, the French guards desired to be re stored to their ancient employment of attending his person, in order to prevent any attempt of the kind. This idea was eagerly caught hold of in the capital; and, notwithstanding every effbrtwhich Μ. de Lafayette could use, the approach of disturbances became every day more obvious. The popular party perceived the advantage which they would derive from placing the assembly and the king in the midst of that turbulent metropolis, which had given birth to the Revolution, and upon the attachment of which they could most securely depend; and every encouragement was therefore given by the most active leaders of what was now called the democratic party to the project of establishing the court at Paris. The ministry were under no small degree of apprehension; and the Count d’Estaing, who commanded the national guard of Versailles, requested the aid of an additional regiment. The regiment of Flanders was accordingly sent for, and its arrival caused no small degree of anxiety; but every artiñce was instantly employed in order to gain over both officers and soldiers to the popular cause.

On the first of October the gardes du corps, probably for the purpose of ingratiating themselves with the newly-arrived corps, and perhaps to attach them more steadily to the royal cause, invited the officers of the regiment of Flanders to a public entertainment; and several officers of the national guard, and others of the military, were also invited. The entertainment was given in the opera-house adjoining to the palace,and several loyal toasts were drunk; but it is asserted, that when the favourite popular toast, The Nation, was given, the gardes du corps refused to drink it. In ordinary cases, so trifling a circumstance as this would be regarded as unworthy of notice; but such was now the position of affairs, that the most trivial occurrences became instrumental in producing important consequences. The queen, having seen from a window of the palace the gaiety which prevailed amongst the military, prevailed on the king, who had just returned from hunting, to visit them, in company with herself and the dauphin. The sudden appearance of their majesties in the saloon kindled in an instant the ancient enthusiasm of French loyalty. The grenadiers of the regiment of Flanders, along with the Swiss chasseurs, had been admitted to the dessert; and they, as well as their officers, drank the health of the king, queen, and dauphin, with their swords drawn. The royal family then bowed to the company and retired. As they withdrew, the music played the favourite air, 0 Ricard, O mon rot, l’uni-oers t'abandonne; and, in the enthusiasm of the moment, the national cockade was thrown aside, and white cockades mounted as fast as they could be made by the ladies of the court. When these circumstances were next, day reported in Paris, with the usual amount of exaggeration, they gave rise to the most violent alarm. The capital was at that time suffering all the horrors of famine; and in such a situation, the news of a feast enjoyed by others seldom gives much pleasure to hungry men. A rumour of an intended flight on the part of the royal family was also got up: it was also asserted that a counter revolution was speedily to be attempted by force of arms; and the people were told that the present scarcity had been artificially created by the court for the purpose of reducing them to submission.

For several days no notice was taken in the assembly of what had passed at the entertainment given by the gardes du corps ; but on the 5th of October Petion mentioned it for the first time, and a violent debate ensued, during which Mirabeau rose and exclaimed, “Declare that the king’s person alone is sacred, and I myself will bring forward an impeachment ∙," thereby alluding to the conduct of the queen. During this debate at Versailles, Paris was in the most violent coinmotion. A vast multitude [7:10:56]of women of the lowest rank, with some men in women’s clothes, having assembled at the Hôtel de Ville, they resolved to proceed instantly to Versailles, to demand bread from the king and from the National Assembly. Lafayette in vain opposed them; for his soldiers refused to turn their bayonets against the women. Upon this Stanislaus Maillard, who had distinguished himself at the taking of the Bastille, having offered himself as leader of the insurgents, had the address to prevail on them to lay aside the arms which they had procured; and about noon he set out for Versailles, having established as much order amongst his followers as could well be expected in such a motley assemblage. The mayor and municipality of Paris also gave orders to Lafayette instantly to set out for that place at the head of the national guard.

In the mean time Maillard approached Versailles with his tumultuous band, which he had arranged in three divisions, and persuaded to behave with tolerable decency. The king was hunting in the woods of Mendon when he was informed of the arrival of a formidable band of women calling aloud for bread. “Alas,” replied he, “if I had it, I should not wait to be asked.” Maillard entered the assembly, accompanied by a deputation of his followers, to state the object of their journey; and, in order to pacify them, that body sent a deputation of their own number along with them to lay their complaints before the king. His majesty received them with great politeness, and readily agreed to go into any measures which could be suggested for the supply of the capital. The report of this gracious conduct produced a great effect upon the multitude collected around the palace, and they began to disperse; but they were speedily succeeded by another crowd not less numerous. A sudden resolution to fly seems now to have been proposed by the court, as the king’s carriages were brought to the gate of the palace which communicates with the orangery; but the national guard of Versailles refused to allow them to pass, and the king himself declined to remove, or to permit any blood to be shed in his cause.

At length Lafayette, with his army, arrived, about ten o'clock at night, and found the assembly in a very unpleasant predicament, their hall and galleries being crowded by the Parisian fishwomen and others of the mob, who at every instant interrupted the debates. Lafayette waited upon the king, and informed him of the proceedings of the day; planted guards in every direction; and, alter a scanty banquet had been procured for the multitude, prevailed with the assembly to close their sitting for the night. For this last part of his conduct Lafayette has been much censured, and not without reason; for it could scarce- . ly be expected that such an immense assemblage of turbulent characters as were now brought together would pass the night without disorder. All remained tranquil, however, until about six in the morning of the 6th, when a great number of women and desperate persons rushed towards the palace, and attempted to force their way into it. Two of the gardes du corps were killed, and the crowd ascended the staircase leading to the queen’s apartment, but were bravely resisted by a sentinel named Miemandre, who gave the alarm, and defended his post until he fell covered with wounds, from which, however, he afterwards recovered. The ruflians, reeking with blood, rushed into the chamber of the queen, and pierced with bayonets and poniards the bed whence she had scarcely had time to fly almost wholly undressed, and, through passages unknown to the murderers, escaped to seek refuge at the feet of the king, who, already alarmed, had gone to seek her. The tumult became every moment more violent, and sudden death seemed to threaten the royal family; but Lafayette was by this time at the head of his troops, whom he earnestly beseeched to save the gardes du corps from massacre; and in this he was happily successful. Some who had been taken prisoners were surrounded by the grenadiers of the French guards, who protected them, and the retreat of the whole corps was secured. The crowd was speedily driven from the different parts of the palace, which they had already begun to pillage; and the royal family at length ventured to show themselves at a balcony. A few voices now exclaimed Le roi à Paris, the king to Paris; the shout became general, and the king, after consulting with Lafayette, declared that he had no objection to take up his residence at Paris, provided he was accompanied by the queen and his children. When this proposal was reported to the assembly, the popular leaders expressed much satisfaction; they ordered a deputation of a hundred members to attend the king thither, and voted the National Assembly inseparable from the king. At two o’clock his majesty set out a prisoner in the custody of a turbulent mob; and thus humbled, the royal captives were conducted so slowly that a short journey of twelve miles was protracted during six hours. The king, the queen, and their children, were lodged in the old palace of the Louvre, whilst Monsieur went to reside at the Luxembourg; the city was illuminated, and the evening spent in triumph by the Parisians. The removal of the king to Paris was justly regarded as a triumph by the popular party. The higher order of nobility considered it as completely ruinous to their hopes; and many men of talents, such as Mounier, Lally-Tollendal, and others, now regarded every prospect of attaining constitutional freedom as at an end, seeing the national representatives would now be exposed to the insults, and overawed by the influence, of a turbulent capital. Several members of the assembly accordingly took refuge in foreign countries, and used every effort to excite other nations against France. As the Duke of Orleans had been regarded as the chief promoter of the late disturbances, Lafayette waited on him, and insisted on his leaving the kingdom for a time. The duke, not less timid than intriguing, felt overawed, and, on pretence of public business, proceeded to England, where he remained during several months.

On the 19th of October the National Assembly held its: first session in Paris. The king was closely guarded in ι his own palace; and no apparent obstacle now remained 1 to prevent the popular party giving to their country such a constitution as they might judge expedient. Much, however, was still to be done, and many difficulties, arising from the habits of men educated under a different order of things, yet remained to be overcome. Two days after the assembly had gone to Paris, a baker was publicly murdered by the mob, upon a charge of having concealed a quantity of bread. Whilst the assembly was at a distance, events of this nature had been little attended to, as the leading party did not attempt to check those ebullitions of popular fury, from which they had derived so much advantage; but that party had now become all-powerful, and so flagrant an offence committed against the law was regarded as an insult to the sovereignty of the National Assembly. Two leaders of the mob were therefore tried and publicly executed; and a severe law was passed, of the nature of our riot act, authorizing the magistrates to act by military force against any assemblage of persons who should refuse to disperse when legally required to do so. The peace of the capital was thus secured for several months; but in the country no small degree of anxiety and excitement still existed. The same suspicious temper which had prevailed at Paris agitated the provinces with the apprehension of plots and monopolies of grain. Besides, the nobility in the country were by no means satisfied with the liberality which their representatives had evinced upon the 4th of August, in voting away their privileges and their property; a circumstance which produced violent jealousies [7:10:57]between the peasantry and their landlords, and gradually conveyed to every corner of the kingdom the political ferment which had commenced at Paris.

The National Assembly being now in tolerable security, proceeded with the arduous task of framing a free constitution for the kingdom of France. The Abbé Sieyes presented a plan for dividing the kingdom into eighty-three departments, of about three hundred and twenty-four square leagues each, the department into several arrondissement or districts, and the district into communes or cantons, of about four square leagues in extent. Thus all the ancient divisions of the kingdom into governments, generalities, and bailiwicks, was in an instant overturned. An attempt was also made to simplify in an equal degree the relative situation of individuals in civil life, by a decree which put an end to all distinction of orders and immunities, as far as privileges were concerned. A bold and important measure was at the same time adopted, namely, the confiscation of the whole lands belonging to the church, for the purpose of supplying the exigencies of the state. In this transaction all regard to justice was of course thrown aside. The lands of the church were as certainly the property of those who then possessed them, as any entailed estate amongst us is the property of the holder. In the former the clergy had as clear a life interest as the heir of entail could by possibility possess in the latter. The state may have had a right to appropriate to itself the church lands upon the death of the incumbents; but it might with as much justice have seized on the enormous revenues of the Duke of Orleans, as confiscated a single acre belonging to the most useless abbot in the kingdom. This iniquitous measure was proposed by the Bishop of Autun, Μ. de Talleyrand Perigord, who had been promoted to the episcopal bench in an irregular manner, in order to accomplish this premeditated robbery. On the property thus confiscated it was resolved to issue assignats, which were to be received by the state in payment of taxes, and of church lands when set up to sale. A provision was at the same time made for the national clergy, who were in future to be paid by the state. On the day following that upon which this important measure was adopted, a decree was also passed, suspending the functions of the différent parliaments of the kingdom.

But proceedings in which the interests of so great a multitude of individuals were involved, could not be carried into effect without opposition. The parliaments in particular exerted themselves, by protests and other publications, to invalidate the decrees of the assembly; but these privileged bodies, who had long been accustomed to contend against the despotic administration of their country, and who on that account had for ages been objects of public favour, now found themselves unable to resist the mandate of a popular assembly; and, after a few fruitless struggles, they were all of them under the necessity of submitting to their fate. The assembly then proceeded to organize the kingdom by the establishment of municipalities, and by reforming the jurisprudence of the country. When the parliament of Paris had been abolished, however, the second court in that city, called the Châtelet, was retained for the purpose of trying such persons as bad become obnoxious by their attachment to the royal cause; and this tribunal had the spirit to acquit the Baron de Bezerwal, Marshal Broglio, and the Prince de Lambesc. But having incurred much popular odium by this acquittal, they sought to regain credit by condemning to death the Marquis de Favres, for a pretended conspiracy to massacre Lafayette, Bailly, and Neckar, and to convey the king to Peronne.

During the whole of this winter the king had been so 1 strictly watched by numerous guards placed round his palace, that in other nations he was naturally considered as in a state of captivity. To do away with this impression, if possible, and to make the king appear a voluntary agent in the measures which had lately been adopted, every effort was employed to prevail on him to repair to the assembly, and there, as of his own voluntary motion, to declare his adherence to the measures in question. For some time, however, he resisted the proposal to take such a step; but at length, on the 4th of February, he suddenly appeared in the National Assembly, where he complained of the attempts which had been made to shake the new constitution, and declared his wish that it should be universally known that the monarch and the representatives of the nation were united, and their wishes the same; that he would defend the constitutional liberty of the state; and that, in conjunction with the queen, he would early form the sentiments of his son in strict accordance with the new order of things which the circumstances of the empire had introduced. This declaration dispirited the aristocratical party, and increased the unhappy tendency to look for aid from foreign countries, which they had always been too prone to indulge. On the 13th of February, monastic establishments were suppressed, and their lands confiscated; but the inmates of these establishments were allowed pensions for their subsistence, and permitted to continue the observance of their monastic vows if they thought fit to do so.^[2. It is probable that, in consequence of the suppression of the monasteries, the Breton Committee began about this time to assume the appellation of the Jacobin Club, from the hall belonging to the Jacobin friars at Faria, in which their meetings were now held. ]

An event occurred at this time (March 15th), which tended in no small degree to increase the odium under which the old government already laboured. This was the publication of the Red Book, or list of pensions and donations granted by the crown. After many entreaties on the one hand, and the most solemn promises of secrecy on the other, it had been communicated by Μ. Neckar to a committee of the assembly; but it afforded too striking an advantage to the popular party not to be made use of, and in a few days the minister, to his no small surprise, found this register publicly sold by every bookseller in Paris. He ought not, indeed, to have been surprised; and, in fact, the giving up of this list forms one of the many proofs which the transactions of this period afford of his utter unfitness for the office which he held. With much indignation, however, he demanded why the committee had published it without the permission of the assembly or the king; but he was told, that as to the assembly, they were sure of its approbation, and as to the king, they were not his representatives. To give an idea of the effect of this publication, it is only necessary to remark, that, under the short administration of Calonne, the two brothers of the king had received from the public treasury, independently of their legitimate income, nearly two millions sterling, and that six hundred thousand pounds had been granted to one individual, merely because he was the husband of Madame de Polignac. Neckar’s opposition to the publication of this register tended in no small degree to injure his popularity, and the rest of the ministry began to lose the confidence of the public. Indeed, fertile causes of alarm prevailed on all sides. The clergy were attempting to revive in the provinces the ancient animosities between the Catholics and the Protestants, to whom the late decrees of the assembly were ascribed. The German princes who possessed property in the north of France complained loudly of the violation[7:10:58] of their rights by the abolition of the feudal system, although the National Assembly had voted thèm a compensation; and the most melancholy intelligence was received from the colonies in the West Indies. The assembly had not recognized the right of the free negroes to enjoy the same privileges with other citizens, but still they hesitated to go the length of denying these privileges. This uncertain conduct produced infinite mischief. "Die whites contended with those commonly called people of colour, who again occasionally stood in opposition to the free negroes or to the slaves; and hence it sometimes happened that at the same time, and in the same colony, not less than three hostile assemblies were held, and made war upon one another with the most inveterate fury; and each party found protectors in the National Assembly, because those who favoured or opposed the existence of distinctions at home, in general followed out the same principle in reference to the colonies.

Upon the 14th of May Μ. de Montmorency having made known to the National Assembly the preparations for war in which England and Spain were engaged, this communication gave rise to the constitutional question, Who ought to possess the power of declaring war and making peace? Clermont-Tonnerre, Sarent, Virieu, and Dupont, supported the royal prerogative; whilst, on the other side, the exclusive right of the legislative body to exercise this important prerogative was supported by D'Aiguillon, Garat, Fréteau, Jellot, Charles Lameth, Sií-léry, Petion, Robespierre, and others. Petion proposed that the French nation should for ever renounce all idea of conquest, and confine itself entirely to defensive war; and this was decreed with universal acclamation. But Mirabeau at length successfully proposed that the right of declaring war or making peace should be vested in the king and the legislative body conjunctly; and the decree which was passed on the subject formed a strange farrago of contradictions and absurdities. It enjoined the king to guard the state from all external attacks; but it did not say how this could be done, without repelling any attack which might be made upon it. In fact, the king could do nothing without previously informing the National Assembly; and if that body chanced not to be sitting at the time, he was bound to let the enemy advance without opposition, until he had convened the deputies, dispersed over twenty thousand square leagues, and listened to their metaphysical quibbles in Paris.

On the 16th of June a very singular farce was enacted in the assembly. A Prussian refugee, called Anacharsis Clootz, on an evening sitting, which was generally ill attended by persons of high rank, introduced to the assembly a number of persons dressed in the habits of all the different countries that could be thought of; and in a formal harangue told them that he was come, as the orator of the human race, at the head of the representatives of all nations, to congratulate them upon the formation of their new constitution. He was answered by the president with much solemnity, upon which he retired with his motley group. This fantastical piece of folly, which in any other country would scarcely have excited a smile, was treated by the assembly in a serious light. Alexander Lameth proposed, that the figures of different nations exhibited in chains at the feet of Louis XIV. should be destroyed, as an insult to mankind. Μ. Lambel, a lawyer, then proposed the abolition of all hereditary titles; and in this he was supported by Lafayette, St Fargeau, and the Viscount de Noailles. The decree passed, along with another for suppressing all armorial bearings. No part of the proceedings of the French National Assembly was received with so much indignation as this. The feudal system had been abolished, and the property of the church wrested from it, with comparatively little notice; but when those nominal distinctions which antiquity had sanctioned and personal vanity rendered dear were attacked, the surrounding nations instantly took the alarm, and beheld with terror the levelling precedent which had thus been established. Nor is it a little remarkable, that of all the king’s ministers, Neckar alone, a plebeian, a republican born, and bred in a democracy, advised his majesty to refuse his assent to the decree, as a violent but useless encroachment upon the prejudices of a powerful order in the state.

In the mean time, the capital was entirely engrossed with preparations for a grand festivals Μ. Bailly having proposed to commemorate the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, his plan was adopted, because it flattered the vanity of the people, by presenting them with a splendid spectacle, in commemoration of their own exertions. As the army had been much disorganized, it was also resolved to attempt to unite all its branches, as well as the whole departments of the state, in one common attachment to the new order of things, by collecting into one place deputations for the purpose of swearing fidelity to the new constitution. In the middle of the Champ de Mars an altar was erected, at which the civic oath was to be taken; and around the altar an amphitheatre was erected capable of containing four hundred thousand spectators. All ranks of persons, the nobility, clergy, and even ladies, with that eagerness for novelty which is so peculiar to the French people, united their efforts; and crowds of foreigners, as well as natives, hurried to the capital to be present at this solemnity, which was denominated the Confederation. The long-expected 14th of July at length arrived. At six o'clock in the morning the procession was arranged on the boulevards, and consisted of the electors of the city of Paris, the representatives of the commons, the administrators of the municipality, a battalion of children with a standard on which was inscribed The Hopes of the Nation; deputies from the troops of France wherever quartered, and of every order, along with deputies from all the departments; to which were added immense detachments of the military and of the national guards, with an almost infinite multitude of drums, trumpets, and musical instruments. The procession was extremely splendid, as every district had its peculiar decorations. The National Assembly passed through a triumphal arch; and the king and queen, attended by the foreign ministers, were placed in a superb box. After a solemn invocation to God, the king approached the altar, and, amidst the deepest silence, took the prescribed oath to employ the power delegated to him according to the constitutional law of the state, to maintain the constitution, and to enforce the execution of the law. The president of the National Assembly then went up to the altar, and took the civic oath, swearing to be faithful to the nation, the law, and the king, and to maintain the constitution as decreed by the National Assembly, and accepted by the king; and every member of the assembly standing up, said, “That I swear.” Lafayette then advanced and took the oath, which the other deputies of the national guards pronounced after him; and the words were solemnly pronounced by every individual of this immense assembly. Te Deum was then sung, and the solemnity concluded. The performance was altogether sublime. Never before perhaps was there such an orchestra, or such an audience; their numbers baffled the eye to reckon, and their shouts fell on the ear like the noise of many waters. It is impossible to enumerate all the means which were employed to add splendour to this day; it ended with a general illumination, and no accident disturbed the public tranquillity.

The assembly now proceeded with the formation of the constitution; but the public tranquillity was disturbed by an unhappy event at Nancy. Most of the officers of the army were unfriendly to the late revolution; and every means had been employed by them to excite disgust in [7:10:59]the minds of the soldiers. At Nancy, in particular, necessaries had been denied them, and their pay was kept back, upon the pretence that such was the will of the National Assembly. Driven to despair, the regiments in garrison broke out in open mutiny; demanded loudly the regimental accounts; and having seized the military chest, sent a deputation to state their case to the National Assembly. But the officers had anticipated their men, and prepossessed the minister of war against them, and upon his representation a decree was passed, authorizing the commander-in-chief of the province, Μ. Bouille, to reduce the mutineers by force. This was no sooner known than the national guard of Nancy assembled, and sent a deputation to give a fair statement of facts. But Bouille, without waiting the result of an explanation, hastened to Nancy at the head of all the troops he could collect; and having fallen upon the regiments of Chateauvieux and Mestre de Camp, put a number to the sword, and took four hundred prisoners. The news of these events filled Paris with indignation, and the assembly afterwards reversed its own decrees against the mutineers at Nancy; but Bouille could not be punished, because he had only acted in obedience to authority.

As Neckar was unwilling to go all lengths with the ruling party, his popularity had for some time been gradually declining. He therefore tendered his resignation on the 4th of September, and immediately thereafter left the kingdom. He was regretted by no party. Regarded, on the one hand, as having ruined the kingdom, by the concessions which he had advised the king to make in favour of the tiers état, he was despised, on the other, as a politician of lukewarm principles, narrow views, and limited understanding. He retired, however, with an unblemished reputation for integrity. This minister does not seem to have been capable of penetrating deeply into the characters of men, or forming any adequate conception of the effects of that energy which is called forth in a nation that attempts to make important changes in its ancient manners and government; and having formed no just estimate of the important era about to open on the country of which he was the minister, he was far from being qualified to direct or control its affairs amidst the violent convulsions through which it was destined to pass. Unable to brook the loss of his popularity, he retired to Switzerland, and there published a work, which, whatever it fails to establish, clearly shows the honest intentions of the French king, and the boundless ambition of the popular leaders, whom he himself had armed with power.

The assembly commenced the year 1791 with a decree announcing the termination of its session, which was to take place as soon as it should have finished the discussion of a list of constitutional articles. In the mean time, hostile appearances began to be exhibited on the side of Germany, Spain, Italy, and Savoy, and bodies of troops advanced towards the French frontiers. The Emperor Leopold was, however, too cautious to announce his intentions; and the king soon communicated a letter which he had received from that potentate, containing protestations of amicable dispositions, but adding, that the innovations occasioned by the decrees of the 4th of August ought to be done away. The king treated this merely as an official measure on the part of the emperor, in order that he might not appear to compensate the claims of certain German princes on Alsace and Lorraine. But the assembly expressed some alarm, and voted an augmentation of the national force. On the 20th of February public attention was roused by a circumstance, which in any other state of affairs would have been accounted unimportant. The king announced to the assembly, that his aunts, the daughters of Louis XV n had that morning left Paris; but as he did not apprehend that the existing laws laid them under any restraint in this respect, he had not opposed their departure. After some debate, the assembly agreed that the king had judged well; and these princesses were left to pursue their journey to Rome. The kingdom bad thus been gradually deserted by every branch of the royal family, excepting the king and his eldest brother; the panic which had seized the nobility, and induced them to desert the country and the throne at the moment when they ought to have stuck firm to both, communicated itself to those most nearly connected with the latter, who also abandoned their posts. The assembly, however, continued its labours with unremitting perseverance and amidst tolerable tranquillity.

Towards the end of the month of March, the National Assembly was deprived by death of its most gifted member, and, in one sense, greatest ornament, Mirabeau. The death of this extraordinary man had in it something sublime. Though sensible of his approaching dissolution, he was so far from being intimidated by the prospect, that he gloried in the name which he was to bequeath to posterity. Towards the close of his illness his sufferings were acute; and at one moment, when deprived of the power of speech, he wrote on a slip of paper the words of Hamlet, “To die, to sleep; no more.” But a few hours before his death the commencement of mortification relieved his sufferings, without overclouding the brightness of his faculties. “Remove from the bed,” said he, “all that sad apparatus. Instead of these useless precautions, surround me with the perfumes and flowers of spring; dress my hair with care; let me fall asleep amidst the sounds of harmonious music.” Aware that recovery was hopeless, he earnestly implored his attendants to give him laudanum, to put a period to his sufferings. “When a sick man is given over,” said he, “and he suffers frightful pains, can a friendly physician refuse to give him opium ?” His extremities were already cold, and death was fast doing its work; but his countenance still retained its animation, his eye its wonted fire, his mind its energies unimpaired. Feigning to comply with his request, his attendants gave him a cup containing what they assured him was opium. He drank it off calmly, fell back on his pillow, and almost instantly expired. Endowed with a constitution naturally robust, his physical powers sunk under the combined waste of boundless ambition, continual excitement, and excessive indulgence. At his death he received from his countrymen marks of respect unparalleled in modern history. During his short illness his door was besieged by anxious citizens. A mourning of eight days was decreed by the assembly, and also a grand procession, which was attended by all the public functionaries. He was likewise the first interred in the new Pantheon, consecrated to receive the remains of illustrious men; but his ashes were afterwards removed, in consequence of pretty conclusive proofs that he had not been incorruptible.

Such was the end of the first commanding spirit which arose amidst the troubles of the Revolution. Mirabeau was upwards of forty years of age when he entered public life; but even at the opening of the States General his reputation was already great; and notwithstanding the disfavour produced by his vices, he was regarded as the tribune who alone could support the cause of the people against the designs of the court. Nor were these expectations disappointed, notwithstanding all the defects inherent in his character. He was endowed with splendid talents, but impelled by insatiable ambition; gifted with a penetrating intellect, but the prey of inordinate passions sagacious in the perception of truth, but indifferent as to the means by which distinction was to be acquired; without great information derived from study, but unrivalled in the power of converting that which he possessed to the best possible account; of matchless tact and promptitude; [7:10:60]dauntless intrepidity, and unconquerable energy, but of sue* pected integrity, and destitute of either moral or religious principles. His temperament was too ardent and impetuous tn permit him to master any subject; he studied nothing profoundly, and owed almost all the writings to which his name was attached, and many of the most effective speeches he delivered, to Dumont, Duroverai, and Clavière, who each assisted him in his labours. Ĳis strength lay in a vivid imagination, a nervous elocution, and an unrivalled power of seizing hold on the spirit of the assembly which he addressed, and applying the whole force of his mind to the point whence the resistance proceeded. It was in moments of the greatest difficulty that his faculties shone forth in the greatest splendour; it was when apparently on the verge of annihilation that he shot forth those thun. derbolts by which his ascendency was confirmed. But great as was his influence in the National Assembly, it fell far short of what it might have been but for the consequences of his irregular life; and the general impression of his total want of principle, combined with his habitual profusion and extravagance, made the league which he formed with the court towards the close of his career be ascribed to venal and corrupt motives. But in undertaking to heal the wounds of the Revolution, which he believed himself to hold as it were in the hollow of his hand, he miscalculated his own power, great as it undoubtedly was. The work of destruction had proceeded too far to be suddenly stopped; a spirit had been unchained which no magic of genius or talents could allay, until it bad spent its force in levelling with the dust all old and time-honoured distinctions. In the character of a mediator, which he proposed to assume, he would have most probably sunk into insignificance; and, with the loss of his influence as a popular tribune, his power to re-establish the monarchy, even upon the basis of constitutional freedom, would also have vanished. Besides, the instruments with which he proposed to work were not adapted to his handling; and, after a short trial, he would have found himself obliged to throw them aside.^[3. Dumont, 276, 277; Lacretelle, vűi. 133; Thiers, i. 281,282; Mad. de Staël, L 408: Alison, i. 240, 241, 242. On his death-bed Mirabeau foresaw, in the clearest manner, the consequences which were certain to flow from the direction given to the Revolution, and the boundless scope thus afforded to popular ambition. “when I am no more,” said he, “my worth will become known. The misfortunes which 1 nave arrested will then pour in on all sides on France; the criminal faction which now trembles before me will be unbridled. I have before my eyes unbounded presentiments of disaster, we now see liow much we erred in not preventing the commons from assuming the name of the National Assembly. Since they gained that victory they have never ceased to show themseives unworthy of it. They have chosen to govern the king, instead of governing by him; but soon neither he nor they will rule the country, but a vile faction which will overspread it with horrors.” (Dumont, 267, 268.) The sagacity and foresight displayed in these remarkable words make us cease to wonder that the death of Mirabeau, at this crisis, should nave been regarded as a public calamity. ]

During the whole of this spring great fear was entertained that attempts were to be made to bring about a counter revolution. The emigrant army under the prince of Condé had assembled on the borders of Alsace. The king also was surrounded by crowds of nonjuring priests, and other disaffected persons. The popular jealousy, which in every period of the Revolution strikingly marked the French character, was thus kept on the alarm, and soon vented itself in an aggression on the royal family. On the 18th of April, when the latter were preparing to remove to St Cloud, there to pass some days, a report was instantly spread that the king was about to fly from the country. The carriages were immediately surrounded by people. Lafayette called out the national guard, but they refused to act. “We know,” said they, “that we are violating the laws, but the safety of our country is the first law.” The king instantly went to the assembly, and with much spirit complained of the insult. He was answered respectfully by the président, and permitted to continue his journey. As the royal family had enjoyed for some time a considerable degree of freedom, the present opportunity was embraced to intimate to foreign courts his acceptance of the constitution; and all obnoxious persons were dismissed from about his person. But the breach of discipline on the part of the national guard was so much resented by Lafayette, that he resigned his command, and Paris was thrown into consternation; nor was it until after universal solicitation that he could be prevailed upon to resume his functions.

About this time Μ. de Bouille, to whom the protection of the frontiers had been intrusted, was reported to be employing every means in his power in order to render the country defenceless. The garrisons were left unprovided; disunion spread amongst the national tr<x>ps, who were removed from the frontiers, and their place occupied by foreigners; the emigrants abroad, and their friends at home, were lying in wait for an opportunity to revolt: such were the rumours in circulation, when suddenly, on the 21βt of June, it was announced from the Tuilleries, that the king, the queen, the dauphin, with monsieur and madame, had quitted the palace and the capital, without leaving any information of their intention or their route. The feeling excited by this intelligence among the multitude was a mixture of rage and consternation. The National Assembly, however, acted with much coolness and promptitude. They instantly took upon themselves the government, and decreed their sittings permanent; and they at the same time sent messengers in all directions, to attempt to lay hold of the fugitives. The latter, however, had taken different routes; and monsieur and madame arrived safely at Brussels on the ⅛3d. The king, queen, and their children, when they reached a considerable distance from the capital, were furnished by Μ. de Bouille with a guard of dragoons, under pretence of protecting treasure for the pay of the troops. But, at the distance of 156 miles from the capital, and when only a few leagues from the frontier, they were arrested at St Menehould by the postmaster, Μ. Drouet, formerly a dragoon in the regiment of Condé. At half past seven o'clock in the evening, the carriages having stopped at his house to change horses, Drouet thought that he recognized the queen, and imagined that the king’s face resembled the impressions stamped upon the assignats. The escort of dragoons increased the suspicion. He suffered them to depart at eleven o’clock without notice; but taking a companion, be proceeded by a shorter road to Varennes, and with the assistance of the postmaster of that place, he gave the alarm; overturned a carriage on the bridge, which detained the royal travellers till the national guard of the place had assembled; and succeeded, without bloodshed, in effecting the arrest of the whole party, who were brought back to Paris by a deputation from the assembly. At his departure, the king had imprudently left behind him a memorial, in which he declared that he never had thought any sacrifice too great for the restoration of order; but that the destruction of the kingdom and the triumph of anarchy being the only reward of all his efforts, he had thought it necessary to leave it. He then took a review of the faults of the new constitution, with the grievances he had suffered, and protested against every thing which he had been compelled to do during his captivity.

Different parties were variously affected by this ill-conducted and unfortunate flight of the king. A republican [7:10:61]party had already begun to appear; and during the king’s abeence attempt« were made to induce the public at large to consider the royal authority as no necessary part of a free constitution. But the minds of men were not yet altogether prepared for the reception of this doctrine. The idea, however, having been thus publicly proposed, left impressions which in time contributed to give rise to important events. By far the greater number of the leading men were at this time convinced that it was impossible to govern a great empire like France without the assistance of an hereditary chief; and hence they determined to pass over the journey to Varennes as quietly as possible, and to hasten the period when the new constitution should be completed. But their intentions, as will be seen in the sequel, were rendered abortive; and there is reason to believe that this unfortunate journey was, in its consequences, instrumental in bringing about the tragedy which consummated the overthrow of the monarchy. The flight of the king seemed the signal for a general emigration. Many of the aristocratic party sent in resignations of their seats in the National Assembly; and troops were levied on the frontiers in the name of the king, though he took care to disavow any connection with such proceedings.

The assembly, in sanctioning the detention of the king at Varennes, and sending commissioners to bring him back to Paris, yielded to popular clamour, in opposition probably to their better judgment; at all events they committed a great political error. The leaders of the democratic party had every reason to rejoice at the near prospect of a republic which his flight opened up; the constitutionalists must have desired to see him established at Montmedy, and emancipated from the state of thraldom in which he had been so long held by the rabble of Paris; many of the royalists were not probably displeased at the retreat of a king whose concessions had brought the monarchy to the brink of ruin; and all the better part of society must have been gratiĥed at his escape from the iron despotism of the Parisian mob. But all these considerations went for nothing in opposition to the clamours of the multitude; end, either from cowardice or a base love of popularity, the assembly adopted a course which their own minds must have disapproved, and which men of all parties have united to condemn. “The National Assembly," says Napoleon, “never committed so great an error as in bringing back the king from Varennes. A fugitive and powerless, he was hastening to the frontier, and in a few hours would have been out of the French territory. What should they have done in these circumstances? Clearly facilitated his escape, and declared the throne vacant by his desertion: they would thus have avoided the infamy of a regicide government, and attained their great object of republican institutions. Instead of this, by bringing him back, they embarrassed themselves with a sovereign whom they had no just reason for destroying, and lost the inestimable advantage of getting rid of the royal family without an act of cruelty.”^[4. Napoleon’s Mιmoira, vol. i. p. 1. ] In the truth and justice of these observations history must acquiesce.

A considerable calm followed the events just related, and France might almost be regarded as in a state of tranquillity. It contained, indeed, parties who entertained much animosity against each other, and many citizens had withdrawn to foreign countries; but the general peace was not disturbed, and moderate men hoped that prosperity would succeed to the late agitations. But this calm was delusive; and in the midst of it projects were formed which were destined afterwards to prove fata) to the peace of France and Europe. Towards the dose of summer the famous meeting at Pi)nitz in Saxony took place between die emperor and the king of Prussia, and led to the celebrated declaration, which was conceived in the following terms: “Their majesties, the emperor, and king of Prussia, having considered the representations of monsieur, brother of the king, and of his excellency the Count d’Artois, declare conjointly that they consider the situation of the king of France as a matter of common interest to all the European sovereigns. They hope that the reality of that interest will be duly appreciated by the other powers, whose assistance they will invoke, and that in consequence they will not decline to employ their forces conjointly with their majesties, in order to put the king of France in a situation to lay the foundation of a monarchical government, conformable alike to the rights of sovereigns and the wellbeing of the French nation. In that case the emperor and king are resolved to act promptly with the forces necessary to attain their common end. In the mean time they will give the requisite orders for the troops to hold themselves in immediate readiness for active service.” Such was the celebrated declaration of Piłnitz; but, either from a cooling of zeal upon the part of the allied sovereigns, or a sense of the danger which the king of France would have run, after he had, in consequence of the flight to Varennes, become a prisoner in the hands of the assembly, it remained without effect. It was alleged by the French, however, that there was a treaty as well as a declaration of Pilnitz, or, in other words, that several secret articles, stipulating the partition of some of the fairest provinces of France, were at the same time agreed to by the allied sovereigns; but no sufficient evidence has ever been produced to substantiate the allegation, and it is now indeed generally agreed that there was no such thing as a treaty of Pilnitz.^[5. The following paper, which has been repeatedly published as th*e copy of a treaty concluded and signed at Pavia, is generally understood to have been identical with, and is therefore known by the name of, the treaty of Pilnitz. we have already stated that its authenticity is more than questionable. Jt may have been fabricated by the National Assembly, to unite all parties against the foreign powers which threatened France with invasion. But, in relating the events of this revolution, it is as necessary, for the purpose of rendering the actions of men comprehensible, to give an account of what was at the time believed to have occurred, as it is to ascertain what was actually true. The treaty in question bears, “That his majesty the emperor will take all that Louis XIV. conquered in the Austrian Netherlands, will give ĭt to his serene highness the elector palatine; tnat he will preserve for ever the property and possession of Bavaria, to form in future an indivisible mass with the domains and hereditary possessions of the house of Austria; that the Archduchess Maria Christina shall be, conjointly with her nephew the Archduke Charles, put into hereditary possession of the duchy of Lorraine; that Alsace shall be restored to the empire; that if the Swiss Cantons consent to accede to the coalition, it may be pro∣>osed to them to annex to the Helvetic league the bishopric of Porentrui, the defiles of Franche Comté, and even those of Tyrol, with the neighbouring bailiwicks, as well as the territory of versoy, which intersects the Pays de vaud; that should his majesty the king <∣f Sardinia subscribe to the coalition, La Bresse, Le Bugey, and the Pays de Gex, usurped by France from Savoy, shall be restored to him; that in case bis Sardinian majesty can make a grand diversion, he shall be suffered to take Dauphiné, to belong to him for ever, as the nearest descendant of the ancient dauphins; that the king of Spain shall have lioussiłlon and Bearn, with the island of Corsica, and also the French part of the island of St Domingo; that the empress of all the Russias shall take upon herself the invasion of Poland, and at the same time retain Kaminiech, with that part of Podolia which borders on Moldavia; that the em-ρeror shall oblige the porte to give up Choczim, as well as the small forts of 8ervia, and those on the river Lurna; that the king of Prussia, by means of the above-mentioned invasion of Poland, shall make an acquisition of Thorn and Dantzic, and unite the palatinate on the east to the confines of Silesia; that the king of Prussia shall besides acquire Lusace, and the elector of Saxony shall in exchange receive the rest of Poland, and occupy the throne as hereditary sovereign; that the king of Poland shall abdicate the throne on receiving a suitable annuity; and that the elector of Saxony shall give his daughter in marriage to the youngest son of the grand duke of all the Ilussiaa, who will be the father of the race of the hereditary kings of Poland and Lithuania.” And this is signed by Leopold, Prince Nassau, Count Florida Blanca, and Bischoffswender . ]
[7:10:62]

In the mean time, the National Assembly was hastening towards the completion of the new constitution, which was finished on the 3d of September, and immediately presented to the king. It begins with a declaration of the rights of man; this is followed by the provisions regarding other matters. According to it, all men are born, and remain, free and equal in rights; and social distinctions can only be founded on common utility. The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance against oppression. The principle of sovereignty resides essentially in the nation; and no body of men, no individual, can exercise an authority which does not emanate expressly from that source. Liberty consists in the power of doing every thing except that which is hurtful to another; and hence the exercise of the natural rights of every man has no other bounds than those which are necessary to ensure to the other members of society the enjoyment of the same rights; bounds which can only be determined by law. The law has a right to forbid those actions alone which are hurtful to society. Whatever is not forbidden by the law cannot be hindered; and no person can be constrained to do that which the law does not ordain. The law is the expression of the general will; and all the citizens have a right to concur personally, or by their representatives, in the formation of the law; it ought therefore to be the same for all, whether it protect or whether it punish. All citizens being equal in the eye of the law, are equally admissible to dignities, places, and public offices, according to their capacity, and without any other distinction than that of their virtue and their talents. No man can be accused, arrested, or detained, except in cases determined by the law, and according to the forms which the law has prescribed. Those who solicit, dispatch, execute, or cause to be executed, arbitrary orders, ought to be punished; but every citizen who is summoned or seized in virtue of the law ought to obey instantly, otherwise he becomes culpable by resistance. The law ought to establish such punishments only as are strictly and evidently necessary; and no person can be punished except in virtue of a law established and promulgated prior to the offence, and legally applied. Every man being presumed innocent till such time as he has been declared guilty, if it shall be deemed absolutely necessary to arrest a man, ever]' kind of rigour employed, not necessary to secure his person, ought to be severely repressed. No person shall be molested for his opinions, even such as are religious, provided the manifestation of those opinions does not disturb the public order established by the law. The free communication of thought and of opinion is one of the most precious rights of man. Every citizen, therefore, may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments; subject, however, to answer for the abuse of this liberty in the cases determined by the law, The guarantee of the rights of men and citizens involves a necessity of public force; but this force is then instituted for all, and not for the particular utility of those to whom it is confided. For the maintenance of the public force, and for the expenses of the administration, a common contribution is indispensably necessary; but this contribution should be equally divided amongst all the citizens in proportion to their abilities. Every citizen has a right, by himself or by his representatives, to decide concerning the necessity of the public contribution; to consent to it freely; to look after the employment of it; and to determine the quantity, the distribution, the collection, and duration. Society has a right to demand from every public agent an account of his administration. Every society in which the guarantee of rights is not assured, nor the separation of powers determined, has no constitution. Property being a right inviolable and sacred, no person can be deprived of it, except when the public necessity, legally ascertained, shall evidently require it, and on condition of a just and previous indemnification.

The constitution guarantees, as natural and civil rights, first, that all citizens are admissible to places and employments, without any distinction but that of ability and virtue; secondly, that all contributions shall be divided equally among all the citizens, in proportion to their meansļ thirdly, that the same crimes shall be subject to the same punishments, without any distinction of persons. The constitution, in like manner, guarantees, as natural and civil rights, liberty to all men, of going, staying, or departing, without being arrested or detained, except according to the forms prescribed by the constitution; liberty to all men, of speaking, writing, printing, and publishing their thoughts, without having their writings subjected to any examination or inspection before publication, and of exercising the religious worship to which they are attached; liberty to all citizens, of assembling peaceably, and without arms, complying with the laws of police; liberty of addressing to all constitutional authorities petitions individually signed; and the inviolability of property, or a just and previous indemnity for that of which public necessity, legally proved, shall require the sacrifice. A system of public instruction shall be created and organized, common to all citizens, gratuitous with regard to those parts of tuition indispensable for all men, and of which the establishment shall be gradually distributed, in a proportion combined with the division of the kingdom.

The kingdom is one and indivisible; its territory for administration is distributed into eighty-three departments, each department into districts, each district into cantons. Those are French citizens who are born in France of a French father; who, having been born in France of a foreign father, have fixed their residence in the kingdom; who, having been born in a foreign country, of a French father, have returned to settle in France, and have taken the civic oath; and, lastly, who, having been born in a foreign country, being descended in whatever degree from a Frenchman or Frenchwoman, have left their country from religious motives, come to reside in France, and taken the civic oath. The right of French citizenship is lost, first, by naturalization in a foreign country; secondly, by being condemned to penalties which involve the civic degradation, provided the person condemned be not reinstated; thirdly, by a sentence of contumacy, provided the sentence be not annulled; fourthly, by initiation into any foreign order or body which supposes either proofs of nobility or distinctions of birth, or requires religious vows. The law considers marriage as only a civil contract.

The sovereignty is one, indivisible, unalienable, and imprescriptible, and it belongs to the nation; no section of the people, and no individual, can arrogate the exercise of it. The nation, from which alone flow all powers, cannot exercise them but by delegation. The French constitution is representative, and the representatives are the legislative body and the king. The National Assembly, forming the legislative body, is permanent, and consists of one chamber only. It shall be formed by new elections every two years. The legislative body cannot be dissolved by the king. The number of representatives to the [7:10:63]legislative body shall be seven hundred and forty-five, on account of the eighty-three departments of which the kingdom is composed, and independently of those who may be granted to the colonies. The representatives shall be distributed among the departments, according to the three proportions of land, of population, and of the direct contributions or taxes. Of the seven hundred and forty-five representatives, two hundred and forty-seven are attached to the land. Of these, each department shall nominate three, excepting the department of Paris, which shall nominate only one. Two hundred and forty-nine representatives are attached to the population. The total mass of the active population of the kingdom is divided into two hundred and forty-nine parts, and each department nominates as many of the deputies as it contains paru of the population. Two hundred and forty-nine representatives are attached to the direct contributions. The sum total of the direct contributions of the kingdom is likewise divided into two hundred and forty-nine parts, and each department nominates as many deputies as it pays parts of the contribution.

In order to form a Legislative National Assembly, the active citizens shall convene, in primary assemblies, every two years in the cities and cantons. The primary assemblies shall meet of full right on the first Sunday of March, if not convoked sooner by the public officers appointed to do so by the law. To be an active citizen, it is necessary to be a Frenchman, or to have become a Frenchman; to have attained twenty-five years complete; to have resided in the city or the canton during the time determined by the law; to pay in any part of the kingdom a direct contribution or tax, at least equal to the value of three days’ labour, and to produce the acquittance; not to be in a menial capacity, namely, that of a servant receiving wages; to be inscribed in the municipality of the place of his residence in the list of the national guards; to have taken the civic oath. The primary assemblies shall name electors in the proportion of the number of active citizens residing in the city or canton. There shall be named one elector to the assembly or not, according as there shall happen to be present a hundred active citizens. There shall be named two when there are present from a hundred and fifty-one to two hundred and fifty, and so on in this proportion. The electors named in each department shall convene in order to choose the number of representatives whose nomination shall belong to their department, and a number of substitutes equal to the third of the representatives. The assemblies shall be held of full right on the last Sunday of March, if they have not been before convoked by the public officers appointed to do so by law. All active citizens, whatever be their state, profession, or contribution, may be chosen representatives of the nation; excepting, nevertheless, the ministers and other agents of the executive power, and other persons named. The members of the legislative body may be re-elected to a subsequent legislature, but not till after an interval of one legislature. No active citizen can enter or vote in an assembly if he be armed. The representatives shall meet on the first Monday of May, in the place of the sittings of the last legislature.

The royalty is indivisible, and delegated hereditarily to the race on the throne from male to male, by order of primogeniture, to the perpetual exclusion of women and their descendants. Nothing is prejudged as to the effect of renunciations in the race on the throne. The person of the king is inviolable and sacred; his only title is King of the French. If the king put himself at the head of an army, and direct the forces of it against the nation, or if he do not oppose, by a formal act, any such enterprise undertaken in his name, he shall be held to have abdicated, if the king, having gone out of the kingdom, do not return to it, after an invitation by the legislative body, within the space which shall be fixed by the proclamation, and which cannot be less than two months, he shall be held to have abdicated the royalty. After abdication, express or legal, the king shall be in the class of citizens, and may be accused and tried like them for acts posterior to his abdication. The nation makes provision for the splendour of the throne by a civil list, of which the legislative body shall fix the amount at the commencement of each reign, for the whole duration of that reign. The king is a minor till the age of eighteen complete; and during his minority there shall be a regent of the kingdom. The regency belongs to the relation of the king next in degree according to the order of succession to the throne, who has attained the age of twenty-five, provided he be a Frenchman resident in the kingdom, and not presumptive heir to any other crown, and have previously taken the civic oath. The presumptive heir shall bear the name of Prince Hoyal. The members of the king’s family called to the eventual succession of the throne shall add the denomination of French Prince to the name which shall be given them in the civil act proving their birth; and this name can neither be patronymic nor formed of any of the qualifications abolished by the present constitution. The denomination of prince cannot be given to any individual, and shall not carry with it any privilege or exception to the common right of all French citizens. To the king alone belong the choice and dismission of ministers.

The members of the present National Assembly, and of the subsequent legislatures, the members of the tribunal of appeal, and those who shall be of the high jury, cannot be advanced to the ministry, nor receive any place, gift, pension, allowance, or commission of the executive power, or its agents, during the continuance of their functions, or during two years after ceasing to exercise them; and the same shall be observed respecting those who shall only be inscribed on the list of high jurors as longas their inscription shall continue. No order of the king can be executed if it be not signed by him, and countersigned by the minister or comptroller of the department. In no case can the written or verbal order of the king shelter a minister from responsibility.

The constitution delegates exclusively to the legislative body the powers and functions following: To propose and decree laws, as the king can only invite the legislative body to take a subject into consideration; to fix the public expenses; to establish the public contributions; to determine the nature of them, the amount of each sort, the duration, mode of collection, and so forth. War cannot be resolved on except by a decree of the National Assembly, passed on the formal and necessary proposition of the king, and sanctioned by him. During the whole course of war the legislative body may require the king to negotiate peace; and the king is bound to yield to this requisition. It belongs to the legislative body to ratify treaties of peace, alliance, and commerce; and no treaty shall have effect but by this ratification.

The deliberations of the legislative body shall be public, and the minutes of the sittings shall be printed. The legislative body may, however, upon any occasion form itself into a general committee. The project of a decree or law shall be read thrice, at three intervals, the shortest of which cannot be less than eight days. The decrees of the legislative body are presented to the king, who may refuse them his consent. In case of a refusal of the royal consent, that refusal is only suspensive. When the two following legislatures shall successively present the same decree in the same terms in which it was originally conceived, the king shall be deemed to have given his sanction. The king is bound to express his consent or refusal to each decree within two months after its présentation[7:10:64]. No decree to which the king has refused his consent can be again presented to him by the same legisla∙ ture.

The supreme executive power resides exclusively in the hands of the king. The king is the supreme head of the land and sea forces. He names ambassadors,'and the other agents of political negotiations. He bestows the command of armies and fleets, and the ranks of marshal of France and admiral: he names two thirds of the rear-admirals, one half of the lieutenant-generals, major-generals, captains of ships, and colonels of the national gendarmerie: he names a third of the colonels and lieutenant-colonels, and a sixth of the lieutenants of ships: he appoints, in the civil administration of the marine, the directors, the comptrollers, the treasurers of the arsenals, the masters of the works, the under-masters of civil buildings, half of the masters of administration, and the undermasters of construction. He appoints the commissaries of the tribunals; as also the superintendents in chief of the management of indirect contributions, and the administration of national domains. He superintends the coinage of money, and appoints officers intrusted with this superintendence in the general commission and the mints. The effigy of the king is struck upon all the coinage of the kingdom. There is in each department a superior administration, and in each district a subordinate administration. The administrators are specially charged with distributing the direct contributions, and with superintending the money arising from the contributions, and the public revenues in their territory. The king has the right of annulling such acts of the administrators of department as are contrary to the law or the orders transmitted to them; and he may, in case of obstinate disobedience, or of their endangering, by their acts, the safety or peace of the public, suspend them from their functions. The king alone can interfere in foreign political connections. Every declaration of war shall be made in these terms: “By the king of the French, in the name of the nation.” The judicial power can in no case be exercised either by the legislative body or the king. Justice shall be gratuitously administered by judges chosen from time to time by the people, and instituted by letters-patent of the king, who cannot refuse them. The public accuser shall be nominated by the people. The right of citizens to determine disputes definitively by arbitration, cannot receive any infringement from the acts of the legislative power. In criminal matters, no citizens can be judged except on an accusation received by jurors, or decreed by the legislative body in the case in which it belongs to it to prosecute the accusation. After the accusation shall be admitted, the facts shall be examined and declared by the jurors. The person accused shall have the privilege of challenging twenty jurors, without assigning any reason. The jurors who declare the fact shall not be fewer than twelve. The application of the law shall be made by the judges. The process shall be public; and the person accused cannot be denied the aid of counsel. No man acquitted by a legal jury can be apprehended or accused on account of the same fact.

For the whole kingdom there shall be one tribunal of appeal, established near the legislative body. A high national court, composed of members of the tribunal of appeal and high jurors, shall take cognizance of the crimes of ministers, and the principal agents of the executive power; and of crimes which attack the general safety of the state, when the legislative body shall pass a decree of accusation. It shall not assemble except on the proclamation of the legislative body, and at the distance of thirty ∣ thousand toises at least from the place of meeting of the legislative body.

The national guards do not form a military body, or an

- institution in the state; they are the citizehs themselves ι-called to assist the public force. Officers are chosen for a time, and cannot again be chosen till after a certain ine terval of service as privates. None shall command the e national guard of more than one district. All the parts of s the public force employed for the safety of the state from s foreign enemies are under the command of the king.

1 Public contributions shall be debated and fixed every

- year by the legislative body, and cannot continue in force

- longer than the last day of the following session, if they

- are not expressly renewed. Detailed accounts of the ex-

- pense of the ministerial departments, signed and certified > by the ministers or comptrollers-general, shall be printed . and published at the commencement of the sessions of , each legislature; and the same shall be done with the statements of the receipt of the different taxes, and all . the public revenues.

i The French nation renounces the undertaking of any f war with the view of making conquests, and will never employ its forces against the liberty of any people. And it is also declared, that the nation has the imprescriptible: right of changing its constitution; but considering that it is more conformable to the national interest to employ only, by means provided in the constitution itself, the right of reforming those articles of it of which experience shall have shown the inconveniences, it is further decreed, that the proceeding by an assembly of revision shall be regulated in the form following: When three successive legislatures shall have expressed an uniform wish for the change of any constitutional article, the revision demanded shall take place. The next legislature, and the following, cannot propose the reform of any constitutional article. The fourth legislature, augmented by two hundred and forty- ’ nine members, chosen in each department, by doubling the ordinary number which it furnishes in proportion to its population, shall form the assembly of revision.

The French colonies and possessions in Asia, Africa, and America, though they form part of the French empire, are not included in this constitution.

With respect to the laws made by the National Assembly which are not included in the act of constitution, and those anterior laws which it has not altered, they shall be observed as long as they are not revoked or modified by the legislative power.

On the 13th of September the king announced, by a letter to the president of the assembly, his acceptance of this constitution, which, however defective in some points, is based upon solid principles of liberty; and the event was ordered to be notified to all the foreign courts, whilst the assembly decreed a general amnesty with respect to the events of the Revolution. On the following day the king repaired in person to the National Assembly; and being conducted to a chair of state prepared for him by the side of the president, he signed the constitutional act, and took an oath to maintain it. He then withdrew, and was attended back to the Tuilleries by the whole assembly, with the president at their head. On the 30th of September, the National, which has since been known by the name of the Constituent Assembly, dissolved itself, and gave place to the Legislative National Assembly, which had been elected according to the rules prescribed in the new constitution.

Of the character and labours of £he Constituent Assembly, which contained many men of distinguished talents, and not a few of eminent virtue, it is by no means easy, even at this distance of time, to form an accurate and altogether dispassionate estimate. Called together at a period of unexampled difficulty and distress; intrusted with the performance of duties altogether new to its members; required at once to regenerate a superannuated monarchy and to lay the foundations of constitutional liberty; and placed m [7:10:65]the midst of a famishing people, resolved to cast off their chains, but not yet prepared for the enjoyment of freedom; it “as expected to reform every abuse which tune and misgovernment had engendered, to renovate an empire gray with feudal corruption, and to direct into safe channels the recently-excited energy of the people. The convocation of the States General formed the last resource of the monarchy overburdened by its own vices, and the first hope of the nation groaning under the pressure of accumulated evils; and to this body, therefore, the court looked for help in overcoming the difficulties with which it was beset, at the expense of some concessions in favour of general liberty, and the people for an entire re-organization of the system of government on a footing adapted to their opinions and their wants. How it accomplished the task thus imposed on it, is now matter of experience. That much still remains in dispute cannot be denied; but time, the great expositor of truth, has nevertheless unfolded its errors and illustrated its virtues.

The principal evils which afflicted France were removed by this assembly. Liberty of religious worship, which had been but imperfectly provided for in 1787, was secured in its fullest extent; torture and the punishment of the wheel were abolished; trial by jury, publicity of criminal proceedings, the examination of witnesses in presence of the accused, and counsel for his defence, were fixed by law; the ancient parliaments, the fastnesses of prejudice and partiality, were suppressed, and one uniform system of criminal jurisprudence established; lettres de cachet were abolished for ever; the exemption from taxation of the nobility and the clergy was extinguished, and an equal system of contribution established throughout the kingdom; the most oppressive imposts, as those on salt and tobacco, together with the taille and the tithes, were abrogated; and the privileges of nobility, with the feudal burdens, were abolished. To the Constituent Assembly France has also been indebted for the institution of national guards; the opening of the army to the courage and ability of every class of society; and the division of landed property amongst the middle ranks, one of the greatest benefits which can be conferred upon a nation. The same body also had the merit of authoritatively recognising and proclaiming the natural, social, and civil rights of man; of establishing that equality in the eye of the law without which there can be no true liberty; and of rendering the whole genius, talent, and virtue of the nation available to the public service in all its departments. These were no doubt mighty changes, and their beneficial effects w ere demonstrated even amidst all the calamities and convulsions which ensued. They enabled the nation to bear up and prosper under a vast accumulation of evils, any one of which would have exhausted the national strength under the monarchy; under public bankruptcy, enormously-depreciated assignats, civil divisions, political anarchy, the reign of terror, the wars of Napoleon, foreign invasion, and subjugation by Europe. In a word, by means of these reforms, France has at length, in spite of every obstacle, become great, glorious, and free; the terror of the despots of continental Europe, and one of the greatest bulwarks of modem civilization.

The errors of the Constituent Assembly, though scarcely of less magnitude, have happily not produced consequences equally lasting. By destroying in a few months die constitution of a thousand years, they set afloat the ideas of men, and spread the fever of innovation throughout the empire; by confiscating the property of the church, they established a precedent for injustice, which was but too closely followed in subsequent years; by establishing the right of universal suffrage, and conferring on the nation the nomination to all offices of trust, they conceded the exercise of powers incompatible with the monarchical form of government they themselves had established, and which the people were as yet incapable of exercising with advantage. They diminished the influence of the crown to such a degree as to render it incapable of controlling the people; they limited the royal negative in such a manner as to render it nearly inoperative; and they thus left the kingdom a prey to the factions to which the recent changes had unavoidably given birth. Lastly, by excluding themselves from the Legislative Assembly (and this was their greatest error), they deprived France of the benefit of their experience, and permitted their successors to commence the same circle of experimental innovation, to the extreme hazards of which they had latterly been fully awakened. But all these were either reparable or terminable evils, which, though severely felt for a season, have, in the natural course of events, been either cured or ended; and, fortunately for France, the good seed sown by this body is still producing its fruits, whilst the tares scattered amongst it have at length withered and died

The new assembly was opened by the king in person on the 7th of October, in a speech recommending unanimity and confidence between the legislative and the executive powers, which speech was received with unbounded applause. The character of the men who composed the new National Assembly was inauspicious to the court. At the commencement of the Revolution, the great body of the people at a distance from the capital felt little interested in those projects of freedom which occupied the more enlightened but more turbulent inhabitants of Paris. But they had gradually been roused from their lethargy. The variety of powers conferred upon the people at large by the new constitution, and the multiplicity of offices of which it gave them the patronage, had kindled in the minds of men a sense of their own importance, and a desire to intermeddle in public affairs. This attached them to the new order of things. The love of power, which is perhaps the least disguised passion in the human heart, and equally strong in the breast of the meanest and most elevated of mankind, had thus, under the name of liberty, become a leading passion throughout the empire; and they who flattered it most, and were loudest in praise of the rights of the people, became speedily the favourites of the public. The new National Assembly was chiefly composed of country gentlemen of principles highly democratic, or of men of letters who had published popular books or conducted periodica] publications; and as the members of the Constituent Assembly had by their own act excluded themselves from holding seats in the Legislative Assembly, the members of the latter entertained but little regard for a constitution which they themselves had not framed, and which was not protected by the sanction of antiquity.

When this assembly first met, it showed much attention to formalities, and an extreme jealousy of the ministers of the crown; and as the treaty of Pilnitz now began to be rumoured abroad, France was thrown into a state of great anxiety for the safety of its newly-acquired liberties. Although the Prussians and Germans still continued to temporize, Sweden and Russia had entered into strict engagements to restore the old despotism of France. Accordingly, on the 9th of November a decree was passed, by which it was provided that the emigrants who, after the first of January 1792, should be found assembled in a hostile manner beyond the frontiers, should be considered as guilty of a conspiracy, and suffer death; and that the French princes and public functionaries who should not return before that period, should be punishable in the same manner, and their property forfeited during their lives. On the 18th a number of severe decrees were also passed against such of the ejected clergy as still refused to take the civic oath. But to all these the king opposed his veto or negative. The moderate party, who were attached to the constitution, rejoiced at this, as a proof of the freedom of the sovereign; but, [7:10:66]on the other hand, it raised a violent clamour, and became the means of exciting new suspicions against the court. About this time answers from the different foreign courts to the notification sent them of the king having accepted the new constitution were received. These were generally conceived in a style of great caution, and avoided employing language calculated to produce irritation. The emperor even prohibited all assemblages of emigrants within his states; and Louis intimated to the assembly that he had declared to the elector of Treves, that unless the emigrants ceased before the 15th of January to make hostile preparations within his territories, he would be considered as the enemy of France. All this, however, did not serve to allay suspicion; for although the different foreign courts had openly declared pacific intentions, yet the French emigrants boldly asserted that all Europe was actually arming in their favour, and accordingly ceased not to solicit such of their friends as still remained within the country to leave it and join them in what they called the royal cause. Placed between a republican party which was gradually gathering strength, and an aristocratical party which was rousing Europe to arms against a nation of which he was the constitutional chief, with a combination of princes suspected of wishing to seize upon part of his dominions, the unhappy king stood in a situation which would have perplexed the most skilful statesman; and it is no prpof of incapacity that he fell a sacrifice to circumstances which might have overwhelmed any ordinary measure of human sagacity. Addresses were crowding into the assembly disapproving the conduct of the court. Μ. Montmorin resigned; Μ. Delessart succeeded him; and Μ. Cahier de Gerville became minister of the interior. Μ. Duportail resigned also, and was succeeded as minister of war by Μ. de Narbonne. In the month of November Μ. Bailly’s mayoralty terminated; and the once popular Lafayette appeared as a candidate for the office. But he was successfully opposed by Μ. Petion, a declared republican, who was elected mayor by a great majority.

At this period the moderate men, friends of the constitution, attempted to counteract the influence of the Jacobin Club by the establishment of a similar one. This new club derived its name from the vacant convent of the Feuillants, in which it assembled; and the most active members of the Constituent Assembly belonged to it, such as MM. d’André, Barnave, the two Lameths, Duport, Rabaud, Sieyes, Chapelier, Thouret, Labord, Talleyrand, Montesquieu, Beaumetz, and others. But the Jacobins contrived to excite a riot at the place of their meeting, which was in the vicinity of the hall of the National Assembly; and this afforded a pretext for applying to the assembly for the removal of the new club. The assembly complied with the request, and thereby evinced its favourable disposition towards the Jacobins.

At the close of the year 1791 the kingdom of France was by no means in a prosperous state. The public revenue had fallen far short of the expenditure; the emigrant nobility had carried out of the kingdom the greater part of the current coin; and a variety of manufacturers, who depended upon their ostentatious luxury, were reduced to much distress. The dispositions of foreign courts appeared at best doubtful. The year 1792, however, opened with a delusive prospect of tranquillity. The German princes seemed to be satisfied with the mode of compensation which the French had offered for the loss of their possessions in Alsace and Lorraine; tire Prince of Lowenstein accepted of an indemnification; the Princes of Hohenlohe and Salm-Salm declared themselves ready to treat upon the same terms; whilst Prince Maximilian, and the Dukes of Wirtemberg and Deux-Ponts, also negotiated an arrangement. It is unnecessary to state in detail the subterfuges employed by Leopold for amusing the French with the appearances of peace. To these, and probably also to the undecided character of Louis, Μ. Delessart, minister of foreign affairs, fell a sacrifice. He was accused by Brissot of not having given timely notice to the National Assembly of the dispositions of foreign powers, and of not pressing proper measures for securing the honour and safety of the nation; a decree of accusation was passed against him in his absence; and having been apprehended, tried by the high court at Orleans, and convicted, he was executed in virtue of its sentence.

The unexpected death of Leopold on the first of March gave rise to a transient hope that peace might still be preserved. On the 16th of the same month the king of Sweden was wounded by a nobleman of the name of Anker-ström, and died on the 29th. This enterprising prince, having overturned the constitution of his own country, had formed the project of conducting in person his troops to the frontiers of France, and of commanding or accompanying the combined armies of Europe in their attempt to avenge the cause of insulted royalty; and it was in a great measure to counteract this scheme that he was assassinated.

The sudden fall of these two enemies, however, rather accelerated than retarded the meditated hostilities. The young king of Hungary, who succeeded to the empire, made no secret either of his own intentions or of the existence of a concert of princes against France. Dumouriez was now at the head of the war office, Roland held the portfolio of the interior, and Clavière was minister of finance. The Jacobins were all-powerful, and the court gave way to the torrent. The property of the emigrants was confiscated, reserving only the rights of creditors. Meanwhile the imperial minister, Prince Kaunitz, demanded three things of France: first, the restitution of all their feudal rights to the German princes; secondly, the restoration of Avignon to the pope, the inhabitants of which had some time previously thrown off their allegiance, and prevailed with the Constituent Assembly to receive their country as part of France; and, lastly, a guarantee that the neighbouring powers should have no reason for apprehension from the present weakness of the internal government of France. On receiving these demands, the king proposed a declaration of war, which, on the 20th of April, was accordingly decreed by tire National Assembly against tire king of Hungary and Bohemia.

The French immediately began the contest, by attack- ' ing in three different columns the Austrian Netherlands. ’ Dillon advanced from Lisle to Tournay, where he found a' strong body of Austrians ready to receive him. But the i national force, unaccustomed to sustain tire fire of regular troops, were instantly thrown into confusion, and fled even, to the gates of Lisle. The cry of treason resounded on all sides; and their commander, an experienced and faithful officer, was murdered by his own soldiers and the mob. A second division of ten thousand men, under General Biron, took possession of Quivcrain on the 29th, and marched towards Mons, at which place he was attacked by the Austrians, whom he repulsed; but hearing of the defeat of Dillon, he retreated. A third division advanced to Fumes, but afterwards withdrew; and Lafayette, who had simultaneously advanced towards Bouvines, half way to Namur, was also obliged to retire. All these expeditions were ill contrived, inasmuch as they divided the French undisciplined troops, and exposed them in small bodies to the attack of veteran forces. Some time elapsed before the Austrians attempted to retaliate. At length, however, on the llth of June they attacked Gouvion, who commanded the advanced guard of Lafayette’s army, near Maubeuge; but Lafayette having come to his assistance, the Austrians abandoned the field.

In the mean time, matters were hastening towards a [7:10:67]violent crisis in Paris. Two parries, both equally hostile to the present constitution, had been gradually formed, one of which wished to give more effectual support to the royal authority, by establishing a senate, to prevent the king’s vote from being the sole check upon popular enthusiasm; whilst the other desired to set aside royalty altogether, and to hazard the perilous experiment of converting France into a republic. These last were supported by the Jacobin Chib, which had now contrived to concentrate within itself an immense mass of influence. In every town and village of the provinces innumerable popular societies were established; and with these a regular correspondence was kept up, both by letters and by emissaries. Every scheme was thus instantaneously propagated throughout the empire, and all the violent spirits which it contained were enabled to act in concert. But the more immediate engine of the republican party consisted of the immense population of the metropolis, whom they now endeavoured to keep in a state of continual alarm. For this purpose, it was alleged that an Austrian committee, or a conspiracy in favour of the enemies of the country, existed amongst the friends of the court; and both Gensonné and Brissot offered in the assembly to prove the existence of this pretended committee. A re[κ>rt was next circulated that the king intended to abscond from the capital on the 23d of May; and though his majesty publicly contradicted the rumour, which he treated as a calumny, it made no small impression upon the minds of the public. New decrees were now passed against the refractory clergy, but these his majesty refused to sanction. A proposal was also made and adopted in the assembly to form a camp of twenty thousand men under the walls of Paris, and for this purpose to levy from every canton in the kingdom one horse and four infantry soldiers. But the national guard of Paris disliked the proposal, and the king gave it his negative. At this time the king seems to have come to a resolution of making a stand against the Jacobin party, to which he had for some time yielded. With the exception of Dumouriez, therefore, the ministry were dismissed, and others appointed in their stead. Dumouriez lost the confidence of the Jacobin Club in consequence of the exception in his favour; but he saw his error, resigned his office, and immediately joined the army. In the mean time a decree had been passed, authorizing the manufactory of pikes for the purpose of arming cheaply the lower class of citizens. Attempts were also made, by means of inflammatory writings and harangues, to render the king odious; and in both ways Marat, who afterwards acquired such infamous notoriety, appears to have taken the lead.

On the 20th of June, Roederer, the procureur-general, informed the assembly that, contrary to law, formidable bodies of armed men were preparing to present petitions to the king and to the assembly; and part of them speedily made their appearance, with St Huruge, and Santerre, a brewer, at their head. They marched through the hall in a procession which lasted two hours, and to the number of about forty thousand. They then surrounded the Tuilleries, the gates of which were thrown open; and on an attempt to break open the door of the apartment where the kin·’ was, he ordered them to be admitted. During the four or five hours that þe was surrounded by the multitude, and compelled to listen to every indignity, his sister the Princess Elizabeth never departed from his side. All this time Petion, the mayor of Paris, was most unaccountably absent; but at length he arrived at the palace, as did also a deputation from the assembly. The queen, with her children and the Princess de Lamballe, were in the mean while in the council-chamber, where, though protected from violence, they were nevertheless exposed to insult. At last, on the approach of evening, the multitude, yielding to the entreaties of Petion, gradually dispersed. The indignities suffered by the royal family on this occasion were in some respects not unfavourable to their cause. The respectable inhabitants of the capital, ashamed of such proceedings, complained of them in a petition which they presented to the assembly; and addresses to the same purpose were received from several departments. The directory of the department of Paris, at the head of which were Μ. Roche-foucault and Μ. Talleyrand, published a declaration, disapproving of the conduct of the mayor, and of Manuel the procureur of the commune, whom they afterwards suspended from their offices, to which .however the delinquents were speedily restored by a decree of the assembly. About the same time Lafayette having suddenly quitted the army, appeared at the bar of the assembly, where he declared that he came to express the indignation with which the whole army regarded the events of the 20th, and called upon the assembly to punish the promoters of these excesses, and to dissolve the factious clubs. The sudden appearance of Lafayette threw the Jacobins into consternation, and from that period they never ceased to calumniate him.

On the 1st of July the assembly, on the motion of Jean de Brie, ordered a proclamation to be issued that the country was in danger; and on the 6th, Louis intimated that the king of Prussia was marching with fifty-two thousand men to operate against France. The French armies had about this time obtained some successes in the Austrian Netherlands; but the cabinet thought it necessary to order them to retreat, a measure which was afterwards publicly censured by Marshal Luckner. On the 7th an extraordinary scene took place in the National Assembly. At the moment when Brissot was about to commence an oration, Μ. Lam-mourette, bishop of Lyons, requested to be heard for a fewminutes, and after expatiating on the necessity of union amongst the members of the assembly, and of sacrificing their passions and prejudices on the altar of their country, concluded an animated address by proposing that all who held in equal detestation a republic and two chambers, and who wished to maintain the constitution as it stood, should immediately rise up. The w-ords were scarcely pronounced when the whole assembly started from their seats; men of all parties solemnly embraced each other, protesting their adherence to the constitution; and a deputation announced the happy event to the king, who came to the assembly, and congratulated them on what had occurred. But the only good effect produced by this temporary agreement was, that the festival of the 14th of July, which was celebrated with the usual magnificence, passed in tranquillity.

On the 25th of July, the Duke of Brunswick issued at Coblentz his celebrated manifesto. It declared that the purpose of the intended invasion of France was to restore the French king to full authority; held the national guard responsible for the preservation of tranauillity; and threatened with the punishment of death, as rebels to their king, all those who should appear in arms against the allied powers. The same language was employed towards all persons holding offices, civil as well as military; whilst the city of Paris and the National Assembly were declared responsible for every insult which might be offered to the royal family. It was added, that if the latter were not immediately placed in safety, the allies were resolved to inflict upon those who should deserve it the most exemplary and ever-memorable punishment, by giving up the city of Paris to military execution, and exposing it to total destruction; and the same vengeance was denounced against all those who should be guilty of what was called illegal resistance. Thiι sanguinary and imprudent manifesto operated almost ľ.s f warrant for tire destruction of the unfortunate Louis XVI It left no middle party in the nation. All who wished U preserve freedom in any form, and all who loved the independence of their country, were instantly united. The reproaches cast upon the king by the Jacobins now gaine< [7:10:68]universal credit. The sovereigns of Prussia and of Hungary announced to the French nation that their monarch was secretly hostile to the constitution; and the restoration of the king and his family to despotic power was made the sole pretence for a most unjustifiable aggression. The republican party saw at once the advantage which they had gained, and resolved on the deposition of the king. The chief engine which they meant to employ in this service consisted of about fifteen hundred men, who had come to Paris at the period of the confederation on the 14th of July, hence called Fédérés., and who were also sometimes denominated Marseillais, from the place which had sent the greater number; and next to these, dependence was placed upon the populace of the suburbs of the capital. The designs of the republicans were not unknown to the court, and both parties now formed their plans of operation. The royal party intended, it is said, that the king and his family should suddenly leave the capital, and proceed to as great a distance as the constitution permitted; whilst the republicans, on the other hand, are alleged to have meditated seizing the person of the king, and confining him in the castle of Vincennes until a national convention should decide upon his fate. Both assertions are probably true. Every motive which can influence the mind of man must have induced Louis to wish to be at a distance from the factious and sanguinary capital; and the subsequent conduct of the republicans warrants us in believing that they already contemplated the destruction of the king and the monarchy.

Various charges had at different times been brought forward in the assembly against Lafayette, and the 8th of August was appointed for their discussion. In the mean time, on the 3d of August, Petion the mayor, at the head of a deputation from the sections of Paris, appeared at the bar, and formally demanded the deposition of the king. The discussion of the accusation against Lafayette was considered as a trial of strength between the parties; but he was acquitted by a majority of nearly two hundred; and the republican party, despairing of carrying their point by a vote of the assembly, resolved to have recourse to the bolder experiment of insurrection.

On the evening of the 9th, about fifteen hundred gentlemen, officers of the army, and others, repaired to the palace, resolved to protect the royal family, or to die in their defence; and besides these, there were within its walls seven hundred Swiss guards, with a body of cavalry amounting to about a thousand. Mandat, the commander of the national guards, a man firmly attached to the constitution, had also procured two thousand four hundred of that body, with twelve pieces of cannon. There can be no doubt that, with such a force vigorously directed, the palace, which is a kind of castle, might have been successfully defended; and that which is now termed a revolution might have received the name of a rebellion. But. unhappily for the cause of monarchy in France, its supporters, military as well as civil, were paralysed by the uncertainty and vacillation which characterized the royal counsels, and, through indecision, all was lost. Meanwhile the assembly declared its sittings permanent. Petion was at the palace late in the evening of the 9th; and as some apprehensions were entertained, or pretended to be entertained, for his safety, a deputation from the assembly brought him away. At midnight the tocsin was sounded, and the drums beat to arms throughout the city, when a number of the most active leaders of the republican party assembled, and elected a new common council. The persons thus irregularly chosen instantly took possession of the common-hall, and drove out the lawful members, who, infected with that weakness which shrinks from stations of responsibility in perilous times, readily gave place to the usurpers. The new council then sent repeated messages to Mandat, requiring his attendance upon important business. He was occupied in arranging the troops around the palace; but suspecting nothing, he went to the commonhall, and was there astonished to find a different assembly from that which he expected to meet there. He was abruptly accused of a plot to massacre the people, and ordered to prison; but as he descended the stairs he was shot through the head with a pistol, and Santerre appointed in his stead to command the national guard. In the palace all was anxiety and alarm.

About six o’clock in the morning of the 10th the king descended into the gardens to review the troops. He was received with shouts of Vive le roi, excepting from the artillery, who shouted Vive la nation. The king returned to the palace, and the multitude continued to assemble. The national guard seemed undecided what to do, as they assembled in divisions near the palace; and had a steady resistance been made from within, it is probable they would have joined the royal party. But towards eight o’clock Μ. Roederer procured admission into the palace, and told the king that armed multitudes were assembling in hostile array around the Tuilleries; that the national guard was not to be depended upon; and that, in the event of resistance, the whole royal family would certainly be massacred. He therefore advised the king to seek protection in the hall of the National Assembly; and with this advice the king, with his usual facility of temper, prepared to comply; but the queen vehemently opposed the humiliating proposal. Having, however, become gradually alarmed for the safety of her children, she at length gave her consent; and the king, queen, and Princess Elizabeth, together with the prince and princess royal, went on foot to the hall of the assembly. “I am come hither,” said his majesty, “to prevent a great crime. Among you, gentlemen, I believe myself in safety.” But by an article of the constitution the assembly could not deliberate in presence of the king. The royal family were, therefore, placed in a narrow box separated from the hall by a railing, where they remained during fourteen hours, without having any place to which they could retire for refreshment, excepting a small closet adjoining; and here they sat listening to debates in which the royal character and office were treated with every species of contumely and insult.

When the king left the palace of the Tuilleries, he un, fortunately forgot to order it to be immediately surrendered. This he recollected as soon as he reached the assembly, and sent orders accordingly; but unhappily it was now too late. The insurgents, amounting to about twenty thousand in number, were drawn up in tolerable order by Westermann, a Prussian by birth, and had with them thirty pieces of cannon. The gentlemen within the palace, who had assembled to protect the king’s person, now became dispirited, and knew not what to do. Afry, the commander of the Swiss, was absent, and the captains were left without orders, whilst, in consequence of the death of Mandat, the national guard had no leader. About nine o’clock the outer gates were forced, and the insurgents formed their line in front of the palace. A bloody combat now commenced, chiefly between the Marseillois and the Swiss. But after a brave resistance of about an hour, the latter were overpowered by numbers, and gave way. All those found in the palace were massacred, some even whilst imploring quarteron their knees; but others escaped into the city, and were protected by individuals. Of this brave regiment only two hundred survived; but every human being, including even the lowest domestics, found within the palace, was put to death. Those of the Swiss who had been made prisoners in various quarters were conducted to the door of the assembly, and, by a decree, taken under the protection of the state; but the sanguinary multitude insisted upon putting[7:10:69] them to instant death; and the assembly would, in all probability, have been unable to protect them, had not the Marseillois generously interfered in their favour.

The suspension of the royal authority was now decreed, and the nation invited to elect a convention to determine the nature of its future government. On this occasion all Frenchmen of twenty-one years of age were declared capable of electing, and of being elected, deputies to the new National Convention. The same evening commissioners were dispatched to give to the armies a favourable account of the transactions which had just taken place. The royal family were sent to the old palace of the Temple, there to remain under a strict guard; and all persons of rank who had been attached to them were seized and committed to different prisons.

As an instance of the temper by which the people of Paris were at this time actuated, it is proper to mention, that at the very moment when the multitude were massacring the menial servants in the palace, and could scarcely be restrained from offering violence to the Swiss who had been made prisoners, they would not suffer an act of pillage to pass unpunished; and several attempts of the kind were instantly followed by the death of the offenders. The plate, jewels, and money found in the Tuilleries were brought to the National Assembly, and thrown down in the hall; and one man, whose dress and appearance bespoke extreme poverty, cast upon the table a hat full of gold. But the minds of those men were elevated by enthusiasm; and they conceived themselves at the moment the champions of freedom, and objects of terror to the kings of the earth.

In the mean time, the situation of France had become extremely critical, and it appeared doubtful if the new Convention would ever be suffered to assemble. Lafayette having accidentally got early notice of the events of the tenth of August, advised the magistrates of the town of Sedan to imprison the commissioners of the National Assembly as soon as they should arrive there; and this was accordingly done. He at the same time published an address to the army, calling upon them to support the king and the constitution; but finding that they were not to be depended upon, he left the camp in the night of the 19th August, accompanied only by his staff and a few sen-ants. The party took the route of Rochefort in Liège, which was a neutral country; but having been met by a small body of the enemy, they were made prisoners, and Lafayette was detained for several years in close confinement. The severe treatment of this weak but well-meaning man was a great error in policy upon the part of the allies. His fidelity to the king and the constitution is now generally admitted; and though some have entertained strong suspicions of his conduct towards that unfortunate monarch, and in the British House of Commons he was even stigmatized as an abandoned ruffian, it is certain that he was actuated by the purest motives, and would have saved the king if it had been in his power to do so. His errors, in fact, were those of the head rather than of the heart; he still fancied that he could guide a revolution which he had had a share in originating, and seemed altogether unconscious that the direction of the movement had passed into other hands. But, however this may be, he should have been protected by the allies, if for no other reason, at least to encourage desertion amongst the officers of the republican army. The commissioners arrested at Sedan were soon afterwards set at liberty, and received with applause by the army of Lafayette. General Arthur Dillon at first entered into the sentiments of Lafayette; but Dumouriez diverted him from his purpose, and thus regained his credit with the Jacobins, by whose influence he was appointed commander-in-chief. The other generals, Biron, Montesquieu, Kellerman, and Custines, offered no opposition to the will of the National Assembly.

Meanwhile the combined armies of Austria and of Prussia had entered France. The Duke of Brunswick’s army was above fifty thousand strong; and General Clairfayt had joined him with fifteen thousand Austrians and a considerable body of Hessians, besides twenty thousand French emigrants, amounting in all to near ninety thousand men. To oppose these, Dumouriez had only seventeen thousand men collected near the point from which the enemy were approaching in Luxembourg. The French emigrants had given the Duke of Brunswick such an account of the distracted state of the country, and of the alleged disaffection of all orders of men towards the ruling faction in Paris, that no resistance of any importance was expected by him; and, in fact, when the combined forces, consisting either of steady Austrian or Hungarian battalions, or of well-trained Prussians, whom Frederick had inured to the best discipline, were reviewed in Germany before setting out on their march, the spectators, amongst whom the French cause was not unpopular, beheld them with anxiety and regret, pitying the unhappy country against which this irresistible force was to be directed. The officers and soldiers considered themselves as departing for a hunting match, or an excursion of pleasure; and many of the usual accommodations of an army were in consequence but ill attended to. The commencement of their invasion of France justified these expectations. Longwy surrendered after a siege of fifteen hours, although well fortified, possessed of a garrison of near four thousand men, and defended by seventy-one pieces of cannon.^[6. The news of this event greatly irritated the assembly, who decreed, that when the town was retakend, the houses of the citizens should be razed to the ground: and, mistrustful of the officers of the army, they also ordained that the municipal officers of a town should hereafter have power to control the deliberations of the council of war. ] Verdun was next summoned, and the governor, Μ. Beaurepaire, compelled by the municipality to surrender.^[7. This officer, disappointed and enraged, shot himself dead with a pistorl in presence of the council; and on the 2nd of September the Prussian troops entered the town. ] The news of this second capture, and of the approach of the Prussians, spread consternation throughout Paris; and it was proposed to raise a volunteer army, which should set out immediately to meet the enemy. The municipality, which was now led by Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and others of the most sanguinary character, ordered the alarm guns to be fired, and enjoined the populace to meet in the Champ de Mars to enroll themselves to march against the enerriy. The people assembled, and, either in consequence of a premeditated plan, or, which is not very probable, of an instantaneous movement, a number of voices exclaimed, that the domestic foes of the nation should be destroyed before its foreign enemies were attacked.

Parties of armed men proceeded without delay to the prisons where the nonjuring clergy, the Swiss officers, and those confined since the tenth of August on account of alleged practices against the state, were detained in custody. They took out the prisoners one by one, gave them a kind of mock trial before a jury of their own number, acquitted some few, and murdered the remainder. Amongst these was the Princess de Lamballe, who was taken from bed, dragged before this bloody tribunal, and massacred; after which her head, stuck on a pike, was carried by the populace to the Temple, that it might be seen by her [7:10:70] friend the queen. These massacres continued two days and upwards of a thousand persons were put to death. Ir all history, indeed, there is scarcely any thing to parallel them; they were committed, it is believed, by less than three hundred men, in the midst of an immense city, which heard of them with horror, and in the vicinity of the National Assembly, which, by going in a body, could have put an end to them. But such was the confusion and dismay which prevailed during these two disgraceful days, that no man dared to stir from his house; every one believed that the whole city, excepting his own street, was involved in massacre and bloodshed. The national guards were all ready at their respective posts, but no man directed them to act; and there is good reason to suspect that Santerre and the chiefs of the commune connived at, if indeed they were not actually implicated in, this atrocious butcher}'.

In the mean time, General Dumouriez was occupied in taking measures to protract the march of the enemy till the army of Kellerman, consisting of about twenty thousand men, could arrive from Lorraine, and that of Bournonville, amounting to thirteen thousand, from Flanders; together with whatever new levies Luckner might be able to send from Chalons. The forest of Argonne, extending from north to south upwards of forty miles, lay directly in the line of march of the Duke of Brunswick, who had either to force his way through it, or to make a circuit of forty miles by the pass of Grandpre on the north, or by Barleduc on the south. The pass which lay most directly in his line of march was that of Biesme. But after examining Dillon’s position at this point, the duke left a force of twenty thousand men to observe it, and with the main body of his army took the circuitous route by Grandpré on the north. Here Dumouriez waited to receive him, and was attacked on the 12th and 13th without success; but on the 14th the attack of the Prussians was irresistible, and Dumouriez abandoned his position. On his retreat he was so closely pressed by the cavalry of the Prussian advanced guard, that his army was seized with a panic, and fled before fifteen hundred horse, who, if they had pushed their advantage, might have entirely dispersed it. On the 15th, however, Dumouriez having encamped at St Menehould, began to fortify his position, and Bournonville’s army joined him on the 17th. The Duke of Brunswick now resolved to attack Kellerman before he could effect his junction with Dumouriez; and, accordingly, on the 19th, when that officer had arrived within a mile of the French camp, the projected attack took place. The Prussians manoeuvred with their usual coolness and address; but in an attempt to surround Kellerman’s army they were completely foiled, and, in the face of the enemy, Kellerman joined Dumouriez at the close of the action. At the same time that the army of Kellerman was attacked, an attempt was also made to force Dillon’s camp at Biesme, by the twenty thousand men who had been left in its vicinity; but the attempt failed, and this large detachment was thus prevented from penetrating the forest of Argonne and joining the Duke of Brunswick. In these engagements the French owed the advantage they obtained chiefly to the superiority of their artillery; a circumstance which served to convince their enemies that they had to contend with regular military bodies, and not, as they expected, with undisciplined multitudes.

The Duke of Brunswick now encamped his army at La Lun, near the position of Dumouriez; and here the Prussians began to suffer extreme distress, both from sickness and from famine. No temptation could induce the inhabitants of the country to carry provisions to the hostile camp, whilst at the same time the French army was abundantly supplied; whilst Bournonville, with a body of four thousand men, had intercepted several herds of cattle and other convoys of provisions destined for the Prussians. The rain fell in torrents, and the roads were uncommonly deep. Exposed to cold and damp, and suffering from want of provisions, the Prussians ate freely of the grapes of Champagne; in consequence of which an epidemical distemper appeared, and spread through the army with such rapidity, that ten thousand men were at one time unfit for duty. The Duke of Brunswick, however, was still at the head of a force more numerous than that of Dumouriez; and he has therefore been much censured for not attacking his opponent, and forcing him to receive battle. It has been said that the numerous and veteran force which he commanded would have marched to certain victory against the raw troops who opposed them; and that, having defeated Dumouriez’s army, there was nothing to oppose his march towards Paris. But the Duke of Brunswick having entered France upon the supposition that in its present distracted state no regular army could be brought into the field against him, and that the people at large were hostile to the ruling faction, felt disconcerted by discovering that he had been deceived, and that all his expectations were disappointed. Instead of a friendly he found himself in the midst of a hostile people; where he had expected to meet with nothing but confusion, disorder, and weakness, he observed all enthusiastically united in defence of their country; and, so far from encountering little or no resistance, he saw before him armies, imperfectly disciplined, it is true, but hourly increasing in numbers and improving in training, and at the same time conducted by skilful military chiefs. In such a situation a defeat would have brought certain ruin on his army; and even a victory might in its consequences have proved equally fatal. Accordingly, after proposing a truce for eight days, which was agreed to, he commenced his retreat towards Grandpré, and continued it without molestation. Verdun was retaken by the French on the 12th of October, and Longwy on the 18th; and the siege of Thionville, a small but strong fortress under the command of General Wimpfen, was at the same time raised.

Whilst the Prussians were advancing from the northeast, the Austrians under the Duke of Saxe-Teschen laid siege to Lisle. To the summons of the besiegers the council-general of the commune answered that they had just renewed their oath to be faithful to the nation, and to maintain liberty and equality, or to die at their post; and that they would not perjure themselves. The Austrian batteries opened on the 29th, and were chiefly directed against that quarter of the town which was inhabited by the lower class of citizens, in the hope, no doubt, of exciting disturbance within. But this proceeding was exceedingly ill judged. The lower classes of mankind are always accustomed to hardships, and hence they are prepared to go much further in support of any principle which they may have enthusiastically adopted, than those who have been accustomed to enjoy all the comforts and luxuries of life. Accordingly, though a great part of the city was reduced to a heap of ruins, the citizens of Lisle became daily more obstinate; every vault and cellar was occupied; and although upwards of thirty thousand red-hot balls and six thousand bombs were thrown into the city, not to mention the effect produced by an immense battering train, yet the loss sustained by the garrison and people did not exceed five hundred persons, most of whom were women and children. After a fortnight of fruitless labour, the Austrians were therefore obliged to raise the siege. Meanwhile war had been declared against the king of Sardinia, whose conduct towards France had for some time assumed a threatening character. On the 20th of September General Montesquieu entered the territories of Savoy, and was received at Chambery, and throughout the whole country, with marks of unbounded welcome; and on the 29th [7:10:71]General Anselm, with another body of troops, took possession of Nice and the surrounding country. On the 30th General Custines advanced to Spires, where, finding the Austrians drawn up in order of battle, he attacked and drove them out of the city, taking three thousand prisoners. The capture of Worms succeeded that of Spires; Mente surrendered by capitulation; and Frankfort fell into the hands of the French on -the 23d. Out of this last place, however, they were afterwards driven on the 2d of December.

On the 20th of September the French National Convention assembled. This body was found to contain men of all ’characters, orders, and ranks. Many distinguished members of the Constituent Assembly were returned as members, and several who had belonged to the Legislative Assembly were also elected; whilst even foreigners were invited to become French legislators. Thomas Paine and Dr Priestley were elected by certain departments; and Clootz, whom we formerly noticed as having appeared at the bar of the Constituent Assembly at the head of a grotesque deputation professing to represent all the nations of the earth, was also chosen. The general aspect of the new Convention showed that the republican party had acquired a decided superiority. On the first day of meeting Collot-d’Herbois, who had formerly been an actor, ascended the tribune, and proposed the eternal abolition of royalty in France. This proposition was carried by acclamation, after which the house adjourned. Messages were then sent to all parts of the country intimating the decree, and through the influence of the Jacobins these were everywhere received with applause. Next day it was decreed that all public acts should be dated by the year of the French Republic; and every citizen was declared eligible to vacant offices and places. Nor was this all. The rage of republicanism soon proceeded so far that the ordinary titles of Monsieur and Madame were abolished, and the appellation of Citizen substituted in their stead, as more suitable to the principles of liberty and equality.

It was soon discovered that the leading republicans were divided into two opposite factions. The one of these was called Girondists, because Vergniaud, Gensonné, Guadet, and some others of its leaders, were members for the department of the Gironde. The celebrated Condorcet also belonged to this party, which was sometimes denominated Brissotine, from Brissot their principal leader. The Girondists supported the ministry now in office, at the head of which was Roland; and the majority of the Convention was obviously attached to them. In opposition to these was the smaller party of the Mountain, so called from its members usually sitting on the upper seats of the hall of the Convention. They were men possessed of less personal respectability, and inferior literary accomplishments, but of daring and sanguinary characters. At the head of this party were Danton and Robespierre, and subordinate to these were Couthon, Bazire, Thuriot, Merlin de Tbionville, Saint-André, Camille Demoulins, Chabot, Collot-d’Herbois, Sergent, Legendre, Fabre d’Eglantine, Panis, Marat, and others. These two parties evinced the diversity of their characters in the manner in which they treated the massacres of the 2d and 3d of September. The Brissotines, with the majority of the Convention, wished to bring the murderers to trial; but the question was always eluded by the other party, with the assistance of the Jacobin Club and of the populace.

On the 9tb of October it was resolved that all emigrants, when taken in arms, should suffer death; and on the 15th of November, in consequence of an insurrection in the duchy of Deux Ponts, and an application for aid upon the part of the insurgents, a decree was passed, declaring that “the National Convention, acting in name of the

French nation, would grant fraternity and assistance to all those people who wished to procure liberty and charging the executive power to send orders to the generals to give assistance to such people as had sufl’ered, or were still suffering, in the cause of liberty. Of this decree foreign nations loudly complained, as calculated, if not intended, to provoke insurrection in other states; and in the rupture which subsequently took place between Great Britain and France, it was founded on by the government of the former country as of itself affording a sufficient justification of hostilities, and, in fact, as rendering war with France a necessary measure of self-defence.

But it is now time to return to the military affairs of the Republic. The final retreat of the allies had left Dumouriez at liberty to carry into execution a project he had long meditated, of invading the Low Countries, rescuing these fine provinces from the Austrian dominion, and thus advancing the frontier of the Republic to the Rhine. He received unlimited powers from the government, and the losses sustained by the allies during their invasion of France gave him a great superiority of force. His right wing consisted of sixteen thousand men, detached from the Argonne Forest, whilst between it and the centre was placed General d’Harville with fourteen thousand; Dumouriez himself commanded the main body, amounting to forty thousand men; and the left wing, under Labourdonnaye, was about thirty thousand strong; in all a hundred thousand men, filled with enthusiasm, and anticipating nothing but victory. To oppose this immense force, the Austrians had only about forty thousand men, who, according to the tactics of the time, were disseminated along an extended line of nearly thirty miles. Their main body, consisting of about eighteen thousand men, was entrenched in a strong position, which had been deliberately chosen by the imperialists, and extended through the villages of Ausmes and Jemmappes to the heights of Ber-thaimont on the one hand, and the village of Sifly ∂n the other, sweeping over a succession of eminences which commanded the adjacent plain; whilst fourteen redoubts, strengthened by all the resources of art, and armed with a hundred pieces of cannon, seemed amply to compensate for inferiority in point of number. But formidable as this position undoubtedly was, Dumouriez resolved to assault it, and to make trial of the new system of accumulating masses upon one point, which, if thus forced, would necessitate the abandonment of the whole.

The battle commenced at day-break on the 6th of November, with an attack on the village of Cuesmes, led by BournonviDe; but, after sustaining a severe fire of artillery, which for some hours arrested his efforts, he at length succeeded in turning the village of Jemmappes, and the redoubts on the left of the Austrian position were carried by the impetuous onset of the French columns. Dumouriez now caused his centre to advance against the front of Jemmappes, and the column moved forward rapidly to the attack; but upon approaching the village, they were taken in flank by some squadrons of horse, which broke through the column, and drove back the French cavalry which supported it. The moment was eminently critical; for whilst the flank of the column was thus maltreated, the leading battalions, checked by a destructive fire of grape, were beginning to waver at the foot of the redoubts. In this extremity, an attendant of the general-in-chief rallied the disordered troops, and arrested the victorious squadrons, whilst a young officer restored the front of the attack. Rallying the disordered regiments into one mass, which he called the column of Jenm>appes, the latter placed himself at its head, renewed the attack on the redoubts, carried the village, and at length drove the Austrians from their intrenchments in the centre of the position[7:10:72].^[8. This young officer was the Duke de Chartres, then called General Egalité and now Louis Philippe, king of the French. ] But though thus victorious in the centre, Dumou. riez had still great cause for anxiety respecting the attack on the right. Bournonville, though at first successful on that side, had hesitated when he observed the confusion in the column of the centre, vacillating between a reluctance to abandon the ground he had gained, and a desire to withdraw part of his forces to support the column in the plain. As soon as this hesitation was perceived by the enemy, they redoubled their fire, and kept in hand a large body of cavalry ready to charge on the least appearance of disorder. Ďumouriez flew to the spot, rode along the front of two brigades of old soldiers from the camp at Maulde, and succeeded in rallying the squadrons of horse, who were beginning to fall into confusion. The imperial horse charged immediately after, but receiving a close and well-directed volley, they wheeled, and, being instantly attacked by the French cavalry, were completely routed, and driven from the field. The victorious brigades now advanced, chanting the Marseillaise, and entering the redoubts by the gorge, carried every thing before them. Ďumouriez was still uneasy about his centre; but whilst he was in the act of setting off to that point with a reinforcement of six squadrons of cavalry, he received intelligence that the battle there was already won, and that the Austrians were retiring at all points towards Mons. Such was the battle of Jemmappes, the first pitched battle which had been gained by the republican armies, and on that account not only celebrated beyond its real merits, but most important in its consequences. The loss on both sides was great, that of the Austrians amounting to five thousand men, whilst the French lost above six thousand; but the results of the victory upon the spirits and the moral strength of the two parties were incalculably different, and in fact led to the immediate conquest of the whole Netherlands. Mons and Brussels surrendered to Dumouriez; Tournay, Malines, Ghent, and Antwerp, were taken possession of by General Labourdonnaye; Louvaine and Namur submitted to General Valence; and the whole Austrian Netherlands, Luxembourg only excepted, fell into the hands of the French. Liège was taken on the 28th of November, after a successful engagement, in which the Austrians lost five or six hundred men and an immense train of artillery.

France was now in a situation not unusual in the history of nations, successful abroad, but distracted by contending factions at home. The two parties in the Convention were engaged in a struggle, which daily became more and more implacable. The party called the Mountain did not hesitate to employ any means, however criminal, to effect the ruin of their antagonists; and they are even suspected of having, through the medium of the minister of war, retarded the supplies for the armies, in order to render the ruling party odious from want of success. But they were for some time unfortunate in this respect, and the daily news of victories obtained supported the credit of the Girondists. A new subject was therefore started, namely, how the dethroned monarch was to be disposed of. The moderate party wished to save him, and this was a sufficient reason for their antagonists resolving on his ruin. A committee was accordingly appointed to report upon his conduct; and a variety of charges having in consequence been brought against him, the Convention resolved to constitute itself at once prosecutor and judge.

On the 11th of December the ill-fated monarch was ordered to the bar of the Convention; and when the act of accusation had been read, he was summoned by the president Barrère to answer the charges separately. These Consisted of an enumeration of the whole crimes of the

Revolution, from its commencement in 1789, all of which were imputed to him. The following is the substance of this extraordinary act of accusation :—

“Louis, the French nation accuses you of having committed a multitude of crimes to establish your tyranny, by destroying her freedom. You, on the 20th of June 1789, attacked the sovereignty of the people, by suspending the assemblies of their representatives, and expelling them with violence from the places of their sittings. This is proved in the procès-verbal entered at the tennis court of Versailles by the members of the Constituent Assembly. On the 23d of June you wanted to dictate laws to the nation; you surrounded their representatives with troops; you presented to them two royal declarations, subversive of all liberty, and ordered them to separate. You ordered an army to march against the citizens of Paris. Your satellites have shed the blood of several of them, and you would not remove this army till the taking of the Bastille and a general insurrection announced to you that the people were victorious. The speeches you made on the 9th, 12th, and 14th of July, to the deputations of the Constituent Assembly, show what were your intentions; and the massacres of the Tuilleries rise in evidence against you. After these events, and in spite of the promises which you made on the 15th in the Constituent Assembly, and on the 17th in the Hôtel de Ville of Paris, you have persisted in your projects against national liberty. You long eluded the execution of the decrees of the 11th of August, respecting the abolition of personal servitude, the feudal government, and the tithes; you long refused acknowledging the rights of man; you doubled the number of the life-guards, and called the regiment of Flanders to Versailles; you permitted, in orgies held before your eyes, the national cockade to be trampled under foot, the white cockade to be hoisted, and the nation to be slandered. At last you rendered necessary a fresh insurrection, occasioned the death of several citizens, and did not change your language till after your guards had been defeated, when you renewed your perfidious promises. You took an oath at the confederation of the 14th of July, which you did not keep. You soon tried to corrupt the public opinion, with the assistance of Talon, who acted in Paris, and Mirabeau, who was to have excited counter revolutionary movements in the provinces. You lavished millions of money to effect this corruption, and you even used your popularity as a means of enslaving the people. These facts are the result of a memorial of Talon, on which you have made your marginal comments in your own handwriting; and of a letter which Laporte wrote to you on the 19th of April, in which, recapitulating a conversation he had had with Rivarol, he told you, that the millions which you had been prevailed upon to throw away had been productive of nothing.

“For a long time you had meditated on a plan of escape. A memorial was delivered to you on the 28th of February, which pointed out the means for you to effect it; you approved of it by marginal notes. On the 28th a great number of the nobles and military came into your apartments in the castle of the Tuilleries, to favour that escape. You wanted to quit Paris on the 10th of April, to go to St Cloud; but the resistance of the citizens made you sensible that their distrust was great. You endeavoured to discredit it, by communicating to the Constituent Assembly a letter, which you addressed to the agents of the nation near foreign powers, to announce to them that you had freely accepted the constitutional articles, which had been presented to you; and, notwithstanding, on the 21st you took flight with a false passport. You left behind a protest against these self-same constitutional articles; you ordered[7:10:73] the ministers to sign none of the acts issued by the National Assembly; and you forbade the minister of justice to deliver up the seals of state. The public money was lavished to ensure the success of this treachery; and the public force was employed to protect it, under the orders of Bouille, who shortly before had been charged with the massacre of Nancy, and to whom you wrote on this head, ‘ to take care of his popularity, because it would be of service to you.’

“After your detention at Varennes, the exercise of the executive power was for a moment suspended in your hands, and you again formed a conspiracy. On the 17th of July the blood of citizens was shed in the Champ de Mars. A letter, in your own handwriting, written in 1790 to Lafayette, proves that a criminal coalition subsisted between you and Lafayette, to which Mirabeau had acceded. The revision began under these cruel auspices; all kinds of corruptions were made use of. You have paid for libels, pamphlets, and newspapers, designed to corrupt public opinion, to discredit the assignats, and to support the cause of the emigrants. You seemed to accept the constitution on the 14th of September; your speeches announced an intention of supporting it; and you were busy in overturning it, even before it was completed. A convention was entered into at Pilnitz on the 24th of July, between Leopold of Austria and Frederic-William of Brandenburg, who pledged themselves to re-erect in France the throne of absolute monarchy; and you were silent upon this convention till the moment when it was known by all Europe. Arles had hoisted the standard of rebellion; you favoured it by sending three civil commissaries, who made it their business not to repress the counter revolutionists, but to justify their proceedings. Avignon, and the county of Venaissin, had been united with France; you caused the decree to be executed; but a month afterwards civil war desolated that part of the country. The commissaries you sent thither helped to ravage it. Nismes, Montauban, Mende, Jales, felt great shocks during the first days of freedom. You did nothing to stifle those germs of counter revolution, until the moment when Saillant’s conspiracy became notorious. You sent twenty-two battalions against the Marseillais, who marched to reduce the counter revolutionists of Arles. You gave the southern command to Wittgenstein, who wrote to you on the 21st of April 1792, after he had been recalled: ‘ A few instants more, and I shall call around the throne of your majesty thousands of French, who are again become worthy of the wishes you form for their happiness.’ You paid your late life-guards at Coblentz; the registers of Septeuil attest this; and general orders signed by you prove that you sent considerable remittances to Bouille, Rochefort, Vauguyon, Choiseul, Beaupre, Hamilton, and the wife of Polignac. Your brothers, enemies to the state, caused the emigrants to rally under their banners; they raised regiments, contracted for loans, and concluded alliances in your name; you did not disclaim them. The soldiers of the line, who were to be put on the war establishment, consisted of only a hundred thousand men at the end of December; vou therefore neglected to provide for the safety of the state from abroad. Narbonne required a levy ol fifty thousand men; but he stopped the recruiting at twenty-six thousand, giving assurances that all was ready; yet there was no truth in these assurances. Servan proposed after him to form a camp of twenty thousand men near Paris; it was decreed by the Legislative Assembly, but you refused your sanction. A spirit of patriotism made the citizens repair to Paris from all quarters. You issued a proclamation, tending t o stop their march; at the same time our camps were without soldiers. Dumouriez, the successor of Servan, declared that the nation had neither arms, nor ammunition, nor provisions, and that the posts were left defenceless. You waited to be urεed by a request made to the minister Ląįard, when the Legislative Assembly wished to point out the means of providing for the external safety of the state, by proposing the levy of forty-two battalions. You gave commission to the commanders of the troops to disband the army, to force whole regiments to desert, to make them pass the Rhine, and to put them at the disposal of your brothers, and of Leopold of Austria, with whom you had intelligence. You charged your diplomatic agents to favour this coalition of foreign powers and your brothers against France, and especially to cement the peace between Turkey and Austria, and to procure thereby a larger number of troops against France from the latter. The Prussians advanced against our frontiers: your minister was summoned on the 8th of July to give an account of the state of our political relations with Prussia; you answered, on the 10th, that fifty thousand Prussians were marching against us, and that you gave notice to the legislative body of the formal acts of the pending hostilities, in conformity to the constitution. You intrusted Da-bancourt, the nephew of Calonne, with the department of war; and such has been the success of your conspiracy, that the posts of Longwy and Verdun were surrendered to the enemy at the moment of their appearance. You have destroyed our navy; a vast number of officers belonging to that corps had emigrated; there scarcely remained any to do duty in the harbours: meanwhile Bertrand was granting passports every day; and when the legislative body represented to you his criminal conduct on the 8th of March, you answered that you were satisfied with his services.

“You have favoured the maintenance of absolute government in the colonies; your agents fomented troubles and counter revolutions throughout them, which took place at the same epoch when it was to have been brought about in France, which indicates plainly that your hand laid this plot. The interior of the state was convulsed by fanatics; you avowed yourself their protector, in manifesting your evident intention of recovering by them your ancient power. The legislative body had passed a decree on the 29th of January, against the factious priests; you suspended its execution. The troubles had increased; the minister declared that he knew nothing in the laws extant upon which to arraign the guilty. The legislative body enacted a fresh decree, which you likewise suspended. The uncitizen-like conduct of the guards whom the constitution had granted you had rendered it necessary to disband them; the day after, you sent them a letter expressive of your satisfaction, and continued their pay. You kept near your person the Swiss guards; the constitution forbade you this, and the Legislative Assembly had expressly ordained their departure. You had private companies at Paris, charged to operate movements useful to your projects of a counter revolution. You wished to suborn, with considerable sums, several members of the Legislative and Constituent Assemblies. You suffered the French name to be reviled in Germany, Italy, and Spain, since you omitted to demand satisfaction for the bad treatment which the French suffered in those countries. You reviewed the Swiss on the tenth of August, at five o’clock in the morning; and the Swiss were die first who fired upon the citizens. You authorized Septeuil to carry on a considerable trade in corn, sugar, and coffee, at Hamburg.” It was asked, “Why did you affix a veto on the decree which ordained the formation of a camp of twenty thousand men ĩ* To which Louis answered, “The constitution left to me the free right of refusing my sanction of the decrees; and even from that period I had demanded the assemblage of a camp at Soissons.”

Valazé, who sat near the bar, now presented and read a memoir of Laporte and Mirabeau, and some other papers, containing plans of a counter revolution, which the king, however, disowned. He then presented a number of other papers on which the act of accusation was founded, and [7:10:74]having asked the king it he recognized them, the latter re- ∣ plied that he did not. By the admission even of his enemies, ' the answers of Louis were brief, firm, and for the most 1 part judicious; he displayed remarkable presence of mind, and in most cases negatived the charges by the most satis- 1 factory replies. The affair of Nancy, the journey to Va-ι rennes, the suppression of the revolt in the Champ de Mars, were justified by the decrees of the assembly; and the catastrophe of the tenth of March, by the power of self-defence conferred on him by the laws. To every question, in fact, he replied with clearness and precision; denying some, showing that the matters referred to in others were the work of his ministers, and justifying all that had been done by the powers conferred on him by the constitution. In a loud Voice he repelled the charge of shedding the blood of the people on the tenth of August, exclaiming, “No, sir, it was not I who did it.” But he was careful in his answers not to implicate any members of the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies; and many who now sat as his judges trembled lest he should compromise them with the dominant faction. The deep impression made on the Convention by the simple statements, and temperate but firm demeanour, of the sovereign, struck the Jacobins with such dismay that the most violent of the party proposed he should be hanged that very night. But the majority, composed of the Girondists and the neutrals, decided that he should be formally tried and defended by counsel. He then returned to the Temple, where the resolution of the municipality, that he was no longer to be permitted to see his family, was communicated to him; or, in other words, that a consolation, which is never withheld even from the most atrocious criminals, was denied him. Next day, however, the Convention, less inhuman than the commune, decreed that the unfortunate father might enjoy the society of his children; but the king thinking them more necessary to the queen’s comfort than his own, declined to take them from her, and, after a struggle with feelings which even demons might have respected, he submitted to the separation with a resignation which nothing could shake.

Louis had desired to be furnished with copies of the accusation, and of the papers upon which it was founded; and also to have the choice of his own counsel. Both requests were conceded, and he accordingly chose as his counsel Μ. Tronchet and Μ. Target. The former accepted, and faithfully discharged his duty;^[9. Napoleon knew how to admire heroism, even when exerted in another cause, and regarded it as the noblest title to preferment. One of his first acts, on attaining to sovereign power, was to place 'l’ronchet at the head of the supreme court of Cassation. ] the latter basely declined, on the pretence of age and infirmity. The venerable Malesherbes, whose official career had been distinguished by many wise and useful reforms, now came forward and volunteered his services as counsel for his sovereign. “I have been twice honoured,” said he, in a letter to the president of the Convention, “with a place in the counsels of my sovereign, when it was an object of ambition to all the world; I owe him the same service when it imposes a duty which many consider as dangerous.”^[10. This generous offer drew tears from the eyes of many in the Convention, and even the Jacobins were silent; for a moment their humanity was in the ascendant. As to the poor king, he was deeply affected by this proof of devotion on the part of his venerable friend, when the latter entered the Temple, Louis clasped him in his arms, exclaiming, with tears in his eyes, “Ah! it is you, my friend. You see to what a state I am reduced by the excess of my affection for my people, and the self-denial which ied me to remove the troops intended to protect the throne from the enterprises of the factions.’ You fear not to endanger your own life to save mine; but it is in vain; I am well aware they will bring me to the scaffold; but that is of no moment; let us enter upon the defence as if I were sure to be successful. I wUl gain it in reality through your exertions, since my memory will descend unspotted to posterity.” (LacreteUe, χ. 18G, 193; Hue, p. 42; Mignet, i. 236; Thiers, iii. 336; Alison, i.^S13.) ] Malesherbes and Tronchet afterwards called in the assistance of Μ. Desèze, a celebrated pleader, who had at first embraced the popular side, but had withdrawn from political life since the Revolution had assumed a sombre and threatening aspect; and, unlike Target, who shrunk from a task which would have immorta- ' lized his name, he entered upon his arduous duties with great earnestness, and even more than his wonted ability. “I have often wished,” said the king to Malesherbes, “I had the means of recompensing the zeal of your colleagues. I have thought of leaving them a legacy; but would it be respected by the Convention? would it not endanger them ?” “Sire,” replied Malesherbes, ,, the legacy is already bequeathed; in choosing them for your defenders, your majesty has immortalized their names.”

On the 26th of December the king was again conducted to the assembly. He evinced as great serenity and self-possession as on the former occasion; discoursed of Seneca, Livy, and the public hospitals; and even addressed himself in a vein of pleasantry to one of the municipality who sat covered in the carriage. Whilst in the ante-chamber, Malesherbes, in conversing with the king, happened to make use of the words, “Sire, your majesty.” “What,” exclaimed Treilhard, a furious Jacobin, interrupting him, “what has rendered you so bold as to pronounce these words, which the Convention has proscribed?” “Contempt of life,” replied the intrepid old man. W ’ hen admitted into the assembly, Louis seated himself between his counsel, surveyed the crowded benches of his adversaries with perfect com]xβure, and was even observed sometimes to smile as he conversed with Malesherbes. Μ. Desèze then read a defence which had been prepared by the king’s counsel, and which was equally admired for the solidity of the argument and the beauty of the composition. In this address, the inviolability of the sovereign was ably argued; and it was proved that, if it were destroyed, the weaker party in the Convention would have no security against the stronger; a prophetic deduction, which the Girondists soon found fatally verified in their own persons, when conducted to the scaffold by their implacable enemies. The advocate then examined the whole life of the king, and showed that in every instance he had been actuated by a sincere love of his people. With reference to the tenth of August he observed, “Was the monarch under the necessity of submitting to an armed multitude? Was he constrained by law to yield to force? Was not the power which he held in the constitution a deposit, for the preservation of which he was answerable to the nation? If you yourselves were surrounded by a furious and misguided rabble, which threatened, without respect for your sacred character, to tear you from this sanctuary, what could you do other than what he has done? The magistrates themselves authorized all that he did, by having signed the order to repel force by force. But notwithstanding their sanction, the king was unwilling to make use of his authority, and retired into the bosom of the Convention, to avoid the shedding of blood. The combat which followed was neither undertaken by him, nor continued by his orders; he interfered only to put a stop to it, as is proved by the fact that it was in consequence of an order signed by him that the Swiss abandoned the defence of the Chateau, and surrendered their lives. There is a crying injustice therefore in reproaching him with the blood shed on the tenth of August; in truth, his conduct in that particular is above reproach.” Μ. Desèze concluded with these words: “Louis mounted the throne at the age of twenty, and even then he set an example of an irreproachable life; he was governed by no weak or corrupt passion; he was [7:10:75]economical, juβt, and severe. He proved himself from the beginning the friend of his country. The people desired the removal of a destructive tax; he removed it. They wished the abolition of servitude; he abolished it in his domains. They prayed for a reform in the criminal laws; he reformed it. They demanded that thousands of Frenchmen, whom the rigour of our usages had excluded from political rights, should enjoy them; he conceded them. They longed tor liberty; he gave it. He even anticipated their wishes; and yet it i> the same people who now demand his punishment."

When the defence was concluded, the king rose, and holding a paper in his hand, pronounced, in a calm manner, and with a firm voice, what follows: “Citizens, you have heard my defence, I will not recapitulate it; but when now addressing you, perhaps for the last time, I declare that my conscience has nothing to reproach itself with, and that my defenders have said nothing but the truth. I have no fears for the public examination of my conduct; but my heart bleeds at the accusation brought against me of having caused the misfortunes of my people, and, most of all, of having shed their blood on the tenth of August. The multiplied proofs I have given in every period of my reign, of my love for my people, and the manner in which I have conducted myself towards them, might, I had hoped, have saved me from so cruel an imputation.” Having said these words, he withdrew along with his counsel, and in a tran-sļ×xt of gratitude he embraced Μ. Desèze, exclaiming, “I am now at ease; I will have an honoured memory; the French will regret my death.”

A stormy discussion immediately ensued in the assembly, and Lanjuinuis had the boldness to demand a revocation of die decree by which the king had been brought to the l>ar of the Convention. “If you insist on being judges,” said he, in concluding a j×>werful speech, “cease to be accusers. My blood boils at the thought of seeing in the judgment-scat men who openly conspired against the throne on the tenth of August, and who have in such ferocious terms anticipated the judgment without hearing the defence.” The delivery of diese words was instantly followed by the mo« violent agitation; and cries of “To the Abbaye with the peijured deputy; let the friends of the tyrant perish along with him,” resounded dirough the hall. But the storm was at length appeased by a proposal to discuss the question, whether an appeal should be made to the people; a proposal which was adopted, and the discussion that thereupon ensued lasted twenty days. The most powerful declaimer against the sovereign was the infamous Saint-Just; the most vehement and direct, the sanguinary Robespierre. Vergniaud replied in a strain of impassioned eloquence worthy of his reputation as die first orator of France. But his forcible, nay sublime, appeal wus unavailing. At the conclusion of the debate die assembly unanimously pronounced the ill-fated Louis guilty of the offences charged against him. and the appeal to the people was rejected by a majority of 4⅛3 to si81.^[11. Eight members were absent from bad health; thirty-seven declared Louis guilty, but voted only for precautionary measures; six hundred and eighty-three declared him guilty. ( Thiers, iii. 377∙) ] This unanimous vote upon the question of guilt is one of the most remarkable facts in the history of the Revolution. That among seven hundred men great difference of opinion must have existed on this subject, is beyond all doubt; and if any evidence were wanting to establish the fact, it would be supplied by the division which immediately followed on the proposal to appeal to the people, and by the narrow majority which decreed the punishment of death. But sufch was the temper of the time, and the ascendency of democratic influence in the Convention, that even the friends of the king were compelled to commence their efforts for his salvation by voting him guilty of the crimes which had been charged against him.

The only question which now remained to be decided was, what punishment should be inflicted. The debate on this subject lasted forty hours, during which Paris was in the most violent agitation. The Jacobin Club resounded with cries for death; the avenues leading to the Convention were filled with a ferocious rabble, menacing alike the supporters of the king and the neutrals; and as the termination of the voting drew near, the tumult increased. The most breathless anxiety pervaded the Convention, when the president, Vergniaud, at length rose to announce the result, which he did in these words: “Citizens, I announce the result of the vote; when justice has spoken, humanity should resume its place; there are seven hundred and twenty-one votes; a majority of twenty-six have voted for death. In the name of the Convention, I declare that the punishment of Louis Capet is death? Without the defection of the Girondists on this occasion, the king’s life would have been saved. Forty-six of their party, including Vergniaud, voted conditionally or unconditionally for his death. This was a fatal error, which almost all of them subsequently expiated on the scaffold. They were really anxious to save the king; but, destitute of political courage, and hurried on by the democratic fury of die times, they trusted to accomplish their object by an appeal to the people. In this, however, they were baffled; their weak and timid, policy ruined all. The triumph of the Jacobins was complete. They had committed the Revolution by an act which cut off all retreat; and they hail compelled their most able and dangerous enemies to participate in the guilt of the bloody deed.^[12. Of thuse who voted for <leath. there were many, such as the i)uke of Orleans, influenced by base or selfish motives; and even at that moment their characters were appreciated. When Egalité, with a faultering step, and a countenance pale as a corpse, advanced to the place where he was to put the seal to his infamy, and rea<l in these terms his vote, “Exclusively governed by my duty, and convinced that all those who have resisted the sovereignty of the people deserve death, my vote is for death, ” exclamations of “Ob, the monster !” and, “How infamous !” broke forth from alľsides, and he returned to his seat amidst the imprécations even of the assassins of September, and all the wretches of every description who were there assembled. But there were other persona of a very diilerent character; many men, both great and good, who inclined with sorrow to the side of severity, from an b>>nest opinion of ita absolute necessity to annihilate a dangerous enemy, and establish the republic on a settled basis. Amongst thia number was Carnot, who, wiιen called on for his vote, gave it in these words: “Death, and never did word weigh so heavily on my heart." (Alison, i. 523; Caraut, ilinmra, p. S>7 t U'uMrc ľìtt'vt’jue de la Crnnntiu.i Nationale, tom. ii. p. 113.) ]

When the counsel of the unfortunate monarch were called in to hear the sentence, they were greatly affected. Malesherbes attempted to speak, but emotion choked his utterance. Desèze then read a protest, in which the king solemnly declared his innocence; and Tronchet urged the revocation of a decree which had been passed by so slender a majority. “You have either forgotten or destroyed,” said this celebrated advocate, “the humane principle of the criminal law, which requires a majority of two thirds to constitute a definitive sentence.” “The laws,” it was answered, “are passed by a simple majority.” “True,” rejoined Desèze, “but die laws may be repealed; and who can recall human life ?” The Girondists, as a last resource, then proposed a limited delay; but in this they also failed, and the fatal sentence was pronounced. This decisive step produced an intense sensation in Paris. The members of die Coté Droit, and the royalists, secret or avowed, were in equal consternation. But the Jacobins, who could [7:10:76] hardly believe that so great a victory had been gained, re- ' doubled their activity, and put every engine in motion to keep up an incessant agitation; they besought their adherents to be vigilant for the next two days, and thus secure the fruits of so mighty a triumph. Nor were their efforts and entreaties in vain. The’ greater number were overawed and put to silence by the audacity of their movements; whilst, by the resolute few, whose minds burned with indignation at their conduct, nothing could be attempted.

Louis was fully prepared for his fate. When Malesherbes, dissolved in tears, came to announce the sentence of death, he found the unhappy king alone, with his elbows resting on a table, his forehead leaning on his hands, and absorbed in profound meditation. Without inquiring concerning his fate, Louis raised himself as his friend approached, and observed to him, “For two hours I have been revolving in my memory whether during my whole reign I have voluntarily given any cause of complaint to my subjects; and with perfect sincerity I can declare, when about to appear in the presence of God, that I deserve no reproach at their hands, and that I have never formed a wish but for their happiness.” Malesherbes encouraged him to hope that the sentence might yet be superseded. Louis shook his head, and only entreated his friend not to leave him in his last moments. Malesherbes promised to return, and repeatedly applied at the gate for admission, which however was refused by order of the municipality. Louis often asked for his aged friend, and was deeply afflicted at not seeing him again. He received without emotion the official announcement of his sentence made by the minister of justice on the 20th of January, and demanded a respite of three days to prepare himself for death, and also to be allowed an interview with his family, and to have the assistance of a confessor whom he named. The two last requests were alone conceded by the Convention, and the execution was fixed for the following morning at ten o’clock. The interview with his family presented a heart-rending scene, which lasted nearly two hours, and may be more easily imagined than described. When the terrible moment of separation arrived, Louis promised to see them again on the morrow; and having embraced them all in the tenderest manner, bade them a mournful adieu; but on entering his chamber he felt that a second trial would be too much for all parties, and resolved to spare them the agony of a final separation. This was his last struggle; he now only thought of preparing for death. The remainder of the evening was therefore spent with his confessor, the Abbé Edgeworth, who, with heroic devotion, discharged the perilous duty of administering the last consolations of religion to his dying sovereign. On the night which preceded his death, Louis slept tranquilly until five in the morning, when he was awaked by Cléry, whom he had ordered to call him at that hour. He then gave his last instructions to his faithful attendant, and put into his hands the little property which he had at his disposal, a ring, a seal, and a lock of hair. Already the drums were beating, and the heavy roll of cannon dragged along the streets, interrupted at intervals by a confused sound of voices, was also heard.

About nine o’clock, Santerre arrived at the Temple. “You come to seek me,” said the king; “allow me a minute.” He went into his closet, and immediately returned with his testament in his hand, which he intrusted to a municipal officer; after which he asked for his hat, and said with a firm voice, “Let us set off.” He calmly seated himself in the carriage beside his confessor, and during the passage from the Temple to the Place de la Revolution, which occupied two hours, he never ceased reciting the psalms which were pointed out by his spiritual guide. The route was lined with double files of soldiers; more than forty thousand men were under arms; and the aspect of Paris was mournful. Amongst the citizens who were present at the execution there reigned the most profound silence, uninterrupted by any external manifestation either of approbation or regret. When the procession arrived at the place of execution, he descended from the carriage, ascended the scaffold with a firm step, and received on his knees the sublime benediction of his confessor, “Son of St Louis, ascend to heaven.” He suffered his hands to be bound, though not without repugnance, nor until after Μ. Edgeworth had exclaimed, “Submit to that outrage, as the last resemblance to the Saviour who is about to recompense your sufferings and advancing quickly to the left of the scaffold, “I die innocent,” said he; “I forgive my enemies, and you, unfortunate people....” At these words his voice was drowned by the sound of drums placed at the front of the scaffold to prevent his being heard; three executioners seized and hurried him to the block; and in a few seconds he had ceased to live. One of the assistants grasped his head, and waved it in the air, whilst the blood fell on the confessor, who was still on his knees beside the mutilated body of his sovereign.

Thus perished, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, and seventeenth of his reign, one of the best but at the same time weakest of sovereigns. He inherited a revolution from his ancestors, but he was better fitted than any of his predecessors to prevent or to terminate it; for he was capable of being a reforming king before it broke out, and of becoming a constitutional sovereign under its influence. He was perhaps the only prince who had no passion, not even that of power, and who united the two qualities most essential to a good king, the fear of God and the love of his people. He perished the victim of passions which he did not participate; of those of his supporters to which he was a stranger, and those of the multitude, which he had not excited. Few kings have left so spotless a memory, and history will say of him, that, with a little more force of mind and decision of character, he would have bequeathed to posterity a name unique among princes. Such, in the opinion of the ablest of the republican writers of France,^[13. Mignet, £sietaire de ls Réiolutim Française, i. 334. ] was Louis XVI.; a man better qualified to adorn a private station than to govern a great people at a period of unexampled excitement; one whose virtues ought to have ensured him a different fate, and whose misfortunes were the result of that long-continued misrule which he had endeavoured to correct.

In a political point of view, this tragical event proved ] injurious to the republican cause throughout Europe. No' man out of France ventured to justify it; and in all coun- 1 tries it excited the most violent indignation against the rulers of the French republic. Accordingly new enemies now hastened to join the general league against France. It is unnecessary here to enter into any detail of the political struggles which occurred in other countries, particularly our own. It is sufficient to remark generally, that at this time the British government thought itself endangered by the propagation of those speculative opinions which had overturned the French monarchy, and that almost all the men of property in the kingdom concurred with the ministry in thinking a war with France necessary for the purpose of securing the constitution, and checking the progress of levelling doctrines. After the tenth of August the British minister had been recalled; but the Republic had still suffered the ambassador of France, Μ. Chauvelin, to remain in England.

The ostensible grounds of quarrel on the part of Great Britain were two; the decree of the 15th of November 1792, [7:10:77]by which it was considered that encouragement to rebel- ' lion had been held out to the subjects of every state, and war thereby waged against every established government; and the question relative to the opening of the Scheldt. Of the decree the French executive council gave explanations, denying the fairness of the interpretation put upon it, and alleging that the intention of the Convention was only to give aid to such countries as had already acquired their freedom, and by a declaration of the general will requested aid for its perservation. But this explanation was not admitted, inasmuch as the decree expressly says that the French nation will “grant assistance to all who wish to procure liberty and, considering the notions of liberty then entertained in France, it was not doubted that their real intention was to excite rebellion in foreign nations. With regard to the opening of the Scheldt, as this river runs from Brabant through the Dutch territory to the sea, the Dutch had shut up its mouth, and thus prevented any maritime commerce being carried on by the people of Brabant by means of the river. To render themselves popular in Brabant, however, the French declared that they would open the navigation of the Scheldt. But Great Britain having some time previously become bound by treaty with the Dutch to assist them in obstructing this navigation, now intimated to the French government that the project of opening the Scheldt must be abandoned. The French, however, alleged that by the law of nations navigable rivers ought to be open to all who reside upon their banks; that nevertheless the point was of no importance either to France or to England, and but of little importance even to Holland; and that if the people of Brabant themselves chose to give it up, they would make no objection. In the mean time the Dutch gave themselves no concern about the matter. They did not even solicit the assistance of England; and the merchants, when applied to individually, declared that if the Scheldt was opened, they could conduct their commerce as well at Antwerp as at Amsterdam. But in all this there is nothing remarkable. Amongst the Dutch there were many republicans, who wished for the downfall of the stadtholder, and rejoiced at every thing which distressed him, or had a tendency to render his office useless in the eyes of the people; whilst others who thought differently were afraid to speak their sentiments, as Dumouriez was in their neighbourhood at the head of a victorious army. The result of the whole was, that the British government ordered Μ. Chauvelin to quit this country. The French executive council accredited another minister, Μ. Maret, who was also invested with powers to negotiate, and requested that a passport might be given him; but he was not even suffered to land. The republicans having thus far humbled themselves before the British government, were fired with indignation at the manner in which their envoy was treated; and on the 1st of February 1793 the National Convention, on the motion of Brissot, decreed that George king of England had never ceased, since the revolution of the tenth of August 1792, to give the French nation proofs of his attachment to the concert of crowned heads; that he had drawn into the same combination the stadtholder of the United Provinces; that, contrary to the treaty of 1783, the English ministry had granted protection to the emigrants and others who had openly appeared in arms against the French; that they had committed an outrage against the French republic, by ordering the ambassador of France to quit Great Britain; that the English had stopped different boats and vessels laden with corn for France, whilst, at the same time, contrary to the treaty of 1786, they continued the exportation of grain to other foreign countries; and that, to thwart more efficaciously the commercial transactions of the republic with England, they had by an act of parliament prohibited the circulation of assignats. The Convention therefore declared, that in conseouence of these acts of hostility and aggression, the French republic was at war with the king of England and with the stadtholder of the United Provinces. The absurdity of pretending that any treaty with France made in 1783 could be violated by protecting the emigrants who fled from the vengeance of the Convention, must be sufficiently obvious. The Convention itself was a usurpation of the government with which that treaty had been concluded. On the other hand, the prohibition of the assignats was certainly contrary to no law, and was sanctioned by every motive of expediency, unless the Convention could prove that all nations were bound by the law of nature to risk their own credit upon that of the French republic. About a fortnight after this declaration appeared, war was likewise declared against Spain; and in the course of the summer France was in hostility with all Europe, excepting only Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and Turkey.

In the mean time General Dumouriez, proceeding agreeably to his orders, made an attack upon Holland; but in doing so he disseminated his troops in such a manner as to expose himself to attack upon the side of Germany. He commanded General Miranda to invest Maestricht, whilst he advanced to blockade Breda and Bergen-op-Zoom. Breda, however, surrendered on the 24th of February, Klun-dert was taken on the 26th, and Gertruydenberg yielded on the 4th of March. But here the triumphs of Dumouriez ended. The sieges of Williamstadt and Bergen-op-Zoom, though vigorously pressed, proved unsuccessful. On the 1st of March General Clairfayt, having passed the Roer, attacked the French posts, and compelled them to retreat with the loss of about two thousand men. The following day the archduke attacked them anew with considerable success; and on the 3d the French were driven from Aix-la-Chapelle, with the loss of four thousand men killed and sixteen hundred taken prisoners. The siege of Maestricht was now raised, and the French retreated to Tongres, where they were also attacked, and forced to retreat to St Tron. Here Dumouriez joined them, but did not bring his army along with him from Holland. After some skirmishes, a general engagement took place at Neerwinden, and was contested on the part of the French with great obstinacy; but they were at length overpowered by numbers, and forced to retreat. This defeat had well nigh proved fatal to the republican arms. The French lost three thousand men in the battle, and six thousand immediately afterwards deserted and returned to their homes. Dumouriez continued to retreat, and on the 22d he was again attacked near Louvain; but, through the medium of Colonel Mack, who afterwards became so unenviably famous, he entered into an arrangement with the imperialists that his retreat should not be seriously interrupted. It was also fully agreed that whilst the imperialists took possession of Condé and Valenciennes, he should march to Paris, dissolve the Convention, and place the son of the late king upon the throne.

The rapid retreat and successive defeats of General Dumouriez having rendered his conduct suspicious, commissioners were sent by the executive government, for the purpose of discovering and defeating his designs. The latter dissembled, and pretended to communicate to him a scheme of a counter revolution. Dumouriez fell into the snare which they had laid for him, and confessed his intention of dissolving by force the Convention and the Jacobin Club, and restoring monarchy. On the report of these commissioners the Convention sent Bournonville, the minister of war, along with Camus, Blancal, Lamarque, and Quinette, as commissioners, to supersede and arrest Dumouriez. The attempt on the part of these functionaries to arrest a general in the midst of his army was certainly hazardous; and in fact Dumouriez, on the first of April, sent them prisoners to General Clairfayt’s head-quarters at Tournay, as hostages for the safety of the royal family. He next attempted[7:10:78] to seduce his army from their fidelity to the Convention; but he speedily found that he had mistaken the character of his troops. When the report reached them that their general was to be carried as a criminal to Paris, they were seized with vehement indignation; but as soon as they learned that an attempt was being made to prevail on them to turn their arms against their country, their sentiments underwent a sudden alteration, and resentment succeeded to the generous feeling of indignation which at first prompted them to interpose in his behalf. On the 5th of April two proclamations were issued, one by General Dumouriez, and the other by the Prince of Saxe-Cobourg, declaring that their only purpose was to restore the constitution of 1789, 1790, and 1791. The latter announced that the allied powers wished merely to co-operate with General Dumouriez in giving to France a constitutional king and the constitution which she had framed for herself; and he declared, upon his word of honour, that he came not into the French territory for the purpose of making conquests. On the same day Dumouriez went to the advanced guard of his own camp at Maulde; but he there learned that the corps of artillery had risen upon their general, and were marching to Valenciennes; and he also found that the whole army were resolved to stand by their country. Seven hundred cavalry and eight hundred infantry were all who deserted with Dumouriez to the Austrians, and many of these afterwards returned.

By the defection of Dumouriez, however, the army of the north was dissolved, and in part disbanded, in presence of a numerous, well-disciplined, and victorious enemy. The Prussians were at the same time advancing in immense force, and were about to commence the siege of Mayence. In the interior of the Republic, evils even more serious were threatened. In the departments of La Vendée and La Loire, or the provinces of Bretagne and Poitou, immense multitudes of emigrants and other royalists had gradually assembled in the course of the winter, professing to act in the name of Monsieur, as regent of France; and about the middle of March they advanced against Nantes to the number of about forty thousand. In the beginning of April they defeated the republicans in two pitched battles, possessed themselves of fifty leagues of country, and even threatened, by their own efforts, to shake the republic to its very foundations. On the 8th of April there assembled at Antwerp a congress of the combined powers, which was attended by the Prince of Orange and his two sons, with his excellency Vander Spiegel, on the part of Holland; by the Duke of York and Lord Auckland on the part of Great Britain; and by the Prince of Saxe-Cobourg, Counts Metternich, Staremberg, and Dargenteau, and the Prussian, Spanish, and Neapolitan envoys. In this congress it was definitively determined to commence active operations against France; the Prince of Cobourg⅛ proclamation was recalled, and a scheme of conquest announced.

Commissioners from the Convention now set up anew the standard of the republic, and the scattered battalions flocked around it. General Dampierre was appointed commander-in-chief, and on the 13th he was able to resist a general attack upon his advanced posts. On the 14th his advanced guard yielded to superior numbers, but on the 15th he was victorious in a long and well-fought battle. On the 23d the Austrians were again repulsed, and on the 1st of May General Dampierre was himself defeated in an attack upon the enemy. On the 8th another engagement took place, in which the French general was killed by a cannon ball. On the 23d a determined attack was made by the allies u∣>on the fortified camp of Famars, which covered the town of Valenciennes. The French made a very gallant resistance, but were at length overcome, and in the night abandoned their camp. By this victory the allies were enabled to commence the siege of Valenciennes; Condé having been blockaded since the first of April. About the same time General Custines on the Rhine made a vigorous but unsuccessful attack upon the Prussians, and in consequence they were soon enabled to lay siege to Mayence. At this period also the Corsican general Paoli revolted; and the Republic, assaulted from without by the whole strength of Europe, was undermined by treachery and faction within.

Whilst the country was in a state verging upon utter ruin, the parties in the Convention were gradually waxing fiercer and fiercer in their animosity; and, regardless of what was passing at a distance, they seemed only anxious for the extermination of each other. In the month of March the Revolutionary Tribunal was established, for the purpose of trying crimes committed against the state; and the Girondists, the mildness of whose administration had contributed not a little to increase the evils of their country, began to see the necessity of adopting measures of severity. But the public calamities, which now followed in rapid succession, were ascribed by their countrymen to the imbecility or perfidy of that party. This gave to the party of the Mountain a fatal advantage. On the 15th of April the communes of the forty-eight sections of Paris presented a petition, requiring that the chiefs of the Girondists therein named should be impeached and expelled from the Convention; and this was followed on the 1st of May by another petition of the same description from the faubourg St Antoine. In the mean time the Girondist party impeached Marat, but the miscreant was acquitted by the jury. With the assistance of the Jacobin Club, the Mountain had now acquired a complete ascendency over the city of Paris. The Girondists therefore proposed to remove the Convention from the capital; and to prevent this, the Mountain resolved to make the same use of the people of the capital against the Girondist party which they had formerly done against the monarch on the tenth of August. It is unnecessary to relate in detail all the tumults which occurred either in Paris or in the Convention during the remaining part of the month of May. On the 31st, at four o’clock in the morning, the tocsin was sounded, the générale beat, and the alarm guns fired. All was commotion and terror. The citizens flew to arms, and assembled round the Convention, where some deputations demanded a decree of accusation against thirty-five of its members. The day, however, passed without coming to a decision. On the afternoon of the 1st of June an armed force made the same demand, which was repeated on the 2d of June, when the tocsin again sounded, and an hundred pieces of cannon surrounded the hall of the Convention. At length Barrère, who was considered as a moderate man, and respected by both parties, mounted the tribune; but he now artfully deserted the Girondists, and invited the denounced members voluntarily to resign theiι character of representatives. Some of them complied, and the president attempted to dissolve the sitting; but tht members now found themselves prisoners in their own hall. There Henriot, commander of the armed force, compelled them to remain; and the obnoxious deputies, amounting to upwards of ninety in number, were put under arrest, and a decree of accusation passed against them. It is very obvious that on this occasion the liberties of France were trodden under foot. The minority of the national representatives, with the assistance of an armed force raised in the capital, had compelled the majority to submit to their measures, and taken the leading members prisoners. The city of Paris thus assumed to itself the whole powers of the French Republic; and the nation was no longer governed by representatives freely chosen, but by a minority of the Convention of whose sentiments the city of Paris and the Jacobin Club had thought proper to approve. The history of nations, and, above all, of factions, is a mass of contradictions[7:10:79]. The mountain party came into power by preaching boundless liberty, and by practically violating its fundamental principles! How far the plea of political necessity may serve to excuse their conduct, we shall not venture to decide. Certain it is that they soon commenced, both at home and abroad, a career of the most terrible energy which is to be found in the records of nations.

The first result of their victory in the capital was calamitous to the Republic at large. Brissot and some other deputies escaped, and endeavoured to kindle the flames of civil war. In general, however, the influence of the Jacobin Club, and of its various branches, was such, that the north of France adhered to the Convention; but the southern departments were speedily in a state of rebellion. The department of Lyons declared the Mountain party outlawed. Marseilles and Toulon followed the example of Lyons, and entered into a confederacy, which has since been known by the appellation of Federalism. The departments of La Gironde and Calvados broke out into open insurrection. In a word, the whole of France was in a state of violent convulsion. Still, however, the enthusiastic garrisons of Mayence and Valenciennes protected it against the immediate entrance of a foreign force, and afforded leisure for one of its internal factions to gain an ascendency, and thereafter to protect its independence. In fact, the political enthusiasm of all orders of persons was such, that even the female sex did not escape its contagion. In the beginning of July a young woman of the name of Charlotte Corday came from the department of Calvados to devote her life for what she deemed the cause of freedom and her country. Having requested an interview with Marat, the most obnoxious of the Mountain party, she at length contrived to obtain it, and after conversing with him for some time, suddenly plunged a dagger in his breast, and walked carelessly out of the house. But she was immediately seized, condemned, and executed; behaving throughout with infinite constancy, and with her last breath shouting Five la République. The party to which Marat was attached derived advantage from the manner of his death, as it seemed to fasten the odious charge of assassination upon their antagonists, and to give them the appearance of suffering in the cause of liberty; though the real truth is, that assassination was sanctioned by both parties, under pretence of defending the liberties of the Republic.

One of the first acts of the Mountain party after their triumph was to complete the republican constitution. Previously to their fall, the Girondists had brought forward the plan of a constitution, which was chiefly the work of Condorcet; but it was never sanctioned by the Convention, and much too intricate to be practically useful. The constitution now framed, which was afterwards sanctioned by the nation, but never put in practice, abolished the former mode of electing the representatives of the people through the medium of electoral assemblies, and appointed them to be chosen immediately by the primary assemblies, which were to consist of from two to six hundred citizens, whilst each man was to give his suffrage by ballot or otherwise at his option. One deputy was allowed for every forty thousand individuals, and population formed the sole basis of representation. The elections were to take place every year on the first of May. Electoral assembles were, however, retained. Every two hundred citizens in the primary assemblies named one elector, and an assembly of all the electors of the department was afterwards held, which chose candidates for the executive council, or ministry of the Republic; and out of this list of candidates the legislative body selected the members of the execut e cmucu. one nan of tins council was to be renewed by each legislature in the last month of the session. Every law, after being passed by the legislative body, was to be sent to the department; and if in more than half of the departments the tenth of the primary assemblies of each did not object to it, it became effectual. Trial by jury was also established. National conventions might be called for altering the constitution, and were to be summoned, if required, by the tenth of the primary assemblies of each department in a majority of the departments. The publication of this constitution secured no small degree of applause to the Convention and the Mountain party. The rapidity with which it had been framed^[14. This constitution was only the work of a fortnight; a short space, no doubt, for so important an undertaking. ] seemed to cast a reflection upon the slowness of the moderate party, and was regarded as a proof that its framers were decidedly serious in the cause of republicanism. No regard, however, was paid to it by the Convention, which declared itself permanent; nor indeed did it seem possible to carry it into execution.

We have mentioned that Condé was invested ever since the beginning of April; but it did not yield till the 10th of July, when the garrison was so much reduced by famine and disease, that out of four thousand men, of which it originally consisted, only fifteen hundred were fit for service. The eyes of all Europe were in the mean time fixed upon the siege of Valenciennes. Colonel Moncrieff had contended tnat batteries ought to be placed immediately under the walls, without approaching it by regular parallels; but the imperial engineer Ferraris asserted that the work of the great Vauban must be treated with more respect, and his opinion was adopted by the council of war. The trenches were opened on the 14th of June. Few sallies were attempted by the garrison, on account of the smallness of their number. The inhabitants at first wished to surrender; but the violence of the bombardment prevented their assembling, or giving much trouble to General Ferrand, the governor. The principal labour of the siege consisted of mines and countermines, some of which having been successfully sprung by the assailants, the town was surrendered by capitulation on the 27th of July, and the Duke of York took possession of it in behalf of the emperor of Germany. The siege of Mayence at the same time proceeded, and the place suffered much from famine; but at last, after an unsuccessful attempt to raise the siege by the French army of the Rhine, it surrendered on the 22d of July.

After the termination of the siege of Valenciennes the· allied powers became much divided as to their future, proceedings. The Austrian commanders are understood to have presented two plans; the one to penetrate to Paris by means of the rivers which fall into the Seine;' the other to take advantage of the consternation occasioned by the surrender of Valenciennes, and with fifty thousand light troops to penetrate suddenly to Paris, whilst a descent should be made on the coast of Bretagne to assist the royalists. The proposal of the British ministry, however, to divide the grand army, and to attack West Flanders, beginning with the siege of Dunkirk, was ultimately adopted; but this determination proved ruinous to the allies, as the French found means to vanquish in detail that army which they were unable to encounter when united.

It has been asserted that the Duke of York was in secret correspondence with Omeron, the governor of Dunkirk; but the latter was removed before any advantage could be taken of his treachery. On the 24th of August the Duke of York attacked and drove into the town the French outposts, after an action in which the Austrian general Dalton[7:10:80] was killed. A naval armament was expected from Great Britain to co-operate in the siege, but it did not arrive in time to be of any avail. Meanwhile a strong republican force menaced the covering army of the allies, commanded by General Freytag; and, in point of fact, he was soon afterwards attacked and totally routed, in consequence of which the siege was raised. The British lost their heavy cannon and baggage, with several thousand men; but the Convention, lκ>Reving that their general, Houchard, might have cut off the Duke of York’s retreat, tried and executed him for this alleged neglect of duty. In the mean time the Prince of Saxe-Cobourg and General Clairfayt unsuccessfully attempted to besiege Cambray and Bouchain. Quesnoy was, however, taken by General Clairfayt on the 11th of September; and here terminated the success of the allies in the Netherlands during the present campaign.

A considerable part of the French army of the north having taken a strong position near Maubeuge, were there blockaded by Prince Cobourg; but upon the 15th and 16th of October the latter was repeatedly attacked by the French troops under General Jourdan, who had succeeded Houchard in the command. The French having now recovered their vigour, brought into the field a formidable train of artillery; and commissioners from the Convention harangued the soldiers, threatening the timid and applauding the brave. The attacks were repeated and furious, and the Austrians had the disadvantage, in consequence of which the Prince of Saxe-Cobourg retired during the night. The French now menaced maritime Flanders, took Fumes, and besieged Nieuport. But a detachment of British troops ready to sail to the West Indies were hastily sent to Ostend, and for the present prevented the further progress of the French.

The multiplicity of the events which now occurred in France was so great, that it is difficult to give an outline of these with tolerable perspicuity. It has been already mentioned that violent dissensions occurred throughout the Republic, in consequence of the triumph of the Mountain party on the 31st of May. The department of Calvados was first in arms against the Convention, under the command of General Wimpfen; but before the end of July the insurrection had been subdued. The federalism of the cities of Marseilles, Lyons, and Toulon, however, still remained. On the 8th of August Lyons was attacked by the Conventional troops; and several actions followed, which were attended with great loss both on the part of the assailants and of the besieged. The city in fact was reduced almost to ruins; but it held out during the whole month of September. The besieging general, Kellerman, was removed from his command on account of his supposed inactivity; and the city surrendered on the 8th of October to General Doppet, a man who had lately been a physician. The walls and public buildings of Lyons were ordered to be destroyed, and its name changed to that of Ville Affranchie; many hundreds of its citizens were dragged to the scaffold on account of their alleged treasonable resistance to the Convention; and the victorious party, weary of the slow operation of the guillotine, at last destroyed their prisoners in multitudes, by discharges of grape-shot. With the party of the Mountain terror was now the order of the day. In the end of July General Carteaux was sent against Marseilles. In the beginning of August he gained some successes over the advanced guard of the federalist troops; and on the 24th he took the town of Aix, upon which the Mar-sellois submitted. But the leading persons of the important town of Toulon, one of the first naval stations in France, entered into a negotiation, which terminated in their submitting to the British admiral Lord Hood, upon the conditions that he would preserve as a deposit the town and shipping for Louis XVII. and assist in restoring the constitution of 1789. The siege of Toulon was commenced by General Carteaux in the beginning of September; and it continued without much vigour during that and the succeeding month, Neapolitan, Spanish, and English troops having been brought by sea to assist in its defence. But in the beginning of November, General Carteaux was removed to the command of the army in Italy, and General Dugommier succeeded him in the direction of the siege. General O’Hara also arrived with reinforcements from Gibraltar, and assumed the command of the town, under a commission from his Britannic majesty. Upon the 30th of November the garrison made a vigorous sally, in order to destroy some batteries which were erecting upon heights that commanded the city. The French were surprised, and the assailants effected their object; but, elated with this success, the troops rushed onward in pursuit of the enemy, and were unexpectedly met by a strong French force brought up by the commandant of artillery to check their advance. General O'Hara now arrived from the city to endeavour to bring off his troops; but he received a wound in the arm, and was taken prisoner. The total loss of the assailants in this affair was estimated at a thousand men. The French now mustered in great force around Toulon, and prepared to prosecute the attack with vigour. It commenced on the 19th of December, and was chiefly directed against Fort Mulgrave, occupied by the British. This fort was protected by an intrenched camp, and thirteen pieces of cannon consisting of twenty-four and thirty-six pounders, with five mortars and three thousand troops; but such was the fury of assault, that it was carried in an hour, and the whole garrison either killed or taken. The British and their allies now found it impossible to defend the place; and in the course of the day embarked their troops, after having set on fire the arsenal and the ships. A scene of confusion now ensued, such as has rarely been exhibited in modern warfare. Crowds of people of every rank, age, and sex, hurried on board the ships, to escape the vengeance of their enraged countrymen. Some of the inhabitants began to fire upon their late allies; others in despair were seen plunging into the sea, and making a vain effort to reach the ships; and not a few put an end at once to their own existence on the shore. No language, indeed, can do justice to the horrors of the scene. Mothers clasping their helpless babes, and old men weighed down with the load of years, might be seen stretching their hands towards the harbour, shuddering at every sound behind them, and even rushing into the waves to escape the less merciful death which awaited them from their countrymen. Sir Sidney Smith, with honourable humanity, suspended the retreat until not a single individual who claimed his assistance remained on shore, though the total number borne away amounted to nearly fifteen thousand. Of thirty-one ships of the line found by the British at Toulon, thirteen were left behind, ten were burned, and four had been previously sent to Brest and Rochefort, with five thousand republicans who could not be trusted; so that Great Britain finally obtained by this expedition only three ships of the line and five frigates. The recovery of this important place by the French was in a great measure, if not altogether, owing to the superior genius and conduct of the commandant of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte, who here made his first conspicuous essay in arms.

The storm which now burst on the devoted heads of the Toulonese was indeed terrible. The infuriated soldiers rushed into the town, and, in their frantic rage, massacred two hundred Jacobins who had gone out to welcome their approach. During twenty-four hours the inhabitants were left at the mercy of the soldiers, and the galley slaves, who had been let loose on the city; and a [7:10:81]stop was only put to these horrors by the citizens redeeming themselves for four millions of francs. Dugommier, a brave, honourable, and humane soldier, did his utmost to check the violence of the troops, and to mitigate the severity of the Convention; but though he succeeded in restraining the former, nothing could soften the inexorable hearts of the latter. Several thousand citizens of every age and both sexes perished in a few weeks, either by the sword or the guillotine; for a considerable time two hundred were beheaded daily; and twelve thousand labourers were hired from the surrounding departments to demolish the buildings of the city. On the motion of Barrère, it was decreed that the name of Toulon should be changed to that of Port de la Montagne, that the houses should be razed to the foundations, and nothing should be left but the naval and military establishments; and Barras, Fréron, and Robespierre the younger were chosen to execute the vengeance of the Convention upon the fallen city. Military commissions were immediately formed, and a revolutionary tribunal was established; the prisons were crowded with the unhappy persons destined for the guillotine; and the mitraillades of Lyons were imitated with fearful effect. One of the victims, an aged merchant, named Hugues, was eighty-four years old, deaf, and nearly blind. His only crime consisted in the possession of a fortune of L.800,000, all of which, excepting L.20,000, be offered, to save his life. The judge, however, deeming the offer inadequate, sent him to the guillotine, and confiscated the whole. “When I beheld this old man executed,” said Napoleon, “I felt as if the end of the world was at hand.” It seemed, indeed, as if a legion of evil spirits had been let loose upon earth, to revel for a season in crimes hitherto unheard of among the children of men.^[15. Alison, vol. ii. p. 201, 202; Lacretelle, xi 189, 190- ] i On the side of Spain the war produced nothing of im-Knce; and in the mountainous country of Piedmont advantage had been gained on either side. But more terrible scenes were acting in other quarters. In La Vendée a most fierce and sanguinary contest was maintained by the royalists. In that part of the country the language of the rest of France was but little understood. The people were superstitious, and had acquired almost no knowledge of the new opinions which had recently been propagated throughout the rest of the country. They were chiefly headed by priests, and taught to regard their cause as that of religion. Their usual mode of warfare was to proceed in their ordinary occupations as peaceable citizens, but suddenly to assemble in immense bands at the prescribed rendezvous, when the alarm was given. Atone time, indeed, they were said to amount to one hundred and fifty thousand men. They besieged Nantes and Orleans; and even Paris itself was not considered altogether safe from their enterprises. The war was inconceivably bloody; neither party gave quarter; and La Vendée proved a dreadful drain on the population of France. On the 28th of June the Conventional general Biron drove the royalists from Lucon; and Nantes was relieved by General Beysser. But after obtaining some success, General Westermann was surprised, and compelled to retreat to Parthenay. In the beginning of August the royalists were defeated by General Rossignol; but on the 10th of that month they again, under Charette their commander-in-chief, attacked Nantes, though without success. Our limits do not admit of our entering into the details of this fierce contest, rich as it is in daring actions and heroic adventures. The royalists were often defeated and apparently dispersed, but they as often appeared again in crowds around the astonished republicans. At last, about the middle of October, they were completely defeated, driven from La Vendée, and forced to divide into separate bodies; one of which threw itself into the island of Noirmoutier, where they were destroyed, whilst another took the road of Maine and Bretagne, where they struggled for some time against their enemies, and were at last either cut to pieces or dispersed. The royalists had long expected assistance from England; and an armament under the Earl of Moira was actually fitted out for that service, but it did not arrive till too late, and returned home without even attempting a landing. The Mountain party invariably disgraced their successes by the most ferocious cruelties. Humanity is shocked, and history would almost cease to obtain credit, were we to state in detail the unrelenting barbarities which were exercised against the unfortunate royalists, especially by Carrier, a deputy of the Convention, who had been sent into this quarter with unlimited powers. Multitudes of prisoners were crowded on board vessels in the Loire, which were afterwards scuttled and sunk. No age or sex was spared; and these executions were performed with every circumstance of wanton barbarity and insult. The infernal republican marriages, as they were denominated by the demon who invented them, usually preceded these noyades.

On the side of the Rhine a great variety of events occurred during the months of August and September. Several engagements took place, in which the French were upon the whole successful. In September, however, Landau was invested by the combined powers; and it was resolved to make every possible effort to drive the French from their position on the Lauter. They occupied the ancient and celebrated lines of Weissenberg, constructed in former times for the protection of the Rhenish frontier, and stretching from the town of Lauterburg on the Rhine, through the village of Weissenberg to the Vosges Mountains; and during four months all the resources of art had been employed in strengthening them. Having approached the extreme left of this position, the allies formed the design of attacking it from left to right, and thus forcing the French to abandon the whole line of the intrenchments. Accordingly the Prussians, under the Duke of Brunswick, assaulted the left of the lines by the defiles of the Vosges Mountains, whilst the Austrians under Prince Waldeck crossed the Rhine to turn the right, and Wurmser, with the main body, endeavoured to force the centre. The attack on the right by Lauterburg obtained only a momentary success; but Wurmser having carried several redoubts in the centre, soon got possession of Weissenberg; and the left having been turned and forced back, the French army retired in confusion, and some of the fugitives even fled as far as Strasburg. Such was the tardiness of the allies, however, that the French, though completely routed, lost only a thousand men; whereas, if the victory had been improved, the ruin of the whole army would have been inevitable. The French retreated to Hagenau, from which they were driven on the 18th; and they suffered two other defeats on the 25th and 27th. Some of the principal citizens of Strasburg now sent a private deputation to General Wurmser, offering to surrender the town, upon condition that it should be restored to Louis XVII. But General Wurmser declined to accede to these terms, and insisted upon an unconditional surrender. The delay occasioned by this disagreement led to the discovery of the negotiation, and those citizens of Strasburg who had been engaged in it were seized by Saint-Just and Lebas, the commissioners of the Convention, and brought to the scaffold.

Prodigious efforts were now made by the French in order to recover the ground which they had lost. On the 9th of [7:10:82]November General Irembert was. shot at the head of the army, upon a charge, probably ill founded, of treachery in the storming of the lines of Weissenberg. But on the 14th Fort Louis was taken by the allies, not without suspicion of treachery on the part of the governor. With this the success of General Wurmser may be said to have terminated. On the 21st, the republican army drove back the Austrians, and penetrated almost to Hagenau; whilst the army of the Moselle advanced to co-operate with the army of the Rhine. On the 17th the Prussians were defeated near Sarbruck, and next day their camp at Blieseastel was stormed; the French then advanced to Deux-Ponts. On the 29th and 30th, however, the French were repulsed with great loss in two violent attacks which they made on the Duke of Brunswick near Lautern. It was obvious, indeed, that they had come into the field with a determination to conquer, whatever it might cost. Every day was a day of battle, and torrents of blood flowed on both sides. The allies had the advantage of the ground, which is very strong, on account of its inequalities and morasses; but the French army was far more numerous than theirs; and although inferior in point of discipline, yet it derived great moral force from the enthusiasm with which the troops were animated. On the 8th of December the French under Pichegru carried the redoubts which covered Hagenau at the point of the bayonet. In a word, the finest troops in Europe were unable to withstand the fury of the republicans, whose determination seemed only to increase in proportion to the slaughter of their companions in arms, and who were never more likely to conquer than immediately after a defeat. On the 22d the allies were driven with great loss from Hagenau, notwithstanding the works which they had thrown up for their defence. The intrenchments on the heights of Reishoffen were considered as stronger than those of Jemmappes; yet they were stormed by the army of the Moselle and the Rhine, under Hoche and Pichegru. On the 23d and 24th the allies were pursued to the heights of Wrotte; and on the 26th the intrenchments which they had thrown up there were, after a desperate conflict, forced at the point of the bayonet. On the 27th the republican army arrived in triumph at Weissenberg. Wurmser retreated across the Rhine, and the Duke of Brunswick hastily fell back to cover Mayence. The blockade of Landau, which had lasted four months, was raised; Fort Louis was evacuated by the allies, and Kayserslautern, Germersheim, and Spires, submitted to the French. During the last month of the year 1793 the loss of men on both sides was immense, and is said to have amounted to between seventy and eighty thousand.

In the mean time violent efforts were made at Paris by the new administration, established under the auspices of the Jacobin Club and of the party called the Mountain. The new republican constitution had been presented to the people in the primary assemblies, and accepted; so that the business for which the Convention had been called together, namely, that of forming a constitution for France, was at an end. It was therefore proposed that they should now dissolve themselves, and order a new legislative body to assemble, according to the rules prescribed by the constitution; but the dominant party considered it as hazardous to convene a new assembly, possessing only limited powers, in the present distracted state of the country; and in fact it was obvious that France at this time required a dictatorship, or a government possessed of more absolute authority than can ever be enjoyed by one which acts, or pretends to act, upon constitutional principles. It was therefore determined that the Convention should remain undissolved until the end of the war; and that a Revolutionary Government should be established, and invested with uncontrolled powers. Committees of its own body were therefore elected for the purpose of conducting every department of business. The principal of these was called the Committee of Public Safety, whose duty it was to superintend all the others, and to give to the administration all the secrecy and dispatch which have been accounted peculiar to a military government, together with a combination of skill and energy hitherto unknown among mankind. A correspondence was maintained with all the Jacobin Clubs throughout the kingdom; and commissioners appointed by the Convention were sent into all parts of the country, with unlimited authority over every description of persons. In this way a government was established, possessed of infinite vigilance, and more absolute and uncontrolled power than was ever enjoyed by any single despot; and the whole transactions and resources of the country were known to its rulers. On the 23d of August, Barrère, in name of the Committee of Public Safety, proposed the celebrated decree for placing the whole French nation in a state of requisition for the public service. “From this moment,” says the decree, “till that when every enemy shall have been driven from the territory of the Republic, all Frenchmen shall be in permanent readiness for the service of the army. The young men shall march to the combat; the married men shall forge arms, and transport the provisions; the women shall make tents and clothes, and attend in the hospitals; the children shall make lint of old linen; the old men shall cause themselves to be carried to the public squares, to excite the courage of the warriors, and to preach hatred against the enemies of the Republic; the cellars shall be washed to procure saltpetre; the saddle-horses shall be given up to complete the cavalry; the unmarried citizens, from the age of eighteen to twenty-five, shall march first, and none shall send a substitute; and every battalion shall have a banner with this inscription, The French nation risen against tyrants. The Republic is only a great city besieged, and France must therefore be converted into a vast camp.” The measures proposed by Barrère were immediately decreed. All Frenchmen from the age of eighteen to twenty-five took the field; the armies, recruited with requisitions of men, were supported with requisitions of provisions; and the Republic had soon fourteen armies, and twelve hundred thousand soldiers. France was thus transformed at once into a camp and arsenal for the supply of the armies, and terror enforced all the provisions of this celebrated decree. The bayonets of the allies appeared less formidable than the guillotine of the Convention; and safety, despaired of everywhere else, was found only in the armies on the frontier.

In the centre the dictatorial government struck down all the parties, however elevated, with whom it had been at war. The condemnation of the queen, Marie-Antoinette, was directed against Europe generally; that of the Twenty-one against the Girondists; that of the virtuous Bailly against the old constitutionalists; and that of the Duke of Orleans against certain members of the Mountain, who were supposed to have plotted his elevation to the throne. The widow of the unfortunate Louis XVI. was sent to the guillotine on the 16th of October, after a mock trial, in which justice and humanity were equally disregarded. Her conduct, both during her trial and at the place of execution, was distinguished for calmness and dignity, and she died, amidst the savage shouts of the infuriated multitude, with a firmness that did honour to her race. The deputies of the Gironde party, who had been proscribed on the 2d of June, soon followed her to the scaffold, where they ended their career on the 31st of the same month. They were in number twenty-one; Brissot, Vergniaud, Gensonné, Fonfrède, Ducos, Valazé, Lasourcc, Silléry, Gardien, Carra, Duprat, Beauvais, Duchâtel, Mainvielle, Lacaze, Boileau, Lehardy, Antiboul, Vigée, Dufriche, and Duperret. Sixty-three of their colleagues, who had protested against their arrest, [7:10:83]were also imprisoned, but the terrorists did not venture to send these also to the guillotine. During their sham trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal, which lasted nine days, they displayed the most sustained and serene courage. For an instant Vergniaud made his eloquent voice be heard, but in vain. The vehemence of Brissot was equally unavailing. Their destruction had become necessary to the ruling party, and they were condemned without being heard in their own defence. When the sentence was pronounced, Valazé stabbed himself with a poniard, and expired in presence of the court; whilst Lasource, addressing his judges, exclaimed, “I die at a moment when the people have lost their reason; you, you also will perish on the day when they recover it.” Vergniaud had been provided by his friends with a certain and speedy poison; but he refused to make use of it, that he might accompany his friends to the scaffold. The condemned deputies marched to punishment with all the stoicism of the time, singing as they went the Marseillaise hymn, which, by a slight change, they applied to their own situation:

Allons, enfants de la patrie, Le jour de glorie est arrivé; Contre nous de la tyrannie I j e couteau sanglant est levé.

When they arrived at the place of execution they mutually embraced, exclaiming, Vive la République, and died, like Romans, protesting with their last breath their attachment to freedom and the Republic.^[16. LacreteUe, ii. 100; Thiers, v. 392; Mignet, ii. 294; Toulangeon, iv. 115. A young man, named Girey Dufocé, was brought to the bar of the Revolutionary Tribunal. “You have been a fnend of Brissot,” said the president. “I had that happiness." what is your opinion of him ř” That he lived like Aristides, and died like Sidney,” was the answer. Dufocé was sent to the caffold, where, by his heroic firmness, he vindicated the friendship of Brissot. ]

Of the other chiefs of this party, almost all met with an untimely end. Salles, Guadet, Barbaroux, were discovered in the caves of Saint-Emilion, near Bordeaux, and perished on the popular scaffold. Pétion and Buzat, after having wandered about for some time, committed suicide, and were found dead in a field, with their bodies half devoured by the wolves. Rabaud Saint-Etienne was betrayed by a wretch in whom he confided. Madame Roland was also condemned, and died with the courage of a Roman matron; her husband, on learning her death, quitted his asylum, and stabbed himself on the high road between Paris and Rouen, that he might not betray the generous friends who had sheltered him in his misfortunes. Condorcet, who had been put beyond the protection of the law since the 2d of June, was discovered when in the act of concealing himself from his pursuers, and escaped punishment by taking poison. Louvet, Kervelegan, Lanjuinais, Henri-la-Rivière, Le Sage, and La Reveillere-Lepeaux, were the only Girondists who, in secure asylums, waited for the cessation of this furious tempest. And thus perished this celebrated party, blameable for its rashness, but estimable for its intentions, illustrious for its talents, and glorious in its fall; a party which, embracing all men who were philanthropists from feeling, or republicans from principle, the brave, the humane, and the benevolent, fell the victim of a base and despicable faction, composed of men sprung from the dregs of the populace, and impelled by coarse and vulgar ambition; a party, in short, which, though adorned by the most splendid talents, supported by the most powerful eloquence, and actuated by the most generous intentions, was destroyed, because its members refused to countenance the sanguinary violence which alone commands success in revolutions.

The Duke of Orleans was soon afterwards condemned, on ’ a charge of having, from the commencement of the Revolution, aspired to the sovereignty. The execution of Egalité gave satisfaction to all parties. His vote for the death of the king had done him little honour, even in the opinion of the Mountainists, and had rendered him odious to the rest of mankind. It was, in fact, an unparalleled outrage on humanity.

The Committee of Public Safety was now remodelled, conformably to the views of the dictators. Until the 31st of May, when the decree for the arrest of the Girondists had passed, it consisted of neutral members of the Convention; now it was composed of the most furious partisans of the Mountain. Barrère remained, but Robespierre was elected a member, and, by means of Saint-Just, Couthon, Collot-d’Herbois, and Billaud-Varennes, his party had a complete ascendency. He struck off some Dantonists, such as Hérault de Séchelles and Robert Lindet, who still remained; gained Barrère; and took under his own management the departments of the police and public opinion. His associates also cast their parts. Saint-Just undertook the surveillance and denunciation of persons suspected; Couthon, that of violent propositions, which required to be softened in the form of expression: Billaud-Varennes and Collot-d’Herbois directed the proconsulates in the departments; Carnot the war; Cambon that of the finances department; Prieur de la Côte d’Or, Prieur de la Marne, and others, the administration of the interior; and Barrère was the daily orator and ever-ready panegyrist of the dictatorial committee. Below this was placed as an auxiliary in the details of revolutionary administration and inferior measures the Committee of General Safety, constituted in the same spirit as the great committee, and, like it, consisting of twelve members, re-eligible every three months, and always continued in their functions. In such hands was the whole revolutionary force now placed. “Vous n’avez plus rien à ménager contre les ennemis du nouvel ordre des choses,” said Saint-Just; “et la liberté doit vaincre à tel prix que ce soit Dans les circonstances où se trouve la République, la constitution ne peut être établie; elle deviendrait la garantie des attentats contre la liberté, parce qu’elle manquerait de la violence nécessaire pour les réprimer. Le gouvernement présent est aussi trop embarrassé. Vous êtes trop loin de tous les attentats; il faut que le glaive des lois se promène partout avec rapidité, et que votre bras soit présent partout.” And thus was created that terrible power which first devoured the enemies of the Mountain, then devoured both the Mountain and the Commune, and at length ended by devouring itself. The committee disposed of every thing in name of the Convention, which was merely its tool. It was this body which appointed and dismissed generals, ministers, representative commissioners, judges, and juries; which struck down opposing factions; which possessed the initiative of all measures. By means of its commissioners the armies and the generals were kept under its control; it exercised sovereign power in the departments; by the law in regard to suspected persons, it disposed of the liberty, and by the Revolutionary Tribunal, of the life, of every one; by requisitions and the maximum, it had the unlimited disposal of all fortunes; and by the terrified Convention, it could command decrees of accusation against any member of that body. Every thing, in short, was at its feet, and, supported by the multitude, its despotism was for the time as complete as it was terrible.

When the human mind is once roused, its activity extends to every object. At this time a new system of weights and measures, in which thedecimal arithmetic alone is employed, was established by the Convention. The court of Spain, notwithstanding the war, had the liberality to permit Mechain to proceed with his operations for measuring a degree of the meridian in that country; and he ac-cordinġly[7:10:84] carried on his system of triangulation from Barcelona to Perpignan, whence the mensuration was continued to Paris. Delambre and his pupil La François also measured a degree of latitude in the vicinity of the metropolis. In all, twelve degrees of the meridian were measured, the mean of which is 57,027 toises; and by this the universal standard of measure was calculated. MM. Borda and Cassini also determined the length of a pendulum which vibrates seconds in vacuo, and in a mean temperature at Paris, to be three feet eight hundred and six lines; and MM. Lavoisier and Haüy found that a cubic foot of distilled water at the freezing point weighs in vacuo seventy pounds and sixty gros French weight. From these data the new table of weights and measures was constructed. The astronomical circles with which MM. Borda and Cassini had made their observations were also divided according to the centesimal plan; so that the quadrant contains a hundred degrees, and each degree a hundred minutes. Hence the minute of a great circle of the sphere is equal to a mithare or new French mile; and if, for the reduction of this measure, we estimate the Paris toise, according to the comparison made with the standard kept in the Royal Society of London, at 6∙3925 English feet, the milliare or minute will be equal to 1093∙633 yards, and the mètre to 3∙280899 feet.

Separated by the war and by their own laws from all states and forms of government, the innovators sought to isolate themselves still more. For an unparalleled revolution they established an entirely new era; they changed the divisions of the year, and the names of the months and days; they replaced tire Christian kalendar by the republican, the week by the decade, and fixed the day of rest, not on the Sabbath, but on the tenth day. The new era dated from the 22d September, or autumnal equinox, the epoch of the foundation of the Republic. The year was divided into twelve equal months of thirty days each, which commenced on the 22d September, and were arranged in the order following, viz. Vendémiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, for autumn; Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, for winter; Germinal, Floréal, Prairial, for spring; and Messidor, Thermidor, Fructidor, for summer. Each month had three decades, each decade ten days, and each day received its name from its place in the decade; thus, primidi, duodi, tridi, quartidi, quintidi, sexlidi, septidi, octidi, nonidi, decadi. Five complementary days were thrown to the end of tire year, or added after the 30th Fructidor, in order to complete it; these received the name of Sans-culotides, and were consecrated, the first to the festival of Genius, the second to that of Labour, the third to that of Actions, the fourth to that of Recompenses, and the fifth to that of Opinion. The constitution of 1793 naturally led to the republican kalendar, and the republican kalendar to tire abolition of the Christian worship. Accordingly, the Commune and the Committee of Public Safety proposed each a new kind of religion; the Commune the worship of Reason, and the Committee that of the Supreme Being.

The religion of France had for some time been gradually losing ground; and on the 7th of November, Gobet, bishop of Paris, along with a great multitude of other ecclesiastics, came into the hall of the Convention, and at once resigned their functions and renounced the Christian religion. All the clergymen, whether Protestant or Catholic, who were members of the Convention, followed this example, excepting only Grégoire, whom we formerly mentioned as having been one of the first of his order to join the tiers état after the meeting of the States General, and who had now the courage to profess himself a Christian, although the emoluments of his bishopric were, he said, at the service of the Republic. Amidst the acclamations of the Convention, it was decreed that hereafter the only French deities should be Liberty, Equality, and Reason; and they would seem to have consecrated these abstractions as the only objects of worship. What political purpose the leaders of the Convention intended to serve by this proceeding does not clearly appear; unless, perhaps, their object was to change so completely the French manners and habits of thinking, that it should never be in their power to return to the state from which they had just emerged, or to unite in intercourse with the other nations of Europe. The populace, however, could not at once relinquish the religion of their fathers. The municipality of Paris ordered the churches to be shut up, but the Convention found it necessary to annul this order; and Robespierre gained no small degree of popularity by supporting the liberty of religious worship on this occasion. Hebert and Fabre d’Eglantine, who led the opposite party, hastened their own fall by an ill-judged contempt of popular opinion on the subject of religion.

To the abjuration of Christianity by Gobet, followed as it was by the apostacy of many of the constitutional bishops and clergy in the Convention, who joined in the declaration, that no other national religion was now required but that of liberty, equality, and morality, the wildest excesses of profanity and irréligion succeeded. Drunken artisans and shameless harlots crowded to the bar of the Convention, and there trampled under their feet the sacred vases consecrated for ages to the holiest purposes of religion; the churches were despoiled of their plate and ornaments; busts of Marat and Leļrelletier replaced the images of Christ and the Virgin, which were trodden in the mire; and parodies on the Hallelujah were sung as an accompaniment to the Carmagnole dance. Hebert, Chaumette, and their associates, appeared at the bar of the Convention, and there declared that there was no God, and that the worship of Reason ought to be substituted instead of his; whilst an opera singer, known in more than one character to most of the Convention, was introduced as the personification of the new divinity. The services of the Christian religion were universally abandoned, and the pulpits deserted throughout the revolutionized districts; the church bells were everywhere silent; Sabbath was entirely obliterated; baptisms ceased; the burial service was no longer heard; the sick received no consolation, the dying no communion; and the rites of heathenism, blended with the profanities of the most fanatical infidelity, desecrated, the unhappy land. On every tenth day atheism was publicly preached to the bewildered people by some revolutionary leader; and on all the public seminaries was placed the inscription, “Death is an Eternal Sleep.” Marat was deified; God was insulted and defied. Such is the wild reaction which follows the overthrow of systems which exclude all reformation, and cherish the abuses engendered by time as their most valuable prerogatives and distinctions. For seven years did the reign of impiety continue in France; and when at length the worship of Christianity was restored by Napoleon, its ruinous effects were generally felt; it had demoralized the old, and left the young without any impressions of religion.

But now when the Republic saw itself successful in all quarters, when the Mountain party and the Jacobins had no rivals at home, and accounted themselves in little immediate danger from abroad, they began to split into factions, and to entertain the fiercest jealousies. The Jacobin Club was the usual place in which their contests were carried on; but at this time Robespierre acted the part of a mediator between all parties, and attempted to turn their attention from private animosities to public affairs. Having spread a report that Great Britain intended speedily to invade France, he proposed that the Jacobin Club should endeavour to discover the vulnerable parts of the British constitution and government. They caught at the bait which had thus been thrown out to them; made speeches and [7:10:85]wrote essays without number; and were in this way occupied and amused for a considerable time.

The winter passed in tolerable tranquillity, and no military enterprise was undertaken either by the allies or by the French. On the first of February Barrère asserted in tlwe Convention that the confederate powers were willing provisionally to acknowledge the French Republic, to consent to a cessation of hostilities for two years, and at the end of that time to conclude a lasting peace with the French people. But this assertion met with no credit, and the Convention declared itself determined to reject any proposition founded on it, as affording to the other nations of Europe the means of undermining the new government. In the mean time the Revolutionary Government was gradually becoming more vigorous. Thirty committees of the Convention managed the whole business of the state, without sharing much of the direct executive government, which remained in the hands of the Committee of Public Safety; and these different committees were engaged in a great variety of matters. The ruling party had no competitors for power. The most extensive plans were therefore carried into effect, without confusion or opposition. The Convention was little more than a court in which every project was formally registered. At a single sitting thirty decrees were passed, relating to subjects the most widely different, and some of them of the greatest importance. The finances were under a committee, at the head of which was Cain-bon, and which found resources for the most lavish expenditure. The assignats were received as money throughout the state; so that a paper mill had become more valuable than a mine of gold. The credit of this paper was supported by an arbitrary law regulating the maximum or highest price of all provisions, and by the immense mass of wealth which had come into the hands of the Convention by the seizure of the church-lands, and by the confiscation of the property of royalists, emigrants, and other persons condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal. So unequally, indeed, had property been divided under the ancient government, that, by means of these confiscations, about even tenths of the national territory was supposed to have been transferred to the state. To this was added the plunder of the churches, consisting of gold and silver images, and vessels employed in divine worship, along with other articles of less value, amongst which may be mentioned the church bells, which were considered as sufficient for the manufacture of fifteen thousand pieces of cannon. These resources formed altogether a mass of property such as was never perhaps possessed by any other government.

Other committees were engaged in very different occupations. Highways were constructed, and canals planned. Immense manufactories of arms were everywhere established. At Paris alone eleven hundred muskets were fabricated daily, and a hundred pieces of cannon cast every month. Public schools were instituted, and the French language taught in its purity from the Pyrenees to the Rhine. The Convention possessed immense resources, and they did not hesitate to lavish them upon their schemes. Every science and every art was called upon for aid; and the most accomplished men in every profession were employed in giving splendour to theft country. The chemists, in particular, gave essential aid by the facility with which they supplied materials for the manufacture of gunpowder; and in return for their services, Lavoisier, the greatest of them all, suffered death by a most iniquitous sentence. Not fewer than two hundred new dramatic performances, the object of which was to attach the people to the existing order of things, were produced in less than two years. The vigour with which the committees of subsistence exerted themselves is particularly remarkable. All Europe was at war with France; and as England, Holland, and Spain, the three maritime powers, were engaged in the contest, it had been thought practicable to reduce France to great distress by famine, especially as it was imagined that the country had not resources to supply its immense population. But the rulers of that country acted with the policy of a besieged garrison. They seized upon the whole provisions of the country, and carried them to public granaries; they registered the cattle, and made their owners responsible for them; they provided the armies abundantly; and, as the people were accurately numbered, they dealt out in every district, on stated occasions, what was absolutely necessary for subsistence, and no more. To all this the people submitted; and, indeed, throughout the whole of the mixed scenes of the Revolution, the calm judgment of the historian is not a little perplexed. It is impossible not to admire the patience with which they endured every hardship which was represented as necessary to the common cause; and equally so not to honour the enthusiastic energy with which they lavished their blood in defence of the independence of their country. On the other hand, no one can regard without indignation and horror the sanguinary proceedings of the factions in the Convention and the capital, or reconcile with our ordinary knowledge of humanity the spirit of mutual extermination by which all of them were in turn actuated.

During the winter the dissensions of the Jacobins increased. They were divided into two clubs, one of which (that recently instituted) assembled in a hall w∣ιicħ once belonged to the Cordeliers. The leaders of this club were Hebert, Ronsin, Vincent, and others; butthat of the Jacobins still retained its ascendency, and Robespierre had now become decidedly its leader. This extraordinary man had gradually combined in his own person the confidence of the people and the direction of the government. But as the committees were above the Convention, which had become little more than a court of record, so that of Public Safety was above the other committees; and Robespierre was the leader of this dominant committee, Barrère, Saint-Just, Couthon, and others of its members, only acting a secondary part. These persons laboured in the business of the state, but the supreme power was in Robespierre. He surrounded the members of the Convention with spies, and being equally jealous and implacable, set no bounds to the shedding of blood. On the 25th of March he brought to trial the following active Jacobins, who were condemned and executed the day after, viz. Hebert, Ronsin, Momoro, Vincent, Du Croquet, Koch, Laumur, Bourgeois, Mazuel, Laboureau, Ancard, Leclerc, Proly, Dessieux, Anacharsis Clootz, Pereira, Florent, Armand, Descombles, and Dubuisson. And not satisfied with this, on the 2d of April he brought to trial nine of those who had once been his most vigorous associates; Danton, Fabre d’Eglantine, Bazire, Chabot, Philipeaux, Camille Desmoulins, Lacroix, Dela-may d’Angers, and Hérault de Sechelles, all of whom were executed, along with Westermann, on the evening of the 5th.

The fall of the Hebertists was regarded with satisíaction by every one beyond the pale of the municipality of Paris. This faction, which had laboured in the Père Duchene to popularise obscenity of language, with grovelling and cruel sentiments, and whose characteristic it was to blend derision with ferocity, had for some time made redoubtable progress; and Robespierre, finding it untractable for his purposes, resolved on its destruction, upon the pretence that, whilst it corrupted the people, it served the purposes of foreigners by promoting anarchy. This he effected by a compromise. His object was to sacrifice both the commune and the anarchists; whilst the committees desired to sacrifice the Mountain and the moderate party. The parties came to a mutual understanding, in consequence of which Robespierre gave up Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and their friends to the members of the committee, and [7:10:86]the members of the committee in return gave up Hebert, Clootz, Chaumette, Ronsin, and their accomplices. In at first favouring the moderate party in the Convention, he prepared the destruction of the anarchists, and thus attained two objects advantageous to his power; he ruined a redoubtable faction, and he disencumbered himself of a revolutionary reputation which rivalled his own.

But the latter object was, after all, that which he had probably most at heart, because the party of Danton stood most in his way. Their principles were, that terror was to be used only for the establishment of freedom, not made an instrument of destruction in the hands of those who had obtained it; they wished above all things that the Republic should be consolidated by victory, but that success should be used with moderation. Hence, whilst they vehemently reprobated the proceedings of the dictators after the 31st of May had ensured the triumph of the populace, they desired to humble the anarchists of the municipality, to put down the Revolutionary Tribunal, to discharge from confinement those imprisoned as suspected persons, and to dissolve the despotic committees of government. But these objects were manifestly opposed to that supreme and undisputed domination which Robespierre was now labouring to secure for himself by means of the revolutionary machinery; and, accordingly, after the understanding already mentioned had been come to, it was not long ere he commenced hostilities, by attacking the Jacobin Club, the Vieux Cordelier of Camille Desmoulins,^[17. In this production Desmoulins discoursed of liberty with the profound sense of Machiavel, and of men with the wit of voltaire. His picture of the horrors of this gloomy period is drawn with a powerful hand. “At the present epoch,” said he, “words became state-crimes; and from this the transition is easy to simple looks, which, with sadness, compassion, sighs, nay even absolute silence itself, are made the ground-work of suspicion. Is a citizen popular? He is a rival of the dictator, and might excite commotions. Does he, on the other hand, avoid society, and live retired in the bosom of his family? This secluded fife makes him remarked, and excites the suspicion that he is meditating sinister designs. Are you rich? There is imminent peril that the people may be corrupted by your largesses. Are you poor ĩ You must be the more closely watched, because there is none so enterprising as those who have nothing to lose. Are you of a thoughtful and melancholy character, with a neglected exterior? You are afflicted because in your opinion public affairs are not well conducted. Does a citizen indulge in dissipation and bring on indigestion? He is concealing ambition under the mask of pleasure. Is he virtuous and austere in his morals? He has constituted himself the censor of the government. Is he a philosopher, an orator, a poet? He will soon acquire more consideration than the rulers of the state. Has he acquired reputation in war? His talents only make him the more dangerous, and render it indispensable to remove him from the army, perhaps to send him to the scaffold. The natural death of a distinguished person, particularly if in place, has become so rare, that historians transmit it as an event worthy of record to future ages. Even the death of so many innocent and estimable citizens seems a less calamity than the insolence and scandalous fortunes of those who have denounced and murdered them. Every day the accuser makes his triumphal entry into the palace of death, to reap the harvest of some rich succession; and the tribunals which were once the protectors of life and property have become mere slaughter-houses, where that which bears the name of punishment and confiscation is nothing but robbery and murder.” In Camille Desmoulins the anarchists had an able, active, and redoubted antagonist. This atrocious faction he attacked with unsparing severity, and in an especial manner fastened on its head the infamous Hebert, whom he described as “a miserable intriguer, a caterer for the guillotine, a traitor paid by Pitt; a wretch who had at different times received two hundred thousand francs from the factions of the Republic to calumniate their adversaries; a thief and robber, who had been expelled from his situation as lacquey in the theatre for common stealing, and now pretended to drench France in blood by his prostituted journal.” Such is Desmoulins' description of the man on whose testimony Marie-Antoinette was condemned, and whose evidence was also held sufficient to send the Revolutionists themselves to the scaffold. ] and indirectly denouncing Danton himself.

Danton, who had not yet discontinued his relations with Robespierre, demanded an interview, which took place at the residence of the latter. Both parties were cold and bitter. Danton complained violently; Robespierre was haughty and reserved. “I know,” said Danton, “all the hatred which the committee bear me, but I do not fear it.” “You are wrong,” replied Robespierre; “there are no bad intentions towards you, but it is well to be explicit.” “To be explicit,” rejoined Danton, “good faith is necessary.” But observing Robespierre assume a lowering look, “It is doubtless necessary,” he added, “to coerce the royalists; but we ought to strike blows which are useful to the Republic, and should not confound the innocent with the guilty.” “Eh! who has told you,” replied Robespierre sharply, “that one innocent person has suffered ř” Danton turned to the friend who had accompanied him, and with a bitter smile, “What say you ĩ Not one innocent man has perished !” At these words they parted; all hope of reconciliation was at end.

The fall of the anarchists ensued. They were brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, upon a charge of being agents of foreigners, and of having conspired to give a tyrant to the state. From the time of their arrest, their audacity abandoned them; and as they had neither talents nor enthusiasm, they defended themselves without ability, and died without courage.

It was now time for Danton to look to his own safety; the proscription had reached the commune, and was fast approaching him also. His friends urged him to act; but having failed to shake the dictatorial power by exciting public opinion and rousing the Convention, where could he look for support? The Convention was well disposed towards him and his cause; but it was in complete subjection to the revolutionary power of the committees. Having neither the government, nor the assembly, nor the commune, nor the clubs, Danton therefore awaited the proscription without taking any step to ensure his safety. Still his friends pressed him to act. “I would rather,” said he, “be guillotined than become guillotiner; besides, my life is not worth the trouble of preserving; I am weary of existence.” “The members of the committee seek your death.” “What !” exclaimed he, in anger; “if ever—if Billaud— if Robespierre... They will be execrated as tyrants; the house of Robespierre will be razed; salt will be scattered on its foundations, and a stake of infamy planted to avenge the crimes...But my friends will say of me that I have been a good father, a good friend, a good citizen; they will not forget me.” “But you may escape.” “I would rather be guillotined than become guillotiner.” “Still it is necessary to fly.” “To fly !” exclaimed he with a mixture of anger and disdain; “do you suppose that a man carries his country in the soles of his shoes ?’ Danton had only one resource; to lift up his well-known and powerful voice, denounce Robespierre and the committees, and rouse the Convention against their tyranny. He was warmly pressed to adopt this course; but, not to mention the difficulty of overturning an established domination, however atrocious, he knew too well the subjugation and terror of that assembly to trust to the efficacy of such an attempt. He therefore awaited his fate, in the belief however that his enemies would shrink from the proscription of one who had dared so much. He was mistaken. On the 10th Germinal he received notice that the question of his arrest was under the consideration of the Committee of Public Safety, and he was once more urged to fly; but, after a moment’s consideration, he answered, “They dare not.” In the night his bouse was surrounded, and he was conducted to the [7:10:87]Luxembourg, with Camille Desmoulins, Philipeaux, Lacroix, Hérault de Sechelles, and Westermann. On entering the prison he cordially greeted the captives who pressed around him. “Gentlemen,” said he, “I had hoped to have been the means of releasing all of you from this place; but here I am among you, and I know where all this will end.” An hour afterwards he was shut up in a solitary cell, which Hebert had recently before occupied, and which was soon to be tenanted by Robespierre himself. The past now rose up to the review of his mind, and, giving way to reflection and regret, he observed, “It is just a year since I caused the Revolutionary Tribunal to be instituted. I ask pardon of God and man for doing so; but I never imagined that it would become the scourge of humanity.”

The arrest of Danton and his friends produced a violent agitation in Paris; the Convention also was stricken with dismay. Legendre made a powerful appeal in behalf of his friend, and demanded that, before the report of the committee was received, Danton should be examined in their presence. The proposition was favourably received, and for a moment the assembly seemed disposed to cast off its fetters. But the spell of the dictatorship of terror was still strong on that body. Robespierre ascended the tribune, and having by menace reduced the Convention to silence, proceeded to mark out for vengeance the intrepid Legendre. “You affect to be afraid,” said he, in conclusion; “but I say, whoever trembles at this moment is guilty; for never did innocence fear the vigilance of the public authorities." None dared to incur the fatal imputation; terror had frozen every heart. The assembly crouched beneath their tyrants, and unanimously sent the accused to the Revolutionary Tribunal. When brought before this Rhadamanthine judgment-seat, they assumed an attitude of haughty deĥance, evincing at once an audacity of purpose, and a contempt for their judges, altogether extraordinary. Danton, in answer to the usual interrogatories as to his name, age, and residence, put by the president Dumas, replied, “I am Danton, well known in the Revolution; I am thirty-five years of age; my abode will soon be in nothingness; and my name will live in the Pantheon of history.” The disdainful and vehement responses of Danton, the cool and measured discussion of La- <⅜oix, the austerity of Philipeaux, and the nervous vigour of Desmoulins, began to make an impression on the people. The accused were therefore put hors de débats, on the pretence that they had been wanting in respect to the court, and they were immediately condemned without any further hearing. “We are immolated,” cried Danton, “to the ambition of a few cowardly brigands; but they will not long enjoy the fruit of their criminal victory. I pull down Robespierre; Robespierre follows me.” They were conducted to the Conciergerie, and thence to the scaffold. On their way to the place of execution, they displayed the stoical courage common at that period. A body of troops had been assembled, and their escort was numerous; but the people, who, on 'such occasions, are usually clamorous and approving, maintained a profound silence. Camille Desmoulins, even when on the fatal cart, was still astonished at his condemnation, and could not comprehend it. “This, then,” said he, “is the recompense destined to the first apostle of liberty.” Danton held his head erect, and cast a calm and intrepid look around him. At the foot of the scaffold, however, his feelings for a moment overmastered him: “Oh, my well-beloved,” cried he; “oh, my wife, shall 1 then never see thee more I” But immediately checking himself, “Danton, no weakness,” said he. He ascended the scaffold with a firm step, and received the blow of the fatal axe with unshaken courage. And thus perished the tardy but last defenders of humanity and moderation; men who had desirefl to establish peace amongst the conquerors in the revolutionary struggle, and to extend mercy to the vanquished. After their fall no voice was for some time raised against the dictatorship of terror, which, from one end of France to the other, now struck down its victims in silence.

Still, however, the preparations for the ensuing campaign were pursued with unabated vigour. The committee for military affairs, at the head of which stood Carnot and others, were busily occupied in arranging along the frontiers the immense force which the requisition had called forth. Plans of operations were drawn out by this committee, and, when approved by the Committee of Public Safety, were sent to the generals to be executed. On the other hand, the allies were making powerful preparations for another attempt to subjugate France; and the emperor himself took the field at the head of the armies in the Netherlands. The plan of the campaign is said to have been framed by Colonel Mack, who afterwards acquired so much negative celebrity. West Flanders was to be protected by a strong body of men; whilst the main army was to penetrate to Landrecies, get within the line of French frontier towns, and cut off the armies from the interior by covering the country from Maubeuge to the sea. This plan was bold; but it belongs to military men to judge whether boldness was not its only merit. In fact, the allies seem to have had no correct information of the immense force which the French were collecting against them. Even the town of Lisle alone, which was capable of containing a numerous army within its walls, and which was to be left in their rear, should have seemed an insurmountable obstacle to the execution of this plan.

On the 16th of April, the Austrian, British, and Dutch! armies assembled on the heights above Cateau, where they “were reviewed by the emperor; and on the following day 1 they ad vanced.in eight columns against the French, drove in their posts, and penetrated beyond Landrecies. The allied army now amounted in all to a hundred and eighty-seven thousand men, who were disposed in the following manner: Fifteen thousand Dutch and fifteen thousand Austrians, under the Prince of Orange and General Latour, formed the siege of Landrecies; fifteen thousand British and fifteen thousand Austrians, commanded by the Duke of York and General Otto, encamped towards Cambray; the emperor and the Prince of Saxe-Cobourg, at the head of sixty thousand Austrians, advanced as far as Guise; twelve thousand Hessians and Austrians, under General Worms, were stationed near Douai and Bouchain; Count Kaunitz, with fifteen thousand Austrians, defended the Sambre and the country near Maubeuge; and General Clairfayt, with forty thousand Austrians and Hanoverians, protected Flanders from Tournay to the sea; whilst sixty thousand Prussians, for whom a subsidy had been paid by Great Britain, were expected to take the field, but in fact never arrived.

The French now commenced active operations. On the morning of the 26th of April they attacked, in great force, the Duke of York near Cateau; but after a severe conflict they were repulsed, and General Chapuy was taken prisoner. At the same time they attacked the troops under his imperial majesty, but were again repulsed with the loss of fifty-seven pieces of cannon. On the same day, however, Pichegru advanced from Lisle, attacked and defeated Clairfayt, took thirty-two pieces of cannon, and, in the course of a few days, made himself master of Vervic, Menin, and Courtray. On the 29th of April the garrison of Landrecies surrendered to the allies. When this event was known in the Convention, it excited a considerable degree of alarm. But it was the last decided success obtained by the allies during this disastrous campaign. Clairfay t was again completely defeated by Pichegru in a general engagement, and it was found necessary to send the Duke of York to his assistance. This movement[7:10:88] no doubt seems to have been unavoidable; but its effect was to divide the allied army into a number of detachments, capable indeed of carrying on a desultory warfare, but unfit for the prosecution of vigorous measures. On the 10th of May the Duke of York was attacked near Tournay by a body of the enemy, whom he repulsed; but he was unable to effect a junction with Clairfayt, upon the destruction of whom the French were chiefly bent; for whilst the Duke of York was occupied with the attack made on himself, Pichegru fell upon Clairfayt with such irresistible impetuosity, that the latter was compelled to retreat in confusion, and part of his army fled to the neighbourhood of Bruges. Whilst Pichegru was thus advancing successfully in West Flanders, Jourdan in East Flanders advanced from Maubeuge, crossed the Sambre, and forced Kaunitz to retreat. On the 18th, however, Kaunitz succeeded in repulsing the enemy in his turn, and in forcing them to re-cross the Sambre with considerable loss.

The allies now found that no progress could be made in France whilst General Pichegru was advancing successfully and occupying West Flanders in their rear. The emperor, therefore, withdrew the greater part of his army to the neighbourhood of Tournay, and resolved to make a grand effort to intersect the communications between Courtray and Lisle, and thus to cut off the retreat of Pichegru. With this view, the army, on the night of the 16th, moved forward in five columns; and Clairfayt was at the same time directed to cross the Lys, and if possible to effect a junction, and complete the plan. The attempt seemed at first to promise success; but, in the course of the 17th, the division under the Duke of York was overpowered by numbers and defeated. The advance of the other columns was thus checked, and Clairfayt sustained another repulse. The plan of the allies had been completely frustrated, and their army in consequence withdrew to the neighbourhood of Tournay.

Ptchegru speedily attempted to retaliate. On the 22d of May, at day-break, he directed his whole force against the enemy. The attack commenced with a heavy fire of artillery, and all the advanced posts were driven in, upon which the action became general; the attacks were repeatedly renewed on both sides, and the day was spent in a succession of obstinate battles. All that military skill could effect was performed on both sides; the French and the allied soldiers fought with equal courage and obstinacy; but at nine o’clock in the evening the assailants reluctantly withdrew from the attack. The day, however, on which a vanquished enemy quits the field is not always that upon which the victory is won. In this engagement the French were unsuccessful in their immediate object; but the weight of their fire, their steady discipline, and the determined obstinacy of their attacks, raised their military character in the estimation of the officers and soldiers of the allied army. And it was soon perceived that, in addition to these, they possessed other advantages. Their numbers were immense; they implicitly obeyed their generals; and the generals as implicitly submitted to the directions of the Committee of Public Safety. A combination of efforts was thus produced, and the effect was not impaired by divided counsels. On the other hand, the numbers of the allies were daily declining, and their leaders were independent princes or powerful men, whose sentiments and interests were often at variance, and whose exertions were consequently disunited.

On the 24th the French again crossed the Sambre, but were driven back with considerable loss. On the 27th an attempt was made to besiege Charleroi, but on the Sd of June the Prince of Orange compelled the enemy to raise the siege. On the 12th the attempt was renewed, but with no better success. In West Flanders, however, Pichegru was sufficiently strong to commence the siege of Ypres, which was garrisoned by seven thousand men. General Clairfayt made an attempt to raise it, but without success. Reinforcements were sent to Clairfayt from the grand army, to enable him to renew his efforts for the relief of the place, and a series of sanguinary contests ensued, in which that unfortunate general was almost uniformly unsuccessful. Ypres held out till the 17th of June, when it capitulated. In consequence of this and of other events, the Duke of York found it necessary to retreat to Oudenarde; for Jourdan, after storming the Austrian camp of Wattignies, now advanced in such strength upon Charleroi, that its immediate fall was anticipated. But as this would have enabled the two French armies to encircle the whole of Flanders, the Prince of Cobourg advanced to its relief; nevertheless Charleroi surrendered at discretion on the 25th. This circumstance was not known to the Prince of Cobourg when he advanced on the 26th to attack the covering army in their intrenchments near Fleuruβ; but the latter having by this time been reinforced by the accession of the besieging force, repulsed the assailants without difficulty. Jourdan then drew his men out of their intrenchments, attacked the Austrians in his turn, and, though three times repulsed, was at last successful.

The allies were now obliged to retreat at all points/ Nieuport, Ostend, and Bruges, were taken; and Tournay, 1 Mons, Oudenarde, and Brussels, at which place the French ' armies of East and West Flanders formed a junction, opened their gates. The allied troops having evacuated Namur, formed a line from Antwerp to Liège, in order to protect the country behind. But the French having advanced in force, attacked General Clairfayt, cut to pieces half the troops which now remained under his orders, and broke the line, upon which the allies retreated before them. The Duke of York was joined by some reinforcements under the Earl of Moira, which had with much difficulty made their way from Ostend; and with these and the Dutch troops he retired to the neighbourhood of Bergen-op-Zoom and Breda for the protection of Holland. The Prince of Cobourg evacuated Liège, crossed the Maese, and threw a garrison into Maestricht; but he soon found it necessary to send back part of his troops to the neighbourhood of Tongres. Here the French armies, to the astonishment of all Europe, made a voluntary pause in their career of victory, and ceased to pursue their retiring foes. The war on the Rhine was equally successful on the part of the French. On the 12th, 13th, and 14th of July, repeated, battles were fought, in which the French obtained their usual success. As their armies were numerous, their practice was to fight in great bodies day after day till their object was accomplished. The Palatinate was next overrun, and Treves taken, by General Michaud. Flanders and the Palatinate have always been accounted the granaries of Germany, and both of them, at the commencement of the harvest, now fell into the hands of the French.

During the four months which succeeded the fall of Danton, the power of the committees was exercised without opposition and without reserve. Death became the only instrument of government, and the Republic was abandoned to daily and systematic executions. Then were invented the conspiracies of the prisons, which had been crowded by the operation of the law in regard to suspected persons, and which were emptied by that of the 22d Prairial, which might be called the law of the condemned: it was then that the emissaries of the Committee of Public Safety suddenly replaced those of the Mountain; that Carrier, the creature of Billaud, appeared in the west; Maignet, the creature of Couthon, in the south; and Joseph Lebon, the creature of Robespierre, in the north. The .extermination en masse of the enemies of the democratic dictatorship, which had been practised at [7:10:89]Lyons and Toulon by means of the mitraillades, became still more horrible when effected by means of the noyades of Nantes and the scaffolds of Paris, Arras, and Orange, The terrorists were now so completely united, that they seemed to have but one body and one soul, in which all feelings, sentiments, and desires, had merged in a craving and insatiable appetite for blood. Posterity will find it difficult to credit the extent to which this appetite had grown by what it fed on. “The more the social body perspires, the sounder it becomes,” said Collot-d’Herbois. “It is the dead only who never return,” said Barrère. “The vessel of the Revolution can only arrive in port on a sea reddened with torrents of blood,” said Saint-Just. “A nation is only regenerated on heaps of dead bodies,” rejoined Robespierre. Nor were their actions at variance with the creed they professed. For months together these principles were daily carried into practice in every town in France. Alone and unopposed, the Committee of Public Safety struck numberless blows from one end of the kingdom to the other. The mandates of death issued from the capital, and the guillotine was immediately set to work in almost every town and village of France. Amidst the roaring of cannon, the roll of drums, and the sound of the tocsin, the suspected were everywhere arrested, whilst the young and active were marched off to the frontiers; fifteen hundred bastilles, spread throughout the departments, were found insufficient to contain the multitude of captives; and the monasteries, the palaces, the chateaux, were in consequence converted into prisons. Rapidly as the guillotine did its work, however, it reaped not the harvest of death which everywhere presented itself. But disease came to its assistance, and contagious fevers, produced by the crowded state of the prisons, swept off thousands who had been destined to perish by the revolutionary axe. Over the portals of these dread abodes might have been written the inscription which Dante has placed over the entrance of the infernal regions; hope never crossed their thresholds, and despair of life produced its usual diversified effects on the minds of the unhappy captives. Some sunk into sullen indifference; others indulged in immoderate gaiety; many became frantic with horror; not a few sought to amuse life even at the foot of the scaffold. Rising in one wild and heart-rending chorus might be heard raving, blasphemy, lamentation, commingled with the loud shouts of obstreperous laughter; in short, all the varied sounds which intimate the absence of hope, and a desperate recklessness of the future. Terror was now in its zenith, and death at every door.

On the 10th of May, Madame Elizabeth, sister of the late king, was sacrificed by the Revolutionary Tribunal; and multitudes of every rank and both sexes daily shared the same fate. The rich were naturally the great objects of persecution, because the confiscation of their property added to the strength of the ruling powers; but neither were the poor safe in their poverty from the vengeance of this ferocious and sanguinary government. No security was to be found in any station of life, however humble or mean; a word, a look, a gesture, might excite suspicion, and suspicion was death. By the instrumentality of the guillotine Robespierre had contrived to destroy every avowed rival. The constituted authorities consisted of persons nominated by hun, or with his approbation; the committees which conducted the business of the state were at Ins disposal, and his will was irresistible throughout the Republic. In the Convention he met with no op-positιon; for that body had ceased to be the turbulent popular assembly which it once appeared, and had become little more than a name employed to give a sort of sanction to such schemes as were proposed to it. But notwithstanding all this, the dictator was last approaching the crisis of h,β fate, and at the very culmmating point of his power destruction awaited both his system and himself. All hope would indeed have been lost if the issue had depended on the efforts of the virtuous classes; these were completely subdued by terror; but as it is the natural effect of suffering to induce a remedy, so it was in the shock of the wicked among themselves that the only hope of salvation remained. From the beginning of 1794, indeed, men gifted with foresight had entertained the conviction that, in pity to an afflicted land, heaven would throw the apple of discord among the tyrants themselves, and strike them with that judicial blindness which is the instrument it makes use of to punish men and nations. Nor was this expectation disappointed. The Girondist party, it is true, was indeed subdued and silent; its illustrious leaders were no more; but many members of the Convention still remained attached to its principles, and deeply repented having ever deserted them. The party , of the Mountain, too, by means of which Robespierre had . risen to power, now found itself not only disregarded, but i ready at every instant to fall a sacrifice to that system of: terror which they had contributed to erect. And even > the Jacobins themselves, though neither timid nor scru- ι pulous in the shedding of blood, began to murmur when; they saw that fearful privilege confined to a few, or rather monopolized by one man.

For a time things remained in this state, during which it ' was seen how possible it isforan individualtogovernagreat nation, even when that nation is hostile to his authority. It is far easier, indeed, to uphold the worst form of government, than to establish the best which human genius or patriotism ever devised. But still the power of Robespierre rested upon no solid foundation, and his fall was therefore inevitable. He had no organized force; his partisans, though numerous, were not organized; he was sustained only by terror and a great force of opinion; and hence, not being able to overpower his enemies by an act of violence, he sought to strike them with dismay. And for a time he succeeded. But such a system soon attains the utmost limit to which it can be urged, and when the tension becomes extreme, the recoil is near at hand. On the day after the festival of the Supreme Being, when the power of the tyrant had reached its apex, his sanguinary intentions were fully disclosed. By the decree of the 22d Prairial, passed on the motion of Couthon, every form, delay, or usage, calculated to protect the accused, was at one fell swoop annihilated. “Every delay,” said Couthon, “is a crime; every formality indulgent to the accused is a crime; the delay in punishing the enemies of the country should not be greater than the time requisite for identifying them.” Accustomed as the Convention had been to blind obedience, a project calculated to place every member of that body at the mercy of the dictator startled its apathy. “If this law passes,” said Ruamps, “nothing remains but to blow out our brains.” But the hour of deliverance had not yet arrived. Robespierre mounted the tribune, and demanded, that instead of pausing on the proposal of adjournment, the assembly should sit until the project of the law was discussed. The assembly felt its weakness, and in thirty minutes the decree was unanimously adopted. From this moment, however, may be dated the commencement of the re-action. Proscriptions increased with fearful rapidity, and the cruelties committed in the provinces equalled, if not exceeded, those perpetrated in the capital. Lebon at Arras, and Carrier at Nantes, revelled in horrors such as the world had never before witnessed. Since the law of the 22d Prairial, heads fell at the rate of fifty or sixty a day; yet the Committee of Public Safety, not satisfied with this dreadful amount of carnage, incessantly urged the public accuser, Fouquier Tinville, to accelerate the executions. But whilst the apprehensions of the terrorists themselves inflamed and maddened their [7:10:90]• ferocity,'discord arose in their conclave; the active mem· j bers of the committees were divided; on one side were Robespierre, Saint-Just, and Couthon; on the other Billaud-Varennes, Collot-d’Herbois, Barrère, and the members of the Committee of General Safety. After several fruitless attempts to regain his ascendency, Robespierre absented himself from the committees, and threw himself on the Jacobins and the commune, where his influence was still paramount. Meanwhile his more furious partisans urged the immediate adoption of the most vigorous measures. Henriot and the mayor of Paris were ready to commence a new massacre, and three thousand young assassins were provided for the purpose. “Strike soon and strongly,” said Saint-Just. “ Dare ; that is the sole secret of revolutions.” Tallien, Bourdon de 1’Oise, Thuriot, Rovère, Lecombre, Panis, Monestier, Legendre, Fréron, Barras, Cambon, were marked out as the first victims. But as the conspirators had no armed force at their command, as the Jacobin Club was only powerful from its influence on public opinion, and as the committees of government were all arrayed upon the other side, Robespierre was compelled to commence the attack in the Convention, which he hoped to sway by the terror of his voice, or at all events to overwhelm by a popular insurrection similar to that which had proved so successful on the SI st of May. Nor were the leaders of the Convention and the committees idle on their side. The immediate pressure of danger united all parties against the tyrant, who, in the popular society, had made no secret of his resolution to decimate the assembly.

At length, on the 8th Thermidor (26th July), the contest commenced in the National Convention. The discourse of Robespierre was dark and enigmatical, but its real object was not doubtful. The dictator was listened to with breathless attention; not a sound interrupted the delivery of his speech; not a whisper of applause followed its close. On the proposal that it should be printed, the first symptoms of resistance showed themselves. Bourdon de l’Oise opposed its publication; but Barrère supported it, and the assembly, fearful of prematurely committing itself, agreed to the proposal. Seeing the majority wavering, the Committee of General Safety now deemed it necessary to take decisive steps. The time for dissembling had passed. “One man paralyses the assembly, and that man is Robespierre,” said Cambon. “I would rather that my carcass served for a throne to the tyrant,” said Billaud-Varennes, “than render myself by my silence the accomplice of his crimes.” Fréron proposed to throw off the hated yoke of the committees, and to reverse the decree which permitted the arrest of the representatives of the people; but as Robespierre was still too powerful to be overthrown by the Convention unaided by the committees, this proposal was rejected, and the assembly contented itself with reversing the decree for the publication of his address, which was sent to the committees for examination. In the evening the tyrant, attended by Henriot, Dumas, Coffinhal, and his other satellites, repaired to the popular society, where he was received with enthusiasm; and during the night he made arrangements for disposing his partisans on the following day. The two committees, on their side, were not idle. They sat in deliberation du-: ring the whole night; and it was felt by every one that a ] combination of all parties was requisite to shake the power ι of the tyrant. To this object, accordingly, all their er-ι forts were directed; and, by unremitting exertions, the I Jacobins of the Mountain succeeded in forming a coali- 1 tion with the leaders of the centre and the right. “Do ι not flatter yourselves,” said Tallien to the Girondists, ι “that he will ever spare you; you have committed an ι unpardonable offence in being freemen. Let us bury our < ruinous divisions in oblivion. You weep for Vergniaud; ‘ we weep for Danton. Let us unite their shades by striking Robespierre." Before daybreak all the assembly had united for the overthrow of the tyrant.

At an early hour on the morning of the 9th Thermidor (27th July), the benches of the Convention were crowded with members, and the leaders walked about in the passages confirming one another in their generous resolution. At noon Saint-Just ascended the tribune, and Robespierre took his seat on a bench directly opposite, to intimidate his adversaries by that look which had so often stricken them with terror. But its spell was powerless; fear had now changed sides. As he proceeded to take his seat his knees trembled; and the colour fled from his lips; the hostile appearance of the assembly already gave him an anticipation of his fate. Saint-Just began by declaring that he belonged to no party, and would combat them all. “The course of events has possibly determined,” said he, “that this tribune shall become theTarpeian rock for him who now tells you that the members of the committees have strayed from the path of wisdom.” Here he was vehemently interrupted by Tallien, the intrepid leader of the revolt. “Shall the speaker,” said he, “for ever arrogate to himself, with the tyrant of whom he is the satellite, the privilege of denouncing, accusing, and proscribing the members of the assembly? Shall he for ever go on amusing us with imaginary perils, when real and pressing dangers are before our eyes? After the enigmatical expressions which fell from the tyrant yesterday, can we doubt what Saint-Just is about to propose? You areabout," added he, “to raise the veil; I will rend it asunder. Yes, I will exhibit the danger in its full extent; the tyrant in his true colours. It is the whole Convention which he now proposes to destroy; he knows well, since his overthrow yesterday, that however much he may mutilate that great body, he will no longer find it the instrument of his tyrannical designs.” Loud applauses followed this intrepid declaration. “Two thousand assassins,” he proceeded, “are sworn to execute his designs; I myself last night heard their oaths, and fifty of my colleagues heard them with me. The massacre was to have commenced in the night, with the Committees of Public Safety and General Security, all of whom were to have been sacrificed, excepting a few creatures of the tyrant. Let us instantly take measures commensurate with the magnitude of the danger; let us declare our sittings permanent, until the conspiracy is broken and its chiefs arrested.” Billaud-Varennes gave fuller details of the conspiracy which had been matured in the society of the Jacobins, and de - nounced Robespierre as its chief; at the same time de daring that the assembly would perish if it showed the least symptom of weakness. “We will never perish,” exclaimed the members, rising in a transport of enthusiasm. Tallien then resumed, and in impassioned language called upon the assembly to pass the decree of accusation. During this agitating scene Robespierre sat motionless from terror. The Convention, amidst violent uproar, decreed the arrest of Dumas, president of the Revolutionary Tribunal, Henriot, commander of the national guard, and their associate conspirators; it also declared its sittings permanent, and numerous measures of precaution were >uggested. But as the main object of destroying Robespierre was in danger of being lost sight of amidst these nultifarious proposals, Tallien again ascended the tribune, ιnd, in the most emphatic terms, demanded that the dicator should be declared hors la loi. “Let there be no 'ormalities with the accused,” said he; “you cannot too nuch abridge his punishment, he has told you so himself ι hundred times.” Robespierre now attempted to obtain ι hearing, but in vain. His voice was drowned by the in- :essant ringing of the president’s bell, and by shouts of ‘ Down with the tyrant,” which resounded throughout [7:10:91]the balls. A moment of silence ensued, during which he made a last effort to be heard. “For the last time, president of assassins,” exclaimed he, turning to the chair, “will you allow me to speak?” But Thur!of recommenced ringing his bell; and, amidst renewed cries of “Down with the tyrant,” he sunk on his seat exhausted with fatigue and rage. The foam now issued from his mouth, and his speech failed. “Wretch,” exclaimed a voice from the Mountain, “the blood of Danton chokes thee!” The act of accusation was then passed amidst the most violent agitation; the two Robespierres, Lebas, Couthon, Saint-Just, Dumas, and some others, were unanimously put under arrest, and sent to prison; and, after a scene perhaps unexampled in history, the assembly broke up at five o'clock.

The Jacobins, who had fully expected that Robespierre would be victorious in the Convention, no sooner heard of his arrest than they instantly gave orders to sound the tocsin, to close the barriers, to convoke the council-general, and assemble the sections; they also declared their sittings permanent, and established the most rapid means of communication between the two centres of insurrection. Meanwhile Henriot endeavoured to excite the people to revolt, by parading the streets, at the head of his staff, with a sabre in his hand, exclaiming, “To arms to save the country.” But having been met by two deputies who prevailed upon some horsemen to obey the orders of the Convention, he was seized, handcuffed, and sent to the Committee of General Safety. Peyan, the national agent, was about the same time arrested; and the Convention seemed triumphant. But between six and seven o’clock the insurgents regained the advantage, chiefly in consequence of the energetic measures of the municipality. Robespierre having been sent to the Conciergerie, and the rest of the conspirators to the other prisons of Paris, the commune sent detachments to deliver them; and Robespierre was speedily brought in triumph to the Hôtel de Ville, where he was joined by his brother and Saint-Just; whilst Coffinhal, at the head of two hundred cannoniers, forced the guard of the Convention, penetrated to the rooms of the Committee of General Safety, and delivered Henriot. The assembly met again at seven o’clock, when it received intelligence of the success of the insurgents, the liberation of the terrorists, the assemblage at the Hôtel de Ville, and the convocation of revolutionary committees, and of the sections. In a short time the delivery of Henriot, and the presence of an armed force around the Convention, were also communicated; and when the agitation was at its height, Amar entered and announced that the cannoniers had pointed their guns against the ball of the assembly. The moment was truly terrible. But in this extremity Tallien and his friends acted with that dauntless intrepidity which so often proves successful in revolutions. Henriot was declared hors la loi, and Barras appointed to the command of the military, whilst Fréron, Bourdon de 1’Oise, and other determined men, were associated with him in this perilous duty; the Committee of Public Safety was fixed on as the centre of operations; and emissaries were instantly dispatched to all the sections to summon them to the defence of the Convention. Fortunately for this body, Henriot in vain attempted to induce the cannoniers to fire. They had obeyed his orders in marching from the Hôtel de Ville, and to this they limited their obedience. The refusal of the cannoniers decided the fortune of this day. Dispirited and alarmed, Henriot withdrew to the Hôtel de Ville; the armed forced followed his example; and the Convention, which had just been besieged in its hall, became the as- ∙ailing party.

The battalions of the sections, who had been convoked by the emissaries of the Convention, now began to arrive at the Tuileries; and in a short time a considerable force assembled. The night was dark, the moon being in the first quarter; but the public anxiety had supplied this defect by a general illumination. The defenders of the National Convention took the line of the quay, carrying with them several pieces of cannon; they marched in silence, sustaining their courage without the aid of those vociferations and exclamations which are the resource of men who march to pillage and disorder. The space in front of the Hôtel de Ville was filled with detachments of the national guard, who had obeyed the summons of the municipality, companies of cannoniers, squadrons of gendarmerie, and a multitude of individuals, some armed, and others not, but all apparently inflamed with the most violent spirit of Jacobinism, though perhaps in secret actuated by fear alone. At midnight a rumour began to circulate through the ranks of the insurgents that the municipality had been declared hors la loi; that the sections had joined the Convention; and that their forces were advancing to attack the Hôtel de Ville. In the Place de Grève there were stationed about two thousand insurgents, with a powerful train of artillery; but their firmness was much shaken when the light of the torches showed the heads of the columns of the national guards appearing in all the avenues which lead into the square, and thus made obvious the defection of their fellow-citizens. Still it was a fearful moment. Ten pieces of artillery had been placed in battery by the troops of the Convention; and the cannoniers of the municipality, with burning matches in their hands, stood beside their guns on the opposite side. But happily the authority of the legislature prevailed; its decree which declared the commune hors la loi was read by torch-light, and in an instant the Place de Grève was deserted. A few moments afterwards, Henriot descended the stair of the Hôtel de Ville, with a sabre in his hand, and finding no one, “How !” exclaimed he, “is it possible? These scoundrels of cannoniers who saved my life five hours ago, thus abandon me now !”

With terror In his looks and imprecations in his mouth, Henriot re-ascended the stair, and announced the total defection of the troops. Instantly despair took possession of that band of assassins; every one turned his fury on his neighbour; nothing but mutual execrations could be heard. In a transport of rage Coflinhal seized Henriot in his arms, and exclaiming, “Vile wretch, your cowardice has undone us all,” hurled him headlong down the stair. Saint-Just implored Lebas to put an end to his life. “Coward, follow my example,” exclaimed the latter, and blew out his brains. Robespierre tried to imitate him; but his hand trembled, and he only broke his under jaw, which disfigured him in a frightful manner. Couthon was found under a table, feebly attempting to strike with a knife, which he wanted courage to plunge into his heart; Coffinhal and the younger Robespierre threw themselves from the windows, and were seized in the inner court of the building; Henriot, bruised and mutilated, had contrived to crawl into the entrance of a sewer, out of which he was dragged by the troops of the Convention. Robespierre and Couthon, being thought dead, were dragged by the heels to the Quai Pelletier, where it was proposed to throw them into the river; but when daylight appeared, and it was found that they still breathed, they were stretched on a board and carried to the Committee of General Safety. There, extended on a table, with his visage disfigured and bloody, the fallen tyrant lay for some hours exposed to invectives and execrations, saw men of every party rejoicing in his overthrow, and heard himself charged with all the crimes which had been committed. “Il montra,” says Mignet, “beaucoup d’insensibilité pendant son agonie.” He was then conveyed to the Conciergerie, where for a brief space he occupied [7:10:92]the same cell in which Danton, Hebert, and Chaumette had been confined. When brought with his associates before the Revolutionary Tribunal, the process was short; as soon as the identity of their persons had been established, they were ordered for execution. About five in the morning of the 29th July, he was placed on the death-cart, between Henriot and Couthon, who were as mutilated as himself. A linen bandage soaked in blood supported his broken jaw; his countenance was livid, and his eye almost extinct. An immense multitude crowded around the cart, testifying their feelings in loud and reiterated shouts of exultation; some shed tears of joy, others embraced, and others again poured forth execrations against the tyrant, whom, from time to time, the gendarmes pointed out to the people with their sabres. Saint-Just was the only one who evinced any firmness or self-possession; the others, to the number of twenty-two, were excessively dejected. Robespierre was executed the last; when the fatal axe descended, an exulting shout arose, which was prolonged for several minutes after the tyrant was no more.

With the fall of Robespierre ended the system of terror, of which however he was not the most zealous partisan of his party. Aspiring to supreme power, moderation would have become necessary to him had he succeeded, and terror, which ceased by his fall, would have equally ceased by his triumph. But his destruction was inevitable. He had no organized force; his partisans, though numerous, were not embodied and disciplined; he had only the force of opinion and terror; and being thus unable to surprise his enemies by a sudden act of violence, he sought to strike them with dismay. When fear did not succeed he attempted insurrection; but as the Convention, when supported by the committees, had become courageous, so the sections, reckoning on the courage of the Convention, declared against the insurgents. In attacking the government, he roused the assembly; in rousing the assembly, he let loose the people; and this coalition proved his ruin. The Convention, on the 9th Thermidor, was no longer what it had been on the 31st May; divided and undecided, in the presence of a compact, numerous, and daring faction. All parties were united by defeat, misfortune, and an ever-menacing proscription, and under the pressure of common danger they were prepared to combat together. The overthrow of Robespierre was therefore inevitable. He could not avoid separating himself from the committees. “Au point où il était arrive, on veut être seul, on est dévoré par ses passions, trompé par ses espérances et par sa fortune jusque-là heureuse; et, la guerre one fois déclarée, la paix, le repos, le partage du pouvoir ne sont pas plus possibles que la justice et la clémence lorsque les échaufauds ont été one fois dressés.”^[18. Mignet, Histoire de la Revolution Française, ii. 479, 480. ] A man so circumstanced must ultimately fall by the means which have contributed to his elevation; and as conquerors are at length destroyed by war, so the leaders of factions naturally terminate their career on the scaffolds, by which they had sought to establish their power. We may add, that the 9th Thermidor was the first day of the Revolution in which those who attacked had failed. The ascending revolutionary movement had reached its term, and the contrary movement now commenced.^[19. The quantity of blood which was shed in France during the regime of terror will hardly be credited in future ages. Prudhomme, who, as a republican, could scarcely be disposed to exaggerate the crimes committed by the popular party, gives the following appalling enumeration of the victims of the Revolution: There were guillotined by sentences of the Revolutionary Tribunals, [table] Of the victims sacrificed by Carrier, 500 children were shot, and 1500 drowned; 264 women were shot, and 500 drowned; 300 priests were shot, and 460 drowned; 1400 nobles were drowned; and 5300 artisans were drowned. The general results of this enumeration are strikingly curious. The nobles and priests guillotined are only 2413, whilst the persons of plebeian origin put to death in this manner exceed 13,000. The nobles and priests exterminated at Nantes do not much exceed 2000, the infants drowned and shot amount exactly to this number, and the artisans drowned exceed 5000. It thus appears that the middling and lower ranks were the greatest sufferers by the Revolution, which professed to have been undertaken and carried on exclusively in their interest. Finally, the total number of persons destroyed at Nantes and Lyons alone exceeded the total number guillotined in virtue of the judgments pronounced by the Revolutionary Tribunals, by no less than 42,397. In this enumeration are not included the massacres at Versailles, the Abbaye, the Carmes, and other prisons, on the 2d of September; the victims of the Glacière of Avignon; those shot at Toulon and Marseilles; nor the persons slain in the little town of Redoin, which was almost entirely depopulated. (Prudhomme, Victimes de la Révolution ,∙ Chauteaubriand, £tudes Historiques.) ]

After the fall of Robespierre the Convention exhibited a remarkable change of appearance. Instead of the silence which had formerly prevailed, all was now bustle and activity. The success of the general rising of all the parties against one man destroyed the compression under which they had laboured; but the momentary union which had ensured the victory was soon at an end, and the conquerors speedily arranged themselves into two parties, namely, that of the committees, and that consisting of partisans of the Mountain, which received the name of parti Thermidorien. But the committees were vanquished with Robespierre, and their government lost the prestige of terror which constituted its whole force. Besides the loss of their chief, they had no longer the commune, whose insurgent members, to the number of seventy-two, were sent to the scaffold, and which, after its double defeat under Hebert and under Robespierre, was not re-organized, and lost in consequence all its influence. The democratic power of the committees accordingly declined, and the Thermidorien party, including a great majority of the Convention, prevailed; whilst a new character was given to that assembly by the coalition of the moderates, Boissy-d , Anglas, Sièyes, Cam bacérès, Chénier, Thibaudeau, with the Dantonists Tallien, Fréron, Legendre, Barras, Bourdon de l ’ Oise, Rovère, Bentabold, Dumont, and the two Merlins. The former [7:10:93]«ystem of terror was consequently declared to be at an end, and a new system of moderatism succeeded, which was carried to as great a height as that of terror had formerly been; and all means were taken to render popular the fall of the tyrant. The committees were organized anew, and their members ordered to be frequently changed. The correspondence between the affiliated Jacobin Clubs was prohibited, and the Jacobin Club itself was at length abolished. This last event was accomplished without difficulty, and that society which had been the great engine of the Revolution was overturned almost without resistance. Seventy-one deputies of the Girondist party, who had been imprisoned since the 31st of May 1793, were set at liberty. The name of Lyons was restored. Some of the agents of Robespierre, particularly Lebon and Carrier, the former of whom had signalized himself by unheard-of cruelties at Arras and Cambray, and the latter at Nantes, were brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, condemned, and executed, with the greater part of their accomplices.^[20. Lebon was a young man of a feeble constitution, and apparently mild in his disposition. In his first mission he had been humane; but he was reproached by the committee for his lenity, and sent to Arras with orders to show himself a little more revolutionary. Determined not to disappoint the inexorable policy of the committee, he now abandoned himself to the most unheard-of excess; combined debauchery with extermination; had the guillotine, which he called holy, always in his presence; and made an habitual companion of the executioner, whom he admitted to his table. But Carrier having more victims to destroy, surpassed Lebon in the art of extermination. Bilious, fanatical, and naturally sanguinary, he wanted only an opportunity to execute all which the imagination of Marat would have darc<l to conceive. Sent to the borders of an insurgent country, he condemned to death the whole hostile population, priests, women, children, old men, and young girls. As the scaffolds were not sufficient for his purpose, he had replaced the Revolutionary Tribunal by a company of assassins, called the company of Marat, and the guillotine by scuttled boats, in which he drowned his victims in the Loire. Immediately after the 9th Thermidor, loud cries of vengeance and of justice for these crimes were raised in the Convention. Lebon was first attacked, as he had been more particularly the agent of Kobespierre; the proceedings against Carrier, who had been the agent of the Committee of Public Safety, and whose conduct had been disapproved by Robespierre, were not instituted until some time thereafter; but both happily met the fate which their unparalleled crimes so richly merited. ] Still, however, the Convention appeared so little decided with regard to objects of the first importance, that in all probability they would not have conducted the important struggle against the nations of Europe with more success than the Girondist party had formerly done, if the revolutionary government and the late system of terror had not already accumulated in their hands vast resources, and traced out a plan of procedure, which rendered it comparatively an easy matter to preserve their numerous armies in the train of success to which they were now habituated.

The allies in their retreat having left strong garrisons in the French towns Condé, Valenciennes, Quesnoi, and Landrecies, which had surrendered to them, these now surrendered to the republican armies with so little resistance, that the conduct of the emperor began to be considered as ambiguous, and he was even suspected of having entered into some kind of compromise with the French. But this suspicion proved groundless; and as soon as the army which had besieged these towns was able to join the grand army under Picħegru and Jourdan, the operations of the campaign were resumed after a suspension of almost two months. The French army divided itself into two bodies. One of these under Jourdan advanced against General Clairfayt, who had succeeded the Prince of Cobourg in the command in the neighbourhood of Maestricht. On the 15th of September the French attacked the whole Austrian posts, extending along a line of five leagues from Liège to Maestricht; and on the following day the attack was renewed with nearly an equal loss on both sides. On the 17th the French, with fifty pieces of cannon, attacked General Kray in his intrenched camp before Maestricht; and the latter was already retiring when General Clairfayt arrived with a strong reinforcement, and, after a severe combat, compelled the French once more to fall back. On the 18th the French having renewed the attack with increased fury upon every part of the Austrian line, obliged the whole to fall back to the neighbourhood of Aix-la-Cha∙ pelle. General Clairfayt now took up a strong position on the banks of the Roer, where he declared it to be his wish that he might be attacked; but by this time the spirit of his army had been humbled, desertions were numerous, and discipline became extremely relaxed. On the first of October the French crossed the Maese and the Roer, attacked the whole Austrian positions from Ruremond to Juliers, and, after a bloody engagement, compelled the brave and active though unfortunate Clairfayt hastily to repass the Rhine with the loss of ten or twelve thousand men. The French general did not attempt to cross that river; but one detachment of his army took possession of Coblentz, whilst others laid siege to Venlo and Maestricht, which soon afterwards surrendered.

In the mean time the French army under Pichegru entered Holland, and having attacked the allied army under the Duke of York between Bois-le-Duc and Grave, forced the advanced post of Boxtel. Lieutenant-general Abercromby was sent to attempt to recover this post, on the 15th of September; but he found the French in such force that he was obliged to retreat. They were in fact discovered to be nearly eighty thousand strong; and the Duke of York, unable to contend against a force so greatly superior, retired across the Maese with the loss of about fifteen hundred men. Pichegru immediately laid siege to Bois-le-Duc. On the 30th of September, Crevecoeur was taken, and Bois-le-Duc surrendered in ten days thereafter.

The French now followed the Duke of York across the Maese; whereupon the greater part of the allied army under his royal highness crossed the Rhine and took post at Arnheim, whither the remainder followed soon afterwards. Nimeguen was occupied by the French on the 7th of November. At this time the Duke of Brunswick was requested to assume the command of the allied army, and if possible to protect Holland; and with that view he proceeded to Arnheim; but after attentively examining the state of affairs, he declined undertaking the heavy responsibility which such a command would involve. The allied troops had now so often fled before their victorious enemies, they had so long been in want of almost every necessary, and had been received so ill by the inhabitants of the countries through which they passed, amongst whom the French cause was extremely popular, that they had lost that regularity of conduct and discipline which alone can afford a reasonable prospect of success in military affairs. The French, on the contrary, well received, abundantly supplied with every thing, and proud of fighting in a popular cause, now conducted themselves with much order, and submitted to the strictest discipline; and, in addition to all these advantages, their leaders had the dexterity to persuade the world that new and unknown arts were employed to give aid to their cause.^[21. At this period the telegraph was first used for conveying intelligence from the frontiers to the capital, and from the capital to the frontiers. Balloons were also employed by the French during this campaign, to procure knowledge of the position of the ene my. An engineer ascended in the balloon (which was suffered to rise to a great height, but prevented from being carried away by a long line), made plans for the enemy’s encampment, and during at attack send down notice of every hostile movement. ] In human affairs, and more especially in military [7:10:94]transactions, opinion or moral force is all-powerful. The French soldiers confided in their officers as men possessed of a kind of omniscience, whilst the allied troops attributed their misfortunes to the incapacity of those in command, and beheld with anxiety new contrivances employed against them, the importance of which was magnified by ignorance, or exaggerated by fear.

Whilst these events were occurring in the north, the French arms were scarcely less successful on the side of Spain. Bellegarde was taken, Fontarabia and St Sebastian surrendered, and the whole kingdom of Spain seemed panic-stricken. That feeble government, with an almost impregnable frontier and the most powerful fortresses, made but little resistance; and the difficult nature of their country seemed now their only protection. The history of this war is merely a list of victories gained by the French. On the 17th of November the French general Dugommier was killed in an engagement fought in the Eastern Pyrenees, where, however, his army was successful. On the 20th of the same month the French again attacked the Spaniards, and routed them with the bayonet, without firing a single shot. Tents, baggage, and cannon, for an army of fifty thousand men, fell into the hands of the conquerors, along with the greater part of the province of Navarre. Towards the end of the year an army of forty thousand Spaniards, intrenched behind eighty redoubts, the work of six months, suffered themselves to be completely defeated; their general was found dead upon the field of battle, and the whole Spanish artillery was taken. Three days afterwards, Figueiras, containing a garrison of above nine thousand men, surrendered, although it mounted a hundred and seventy-one pieces of cannon, and possessed abundance of provisions. The French continued their conquests; Rosas surrendered, and the whole province of Catalonia was left at the mercy of the invaders.

But the successes of this wopderful campaign were not yet terminated; the last, and perhaps the most important, although no great effort was necessary to its execution, yet remains to be noticed. The winter had now set in with uncommon severity. For some years past the seasons of Europe had been uncommonly mild; there had been little frost in winter, and no intense heat in summer. But during the preceding season the weather had been remarkably dry until the latter part of the harvest, when there fell a considerable, though by no means an unusual, quantity of rain. Towards the end of December a severe frost bound up the whole of the rivers and lakes of Holland, and in the beginning of January the Waal was frozen over, which had not occurred for fourteen years past. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the French crossed that river on the ice, and seized with little opposition the important pass of Bommel!, which at other seasons is so strong by reason of its inundations. The allied army, having been joined by seventeen thousand Austrians, had received orders to defend Holland to the last extremity. They did so, and were successful in repulsing the French for some days between the Waal and the Leck; but the republican army, amounting t 0 seventy thousand men, having at last advanced in full force, the allied troops were compelled to retire across the Yssel into Westphalia. In the course of their march through this desert country, in the midst of severe frost and deep snow, they suffered incredi-blehardships,andlostagreatnumberofmen. The French, in the mean time, advanced rapidly across the country to the Zuyder-Zee, to prevent the inhabitants from flying and carrying off their property. On the 16th of January 1795 a party of horse, without resistance, took possession of Amsterdam. The other towns surrendered at discretion; and in consequence of an order from the States-General, Bergen-op-Zoom, Williamstadt, Breda, and other strong places, opened their gates to the French. By the intenso frost, thefleet and the shipping were fixed in their stations, and became a prey to the enemy, who thus, with little effort, made a complete conquest of this rich and highly-defensible country. The people were almost everywhere favourable to their cause; and in fact the power of the stadtholder had been supported solely by the influence of Prussia and England. Through hatred of this office, which had now become odious chiefly to the mercantile aristocracy of Holland, the people were unfriendly to the allies, and, during the war, gave them as little support as possible. The stadtholder and his family now fled to England. And thus terminated a campaign, in the course of which, even before the conquest of Holland, the French had taken two thousand pieces of cannon and sixty thousand prisoners; whilst after that event the conquered territories added a population of nearly fourteen millions to the Republic. Luxembourg and Mayence were the only places on the Rhine which resisted them. But the former was closely blockaded; and the latter, though several times assaulted, successfully held out.

As the constitution which had been framed in the year 1793 was justly deemed impracticable, a committee was appointed to frame a new one. It was composed of Sièyes, Cambacérès, Merlin de Douai, Thibaudeau, Mathieu, Lesage de 1’Eure, and Latouche. On the 19th of April Cambacérès reported that, in the opinion of the committee, a commission should be appointed for this important purpose; and a number of qualified persons were accordingly chosen, whilst all citizens were invited to communicate their sentiments upon the subject, and the committee was instructed to order the best plans to be published. The feelings of the nation at large received additional gratification from the conduct of the Convention towards Fouquier-Tinville, the public accuser,^[22. "Je demande," said Fréron, making himself the organ of public indignation; "je emande qu'on purge enfin la terre de ce monstre, et que Fouquier aille cover, dans les enfers, le sang qu'il a versé." ] and fifteen judges and jurors of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Having been fully convicted on the 8th of May, they were executed on the 9th, amidst the loud execrations of a vast multitude of spectators.

But although the Jacobins were defeated on the 1st and 2d of April, they did not consider themselves as entirely subdued. On the contrary, they were now plotting a more extensive insurrection, which was not to be confined to the capital alone, and they had fixed upon the 20th of May as the period of revolt. In truth, the Convention had been borne along too rapidly by the force of the re-action, and, in its desire at once to repair and to punish, it fell into a most imprudent excess of justice. In this way it drove to despair a numerous party, which had ceased to be formidable, and by threatening it with vast and eternal reprisals, left it no resource but in insurrection, to which many were but too well disposed from other causes, including famine. The arrest of Billaud-Varennes, Collot-d’Herbois, Barrère, and Vadier, not to mention other circumstances, convinced the Jacobins that their whole party was doomed to destruction. Accordingly, on the morning of the day fixed on, the tocsin sounded, and the drums beat to arms in the faubourgs of Saint Antoine and Saint Marceau, in which the Jacobins had always enjoyed the greatest influence. The Convention met on the first alarm; but although the insurrection was far from being a [7:10:95] secret, the Committee of Public Safety did not appear to have taken any measures to prevent it; and it was only at the moment when the insurgents were approaching that General Hoche was appointed to the command of the armed force, and sent to collect the military and citizen* for the protection of the Convention. The hall was presently surrounded, the guards were overpowered, and the mob forced their way into the midst of the assembly. The multitudes of women who appeared on this occasion shouted for bread and the constitution of 1793. Vernier, the president, a man far advanced in years, quitted the chair to Boissy-d’Anglas, who kept it with unexampled fortitude during the remainder of the day. The mob had written on their hats with chalk, “Bread, the constitution of 1793, and the liberation of the patriots.” One of the party attached to the Convention having imprudently torn off the hat of one of the insurgents, the multitude attacked him with swords; and he was killed by a musket shot as he fled for protection towards the chair of the president. The majority of the members gradually retired from this scene of lawless intrusion, and left the multitude masters of the hall; but several of the members who remained espoused the cause of the insurgents. The triumph of the latter, however, was but of very short continuance. In the evening they were overpowered by a large body of military, aided by the citizens; the powers of the Convention were restored; and the deputies who had espoused the cause of the mob were put under arrest. But this day decided nothing.

It would appear, indeed, that the Convention and the citizens of Paris considered their triumph as complete; at all events no measures were adopted sufficient to prevent the repetition of a similar outrage. The Jacobins, however, were by no means disposed to consider their cause as desperate. Next day they collected their forces in the suburbs, and in the afternoon made a second attempt to regain the ascendency. The Place de Carrousel was taken without opposition, and some pieces of cannon were even pointed against the hall of the Convention. The members, being wholly unprotected, now endeavoured to gain over the mob by flattery; they fraternised with the faubourgs, without however making them any positive promise; and the intruders retired on receiving an assurance that the Convention was solicitously occupied with the means of procuring subsistence, and that it would soon publish the organic laws of the constitution of 1793. On the 23d, the citizens assembled, and proceeded to the Tuileries to defend the Convention from insult and violence. The military also collected in considerable force; and the Convention, at length encouraged to act on the offensive, decreed that if the faubourg of Saint Antoine did not immediately surrender its arms and cannon, together with the assassin of Féraud, who had been murdered in the very hall whilst covering the president with his body, it would be declared in a state of rebellion. The generals of the Convention at the same time received orders to reduce it by force if necessary; and the insurgents, finding themselves unequal to the conflict, were forced to surrender unconditionally, in order to preserve their property from the depredations of the military. All soldiers found amongst the prisoners were put to death. Six members of the Convention who had been concerned in the insurrection were also tried by a military commission, and condemned. These were Goujon, Bourbotte, Romme, Duroy, Duquesnoy, and Soubrany, all democrats of the Mountain party. When they heard the sentence pronounced they all stabbed themselves with the same knife, which they passed from one to another, exclaiming Vive la République. Romme, Goujon, and Duquesnoy were fortunate enough to strike home; the other three were conducted to the scaffold in a dying “ate, but with their countenances still serene.

In the south of France, the Jacobins, equally turbulent with their brethren in Paris, excited an insurrection at Toulon on the 20th of May; seized on the gates, which they planted with cannon; set at liberty such of their associates as had been incarcerated; and detained the fleet which was about to put to sea. From Toulon they proceeded to Marseilles, forming in all a body about three thousand strong, with twelve pieces of cannon; but on their march they were encountered by Generals Charton and Pactod, by whom they were defeated, and three hundred sent as prisoners to Marseilles.

The Mountain party were now much reduced, and exposed in many places to violent persecution; indeed associations were formed for the purpose of avenging the crimes committed by them during the continuance of their power. The character of Robespierre’s government, and the amount of suffering which it inflicted on persons of all ranks and parties, renders it truly astonishing that any number of men should hazard their lives in attempting its restoration. The party was of course gradually abandoned on the fall of the tyrant; but there still remained a small number of its adherents, men of superior activity and enterprise, but uncompromising republicans, who fancied they beheld the revival of royalty and aristocracy in every attempt to establish a mild, sober, and regular government. Hence, even amidst the universal odium cast upon them, the Jacobins expected to rise once more into power; and, what is more singular, the revival of their strength may be dated from the unsuccessful insurrection to which we have just adverted. Their unpopularity began to affect even the Convention, for the people remembered how tamely that body had submitted to the tyranny of Robespierre, and how the majority of its members had been the servile instruments of his power. The press being now free, the most hideous picture of their conduct was accordingly held up to the public; and the greater number began to repent of their victory over the Jacobins, which they foresaw might in the end prove fatal to themselves.

On the 23d of June, Boissy-d’Anglas presented the report of the committee relative to the project of a new constitution. Like its predecessors, it was prefaced with a declaration of the rights of man, and, besides, consisted of fourteen chapters on as many different subjects, viz. the extent of the republican territories; the political state of citizens; primary assemblies; electoral assemblies; the legislature; the judicial authority; the public force; public instruction; the finances; foreign treaties; the mode of revising the constitution; with a provision that no rank or superiority should exist amongst citizens except such as might arise from the exercise of public functions. The legislature was composed of two assemblies; the Council of the Ancients, consisting of two hundred and fifty members, into which none but married men and widowers turned of forty could be admitted; and the Council of Five Hundred, consisting of as many members, who enjoyed the exclusive privilege of proposing the laws, whilst the Council of Ancients might reject or oppose, but without having powet to alter, the bills or projects of law submitted to them. The executive power was intrusted to five persons, who were required to be forty years of age at least, and denominated the Executive Directory. The two councils had the power of electing its members; the Council of Five Hundred proposing ten times as many candidate⅛ as could be chosen, whilst the Council of Ancients selected the five directors from amongst the fifty candidates thus designed. One member of the Directory was to go out of office annually, by which means they wouk all be changed in the course of five years. In enacting laws the Directory had no vote, being appointed mere!) to superintend their execution, to regulate the coining [7:10:96]of money, and to dispose of the armed force. The treaties made by the Directory with foreign courts were not binding without the sanction of the legislature, and war could not be declared without a decree of the two assemblies. All the articles of the new constitution underwent each a separate discussion, after which they were ordered to be transmitted to the primary assemblies for their approbation. Previously to this event, however, the Convention, in order to avert the danger which now threatened it from the loss of public favour, decreed that at the approaching general election the electors should be bound to return two thirds of the present members; and if this failed, that the Convention might themselves fill up the vacancies. Decrees to this effect accompanied the constitution; but at Paris the idea of re-electing two thirds of the old members was rejected with indignation, and the absurdity of doing so pointed out with every expression of acrimony and contempt.

The Convention, however, did not fail to publish the approbation of the decrees, as well as of the constitution, by the primary assemblies; although it is pretty certain that great numbers had confounded the one with the other, and given their approbation accordingly. Such, indeed, was the rage of many against the Convention, on account of the decrees already mentioned, that it was even proposed to try all the members before a new revolutionary tribunal, and to punish each according to his crimes. The sections remonstrated to the Convention against the decrees, and the more eager they appeared in the matter, the more persuaded was the Convention of its own imminent danger. Every remonstrance was accordingly disregarded, and the contending parties formed the resolution of settling the question by force.

About a hundred electors of Paris met in the hall of the theatre in the suburb of St Germain, before the day of meeting which had been appointed by the Convention, and having chosen the Duke de Nivernois as their president, began their debates, absurdly concluding that the sovereignty was vested in the hands of the electors after these had been chosen by the primary sections. A body of troops was sent to dissolve them as an illegal assembly, and this was accomplished without any difficulty, because the citizens had not been unanimous in their sentiments respecting it. This, however, did not prevent the sections from presuming that, by steady perseverance, they would finally prove victorious; they had always found that the party favoured by the co-operation of the Parisian populace had carried their point ever since the commencement of the Revolution. The armed force with which the Convention was surrounded gave the people but little concern, as they had persuaded themselves that the military could never be brought to act against the citizens. The members of the Convention also appeared to suspect their fidelity, and therefore applied forassistance to those very Jacobins whom they had humbled on the 24th of May. If the sections of Paris detested the members for their connection with the atrocities of Robespierre, the Jacobins admired them for this very reason; and from fifteen to eighteen hundred of the latter, released from prison, were put in a state of requisition for assisting the legislative body, and regimented under the denomination of “Battalion of the Patriots of Eighty-nine." The sections of Paris beholding the Convention surrounded by men who had justly obtained the appellations of terrorists and men of blood, now exhibited the strongest desire to engage them. Their leaders designed to make the members prisoners till they could be conveniently brought to trial, and in the interval to conduct public affairs by committees of the sections, till a new legislative body could be chosen. General Miranda was to nave the command of the armed force after the overthrow of the Convention; but as it was still problematical which party would be triumphant, he retired to the country till the event should declare it, ready to share the reward of a conquest to which he had resolved to contribute nothing. The superior officers of the Convention were not to be depended on; but the subalterns and the soldiers continued firm, to which they were strongly exhorted by their Jacobin auxiliaries. It was also greatly in favour of the Convention, that the first moments of enthusiasm were permitted to pass away; this was a fatal error, which no subsequent vigour could repair.

As the danger, however, was imminent, the Convention had declared its sittings permanent; called around its enceinte the troops in the camp at Sablons; and concentrated its powers in a committee of five persons, instructed to adopt such measures as they should judge necessary for the public safety. These members were Colombe!, Barras, Daunou, Letourneur, and Merlin de Douai. In the night of the 11th Vendémiaire the decree which dissolved the college of electors, and armed the battalion of the patriots of 1789, excited the greatest agitation; the générale was beaten; the section Lepelletier thundered against the despotism of the Convention, and the return of terror; and during the whole day of the 12th it was occupied in disposing the other sections to combat. In the evening, the Convention, not less agitated itself, resolved to assume the initiative, surround the disaffected section, and terminate the crisis by disarming it. The general of the interior, Menou, and the representative Laporte, were charged with this mission. The head-quarters of the sec· tionaries was in the convent of the Filles-Saint-Thomas, before which they were drawn up in order of battle to the number of six or seven hundred. They were surrounded by superior forces, on flank by the boulevards, and in front on the side of the Rue Vivienne. Instead of disarming, however, the chiefs of the expedition parleyed with them; and it was at length agreed that both parties should retire. But scarcely had the troops of the Convention withdrawn when the sectionaries returned in greater force than before. This was to them a real victory, which, being exaggerated in Paris, excited their partisans, augmented their number, and gave them courage to attack the Convention the following day. At eleven o’clock, the latter received information of the issue of this expedition, and the dangerous effect which it had produced. Menou was immediately deprived of the command, which was conferred on Barras; and the latter demanded of the committee of five the appointment, as his second in command, of a young officer who had distinguished himself at the siege of Toulon; “a man,” said he, “of head and resolution, and capable of serving the Republic at such a moment of peril.’ This young officer was Bonaparte, who immediately presented himself before the committee; but nothing in his appearance or demeanour yet indicated his astonishing destinies. Little connected with party, and called for the first time to perform a part on a great scene, his countenance betrayed something of timidity and want of confidence, which, however, he lost in the preparations for action and in the heat of the battle. He caused the artillery to be brought in all haste from the camp of Sablons, and disposed the guns as well as the troops, amounting to five thousand men, on the different points of attack. On the 13th of Vendémiaire (5th October), about mid-day, the enceinte of the Convention had the appearance of a strong place, which could only be taken by assault. The line of defence extended, on the left of the Tuileries, along the river, from the Pont-Neuf to the Pont Louis XV., and on the right occupied all the little streets which debouch into that of Saint-Honoré, from those of Rohan, L’Echelle, and the cul-de-sac Dauphin, to that of the Revolution. In front, the Louvre, the garden of the Infanta, and the Carrousel were planted with cannon; and behind, the [7:10:97] Pont-Tournant and the Place de la Revolution formed a park of reserve.

Thue prepared, the Convention waited for the insurgents, who soon advanced upon several points. They had about forty thousand men under arms, commanded by Generals Danican and Duhoux, and an ex-garde-du-corps named Lafond. The thirty-two sections which formed the majority had furnished their military contingents; but of the sixteen others, several sections of the faubourgs had their troops in the battalion of 1789; some sent reinforcements during the action, others, though well disposed, were unable to do so, and a few remained neutral. About three o'clock General Carteaux, who occupied the Pont-Neuf with four hundred men and two four pounders, was overpowered by several columns of sectionaries, and obliged to fall back as far as the Louvre. This advantage emboldened the insurgents, who were in force upon all points, and General Danican now summoned the Convention to withdraw the troops and to disarm the terrorists. Several members declared for conciliatory measures. Boissy-d’Anglas was for entering into a conference with Danican; Gamon proposed a proclamation, in which, on the citizens engaging to retire, the Convention should promise to disarm the battalion of 1789; and Lanjuinais, after some observations on the imminence of the danger, and the miseries of civil war, supported this proposition. But Chénier having declared that there was now nothing for the National Convention but victory or death, that body, on the motion of Fermoud, passed to the order of the day. Seven hundred muskets were now brought in, and the members of the Convention armed themselves as a corps de reserve. The combat began in the Rue Saiñt-Honoré, of which the insurgents were masters; the first shots proceeded from the Hôtel de Noailles, and a heavy fire was instantly opened along the whole of that line. On the other flank, two columns of sectionaries, about four thousand strong, commanded by Count de Maulevrier, debouched by the quays a few minutes afterwards, and attacked the Pont-Royal. The battle now became general; but it could not last long, as the place was too formidably defended to be taken by assault. After an hour’s hard fighting the sectionaries were driven out of Saint-Roch and the Rue Saint-Honoré, by the cannon of the Convention and the battalion of 1789. The column of the Pont-Royal received three discharges of artillery, directly along the bridge, and obliquely from the quays, by which means it was completely shattered, and driven back in the greatest disorder. At seven o’clock, the troops of the Convention, victorious at all points, assumed the offensive; and at nine they had dislodged the sectionaries from the theatre of the Republic, and the posts which they occupied in the neighbourhood of the Palais-Royal. The latter had prepared to form barricades during the night; but several discharges of round shot fired along the Rue Richelieu prevented them. On the morning of the 14th the Conventional troops disarmed the section Lepelletier, and re-established order in the others. The victory was used with moderation. The assembly had only combated in its own defence, and had no vengeance to gratify.

The victors attributed this insurrection to the influence of the royalists; but whether they were right in this opinion or not, it is certain that the cause of royalty had now become less odious to the people generally than the bloody extravagance of republicanism; though, as to the mob, they seem to have looked no further than the disarming of the Jacobins, and obtaining new representatives. The sittings of the Convention terminated on the 27th of October, and it was succeeded by the new legislature, in terms of the constitution. Amongst its last decrees was one granting a general amnesty for all crimes and proceedings of a revolutionary nature; but the emigrants, transported priests, and every one concerned in the last insurrection, were excluded from the benefit of it.

The first step of the new legislature was to divide itself into two councils, and proceed to the election of an’ Executive Directory. The Council of Five Hundred was, bound to present to the other council fifty candidates, andι a list was accordingly made out; but it consisted of no more than the five whom the council wished to be chosen, the other forty-five being obscure persons, farmers and peasants, so that the Council of Ancients, deprived of all power of election, were obliged to appoint Sièyes, Barras, Rewbell, Lareveillère-Lepeaux, and Letourneur de la Manche, none of the others being qualified for the office. Sièyes, however, did not deem it prudent to become one of the five republican kings; and on his declining to accept of the new dignity, Carnot was appointed in his stead. The form of government now established did not promise to be productive of much happiness or tranquillity, as the most important offices in the state were filled by men odious to the people. The members of the Executive Directory, excepting only Lareveillère-Lepeaux, had always been connected with the party of the Mountain, and employed the Jacobins in almost every official department; a circumstance which could scarcely fail to render the government peculiarly obnoxious. It was feared that a directory chosen by the Jacobins, and new legislators appointed by the people, might one day be the means of totally subverting the constitution; and the result showed that this apprehension was not groundless.

On the 10th of April a treaty of peace with the king of Prussia was presented to the Convention, in order to be ratified. By virtue of this treaty, it was agreed that the republican troops should be immediately withdrawn from the territories of Prussia on the right bank of the Rhine, but that the territories which France then possessed on the left bank of that river should be retained till a general peace. A mutual exchange of prisoners of war was agreed on, and the intercourse between the two countries placed on its former footing. Measures were also adopted to transfer the theatre of hostilities from the northern parts of Germany. The king of Sweden at the same time acknowledged the French Republic, and his ambassador was received at Paris with great solemnity. In the month of May another treaty was concluded with Prussia, which had a special reference to the line of neutrality. The cantons of Switzerland followed the example of the king of Sweden; and on the 22d of July a treaty of peace was also concluded at Basle, between the Republic and the court of Spain, in consequence of which France gave up all the conquests she had made in that country, and the original frontier was restored; whilst, in return, the Republic received all the Spanish part of St Domingo. In this treaty the Dutch Republic was included, and the mediation of the king of Spain, in favour of Portugal and the Italian princes, was accepted by France.

On the 9th of June, the dauphin, the heir to the throne of the unfortunate Louis XVI., and also his only son, died in the prison of the Temple, where he had been confined with his sister since the death of his father. His death interested the French nation so deeply in favour of his family, that the Convention found it prudent to liberate the princess. The Committee of Public Safety proposed to the emperor to give her in exchange for the commissioners whom Dumouriez had sent as prisoners to the Austrians, together with Semonville and another person, who had been seized on their way to Turkey as envoys extraordinary from the French Republic.. This proposition was agreed to, and the exchange took place in consequence, at Basle in Switzerland.

If Britain was unfortunate upon the Continent, she still retained her superiority on her own element. On the [7:10:98]14th of March a fleet under Admiral Hotham engaged a French fleet, and took two sail of the line, the Ça Ira and Censeur; but this was nearly counterbalanced by the loss of the Berwick and Illustrious. Three French ships of the line were captured by Lord Bridport on the 23d of June, in an attack on the enemy’s fleet off Port L'Orient; the rest effected their escape. Britain having thus evinced her usual superiority by sea, advantage was taken of this circumstance to send assistance to the royalists in the western departments; but unfortunately for them it came too late. The Convention had offered them a treaty, which was accepted and signed at Nantes on the 3d of March, by deputies from the Convention on the one part, and, on the other, by Charette, Sapineau, and the rest of the chiefs of La Vendée, and by Cormartin, as representatives of the party called Chouans. Stofflet also submitted to the Republic on the 20th of April. But the countenance given by Britain to the royalists induced them to disregard these treaties. The troops sent to their aid were composed of emigrants in the pay of Great Britain, and a number of prisoners who had agreed to join the royal cause. Puisaye commanded this motley army, and the Count de Sombreuil afterwards joined him with an inconsiderable reinforcement. The expedition arrived in the bay of Quiberon on the 25th of June, and arms were put into the hands of the inhabitants of the country; but it was soon found that the latter could not be of much advantage to regular troops. A resolution was therefore adopted to withdraw the emigrant army within the peninsula of Quiberon; and the fort of the same name, with a garrison consisting of about six hundred men, was taken on the 8d of July, and occupied by the emigrants. But all the posts without the peninsula were carried by an army under General Hoche, the emigrants and Chouans escaping in the boats of the British fleet, or flying for protection under the cannon of the fort. The republicans then began to erect formidable works on the heights of St Barbe, which commanded the entrance of the peninsula. To prevent these operations, a sally was made from the fort on the 7th, but without effect; and another in still greater force had no better success. The whole forces in the peninsula, including Chouans, amounted to about twelve thousand men, five thousand of whom were sent to attack the heights of St Barbe. On this position the republicans were intrenched in three camps, two of which were taken without difficulty; but as the emigrants rushed forward to attack the third, a masked battery was opened upon them with grape shot, which caused a dreadful slaughter, and few of the emigrants would have effected their escape, had not the fire of the British ships compelled the republicans to abandon the pursuit.

It was now evident what would be the fate of this expedition, and desertion amongst the emigrants became very frequent, especially those who had been liberated from prison on condition of serving against the Republic. On the evening of the 20th, the weather was tempestuous, and this induced the emigrants to indulge in a fatal security. The troops of the Republic were conducted in silence along an unguarded part of the shore, and surprised one of the posts, where they found the artillerymen asleep. They extinguished the lanthorn which was intended to give the British fleet the alarm, and seized on their matches. Some of the emigrants threw down their arms and joined the republicans, whilst others maintained an obstinate contest before they surrendered. The Count de Sombreuil was taken and put to death, together with the Bishop of Doi and his clergy; none being spared but such as pretended that their appearing in arms against the republicans was purely owing to compulsion.

But it is time to return to the affairs of the Continent. Alter a protracted siege Luxembourg surrendered on the

7th of June, and put the French in possession of the whole left bank of the Rhine, excepting Mayence, which the Austrians could conveniently supply with every necessary from the opposite bank of the river. The republicans therefore determined to cross the river, and to invest it on every side; but the attempt was delayed until the result of the Quiberon expedition should be fully known. In the month of August, the passage of the Rhine at Dusseldorf was effected by Jourdan, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the army of the Sambre and Meuse. Having driven in the Austrian posts, he crossed the Maine, and invested Mayence and Cassel; whilst Pichegru, having crossed the river near Manheim with the army of the Rhine and Moselle, at the same time took possession of that city. But a strong detachment of this army having driven Wurmser from an important post, began to plunder, and getting into confusion, the Austrians took prompt advantage of the circumstance, returned to the charge, and defeated the republicans. Jourdan was pursued by Clairfayt as far as Dusseldorf, where he made a stand; and Pichegru recrossed the Rhine near Manheim, leaving in that city a garrison of eight thousand men. But after a vigorous siege it surrendered to the Austrians; and the republicans were also driven from the vicinity of Mayence, upon which an armistice of three months was agreed to.

The Directory, however, still resolved to prosecute the war with vigour, and therefore, during the winter, made great preparations for another campaign. But the Mountain party being again possessed of power, now began to discover their restless and turbulent disposition; incapable of long submitting peaceably to any government, they soon became disgusted with the Directory which they themselves had established, and were continually disturbing the public tranquillity. After the 5th of October, the people of Paris durst not openly avow their abhorrence of the Jacobins; but as it was understood that wearing green cravats was a token of contempt for these partisans, this piece of dress was prohibited by the Directory, on the pretence of its being a mark of attachment to royalty. Ashamed of this absurdity/however, they in a few weeks recalled their edict, and the proscription of green cravats ceased. In the south of France, the authority of the Jacobins produced very serious effects. Fréron, by whom they had been abandoned after the death of Robespierre, rejoined them before the 5th of October, and was sent with full administrative powers to Toulon, where he dismissed the municipality which had been chosen by the people, restored the Jacobin clubs, and caused to be imprisoned every person whom he suspected. Alarmed at the numerous complaints which were made from every quarter against the conduct of these turbulent men, the Directory resolved to obtain the confidence and affections of the people by deserting them entirely. Fréron was recalled from Toulon, and moderate men replaced the Jacobins in most public employments. The Directory also issued a public declaration that its confidence had been abused. The minister of police was charged to remove from Paris the members of former revolutionary tribunals, and such as had been active leaders of the Jacobins; and ten thousand men, called the Legion of Police, who had acted against the Parisians on the 5th of October, and were decidedly favourable to the Jacobins, received orders to join the armies on the frontiers. This induced the violent Jacobins to concert a plan for the ruin of the Directory and the majority of the councils, who had now abandoned them. But their designs were discovered and completely defeated. On the 10th of May the guards were increased, and large bodies of cavalry were stationed round the Luxembourg and Tuileries. The Council of Five Hundred was informed by the Directory that a ter-riblc[7:10:99] plot was ready to break forth on the ensuing morning. The conspirators, at the ringing of the morning bell, were to proceed in small parties of three or four, to the houses of those persons whom they had singled out for destruction; and having murdered these, they were then to unite in one body against the Directory, whose guard they conceived themselves able to overpower. Some of the leaders of this conspiracy were arrested, amongst whom was Drouet, postmaster of Varennes, who had stopped the unfortunate Louis on his way to the frontiers: with ten others, he was condemned at Vendome, but he subsequently contrived to make his escape. The defeats which the Jacobins thus experienced, and the disgrace into which they had fallen, determined the moderate party in the two councils to attempt to procure the repeal of the decrees of the Convention, which had granted them an amnesty, and confirmed the laws against emigrants. A number of days were occupied in the discussion of these topics, but the moderate party gained nothing in favour of the emigrants; and with respect to the Jacobins, al] they obtained was, that such of that party as had owed their preservation to the amnesty, should be deemed incompetent to hold any public offices.

; Another matter of no less serious a nature now called for the attention of the republican government. This was the deplorable state of the finances. Whilst the usurpation of Robespierre continued, terror supported the credit of the assignats, which, joined to the sale of the church lands and the property of the emigrants, furnished ample resources; but no provision was at all thought of for future exigencies. If money was wanted, more assignats were fabricated, and no inquiry was made concerning the public expenditure, as no taxes were demanded from the people. The Directory having complained to the councils of the great distress under which they laboured, and of the want of sufficient funds to meet the unavoidable expenses of the ensuing campaign, a law was passed on the 25th of March, giving authority to dispose of the remainder of the church lands at the value formerly fixed on them, namely, twenty-two years’ purchase. A new paper currency, termed mandats, was also to be issued, and to be received in payment; but government had now lost aD credit, and the mandats became rapidly depreciated in value, which increased the demand for national property. To prevent this, the legislature decreed that one fourth of every purchase should be paid in cash; a provision which obstructed the sale of the national property, and increased the circulation of mandats.

During the preparations for the approaching campaign, the Directory attempted to render themselves popular at l∙ home, by establishing, under the protection of government, the French National Institute. Every man of science or learning who had escaped the persecution of the Mountain party was invited to become a member; and it was opened on the 4th of April, in the hall of the Louvre, when the ambassadors of Spain, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, America, Tuscany, Genoa, and Geneva, were present, and the members of the Directory attended in their robes of state. The directorial president expressed the determination of the executive government to afford every encouragement to the improvement of science, literature, and the arts; and the president of the Institute replied that it was the determination of the members to endeavour to give lustre to the republican government, by the exercise of their talents, and by their publications. The speeches were enthusiastically applauded by a multitude of spectators, and the general expectation was, that France would now enter upon a career of glory and prosperity wholly unprecedented in her past history.

About this time an approach towards a negotiation with France was made on the part of Great Britain, through Mr Wickham, ambassador to the Swiss Cantons. On the 8th of March a note was communicated to Μ. Barthélémy, ambassador of the French Republic, in which it was inquired, whether France would be willing to send ministers to a congress to negotiate peace with his Britannic majesty and his allies? whether she would be inclined to communicate the general grounds upon which she would be willing to cone!ude peace, that his majesty and his allies might consider them in concert? and, whether she would desire to communicate any other mode of accomplishing a peace? Any answer which might be returned was directed to be transmitted to the British court; but it was at the same time intimated that Mr Wickham had no authority to discuss these subjects. On the 26th of the same month an answer was returned by Barthélémy in name of the Directory, complaining of the insincerity of the British court in giving its ambassador no authority to negotiate, and stating that the proposal of a congress rendered negotiation endless. The Directory expressed their wish to obtain peace, but declared that no portion of territory would be relinquished which, in virtue of the constitutional decree, formed part of the Republic. To this note no reply was made; but it was complained of to the foreign ministers resident at the court of London, and considered as leaving Britain no alternative but the prosecution of the war.

During the winter season the Directory found means to reduce the western departments. The expedition from England had tempted the royalists once more to try their' fortune in the field; but after a number of defeats, their leaders, Charette and Stoffict, were apprehended and put to death on the 29th of March; and this tended to suppress the insurgents in every quarter. Domestic enemies being thus subdued, the republican government was enabled to make the most vigorous exertions on the frontiers. Their military force was divided into three armies: the army of the Sambre and Meuse under Jourdan, principally stationed about Dusseldorf and Coblentz; the army of the Rhine and Moselle, commanded by General Moreau, stationed on the Upper Rhine, from Landau to Treves; and the army of Italy, which occupied the Italian coast from Nice towards Genoa, the command of which was now bestowed on General Bonaparte, who had so greatly signalized himself on the 13th Vendémiaire.

The army of Italy, which had hitherto operated on the flank of the Alps, was destitute of every thing, and scarcely thirty thousand strong; but it was full of courage and 1 patriotism, and by means of it Bonaparte commenced that ' brilliant career of victory which had nearly terminated in J the subjugation of all Europe. His plan was to debouch ‘ into Italy between the Alps and the Appennines, to turn the former range, intersect the enemy’s line, and operate on his flanks. He had before him the allied force, consisting of ninety thousand men, placed in the centre under Argen-tau, on the left under Colli, and on the right under Beaulieu; but in a few days this immense force was dispersed by prodigies of genius and of courage. On the 9th of April the campaign was opened by General Beaulieu attacking the post of Voltri, six leagues from Genoa; the republicans defended themselves till the evening, when they retreated to Savona. Next day Beaulieu renewed his attempts, and penetrated to Montenotte, which was occupied by Colonel Rampon, with fifteen hundred men. In a moment of enthusiasm, their commander prevailed on them to swear that they would never abandon their post; and they kept their oath; for, in spite of every effort that could be made on the part of the enemy, they succeeded in arresting the progress of the Austrian general during the remaining part of the day. During the night the right wing of the French army, under Laharpe, took up a position in rear of the redoubt of Montenotte; whilst Bonaparte, Massena, Berthier, and Salicetti, advanced by Altara, to take the enemy in [7:10:100]flank and rear. Powerful reinforcements were in the mean time sent to Beaulieu, who, on the morning of the 11 th, again attacked the position of Montenotte; but the obstinate resistance of Laharpe, and the approach of Massena, at length forced the Austrians and Sardinians to give way on all sides; two of the enemy’s generals were wounded, and two thousand five hundred men became prisoners. The republicans pursued them beyond Cairo, which, on the following day, fell into their hands.

On the 13th April, General Augereau forced the defiles of Millesimo, and by a rapid movement surrounded General Provera at the head of fifteen hundred grenadiers; but instead of surrendering, this brave officer forced his way through the enemy, and intrenched himself in the ruins of an old castle situated on the summit of the hill. Augereau with his artillery endeavoured to dislodge him, but without success; he then arranged his troops in four columns, and made an attempt to carry Provera’s intrenchments by storm, which also proved unsuccessful. In this affair the French had two generals killed, and Joubert was wounded. A division was now left to continue the blockade of Provera The hostile armies continued in presence during the 14th. On the following day the Austrians made an attack on the republican centre; but Massena turned the left flank of their left wing in the vicinity of Dego, whilst Laharpe turned the right flank of the same wing; one column kept in check the centre of the Austrians, another attacked the flank of their left wing, and a third gained its rear. They were completely defeated at all points, with the loss, besides killed and wounded, of eight thousand prisoners. General Provera also surrendered.

After his defeat at Millesimo, Beaulieu made a vigorous effort to change the fortune of war. With seven thousand of his best troops he attacked Dego, where the republicans after their success were indulging in security, and made himself master of the village; but the troops rallied under Massena, who renewed the combat, and employed the greater part of the day in his efforts to retake it. The republicans were thrice repulsed, but Bonaparte having arrived in the evening with reinforcements, the village was retaken, and fourteen hundred men were made prisoners. Bonaparte had now accomplished his object of separating the Austrian and Sardinian armies; for his right wing being secured against the efforts of Beaulieu by the village of Dego, he was enabled to act against the Piedmontese troops with the greater part of his force. Augereau powerfully seconded his exertions, and having opened a communication with the Tanaro, Serrurier was now approaching the town of Ceva, in the vicinity of which the Piedmontese had an intrenched camp with eight thousand men. The redoubts which covered this camp were, on the 16th, attacked by Augereau, who carried the greater number of them, and thus forced the Piedmontese, during the night, to evacuate Ceva, which Serrurier entered in triumph on the morning of the 17th. Count Colli repulsed Serrurier on the 20th; but Bonaparte, on the 22d, defeated the Sardinian general at Mondovi, and there decided the fate of Piedmont. The beaten army endeavoured to make a stand at Fossano, whilst its wings rested on Coni and Cherasco; but on the 25th the latter place was taken by Massena, Fossano by Serrurier, and Alba by Augereau.

Previously to these movements, however, Count Colli had requested an armistice, which General Bonaparte granted, on condition that the fortresses of Coni, Ceva, and Tortona should be given up to him, with their magazines and artillery, and that he should have permission to cross the Po at Valentia. The armistice was signed on the 29th of April, and a definitive treaty was concluded at Paris on the 17th of May. The conditions, in as far as they concerned his Sardinian majesty, were unquestionably humiliating. The duchy of Savoy was given up to France, as were also the counties of Nice, Tende, and Breteuil; an amnesty was granted to all his subjects who had been prosecuted for political opinions; and it was agreed that the French troops should have free access to Italy through his territory. His Sardinian majesty also bound hims*elf not to erect fortresses on the side of France, to demolish those of La Brunette and Suza, and to confess that his conduct to the last ambassador of the Republic had been disrespectful.

In the mean time, the republican army advanced towards the Po. Deceived respecting the article of the armistice which stipulated permission to Bonaparte to pass die river at Valentia, Beaulieu, concluding that t⅛e republican chief seriously intended to cross at that place, made every possible preparation to oppose him; whilst Bonaparte rapidly penetrated into Lombardy, and on the 7th of May was sixty miles down the river towards Piacenza before the enemy had obtained information of his march. Ĳe passed the river without difficulty. Six thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry were dispatched by Beaulieu, when it was too late, to oppose the passage of Bonaparte across the river; but they were met and defeated on the following day, near the village of Fiombio, whilst five thousand more who had advanced to their assistance were repulsed by Laharpe. On the 9th an armistice was granted by General Bonaparte to the Duke of Parma, on condition of paying two millions of francs, and delivering ten thousand quintals of wheat, five thousand quintals of oats, and two thousand oxen, for the use of the army. The duke likewise consented to give up twenty of his best paintings, to be selected by the republicans.

Forced to abandon the Po, General Beaulieu crossed' the Adda at Lodi, Pizzighettone, and Cremona, leaving· some troops to defend the approaches to Lodi. On the 10th, the latter were attacked by the advanced guard of the republicans, who drove them into the town, and pursued them so rapidly that they had not time to break down the bridge on the Adda. The Austrians defended the passage with thirty pieces of cannon, and the republican officers, after holding a consultation, were of opinion that the bridge could not be forced. Bonaparte, however, having addressed his grenadiers, who declared themselves willing to make the attempt, formed them in close column, and, waiting a favourable moment, ordered them to advance. Under cover of the smoke of the enemy’s artillery they reached the middle of the bridge unobserved; but the moment they were perceived a tremendous fire of grape and canister shot in a few seconds strewed the bridge with dead bodies. The republican officers, including the general-inchief, now flew to the head of the column, and, urging on the troops, broke into the Austrian ranks, took the cannon, and forced the enemy to fly in all directions.

All that seems to have been expected from the campaign of Bonaparte in Italy was to induce the different princes and states to abandon the coalition against France, which every one of them had assisted, either with troops or with money and provisions. But this youthful chief far surpassed all that even the most sanguine had anticipated. The occupation of Alessandria, which opens the w hole of Lombardy; the demolition of the fortresses of Suza and La Brunette on the side of France; the acquisition of the county of Nice and of Savoy; and the disengagement of the other army of the Alps under Kellerman, which was now rendered disposable; such were the fruits of a campaign of fifteen days, during which six victories had been gained. The king of Sardinia was also detached from the coalition against France, and so humbled and weakened as to be no longer in a condition to occasion any uneasiness to that country. Bonaparte likewise made himself master of Ferrara, Bologna, and Urbino, and granted to his holiness and the Duke of Modena an armistice on the usual terms of large contributions in money, as well as in paintings[7:10:101] and curiosities for the national gallery of France. Terrified by his march into the Roman States, the Neapolitan cabinet, in like manner, requested a peace; and Bonaparte agreed to an armistice without any of the humiliating conditions demanded from the other states of Italy. He next proceeded to Leghorn, in order to drive out the English, and confiscate their property; and thus finished the task assigned him before the campaign on the Rhine had commenced. Mantua, it is true, was still in possession of the imperial troops; but that fortress was in a state of siege, and the rest of Italy had submitted to the French Republic.

With a view to. lessen the exertions of the republicans 1 in Italy, the contest was renewed in Germany. General Jourdan was therefore instructed to denounce the armistice, and renew hostilities on the 31st of May. Jourdan at this time had to contend with General Wartensleben, whilst the archduke put himself at the head of the army in the Hundsruck to oppose Moreau on the Upper Rhine. The commencement of the campaign on the part of the French was distinguished by a singular stratagem, employed with the view of drawing the whole of the Austrian forces to the Lower Rhine, that an opportunity might thus be afforded General Moreau of suddenly entering Suabia, and carrying the war into the hereditary dominions of Austria. Jourdan began to make vigorous exertions, and Moreau remained inactive. On the 31st of May the lines of Dusseldorf were abandoned by the left wing of Jourdan’s army, under the command of General Kleber, who defeated the Austrians in his march towards the Sieg. Advancing with his centre and right wing, Jourdan forced the Austrian posts on the Nahe, effected the passage of the Rhine, blockaded Ehrenbreitstein, and hastened forward as if he had intended to form the siege of Mayence. As these movements brought the archduke into the perilous situation of having Moreau in his front and Jourdan in his rear, he therefore crossed the river in haste, leaving the fortresses of Mayence and Manheim to retard the advance of Moreau, and attacked the advanced guard of General Jourdan, which, after an obstinate conflict, he forced to retire. Jourdan then withdrew to his former position, and Kléber on the 20th entered the lines of Dusseldorf’.

But the archduke had no sooner withdrawn from the palatinate to force Jourdan down the Rhine, than Moreau marched speedily towards Strasburg, so that the hostile armies seemed to be receding from instead of approaching each other. The passage of the river opposite to Kehl was effected by Moreau on the 24th of June; an operation attended with considerable difficulty, owing to a sudden swell, which prevented the Austrians being taken by surprise, as appears to have been the original intention of the republican commander. The intrenchments on the islands occupied by troops were instantly carried at the point of the bayonet, and two thousand six hundred republicans effected a landing on the opposite bank, where they were exposed to the Austrian cannon from the camp of Wilstedt, and also to the fire of the fort. Still, however, they maintained their ground, and even acted on the offensive, until the boats returned with reinforcements, when the fort and redoubts were carried by storm, and the Austrians retreated towards Offenburg.

In consequence of the archduke’s departure to the Lower Rhine in pursuit of Jourdan, and the detachments sent to Italy to check the victorious career of Bonaparte, Moreau was in a condition to enter Suabia at the head of a superior force. On the 26th of June he succeeded in compelling the Austrians to abandon their camp at Wilstedt, and next day proceeded with his army in three columns against another body of fifteen thousand men posted near Offenburg. A strong detachment was sent to their assistance by Wurmser, but the reinforcement was defeated on its march by two republican columns, and Offenburg was evacuated during the night. On the 2d of July a body of the French under General Laroche seized on the loftiest point in the ridge of mountains denominated the Black Forest; and the Austrians were next day, after an obstinate resistance, driven from the pass of Friedenstadt, by which their communication with the emigrants under the Prince of Condé was entirely cut off. On the 8th the Austrians were attacked at Rastadt by the left wing of the republican army, commanded by General Dessaix, and, after a most determined resistance, obliged to retreat to Ettingen.

The archduke now arrived with his army on the Lower Rhine, leaving Wartensleben to check the advance of General Jourdan, who, as soon as he received information of the archduke’s departure, resumed the offensive. Kléber, as before, set out from the lines at Dusseldorf, whilst the centre and right wing crossed the Rhine in the vicinity of Coblentz. The French forced the posts of Ukareth and Altenkirchen; the whole army under Jourdan crossed the Lahn on the 9th of July; and next day Wartensleben was defeated with great slaughter, and the loss of five hundred prisoners. On the 12th the republicans entered Franckfort. The two imperial armies were now at no great distance from each other, being in fact in the centre between those of Moreau and Jourdan. Had the archduke, therefore, found it practicable to resist for a time one of these armies, whilst he fell upon the other with the main body of his army, it is not improbable that an end might thus have been put to any further invasion of Germany. But the activity of the republican officers was not to be easily checked, nor could their progress be arrested by any partial exertions. His last resource, therefore, was to give battle to Moreau, which he accordingly did; and the action was obstinately contested on both sides. The French, in their endeavours to force the heights of Rollensolhe, were four times repulsed; but, after a terrible slaughter, they at length succeeded in carrying the position at the point of the bayonet.

In consequence of the loss sustained at the battle of Ettingen, the imperial armies retired eastward, the archduke retreating through Suabia towards Ulm, where he had magazines. At every position of any strength he made a stand, in order, as much as possible, to obstruct General Moreau’s advance; whilst Wartensleben, in his retreat through Franconia, offered a similar opposition to Jourdan. The archduke was forced by Moreau to cross the Neckar, and afterwards the Danube, by which means the whole circle of Suabia was in the rear of the republicans; and Wartensleben was obliged to retreat through Aschaffenburg, Wartsburg, Schweinfurt, and to cross the Rednitz, in order to avoid the army of Jourdan, which was pressing on his rear. Jourdan continued his advance until his right wing, commanded by General Bernadotte, reached Neumarck, and his advanced posts Teining; and the main body of the army having pursued Wartensleben beyond the Nab, arrived at Amberg on the 22d of August.

The three republican armies under Moreau, Jourdan, and Bonaparte, thus commanded an immense tract of country, extending from the frontiers of Bohemia to the shores of the Adriatic (excepting only a part of the mountains of TyroD, and caused unspeakable alarm throughout the whole of Germany. The payment of four millions of francs procured a peace for the Duke of Wirtemburg; and the circle of Suabia obtained it on condition of paying twelve millions of livres, and delivering for the use of the army eight thousand four hundred hones, five thousand oxen, a hundred thousand quintals of wheat, fifty thousand quintals of rye, a hundred thousand sacks of oats, a hundred thousand pairs of shoes, and a large quantity of hay. Peace was granted to the Margrave of Baden upon similar terms; and negotiations were also entered into by the Elector of Bavaria and the circle of Franconia, each party offering large sums in order to obtain it; and even the diet of Ha-tisbon[7:10:102] sent a deputation to the republican generals to treat for a neutrality. About the same time Spain concluded a treaty offensive and defensive with France, and in consequence soon afterwards declared war against Great Britain. Bonaparte was still detained in Italy; but had it been in his power to traverse the Tyrol, and reach the Danube, it is probable that the emperor of Germany would have been obliged to accept peace upon any terms which the conquerors thought proper to prescribe. But though abandoned by every member of the coalition except Britain, the pecuniary aid furnished by the latter enabled the emperor to extricate himself from the dangers which surrounded him; with an almost unlimited command of money, one army after another was raised to check the career of Bonaparte in Italy, whilst his German armies were recruited by extensive levies, and by mercenary troops drawn from the states which had made peace with France.

The Archduke Charles having received strong reinforcements, came to the resolution of encountering Moreau at Umersheim. A battle accordingly ensued, which lasted seventeen hours, when one of the wings of the Austrian army succeeded in gaining about four leagues of territory in the rear of the republican army; but as the archduke had received information that Wartensleben was unable to maintain his ground against Jourdan, he deemed it prudent to retreat, and adopt new measures. On the 17th of August he left General Latour to keep Moreau in check, and crossing the Danube at Ingolstadt, marched to the relief of General Wartensleben, determined with their united forces to fall upon Jourdan. On the 23d he attacked Bernadotte at Teining, and compelled him to retreat towards Nuremberg. The archduke having thus placed himself on Jourdan’s right, whilst Wartenβleben menaced him in front, the French general was forced to fall back, which he did accordingly on the 24th. The state of the French finances at the beginning of this campaign was such that the armies of Jourdan and Moreau were under the necessity of making the war support itself, or, in other words, supplying their immediate wants by means of requisitions. This was particularly the case with Jourdan’s army, which, when it commenced its retreat, suffered nearly as much from the exasperated inhabitants as from the pursuing enemy. The archduke and Wartensleben having effected a junction of their forces, the former was enabled to detach General Nauendorf with reinforcements to Latour, in order to keep Moreau in check, whilst he continued his pursuit of Jourdan towards Würtzburg. Here the French made a stand on the 3d of September, and a severe engagement ensued, in which Jourdan was defeated with great loss, and obliged to continue his retreat during the night. Having crossed the Lahn, he made a feeble resistance, and marched along the banks of the Rhine, till his army on the 17th arrived at Coblentz and Dusseldorf, the points from which it had formerly taken its departure.

The army of Moreau was now in a situation of extreme peril; yet he maintained his position till the 17th of September, the day upon which Jourdan reached Dusseldorf. But he obviously wavered as to his future movements, and indeed seemed completely at a loss what course to pursue. He made an unsuccessful attempt to arrest the archduke in his pursuit of Jourdan, and frequently attacked, but without effect; on whatever side he moved, the Austrian generals gave way before him. But finding that the retreat of Jourdan was irretrievable, and that Bonaparte was still detained in Italy, he finally resolved to retire. To prepare for this arduous undertaking, he had crossed the Lech, which he suddenly repassed as if fully determined to penetrate further into Austria, and thus compelled Latour to fall back on Lansberg. Having thus obtained a free passage, he commenced his memorable retreat, passing between the Danube at U)m and the Lake of Constance, whilst Latour continued pressing upon his rear. The defiles of the Black Forest were occupied by numerous bodies of Austrians and armed peasantry, whilst his right flank was harassed by Nauendorf and Petrasch at the head of twenty-four thousand men. To disengage himself he once more turned upon Latour with terrible impetuosity, defeated him, and took five thousand prisoners. He then continued his retreat, checking Nauendorf and Petrasch with the right wing of his army under General Dessaix, whilst the remainder cleared the passage» in front, till he reached the Valley of Hell. This pass, which is a narrow defile extending some leagues between lofty mountains, and in particular places not more than a few fathoms broad, he forced with the centre of his army in a mass, whilst the wings opposed the enemy under Nauendorf and Latour; and after incredible efforts he arrived at Fribourg on the 13th of October. The archduke having discontinued the pursuit of Jourdan, now arrived, forced Moreau to abandon all his positions on the Suabian side of the Rhine, excepting the forts of Kehl, and a tête-de-pont at Hünningen. This memorable retreat has been severely censured by Napoleon in his Mémoires, dictated at St Helena; but apparently without sufficient reason. His dislike of Moreau seems to have biassed his judgment, and sharpened the edge of his criticism.

As the French frontier was at this time in a defenceless state, the imperial forces took advantage of the circumstance to cross the Rhine at Manheim, and march in different detachments to Weissenberg, Seitz, and Hagenau, almost to the gates of Strasburg, levying contributions and demanding hostages wherever they went. When these detachments were recalled, the archduke formed the resolution of terminating the campaign by the reduction of Kehl and the fortification at Hünningen; but this he found no easy task. Much of the winter was spent by the Austrians in endeavouring to reduce these places; but the French at length agreed to evacuate Kehl on the 10th of January, and the fortification at Hünningen was surrendered in the month of February.

But although the republicans had experienced considerable reverses of fortune in Germany, yet Bonaparte continued to be victorious in Italy. Having laid the whole of that country under contribution, he had the means of preserving a vigorous and steady discipline over a well-paid army. The great secret of his tactics consisted in keeping his army always in hand, advancing with the utmost rapidity, and operating in masses on the decisive point; a system which could scarcely fail to succeed against that of cordons, to which it was opposed.^[23. Napoleon, when asked what he considered as the most important rule or maxim in the art of war, replied, “Faire douze lieue« par jour, combattre, et cantonner ensuite en repos.” ] The style, too, in which hfe addressed his army before any great action, was well calculated to inspire them with enthusiasm. He knew the soldier, and possessed the invaluable art of awakening in his mind all those feelings which prompt to the performance of daring actions. His address to the army on entering Lombardy is a masterpiece of its kind. “Soldiers,” said he, “you have rushed like a torrent from the summit of the Appennines, you have driven back and dispersed all who opposed your march. Your fathers, your mothers, your wives, your sisters, your mistresses, rejoice in your success, and boast with pride of being related to you. But remains there nothing more for you to effect? Shall [7:10:103]posterity reproach us with having found a Capua in Lombardy? But I already see you rushing to arms; an unmanly repose fatigues you, and the days lost to glory are lost to your felicity. But let the people be tranquil; we are the friends of all nations, and more particularly of the descendants of the Brutuses, the Scipios, and the illustrious personages whom we have chosen as models. To restore the capitol, to replace with honour the statues of the heroes who rendered it renowned, and to rouse the Roman people, become torpid by so many ages of slavery, such will be the fruit of your victories; they will form an epoch to posterity, and you will have the immortal glory of renovating the fairest portion of Europe. The French nation, free and respected by all the world, will give to Europe a glorious peace. You will then return to your homes, and your fellow-citizens, who, when pointing to you, will say, ‘ He was of the army of Italy.'”

During the early part of the month of July Bonaparte was occupied in commencing the siege of Mantua, a place of which he expected to become master towards the end of the month. In this, however, he miscalculated. Aided by Britain, Austria made great efforts, and poured reinforcements from all points into Italy. Twenty thousand troops were sent from the Rhine; large masses arrived from other quarters; and Italy had once more to be conquered. Bonaparte was therefore obliged to raise the siege, in order to make head against fresh masses descending from the Tyrol to dispute the possession of Italy with the youthful conqueror. On the 29th of July Massena was attacked and driven from his post at La Corona, whilst fifteen thousand Austrians forced the republicans to retire, first from Salo, and next from Brescia, with the loss of all the stores and magazines belonging to the army. The imperial troops, however, committed a fatal blunder in dividing into two columns, separated by physical obstacles, an army which, united, would have been more than a match for the enemy, and thus exposing themselves to be beaten in detail. Of this error the republican chief was fully aware, and,did not fail to take advantage of it. He unexpectedly raised the siege of Mantua, and leaving only a small body of troops to keep the Austrians in check, marched rapidly westward, and on the 1st of August retook Brescia, with all the magazines and hospitals. Carrying the mass of his army along with him, he exceeded his enemies in numbers wherever he attacked them. Having formed a large body of his troops into close columns, he awaited the Austrians, who, as yet unacquainted with the new tactics, extended their line with the view of surrounding him. The result was such as might easily have been foreseen. He penetrated their line in all directions, threw them into the utmost confusion, made four thousand prisoners, and took twenty pieces of cannon. A division of the Austrians finding Salo in possession of the republicans, wandered about in quest of a road by which to make their escape, and, believing that the bulk of the French army had marched in search of Wurmser to give him battle, summoned Lonato to surrender. Their belief was well founded, but Bonaparte was still in Lonato, though with no more than twelve hundred men. His situation was no doubt critical, but, with great presence of mind, he threatened to destroy the whole division, for daring to insult the French army, by summoning its commander-in-chief to surrender. Persuaded that the whole army was in the place, the Austrians abandoned all idea of resistance; and by this admirable acting on the part of Bonaparte, four thousand men were induced to lay down their arms.

On the 5th and 6th Wurmser was attacked by Bonaparte, and driven from Peschiera and the line of the Mincio. But on the 7th the Austrians were obliged to abandon Verona, and again to betake themselves to the mountains of Tyrol; losing in a contest of a few days upwards of twenty thousand men, three fourths of whom were prisoners. The siege of Mantua was again undertaken by the French; but as their works had been destroyed by the enemy in their absence, and the cannon which they had left behind taken into the city, the French could not undertake a regular siege; and by the beginning of September Wurmser was in a condition to attempt the relief of the place. Informed of his approach, Bonaparte left α division to maintain the blockade of Mantua; and, directing his march northward with the main body of his army, drove the Austrians from Santo Marco and Roveredo to the pass of Calliano. Here however they made a stand, and an engagement ensued, in which the Austrians were defeated with the loss of six thousand prisoners, upon which the French entered Trent in triumph. But instead of retiring, Wurmser threw himself into Bassano, upon the flank and rear of Bonaparte, and then marched with great rapidity towards Mantua. He endeavoured to make a stand at Bassano, but was defeated with the loss of five thousand prisoners. He then crossed the Adige at Porto Legnago, and entered Mantua with no more than eight thousand five hundred men, infantry and cavalry. The loss which Wurmser had sustained was great beyond example, but still it had the effect of detaining Bonaparte in Italy to watch the numerous garrison of Mantua. He expected that, owing to its numbers, famine would soon reduce it to the necessity of capitulating; but the flesh of more than four thousand horses, which Wurmser carried into the place, afforded the troops subsistence for a considerable time, and enabled the gallant veteran to signalize himself by as brave a defence as any on record.

The emperor now endeavoured to relieve Mantua, by J sending another army into Italy under the command of j General Alvinzi. But having crossed the Piava, Alvinzi was met by the republicans, and compelled to repass that river. Davidovich, however, having with his division driven the French down the Adige towards Verona, Bonaparte found it necessary to concentrate his forces. Leaving General Vaubois to keep Davidovich in check, he therefore marched in person against General Alvinzi, and came up with the Austrians in position at the village of Arcole. But as the village could not be speedily turned, on account of a canal, the French were obliged to attempt the passage of a narrow bridge under the fire of the whole Austrian army. Their officers rushed to the head of the column, and in vain endeavoured to urge the troops to advance. Augereau rushed to the end of the bridge with a standard, but he was followed by no one. At length the general-in-chief hastened to the bridge, and exclaimed, “Grenadiers, follow your general the soldiers followed till within thirty yards of the bridge, when they became intimidated by the tremendous fire of the Austrians, and Bonaparte judged it prudent to withdraw the troops. In the evening General Guieux carried the village at the head of two thousand men, but the Austrians again recovered possession of it. On the 16th of November a desperate engagement took place in the vicinity of Arcole; but next day the Austrians, whilst pressing on the centre of the republican army, were unexpectedly taken in flank by the left wing of the French army, which was lying in ambuscade. Bonaparte having sent into their rear a party of horse with twenty-five trumpeters, the Austrians concluded from the noise that they were surrounded, and fled in all directions in the utmost confusion. Having driven Alvinzi across the Brenta, Bonaparte resumed the positions of Rivoli and La Corona, and Davidovich was driven back into Tyrol. Wurmser still defended Mantua, which held out during the remainder of the year; but with these operations the campaign in Italy terminated.

Whilst such was the fortune of the field of battle, Great [7:10:104]Britain made an attempt to negotiate with France. Passports were obtained from the Directory, and Lord Malmesbury set out as ambassador to Paris. He commenced negotiations with Lacroix, the minister for foreign affairs; but his lordship soon discovered, or fancied he discovered, I that the Directory had no serious intention of concluding a peace with Britain. As individuals, the British ministry did not approve of a peace at this time, yet officially they considered it as prudent to treat; that is, they sought from policy, what they had no desire, either from interest or inclination, to obtain. It was proposed by Lord Malmesbury, that the principle of mutual restitution should be agreed upon as the basis of the treaty; but the Directory desired that specifications should be made. Lord Malmesbury therefore proposed that the French should give up the Austrian Netherlands, in return for which Britain, he said, would consent to give up the foreign settlements belonging to the Republic which had been taken during the war. Many of the Dutch possessions abroad would also be relinquished, on condition that the authority of the stadtholder was acknowledged. His lordship was next required to give in the ultimatum of his government in twenty-four hours; and when he complained of this demand, he was informed, on the 19th of December, that the Directory would agree to no conditions repugnant to the French constitution, and that his further residence was unnecessary. During this year Great Britain maintained her accustomed superiority on the ocean. On the 16th of September 1795 the Cape of Good Hope was taken by Admiral Elphinstone; but as the Dutch were extremely anxious to recover this settlement, they advanced money to the French to enable them to fit out a squadron destined to co-operate in an attempt to reduce it. Seven ships of the line were accordingly sent out for this purpose, under the command of Admiral Lucas; but the latter having been caught between two fires, found it impossible to escape, and therefore surrendered to the British admiral without firing a gun.

But although Britain maintained her superiority by sea, yet an invasion of Ireland was attempted by the French in the end of 1796; but as folly seemed to have concerted the scheme, it consequently proved abortive. The command was intrusted to General Hoche, without any second in command to take his place in the event of accident. The disaffected party in Ireland had received no information of the approach of the expedition, and the fleet was sent towards a part of the country where the people were notmuch disposed to receive them. In this expedition eighteen sail of the line, thirteen frigates, twelve sloops, and transports with twenty-five thousand men, were employed; but it was detained for some time when ready for sailing, in consequence of a mutiny. Hoche set sail on the 10th of December, but in working out of Brest a ship of the line was lost, and some others were considerably damaged. The frigate which had on board the commander-in-chief was separated from the fleet in a gale of wind, and when the latter arrived at Bantry Bay, it found itself without instructions. The officers and troops desired to disembark, but Admiral Bouvet refused to comply with their wishes. After remaining for some days on the coast, he sailed for France, and on the 31st reached Brest with part of the fleet. General Hoche reached Bantry Bay when it was too late, and consequently could not land. One ship of the line and two frigates foundered at sea, a frigate was captured by the British, and a ship of the line was run ashore to prevent her being taken.

In the beginning of the year 1797 the Archduke Charles was still employed in endeavouring to reduce Kehl and the fortifications opposite to Hünningen. Moreau continued his opponent. Hoche succeeded Jourdan on the Rhine, and Bonaparte was still occupied with tire siege of

Mantua, whilst powerful efforts were making to reinforce the army of Alvinzi. The youth of Vienna were requested to lend their assistance, and six thousand of them volunteered their services for Italy. By these and other means Alvinzi’s army was augmented until it became fifty thousand strong; and with this force he menaced the republicans in all directions, in order to conceal from them the plan of his future operations. Bonaparte was at Bologna, to prevent the escape of Wurmser in that direction, when, receiving information of the approach of the Austrian army, he hastened to Mantua, and thence proceeded to Verona, where the centre of his line had already come to blows with the Austrians; but as they continued to attack on all points at once, he was as yet unable to penetrate the design of Alvinzi. On the 13th of January, however, the movements of the enemy became more serious upon the lower part of his line, near Porto Legnago; but having been informed in the evening that the upper extremity under Joubert had been attacked by greatly superior numbers, he concluded that the Austrians were there in greatest force. Notwithstanding all the lessons they had already received, the Austrians still persisted in dividing their army; experience had not yet taught them to correct an error which was soon to entail the same destruction on this as on former armies. Ten thousand troops, including the Vienna volunteers, received orders to proceed to Mantua by Porto Legnago, whilst Alvinzi in person advanced against Joubert, who was forced to retreat, and in fact reduced to such a situation that the capture of his whole division on the following day (the 14th ) seemed highly probable.

Bonaparte having received information as to the real state of affairs, left Verona on the 13th, having ordered Massena to follow him with the centre to Rivoli as fast as possible. On the 14th, at the break of day, the division of Joubert attacked the Austrians, a circumstance which much surprised them, ignorant as they were that Bonaparte had arrived with reinforcements. But the superior numbers of the Austrians, baffled all the endeavours of the French troops to turn their divisions; and the two wings of the republican army were forced back upon the centre in considerable confusion. Alvinzi encountered the centre, which with difficulty maintained its ground; and the Austrian wings advancing on both sides, entirely surrounded the French. The victory seemed already won, and it is even reported that Alvinzi had sent a courier to Vienna to announce the approaching capture of Bonaparte and his army. But the tide was already at the turn. Forming his troops in three strong columns, Bonaparte led them against the right wing of the Austrians, which they penetrated at various points, and forced to fly in such confusion that four thousand Austrians laid down their arms to a party of republicans which had not arrived in time to join the army, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Bonaparte, perceiving that this part of his line was no longer in danger, left Joubert to prosecute the victory, and proceeded to oppose the march of Provera. A detachment under General Murat having continued their march during the whole night of the 14th, seized on Montebaldo in the rear of the position at La Corona, to which part of the Austrians retreated; and on the following morning Joubert attacked them in front. Thus surrounded, 'they were thrown into confusion, six thousand were taken prisoners, and numbers perished in attempting to cross the Adige.

During this bloody conflict on the upper part of the Adige, ł'rovera forced his passage across the lower part of the river, near Porto Legnago, and obliged the republican general Guieux to retreat towards Ronco. But as Provera was marching rapidly to Mantua, Augereau came up with his rear, and made two thousand prisoners; notwithstanding[7:10:105] which the Austrian general on the 15th reached the neighbourhood of that city, which was blockaded at St George and La Favourite. The Austrian general summoned the republican commander to surrender; but the latter having refused to comply, Provera endeavoured, without success, to carry it by assault. He next made an attack upon La Favourite, and was seconded by Wurmser with the troops in the garrison, who had observed his arrival; but as Bonaparte had by this time arrived with reinforcements, Wurmser was defeated, and Provera being surrounded by the French, surrendered both himself and his troops as prisoners of war. In consequence of these engagements at Rivoli and Mantua, the Austrians lost twenty-three thousand prisoners and sixty pieces of cannon. The surrender of Mantua had now become inevitable, and in fact it capitulated from famine on the 2d of February. That the French emigrants might escape, Bonaparte allowed Wurmser to select and take out of the garrison seven hundred men, who were not to be examined nor viewed as prisoners of war; and the general himself was permitted to depart unconditionally.

The most active and vigorous preparations were now making both by the emperor and the French to recommence the contest on the German frontiers: and it was therefore of importance that Bonaparte should leave Italy in his rear in a state of tranquillity. On the 1st of February he sent General Victor with the legion of Lombardy to enter the papal territories; and after the surrender of Mantua, he himself followed in person. The Lombard legion, after storming the position occupied by the papal troops, made a thousand of them prisoners, and took all their cannon. General Colli had carried away most of the treasure from the chapel at Loretto; but the republicans still found articles of gold and silver worth a million of livres, and the image of the virgin was sent to Paris as a curiosity. At Tolentino the republican chief was met by a messenger from his holiness, with overtures of peace; and on the 19th a treaty was concluded, by which the pope promised to pay fifteen millions of livres, and to deliver eight hundred cavalry horses, with an equal number of draught horses and oxen. He also agreed to pay three hundred thousand livres to the family of the French ambassador Basseville, whom the rabble had murdered at Rome, and to make an apology through his minister at Paris for that outrage against the law of nations and of humanity.

The French having proved unfortunate in their invasion of Germany through Suabia and Franconia, now determined to make their principal attempt from Italy under the command of General Bonaparte. Considerable bodies of troops were therefore detached by the Directory from the divisions which had served under Moreau, and sent as secretly as possible towards Italy by the way of Savoy. The impending danger was however perceived by the court of Vienna, which accordingly conferred the command on the side of Italy on the Archduke Charles, the only Austrian general who bad hitherto been successful against the republicans. The war was now about to be carried into territorips where a foe had scarcely ever been seen by the house of Austria. It was necessary that Bonaparte should once more force his way across the Alps; that he should carry the war into that immense chain of mountains which, rising in the neighbourhood of Toulon and stretching northward, obtains the names of Piedmont and Savoy, and which, taking an easterly direction, forms the countries of Tyrol, Carinthia, and Carniola, and on the side of the Adriatic constitutes the frontier of the hereditary states of Austria. As to the fertile and level tract which belonged to Venice, it is situated between the mountains and the sea, and is crossed by many streams, which are increased by the melting of the Alpine snows, and the peculiar characteristic of which is, that they are greatest in summer and least in winter. But the archduke, instead of being ordered to make a stand in the defiles of the mountains, was sent into the plain to guard the passages of the rivers; a blunder which entered into the whole plan of defence adopted by the council of war at Vienna.

Whilst Bonaparte advanced into the territories of the pope, the Austrian army was assembling on the eastern bank of the Piava. The republicans were on the opposite side of the river, and Bonaparte, after quitting the papal territories, hastened to join them. Having effected the passage of the Piava on the 12th of March, the Austrians retired, skirmishing for some days, till they crossed the Tagliamento, where they halted and concentrated their whole force. On the 17th the republican army reached Valvesone, on the opposite bank of the river, and after some hesitation determined to force the passage. The stream had been diminished by the frost, and though the banks were high, the operation seemed practicable. After some sharp fighting, the French accordingly crossed the river in columns at different points. Joubert, with the left wing, then received orders to pass along the valley of the Drave, beyond the highest chain of the Noric Alps; Massena, at the head of the centre division, entered the defiles of these mountains; and the right division, commanded by Bonaparte, marched along the coast of the Adriatic. On the 19th the town of Gradisea, situated on the river Isonzo, surrendered to the right wing of the army; and its garrison, consisting of three thousand men, were made prisoners of war. On the 21st the same division entered Goritz, where it found the principal magazines and hospitals belonging to the Austrians. Trieste was taken on the 23d, and quicksilver, worth two millions of livres, was sent off by tiie French from the mines of Idria. On the 24th a large body of Austrians was kept in check by Massena and part of the right wing under General Guieux; but having procured reinforcements from the archduke, they engaged the French next day, and were defeated with the loss of five thousand prisoners and from three to four hundred baggage waggons. Equal success attended the left wing under Joubert, Baraguay-d’Hilliers, and Delmas. Four thousand prisoners were taken on the banks of the Lavis, and the enemy was defeated at Clauzen with the loss of fifteen hundred men. This division then directed its march eastward, along the valley of the Drave towards Clagenfurt, the metropolis of Carinthia, where it was met by General Massena, who had obliged the archduke to evacuate his head-quarters, and to fall back in order to cover the capital of the empire, which was now seriously threatened. Thus in fifteen days General Bonaparte had effected the passage of the Alps, taken twenty thousand prisoners, and arrived within twenty-four leagues of Vienna, which was thus completely exposed. Yet his own situation was not free from danger. The rapidity of his advance had rendered it impossible to take the necessary measures for protecting his line of communications; a hostile population hung upon his rear; a continued success could alone enable him to maintain his advanced positions, and the slightest reverse might lead to ruinous consequences. Bonaparte, therefore, prudently embraced the present moment of unprecedented success to make overtures of peace. On the 31st of March he wrote to the archduke, deprecating the continuance of the war, and entreating him to use his influence for putting a period to its ravages. But the prince replied evasively, that it did not belong to him to investigate the principles on which the war was carried on, and that he had no power to negotiate.

In the mean while the Austrians raised the peasantry of the Tyrol to harass the rear of the French army, and in consequence gained some advantages under Laudoh¾ [7:10:106]who drove back the republican troops which had been left at Botzen and Brixen. The people of the Venetian states also rose against the troops which had been left amongst them, and, with the assistance of ten Sclavonian regiments, murdered every Frenchman they could find, not sparing even the sick in the hospitals, of whom five hundred were massacred at Verona. The Austrians now attempted to surround the invading army; but Bonaparte knew that the embarrassment of the court of Vienna was at least equal to his own. He was at the head of a body of men hitherto irresistible; and to surround his army was not to vanquish it. For these reasons he continued his advance, and on the 2d of April, after a bloody conflict, forced the strong defiles between Freisach and Neumarck, making six hundred prisoners. On the 4th his advanced guard reached Hunsmarck, where they again defeated the Austrians. The cabinet of Vienna, finding that there was now no place where the army of the archduke could make a stand, till it reached the mountains in the vicinity of the capital, thought it high time to treat for peace. With this view, therefore, Bellegarde and Mor· veldt requested a suspension of hostilities, to which the French commander consented, on condition of obtaining possession of Gratz and Leoben, about fifty miles from Vienna. This was on the 7th of April, but the armistice, which would have expired on the 13th, was afterwards renewed for a longer period. On the 19th a preliminary treaty was signed, by which the French were to retain the Austrian Netherlands, and the whole of Lombardy, now called the Cisalpine Republic, comprehending the Milanese, Mantua, Modena, Ferrara, and Bologna. Bonaparte consented to return to Italy, on condition that his army should be supplied with provisions during its march; and all further disputes were to be settled by a definitive treaty of peace. The overthrow of the Venetian government, which had so long been in a state of helpless decrepitude, speedily followed the signature of the preliminary treaty of Leoben. Bonaparte had for some time meditated the dismemberment of the Venetian states, and a pretext was now afforded him for carrying this design into execution by the insurrection and massacre above adverted to. He saw his advantage, and promptly seized it; announced that the hour of Venice was now come; declared war against the unfortunate city of the sea; brought up cannon to the edge of the lagoons; and by menaces of retaliation compelled the senate and the doge to pass a decree dissolving their ancient constitution, and establishing a kind of municipal democracy in its stead.

During the approach of Bonaparte towards Vienna, the republican armies on the Rhine were pressing hard on the Austrians, to prevent their sending reinforcements to the archduke. An armistice was offered by the Austrians, but as the French required Ehrenbreitstein as a guarantee, both parties resolved to prosecute the war. The left wing of the army of General Hoche marched from Dusseldorf, whilst the centre and right wing crossed the Rhine near Coblentz. On the 18th of April a fierce contest took place between the hostile armies near the Lahn, in which the Austrians were beaten with the loss of four thousand prisoners. General Moreau having forced the passage of the Upper Rhine near Strasburg, attacked and carried the village of Diersheim; and next day the conflict was renewed with such vigour on the part of the republicans, that the fort of Kehl was taken, and five thousand Austrians were made prisoners. The French then advanced, and the Austrians were retiring towards the Danube, when all military operations were suspended, in consequence of intelligence received from the archduke and Bonaparte, that peace had been concluded. On the arrival of this intelligence, the army of General Hoche was making an attack upon Franckfort-on-the-Maine, which General Warnecht was employing every effort to defend. Both armies received the news about the same time, upon which the troops threw down their arms, and congratulated each other on the happy event.

A contest of a serious nature was now fast approaching between the legislative and executive branches of the French government. The time had arrived when a third part of the legislative body was to be changed. On the 19th of May Letourneur went out of the Directory by lot; on the 20th the new third took their seats; and on the 21st Barthélémy was chosen a member of the Directory in the room of Letourneur. Pichegru, Jourdan, and Willot, were amongst the members of the new third, so that a decided majority of both councils was of the moderate party; and two members of the Directory, Carnot and Barthélémy, were understood to be men of the same description. The old conventionalists, therefore, employed every means which seemed calculated either to render the Mountain party odious, or to embarrass the Directory. On the 14th of June Gilbert Desmolières brought up a report from a committee on the state of the finances, in which he inveighed against the prodigality of the Directory, and censured in the strongest language the conduct of its agents. On the 18th the same committee proposed a new plan of finance, which went to deprive the Directory of the administration of the public money. On the preceding day Camille Jourdan had presented a report of great length on the subject of religion, in which he insisted on the impropriety of forbidding its ceremonies to be publicly displayed, and the iniquitous nature of that persecution which its ministers had suffered because they could not take the oaths prescribed by the legislature. On the 15th of July the .Council of Five Hundred decreed that all the laws against refractory priests should be repealed; and on the following day a decree, requiring from them an oath of fidelity to the constitution, was carried by a majority of no more than six members. Emery, a new member, proposed the repeal of the laws by which the property of emigrants had been confiscated and their relations declared incompetent to succeed them. The discussion which these topics underwent made the Directory and the Councils professed enemies to each other. The Councils wished the Director)' to be changed before the expiration of the legal time, and the Directory desired to deprive of their seats many new members who had been elected by the people. As Barras was upon the whole the most obnoxious member of the Directory, an effort was made to deprive him of his seat, on the pretence that he was less than the legal age of forty; but his colleagues maintained that he had been born in the year 1755, and no proof of the contrary could be produced. Still the Directory did not want a number of adherents. The resolution of the Councils in favour of the priests had the appearance of a counter revolution, which induced the royalists to resume courage, and journals were rapidly published in defence of their cause. On the 20th of July the Councils received information that a division of the army under Hoche was within a few leagues of Paris; whilst the constitution declared that the Directory incurred the penalty of ten years imprisonment, if it brought troops any nearer the residence of the legislative body, without its consent, than twelve miles. An explanation was demanded and given; the Directory declared their ignorance of the march, which they said had been undertaken without orders from them, and owing to a mistake on the part of the officer by whom it was conducted; but the Councils paid no regard to an allegation which they evidently disbelieved. The turbulent suburb of Saint Antoine adhered to the majority of the Directory; and this encouraged them so much that they lost no time in proceeding to action.
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General Augereau had been sent from Italy, upon the pretence of delivering to the Directory some standards taken from the enemy. On the morning of the 4∣th, the Tuileries was surrounded by a division of the troops, under the command of this officer; the guard of the Councils refused to act against them, and Ramel their commander was made prisoner. On entering the hall, Augereau seized Pichegru and twelve more of the chiefs of the opposite faction, whom he immediately sent prisoners to the Temple. Carnot made his escape on the preceding evening; but Barthélémy remained, and was put under arrest. When several members of the Councils came to the hall at the usual hour, they were astonished to find that seals had been put upon the doors, and that they could not obtain admittance. They were ordered to go to the Surgeons’ Hall, where the Directory, it was said, had appointed them to meet; but of both Councilsnot more than a hundred and twenty members assembled, who, however, sent to obtain from the Directory an explanation of the proceedings which had just taken place. They were given to understand, that what had been done was absolutely necessary for the salvation of the Republic, and the Councils were congratulated on their escape from the machinations of the royalists. According to the report of Boulay de la Meurthe, a great royalist conspiracy, the centre of which was in the bosom of the Councils, was endeavouring to subvert the constitution; but, by the indefatigable diligence and activity of the Directory, it had been defeated. It was proposed to banish the conspirators without a trial, and the Councils were so completely imposed upon, that they voted the deportation of fifty-three of their own members, and twelve other persons, amongst whom were the directors Carnot and Barthélémy. During these transactions the city of Paris remained tranquil. The unfortunate issue of the struggle on the 5th of October had so completely subdued the ardour of the inhabitants, that they suffered the national representation to be violated with impunity, and saw liberty trampled underfoot, without a single exertion in its defence. The Directory excused their conduct to the nation, under pretence of the existence of a royalist conspiracy. Pichegru, it was said, had offered to join the emigrants under the Prince of Condé, and the Austrians under Wurmser, and, at the head of this aggregate force, to march directly to Paris, and re-establish the monarchy. Moreau was also implicated in this conspiracy, but, as is alleged, saved himself by betraying his accomplice.

The Directory were now powerful; but its members soon became giddy from the elevated nature of their situation, and seemed to act under the dangerous conviction that there was nothing in which they might not venture to engage, however great might be their ambition or rapacity. Whilst contending with the councils, they prolonged the negotiations with Lord Malmesbury; and, what is more extraordinary, acted in a similar manner respecting those which had been entered into between Bonaparte and the imperial ambassadors at Campo Formio. But the negotiations with the emperor were at length terminated, and on the 17th of October a definitive treaty was signed at Campo Formio. The Netherlands were given up to the French Republic, and the Milanese to the Cisalpine Republic; whilst the imperial territories in the Brisgau were surrendered to the Duke of Modena, as a compensation for the loss of his duchy in Italy. It was likewise agreed by the emperor that the French should possess the Venetian islands in the Levant, Corfu, Zante, Cephalonia, Santa Maura, Cerigo, and others; and, on the other hand, the emperor was to have the city of Venice, with its remaining territory, from the extremity of Dalmatia, as far as the Adige and the Lake of Garda. The Austrians accordingly withdrew from the bank of the Rhine, and the republicans were thus enabled to retake Mayence and Ehrenbreitstein. Venice was at the same time entered by the Austrians; and Bonaparte, when about to take his departure from Italy, left twenty-five thousand men to garrison Mantua, Brescia, Milan, and some other places, and to retain the Cisalpine Republic in a state of dependence upon France.

At this time the empire of the seas was so completely 1 possessed by Britain that the republican fleets lay block-* ided in their own ports during the greater part of the year. But as the expedition against Ireland had completely failed, the Directory were at a loss how to dispose of the galley slaves who had formed part of Hoche’s army. It would have been cruel to send them back to punishment; the troops refused to serve with them in the army; and by the new laws of France they could not receive a pardon, neither was it prudent to set so many criminals at liberty. To get rid of the difficulty, the Directory at last determined to send them over to England; and these criminals, to the number of about twelve hundred, were landed from two frigates and some small vessels on the coast of Wales, with muskets and ammunition, but destitute of artillery. On the evening of the day on which they landed, however (the 23d of February), they were made prisoners by a party of militia, yeomanry, cavalry, colliers, and others, under the command of Lord Cawdor. But although the navy of France continued in port, and therefore out of danger, the Spanish and Dutch allies of that country sustained serious losses by sea. A Spanish fleet of twenty-seven sail of the line, opposed to a British fleet of only fifteen sail under Sir John Jervis, was completely defeated off Cape St Vincent on the 14th of February. The Spanish fleet was on its way to Brest to effect a junction with the French fleet; but by the victory of Jervis this object was rendered unattainable. The Dutch were, if possible, still more unfortunate. Admiral Duncan having blockaded the Texel, where their fleet lay during the summer, a resolution was at length adopted to risk an engagement; and De Winter received positive orders to put to sea. Admiral Duncan was at this time refitting at Yarmouth; but on receiving intelligence that the Dutch fleet had sailed, he immediately put to sea in quest of the enemy, and on the 11th of October came up with their fleet, consisting of a force rather inferior to his own. The British admiral having carried his fleet through the enemy’s line, commenced the attack between them and their own coast, about nine miles from Camperdown. The conflict lasted three hours, at the end of which time the greater part of the Dutch fleet had struck. Eight ships of the line, two of fifty-six and one of forty-four guns, were taken, besides a frigate, which was afterwards lost near the coast of Britain. See article Britain.

After the ratification of the treaty with the emperor at Campo Formio, Joseph Bonaparte was sent to Rome as plenipotentiary of the French Republic. The pope having now no expectation of foreign assistance, submitted to the demands for the reduction of his troops, and the liberation of every person confined in prison on account of political opinions. But on the 26th of December 1797, three men waited upon the ambassador, and requested the co-operation of France in bringing about a revolution which a party a1 Rome was anxious to effect. He refused to countenance ths project, and did every thing in his power to dissuade them from embarking in such an enterprise; but unfortunately he neglected to communicate the intelligence to the papal government. On the 28th, however, he went to the cardinal secretary, and showed him a list of persons under his protection who had a legal authority to wear the tricoor cockade he at the same time consented that all others wearing it should be punished; and he offered to give up six of the insurgent; who had taken refuge in his palace. In the evening of tin [7:10:108]same day, a most serious tumult, in its origin not altogether unknown to his holiness, happened in the courts and vicinity of the French ambassador’s palace, and the governor of the city endeavoured to disperse the rioters by parties of cavalry and infantry. But in attempting to induce the military to desist from firing upon the people, General Du-phot, who belonged to the French mission, was shot by a petty officer belonging to the troops of his holiness. As soon as the Spanish ambassador received information of this event, he sent to the cardinal secretary, and protested against this daring violation of the privileges of plenipotentiaries. The palace of the French ambassador was still surrounded by the military, when he demanded his passports, which were granted, accompanied by many protestations of the innocence of government, and its sorrow that such an unfortunate occurrence should have taken place. Joseph Bonaparte retired to Florence, and thence proceeded to Paris. The protection of Austria, Spain, Naples, and Tuscany, was earnestly solicited by the pope; but all these powers seemed disinclined to interfere in behalf of the pontiff. General Berthier experienced little or no opposition on his march to Rome, where he subverted the dominion of the pope, proclaimed the sovereignty of the Roman people, and caused the tree of liberty to be planted on the very day on which the anniversary of the pope’s election was being celebrated. Whilst in the Sistine chapel receiving the congratulations of the cardinals, the commissioner-general, and Cervoni, who commanded the troops within the city, entered the chapel during the ceremony, and announced to the sovereign pontiff that his reign was at an end.

But scenes of a different and more sanguinary character were in the mean time exhibited in Switzerland, a country which had preserved its neutrality during the conflict between France and the combined powers. About the end of the year 1797, an insurrection broke out in the Pays de Vaud, a district subject to the canton of Berne. This occurrence showed the government its critical situation, and induced it to issue a proclamation on the 5th of January 1798, requiring the people of the Pays de Vaud to appear in arms, renew their oath of allegiance, and reform all abuses. A commission of the senate of Berne was also empowered to examine every complaint, and redress every grievance; but their motions were considered as too tardy by popular impatience, and the insurgents endeavoured to make themselves masters of the strong places. Troops were sent against them by the government of Berne; but General Weiss having acted with hesitation, a body of republicans appeared ιmder General Menard, who sent an aid-de-camp with two hussars to negotiate with Weiss. As the messengers returned, however, one of the hussars was killed, most probably by accident; but this circumstance was instantly magnified into a horrid breach of the law of nations. The French, therefore, continued to advance, and by the end of January K∙ere masters of the whole of the Pays de Vaud. The government of Berne, whilst it used every effort to maintain peace, prepared for war. But a truce was entered into with General Brune, the successor of Menard, and those who had killed the hussar were delivered up. An army of twenty thousand men was collected, the command of which was given to D’Erlach, once a field-marshal in the service of France. But disaffection prevailed in this army, and the people were far from being united amongst themselves. Of this the French were well aware, and therefore they demanded a total change of government On the other hand, D’Erlach, apprehensive of a still greater defection in his army, requested permission to put an end to the armistice. The French now refused to negotiate, and on the 2d of March General Schawenberg took possession of Soleure at the head of thirteen thousand men; whilst Brune afterwards made himself master of Friburg, and forced the Swiss army to retreat. The government of Berne, now greatly alarmed, decreed the landsturm, or rising in mass, which the ancient customs of the country justified in the time of necessity. The people assembled, dissolved the government, and offered to dismiss the army, if the republican troops would retire. But this offer was rejected, except upon the condition of admitting a French garrison into Berne, and therefore the Swiss continued to advance. About six thousand of the army of D’Erlach had deserted, leaving him at the head of little more than fourteen thousand men; and although the rising had abundantly supplied him with numbers, yet raw and undisciplined levies, however numerous, were of little avail against veteran troops, and he was not allowed time to give them any tiling like regular organization. He was accordingly attacked on the 5th of March, and driven from Newenbeg and Favenbrun; but having rallied his troops, he made a stand for some time at Uteren. The conflict was renewed at Grauholtz, whence the Swiss were driven four miles nearer the capital; and being at last completely defeated, they in a fit of fury and despair murdered many of their officers, amongst whom was their commander-in-chief. Berne capitulated to the French, and the more wealthy and populous states followed the example; but the poorer cantons made a vigorous effort to preserve their small possessions, and the independence of their country; they compelled Schawenberg to retire with the loss of three thousand men, but were at last totally vanquished by the superior skill and numbers of the republican army. The public magazines were plundered, and a new constitution, modelled on that of France, was forced upon them.

As the Directory had made no scruple of violating the independence of other nations, it was but reasonable to expect that they would pay little regard to the liberties of their own. A third of the legislature was changed in the month of April; one member of the Directory also went out by ballot, and Treilhard was chosen to succeed him. Nothing was left unattempted by the Directory to influence the elections in favour of their friends; but their success was not commensurate with their exertions. On the 2d of May, they made a complaint to the Council of Five Hundred, of alleged royalist plots, by means of which it was said that the elections had been made to fall on persons who were inimical to the interests of the Republic; and on the 7th it was proposed by the committee which reported on the message of the Directory, that many electoral assemblies should be annulled. But General Jourdan opposed this plan, as incompatible with the freedom of election, and as proceeding upon the supposition of conspiracies the existence of which was not proved, and which most probably had no existence at all.

After peace had been proclaimed between France and Germany, the Directory made no secret of their determination to attempt the invasion of Great Britain. Whether this project originated with Bonaparte himself, or was intended by his kind friends of the Directory as a snare for him and his victorious army, is a matter which our readers must be left to determine for themselves. It appears, however, that soon after the return of Bonaparte to the capital, where the Directory received him with all imaginable splendour, an army was offered him by the government, with which to invade England; and it is also certain that he accepted the command. Barras, indeed, told him not to repose on his laurels, but to prepare for undertaking the conquest of the bitterest and most formidable enemy of the Republic; a mission, however, which it was somewhat more easy to confer than to execute. This came eventually to be the opinion of the general himself; after calculating all the chances, he thought it possible to gain a battle on British ground, but quite hopeless to maintain a footing in that country. But England, though invincible on her own soil, might be deeply wounded through her commerce and her colonies; [7:10:109]these he considered as the principal sinews of her strength; and if he could divert in different channels the main branch of the one, and seize upon the most important of the other, he doubted not that he would thereby effectually humble the haughty island. Impressed with the common but groundless notion that Britain derived incalculable resources from her Indian dominions, and conceiving that commercial superiority must ever belong to the nation which is possessed of the safest and readiest communications with the East, Bonaparte thought of restoring the trade of India to its ancient channel through Egypt and the Levant. With such views he contemplated the seizure and conquest of the former, as the first step towards the realization of his design; and this once effected, he conceived that, proceeding from Egypt as from a place of arms, he might march towards the Euphrates, and in less than four months reach the Indus, there to dispute with the English the possession of that country whence he supposed they derived their inexhaustible resources. An expedition to Egypt was therefore resolved on, with the full concurrence of the Directory, who were delighted to be rid of a too fortunate soldier, and to the great satisfaction of Bonaparte himself, whose imagination seems to have been carried away with the idea of perhaps founding an eastern empire.

This resolution, however, was kept a profound secret, and every artifice employed to mislead the English as to the real destination of the intended expedition. Threats of invasion were therefore studiously reiterated, and matters were so contrived as to give to the necessary preparations, which could not escape observation, an appearance calculated to confirm the idea that an invasion was actually intended. Prodigious stories were circulated concerning large rafts of timber, by means of which the Army of England was to be transported to Britain; and, to give the greater probability to this report, General Bonaparte, the commander-in-chief, made a journey to the coast opposite England. Meanwhile, the fleet was getting ready in the harbour of Toulon, and troops were collected in its vicinity; and when every thing had been prepared, Bonaparte embarked with forty thousand veteran troops, and, on the 9th of June, reached Malta. Having landed his troops in different places, he resolved to make himself master of this island; and, after a very feeble opposition, the grand-master capitulated, giving up in a few days a fortress which might have held out for months against all the troops of the French Republic. Bonaparte left in the island a garrison of four thousand men, and on the 21st of June sailed for Alexandria. Admiral Nelson was dispatched in pursuit of the French fleet; but being wholly ignorant of its destination, he sailed for Naples, where he obtained information of the attack upon Malta. To that island accordingly he steered his course, and on his arrival he found that Bonaparte was gone; but conjecturing that he had sailed for Alexandria, he immediately prepared to follow him. The French commander, however, instead of keeping a direct course towards the coast of Egypt, stood along that of Greece, until he had made the easternmost point of the island of Candia; then ¢teering to the southward, he protracted his voyage, so as not to reach the Egyptian coast till Admiral Nelson had left it.

On the 5th of July, Bonaparte landed his troops, and took by storm the city of Alexandria. The republican transports were then drawn up within the inner harbour of Alexandria, and the ships of war were anchored along the shore of the bay of Aboukir. The republican army then marched on towards the Nile, and, in proceeding along the banks of that river, suffered much from the intense heat of the climate. They soon came to action with the Mamlukes; but this superb cavalry found itself unequal to contend with European discipline and valour. Under Murad Bey, their most distinguished chief, they made a last effort near the Pyramids; but were routed with the loss of two thousand men killed, four hundred camels with baggage taken, and fifty pieces of cannon. Cairo immediately surrendered.

Bonaparte having proceeded thus far in the conquest of Egypt, framed a provisional government, and issued pro-’ clamations in Arabic, protesting that the French were friendly to the religion of Mahommed, owned the authority of the Grand Signior, and were only come to inflict punishment on the Mamlukes, the oppressors and spoilers of Egypt. Thus far the good fortune of Bonaparte seemed still to attend him. But on the 1st of August the English fleet under Admiral Nelson appeared off the mouth of the Nile; and before the sun of the morrow rose, that of France had been destroyed, and all communication between the French army and Europe thus completely cut off. The action commenced at sunset, and continued, with occasional intervals, till daybreak, when the morning disclosed to the astounded invaders the extent of the calamity which had befallen them. (See article Britain.) It would be difficult to point out any naval engagement of modern times, productive of results so important as this. The military exertions of France had by degrees destroyed the combination which the princes of Europe had formed against her; the victories of Bonaparte had humbled the pride of Austria; the Continent looked with dismay towards the new Republic; and when the Directory seized on Rome and Switzerland, no power ventured to interpose in their behalf. But in consequence of the victory of the Nile the aspect of affairs suddenly underwent a remarkable change, and the conqueror'of Italy was shut up in a distant country, from which the fleets of Britain might prevent his return. Proposals were therefore made by Britain to the northern powers, to recommence hostilities against France; the states of Italy determined to make a vigorous effort for the recovery of their independence; and the court of Naples, encouraged by the destruction of the French fleet, threw off the mask which it had been compelled to wear, and joined the new confederacy against the Republic.

The French, it is well known, had long held out en-∣ couragement to the Irish rebels; but as the expectations, of the latter were disappointed, .they broke out into open’ rebellion without the promised assistance; and when the spirit of insurrection had been almost wholly extinguished, the Directory, with its usual imbecility, made a feeble attempt to revive it. On the 22d of August General Humbert, with a handful of troops, amounting only to eleven hundred men, landed at Killala. Yet this force, small as it was, would have proved formidable a month before. On landing they were joined by a party of the more desperate rebels in the vicinity, and defeated General Lake at the head of a superior force, taking from him six pieces of cannon. They sent in different directions to announce their arrival, advanced ashortwayinto the country, and maintained their ground for three weeks. But receiving no reinforcements from France, finding the rebellion in a great measure crushed, and being informed that General Cornwallis was about to surround him with twenty-five men, General Humbert laid down his arms to a British force four days after he had dismissed his Irish associates, that they might provide for their own safety. Active measures were now taken by the Directory to send troops to Ireland when it was too late; the vigilance of British cruisers defeated all their endeavours. On the 12th of October, La Hoche, a ship of eighty-four guns, and four frigates, were captured by Sir John Borlase Warren, in attempting to reach Ireland with three thousand men; on the 20th another frigate, destined for the same country, [7:10:110]was also taken. The Directory therefore abandoned the attempt as hopeless.

The victory of the Nile, important as beyond all doubt it was in a political point of view, seems nevertheless to have been over-estimated by the court of Naples, which, considering the destruction of the army of Egypt as certain, now rushed headlong into a new war with France. Disdaining to wait until the Austrians were ready to take the field against the republicans, the king prevailed on General Mack to assume the command of his army, began the war without any foreign aid excepting that of the British fleet, and thus brought upon himself the vengeance of the French Republic. The Directory had no conception that he would adopt such an insane line of conduct; and consequently, when General Mack appeared at the head of forty-five thousand men, the troops of France in that quarter were not in a condition to contend with him. When General Championet complained of the attack made upon his posts, he was informed that his Neapolitan majesty had resolved to take possession of the Roman territory, advised to retire quietly into the Cisalpine states, and further apprised that his entrance into Tuscany would be considered as a declaration of war. Championet having no force sufficient to contend with the Neapolitan army, accordingly evacuated Rome; but he left a garrison in the castle of St Angelo, and concentrated what troops he could collect in the northern parts of the Roman states. In the end of November General Mack entered Rome without opposition. When these transactions became known at Paris, war was immediately declared against the king of Naples and the king of Sardinia. The latter had committed no act of hostility against the French; but he was accused of disaffection towards the Republic. This charge could scarcely fail to be true. For, ever since the entrance of Bonaparte into Italy, he had been reduced to a most humiliating condition; his strongest fortresses were in the possession of the French; a garrison had been placed in his capital; contributions were levied from his subjects at the pleasure of the conquerors; and he was reduced to such a situation, that, unable to protect himself, he made a voluntary surrender of his continental dominions, and agreed to retire to the island of Sardinia.

But a period was soon put to the dispute with Naples. As the French retreated, the people of the country gave them infinite trouble and uneasiness, and the Neapolitan troops scarcely observed the rules of modem warfare towards such as they made prisoners. When, by orders from General Mack, Bouchard summoned the castle of St Angelo to surrender, he declared that he would view the prisoners in the light of hostages for the conduct of the garrison, and that a man should be put to death for every gun which was fired from the castle. It is not to be imagined that the Neapolitan officers would have dared to hold such language if they had not calculated on the vigorous co-operation of the Austrian forces; but in this expectation they found themselves grievously disappointed, and were ere long obliged to change their tone. The Neapolitan troops were defeated by one fourth of their number, at Terni, Porto Fermo, Civita Castellana, Otr - coli, and Calvi; and as the army of Mack was speedily reduced by defeat and desertion to less than twelve thousand men, he advised the king and his family to take refuge on board the British fleet which was then lying at Leghorn. This advice was adopted, and the royal family reached Palermo in Sicily on the 27th of December. General Mack now requested an armistice, which was refused; and being driven from Capua, the only remaining post of any importance in the Neapolitan territory, and in danger from the disaffection of his troope, he surrendered himself and the officers of his staff as prisoners to the republican general. And such was the lame and impotent conclusion of a campaign undertaken in contempt of all prudence, commenced with gasconading and cruelty, and carried on in such a manner as to leave it exceedingly doubtful which was more remarkable, the utter incapacity of the officers, or the abject cowardice of the troops.

In Naples there had long been a numerous body of men called Lazzaroni, who subsisted entirely on charity. These vagabonds frequently threatened the state if their wants were not immediately supplied, and their submission was often purchased by liberal contributions. Having been informed that the French, wherever they came, destroyed all the monasteries and other sources of charity, this immense gang of sturdy beggars determined to oppose them to the utmost, and to appear forsooth as the advocates of royal government In the beginning of January 1799 they exhibited marks of discontent, and at last broke out into open insurrection. They appointed as their commander-in-chief Prince Militomi, who, however, did his utmost to restrain their violence and love of plunder. But all his efforts were unavailing. They declared war against the French, forced open the prisons, and murdered all who had been incarcerated for disaffection to the government. Their ravages now became so dreadful and boundless, that Prince Militomi abandoned them, and proceeded to Capua, where he requested Championet to take possession of the city, in order to rescue it from utter destruction. It was accordingly agreed that a column of French troops should advance against the capital by a circuitous route, and endeavour to enter the city from the opposite quarter. But before this plan could be carried into execution, a great body of the Lazzaroni marched out (on the 19th and 20th of January) to attack the French in the fortifications of Capua. This daring attempt failed, as might have been expected, and multitudes perished by the fire of the French artillery; but in order to favour the capture of Naples by the detachment sent for that purpose, Championet continued on the defensive. On the 21st the Lazzaroni, informed that a French column had marched for Naples, returned to the city; and although Championet closely pursued them, they arrived in time to barricade the streets, and prepare for the defence of different quarters. A fierce conflict now commenced, and lasted from the morning of the 22d till the evening of the 23d of January, when, having been driven from street to street, they finally rallied at one of the gates, where they were almost totally cut off.

This advantage may be considered as the last which the Directory obtained; for the consequences of their past misconduct were now rapidly gathering around them. They were justly unpopular at home, both from their mode of conducting public affairs, and their repeated violations of the constitution. Their profusion was boundless, and the demands which they made upon conquered countries exorbitant. Championet was so ashamed of their proceedings, that he refused to enforce their orders in Italy, and was in consequence deprived of his command, and thrown into prison; whilst Scherer, the war minister, was appointed his successor. Under the latter the rapacity of the government agents, and the embezzlement of the public stores, were carried to an incredible extent. Still France continued to be dreaded by foreign nations, to whom the true state of her internal affairs was but imperfectly known. A Russian army had arrived, but the cabinet of Vienna was at a loss whether to declare war or temporise a little longer. Britain solicited the aid of Prussia with an offer of large subsidies; but Sièyes, the French plenipotentiary at Berlin, artfully contrived to defeat the negotiation, and counteract the unpopularity of his country in Germany, by giving to the world the secret convention of Campo Formio, which determined the greater number of the German princes to observe neutrality under the guardianship of Prussia.
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On the 2d of January a note was presented to the congress at Rastadt, by the French plenipotentiaries, intimating, that if the entrance of Russian troops into Germany was not prevented, it would be considered as tantamount to a declaration of war. To this no satisfactory answer was returned. On the 26th of the same month the strong fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, which had been blockaded since the treaty of Campo Formio, surrendered; and the possession of this place, together with that of Mayence and Dusseldorf, rendered the French powerful on the Rhine. Switzerland and all the fortified places of Italy were also in their hands, so that they were fully prepared to commence active operations. At this period Jourdan commanded on the Upper Rhine from Mayence to Hünningen; the eastern frontier of Switzerland was occupied by Massena; Scherer commanded in chief in Italy, with Moreau under him; and Macdonald was at the head of the troops in the Roman and Neapolitan territories. But these armies thus disseminated did not exceed a hundred and seventy thousand men, a force greatly inferior to that of Austria, independently altogether of the Russian army. The Directory, however, trusting to the unity of its own plans, the wavering politics of the ∞urt of Vienna, and the slow movements of the imperial armies, was anxious to renew the contest; and, accordingly, on the 13th of March war was declared against the emperor of Germany and the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Jourdan had actually crossed the Rhine at Strasburg on the first of that month, and occupied strong positions in Suabia. Manheim was taken, and General Bernadotte summoned Philipsburg, whilst General St Cyr entered Stutgardt. To oppose the march of this army, the Archduke Charles crossed the Lech upon the 4th of March; whilst, on the other side, Massena entered the territory of the Grisons, surprised a strong body of Austrians, made the whole prisoners, with their general and his staff.

But the plan of campaign could not be carried into operation without the junction of Massena’s and Jourdan’s armies; and to accomplish this it was necessary to carry the important post of Feldkirch, which was occupied by General Hotze. Defeated in his first attempt, Massena renewed the attack five times with fresh troops; but the determined bravery of the Austrians rendered all his efforts ineffectual. As the French, however, were in possession of the Grisons, this facilitated the invasion of the Engadine, where the Austrians being too weak to resist, retreated into the Tyrol, and were pursued by the republicans, who forced some of the defiles, and pushed forward their flying parties as far as Glurentz and Nauders.

The vanguard of the principal Austrian army now advanced to meet the French, and on the 20th of March was attacked by Jourdan, who drove in the enemy’s outposts; but on the following day the centre of the French army was attacked, and forced to retire to Stockach during the night. The archduke encamped before Stockach on the 24th, and the republicans again attacked him on the following day. Their main object of attack was his right wing under General Meerfeldt, which they succeeded in driving into a wood between Liptingen and Stockach. Meerfeldt renewed the conflict without success. But the left wing having maintained its ground, sent reinforcements to General Meerfeldt, who in his turn obliged the French to retire. The French, however, made four thousand prisoners during the various movements of the day. Yet their loss was so great, and the Austrian force so much superior, that Jourdan durst not hazard another engagement. He therefore retreated on the following day, and, finding that he was not a match for the enemy, sent part of his army to cover Kehl and Strasburg, and marched with the remainder towards Switzerland. By this event General Massena, who was forcing his way into the Tyrol and Engadine, was obliged to return to the protection of Switzerland. He was now appointed to the chief command in this quarter, and Jourdan was removed.

The Austrians were not less successful in Italy, notwithstanding they had been attacked by the French before the termination of the armistice. General Kray obtained a complete victory at Legnago, and forced the enemy to fly for protection under the walls of Mantua. On the 15th of April they were again attacked by the Austrians at Memiruo)o, and forced to retreat after an obstinate resistance. The loss sustained by the French in these different engagements was certainly great; but the Austrians also purchased their success at a costly rate. Scherer at first gained some advantages over them, but he wanted the skill necessary to improve them. The Austrian posts were forced by a division of his army on the 26th of March, and four thousand men made prisoners; but another division being repulsed, Scherer withdrew his troops, and thus relinquished the advantages he had obtained. On the 5th of April the division under Moreau was again successful, and took three thousand prisoners; but, by the unskilful measures of Scherer, he was not supported, and the triumph of the Austrians was therefore complete.

A short time previous to this, the Russians had effected! a junction with the imperialists, and the command of the combined army was given to Field-marshal Suwarof. The Russian commander on the 24th of April advanced towards the Adda, and after carrying the outposts of Moreau, determined to attack him in his intrenchments. Suwarof maintained a show of attack along the whole line of Moreau, whilst he secretly threw α bridge amongst the rocks at the upper part of the river, where such an operation had been considered as impossible. By this bridge part of the combined army next morning turned the republican fortifications, and attacked their flank and rear, whilst the remainder forced the passage of the river at different points. The French fought with their usual intrepidity, but were soon driven from all their positions, and forced to retreat towards Pavia, with the loss of six thousand men killed, five thousand prisoners including four generals, and eighty pieces of cannon.

General Moreau now established the remains of his army, amounting to about twelve thousand men, upon the Po, between Alessandria and Valentia, where, on the 11th of May, he forced a body of Austrians to retreat, and took a number of prisoners. On the 12th about seven thousand Russians crossed the Po at Basignano, and marched towards Pecetto, when Moreau fell upon them with incredible fury; and as they obstinately refused to lay down their arms, about two thousand of their number were drowned in repassing the river, and a few taken prisoners. On the advance of Suwarof, General Moreau was under the necessity of retiring to occupy the Bochetta, as well as other passes leading to the territory of Genoa, when the combined army commenced the sieges of the fortified places in Italy then occupied by the French. Bellegarde drove the French from the Engadine; Massena, pressed by the archduke, was obliged to retire to the vicinity of Zurich; and nearly the whole of Piedmont had risen against the republicans. The armies received no reinforcements from the interior of France, and their officers were obliged to act upon the defensive. In one instance only they had the power of acting on the offensive, and it was certainly done with great vigour. General Macdonald had still a considerable army in the territories of Naples and of Rome; and the combined powers had made no effort to cut off his retreat, which, indeed, could scarcely be accomplished in the mountainous countries of Tuscany and Genoa. Knowing his situation secure, he was in no haste to withdraw, although nearly the whole of the country between him and France was occupied by the allies. His army amounted to about thirty thousand men, and he [7:10:112]had received orders from the Directory to leave the territories of Rome and Naples, and unite, if possible, with the army of Moreau. From the situation of the allies, however, he resolved to hazard an action by himself. With Moreau he had concerted a plan for dividing the enemy, and vanquishing them in detail, as Bonaparte had previously done with so much success. Macdonald alone was in a situation to strike an important blow; but it was nevertheless necessary that Moreau should draw upon himself as many of the Austro-Russian forces as possible, in order that the remainder might be the more completely exposed to the-attack of Macdonald.

Moreau artfully availed himself of the circumstance of the French and Spanish fleets being in the vicinity of Genoa, to spread a report that they had brought him powerful reinforcements, intending thereby to withdraw the attention of Suwarof from Macdonald. The Russian general was at Turin, and his advanced posts were at Susa, Pignerol, and the Col d’Assiette, whilst General Hohenzollern was stationed at Modena with a considerable force, and General Ott occupied Reggio with ten thousand men. General Macdonald began his operations on the 12th of June, when his advanced divisions attacked and defeated Hohenzollern, and made two thousand prisoners. General Ott was also attacked, and compelled to retreat, upon which the French made their entry into Parma on the 14 th. The Austrian general was again attacked on the 17th, and forced to retire towards Giovanni; but here the progress of the French was arrested by a more powerful and determined antagonist.

- Suwarof having received information of the approach and successes of Macdonald, left Turin on the 15th of June, at the head of twenty thousand men, and came up with the enemy upon the banks of the Tidone. The centre and right wing of Suwaros’s army were commanded by Rosenberg and Förster; the Austrian general, Melas, commanded the left wing; Prince Bagration was at the head of the advanced guard; and Prince Lichtenstein Commanded the reserve. An action immediately ensued, and was continued with desperate fury for three successive days, when victory at length declared in favour of Suwarof. Driven from the Tidone to the Trebbia, the French were finally defeated on the 19th, after a greater slaughter on both sides than the oldest officer ever recollected to have witnessed. Victory had remained doubtful until General Kray arrived with large reinforcements from the army besieging Mantua, and, in direct .contempt of his orders, decided the fortune of this protracted and terrible battle. The republicans retreated during the night, and were next day pursued by the army of Suwarof formed in two columns. Seldom could the French be overtaken in retreat; but this the victorious barbarian accomplished, and, having surrounded the rear-guard, obliged them to Jay down their arms. The rest of the army defended themselves in the passes of the Appennines and territory of Genoa, after losing nearly half their numbers in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Moreau, in the mean time, gave battle to the Austrians under Bellegarde, who, though greatly superior in numbers, were totally defeated. But this temporary advantage proved of little avail. Suwarof rapidly returned from the pursuit of Macdonald, and Moreau was compelled to retire. The fortresses of Italy now surrendered in dose succession, and the combined powers regained a complete ascendency in that country.

The affairs of the republic became equally critical in Palestine. After having defeated the Mamlukes, and made himself master of Alexandria and Cairo, Bonaparte led an army into Palestine. At the head of ten thousand men, with officers eminently skilled in war, he reached Acre on the sea-coast, and laid siege in due form to this town, which was but indifferently fortified, and defended by a small garrison. But Sir Sidney Smith received the command, and detained Bonaparte sixty days before Acre, although the number of the garrison by whom it was defended scarcely exceeded three thousand men. The French commander made eleven successive attempts to carry the place by assault; but in all these he proved unsuccessful, and was at last obliged to raise the siege, after he had lost eight generals, eighty-five inferior officers, and nearly one half of his army. The successful defence of this place destroyed the prestige of invincibility, and mainly contributed to decide the fate of the French army in Egypt.

Whilst France experienced such reverses abroad, she was much disturbed also by internal commotions, and the Directory now found itself in a most critical situation. 1 The new elections were still unfavourable to their interest, and they could no longer command a majority in the Councils. When they sought money they met with reproaches for their profusion; and royalist insurrections in the west and south were with difficulty subdued, on account of the absence of the military. But in the midst of these difficulties an event occurred which seemed to promise the Directory the return of their former influence. On the 28th of April the French plenipotentiaries having received orders to quit Rastadt in twenty-four hours, demanded passports from Colonel Barbasey, but were informed that none could grant these excepting the commander-in-chief. They accordingly set out without passports. The three ministers, Bonnier, Roberjot, and Jean Débry, were in separate carriages, Robeŗjot having his wife, and Jean Débry his wife and daughters along with him; and they were attended by the ministers of the Cisalpine Republic. At a short distance from Rastadt, however, they were met by fifty Austrian hussars, who stopped the carriage of Jean Débry, and fiercely demanded his name. Débry gave them the information required, adding, that he was a French minister returning to his own country. He was immediately torn from his carriage, desperately wounded with sabres, and thrown into a ditch for dead; whilst Bonnier and Robeŗjot were murdered outright on the spot. When the ruffians departed, the carriages returned to Rastadt, and Jean Débry wanderéd all night in the woods. Next day he retraced his steps, and demanded the restitution of the papers which the assassins had carried off when they plundered the carriages; but these were refused. Rastadt and its vicinity had been occupied by French troops during the sitting of the congress, and the Austrians had obtained possession of the place only a few days before. In any view, therefore, this event was a severe reproach to the discipline of the Austrian army; but it is probable that more than the want of subordination was at the bottom of a crime so atrocious, indeed unprecedented in the history of civilized nations. The archduke, it is true, lost no time in declaring his utter ignorance of the matter, in a letter addressed to Massena; but this was far from giving satisfaction to the Directory or to France. In a message to the Councils on the 5th of May, they accordingly described it as a premeditated act on the part of the Austrian government, intended to insult France by the murder of her ambassadors.

The introduction of a new third this year into the legislature was the commencement of a violent opposition to the Directory. Sièyes, who had been ambassador at Berlin, and possessed considerable influence over all parties, was elected a member of the Directory. This station he refused to occupy on the establishment of the constitution, and therefore his acceptance of it at such a critical juncture excited surprise. Treilhard was removed upon the pretence that he had held an office in the state within less than a year previously to his election; and Merlin and Re-veillòre-Lepeaux were under the necessity of resigning, to avoid a threatened impeachment. Barras, however, stiU [7:10:113] retained his place, and Moulins, Gohier, and Ducos, men little known, were chosen members of the Directory. An attempt was made to revive public spirit by the establishment of clubs; a proceeding of which the Jacobins were the first to take advantage. They soon proposed violent measures, and began to denounce the members as well as the conduct of government. But their intemperance having alarmed the Directory, permission was at length obtained from the Councils to suppress their meetings.

The Directory now employed every effort to reinforce the armies which had lately suffered such dreadful losses. In the beginning of August the army of Italy amounted to forty-five thousand men, and General Joubert was promoted to the chief command. Turin, Alessandria, Milan, Peschiera, and Ferrara, were captured by the allies with astonishing rapidity. Turin sustained a bombardment of only three days, Alessandria held out seven, and Mantua only fourteen; the latter place contained thirteen thousand men, who were dismissed on their parole. The combined forces next laid siege to Tortona; but General Joubert resolved to attempt its relief, which he expected to accomplish before the arrival of Kray with reinforcements. On the 13th of August, the whole of the Austrian posts were driven in by the republicans, who took possession of Novi. But on the 15th they were attacked by Suwarof, who had by this time received reinforcements from Mantua under General Kray. The right wing was commanded by Kray, the left by Melas, and’ the centre by Prince Bagration and Suwarof in person. The engagement commenced about five o’clock in the morning; but soon afterwards General Joubert, whilst urging his troops forward to charge with the bayonet, received a musket shot in his body, and falling from his horse, immediately expired. Moreau now assumed the command, and after a bloody conflict the allied army gave way in all directions. The Russians in particular suffered severely from the obstinate manner in which they fought. The French line was attacked at three in the afternoon, but remained unbroken; and the whole would have terminated in the defeat of the allies if General Melas had not turned the right flank of the republican line, and, following up his advantages, obtained possession of Novi, when the French army began to retire under the direction of General Moreau. The French now lost all hope of being able to defend Genoa, and therefore prepared to evacuate that city and territory. The Directory fully expected that the south of France would immediately be invaded; but in this they were happily deceived. The conquered army was astonished to find itself unmolested after so signal a defeat, and in a few days sent back parties to reconnoitre the movements of the allies. Championet, the successor of Joubert, was amazed to discover that they had rather retreated than advanced, on which account he resumed the positions which the army had occupied before the battle of Novi.

So far from prosecuting the advantages which he had ' obtained in Italy, Suwarof was persuaded to abandon that country with the Russian troops, and to march to the deliverance of Switzerland. In the month of August, the army of Massena in this quarter amounted to seventy thousand men, a force which not only prevented the archduke from pursuing his advantages, but even enabled the French to threaten lus position; and the right wing under General Lecourbe had carried Mount St Gothard, the great pass leading from the eastern parts of Switzerland into Italy· Suwarofs expectations were no doubt high, as he had never yet been beaten; and he felt flattered in being called upon to undertake an enterprise in which the Austrians had hitherto failed, even under their most fortunate general. But when he was ready to march, the Austrian commander in Italy refused to furnish him with mules for transporting his baggage, and asserted that he would be furnished with a competent number at Bellinzone, where, however, none were to be found. Suwarof had therefore no alternative but to dismount his cavalry, and make use of their horses to drag along the baggage. In spite of all obstacles, however, he arrived, by forced marches, on the frontiers of Switzerland, upon the very day which he hadstipulated with the archduke. But the archduke, either supposing that it would demean a prince of the house of Austria to serve under a Russian general, or not having courage enough to require the most experienced general in Europe to receive orders from one so much his junior, immediately marched into Suabia, and carried with him a large body of troops. It is not easy to conceive upon what principle the council of war at Vienna could imagine that so very able an officer as Massena would continue inactive at the head of an army almost double that which had been sent to oppose him. The archduke marched against the French in Suabia, who resisted him as long as the small number of their troops would permit; but they were gradually driven towards the Rhine. To carry on the deception, however, they made a serious stand in the vicinity of Manheim, where they lost nearly eighteen hundred men.

In the mean time Switzerland was completely exposed to the army of Massena. The right wing of the combined army was commanded by General Hotze; the centre, composed of the newly arrived Russians, was headed by Korsakof, and the left wing by General Nauendorf. As soon as Massena understood that the archduke had entered Manheim, and that Suwarof was approaching Switzerland by St Gothard, he commenced his movements, and, as St Gothard was defended by Lecourbe, determined to anticipate the Russian general. Having by a false attack, on the 24th of September, drawn the attention of the Russians to another quarter, he suddenly crossed the Limmat, three leagues from Zurich. Some French divisions now engaged the Austrians, but the main body of the army marched against the Russians. Hotze fell in the beginning of the action, and Petrasch, who succeeded him, saved himself from a total defeat by retiring in the night with the loss of four thousand men. The Russians fought with singular obstinacy, though in a mountainous country to which they were strangers, and contending against the ablest commanders in Europe. It was in vain to attempt to put them to flight, for even when surrounded they refused to lay down their arms, and stood to be slaughtered on the spot. But the Austrians having retreated on the 25th, the Russians on the 28th followed their example, retiring in good order under General Korsakof, but with the loss of three thousand men, which, considering their perilous situation, was not very great.

During these transactions General Suwarof was advan-i cing from Italy with an army of from fifteen to eighteen 1 thousand men. Having carried the pass of St Gothard, he 1 descended into the valley of Urseren, drove Lecourbe before him with great slaughter, and advanced as far as Altorf. He next day reached the canton of Glaris, and made a thousand prisoners, whilst General Linken defeated another corps of thirteen hundred men. Massena now turned upon Suwarof, and surrounding him on all sides, expected to take both the field-marshal himself and the grand duke Constantine prisoners. But Suwarof defended himself in a masterly manner, and there being one pass in the mountains which the republicans had left unoccupied, the veteran discovered it, and thus effected his escape, but lost his cannon and baggage amongst the dreadful precipices with which the country abounds. He made his way through the country of the Grisons, and arrived at Coire with only about six thousand men. When Suwarof discovered in what manner affairs had been conducted, when he ascertained the perilous situation in which the Russians had been left by the archduke, and saw the destruction which had in [7:10:114]consequence overtaken them, his indignation knew no bounds; he considered himself and his men as betrayed, complained bitterly of the commander of the allies in Switzerland, publicly charged the council of war at Vienna with selfishness and injustice, and refused any longer to co-operate with the Austrian army. He transmitted an account of the whole to Petersburg, and withdrew his forces to the vicinity of Augsburg, there to wait for further orders from his court.

- In the mean time Great Britain made active preparation! to invade Holland, with an army of forty thousand men. composed of British troops and Russian auxiliaries. The first division, under General Sir Ralph Abercromby, sailed in the month of August, protected by a fleet under Admiral Duncan; but bad weather prevented any attempt to land the troops till the morning of the 27th, when the disembarkation was effected without opposition, at the Helder Point. As the invaders had not been expected to land in North Holland, there were but few troops in that neighbourhood to oppose them. But before the British had proceeded far they were met by a considerable body of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, hastily collected from the adjacent towns. The Dutch fought with great obstinacy, but, fatigued by the steady opposition of their antagonists, they fell back about two leagues, and in the night evacuated the fort of Helder, which was taken possession of by the British on the morning of the 28th. Admiral Mitchell now entered the Zuyder-Zce with a detachment of the British fleet, in order to give battle to the Dutch under Admiral Story; but the latter, instead of retiring to the shallow water with which that sea abounds, surrendered his whole fleet, on the 30th of August, without firing a gun, pretending that from the mutinous disposition of his seamen he could not prevail upon them to fight. If the expedition had terminated here it would have been fortunate. This success, however, was followed up by an attempt to restore the authority of the stadtholder, and to re-establish the ancient form of government. But as no more than the first division had arrived, the terror of invasion began to be dissipated, the enemies of the new government became disheartened, and time was allowed to prepare for defence. Nor were these the only errors chargeable against the expedition. The British troops were landed in the worst place which could possibly have been selected, in a part of the country everywhere intersected by ditches and canals, and abounding more than any other with persons disaffected to the person and government of the stadtholder; and this unfortunate expedition was undertaken towards the approach of the rainy season, when a campaign in Holland is next to impossible. An invasion of Holland seemed so natural an operation on the part of Britain, and one too which might be undertaken with so many advantages by a power which had the command of the sea, that when it was first talked of the French Directory hesitated to undertake the defence of that country; but when the time and the place of disembarkation came to be known, the prospect of an almost certain success put an end to every doubt on the subject; and General Brune was accordingly sent with such troops as could be hastilycollected, to co-operate with General Daendels. In the mean while, as no reinforcement had arrived, General Abercromby could only act on the defensive; and the enemy, encouraged by his want of activity, ventured to attack him on the 10th of September. Two columns of Dutch and one of republicans advanced against the invaders, but were repulsed in every direction, and forced to retreat to Alkmaer. On the 13th additional troops arrived under the Duke of York, who now assumed the chief command; and the Russians having also arrived, the army, upon the 19th, assumed the offensive. The left wing under General Abercromby advanced along the shore of the Zuyder-Zee to attack Hoome; Generals Dundas and Pulteney commanded the centre columns; and the Russians were led by their own general D’Herman. But, owing to some misconception, the Russians advanced to attack the enemy about three o’clock in the morning, some hours before the rest of the army had begιm its march. Their first efforts, however, were crowned with success, and they made themselves masters of the village of Bergen; but as they pressed too eagerly forward, without waiting for the cooperation of the other columns, the enemy nearly surrounded them; their general was made prisoner; and notwith- į standing that the British troops came up in time to cover their retreat, they lost upwards of three thousand men. This defeat of the right wing induced the commander-in-chief to recall his troops from their advanced positions, notwithstanding Abercromby had by this time made himself . master of Hoorne and its garrison, and Pulteney had carried by assault the chief position of the Dutch army. The severity of the weather prevented any fresh attack being made till the 2d of October. On that day, however, an action" was fought between the British and the united Dutch and French troops, which was warmly contested, and did not terminate till late in the evening, when the British regained possession of Alkmaer and the neighbouring villages. But as this engagement had taken place among the sandhills near the sea, the fatigue which the troops had undergone prevented them from profiting by their victory; and the fugitives were enabled to take up a position between Baverwyck and Wyck-op-Zee. Here they were again attacked on the 6th by the Duke of York, who after a sanguinary contest kept possession of the field. This, however, was the last success gained by the invading army. The Duke of York, finding that he could make no further progress, that the enemy had been rapidly reinforced, and that the difficulties presented by the face of the country and the badness of the weather also conspired against him, retired to Schager Brug, where he waited for fresh orders from England. But being closely pressed by the enemy, the embarkation of the troops must have been effected with great 1 difficulty, had he not entered into a convention with the Dutch and French that his retreat should not be molested, in return for which he engaged not to injure the country by demolishing any of the dikes which defended it against the sea, and also to restore to France and Holland eight thousand prisoners taken before the present campaign.

The affairs of the French Republic now began to wear a more favourable aspect. Championet, it is true, had been defeated in Italy, and Ancona surrendered on the 13th of November to General Frölich; but the French were still masters of the Genoese territory, Switzerland, and Holland; and the new combination formed against them seemed about to be dissolved. Prussia withdrew at an early period, and still preserved a neutrality; and, from the fate of Suwarof’s army, it was reasonable to conclude that the emperor of Russia would also desert the cause of the allies.

But the crisis of the directorial government was now fast approaching. Bonaparte, on his retreat from Syria, had received intelligence that a Turkish army, supported by a fleet, was about to invade Egypt. He hastened his return across the desert, and arrived in the vicinity of the Pyramids on the 11th of July, when he found that an army consisting of eighteen thousand Moslemins had landed at Aboukir, carried that place by assault, and put the garrison, consisting of five hundred men, to the sword. On the 15th he marched against these new invaders, and ten days afterwards not only defeated, but annihilated, their whole force, slaying about half their number, and driving the remainder into the sea. On the 10th of October the Directory received a dispatch announcing this victory; and on the" 14th of the same month the less agreeable intelligence was communicated, that Bonaparte, accompanied with his principal officers, had landed on the shores of Provence. The state to which France had been reduced under the [7:10:115]directorial regime was truly deplorable. Not to mention the disastrous defeats which had been sustained by the French army, the loss of Italy, and of all the advantages secured to the Republic by the treaty of Campo Formio, the provinces had fallen into a state of extreme disorganization; the roads were infested with brigands; and, by the law of hostages, all persons nobly born, or related to the nobility, were obliged either to skulk in concealment, or to join the insurgent bands. The rich were vexed with the same exactions as in the early period of the Revolution, when the country was menaced with invasion; the great mass of the population had been decimated by the consumption of the armies; the fields in many places remained uncultivated; disorder and misery everywhere prevailed. The necessity of a change was every day becoming more and more obvious; and whatever difference of opinion there might be in the capital, the provinces were prepared to submit to any government which might supersede the Directory. Even the members of this body itself had become convinced that the period of its demise was at no great distance. Barras treated with the Bourbons; Sièyes had repeatedly remarked that the chief thing wanting was a head ; others held similar language; and the minds of all, excepting the extreme democrats, were prepared for a change.

Bonaparte, on his arrival, repaired to the Luxembourg. The Directory praised and feared, but dared not reproach him with the bold step he had taken in returning to France. He had evidently come to watch the course of events, and with this view shut himself up in a modest mansion in the Rue Chantereine. But it soon appeared that he was the loadstone which drew to it all interests and all ambition; ministers, generals, deputies, men in office who desired to retain their places, and men out of office who desired to dispossess the actual occupants, flocked in crowds to General Bonaparte. All parties in fact made overtures to him; the extreme democrats, who sought in him an instrument, and the moderates, who desired the re-establishment of order at almost any price. Not to have picked up the fragments of sovereign power which thus crumbled and fell at his feet, would have been an act of self-denial unexampled in the annals of ambition. The country had despaired of obtaining at once a free and an efficient government; and, tom by the violence of contending factions, it now languished for repose. Bonaparte took several days to mature his plans, and decide on the course which he was to adopt. The democrats and moderates were equally eager in their advances. But his revolutionary connections inclined him to the former; and as his brother Lucien had, in compliment to him, been chosen president of the Council of Five Hundred, Bonaparte proposed, through this party, to become Director in room of Sièyes. Gohier and Moulins were accordingly sounded, but these pragmatical blockheads objected on the ground of the law which required that a director should be forty years of age. The facility of getting a dispensation voted was hinted at; but they persisted, not seeing the inevitable consequences of their obstinacy; and Bonaparte instantly joined Sièyes and the moderates, with whom he planned a change, not only in the members, but also in the form of government. But to effect this, it was necessary to commence with a coup d’ état, or revolution; and the success of the latter must in a great measure depend on the support of the military. Of that order Bonaparte was the natural representative, and great exertions were now employed to secure its co-operation. He could reckon on the inferior officers and the troops; their idol is always a victorious leader. But three of the generals, Moreau, Ãu-gereau, and Bernadotte, were either too high in rank to stoop to a comrade, or too republican in principle to acquiesce in a project of revolution which might terminate in establishing a despotism. Moreau, however, was irresolute, and being discontented with the Directory, suffered himself to be neutralized, if not gained over; Augereau, brave in the field of battle, wanted political courage and ' conduct; and even Bernadotte, who had both, and argued stoutly against Bonaparte, was stilled, awed, or duped by his address.

On the 18th of Brumaire, the day fixed for this revolution, Bonaparte summoned all the generals and officers in Paris to an early breakfast. It was a kind of levee; some regiments were to be reviewed; and it was necessary to harangue the troops. The Directors Barras, Moulins, and Gohier, were kept in ignorance of the plot; they inhabited the same palace, that of the Luxembourg, and, forming a majority of the Directory, might have done mischief. The first step, however, had all the forms of legality. The Council of Ancients, in which the influence of Sièyes predominated, met at six in the morning, and passed the preconcerted decree removing the sittings of the legislative body to Saint Cloud, and conferring upon Bonaparte the command of the troops in the capital. The decree was brought to Bonaparte in the midst of his levee, and immediately communicated to the officers present, whom he also addressed. The moment for action had now arrived. Seizing Lefebvre by the arm, he presented him with a sword, and won the rough soldier by a few magical words. The decree of the Legislative Assembly secured the obedience of Moreau. Bernadotte alone stood firm, but he was not permitted to retire, until he had given a promise not to raise agitations, harangue the soldiers, or act in any way until legally summoned. Having thus made himself certain of the military, Bonaparte rode to the Tuileries, reviewed the troops, and watched the course of events. Talleyrand had been sent to the Luxembourg to induce Barras to resign, and the latter had sent his secretary to the Tuileries to collect tidings. The directorial emissary was brought to Bonaparte, who instantly addressed him as if he had been the Directory itself: “What have you done with France, which I left so brilliant? I left peace and I find war, victories and I find reverses; I left you the millions of Italy, and I find nothing but spoliation and misery. Where are the hundred thousand soldiers, my companions in glory? They are dead.” This was spoken to excite the officers around, and to dispose them to march against the Luxembourg, which he was now prepared to do. But the prudence of Barras rendered such a step unnecessary. Having received from Talleyrand a promise of oblivion for the past, wealth and impunity for the future, he signed his resignation, and left the capital for his house in the country, attended by an escort of dragoons. Moulins and Gohier, less accommodating, were ordered to be put under a guard in the Luxembourg, and Moreau was charged with this invidious duty. As Sièyes and Ducos had also resigned, the Directory was now virtually dissolved; and all that remained to be done was to replace it with a new executive government.

On the following day, being the 19th of Brumaire, the members of the two Councils met at Saint Cloud. Bonaparte had occupied the road and the environs of the château with troops; but his project was still far from being accomplished. The democratic majority in the Council of Five Hundred were indignant; the moderate majority in the Council of Ancients wavered as the crisis approached; and whilst the one prepared for extremities, the other began to repent their own act, and to be apprehensive of the intentions of Bonaparte. When the Councils met, the greatest agitation prevailed. In the Five Hundred the oath of fidelity to the constitution was renewed; and it was feared that some similar demonstration would be made by the Ancients. Informed of this dangerous spirit of resistance, Bonaparte resolved to confront, and if possible put it down by his presence. Surrounded by his staff, he accordingly entered the Council of the Ancients, and addressed their [7:10:116]president, but with so much confusion both of language and of manner that his partisans began to despair. “Representatives,” said he, “you are on a volcano. I was tranquil yesterday when your decree was brought me, and I have come with my comrades to your aid. On this account I am recompensed with calumnies. I am stigmatized as a Cromwell and a Caesar. If such were my character, I had no need of coming here.” He then mentioned the resignation of the Directors, the distress of the country, and the agitated state of the Council of Five Hundred, upon which, he said, no dependence could be placed; and he besought the Ancients to save the Revolution, liberty, and equality. “And the constitution,” exclaimed a voice. “The constitution !” repeated Bonaparte, pausing and collecting himself; “I tell you, you have no constitution. You violated it in Fructidor, in Floreal, and in Frairial, when you seized by force and condemned the national representatives, when you annulled the popular elections, when you compelled three directors to resign. The constitution, forsooth! a name at once invoked and violated by every faction in turn. What force can it possess, when it has ceased to command even respect? The government, if you would have such a thing, must be fixed on a new basis.” Having thus shown the necessity of the revolution, he then proceeded to re-assure his partisans, by promising it success; and, pointing to the glittering bayonets of the soldiers, “I am accompanied,” added he, “by the god of fortune and of war.” The Ancients applauded this speech, and Bonaparte, satisfied with the effect it had produced, hurried to the other wing of the chateau, where, in the Orangery, the Council of Five Hundred were in a state of extreme excitement. Leaving his staff behind, he advanced into the hall, whilst the grenadiers who followed him remained at the door. As he proceeded towards the chair, which was occupied by his brother Lucien, a violent tumult ensued, and the epithets “Cromwell,” “Caesar,” “Usurper,” were freely applied to him from all parts of the house. Had the assembly heard him calmly, and then voted him a traitor or outlaw, his career might have been speedily closed; for Jourdan and Augereau were both without, and might easily have withheld or drawn off the soldiers. Instead of this, however, the exasperated deputies sprang from their seats as soon as he appeared, and pressing upon him, collared, hustled, and maltreated him, whilst Arena Corsican endeavoured to dispatch him with a dagger. The grenadiers flew to his assistance, and rescued him from their fury. “Let us outlaw him; a vote of outlawry,” was the instant cry of the assembly; “let him be treated like Robespierre, let him be put hors la loi.” But Lucien refused to put the decree to the vote; he resisted, gained time, and at length, when about to be overpowered, was borne out of the hall by the grenadiers whom Napoleon sent to his assistance. Throughout the whole of this trying scene the civilian showed more courage and presence of mind than the soldier. Divesting himself of his robes, Lucien mounted a horse and harangued the troops, telling them that the majority o f the Council of Five Hundred were held in terror by a few democrats armed with poniards, who menaced them, and attempted to assassinate the general. 1 his declaration produced a great impression; and the demand whether they might be reckoned on was answered with acclamations by the troops. A company of grenadiers was instantly ordered to clear the Orangery. They advanced from the one end to the other with fixed bayonets, whilst the deputies escaped by the windows and through the woods, leaving i n their retreat fragments of their robes upon almost every bush. In the evening of the same day the Council of Ancients, and about fifty members of the dispersed Council of Five Hundred, passed a decree abolishing the Directory, and establishing in its room three consuls, Bonaparte, Sièyes, and Roger Ducos, as a provisional government, which, in concert with two committees chosen from each council, was authorized to prepare a constitution.

The plan of a new constitution was presented to the. public by the consuls in the month of December 1799. ∣ According to this plan, eighty men, who had the power of nominating their own successors, and were called the Conservative Senate, had likewise authority to elect the whole of the legislators and executive rulers of the state, whilst none of these offices could be held by themselves. One man, called the chief or first consul, was to possess the sovereign authority, to hold his office for ten years, and to be competent to be re-elected; and other two consuls were to assist in his deliberations, but to have no power to control his will. The legislative power was divided into two assemblies; the Tribunate, composed of a hundred members, and the Conservative Senate, of three hundred. When the first consul thought proper to propose a law, the Tribunate might debate upon it, without having authority to vote either for or against it, whilst the members of the Senate might vote, but were not entitled to debate. The consuls and Lite members of the legislative body, as well as of the Conservative Senate, were not responsible for their conduct; but the ministers of state employed by them were understood to be accountable. The committees which framed the constitution nominated the persons who were to execute the functions of government. Bonaparte was appointed first consul, and Cambacérès and Lebrun second and third consuls. Sièyes, as formerly, declined taking any active part in the administration of public affairs, and received, as a gratuity for his services, an estate belonging to the nation, called Crosne, in the department of the Seine and Oisne.

Bonaparte had not been long in possession of the reins of government, when he made overtures for negotiating 1 peace with the allied powers at war with France. Separate 1 proposals were made to the different belligerent powers, ' no doubt with a view to dissolve the coalition; but the decrees of the Convention which had declared war against all the powers of Europe still remained unrepealed. Departing from the forms sanctioned by the custom of nations in carrying on diplomatic correspondence, he addressed a letter directly to his Britannic majesty, the substance of which was, whether the war, which had for eight years ravaged the four quarters of the globe, was to be eternal? and whether there were no means by which Britain and France might come to a good understanding? To these questions the British ministry made a formal and elaborate reply, in which they dwelt much on the bad faith of the revolutionary rulers, and the instability of the governments of France since the subversion of the monarchy. The overture transmitted to Vienna was of a similar description, and experienced similar treatment; but, irritated by the shameful treatment of Suwarof while carrying on the war in Italy and Switzerland, the emperor of Russia abandoned the coalition.

On the 7th of March Bonaparte sent a message to the legislative body, containing his ideas as to the conduct and designs of the British cabinet, and assuring them that he would invoke peace in the midst of battles and triumphs, and fight only for the happiness of France and the repose of the world. This message was followed by two decrees; the one calling, in the name of honour, upon every soldier absent upon leave from the armies of Italy and the Rhine, to join them before the 5th of April; and the other appointing a fresh army of reserve to be assembled at Dijon, under the immediate command of the first consul.

About this time the belligerent powers were nearly ready. to open the campaign both in Italy and on the Rhine. The Genoese Republic formed the only territory of any importance in Italy, which remained in the hands of the [7:10:117]French; but the army by which it was defended had been very much reduced since the preceding year, and might be considered as in a state of mutiny, from the want of pay, clothes, and provisions. The Austrians were most anxious to obtain possession of Genoa and its dependencies; and in this they were seconded by the Genoese themselves, who regarded the republicans as the destroyers of their commerce. Massena received the command of the army in Genoa, with extraordinary powers, and by his conduct proved himself a general of consummate abilities. Carrying with him a reinforcement of troops from Lyons and Marseilles, and reducing to order and obedience all whom he had found ready to desert their standards, he was soon at the head of a force sufficient to check the progress of the Austrians, and to keep the Genoese in subjection. But after a number of battles, all of them most vigorously contested, he was at length obliged to retire within the city, where he had soon an opportunity of distinguishing himself by one of the ablest and most obstinate defences on record. The appearance of the British fleet on the 5th of April was the preconcerted signal for Melas to attack Genoa, the communication between which and France was thus cut off. But previously to the arrival of Lord Keith, a quantity of wheat and other provisions had been thrown into the city, by which means the army and the inhabitants were rescued from immediate famine. The surrounding country was soon occupied by the Austrians; but as Massena still lived in the expectation of supplies from France, he obstinately refused to surrender the city. General Melas having nothing to apprehend from the army shut up in Genoa, left General Ott to ∞ntinue the blockade, and with the remainder of his forces marched against Suchet, who commanded another division of the French army. On the 7th of May a battle was fought, between Ceva and St Lorenzo, in which the republicans were defeated with the loss of twelve hundred prisoners and ten pieces of cannon. The consequences of this defeat, which in the circumstances was perhaps inevitable, proved eminently disastrous to the French. Suchet was obliged to abandon his strong position on the Col di Tende, where he left behind him four pieces of cannon and two hundred prisoners; and though he disputed every defensible point on his retreat, the Austrians drove him from one post to another, till he was finally obliged to take refuge behind the Var; by which means General Melas became master of the whole department of the Maritime Alps.

But the campaign on the Rhine did not open in so favourable a manner for the Austrians as that of Italy. The court of Vienna directed the Archduke Charles to resign the command of the army to General Kray, who had eminently distinguished himself during the Italian campaign of 1799. Of his military talents there could be only one opinion, and his integrity and zeal had been sufficiently tried; but he had the misfortune not to be noble, and in the Austrian dominions the want of high birth cannot be compensated by the possession of great talents. It could scarcely be expected, therefore, that a divided army, commanded by an officer without birth, though possessed of ability, would make head against the united veterans of France, led on by a general under whom they hail been accustomed to conquer; and, in fact, the Hungarian troops, finding themselves ready to be sacrificed to the dissensions of their officers, refused to fight against the enemy. At the opening of the campaign, the council of war at Vienna had sent General Kray instructions how to dispose of his forces; and having no general under him to support his views, he was under the necessity of obeying his instructions whether he approved of them or not. Instructions of a similar nature had been transmitted to Moreau by the chief consul, but he refused to fight under restraint. Conscious that in knowledge of the military art he was not inferior to Bonaparte himself, whilst he possessed the advantage of being infinitely better acquainted with the country, he sent a courier to Paris to inform the first consul, that if the orders sent him were to be rigidly obeyed, he should feel it his duty to resign his command, and accept of an inferior station. He accompanied his resignation with a plan of the campaign which he had framed for himself; and as the propriety of his suggestions forcibly struck the mind of the first consul, he was ordered to act according to his own judgment.

Being thus judiciously left to adopt and execute his own measures, General Moreau crossed the Rhine, and drove the Austrians from one post to another, till General Kray, finding it impracticable to adopt offensive measures with a mutinous army and disaffected officers, resolved to maintain his position at Ulm, and wait for reinforcements from Vienna. He had been defeated at Stockach, at Engen, and at Möskirch, although on almost every occasion he gave proofs of ability and determination; but no talents, however great, can counteract the pernicious effects of treachery and disaffection, to say nothing of an absurd and impracticable plan of operations. At one time, indeed, seven thousand men, when ordered to advance, instantly threw down their arms. Convinced that it was absolutely vain to attempt any offensive operation, Kray intrenched himself strongly at Ulm, which, as it commands both sides of the Danube, is consequently a place of great importance. But Moreau, perceiving his intentions, resolved to attempt the passage of the Danube, and force Kray to a general engagement, by cutting him off from his magazines at Donawert; and with this view he ordered Lecourbe, with one of the wings of his army, to take possession of a bridge between Donawert and Dilíingen. This was not effected without difficulty and loss; but it fully disclosed the intentions of the French general. The Austrians, in fact, perceived their danger in all its magnitude, and accordingly disputed every inch of ground with the enemy. Kray sent reinforcements to the left bank to oppose the passage, and a battle in conseouence ensued at Hochstet, in the vicinity of Blenheim, where victory again declared for the French, who made four thousand prisoners. Sensible that his situation had now become perilous in the extreme, Kray left a strong garrison at Ulm, and marched against the enemy, whom he attacked at Neuburg. The troops on both sides fought with determined bravery; but, after a severe contest, the Austrians were obliged to fall back on Ingolstadt. This battle may be said to nave decided the fate of Germany. The electorate of Bavaria was now in the possession of the French, besides other territories of less extent; and as they approached the hereditary dominions of the emperor, republican sentiments were loudly expressed, whilst the people in many parts evinced such a leaning towards the enemy, as to convince the court that no dependence could be placed on armies composed of such persons. The imperial family, and the British ambassador, were openly insulted in the theatre, and the cry of “Peace, peace,” resounded from every part of the house.

“A new dynasty must be baptized in blood.” This was the careless remark of a rhetorician, but Napoleon deeply felt its truth. His authority, which wanted the sanction of time, required the support of victory. It was necessary for his own sake, as well as for that of the country which had placed its destinies in his hands, that he should strike a blow which would at once humble the enemy, and impress the world with an idea of his irresistible power. With this view, he had caused to be assembled at Dijon, and organized by Berthier, an army of reserve (as it was called), which was thought to have no other destination than that of defending die course of the Rhine, but which was in reality intended to perform a conspicuous part on an independent theatre of action. The object of Napoleon was to reconquer [7:10:118]Italy, which, with the exception of Genoa, where Massena still held out, the Austrians now occupied to the foot of the Alps. And every thing seemed to favour the project which had been so boldly conceived. His preparations had been so skilfully masked, that when the government ostentatiously announced the real strength of the army of reserve, the statement was universally discredited; and Melas, who commanded the imperial forces in Italy, so little dreamed of being called upon to contend for the possession of that country with the most fortunate and enterprising general of his time, that his whole attention was directed towards the pursuit of Suchet, who was now retreating over the Alps of Savoy. In his head-quarters at Alessandria, he never suspected that he would have to oppose an invading force descending into Italy by the pass of the Great St Bernard. The real views of Bonaparte were too bold to enter into the conception of the Austrian general. These were, to traverse Switzerland by the lake of Geneva and the valley of the Rhone as far as Martigny, and thence to cross the Great St Bernard, and descend into the plains of Lombardy in rear of Melas; in other words, to intersect the communications of the Austrian general, disarrange all his plans, oblige him to countermarch and take up new positions, and, lastly, impose on him the necessity of receiving battle in a situation where defeat would be total ruin. He expected to reap the benefit of a complete surprise, and at all events to take the enemy in flagranti delicto.

On the 6th of May the first consul left Paris, and proceeded to take the command of an army the strength and f destination of which had given rise to so many conjectures. This army, which had been reinforced from the Rhine, and amounted to about forty thousand men, immediately began its march into Switzerland, and on the 20th crossed the Great St Bernard. The passage of this mountain is justly accounted one of the most extraordinary achievements in modern warfare, and is not inferior in any of its circumstances to the celebrated passage of the Alps by Hannibal. The French army now advanced by a path which had hitherto been considered as practicable only for mules and foot passengers; they removed their cannon from the carriages, placed the guns in the hollowed trunks of trees, and thus dragged them up the steep ascent. In May winter still reigns with unmitigated severity in these regions; and the rigours of a northern climate, snow, ice, and whirlwinds, increased the dangers of the march; but all difficulties were overcome by the enthusiasm and perseverance of the troops. On reaching the summit, refreshments awaited them at the convent, to the monks of which large sums had been transmitted for the purpose; and in that cloud-capped habitation of peace, the soldiers as they passed received a cordial welcome, and enjoyed some needful rest. The division which crossed the Simplon encountered still greater difficulties than that which passed the Great St Bernard, having to clear deep fissures in Indian file, and sometimes clinging to a single rope. In descending from Mount St Bernard into the valley of Aoste, the road passes under the fort of Bard, by which it is completely commanded. Here, then, was a lion in the path. The troops might avoid it by clambering over the adjoining precipices, but for the artillery this was impossible. The fort was summoned and cannonaded, but in vain; the governor disregarded the menaces of the invaders, and his little citadel was secure against a cvup-demain. What was to be done? The case seemed desperate, but ingenuity at length triumphed. The street of the village immediately below was covered with straw and small branches, and the cannon were dragged past during a dark night without attracting the attention of the garrison. Had the fort opened its fire, and delayed the array longer, all the advantages of this bold march would have been lost. But fortune still remained true to her favourite; and Bonaparte, having cleared an obstacle which at first appeared insuperable, followed the course of the Doria and the Po, entered Milan and Pavia, and thus accomplished his first object, namely, that of placing himself on the communications of Melas.

The Austrian general had already retrograded; he could not credit the report of Bonaparte being in Italy, but still he had taken the precaution to fall back. What above all astonished him, was to hear that the French had cannon; how had they passed the Alps? Bonaparte arrived at Milan on the 2d of June, and there expected Moncey to join him with reinforcements from the army of Switzerland. In the mean time he dispatched his lieutenants to seize the towns on the Po: which was promptly effected. In occupying Piacenza, Murat intercepted a courier on his way to the Austrian head-quarters, with tidings of the fall of Genoa. This event, which disengaged and rendered disposable a large Austrian force, left Napoleon no alternative but either to fall back and wait for his expected reinforcements, or to march against Melas, and put all to the hazard of a battle. He chose the latter course, and trusting that his own genius and fortune would compensate for his deficiency in effective force, resolved to anticipate the enemy. Melas had concentrated his whole force at Alessandria, on the Bormida; and General Ott, having reduced Genoa, was rapidly advancing, with the intention of surprising the French advanced posts on the Po, and at the same time combining his operations with those of the principal army in a grand effort against the enemy. But Ott was himself surprised by Lannes at Montebello, and after a severe action completely defeated with the loss of five thousand men. The French army now advanced to Stradella, where it took up an advantageous position, and remained several days to allow Suchet to close upon the enemy’s rear, and Massena, with the liberated garrison of Genoa, to join from the south. The Austrians in the mean while made no movement; and Napoleon, apprehensive that Melas might escape him, either by marching north towards Turin or south towards Genoa, advanced into the plains of Marengo; thus giving a prodigious advantage to the enemy. But although Melas was greatly superior in cavalry, and might at his option either attack the French, or defend the course of the Bormida, behind which his army was concentrated, Bonaparte was still so apprehensive that he might file off towards Genoa, that he detached Dessaix, who had just arrived from Egypt and taken the command of a division, to counteract any movement in retreat, and to compel the Austrians to receive battle. But this measure, which in its consequences had nearly proved fatal to the French army, proceeded on a total miscalculation; for at the very moment when Napoleon was thinking of preventing the flight of Melas, it was decided in a council of war that the only mode of securing Genoa was to give battle to the French.

On the morning of the 14th, which Melas had fixed on for the attack, the French were echelloned in an oblique formation, extending from Marengo, the village next the Bormida, which was occupied by their advanced guard, to San Giuliano, where the head-quarters were established, with considerable intervals between the divisions. The Austrians passed the Bormida in three columns, by as many bridges, which they had thrown across the river. One cause of the want of preparation on the part of Napoleon, was the assurance he had received that the principal bridge had been broken down; and this was perfectly true; but the Austrians had not lost a moment in re-establishing the bridge, and thus restoring their communications with the opposite bank of the stream. The first burst of the attack was directed against the French at Marengo. But instead of advancing boldly to the charge, and storming the key of the position, the imperialists deployed, [7:10:119]planted batterie», and waited to effect tardily by their fire wbat an assault might have at once accomplished. This afforded the French time, which they so much wanted, and enabled Napoleon to recall Dessaix. The right and left of the Austrians had scarcely an enemy to contend with; for being composed chiefly of cavalry, in which arm the Austrian army was eminently powerful, they swept every thing before them; and at length, turning towards the centre, drove the enemy from the village of Marengo, across a swampy rivulet in the rear. At mid-day, the plain presented an extraordinary spectacle. The French in disordered masses were in half retreat, yet still maintaining a vigorous resistance; whole columns of wounded and stragglers were pressing towards the rear, and throwing into confusion the ranks which still held firm; the Austrian cavalry domineered in the plain, and threatened at every moment to break in among the disordered troops; the fate of the day seemed already decided. Seeing himself victorious at Marengo, General Melas retired to Alessandria to write his dispatches, leaving the chief of his staff, Baron Zach, to complete the victory. He had already withdrawn from the field a considerable body of cavalry, which he deemed it necessary to send against Suchet; a fatal error, which he had soon reason to repent. But whilst Melas thus indulged in the security of an assured triumph, Bonaparte was preparing to make a stand at San Giuliano, and to avenge the defeat of the morning by fighting a fresh battle in the evening. Dessaix had now joined, and highly applauded the resolution of the general-in-chief. The artillery was at the same time placed in battery upon an eminence commanding the high road, along which the Austrians shortly afterwards advanced in column. But success had rendered them as imprudently confident in the evening as the French were in the morning, and they came on less to dispute the victory than to gather up the fruits of one which had been already gained. Bonaparte now rode leisurely along his newly-formed line. “Soldiers,” said he, “we have retreated enough for to-day; you know it is my custom to sleep on the field of battle.” When the imperialists led on by Zach approached San Giuliano, the battery, unmasked, opened its fire; Dessaix led on his fresh division of infantry to the attack; Kellerman, with a brigade of light horse, watching the favourable moment, charged and broke through the advancing column, then wheeling round, charged back and again penetrated it. Thus surprised and enveloped, the bead of the column laid down its arms, and the remainder scarcely attempted to make a stand; being speedily routed and put to flight, it communicated its panic to the troops in the rear, which, had they come up with suitable determination, might have repeated at San Giuliano the success of Marengo. All was now lost. The imperialists fled across the plain of Marengo towards the bridges, pursued by the French, who slaughtered the fugitives in all directions. The carnage was dreadful, and continued until nightfall, when the victors, weary of slaying and oppressed by fatigue, slowly withdrew. Thus the battle of Marengo, which a vigorous charge of cavalry would for ever have decided, was restored and gained by six o’clock in the evening. Dessaix fell early in the second battle, to which the brilliant charge so opportunely executed by young Kellerman gave the decisive turn.^[24. The partisans of Napoleon assert that the order for thia charge issued from him. But Kellerman, supported by almost all the officers who were present, claimed it as his own spontaneous act; and a strong feeling of resentment was excited in his mind by the omission of all notice of this achievement in the official account of the battle. The service thus rendered was perhaps too great to be acknowledged. “That charge of yours was opportune," observed Napoleon, after the battle, in a tone of lukewaiaι praise. " Opportune indeed,” replied Kellerman; “it has placed the crown on τour head.” ]

Italy was thus conquered at Marengo; and France by one battle regained her superiority in the field. An armistice was now agreed to, the terms of which were, that

Piedmont and Genoa were to be given up to the French, and that the Austrians should retire behind the Mincio; thus abandoning at once all the conquests of Suwarof. The convention with Melas was considered as preparatory to a treaty; and, in fact, Bonaparte offered to Austria the terms of Campo Formio; but the cabinet of Vienna, more resolute in adversity than in prosperity, pleaded her engagements with Britain, as precluding her from treating excepting in conjunction with that power, her ally. Hohenlinden was destined to add its glories to that of Marengo, before peace could be conquered.

General Kray was anxious to avail himself of the armistice concluded in Italy in order to arrest the progress of Moreau; butthat able general refused to listen to any overtures upon the subject, until he should have received instructions from Paris. Count St Julien, however, arrived with proposals of peace from the imperial cabinet, in consequence of which the armistice was extended to Germany; and the posts then occupied by the respective armies were considered as constituting the line of demarcation. But, in opposition to the spirit of the stipulations with General Melas, the French reinforced their army in Italy, levied immense contributions, and raised troops in different states which they themselves had declared independent

Whilst France was thus victorious in Europe, her troops in Egypt were subjected to the greatest hardships. The circumstance of their being abandoned by their chief gave rise to bitter complaints; and Kleber is said to have declared that the same universe should not contain him and Bonaparte. Under the auspices of the latter, a convention for the evacuation of Egypt by the French was concluded at El Arisch on the 24th of January 1800, between the Grand Vizier on the part of Turkey, and Sir Sidney Smith on that of Great Britain. By virtue of this convention, the republican army, with its baggage and effects, were to be coliected at Alexandria, Rosetta, and Aboukir, and to be conveyed to France in vessels belonging the Republic, or such as might be furnished for that purpose by the Sublime Porte.

Towards the close of the year 1799 the British ministry had reason to believe that an arrangement would be entered into between the Grand Vizier and General Kléber for the evacuation of Egypt by the French; and as such an event was much to be desired, Lord Keith received orders to accede to it, but only on condition that Kléber and his army should be detained as prisoners of war. The convention of El Arisch accordingly fell to the ground; and, but for the honourable conduct of Sir Sidney Smith, Kleber would have been treacherously attacked by the Grand Vizier whilst resting upon his arms, in reliance that the treaty would be ratified. But the Turks paid dear for their meditated perfidy. On the 20th of March, Kléber attacked and totally routed them at Heliopolis, near Cairo, with the loss of more than eight thousand men killed and wounded on the field of battle. This victory restored to the French Cairo, which in terms of the convention of El Arisch they had abandoned. Kleber again proposed to evacuate Egypt, upon the terms agreed to by the Grand Vizier and Sir Sidney Smith; and Lord Keith being now empowered to agree to them, a suspension of hostilities took place, and the Turks were about to be delivered from an enemy whom they were not able to expel, when General Kléber was suddenly assassinated. Both parties had reason to regret this event, as Kléber was not only one ol [7:10:120]the most able, but also one of the most upright and honourable men ever intrusted with the command of an army.

Menou succeeded Kleber in the command of the French army in Egypt, but refused to quit that country by capitulation; in consequence of which the British government formed the resolution of expelling him by force. Sir James Pulteney had received the command of twelve thousand men in the Mediterranean, with orders to act in such a manner as might most effectually annoy the enemy; but as this plan had been disconcerted by the result of the battle of Marengo, he was superseded by Sir Ralph Abercromby, who carried out with him reinforcements, together with a train of artillery from Gibraltar. Having touched at Minorca and Malta, Sir Ralph steered his course thence for the coast of Egypt, which he reached on the first of March 1801, and next day anchored in the Bay of Aboukir. But the weather prevented him from attempting to land till the 8th, when the first division effected a landing in the face of the French, to the amount of four thousand men, and the disembarkation was continued during that and the following day. The army moved forward on the 12th, and coming in sight of the enemy, gave them battle on the 13th. The conflict was obstinate on both sides, and the loss very considerable; but victory in the end declared for the British. This advantage was followed up with vigour, and on the 21st a more decisive battle was fought about four miles from Alexandria, where, after various turns of fortune, the British were finally victorious. In the heat of the action, General Abercromby received a mortal wound, and died on the 28th. The loss on both sides was severe.

As the fate of Egypt was in a great measure decided by these two battles, we shall now advert to affairs of great importance which about this time took place in Europe. The northern powers, jealous of the maritime superiority of Britain, and acting under the influence of the Emperor Paul, resolved to revive the armed neutrality of Catharine II. established during the American war, and to claim the right of trading to the ports of France without being subjected to what they conceived the intolerable evil of having their vessels searched. The ministry of Great Britain had determined to break up this confederacy; but, to the astonishment of the nation, which was not prepared for such an occurrence, they suddenly resigned.

Various causes have been assigned for an event so un- ' expected; but the ostensible reason was a difference in the cabinet relative to Catholic emancipation. After the union of Ireland with Britain, the minister appears to have proposed this subject in the cabinet; but his majesty, from some conscientious scruples founded on his coronation oath, gave it his direct negative, and in consequence Mr Pitt and his friends tendered their resignation. They were succeeded by men, however, who had generally supported Mr Pitt’s administration during the war, and who were entirely of the same school in politics. Mr Addington was appointed first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer; Lord Eldon, lord high chancellor; the Earl of St Vincent, first lord of the admiralty; Lords Hawkesbury and Pelham, secretaries of state; and the Honourable Colonel Yorke, secretary at war. The former ministry was dissolved on the 11th of February; but owing to the indisposition of the king, the new ministry did not enter upon office until the middle of March, during which interval Mr Pitt and his associates had the chief management of public affairs. The new ministry commenced their career by solemnly pledging themselves to the nation that they would employ their united efforts in procuring a safe and honourable peace with France, which in fact was loudly demanded by the nation.

About this time measures the most hostile were adopted ’ towards Britain, by the powers composing the northern confederacy. The city of Hamburg was taken by a Danish ' force under the Prince of Hesse; and the king of Prussia likewise sent a numerous army into the electorate of Hanover, all with the view of injuring British commerce. To punish this audacious conduct, and dissolve the northern confederacy, a fleet of seventeen sail of the line, four frigates, four sloops, and some bomb vessels, was fitted out in the ports of Britain, and sailed from Yarmouth on the 12th of March, under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, Lord Nelson, and Rear-admiral Graves; and having passed the Sound, appeared before Copenhagen on the 30th of the same month. The Danes did not appear in the smallest degree moved by this display of force, thinking it impossible to molest either their fleet or their city without passing through a channel so extremely intricate that it was once believed hardly safe to attempt it even with a single ship unopposed by an enemy. But this channel was sounded by Lord Nelson, who undertook to conduct through it a large division of the fleet; and having requested from Sir Hyde Parker the command of the squadron, it was accordingly given him, and Rear-admiral Graves was appointed his second in command. As the largest ships drew too much water for being employed in so hazardous an attempt, his lordship selected twelve of from seventy-four to fifty guns, together with four frigates, four sloops, two fire-ships, and seven bombs. To this a prodigious force was opposed, consisting of six sail of the line, eleven floating batteries, each mounting from eighteen to twenty-eight heavy guns, one bomb-ship, and a number of schooners; and these were supported by the Crown Batteries, mounting eighty-eight pieces of cannon, by four sail of the line, moored in the mouth of the harbour, and by a few batteries on the island of Amak. On the 2d of April, Lord Nelson attacked this tremendous force, and after an obstinate and bloody action, which lasted four hours, silenced the fire of the batteries, taking, burning, and sinking about seventeen sail, including seven ships of the line. A suspension of hostilities was the immediate consequence of this brilliant victory, and the armed neutrality was in fact dissolved.

When the armistice was signed between die Austrian I and French generals in the year 1800, the troops of the lat- 1 ter were in possession of Germany almost to the banks of d the Inn, and of Italy to the frontiers of Venice; but the spirit of the emperor was yet unsubdued, and he declined abandoning his allies by ratifying the preliminaries of peace which Count St Julien had agreed to at Paris, more especially as the latter was alleged to have exceeded his powers. Kray having retired from the army, the Archduke John succeeded him in the command, and with the emperor in person repaired to the army; but they soon found it impracticable to undertake any offensive operation against Moreau, and therefore another armistice, comprehending Italy, was agreed to. The emperor wished to include Britain in any treaty which might be entered into with France; but as Bonaparte refused to admit any plenipotentiary from that power until a naval armistice had been agreed to, Moreau received orders to resume his military operations. The command of the Austrian divisions was now given to generals whose very names were unknown beyond the confines of their own country, and who had shown themselves but little acquainted with the military art. Moreau was on the banks of the Iser, with his troops considerably disseminated; the Austrians were on those of the Inn, occupying a good line of defence if they had understood its importance, or had the prudence to maintain it. But whilst the French general-in-chief was meditating the plan of his winter campaign, the right wing of his army was attacked add driven back by the Austrians; and had they known how to make a judicious use of their advantage, the French commander would in all probability have been reduced to act on the defensive. Elated with success, however, they unaccountably abandoned their position on the Inn, and marched to attack the French along wretched [7:10:121]made, rendered nearly impassable by November weather. Moreau was with his army at Hohenlinden, behind the forest of Ebersberg, where he awaited the approach of the enemy. The archduke ordered his army to advance in separate columns by the roads and paths leading through the forest, on the exterior edge of which he intended to deploy and give battle. His centre, under Kollowrath, took the principal road, but was encountered as it debouched from the forest by the divisions of Ney and Grouchy; whilst another division of the French under Itichepanse turned the flank of the Austrians, and fell with great fury upon its rear at the other side of the forest. This double attack was attended with complete success. The centre was entirely routed, with the loss of no less than eight thousand prisoners, besides killed and wounded; and the defeat of the rest of the army followed as an inevitable consequence. Had the Archduke Charles commanded on this occasion, a defeat caused by such a blunder would have been impossible; but this prince was now in disgrace for having counselled peace. At Hohenlinden the Austrians lost in all eighty pieces of cannon, two hundred caissons, and ten thousand prisoners.

Moreau allowed the enemy no time to rally, but marching directly towards the Inn, crossed that river on the 9th of December, drove the enemy before him, and struck the court of Vienna with consternation and dismay. Prince Charles was recalled and invested with the command of the army; but after many fruitless efforts to retrieve its honour, he on the 27th of December proposed an armistice, which was acceded to by the French commander, upon condition that it should be immediately followed by a definitive treaty. If the archduke could have placed any dependence upon his army, this armistice would not in all probability have taken place. The position of Moreau was, in fact, perilous in the extreme. Having advanced into the very heart of the Austrian states, he had behind him on his right about thirty thousand men in the Tyrol, and upwards of fifty thousand on his left. But Austrian valour was now well nigh extinguished by so many reverses of fortune; the officers were discontented; and the army was not in a condition to make head for a single day against so able and enterprising an enemy. Accordingly, the armistice was followed by a treaty of peace, which was signed at Luneville on the 9th of February 1801, between the emperor for himself and the Germanic body on the one hand, and the first consul of the French Republic, in name of the people of France, on the other. By this treaty the emperor ceded the Brisgau to the Duke of Modena, in lieu of the territories lost by that prince in Italy, and bound himself to find indemnities in the Germanic empire to all those princes whom the fate of war had deprived of their dominions. The Grand Duke of Tuscany renounced his dukedom, with its dependencies in the isle of Elba, in favour of the Duke of Parma, who assumed the title of king of Etruria; and for this the empire was to provide him with an adequate indemnification. Italy resumed its republican forms and divisions of governments under French influence and protection; and the Rhine still continued the boundary of France on the side of Germany. On the 28th of March, peace was also concluded between the French Republic and the king of the Two Sicilies. By this treaty his majesty obliged himself to shut the ports of Naples and Sicily against ships of every description belonging either to the British or the Turks; and he renounced for ever Porto Longano in the island of Elba, his states in Tuscany, and the principality of Piombino, to be disposed of in such manner as the French Republic might think proper.

Great Britain had now no ally left to aid her in the contest with France, excepting the Turks in Egypt and the Portuguese in Europe, powers which rather diminished than increased her strength. At the desire of France the Spaniards had made an attack upon Portugal, and conquered some of its provinces; but a treaty of peace was concluded on the 6th of June, by which the king of Spain restored all his conquests excepting the fortress of Olivenza; and the prince regent of Portugal and the Algarves promised to shut the ports of his territories against the ships of Great Britain, and to make indemnification to his Catholic majesty for all losses and damages sustained by his subjects during the war. When the first consul had made peace with all his other enemies, he threatened Great Britain with an immediate invasion; a circumstance which at first gave great uneasiness to a considerable part of the nation. But in order to assuage this alarm, Lord Nelson was sent to destroy the shipping in the harbour of Boulogne; and though his success fell short of what had been expected by many, he nevertheless made such an impression on the enemy as showed that Britain could annoy the coast of France with greater facility than France could molest that of Britain.

During the summer of 1801, attempts were again made by Britain to negotiate with France. From the total dissolution of the northern confederacy, the first consul could not fail to perceive that it was impossible for him to ruin British commerce, and consequently that all the treaties which he might make for excluding our ships from neutral ports would signify nothing. He seemed determined, however, to keep possession of Egypt; and Britain, on the other hand, was as fully resolved to wrest it from him. On this account the negotiations were protracted till the conquest of that country became known both at London and Paris. On the death of Rir Ralph Abercromby, General Hutchinson succeeded to the command of the British forces in Egypt, and as he was acquainted with the designs of his predecessor, one spirit seemed to actuate both. Rosetta surrendered, and this was soon followed by the capitulation of Cairo; and Menou having accepted of similar terms for Alexandria, the whole of Egypt fell into the hands of the allies, and the republican troops with their baggage were conveyed to the nearest French ports in the Mediterranean, in ships furnished by the allies. After these events, the negotiations between Britain and France proceeded more agreeably; and, on the 1st of October, the preliminary treaty was signed at London by Lord Hawkesbury on the part of his Britannic majesty, and by Μ. Otto on that of the French Republic. By this treaty Great Britain engaged to give up all the conquests made by her during the continuance of the war, excepting the islands of Ceylon and Trinidad, whilst France was in fact to restore nothing. The Cape of Good Hope was to be free to all the contracting parties; the island of Malta was to be given up to the knights of the order of St John of Jerusalem; Egypt was to be restored to the Ottoman Porte; Portugal was to be maintained in its integrity, excepting what had been ceded to the king of Spain by the prince regent; Naples and the Roman States were to be evacuated by the French, and Porto Ferrajo by the British, together with all the ports and islands occupied by them in the Mediterranean. Plenij>o-tentiaries were also appointed to meet at Amiens, for the purpose of drawing up and concluding a definitive treaty. This accordingly took place on the 22d of March 1802, and the French Republic was thus acknowledged by the whole of Europe.

Having thus arrived at the period when the dogs of war were during a brief interval chained up, and the nations of Europe allowed to respire a little after the fierce contest' in which they had been engaged, it may not be uninstructive or uninteresting to pause for a moment and pass in review that extraordinary series of revolutions in France which overthrew the monarchy to make way for the Republic, and in turn destroyed the Republic to make way for the Consulate and the Empire.

Popular insurrections, and an army, have hitherto been [7:10:122]the usual means, or chief instruments, of every revolution ∙, but insurrections of this description have generally been fomented by a certain number of factious men, devoted to and dependent upon some ambitious chief, daring, brave, possessed of military talents, the absolute conductor of every step of the revolt, and the master of all the means of the insurrection. In the hands of such a chief, the soldiers, or people armed, are mere machines, set in motion or restrained according to his pleasure, and are always employed to put an end to revolutionary disorders and crimes, as soon as the object of the revolution has been attained. Thus Caesar and Cromwell, after they had usurped the supreme power, lost no time in securing it, by placing it upon the basis of a wise and well-regulated government; and they employed in quelling the troubles which had favoured their usurpation, those very legions which they had used to excite them.

But this was not the case in France. In that country the revolution, or rather the first of those revolutions it experienced, and of which the others were the inevitable consequence, does not seem to have been the result of a conspiracy or preconcerted plan to overturn the monarchy and to establish a republic in its place. It was unexpectedly engendered by a mixture of weakness, ignorance, negligence, and numberless errors in the government. The States General, however imprudent their convocation may have been, would have produced only useful reforms, if they had found the limits of their power marked out by a hand sufficiently firm to keep them within their natural boundaries. It was but too evident, however, that even before their opening they were dreaded, and that consequently they might attempt almost any thing they pleased. From that time, under the name of Clubs, various associations and factions sprang up; some more violent than others, but all tending to the subversion of the existing government, without agreeing upon the form of that which was to be substituted in its stead: and at this period also the projects of the faction whose views were to get the Duke of Orleans appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom began to manifest themselves.

This faction, or, as some call it, this conspiracy, was, in truth, of the same nature with those which had produced all former revolutions, and might have been attended with the same consequences had the Duke of Orleans been possessed of the energy and courage requisite in the leader of a party. The people had already declared in his favour, and he might easily have corrupted and brought over a great part of the army had he been equal to the command of it; but, on the very first occasion of personal risk, he discovered such cowardice and meanness that he defeated his own conspiracy, and convinced all those who had entered into it that it was impossible to continue the Revolution, either in his favour or in conjunction with him. The enthusiasm which the people had felt for him ended with the efforts of those who had excited it.

Neckar, whom the multitude had associated with this prince in their homage, still preserved for some time his worshippers, and that little cabal was for ever exalting him to the skies. But inferior even to Orleans in the talents and dispositions necessary to influence the army in his favour, he was as little calculated to be the leader of a revolution; and for this reason his panegyrists confined themselves, in the pamphlets and placards with which they inundated the capital, to insinuating that the only means of saving the state was to declare Neckar dictator, or at least to confer upon him, under some title more consistent with the monarchy, the authority and powers attached to that republican office. In fact, if after his dismission in the month of July 1789, he had dared to make this a condition of his return to the ministry, it is more than probable that the king would have been under the necessity of agree ing to it, and perhaps of re-establishing in his person the office of mayor of the palace. At that moment he might have demanded any thing; eight days later he might have been refused every thing; and soon afterwards he was reduced to the humiliating necessity of sneaking out of the kingdom like an outlaw, to escape the effects ol the general contempt and censure which he had brought upon himself.

General Lafayette, who then commanded the Parisian national guard, gathered the wrecks of all this popularity, and might have turned them to the greatest advantage, if he had possessed that resolute character and heroic judgment of which Cardinal de Retz speaks, and which serves to distinguish what is truly honourable and useful from that which is only extraordinary, and what is extraordinary from that which is impossible. With the genius, the talents, and the ambition of Cromwell, he might have gone as great a length; with a less crimina· ambition, he might at least have made himself master of the Revolution, and directed it at his pleasure; in a word, he might have secured the triumph of whatever party he chose to declare himself the leader. But, as unfit for supporting the character of Monk as that of Cromwell, he soon betrayed the secret of his incapacity to all the world, and was distinguished amongst the crowd of constitutional leaders only by his tri-coloured plume, his epaulettes, his white horse, and his saying that insurrection is the most sacred of duties when oppression is at its height.

The Revolution, at the period when the faction which had begun it for the Duke of Orleans became sensible that he was too much a coward to become a leader, and when Lafayette discovered his inability to conduct it, was too far advanced either to recede or to stop; and hence it continued its progress, but in a line which no other revolution had ever taken, namely, without a military chief, or the intervention of the army; and it gained triumphs, not for any ambitious conspirator, but for political and moral innovations of the most extraordinary kind, innovations the most suited to mislead the multitude, who were incapable of comprehending them, and to let loose those passions which are most dangerous to the repose and happiness of nations. The more violent combined to destroy every thing; and their fatal coalition gave birth to Jacobinism, a revolutionary product till then unknown, and till now not sufliciently unmasked. This new creation took upon itself alone to carry on the Revolution; it directed and executed all its operations, all the explosions and the outrages which occurred; it everywhere appointed the most active leaders, and employed as instruments the profligates of every country. Its power far surpassed that which has been attributed to the inquisition, and other similar tribunals, by those who have spoken of them with the greatest exaggeration. Its centre was at Paris; and its ramifications, formed by means of clubs in every town and little borough, overspread the whole surface of the kingdom. The constant correspondence kept up between those clubs and that of the capital, or, to use their own expressions, between the affiliated popular societies and the parent society, was as secret and as speedy as that of free-masons. In a word, the Jacobin clubs had succeeded in causing themselves to be looked up to as the real national representation. Under that assumed character they censured all the authorities in the most imperious manner; and whenever their denunciations, petitions, or addresses failed to produce an immediate effect, they gained their point by having recourse to insurrection and assassination. Whilst Jacobinism thus subjected all France to its control, an immense number of emissaries propagated its doctrines amongst foreign nations, and prepared for it new conquests in distant countries.

The National Assembly, the capital, indeed all France, was divided into three distinct parties. The most considerable in number, but unhappily, through a deficiency [7:10:123]of plan and resolution, the weakest, was the party purely royal; it was adverse to every kind of revolution, and was solely desirous of some improvements, with the reform of abuses and pecuniary privileges. The most able and most intriguing was the constitutional party, or that which was desirous of giving France a new monarchical constitution, but modified after the manner of the English, or even the American, by a house of representatives. The third party was the most dangerous of all, by its daring spirit, by its power, and by the number of proselytes it daily acquired in all quarters of the kingdom; it comprehended the democrats of every description, from the Jacobin clubs, calling themselves Friends of the Constitution, to the anarchists and plunderers of the school of Hebert and Chaumette.

The democratic party, which at first was only auxiliary to the constitutional one, in the end annihilated it, and became itself subdivided into several parties, whose fatal struggles produced all the subsequent revolutions. But in principle the constitutionalists and the democrats formed two distinct though confederate factions; both were desirous of a revolution, and employed all the usual means of accomplishing it, except troops, which could be of no use to them, for neither of them had a leader to put at the head of the army. But as it was of equal importance to both that the king should be deprived of the power of making use of it against them, they laboured in concert to disorganize it; and the complete success of that manoeuvre was but too fully proved by the fatal issue of the departure of the royal family for Montmédy. The revolution then took a more daring and rapid stride, which was concluded by the constitutional act of 1791. But the incoherence of its principles, and the defects of its institutions, present a faithful picture of the disunion of its authors, and of the opposite interests by which they were swayed. It was, properly speaking, a compact or compromise between the party of the constitutionalists and that of the democrats, in which, to secure co-operation, mutual concessions and sacrifices were made. But this absurd constitution, the everlasting source of sorrow and remorse to all who had a part in framing it, might have been got over without a shock, and led back to the old principles of monarchical government, if the assembly who framed it had not separated before they witnessed its execution; if, in imposing on the king the obligation to maintain it, they had not deprived him of the power and the means; and if the certain consequence of the new mode of proceeding at the elections had not been to secure, in the second assembly, a considerable majority of the democratic against the constitutional party.

The second assembly was likewise divided into three factions, the weakest of which was the one that desired to maintain the constitution. The two others were for a new revolution and a republic; but they differed in this, that the former, composed of the Brissotines or Girondists, was for effecting it gradually, by beginning with divesting the king of popularity, and allowing the public mind time to wean itself from its natural attachment to monarchy; and the latter, which was the least numerous, was eager to have the republic established as speedily as possible. These two factions, having the same object in view, though taking different roads, were necessarily auxiliaries to each other; and the pamphlets, excitations to commotion, and revolutionary measures of both, equally tended to overthrow the constitution of 1791.

Those different factions, composed of advocates, attorneys, apostate priests, doctors, and a few literary men, having no military chief capable of taking the command of the army, dreaded the troops who had sworn allegiance to the constitution and obedience to the king, and who moreover might be influenced by their officers, amongst whom there still remained some royalists. The surest way to get rid of all uneasiness on the subject, was to employ the army in defending the frontiers. For this purpose a foreign war was necessary, to which it was known that the king and his council were eaually averse. Nothing more was wanting to determine the attack which was directed, almost at the same time, against all the ministers, in order to compel them to retire, and to put the king under the necessity of appointing others more disposed to second the views of the parties. Unhappily this attempt was attended with all the success which its authors had promised themselves; and one of the first acts of the new ministry was to declare war against the emperor. At the same time, the emigration which had been provoked, and which was almost everywhere applauded, even by the lowest class of people, drained off the flower of the royalist party, and left the king, deprived of his best defenders, exposed to the suspicions and insults which sprung from innumerable calumnies, for which the disasters at the beginning of the war furnished but too many opportunities.

In this manner was prepared and accelerated the new revolution, which was accomplished on the tenth of August 1792, by the deposition and imprisonment of the king, and by the most flagrant violation of the constitution of 1791. The latter, however, was not entirely abandoned on that day; for the project of the Girondists, who had laid the plot of that fatal conspiracy, was then only to declare the king’s deposition, in order to place the prince royal upon the throne, under the guidance of a regency composed of their own creatures; but they were hurried on much further than they meant to go, by the violence with which the Jacobins, who took the lead in the insurrection, conducted all their enterprises. The prince royal, instead of being crowned, was shut up in the Temple; and if France at that moment was not declared a republic, this was less owing to any remaining respect for the constitution, than to the fear the legislative body entertained of raising up against it the majority of the nation, who could scarcely fail to be astonished and exasperated at finding a constitution fenced by so many oaths thus precipitately overthrown. It was on these grounds that the opinion was adopted, that a National Convention should be convoked, in order to determine the fate of royalty.

From this moment the Girondists daily lost ground, and the most furious members of the democratic party, supported as they were by the Jacobin club, by the new commune of Paris, and by the tribunes, made themselves masters of every debate. It was of the utmost importance to them to control the ensuing elections; and this was effected by the horrible consternation which the massacres of September excited throughout the kingdom. The terror of being assassinated, or at least maltreated, drove from all the primary assemblies not only the royalists and constitutionalists, but moderate men of all parties; those assemblies became entirely composed of the weakest men and most desperate characters to be found in France; and from amongst the most frantic of these a large proportion of the members of the Convention was chosen. Accordingly, this third assembly, in the first quarter of an hour of its first sitting, was heard shouting for the abolition of royalty, and proclaiming the Republic, upon the motion of a member who had formerly been a player.

Such an opening but too plainly showed what was to be expected from that horde of plunderers who composed the majority of the National Convention, and of whom Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and the other leaders, formed their party. That of the Girondists still existed, and was the only one really republican. Glutted with the horrors already committed, they seemed desirous of arresting the torrent, and laboured to introduce into the assembly the moderation necessary to give to the new Republic a wise and solid organization. But the superiority of their knowledge, talents, and eloquence, which their opponents could not [7:10:124] dispute, had no power over men thirsting for blood, and determined to rule by the instrumentality of terror alone. They had no doubt occasion for atrocities, to prepare the terror-stricken nation to suffer them to commit, in its name, the murder of the unfortunate Louis XVI.; and that sacrifice was necessary to commit the Revolution beyond all possibility of retreat, and bring about a third revolution, which Robespierre and his associates were already preparing. Fear had greatly contributed to the two former; but this was effected by terror alone, without popular tumults, or the intervention of the armies, which, being now drawn by their conquests beyond the frontiers, never heard any thing of the revolutions at home till they were accomplished, and always obeyed the prevailing faction, by whom they were either paid or allowed to pay themselves.

By the degree of ferocity discovered by the members of the Convention in passing sentence upon the king, and in the debates relative to the constitution of 1793, Robespierre was enabled to mark which of the deputies were most likely to second his views, and which of them it was necessary to sacrifice. As to the people, they could not but receive with transport a constitution which seemed to realise the chimera of their sovereignty, but which would only have given a kind of construction to anarchy, if the execution of this new code had not been suspended, on the pretence common to all acts of despotism and tyranny, that the safety of the state is the supreme law. This suspension was effected by establishing the provisional government, which, under the title of revolutionary government, concentrated all the powers in the National Convention until there should be an end to the war, and to all intestine troubles.

Although the faction which acknowledged Robespierre as its head possessed a decided majority in the assembly, and might consequently have considered themselves as exclusively exercising the sovereign power, he was a demagogue of too despotic a nature to endure even the appearance of sharing the empire with his associates. Hence he greatly reduced their number, by causing all the powers invested in the National Assembly by the decrees which had established the revolutionary government, to be transferred to a committee, of which he got himself appointed a member, and in which he was certain to rule, by obtaining as colleagues men less daring, but if possible even more wicked, than himself; such as Couthon, Saint-Just, Barrère, and others of the same stamp. This committee, styled the Committee of Public Safety, soon seized upon both the legislative and executive powers, and exercised them with the most sanguinary tyranny ever heard of amongst men. The ministers were merely their clerks; and the subjugated assembly, without murmur or objection, passed all the revolutionary laws which were proposed, or rather dictated, by them. One of their most decisive proceedings was the establishment of those revolutionary tribunals which covered France with scaffolds, on which victims of every rank, age, and sex, were daily sacrificed; so that no class of men should be beyond the influence of that stupifying and general terror which Robespierre found it necessary to spread in order to establish his power. Nor was this all. He soon dragged some members of his own party, such as Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and others, whose energy and popularity had offended him, before one of those tribunals, where he had them condemned to death. By the same means he had got nd of the leaders of the Girondists; and had caused all die moderate republican party, who were still members of the assembly, except those who had time and address to escape, to be sent to prison, in order to be sentenced and executed on the first opportunity.

In this manner ended the third revolution, in which die people, frozen with terror, dared not take a part. Instead of an army of soldiers, Robespierre employed an army of executioners and assassins, set up as revolutionary judges; and the guillotine, striking or menacing all indiscriminately, rendered France submissive from one end to the other. A nation, formerly proud, even to idolatry, of its kings, was thus seen to expiate, by rivers of blood, the crime of having suffered the most virtuous of all their monarchs to be murdered on a scaffold. In the room of the famous Bastille, whose capture and demolition had set only seven prisoners at liberty, two of whom had long been in a state of lunacy, the colleges, the seminaries, and all the religious houses of the kingdom, were converted into so many state prisons, into which were incessantly crowded the victims devoted to feed the ever-working guillotines, at once the chief resource of supplies for the government, and the instrument of its ferocity. “The guillotine coins money for the republic,” said Barrère. In fact, according to the jurisprudence of the revolutionary tribunals, the rich of every class were declared suspected persons, and received sentence of death for no other reason but that of giving to the confiscation of their property a show of judicial form.

But still blood flowed too slowly to satisfy Robespierre; his aim was but partly attained by the proscription of the nobles, the priests, and the wealthy. He fancied not only an aristocracy of talents and knowledge, but of the virtues, none of which however his orators and journalists would admit, save that horrid “patriotism” which was estimated according to the enormity of the crimes committed in favour of the Revolution. His plan was to reduce the French people to a mere plantation of slaves, too ignorant, too stupid, or too pusillanimous, to conceive the idea of breaking the chains with which he would have loaded them in the name of liberty; and he might perhaps have succeeded, had not his ambition, as impatient as it was jealous, too soon unveiled his intention of resorting to the guillotine to strike off the shackles with which an assembly of national representatives fettered or might fetter his power. He was about to give the decisive blow, which he had concerted with the Commune of Paris, the Revolutionary Tribunal, the Jacobin Club, and the principal officers of the national guard, when the members of the Convention, who were marked out to be the first sacrificed, anticipated him at a moment when he least expected it, by attacking himself in the assembly, with energy sufiicient to rouse against him and the Jacobins all the sections of the capital. The parties came to blows, and for several hours victory remained uncertain, but at length it declared in favour of the Convention. In the space of a day that execrable monster was dragged from the highest pitch of power ever attained by any tyrant, to the very scaffold which was still reeking with the blood of his last victims. His principal accomplices in the Committee of Public Safety, in the Commune, in the national guard, in the Revolutionary Tribunal, and many of his agents in the provinces, met the same fate. The revolutionary tribunals were suppressed, the prisons thrown open, and the terrorists hunted down wherever they could be found.

This fourth revolution, in which the faction which was then esteemed the moderate party overthrew the terrorists, and seized the supreme power, was no less complete than those which had preceded it, and produced the constitution of 1795. All France received as a great blessing a constitution which delivered them from the revolutionary government and its infernal policy. Besides, in spite of great defects, it had the merit of coming nearer than the two preceding ones to the principles of order, justice, and read liberty, the violation of which had, during the five preceding years, been the source of so many crimes and disasters. The royalists, considering it as a step towards monarchy, were imprudent enough to triumph in it; and their joy, as premature as it was indiscreet, so alarmed the assembly, that they passed the famous law, ordaining the primary assemblies to return two thirds of the members of the Convention[7:10:125] to the legislative body destined to succeed that assembly. It was thus that the spirit of the Convention continued, for the first year, to be displayed in the two councils. In the year following, the bias of the public mind, too hastily turn«! towards royalty, showed itself, in the elections of the members for the new third, so clearly as to alarm the regicides who composed the Directory, and the conventionalists who still formed a third of the legislative body; nor did they lose a moment in devising means for their defence. That which appeared to them the surest, was to publish notices of plots amongst the royalists, and annex one or more denunciations, in terms so vague as to leave room for implicating, when necessary, all their adversaries; whilst by the help of this imposture they procured some secret information, ever easily obtained by those who have at command the guillotine and the exchequer. This masked battery was ready to be opened before the members of the new third took their seats. These at first confined themselves to the object of securing a constant majority in the two councils in favour of moderate opinions; but in a little time every sitting was marked by the repeal of some revolutionary law, or by some decree tending to restrain the executive authority within the limits fixed by the constitution.

Alarmed at the abridgment of their power, and dreading still more serious attacks, the Directory came to the resolution of no longer postponing the blow which they had been meditating against the Legislative Assembly; and in the manner already related they accomplished a fifth revolution, as complete as any of those by which it was preceded. It differed indeed from them essentially in the facility and promptness with which it was effected; although the party which prevailed, that is to say, the majority of the Directory, and the minority of the legislative body, had to combat, not only against the constitution, but against the opinion, and even against the indignation, of the public. That moral force, on which the majority of the two councils had unluckily placed all their reliance, vanished in an instant before the physical force of a detachment of troops consisting of six or seven hundred men. The Directory, compelled to withdraw the larger body of troops which they had thought necessary to ensure the revolution they were meditating, discovered great ability in securing the two councils, by appearing to dread them; but it was chiefly to the energy of their measures, and to the concentration and promptness with which they were executed, that they owed their success. Two days before, the legislative body might without obstruction have impeached, arrested, and even outlawed, the majority of the Directory, who were execrated by the public under the title of the triumvirate; and, if requisite, they would have been supported by more than thirty thousand armed citizens, who, with Pichegru and Willot at their head, would soon have dispersed, and perhaps brought over, the feeble detachments of troops of the ’ line which the Directory had at their command. But the legislative body, relying too much upon its popularity, did not sufficiently consider that the people, whose impetuosity is commonly decisive when allowed to take advantage in attack, are always feeble when acting on the defensive, and totally unable to withstand any assault made previously to an insurrection, seeing it is always easy to prevent their assembling. It was on this principle that the Directory founded their operations, and the 5th of September too well proves how justly. That day reduced the legislative body to the most degrading subjugation, a mere caricature of national representation; it invested the Directory with the most arbitrary and tyrannical power, and restored the system of Robespierre, under a form less bloody, but not less pernicious; for the revolutionary tribunals which that monster had established were scarcely more expeditious than the military commissions of the Directory. The power of arbitrary and unlimited transportation is, in time, as destructive as the guillotine, without possessing, like that, the advantage of exciting a salutary horror, which, by recovering the people from the state of stupor and apathy, the first effects of terror, gives them both recollection and force to break their chains. Though, in violating the most essential regulations of the constitution, the Directory obtained a temporary confirmation of their power, ^lιeir example pointed out to Bonaparte and Sièyes the path which they pursued with infinite address, and in which they accomplished a sixth revolution, by the establishment of the consulate, the character of which will be sufficiently unfolded in the sequel.

The truce of Amiens having been concluded (it had none 1 of the characteristics of a solid peace), Bonaparte pursued 1 his plans of internal organization with an evident view to the re-establishment of monarchy in France. A church had already been reared up, and the Catholic religion, with a suitable hierarchy, re-constituted by the state. With this view the pope had been spared when the course of events placed him at the mercy of the conqueror; and the year 1801 was spent in negotiating a “concordat” with Rome, by which, in return for a decree declaring the Catholic religion that of the great majority of the French, and undertaking to grant salaries to the clergy, the pontiff agreed to consecrate such bishops as should be nominated by the French government, to give up all claim to the lands which had belonged to the church, and to order a public form of prayer for the consuls. At the desire of Bonaparte, the court of Rome further consented to secularize Talleyrand, and to make certain other concessions, all indicating an accommodating, if not an obsequious spirit towards the ruler of France.^[25. In re-establishing religion in France, Bonaparte encountered much opposition from the prejudiced incredulity of those around him. “Hearken,” said he to one of his councillors during a promenade at Malmaison; “I was here last Sunday, walking in this solitude amidst the silence of nature. The sound of the church bells of Ruel suddenly struck upon my ears. I was moved, and said, if I am thus affected, what must be the influence of those ideas on the simple and credulous mass. The people must have a religion, and that religion must be in the hands of the government.” The councillor, thus addressed, waiving the broad question of religion or no religion, objected to Catholicism. “It is intolerant; its clergy are counter-revolutionary; the spirit of the present time is entirely opposed to it. And, after all, we, in our thoughts and principles, are nearer to the true spirit of the gospel than the Catholics, who affect to reverence it.” Bonaparte urged, that by his leaning to Protestantism the government would be weakened, not strengthened; one half of France might embrace it, but the other half would remain Catholic. “Let them call me papist if they will. I am no such thing. I was a Mahommedan in Egypt, and I will be a Catholic here for the good of the people.” This was certainly very accommodating; but, notwithstanding, considerable resistance was experienced. The theophilanthropists raised the cry of no popery. The soldiers, too, were excessively indignant. In commemoration of the re-establishment of the church, Cardinal Caprara celebrated TeDeum in Nôtre Dame on Easter sunday 1802, when the first consul attended, surrounded by his officers. On his return he asked several of them their opinion, and, in particular, addressing General Delmas, said, “well, general, we have just witnessed a very imposing ceremony; I hope you are satisfied.” “Yes,” replied Delmas, “a pretty capucinade; there was only wanting the million of men who have perished in overthrowing all you have built up. we must now, I presume, fasten beads to our swords." I∙annes expressed his resentment in still stronger term’s. Perceiving in the hall of the Tuileries Cardinal Caprara and several bishops, he accosted them in the rudest manner; then entering without ceremony the cabinet of Bonaparte, he exclaimed, “Eh! que fais-tu de ce tas de prêtres dans tes antichambres; chasse-moi toute cette canaille t est-ce avec des soldats de cette es∣ιece que tu as gagné la bataille de Marengo? A quoi diable songes-tu done? Tu verras qu'un beau jour ils to jetteront bas.” Delmas received orders to quit Paris immediately; Lannes, more favoured, was only admonished to show a little more patience, and less vivacity. “I shall know,” said Napoleon, “how to govern these men, and prevent them from exciting any disturbance, what I do is necessary; I pray you in future to be more reserved.” Moreau, Bernadotte, Oudinot, Colaud, victor, and others, entertained the same sentiments as Lannes and Delmas; and the army, generally, was decidedly opposed to the concordat, and the re-establishment of the clergy. (Montgaillard, Hùtoire de France, tome v. p. 445.) ] The next desideratum was an aristocracy, which, [7:10:126] after the concluison of the peace, every effort was used to supply. The ancient nobihty were allowed, nay even encouraged, to return to France; Napoleon seemed anxious to gather around him the fragments of a monarchy sanctioned by time, though at last overthrown by the force of opinion and circumstances; but, stripped of their properties, and alike disinclined to the Revolution and its representatives, they refused to abandon the cause of legitimacy for an equivocal or anomalous place in the consular court. In one sense they judged rightly; for, even if they had availed themselves of the permission granted by the French government, it would still have been necessary to counterbalance the old nobility by elevating to the same rank those who had attained to distinction during the wars and struggles of the Revolution, in short, warriors and civilians, who had earned their honours in the school of democracy. Accordingly Napoleon, obliged for a time to abandon this idea, formed a scheme eminently calculated to attach to him a nation which, with all its professed republicanism, still retained a strong predilection for the trappings of monarchy. This was the institution of the Legion of Honour, by which, at the expense of red ribbons and very moderate pensions, an order of merit was created, into which every man of ambition or enterprise might hope one day to gain admission, and which was calculated to ensure the attachment of all the men of courage and ability in the country. But when the project was communicated to the council and the legislative body, an instant outcry was raised against it. “It destroys equality, it contradicts the principles of the Revolution. The legion of honour contains all the elements of hereditary nobility; privileges, powers, honours, titles and pensions. It is sowing the seeds of an aristocracy.” Bonaparte combated these objections, of which he must nevertheless have felt the force. “You cite the Roman republicans against me; the Romans, amongst whom distinctions were perhaps more marked than amongst any other people. Observe the consequence when the noble class of patricians was destroyed at Rome; the Republic, left at the mercy of the populace and its leaders, ran straight through anarchy and proscription to despotism.” And was not this also the case in France? Did not the re-action which followed the reign of terror prepare the way for that despotism which Napoleon himself was so soon to establish over France? In one respect, however, the first consul acted with equal firmness and justice. When Mathieu Dumas proposed to confine the decorations of the legion of honour to the military, he peremptorily refused to admit any such exclusive limitations, and persisted in his determination to render the new order equally accessible to the soldier and the civilian.

But whilst Napoleon was thus reconstructing the supports and providing the ornaments of monarchical power, he did not neglect the necessary means for raising the edifice itself; that is, the establishment of a permanent sovereignty in his own person and family, on a basis involving a full recognition of the rights and interests created by the Revolution. In this, accordingly, he laboured with equal skill and perseverance, advancing step by step towards his object. It was at first hoped indeed that he would be contented with the second place, and restore the crown to the Bourbons; and, on this supposition, Louis XVIII. twice addressed him in terms which might perhaps have conciliated ordinary ambition. But although Josephine exhorted him to imitate the conduct of Monk, and there were not wanting others to insinuate the same advice, Bonaparte, satisfied that there were more difficulties in the way of restoring the Bourbons than of founding a new dynasty, and that the men of the Revolution would more readily tolerate as sovereign one who had risen from its ranks, than receive back any member of a family who had so many wrongs to avenge, resolved to put on his head the crown which genius and fortune had enabled him to win. Accordingly, he began by feeling the pulse of the nation in a pamphlet, which, it is said, was written by his brother Lucien, and corrected by himself. But as the public mind was not yet prepared for so violent a transition, the experiment failed; ridicule was provoked at the idea of an Emperor of the Gauls; and the first consul, throwing the blame of this alleged imprudence on his brother, deprived him of his office of minister of the interior, and sent him as envoy into Spain. Meanwhile, the Tribunate, or representative body, had been remodelled, and the most froward patriots excluded; an “épuration” which materially facilitated the development of his plans. In May 1802, Bonaparte was declared first consul for another ten years; and, after a short interval, this was amended into a vote by which he was appointed first consul for life. Under a republican designation, he thus became the acknowledged sovereign of France; and it is not less remarkable than instructive that this surrender of the liberties of the country encountered much less opposition in the council than the institution of the legion of honour had done. The history of the Revolution shows, indeed, that it is not liberty which the French prize, but equality and military glory.

The views of the consular government in concluding the peace of Amiens were now sufficiently indicated by the course which Napoleon pursued in extending his influence over the neighbouring states. The Cisalpine Republic had been remodelled to suit his views, and the first consul elected as president of its legislature. The Batavian and Ligurian Republics were obliged to submit to similar modifications; Piedmont was formally annexed to France, and divided into departments; and the stipulations of the treaty of Luneville, which guaranteed the independence of the republics of Italy and Holland, thus became void. Britain began to show alarm and distrust, though the grounds for such a feeling were scarcely stronger now than at the time when the treaty of Amiens had been concluded. Bonaparte was merely following out the system which he had previously adopted. Remonstrances were made against these encroachments and usurpations; but the answer was ready and conclusive. You must have foreseen all this. The Cisalpine Republic chose the first consul as its president in January 1802, two months before the signature of the preliminary treaty of Amiens; you could not be ignorant of the fact. And why should England complain of the infraction of the treaty of Luneville, when Austria, with whom it was concluded, remains silent ?” This seems wholly unanswerable. Great Britain was neither a party to nor the guarantee of the treaty of Luneville, and no stipulation had been included in that of Amiens, that the articles of the treaty of Lunerille should be observed. She had obviously, therefore, no right whatever to interfere. According to the admission of Lord Castlereagh, she had made “a peace to try France;” but then this trial should in justice and fairness have been confined to the treaty which she had actually concluded, and not extended to a different one in which she could not even pretend to have any concern, excepting upon the assumption that she held Aus-trio[7:10:127] in tutelage. On the other hand, it was equally futile to complain of interference with the Helvetian Republic, because, in concluding a peace with France, it must have been foreseen that Napoleon would inevitably act by it as he had already done by the Cisalpine Republic. In treating, the object of both powers was most probably the same, namely, to display to Europe a readiness to make peace, and thus cast on each other the blame of the inevitable and speedy rupture. But in playing this difficult and not very creditable game, English diplomacy was completely at fault. The French observed the treaty to the letter; by the English it was decidedly violated. The former continually appealed to the compact which had been entered into between the two countties; the latter were obliged to travel out of the bond in quest of reasons or pretexts to justify the nonfulfilment of its stipulations. The British ministry may have had rational grounds for their mistrust; indeed it is certain that they had such; but in withholding Malta and the Cape of Good Hope, merely because France had increased her territories and encroachments in Europe, they took up an indefensible position, and consequently were under the necessity of supporting their cause with vague and unstatesmanlike recrimination.

But whilst the peace which had so recently been concluded was thus endangered by the hesitation of the British government to surrender Malta, and the transmission of counter orders not to deliver up the Cape of Good Hope to the Batavian Republic, other sources of division and alienation were unhappily opened up. Sensitive at all times to public opinion, and peculiarly so at this time when employed in rearing the fabric of his power, the first consul felt deeply the unsparing attacks which were now made upon him by the English press, and re-echoed by the papers of the French royalists in England. To him this was a species of warfare at once more dangerous and more galling than any other. A formal demand was therefore made by the French ambassador in London that this torrent of abuse should be checked; and further, that the press should be prohibited from indulging, in future, in strictures offensive to the head of the French government. The ministry replied that the press in this country was free; that so far from having any control over its conduct, they were themselves daily exposed to the utmost severity of remark; and that all persons aggrieved by it must seek redress in the ordinary courts of law. Nevertheless, to avoid the appearance of conniving at or encouraging such attacks, they consented to gratify him as far as might be done in a constitutional way, by sending one of the libels complained of to a jury. But this made matters ten times worse. Peltier was acquitted, and an obscure libel received consequence from the prosecution, and notoriety, if not fame, from the incomparable splendour of the defence. Another demand, that the Bourbons and their partisans should be expelled from England, met with a firm and generous refusal. Chagrined and exasperated, Bonaparte now condescended to enter into a personal quarrel with the English press, and employed his time in dictating articles for the Moniteur, filled with acrimony and insult. About the same time also appeared a report by Sebastiani (who had been employed in a mission to the Levant), in which, amongst other things, it was stated that six thousand French soldiers could reconquer Egypt, and that England durst not renew the war against France. Ίο say that intemperate paragraphs in newspapers, and silly vaunting in reports, could ever become a reasonable ground of war, is preposterous. But the English government, by its want of ’ f ore sight and precaution, if not also by its want of faith, was reduced to the humiliating necessity of appealing to such authorities in vindication of its conduct. The first consul now demanded why Malta had not been evacuated according to stipulation. The Enghsh mmistry replied by a claim to retain it, on the ground that France had increased her territory in Europe, and that Egypt was threatened. But the first objection was irrelevant, and the second ridiculous. Bonaparte, whose throne was being erected on the basis of national glory, could never consent to the retention of Malta by the English; to demand it of him was in fact to declare war. “England,” said the French minister, ,i shall have the treaty of Amiens, and nothing more than the treaty of Amiens.”

A rupture was now inevitable, as indeed it had from the first been, and accordingly both countries made preparations for war. Napoleon assembled troops in the fortresses of Holland and the north of France, and dispatched envoys to Austria and Prussia. Britain was not less active; in all her ports and harbours the deep note of preparation was heard. Still Bonaparte was unwilling to commence war, and, unavoidable as it now seemed, made a last effort to ward it off. In an interview with the British ambassador, Lord Whitworth, he expressed himself with a degree of frankness and sincerity unusual in diplomacy, but which unhappily led to no amicable result. “Why should I wish for war ř” said he. “A descent upon England is the only mode I have of combating her; and this, if compelled, I am resolved to undertake. But why suppose that, arrived at my present height of power, I should risk my reputation and life, unless constrained thereto by necessity, in an expedition in which myself and the greater part of my army would most probably go to the bottom of the sea; for there are a hundred chances to one against me.” But all this candour proved unavailing. Napoleon was exceedingly averse to war at this time, when he had good cause to apprehend that the basis on which his power was fixed had not yet become sufficiently consolidated to withstand the rude shock of a fresh contest. For the same reason England was inexorably bent upon trying again the fortune of arms. A warlike message from the king to parliament in March 1803 formed the prelude to the storm which was now ready to burst. Bonaparte replied in a diplomatic note of singular ability and unanswerable cogency of reasoning. It was important to him to cast upon England the whole blame of the rupture; he had at once to satisfy the people of France, and to conciliate the other powers of Europe; and, besides, his pride was mortified to find England assume the language of cold and haughty defiance, if not insult, at the very moment when he had almost humbled himself before the minister of that country. Hence his keen and quick resentment prompted him to break through the rules of courtly decorum, and, at a public levee held on the 13th of March, to give vent to the bitterness of spirit which this conduct had excited. “You are decided on war, it seems you wish it,” said he, addressing the British ambassador. “After fifteen years of combats, we must yet recommence and fight for fifteen years to come. You force me to it.” Then turning to the ambassadors of Spain and Russia, he said, “The English will have war. They are the first to draw the sword; I will be the last to put it in the scabbard. They do not respect treaties, which we must henceforth cover with black crape. You may destroy France, but you shall not intimidate her.” “We do not wish to do either the one or the other,” replied Lord Whitworth. “Respect treaties, then. Wo be to those who do not respect them; they shall be responsible to Europe for the consequences.” At the conclusion of the levee, he again addressed the British ambassador when near the door: ,, The Duchess of Dorset has passed the unpleasant season at Paris; I sincerely wish she may pass the pleasant one also; but if it be true that we are to have war, the responsibility, in the sight of both God and man, will rest on those who shall refuse to execute the treaty.” It has been said by some that this burst of anger was calculated. Why might it not be natural and sincere? War at this time was not for the interest of Napoleon, or of the country which had placed him [7:10:128]at its head; he required time to mature his plans of government; France languished for repose. But the die was now cast, and all that remained was to abide the hazard of the throw.

Lord Whitworth was now instructed to demand that the French forces should evacuate the Batavian and Swiss territories; that a suitable provision should be made for the king of Sardinia, and that Britain should be permitted to retain possession of Malta for ten years. This was called an ultimatum, and a week was insultingly fixed as the term beyond which no reply would be received. Yet even now the French government did not assume a peremptory tone. Talleyrand was sincerely averse to war, and up to the last moment used every effort to prevent it; foreseeing, probably, the pernicious consequences which would result even from fresh victories. But the English ministry resisted every advance towards an accommodation of the points in dispute, gave wretched and shuffling reasons for a mistrust which in the main was perhaps not altogether groundless, and sought to cover the blunders of their diplomacy by means of sullen pride and defiance. Outwitted, out-argued, and outdone, both in talents and in good faith, they had no voice for, no resource in, any thing but war. Orders had already been issued for seizing the ships of France, and those of the states dependent on or in close alliance with that country; a measure entirely in the spirit of that usurpation which they at once denounced and imitated; and the first consul retaliated by detaining all the British subjects whom curiosity or business had induced to visit France. And thus recommenced between the nations a quarrel unrivalled for the inveteracy of its spirit and the variety of its fortunes. “The rupture was to the first consul,” says Bignon, “the decisive point of his destiny. Henceforth he saw England rise before him like a cape of storms, which he was for ever forbidden to pass.”

The first step of Napoleon, on the renewal of hostilities, was to put his armies in motion; that of Holland to occupy Hanover, and that of Lombardy to invade Naples, and garrison Tarentum. Britain, secure from direct attack in her insular fortress, could only be combated by establishing the power of France in the sea-ports, and excluding British commerce from the Continent. To bestride Europe like a huge colossus, having one foot on the Mediterranean and the other on the Baltic, was therefore the grand object of Napoleon; and this menacing attitude he lost no time in preparing to assume towards England. That power now reigned supreme as empress of the seas; but “her control stopped with the shore,” which was now about to be closed against the enterprise of her people. Towards the end of May 1803, General Mortier marched against Hanover with an army from Holland, and speedily made himself master of the country. 'The troops of the electorate, incapable of offering any serious resistance, retreated before the enemy, and at length capitulated, when they were discharged on condition of not serving against France during the war. About the same time the kingdom of Naples was re-occupied with equal facility by a French force. These sudden conquests, however, excited uneasiness and suspicion on the part of the northern powers. Russia, which had taken the Sicilian court under its protection, was offended by the re-occupation of the Neapolitan territory, and still more seriously displeased to observe the French flag waving on the shores of the Baltic. Prussia had still greater cause for alarm at the presence of so formidable a neighbour; more especially as the French, not satisfied with Hanover, already threatened to occupy Hamburg and Bremen, the possession of which was necessary to enable them to give the law to the north of Germany. The blow aimed at England thus recoiled on a power whose selfish and temporising policy had induced her to withdraw from the contest with republican France, and leave her allies to defeat and humiliation. But as these proceedings placed the courts of Berlin and St Petersburg under the necessity of either humbling themselves before France, or throwing themselves once more into the arms of Britain, Napoleon sought by every means to conciliate these powers, and even to bribe them to join him in his attempts to destroy the commercial and maritime superiority of this country. “The germ of what was subsequently called the Continental System,” says Bignon, “already existed in the mind of the first consul, and this system reposed upon the support of Prussia. One of the objects of the usurpation of Hanover was to make that court feel the inconvenience of a state of indecision towards France, and the advantages of a close alliance with her. To render Prussia powerful, in order that by its union with France it might awe the Continent to quiet, was the aim of Napoleon. If it be asked why, towards the close of his reign, Napoleon showed himself inexorable towards Prussia, the reason is, that Prussia was the power which wished him most ill, in forcing him to combat and destroy her, instead of extending and strengthening her monarchy, in order that she and France united might keep Austria and Russia immoveable, and at the same time give that development to the continental system which would force England to make peace.” Prussia, in short, was to be fattened and enriched at the expense of acting in subservience to the views of France, and Hanover was offered to her as the price of her submission. The bribe was tempting, and there was considerable hesitation in refusing it. All the old ministers were disposed to accept the electorate with the French alliance; Hardenberg alone was of a contrary opinion, and his view ultimately prevailed. But the influence which decided the Prussian court to reject the insidious proposals of Bonaparte was that of the Emperor Alexander, whose opinions, arguments, and weight overcame all the representations of Duroc and the other French envoys, even when on the point of accomplishing their object.

By a singular turn of opinion and events, every act of Bonaparte now told in favour of Britain, the ministry of which, had he remained on the defensive, could scarcely have persisted in a war which had been undertaken without any adequate object, and in the prosecution of which there was no reasonable prospect of success. But the occupation of Hanover and the south of Italy excited the apprehensions of Europe; whilst the army collected on the northern coasts of France, and destined to invade England, had the effect of exciting the patriotic energies of that country, silencing the arguments of the friends of peace, firing the national pride, and uniting all by the tie of a supposed common danger. The voice of reason, prudence, and humanity, was drowned in the tumult of contending passions; and the most unjustifiable war in which Britain had ever engaged, suddenly became, in the broadest sense of the term, a national one. Meanwhile, as a field of battle was denied to Napoleon, he turned his activity towards military organization, forming the armies and preparing the resources with which his most brilliant conquests were afterwards achieved. Alessandria was fortified upon the most approved principles, at an enormous expense, and rendered the bulwark of Italy. From Otranto to the Texel every coast and sea-port was put in a state of defence; and the British fleet, whilst blockading every harbour, and menacing every accessible point, might observe the gigantic attempt made by the enemy to surround Europe, as it were, with a wall of iron. The few remaining colonies or foreign possessions of France now fell into the hands of Britain; and Louisiana, which had been wrested from Spain, was sold to the United States, as the only mode left of deriving advantage from the acquisition, and at the same time defeating the views which England might entertain in regard to the occupation of the province.
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Whilst public attention was mainly directed to the army and flotilla assembled at Boulogne, Ambleteuse, and other places adjoining, for the professed purpose of invading Britain, it was suddenly diverted from military projects by the discovery of a conspiracy against the first consul. The hopes which the royalist party had entertained upon his first accession to power have already been noticed. They fancied that, satisfied with military glory, he might be prevailed on to favour a restoration, if not directly to assist in bringing it about; and, in two letters, Louis XVIII. demanded of him this act of disinterestedness, which, however, he calmly but firmly declined. His subsequent measures for strengthening and perpetuating his power left no doubt that, occupying the first place in the state, he would never voluntarily descend to the second, and that the hopes which they had so hastily formed were entirely fallacious. Disappointment now gave place to intrigue, and intrigue became envenomed by the spirit of revenge. The decree which conferred upon Napoleon the consulship for life had encountered very considerable opposition. Lafayette protested against it; Camille Jourdan published a reclamation in favour of the liberty of the press; and Madame de Staël opened her brilliant saloon to the most distinguished opponents of the consular government. Of all this the royalists now took advantage; and a correspondence was entered into with Louis XVIII., who promised, in the event of his restoration, to respect the principles of liberty, and further to grant a charter in which these should be fully recognised. The hopes of the royalists were thus kept alive; the activity and confidence of their adherents were augmented; whilst the watchfulness and jealousy of the government were proportionally increased. But although the opinions and predilections of speculative persons seldom lead those who entertain them to embark in the perilous adventure of conspiracy, the Bourbons counted amongst their more zealous and active partisans men eager to strike a blow at the head of the new government, and to anticipate events rather than to wait for their tardy development. Of these, General Pichegru was one. His fortunes were now desperate; and he had many wrongs, or at least misfortunes, to avenge. Having escaped from Sinamary, to which he had been banished by the faction of the 18th of Fructidor (4th September 1797), the expatriated general returned to Europe; openly espoused the cause of the Bourbons; and, as Bonaparte had now become master in France, wished to attempt by a coup-d¢-main to overturn the principal author of his misfortunes. A plan of conspiracy, having for its object to overthrow the consular government and to restore the Bourbons, was accordingly arranged at London, in conjunction with Georges Cadoudal, son of a miller at Morbihan, a determined Chouan, and other persons well fitted to engage in such an enterprise. The views of the conspirators can only be gathered from circumstances, and from the admissions afterwards made by themselves when arrested by the French police; but it seems tolerably certain that the assassination of the first consul was regarded by them as a preliminary measure, indispensable to the success of the counter revolution which it was their main object to bring about, . The whole fabric of Bonaparte’s power rested on the basis of his character and reputation; he was not part of a system established on a wide and solid foundation, but the system itself; the existence of the consular government depended entirely on him; and hence the surest as well as speediest mode of overturning his authority was to begin by destroying himself. But be this as it may, the ultimate success of the enterprise depended on providing beforehand the means of giving it a determinate character, and at the same time acting powerfully on public opinion.

What the conspirators most wanted, therefore, was a name to oppose to that of Bonaparte; a leader of eminence, whose reputation might conciliate public opinion, and bear to be put in competition with that of the first consul. Moreau was precisely such a personage, indeed the very man they required. Possessing great talents for war, his success had been commensurate with his ability as a commander, and the renown of Hohenlinden had equalled, if not eclipsed, the glory of Marengo. Besides, he was discontented, living in affected obscurity, and full of resentment on account of the unmerited neglect with which he had been treated since the 18th of Brumaire. But though a brave soldier, Moreau was deficient in moral courage. He could not persuade himself either to yield or resist; he wanted the strength of mind or the dissimulation necessary to restrain the expression of his resentment; nature had denied him that promptitude of volition as well as energy of action which are so indispensable in the chief of a party; and, on the 19th of Brumaire, he had not dared to convert that revolution to his own advantage or that of the nation, and had even served, though with a bad grace, as aide-de-camp to his more audacious rival. His wife also had great influence over him, and having been slighted at the consular court, now exerted it to induce him to listen to propositions for overthrowing the tyranny of Bonaparte. The royalist agents, ever on the watch, took advantage of these dispositions, effected a reconciliation between him and Pichegru, and thus entangled him in a scheme destined to prove his ruin. Pichegru arrived from England in January 1804; Georges Cadoudal had preceded him by several months. They both saw Moreau, who was disgusted with the ferocity of the Chouan; but their scheme, whatever it was, made little progress towards maturity. From the first, indeed, Fouche had spread his toils around them; numbers of their accomplices were already arrested; and if Pichegru and Cadoudal were still allowed to remain at large, it was only that they might gain over Moreau, and effectually implicate him in their schemes. Meanwhile the conspirators were unable to come to any decision. At their last interview Pichegru showed much hesitation; Moreau possessed ambition which he could not conceal, but was totally wanting in character; Georges, and especially Pichegru, perceived that he had personal views. Cadoudal, endowed with great energy, and devoted to the cause of the Bourbons, pressed, conjured, threatened Moreau, but could not decide him to act; and Pichegru ended by proposing to adjourn the execution of the plot for four days. But in the night fixed for action, the conspirators, whilst impatiently waiting the signal agreed on, received counter orders, and dispersed; some indulging in the most violent proposals, others resolved to mix no longer in such intrigues. The police was on the alert; the most inquisitorial means were employed; all kinds of seduction were had recourse to; Moreau, Pichegru, and Georges were successively arrested. When interrogated as to the project of assassination, the Chouan answered frankly, “I came to Paris to attack the first consul openly by force; by the same means, in short, which he takes to protect himself. We waited to act until a French prince arrived in Paris.” This prince was, it seems, the Duke d’Enghien; and the voluntary confession of the Chouan sealed his fate.

But in the interval between the arrest and trial of Pichegru and his associates, Bonaparte struck a blow which stunned all Europe, and was no doubt intended to strike 1 terror into the hearts of those who had so often plotted his destruction. We allude to the seizure and military execution of the Duke d’Enghien. This young prince, a son of the Duke de Bourbon, and grandson of the last Prince of Condé, inhabited the chateau of Ettenheim, belonging to the elector of Baden, and only four leagues distant from Strasbure, where he had lived for some time in perfect [7:10:130]security. The proximity of his residence to the French frontier, the fact of which the consular government had received information that Dumouriez was at Ettenheim,^[26. This proved to be a complete mistake. The person whom the spies of the French police represented as General Dumouriez, was in reality the Marquis de Thumery, the German pronunciation of whose name had led them to confound him with Générai Dumouriez. (Montgailiard, Hittaire de France, tom. vi. p. 47.) It moreover appears that, among the persons present at Ettenheim, was a Count Demoustier of Franche-Comté, the consonance of whose name approaches still more nearly to that of Dumouriez. (Ibid.) ] and, above all, the confession of Cadoudal that he and his brother conspirators only waited for the arrival of a French prince in order to commence operations, satisfied the first consul that the duke was not only aware of, but deeply implicated in, the counter-revolutionary movement which had been concerted in Paris; and this conviction was much strengthened by the reports of the police, all of which represented the conspiracy as having assassination for its principal object. “The air,” said Fouché, “is full of poniards.” The life of the first consul had already been attempted by means of the infernal machine; and although, on that occasion, he had escaped as it were by miracle, he could not always hope that the hand of the assassin would miss its aim, or that his machinations would fail of success. The law of self-preservation, which gives to every man, when his life is in jeopardy, the right of defending it by all the means in his power, seemed therefore to sanction the adoption of measures calculated not merely to ward off the present danger, but also to strike a salutary terror, which might in future prevent the renewal of such attempts. Accordingly a detachment of French gensdarmes, under the order of Captain Chariot, was directed by General Ordener to surprise the castle of Ettenheim, and carry off the Duke d’Énghien; whilst another expedition, under General Caulincourt, moved upon Kehl and Offemburg to seize some emigrants at those places.^[27. The minister of exterior relations, Talleyrand, in a letter dated the 11th of March, sent to the minister of the elector a notification of the intended arrest of the Duke d’Énghien, but it is uncertain whether this letter reached Carlsruhe before the seizure of the prince, which was so rapidly effected by the gensdarmes under Chariot. Talleyrand evidently desired to prevent the commission of a crime which, he foresaw, would arm public opinion against the new order of things established in France. ] But the gensdarmes advanced so rapidly, that on the night of the 15th of March the prince was seized in his bed, and hurried off to Strasburg. The tidings of his capture were immediately conveyed to Paris by the telegraph, and through the same channel orders were received on the morning of the 18tb, in consequence of which the prisoner was rapidly transported to the castle of Vincennes, but without traversing the capital. He reached Vincennes at nine o’clock in the evening, much fatigued with his journey, and the same night was brought before a military commission, specially appointed to try, or rather to condemn him.

The charges brought against him were six in number; first, having borne arms against the Republic; secondly, having offered his services to England, the eternal enemy of France; thirdly, having received accredited agents of that country, facilitated their correspondence in France, and conspired against the internal and external safety of the state; fourthly, having placed himself at the head of a corps of French emigrants in the pay of England, which had been formed in the Brisgau and in Baden; fifthly, having maintained a correspondence in Strasburg, with the intention of raising the adjoining departments, and operating a diversion in favour of England; and, lastly, having entered into the conspiracy formed by that power for the assassination of the first consul, and held himself in readiness, in the event of success, to enter France with arms in his hands. Interrogated on each of these heads, the prince made the best defence which circumstances admitted of, oppressed as he was with fatigue, and exhausted from want of food and rest; but, after a sham trial, which'lasted about three hours, he was found guilty upon all the counts, and condemned, although not a single document had been produced, nor a witness examined in evidence against him. It is said that the commission which so summarily tried and convicted the young prince, did so under the impression that the punishment of death would not be inflicted; but if they entertained any such belief, the event speedily showed that it was entirely groundless. The prince requested to see and speak with Bonaparte, and begged that this request might be communicated to the first consul. Savary, however, who had positive orders to see the judgment carried into execution, refused to grant any indulgence; and at daybreak the prince was conducted to the fosse of the château, where, beside a new-made grave, destined to receive his remains, he was shot by a party of gensdarmes, and died with a courage worthy of his race.

Whatever excuse Napoleon may have had for seizing and detaining the Duke d’Énghien as a hostage, he had none whatever for putting him to death; whilst the circumstances attending this tragedy, the rapid journey, the nocturnal trial, the shameful conviction without evidence, and the immediate execution of the sentence, gave to it the character of a premeditated assassination. In this light, accordingly, it was regarded throughout Europe, men of all parties uniting in execrating the deed as a foul midnight murder, only rendered more revolting by the mockery of justice with which it was accompanied. It has indeed been said, that in accelerating the catastrophe, and condemning the prince clandestinely by night, the fermentation which might have arisen had the procedure been prolonged was avoided; and that the circumstances which had created the necessity for a great example, also required that it should be promptly made. But is die policy of him who seeks to profit by a crime, any justification of the crime itself? or can mere expediency ever sanction a proceeding by which justice is trampled on, and the door shut against mercy? It is no doubt true that the life of the first consul was aimed at, and that the principle of self-preservation warranted him to take some measures for his own protection; but the law of self-defence requires of him who resorts to such a plea, proof that he has not exceeded the moderamen inculpata: tutela, or, in other words, that the measures he had recourse to did not go beyond the necessity of the occasion. Had Napoleon confined himself to the seizure and detention of the prince as a hostage for his own safety, all Europe would probably have thought that he was justifiable in taking such a precaution; by acting as he did, he outraged the sentiments of justice and humanity, armed public opinion against him, and exhibited himself to the world in the light of a man capable of committing any crime, however dark and atrocious. Fouché was right, therefore, in pronouncing the murder of the Duke d’Énghien, a great political fault, which, in his estimation, was worse than a crime. Napoleon, in a laboured defence of his own conduct, dictated many years afterwards, endeavours to inculpate Savary, by charging him with precipitation; and affirms that if die request of the prince for an interview had been communicated to him, it would have been granted, and might have been followed by a remission of the capital punishment. But is it to be believed that in a matter of so much importance, a subaltern would have ventured to act as Savary did without positive orders? or that having such, he would dare to disobey them? On this point, indeed, [7:10:131]the vindication of Savary is complete; for, whatever may be thought generally of the part which he acted in the affair, he has at least established this point, that he merely obeyed his orders.

The French government had early intimation of the sentiments with which this crime was regarded in other countries. The emperor of Russia lost no time in instructing his chargé d’affaires at Paris to notify that he had learned with equal surprise and grief the event which had taken place at Ettenheim, the circumstances which followed it, and its deplorable result; and that the interest felt by his imperial majesty was the stronger, because he could in no way reconcile the violation of the territory of Baden with those principles of justice and humanity regarded as sacred by nations, and which alone protect their mutual relations. The Russian minister, at the diet of Ratisbon, also presented a note, in which he forcibly represented this violation of the Baden territory as endangering the peace and security of every state in Germany.^[28. ".∆ sa l’ r °°i °fJ∣ he 'θ ntimenls »Uh which he professed to regard the murder of the Duke d’Enghien, the Emperor Alexander . . ,' ∙ c t t ∙ e v,.*1 l ⅛ e P πn c , pal church of St Petersburg, a funeral monument in honour of the unfortunate prince, with a Datin Zľ£Ĵľ. i.’ î, n « ľ'ù’ described as a hopeful scion of the house of Bourbon, quem corríca belli, a immaniter trucidavit. Yet, __ u,, t ∙ s „i nι . t ,. a yt°crat, who on this occasion professed so much hatred and contempt for Bonaparte, loading him in ł¼o wnrd< n r α°r ’ ’ 'T' íľ? { llmse ∙f tin being acknowledged as a ftiend by the new emperor of the Gauls, and even exclaiming, ton w held out by thiX-k of d ' un * rand homme est un > ιrdsent de, dieux " At Erfurt > the c ° rrica be,lua of the in8cri l ’ ' tioιņ was held 01ut , by tlhis C reek of the lower empire, as little short of an angel of light. ] A long diplomatic correspondence ensued, without leading to any result; and on the 29th of August the Russian charge d’affaires quitted Paris, after which all relations ceased between his country and France.^[29. lorsnue les Anolaia mncertnβnr*ι∙ ° f ^∙ ld ° ubnl > the Russian chargé d’affaires, the French minister made a palpable hit: “Si uπe*lieue de laVrontι⅛H> li∣∣J aas ≡ssinat de Paul I er .,n fût venu avertir l’Empereur Alexandre que ses assassins n’étaient qu’à ri p o5le . ’ ne se serait-il pas mis en devoir de les faire arrêter?” This was a home-thrust, which admitted of no ]

Some time after this tragedy, Pichegru, who had been confined in the Temple since the 28th February, was found strangled in his prison. The operation had been performed by means of a faggot-stick inserted between the neck and the cravat, so as to act like a tourniquet, or rather like what is commonly called a Spanish windlass. Wright, an English captain, who had landed Cadoudal upon the coast of Normandy, and had afterwards been taken prisoner, was also found with his throat cut. The French government published all the details relative to both suicides; but the recent catastrophe of the Duke d’Enghien had produced in all minds an impression so unfavourable to Bonaparte, that, without proof, and even without examination, the death of Pichegru, in particular, was at the first moment imputed to him. But time has demonstrated the injustice of this imputation. The circumstances of real evidence connected with the deed itself, the clear interest of Napoleon to bring Pichegru to a public trial, as he afterwards did Moreau, the situation of that unfortunate man himself, and, above all, the fact that, even after the fall of Bonaparte, not a particle of evidence was discovered to contradict the statement originally published by the government, or to warrant so much as a suspicion of foul plav, all unite to prove that Pichegru died by his own hand. What possible motive could the first consul have to order this unhappy man to be privately assassinated? The evidence against him was complete. His negotiations with the Bourbons could not be disavowed; the agents of Louis XVIΠ. and of the English ministers, with whom he had corresponded, were detained as prisoners in the Temple; and that correspondence was about to be judicially authenticated by their respective depositions. Was it not for the interest of the first consul, and of the government of which he was the head, that all this should be clearly established in a court of justice, and that the man who had associated himself with assassins should also be proved to have been a traitor to his country? Buc Pichegru appears to have judged more correctly of his position in the Temple, than those who preposterously attempted to invest him with the honours of martyrdom. He saw himself undone without resource, and being unable to endure the ignominy of ascending the scaffold with brigands, chiefly known by their exploits on the highway, he put an end to his existence. Georges Cadoudal, and several of his more guilty associates, were soon afterwards brought to trial, condemned, and executed, without the slightest manifestation of public feeling in their favour.

The prosecution of Moreau commenced on the 10th of June. He was arraigned on a law which declared the concealment of proclaimed conspirators an offence punishable with six years’ imprisonment in fetters; and the specific fact charged against him was the harbouring of Georges Cadoudal and his accomplices. His conduct on this occasion fully justified the opinion which we have previously pronounced as to his character. The public declared loudly in his favour; but he did nothing corresponding to the great interest excited in his behalf. Brave and decided on the field of battle, he constantly showed himself timid, and sometimes pusillanimous, on the political arena; nature, in giving him the bravery of the soldier, had denied him the courage of the citizen. He must indeed have been conscious that he was deeply compromised; but, on the other hand, never did a person accused find so many defenders in almost every class of society. The enemies of Bonaparte, and they were numerous, loudly expressed the interest with which Moreau had inspired them; a crowd of military men, who had served under his orders, prepared to defend him by open force, nay, even to rescue him from the tribunal; and the very gensdarmes appointed to guard him turned towards him the hilts of their sabres in token of their readiness to assist in his deliverance. But always feeble, and incapable of taking a decided part, Moreau had recourse to supplications addressed to the first consul, to whom, in a letter from his prison in the Temple, he presented the most humble excuses, at the same time imploring the “bienveillance” of the head of the government. Nor was his conduct less humiliating when brought before his judges. The exigencies of his defence imposed upon him the dire necessity of denying the statement which he had written to the Directory, and signed with his own hand, that “the proofs of the treason of Pichegru were as clear as day, but that he doubted whether they could be exhibited in a judicial form.” Accordingly, after having repeatedly affirmed that “it was but too true that Pichegru had betrayed the confidence of the whole nation,” he had now recourse to the most miserable shifts in order to invalidate all the accusations which he had presented against Pichegru, when the latter commanded the army of the Rhine and Moselle in 1795 and the beginning of 1796, as guilty of maintaining a correspondence with the Prince of Condé and the enemies of the Republic. But the force of public opinion had made itself felt even on the bench; and the recollection that he had gained thirty battles for the Republic, and saved two armies, created an interest in his favour which all his weakness and folly could not destroy. The culpability of Moreau was evident, and Bonaparte required that he should be condemned to death, or to some degrading punishment, intending, as is said, to have remitted the sentence, [7:10:132]which would have effectually destroyed Moreau in public opinion. But in vain did he attempt to seduce or intimidate the judges. Out of twelve, seven feared not to resist ;* and by a sort of transaction between the government and public opinion, Moreau was declared culpable, but excusable, and condemned to suffer two years’ imprisonment, which was afterwards commuted into exile. 2 Of forty-six others who were at the same time arraigned, twenty were condemned to death, five to two years’ imprisonment, and the rest acquitted, but not released. The Polignacs were spared at the intercession of Josephine, and Madame Murat, afterwards queen of Naples.

In the early part of this year a law was passed which decreed the re-union of the civil laws in a single code, under the title of Code Civil des Français. The advantage which a country derives from the establishment of uniform laws does not need to be proved; but, to appreciate the full importance of this benefit to France, it is only necessary to cast a glance at the state of the law under the old regime. It was divided into two principal systems; that of written law, and that of the countries governed by customs or common law. Both systems were subdivided into an infinite number of branches. There were about three hundred general customs, varying in the extent to which they prevailed; and these, again, were modified by a multitude of local usages. The number of commentators was immense. France was also governed by many other written institutions, such as ordonnances, edicts, declarations of the sovereign, and arrêts of the parliaments; each province, each diocese, each bailliage, each town, each corporation, had in fact its own usages and its own jurisprudence. “Besides the forty thousand Roman laws, of which some one is always cited at random,” says Voltaire, “we have five hundred different customs, reckoning the small towns and burghs, which derogate from the usages of the principal jurisdiction; so that a person travelling post in France changes laws oftener than he changes horses, and an advocate who is very learned in one city is no better than an ignoramus in that next adjoining.” This description is notin any respect overcharged. Never in any other country had chicanery and oppression so wide a field to expatiate in; never was there so urgent a necessity for substituting, in the room of conflicting usages and accumulated anomalies, a comprehensive and uniform system of laws.

The failure of the royalist plot to overthrow the consular government, together with the exposure of the follies committed by Drake and Smith, the English residents at the courts of Munich and Stutgardt l materially contributed to advance the project which Napoleon had for some time cherished of assuming the imperial purple. A despotism for life is an absurdity; and besides it holds out a sort of premium for assassination. That the first consul’s life had been aimed at, the infernal machine, and the conspiracy of Pichegru and Georges, placed beyond all doubt; that similar attempts would be repeated, as long as the hope remained that, by taking off a single individual, a counter revolution would be effected, was indeed most probable. According to the logic of the time, a necessity had arisen, not for abating the despotism, but for placing it on a more solid and permanent foundation; or, in other words, for declaring it hereditary in the person and family of the man who was already invested with absolute power. Thus reasoned the partisans of Napoleon, and, in their view of the question, correctly; because any thing was preferable to a government which might at any given instant of time be overthrown. Measures were therefore taken to effect the object which was now declared to be so necessary to the safety and happiness of France. On the 30th of April a motion was made in the Tribunate to confide the government of the Republic to an emperor, and to declare the empire hereditary in the family of the first consul Napoleon Bonaparte. This motion was made by an obscure member of the legislative chamber, named Curée, who concluded his speech on the occasion by declaring that the nation desired a chief as illustrious as its destiny. Ever since the 2d of August 1802, when, by an organic senatus-consultum, the members of the Tribunate were reduced to a hundred and fifty, Bonaparte had completely controlled the deliberations of that body; indeed almost all the tribunes were either sold or intimidated, and scarcely a shadow of representation remained. The proposition to confer upon Bonaparte the title of emperor was therefore adopted by the Tribunate; but the unanimity of that body was greatly troubled by the heroic opposition of Carnot, who on this occasion expressed the most noble and generous sentiments. “I voted," said he, “at the time against the consulate for life; I shall in like manner vote now against the re-establishment of the monarchy in France.” He contended that the government of a single individual was any thing rather than a guarantee of stability and tranquillity. “The duration of the Roman empire,” said he, “was not longer than that of the Republic would have been; the intestine disorders were still greater, and crimes more multiplied; republican high-mindedness, heroism, and all the masculine virtues, were displaced to make room for the most ridiculous pride, the vilest adulation, the most insatiable cupidity, and the most complete disregard of national prosperity. What evil, pray, was remedied or obviated by declaring the succession to the throne hereditary? Was not this in fact regarded as the legitimate inheritance of the house of Augustus? Was not Domitian the son of Vespasian, Caligula the son of Germanicus, Commodus the son of Marcus Aurelius ?” He concluded a powerful address in the following words, the beauty and force of which we shall not impair or enfeeble by any attempt at translation. “La liberté fut-elle done montrée à Thomme pour qu'il ne pût jamais en jouir? Fut-elle sans cesse offerte à ses voeux comme un fruit auquel il ne peut porter la main sans être frappé de mort? Ainsi la nature, qui nous fait de cette liberté un besoin si pressant, aurait voulu nous traiter en marâtre? Non, je ne puis consentir à regarder ce bien si universellement préféré à tous les autres, sans lequel tous les autres ne sont rien, comme one simple illusion; mon coeur me dit que la liberté est possible, que le régime en est facile et plus, stable qu'aucun gouvernement arbitraire, qu’aucune oligarchie.”

The vote of the Tribunate was communicated to the Conservative Senate, which, on the 4∙th of May, decreed, l These were, Clavier, the learned translator of Pausanias, Lecourbe, Martineau, Desmaisons, Rigault, Laguillaumie, and Demeure. To an emissary who informed him that Bonaparte only desired the condemnation of Moreau in order to pardon him, Clavier replied, “Et qui nous la fera, à nous ř” who will pardon us?

'< After the sentence had been pronounced, every facility of escape was afforded to Moreau; but, discovering the snare laid for him, he avoided it by returning alone to the prison of the Temple. At length a compromise was entered into, and, after having paid the whole expense of the prosecution, he retired through 8pain to America. “En montrant un caractère moins indécis, moins pusillanime,” says the Abbé de Montgaillard, “Moreau aurait trouvé de l’appui dans le sénat, dans l’armée, dans la population de Paris, et même dans la nation; mais son infirmité politique se montre ici tout entière. Il ne s'était fait une idée positive de la part qu’il pouvait et devait prendre dans ces grandes crises de Fructidor et de Brumaire; il ne sut se déterminer ni dans l’une ni dans l’autre de ces circonstances; patriote sincère, ami de l’ordre, de la justice, et de la liberté, il ne sent jamais que des velléités incohérentes d’imiter ces grands hommes qui se signalèrent contre les oppresseurs de la patrie.” (Montgaillard, Histoire de France, tome vi. p. 125, 126.) [7:10:133]on the motion of the second consul, Cambacérès,^[30. He who thus placed the crown on the head of an ambitious soldier was the same person who, in the night of the 19th January 1793, exclaimed, “Citoyens répresentans, en prononçant la mort du dernier Roi des Français, vous avez fait un acte dont la mémoire ne passera jamais, et qui sera gravé par le burin d’immortalité dans les fastes des nations...Qu’une expédition du décret de mort soit, envoyée, à l’instant, au conseil exécutif pour le faire exécuter dans les vingt-quatre heures de la notification.” In this cortège of senators was also the minister of justice who, on the 20lh January, announced to Louis XVI. the sentence of death. “Jamais empéreur de Rome,” says Montgaillard, “ne dut le diadème à de plus vils affranchis; posé par de telles mains, il eût souillé le front même de Titus.” (Hin. de France, vi. 94.) In a word, these Conventionalists, who, in 1793, had shown themselves so eager to hasten the death of Louis XVI., were not iess so, in 1804, to accelerate the enthronement of Napoleon Bonaparte. ] “that it is for the decided interest of the French people to confide the government of the Republic to Napoleon Bonaparte as hereditary emperor and fourteen days afterwards the same body, without waiting until the vain formality of obtaining the sanction of the people had been gone through, passed another decree, in which the first consul is styled “ £mperor of the French,” a title which, according to the mover, “is only the expression of an authentic wish already manifested by the nation.” It appears, however, that the people were not in any shape consulted or referred to in the matter. For form’s sake, they had been admitted to vote respecting the question of the consulate for life; but on the present occasion the experiment was not repeated, however advantageous it might have been to obtain at least a semblance of popular assent; and, what is not a little remarkable, this fact is established by the conclusion of the very discourse in which it is unblushingly affirmed that the assumption of the imperial dignity by Napoleon is only the expression of an authentic wish already manifested by the nation. 4, If it is in the principles of our constitution," says Cambacérès, in presenting the decree of the senate, “and already several examples have been given, to submit to the sanction of the people the part of the decree which concerns the establishment of an hereditary government, the senate nevertheless conceives that it ought to supplicate your imperial majesty to consent that the organic dispositions should immediately receive their execution; and, for the glory as well as for the happiness of the Republic, it proclaims, on the instant even, Napoleon emperor of the French.” What, then, becomes of the assertion, so often advanced, as if it could not be contradicted, that “the wish of thirty millions of men had crowned the Emperor Napoleon ?” By evidence the most conclusive it is here established that Bonaparte was created emperor by the senate, consisting entirely of his own creatures, and that the nation was not consulted or appealed to in the matter. An organic senatus-consultum next declared the imperial dignity hereditary in the direct, natural, and legitimate descendants of Napoleon, from male to male, in the order of primogeniture, to the perpetual exclusion of women and their descendants. It provided, however, that the emperor might adopt the children or grandchildren of his brothers, if he had no male offspring himself at the moment of adoption, and that the children who might thus be adopted should enter into the direct line of descent, but could only be called to the succession after legitimate and natural descendants. In default of an heir of Napoleon, the imperial dignity was to devolve upon Joseph-Napoleon and his descendants, and, failing the latter, upon Louis Bonaparte and his descendants. And thus expired the French Republic, surnamed indivisible and imperishable by so many orators and rhetoricians; and thus was monarchy re-established in France, with even greater facility than it had been overthrown eleven years before. Having passed through a course of representative government, they now hastened to submit to the government of one man invested with despotic power; like the ancient slaves, they voluntarily replaced themselves under the yoke which for a day they had entertained the design of for ever shaking off.^[31. How well they verified the words of an Italian poet, the reader will judge: Torna contento cost Schiave, che uscl di pena, Alla barbara catena Che detestava un dì. (Metastasio.) ]

Having assumed the title of emperor, which the obsequious senate had, by a sort of improvisation, bestowed on him, Bonaparte lost no time in exercising the powers belonging to his new dignity. On the 19th of May he created eighteen of his generals marshals of the empire. This was an act of homage to the army, the real basis of his power, and it was performed without even waiting until the senate had taken the oath of allegiance, which it did on the 27th. Addresses now flowed in from all parts of the hundred and eight departments into which the territory of the imperial republic was divided. The authorities, the functionaries, the magistracy, and the army, all brought to the foot of the throne assurances of the most profound devotion. Harassed with the convulsions of a long anarchy, the people now invoked the repose of servitude. The despotism of one man seemed to them a small evil compared with the tyranny of the factions. Of this disposition Napoleon took full advantage, and, accordingly, spent the remainder of the year in employing every means to get his new dignity confirmed and sanctioned both at home and abroad. The fact of his assumption of the imperial dignity was formally announced to all the states of Europe, Britain alone excepted, and negotiations were at the same time opened with a view to obtain its recognition. Austria was the first to acknowledge the new emperor of the Gauls; and the opportunity was even chosen by her sovereign for modifying his own title, to which he now added that of hereditary emperor of Austria. But the other powers either hesitated or delayed. The army, however, formed the true basis of Napoleon’s power, and their sanction was essential to its stability. To obtain this with suitable eclat, he visited Boulogne in the course of the summer, and, soon after his arrival in the camp, ordered a grand review, during which he distributed to the military crosses of the Legion of Honour, which, created by the law of the 19th May 1802, had been solemnly inaugurated at Paris a short time before (14th July). Here, on the I6th of August, seated on a temporary throne in the midst of his numerous hosts, with the shores of England and its fleets before him, he received, as it were in presence of the enemy, the exulting acclamations with which the troops answered his claim to empire, and seemed, like another Clovis, raised on their bucklers, to be the founder of a new dynasty in France. From Boulogne Napoleon hurried to Aix-la-Chapelle, the ancient capital of Charlemagne, where the acknowledgment of his new dignity by the Emperor Francis II. awaited his arrival. Lastly, on the 1st of December, the Conservative Senate presented to him the plebiscitum, as it was called, which recognised the imperial dignity as hereditary in his family.

That nothing might be wanting, the church was required to give her formal sanction to the new dynasty. The Gallican clergy had already signalised their zeal by proclaiming Napoleon emperor, and in their discourses styling him [7:10:134] Moses and Cyrus, not to mention other impious absurdities.^[32. The language of impious adulation in which the clergy indulged on the occasion referred to reflects eternal disgrace, if not on their order, at least on themselves. The following are specimens of the pious incense with which they endeavoured to regale the nostrils of Napoleon: “Le Dieu des dieux,” said Cardinal Cambacérès, “et des rois, avait donné, et il avait repris; il n’a pas rendu, mais il a donné de nouveau, comme il avait donné le trône de Clovis à Charlemagne, et le trône de celui-ci à Saint-Louis...L’homme de la religion trouvera nos maximes dans l’Evangile.” “Un dieu et un monarque,” said the Archbishop of Turin, “comme le Dieu des Chrétiens est le seul digne d’être adoré et obéi; vous f Napoleon) êtes le seul homme digne de commander aux Français. Par-là cesseront toutes abstractions philosophiques, tout dépècement du pouvoir.” “Qu’elle est grande,” cried another dignitary, “qu’elle est admirable, cette divine sagesse qui établit les empires. Napoléon, que Dieu appella des deserts d’Egypte, comme un autre Moise...Donnons pour garant de notre fidélité à César, notre fidélité à Dieu...Ne cessons de le dire, le doigt de Dieu est ici... Nouveau Mathatbias, Bonaparte parut dans l’assemblée du peuple, envoyé par le seigneur...Un nouveau Cyrus a paru...Généreux comme le pieux Onias... L’écriture nous trace, dans le règne de Josaphat, ce prince cheri de Dieu et des hommes, l’image du gou vernement accompli de Napoléon...La soumission lui est due, comme dominant surtout; à ses ministres, comme envoyés par lui pour protéger le bien et punir le mal, parce que tel est l’ordre de la Providence.” It would be at once curious and instructive to compare this with the language held after the events of 1814, by some of the very men who thus profaned holy writ in order to offer incense to the Jacobin emperor. ] In success they discovered divine right as well as legitimacy, and proclaimed the finger of God as the agent of his elevation. Nor was the successor of St Peter, and the vicar of God upon earth, less accommodating than the members of the Gallican church. At the command of Napoleon, his holiness made a journey to Paris, in order to place the crown on the head of the new Charlemagne, who had despoiled the church of the very possessions which had been bestowed on her by the pious emperor of the Franks. The sovereign pontiff who thus obsequiously consented to consecrate military usurpation, was no other than that Bishop of Imola who, in December 1797, exhorted his flock to follow the traces of the democratic revolution of France; but if the hearts of men are in the hand of the Most High, infallibility is of course an attribute of the papal tiara. The ceremony of the coronation took place in the church of Nôtre Dame on the second of December; and no labour or expense had been spared to give splendour and magnificence to the spectacle. But notwithstanding all the pomp and luxury displayed, few acclamations greeted the emperor on his way to Nôtre Dame, and still fewer awaited him on his return. No man said God bless him. The people generally remained passive and silent. During the ceremonial, Napoleon, impatient of its slow march, seized the crown, which he placed on his own head, and next he also crowned the Empress Josephine. The holy father then performed the triple unction on the head and the two hands, after which he recited the following strange formula of consecration: “Almighty and eternal God, who hast established Ĳazaël to govern Syria, and Jehu king of the Jews, in manifesting to them thy will by the organ of the prophet Elias; who hast equally shed the holy unction of the kings on the head of Saul and of David by the ministry of the prophet Samuel; shed, by my hands, the treasures of thy grace and of thy benediction on thy servant Napoleon, whom, notwithstanding our personal unworthiness, we do this day consecrate emperor in thy name.” This formula explicitly announces the doctrine of divine right, a doctrine borrowed from the constitution of the Hebrews, and introduced into Europe at a period of the grossest ignorance, under the feeble Carlovingians, when the priesthood established the absolute power of kings over their people, and the absolute power of the pope over kings.

The man who had thus gathered up out of the wrecks of the Revolution the fragments of the sovereignty which it had broken to pieces, and with these materials, aided by his own genius, constructed a new empire in France, was, considering his character in its various aspects, the most extraordinary personage that any age or country has ever produced. Gifted by nature with all the general and efficient elements of greatness, but possessing few or none of those peculiarities which sometimes mar and sometimes adorn it, his powers differed from those of ordinary men not so much in kind, perhaps, as in degree. Great good sense, intuitive quickness, unquenchable energy, severe judgment, untiring perseverance; such were the general attributes of his mind, to which circumstances afforded full opportunities of development. He was not one of those men born to struggle against events, or to create occasions for the display of his own powers, and for the gratification of an aspiring ambition. He never anticipated the course of events, nor ventured forward until every accessory had been prepared, until all was ripe for consummation. His mind was essentially practical, and his supreme excellence consisted in a just appreciation of the true character of evente, united with unexampled promptitude in availing himself of the favours of fortune, and in turning every propitious circumstance to the utmost possible advantage. But his energy was active, not passive; with the current of events in his favour, his audacity was boundless; when the tide turned against him, he evinced but little fortitude; in prosperity he seemed like a god, governing all things at his pleasure; in adversity he pined like a southern exotic under a northern sky. He was not fitted by nature to play the part either of Caesar or of Cromwell, and he would never have descended to that of Catiline. He was in truth but a bad conspirator; for, as we have already seen, the revolution of the 18th and 19th of Brumaire was effected, in spite of his blunders and hesitation, by the firmness and intrepidity of his brother Lucien. Further, Napoleon was endowed with great and commanding intellect, but not with strong passions; he neither loved nor sympathised with freedom; and even his ambition seems to have been after-thought begotten of events. A little before the 13th of Vendémiaire, when accident first brought him into notice, his views were limited to the purchase of a country-house and farm, but not of confiscated property, so unstable did he then consider the Revolution. But he had that restless spirit, that craving activity, and that innate consciousness of intellectual power, out of which ambition springs. He was not without enthusiasm of a certain kind; but it never approached the generous warmth of inspiration, or betrayed him into any sallies which his judgment condemned; and hence his compositions and addressee, though full of force and vigour, are deformed by exaggeration, and devoid of natural feeling, the essential element of true eloquence. But the absence of passion and enthusiasm implies selfishness in the highest degree; and this again naturally produces the most depreciatory judgments of mankind. The character of Napoleon was deformed by both these vices in an eminent degree. Himself, his greatness, and that of France through him, became, if not a passion, at least the substitute for one; and, mistrustful of all pretensions to public virtue or disinterestedness, he regarded mankind as all governed by their immediate interests, and as ready to serve any cause by which these might be advanced. From this nullity of feeling, and strength of intellect, flowed the virtues and vices of the man. He was neither im. posed on by the cant of the Revolution, nor in the slightest[7:10:135] degree tinged with its fanaticism. Indebted for his promotion to the democracy, he adopted that side which threw command open to talents; he espoused the cause of the Revolution, and rendered it triumphant; but he imbibed none of its passions or prejudices against either the aristocracy or the clergy, both of whom he spared and even protected. He was not by nature cruel or implacable; but the supreme command of armies, and the habitual spectacle of fields of battle, had inspired him with a contempt of human life, and a disregard for destroying it. Ĳe had no immoral tendencies; but as he had derived from education no principle of religion, or, at least, as the Revolution annihilated any he might have originally imbibed, he was left free to adopt those untempered maxims of expediency, according to which prudence becomes the only regulating principle of human actions. Nor does he seem to have cherished any nice sentiment of honour, or in general to have possessed those habits and manners which are characteristic of a gentleman. The one would have inspired him with a respect for truth, and prevented an imperial bulletin from becoming synonymous with falsehood; and the other would have preserved him from that habitual rudeness, which at length left around him, not devoted servants, but servile instruments, alike incapable of delaying aguilty order or of hastening a generous one. As to war, Napoleon always found it made to his hand; if his system provoked it, which it unquestionably did, this never entered into his calculation, and he could not imagine why Austria, Britain, or any other power, should affect to feel any alarm at his aggrandisement. He had come in place of the Revolution; he was at once the representative and the guardian of all the interests and changes which it had created or effected; and yet, though but a Jacobin enthroned, he resented as an indignity and an insult the mistrust evinced by those very powers which had previously combined to crush the Revolution of which he was the representative. This was no doubt the grand misfortune of his position. He could not stand still, much less recede. His system was essentially of a progressive and an encroaching character; his policy was from necessity arbitrary and menacing. Wars followed; coalition after coalition was formed and destroyed; and whilstFrance only assumed the offensive in order to anticipate enemies which were preparing to strike her, victory attended her standards. But the very fruits of success, which no man knew so well as Napoleon how to gather up, soon accumulated to such a degree, that a further extension of his authority became inevitable. The obstinate hostility of England, which he endeavoured to overcome by means of what he chose to denominate the continental system, involved him in the Russian expedition, in which he assumed a directly aggressive character; and the consequences were unheard-of disasters and defeats. The elements warred against him, and in the snows of Russia were buried those formidable legions which had so often marched to victory. The tide of events now turned; and in the violence of the reflux Napoleon was, after a brief struggle, overthrown. When he crossed the Niemen to invade Russia, he had reached the culminating point of his destiny; when he recrossed that stream, the nations of Europe were already freed from his grasp. But though unable to control events, Napoleon was eminently calculated to rule over masses of men. If he deprived them of liberty, he at least secured to them equality; in all departments a boundless field was opened by him to talent and enterprise; and in pursuing his own schemes of greatness, he conferred the most substantial and enduring benefits on the nation which he governed. His was essentially a popular despotism; one which rested not on the narrow basis of castes, but leaned on the general mass. Yet his power, though it extended widely over the land, did not strike downwards, but, spreading its roots horizontally and superficially through the soil, wanted that firm hold which alone could have enabled it to resist the fury of the adverse blasts to which it was exposed.

The events of 1804 prepared the way for a new coalition against France. The breach with Russia, resulting' ostensibly from the seizure and execution of the Duke d’Enghien, had accomplished the first wish of Great Bri-∣ tain, which was to find a continental ally. Menaced with invasion, the mere threat of which, independently of any danger to be apprehended, was an evil, because an insult, that power, acting upon the most obvious principles of policy, naturally sought to find employment on the Continent for the legions which frowned defiance on the opposite shores of the Channel; and a prospect of accomplishing this object was unexpectedly opened in consequence of the event to which we have alluded. But this prospect was for a time overclouded by an unjustifiable aggression on the part of Britain. Spain had for several years been in close alliance with France, which she secretly aided with subsidies; yet the English government, though fully aware of the circumstance, pretended not to observe it, and had hitherto respected Spain as a neutral power. This policy, however, which, in the circumstances, was not less wise than cautious, the English ministry suddenly abandoned, and, by a most unjustifiable act of aggression, threw Spain into the arms of France. Without any declaration of war, or the least indication of a change in the system which had hitherto been pursued by England, several Spanish vessels, returning laden with treasure, were attacked by a superior force, and after a sharp action captured. This proceeding, stamped with all the characters of violence and treachery, was immediately followed by a declaration of war on the part of the Spanish government; and from this time Britain had not only to contend with the fleets of France and Spain united, but, in consequence of the gigantic schemes of Napoleon, became seriously exposed to all the perils and miseries of an invasion.

Meanwhile, as the clouds of hostility were gathering around him, Napoleon addressed a letter directly to the king of Great Britain ( 14th January), containing overtures of a peace. “1 attach no dishonour,” said he, “to making the first advance. I have, I think, sufficiently proved to the world that I do not dread any of the chances of war. Peace is the wish of my heart. I conjure your majesty not to deny yourself the satisfaction of giving it to the world. A coalition will never have any effect but to increase the continental preponderance and grandeur of France.” In any view, this was a politic proceeding. It served to conciliate public opinion in France, to throw upon England the odium of persisting in embroiling the Continent, to mask his real designs, and at the same time to parade his dignity by treating on a footing of equality with the proudest and most powerful monarch in the world. The reply of the English ministry was cold and repulsive. “His majesty is persuaded,” said they in their reply addressed to Μ. Talleyrand, “that the object of peace can only be obtained by engagements calculated to provide for the future safety and tranquillity of Europe, and to prevent the recurrence of the dangers and misfortunes in which it has been involved. His majesty, therefore, feels that it is impossible for him to reply more particularly to the overture which has been made to him, until he has had time to communicate with the powers of the Continent.” Both parties were equally insincere. Britain desired to abide by the fortunes of a third coalition; Napoleon pursued his schemes of aggrandisement, and on the 18th of March announced to the senate that be had accepted the crown of Italy, in conformity, as he said, with the wishes manifested by the Italian Republic. At Milan, where be was [7:10:136]received with enthusiasm, he had exchanged his title of president of the Cisalpine Republic for that of king osltaly, and placed upon his head the iron crown^[33. This crown is called iron, from a nail of the true cross, which, it seems, is attached to it. ] of Charlemagne, amidst the acclamations of a people charmed with the idea of a kingdom of Italy. This was followed by an act of a still more unequivocal character, namely, the incorporation of Genoa, lately the Ligurian Republic, with the French empire; a measure certain to alarm Austria, and to furnish Great Britain and Russia with a new and powerful argument for inducing that power to join the coalition against France.^[34. Napoieon’s object in seizing Genoa is announced in one of his letters to Lebrun, who had been appointed governor, and endeavoured, as far as possible, to mitigate the rigour of his stem orders. “In uniting Genoa to the empire, I was induced neither by the revenue, nor by the land forces she might contribute. I had but one object in view, viz. fifteen thousand seamen. It is, then, going against the very spirit of my orders to be lenient or backward in levying and raising this force. You are too mild, too merciful. How can you govern people without discontenting them? what would you do if you were charged with forcing the conscripts of a couple of French departments to march to the army? I tell you that, in matters of government, justice means force as well as virtue. ( Vouι ιavez bien qu'en fait de gouvernement jutlice veut dire Jbree comme vertu.) As to the discontent of the Genoese, I am not the man to listen to such remonstrance^. Think you I am decrepid enough to fear them? My answer is, seamen, seamen, still seamen. Govern hut to collect seamen; dream but of them. Say what you will from me, but say that I will have seamen.” The reason of this extreme urgency will immediately appear. As to the detestable maxim, that justice means force, it might with truth be converted into a general motto for the history of Napoleon’s reign, with him the amount of force was ever the measure of justice and virtue. ] i Many persons have thought, and some gravely maintained, that Napoleon was not serious in his menace of invading England. But the contrary has been proved by the most incontrovertible evidence. He was well aware, however, that without obtaining at least a temporary superiority of naval force, such a project would be impracticable; and accordingly all his efforts had, for some time past, been directed towards the accomplishment of this preliminary object. His plan was to distract the attention of England, by sending a powerful fleet to the West Indies, which, after threatening her possessions in that quarter, should suddenly return to Europe, effect a junction with the Spanish fleet, then disengage the squadron blockaded in Brest, and having rallied under its flag ships from other ports, enter the Channel with an overwhelming force of nearly sixty sail of the line. This project was admirably conceived, and most skilfully combined; and if the execution had at all corresponded with the design, or if Villeneuve had obeyed his orders, or if, even after his indecisive action with Sir Robert Calder, he had made sail for Brest, instead of going into Cadiz in the face of reiterated instructions, enforced even with menaces, it would beyond all doubt have succeeded. In this splendid conception, almost every contingency had been taken into the calculation, except the obstinate and infatuated disobedience of the admiral, which allowed England time to collect ner means, and enabled Nelson to annihilate, by one decisive blow, the navies of both France and Spain. On this occasion fortune was on the side of England, which was saved from imminent peril, perhaps from a great national calamity, by a degree of infatuation in the commander of the combined fleets, far beyond all ordinary experience or reasonable calculation. If, after his action with Sir Robert Calder, Villeneuve had proceeded to Brest, according to his peremptory instructions, his force would have at once been increased to forty-five sail of the line, which, with the Rochefort squadron, the junction of which he could then calculate on, would have enabled him to enter the Channel with at least fifty sail of the line; a force amply sufficient to secure to France for the time the naval superiority required. And, in such an event, what would most probably have followed? The troops were in hand, almost on the very beach; the flotilla was kept in readiness to put to sea at a moment’s notice; and in ten hours a hundred and fifty thousand men, with material and ammunition, might have been on their way to the opposite coast.^[35. Dumas, Précie det Evénement Militaire», tome xvii. piècet juttificativee. Bourrienne reports a conversation which he had with Napoleon on this subject, and in which the latter is made to say, “Those who believe in the seriousness of my menace of invasion are fools. They do not see the thing in its true light. I can without doubt disembark in England with a hundred thousand men, fight a great battle, win it; but I must reckon on thirty thousand killed, wounded, or prisoners. If I march upon London, a second battle awaits me; suppose me again successful, what am I to do in London, with an army diminished by three fourths, without hope of reinforcements? It would be madness, without naval superiority, such a project is impracticable.” This merely shows either that Bourrienne did not understand the nature of the communication made to him, or that it suited the views of Napoleon to conceal his real intentions from the inquisitive secretary. That the menace was “serious” as long as a hope remained of obtaining, by the means already described, a superiority of naval force in the Channel, is proved beyond all doubt by the documents which General Dumas has inserted in the Appendix to his seventeenth volume, above referred to; and it seems equally certain that, if villeneuve had obeyed his orders, the experiment, with all its attendant hazards, would have been tried. ] But providence willed it otherwise.

Whilst Napoleon was thus menacing England with invasion from the heights of Boulogne, his looks were at the same time anxiously directed towards the east and north of Europe. He was by no means ignorant of the coalition which was forming against him; but as the position which he at present occupied enabled him at once to threaten England and observe Austria, he waited for the development of events in order to judge whether he should attack the former upon her own soil, or strike a blow at her in Germany. Prepared for instant operations, his principal object was to suffer the continental powers to anticipate him in declaring war, and then in turn to anticipate them, by promptly assuming the offensive, dashing into the very heart of Germany, overpowering Austria before she had time to concentrate her means of resistance, and thus destroying the coalition by, as it were, cutting off its head. And this plan, based on the most accurate prescience of events, was that which he ultimately carried into execution with the most astounding success. On the 8th of April a treaty of alliance was concluded at St Petersburg, between Great Britain and Russia, in which the contracting powers engaged to employ the most prompt and effectual means to form in Europe a general league, capable of constraining the government of France to consent to the reestablishment of peace, and of the equilibrium of power: and to attain this object, the force to be employed was fixed at five hundred thousand effective men, exclusively of the succours to be furnished by England. The special objects of the league were, the evacuation of Hanover and of Germany; the independence of Holland and of Switzerland; the re-establishment of the king of Sardinia in Piedmont, with a considerable extension of territory; the security of the kingdom of Naples; and the entire evacuation of Italy by the French. Sweden, having already de∙ cided against France, acceded to these stipulations. Prussia approved of their spirit, but temporised; and finally resolved to persevere in that neutrality by which she had already profited so much. Austria, anxious to redeem her defeats, and regain her ascendency in Italy, formally [7:10:137]acceded to the treaty of St Petersburg (on the 9th of August), notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the Archduke Charles, who, foreseeing the peril, earnestly counselled peace. She engaged not to lay down arms except with the consent of her allies, and was to receive from England a subsidy of three millions sterling during the current year, 1805, and of four millions during each of the following years. These negotiations did not long remain a secret from Napoleon, who had anxiously watched the gathering storm; and scarcely had Austria acceded to the third continental coalition, when the French army, assembled upon the shores of the Channel, was in full march towards the Rhine. Bavaria had previously been secured by a promise of territorial aggrandisement; the Russians were still in Gallicia; and Austria, as the Archduke Charles had foreseen, was thus left to contend single-handed with the whole power of France. In these circumstances Austria pushed forward her troops, and peremptorily demanded that the elector of Bavaria should abandon the alliance of France, and unite with her in maintaining the independence of Germany. The elector temporised, pleaded his engagements, gained time, and succeeded in drawing off his army. The Austrians then occupied Munich, thereby committing the very act of aggression which Napoleon expected and required.

The great object which the English ministry had in view in forming a new coalition against France cannot be mistaken. But in thus precipitating Austria into hostilities before her allies had time to come to her assistance, in order to remove the French army from Boulogne, Pitt played into the hands of the very enemy whom he was so desirous to humble. From the cause already stated, namely, the failure of Napoleon’s maritime combinations, through the incapacity of his naval commanders, a descent upon England had become impossible, and the danger, before so imminent, had by this time entirely ceased. It was already certain that France could not obtain even a temporary superiority of naval force in the Channel, without which such an attempt would have been worse than madness. To obviate a danger, therefore, which no longer existed, Pitt recklessly sacrificed the principal ally of England, contributed to extend and consolidate the colossal power of Napoleon, and enabled him to impose on Germany those fetters which it afterwards cost so much blood and treasure to shake off. The blunder of the English minister was indeed gigantic, and no wonder it cost him his life. He fell into the very snare which had been so skilfully laid for him; and by this fatal error placed Europe at the feet of the man for whom he may with truth be said to have paved the way to victory. Nor was the conduct of the campaign itself in any respect unworthy of the blind and infatuated policy which had hurried on the contest.

The Archduke Charles, finding his pacific counsels disregarded, had resigned the presidency of the war department, and refused to assume the general direction of a war which, he foresaw, would be attended with ruin to his house. The command of the Austrian army, therefore, was in an evil hour intrusted to General Mack, who, it is said, had been recommended by the English government; a mere pedantic tactician, without genius or energy, who, a few years previous to this, had failed to defend Rome with a numerous army, against General Championnet with only a few thousand troops; and who, though a tolerable staff-officer, was wholly unequal to the difficult and responsible situation in which he had been placed. Of this total incapacity he gave early and lamentable proofs. Conceiving that Napoleon must necessarily advance by the same road which had formerly been made choice of by Moreau, he took post at Ulm, and there awaited the approach of the enemy. The French emperor, however, had very different views. His preparations had been made with such rare ability, and the plan of the campaign so well digested beforehand, that towards the end of September the French grand army had arrived on the right bank of the Rhine. It was divided into seven corps, with a grand reserve of cavalry. The first corps was commanded by Bernadotte, the second by Marmont, the third by Davoust, the fourth by Soult, the fifth by Lannes, the sixth by Ney, the seventh by Augereau, and the cavalry by Murat, who had under his orders Nansouty, D'Hautpoul, Klein, Beaumont, and Welcher. Napoleon entered Germany at the head of about a hundred and sixty thousand men, including his guard.^[36. Massena, at the same time, assumed the command of sixty thousand men assembled in the north of Italy, and advanced towards the Adige, where, being reinforced by twenty thousand troops, who, under the conduct of Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, had evacuated the king, dom of Naples, he found himself in a condition to contend with the Archduke Charles, and prevent him from operating, through the debouches of the Tyrol, on the flank of the grand army. Three corps d’armée, intended as a reserve, were also assembled al Bou. logne, Mayence, and btrasburg, and three tlvim.' camps of grenadiers were marked out at Hennes, in La Vendée, and at Marengo. ] By the 6th of October Bernadotte and the Bavarians occupied Weissemburg, twelve leagues south of Nuremberg; Marmont was in the vicinity of Neuburg; Davoust was at Oettingen, eight leagues north of Donawerth; Soult was at Donawerth; Ney was at Kenssingen, three leagues west of Donawerth; Lannes was at Neeresheim, two leagues northnorth-west of Donawerth; and Murat with his cavalry was on the borders of the Danube. In thus placing himself in rear of the enemy, Napoleon accomplished two grand objects; he avoided exposing his flank to the debouches of the Tyrol; and by the rapidity of his march he had completely disconcerted the plans of the Austrians, whilst, by turning towards the north, he might cutoff the Russians who were advancing from Gallicia towards the Danube. But in order td operate a prompt re-union of all his columns, it was necessary that Bernadotte, setting out from Hanover, and Marmont from Holland, should traverse the country of Anspach, belonging to Prussia. Napoleon had secured the neutrality of that power by the corruption of the Prussian ministry. But this violation of its territory wounded the self-love of the sovereign, as well as the pride of several distinguished military men, who, desiring to see an end put to the humiliation of their country, loudly demanded war against France. The indignation inspired by this insult had more effect on the cabinet of Berlin than all the efforts of England and Russia; and Prussia, when it was too late, renounced the neutrality which she had observed ever since the peace of Bale, 5th April 1795, to engage single-handed in a contest with France.

The contest in Germany now advanced, with singular rapidity, towards a crisis. On the 8th of October a combat took place at Wertengen, four leagues south-west of Donawerth, in which Murat, supported by Lannes, enveloped an Austrian division, making a great number of prisoners. On the 9th the Archduke Ferdinand was defeated by Ney at Guntburg, six leagues east of Ulm, with considerable loss; and the same day Soult occupied Augsburg. On the 12th Bernadotte occupied Munich; and on the 14th Memmingen, a considerable place on the Iller, surrendered by capitulation to Soult, when four thousand Austrians were made prisoners. The same day a combat took place at Elchingen, two leagues north-east of Ulm, in which Ney signalized himself by the most chivalrous[7:10:138] bravery. Three thousand Austrians were made prisoners. It had become necessary to obtain possession of the bridge and position at Elchingen, in order to isolate on the left bank of the Danube the mass of the Austrian army confined in Ulm. The bridge and the position, defended by six thousand men with four pieces of artillery, were twice carried by the bayonet, and as often recovered; but a third onset, made with the greatest impetuosity under Ney in person, proved successful. On the 15th the head of the first Russian column arrived on the Inn. The corps of Bernadotte was then in position between that river and Munich. At the combat of Langenau, three leagues north-east from Ulm, Murat, on the 16tb, came up with the division of Werneck, which had escaped from Ulm, and made three thousand prisoners.

Thus, by the direction given to his army after the passage of the Rhine, and by the rapidity of his marches, Napoleon had, as it were, overwhelmed the Austrians, and reduced all their offensive plans to a defensive without method. Mack at Ulm was placed in nearly the same situation in which Melas had found himself before the battle of Marengo. Both had their retreat cut off; but Melas tried to break through the enemy in his rear, and had succeeded in his object, when an accident deprived him of the reward of his resolution; whilst Mack, closely invested in Ulm and its immediate vicinity, made no effort to force his way with his masses united, although continual rains favoured such an attempt, but preferred risking the escape of his divisions separately. Thus the Archduke Ferdinand, nominally general-in-chief, but placed under the tutelage of Mack, had left Ulm with part of the cavalry; whilst Mack, who had the title of quarter-master-general, still remained there. As already stated, he was the same person who, in the campaign of Naples, had lost his reputation as a tactician, without displaying any talents for execution; and who, on the 23d January 1799, had surrendered himself prisoner to General Championnet. His situation had now become desperate. The French occupied all the surrounding heights, and he had nothing left but to capitulate. General Segur, sent to demand his submission, found every thing in disorder, and the brain of Mack in a state entirely corresponding. This poor man had no clear idea of the state of things until the French themselves informed him; and he did not even know that Napoleon was his antagonist. He began by demanding eight days’ truce, or death, and concluded by immediately capitulating. Ulm, with all its magazines and artillery, was surrendered to the French; and thirty thousand combatants became prisoners of war. The officers, including sixteen generals, were discharged on their parole; the sub-officers and soldiers were conducted into France. In less than fifteen days, the Austrians had lost above fifty thousand prisoners, two hundred pieces of cannon, many thousand horses, with about eighty colours and other trophies, and were now forced to shelter themselves behind the Inn. Never was triumph more rapid or more complete. The surrender of Ulm took place on the 20th October, and on the 21st was fought the battle of Trafalgar, in which Lord Nelson annihilated the combined fleets of France and Spain, and by the results of that glorious day counterbalanced to England the advantages which Napoleon had just reaped in Germany.

But the disasters which Austria had sustained at Ulm ≡ might have been repaired, and the fortune of the war changed, if Prussia, otherwise so well disposed towards the coalition, had even now struck in. By her hesitating and (as the result proved) ruinous policy, a heavy blow had fallen on Austria; but there was still time to check the advance of the French, and even to reduce them to the necessity of acting on the defensive. On the 25th of October an interview took place at Berlin, between the Emperor Alexander and Frederick-William III., and, at the tomb of Frederick II., these two sovereigns promised to unite their efforts to restrain the ambition of Napoleon. But this political and sentimental farce ended in nothing. The favourable moment thus allowed to escape could not be recalled; the king of Prussia was ere long at the feet of Napoleon; and the emperor of all the Russias became the friend of the man who had granted him his life upon the field of battle. Very different indeed was the course pursued by the French emperor. After reconducting his ally, the elector of Bavaria, to his capital, Napoleon advanced into the heart of the Austrian states, whilst his lieutenants continued to drive all before them. On the 1st of October he had crossed the Rhine; on the 20th Mack and his army were prisoners; and on the 15th of November he made his public entry into Vienna, which had capitulated on the 13th. The Austrian court and army had retired into Moravia; but in evacuating the capital they had neglected to break down the great bridge on the Danube, of which Lannes, by an act of unexampled audacity, now made himself master. The Emperor Francis had hoped that the Russians would arrive in time to act on the right bank of the Danube, and thus save his capital from occupation; but in this he was disappointed. The first Russian army under Kutusof having advanced higher up the Danube than Vienna, immediately fell back towards Brunn on receiving intelligence of the occupation of the capital. Justly apprehensive of having his communications with the second army intercepted, which in fact was the aim of Napoleon, the Russian commander felt himself compelled to execute this retrograde movement, which he did with all possible celerity. But being warmly pursued beyond Vienna, and attacked in the midst of his movement by Murat with the French cavalry, he proposed an armistice, with the sole view of gaining time to receive the reinforcements which were advancing from Upper Moravia, and to secure his retreat. Murat, who was already at Hollabrunn, fell into the snare, and accepted the artful propositions of the Russian commander, which, however, were immediately rejected by Napoleon. By means of this stratagem Kutusof saved his army from the imminent perils to which it was exposed, and on the 18th November effected a junction with the second Russian army under Buxhowden, at Wischau, six leagues from Brunn, the capital of Moravia, where he assumed the command in chief of the allied army. Kutusof’s retreat was covered by Prince Bagration, who, with a corps of six thousand men, made a desperate stand at Juntersdorf against a greatly superior force under Murat, Soult, and Lannes, and, in spite of every effort that could be made to dislodge him, maintained his ground till night, when he withdrew with the remains of his corps. This encounter, which saved the army of Kutusof, raised the courage of the Russians; they were still the soldiers of Suwarof, and longed to measure swords, in an ampler field of battle, with an enemy whom that victorious chief had so often overthrown.

The French now occupied Brunn, a strong place, well! armed and supplied with munitions of war, which the ' Austrians had precipitately evacuated on the evening of the 18th November, and on the 19th Napoleon establish- 1 ed his head-quarters at Wischau. Still the situation of the French army was one of imminent hazard. Hurried on by the ardour of success, it had arrived in the centre of Moravia, more than two hundred leagues from the frontiers of France; it had in its rear neither magazines nor strong places to serve as points d’ appui; its line of operations was disproportionately long; and it was exposed in a space of about ninety leagues of hostile country. Bohemia was in a state of insurrection, and threatened the communications by the left. The warlike [7:10:139] Hungarians had risen in mass upon the right. The Archduke Charles, having escaped from Massena, whom the appearance of an Anglo-Russian fleet had retained in Italy, was within fifty leagues of Vienna, the numerous population of which was in a state of extreme fermentation. Prussia had secretly acceded to the coalition, and her minister Haugwitz brought to Napoleon an ultimatum, the rejection of which was to be immediately followed by an official declaration of war. In a word, all the probabilities were against the French army, which had no resource but in a prompt and decisive victory, and, without immediate prodigies of bravery and military science, could not hope to escape from the numerous enemies by whom it was about to be enveloped. What Napoleon most wanted, therefore, was a great battle; but, in proportion as this had become necessary to him, the clear interest of the allies recommended for the present a Fabian system of tactics, and at any sacrifice avoiding a decisive action, by the result of which alone could the French army be saved from destruction. But, in spite of the strong and urgent reasons for acting upon the defensive, it was nevertheless resolved at the head-quarters of the allied emperors to deliver battle.

On the 2d of December the three emperors with their troops were near Austerlitz, a village about two leagues south of Brunn. The Russian army, reinforced by a second corps (18th November), reckoned about eighty thousand effective combatants; and that of Austria amounted to about twenty-five thousand. The French army did not exceed eighty thousand men on the field of battle. The artillery on both sides was formidable, but the allies had the advantage in the number of cavalry. The allies no doubt desired to gain time, in order to await the arrival of a third Russian corps, now only eight marches distant; but the manoeuvres of Napoleon, and, we may add, his artifices, induced, if not compelled them to accept battle. The immense accumulation of troops around 01mutz, resulting from the extraordinary rapidity of events, occasioned such a scarcity of provisions, that the general-inchief, Kutusof, felt himself constrained to precipitate offensive operations. This determination had, without his knowledge, entered into the plan of Napoleon, who, three days before, had withdrawn his advanced guard, in order to fight upon ground which he had reconnoitred, and all the accidents of which were consequently known to him. The hesitation of Kutusof allowed a precious opportunity, and circumstances extremely favourable, to escape him. But not having attacked when the French forces were scattered, he ought to have continued his retreat, in order to engage them still more in advance, either by moving upon Hungary to operate a junction with the Archduke Charles, or upon Bohemia to communicate with Prussia, whose army was assembled and in a condition to act; in short, he ought to have temporised until the simultaneous co-operation, now close at hand, of all the members of the coalition had been obtained, in which case the retreat of the French army towards the Rhine would have been rendered impossible. But instead of acting in this manner, by which eventual success would have been placed almost beyond the reach of accident or fortune, he decided to risk the chances of a general battle, when the respective forces of the combatants were nearly equal.

Marsha! Lannes, having under him General Suchet, commanded the left; Marshal Soult directed the right; Marshal Bernadotte commanded the centre; Marshal Davoust kept himself in observation before the left of the allies; Marshal Murat, w 1 th his cavalry, and twenty-four pieces of light artillery, supported the right under Marshal Lannes; and the reserve consisted of ten battalions of grenadiers under Genera^ Oudinot, flanked by ten battalions of the guard under General Junot, the whole being provided with forty pieces of cannon. The action commenced at sun-rise, and continued until night. The sun rose with unclouded brilliancy, and was long remembered as the sun of Austerlitz. Its first rays discovered the Austrians and Russians disseminated on, around, and behind the village of Austerlitz, where the allied emperors had taken post to observe the first efforts of the attack. This was directed against the French right, and sustained by Soult and Davoust with their wonted activity and skill, aided greatly by their positions, which were amongst flooded and marshy ground, where the ice was still too weak to support the weight of men or horses. All that Napoleon required of these officers was to maintain their ground for a certain number of hours, whilst with his left and centre he simultaneously attacked that portion of the enemy’s force in front, which he proposed to cut off from the wing engaged. This was the decisive movement; but he delayed long in giving the signal for the premeditated attack, so little anticipated by the enemy, fearing lest they might recall their troops from their left, by which they proposed to assail the French. But as soon as he heard the sound of battle fully engaged in that direction, he gave the word; his generals hurried to their respective posts; and Lannes, Bernadotte, Legrand, St Hilaire, each at the head of a division, advanced. At this moment the allied columns were descending from the heights, and filing off in the direction of their left, where they expected to find the main strength of the battle. But it was nearer them than they imagined, even in their front, where, owing to their ignorance of the true position of the French army, they had not looked for any serious opposition. Surprised, and attacked during an oblique movement, by columns of equal or superior force to their own, the Russian line was intersected; and the French having gained the heights, drove their adversaries down into the defiles behind. But between the village of Austerlitz and the heights thus carried were the Russian reserve, consisting of chosen troops, including the imperial guard, commanded by the Grand Duke Constantine. These, too, were marching towards the left, when, to their astonishment, the French light troops, supported by cavalry, broke in amongst them. A scene of surprise and confusion ensued. But the emperor, aided by Kutusof, rallied the troops; the Russian guards, assisted by some other regiments, charged with great fury; the French, victorious a few moments before, were now driven back; and some regiments which had formed squares were broken by the impetuosity of the Russians. Napoleon did not observe what was taking place, Austerlitz being hidden from his view by the intervening heights; but his ear having caught sounds betokening any thing but victory, he instantly ordered General Rapp, one of his aides-de-camp, to advance at the head of the grenadiers à cheval of the French imperial guard. Rapp galloped off at the head of these superb squadrons, rallied the stragglers as he advanced, and on approaching the immediate scene of conflict, found the victorious Russians sabring the French as they were driven from the broken squares. Without hesitating a moment, he sounded the charge, broke through a superb regiment of the Russian imperial guard, and made Prince Repnin, one of its colonels, prisoner. This afforded the French time to rally; and, with their usual promptitude and intelligence, they quickly regained their order. Rapp returned to the charge, and overpowered the regiment of the Grand Duke Constantine, who was indebted for his safety to the swiftness of his horse; whilst General Gardanne, charging with a division of dragoons, completed the discomfiture of the enemy. F rom the heights of Austerlitz, the Emperors Alexander and F rancis witnessed the defeat of the Russian guard. The Emperor Napoleon then directed his efforts to the right, where the enemy still continued [7:10:140]to oppose a vigorous resistance; and the Russian corps, being at length surrounded and driven from all the heights, were forced back to the margin of a lake, where the French artillery made a terrible carnage. From fifteen to eighteen thousand Russians, attempting to escape over the ice, were drowned; two columns, each four thousand strong, laid down their arms; the whole Russian artillery was taken, whilst forty standards, including those of the imperial guard, also fell into the hands of the French; and the remains of the Russian army, without artillery, without baggage, in a state of the most frightful disorganization, and surrounded on all sides, must have surrendered at discretion had they been vigorously pressed. Even the life of Alexander was at the mercy of Napoleon, who ordered his artillerymen not to fire on the emperor of all the Russias, and, from motives of generosity or policy, allowed him to escape.^[37. “Cette générosité,” says the Abbé de Montgaillard, “doit être considérée, politiquement, comme one très-grande feute; Alexandre tué sur le champ de bataille, et l’armée Russe anéantie ou prisonnière de guerre, un grand soulèvement devait avoir lieu à Saint-Pétersbourg; il est difficile de présumer l’étendue des consequences d’un tel ordre de choses; mais elles ne pouvaient qu’être favorables au système et aux intérêts Français. Napoléon, chargé de fers à Sainte-Hélène, et proic à toutes les barbaries qu’ordonnent les cabinets de Saint-Petersbourg, de vienne, et de Berlin, barbaries dont le cabinet de saint-James s’est rendu l’exécuteur, Napoléon aura dû vivement regretter la magnanimité dont il use envers les deux empéreurs vaincus à Austerlitz. Cette magnanimité, il n’est pas permis d’en douter, est produite par le brûlant désir qu’a Napoleon d’être reconnu empéreur et roi; d’entrer dans le catalogue officiel des monarques d’Europe, et de s’entendre appéler mon frère par les deux plus puissans de ces monarques. Mais une bonne et sage politique demandait que les deux empéreurs, Alexandre et François, fussent faits prisonniers et amènes en France; la Faix, one véritable paix, et non one trêve de quelques mois, eût été, selon toute apparence, le prix de la rançon des deux captifs, et Angleterre n’eût pas refusé d’y adhérer, pour peu que Napoleon eût borné son ambition à maintenir, pour la France, l’état actuel de possession. Que ne peut done l’amour d’une vaine gloire, que ne peut l’orgueil impérial et royal sur l’esprit d’un parvenu de la Révolution Française? (Montgaillard, H'ut. de France, tome vi. p. 179, 180.) ] Such was Austerlitz, one of the most remarkable battles fought in modem times. It consisted of a series of manoeuvres, every one of them successful, by which the Russian army, surprised in an oblique march, was cut into as many portions as there were columns directed against it. The loss sustained by the Russians, in killed, drowned in attempting to cross the lake on the ice, wounded, and prisoners, has been estimated at thirty-five thousand men; fifteen generals were either killed or taken; the general-in-chief, Kutusof, received several wounds; and a hundred and fifty pieces of cannon were abandoned. The French appear to have lost about ten thousand men, including a general of division and two colonels, who died on the field of battle. At Austerlitz, masses of the French cuirassiers charged, for the first time, the enemy’s batteries; a bold manoeuvre, which, being rapidly executed and courageously sustained, during nine hours, by the corps of Marshal Soult, contributed powerfully to the success of the battle. Marshal Bernadotte also took an active part in this mighty conflict. At the moment when the Russian guard was defeated, he advanced at the head of the centre of the army, dnd by means of his cavalry vigorously charged the enemy; whilst Marshal Lannes, who commanded the left, charged at the same instant, with rare intrepidity, and thus threw them into the most frightful disorder.

On the evening of the battle the emperor of Germany sent to demand an interview with Napoleon. It was arranged for the 4th of December, and took place within a few leagues of Austerlitz, by the fire of a bivouac. “I receive you,” said Napoleon, “in the only palace which I have inhabited for two months. “You made so good use of this kind of habitation,” replied the emperor of Germany, smiling, “that it ought to content you.” Francis took Napoleon by the hand, and saluted him by tire name of brother. From this moment the judgment of Napoleon, usually so clear, seemed to be bewildered; he changed, so to speak, his nature; and, in his desire to become at any price a monarch allied to an old dynasty, he ceased in future to be any thing but an emperor. The sovereigns remained two hours in conversation, during which the terms of an agreement appear to have been arranged.^[38. whilst the proceeding adopted by the emperor of Germany shows the deep impression made upon his mind by the battle of Austerlitz, following as it did so rapidly after the disaster of Ulm, it is at the same time clear, that the check which he bad just experienced, though infinitely grave, was not so decisive and irremediable as to destroy all hope, or to be incapable of being repaired in the course of another campaign. The Archdukes Charles and John were advancing at the head of eighty thousand fresh troops, and had already put themselves in communication with Hungary, where the insurrection was becoming general; the losses sustained by the Russians were on the eve of being effaced by a considerable corps (the third army) which had arrived in Silesia; the inhabitants of Bohemia had commenced their levy in mass; a hundred and sixty thousand Prussians. Saxons, and Hessians, were under arms, waiting the order to advance; numerous corps of Prussians and Swedes menaced the northern frontier of Holland; a formidable diversion was on the point of being operated in the seuth of Italy; and, lastly, the army of Napoleon, sensibly weakened by its rapid marches and successes, was more than three hundred leagues from its reinforcements, and in fact only occupied the long narrow line which it had followed in its advance from the Rhine to Olmutz. A little more tenacity on the part of Austria would therefore in aU probability have brought about the ruin of Napoleon and his army. But the Emperor Francis, dejected by his last disaster, threw away a thousand chances which had become favourable to him; he wanted the courage necessary to support the struggle when the tide was about to turn, or to prolong hostilities on the eve of ageneral change of circumstances, which could scarcely have failed to produce a great amelioration in his position, political as well as military; and, without waiting to calculate or deliberate, he came humbly to solicit an armistice, as Darius would have done after a defeat, and as sapor would not. By a strange and inconceivable destiny, the emperor of Austria, without intending it, twice saved Napoleon, in the heart of his states, namely, at Austerlitz and at wagram; on both occasions, the French emperor, having committed great military faults, found himself, after gaining two battles, exposed to have his communications with France intercepted, and was saved from this danger by an almost immediate suspension of hostilities. ] Napoleon showed great forbearance and moderation. The emperor of Russia, to whom he afterwards restored the portion of his guard who had been made prisoners, was permitted to retire unmolested to his dominions, under the protection of an armistice; but although the czar professed great admiration of the man who had so generously spared both himself and the wrecks of his army, he declined to enter into any treaty, or even to acknowledge Napoleon as emperor of the French. The king of Prussia had a more difficult part to perform. He had been ready openly to join the coalition, to which he had secretly acceded; and his minister, Count Haugwitz, had arrived, prepared to employ the language of menace. But fortune hail embarrassed all the calculations of Prussian policy; and Haugwitz, finding Napoleon successful, changed his tone, and complimented him on the victory which he had just gained. “This is a congratulation,” said Napoleon, in reply, “of which fortune has changed the address.” In proportion as he had shown forbearance to Austria, he gave way to his indignation against the duplicity and perfidy of Prussia, and so terrified Count Haugwitz that the latter concluded a treaty, accepting Hanover in lieu of Anspach and Bareuth, which were to be given up to France. The object of Napoleon, no doubt, was to embroil Prussia with Britain, and he thought this would be most effectually accomplished by an arrangement which imposed on the former power the odious task of seizing upon Hanover. Nor was this all. At the very moment when [7:10:141]the transfer in question was concluded by Haugwitz, Hardenberg had required the assistance of Britain, conjunctly with Russia, in case Prussia should be attacked; and these incompatible agreements were, to its no small embarrassment, won laid before the cabinet of Berlin. The difficulties thus created were no doubt great; but it endeavoured to escape from them in the best way it could, by accepting Hanover as a deposit, and by yielding up Anspach, together with Cleves, Berg, and Neufchâtel, as had been agreed to by Haugwitz. On the 26th of December, a treaty of peace was concluded at Presburg, between France and Austria. The ancient states of Venice, including Dalmatia and Albania, were ceded to the kingdom of Italy. The principality of Eichstett, part of the archbishopric of Passau, the city of Augsburg, the Tyrol, and all the possessions of Austria in Suabia, the Brisgau, and the Ortenau, were transferred to the elector of Bavaria, the Duke of Wirtemberg, and the Duke of Baden; and the independence of the Helvetic Republic was also stipulated. The Germanic constitution, so much damaged by the treaty of Lunéville, was now virtually dissolved by two of its members, the elector of Bavaria and the Duke of Wirtemberg assuming the title of kings, under the auspices of France, without the consent either of that body or of its chief. By this treaty, Austria likewise sanctioned all the partitions previously effected both in Germany and Italy, and lost a territory of eleven hundred thousand square miles, with a population of two millions six hundred thousand souls.

Napoleon declared to the French senate, as he had previously done to the emperor of Austria, that he had sought no aggrandizement for France. But this declaration was made in the true spirit of the Italian school of politics, which enjoins the observance of the letter of an obligation, but permits an infringement of its principle. If France was not aggrandized, all the states in dependence on her were so. Venice and Dalmatia were added to the kingdom of Italy. Naples, which an Anglo-Russian force had invaded, was occupied, and the reigning house expelled, as if by the mere word of command. Berthier and Murat were created German princes. The newly acquired provinces of Venice, Dalmatia, Istria, Friuli, Belluno, Feltre, Bas-βano, Vicenza, and Rovigo, were declared duchies, and assigned to the generals and civilians of the imperial court. Bavaria and Wirtemberg had already been aggrandized out of the spoils of Austria, and their rulers raised to the rank of royalty. This was Napoleon’s first performance as king-maker. But his elder brother Joseph was now declared king of Naples, and his younger brother Louis, a man of mild and amiable character, king of Holland; whilst various matches were made, all having for their object at once to aggrandize and unite the new imperial family. Lastly, having done so much for those of his own house, Napoleon consented to receive the homage of his subservient legislature, which, after lavishing on him the most fulsome expressions of adulation, ordered to be erected, in one of the principal places of the capital, a column surmounted with a statue of the emperor, and bearing the inscription, “A Napoleon le Grand, la patrie reconnoissante.”

The commencement of the year 1806 was brightened with a momentary prospect of peace. On the 23d of January, not two months after the battle of Austerlitz, where all his schemes had been overthrown, Pitt breathed his last. With the bitter exclamation, “Oh, my country,” on his lips, he expired, leaving Europe in confusion, and England beset with difficulties. On the accession to power of Mr Fox and his friends, hopes of peace were entertained; and that statesman having opened a correspondence with the French emperor, by apprising him of an offer which had been made to assassinate him, negotiations followed. But serious obstacles unexpectedly arose, one of them relating to Sicily, which the French insisted should be conjoined with Naples. Talleyrand, however, pushed the conferences with great activity, and evinced the utmost anxiety to conclude a peace. With prophetic sagacity, he foresaw, that without a peace with England, every thing was problematical with the French emperor; that nothing short of a sequence of fortunate battles would consolidate his power; that this was a series of which the last term might perhaps be zero; that nothing could be safe where all was continually put to hazard; that one great reverse would overthrow the fabric which it had required many victories to rear up and establish; that, in short, the time had arrived to secure what had already been gained, and to realise, as it were, the glory which no disaster had as yet overclouded.^[39. This proof of the profound sagacity of Talleyrand, whose political foresight has been so often exemplified in the course of the events of the last thirty years, is taken from the memoirs of his enemy the Duke of Kovigo. The words of Savary are, “Μ. de Talleyrand ∣M>ussait les conférences avec activité; rien ne lui eût coûté pour faire conclure la paix avec Angleterre. Il disait, à qui voulait l’entendre, que, sans elle, tout était problème pour 1’empéreur, qu’il n’y aurait qu'une suite de batailles heureuses qui le conso-lidérait, et que cela se réduisait à one série, dont le premier terme était A, et done la dernier pouvait être Y ou zero.” ] But all these efforts proved, unhappily, vain; nor in fact would any peace that might now have been concluded have proved lasting. Napoleon could not descend from the position to which victory had raised him; and England could not acquiesce in the continued exercise of an ascendant influence subversive of the general balance of power and the independence of states in Europe. Austria and southern Germany were under the dictation of the French emperor; Italy, from the Alps to the Gulf of Tarentum, was subject to his immediate sway; Spain had degenerated into a mere province of the French empire. The only independent power bordering on France was Prussia, and she was already marked out as the next object of attack. In such circumstances peace was unattainable, or, if nominally attained, would nave only been a renewal of the truce of Amiens. Bonaparte was still in his ascending movement; and although wisdom would have counselled him to stop, and even to descend to a lower and safer level, ambition held different language, and urged him to go on.

Prussia, however, had acted a part equally imprudent and unworthy. We have already adverted to the two treaties, one concluded by Haugwitz with Napoleon, and the other by Hardenberg with England, in December 1805. Perplexed by the results of her own perfidy and double dealing, she derived advantage from neither. She naturally hesitated to accept of Hanover, and to shut her ports against England; but, on the other hand, as Anspach, Cleves, and Berg, ceded by Haugwitz, were already seized by the French, the desire of an equivalent prevailed over all sense of justice or regard even to decency, and this hesitation was overcome. On the 1st of April Hanover was annexed to the Prussian territory, in virtue of a proclamation which set forth that, since Hanover belonged to France by right of conquest, its legitimate possession had been transmitted to Prussia as an equivalent: for the cession of three of her provinces to France. A more impudent and unblushing declaration was never made by any government, nor one more subversive of every principle of public law, justice, and morality. But

1 the same cabinets which stigmatized Bonaparte as a usurp- . er, recognised him as legitimate sovereign of France i whenever they could profit by his political crimes, and , when his spoliations suited their own interests and political , arrangements. The conduct of Prussia, in this particular, met with loud and indignant reprobation in England. Mr: Fox publicly denounced it as “every thing that was contemptible[7:10:142] in servility, and all that was odious in rapacity.” Nor was this all. Whilst Prussia had thus dishonoured herself for the sake of Hanover and the French alliance, she had the incredible mortification to learn, through the English papers, that Napoleon had offered to restore Hanover to Britain as the price of peace. She had sacrificed her character to obtain Hanover, and she had even dismissed her minister, Hardenberg, to please the French emperor; she had rendered herself an object of scorn to the government of England, and France now rewarded her abasement and humiliation with contempt. Never indeed was perfidy more severely and at the same time more justly punished. But Prussia had yet other and more severe mortifications to endure.

A compact still more alarming to Prussia than any which had yet been formed was now entered into. This was the confederation of the states of the Rhine, which was concluded on the 12th of July, between the emperor Napoleon, and several princes of the south and west of Germany. These princes separated themselves, in perpetuity, from the territory of the Germanic empire, and united together in a new federation, of which the emperor of the French was declared the protector. The contingent to be furnished by each of the allies was determined; a great number of secularisations and annexations of territory in their favour were recognised and sanctioned; the old constitution of the Germanic body was dissolved; and Napoleon became, in fact, lord suzerain of a large portion of Germany. His object, indeed, seems to have been to make the confederation of the Rhine the centre and pivot of his future power. The notification of the treaty of the 12th July was made to the diet at Ratisbon on the 1st of August, when fourteen German princes declared their separation from the Germanic body, and their new confederation under the protectorate of Napoleon. The common interests of the confederate states were to be discussed in a diet which was to sit at Franckfort-on-the-Maine; and this diet was to be divided into two colleges. In the college of kings were to sit the representatives of the elector of Bavaria and the Duke of Wirtemberg, who had each assumed the title of king, together with those of the Grand Dukes of Baden, Berg, Darmstadt, and the prince primate; and in the college of princes were eight petty princes bearing inferior titles. The contingents were, for France two hundred thousand men; for Bavaria, thirty thousand; for Wirtemberg, twelve thousand; for Baden, eight thousand, &c.; making in all two hundred and sixty-three thousand men. Such was the confederation of the Rhine, which, in the course of six years, was augmented by all the sovereigns of Germany, old or new, with the exception of the emperor of Austria, the king of Prussia, the Dukes of Brunswick and Oldenburg, the king of Sweden as Duke of Pomerania, and the king of Denmark as Duke of Holstein.

On the 20th July preliminaries of peace between France and Russia were signed at Paris. This was before the treaty of the confederation of the Rhine had transpired. When that organic compact had become known, the cabinet of St Petersburg refused (15th August) to ratify the stipulations which had been agreed to with France, upon the pretence usual in such cases, that its envoy had exceeded his instructions. The negotiations on both sides had, in fact, been entered upon with equal duplicity, with the same perfidy. The ambitious designs of Napoleon against the north of Europe had already become sufficiently manifest not to leave any room for doubt as to his real intentions; whilst the czar, anxious to obliterate the humiliation of Austerlitz, and to re-establish his preponderance in the west of Europe, had recourse to those artifices which have at all times been familiar to Russian diplomacy. The object of the French emperor was to ma ture his schemes, and augment his means of future aggression; what the Russian autocrat desired, was to gain the time necessary to prepare for another struggle. Meanwhile the situation of Prussia was every day becoming more and more critical. If she had cause for mistrust on discovering that Napoleon had offered to restore Hanover to England, this was not lessened by the organization of a powerful, and, from its very constitution, hostile confederacy on her most defenceless frontier. Napoleon, however, attempted to assuage her just suspicions by inviting Frederick-William to form in the north of Germany a confederation similar to that which he had established in the south and west, and also to assume the imperial dignity. But, in the circumstances, these propositions were no better than sheer mockery. The court of Berlin had received too many proofs of the slighting conduct, if not hostile intentions, of France, to repose any confidence in her offers. Injury had been exasperated and envenomed by insult, and the cry of the nation was now for war. Still the most obvious maxims of prudence should have induced Prussia to temporize until her allies were in a condition to take the field. Russia having refused to ratify the stipulations of the 20th July, was preparing to renew the struggle; all hopes of an accommodation between Britain and France were completely at an end; and Prussia, single handed, was not in a situation to contend with a power which had so recently overthrown Austria, even when assisted by Russia. But, neglectful of all this, the court of Berlin, passing from the extreme of caution to the extreme of temerity, gave full intimation of its intentions as early as the month of August, by increasing the army and calling out its reserves. Prussia was now destined to reap the bitter fruits of her selfish and equivocating policy. Had she, during the last coalition, united cordially with Austria before that power had received a stunning blow, Napoleon might have been compelled to receive instead of dictating the law; Austria would at least have been saved; and the confederation of the Rhine would never have been heard of. But selfish timidity kept her arms tied when every motive urged, nay when the strongest obligations bound, her to strike in; and now, when Austria was humbled and France aggrandised, when all the favourable chances had disappeared, and when a mighty army, trained to combats and flushed with victory, was ready to pour its veteran legions across her frontier, Prussia stepped forth alone, in her own strength, to encounter the gigantic force before which her more powerful neighbour had fallen. Her councils became smitten with that infatuation which is the sure forerunner of calamity.

If it was the height of imprudence in Prussia to decide upon a war in which Austria was no longer in a condition ’ to take part, it was sheer madness not to have both secured and waited for the co-operation of Great Britain and Russia. Instead of this, however, when Lord Morpeth, the British envoy, spoke of Hanover, he was answered that its fate depended on a battle; plainly intimating that, if victorious, Prussia meant to retain it. The same indifference was manifested as to the aid of Russia; and the army, which, indeed, it was difficult to restrain, pushed forward into Saxony to compel the elector to join his forces to those of Prussia, and to induce Hesse to espouse the cause of the north of Germany against France. For the sake of these secondary objects, the blunder of Mack at Ulm was repeated. The French troops were already assembled. Napoleon left Paris in the end of September, and proceeded by Mayence and Würtzburg to Bamberg, the rendezvous of his army, where he arrived on the 6th of October. Proclamations, the usual preludes of war, now followed. The king of Prussia required the French to quit Germany, the soil of which they had no right to tread. Napoleon returned the bravado by some sarcastic remarks on [7:10:143] the Prussian queen and court. “The queen of Prussia,” says a French bulletin, “is with the army clothed as an Amazon, wearing the uniform of her regiment of dragoons, and penning twenty letters a day, in order to kindle flames on every side. One might believe her to be Armida out of her senses, setting fire to her own palace. Near her is the young Prince Louis, overflowing with valour, and expecting vast renown from the vicissitudes of war. Echoing these two illustrious personages, the entire court cries out for war. But when war shall have come, with all its horrors, it is then that each will vainly endeavour to excuse himself of the guilt of having drawn down its thunders upon the peaceful countries of the north."

The Prussian army, commanded by the king in person, and the old Duke of Brunswick, whom his campaigns against the French had not instructed in their new system of tactics, was scattered along the high road from Eisenach and Weimar. Having advanced so far, it should have assumed the initiative, and, by a great offensive effort, endeavoured to break through the enemy’s line before his corps were in a condition to afford mutual support. But Brunswick was alike incapable of conceiving or executing such a plan of operation; he hesitated when he should have decided; marched and countermarched without object; and, worst of all, committed the fatal error of dividing his army when almost in presence of the enemy. The road by which the Prussians had advanced, and along which their magazines were established, from Weimar, in a north-easterly direction, to Leipsic, run obliquely to the line on which the French were now approaching from the south. Instead of attacking Weimar, where their main force was concentrated, Napoleon therefore resolved to throw himself on their communications, intersect their line of retreat, and cut them off from their principal magazines. And this he effected by one of those rapid and masterly movements which, executed by him, had so often decided the fate of armies. The only resistance which the French met with was at Saalfield, where, on the 10lh of October, the division of Suchet, belonging to the corps of Lannes, was opposed by Prince Louis of Prussia, commanding the advanced guard of the corps of Hohenlohe. A fierce combat ensued; but the Prussians, being unsupported, were overpowered, the brave prince lost his life, and thirty pieces of cannon, with a thousand prisoners, fell into the hands of the French. The French now occupied the line of the Saale, with their backs towards Germany; whilst the Prussians, in order to face them, were obliged to turn theirs to France. The belligerents having thus, as it were, changed places, the main body of the French under Napoleon crossed the Saale at Ĵena; the interval between lena and Naumberg was occupied by Bernadotte, who had orders to observe the Saale as for as Doernberg, by which he was to debouch, in order to cut off the enemy’s masses from their reserves, and to fall upon their rear, in case they should move in force upon Naumberg or Iena; and Davoust, with three fine divisions of infantry thirty thousand strong, but weak in cavalry, was posted between Naumbergand Doernberg, on the right of the Saale, to guard the defiles of Koesen. To drive the French from these positions, and to restore the communications, was now the great object of the Prussians. Accordingly the king and the Duke of Brunswick, at the head of the main body of the Prussian army, marched to dislodge Davoust; whilst the remainder, under Prince Hohenlohe, advanced against the main body of the French army, commanded by Napoleon. In this way Davoust found himself in the presence of an enemy more than sixty thousand strong, one-fifth of whose force consisted of cavalry, in which arm he was disproportionately weak; whilst, on the other hand, Hohenlohe advanced to attack a force which outnumbered him in a still higher ratio, and was supported by the main body of the cavalry under Murat. Both parties appear to have had false notions of each other’s movements; but Napoleon was evidently misled by the extraordinary proceeding of the Duke of Brunswick, in dividing his army on the eve of a great battle, an error which exceeded all ordinary calculation or experience.

The battles of Iena and Auerstadt were fought on the same day, the 14th of October, at the distance of six leagues, without contact or communication. That of Iena does not present any masterly or decisive manoeuvre. It was decided by charges of the cavalry under Murat, who, supported by Augereau, completely routed the half of the Prussian force, and pursued the remains of it five leagues from the field of battle, indeed as far as Weimar. The action at Auerstadt was long and bravely disputed. Marshal Kalkreuth and General Blucher combated with vigour under the eye of their sovereign. But the invincible firmness of Davoust, supported by Generals Gudin, Friant, and Morand, triumphed over numbers, and this portion of the Prussian army was, notwithstanding -its great superiority in numbers and in cavalry, also thrown into disorder, and driven from the field. The battle of Auerβtadt, which was in fact the grand and decisive cordbat, reflects infinite honour upon Davoust. Surprised by the sudden apparition of the main body of the Prussian army, and denied all assistance by his colleague Bernadotte, who, from a narrow construction of his orders, and still more perhaps from an unwillingness to act a secondary part, withdrew his corps to continue a movement which had no longer an object, he was thrown upon his own resources, and, but for his great experience and inflexible tenacity, his corps, thus compromised, might have been overthrown and destroyed. Forming his battalions into squares, he received and repulsed the repeated charges of the Prussian cavalry led on by Blucher; and when the latter, disordered by the failure of their own efforts, were obliged to retreat, he attacked and broke through the centre of the enemy. The Duke of Brunswick and Prince William of Prussia again led the cavalry back to the charge; but in vain; nothing could shake the firmness of the French. A last effort to retrieve the fortune of the day was made by the king in person, with no better success. The centre being broken, the retreat of the wings became inevitable; and, as almost all the Prussian generals had been severely wounded, the troops, left in a great measure to themselves, fell into a state of the most frightful disorder. No rallying point bad been fixed in the rear; no provision made for the contingency of a defeat. In fact, the idea of an eccentric retreat, that is, withdrawing on diverging lines, at this time possessed the Prussian tacti tians; and the destruction which so rapidly overtook the remains of the Prussian army may in a great measure be ascribed to the circumstance of this absurdity being now reduced to practice. The extent of the disaster which had befallen the Prussian arms was only known when the troops defeated at Iena and Auerstadt mingled in their flight towards Weimar. In killed, wounded, and prisoners, the Prussians, including their Saxon auxiliaries, lost more than forty-five thousand men; whilst a hundred and sixty pieces of cannon, with immense magazines of provisions, fell into the hands of the conquerors. At lens and Auerstedt the French had about twelve thousand men put hors de combat.

Frederick-William, in his flight, sent to demand an armistice, which was refused; and the following day, Er-surth, containinga hundred pieces of cannon, fourteen thousand men, and numerous magazines, was surrendered to Murat. The French now pushed on without intermission for Berlin, which Napoleon entered at the head of his guard on the 27th of October, amidst the silence and tears of the people. He had spent the 25th at Potsdam, in the apart-merits[7:10:144] of Frederick II. for whose character and memory, both as a warrior and a sovereign, he professed the greatest veneration; but this feeling did not prevent him from taking away the sword and the order of the black eagle worn by Frederick, and sending them, with the colours of his guard, to the Hôtel des Invalides at Paris. Meanwhile the king of Prussia retired behind the Oder, in the hope of collecting the scattered remains of his army, and making a stand under cover of the strong places by which that line was defended. But fortress after fortress, though powerfully garrisoned and well supplied with ammunition and provisions, surrendered with a rapidity inexplicable on any supposition except that of treachery or infatuation. Spandau yielded almost without resistance; Magdeburg, the bulwark of the kingdom, capitulated after a short and irregular siege; Glogau, the strongest place on the Oder, likewise surrendered; and other places imitated their example. Blucher alone supported the national character amidst all these calamities. Ĳe executed a daring and masterly retreat amongst the French divisions, which pursued and frequently crossed his line of march; and, when at length obliged to take shelter in the free town of Lubeck, the desperate resistance which he opposed to the overwhelming masses of the enemy made them pay dear for the advantage they gained in storming the place. Thus, by two simultaneous battles, in which both parties fought on wrong principles and erroneous information, was the Prussian monarchy not only shaken, but destroyed. Napoleon had not only avenged the defeat of the French at Hosbach, but also the perd in which he had himself been placed by Prussia during the campaign of Austerlitz, and he now wreaked his vengeance with unsparing severity.

At Berlin Napoleon had once more to enter upon the task of organizing a new empire. The smaller states of Germany were compelled to join the confederation of the Rhine; Saxony was treated with politic leniency; Hesse-Cassel and Brunswick were doomed to expiate their loyalty by rigorous contributions; and the electorate of Hanover was seized in the name of France. The occupation of the free city of Hamburg, against which the emperor Napoleon had no assignable cause of war, immediately followed. On the 19th of November, Mortier took possession of the town in name of the French government, and the same day issued an order, enjoining the inhabitants to make known all funds and merchandise belonging to the English. This was part of his system. To strike a free commercial port with nullity, and thus to ruin a great city, gave him no concern, provided it was closed against England. A measure of a still more extraordinary character followed. On the 21st of November was issued an imperial decree, dated at Berlin, in which the British islands were declared in a state of blockade. By this decree all commerce and correspondence were interdicted; every subject of England, of whatever state or condition, who should be found in the countries occupied by the French or their allies, was to be made prisoner of war; the commerce in English merchandise was prohibited, and all merchandise, of whatsoever kind, proceeding from England, was declared lawful prize; lastly, all vessels coming directly from England or from English colonies, or having been there since the publication of the decree, were not to be received into any port. Such was the decree by which Bonaparte endeavoured to exclude England from the Continent at the expense of neutral and independent nations, and which he intended to enforce in all the harbours of Europe, from St Petersburg to Constantinople. But this scheme, although it no doubt occasioned, in the first instance, much mischief to British commerce, and tended to throw the principal carrying trade of Europe into the hands of the Americans, yet, like all prohibitory systems, it eventually recoiled on its author. For, in the first place, nothing tended so much as the severities of the continental system to alienate from Bonaparte the affections both of his subjecta and his allies. Even the exhausting demands of the conscription were borne with less impatience than the rigours of a code which crippled one great branch of industry, and deprived all persons possessing only moderate fortunes of the customary luxuries of life. But, on the other hand, whilst the price of sugar, coffee, and other articles, rose to an exorbitant height, the contraband trade flourished; and whilst the vexations of the excise excited that state of chronic war between the government and the people which is the fruitful sources of disaffection, the object aimed at was in a great measure defeated. In spite of all restrictions, enforced by armies of douaniers, English merchandise found its way into the Continent; the smugglers were enriched, the regular traders ruined, and the people forced to pay many prices for articles which habit had rendered indispensable.

Towards the close of November, Russia declared war against France. About the same time the king of Prussia, who had retired to Königsberg, made an attempt to· negotiate; but as Napoleon demanded the cession of the whole country between the Rhine and the Elbe, Frederick-William, hoping that the power of Russia might yet give a check to that of France, refused to accept terms less severe than those which he was afterwards under the necessity of submitting to. But, unfortunately for this hope, war broke out at the same moment between Russia and Turkey. In a few days of successful intrigue, Sebastian!, whom Napoleon had sent to Constantinople, succeeded in putting an end to the amicable relations subsisting not only between Russia and Turkey, but also between England and the Porte; the invasion of Egypt by France, and its deliverance by England, were forgotten; French officers were seen directing works for strengthening the batteries of the Dardanelles, as well as training the Turks to serve the guns with which they were armed; and a war followed on the Danube, which occasioned a powerful diversion in favour of Napoleon, and crippled the exertions of Russia in the approaching struggle.

Napoleon now advanced in pursuit of the Prussian mo-1 narch, and at Posen, the capital of that part of Poland acquired by Prussia, he, on the ∏th of December, concluded a treaty of peace and alliance with the elector of Saxony, who acceded to the confederation of the Rhine, and assumed the title of king. From Posen he proceeded to Warsaw, which was evacuated on his approach. At the sight of the Russian and Prussian eagles retiring from the capital of their country, the Poles were in exultation. Their patriotism and national spirit revived; the youth crowded into the Polish regiments which were now formed to act in concert with the French; and the throne of Sobieski seemed already re-established. But Napoleon, though resolved to make use of their zeal, had no intention to reward it with that independence which they so ardently desired. “Quoique Napoleon, que sa méfiance et les dispositions de l’Autriche rendraient très circonspect, ne leur eût fait aucune promesse,” says General Dumas; “il les avait pourtant excités à s'avancer pour reconquérer leur liberté et leur indépendance. 11 leur avait donné un gouvernement provisoire créé des autorités civiles et militaires prises dans leur sein. Les Polonnais se flattaient avec raison que la restauration de la nation serait le juste prix du sang qu’elle avait versé pour la cause de la France, depuis les premières campagnes d’Italie jusqu'aux dernières batailles, dans lesquelles ils avaient vaillamment combattu. Devaient-ils croire que maitre de reparer le scandale des démembremens de leur patrie, de venger la plus manifeste violation du droit des gens, le vainqueur laisserait [7:10:145]flétrir dans ses mains le plus beau fruit de sa victoire ?”^[40. Pride det Evenement Miliiairer, tome xix. p. 78. ] With Napoleon these just expectations went for nothing. In his view all interest» and all wills were to yield to his, as all resistance had yielded to his arms; but he lived to repent of his injustice to Poland, and discovered in adversity the extent of the error as well as of the wrong he had committed.

By the first of December all northern Germany, excepting Königsberg, with the fortresses of Stralsund and Colberg, was either under the direct domination or under the immediate influence of Napoleon. Hesse, Brunswick, Hanover, the duchies of Oldenburg and Mecklenburg, and the Hanseatic Towns, were in his power. Prussia, which for half a century had been gradually rising to the highest rank amongst military powers, was overturned at the first shock. Hostilities commenced on the 9th of October, and on the 14th she received a mortal blow. In seventeen days, the French soldiers, having traversed the forests and defiles of Franconia, the Saale, and the Elbe, reached Berlin; and by the end of November they were beyond the Vistula. The overthrow of the Prussian monarchy in a campaign of six weeks, is one of those events the reality of which will hardly be credited by posterity. But the season of combats having reached its term, an able and prudent general, Frederick II. for example, would have stopped on the Oder, at least until spring, and employed the winter in establishing himself in a solid manner in Germany; in securing the immobility of Austria? in making himself master of the strong places in Silesia; in taking possession of Dantzick and Colberg before the arrival of the Russians; in reducing Stralsund, and recruiting, clothing, and re-arming his troops at the expense of the conquered countries; in forming a German army, which would have been an useful auxiliary; in negotiating with his enemies, in order to divide, deceive, or intimidate them; and, above all, in masking his ulterior projects. The history of the following years shows that the independence of Europe would have been destroyed, if Napoleon, yielding to the most obvious suggestions of prudence, had retarded a little his precipitate advance, in order to attain his grand object, the subjugation of Europe. But he did nothing which he could and ought to have done in order to consolidate his power, and he was ultimately ruined even by his own successes.

Hostilities recommenced at Czamovo, near the confluence of the Bug and the Wrka, on the 23d of December; but the Russians, though numerous and advantageously posted, were dislodged by the division of Morand of the corps of Marshal Davoust. A more important combat took place at Mohrungen, sixteen leagues south of Elbing, on the 25th. The Russian generals, observing that the French army had suspended its march, and was preparing to go into cantonments on the Vistula, came to the determination of attempting to cut off the left w ing; and their design would probably have succeeded if Bernadotte had servilely executed the orders he had received the evening before to retire to Little Strasburg, seven or eight miles from Thorn. But having received information of the movement of the Russian columns, and foreseeing the disasters which would result from the execution of the orders he had received, he suspended his march; assembled his corps on the plains of Mehrungen, where the Russian column of attack arrived about noon; checked its advance, and, after a severe action, forced it to retire with considerable loss behind the Passarge. The determination of Bernadotte saved the head-quarters of Napoleon and the division of Ney, perhaps the French army itself, which, if the Russians had succeeded in their attack, would have been completely compromised. Alarmed at th⅛ bold movement, Napoleon, who intended to pass the winter on the Vistula, pressing the siege of Dantzick, and awaiting the arrival of eighty thousand conscripts of the year 1807, judged it necessary to clear his front, and, if possible, so to intimidate the Russians as to prevent a repetition of such enterprises. With this view Lannes, reinforced by a division of the corps of Davoust, attacked Beningsen at Pultusk, near the confluence of the Narew and the Orzye, on the 26th of December. A murderous conflict ensued, but the action remained undecided. The slaughter of the French was great, Beningsen having manoeuvred so as to expose them throughout the day to a destructive fire of artillery. The Russians retired unmolested during the night. On the same day another action took place at Golymin, eight leagues north of Warsaw, between the corps of Augereau, supported by part of that of Davoust, with the cavalry of Murat, and a strong Russian division under General Buxhowden. This combat was maintained with equal tenacity; but the French, though dreadfully maltreated, ultimately succeeded in forcing their adversaries to retire. The extreme rigour of the season now determined the belligerent armies on the Vistula to take some repose, which both so much required. But this was destined to be of short duration.

Beningsen having leisurely retired from the field of battle at Pultusk, followed but not harassed by the French, moved northward, determined, after a short interval of rest, and concentrating all his disposable means, to resume offensive operations. Accordingly, having mustered his forces, and rallied the remains of the Prussian army under Lestocq, he formed the project of penetrating between the main body of the French and their left wing, which bordered on the Baltic, raising the siege of Dantzick, and thus turning all the positions of the enemy. In the end of January, Napoleon, having become aware of this design, assembled his army and marched northward, in the hope of anticipating Beningsen, and attacking him in the midst of his movement. But an intercepted letter addressed to Bernadotte apprised Beningsen of his danger, and he immediately fell back. Both projects thus failed; but nevertheless the French had the advantage of obtaining the lead. Napoleon, therefore, continuing his movement northward, came up with Beningsen at Willenberg, whence the two armies, the one retiring and the other advancing, traversed rapidly the country between the Alle and the Passarge. Irritated by the close pursuit, and the privations to which his soldiers were exposed, Beningsen resolved to turn on the enemy, and make a stand at the little town of Preus-sisch-Eylau, twelve leagues south of Königsberg. He first endeavoured to defend the place, and, during the evening of the 7th of February, Prince Bagration and General Barclay de Tolly made the most gallant efforts to keep back the enemy; nor were they dislodged from a cemetery in which they had intrenched themselves until late at night, and after a most sanguinary combat. On the morning of the 8th, the Russians, under cover of a tremendous fire of artillery, attacked with the greatest fury the French in Eylau and its vicinity. Divisions belonging to the corps of Davoust, Soult, and Ney, and the entire corps of Augereau, withstood the efforts, equally impetuous and unexpected, of the Russians, whose force was estimated at between sixty and seventy thousand men. The approaches to and the interior of the village of Eylau exhibited a terrible scene of carnage. The aim of each general was the same, namely, to overthrow his adversary’s left. But Bonaparte having, in addition, sent strong columns against the Russian centre, these, during a heavy fall of snow, missed the proper direction, and penetrating between the centre and right of the [7:10:146]enemy, were attacked on both -flanks, whilst the Russian reserve charged them with great impetuosity in front. A dreadful scene of confusion and slaughter ensued; several generals were killed or wounded; and the twenty-fourth regiment of the line, three thousand six hundred strong, was annihilated. To extricate the troops thus compromised, Napoleon was obliged to order the cavalry, supported by his reserves, to charge; which increased the fury and indecision of the battle. Davoust having made a considerable detour, now arrived on the left flank of the Russians, which was refused as he advanced, and about to fall back in good order, when the Prussians under Lestocq came up, and this terrible battle was renewed. Davoust retreated in his turn; but Ney having by this time arrived with his division at the other extremity of the Russian line, the fury of the conflict was transported thither, where mutual charges were executed with headlong impetuosity. Order there was no longer any; masses alone, impelled by the instinct of combat, continued the desperate struggle. The Russians, though huddled together in a small space, determinedly maintained their ground; whilst the French, in equal confusion, were unable to bring up a force sufficient to decide the fate of the battle. The loss on both sides was enormous. That of the Russians was, by their own -account, seven thousand nine hundred men killed and twelve thousand wounded; but Napoleon only acknowledged a loss of one thousand nine hundred men killed on the field of battle, and five thousand seven hundred wounded; an admission evidently as far below the truth as that of Ruschel, who stated the French loss at thirty thousand killed and twelve thousand wounded, was above it. The Russians remained on the field of battle; but as they had been dreadfully cut up, and as Bernadotte was advancing with his corps to reinforce Napoleon, Beningsen withdrew next morning, and retired behind the Pregel. Had he remained a little longer, the French would have left him indisputed master of the field. Napoleon had also contemplated a retreat; but, on the disappearance of the Russians, he kept his ground, remained an entire week at Eylau, and then retired to occupy the line of the Passarge, establishing his head-quarters at Osterode. This was the only circumstance which gave him a pretence for claiming a victory which most certainly he had not won.^[41. This horrible massacre, represented by Napoleon as a victory won by Murat, whose cavalry did not appear until towards the close of the engagement, produced great discontentment amongst some of the marshals, particularly Augereau and Lannes, who were disgraced for denying to Murat the credit which Napoleon had chosen to give him on this occasion. They disputed not Napoleon’s title to order matters as he pleased on the field of battle, but they contended that he had no right to treat truth with the same con. tempt which he showed for mankind, or to dictate his sovereign orders to fame. Besides, they were sick of prosecuting war in such distant and inhospitable regions. Lannes, when asked by his chief if, with such soldiers as those who fought at Eylau, the conquest of Poland could be doubtful, replied. “All this country is not worth the loss of the humblest corporal in the army." In the sixty-fourth bulletin Napoleon thus describes the scene presented by the field of battle: “Qu’on se figure, sur un espace d’une lieue carrée, neuf ou dix mille cadavres, quatre ou cinq mille chevaux tués. Tout cela avait plue de relief cur un fond de neiger' what a picture is presented in these few words ř “Ce spectacle (the bulletin continues) est fait pour inspirer aux princes l’amour de la paix et Thorreur de la guerre a natural reflection, certainly, however hypocritical and disgusting, as emanating from one who “commanded the bloody fray to rise,” and who seems even to have contemplated, with something approaching to pleasure, the horribly picturesque spectacle presented by the blood-stained snow of this field of carnage. Napoleon’s tactics made no account of human life. If the battle was gained, however dearly purchased, he felt no regret, provided enough of men remained for future consumption. He was, to use Kleber’s expression, “a general of six thousand men a day.” ]

The tidings of a drawn battle, fought at the northern • extremity of Prussia, filled the Parisians with apprehension and alarm. The good fortune of Napoleon had hitherto been so constant that people looked on the battle of Eylau as the breaking of the spell, and began to consider reverses as probable. Nor was this feeling confined to Paris, where it occasioned a considerable fall in the funds, and even shook public confidence. It prevailed also in the army, where more than one general officer counselled a retreat behind the Vistula. But Napoleon persisted in remaining on the Passarge, where he continued until the month of May, when Dantzick surrendered after a gallant defence.

Reinforcements had in the meanwhile reached both armies, which were consequently soon in a condition to take the field. Napoleon, however, determined to leave as little as possible to chance, had opened negotiations, evidently with no other object than to gain time, and retard the commencement of operations until his utmost available means were collected for the decisive struggle. Accordingly, when all was ready, the negotiations were broken off; and, on the 5th of June, two Russian columns attempted to force the passage of the Passarge at Spanden, three leagues north-east of Guttstadt; but, after an obstinate combat, in which Bernadotte was severely wounded, they were repulsed. Another encounter took place at Heilsberg on the 10th, between the principal mass of the Russian army and the corps of Soult and Lannes, supported by the cavalry under Murat. The Russians disputed the ground inch by inch, whilst their artillery tore up the ranks of the French, who had several generals killed or wounded, and maintained themselves in close columns in their intrenchments, which they did not evacuate until the 12th. Both armies now moved northward, the Russians on the east, and the French on the west, of the Alle. But as Beningsen’s object was to cover Königsberg, it became necessary to pass the river by the bridge at Friedland, on the road leading to the ancient capital of Prussia, and sixteen leagues distant therefrom.

As the French had but one division (that of Ney) im√ mediately opposite Friedland, Beningsen brought up forces 1 to attack it. Bonaparte was at Eylau, eight leagues distant, whence he hurried with the rest of his army to Friedland, where he found Ney making what resistance he could. It was the 14th of June, the anniversary of the battle of Marengo, and welcomed by the French emperor as betokening good fortune. Forming his columns in the woods, he allowed Beningsen to cross the bridge with the greater part of his army. When the Russian general thus heedlessly advanced, he little suspected that the whole French army were lying in wait for him; but dense columns issuing from the woods, and getting their cannon into position for the attack, soon convinced him that he would have to fight at a disadvantage, and without even the possibility of retreating in the event of sustaining a reverse. He drew out his line, however, with his left resting on the bridge, and prepared to receive the shock which was now inevitable. A considerable time passed in manoeuvres, skirmishes, and partial combats; and it was not until five in the evening that the battle became general along the whole line. The principal attack, led by Ney, was of course directed against the bridge of Friedland, by which alone the Russians could retreat; but in his ardour to carry it he was repulsed, and the head of his column was broken. Supported by Dupont, however, he rallied his troops, and was preparing to renew the attack, when Napoleon, who had acquired some experience of Russian firmness and tenacity, judged it best to achieve the victory by means of his artillery. A battery of thirty pieces, commanded by General Senarmont, advancing[7:10:147] four hundred yards a head of the columns, opened a destructive fire of grape on the Russian masses, huddled up as it were in a corner; heavy charges of cavalry filled up the intervals of the cannonade, breaking many of their squares; and towards evening the French infantry again advanced to complete the victory. The Russians had suffered much; retreat was inevitable; and as the bridge was swept by the enfilading fire of the enemy’s artillery, they threw themselves into the river, where thousands perished in addition to those who had fallen in the field of battle. Such was the decisive victory of Friedland, which re-established the superiority of the French arms, which the battle of Eylau had brought into question, and which Napoleon had long desired, as the means of disposing Alexander to an accommodation. In this battle the Russians lost seventeen thousand men killed, drowned, or wounded, nearly as many prisoners, and seventy pieces of cannon. The loss sustained by the French was also great, and included a number of generals killed as well as wounded.

But the results were eminently decisive. Königsberg surrendered to Soult. The last hope of Prussia was annihilated. Beningsen retired beyond the Niemen,^[42. The Russians showed much more firmness at Friedland than they had done at AusterliU (2d December 1805); and their retrograde march, though performed under every disadvantage, can in no respect be assimilated to the diroute of the Prussians after the battles of Iena and Auerstadt (14th October 1806), to which, in fact, there is nothing in the annals of modem tactics that can be compared in point of ignominy. Beningsen was no mean adept in his art; and if he had been cordially seconded, instead of being thwarted, as he often was, by the native Russian generals (be was a Hanoverian), the result of the campaign might have been different. At all events, Napoleon had yet met with no antagonist who made him pay so terrible a price for victory. ] on the banks of which the French soon afterwards arrived. At Friedland was terminated the series of operations commenced at Spenden on the 5th; and in this campaign of ten days the Russian army had experienced enormous losses, and been forced to retreat within its own frontiers. The Emperor Alexander having now joined the army, an armistice was demanded and agreed to on the 21st of June; and, on the 25th, an interview took place between the emperors, in a tent raised on a raft in the Niemen, at Tilsitt, an open place of small importance on the left bank of the river. The meeting had as much apparent cordiality as if not a drop of blood had been shed or a life lost in their quarrel. One of the first words of Alexander expressed his resentment against England. This was politic, and eminently calculated to conciliate the conqueror, who in fact is said to have replied that, such being his sentiments, the terms of accommodation would be easily arranged. Besides, England had departed from the Pitt system of subsidizing largely, and the autocrat no doubt thought it hard that he should not be liberally paid for defending himself. At the second interview, which took place the following day, the king of Prussia was admitted, on the urgent entreaty of Alexander; and the half of the town of Tilsitt being neutralized, the two emperors established themselves there, and were soon upon terms of the greatest familiarity, if not friendship. Not so the unfortunate king of Prussia, who, having arrived as a suppliant, was treated with disrespect and severity. Even the czar, won by the attentions of Napoleon, or overawed by the ascendency of his genius and fortune, soon evinced a diminished sympathy for his unfortunate ally; nor could the presence of the beautiful queen of Prussia, with all her fascinations, overcome this influence, or soften the premeditated rigour of the French emperor. The latter had many grounds of resentment against Prussia. At Austerlitz she had held his destiny in her hands, and acted with perfidy, without, however, reaping the reward of her bad faith. She had besides deranged his favourite system of policy, which required the alliance of one of the three great powers of the north and east, especially of Prussia, whose central position gave to her peculiar advantages in this respect. He felt it as a great political evil that he had been reduced to the necessity of destroying a power which it was his interest to support, nay even to aggrandize; and as he knew that reconcilement could never grow up where wounds of deadly hate had pierced so deep, he resolved to avail himself to the fullest extent of the advantages which victory had given him, and to prevent Prussia from ever having the power to decide the fate of any future coalition.

The terms granted to the king of Prussia were equally severe and humiliating, and were made to appear as concessions to Alexander rather than stipulations with Frederick-William. He was deprived of all his territories between the Rhine and the Elbe, and forced to abandon to Saxony almost the whole of Prussian Poland, which was erected into the duchy of Warsaw, as well as the circle of Cotbus, in Lusatia. Several military roads were also to be opened through the Prussian state, to form communications between the kingdom of Saxony and the duchy of Warsaw; all the countries which remained to Prussia were to be shut against the navigation and commerce of England; and these provinces were to be evacuated before the first of October 1807, provided the war contributions were discharged, which they were to be held to be whenever the intendant of the French army should have certified the validity of the securities offered. Under cover of this last provision, the fortresses of Custrin, Stettin, and Ulo-gau were retained by the French long after the period stipulated for their restoration. The totality of the contributions imposed upon Prussia was fixed at 513,744,410 francs, or L.20,551,776, and of this enormous amount there had been collected, by the end of 1808, “tant en espèces qu'en fournitures,” the sum of 474,352,650 francs, or L.19,174,106, leaving to be recovered even then a balance of rather more than L.l,500,000. These numbers show the frightful severity with which the law of the conqueror was applied to Prussia.^[43. Dumas, Précis des Evenement Militaires, tome xix. p. 85. ] By the present treaty, that power lost more than the half of her territory, and nearly the half of her population; instead of ten millions and a half, which she possessed before the disastrous day of Iena, only six millions remained to her; whilst her territory, dismantled and laid open on all its frontiers, formed a long parallelogram,extending abouta hundred and eighty leagues from west to east, but reduced to a breadth not exceeding forty. Modern history presents no other example of a power descending to such a degree of abasement and humiliation by means of a conquest so rapidly executed.^[44. The queen of Prussia begged hard for Magdeburg, but in vain. Napoleon, on one occasion, condescended to present her with a rose; she accepted it, saying with a winning smile, “at least with Magdeburg." Madame,” said Napoleon, assuming a look of great severity, “it is for me to give; you have only the trouble of accepting.” Nor even when the sacrifice was consummated did he relax in his sarcasms and severities against the Prussian court; and whenever a deputation of Prussians presented themselves, he recurred to the painful theme of their monarch’s imbecility and ingratitude. For all this, however, there is the apology either of resentment or policy. But none whatever can be imagine∣l for the scandalous statements to which he gave currency at the time, and afterwards repeated to many persons at St Helena, respecting certain alleged improprieties in the conduct of the queen of Prussia. If true, it was undignified and unmanly to blazon such frailties; if false, detestable. It is but just to add, that, as far as we have been able to discover, the character of this beautiful and unfortunate woman was impeached by none except the deadly foe of her family; his statements and insinuations are unsupported by any other authority that we cau find, and hence the fair presumption is that they are false and slanderous. ]
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But the primary stipulations at Tilsitt were between Napoleon and Alexander, lords of the old world, the one from the Atlantic to the Niemen, the other from the Niémen to the Pacific. If the half of his dominions was restored to the king of Prussia, it was from regard to the Emperor Alexander; and the latter, equally complaisant, consented that the greater part of the ancient Polish territories should pass under the sovereignty of Saxony, and that Dantzick, with a radius of two leagues, should be declared independent, but with a garrison of French troops. Napoleon accepted, for form’s sake, the mediation of Alexander with England; whilst Alexander, in return,recognised the confederation of the Rhine, and the three brothers of his conqueror, Joseph, Louis, and Jerome, as the kings of Naples, Holland, and Westphalia. The Russian troops were also to evacuate the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The old barriers of Europe were thus broken down, and all the other powers plunged into a state of humiliating vassalage and uncertainty. In the policy of Napoleon we always find something gigantic, hazardous, incoherent, and unfinished; vast but ill-defined conceptions, bold experiments, and wildly capricious assortments. On this occasion, for instance, the Polish nation was most ungenerously sacrificed; whereas, by re-establishing the throne of Sobieski, with a better system of monarchy, he would have formed a stronger barrier against the ambition of Russia, and more effectually preserved Germany from the influence of Austria and Prussia, than by creating two feebles states under the denominations of the kingdoms of Westphalia and Saxony. But the grand object at present was spoliation. In the treaty of Tilsitt continental Europe was sacrificed to the ambition of the two emperors, who parcelled it out at their pleasure; the one adjudging to himself the south and the west, the other the east and the north. It appears, also, that, by a secret article, the expulsion of the Turks beyond the Bosphorus had been determined on. But if such a convention was actually agreed to, the Emperor Napoleon could not have seen far before him in politics, whatever may have been the extent of his genius in military and administrative affairs. For, to permit Russia to dismember the Ottoman empire, that is, to establish herself in a given time at Constantinople, was, in effect, to deliver up to her in a given time Italy and the Mediterranean, and, by a necessary consequence, to abandon Europe, before the lapse of a century, to the barbarians of the north. But the two emperors were mutually endeavouring to deceive each other; and although soon after the peace of Tilsitt Alexander prided himself on the friendship of Napoleon, as a gift of the gods, the latter repaid the compliment by observing of his imperial brother, “He is as fair and false as a Greek,” thereby showing that he understood his man.

Be this as it may, however, the stipulations, whether avowed or secret, of the treaty of Tilsitt, were nothing less than a league to enchain the world. Prussia was annihilated; Spain and Sweden were directly menaced; Austria and Turkey were prospectively endangered; England was of course devoted to ruin. Denmark preserved a nominal neutrality; but, irritated by the violent and arbitrary nautical maxims of Britain, particularly in regard to the right of search claimed by her, and, moreover, placed in nearly the same relative situation to France as Holland had formerly been, that northern power was, by the force of circumstances, induced to adopt a line of policy adverse to the interests of England. But latterly her position had changed for the worse. The exigencies of Napoleon’s continental system required that Denmark should be obliged to shut her ports against the commerce of Britain, and Holstein was already menaced by the French troops which occupied Hamburg and Lubeck; whilst, on the other hand, information received by the British government of what had secretly passed at Tilsitt gave them reason to suspect that an attempt would be made on the part of the French to occupy Denmark, and to appropri ate its fleet. To prevent such a contingency, an expedition which had been fitted out for a different purpose was dispatched to the Sound, and, on the refusal of the Danish government to discontinue its relations with France, Copenhagen was attacked on the 7th of September. After a bombardment of three days, and the burning of six hundred houses, a capitulation was entered into, and the Danish fleet seized as a deposit, to be restored at the conclusion of the war. This proceeding upon the part of England was strongly censured at the time, and still merits severe reprobation. In point of injustice, it equalled the worst deeds with which Napoleon was reproached; and, in point of impolicy, it was not surpassed by the most stupid act of violence ever before committed. Denmark immediately closed her ports against England, declared war against that country, and soon afterwards ( 16th October) concluded a treaty of alliance with France. Russia, also, availed herself of the favourable opportunity thus afforded to announce publicly her adoption of the continental system, to which she had already secretly acceded, to break off all intercourse with England, to annul the convention of the 17th June, and to proclaim of new the principles of the armed neutrality.

Napoleon was now in the zenith of his glory, victorious on every side, and possessed of a power by land which' nothing seemed capable of withstanding. Against Britain, on the other hand, the whole civilized world was now arrayed in hostility. Russia, Austria, Prussia, France, Italy, Spain, were all in arms against her; even Turkey, her ancient ally, had proved ungrateful; and, excepting Sweden, which was misruled by a madman, and Portugal, which was governed by a fool, all Europe was forbidden ground. Even the new world was hostile from north to south; and, what was worst of all, a deep shade had been cast on the justice of her cause by the ill-timed attack on Copenhagen. At this time, too, the character of Napoleon stood fair; he had not misused victory beyond what the morality of the world indulges to a conqueror; and if he had abstained from aggression on the Peninsula, his power might, in a very few years, have acquired a stability which would at length have compelled England, however reluctantly, to sue for peace. His decline may be dated from the moment when he intermeddled with the affairs of Spain and Portugal, and endeavoured to convert these ancient and independent kingdoms into dependencies of France. The unjustifiable nature of the aggression, and the unexampled perfidy and profligacy with which it was prefaced and accompanied, destroyed him in the opinion of Europe; whilst the contest in which he soon became involved in the Peninsula preyed like an inveterate and daily spreading gangrene on the very vitals of his power.

The first object of attack was Portugal. On the 17th October, an army of about twenty-seven thousand men, under the orders of Junot, marched from Bayonne for Portugal. The professed object of this invasion was to enforce in that country the adoption of the continental system. But, on the 27th of the same month, a secret treaty was concluded at Fontainebleau, between the Emperor Napoleon and the minister of Spain, by which Portugal was to be conquered, and the province of Entre-Minho-e-Douro given to the king of Etruria in exchange for Tuscany; whilst the Algarves and the Alemtejo were to be bestowed in sovereignty upon Godoy, prince of the Peace, and favourite of the queen of Spain, and the remainder, including Lisbon, was to be retained in reserve until a general peace. This rapacious and unprincipled scheme, however, formed but a small part of Napoleon’s design, which [7:10:149]was to seize and occupy the entire Peninsula. Accordingly, another corps of forty thousand men was ordered to assemble at Bayonne, at latest by the 30th of November, to be in readiness to support Junot in case the English should send assistance to Portugal, or even menace an attack. Meanwhile that general continued his march to Lisbon, which he entered with his advanced guard on the 30th of November. After much irresolution, the court had at length determined to shut its ports against the English, in the hope that this concession would stop the march of Junot; but, as might have been expected, it proved wholly unavailing. Conquest, not concession, was the object aimed at; the Moniteur announced that the house of Braganza had ceased to reign; and the royal family hastened to fulfil the declaration, by abandoning the country which they were incapable of defending. The invaders had advanced with such rapidity along difficult roads, and were in consequence so greatly harassed and disorganized, that a few thousand resolute troops would have knocked them all on the head; but the court thought only of flight, not resistance, and the country was meanly surrendered to a parcel of toil-worn conscripts, without a single blow being struck in its defence. The escape of the family of Braganza, however, may nevertheless be considered as the first check which the fortune of Napoleon received on the Continent. The odious nature of this enterprise exceeded even the iniquity of the invasions of Switzerland and Egypt; two acts of aggression executed without any previous declaration, and directly contrary to the faith of treaties.

We have already noticed Napoleon’s Berlin decree. Another dated from Milan, the 17th of December, contained new measures against the commerce and maritime system of Great Britain. After reference to certain orders in council, issued by the British government, in virtue of which the vessels of neutral powers were not only subjected to search by the English cruisers, but also made liable to detention and to an arbitrary impost, it decreed, first, that every vessel, of whatsoever nation, which should have undergone search by any English cruiser, or performed a voyage to England, or paid a duty to the English government, became thereby denationalised, in other words, lost the protection of its flag, and became English property; secondly, that all such vessels were good and lawful prize of war; and, thirdly, that the British islands were in a state of blockade by sea as well as by land, and that every vessel, of whatsoever nation, which had cleared out from ports in England, or entered into any of these, might be lawfully captured. It was added, that the dispositions contained in this decree would become null whenever England adopted as the rule of her conduct the principles of the law of nations, which were also those of justice and humanity. It must be confessed that this decree embodied a measure of retaliation which, in the circumstances, was allowable. In discarding the maxim that neutral bottoms make neutral goods, England could appeal to no other sanction but that of force. In the law of nations, the maritime sovereignty, which she seems to have considered as an acquired and incontestible right, found no support; and the code which she adopted was viewed by other countries as a system of organized piracy, differing but little in principle from that exercised by the buccaneers and the Algerines. It was never before maintained that the law of war, and the right of conquest thence derived, extended to peaceable and unarmed citizens, to private habitations and properties, to merchandise of commerce and the warehouses which contained or the vehicles which transported it, to unarmed vessels which plied upon the rivers or navigated the seas; in a word, to the persons and properties of private individuals. But in giving it this unprecedented and unjust extension, Great Britain necessarilyexposed herself to retaliation, and the avowed principles ós her maritime policy left her without the smallest right to complain of such measures as those embodied in the Berlin and Milan decrees.

Napoleon had now realised one part of his scheme respecting the Peninsula. Portugal was occupied by his troops, and it now remained to complete his design by seizing on Spain. With this view a second army, under Dupont, crossed the Pyrenees about the same time that Junot entered Portugal, and a third followed on the first days of 1808. In fact, all the disposable troops of France were secretly pouring into Spain. In a short time San Sebastian, Pampeluna, Figueras, and even the forts ol Barcelona, were in the hands of the French; who, by a mixture of artifice and audacity, easily contrived to dispossess the imbecile governors and invalid garrisons to whom these fortresses had been confided. As if by magic, the whole line of defence which covered the Pyrenean frontier fell into the hands of the French. The imbecility, not to say profligacy, of the rulers of Spain, bad afforded not only a pretext, but an occasion for this unexampled aggression. The prince of Asturias, indignant at the influence possessed by Godoy, had secretly addressed himself to Napoleon, and, as a pledge of his sincerity, solicited a wife of the Bonaparte family; whilst, on the other hand, Charles IV., on discovering the machinations of his son, complained to the French imperial court of his undutiful conduct. Napoleon, thus constituted a sort of umpire in the quarrel, gave promises to both parties, sent a splendid present to the king, and at the same time issued orders to his generals to seize the principal fortresses in the north of Spain. This last proceeding opened the eyes of Charles, and even of Godoy; but it was already too late. The keys of the kingdom were in the hands of the French; and those worthless personages who, only a few months before, had plotted with Napoleon the dethronement of the house of Braganxa, were now, by a righteous retribution, reduced to seek safety in flight. Preparations were accordingly made for retiring to Cadiz, and the royal party were ready to commence the journey to that port, when the population of Aranjuez, raised by the partisans of Ferdinand, stopped the carriages, and prevented the flight. But matters did not rest here. The tumult thus excited swelled into an insurrection; Godoy’s house was attacked, in the hope of sacrificing the hated favourite as a victim to popular vengeance; and Charles was compelled to abdicate in favour of his son, who was proclaimed king by the style and title of Ferdinand VII. Charles, however, protested against the act as void, because compulsory, and sent his protest to Napoleon, accompanied by a letter from the queen; but as this letter passed through the hands of Murat, who, with a body of troops, had advanced as far as Burgos, that officer immediately marched upon Madrid. The aìłair now became complicated. Ferdinand reckoned on the support of the French; the abdicated monarch did the same; whilst the people, delighted with the fall of Godoy, hailed the new king as the deliverer of his country, and as a sovereign destined to revive its ancient splendour. Raised to the throne by an insurrection, the popularity of Ferdinand was unbounded. Nothing, in fact, could exceed the favour and enthusiasm with which he was regarded by the nation, except the innate worthlessness of the object on which it was lavished. But, in every view, Ferdinand was not a monarch suited to the purposes of Napoleon, or calculated, even as a tributary, to advance his views. It became necessary, therefore, to remove him from Madrid, where the loyal frenzy of the population gave him force, and then to decide according to circumstances in what way he and the other members of [7:10:150] his family should be disposed of. With this view Savary was sent to entice him to Bayonne; and Ferdinand, more willing to rely on the French emperor than on the Spanish nation, resolved to propitiate Napoleon by giving him the meeting, which, he was led to believe, would take place within the Spanish territory. In this, however, he was deceived. Filled with hopes of meeting Napoleon at every post, he was enticed on until he had crossed the Bidassoa, when his eyes were at last opened. Napoleon did not receive him as king of Spain. But he was now in the snare, and escape impossible. Charles and his queen also arrived at Bayonne, where Napoleon was about to decide the quarrel of the Spanish royal family in his own favour. Their mutual recriminations were alike disgusting and disgraceful; the queen impeached the legitimacy of her son in the presence of her husband; and Ferdinand retorted by applying to his mother epithets which her unblushing immoralities but too well merited. All this had probably been foreseen and calculated on. At all events, Íjretending to identify the nation with its rulers, Napo-eon, taking advantage of the degrading exhibition made by the latter, resolved to set aside the reigning house, and to substitute a new one of his own in its stead. But in the mean while the news of the insurrection of Madrid, on the 2d of May, had reached Bayonne, and the French emperor saw that no time was to be lost. Through the influence of Godoy, Charles was induced to resign his crown in favour of Napoleon; threats overcame the stubbornness of Ferdinand; and the Spanish royal family having played the part required of them, were sent off, the old king and queen to Fontainebleau, and the princes to Valençay. A hundred and fifty Spanish nobles, who had been mostly gained over to the French interest, were then summoned to assemble at Bayonne, where they met in June, assumed the name of the Spanish Cortes, and submissively received Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain and the Indies. The events which followed the consummation of this detestable juggle belong partly to the history of Spain and partly to that of Britain, to which heads, accordingly, the reader is referred. The nation had been no party to these infamous transactions, by which its honour was insulted, and its independence assailed, if not destroyed. A patriotic spirit burst forth; the insurrection of Madrid produced similar movements all over the country; the nation roused itself from the lethargy in which it had been long sunk; the aid of Britain was solicited and obtained; and in a little time that contest commenced, which was destined to terminate in the deliverance of the Peninsula, and the overthrow of Napoleon himself. See the articles Britain and Spain.

The invasion of Spain, wild and desperate as it at first appeared,^[45. The spirit of a people is often shown in their pasquils. Soon after the affair of the 2d of May, the following epigram was attached to a proclamation affixed by the French to the waUs of Madrid, and addressed to the Spaniards: En la plaza hai un cartel, Que nos dice en Castellano, Que Joseph, rey Italiano, Muda a Madrid su dosel. Y a leer esa cartel, Dice un maja a su majo, Manolo ponlo mas abajo Que me cago en en esa ley Que no sabe decir carajo. It is not necessary to subjoin any translation of this national epigram; but, to give our readers some idea of the means employed to stimulate and perpetuate a hatred of the French, we shaU give in English an excerpt from a catechism generally circulated in 8pain about this time, and which parents were enjoined to teach their children. “Tell me, my dear child, who are you? A spaniard, by the grace of God. what do you mean by that? A person of respectability, who is the enemy of our happiness? The emperor of the French, who is he? A wicked man, the source of all that is evil, the destroyer of all that is good, and the centre of every vice. How many natures has he? Two, the human and the diabolical. How many emperors of the French are there? One veritable, in three deceitful persons, what are the names of these persons? Napoleon, Murat, and Manuel Godoy, which of the three is the most wicked? They are all equally so. Of whom is Napoleon derived? Of Sin. Murat? Of Napoleon. And Godoy? Of the fornication of the other two. What is the spirit of the first? Pride and despotism, of the second? Rapine and cruelty. Of the third? Cupidity, treachery, and ignorance. Who are the French? Men once Christians, who have become heretics. What punishment does the Spaniard deserve who fails in performing his duty? The death and infamy of traitors. How ought the Spaniards to conduct themselves? According to the maxims of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who will deliver us from our enemies? Mutual confidence and arms. Is it a sin to put a Frenchman to death? No, father; he will gain heaven who shaU kill one of these dogs of heretics.” A people who would teach their children such a manual of doctrine as this might easily be expected to begin by exemplifying in their own actions the precepts which are here inculcated. ] soon assumed a shape which left no doubt that it would operate as a serious drain upon France. The proclamation of the intrusive King Joseph was the signal for the general outbreaking of the spirit of resistance, which, as in almost all popular commotions, displayed itself in acts of sanguinary vengeance. The French were assailed and massacred in most of the towns; the soldiers made common cause with the people; and those commanders who sought to resist the general will were mercilessly sacrificed. The flower of the Spanish army had been marched to the north of Europe; but the void was soon filled up, and in a few weeks insurgent armies made their appearance in all parts of the Peninsula. In the first encounters, indeed in most general actions, the French, as might have been expected, were successful; and the defeat of Blake and Cuesta at Rio Seco seemed the battle of Almanza to the new dynasty. But Lefebvre, though successful in the field, was repulsed from Zaragoza; and Dupont, after an unsuccessful attempt to reach Cadiz, was intercepted in his retreat across the Sierra Morena, and obliged to surrender at Baylen. These successes kept alive the national spirit, and encouraged the Spaniards to hope that their efforts would ultimately be crowned with success. Meanwhile the flame of insurrection had spread to Portugal, where the inhabitants rose against Junotŷ and united with the Spaniards in asserting their independence. The British government availed themselves of the opportunity thus offered. In the end of July 1808, Sir Arthur Wellesley landed at the mouth of the Mondego, to the north of Lisbon, with about fifteen thousand men; and, after a short but brilliant campaign, terminating in the battle and victory of Vimicro (21st August), Portugal was, in virtue of the convention of Cintra, cleared of the enemy.

The court of Vienna now began to show signs of returning spirit, and, encouraged by the events in Spain and Portugal, armed, increased the regular force, and organized a landwehr. At a public levee held in August, Napoleon took the opportunity to reproach Metternich, the Austrian envoy, with these preparations; but the intelligence received from the Peninsula, together with certain [7:10:151] appearances of the commencement of a re-action, gave hardihood to German independence. Resolved openly to insult, if not to menace Austria, Napoleon, in September, held a meeting with the emperor of Russia at Erfurth, where, as at Tilsitt, great European interests were discussed, and Austria was again excluded as a secondary power. On the part of the French emperor this was the consummation of that foolish insolence which is begotten of success. Being thus insulted, trampled on, and despised, Austria determined, though alone, and opposed instead of being supported by Russia, to renew the struggle with France; but her effort was reserved for the year 1809. Napoleon foresaw the storm which was gathering, and, that he might be prepared to meet it with undivided means, made preparations to extinguish by one grand effort the insurrection in Spain, and to settle the government of that country. From Erľurth he issued orders to his veterans to march to the Pyrenees, and by the beginning of November he had himself crossed these mountains, and established himself at Vittoria. Napoleon was now in the midst of the Spanish armies, with a greatly superior force; and as they were disseminated on a lengthened and irregular line, so as to be incapable of acting in concert or affording mutual support, his plan was to crush them one after another, by means of rapid movements executed with overwhelming masses. Accordingly, from the central position of Vittoria, he attacked and defeated Blake at Espinosa, overthrew Belvedere near Burgos, and totally routed Castanos at Tudela; so that whilst the English were slowly advancing into Spain, one column by a circuitous route, the armies with which they had expected to co-operate were completely swept from the field. Napoleon now pushed forward to Madrid, which, after a vain stand made in the passes of the Somosierra, and a show of resistance when he approached the walls, he entered in the beginning of December. Here, however, he remained but a short time. Having passed some decrees intended to conciliate the liberal Spaniards, having abolished the Inquisition, suppressed the convents, and made a variety of judicious and salutary regulations, he turned his arms against the English, whose principal force was assembled in the neighbourhood of Salamanca; crossed the Guadarama range in the depth of winter at the head of eighty thousand men; and advanced with incredible velocity upon Astorga, the strategic point, in order to cut off their retreat. But his skilful combinations and rapid execution were defeated by the masterly retreat of the English general Sir John Moore; and Napoleon, finding that the enemy had escaped him, left Soult to continue the pursuit, galloped back to Burgos, and thence hurried to Paris. The preparations of Austria, of which he had received fresh intelligence whilst proceeding against the British, required his immediate presence in the capital to watch the movements of that power.

A fifth continental coalition had already been formed. Availing herself of the diversion occasioned by the events in the Peninsula, Austria had armed; whilst in France new conscriptions were ordered, and the imperial guard, hastily recalled from the pursuit of the British, marched against the Austrians on the Danube. The war seemed interminable; and Talleyrand’s prediction was in course of being realised. The court of Vienna had made incredible exertions, and an army of nearly two hundred thousand men, commanded by the Archduke Charles, menaced France and Italy; whilst another, in Gallicia, was intended to oppose whatever forces Russia might bring into the field to support her new ally. On the 9th of April the Austrians crossed the Inn at Brunnau and at Scharding, and the Salza at Burghausen; the Archduke .Charles declaring to the commandant of the French troops stationed in Bavaria that he was about to advance, and would treat as enemies all who should resist him. On the 15th hostilities also commenced in Italy, and the following day the French under Eugene Beauharnais were completely defeated at Pordenone, on the Tagliamento. Napoleon, on receiving the first tidings of the advance of the Austrians, hurried from Paris, and at Dillingen met the king of Bavaria, who had been forced to abandon his capital. The French, in fact, were quite unprepared for the adoption of such a vigorous offensive on the part of the Austrians; and the corps of Davoμst, which Berthier had stationed at Ratisbon, was so much in advance as to be seriously compromised. But Davoust took upon himself the responsibility of executing a flank march from that city upon Abensberg; checked the advance of the Austrian army at Tann; gave his hand (as the military phrase is) to the Bavarians; and thus prepared for Napoleon, who was on the point of arriving, the means of penetrating the enemy’s line, and beating in succession the two great Austrian corps under the Archdukes Louis and Charles. Upon the 20th Napoleon defeated, at Abensberg, the corps under the orders of the Archduke Louis and General Hiller, after an engagement of only an hour and a half. Great advantages resulted from this success, which, upon the following day, forced the Austrians to abandon nine thousand prisoners, thirty pieces of cannon, six hundred ammunition waggons, three thousand vehicles of various sorts, and three pontoon trains. On the 22d, the archduke directed his efforts against Davoust, who was in position at Eckmuhl; but the portion of the army under Napoleon, which had followed to Landshut the corps defeated at Abensberg, rapidly countermarched, and having appeared on the left flank of the Austrians, compelled the archduke to abandon his position and cross the Danube. Thus, after a campaign of a week, on almost every day of which a victory had been gained, the French emperor was enabled to send forth one of his astounding proclamations, announcing the capture of a hundred pieces of cannon, fifty thousand prisoners, and forty stand of colours. Davoust, to whom the last success had been mainly owing, was created Prince of Eckmuhl on the field of battle.

The archduke having crossed the Danube at Ratisbon, retreated into Bohemia, no doubt in the hope of drawing the French after him in pursuit; but Napoleon preferred marching along the right bank towards Vienna. This, however, was not effected without opposition. At Ebersberg, a large town situated upon the right bank of the Traun, three leagues from Lintz, there occurred, on the 4th of May, one of the most sanguinary combats on record. The French generals, acting under the eye of their chief, attempted to carry this strong position at the first onset, and without hesitation sacrificed five thousand men, who were either drowned in the torrent, destroyed by the musketry, overwhelmed amidst the rubbish, or consumed by the flames of the houses, to which the enemy set fire on beating a retreat;^[46. “Figure to yourself,” says an eye-witness of this horrid spectacle, “all these dead, baked by the fire, trodden under the feet of the cavalry and the wheels of the artillery, all forming a mass of mud, which, as it was removed by shovels, emitted an undescribable odour of burned human flesh, and caused a sensation horrible even amongst the every-dav horrors of war." In passing cobom’s Corsican regiment, which bad headed the attack, Napoleon inquired respecting its loss.’ "’we have just one more charge left,” replied the officer, pointing to the surviving half of the regiment. « A ce jour," says the Abbé Montgaillard, α l’espoir d’un grade, <l’une dotation, ¢ait dépasser toutes les bornes de l’audace guerrière, et méconnaitre'aussi les inspirations de Thumanité.” (Af≈rt aa France, tome vi. p. 391.) ] a carnage as useless as it was horrible, [7:10:152]seeing that Marshal Lannes had already turned the position, and rendered the retreat of the enemy inevitable. On the 13th of May, exactly a month after the Austrians had commenced the war, Vienna was occupied for the second time by the French army, though not until it had stood a bombardment of thirty-six hours. The resources in munitions of war found in the Austrian capital were sufficient for a campaign. The imperial family and the court had, as before, abandoned the city to its fate. Meanwhile the Archduke Charles had, by a circuitous march through Bohemia, reached· the left bank of the Danube opposite Vienna. More prudent than in 1805, the Austrians had destroyed every bridge on the river; and, on the other hand, it became necessary to the French to cross the stream and put an end to the war by victory, ere insurrections could be organized in their rear, or the want of subsistence should compel them to retreat. But how was this to be effected in presence of an active and vigilant enemy?

The river Danube, which now separated the hostile armies, is divided below Vienna into three unequal arms or branches. From the right bank to the first island, which is about a mile in circumference, the distance is two hundred and forty toises; and from this to the great island, where is the principal current, the canal is in width about eighty toises. The great island, called In-der-Lobau, is about seven miles in circumference, and the canal which separates it from the left bank is nearly eighty toises in breadth. Napoleon having thrown bridges, by means of which his troops were enabled to pass from the right bank into the islands, and thence to the left bank, attacked the Archduke Charles in position behind the villages of Gross-Aspern and Essling, about three leagues north of Vienna. After several murderous attempts in a confined space, where the French maintained an obstinate struggle against superior forces and a formidable artillery, the assailants were repulsed; and about the same moment the bridges were carried away by a sudden rise of the river, thus leaving them without ammunition, or the means of sheltering themselves from the fire of the enemy, which now plunged incessantly into their disordered ranks. But the tenacity of Massena saved the wrecks of the French army, which in the night operated its retreat into the island of Lobau, the bridge between which and the left bank had been temporarily repaired. This terrible battle, which lasted during the greater part of two days, was fought on the 21st and 22d of May. The loss of the French was enormous. Lannes was mortally wounded; three generals fell, a hundred and twenty-eight officers and six thousand soldiers were killed; thirteen generals, seven hundred officers, and eighteen thousand soldiers, were wounded; fourteen officers and three thousand soldiers were made prisoners. The loss sustained by the Austrians was by no means so great.

After the battle of Essling the reputation of Napoleon as a general and a man of resolution was much diminished; for he had not taken any adequate precaution against the contingency of retreat, and at the moment when the danger was most imminent he quitted the left bank of the Danube in a miserable barque, accompanied by Berthier, and Czernicheff, aide-de-camp to the emperor of Russia, in order to get under cover on the right bank. The news of his defeat also spread the flames of insurrection, and gave the first impulse to that spirit of resistance by which he was a few years afterwards overthrown. The Tyrolese rose against the Bavarians; associations, under the denomination of the Tugenbund, were formed for working out the independence of Germany; and the adventurous enterprises of the young Duke of Brunswick and of Major Schill afforded abundant evidence of the hostile disposition by which the people of the north and east were ani mated towards their oppressors; although the climate of Germany, and the character of its inhabitants, as well as the force and centralization of government, rendered the Spanish System of resistance impracticable in that country.

The French, forced back to the right bank of the Danube by their defeat at Essling, established themselves in the great island of Lobau; and both armies, separated only by the northern branch of the Danube, sixty yards wide, remained in observation during six weeks, carefully retrenching their respective positions. At length, on the night between the 4th and 5th of July, the French having constructed bridges lower down the stream, crossed to the left bank, where a warm combat ensued with the left wing of the Austrian army, posted near the small town of Enzersdorff, which was reduced to ashes. The archduke had fortified his position and made preparations to oppose the French, on the supposition that they would attempt to cross by the original bridge opposite Essling, which Napoleon had ordered to be repaired. But these repairs had only been made by Napoleon to deceive his antagonist; and by crossing lower down the river he rendered all the preparations and batteries of the archduke unavailing; for, instead of fronting the Danube, the latter was now obliged to extend his line perpendicularly to the river, from Aspern to Wagram, a village situated five leagues north-north-east of Vienna, and thence to a small river on his extreme left. The 5th was spent in manoeuvring, and in fruitless attempts to dislodge the French from the village of Enzersdorff. Both armies slept on the field, and on the 6th at day-break commenced the famous battle of Wagram. The Austrian centre was posted on the high ground near the village, which the archduke believed to be too strong to be forced; and accordingly he threw the greater part of his force into his wings. This error lost him the battle. The Austrian right attacked and overthrew Massena, who commanded the French left, driving him back with such fury that his four divisions were crowded into one. Davoust opposed a firmer resistance to the Austrian left; but still he had great difficulty in maintaining his ground. In this situation Napoleon resolved to allow his wings to resist as they might, and to bring the whole of his disposable force to bear upon the Austrian centre at Wagram. Lauriston accordingly advanced against it with a hundred pieces of cannon; Macdonald followed Lauriston with the infantry; and Bessières supported the attack with the cavalry of the imperial guard. This combined effort succeeded. The artillery made breaches in the Austrian line; the French, aided by a diversion on the extreme right, rushed into the openings; the centre was forced; and the corps victorious over Massena, being now taken in flank, was also obliged to retire. The different portions of the Austrian army being thus separated from one another, the archduke withdrew from the field; but the French had suffered far too much to follow him. In fact, the battle of Essling had damped the courage of the French; and at Wagram they fought faintly, except when urged on by some bold and determined leader. The loss on both sides was enormous; that of the French exceeding thirty-five thousand men killed and wounded. Wagram was therefore a victory, but not such a victory as that of Marengo or Austerlitz. The hostile army was defeated, but neither destroyed nor intercepted; and the Archduke Charles, still formidable in force, withdrew into Moravia to await the arrival of his brother’s army, repair his losses, and prolong the campaign.

Napoleon therefore deemed it prudent to make peace. ] His power was in fact shaken. Most of the veterans of the Italian wars had perished; the army of Essling and Wagram was no longer that of Austerlitz; and this alarming truth had been spoken out even at the imperial head-quarters[7:10:153]. Accordingly an armistice was concluded about the middle of July, and conferences with a view to peace having soon afterwards commenced at the palace of Schonbrunn, near Vienna, were continued until the 14th of October, when a treaty was signed, by which Austria ceded, in favour of the sovereigns of the confederation of the Rhine, Saltzburg, Bergtolsgaden, and part of Upper Austria; to the French, Gorice, Montesalcone, Trieste, the circle of Villach in Carinthia, and all the countries situated on the right of the Saave, as far as the frontier of Turkish Croatia; to the grand duchy of Warsaw, all western Ga)licia, with Cracow, as well as the circle of Zamose in eastern Gallicia; and to Russia, a small territory in the most eastern part of Gallicia, containing a population of four hundred souls. The emperor of Austria also recognised all the changes which had already been made or might subsequently take place in Spain and Portugal; he adhered to the prohibitive system adopted by France and Russia against England; and he engaged to discontinue all commercial relations with “the enemy of the Continent.” The memoir writers of the day are pleased to imagine that Napoleon was terrified into making peace by the discovery of a design upon the part of a fanatical young German to assassinate him. But his views were at once more manly and more profound. Even in his proudest day of power he had acknowledged the necessity of having one great ally attached to his interests; and this was what he now sought to obtain. Prussia had played him false, and forced him to destroy her; Russia was evidently not to be depended upon; Austria yet remained to be tried, and this trial was now made. Napoleon had no heir of his body; an adopted son of his brother Louis had died; and his proposal to a Russian princess had been received with a coldness amounting to disdain, which proved to him the insincerity of Russian alliance. At Schonbrunn the same idea was now suggested with respect to Austria; and the Emperor Francis, appreciating the advantage of such a connection, acceded to the proposal. Accordingly Josephine was divorced to make way for a bride of the house of Hapsburg, and, on the 10th of March 1810, the Archduchess Maria Louisa became the new empress of the French.

In what remains of tħe history of France we must confine ourselves to a mere abridgment of events which are not of very great importance, this branch of the general article having already exceeded its due proportion; but what is omitted here will be found under the other heads to which reference is made. The occurrences of 1810 and 1811 are chiefly important with reference to an approaching struggle with Russia. On the 6th of January 1810 a treaty of peace between France and Sweden was signed at Paris. On the 7th of February the convention of marriage between the Emperor Napoleon and the Archduchess Maria Louisa, daughter of Francis L, emperor of Austria, was concluded. On the 17th the Roman states were, by a decree of the senate, incorporated with the French empire. On the 19th April the provinces of Caraccas, Cumana, Barinas, Margarita, Barcelona, Merida, and Truxillo, in Spanish South America, formed a federative government under the name of the American Confederation of Venezuela, but without separating themselves from the mother country, although this first step necessarily led eventually to such a result. Early in July, Napoleon, having made a declaration against the government of Holland, which he accused of having converted the Dutch ports into entrepôts of English commerce, recalled his brother Louis, and, by an imperial decree, ordained the incorporation of Holland with France. On the 21st of August, Bernadotte, prince of Ponte Corvo, was named hereditary prince royal of Sweden, by the states-general of the kingdom, convoked in an extraordinary diet for the election of a'successor to the throne, to which, upon the abdication or rather expulsion of Gustavus IV. the Duke of Sudermania had been raised by the title of Charles XIII. Towards the latter end of September Sicily was threatened with invasion by a force under the orders of Murat, the new king of Naples; but the threat ended in a mere demonstration, having for its alleged object to draw English troops into the island. On the 13th of December a hundred and sixty thousand men of the conscription of 1811 were placed at the disposal of the government. The relations of France with Russia had, in the opinion of Napoleon, rendered this measure necessary. On the 29th of December the state renounced the successions of the emigrants which had devolved to it during so many years; and thus the revolutionary laws of the 28th March 1793 and the 28th April 1795 were abrogated. For the events which occurred in Spain during the years 1809,1810,1811, and the following years, the reader is referred to the articles Britain and Spain

Napoleon, when in St Helena, asserted that the origin of his quarrel with Alexander, which led to the invasion of Russia in 1812, was his opposition to the czar’s views upon Turkey; views, it may be added, which the autocrat of all the Russias had been led to entertain at Tilsitt; and Bignon confirms the statement of Napoleon. “From the conferences of 1807,” says that historian, “sprung the germ that was to be fatal to Napoleon. To force England to make peace conformably to the alliance of Tilsitt, Russia was to act against Sweden, and France against Portugal; or, to translate more freely the ideas of the two emperors, Russia left to Napoleon full liberty of action over the south of Europe, France abandoning to Alexander similar liberty in the north with respect to Sweden, and moreover allowing him a certain measure of tolerance on the side of Turkey. In consequence of these reciprocal concessions, France found herself engaged in the horrible Spanish war; Russia in one of which the dangers were insignificant, the acquisition being Finland. Napoleon then imagined that Finland might content Alexander; but he was deceived. For a moment Napoleon had admitted the possibility of partitioning the Ottoman empire. This contingency Alexander assumed as a certainty; and his constant demands were on the subject of this partition. But Napoleon constantly refused, and from a double motive; the first political, because the lot of France, magnificent as it appeared, was but a source of peril and embarrassment, whilst that of Russia had proved all substantial and positive value; the second miiitary, because he looked on the Turkish empire as a morass which prevented Russia attacking him on his right.” And hence, it is said, arose the gradual coolness between the two emperors. But there were other sources of grievance. In the campaign of Wagram, Napoleon had perceived the lukewarmness of Russia; whilst the aggrandisement of the duchy of Warsaw, which might swell out into an independent kingdom of Poland, made Alexander tremble for Lithuania. The occupation of the duchy of Oldenburg, belonging to a prince nearly allied to the emperor of Russia, formed another cause of complaint and recrimination. On the other hand, Alexander, who had already relaxed in his observance of the continental system, which had destroyed the trade of his subjects, abrogated it in part towards the close of 1810, and thereby snapt asunder the last remaining tie between France and Russia.

The seeds of war being thus freely sown, preparations were made on both sides for the struggle which had now-become inevitable. Those of Napoleon were immense. From France he drew every soldier the utmost rigour of the conscription laws would supply; Italy on the one side, and Holland on the other, were required to contribute their legions; the contingents of the confederated states [7:10:154] of the Rhine were ordered to be in readiness; Austria consented to furnish forty thousand men; and Prussia, however willing to throw her remaining strength into the scale of Russia, was forced by dire necessity to yield up the remains of her army, her fortresses, and even her very capital, to the French forces. All continental Europe in arms seemed about to pour upon Russia; whilst Poland, expecting her independence, was calling upon Lithuania, the spoil of Catharine, to welcome the host of invaders. On the other hand, by the mismanagement of Napoleon, Sweden, though smarting under the loss of her fairest province, Finland, was thrown into the arms of Russia; and, through his neglect, British influence so far prevailed at Constantinople, that the sultan was induced to abandon the tempting opportunity, of which he might have taken advantage, when Russia was hard pressed by a powerful antagonist, and even to conclude a peace with the ancient and inveterate foe of the Ottoman name. The fact is, that about this time Napoleon began to be very ill served in the civil and diplomatic branches of affairs. Talleyrand and Fouché were both in disgrace, and he in vain endeavoured to supply their places with statesmen of his own creation. Men of their approved talents and experience, with clear heads, penetrating discernment, and cool sagacity, were not every-day productions. In diplomacy, where the essential requisites are knowledge of mankind and of courts, together with superiority of address, and an almost intuitive insight into affairs, Napoleon felt and lamented this deficiency; and he himself owned, that had he retained Talleyrand in his service, the Russian (he might have also added the Spanish) war would have been avoided. In high views of policy, and conceptions worthy the head of a great state, Napoleon was alike eminent; he also foresaw the perils of an insurrection in the Peninsula, should it become general, and the unseasonableness as well as necessity, circumstanced as he was, of a war with Russia; but want of tact in his subordinate agents hurried on both these calamities. The rashness and precipitation of Murat, whilst at Madrid, embroiled Spain; and negotiations carried on through generals and aides-de-camp marred all hopes of reconciliation with Russia. Sensible of this, Napoleon made choice of the Count de Narbonne, a noble and a liberal emigrant, to proceed on a mission to Russia; and with the same feeling, probably, he selected and sent to Warsaw the Abbé de Pradt, archbishop of Malines. But men qualified for such high and responsible diplomatic situations cannot be produced even by an imperial improvisation; and it would be difficult to say which proved the more unsatisfactory envoy, the archbishop or the aide-de-camp.

After two years of preparation, the rupture became imminent. On the 24th of March 1812, a treaty of alliance was concluded between Russia and Sweden, by which Norway was promised to the latter, and the prince-royal, Bernadotte, agreed to take the field with a Russian corps under his orders; and to this treaty Great Britain acceded in the beginning of May. On the 24th of April the emperor of Russia left St Petersburg to join his army, then in position upon the western frontier of Lithuania; and on the 9th of May Napoleon set out from Paris for Dresden, which had been fixed upon as tþe rendezvous of his allies. Professions of peace, as usual, preceded the commencement of hostilities; and at the same time that Napoleon quitted Paris for Germany, the Count de Narbonne was sent to the head-quarters of the Emperor Alexander. Meanwhile, the court assembled at Dresden was such as Europe had never before witnessed. The emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia were amongst those who, on this occasion, waited upon Napoleon; whilst kings and princes of inferior rank crowded the antechambers, and jostled one another in the saloons of the conqueror. Here the represen tative of the French Revolution found in attendance at his levees those sovereigns who had combined to crush it; and the new Charlemagne, whose title to the imperial purple had been consecrated by victory, seemed in a fair way of realizing his own prediction, that his family would soon be the oldest of Europe. It appears as if fortune, before abandoning him, had indulged her spoiled favourite with this parting pageant. Napoleon awaited at Dresden the return of the Count de Narbonne, who arrived on the 28th of May. The latter had seen the Emperor Alexander, and had found him inflexible, but neither elated nor despondent. The czar considered the cause as that of the independence of his nation, and conceived that in maintaining it defeat would not be inglorious. On receiving these tidings, Napoleon quitted Dresden, proceeded to join the army, and, on the 22d of June, declared war against Russia, from his head-quarters at Wilkowiski, near Gumbinen, in Eastern Prussia. “Soldiers,” said he, “the second war of Poland has commenced. The first terminated at Tilsitt. AtTilsitt Russia swore eternal alliance with France, and eternal war against England. She has now violated her oaths-Russia is hurried on by a fatality; her destiny must be accomplished. Does she suppose us degenerated? Let us advance, cross the Nietnen, and carry the war into her own territory. The second war of Poland will be as glorious to the French arms as the first.”

The army of Napoleon, at once the finest and most for-1 midable which France had ever sent beyond her own ter-1 ritory, amounted to nearly five hundred thousand comba-^ tants, with about twelve hundred pieces of artillery. This* army was divided into ten corps. The first corps, composed of five fine divisions of infantry and one of cavalry, was under Marshal Davoust; the second was commanded by Marshal Oudinot; the third was under the orders of Marshal Ney; the fourth, known under the name of the army of Italy, was commanded by Eugene Beauharnais; the fifth consisted of the Poles, under Prince Poniatowski; the sixth was composed of the Bavarians, under General Gouvion-Saint-Cyr; the Saxons formed the seventh, under General Reynier; the eight consisted of the Westphalians, effectively commanded by Junot, who had been placed as the Mentor of Jerome Bonaparte, a young man without talents and consideration; the ninth, not yet completed, but with a division twenty thousand strong, was allotted to Marshal Victor; and the tenth, composed of the auxiliary contingent Prussians, with a reserve of a division and some companies of artillery, was under the orders of Marshal Macdonald. The old guard was commanded by Marshal Lefebvre, and the young guard by Marshal Mortier. The reserve of cavalry, under the orders of the king of Naples, Murat, formed four corps under Generals Nansouty, Montbrun, Grouchy, and Latour-Maubourg. The cavalry of the guard acted apart, and an Austrian corps under Schwartzenberg marched separately. The grand total did not therefore fall short of four hundred and fifty thousand combatants, of whom twenty thousand were Italians, eighty thousand belonged to the confederation of the Rhine, thirty thousand were Poles, thirty thousand Austrians, and twenty thousand Prussians; so that the French alone formed an effective force of about two hundred and seventy thousand bayonets or sabres. On the other hand, the Russian troops were divided into the first and second armies of the West, under Generals Barclay de Tolly and Bagration, and the army of reserve under Tormasot’; making altogether, including different detached corps of irregular cavalry, about three hundred and sixty thousand combatants. But two other corps were formed; one in Lithuania, from Mozyr to Bobenisk on the Berezina; and the other at Riga and at Dwinaburg; whilst reserves were established on the [7:10:155]Willis, and between Wilna and Swentziany; and a vast intrenched camp was formed before Drissa, in a sinuosity of the Dwina.

On the 24th of June the French army crossed the Niémen, and on the 25th the emperor of Russia issued a proclamation announcing the commencement of hostilities, invoking the name of God, the protector of the Greek faith, in whom dwells truth, and calling upon his serfs to defend liberty and their country. In crossing the Niémen, the French met with no opposition; a solitary officer of Cossacks being the only enemy who appeared to challenge them. The plan of the Russians was to retreat within their own territory, to avoid a decisive battle, to draw on the French as far as possible from their resources, and at last to fall on them when famine, fatigue, and the rigours of a northern climate, had abated their enthusiasm and exhausted their strength; a plan devised by Barclay de Tolly, the commander-in-chief, and executed with an ability and determination which eventually proved the salvation of the Russian empire. On the 28th of June the French troops made their entry into Wilna, the ancient capital of Lithuania. The Russians fell back at all points. After having exchanged some cannon shots, they repassed the Williá, burned the wooden bridge at Wilna, and set fire to the immense magazines of provision, clothing, arms, and munitions of war, which had been collected at that place. On the same day the diet which had assembled at Warsaw proclaimed the re-establishment of the kingdom of Poland. This generous nation ardently desired and invoked the recomposition of its dismembered provinces; it implored the assistance of France; and, for twenty years, its warriors had shed their blood for the interests of that country in Italy, in Germany, in Spain, wherever, in short, their services were needed or required. Since the peace of Tilsitt, which had consummated the humiliation of Prussia, the policy of France required the reconstitution of the monarchy of Sigisinond and Sobieski; and powerful considerations should have determined Napoleon to sanction a measure which, independently altogether of its political justice, would have raised up a formidable barrier between Russia and Germany, attached to his interests a brave and generous nation, strengthened his hands in the actual contest with Russia, and, in the event of reverses, rallied a whole people to cover his retreat. But, either from an apprehension of exciting the jealousy of Austria, who would no doubt have readily accepted an indemnity for Gallicia on the side of Italy, or, which is more probable, from a desire to keep the door open for an accommodation with Russia, Napoleon evaded the recognition which was so earnestly solicited of him by a deputation from the diet, and thus lost an opportunity of strengthening his power which could never be recalled.^[47. ' The deputation, which appeared at the head-quarters of Napoleon at wilna, said to him, “the general diet has constituted it. self into a confederation of Poland. Say, sire, that the kingdom of Poland exists, and this decree will to the world be equivalent to the reality.” But, persisting in the idea of not sacrificing Austrian Gallicia, in order not to be under the necessity of giving up Illyria, which the cabinet of vienna anxiously desired to recover, Napoleon replied, “Poles, I would have thought like you in the assembly of war saw; the love of one’s country is the first duty of civilized man. In my situation I have many interests to conciliate, many duties to fulfil. If I had reigned during the first, the second, and the third dismemberment of Poland, I would have armed my people to defend that country. I love your nation. I authorize the efforts which you desire to make. It is only in the unanimity of the population that you can hope for success. I ought to add, that I have guaranteed to the emperor of Austria the integrity of his dominions.” This language was not misunderstood. But if the hopes of the Poles were blasted, their disappointment was speedily avenged. ]

When Napoleon advanced upon Wilna with the main body of the army, Macdonald with a strong corps moved along the Baltic, and formed the left; whilst the Austrians, under Schwartzenberg, entered Volhynia, and protected the right flank of the French. Immediately before Napoleon, the Russians, as already stated, composed two armies; the principal of which, under General Barclay de Tolly, had retired from Wilna, to Drissa on the Dwina, where an intrenched camp defended the road leading to St Petersburg; whilst the other, under Prince Bagration, remained at Grodno, and was consequently separated, by the advance of the French, from the main army under Barclay. This was a great, and might have proved a fatal blunder. But, happily for the Russians, Napoleon, who saw the full extent of the error, and did every thing in his power to take advantage of it, was, on the present occasion, ill served by his lieutenants. Some were tardy, others inapt; Junot was incapacitated for command by the effects of former wounds; Davoust was paralysed by the obstinacy and stupidity of King Jerome; jealousies and misunderstandings prevailed among others. Precious time was thus lost; Bagration made good his retreat; and Barclay, warned by the peril which he had just escaped, took good care to afford the enemy no second opportunity of beating him in detail. From Wilna Napoleon advanced to Witepsk, which he entered on the 28th of July, being still in hopes of preventing the junction of the two Russian armies, which, by a masterly movement, he had disunited. Lithuania was now conquered, and the end of the war seemed already attained; but in the estimation of Napoleon, whom ordinary advantages did not satisfy, it had scarcely commenced. His eye was fixed upon Moscow, and, calculating on-the faults of the Russians, he was eager to strike a blow commensurate in magnitude with the enterprise in which he had embarked. In vain, therefore, did Berthier, Lobau, Caulaincourt, Duroc, and Daru, demonstrate the necessity of stopping at Witepsk, more especially as henceforward the favourable dispositions of the inhabitants could not be reckoned on. Murat and Davoust gave opposite counsel, and Napoleon resolved to advance.

Whilst Napoleon remained at Witepsk, where he spent! the first two weeks of August, the Russian armies had united at Smolensk, a large town situated on the Dnieper, surrounded with ancient and massive constructions, to which had recently been added works fortified with extreme care, and forming the bulwark of Russia upon the frontier of Poland. In this strong position Barclay resolved to make a stand. It had formed part of the plan of Napoleon to get to Smolensk before the enemy, intercept their retreat, and thus force them to accept battle at a disadvantage; but, owing to innumerable faults of execution, and the unaccountable though perhaps necessary delay at Witepsk, this project had failed. It now only remained, therefore, to carry the place by main force; and for this purpose the French, with Napoleon himself at their head, advanced to the attack, which was made at all pointsand with unimaginable fury. The Russians, protected by the ramparts, held out during the day; but on the approach of night they abandoned all their positions, after having set fire to the town, which contained immense magazines. They retired in solid squares, with such admirable steadiness and order, that the utmost efforts of Murat, at the head of his fine cavalry, proved unavailing against the stability of their formation; in fact, each square seemed a blazing ball of fire. The Russians lost about twelve thousand men in killed, wounded, and prisoners; the French somewhat less than half that number. But the system of defence adopted by the Russians had [7:10:156]deprived the French of nearly all the advantages which they might otherwise have derived from their victory; and where they expected to meet with good quarters and the sight of human habitations, they found only a heap of smoking ruins. Still, even amidst these ruins Napoleon might have halted, brought up provisions and reinforcements, reorganized his army, and waited to complete the subjugation of Hussia in another campaign. This was what almost all his generals counselled, including even Murat; and the results of the campaign completely vindicated the prudence of this advice. But to stop short in the month of August within eighty leagues of Moscow, the term of his enterprise, and without having achieved any thing calculated to maintain the illusion in favour of his invincible and overwhelming power, was too much for Napoleon. The principles of his strategy were fully developed in this campaign. He was not insensible to the difficulties and even dangers attending an advance, or of the advantages which would result from placing his army in cantonments at Smolensk, and there preparing for another and decisive campaign; with him every thing, even audacity itself, was matter of calculation; but, having estimated all the chances, he concluded that as the Russians would certainly risk a battle to save the ancient capital of their empire, he would gain the battle, penetrate to Moscow, and thus conclude the war in Russia as he had twice before done in Germany. For these, and other reasons which appeared to him equally cogent, Napoleon determined to advance.

Nor was he wrong in two main points of his calculation. Although the Fabian tactics of Barclay had unquestionably saved the Russian army, and with it the empire, all voices, amongst which that of Prince Bagration was loudest, clamoured for battle; and, in obedience to this cry, the able tactician was superseded by the old Muscovite general Kutusof, the same who lost the battle of Austerlitz. Before quitting the command, however, Barclay signalized himself by a brilliant feat of arms. Resolving to leave no trophies to the enemy, he made a stand at Valoutina, to preserve some baggage and cannon; and as Junot, who should have taken the Russians in flank, hesitated at the critical moment, he succeeded in repulsing Ney with considerable loss. It was not thus that Napoleon had been served in Italy and Germany; but, mindful of former times, and unwilling to disgrace his earliest protege in the face of the army, he still continued Junot in the command of his division. The vanguard, commanded by Murat and Davoust, was continually in contact with the enemy; but as the overboiling and impetuous valour of the former assorted ill with the stern methodical genius of Davoust, who blamed his colleague severely for sacrificing the cavalry in encounters which led to no result, these officers were at open variance, and their quarrel contributed in no slight degree to increase the difficulties and embarrassments of Napoleon. The accession of Kutusof to the command of the Russian army, in the room of Barclay, was equivalent to an announcement of a determination to fight. This was known to the French, who, accordingly, on the 6th of September, came in sight of the Russian army posted upon a series of eminences extending southward from the village of Borodino, on the Moskwa; the position selected by Kutusof whereon to fight a battle in defence of the capital, which he had solemnly promised to cover, and at the same time to annihilate the French army. This position was covered by redoubts and intrenchments, announced in the official reports as inexpugnable; and the Russians were animated by the predictions of their priests, and by the sight of a miraculous image of the Virgin, which was carried through their ranks. Kutusof also prophecied victory. “God,” said he, “is about to combat the enemy with the sword of St Michael, and before the sun of to-morrow shall have descended below the horizon, you will have written your faith and your fidelity, in the fields of your country, with the blood of the aggressor and his legions." On reaching the ground, Napoleon drove the Russians from an advanced redoubt, established his line opposite to theirs, and made the necessary preparations for the conflict of the morrow. But he refused to manoeuvre on the enemy’s flank, or make any movement to intercept them, lest such an operation should induce them to withdraw, and thus put off the long-wished-for battle.

The sun of the 7th September rose in peaceful splendour on the mighty hosts arrayed for conflict, and was hailed by the French as the sun of Austerlitz, an omen of victory. Before daybreak Napoleon was on horseback, and with the first light of day the following address was read at the head of each regiment in the French army. “Soldiers, here is the battle you have so much desired. Victory must now depend upon you. It will secure you abundance, good quarters, and a speedy return to your native country. Conduct yourselves as at Austerlitz, at Friedland, and at Smolensk. Let people say of each of you with pride, 4 He was at the great battle fought on the plains of Moscow.’” The corps present were, besides the old and new guard, those of Marshals Davoust and Ney, of the viceroy of Italy, Eugene Beauharnais, and of Prince Poniatowski; and the four large corps of cavalry, commanded respectively by Generals Nansouty, Montbrun, Grouchy, and Latour-Maubourg, were all under the superior direction of the king of Naples. In the Russian army, Barclay de Tolly, dispossessed of his functions as general-in-chief, commanded the right, Beningsen held the centre, and Bagration commanded the left. Redoubts strongly armed, and numerous batteries, covered the front and the wings. The respective numerical force of the hostile armies has not been satisfactorily ascertained. It appears, however, that the French army exceeded one hundred and thirty thousand combatants of all arms, and that the Russians were even more numerous. The latter had also the advantage of position, and were animated both by religious and patriotic feelings; but they were about to contend with soldiers equally intelligent and brave, led on by consummate generals, and all under the direction of the greatest master in the art of war whom modern times had produced. At six in the morning the fire of a French battery gave the signal of battle; and General Compans, belonging to the corps of Marshal Davoust, commenced the attack. The intention of Napoleon was to carry the first batteries on the Russian left, and then to take in flank and reverse a great redoubt in the centre. Hence, although the action commenced along the whole line, the weight of the attack was directed against the batteries just mentioned. But, as might have been anticipated, the assailants were met by a gallant and determined resistance. Compans, who commanded the leading division, was wounded; Rapp, who succeeded him, was also wounded; and Davoust himself received a hurt from the fall of his horse, which was killed under him. For a moment the attack faltered; but victory came from a quarter where it was least expected. Instead of holding back, according to his orders, the viceroy of Italy, perceiving the relaxation in the attack, pushed forward to the village of Borodino, which he carried in the most gallant manner; and improving his advantage, he dashed across the river to attack the great redoubt. The corps of Davoust now redoubled its efforts, drove Bagration from his batteries, and before midday, after more than four hours close combat maintained with extraordinary tenacity, three redoubts had been carried by Prince Eugene and Marshals Davoust and Ney, whose corps formed the right wing, and were prolonged towards the centre. The road to victory being thus opened, it was necessary to follow it up; but Murat, Ney, and Davoust[7:10:157], exhausted by their exertions, stopped, rallied their troops, and sent to Napoleon to demand reinforcements. Segur, who describes this celebrated battle in a pompous and affected style, gives long details respecting the alleged hesitation and uncertainty of Napoleon, as well as the orders and counter orders which he is said to have issued to his generals. It is certain, however, that he retained the young guard in a state of inaction, not thinking it necessary to order it to advance, notwithstanding the urgent solicitations of Murat to that effect. To those who pressed him to accede to the instances of the king of Naples, he replied, that he wished to see better how matters stood; that his battle was not yet commenced; that it was necessary to wait; that time entered into every thing; that it was the element of which all things were composed; that nothing had as yet been sufficiently cleared up. Then he asked the hour, and being told it, added, “That of the battle has not yet come. In two hours hence it will commence.” The event proved that Napoleon judged more wisely than his impetuous lieutenant. To have ordered up his guard and brought forward his reserves whilst the state of the battle remained uncertain, would have been to risk all upon one throw of the die. Accordingly, in the afternoon, a second, or, as Baron Fain calls it, a third battle commenced; all the Russian batteries were successively attacked and taken; the most formidable of their redoubts, that in the centre, was carried by a charge of cuirassiers; and the Russians, defeated at all points, were forced to abandon the field. The result of this day was such as might have been expected from an army like that commanded by Napoleon. Notwithstanding the boasting of the Russian generals, their army, with all its advantages of position, had been totally defeated; and the shades of night, which descended too late for the vanquished, but too soon for the victors, in this bloody field, concealed the retrograde movements of Kutusof, who now took the direction of Moscow.

At the same time this battle was, without contradiction, P one of the most obstinate and bloody recorded in military annals. The loss of the Russians exceeded thirty thousand men killed, wounded, or prisoners; that of the French was considerably above twenty thousand. On the side of the Russians, Prince Bagration fell in the battle, and fifty general officers were either killed or wounded; on that of the French, two generals of division and six generals of brigade were killed, whilst Compans, Nansouty, Grouchy, Latour-Maubourg, Rapp, Morand, Friand, and La Houssaye, were more or less severely wounded. But although the victory remained with Napoleon, his prospects were still sufficiently gloomy; and in the bivouacs of the army discouragement prevailed. Seven or eight hundred prisoners, and about a score of broken cannon, were all the trophies he had won. Subsistence also began to fail, and to the torments of hunger were joined the rigours of a cold and rainy night. But with the return of day the natural vivacity of the French revived; preparations were made for pursuing the enemy, who had been suffered to retire unmolested from the field of battle; and on the 14th the inhabitants of Moscow, whom Kutusof had taught to believe that he had just gained a great victory, beheld the Russian columns in full retreat, and the French advancing to occupy their city. But the governor, Rostopschin, had taken measures for rendering the possession of Moscow useless to the French. When the letter entered, on the 14th of September, the ancient capital of Russia remained in all its original splendour; and Napoleon took up his abode in the Kremlin, anciently the residence of the czars. But a new and unlooked-for enemy suddenly appeared. On the very day of occupation fires appeared in different quarters of the city; but, in the bustle and confusion incident to the arrival of a great army, they were neglected. On the 15th and 16th vigorous measures were taken to arrest the progress of the flames, which, however, were incessantly renewed; on the 17th the conflagration, fanned by a high wind, spread rapidly; on the 18th the city presented the sublime and appalling spectacle of a vast ocean of flame; and by the evening of the 20th nine tenths of Moscow had been reduced to ashes. The Russians, with their habitual duplicity, endeavoured to cast on the French the odium of an act unexampled in history, and one too which the latter had every imaginable interest, if possible, to prevent; but there no longer remains a vestige of doubt that the burning of Moscow was the result of a premeditated plan, and that it was effected by incendiaries, employed for the purpose by the Russian authorities, acting, no doubt, under the sanction of the Emperor Alexander himself. Of this the proof is abundant and conclusive. Inflammable materials, deposited in a great number of deserted houses, were fired at the same instant; to all the public establishments, nay even to the hospitals, the torch of the incendiary was likewise applied; the flames broke out in many different places at once; and, independently of all testimony to the fact, every circumstance connected with the conflagration showed design and premeditation. On the other hand, it must be equally evident that no officer in the empire, however elevated in rank, would, without positive orders, have taken on himself the responsibility of such an act; that, in short, the terrible resolution to destroy the ancient capital of the empire must have formed part of the defensive policy of the philanthropic autocrat of all the Russias, and that Rostopschin was merely an executive instrument in carrying this resolution into effect. We may add, as illustrative of this desperate and unwarrantable sacrifice, that no provision whatever had been made for sheltering the miserable population, who were driven to seek an asylum in the neighbouring woods, and that more than twenty thousand sick and wounded perished in the flames.

Thegrand object of the mighty expedition against Russia had been attained; the country had been overrun; a great' battle had been fought and gained; and Moscow, or ra- ] ther its ashes, had been occupied by the French. But yet , no messenger of peace came to the head-quarters of Napoleon; no sign of submission appeared; no sinking of confidence showed itself. The Russians were evidently prepared to sacrifice all that is most esteemed or valued by a nation; and when the campaign was considered as terminated, peace had yet to be conquered. By the destruction of Moscow, Napoleon had been deprived of the fruits of the victory which he had so dearly purchased, namely, winter quarters for his army, and a position where he might at once collect means for further aggression, and assume the language of a conqueror. His situation had become eminently critical. What course ought he to have followed? His instant conception was to march to St Petersburg, cut off Wittgenstein, and then effect a junction with Macdonald. The project was a magnificent one; and though it would have required gigantic efforts to carry it into execution, success would, in all probability, have crowned the daring enterprise. There was, in reality, no time for hesitation. Prudence counselled immediate retreat, which, however, had many disadvantages, particularly from the influence it would exert upon public opinion. Genius suggested a bolder scheme, which, if successful, would have ensured, not only safety, but victory; and, in extreme peril, the excess of audacity often becomes a dictate of wisdom. But without the concurrence of the chiefs such an enterprise was impossible; what Napoleon might plan, they alone could execute. These men, however, were no longer the devoted and enthusiastic soldiers of the Republic. War had enriched them; and from the enjoyment of riches they had become tired of campaigns. Throughout the whole of the expedition they had been churlish, discontented, and quarrelsome; and hence, instead of seconding the bold proposition of the emperor, they counselled retreat by a new and circuitous route to [7:10:158]the south. Napoleon could not persist in a project which his officers refused to execute; their plan was equally obnoxious to him; and between these conflicting opinions precious time was irrecoverably lost. This was the fatality which ruined all. Instead of deciding either on immediate retreat, or on following out the emperor’s splendid project, they loitered in a state of indecision at Moscow, as if waiting to be devoured by a Russian winter. In these circumstances, Napoleon had recourse to the only expedient left him; he sent Lauriston with proposals of peace, and vainly waited in the Kremlin, which the conflagration had spared, an answer never to return. The course of events hadso far changed as to justify Alexander in declining to negotiate with an enemy in the heart of his dominions. The destruction of Moscow, and the inactivity of the French, had rendered their retreat-matter of absolute certainty; whilst the re-establishment of peace with the Ottoman Porte having enabled the army of the Danube to quit Moldavia, and effect a junction at Lutsk in Volhynia with the army of reserve under General Tormasof, a powerful force was thus accumulated upon their only line of retreat. In consequence of the treaty with Sweden, the troops employed in Finland had also been withdrawn, and disembarked at Riga to join the force destined to act against Macdonald. In a word, every day was improving the situation of the Russians; every hour was adding to the embarrassments which beset the invaders. At length the affair of Winkowo decided Napoleon. On the 18th October, Kutusof, desirous to prevent the junction of Marshal Victor, who had set out from Smolensk, attacked the king of Naples, who covered Moscow with the advanced guard of the army, and completely defeated him.

On the 19th of October, after an occupation of forty days, Napoleon evacuated Moscow with the main body of his army, leaving Marshal Mortier, with the rear-guard, to blow up the arsenal, the magazines, and the Kremlin. In ordinary seasons the frost did not set in until after the middle of November, and hence a month of open weather might still be reckoned on. Sufficient time, therefore, remained to enable the French army to arrive at Smolensk, and there establish itself in winter-quarters; further retreat was not contemplated. But instead of choosing the direct road, Napoleon now adopted the plan originally proposed by his officers, and retired by the southern or old Kalouga road. His reasons were, that a retrograde movement along this route had not the appearance of retreat; that it led through provinces which had been wasted neither by the Russian system of defence nor by the actual presence of war; and that this circuit would afford time to the rearguard to evacuate Moscow. He therefore manoeuvred, in the hope of concealing his design from Kutusof, and then suddenly advanced in order to anticipate the enemy, and occupy the important town of Kalouga. But the Russians somehow received information of his intention, and reached Malojaroslawitz, thirty leagues south of Moscow and fourteen north of Kalouga, in time to oppose the march of the French. A sanguinary engagement now ensued (20th October) between the advanced guard, seventeen thousand strong, under Prince Eugene Beauharnais, and the Russians, about four times that number, under Kutusof; but the success of the French was decided and confirmed by the arrival of Generals Gérard and Compans, belonging to the corps of Marshal Davoust. The Russian general, in his official report of the battle, admits that he was repulsed, but states that the town was taken and retaken eight times. The action, which lasted from five o’clock in the morning until ten at night, cost the Russians from eight to ten thousand, and the French more than five thousand men hors de combat. This unexpected rencontre, and the violent efforts made by the enemy, convinced Napoleon that his enemies were far from being enfeebled or discouraged; he therefore abandoned his project of retiring on Smolensk by the old Kalouga road, and fell back on the ' direct route leading through a ravaged and deserted country. It is not a little singular that Kutusos, afraid of a renewed attack, had also at nearly the same moment issued orders for a retreat. At Wiasma, fifty-six leagues west of Moscow, the French rear-guard, on the 3d of November, repulsed the enemy after an obstinate and bloody action, supported by Prince Eugene, Marshals Davoust and Ney, and General Compans. The French ranks were thinned to the extent of four thousand killed and wounded, and, in continuing their retreat, they were obliged to abandon several broken cannon, and nearly all their baggage. On the 7th of November the French army, which had been fifteen days in full retreat, and continually harassed on its flanks by parties of Russians, reached Smolensk.

The cold had already set in with excessive severity. The fluid in the thermometer of Reaumur, which during; the first days of November had stood at eight or ten de- ’ grees below zero, now descended to eighteen; sombre vapours obscured the sun; and violent tempests of wind drifted the snow which, covering the soil, filled up all the inequalities of its surface, and thus added new dangers to the horrors of this dreadful winter. The horses, perishing by thousands in the bivouacs, were no longer sufficient to drag the artillery. Nor was the condition of the troops in any respect less disastrous. After the affair of Malojaroslawitz, the strength of the men utterly failed. Their privations, painful at Moscow, became every day more cruel. Destitute of biscuit, and provisions of every kind, the army had traversed about a hundred leagues of country entirely ruined, in which it had never fought except by the light of conflagrations; the horrors of devastation extended six leagues on either side; and it was incessantly assailed by clouds of Cossacks. Its disasters augmented at each step, and in frightful progression; and all were attributable to its head, who, by an inconceivable blindness, had foreseen nothing, calculated nothing, employed none of the most ordinary precautions which a general is bound to take for the support of his troops, and whose improvidence devoted them to still more deplorable calamities. The magazines nearest Moscow were at Smolensk; but these afforded only a momentary relief, and all transport had become impossible. Nor was this all. Wittgenstein, reinforced by new levies, had defeated Saint-Cyr on the Dwina, and taken Witepsk, thus cutting off the retreat to Wilna; whilst Tschitchagof, commanding the army of the Danube, had orders to advance from the south, seize upon Minsk, and thus bar the only other practicable road to the westward. To remain at Smolensk was therefore out of the question. The least retardation of the retreat would inevitably have led to a general battle, which the army was not in a condition to risk, owing to the impossibility of connecting the centre with the wings. The excessive cold which set in on the 6th had disabled and destroyed a great number of men and horses. The army could neither procure information nor defend itself; its only resource, therefore, consisted in marching without intermission in order to reach Minsk (the great depot of munitions and provisions), or at least the Berezina, before the enemy, who, being master of the country, was now advancing in the opposite direction, and extending his corps on the flanks. Yet in these frightful circumstances, when the French were simultaneously assailed by famine, disease, winter, and hostile armies, Napoleon tarried seven days at Smolensk, which was only evacuated on the 14th November. Nevertheless he took one good measure, in rallying under a single officer the wrecks of the cavalry. Of thirty-seven thousand horsemen present at the passage of the Niemen, there now remained little more than eight hundred mounted, the command of whom was given to Latour[7:10:159]-Maubourg. The old and young guard had no more than ten thousand bayonets, with two thousand horses mounted; Davoust had under his orders nine thousand men, Ney five thousand, Prince Eugene five hundred, Poniatowski from eight to nine hundred, Junot seven hundred, Latour-Maubourg (including the remains of the cavalry) fifteen hundred, with about a thousand light horse, and five hundred dismounted dragoons; in all thirty-six thousand men, the miserable remnant of about four hundred thousand combatants, French, Poles, Italians, and Germans, who had crossed the Niemen at Kowno.

With the retreat from Smolensk commenced a new series of disasters. On the I6th November, Minsk, with all its magazines, having been uncovered by Schwartzenberg, who suddenly retired behind the Bug, fell into the hands of General Lambert, commanding the advanced guard of the army from Moldavia; and the only refuge of the French was thus cut off. Upon the same day Kutusof attempted at Krasnoi, ten leagues west of Smolensk, to intersect the French columns on the great road leading from Smolensk to the Berezina. He advanced with seventy thousand infantry and thirty thousand cavalry; the French mustered only twenty-five thousand effective combatants, who-had lost many of their cannon, and three-fourths of their horses. But Prince Eugene and Marshal Davoust stood their ground with admirable firmness; whilst General Roguet, commanding a division of the young guard, charged the Russians with such fury that he drove them back at the point of the bayonet into their camp, which he entered pell-mell along with them, scarcely allowing them time to throw their arms into a neighbouring lake, and set fire to their huts. This shock suspended the movement of the Russian army for twenty-four hours. On the 19th, Marshal Ney, left in command of the extreme rear-guard, with six thousand combatants, found himself attacked by enormous masses of the enemy, which intercepted his march. Finding himself unable to break through, he retired before them, surprised the passage of the Dnieper, forced his way amidst clouds of Cossacks, and rejoined the main body of the army, from which he had been two days separated. On the 21st the Russian generals Lambert and Langeren took possession of Borisow on the Berezina, and by the occupation of this point cut off the body of the French army, which was still five or six marches to the eastward. But on the 23d Marshal Oudinot, who, since the abandonment of the positions upon the Dwina, immediately preceded the army in retreat, retook this important post, and maintained it in spite of every effort that could be made to dislodge him.

At Borisow, which had thus been regained by Otidinot, the passage of the Berezina, the principal difficulty in the march of the French towards the Niemen, could alone be effected. But their situation was perilous, not to say desperate. The line of the Dwina had been forced; Schwartzenberg, whose defection was no longer disguised, had retired behind the Bug; no difficulty of position arrested the enemy in his decisive operations; the whole country was in his hands, whilst the French had only the narrow line upon which they retreated. The former lived in abundance, the latter suffered almost every privation. The teams of the Russian artillery were in good condition; the horses of the French were dying of cold and hunger, or, from being unfřosted, could not support themselves on a soil entirely congealed. In a word, the remains of the French army seemed about to find a grave in the marshes of the Berezina, the ice of which had suddenly thawed, as if to swallow them up. Kutusof pursued them with a fury augmented by each humiliation inflicted on his unskilful pursuit. Pressed on their right flank by Wittgenstein, and on their left by Tschitchagof, who also took them in reverse; with an artillery and a cavalry greatly reduced; extenuated by hunger and fatigue, as well as benumbed by cold; they held out only in the hope of at length reaching the term of so much evil and suffering. A last effort of their courage was therefore their last resource. The different corps of the French army which assembled at Borisow from the 26th to the 28th of November still presented a mass of about eighty thousand men, with a tolerably numerous artillery. They were not yet disorganized. The sol-dery, at least that part which came from Moscow, though exhausted by the fatigues of forty days’ march over a devastated country, assailed by swarms of Cossacks, overwhelmed with privations, and suffering half-naked the excessive rigours of the climate, recovered their ardour at the sight of the enemy, who now awaited them in the presumption of victory. The corps coming from Moscow also saw themselves supported by those of Marshals Victor and Oudi-not, and by the Polish division, which had suffered but little from want of provisions and the rigour of the cold. But it was necessary, first of all, to overthrow sixteen thousand Russians advantageously posted in the débouché of Borisow, on the right bank, and belonging to the army of Tschitchagof, before the junction of Wittgenstein, who closely followed the rear-guard of Victor upon the left bank above Borisow; and also before Kutusof, who marched with the main body of the Russians upon the left flank of the French head-quarters, had time to recover three marches which had been gained on him. Two bridges were accordingly thrown at Weselowo, a village four leagues and a half above Borisow, whilst dispositions were made which seemed to indicate that the passage was to be effected by the bridge of Borisow. The rapid construction of these two bridges, in such terrible circumstances, presents a marvellous instance of what may be effected by the union of bravery and science. At Weselowo, the Berezina, at this time covered with ice, is two hundred and fifty toises broad, and the opposite side extends into marshes, which are traversed by a long and narrow jetty; but, on the other hand, the Weselowo bank is elevated; and hence the difficulty of throwing bridges across such a river would, under any circumstances, have been very great.

On the 28th the intrepid Oudinot, who commanded the rear-guard, having been wounded in repulsing Tschitchagof, whose forces were grouped on the right bank, Marshal Ney assumed the command in the midst of the action, and, at the head of the second, third, and fifth corps, compelled Tschitchagof to renounce the combat. On this occasion, so important for the general safety, Ney, already surnamed the bravest of the brave, displayed a courage which astonished even the most valiant soldiers; and all acknowledged that their safety was due to his invincible tenacity, as well as to the extreme promptitude of his dispositions. Upon the same day, Marshal Victor, who had been left with the rear-guard on the left bank, supported with great firmness the attack of the army of Wittgenstein, and maintained a prolonged resistance, notwithstanding the extreme disproportion of numbers; for, after the capture of the division of Parthouneaux, which on the preceding day had been surrounded and taken, the French had only twelve thousand men, whilst the Russians had upwards of forty thousand. The ninth corps was then obliged to repass the bridges, which were immediately blown up; the artillery, the baggage, and a great number of unfortunates, almost all non-combatants, who had not been able to pass, being abandoned on the other bank. The plain before Weselowo, which is one of considerable extent, presented in the evening a spectacle the horrors of which exceed all description. It was covered with carriages, the greater part overturned and broken, and thickly strewed with the dead bodies of non-military individuals, amongst which were those of many women and children, who hav-.
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ing followed the army to Moscow, had also accompanied it in its retreat, and now met with death in different ways. The fate of these unfortunate creatures, in the midst of the mêlée of the two armies, was either to be crushed under the wheels of the carriages or the feet of the horses; struck by the balls and bullets of both parties; drowned in attempting to pass the bridges with the troops; or stripped by the Russian soldiers, and thrown naked on the snow, where the cold soon terminated their sufferings. Besides, the Russians made nearly twenty thousand prisoners, took a hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, being all the artillery that remained except a few pieces, and captured the baggage, amongst which were found the riches and the trophies carried away from Moscow.

From the Berezina the country is a wooded plateau, converted by the waters into a vast marsh, which the army now traversed on three consecutive bridges three hundred toises in length, astonished that the enemy had not destroyed them, constructed as they were of resinous pines. By accelerated marches the troops reached Malodetchno on the 3d of December, and on the 5th arrived at Smorgoni, twelve leagues west of Willika, where Napoleon conferred on the king of Naples the command of the remains of the army, and set out furtively for Paris, accompanied by Caulaincourt, duke of Vicenza. II is apparition at Warsaw is related in lively terms by the Abbe de Pradt. In this capital his conversation was a sort of lengthened discourse, in which he represented his reverses as still capable of being repaired; but by often repeating the maxim, “From the sublime to the ridiculous there is only a step,” he showed how deeply sensible he was of the magnitude of his fall. On the 18th of December Napoleon arrived in Paris, where, for many reasons, his presence had become indispensably necessary.

Immediately after his departure from the army the disorder became general; the flight of the chief proved the signal for dispersion; and the greater part of the corps, which had hitherto maintained an appearance of organization, now altogether disbanded themselves. Meanwhile, as the cold continued about twenty-five degrees below the zero of Reaumur’s thermometer, a great number of soldiers had their hands and feet frost-bitten; and the horses of the artillery having perished in their harness, the pieces were abandoned. Sixty thousand men had crossed the Berezina, and twenty thousand recruits had since joined; but of these eighty thousand men, nearly the half perished in the four days between Malodetchno and Wilna. The immense magazines collected at Wilna were abandoned for want of means of transport, and the deplorable situation to which the cold had reduced the army prevented it from there taking up a position. The retreat was therefore continued on the 16th, Marshal Ney as usual being the last to retire; indeed, his conduct throughout, in the command of the rear-guard, where he continually exposed himself to protect the life and cover the retreat of the last soldier in a condition to march, displayed an heroic fortitude and generous self-devotion, which, considering all the circumstances, has no parallel either in ancient or modern times. We shall not, however, prolong these painful details, but content ourselves with simply observing, what indeed must be sufficiently obvious, that the disasters sustained by the French in this retreat were mainly caused by the climate, not by the Russians, who have nevertheless taken credit for results in producing which their talents and bravery had no share. The elements did almost everything; and, as is vulgarly said, even in Russia, “It was not General Kutusof who killed or dispersed the French; it was General Morosow (Frost).”

The aspect which affairs presented to Napoleon on his return to Paris was not altogether discouraging. Wellington, victorious at Salamanca, had failed before Burgos, and

Madrid remained in the hands of the French. The army, which he had left at Smorgoni, might rally on the Niemen, ' and, supplied from the unexhausted resources of East Prussia, check the advance of its pursuers. At home a daring conspiracy, which had nearly succeeded when the emperor was believed to have perished in Russia, fell to the ground of itself as soon as the falsehood of the report was discovered. The senate, the court, and the capital, though dismayed by the reverses sustained in the Russian campaign, still appeared loyal and obsequious. The conscription of 1813 had been called out; the powerful artillery of the marine was placed at his disposal; and he calculated on speedily taking the field at the head of a formidable army, sufficient at least to check the advance of the Russians. But this was only a momentary and delusive brightening; a faint gleam of sunshine in winter, which was quickly absorbed in the dark clouds that suddenly collected in all parts of the political horizon. Tidings of evil came crowding in thick and fast. Macdonald having been deserted in presence of the enemy by the Prussian auxiliary corps under Yorck, which constituted his principal force, had with great difficulty, and after a most painful retreat, reached Dantzic, where his troops were left with the governor General Rapp. To think of maintaining the line of the Niemen was therefore out of the question; and even the position upon the Vistula, occupied by the corps composing the grand army, or rather the wrecks of these, confusedly distributed, was menaced by the defection of the Prussians, and also by the conduct, so perfidiously equivocal, of the Austrians under Schwartzenberg, who, having retreated as soon as he received intelligence that the French army had reached the Berezina, had re-entered Gallicia, where his doubtful attitude excited the distrust and apprehensions of the French. Murat, commanding in chief, was little capable of remedying so great disasters, or of warding off so imminent dangers; his military merit consisted in a chivalrous bravery worthy the ages of romance; in the talents and moral tenacity of purpose requisite in situations of extreme difficulty he was entirely deficient. Poland was evacuated, and Germany destined to become the theatre of war. Abandoning the line of the Vistula, as they had previously done that of the Niemen, the French now fell back as far as the Warta and the Oder. Instantly the tocsin of insurrection resounded from the Oder to the Rhine, and from the Baltic to the Julian Alps; and the whole tribe of secondary sovereigns, awakened from their lethargy by the patriotism of their subjects, and dispossessed of the royal delirium generated by their own cupidity and the poisoned gifts of Napoleon, now crowded to join its standards, and to have each a bite at the sick lion. By a proclamation dated from Warsaw, 10th February 1813, the Emperor Alexander invited the Germans, particularly the members of the confederation of the Rhine, to throw off the yoke of France; and, by another dated the 22d February, he called upon the people of Germany to rise en masse against Napoleon. In the uncalculating enthusiasm of the hour, when despotism had the art or the good fortune to rally on its side the feelings of nationality and patriotism, the call was obeyed, and the defection became universal. Austria, indeed, still preserved an equivocal and suspicious neutrality, waiting merely until events had more fully declared themselves. But Prussia, taking a more decided part, signalized her defection by the flight of Frederick-William from Potts-darn to meet the Emperor Alexander at Breslau, and still more by concluding at Kalisch (on the 1st of March) a treaty of alliance with Russia, the initial act of a sixth continental coalition against France. The line of the Oder having thus become indefensible, was abandoned by the French for that of the Elbe, where, by great exertions, they still hoped to maintain themselves against all their [7:10:161] enemies. Amongst these must now be included Bernadotte, who, by a treaty concluded with England at Stockholm, on the 3d of March, engaged to raise his banner against the country of his birth, and to take the field against his former chief with a corps of national troops at least thirty thousand strong.

The efforts of Napoleon were commensurate to the crisis which had arrived. A decree of the senate, dated the 3d of April, placed at the disposal of the government a hundred and eighty thousand combatants, viz. ten thousand horse-guards of honour, equipped and mounted at their own expense; eighty thousand men, called from the first ban of the national guards of the years 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, and 1812, and destined to reinforce the hundred cohorts levied in execution of the decree of the senate of 13th March 1812; and eighty thousand conscripts of 1814, exclusive of the hundred and fifty thousand granted to government by the decree of the 11th of January, and destined for the defence of the frontiers and the coasts. An imperial decree of the 5th April also instituted thirty-seven urban cohorts for the particular defence of maritime places. Decrees, however, though they called forth men, could not create soldiers, who are only formed by discipline and experience.

On the 15th of April Napoleon left the capital to join the army in Germany, and on the 28th removed his headquarters from Erfurth to Ekhartsberg. His army, more formidable from the mass than the quality of troops composing it, exhibited an incomplete organization. On the 29th the two French armies formed a junction between Naumburg and Merseburg; that under Napoleon amounting to a hundred and twenty thousand men, including the imperial guard; whilst Prince Eugene Beauharnais had under his orders about forty thousand combatants. It was on the banks of the Saale, where the French eagles had triumphed in 1806, that the veterans of Moscow gave their hands to the young conscripts who had been sent to defend their country in Germany; and on the very day when the junction was effected, Napoleon assumed the offensive. At Weissenfels, five leagues south-west of Leipsic, some Prussian corps were attacked by the divisions of Souham, Gérard, and Marchand, under the orders of Marshal Ney, supported by the emperor in person. Twelve pieces of the guard were placed in line, and, under the orders of General Drouot, opened a close fire of grape, which soon thinned the ranks of the enemy, and forced them to retire; thus rendering unnecessary the reinforcements detached from the army of Prince Eugene as soon as the noise of the cannonade was heard. To prevent Napoleon following up this advantage, and occupying Leipsic, the allies advanced, on the 1st of May, with the intention of giving him battle, and on the 2d the hostile armies met at Gross-Goerschen, near Lutzen, the scene of the last victory and of the death of Gustavus Adolphus.

Napoleon did not wait to be attacked in the position which he occupied, but advanced from Lutzen to Gross-Goerschen, where the conflict actually took place. The general dispositions made at the commencement of the action were bad; but their defects were speedily repaired by the promptitude, intrepidity, and experience of Prince Eugene, Marshals Ney, Mortier, Macdonald, Marmont, and Generals Compans, Ricard, Souham, Drouot, and Latour-Maubourg. In checking the impetuosity of the Prussians, and, as it were, compelling fortune to declare in his favour, Napoleon performed prodigies. His unexpected appearance on the field of battle produced an effect equally rapid and extraordinary upon the troops. In an instant the enthusiasm of glory animated the features of the young conscripts, who had been somewhat astonished by their first interview with the enemy; the action recommenced with the greatest fury; and for more than four hours the troops on both sides fought under the eyes of their respective sovereigns. Marshal Macdonald and General Bertrand now arrived with their corps, which, having formed a junction, entered into line. Perceiving that the crisis of the battle had arrived, Napoleon advanced sixteen battalions of the young guard, ranged in a second line six battalions of the old guard, and established a battery of eighty pieces of cannon. The infantry immediately attacked; the artillery thundered on the formidable position of Kaya, on which depended the fortune of the day; and victory, which had long hovered with doubtful pinions over this field of carnage, at length settled on the standards of her ancient favourite. The battle of Lutzen was gained principally by artillery, in which arm the French had a great superiority; but success was dearly purchased, the victors having, by their own account, lost in killed and wounded about ten thousand men. Nor was the victory productive of any brilliant or important results. The want of cavalry prevented Napoleon from pursuing the enemy while in disorder, and the fruits of success were therefore confined to the possession of that part of Saxony which is situated on the left of the Elbe. Still the battle of Lutzen deserves to be considered as one of the greatest achievements of Napoleon. With a mass of raw and scarcely half-disciplined conscripts, the greater part of them mere boys, aided by a few thousand experienced troops, he had defeated the whole Prussian army, assisted by a corps of Russians, and protected by a numerous and greatly superior cavalry.

Instead of confining his views to Leipsic, Napoleon now: occupied Dresden, and prepared to pursue the allies across: the Elbe. Having thrown a bridge across that river, he accordingly marched to attack the Austrians and Prussians at Bautzen, where they were drawn up in a position of great strength, upon the range of hills forming the natural boundary of Silesia. Napoleon forced the passage of the Spree in their front, and occupied Bautzen. The whole of the 20th May was spent in manoeuvres and partial combats, the object of which was to enable him to get within reach of the enemy. On the 21st the battle was fought. It commenced by simultaneous attacks directed against both flanks of the enemy; but, owing to the great development of their line, which extended along many leagues, and was intersected by hills, Napoleon found it alike impossible to watch these movements, or, until assured of their success, to order the troops under his own immediate command to advance. He therefore held back the centre, in the midst of which he remained during the cannonade, and being overcome by fatigue, fell fast asleep. At length, upon hearing fresh sounds of artillery in the distance, his attendants awoke him. By the direction of the sound he knew that his wings were victorious, and instantly ordered forward his centre, supported by the imperial guard. This attack proved decisive of the fate of the battle. The allies were beaten, and obliged to abandon their line of defence, which covered Silesia, and to retire into Bohemia. But, as at Lutzen, they retreated without precipitation or disorder, leaving neither cannon nor prisoners in the hands of the conquerors. This negative advantage they owed partly to their superiority in cavalry, and partly also to their position. At Bautzen the Prussians fought well, the Russians indifferently. With the former the quarrel had long become national; the latter were far from their homes, and careless whether they advanced or retreated. The victory of Bautzen uncovered Silesia, and opened to the French a passage to the Oder. Glogau was relieved, Breslau occupied, and Berlin itself menaced. The Russian and Prussian armies were obviously unable to cope with the young soldiers of France; and hence, in retiring into Bohemia, the allies renewed their instances with Austria, to induce her to join the coalition. Accordingly, on the day after [7:10:162]the battle of Bautzen, a message reached the French headquarters, proposing an armistice. We shall immediately see how Napoleon was first deceived, and then insulted, by a power on whose neutrality he had too hastily calculated.

At Goerlitz, in Lusatia, the French were severely handled, and lost several cannon. This affair took place on the 22d of May. The enemy, however, continued their retreat towards the Oder, followed by Napoleon, who had astonished Europe by the spontaneous creation of a new army, and whose late success had re-established his renown. On the 30th Hamburg was retaken by Marshal Davoust and General Vandamme, who thus recovered the territory situated on the right bank of the Lower Elbe, which had been annexed to the French empire by a decree of the senate dated the 13th December 1810. On the 4th of June an armistice was concluded at Plesswitz in Silesia, between Napoleon and his enemies. The French were only to occupy a small part, and that the least fertile, of Silesia; their line was not to extend to the Oder, except in a space extremely confined; and Breslau was to remain free between the two armies; so that the French were, in some sort, pressed into a country devastated, burned, exhausted, and menaced with famine. In subscribing conditions so extremely disadvantageous, Napoleon was no doubt influenced by the hope of seducing his enemies, or disuniting their formidable coalition, and also by the desire to gain time in order to repair his losses by means of very considerable reinforcements which he expected from France, andbymeansof which he wouldbe enabled to act with larger masses. Victory had again returned to his standards, and he confided in the power of his genius for repairing every disaster, and obtaining new triumphs. The enemy were also guided by the same desire of augmenting their forces, without wishing, however, that the armistice should be followed by a peace. They reckoned on a general rising in Germany; on the defection of the confederation of the Rhine; on popular movements in Holland, Switzerland, the Tyrol, Italy, Dalmatia; on the progress of Wellington in the south of France, since the departure for Germany of part of the troops who had been opposed to him. They also calculated upon disturbances in France; and, above all, they hoped to see Austria, already under arms, take an active part in this war, which, even from the geographical position of the theatre of operations, could scarcely fail, if she took part in the contest, to become fatal to the French.

Napoleon, therefore, could not disguise from himself that the politics of all the continental powers seemed on the eve of experiencing great alterations; but still he endeavoured to persuade himself of the contrary. On the 14th of June a treaty was concluded at Reichenbach, twelve leagues from Breslau, by which England agreed to grant Prussia a subsidy of L.666,666 sterling, to enable her to continue the war; and, by the same treaty, a subsidy of L.1,333,334 sterling was also granted to Russia for the same purpose. Austria now offered her mediation, which, by a convention signed at Dresden upon the 30th June, was accepted by Napoleon. The professed object of this mediation was the accomplishment of a general peace, or, if that could not be effected, a continental pacification. With this view a congress was to be opened at Prague on the 5th of July; and, in the mean time, the armistice of Plesswitz was prolonged until the 10th of August. In signing this preliminary act, Metternich commenced that course of duplicity for which he has since become so deservedly famous in Europe, and Austria remained faithful to her oblique system of policy, even more so indeed than to that of temporising, which she has at all times followed. At this moment her only aim was to profit by all the chances; in transporting, or rather hawking, her alliance from camp to camp, she had but one view, namely, to be always on the side which should obtain the division of the spoil. As Russia desired Poland, and Prussia Saxony, so Austria had her eye continually fixed on Italy. Her media- ' tion, therefore, was neither more nor less than a manoeuvre to gain time and enable her to watch events. The peace was altogether a pretext of the allied cabinets, to mask their real views. The opening of the congress of Prague on the 12th of July, to which day it had been postponed, clearly indicated the objects which were aimed at. In the absence of one of the two French envoys, the ministers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, commenced the conferences, and promptly decided that Germany should remain independent; they, however, consented to leave Napoleon in possession of the French empire, with the boundaries of the Rhine and the Alps. This was not negotiation, but dictation; not an attempt to conciliate or adjust interests, but to give the law. Italy was disposed of by an implication, in the absence of the principal French negotiator; the confederation of the Rhine was annihilated; and Napoleon, though victorious, was called upon to accept of terms which would have been sufficiently harsh and humiliating after defeat. But this was merely insulting. Perfidy followed. The armistice expired upon the 10th of August; and it was not until the 7th of that month that the Austrian minister at Prague brought forward the conditions definitively fixed by his court as necessary to the pacification of the Continent. He demanded, first, the dissolution of the duchy of Warsaw, and its partition between Russia, Austria, and Prussia; secondly, the re-establishment of the towns of Hamburg, Lubeck, &c. in their independence; thirdly, the re-construction of Prussia, with a frontier on the Elbe; fourthly, the cession to Austria of all the Illyrian provinces, including Trieste; fifthly, a guarantee that the state of the powers, great and small, such as it might be fixed by the peace, should not be altered except by common consent. The question of the independence of Holland and Spain was at the same time brought forward; but the plenipotentiaries of the allied powers seemed inclined to consent that it should be adjourned until a general peace. The answer of Napoleon, containing certain proposed modifications, was promptly returned, and, by incredible expedition, it reached Prague in the night between the 10th and 11th; but the confederate powers, impatient to appeal to arms, broke up the congress on the very hour when the armistice expired on the 10th, and absolutely refused to receive or consider the answer which had been returned.

On the 12th of August Austria declared war against France, and notified officially her adhesion to the alliance of Russia and Prussia.

The allies had derived great advantages from the armistice. By maintaining themselves in Silesia, they had secured time for the arrival of the Swedish army under ’ Bernadotte, and the Russian corps under Sacken, as well as for the organization of the Prussian troops, and the formation of the army of Beningsen in Poland. The armistice had covered Berlin; it had also been of great use to Austria, in enabling her to complete her armaments, as well as to render more active her negotiations with the states of the confederation; whilst Napoleon derived from it no real advantage except that of fortifying his line of operations on the Elbe, which it was his object to maintain. Placed d cheval on that river, with the head of his army at Dresden, and the rear at Hamburg, he supported himself on all the fortified points which secure the possession of that large and beautiful valley, namely, Konigstein, Dresden, Torgau, Wittenberg, Magdeburg, and Hamburg, with its dependencies on the Elbe, and Merseburg, Erfurth, and Wurtzburg, which connect the Rhine with the Elbe. But he lost upon the Oder the garrisons of Kustrin, Stettin, and Glogau, and ιq>on the Vistula those of Modlin, Thorn, and Dantzick; garrisons which absorbed more than [7:10:163]sixty thousand men. The grand French army, divided into fourteen corps, in which the Italian, German, and Polish auxiliaries were incorporated, was inferior to that of the allies with which it was now about to contend, in the proportion of two to five. These corps were generally weaker than during the preceding campaigns, and, united, they did not exceed two hundred and eighty thousand effective combatants, of whom the half were recruits who had never been in fire. The allies, on the other hand, had under arms five hundred and twenty thousand men, of whom about four hundred and fifty thousand were on the principal theatre of operations, viz. Austria, a hundred and twenty thousand men, including the forces sent to Italy, and the reserves; Russia, a hundred and thirty thousand; Prussia, a hundred and eighty thousand, exclusive of the landsturm or levy tn niaise; and Sweden, thirty thousand, including the Mecklenburg and Hanseatic troops; making the total as above mentioned. The French army was therefore inferior to that of the allies by two hundred and twenty thousand men; yet, notwithstanding this inferiority of force, Napoleon resolved to maintain his position at Dresden, and to try the fortune of arms upon the Elbe. On the 11th the Austrians effected a junction with the Prussians, in the hope of anticipating Napoleon; but, as we shall immediately see, they were themselves anticipated.

Having divined the plan of the allies, which was to direct their forces from three points upon Dresden (viz. from Berlin on the north, Silesia on the east, and Prague on the south), and there concentrate them to make a combined attack on that position, Napoleon calculated that before their grand army, debouching from Bohemia, could arrive under the fire of the redoubts constructed around Dresden, he would have time to execute a combined operation by simultaneously attacking Berlin on the north, and projecting his army of Silesia towards Breslau on the east. With this design, he first executed a military march in Lusatia on the 16th of August; on the 18th he advanced as far as Görlitz, near the frontier of Silesia, threatening to throw himself upon Blucher, who commanded a powerful army; then, abruptly changing his direction, he turned towards Bohemia, in order to ascertain if it might still be ]>ossible to prevent the junction of the forces in Silesia with the Austrians. But, although Napoleon was still ignorant of the fact, neither of them had waited till the 16th to commence the development of their hostile manoeuvres. He however marched with the second and eighth corps under Victor and Poniatowski, supported by the first and fourth corps of cavalry under Lefebvre-Desnouettes and Kellerman. Debouching from the environs of Zittau, these troops passed the frontier, advanced by the defiles, and occupied Reichemberg on the Neisse, and Friedland on the Willich. But having received information that the enemy, apprised of his departure from Dresden, were pouring their masses in that direction, Napoleon, calculating that they would require eight days to assemble under the walls of that place, countermarched, and, like an arrow shot from a bow, flew to attack Blucher, and drive him beyond the Bober. On the 21st of August he crossed the Bober, on the 22d he repulsed the enemy on the bank opposite to Katzbach, and again defeated diem on the 24th. Three days had sufficed to inflict two defeats on the enemy, and to reestablish his eagles in advance in Silesia. But as it was now time to return to Saxony, into which the great mass of the allied army had, on the 20th, descended from the mountains of Bohemia, he faced about, and leaving seventy-five thousand men under Macdonald to keep Blucher in check, he arrived at Dresden on the 26th. But the effect produced by this bold and brilliant operation was in a great measure lost by the failure of Oudinot, who was charged with the execution of one of the three great parts of the campaign, namely, the attack upon Berlin. Brave in the advanced guard, Oudinot was deficient in the strategic ability necessary for conducting great operations. Instead of advancing promptly, he hesitated, lost precious time, and allowed the enemy to penetrate his design, and also deprive him of the lead. He was beaten at Gross-Beeren; Berlin was saved; and the combined armies had now the facility of advancing into the heart of Germany, and operating their junction in the plains of Leipsic.

Wherever Napoleon appeared personally, his ascendency was instantly manifest. But his lieutenants had; neither his genius nor his foresight, and were as inferior to him in activity and energy as in talent and capa- l city. Near the Bober, a tributary of the Oder, and the Queiss, a tributary of the Bober, Marshal Macdonald, in full retreat from Silesia after his defeat on the Katzbach (26th of August), was again, from the 27th to the 29th, discomfited in a series of actions at the passage of these two rivers, which the rains had swollen and converted into rapid torrents. By the results of this isolated and accessory campaign of a few days, the French army lost fifteen thousand men, and a hundred pieces of cannon. The defeat and surrender of Vandamme followed. Wishing to drive the allied army which had fled from Dresden into the defiles of Bohemia, Napoleon sent eastward, by circuitous roads, the first, sixth, and fourteenth corps, with a numerous cavalry, to threaten their flank, and force them back into the mountains. Vandamme commanded the column on the left, Saint-Cyr and Marmont that of the centre, whilst the king of Naples, with the cavalry, formed the right. On the evening of the 28th the imperial head-quarters had scarcely been established at Pirna, when Napoleon was suddenly seized with violent shivering, followed by vomiting. The persons around him were seriously alarmed, but he himself felt more disquieted by the consequences which might result from an accident so unexpected, than even by his illness, which was the effect of exposure to cold and rain during the late battle. Profuse perspiration, induced during the night, afforded him immediate relief, and in the morning he found himself almost entirely recovered; but, unable from weakness to continue with the troops, he returned to Dresden. This accident detained the guard at Pirna; whilst the two corps forming the columns of the centre, having experienced great difficulties in ascending the mountains and penetrating the defiles, made little progress during three days. But Vandamme having on the 28th dislodged an enemy’s corps from the position of Peterswalde, descended next day as far as Kulm, and advanced into that deep valley, in the hope of seizing Töplitz, the rendezvous of all the enemy’s columns scattered in the moun tains. His advanced guard had approached within half a league of Töplitz, and he only waited for his reserves to force the last obstacles, when all of a sudden the enemy, ceasing to give way before him, stood firm, and made the most determined resistance. The enterprise being thus checked, Vandamme, instead of persisting, ought to have renounced it, and, profiting by the night, regained the position of Peterswalde. He did the contrary; and the enemy being powerfully reinforced, he was soon attacked both in front and flank, by at least sixty thousand Austrians and Russians. For several hours, however, he resisted all their efforts, retrograded without being broken, evacuated Kulm, and prepared to ascend to Peterswalde; but Kleist and his Prussians having escaped from Saint. Cyr, and found the position evacuated, had just occupied it. In vain did the French, by the most gallant efforts, endeavour to break through the enemy, which now cut off their retreat; in vain did the cavalry, clearing their way with their swords to the very crest of the escarpment, seize the whole artillery of Kleist; the cannon were promptly abandoned, and, overwhelmed by hosts of enemies before [7:10:164]and behind, the greater part were either taken or dispersed in the mountains. Vandamme, severely wounded, was made prisoner, dragged in triumph to Prague, and subjected to every species of insult, in retaliation of certain acts alleged to have been committed by him in the countries conquered by the French. Nor did the misfortunes of Napoleon’s lieutenants stop here. On the 6th of September, Ney, who had been sent against Berlin, with his own corps and those of Oudinot, Reynier, and Bertrand, was defeated at Dennewitz by Bernadotte, and lost two thirds of his artillery, his ammunition, his baggage, and more than twelve thousand men. This disaster was occasioned by the misconduct of two Saxon divisions, whose fidelity had already been shaken.

Although the victory of Dresden had disconcerted the first plan of offensive operations adopted by the allies, it no longer exercised any influence on the campaign. The anterior defeat of Oudinot at Gross-Beeren on the 23d of August, that of Vandamme at Kulm on the 30th, and the grave checks'received by Macdonald on the Katzbach and the Bober from the 26th to the 29th, enabled the allies to pour three hundred thousand men into Saxony. The route of Ney rendered the position of the French army still more critical, inasmuch as the right wing of the enemy, arriving on the Elbe, was in a situation to intersect its communications with Leipsic and Franconia. Immediately after the battle of the 27th, Napoleon had marched with the old and young guard, and other reinforcements, to succour Macdonald; but the news of this disaster recalled him to Dresden. From this central position, which certainly had many advantages, he hoped to direct his operations in such a manner as to repair all the faults committed by his lieutenants; he confided in the power of his own genius, and never perhaps was its ascendency more conspicuously displayed. Every thing, in fact, gave way before him. Blucher, who had defeated Macdonald, durst not commit himself against Napoleon; Wittgenstein, who had made an irruption into Saxony, was driven back into Bohemia; and similar attempts repeated by each of those generals met with the same fate. In fact, the operations around Dresden resembled what Homer recounts of the siege of Troy. When Achilles rushed forth, the enemy were instantly routed and put to flight; when he retired, they took courage, and failed not to gain some advantage. The plan of Napoleon was magnificent, and though bold even to temerity, he had fully estimated all the chances. So far from entertaining any apprehension of being cut off from France, he waited at Dresden until the allies had so far committed themselves as to be no longer able to avoid a general and decisive battle. Ĳis delight was to be surrounded by enemies, with his army, which he knew so well how to direct, compact and in hand. But his generals shrunk from such daring warfare. Brave and skilful as lieutenants, they had none of that boldness and grasp of mind which distinguished their illustrious chief. But the expected crisis was now approaching. On the 7th of October Napoleon quitted Dresden, leaving in that place Saint-Cyr with about thirty thousand men under his orders. After having manoeuvred on the banks of the Mulde, so as to intercept the communications of the armies of the north and of Silesia, he attacked them on the llth, 12th, and 13th, and forced them to retreat. It is even said that he proposed allowing the allies to place themselves in the interval between the Elbe and the Saale, and, covering himself by the fortified places on the Elbe, of which he was master from Dresden to Hamburg, to establish the war between that river and the Oder. On the 14th the imperial head-quarters were still at Düben on the Mulde, when Napoleon received intelligence of the defection of Bavaria, and of the treaty of Ried concluded on the 8th; but pn the 15th they were removed to Leipsic, where Napoleon arrived early in the day, hoping that he would only have to do with Schwartzeñ-berg. In this, however, he miscalculated.

On the 16th of October the allies approached; Bernadotte and Blucher from the north, ana Schwartzenberg from the south. Napoleon opposed himself to Schwartzenberg, and during the entire day kept him in check upon the verge of the hills which border the plain of Leipsic. Ney was less fortunate on the north, where the Prussians under Blucher fought desperately, and at length obliged him to retire with loss behind the Partha. But on the western side of Leipsic Bertrand drove back General Giulay, and thus cleared the road towards France. During the 17th the allies, notwithstanding their superiority in numbers, hung back, awaiting the arrival of Beningsen’s army; the day was accordingly spent in partial combats, and in preparations on both sides for the inevitable conflict of the morrow. On the 18th the battle commenced to the north, east, and south of Leipsic, in the vast plain extending beyond Lutzen and Weissenfels, villages celebrated as the scenes of mighty deeds in arms. Leipsic is surrounded with suburbs, excepting in the part towards the west, contiguous to hollows, and facing a plain watered by the Pleiss and the Elster, which are divided into canals, and several times intermingle before their definitive junction. Haifa million of men, crowded together on a surface of three square leagues, now engaged with extreme fury in the work of mutual destruction. The disproportion of numbers, however, was enormous. Those of the confederate armies were as follow: Army of Bohemia, Schwartzen berg, 140,000 men; army of the north, Bernadotte, 65,000; army of Silesia, Blucher, 85,000; army of Poland, Beningsen, 40,000; total 330,000 men. The French army was composed of the second corps, Victor; the third, Ney; the fourth, Bertrand; the fifth, Lauriston; the sixth, Marmont; the seventh, Reynier; the∙eighth, Poniatowski; and the eleventh, Macdonald; together with the imperial guard and the cavalry. Its numbers were as follow: Infantry of the line, 130,000; imperial guard, 30,000; cavalry, 15,000; total 175,000. In numbers, therefore, the allied army exceeded that under Napoleon by no less than a hundred and fifty-five thousand men; and this unprecedented advantage was still further increased by the bad condition of the French squadrons, which precluded the possibility of committing them against even equal numbers of the enemy’s cavalry. Napoleon was therefore obliged to rely principally on his artillery; but, pressed on all sides by overwhelming masses, he in vain exhausted his ammunition; the artillery of the enemy was as formidable as his, and latterly better served. Still the French soldiers fought with astonishing courage, and, notwithstanding every effort, maintained their ground. Poniatowski and his gallant Poles kept Schwartzenberg in check. Macdonald was opposed to the Prussians, and, when hard pressed, Napoleon at the head of the guard marched to his assistance, and drove back the enemy. Tc the north of this attack, Bernadotte, with the army of the north, advanced against Reynier, whose corps consisted chiefly of Saxon and Wurtemberg troops. Eager to encounter the Prussians and Swedes, Reynier ordered thest troops to move forward. They obeyed, but it was only to desert and join the enemy. Seven battalions of Saxoι infantry, two regiments of Saxon cavalry, and several Wurtemberg regiments, making in all twenty-six battalions and ten squadrons, together with three Saxon batteries of twenty-six guns, passed over to the enemy, and ranging themselves under the colours of Bernadotte, instantly attacked their brothers in arms; in fact, before arriving at any distance, the three batteries were turned against the division of Durutte, forming part of the seventh corps and swept away entire files by a raking fire. Nevertheless[7:10:165], the emperor, undismayed by this disaster, caused his reserves instantly to advance, and succeeded in checking the enemy, who were now pouring down upon Leipsic. But the army could not long maintain its positions without exposing itself to total ruin. It had neither been broken nor defeated; yet, after its enormous losses, it was evident that want of time alone had prevented the enemy from obtaining complete success. Napoleon was sensible of this; and, on the approach of night, he issued orders for retreat.

Next day, tire 19th, Leipsic was taken. The emperor of Russia, the king of Prussia, and Bernadotte, entered by three different gates, and the king of Saxony was made prisoner. Encumbered with the dead and the dying, with fugitives and equipages, this city presented a horrible scene of route and carnage; but the spectacle exhibited by the approaches to the suburb of Lutzen was most appaling; it was a sort of gulf into which the French precipitated themselves, as into a haven of safety. Nevertheless, the combat and the fusillade continued for two hours, during which sixty pieces of cannon horsed, and twelve thousand brave men, were saved: the enemy, master of Leipsic, feared to push to extremity warriors who might set it on fire, and still more to oppose column to column in a confined space. The retreat of the French could only be operated in braving the greatest difficulties. Their route lay through a defile of more than two thousand toises, between marshes, and along five or six bridges; nevertheless the retreat was being executed without very great disorder, when some Russian tirailleurs, gliding along the Elster, arrived near the principal bridge on that river, which had been mined in the night. No sooner were they perceived than the bridge was blown up by the chief of the post of sappers stationed there, who, disregarding the safety of the emperor and of all those on the western bank, fired the train. This accident, occasioned by the absence of the colonel of engineers, to whom the charge of the post had been committed, having cut off the retreat of all those who were still in the boulevards and suburbs, the bravest, those old soldiers who had escaped the casualties of twenty campaigns, only thought of selling their lives as dearly as possible, and jrerished under the ruins of the houses, which they defended to the last extremity; whilst the greater number believing resistance to be hopeless, fled towards the Pleiss and the Elster. The first of these rivers presented few obstacles; but the other, whose bed is deep and muddy, and whose banks are marshy, swallowed up all those who could not swim. In this number was Prince Poniatowski, who had been created a marshal of France on the 16th, and who on this same day had been wounded whilst performing prodigies of valour on the field of Liebertwolkwitz. Having failed to clear his way through the ranks of the enemies who surrounded and pressed on him, and believing at this extreme moment, when the hands of the Russians were extended to seize his person, that he might find a way to safety through the waters of the Elster, he dashed into the river, and was drowned. Marshal Macdonald, more fortunate, succeeded in clearing the muddy stream. The carnage finally ceased about two in the afternoon. Two hundred pieces of cannon and nine hundred caissons or waggons remained in the hands of the allies. The loss of the French in these two days was immense, being estimated at upwards of sixty thousand men killed, taken, or lost by desertion, exclusively of the wounded. The number killed or mortally wounded on the field of battle did not fall much short of thirty-seven thousand. But the allies paid dear for their success, having lost in killed and wounded nearly eighty thousand men. This is explained by the circumstance that, although their artillery was more numerous than that of the French, the latter played on columns of greater depth and density, and was thus proportionally more destructive. Napoleon arrived in the evening at Marc-Renstaedt, and there rallied the remains of his army.

Such was the terrible battle of Leipsic, the battle of nations, as the Germans call it, in which the numbers of the combatants arrayed in the field, and the extent of tire carnage, exceeded any thing which Europe had witnessed since the use of artillery, and the results of which fixed for a time the fate of the Continent. It is, however, difficult to conceive how a great captain like Napoleon, who had fought thirty pitched battles and gained them all, and who had attained the very summit of military glory, by availing himself with rare ability of the great talents of a crowd of French generals, should have concentrated his army in a position so unfavourable, and accepted a decisive battle in the eastern part of the plains of Leipsic, having in his rear the city, the marshes, and the waters of the Pleiss and the Eister, divided into numerous canals, on which there are but few bridges. The only explanation seems to be, that it no longer depended upon him to choose the position of his army; for, if he had established himself beyond the Partha, the Elster, the Pleiss, and the Luppa, he would have extended his army in a level country, where the enemy’s cavalry, in all respects superior to his, would have interrupted and paralysed all his movements. He could not avoid fighting on the 16th, in order to force back die Austrian army from Leipsic, and pass the marshy defile which leads from that city to Lindenau, on the road towards France. But his determination to deliver battle on the 18th cannot be so easily justified. Since the combats of the 16th produced no decided results how could he flatter himself with being more successful on the 18th, when the enemy, more concentrated, were in a condition to bring into action a still greater amount of force? Instead of engaging anew, he should during the night have made dispositions for retreat, which his army was still in a condition to effect, if not without embarrassment, at least without disorder, and without encountering any serious obstacles.

On the 23d of October the wrecks of the army defeated at Leipsic on the 18th reached Erfurth, where were supplies of ammunitions, provisions, and clothing. All that remained of the German troops had deserted since the battle of Leipsic. On the 26th Wrede, commanding the Austro-Bavarian army, took possession of Wurtzburg, and followed the course of the Mayn. The same day, the troops of Wurtemberg marched to join those of Bavaria, against the French. On the 30th the Austro-Bavarian army, amounting to about sixty thousand men, was found posted at Hanau, on the line which the French had followed from Erfurth, no doubt in the hope of arresting their progress, and thus affording time to Blucher to attack them in the rear, whilst the grand army of Bohemia turned their left flank, and that under the orders of the prince royal of Sweden (Bernadotte) extended itself beyond their right. Placed under the necessity of breaking through this mass of fresh troops, the French fell upon them with incredible fury, and cleared a way by crushing all that opposed them. General Curial at the head of two battalions of the old guard, General Nansouty with the cavalry of the old guard, and General Drouot with fifty pieces of artillery, carried all before them, and not only saved the remains of a brave army, but illustrated its retreat by a brilliant victory. Wrede, who imagined that he had learned the art of war by serving under the French colours, was wounded; whilst the loss of twelve thousand men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, punished the temerity of the general and the ingratitude of his country. Napoleon repassed the Rhine on the 1st of November with the remains of the guard and six corps d’armée, the numerical force of which had been reduced nearly two thirds; and on the 9th he arrived at the palace of Saint-Cloud.

The second overthrow of the French was necessarily productive of more decisive results than the first; Leipsic-completed what the disastrous fate of the Russian expedition had only commenced. Germany regained its independence[7:10:166], by which we mean that it disengaged itself from all connection with France. The confederation of the Rhine was dissolved. Hanover resumed its allegiance to England. Ferdinand VII. was released from Valençay, and acknowledged as king of Spain. Holland, evacuated by the French troops, recalled the stadtholder. Denmark concluded an armistice with Russia, by which Napoleon lost his only ally in the north; and Davoust was isolated in Hamburg, without the possibility of disengaging himself Naples and Sweden alone remained under men of the Revolution, who both retained their regal stations by betraying at once the chief whom they had served, and the country which gave them birth. The exterior frame-work of Napoleon’s pow er had been shattered to pieces by the rude shocks of adverse fortune; and all the changes produced ou the Continent, whether directly by the Revolution, of through the instrumentality of the extraordinary person who had been constituted its representative, were obliterated. Nor were his enemies confined to the provinces beyond the Rhine. The royalists stirred in the provinces, the republicans in the capital; and, feeling the compression of despotism removed, the constitutionalists of the first National Assembly began to raise their heads, and to build hopes of re-establishing a representative government. In the legislative body itself, purified as it had been of all those who were conceived to be friendly to free institutions, there were men who still retained their attachment to the principles which they had originally professed; and five of its members, intrusted with drawing up an address, to be presented on the 1st of January 1814, ventured to allude to the liberty of the subject, the necessity of reforming abuses, and the urgent expediency of accepting peace, and being contented with the frontiers of the Rhine and the Alps. This manifestation of independent opinion excited the astonishment and indignation of Napoleon, who, after replying in a style worthy of a disciple of Cagliostro, adjourned the meeting of the legislative body, and shut up its hall.

The situation of Napoleon had now become worse than critical. All Europe in arms was arrayed against France, whose active means of defence had been nearly annihilated in two campaigns terminating in unparalleled disasters. When Napoleon recrossed the Rhine on the 1st of November 1813, he had not more than thirty-five thousand men in a condition to face the enemy; and even towards the close of the year, when three hundred thousand conscripts had been placed at the disposal of the government, his total numerical force did not exceed three hundred and sixty thousand men, whilst eleven hundred thousand enemies were advancing from various points to pour their invading torrents upon France. On the 11 th November, Dresden capitulated on honourable terms, which, however, Schwartzenberg refused to ratify, and the French troops were marched as prisoners into Austria; on the 1st of January 1814, Dantzick surrendered in virtue of a convention, which the Russians in like manner refused to execute; and the other fortresses occupied by the French in Germany speedily shared the same fate. It has been said that the allies offered Napoleon France, imperial France, with the Rhine for its boundary, and that this fair, this generous offer, was madly refused by him. But this charge is without foundation. On the 2d of December 1813, Lite Duke of Vicenza, in a note addressed to the minister of Austria, declared that the Emperor Napoleon adhered to the general and summary bases proposed in the name of the allied powers at Franckfort, and also agreed that negotiations should immediately ensue in a congress to be assembled at Manheim. The bases proposed were, France confined within her natural limits between the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees; Spain replaced under its ancient dynasty; and Italy, Germany, and Holland, re-established as states independent of France, and of every preponderating power. To these preliminaries Napoleon now declared his unqualified adherence. The allied powers, however, were bent upon conquest, not conciliation; their armies were preparing to pass the Rhine for the purpose of . invading F rance; and their insincerity was proved by the evasions which they practised when the bases proposed by themselves had been unreservedly acceded to. Meanwhile the tide of war continued to roll on towards France. On the 21st of December, six divisions of the enemy under , Schwartzenberg, amounting to more than a hundred thousand men, crossed the Rhine between Basle and Schaffhausen, and ten days thereafter occupied Geneva. On the 31st,

• the army of Silesia under Bluchercroβsed the Rhine between ' Manheim and Coblentz; Bulow, advancing from Holland,! passed still more to the north; and Wellington, descending I from the Pyrenees, was preparing to invade the south of

France. On the 25th of January 1814, Napoleon left Paris

* to join the army, and give new proofs of transcendent military genius in maintaining to the last a hopeless contest.

Schwartzenberg, having advanced through Upper Burgundy, had come upon the Seine, the course of which he intended to pursue towards Paris. Blucher, having passed the Vosges Mountains, had established himself on the Marne, at Saint-Dizier and at Joinville. Between these two rivers was the principal mass of the enemy, amounting at least to a hundred and fifty thousand men. Napoleon could not muster half that number, and the greater part of his army consisted of raw levies who had never been in fire. Advancing from Chulons-sur-Mame, and throwing himself between Schwartzenberg and Blucher, he directed his first blow at the Utter. The Prussian commander now (29th January) occupied Brienne, with the Russian corps of Sacken and Alsufiew, belonging to the army of Silesia, and was at dinner in the castle when the French under Ney drove in his outposts. The château, the town, and its approaches, naw became the scene of fierce combats, in all of which the French were victorious. The castle was taken; and Blucher, who had barely time to effect his escape, was compelled to fall back, take up a position, and wait for reinforcements. The audacity of Napoleon increased in proportion to the immobility of his enemies, who, in fact, durst not execute any movement in his presence except in overwhelming masses. But as the battle of Brienne had failed in its object of preventing the junction of Blucher and Schwartzenberg, he should have returned in all haste to the town of Troyes, where Marshal Mortier would have given him a considerable augmentation of force, instead of waiting to measure himself a second time with an enemy so greatly superior. On the 1st of February, Blucher, reinforced by the corps under Giulay, Wrede, the Prince of Wurtemberg, and the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, which carried the force under his command to about a hundred and ten thousand combatants, became the assailant in his turn, and attacked the French at La Rothière, a village situated in the plain bounded by the Aube and its tributary the Voire, and distant about two leagues and a half north of Brienne. Napoleon, though he had scarcely forty thousand men present under arms, did not hesitate to accept battle. The engagement commenced at one o’clock in the afternoon, and did not terminate until midnight. Attacked along their whole line, the French stood their ground with great firmness, and towards evening the Russians in the centre began to waver; but a vigorous charge executed by Blucher secured him the advantage. In the battle of La Rothière the French lost about six thousand men, of whom two thousand five hundred were prisoners, and more than fifty pieces of cannon. The loss of the allies in killed and wounded was nearly as great, but it little affected their mass. In the night the French retreated to Troyes, without being pursued in any direction; a proof of the incapacity or timidity of the Prussian commander. (

Elated with his advantage, and eager to push on to Pa-, ris, Blucher, being joined by two fresh divisions, now se-1 [7:10:167]parated himself from Schwartzenberg and the Austrians, tardy in their operations, both from character and from policy, and persisted in advancing along the Marne. Meanwhile a congress was opened at Châtillon between the four great allied powers ana France. It was composed of Count Stadion, Baron Humboldt, and Count Rasumowski, plenipotentiaries of Austria, Prussia, and Russia; England was represented by Lords Aberdeen, Catheart, and Castlereagh; and Caulaincourt, duke of Vicenza, appeared as the envoy of France. The result of the battle of La Rothière had decided Napoleon to treat conformably to the bases proposed at Franckfort; and the congress accordingly met on the 4th of February. But whilst occupied with the congress of Châtillon, Napoleon had his eye upon Blucher, whose rash advance along the Mame now inspired him with the idea of surprising and defeating the Prussians. Full of this idea, and finding that the allies rose daily in their demands, and refused to leave even Belgium to France, Napoleon recalled the carte-blanche which a few days previously he had given to Caulaincourt, and, on the 9th of February, refused to ratify the conditions transmitted to him by his minister from Châtillon. An opportunity of striking a blow had now presented itself, and he resolved once more to commit all to the fortune of a battle.

Having abandoned Troyes, Napoleon transferred his army, by cross roads and forced marches, from the Seine to the Marne, along which Blucher was confidently advancing towards Paris, under the impression that the battle of La Rothière was the last serious effort of the French. Of this notion he was speedily and severely disabused. On the IOth of February Napoleon threw himself on the Russian corps of Alsufiew, which formed the left flank of the Prussian army, and occupied a position near Sezanne in order to connect the two allied armies. The attack was made with such rapidity and impetuosity, that, of six thousand Russians, scarcely fifteen hundred escaped. Alsufiew, two other generals, forty-five officers, eighteen hundred soldiers, and twenty-one pieces of cannon, were the trophies of the day of Champaubert. On the 1 lth, at Montmirail, Napoleon came up with the corps under General Sacken, at the moment when he was endeavouring to operate his junction with the Prussian general Yorck, and defeated both with the loss of three thousand men killed and wounded, a number of prisoners, twenty-one pieces of cannon, and nearly all their baggage. In two days, three of Blucher’s lieutenants had been defeated, and the wrecks of their con» driven beyond the Marne. On the 14th the emperor, after gaining some advantages at Château-Thierry, on the 12th and 13th attacked Blucher himself at Vaucamp, a league and a half west of Montmirail, and defeated him with the loss of seven thousand killed and wounded, three thousand prisoners, and eighteen pieces of cannon. Leaving Blucher thus humiliated to await the arrival of the Russians under Winzingerode, who were advancing from Belgium to support him, Napoleon now turned towards the Seine, where the grand army of the allies was manoeuvring separately, with its advanced posts beyond Moret and Provins, whilst parties extended to the south of Fontainebleau, and spread alarm even to the gates of Orleans. Supported by Marshals Victor, Oudinot, and Macdonald, commanding the remains of the corps, conducting himself the old and young guard, and reinforced by troops which had arrived from Spain, Napoleon advanced on the loth against the flank of the enemy disseminated upon the right bank of the Seine. The French army presented a mass of about fifty thousand men. On the 17th several strong Austro-Russian divisions, in full march on Paris, were completely defeated near Nangis, by the emperor, who on the 15th had left Montmirail with his guard and the corps of Marshal Ney, and marched twenty-eight leagues in two days. In this action the enemy lost five thousand men, as many prisoners, and a dozen cannon. But its result would have been more considerable if Victor had acted with greater decision. The combat of Montereau on the 18th was merely a continuation of that of the preceding day. The Prince of Wurtemberg being impetuously attacked, lost seven thousand men. Generals Gérard and Pa-jol had the greatest share in the success of the day. It was during this affair that Napoleon said gaily to his soldiers, who murmured at seeing him expose himself, “Ne craignez rien, mes amis; le boulet qui me tuera n’est pas encore fondu.”

These successes revived the confidence of Napoleon in his genius and fortune, and blinded him to the dangers by which he was menaced. After crushing Alsufiew at Champaubert, he wrote to his plenipotentiaries at Châtillon to assume a prouder attitude. The victory of Montmirail confirmed him in the belief that every thing might yet be repaired; and this conviction was strengthened by the subsequent successes at Nangis and Montereau. To an Austrian officer, who came to propose an armistice, and urge his acceptance of the conditions of Châtillon, he returned for answer that he would accede to those of Franckfort, but would on no account consent to yield up Belgium. “Recollect,” said he, , ∙ that I am nearer to Munich than my enemies are to Paris." The conditions now offered were no doubt severe and humiliating. Departing from the bases founded on the natural limits of France, which they had themselves proposed at Franckfort, the allies now proposed that the emperor of the French should renounce all the acquisitions made by France since the beginning of 1792, and all constitutional influence beyond her ancient limits; that he should recognise in the allied powers the right of determining, conformably to the treaties they had entered into among themselves, the limits and relations of the countries ceded by France, as well as of their own states, without interfering therein in any manner of way; that all the colonies of France should be restored to her, excepting Tobago, and the isles of Bourbon and France; that all the fortresses of the ceded countries, and all those still occupied by French troops in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Italy, should be given up without exception, and with the least possible delay; and that, under the denomination of depots, the strong places of Besançon, Béfort, and Huningen, should be occupied by the allierl armies until the ratification of a definitive peace. Such were the humiliating conditions agreed to at Châtillon, and which Austria now strenuously urged Napoleon to accept. “The peace,” observed some one, “will be good enough, if it is time enough.” “It will come too soon,” replied Napoleon, “if it bring disgrace.”

On the 24th February, the French, after several affairs with the rear-guard of the allied army, now in retreat, reoccupied Troyes. Some manifestations of royalism were exhibited at this place, and one unfortunate individual lost bis life. At Troyes a flag of truce arrived from the Austrian head-quarters proposing an armistice, which, however, Napoleon refused except on the condition of its extending to the whole line. The urgent remonstrances of the king of Prussia having roused Schwartzenberg from the state of inaction in which he had for some time remained, an attack was resolved upon, and, on the 27th, forty thousand Austro-Russians advanced against fifteen thousand French under the orders of Oudinot and Gérard. Oudinot allowed himself to be surprised, and was only saved by the admirable dispositions of Gérard, and by a rapid and vigorous charge of cavalry executed by Kellerman. The assailants gained nothing but the field of battle. On the 2d of March Soissons was occupied by Bulow, the commandant of the city having opened the gates without making an attempt to defend it, although he had a sufficient garrison under his orders, and the sound of the cannon already announced the approach of the French. On the 4th Marshal Macdonald assumed the command of all the troops in presence [7:10:168]of the grand allied army, amounting to about thirty thousand; and having evacuated Troyes and abandoned the basin of the Yonne, he retired to establish his line of defence from Nogent to Montereau. On the 7th Napoleon attacked Blucher at Craonne, about three leagues south-east of Laon. The French had only thirty thousand men, the Prussians upwards of a hundred thousand; but the force of the attack was principally directed against twenty-two thousand Russians under Generals Woronsow and Sacken. The action was long and obstinate; during the day the Russians maintained their ground against the furious and reiterated onsets of the French, and retreated in the night towards Laon, where they formed a junction with the Prussians. In the critical situation of Napoleon this victory was equivalent to a defeat. Laon, a place which served as an entrepôt to the allied army, was next attacked, but without success. In the night of the 9th, Marmont, advancing to support Napoleon in the approaching attack, suffered himself to be surprised by Blucher, and lost two thousand five hundred prisoners, with forty pieces of cannon. The consequences of this check were fatal to Napoleon. On the following day he persisted in his design of endeavouring to carry Laon by main force, but all his efforts failed, chiefly from the want of artillery.

At Laon had vanished Napoleon’s last hope of retriev- ’ing his fortunes in the field. He therefore dispatched orders to Caulaincourt to treat with the allies upon any terms; but the time fixed for receiving his answer to the conditions proposed had elapsed, and, taking advantage of the change of circumstances, the allied plenipotentiaries refused to enlarge it. Caulaincourt now gave in a counter project, by which the emperor consented to restrict his domination within the boundaries of ancient France, with Savoy, Nice, and the island of Elba, on condition that the crown of the kingdom of Italy, with the frontier of the Adige on the side of Austria, should be given to Eugene Beauharnais; but this the allied plenipotentiaries rejected, and the congress broke up. Disasters now thickened around Napoleon. Encouraged by the presence of the English army under Wellington, Bordeaux declared in favour of the Bourbons; and intriguing statesmen of the Revolution, at the head of whom was Talleyrand, were preparing a similar re-action in the capital, in the hope of establishing a constitutional government under the auspices of a restoration. Hitherto the allies had carefully abstained from openly espousing the cause of the exiled princes; but the manifestations of royalism in the provinces, and intimation of the intrigues carried on in the capital, emboldened them not only to advance upon Paris, but to declare in favour of a restoration.

Meanwhile Napoleon, having left Mortier and Marmont ’ with nearly twenty thousand men, and given orders to the commandants of places on the Moselle, the Meurthe, and the Meuse, to push strong parties in the rear of the enemy, marched on the 17th from Reims, at the head of about eighteen thousand men, with the intention of effecting a junction with Macdonald, who was advancing with thirty thousand; and, on the 20th, he moved on the Aube against Schwartzenberg, who had under his command a hundred thousand effective combatants. During this day and the following one, Napoleon displayed the talents of a great captain with the sang-froid of a brave soldier, manoeuvring wdth transcendent skill, and fighting with the most determined bravery. With the loss of about four thousand men the proposed junction was effected, and Napoleon retired on Saint-Dizier and Joinville without being pursued. In thus operating on the right bank of the Upper Marne, the emperor no doubt hoped to draw the enemy out of their positions on the Aube, and cause them renounce their direction on Paris, as well as to rally some reinforcements which had been sent to Metz. It has been commonly supposed that his intention was, at the risk of uncovering Paris, to manoeuvre in their rear, and intercept their communications with the Rhine; but his troops were too feeble, particularly in cavalry, to enable him to flatter himself with attaining such a result. Napoleon made every possible effort to retard their advance, and, on the 26th, defeated with great loss ten thousand Russian cavalry belonging to the army of Winzingerode, who had been sent in pursuit of him.

On the 27th he marched to succour the capital, and reached Montiérender, five leagues south of Saint-Dizier. On the 29th Mortier and Marmont occupied Saint-Mandé, Vincennes, and Charonne, and established themselves before the barriers of Paris adjoining to these villages. On the 30th the allied troops commenced the attack of the several heights, occupied by about twenty-five thousand soldiers of all arms. The French assumed the offensive on the principal points, and the villages of Pantin and Romainville were taken and retaken several times. The battle commenced at sunrise, and at eleven o’clock in the forenoon the Austrians and Russians were still in complete check. But at that moment the Prussians appeared, entered into line, and proceeded to arrange their attacks. Seized with terror, Joseph Bonaparte, who acted as generalissimo, now only thought of providing for his own personal safety; and having intimated to Mortier and Marmont that he authorized them to capitulate, he fled with all the precipitation of a Thersites. A capitulation was accordingly concluded, and on the last day of March the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia entered the French capital at the head of their troops. When Napoleon, who had reached Fontainebleau on the 30th, encountered, in the evening of that day, while advancing towards tl>e capital, some of the troops of Marmont retiring by virtue of the capitulation, he refused to give credit to the tidings; and it was only by persuasion, amounting to force, that he was induced to return to Fontainebleau. No wonder his astonishment was great. If the minister Clarke had delivered twenty thousand new muskets to the national guard, to those robust workmen who loudly demanded arms, the heights would not in all probability have been carried on the 30th; and the sudden apparition of Napoleon in the centre of such immense resources as Paris presented, might have suddenly changed the fortune of the war, and led to a very different result; whilst a check sustained by the allies before Paris would have inevitably led to their destruction, by rousing all France to crush the invaders. But treason deprived Napoleon of the last great resource on which he had all along calculated, and completed the subjugation of France. A provisional government was appointed, with Talleyrand at its head; and a proclamation was issued by the allied sovereigns, refusing to treat with Napoleon as sovereign of France. In these circumstances, finding himself deserted by his marshals, officers, and dependents, from Berthier, prince of Neufchatel, down to the Mamluke Rustan, this wonderful man, who had never appeared greater than during the late struggle, signed an unconditional abdication, and, on the 11th of April 1814, his dynasty expired.

There yet remain to be treated of, the first restoration; the reign of the hundred days, with the extraordinary events crowded into that short space; the second restoration, that comedy of fifteen years, as it has been called; and, lastly, the revolution of July 1830, by which the third impression of the old monarchy was destroyed, and a new dynasty established in France on the basis of the interests created by the first revolution. But unavoidable circumstances, and a desire to procure authentic information, render it proper that we should stop at the epoch of Napoleon’s abdication in 1814; and for the details necessary to complete our historical survey, we therefore refer the reader to other parts of the work, particularly to the article Napoleon. (a.) [7:10:169]II. STATISTICS.

i SITUATION AND EXTENT, PACE OP THE COUNTRY, CLIMATE AND SOIL.

This important part of continental Europe extends from the forty-third to the fifty-first degree of north latitude, and from longitude 8∙25 east, to longitude 4∙43 west. The greatest length of France, exceeding 600 miles, is from east to west, viz. from Alsace to Bretagne, a province which projects into the Atlantic like a wedge, and without which France would approach in form to a square. Its breadth from north to south is about 560 miles; and its superficial extent, as stated in the Statistique de la France, is 52,768,618 hectares, equal to 185,515 square miles, or J 18,729,390 English acres.

Though in point of extent of coast and ready access from the interior to the sea, France is far inferior to Britain and Ireland, she is, on the other hand, more fortunate in these respects than the vast inland territories of Austria and Russia. She has the advantage of these countries likewise in strength of natural barriers, the Pyrenees forming a great bulwark on the south-west, the Alps on the south-east, and the Jura and the Vosges Mountains on the east. The Netherlands are the only open part of the frontier of France.

The surface of France exhibits, in general, an advantageous succession of high and low ground. Less level than Poland, the north of Germany, or the greater part of European Russia, it is, on the whole, less mountainous than Spain or Italy, and may with great propriety be compared to England, with this distinction, that whilst in the latter the mountainous tracts are in the north and west, in France they are in the south and east. Passing over the lofty ridges which form the frontier line of France on the side of the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Jura, the Vosges, and confining our attention to the interior, we find throughout Flanders, Picardy, Normandy, and thecountries to the north and south of the Loire, a level country, diversified occasionally by hills, either insulated or in succession, but by none of the massy elevations entitled to the name of mountains. These we do not meet until reaching the south of Champagne and north of Burgundy, near the sources of the Meuse, the Moselle, the Saône, the Seine. From this bleak quarter (lat- 47 and 48) a very long range of mountains proceeds from north to south in a direction parallel to the course, first of the Saône, and subsequently of the Rhone, until, on approaching the Mediterranean, they branch off to the south-west and join the Pyrenees. Their greatest height is in Auvergne (about lat. 45), where this chain, or more properly a lateral branch of it, attains, at the mountains called Cantal and Puy-de-Dôme, an elevation of fully 6355 feet, and has its highest ridge covered with snow during the greater part of the year. Another, but a much less lofty range, extends from Bordeaux to the south-east, a distance of a hundred and fifty miles, until it reaches the Pyrenees. The smaller chains are numerous in the east and south-east of the kingdom, viz. in Lorraine, the Nivernois, Dauphine, Provence; also in part of the interior, particularly the Limousin and Guienne. They are interspersed with extensive plains, but, on the whole, the south and east of France are rugged and elevated tracts, and may be said to be to that country what Wales and Scotland are to Great Britain.

The course of the great rivers is easily connected with this view of the surface of the territory of France. The Moselle, the Meuse, the Marne, the Aube, the Seine, the Yonne, taking their rise on the northern side of the mountain chain, between lat. 47 and 48, flow all to the north or north-west, until reaching the sea, or quitting the territory of France. From the southern slope of the same range proceed the Saône, the Doubs, and the Ain. These, along with many smaller streams, are all received by the Rhone, which flows almost due south, with a full and rapid current, until it reaches the Mediterranean. The Loire has by much the longest course of any river in France. It rises to the southward of lat. 45, flows in a northerly direction above two hundred miles; turns, near Orleans, to the west, is joined by the Cher, Indre, and Vienne from the south, and, after receiving the Sarthe from the north, falls into the Atlantic below Nantes. The Garonne, a river of less length of course, but of a greater volume of water, descends from the French side of the Pyrenees, flows northward, and, after receiving from these mountains a number of tributary streams, of which the chief is the Arriège, turns to the westward near Montauban (lat. 44), and tails into the Atlantic after being augmented by the waters of the Tarn, Aveyron, Lot, and finally the Dordogne, all flowing from the western face of the mountains of Auvergne.

France has very few lakes, either in the mountainous districts of the south, or in the great levels of the north and west. It contains, however, a number of maritime inlets, forming inland bays, and communicating with the sea only by a channel of greater or less width. These occur partly on the south-west coast, in Gascony; but more in the south and south-east, in Languedoc and Provence. Their want of depth prevents them from serving as roadsteads for shipping, and they are useful chiefly for fishing, or for the manufacture of bay-salt.

France has much less of artificial or ornamental plantations than England, and much more of natural forests, the total extent of ground covered by wood being computed at seventeen millions of acres, or one eighth of the territorial surface of the kingdom. Forests are found in almost every department. Lower Normandy contains several of considerable extent. There is a large one at Fontainebleau, only forty-five miles from Paris; and a larger to the north of the Loire, in the vicinity of Orleans. Those situated in the neighbourhood of the sea, or of navigable rivers, or of great works, such as glass-houses and iron-founderies, have long been subjected to an improvident consumption, which is likely to be increased by the heavy duties imposed on foreign coal, and by the undue encouragements given to the smelting of iron by the heavy duties which were in 1814 and in 1822 laid on the importation of foreign iron; so that at present the principal forests are at a great distance inland, particularly in the east of the kingdom, in the department of Ardennes, and in the long mountainous tract that forms the boundary of France on the side of Switzerland.

The want of ornamental plantations, and still more the almost total want of hedges, forms a great deduction from the beauty of scenery in France, and deprives the country of the cheerful aspect so striking in England. The nearest approach to the latter is seen in travelling through the fresh pastures and gentle eminences of Normandy. Of the other provinces, some, like Picardy, Champagne, Poitou, consist of wide uninteresting levels; whilst others, such as Auvergne, part of Upper Languedoc, and the vicinity of the Alps and Pyrenees, contain a bold but bleak scenery. The most beautiful and picturesque views are to be found in the Limousin, or on the borders of the great rivers. The banks of the Loire from Orleans westward are proverbially beautiful. The Rhone, bordered by mountains, has generally a bold, and occasionally a wild aspect. The Seine, equally wide, but much more tranquil, flows through verdant but less striking landscapes.

In a country of so great extent and of such diversified surface as France, it is difficult to condense a description of [7:10:170]the climate into a few comprehensive heads. The most natural division is into the north, south, and central regions. The north, comprehending Flanders, Picardy, Normandy, Bretagne, and in general all that part of France which would be bounded on the south by a diagonal line from lat. 47 on the west to lat. 49 on the east frontier, bears a great resemblance, both in temperature and produce, to the south of England, rain occurring frequently, and the country being consequently fit for pasture. There, as with us, the predominant culture is wheat, barley, oats, rye, and such fruit as apples, pears, cherries; also hemp, flax, rapeseed. It is here, and here only in France, that the natural pastures are rich and extensive; here also the species of wood, oak, ash, elm, bear a close resemblance to ours. The central region may be said to comprehend the country to the south of the Loire, or rather of the diagonal line we have mentioned, until reaching a similar line in lat. 45 on the west and 47 on the east frontier. Here, with the exception of the mountainous parts, the winter is sensibly shorter and milder. Wheat, barley, oats, and rye, are still cultivated, but maize begins to appear, and vines become general. The weather in this great inland tract is much more steady than in the north. In the summer months there is little rain, and storms, when they occur, are frequently accompanied with hail; but, on the whole, the temperature is perhaps the most pleasant in France, being exempt equally from the oppressive heat of the south and the frequent humidity of the north. The third region, comprehending the whole breadth of the French territory from lat. 45 and 46 to lat. 43, and in some parts to 42∙30, approaches in climate to the heat of Spain and Italy; it being necessary in the summer months to suspend all active exertion during the middle of the day, and to reserve it for the morning and evening. A shaded situation is here the desideratum for a dwelling, and a supply of water for agriculture. In this region the heat will invariably produce an exuberant crop where irrigation can be applied; hence the frequency of wells, which are generally worked by a wheel and some rude machinery. Wheat is partially cultivated; barley, oats, and rye, only on the high grounds; maize is very general, and vines supply not only the main article of export, but the usual drink of the inhabitants. The common fruits are olives and mulberries, and, in a few very warm situations, oranges and lemons. Pasturage is good only on mountainous or irrigated tracts. To pulmonic invalids the climate may be advantageous, but in this respect also material distinctions occur from locality, the winter in the south-east of France being at intervals very cold, from the vent de bise, a piercing wind that blows from the Alps and the mountains of Auvergne. Here, notwithstanding the latitude, the cold of winter is intense.

Bretagne, projecting into the Atlantic, is as rainy as Ireland or Cornwall. Normandy, with part of Picardy and French Flanders, may be compared to our inland counties. In the interior of France the rains are less frequent, but far more heavy; so that there is much less difference in the quantity of rain that falls in the course of the year than in the number of rainy days. The atmosphere of France is much less cloudy than ours. The most frequent wind in the north of France, as in Britain and Ireland, is the south-west; it prevails also, but to a less degree, in the central part of the kingdom. In the south of France the more common winds are from the north.

The difference of temperature between London and Paris is not considerable, nor is the degree of heat found to be intense along the west coast of France, until reaching or rather passing Poitou. In the interior it is much more perceptible, being strongly felt at Lyons, and still more in the latitude of Nismes, Aix, Marseilles, and Toulon. On the whole, the variations of climate between the north and south of France are considerably greater than between the north and south of Britain, where the effect of difference of latitude is so much modified by the vicinity of the sea. We know, besides, of no such variation as the very material one indicated by the diagonal line from east to west, the latter being two degrees colder in consequence of the breezes and vapours of the Atlantic.

The harvest begins in the north of France between the 20th and 25th July, in the central part about the middle of that month, in the south about the end of June. September and October are the months of vintage. The great hazard to the corn of the central part of the kingdom arises from violent storms of rain and hail, in the south from the want of rain in spring. In winter the vent de bise proves often destructive to the olives. The great heats are in July, August, and September; a time of much annoyance in the south of France, from gnats, flies, and other insects; whilst scorpions even are found in that warm latitude.

To exhibit a classification of the different kinds of soil is a task of difficulty in any extensive country, and in none more than in France, where a striking difference prevails, not only in contiguous departments, but in contiguous districts of the same department. In Flanders, Picardy, Artois, Normandy, and the Pays de Beance, a fertile tract to the south of Paris, the soil consists frequently of a loamy mould; in the central and southern parts of the kingdom it is often lighter; whilst the greater part of Bretagne, and of the departments along the western coast, have a heathy soil, naturally unproductive, but capable of considerable improvement. But these collective estimates are liable to great deductions; and the attempts made by Arthur Young and other statistical writers to calculate the prc- ⊂'' ∙n of the different descriptions of soil, whether loam,

, chalk, gravel, or the like, are considered by the French as far from successful; even the more systematic effort made by their own government, in the beginning of this century, to compute the value of land by masses de culture, that is, by classing all kindred soils under one head, proved altogether abortive. We shall forbear, therefore, all such vague calculations, and proceed to state the value of annual produce in the different departments, endeavouring to class the latter in lots, according to their position and relative productiveness.

Average annual income of the various departments of France, computed by the English acre, and in Sterling money, taking the words “ annual income” in the most extensive sense, as including the rent of land, the farmers profit, and the rent of houses in towns —(Chaptai, De [Industrie Française, vol. i. p. 209.)

The fertility and high state of cultivation of French Flanders, and the near approach made to it by part of Normandy and Picardy, are apparent from the following returns. The chief objects of culture there, as in England, are wheat, oats, barley, and rye; the pasturages are extensive; the horses, cattle, and sheep numerous.
[table]

The inland province, called formerly, from the rivers along its circumference, the Isle of France, comes next in the list of relative productiveness. The objects of culture are similar to those of Flanders and Normandy, viz. wheat, oats, and barley; but the pasturages are less rich and extensive.
[table]

The district around Paris forms the centre of the above departments. There the average return is stated at 72s. 9d. the acre; but as this includes house rent, and is alto*
[7:10:171]

gether a peculiar cage, we proceed to the next great division of open country.

Alsace, though in some parts mountainous, is in others level and fertile, particularly adapted to pasture and the culture of wheat.
[table]

. Bretagne has in several parts good pasturages, and a soil adapted to the culture of wheat. Many other parts, however, consist of unproductive heaths. The general backwardness and poverty of the province are but too strikingly exemplified by the following return:
[table]

Here are also extensive ìandes or heath. Vines are partially cultivated, but the general produce consists of wheat, oats, barley. The pastures are extensive, though less rich than in Normandy.
[table]

Of this great tract parts are level and parts are mountainous. The climate, though in general steady, is very different in its degree of warmth, according to the eleva- [∙tion of the ground. Hence a considerable discrepancy in the relative fitness for pasture, for corn culture, or for vineyards. Unluckily the water communication is very limited, there being hardly any canals, and the rivers being too near their source to be navigable.
[table]

The six following departments, similar to the above in latitude, and not materially different in climate, are of very inferior productiveness; in some parts, from the mountainous nature of their surface; in others, on account of extensive heaths, moors, marshes, and tracts of sand. The objects of culture continue to be wheat, oats, and rye; vines and maize are raised in the warmest exnosures.
[table]

Lorraine is a mountainous Country, containing extensive tracts of sheep pasture. Its chief agricultural products are oats and wheat.
[table]

This extensive province, and the departments to the south and south-west, are, in general, mountainous, cold considering their latitude, and thinly peopled. The chief product of the high grounds is rye. The best departments are those of the
[table]

Ťhe following, situated to the south and west of the above, are all nnnr and thinlv neooled:
[table]

; Here we attain a more genial climate, and a country, l’ in general, well adapted to the growth of the vine. But a great part of this tract (Dauphine and Upper Languedoc) is mountainous; and the export of wine is consequently attended with much more difficulty than along the banks of the Garonne. Wheat, maize, and silk, are the other principal products.
[table]

Of the following ten departments, some are indebted tor the amount of their return to the extent of their vintage, others to their productiveness in wheat or maize. In pasture or in cattle these departments are far from abundant.
[table]

It remains that we notice a few departments so particularly circumstanced as not to fall under any of the preceding heads. La Vendée, so peculiar in its surface, and not likely to recover for ages the devastations of civil war, is naturally fertile. Its products are wheat, oats, and, in the warmer situations, maize.
[table]

Three fourths of this department consist of sandy downs; the remainder produces maize, wheat, and vines;' but the average annual produce is only 2s. Id. per acre.

Here the degree of fertility becomes less and less as we approach to the elevated line which separates France from Spain. This rugged region contains great tracts of pasture. The corn raised is maize, wheat, oats, or barley, according to the altitude and temperature of the district.
[table]

Lastly comes the still more lofty barrier of France to the south-east, the products of which are a little wheat in the valleys; and in the higher grounds pasture, with corn of the lighter species.
[table]

It. DIVISIONS, CIVII. AND ECCLESIASTICAL.

Nothing can be more simple and uniform than the territorial divisions of France since the Revolution. Instead of old provinces or counties, disproportioned in size, and having frequently their chief town at one or other of the extremities, the departments of France have almost always the capital in the centre, and, in their extent, approximate in a great degree to equality. Each department is divided into three, four, five, or more arrondissements; each arrondissement into seven, eight, or nine cantons; and each canton into twelve, fifteen, or more communes. The communes in France are nearly similar to our parishes, though they are constituted communes by having a civil instead of a clerical functionary. The numbers of each class are as follows :—
[table]

A far different result this from the gigantic empire of Bonaparte, which, after his latest acquisitions in 1810, extended to Rome in the south, and to Hamburg and Lubec in the north, comprehending above 130 departments, and a population of forty-four millions. But of all these splendid conquests, none, with the exception of the Netherlands, formed a substantial addition to the power of France. The Italian provinces, separated by a vast natural barrier, were inhabited by a people who bore the ascendency of their northern neighbours only until circumstances should enable them to throw off the yoke, and become incorporated into one great and independent state; [7:10:172]whilst the Germans, still more distinct in habits and language from the French, were indignant at their humiliation, and eager to riβe with the first appearance of foreign aid. Belgium alone had no natural barrier, no political attachment, to oppose to a union with France.

The ecclesiastical division of France is into archbishoprics and bishoprics. These, before the Revolution, were numerous, there being eighteen archbishops and a hundred and twelve bishops; but as that great political change bore particularly hard on the clergy, of whom, as of the noblesse, the great majority were adherents of the Bourbons, the number of prelates was reduced, first to eighty-five, and eventually (in 1801) to fifty, viz. nine archbishops and forty-one bishops. On the restoration of the Bourbons, measures were taken to re-augment their number; and in 1817 a new concordat, concluded with the court of Rome, announced the creation of nine additional archbishoprics and thirty-three bishoprics, carrying the totals respectively to eighteen and seventy-four. The eighteen archbishoprics are,
[table]

As there are in France eighty-six departments, and only seventy-six bishoprics, a diocese necessarily comprehends a larger tract of country than a department.

A further distribution of the French territory is into military divisions, or great districts, comprising four or five departments. Of these there are in the whole kingdom twenty-two, each having a general of rank and a body of officers stationed in a central town.

III. HARBOURS, navigable RIVERS, CANALS, ROADS, BRIDGES.

In this important point France is considerably inferior to England, her long tract of coast opposite to the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay being indifferently provided with sea-ports, and those on the southern shore of the Channel forming a striking contrast to the spacious maritime inlets on the side of her rival. To begin from the north-east, Dunkirk has a small harbour in the interior of the town, approached on the Dutch plan by a canal leading from the sea. Boulogne has a shallow roadstead, indebted for its celebrity under Bonaparte to the facility of giving protection, by land-batteries near its entrance, to a numerous assemblage of small craft. The port of Dieppe is exposed, and, of course, unsuitable for winter; that of St Malo is better; and on doubling the projecting part of Bretagne, we find, in the south-west of that province, L’Orient, a port adapted to the entrance of large merchantmen. Proceeding further to the south, we find at La Rochelle a small but secure harbour, and at Bordeaux a river nearly equal in width to the Thames at London. From this there is no sea-port until we reach Bayonne, a place of no easy access. On the Mediterranean, France has the ports of Cette and Marseilles, the latter spaciousand secure.

Nantes, though a large commercial town, adjoins a shallow part of the Loire, and vessels of burden are obliged to load and unload at Paimboeuf. The great dockyards and naval stations of the kingdom are at Brest and Toulon, both excellent harbours, and at Rochefort, which is situated on the river Charente, near its mouth. In all these the accommodation for shipping is the gift of nature; but at Cherbourg the case is very different, that port containing works, of which the labour and expense Ísee the article Breakwater) have been very great, ts roadstead, extensive but open, has a sea-wall, which, though now in a state very different from its original destination, affords some protection from the swell of the sea; and its spacious dock, excavated since the beginning of this century, at an expense of L.3,000,000 sterling, is capable of containing fifty sail of the line. Havre de Grace, the best mercantile harbour in the north of France, has also been formed at a heavy expense.

The square form of France, favourable as it is for military defence, subjects the greater part of the country to the want of those ready and economical means of transport by sea which form the great physical advantage of Britain and Ireland. Unluckily, this want is very imperfectly supplied by the inland waters, canals being very thinly spread, and the navigation of the great rivers subject to many obstructions; occurring in one part from rapidity, in another from shallowness; at one season from drought, at another from overflow. The application of steam to navigation promises to correct in part this most inconvenient tardiness; but the accommodation which will even then be afforded by the Loire in the interior, the Rhone in the south, the Seine in the north, and the Garonne with its Canal du Languedoc in the south-west, will be but a small portion of what is furnished by our numerous intersections in England, or of what is wanted for so extensive a territory as that of France.

The canal of Languedoc, begun in the reign of Louis XIV. and completed in the year 1668, was the first example in Europe of inland navigation on a great scale. It is the most stupendous undertaking of the sort that has been executed in France. Its length is 148 miles, its general breadth sixty feet, its depth six and a half feet. It has 114 locks and sluices, and in its highest part i t is 600 feet above the level of the sea. As a scientific work, it did honour to an age as yet little advanced in engineering; but in a pecuniary point of view it was unproductive, the tolls never having paid the interest of the very large sum (upwards of L.1,300,000 sterling) expended upon it. It extends from the Mediterranean, near Agde, to the Garonne, below Toulouse, and will ere long be prolonged in a northerly direction to Montauban.

The canal of Briare is of earlier date, and of much less extent. The object here was to open a navigation from the Loire on the south to the Seine on the north, by a canal running almost due north, a distance of forty miles. It then receives from the west the canal of Orleans, commenced in 1675, and proceeding also from the Loire; after which the canal is continued to the north, under the name of Canal de l’Oing, till it reaches the Seine. This canal was begun in 1605, in the reign of Henry IV. and was completed in 1642, under Louis XIII. There are, besides this great work, several other important and extensive canals in France. The Canal du Centre unites the Saône and the Loire in the early part of the course of the latter. It is seventy-two English miles in length, and was completed in 1791, at an expense of L.456,000. Its summit level is about 240 feet above the level of the Loire at Digoin. It has eighty-one locks, five and a half feet of water, forty-eight feeţ of breadth at the water’s edge, and thirty feet at the bottom. The canal of St Quentin, twenty-eight English miles in length, was completed in 1810. It joins the Scheldt and the Somme. The canal of Besançon is extensive. It joins the Saône, and consequently the Rhone, to the Rhine. From the Saône it stretches a little above St Jean de Losne, by Dole, Besançon, and Mulhoine, to Strasburg, a distance of 200 miles, where it joins the Rhine. This canal is not quite finished. The canal of Burgundy, which joins the Rhone to the Seine, will, when completed, be 150 English miles in length. It is at present navigable to little more than a third of this distance. The canal of the Ouxeq was dug, not for a commercial purpose, but to convey the water of that little [7:10:173]river to Paris, for the consumption of the inhabitante. At a village called La Villette, on the north side of Paris, there has been lately excavated, at the expense of a million sterling, a basin, approaching in size to our London docks, and calculated, when the necessary canals shall be completed, for the deposit of merchandise brought from Havre and Rouen on the one side, and from Flanders and Champagne on the other. In the south of France there is a short canal proceeding from the Rhone, near Tarascon, in a south-west direction, to the Mediterranean, and called, from its vicinity to a well-known annual fair, Canal de Beaucaire. These are as yet the chief canals of France. In the year 1836 there were seventy-four canals, having a total length of 3,699,913 mètres, nearly equal to 2280 English miles. But it is probable that this improved mode of communication may be superseded by the still greater improvement of the rail-road, which has, to a considerable degree, engrossed the public attention in France. There are, however, obstacles to the progress of these improvements, arising partly from the mode of management adopted, and partly also from the high price of the materials required. All great works for the behoof of the community at large, such as canals, rail-roads, docks, and the like, are carried on at the expense, for behoof, and under the control of the government. Plans and estimates must be made out and laid before the minister of the interior, who refers them to other public functionaries, namely, the prefect of the department, and afterwards to the bureau des ponts et des chaussées; and when all these persons are satisfied, a public officer is then appointed to superintend the work. This tedious official routine, through which all public undertakings have to pass, tends to discourage individual enterprise, and accounts perhaps for the comparatively few works of this description which have been undertaken in France. The high price of iron, in consequence of the tax on foreign iron, must operate as a great discouragement to the construction of rail-roads in France; and thus we have an additional illustration of the ruinous effects of this tax in obstructing the domestic improvement of the country.

The great roads in France are managed, not, as with us, by county commissioners, but by government bureaux or boards, the chief of which are at Paris. The extent of road under their direction is about 30,000 miles; and the annual expenditure from L.l,300,000 to L.1,500,000, the whole of which is defrayed without one toll or turnpike. An attempt was made under Bonaparte to levy tolls; but this excited so much clamour in a country where commercial intercourse is carried on almost wholly by land-carriage, that it was found indispensable to seek the necessary funds from another source, namely, a tax on salt. The great roads in France arc in general in tolerable condition; but no epithet can convey an idea of the wretched state of the cross roads in almost every department; full of hollows, encumbered with stones, or inundated with water, they receive hardly any repair, but are abandoned, year after year, to the effects of the elements.

The great roads in France are much wider than in England, exhibiting frequently a long straight avenue lined on each side with chestnut or other large trees. They are often paved like a street for many miles in succession; the art of road-making being as yet too little understood to prevent material injury from the heavy waggons and ill-constructed wheels, without resorting to this unpleasant alternative. Travelling is thus much less agreeable than in England, particularly as the villages want neatness and cheerfulness, whilst most of the towns along the road are disfigured by narrow crooked streets, in which new stone buildings arc often mixed with antiquated wooden structures, such as have disappeared from our provincial towns for nearly a century past. The clumsy vehicles former ly used as stage-coaches in France have at length been replaced in most frequented roads by coaches in the English style; and the mails are now conveyed in a kind of chariot called a malle-poste.

The French have as yet but few cast-iron bridges, all their great structures of this description being of stone. Of these, the chief are the bridges over the Loire at Orleans, Tours, and Nantes; those on a smaller scale over the Seine at Paris; and those over t)ιe Saône and Rhone at Lyons. The Pont du St Esprit above Orange, over the Rhone, is a long structure of sixteen arches. At no great distance from it is the Pont du Gard, one of the most entire and beautiful monuments of Roman architecture, composed of a triple tier of arches, erected for the purpose of conducting an aqueduct over the river Gardon. This magnificent structure is 157 feet in height, 530 feet in length at the bottom, and 872 at the top. Of the lately erected bridges in France, the most remarkable are those over the Seine at Neuilly near Paris, and over the Oise at St Maixent, with two of larger dimensions, viz., one over the Garonne at Bordeaux, the other over the Seine at Rouen.

IV. AGRICULTURE.

The agriculture of France is in a very different state from that of England or Scotland, being marked by a degree of backwardness not a little surprising in a country so far advanced in many departments of art and science. The causes of this, however, are not of difficult explanation. France never enjoyed till lately the advantage of a representative body; and the condition of the peasantry was long far inferior to that of the same class in England. No ecclesiastical reformation had taken place to remove a valuable part of the national territory out of the hands of indolent life occupants; and the grands seigneurs, the other great body of landholders, devoted their attention to Pans and Versailles, without bestowing a thought on their lands or their tenantry, except to extract from them the meansof defraying theirexpenses in thecapita). To this was added a system of taxation, less heavy indeed than that to which we are subjected in England, but extremely crude and impolitic, as evinced in the gabelle, or tax on salt used in private families, and in the corvée, or obligation on the peasantry to labour on the high roads. To these were joined the humiliating enactments of the game-laws, and the more substantial injury of tithes; for the clerical body in France levied this pernicious assessment as in England, though possessing in property lands of the computed rent of five millions sterling.

Another great drawback on French agriculture was the insignificant size of the occupancies, whether held as farms or in property. A French agriculturist on a small scale has little idea of selling his paternal acres, and converting the amount into a capital for a farm. He is much more likely to go on as the proprietor of eight or ten acres of land, and the cultivator of as many more. The mode of paying rent was equally singular; money rents were general only in the north or most fertile parts of France; they did not, on the whole, exist in more than a fifth or sixth of the kingdom before the Revolution. A more frequent species of tenure was by a grant made under a reservation of a fine, of a quitrent, or of certain servitudes, of which the least burdensome were sending corn to the mill, or grapes to the press, of the proprietor. But of all indications of poverty and backwardness, the most striking was the system of métairie described by Dr Smith; a practice by which a tenant, having little capital of his own, receives from the proprietor the live stock and implements necessary for cultivating his petty tenure, and divides with him its produce. This wretched method was and still is common, not indeed in the north or north-east of [7:10:174]France, but in many of the poorer districts of the centre and south. There are, it is to be remarked, several distinctions in this system; the landholder, in some parts, providing only half the cattle and seed, and in others the whole. There is of course a corresponding difference in the apportionment of the produce.

La Revolution a été faite pour le cultivateur is a common saying in France; indeed, that great convulsion improved so much the situation of the agriculturists, by cancelling, at one decisive blow, the tithes, the game-laws, the corvée, and other relics of feudal servitude, that, after all the horrors of Jacobinism, and all the tyranny of Bonaparte, the escape from former degradation still preserves an attachment to the Revolution among this pacific class. Further, the sale of the church lands transferred a valuable mass of property from indolent into active hands. But with this we must terminate our eulogy on the Revolution, the further progress made by agriculture having been caused less by any political change, than by the gradual effect of experience, and the diffusion of information. The degree of agricultural improvement in France since the Revolution has certainly been less than in England and Scotland, and in one very material point that memorable convulsion has tended to retard it; we mean by the law, suggested by a jealousy of the ascendency of the noblesse, which obliges the owner of property, whether in land or money, to make an almost equal division of it amongst his children. The parent of two children has the free disposal of only one third of his property, and the parent of three children of only one fourth, the residue being shared equally amongst all. The claim of primogeniture is thus in a manner annulled; and a law which is apparently wise and equitable, proves the source of great injury to agriculture, by multiplying the petty lots of land throughout a country where they were previously far too numerous.

We have already mentioned, in stating the average produce of the departments, the chief objects of culture in France. It remains to exhibit a table of the apportionment of the Frenen territory at the end of the year 1834.
[table]
[table]

To this we add a shorter though not uninteresting table, viz. the comparative culture of France and England, as exhibited in proportions of 100.
[table]

This parallel, brief as it is, places in a striking light the very different state of agriculture in the two countries. The surprising proportion of land in France under tillage is owing to the smallness of the occupancies, the cheapness of labour, and the general use of bread instead of animal food by the lower orders. The last is connected with another remarkable circumstance; the very slender proportion of land under pasture, of which the main cause is the dry climate of the southern and central part of the kingdom. In the proportion of poor and unproductive land the two countries are nearly on a par, but the French incur a very heavy disadvantage by using wood instead of coal for fuel, and covering with forests many tracts which might be made available either to pasture or tillage.
[table]

We proceed to add a few remarks on French agriculture, with reference to articles less known or less generally raised in England. Buck wheat is cultivated extensively in Normandy and the north of France, partly as green food for cattle, partly for the diet of the peasantry; it is generally sown in June and reaped in the end of September. Rape-seed is very general in French Flanders and Normandy; it supplies oil for the market and food for cattle, either when green or in the cake. Colza (coleseed) is raised for the same purposes. Tobacco would be generally cultivated in France, but it is monopolized for the beneĥt of the state, and its cultivation is confined to certain licensed parts, which are chiefly in Alsace and Picardy. The quality of the article produced under the royal monopoly is greatly inferior to that produced by private cultivators abroad, whilst, the price being 400 per cent, higher, the latter is smuggled into France in great quantities, notwithstanding all attempts to prevent it. Flax is raised very generally, not merely in French Flanders, Alsace, and Normandy, but in the provinces of the west and south, where the family of almost every peasant rears a little stock annually to be spun by his wife and daughters. Hemp also is raised in many parts of France, particularly in the north. Maize is a plant of great importance, whether for the food of man or of cattle; when intended to stand for harvest, it is planted in rows with very little seed, and yields more than twice the quantity of wheat that would be produced on the same space.
[7:10:175]

During its growth the leaves are stripped regularly for the food of cattle; and in some districts it is sown thick ' and mown merely for that purpose. Such valuable substitutes have as yet prevented turnips from being generally introduced into France. Even potatoes were long very little known, and it is only during the last half century that the dislike to this root has disappeared. Chestnuts are most common in the central part of France, where they supply no inconsiderable portion of the food of the peasantry. In the south the fruits are chiefly olives, almonds, mulberries, figs, and prunes; oranges are partially cultivated in the south-eastern extremity of the kingdom, on the verge of Italy, but with great uncertainty, for a severe winter is fatal to these trees, and in some measure also to the olives.

Irrigation is little understood in the north of France, but in the south the want of frequent rain renders it a primary object of attention; it in fact determines the ratio of productiveness, since the warmth of the sun seldom fails to ripen whatever, whether grass or corn, has received an adequate supply of moisture. It takes place in some parts by guiding the rills from the side of the hills and mountains; in others by digging wells or raising water by a wheel; and in the vicinity of rivers by diverting a portion of their stream.

The culture of the vine extends more or less over fully the half of France, beginning as far north as Champagne, and spreading over the country to the south and the west. This culture is, however, very limited in Champagne, and even in Burgundy; in Provence and the lower part of Languedoc the climate is warmer, and the culture general, .though not managed with such skill as along the banks of the Garonne, where the spirit of improvement is excited by a demand for foreign markets. As vines succeed in light and unproductive soils, their culture gives a value to much ground which would otherwise be useless; and the petty subdivisions of land-are here less injurious than in the case of corn. From the great variety of soil and climate, the quality of French wines is very various. The amount produced has been considerably increased since 1790, as well from the division of many large estates, as from the quantity of waste land which has been brought into culture. It is computed that nearly 5,000,000 acres of land are planted with vines, and that the value of the annual produce is from L.28,000,000 to L^0,000,000 sterling, of which about a tenth or twelfth part only is exported. A further quantity, equal to about a sixth of the above, is made into brandy, for brandy is distilled wherever vines are grown; and of it also the best in quality is in the vicinity of the Garonne. This important and staple branch of French industry has been very seriously injured by the prohibitory system of customhouse laws, which have been extended and increased in rigour since the restoration of the Bourbons, and to which many of the leading statesmen of France still evince a most mistaken partiality. France, by excluding the produce of other nations, virtually deprives, or greatly limits, by the same laws, the reception of her own produce into foreign countries. It is clear that they must pay for the wines of France with their own produce, which, if France refuse to receive, they have no other equivalent to give her in return; they must procure an equivalent from foreign countries, and the effect of this is to restrict the trade, by raising the price of French wines. Accordingly, it appears that whilst France exported to England from 16,000 to 20,000 tuns of wine when the population was only five millions, this supply had fallen off, partly owing to the heavy duties imposed in Britain, and partly to the prohibitory duties imposed in France on British produce, to 1800 tuns, whilst the population of the country had in the mean time greatly increased; a melancholy illustration of the effects of that illiberal policy which pretends to improve commerce by prohibiting the free intercourse of commercial countries.

The minuteness of the Cadastrai survey has led to official calculations in France, of products which have not yet engaged the attention of other governments. Madder is cultivated on a small scale, partly in the north, partly in the south of France; its chief use is in dyeing woollens and cottons. Wood is used for yellow and green colours; saffron, cultivated formerly to a great extent, is now confined to one district (the Gatinois) in the south of France; hops are raised only in Picardy and French Flanders.

Subjoined are the values of the following articles produced annually in France:
[table]

Of the following articles, similar to the produce of our own soil, we subjoin not the value merely, but the quantity and average price:
[table]

Of the pasturage ground of France, occupying one eighth of its territory, the chief part is in Normandy, Bretagne, and other humid quarters of the north and west. In the south, the natural pasture is confined to particular districts, chiefly mountainous; in the low grounds, the grass, whether natural or sown, is brought forward only [7:10:176]by means of irrigation. Clover and sainfoin are cultivated in France, but chiefly in the north and north-east; lucerne is much more general, being raised not merely in the north, but in the central and southern provinces, wherever irrigation is practicable and the soil and climate are favourable. The art of improving cattle by breeding is little understood in France, nor is there much judgment shown in gradually fattening them by a removal to richer pastures. Still the beef and mutton of the north and west are very good; their price varies from province to province, but very seldom from year to year; the general rate is 30 per cent, less than in England. Butter is made and used throughout the chief part of France, as in England, but cheese comparatively little. In the south, however, even butter is little known, and its place in cooking is supplied by olive oil, an unwelcome ingredient to a northern palate. One of the latest novelties in French pasturage is the introduction, in 1819, of a large flock of Cashmere goats, which were sent to browse in the Eastern Pyrenees, and are said to experience but little inconvenience from the change of climate.

In the number of horses, as well as in their size and beauty, France is greatly inferior to this country. In the performance of labour, however, the inferiority is much less conspicuous; large, old-fashioned carriages, drawn by four or six horses, are seen proceeding along a paved road much more easily than we should anticipate from the weight of the vehicle, the knotted harness, and the diminutive size of the animals. The same observation is applicable to the ploughs, the carts, and the waggons of France, which are awkwardly built, but all dragged on with expedition, the strength of the horses surpassing the promise of their appearance; a strength, however, attended by a circumstance of no slight inconvenience, very few of these animals being gelded. A French mail-coach performs only five instead of seven or more miles an hour as with us; but this is owing less to inferiority in the horses, than to the state of the roads, and to the general want of dispatch at post-houses.

Of the aggregate of horses in France (about 1,500,000), more than half belong to the northern provinces, viz. Normandy, Bretagne, Picardy, Alsace, and the Isle of France. In the central and southern departments, a great proportion of the work is done by oxen, which are more suitable to petty farms and mountainous districts. The total of horned cattle in France in 1812 was reported officially as follows:
[table]

Since this period, however, the number must have materially increased, as in 1816 a duty was laid on all foreign cattle imported; and, however impolitic this duty, as indeed it is known to have inflicted grievous injury on particular districts, still it must have tended to increase the breed at home.

Sheep are reared in almost every province of France, the gentle elevations of the north and the mountains of the south being alike favourable to them. The mutton is good; but in the art of improving the fleece, the French have as yet much to learn. Merinos were first brought from Spain in 1787, and formed into a royal flock at Rambouillet. The quality, originally good, has been progressively improved, and distributions of Merinos have been successively made to proprietors of sheep pastures in all parts of the kingdom. The consequence has been, that in many districts the weight of the fleece has been nearly doubled. Still, in the more backward parts of France, very little attention is paid to the care of sheep or to the improvement of the wool. The animals are not folded during night, but crowded into covered buildings (bergeries), and exposed, particularly in winter, to much injury from going suddenly in to the air. To encourage the rearing of sheep, a duty of twenty per cent, was in 1822 laid on foreign wool.

Mules are almost as little known in the north of France as in England; but in the central and southern parts they are very generally reared. Poultry, in France, is both larger in size and more abundant than in England.

Even in the north and north-east of France, the farms I are of small extent. To occupy 200 acres, or to pay a ∣ rent of L.200 a year, places one in the foremost rank of farmers. Larger possessions are common in pasture districts, that department of agriculture admitting, in France, as in England, of a greater concentration of capital and extension of business than in the case of tillage. But such districts are rare; and in by far the greater part of France the farms under tillage, if farms they can be called, are of fifty, forty, thirty, and often as small as twenty or even ten acres, there being, it is computed, no less than three millions of such petty occupancies in the kingdom. In the south of France the system of métairie is still prevalent, and nearly on the same footing as in Lombardy and Tuscany. That such insignificant occupancies are adverse to all enlarged ideas of farming, is sufficiently obvious; and to their many disadvantages there can only be opposed this single benefit, that no spot of tolerable soil is neglected, even the space given by us to hedges being reserved for culture.

The beneficial effect of long leases is as little understood in France as it still unfortunately is in a great part of England. The common method is to let land for periods of three, six, or nine years. The peasantry, though exceedingly illiterate, are by no means a slow or phlegmatic race. They exhibit, as Frenchmen in general do, no small share of sprightliness and activity in the individual, with very little concert or combination in the mass. They are content to hand down the family occupancy from father to son, without any idea of altering their mode of life. The dwellings of the farmers, and still more of the cottagers, are like those of our forefathers half a century ago; the outside having frequently a pool of water in its vicinity, whilst the inside is miserably bare of furniture. Their implements are equally rude, and discover but too clearly that the price of iron is beyond their reach, being greatly enhanced by the duty imposed on foreign iron, and the French iron masters having never been able to supply the market in any quantity with this useful article. Their harrows have wooden teeth; and even the ploughs, in some backward districts, are almost entirely of wood. The cart in common use is an awkward medium between a cart and a waggon, being as long as the latter, and not broader than the former. The singularity, to an Englishman, is to see a vehicle of great length and burden supported by a single pair of wheels. Corn and hay, in France, are not stocked, but housed. The winnowing machine is in a great measure, and the thrashing machine altogether, unknown. Thrashing often takes place in the open air, and is in general performed by the flail. In the south of France, the antiquated mode of treading out the corn by horses and mules is still prevalent.

The diet of the French peasantry is exceedingly simple. Bread and cider, with soup, pease, cabbage, or other vegetables, form its chief ingredients in the northern provinces; whilst, in the central and southern, the same aliments are in use, with the substitution of thin wine (υin de pays) for cider, and of chestnuts for the pears and apples of the north. Bread is, still more than with our peasantry, the grand component part of diet, and the article of which the price determines the comfort or distress of the lower orders for the year. Butcher-meat is reserved for the tables of the middle and upper classes.

The landholders in France give almost no attention whatever to beautifying the country; its aspect is consequently[7:10:177] monotonous, without plantations, seats, or cheerful cottages. The peasantry live in villages, frequently ill built and ill situated. The purchase of land, however, is the favourite mode of investing money in France. It sells, in general, for twenty-five years purchase; whilst the public funds seldom fetch above sixteen or eighteen. The French have little confidence in government stock, and, in fact, very little knowledge of its nature. There is at Paris a society similar to the Board of Agriculture in England, and forming, like it, a central point for corresponding with the different agricultural societies in the kingdom. It holds its sittings twice a month, and a public meeting annually, for the distribution of prizes. The French have also (since 1819) a corn law, permitting imports and exports only when the home market shall be above or below a specific rate. This law, somewhat similar to ours in form, is materially different in its operation, the limitation prices being very low, and the landed interest in France having no power to create an artificial enhancement. The Revolution, by breaking landed property into fragments, has destroyed the ascendency of its owners as a separate interest. The members of the French House of Commons are in general lawyers, merchants, or propriétaires, that is, owners of land and houses on a scale which we should account very small. Even in their House of Peers the country interest is of little account. The chief difficulty the French government have to contend with, in regard to the corn trade, is the popular prejudice that freedom of export raises the home price. The south of France, being in a great degree appropriated to the culture of the vine and olive, stands in need of an almost annual importation of corn. The north is very different; yet the smallness of the farms, the use of bread in every meal of the day, and the want of agricultural capital, are great drawbacks on exportation. In the present century, the only shipments of consequence have taken place in 1810 and 1814, both years of unusual abundance.

1 Of the 16,700,208 acres which we have mentioned as covered with wood, there belonged to government in 1836, 2,293,063, which were divided into 1473 forests. A very small part of this is allowed to grow for large timber. The rest is subject to an annual cutting and sale, for fuel; a purpose for which coal is very little used in France, excepting in the case of forges, glass-houses, and other large works. In the government-forests gross mismanagement took place during the disorders of the Revolution. Extensive tracts were sold for an insignificant consideration, whilst in those that remained timber was felled with a lavish hand, and without any regard to the ultimate effect on these valuable properties. The case, however, was altered in 1801, when a special board, appointed for the care of the forests, introduced the most satisfactory regulations. In the years of financial pressure (1815, 1816, and 1817), it was proposed to effect sales of these great domains; but a fair price being unattainable, government continues to keep them, and derives from the wood annually cut and sold a revenue of from L.700,000 to L.800,000 sterling. Fuel being little wanted in the south of France, the forests are confined to remote and rugged situations. These, like most of the forests of the kingdom, harbour a multitude of wolves, which are frequently destructive to the sheep and lambs. Regular officers, called Lieutenants de Louve-terie, are appointed for wooded districts; and on occasions of heavy loss, recourse is had to a general battue, of which the usual result is a partial destruction of these animals, without any sensible reduction of their numbers at large. Bears also are found in the forests; but they are much more rare, being confined to the elevated districts in the Alps and Pyrenees.

After these observations on the agriculture of France, it remains to compare its produce with that of our own coun try, and this inquiry naturally divides itself into two parts; the total, or, as it is termed, the gross amount produced; and the nett income afforded, after all deductions for expense of culture. First, as to the gross produce, Dr Colquhoun estimates the property created in Great Britain and Ireland in the year 1812, by agriculture in all its
[table]

Those readers who imagine that the addition for the difference in the value of money is too large, have merely to refer to the quantities of produce in the preceding corn table, or to the surer test afforded by the relative population of the two countries. Supposing that our population is now increased to nineteen millions, that of I⅛ance still exceeds it by fully ten millions, a number which, were the consumption of the individual the same, would imply, on the part of France, an annual production of the value of above L.280,000,000. If to this a small addition be made for the French produce exported, our estimate will be found to make the requisite allowance for the plainer fare of Frenchmen; and a small allowance will be deemed sufficient, when we take into account the very cheap diet of the Irish part of our population. But the point to be explained is, not how France produces so much, but how she does not produce more. Britain and Ireland are to her, in territorial extent, in the proportion of sixty-one to a hundred; but in produce they are as sixty-nine to a hundred. But as the soil of France, if not superior, on an average, to that of England and Ireland, is greatly superior to that of Scotland or Wales, to what are we to look for the inferiority of her produce? There are, we apprehend, two main causes; first, the waste of large tracts in wood; and, secondly, the inadequacy of manual labour, largely as it is afforded by her dense agricultural population, to counterbalance the productive powers of the capital and machinery applied by us to agriculture.

We come next to the question of the clear income arising from land, the amount of which is seldom above a fourth part of the gross produce, since it implies a number of very heavy deductions, viz. the support of the farmers, their families, their servants, their cattle; the mortality and depreciation of live stock; wages, and wear of tools and implements; in short, every description of charge that intervenes between preparing the ground for culture, and realizing its produce in money. In regard to France, we are enabled to proceed in such computations with considerable accuracy, in consequence of several late estimates made by order of government, of which the highest, and we believe the most accurate, made in 1815, gives, for the
[table]
[7:10:178]

a sum, including not merely rent, but rent and farmer’« profit together. In England, our best authority for this purpose is the return made under the property-tax act, in 1810, a time when our paper currency was but slightly depreciated. This return gave, for England and Wales,
[table]

In these returns of nett income the balance is considerably more in our favour than in those of gross produce. In the one, Britain and Ireland are to France as sixty-nine to a hundred, in the other as eighty to a hundred. To what is this extraordinary disadvantage upon the side of France to be attributed? We answer, to the employing of manual labour instead of machinery, and to the very great addition thus caused to the number of persons to be supported out of the produce of the land before realizing its proceeds. In England and Scotland the agriculturists are not to the population at large as forty to a hundred; and, after making a large addition for Ireland, which, in its petty occupancies, bears no slight resemblance to France, the result does not give, for our whole population, forty-four persons in a hundred dependent for support on agriculture. But in France this proportion exceeds sixty in a hundred; and there are thus to be supported out of agricultural produce above 5,000,000 persons more than there would be were the proportion of agriculturists as in Britain and Ireland.
[table]

In other words, the rental of Britain and Ireland, after allowing for the difference of money, and after deducting tithe, poor-rate, and taxes of every kind, is equal to that of all France; a proof, if any were wanting, how much more our landholders are favoured by the legislature than those of the same class on the south side of the Channel.

V. MINES AND QUARRIES.

Far from equalling her northern neighbour and rival Great Britain in metallic wealth, France yields in this essential article of produce to Germany, to Russia, to Sweden, and to Hungary. According to the most approved works recently published, the mines of France may be classed into five groups, namely, the mines of the Vosges and the Black Forest; those of the central provinces of France; those of Bretagne; those of the Pyrenees; and those of the Alps. It is not many years since the mines of the Vosges yielded above 30,000 cwt. of lead, and a small quantity of silver, besides copper mixed with silver. The produce did not, it is probable, repay the expense, as they have since been abandoned. In the central part of France there are numerous mines of lead, but they are not productive. They are chiefly situated in the department of La Lozère; and they yield annually, along with the lead, 1600 marcs of silver. The mines in Bretagne are of some consequence, as they employed in 1828 about 900 workmen, and produced, along with about 1,200,000 cwt. of lead, 2000 marcs or 16,000 ounces of silver. In the chain of the Pyrenees there is only one mine of copper, which has long since been abandoned. There are, however, numerous iron mines, which furnish materials for more than 100 forges. The chain of the Alps contains many mines of iron, but is not rich in other metals, possessing some unproductive mines of lead, and one of silver, which has long been abandoned. There are some appearances of gold in the department of the Isère; but not such as to encourage any trial of their value. If there are few other mines, those of iron are in great abundance, being scattered throughout the country; and of these the produce is every day improving. The whole value of the metallic produce of France was estimated in 1828 to be equal to L.3,199,595. The number of mines is estimated at 500, and the number of workmen employed at 18,000. The working of mines is impeded in France by the want of good roads and canals, on which to convey the ore and the coal for smelting it. The production of iron has been encouraged by heavy duties on foreign iron. In 1814 a duty was imposed of fifteen francs per fifty kilogrammes, or 12s. 6d. per 110 lbs. imperial, on all foreign iron imported, which was in 1822, including the decime or the tenth added to all duties, raised to L.1.2s. lid. on all coal-worked foreign iron. But this prohibition did not bring prosperity to the. trade, though by these duties the price of iron in France was L.23. 9s. 2d. per ton, whilst English iron was sold at L.9. 6s. 8d. It is estimated that these heavy duties on foreign iron cost the agriculturists of France, in the additional expense of ploughs and other implements of agriculture, a sum varying from L.l,500,000 to L.2,000,000 a year.^[48. See Firet Report on the commercial Relatione between France and Great Britain, jι. 28. ] Estimating the annual consumption of iron in France to be 160,000 tons, and the difference of price between French and English iron to be L.10 per ton, the law of 1814, which imposed a duty on foreign iron, and the law of 1822, which increased that duty, cannot have cost the French people less than L.30,000,000 sterling of direct loss; whilst it is scarcely possible to calculate the indirect evil of this monopoly or protecting duty in favour of the iron masters. One reason of the high price of French iron is the want of coal, an evil which is aggravated by the heavy duty on foreign coal, in consequence of which they are compelled to employ wood in their forges; and it [7:10:179]is calculated that one fourth part of the wood cut down in the forests is consumed in the manufacture of iron. Coal has been discovered in more than half the departments of . the kingdom, and would doubtless be traced in others; but the want of water communication limits the consumption of this article almost to the place where it is produced. At St Etienne, near Lyons, are excellent coal mines; but there being no iron mines in the vicinity, nor of course iron works, there is no consumption of fuel on a large scale. The coal is only used for domestic fuel, and for the manufacture of hardware. Μ. Costaz, in an estimate contained in his work on the agriculture and commerce of France, makes the coal produced in France to amount to 15,310,687 metrical quintals or cwtβ∙, equal to 765,000 tons·,^[49. Histoire de l’Administration en France de l’ Agriculture, et del Arts utiles, Ac. Par Cl. Anthelm Costaz, tome ii. p. 14. ] the value of which he estimated at between L.700,000 and L.800,000. The quantity of coal imported from Britain amounted in 1831 to 40,000 tons, though subject to a heavy duty of one franc sixty-five cents per hundred kilogrammes, or Is. 4∣d. per 220 lbs. imperial; and there were imported from Belgium, the duty being thirty-three cents per hundred kilogrammes, 440,000 tons.^[50. First Report on the Commercial Relations between France and Great Britain, p. 23. ] The heavy duty on coal operates most injuriously on the industry of France. It is a most serious impediment to the working of the iron mines, for the encouragement of which such heavy duties are imposed on foreign iron. But such is always the effect of the prohibitory system. It pulls down with one hand what it builds up with another. The iron masters and the coal owners have each a monopoly of the home market. But is it not clear that these two monopolies run counter to each other, and that the iron trade is encouraged by the one, whilst it is most seriously discouraged by the other, and the whole inhabitants of France are taxed in a much higher price for fuel by the heavy duty laid on the importation of this useful article? Steam-boat navigation is also discouraged, so that no steamboats regularly ply between any of the Atlantic ports of France. A steam-boat which in England could be navigable at an expense for coal of L.2280, would cost in France L.5700, about eighteen per cent, on the capital employed. It is the owners of forest property who are the most zealous supporters of this duty, an impost which benefits them at the expense of the whole of France, and indirectly depresses the national commerce and industry in its most important branches. Only a small portion of Paris is lighted with gas, which is ascribed to the high price of iron pipes; and the supply of water is also impeded by the same cause. The mines, like other large undertakings in France, are under the direction of government, being superintended by a board at Paris (Conseil GénéraD, and having an Ecole Royale with public teachers, the whole under the control of the minister of the home department. This, however, does not prevent their machinery being in general very clumsy and antiquated.

Turf fit for fuel, or peat, as in Ireland, is found in various parts of France, and is likely to be used, as wood becomes progressively scarcer. This article is produced in the departments of Gard, Isère, and the Lower Rhine.

Salt is made in various parts of the kingdom. The works corresponding to the salt mines, or rather to the brine springs, of Cheshire, are called, from their position, Salines de l’Est, and are situated at the small town of Salins in Franche Comté; they are wrought by undertakers on lense, yield about 20,000 tons a year, and afford a considerable revenue to government. The heat of the climate on the south and south-west coast of France is favourable to the evaporation of salt water, and consequently to the formation of bay-salt, the name given to salt made, not by the action of fire, but by the heat of the J sun, operating on sea water enclosed in α shallow bay (in French étang), so as to produce a saline deposit. The duty raised from salt in France is in alhnearly L.2,000,000, a sum of great importance to the Treasury, but attended with fully as much injury to the productive powers of France as was formerly our salt tax to those of England. The Revolution began by abolishing entirely the odious gabelle, and salt being soon afterwards made in great quantities, and sold very cheap, became the object of a most extensive consumption, being given to cattle as food, mixed with manure on the fields, or scattered as a stimulant to vegetation at the foot of olive trees. But this extended use of salt was of short duration. No sooner was the power of Bonaparte consolidated, than he ventured to impose a tax on salt, less impolitic and oppressive, indeed, than the gabelle, but which had the effect of limiting the use of this article to such a degree, that the value of bay-salt consumed, instead of amounting to L.1,000,000 sterling, does not at present exceed L. 100,000. The consumption is confined to domestic purposes, and to a trifling export; yet the few cattle which still receive salt as a part of their food are visibly in better condition than those which are deprived of it.

ι France is in general much better supplied with quar-1 ríes than England. The vicinity of Paris abounds in quarries of freestone. The case is similar in the mountainous districts, and even in several, such as Lower Normandy, that are comparatively level. The houses are consequently built of stone in those cities which, like Paris or Caen, are in the vicinity of quarries. In other situations they exhibit a mixture of stone and brick. Slates being comparatively rare, the roofs of the houses are generally of tile, and the annual value of this rude species of productive labour, the manufacture of bricks and tiles, may be computed at nearly L.1,000,000 sterling. There are marble quarries in several of the mountainous districts, but not situated so as to admit of export.

VI. MANUFACTURES.

Our historical notices of French manufactures are very imperfect until towards the year 1600, when the wars of religion were brought to a close, and peaceful industry received encouragement from Henry IV. and his minister Sully. It was then that the patronage of government was extended to the manufacture of silk, of glass, of jewellery, of gold and silver tissues; also of the finer woollens and linens, the coarser kinds having been established many centuries before. But the great extension of the finer manufactures of France took place after 1663, during the reign of Louis XIV. and the ministry of Colbert. It was then that workmen were invited from Holland, and induced to settle at Sedan and Abbeville, places still celebrated for their woollens. In the south of France also, establishments were formed for making the light cloth suited to the Turkey market, so that, towards the year 1700, the manufactures of France, as well for woollens as other articles, had made considerable progress; we mean that they had arrived at the state to be expected from a people of great activity, but of little combination. The manual labour of the workmen was ingenious; the machinery extremely imperfect; the linen, the paper, and in some measure the woollens and hardware, found their way abroad, because in the rest of Europe these manufactures were very backward, and, in particular, because the exports of England were then very limited. The repeal of the edict of Nantes was a very impolitic measure, [7:10:180]but its consequences have been much overrated, for England has profited very little by the extension of her silk ' fabrics; and Brandenburg, the chief resort of the French emigrants, has never become an exporting manufacturing country.

Another and a more important error is the current notion that French manufactures were formerly (from 1650 to 1750) more extensive and flourishing than at present, also that they underwent an almost total extinction during the Revolution. These, like many other impres sions in regard to France, rest merely on the loose allegations common in that country, where current report almost always partakes of the marvellous. Official data, wherever they are preserved, far from sanctioning such fluctuations, are decidedly in favour of a progressive though slow increase.

To begin with the oldest and most widely diffused branch, woollens,^[51. Costaz, Sur l’ Agriculture et Ice Manufacturée de la France, p. 108. ] we find that the relative numbers of workmen, at three distinct intervals, and in very different parts of the country, were as follows, viz.
[table]

Lizieux also in the north had nearly the same number of workmen (5000) throughout.

The finest qualities of woollens are made at Sedan in Champagne, and at Louviers in Normandy. In these the only material is merino wool. At Elboeuf and Darnetal, both likewise in Normandy, the qualities are very various, the prices being from 6s. to 28s. the English yard. Carcassonne and Limoux owed the origin of their extensive manufactures to the abundant supply of wool from the pastures in the Pyrenees. Since the reduction of their exports to the Levant, an alteration in the quality of their cloths has opened to them a vent in the interior of France. The mountainous districts in Languedoc contain great numbers of sheep, and are the seat of the manufacture of serges, tricos, and other coarse woollens, most of which are made, not by workmen collected in a factory, but on the domestic plan still followed in part of Yorkshire, and in the north-west. In the hamlets or villages of the departments of the Tarn and Aveyron, almost every house has its loom, and during the evenings in winter, or in the daytime when the weather is adverse to country labour, the women employ themselves in spinning, and the men in weaving.

A highly finished species of the woollen manufacture, viz. shawls» veils, ladies’ cloth, &c. has been introduced in the present age into France. Rheims is the seat of this important branch, and employs, in the town and neighbourhood, no less than 20,000 workmen. Similar articles are made at Paris.

Shawls became fashionable in France as an indispensable article of female apparel after the expedition of Bonaparte to Egypt. Many of the officers who were attached to the army brought back numerous presents of shawls, so those who did not display a Cashmere shawl were judged to belong to the humbler classes of society; and shawls were imported in great quantities from Constantinople, Moscow, Vienna, and London. These shawls, however, brought an enormous price when imported into France, which necessarily limited their consumption to the richer classes. The great demand now turned the attention of manufacturers to this important manufacture, and ordinary shawls are now made of merino and other wools. But this was only a step in the progress of the manufacture; and a finer species of wool having been imported from the countries to the north of the Caspian Sea, the ingenious manufacturers with these materials at last produced shawls which rivalled in beauty those of the East, and in which it required the most practised and skilful eye to discern any difference. In 1819 and 1823 medals were given to several individuals for having brought this branch of industry to such perfection.

Two towns very remote from each other, Lodève in the south, and Vire in the north-west of France, manufactured, under Bonaparte, very largely for the army. French woollens are, in general, much thicker than ours. In the fine qualities the raw material forms (Chaptai, vol. ii. p. 131) somewhat more than half the cost. In ordinary qualities it is somewhat less; but it is only in the slight qualities that the price of labour goes considerably beyond that of the materials. The computation for the whole country is, that a value of L.4,000,000 sterling in wool becomes converted into a manufactured value of L.9,000,000, of which a tenth only is exported ∙, for, though French woollens in general are more substantial and durable than English, the inability of their merchants to give long credit prevents their competing with us in the United States, or other foreign markets. The cloth in France which corresponds to our superfine, and which is worn in general by the upper ranks, is very fine and durable, but heavy. In price it varies from 22s. to 35s. the English yard. It is remarkable, that notwithstanding an import duty of 33 per cent, imposed in 1822 on foreign wool, the importation osBritish wool into France has been increasing for the last ten years. In 1824 the quantity imported amounted to 4187 lbs., whilst in the last four years from the year 1834 the average importation has amounted to 1,000,000 lbs. This duty on foreign wool has, however, been very injurious to the French woollen manufacturers; because, by compelling them to pay a high price for the raw material, it prevented them from manufacturing woollen cloth as cheaply as their English competitors, to whom the foreign market, where the raw material had now fallen to a low price, was open. One third of this duty has been since reduced.

The cotton manufacture was introduced into France about 1770, and at first in the south of the kingdom; the raw material being supplied, not from America, but from the Levant. From the south, this manufacture passed, about the year 1780, to Rouen, St Quentin, Paris, Lisle, and other parts in the north, extending with a rapidity surpassed only by that of England. At present, and for many years past, the great import of cotton is from the United States. In this great department of manufacture the French have only followed in the footsteps of Great Britain, whose machinery, after the lapse of a certain time, the French manufacturers have imitated; and though they have equalled the British manufacture in durability, they have generally been inferior in elegance or cheapness. The last is, in a great measure, owing to the centre of the manufacture being at Rouen and Paris, places where the support of workmen, including the extra price of fuel, is not less expensive than in Lancashire. The districts at present most remarkable for the cotton manufacture are,
[7:10:181]
[table]

Cotton yarn is often made in a different place from cotton cloth. Paris and French Flanders are the chief quarters for the supply of the former article, which is sent in quantities to Rouen, St Quentin, and other places. In former years, cotton yarn used to be smuggled in great quantities from England; but this is now limited to the finer qualities. The cotton manufacturers of the more substantial kind, called bonneterie, such as stockings and caps, are carried on in Champagne, in Normandy, and in the department of the Gard in Languedoc. The total number of the workmen, young and old, employed on cotton in France, appears to be about 200,000

The number of works for spinning cotton yarn is nearly 300

Looms for making bonneterie (in 1812), above 10,000

Looms for weaving cotton cloth 70,000

From the following accounts of the raw material of cotton imported into France, it appears that this manufacture is gradually extending.
[table]

The average annual value of the importation of cotton for the last five years is calculated by Μ. Costaz^[52. Cυstaz, Ľ Agriculture, ct let Arte utiler, tome ii. p. 394, 395. ] at about L.3,700,000. The quantity of cotton imported into Great Britain amounted, for the year 1831, to 288,674,000 pounds, and the value, calculated at 7d. a pound, to L.34,000,000; from which it will be seen to how much greater an extent this manufacture is carried on in Britain than in France. The cotton manufacture is, however, prosecuted in many parts of France, and presents a great variety of fabrics and an extensive division of labour. In one place the weaving alone is followed; in other places the manufacture of threads, which are sold to those who weave them into cloth. Such is tire case in the department of the North, which exports a great quantity of thread to the cloth manufacturers. In other places they bleach the linens, which arc afterwards dressed and stamped. The workmen employed in the cotton manufacture are estimated to amount to 260,000.^[53. L'Agriculture, et lee Arte utiles, &c., tome ii. p. 504. ] Still, however, France is decidedly inferior to Britain in almost every branch of the cotton manufacture; and the consequence is, that as the importation of English cotton goods is prohibited, they are smuggled into the country in great quantities. Among these, the introduction of cotton twist is most extensive; and as the French mills cannot manufacture the higher numbers, from 170 to 200, which are required in the fabrication of bobbinet, it has been found impossible to repress the contraband importation of this article. “It makes its way,” say the writers of the Report on the Commercial Relations between Great Britain and France, “both by land and sea, in spite of all interdictions, and to a continually increasing amount.’^[54. See First Report of George villiers and John Bowring on the Commercial Relations between Great Britein and France. Pre. seated to Parliament 1834. ] The English can be sold also at half the price of the French article, which presents an additional inducement to the smuggler. The annual value of the manufactures thus illicitly introduced is estimated at L.500,000 sterling. English bobbinet is also smuggled into France to the estimated annual value of L.625,U00 sterling, which sells at from seven to eight per cent, above the price of French goods of the same nominal quality. Quiltings, cambrics, and muslins are also largely introduced by the illicit traders; and the delivery of these goods is ensured at a premium of from eighteen to fifty per cent., according as the risk is greater or less in the case of heavy or of light goods.

In the extent of her linen manufacture France is great- 1 Iy superior to England; not that her soil is better adapted to the growth of hemp and flax, but because England depends on importations of linen from Ireland and Germany, and the spinning of flax does not form the occupation of our female peasantry. In France, particularly in the north, every farmer, and almost every cottager, covers a litüe spot with hemp or flax sufficient to employ his wife and daughters in spinning throughout the year; a stock of linen being the usual dowry of these humble occupants of the soil. The manufacture of this article is not exclusively concentrated in the towns, like that of the other fabrics. Many of the weavers reside in villages, and even in hamlets; and the hemp and the flax are spun by the hand. This is a most valuable branch of domestic industry, which gives employment to females under the roof of their parents. But it is destined, in the progress of capital and industry, to be superseded by machinery and great establishments, in which the poor of both sexes are collected together under one roof, to the utter ruin of morality. In Normandy, Lisieux, Dieppe, the neighbourhood of Havre, Yvetst, Bolbec, and the more inland towns of Vimoirtiers and Domfront, are all remarkable for one or more branches of the linen manufacture. The more backward province of Bretagne manufactures, at Rennes, St Malo, and Vitré, quantities of coarse linen, canvass, and sacking; but Anjou affords a much superior article; the toiles de Laval have long been in repute, and give employment, in Laval and the contiguous towns, to nearly 25,000 workmen. Lisle and its populous district have very extensive manufactures of hemp and flax; for the number of workmen so employed, directly or indirectly, in this part of French Flanders, is not short of 50,000. Since 1790, fine linen has, in France as in England, been in a great measure replaced by fine cotton; and the two together employ, at St Quentin (in Picardy) and the neighbourhood, no less than 40,000 workmen. In a very different part of the kingdom, the province of Dauphiné, there are carried on linen manufactures of various qualities, the prices being from 1 s. 6d. to 5s. a yard.

Cambrics, thread, gauze, and lawn, rank among the leading manufactures of the north-east part of France. They are made at St Quentin, Valenciennes, Cambray, and in a smaller degree at Douai, Chauney, and Guise. Lace is still more general, being made in quantities at Valenciennes, Dieppe, Alençon, Caen, Bayeux, and Argentan. Machinery had up to 1820 been very little applied to this manufacture in France, and the number of women employed by it was very great. There are considerable manufactures of printed linens, and the dyeing of linen thread gives rise to an extensive commerce. At Rouen, and in the surrounding districts, this branch of industry is carried on; and many [7:10:182]stuffs of great variety, and for which there is a brisk demand, are produced. In 1822 the duties on foreign thread and linen were raised by the French government till they were nearly prohibitory; and the annual importation from Germany and Belgium, which formerly amounted to a million and a half, fell almost entirely away. The price of home-made linen rose twenty-five and thirty per cent.; the consumers had recourse to cotton as a substitute; the French dyeing trade fell off, and also the entrepôt trade in foreign linens, both of them sources of great business.

The value of the hemp annually grown in France may be computed, as a raw material, at L.1,200,000, the quantity imported at L.200,000, together, L.l,400,000; a value which is doubled irι the coarse, and tripled in the finer manufactures. Of this quantity of hemp, the half is made into canvass and thread, a third into cordage, and the remainder into cloth for domestic use. Of the flax annually employed, the value, as a raw material, is about L.800,000; a sum which is tripled when made up into thread, linen, and mixed stuffs, and much more than tripled in the finer qualities. Upon the whole, the value of the finished fabric from hemp is supposed (Chaptai, vol. ii p. 142)tobeabout L.4,500,000 That from flax, including lace 3,000,000

Add for the domestic manufacture of the pea santry 2,500,000

Total value made in France, from the stout est sail-cloth to the finest lace L.10,000,000

French linen differs in quality according to the place of manufacture; but in general it is thicker and stiffer than Irish linen, whilst in whiteness it is inferior to the linen of Flanders and Holland. It is, however, a substantial and durable article.

This useful article is manufactured in great perfection in France, and has been much improved since the era of the Revolution, at which time the art had remained in much the same state as it was when it was first invented. Subsequent to this period it has been improved in every stage; and its annual produce is valued at above a million sterling. Various attempts have been made to reduce the price of paper, by extracting the ink from paper which has been printed or written upon, and converting it into the raw material for a new manufacture. But it does not appear that any of these processes have been brought to perfection.

France has 330 blast-furnaces, the position of which is regulated by that of the iron mines. They are chiefly in the mountainous departments of the Dordogne in the south-west, and of the Haute Marne, the Haute Saône, and the Côte d’Or, in the east of the kingdom. Of forges for malleable iron, called forges d la Catalane, there are eighty-six scattered throughout different departments, but chiefly in the hilly part of Languedoc. There are also a number of wire-works in France, in which, as in the blast-furnaces, there has been since 1790 a progressive but very slow increase, altogether different from the rapid advance of the iron-works of England previously to 18Í5. The stationary character of these works has evidently been owing to the deficiency of fuel and of water communication; disadvantages which prevent the hardware manufactures from being concentrated in cities or populous districts, and cause them to be spread over the country in petty towns or villages, with a very limited division of labour, and a consequent inferiority of execution. The result is, that France does not export hardware, and that in nothing is the inferiority of domestic accommodation in that country more conspicuous than in articles which belong to the province of the locksmith and cutler. The amount of pig-iron annually made in France appears (Chaptai, vol. ii. p. 154) to be about 100,000 tons. The value of the hardware of the kingdom, including cutlery, arms, and other articles of nice workmanship, is computed at L.8,000,000 or L.9,000,000 sterling. Fine cutlery is, however, largely smuggled into France. The annual import ofiron and steel isonly from L.2,000,000to L.3,000,000, having greatly declined in consequence of the heavy import duty on it. The high price of iron is a great obstruction to the progress of the hardware manufactures; and this circumstance places in a strong light the impolicy of the heavy duties on foreign iron, by which all those important branches of industry in which iron is used are stunted in their growth. In copper, the importations greatly exceed the home produce. From Great Britain the quantity imported for the last ten years has increased from 200 to 20,000 hundredweight. Of lead, also, the chief part is imported. The manufacture of steel has only been lately introduced into France. Prior to 1786 there was no manufactory of this useful article; and it was only after accounts had been published by scientific persons, of the composition of that article, and after repeated experiments, that in 1809 manufactories of steel were established, which have been since extended to several departments, especially to those of the Loire.

The invention of these wonderful machines has been introduced into France from Britain, where they are now employed in every department of industry. It was in the year 1779, at the village of Chaillot, near Paris, that the first steam-engine was established in France; but, owing to prejudices, to attachment to old customs, it was long before it came into very general use. These prejudices, however, gradually faded away before the productive powers and manifest utility of this extraordinary application of science to the business of life, and there are now many establishments for the manufacture of these machines. A premium has also been offered for the invention of any expedient by which the danger of explosion may be prevented, or by which any saving can be effected in the consumption of fuel. The scarcity of coal is a great obstruction to the extensive use of steam-engines; and the tax on foreign coal is in this view peculiarly impolitic, and injurious to the general interests of the community.

In this department France possesses, both from physical causes and from long-established manufacture, a decided superiority. Mulberry trees were introduced in the fifteenth century, and were first planted, not in the south, but in the central part of the kingdom, near Tours. That town was the seat of the earliest silk manufactures, and it was not till 1600 that the culture of the mulberry was carried southward. It is now prosecuted in twelve departments, which, in 1812, produced as follows (Chaptai, vol. i p. 181):
[table]

The importation of raw and thrown silk into Great Britain amounted, in 1832, to 4,224,897 lbs.

The mulberry thrives in a variety of soils, and may be planted with success in neglected borders or in waste lands. The labours of the silk-worm last only six weeks, after which the cocoons are in a state to be purchased for winding or carding. These processes reduce the quantity so much that the produce of an average year does not exceed 560,000 lbs. soie grèze, worth 20s. or 21s. the lb.; and 322,000 lbs. organized silk at 25s.
[7:10:183]

To this is to be added an equal quantity of foreign silk, imported chiefly from Italy. The cost of manufacture nearly doubles the value of the raw material in the plainer qualities, and in the highly finished, such as fine ribbons, may be said to triple it.
[table]

The manufacture of silk is considered as an important branch of French industry, not only on account of the variety and beauty of the fabrics, but because the raw material is an indigenous product of the country. It is estimated 1 that the amount of the annual sales to foreigners is thirty millions of francs, or L.1,250,000; that the home consumption of the kingdom amounts to L.3,333,334; and that the whole annual value of the silk manufacture is equal to L.4,598,889. The export of silk manufactures from Britain amounted, in 1832, to L.529,990. The manufacture of silk is not confined to any particular spot. It is carried on in different parts of the country, in all of which it diflfàises prosperity. It has enriched the poor of Nismeβ, of Avignon, and of Tours; St diamond, St Etienne, owe a great part of their prosperity to the manufacture of ribbons, and the town of Ganges to bonneterie; Paris derives immense profits from her manufactures of silk stockings, and other fabrics, either of silk or with a mixture of silk, or of wool and cotton. Silk is also the great staple manufacture of Lyons, in which it is carried on in all its branches with prodigious success; and since the Revolution, in addition to fabrics of silk, all sorts of stuffs mixed with silk, and with cotton and wool, have been manufactured; and to these manufactures Lyons is indebted for its riches, having risen not only to be the second town of France, but to be one of the most opulent and flourishing cities in the world. It is estimated that about 60,000 or 70,000 individuals, young and old, are supported by the silk manufacture in Lyons and the adjacent district. The dyeing of silk being an important branch of the manufacture, many experiments were made to bring it to perfection; and, in particular, a dye of perfect black, that would retain its colour, was a desideratum. This dye was invented by a common dyer at Lyons, who received a pension, besides being made a member of the legion of honour. Prior to this, the black dye which was used changed in a few days to a brown, and came off the stuff when it was hard pressed by the hand. Another improvement which was made consisted in procuring a silk of a permanent white colour. The eggs of the worm which produced this silk were brought from China, not, however, with the desired success. The worm was afterwards purchased from a merchant of Alais, and being distributed in the northern departments of the country, the produce of white silk is now very considerable, and is of great importance in the manufacture of gauzes, crapes, and tulles. Other inventions were devised for saving labour in the various stages of the silk manufacture, by which, in this branch of industry, France was long enabled to outstrip all her neighbours, though of late years the silk manufacture has made rapid advances in Great Britain.

Articles of leather are in France cheaper by a third than in England. The value of leather annually prepared for sale in France is (Chaptai, vol. ii. p. 187) nearly L.3,000,000 sterling; when made up into articles, as boots, shoes, saddles, harness, its value is nearly double. Great improvements have been made in the art of tanning, in consequence of the progress of chemical science.

Jewellery, as well as watch and clock making, are carried to a considerable extent in France, particularly at Paris; a time-piece is there a much more frequent article of ornamental furniture than in England, and the number of new watches made annually in the kingdom is not less than 300,000; altogether, the value of these different kinds of workmanship amounts to L.1,500,000, of which more than the half is made in the capital. The works in bronze belong still more particularly to the capital, and form in their different branches and stages, of which gilding is the chief, a further annual value of L.1,500,000 sterling.

Paris is remarkable for other fabrics of taste and luxury; in particular, the porcelain of Sèvres, near St Cloud, and the beautiful but very expensive tapestry of the Gobelins. The materials of the latter are silk and the finest woollen thread; the subjects woven into the work are taken from paintings executed on purpose. Both the establishments have been long conducted by government at a sacrifice, and both are now on a reduced scale, the articles being far too costly for private individuals. The latter are more frequently purchasers of passementerie, by which is understood artificial flowers, fringes, gold and silver lace, with a variety of trifling but tasteful articles, all sufficiently adapted to a city where so much more is thought of display than of utility.

The value of all the soap made in France is computed at L.l,400,000. The main ingredient is olive oil; and Marseilles was formerly the seat of this manufacture for almost all France; an advantage owing both to the extent of the olive-grounds in the south-east of the kingdom, and the vicinity of Marseilles to Italy, the Levant, and Spain, whence soda and olive oil were imported in vast quantities. The disorders of the Revolution, and the establishment of similar manufactures in other parts of France, have caused to Marseilles the loss of a third of its soap works; they are still however very extensive. Of the oil used in France, whale oil forms a very small proportion; the great supply is of vegetable oil, viz. that extracted from the rape and cole-seed of the north, and the olive oil of the south. The collective value of these is very considerable, not short (Chaptai, vol. i. p. 186) of L.3,000,000 sterling, almost all consumed in France, where lamps instead of candles are in very general use.

Beer, formerly little drunk in France, has become of extended consumption since 1790; but even at present the quantity used does not exceed L.2,000,000 sterling, its place being supplied by cider in the north, and by wine in the south. The consumption which corresponds to that of our home-made spirits, and in a great measure to that of our rum, is in brandy, of which the value annually made is between L.2,000,000 and L.3,000,000 sterling. Further, there are at Paris a number of establishments very recently formed for the singular purpose of distilling from potatoes a spirituous liquor, which (Chaptai, vol. ii. p. 197) has been generally approved, and has been brought into competition with brandy.

Of hats, an article which in France is made more durable, but much less light and pleasant than in England, the manu- 1 factures, formerly concentrated at Lyons and Marseilles, are now diflused throughout several towns; and the value annually made is about L.1,000,000 sterling. Perfiιmery is made extensively in the south, where, from the mildness of the climate, aromatic plants are abundant. Paper being exempt from the heavy duties of England, is sold in France upon very reasonable terms, whilst in quality it is equal to our [7:10:184]own. The value annually used in printing, in writing, and in the hanging of rooms, is computed at fully L.1,000,000 sterling. Of glass, the manufacture has been much improved and extended during the present age. Whether for mirrors, for windows, or for bottles, this article in France is good and of a moderate price. The number of glass-houses in 1818 was 185, and the value of their manufacture L.900,000. As to earthenware, it is only since 1790 that English pottery has been successfully imitated in France. It is now made to the value of L.200,000 or L.300,000, whilst the coarse earthenware, fabricated in almost every province of the kingdom, is computed at L.600,000.

Saltpetre, till lately a monopolized manufacture, is now unrestricted, and is made to the value of somewhat more than L.100,000 annually. Sulphuric acid has, since the beginning of the present century, been greatly lowered in price and increased in quantity; its annual manufacture representing a value of nearly L.300,000. Muriatic acid is used in whitening linen and cotton, and is made to an annual value of L.100,000. Soda is manufactured in France to the value of L.100,000; copperas L.100,000; alum L.250,000.

The manufacture of sugar from beet-root was introduced into France during the war with Great Britain, when the coasts of France being blockaded by the enemy’s superior fleets, the importation of foreign articles, and among others that of sugar, was rendered dangerous and difficult; and its price was so high as entirely to preclude its consumption by the middling classes in society. Various articles were resorted to as substitutes, such as honey, the juice of raisins, &c. But they were not relished by the taste of the people; and in this case experiments were tried by eminent chemists to extract from beet-root the sugar which it contained. These experiments were successful, and there are now more than 200 establishments, from which were produced annually 7,480,000 lbs. of raw sugar. After the peace of 1814 this manufacture fell into discredit, especially under the now free competition of West India sugar. But in 1826, by new experiments, and more perfect tnachi-nery, it was found that sugar could be extracted from beetroot, and sold at a moderate price with a profit; and the quantity manufactured in 1829 amounted to 13,200,000 lbs.,^[56. See Costaz, Histoire de l’ Administration de l’Agriculture en France, tome ii. p. 458. ] and in 1832, according to a statement made by Μ. Costaz,^[57. Μ. Costaz was lately president of the Chamber of Commerce at Bordeaux, and is now. 1834, governor of the Bank of Franc·. ] to 12,000,000 lbs.
[table]

Labour in Paris is as much dearer relatively to the provincial towns of France, as labour in London is relatively to those of England. It still remains for us to remove from our capital some manufactures which have been most inju- ' diciously established there; but the French have carriedļ this false calculation much further, Paris being the centre not only of ornamental fabrics, such as jewellery, bronze, sculpture, cabinet-making, but of a number of coarser employments, which a very slight change of plan might transfer to a cheaper quarter. There are at Paris periodical exhibitions of French manufactures held once in three or four years, at which are present the king, the princes, the nobility, and all eminent men of science. There is also in that capital a Conservatoire des Arts et des Métiers; a collection, on a large scale, of models of all instruments or machines that relate to arts and manufactures.

It is more the practice also in France than in Britain to encourage ingenious inventions in the mechanical arts, by premiums and honorary marks of distinction. Yet, with all these advantages, industry has not made the same progress as in this country. The truth is, that profit derived from the utility of the invention itself is the great stimulus to industry; and the inventor of any new improvement in manufactures, by taking out a patent, and obtaining the monopoly of his invention for a term of years, is sufficiently rewarded, provided the invention be really useful by saving labour, and thus enabling its contriver to bring a cheaper article of equal quality into market.

To prescribe the mode of manufacture was formerly a favourite course with government in England as in France. From the time of Colbert (1660) the French ordonnances prescribed peremptorily the length and breadth of serges, of druggets, in short, of every kind of cloth calculated for export, under the plausible idea that all these precautions were necessary to establish a reputation for quality. It is a curious fact, that these rules were desired by the manufacturers themselves, and were long considered as the safeguard of French industry. A change was introduced in 1779, and permission given to every manufacturer to follow his own method, provided he distinguished the goods thus made from those which were in conformity with the regulations. But this was of very short duration. The power of habit and prejudice prevailed. New ordonnances, issued the succeeding year, revived the former limitations; and the manufactures of France were not put on an unrestricted footing till the Revolution. Much inconvenience had also been sustained from the absurd law which prevented a workman from settling in business in any town excepting that in which he had served an apprenticeship. This law was abrogated in 1767.

The manufacturing industry of France is confined, far more than ours, to the home market, whether we look to the supply of the raw material, or to the export of the finished articles. Her imports are large only in cotton and silk; in wool and iron they are not considerable; whilst in flax, hemp, and leather they may be termed insignificant. In exports the limitation is still more striking, her hardware, her linen, her woollens, her cotton, her leather, and, in a great measure, her silk, being confined to the home market; a restriction owing partly to our manufacturing superiority, but more to the capital of our merchants, and their ability to give long credit. The productive industry of France is consequently much less subject than ours to sudden fluctuation. It follows nearly the same routine year after year. On the occurrence of a war, or other political change, the commerce and manufactures of our neighbours, to borrow a phrase of Talleyrand (Letter to Mr Fox, 1st April 1806) se replient sur [7:10:185]eux-mimes. Need more be added to show the error of those who maintain that, half a century ago, her manufactures were of great amount; that they were almost entirely suspended by the Revolution, and indebted for their subsequent revival to the exertions of the government? The fluctuations, at no time of great amount, have related chiefly to the export trade, and owed their origin to the general hostilities of 1793.

An analysis of the causes of success in manufacture is instructive, as showing that excellence, where it exists, is the natural result of specific causes, and by no means a consequence of that general superiority, the belief of which is so dear to the vanity of every nation. The individual talents of workmen in France and England may fairly be considered on a par; the quickness and activity of the French being counterpoised by their volatility and want of adherence to a given object. The leading advantage of their manufactures is solidity, arising from the comparative cheapness of labour and raw materials. Hence the durability of their woollens and silks; and hence also the cheapness of their paper and leather. The points of inferiority are much more numerous, but may be almost all traced to one cause, an imperfect division of labour. In England, the facility of water communication maybe said to unite several towns into one, facilitating the division of employment, and overcoming the disadvantages of a separate and remote position; but in French towns, instead of the inhabitants limiting themselves to a few manufactures of kindred character, there prevails a habit of endeavouring to make every thing on the same spot. Lyons, Rouen, and Lisle, are populous cities, and entitled to rank with Manchester, Glasgow, and Leeds; but there must end the parallel; for St Etienne forms a poor counterpoise to Sheffield; and Birmingham, with several of our other towns, is without a rival. In short, it may be assumed generally, that, in a French town of equal size, the work, both of manufacturers and of artisans, is, even in the case of ingenious individuals, much less nice and accurate than in England.

VII. COMMERCE, COLONIES, FISHERIES, SHIPPING.

In no country in Europe has trade been laid under such galling restrictions as in France; and it is remarkable that this system of restriction has in a great measure been the creation of modern times. The ancient legislation of France was rather friendly to foreign trade. It encouraged importation in preference to exportation. This latter privilege of export was in 1577 claimed by Henry III. as his royal and seignorial right; and he regulated by his ordonnances the export duty on a variety of articles, whilst the produce of foreign countries was admitted on payment of an ad valorem duty of two per cent. Louis XIV. introduced a sort of navigation act, by which he levied a tax of fifty sous on all foreign ships. In 1667 further restrictions were introduced; and in 1687 the exclusive system was established in its full rigour. Her statesmen seem to have imagined that a flourishing commerce could be created by legal authority, and that domestic industry could only be encouraged by the exclusion of all foreign competition; and hence all the vices and obsolete maxims of the mercantile system will still be found in the commercial policy of France. The extension of the restrictive system was promoted by the authority of Colbert, a minister who, though he introduced order into the finances, and improved in many particulars the system of taxation, and was indeed a great master of detail, adopted the most erroneous maxims of commercial legislation. It is justly observed, in the masterly Report of Villiers and Bowring on the commercial relations between Great Britain and France, that the “whole of the bounties by which he induced adventurers to enter into remote speculations, as well as the excessive duties which he imposed on cheaper foreign articles, were almost uncompensated sacrifices; while, on the other hand, of the manufactures which he transplanted into France, and which he protected by the exclusion of rival productions, scarcely one took permanent root and even those which he intended to support by special encouragement would all of them have been more prosperous, but for the regulations with which his mistaken zeal retarded the progress of manufacturing industry. His whole system was an attempt to regulate by law what would have been better left to the sagacity of individuals, and to give an artificial direction to the national capital. Thus he encouraged a trade to the West Indies by granting a bounty of 25s. on every ton of goods exported, and of 41s. 8d. on every ton imported. He boasted of setting up 40,000 looms by virtue of legal enactments, without considering that the capital employed in these establishments would have taken a more natural direction, and been more profitably employed, but for his interference. The restraints also which were thus laid on domestic industry were often enforced by the despotic authority of the government. Many of the absurd and pernicious regulations of Colbert were broken down by the French Revolution; but others remained, and the tariff of 1791 was from beginning to end a system of prohibition, the object of which was to encourage the home manufacturer by freeing him from the intrusion of all foreign competitors. It must be confessed that the trade of Great Britain was originally regulated by the same narrow views, and is still shackled in many of its important branches. Indeed it is undeniable that Britain set the example of illiberality; and it was no wonder that the French legislature of that day should be jealous of a country which excluded her silks and cambrics, and laid α discriminating duty of thirty-three and a half per cent, on French wines; and whose parliament, under the reign of William HL, declared the trade with France to be a nuisance. These views, however, have been now abandoned by all British statesmen. The commercial treaty concluded with France in 1786 by Mr Pitt, was the earnest of a better system; and since this period the legislators of this country have been impressed with the injurious tendency of all commercial restrictions; and they have been labouring strenuously to emancipate the national industry from those fetters in which it has been too long bound. But in France the progress of improvement has been slower, and it has besides been retarded by political events. The long and sanguinary war waged between Great Britain and France subjected the latter to the maritime hostility of her powerful opponent, the consequence of which was, that her trade was interrupted with foreign countries, and the supply of many of their staple articles of produce greatly diminished, and of course raised enormously in price. It became a great object, in this case, to produce these articles at home; and thus, in addition to the existing restraints upon the importation of foreign manufactures, special encouragements were given to the production of articles for which neither the soil nor the climate of France was peculiarly fitted. And thus when the maritime blockade of France was raised by the peace of 1814, her industry had, partly from ancient and mistaken maxims, and partly from the pressure of war, received a very artificial direction, and was oppressed by the most ruinous and complicated restrictions. At the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, the tariff of 1791 was the law of the land in commercial matters. It had undergone a few modifications, but these were all mostly in the restrictive and prohibitory spirit, and were accommodated to the hostile position which France occupied in regard to surrounding nations; and when the barrier to a free intercourse with foreign nations was at length [7:10:186]thrown down by the peace of 1814, the exclusive provisions of the tariff of 1791 were brought into full operation, and it was then found that when the obstacles to her commercial intercourse with foreign nations raised up by the war were withdrawn, ano less effectual line of circumvallation had been drawn around her commerce by the restrictions and prohibitions of her own erroneous policy. It is remarkable, indeed, that a committee of the Chamber of Deputies, in reporting on the budget in 1832, enter into an exposition and defence of the restrictive system, the principle of which is to encourage domestic industry by the exclusion of the cheaper and better manufactures of foreign nations. The fallacious and narrow views, the loose reasonings, and the gross mis-statements of facts, especially where a reference is made to the commercial policy of Britain, is far from evincing on the part of this committee either diligent research or legislative wisdom.

The tariff of 1791 either excluded from France, or laid under heavy duties, almost all the great staple manufactures of other countries. Manufactured iron in every shape, manufactured steel, copper, tin, cutlery, and all articles manufactured from any of the metals; all fabrics, of wool, cotton, silk, or tissues of hair, saddlery, spirituous liquors, grain, refined sugar, tobacco, toys, and various other inconsiderable articles, are included in this magna charta of domestic commerce. The weakness, the inconsistency, and the various fallacies on which this system is founded, are so well exposed in the Report of Villiers and Bowring, to which we have already alluded, that we subjoin the passage, which, though somewhat long, is replete with instruction.

“It requires merely to state some of the objections to importations, in order to show their narrow and anti-commercial spirit. The introduction of manufactured tin, for example, is opposed because it might benefit England, which is rich in tin mines, as if the importation into France could take place without equally benefiting her. The reasons, too, which are grounded on the superiority of other countries; as, for example, ‘ dangerous rivalry’ in the case of manufactured steel; ’ cheapness’ of foreign article in the case of shipping; threatened * annihilation of the French manufacture’ in that of cutlery; ’ extra advantages of the English' in plated ware; ‘ apprehension of the English’ in articles of pottery; ‘ imprudence of admitting English saddlery,’ as so many persons, regardless of price, prefer it; ‘ advantages of machinery’ in works of iron; all are modes of announcing the superiority of the foreign articles, and the power which foreigners possess of supplying them on cheaper terms than they can be produced at home.

“There are other grounds of prohibition by which particular French manufactures are avowedly sacrificed to the interest of other branches of French industry. The importation of extracts of dye-woods is disallowed for the purpose of encouraging the importation of the dye-woods themselves; the interest of the dyer, the manufacturer, and consumer, being wholly forgotten. The importation of iron of certain sizes is prohibited, lest small manufacturers should establish fabrics, and supply the markets at a less cost than the larger establishments. Woollen yarn is not allowed to be imported, because it can be produced in France, though the high price must be a great detriment to the woollen manufacture; and cast iron of a great variety of sorts is prohibited, on the ground that a sufficiency may be obtained at home, though the cost is notoriously more than double that of many articles of foreign cast iron. Molasses are not allowed to be introduced, because the price in France is so low, and the exportation so large, on the ground that importation will lower the prices still more, though the lowness of price would obviously make importation unprofitable; and the fact of considerable exportation is the best evidence that the average prices are low in France. Rock salt was prohibited in 1791, and the prohibition is now justified on the ground that mines have lately been discovered. The prohibition of refined sugar is supported on the ground that its admission would not benefit the treasury; but it is clear, if the interest of the treasury were kept in view, that all prohibitions would be suppressed, or superseded by a system of duties. While some articles are prohibited because the production is small in France, and requires protection, others are prohibited (dressed skins, for example) because the production is great, and engages a large number of hands.”

There is another branch of the French legislation regarding commerce, and of the legislation indeed of most other commercial countries, which is equally exceptionable with the prohibition to import foreign manufactures; namely, the system of drawbacks and bounties on the exportation of domestic produce. Having by special encouragements created a surplus of certain articles at home, and which the high price prevented from being sold to foreigners, the public were called upon to pay the difference between this high price and the price abroad; and thus they were taxed, by the exclusion of the foreign article, in a higher price for what was consumed at home, and also taxed for all that was consumed abroad, in the bounty which was paid on the exportation of the article. This is a double iniquity, which has of late years gone on increasing in France. In 1817, the whole amount of what was conceded on this account amounted to L.3500 per annum, whilst in 1830 it amounted to L.600,000, nearly one fifth of the nett amount of the whole custom-house revenues of France; and as it was going on progressively, it might soon have absorbed the whole custom-house income, without in the least benefiting, but rather injuring, the general interests of commerce. During the first nine months of the year 1832 premiums or bounties were paid to the amount of 24,448,375 francs, or L.l,018,682.

The commerce of France, obstructed by these restrictive duties, has not made the same advances as her agriculture and manufactures. The internal produce of every country necessarily increases with its population; and the inhabitants of France having increased, since 1780, from 24,800,000 to 33,000,000, must produce as well as consume more. But in the mean time her commerce has not kept pace with this increase in her population. The value of the imports into France amounted in 1787 to 631,790,700 francs, or about twenty-five millions sterling, and engaged 888,868 tons of shipping; and her whole imports only amounted in 1830 to twenty-five and a half millions sterling, and employed 1,009,454 tons of shipping, which is far from being an increase corresponding to her augmented population. The foreign commerce of England was, in the year 1787, about seven millions less than that of France, or about eighteen millions sterling, and employed 1,349,419 tons of shipping. Her population was nine millions. In 1830 her foreign trade had increased to L.69,700,748, including L.17,127,764 to the colonies, which employed 2,860,515 tons of shipping. Thus, whilst the official value of the commerce of England has nearly quadrupled, and her shipping nearly doubled, not aboveone fiftieth part has been added to the foreign commerce of France; a fact which strongly illustrates the pernicious influence of monopolies in damping the energies of individual enterprise, and thus obstructing the national prosperity.

The following is a brief sketch of the trade of France with other countries.

The corn, the hemp, the flax, the tallow, which form such important articles of export from the north of Europe to England, are comparatively unnecessary to France. Their timber and pitch are imported there, but the quantities required by a people where ship-building is so limited[7:10:187] are necessarily of little consequence. The further articles of import are iron, copper, lead, salt, fish, all likewise on a small scale. The returns from France are no longer in the sugar and coffee, which, before the loss of St Domingo, furnished an annual export to the north of fully two millions sterling. They are limited to wine and brandy, luxuries of which the consumption is confined to a few large towns, such as Petersburg, Hamburg, Stockholm, and Dantzick.

With Germany, at least with the centre and south of Germany, the exchanges of France are carried on by a tedious land carriage, or by a still more tedious river navigation. Here are no canals to facilitate the conveyance of bulky commodities; all proceed in a slow routine, excepting horses and horned cattle, which are imported into France in considerable numbers, and made to travel with expedition. In regard to the Netherlands the case is different. With them there is an easy communication by sea, and, as far as regards French Flanders and part of Picardy, a still more easy communication by means of canals. The following table presents a view of the trade between France and the Netherlands in 1830.
[table]

From Holland are imported spirituous liquors, spices, butter, cheese. The returns from France consist chiefly of wine, silks, brandy, and dried fruit. When the Netherlands were subject to France, this intercourse was very active; but since 1814 it is much impeded by restrictions on both sides.

From Italy France imports raw silk, corn, rice, olive oil, and fruit, chiefly lemons, oranges, figs, and raisins. The returns, various in kind, but small in quantity, consist of wine, brandy, cattle, woollens, linen, leather, hats, stockings, jewellery, glass, hardware. From the Levant, the imports, though less than formerly, still consist of raw silk, cotton, wool, corn, dried fruits; the exports, manufactured silks, woollens, stockings, and, in a small degree, hardware, paper, liqueurs, linens, lace. With Spain the intercourse is more extensive: the exports from France consist of corn, flour, salt fish, wine, brandy, also woollens, cottons, silks, leather, linen, lace, hats; all articles which have passed through some process of manufacture, and bear testimony to the industry of the French. The Spaniards, on the other hand, true to their character, make no returns except in produce and raw materials, viz. wool, silk, fruit, sweet wines, along with some iron and copper. With Portugal the trade of France is not considerable, the staple products, wine and brandy, being the same in both countries.

Were congeniality of feeling, either in an individual or a national sense, the regulator of commerce, the intercourse between the French and Americans should be great; for no nations ever sympathized more cordially with the sufferings of each other, or were more decided in ascribing them to the aggressions of England. But a mutual want of capital restricts the connection. The Americans require long credit, and to give credit exceeds the means of the French. The cotton, tobacco, and rice of the United States are paid partly by wine and brandy, but in a very slight degree by manufactures. This branch of trade will increase with the population and wealth of the United States; and this appears to be the case, as the tonnage employed has increased from 30,793, its amount in 1820, to 95,818, its amount in 1830. The most ready means of extending French commerce would be with England; a country of customers whose activity supplies them with the means of giving in exchange a number of useful commodities. At present the intercourse is more considerable than with almost any other country; but a partial reduction of the custom-house duties would extend greatly the mutual trade of the two countries. England would supply France in greater quantities with imports, consisting of cottons, hardware, earthenware, copper, tin, coals, &c. ; whilst a corresponding increase would take place in the French exports, of which the staple articles are wine and brandy, the smaller silks, olive oil, fruit, butter, poultry, and, when our laws allow, corn and butchermeat. In the importation of the produce of the soil from France, our course would be clear and direct, our climate not admitting of the growth of the vine, the olive, or the mulberry; but, in regard to manufactures, it is a matter of nicety to say in what articles an exchange would take place, our late improvemenu in machinery counterbalancing the cheap labour of France in several branches, such as lace, in which our competition would formerly [7:10:188]have been hopeless. It is evident, however, that there would be a series of varied and extensive exchanges, not so much perhaps in distinct articles, as in different qualities or shades of quality in the same article or branch of manufacture. These exchanges are necessary for completing assortments in shops, in warehouses, in shipments; and their extent would be such as to be comprehended only by those who are familiar with the endless ramifications of manufacture, or who are aware of the striking exemplification of this truth, afforded by our intercourse with France in the auspicious interval between the commercai treaty in 1786 and the rupture in 1793.

The chief commercial business of Paris is necessarily inland; but it is the centre of exchange transactions for France, foreign as well as inland; as London is for England, and Amsterdam for Holland. Havre de Grace is the channel of the maritime intercourse of the capital, the outlet for its exports, and the medium through which 1 it receives colonial produce, raw materials, and foreign manufactures. Bordeaux is a sea-port of great activity, as well for the exportation of wine and brandy, as for the importation of sugar, coffee, and cotton. Marseilles, a larger but a less bustling city, continues the emporium for the trade with Italy and the Levant. Nantes has suffered greatly by the loss of St Domingo, as well as by the abolition of the slave trade, of which it was the centre. It still exports to Martinique and Guadeloupe, linen, hardware, printed cottons; and, like Bordeaux, receives in return sugar, coffee, and raw cotton. Rouen, though accessible to vessels of burden, is, like Lyons and Lisle, chiefly remarkable for manufactures.

The following tables will be found to contain, from official documents, a comprehensive view of the value and extent of the commerce of France at different periods.

Statistical Table of the progress of Trade between France and other Nations, from the year 1716 to the 1st January 1830.
[table]
[7:10:189]

Trade and Navigation of France with Foreign Nation».
[table]
[7:10:190]

Trade and Navigation of France with Foreign Nations, continued.
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[7:10:191]

Trade and Navigation of France with Foreign Nations, concluded.
[table]
[7:10:192]

The following table contains a view of the trade between France and Great Britain.

Importations into France from England, and Exportations from France to England, in the Year 1830.
[table]
[7:10:193]

The currency of France consiste chiefly of gold and silver, in which the main payments are effected, and of copper coins for the smaller sums. It appears that from 1803 to 1814 there were coined, with the effigy of Napoleon, at the different mints, of which there are thirteen in France, in gold to the value of L.22,001,018, and in silver to the value of L.36,992,502. From 1814 to 1828, the amount of the coinage was L.17,081,635 in gold, of twenty and forty franc pieces; and in silver the amount in pieces of five francs down to five sous was L.36,996,560, bearing the effigy of Louis XVIΠ. and Charles X. On the above data, the amount of circulating specie in the kingdom was estimated on the 1st of January 1828 at 2,713,731,183 francs, equal in value to L.l 13,072,132 sterling. The gold and silver currency, prior to the Revolution in 1789, was estimated at L.87,500,000 sterling. We can scarcely, however, draw any positive inference from the quantity of gold and silver coined in France, respecting the amount of the specie actually circulating, as within the last seven years the exportation of coin, with a liberality that is rather at variance with the ordinary policy of France, has been freely permitted. The coinage of France has accordingly become an article of trade; and bullion and coin have been freely exported or imported, according to the necessities of commerce. For the ten years preceding 1830, the quantity of bullion imported has exceeded the quantity exported by L.39,089,667, as will appear from the following table :—
[table]

This bank, which is the city privileged bank in France, received its charter in 1803 for fifteen years, which was afterwards extended in 1818 to the year 1845. It is under the direction of a governor, named by the king, with a salary of 100,000 francs a year. It has, besides, two deputy-governors, and a general council of eighteen directors; also a separate council for the discount department, composed of twelve members chosen from among such of the shareholders as are merchants. This bank issues notes of the amount of 1000 and 300 francs, which are payable in specie at the will of the holder. Its capital, which consists of 67,900 shares at 1000 francs, making a total of 67,900,000 francs, is employed in discounting bills of exchange, in making advances of money in government securities, and in deposits of bullion or foreign coin, diamonds, shares in public companies, at the rate of one per cent, per annum. No less than the value of 10,000 francs is received as a deposit, and discount for forty-five days is deducted from the amount of the sum advanced; nor, if the deposit be redeemed the next day, is any part of the discount refunded. The paper of the bank of France chiefly circulates in Paris and the neighbourhood; at a distance from Paris its notes pass at a discount of one and a half per cent., as they are not received in payment of taxes or custom-house duties in sea-ports; so that remittances to Paris must be made in cash, for which a charge of five per cent, is made al the post-office: the dividend of the bank on each share has been thirty francs half-yearly, or at the rate of six per cent, per annum. A surplus fund, which has accumulated, has been, in consequence of the reiterated demands of the shareholders, put in a course of distribution; and in the year 1831 two entire dividends were made of fifteen francs and six francs per share, besides two other payments, under the name of a bonus of reserve, the one amounting to seven francs fifty centimes, and the other to three francs, per share. The balance of the reserved fund amounted in 1830 to 6,974,398 francs, which would give a further bonus of 146 francs 95 cents, on each share; and for the purpose of authorizing the distribution of this sum, a law was passed in December 1831. By this law the bank is bound to hold a third part of its profits in reserve, after paying the regular dividend of six per cent, per annum. The circulation of the bank varies from 214,000,000 to 240,000,000 of francs. In the commencement of the year 1831, it held commercial bills to the amount of 75,000,000 of francs, which by its cautious or timid policy was reduced towards the end of the year to 23,000,000, the greatest reduction which it had experienced for the previous fifteen years. The diminution of discounts occasioned a corresponding rise in its stock of bullion, which was increased from 103,000,000 to 266,000,000 francs. Saving banks, causa d’ épargne, have been lately introduced at Paris.

Land carriage in France costs only from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per cwt. for a hundred miles; a cheapness which facilitates the transport of merchandise to the various annual fairs which are still held in every great town in the kingdom, exactly as was done by our forefathers a century ago. This periodical routine begins by the foire de Longchamps, which is held annually at Paris in spring, and is followed by a long list of provincial fairs, of which the chief are those of Beaucaire in Languedoc, and Guibray in Normandy.

The weights and measures of France were reduced, as is well known, to a very simple and uniform scale, soon after the Revolution; but there has been much difficulty in accustoming the inhabitants, particularly in country districts, to the adoption of the new system, which unluckily preserved none of the names with which they were familiar. In 1812 a kind of compromise took place, government sanctioning the retention of the old names, such as pounds, ounces, ells, and bushels; but requiring that their contents should be calculated by a reference to the new standard. It is, accordingly, on this footing that business is now transacted in France. The new weights and measures are, in general, larger by a fraction than the old, and the use of the latter is prohibited by law.

The colonial possessions of France are quite unsuited to her greatness in other respects. The insurrection engendered by the Revolution deprived her of the western half of St Domingo, a rich and beautiful territory, containing formerly more negroes, and exporting more produce, than all the British West Indies together. The French government seems to have relinquished the hope of regaining this country, at least by military means, and to limit its ambition to the remaining colonies, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Cayenne, in the West Indies. The first two are, like most of our West India islands, cultivated to a considerable extent, but capable of much improvement. The petty island of Marie Galante is in a similar state; but Cayenne forms a part of a most extensive tract, of which one corner only is as yet rendered pro-

• ductive, and which may eventually become a great settlement; though on the score of health it is as unpromising as the adjacent colonies of Demerara and Surinam. Before[7:10:194] the loss of St Domingo, the annual import into France amounted to 70,000 hhds. of muscovado or brown sugar, 60,000 hhds. clayed, and nearly 20,000 of fine clayed. Of this very large supply there were exported nearly 40,000 hhds. of brown, and above 60,000 hhds. of clayed, forming, exclusively of any duty, an annual value of between L.2,000,000 and L.3,000,000 sterling, and affording a most acceptable exchange for a number of imported commodities. The sugar thus imported from St Domingo has long been lost to France, no sugar being now exported from that country.

In Africa the French possess Goree and some factories near the mouth of the Senegal. In the East they have the isle of Bourbon, and Pondicherry, Chandernagore, and some smaller factories on the mainland of India; and their vessels are, like the Americans, admitted to trade with Calcutta, Madras, and other British settlements, on payment of moderate dues; but they possess no power of annoying, or even of resisting Britain, in the event of hostilities. The retention of the Mauritius, at the peace of 1814, deprived them of the great receptacle for their privateers in the East; and in a very different part of the world, the continent of North America, they retain nothing since the cession of Louisiana in 1803. In the seas of Europe, Corsica is almost the only insular possession of the French. They have no great maritime fortresses, like Gibraltar or Malta, and no dependencies of the nature of the Ionian islands.

The commerce of France with her colonies is regulated by the same narrow maxims as the other branches of her foreign trade. The colonies and the mother country are mutually bound to trade exclusively with each other. The staple produce of the French West India colonies, as well as the isle of Bourbon in the East, is sugar; and it appears that the price of this article in the European markets will not repay the expense of its cultivation in those countries. The colonists, therefore, insist that all other sugars shall be excluded by heavy duties from the markets of France; that they shall have the exclusive privilege of supplying these markets; and on a complaint that the duties imposed on foreign sugars were not high enough to give them the monopoly of the home market, an additional duty was in 1822, on the suggestion of the director-general of the customs, imposed on all foreign sugars. In return, France possesses the exclusive privilege of supplying the colonies with all the manufactures and other European goods which they require. On this principle of mutual monopoly the trade is now conducted. The effect of this system is to levy a tax on the inhabitants of France, in order to indemnify the colonists for the losses which they incur in carrying on an unprofitable trade. They cannot furnish a supply of sugar to France at the ordinary rate of the European market; and the price must therefore be artificially raised in that country, in order to enable them to carry on the cultivation of their estates; whilst, on the other hand, they are not at liberty to buy the goods which they require in the cheap-∣ est market, but must take them at whatever price they can be afforded by the mother country. The quantity of sugar imported into France is 60,000,000 of kilogrammes, or 1,178,571 cwts.; of coffee, 4,000,000 of kilogrammes, or 74,107 cwts. The whole amount of the colonial importation into France is estimated at L.2,125,000, and the average exports at L.l,416,666. The additional expense which France pays for colonial products, in consequence of the exclusion of foreign sugar and other articles, is estimated at L.833,333 per annum. To this amount the French people are taxed for the colonial monopoly. The colonies again purchase the articles which they require for their consumption at a higher price than they could be procured from Great Britain; and they complain that on this account they pay L.625,000 per annum. Thus both parties suffer. The restrictive system is a source of mutual mischief to the colonies and the mother country; and indirectly also it produces injurious consequences to the general trade of the country. The merchants of Faris, Bordeaux, and Marseilles, who are interested in the trade, concur in stating that the impossibility of importing bulky articles, such as sugar, from foreign countries, interrupts the commerce with India and the Levant. Indigo, silk, spices, &c. the produce of India, are not indeed excluded from France; but a vessel cannot be loaded with these costly articles, for which there is no sufficient demand; and hence the want of the more bulky articles effectually obstructs the trade between the two countries.

Another evil of this colonial monopoly is, that the colonies supply more sugar than France can consume. But it cannot be sold in other countries at the price which is paid to the colonies by the mother country; and hence it becomes necessary to find out the means of forcing a sale of the surplus which cannot be consumed at home. A bounty is accordingly granted on all sugar exported from France; and in 1831, whilst the duty on the importation of sugar produced L.l,636,030, there was paid back for bounties L.483,951, which is more than one fourth of the gross receipts. The loss which France has incurred since the peace of 1814 by this erroneous system is estimated in Bowring and Villiers’ Report, at L.40,000,000 sterling; and in return for these great sacrifices, the colonies afford but a limited demand for the manufactures of the mother country, as will appear from the following account of the population of the principal colonies, extracted from the colonial budgets.
[table]
[7:10:195]

We βubjoin a table of the trade of France with her colonies for four years prior to 183i.
[table]

The fisheries of France are composed, like our own, of those on the coast and those at a distance, particularly at Newfoundland. All along the north coast of France, the fisheries consist, as on our side of the Channel, of cod, mackerel, herrings, and pilchards. On the shore of the Atlantic, and still more on that of the Mediterranean, are caught great quantities of sardines, a fish of passage, which appears periodically in shoals, like the herring. The tunny, a fish not known in northern latitudes, is found in the Mediterranean in the early part of summer. It varies in weight from ten to twenty-five pounds, and is in like manner caught in shoals. These home fisheries, little calculated for forming seamen, have been left to their natural progress, whilst repeated attempts have been made by government to extend the fishery in America; a design favoured by the early possession by France of Newfoundland and Canada, as well as by the long peace that followed the treaty of Utrecht. Towards the middle of last century the French fisheries in America employed annually about 5000 seamen; but the unsuccessful contest with England in 1756 reduced them greatly, and deprived them of their principal station, Cape Breton. The peace of 1783 was concluded under better auspices. The islands of St Pierre and Miquelon were ceded to France by the treaty of Versailles, and the rights of fishing and of drying fish from the Cape St John to Cape Ray. In the Gulf of St Lawrence her rights were subsequently recognised, by the treaties of 1802 and 1814, at three leagues distance from the coasts belonging to Great Britain; but within the gulf, at a distance of fifteen leagues from Isle Royale, and thirty leagues from New Brunswick.

For the encouragement of the French fisheries, enormous pecuniary sacrifices have been made. The only time they were ever in a prosperous state was, not when they were protected by the artificial encouragement of the mother country, but when the French colonists, being in possession of a large tract of the American seacoast, were in consequence compelled to trust to prudence and economy alone for the success of their adventures. During the last session of the chamber of deputies, a committee, appointed to inquire into this subject, made their report, in which they state “that the French fishermen have now to compete with those who are always on the spot; who carry on their fishing concerns in small boats, and at a trifling cost; who pay no charge of outfit; who lose no time in voyages; who employ the eneaper labour of children, women, and old persons; who have their drying and salting establishments in the neighbourhood; and who can accommodate all their proceedings to the urgency of circumstances.” It is to counterbalance these advantages that France has resorted to the system of bounties, which has been carried to a great length in order to force the establishment of a trade in the face of natural obstacles. The result of the investigations of the committee was the recommendation to government to grant such a premium to those who adventured in the [7:10:196]fishery as should place them on a level with their more fortunate rivals. In 1816 a bounty was granted of fifty francs per man for the cod fishery, fifteen francs per man for the herring fishery, and twenty-four francs per quintal on the introduction of the fish into the colonies. In 1818 these premiums were raised by royal ordonnances to forty francs per quintal, which is more than 100 per cent, on the value; and the market price of the fish became in consequence a nett profit to the adventurer. This premium was reduced in 1822 to thirty francs per quintal. But a new law was passed in 1832, which is to be valid till 1837, and which allows a premium of fifty francs for every seaman engaged in the cod fishery of St Pierre and Miquelon; thirty francs for each engaged in the fisheries of the Great Bank of Newfoundland, or Iceland; fifteen francs if on the Dogger Bank; and fifty francs in every case if the fish are dried at St Pierre or Miquelon. An additional premium is allowed of twenty-four francs per metrical quintal or cwt. on cod fish shipped from France to the French colonies, thirty francs if shipped direct from the fisheries, twelve francs per quintal if shipped to other ports from France, and ten if direct from the fisheries; also twenty francs per quintal as a premium on cod roes. The effect of these bounties is to place the adventurer in the French fisheries beyond all risk of loss. In many cases they are equal to the whole expense of the outfit, the voyage, and the return; and, though no cargo is brought home, no loss can be incurred. The whole expense and hazard of the trade is thus borne by the public.

The following table contains the amount of the cod fishery from 1826 to 1830.
[table]

On the above the following bounties have been paid :—
[table]

From the above accounts it appears that for the five years previous to 1831 the cod fish caught amounted to 1,223,006 hundredweight, which, estimated at twenty francs per quintal, the price quoted in the French ports, is equal to 24,460,120 francs, or L.978,405 sterling; and for this produce France has paid in the shape of bounties 15,158,950 francs, equal to L.606,358 sterling; and if we add seven francs per hundredweight for freight and expenses, it will be found that the produce of the fisheries, which is worth only L.978,405, has cost the French nation between L.l,200,000 and L.1,300,000; besides that the fish are of very inferior quality to those caught by the Americans, the latter selling at forty-seven francs thirty-five cents, per quintal, whilst the French cod fish only brought twenty-six francs ninety-five cents. With all this expense, however, the French fisheries are not adequate to the supply of the colonies, which receive considerable quantities of fish from foreigners, as will be seen from the following table.
[7:10:197]

Colonial Importations — Average of Five Years from 1826 to 1830.

If we contrast the expense and the produce of the British fisheries with those of France, the disadvantages under which the French prosecute this branch of trade will be manifest. It appears that whilst the British only employ in the Newfoundland fishery at the rate of seven men per hundred tons, the average number employed by the French in their different fisheries is nineteen and a half men per hundred tons; and in the report laid before the Chamber of Deputies for 1832, it is stated that the cost of each man employed in the cod fishery amounted, from 1823 to 1825, to 223 francs, in 1829 to 296 francs, in 1830 to 440 francs, being about L.17. 12s. sterling, or 6s. 9d. a week, independently of the cost to the owner of the vessel.

The shipping that cleared out from the united kingdom, and the exportations from St John’s and Labrador on British account, were,
[table]

In the same period the vessels which cleared out from France, and the quantities of fish imported into France, were as follows:
[table]

From the above tables it will be seen that the number of British seamen does not amount to a third of the number employed by France, the average being only 2539 seamen to 40,220 tons of shipping, while the proportion of French seamen is 6690 to 37,036. They catch double the number of fish, and these of a better quality, namely, 966,294 cwts. while the French only take 464,671 cwts. On the whole, it appears that the French risk about seven times the capital in these fisheries for which they could purchase the same supply of fish from foreigners. We subjoin two other tables, the first giving a detail of the state of the French fishery for 1831, and the other a general view of its produce from 1823 to 1831 inclusive.
[table]

General Statement of the Returns of the Cod Fishery effected in the Ports of France during the Year 1831.
[table]
[7:10:198]

Comparative Statement of the Returns of the Cod Fishery effected in the Ports of France from the Years 1823 to 1831 both inclusive.
[table]

The whale fishery was established in France in 1784, by means of encouragements held out by Louis XVI. who ordered that no duty should be collected on the articles exported, and that the produce of the fisheries should pay no import duty. He guaranteed the adventurers against loss, and ultimately paid, in addition to 300,000 francs (L.12,500), which he advanced without interest, an additional sum of 160,691 francs (L.6695), being the balance of loss on seventeen voyages. Notwithstanding these encouragements, the whole project was abandoned in 1787. In 1816, the offer of bounties attracted new adventurers into this branch of trade. The premium offered by the government was fifty francs per man, and two thirds of the crews were allowed to be foreigners. In 1819, forty francs were allowed to foreign vessels having a crew half French, fifty francs when the captain and one third of the crew were French; the premium to be doubled if the vessel passed Cape Hom. In 1829, a new ordonnance granted ninety francs per ton on vessels wholly equipped by Frenchmen, forty francs when only two thirds were Frenchmen, and thirty francs if the captain was a foreigner. The premium was doubled if the vessel passed Cape Hom. A supplementary premium was allowed to vessels fishing to the south-east of the Cape of Good Hope, and the double premium was given to all vessels fishing at a higher northern latitude than sixty degrees; and as the fishing is seldom or never prosecuted at a lower latitude, this premium of 180 francs per ton (L.7. 4s.) was invariably paid. The law of 1832, which regulates the whale fishery of France, establishes a bounty of seventy francs per ton from March 1832 to March 1833, if the whole ctew be French; the bounty to be diminished four francs yearly till it reaches fifty-four francs. If one third of the crew be foreigners, the bounty to be forty-eight francs per ton, to diminish two francs yearly till it reaches forty francs per ton. A supplementary bounty to be given of fifty francs per ton if the crew be French, decreasing three francs per annum per ton, and twenty-four francs if one third be foreigners, decreasing one franc per annum, to be paid to vessels doubling Cape Hom, or reaching sixty-two degrees of south latitude, if returning with less than half a cargo, or after an absence of sixteen months; five hundred tons to be the minimum for a single whaler.

With these extraordinary encouragements, capital was attracted to this new line of industry; and in 1831 three vessels cleared out for the Greenland whale fishery, and thirteen for the South Sea fishery, which employed 6412 tons of shipping, and were manned by 551 men. The following table exhibits the gradual progress of the French whale fishery from 1817:
[7:10:199]
[table]

It was estimated by the minister of commerce, in his report on this subject to the Chamber of Deputies, that the 550 seamen employed in the whale fishery do not cost the state less than 1,000,000 francs, at the rate of L.72.12s. per man, or L.6 a month. The wages granted by the budget to seamen employed in ships of war amounts to L.l per month; so that the allowance to the seamen employed in the Greenland fishery is six times the ordinary allowance of seamen in the public service. It is remarkable that France was granting these extravagant allowances for the encouragement of the whale fishery exactly at the time that Great Britain was withdrawing the bounties by which she had formerly endeavoured to promote this branch of trade as a nursery for seamen. Yet in 1830 the number of vessels that cleared out for the fishery was 123, consisting of 40,166 tons, navigated by 5044 seamen; being thus about eight times the quantity of tonnage employed by France.

France seems destined, by the natural advantages which she possesses, to become a maritime power of the first rank. Her sea-coast exceeds in extent that of any other continental state. On the Atlantic she has 130 leagues of coast, 150 on the Channel, and ninety on the Mediterranean; whilst her position between northern and southern Europe, and her numerous ports and navigable rivers, are eminently favourable to the extension of her navigation. But in this, as in all other branches of the French trade, the prejudicial effects of the restrictive system have been abundantly manifest. France, in forcing a trade with her colonies, containing less than half a million of inhabitants, has sacrificed her trade with other tropical countries and their numerous population, to the great injury of her shipping interest; the vessels employed in carrying on her foreign trade having fallen off since 1787, instead of havine increased, as they ought to have done, considering the great advances which have been made since that time in population, in capital, and in productive industry. The following accounts exhibit a view of the changes which have taken place in the shipping of France since the year 1787.

Whole amount in 1787, 2,007,661 tons 1 Increase, 682,778 (Outward) in 1830,2,690,439 ∫ tons.

In the whole foreign trade of France:
[table]

In the fisheries, including the herring, mackerel, and fresh fisheries:
[table]
[7:10:200]
[table]

From the above accounts it will be observed that a very great decline has taken place in the shipping employed in the foreign trade of France, whilst a great increase has taken place in the tonnage employed in the coasting trade; a fact which affords clear and convincing evidence of the extending resources of the country, which would have coually occasioned an increase in the shipping employed in the foreign as well as the domestic trade, if this important branch of industry had not been stunted in its natural growth by the monopolizing system. The navigation of France no doubt suffered grievously during the last war, under the maritime hostility of Britain. But in the course of nearly twenty years it would have recovered from this state of depression, if the natural energies of the country had been allowed free scope in this line of industry. The whole amount of the tonnage employed in the trade between France and Great Britain was, according to French accounts.
[table]

In 1830, 59,539 tons were reported outwards, and 67,356 inwards, in the packet service.

The following table exhibits the whole amount of the vessels and tonnage which entered inwards and outwards in all the ports of France from 1825 to 1829.

The following table exhibits the state of the French navigation for the year 1831, with the number of ships and the seamen employed.
[table]

One cause of the slow advances made by the French shipping is, that their ships are manned by so much greater a number of men than those of either Britain or the United States. The British shipping by which the trade between Great Britain and France is carried on amounted in 1830 to 110,766 tons, and they were navigated by 10,029 seamen, being a proportion of nine men for a hundred tons. The whole British shipping employed in [7:10:201]the foreign trade outwards amounts to 2,180,042 tons, navigated by 122,103 seamen, which gives five and a half seamen for 100 tons. Of the French shipping which entered France in 1831, the tonnage employed in the trade with all foreign countries amounted to 372,931 tons, navigated by 34,355 men, being a proportion of above nine men for 100 tons. The navigation of the United States is carried on by a proportion of four and one third seamen per 100 tons. In the coasting trade of France 1,618,896 tons of shipping were employed in 1831, and 209,831 men, making an average of about thirteen men per 100 tons. In the coasting trade of the united kingdom 8,777,921 tons were employed, and 513,109 men, or an average of five and seven eighths men per 100 tons. The ship-owners complain that one of the great obstructions to the progress of shipping in France is the high price of iron. The whole shipping of France, they say, consists of 11,000 vessels, in which there are 1,122,000 cwts. of iron. Estimating the annual waste at ten per cent, the iron consumed by the shipping of France will cost 6,283,200 francs (L.261,800 sterling), of which, they say, more than one half is sacrificed to the interests of the iron masters; besides that, the monopoly which they enjoy, and the duty imposed on foreign coals, raise enormously the value of timber, and thus also tend to obstruct the progress of navigation.

VIIt. RELIGIOUS AND CHARITABLE ESTABLISHMENTS.

The condition of the church and clergy forms a most important feature in the history and present situation of France. In former times, the Gallican church, without desiring a separation from the holy see, had often advanced a claim to independence, and maintained long and animated discussions, or rather controversies, familiar to those readers of the French annals who have attended to the history of the Jansenists and Molinists. The result of these, and of the general progress of knowledge in France, was an exemption from a part at least of the interference in ecclesiastical affairs, exercised so despotically by the court of Rome in Spain, in Portugal, and in Italy. As to pecuniary means, though the· income of the lower ranks of the clergy was extremely small, the church of France was on the whole richly endowed; the rent of land and houses appropriated to abbeys, priories, bishoprics, archbishoprics, and benefices of every description, being computed at five millions sterling, exclusive of the tithes levied, with more or less strictness, throughout the whole kingdom. As a political body, the French clergy were differently situated from the English, having no voice in legislating, but aiming at, and frequently attaining, the highest offices in the executive government.

In 1789 a number of the clergy, both in the upper and lower rank«, participated in the general wish for a political reform, and evinced that disposition by their readiness in coalescing with the tiers état, at a time when the majority frf the noblesse refused to do it, until compelled by the call of the people, and the positive order of the court. In the highly interesting discussions that ensued during the years 1789 and 1790, several of the leading orators were Catholic clergymen, nor did they in general take the alarm, until the menacing aspect given to public affairs by the too rapid progress of the Revolution. The National Assembly stripped the church of her lands, and declared them the property of the public, providing, indeed, for the income □f the clergy, but making the payment of it dependent on government All this might have passed and been forgiven in the ardent hopes of national benefit from the Revolution; but the assembly did not stop here. Considering both the court of Rome and the court of France invete-ralely hostile to the Revolution, they determined to detach the clergy from both, and sought to compel their adherence, by imposing on them an oath of fidelity to the new constitution, on ∣>ain of forfeiture of their livings. The sincerity of the clerical body was now put to the test, and ' a striking proof was given of their being actuated by that conscientious feeling for which the public in Protestant countries are so little disposed to give them credit. In every rank, whether prelates, curates, vicars, or the humble desservants, the majority preferred the hazard of losing their livelihood to taking an oath at variance with their conscience. The violent party continued to triumph at Paris, and the non-conforming clergy had no alternative but to fly their country. Hence the clouds of emigrants who, in 1791 and 1792, sought refuge in Italy, Germany, and, above all, in England. Those who remained in France were exposed to all the atrocities of the Jacobins. Hundreds of them were sacrificed in the massacres of September 1792, and hundreds more were brought to the guillotine in the dreadful years 1793 and 1794. With the fall of Robespierre (July 1794) the executions ceased; but a tone of hostility to the church was still kept up, and accounted an indispensable part of the policy of the revolutionary government. The only class allowed to remain in quiet were the curés, whose humble station and scattered position created no political alarm. It was not till the established sway of Bonaparte (in 1801) that circumstances admitted of cooler calculation, and enabled that skilful usurper to seek in a hierarchy a prop to his own power, and an engine of opposition to the liberal party, which still hoped to secure to France advantages from the Revolution. With this view he affected great respect for the Catholic church, concluded a concordat with the pope, and made a pecuniary provision for a specified number of sees. His next step was to frame and circulate throughout all France a catechism, calculated to impress the rising generation with a profound veneration for a sovereign who had been “anointed by the pope, and received his mission from the Almighty.” The power of Bonaparte received in this manner a most substantial support, and would have taken deep root with the lower orders, had he not counteracted it by his subsequent quarrel with the pope, which assumed an angry aspect in 1809, and became more and more aggravated during the remainder of his reign.

On the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, the Catholic clergy hailed the change with enthusiasm; but the public, at least the great majority of the middling classes, soon showed a marked distinction between their cause and that of the king. The conduct of Louis in regard to the clergy was marked by moderation and judgment. Religious himself, he sought to revive similar impressions among his subjects, to enforce the observance of the Lord’s day, and to relieve from indigence the desservants or country curates. But he placed no clergymen in political situations, nor made any attempt to give the bishops or archbishops seats in the House of Peers.

A concordat or compact between the pope and the king ( is a transaction of high importance in a Catholic country, where the public are impressed with the belief, that in all that relates to religion, reference ought to be had to the court of Rome, and that their temporal sovereign possesses authority in such affairs only as far as it is delegated by the holy father. The object of a concordat is to define the respective powers of the pope and king. In France the aim of the executive government has long been to secure the patronage of the church, and to stipulate that no bulls, briefs, decrees, or other acts of a nature to agitate the public mind, should be promulgated without the royal sanction. Three centuries ago, when the alarm of the Reformation, and some urgent political considerations, made it of importance to the court of Rome to attach to its cause the reigning sovereign of France, there was passed between Leo X. and Francis I. a concordat, declaring that [7:10:202]the power of nominating the archbishops and bishops of France resided in the crown, the sanction of the pope being required only for their inauguration (institution canonique). This compact was considered a kind of charter or standard document in the long discussions which afterwards ensued about the independence of the Gallican church, until the whole sunk into insignificance before the storm of the Revolution. During the ferment of that convulsion, the Jacobins, and even the Directory, made no proposition for accommodation with the holy see, and bade, or affected to bid, it defiance. Bonaparte, more politic, concluded a concordat, which, though it reinstated only fifty of the 130 sees existing.before the Revolution, stamped him in some measure a restorer of the church. That he did not afterwards augment their number, is to be accounted for solely by a dread of alarming the revolutionists. The Bourbons, on their restoration, appear to have felt all the delicacy of such a measure; and nothing favours the probability of the charge of their intending to restore the lands, the tithes, or temporal influence of the clergy. Negotiations for a concordat were early begun with the court of Rome, but its conclusion was delayed till 1817; and the interest with which it was received in France can be comprehended only by persons resident among a people still agitated by political division, and dreading the influence of the clergy as an engine for the revival of all past abuses. From this, and from differences with the court of Rome that are foreign to our subject, the execution of the new concordat has been very tardy. Of the forty-two additional sees appointed by it, a considerable part are still vacant.

The prelates of the church of France are as follows:— Cardinals, at present five in number, with an annual income of nearly L.1300 sterling.

18 archbishops, average income about 800

74 bishops, do. about 600

The next in rank are the vicars-general, to the number of more than a hundred; and the chanoines or canons, who also exceed a hundred; after which come the curés or established curates, in number nearly 3000, and divided into three classes (first, second, and third), with incomes of only L.40, L.50, or L.60, but with certain emoluments, from surplus fees, which vary according to the population of their respective districts. Lastly come the desservants, or acting curates, of whom there is one in almost every country commune or parish in the kingdom, amounting in all to above 2⅛000, but with incomes of only between L.20 and L.30 a year; a pittance equal to about L.40 in England, but still too small to provide for even the limited wante of a state of celibacy. There are also a number of succursales, or chapels, appended to large parishes; but of these a considerable number (at present about 2000) are vacant from want of funds, bad repairs of the building, and other causes. These various appointments are all paid out of the public treasury. The expense of the Catholic church to the nation is L.l, 100,000 sterling a year; but as there are other heads of disbursement, particularly salaries to Protestant ministers, the total ecclesiastical charge is about L.1,300,000.

The nomination of all clergymen, whether Catholic or Protestant, is vested in the crown. As to political feeling, the Catholic clergy are, almost without exception, hostile to the interests produced by the Revolution, and attached to the Bourbons.

Female convents have all along existed in France, with the exception of a few years of the worst part of the Revolution, when their inmates were obliged to forsake their establishments, and to seek an abode with their relations. Monasteries are, with very few exceptions, abolished, and no idea is entertained of re-establishing the abbeys, priories, and other endowed establishments; the Bourbons and the court of Rome having repeatedly pledged themselves not to disturb the revolutionary purchasers of the church-lands, and to appropriate to ecclesiastical purposes only that proportion of these lands that remains unsold. 1

What, it may be asked, have been the effects of the Revolution on the state of religion in France? It has subverted the power of the church, and, what is much more; serious, the belief of Christianity in the minds of the young ι and the middle-aged of the male part of the population; but with the elders of that sex, and with almost all females, the Catholic creed preserves undiminished sway; a sway which extends much farther than can readily be conceived by Protestants. The extent of this influence is owing to various causes; in part to commendable conduct in the clergy, who in general act the part of careful pastors, and attentive visitors in sickness or distress; but in part also to that blind credulity with which the tenets of the church are received both by the hearers and their spiritual guides, whose education has by no means kept pace with the general progress of knowledge; for it does not embrace the philosophical course of the universities of France, but ia conducted in separate seminaries, and upon a much more confined plan.

The Protestants in France amount to above 2,000,000, and are most numerous in the south, particularly at Nismes' and its vicinity. They are almost all adherents of the Revolution; and a political change, such as that which twice took place in 1815, could not be accomplished in a divided community without a contest; but the alarm which was then so loudly raised in England in their behalf was founded on exaggeration. The Bourbon government received with attention the applications of the Protestants, whether for increase of pastors or repair of churches. On the whole, the Protestants of France form an industrious and valuable portion of the population; but they are animated by a strong esprit de secte, by a feeling approaching to animosity towards the Catholics; and have all along evinced considerable distrust of the reinstated government.

Before the Revolution the poor in France, as in Italy ι and other Catholic countries, were supported chiefly by the 1 abbeys, priories, or other beneficed establishments. On ’ the absorption of these sources of income by the revolutionary government, a provision for the poor became a subject of legislative inquiry; and, after long investigation, it was decidedly determined to avoid a poor-rate on the English plan, but to provide for the aged and helpless an annual fund to the proposed amount of L.2,000,000 sterling. Several years elapsed before this was acted on, and the fund eventually provided consisted of a revival of part of the old octrois, or dues levied on wine, cider, spirits, and other articles of consumption, on their entrance into towns; a tax from which the Revolution had relieved the public, and which was now disguised under the specious name of octroi de bienfaisance. These dues, however, were soon extended and applied to the general expenditure of the government, after retaining a portion, which at present constitutes the only regular fund for the poor. Further sums are collected by subscription in the depth of winter, or on the occurrence of extraordinary distress. From the public treasury, likewise, there are made occasional issues, in a season of hardship, on the application of the mayors or local magistrates. There are at Paris a number of hospitals, of which by far the largest is the. Hôtel Dieu. In the provincial cities there are in general two hospitals for the poor, one for the sick, the other for the aged. Of other charitable institutions, the principal are the sociétés de charité maternelle, or associations on a large scale, at Paris and some of the chief towns, for the aid of indigent women in child-bed. Mendicity is not restricted in France, and prevails in many places to a reprehensible degree.
[7:10:203]

IX. ESTABLISHMENTS FOR EDUCATION.

The organization or framework of the system of public instruction in France is one of the happiest applications which has yet been made of the principle of centralization. It is due to the genius of Napoleon. In 1808 he promulgated his decree for establishing the University of France, the provisions of which, being full of the wisdom and foresight so characteristic of his civil acts,-have engrafted themselves on the institutions of the country, and, with a few slight modifications suggested by experience or by the course of events, are now in full operation, and producing the happiest effects. By this decree the establishments for education throughout France, whether endowed or not, from the village school, through all the gradations of grammar schools, academies, and colleges, up to the faculties and universities, were comprehended under one great central administration, called l’ Université impériale (now Royale) de France. The term University, therefore, in the sense first introduced by Napoleon, and now naturalized and generally adopted in France, does not describe, as in Britain and elsewhere, an institution for liberal education, but a branch of the administration or government of the state. It has, nevertheless, so much of the nature of a corporate body, that it possesses large disposable funds of its own, consisting, partly of real property, partly of pecuniary endowment secured on the public revenue, and partly of the produce of a tax levied on every institution for educating the children of the wealthier classes, which is called retribution universitaire. All professors, public teachers, and schoolmasters are necessarily members of this vast body, called the University, the control and direction of which reside in the following authorities:

1. The grand master, who is also minister of public instruction, with a sèat in the cabinet. At the moment we write (September 1834) Μ. Guizot holds this important office, in virtue of which he not only appoints all the officers of university administration, but fills up all the vacancies in colleges and schools, only, however, upon the recommendation of the inferior local authorities, and after rigorous examinations and comparative trials by them.

2. The second university authority is the royal council of public instruction, composed of ten members, selected from the names most eminent in the various branches of science and literature. They hold their sittings in Paris, and are generally distinguished members of the Institute, as at present, for example, Villemain, Cousin, Orfila, Thénard, &c. This council, with the grand master ex officio president, is the fountain-head of authority, and the supreme court of appeal in all that regards education. Their province is to suggest and sanction improvements in the method of teaching; to direct and superintend the compilation of books to put into the hands of youth, and to see that they be adopted in schools and colleges; to judge and remove incompetent teachers, upon the reports of general inspectors; in short, to watch over the concerns and interests of public instruction in all its branches.

3. The University, or, in other words, the whole territory of France, as far as regards the purposes of education, is divided into twenty-six academies, each comprehending three or more departments; for the term academy, like university itself, no longer designates a local institution for the training of youth, but a certain territorial extent of educational jurisdiction. In the central town of each academy resides a rector, whose business it is to superintend all the schools, colleges, and faculties within the departments which form his district, to promote their moral and intellectual improvement, to collect the reporta of the inspectors who are employed to visit and examine all plates of education under his jurisdiction, to transmit the result to the central administration at Paris, and to serve as the organ of communication with the minister of public instruction. He is assisted and controlled in the exercise of his functions by an academical council of ten, who are, partly official persons connected with the university, with the department, and with the municipality, and partly respectable inhabitants of the town which is the seat of the academy. This council stands in the same relation to the academy as the conseil royal at Paris does to the university, except that in most cases an appeal lies to the latter from the decisions of the former.

4. Attached to the conseil royal are ten inspectors-ge-nerał of the university. Amongst these France is divided into ten districts, each of which is visited once a year by a different inspector, who makes a survey of the principal establishments, controls their administration, and reports to the minister of public instruction.

Besides these inspectors, who are the agents of the central administration, each rector has, acting under him, two or more inspecteurs d’ academie, who examine more minutely every primary school or college within the limits of his jurisdiction, and report to him on the general condition of the establishments, on the progress of the pupils, and on the conduct and character of the teachers.

Such is the general constitution of the administrative body by which appointments are made, abuses prevented or remedied, the finance department conducted, and the general efficiency of the system of practical instruction secured. With regard to that system itself, the constituent parts of the great corps enseignant may be thus enumerated, beginning with the highest:

1. First, then, we have les facultés; a term which has superseded the use of the word université in its local and separate meaning, and which corresponds to the Scottish use of the words college and university. The faculties in France are reckoned five; that of the sciences, mathematical and physical, of letters, of law, of medicine, and of theology; and all these faculties, with their complement of professors, a dean at the head of each, and a resort of students more or less numerous, are found established in eight different towns of France, which in Scotland we should call seats of universities. They are the following: Paris, Caen, Toulouse, Strasburg, Dijon, Poitiers, Rennes, and Metz.

It is by the faculties alone that degrees can be conferred, and these degrees are of three kinds: Bachelor’s (le baccalauréat), which cannot be obtained before sixteen years of age; licentiate’s (la licence), which presupposes the former, and at least one additional year of age and study; and doctor’s degree (le doctorat), granted to licentiates when still further advanced in age and acquirement.

2. Subordinate to the faculties, and intended to be a preparation for them, are the colleges; institutions which resemble a good deal those known by the same name in England, when the term College is applied, not to the universities, but to the schools of Eton, Harrow, Westminster, &c. The French colleges are either royal or communal. Of the former there are at present thirty-nine, of the latter 320. Of these 320, by far the greater number are in a very imperfect and inefficient state; and the minister Guizot has announced his intention of bringing in a bill to put them on a better footing. In many of the colleges royaux, such as those of Caen and of Rouen, the work of reformation is already begun, by having conjoined with the old course of instruction, which was too exclusively classical, what are called cours spéciaux, in history both natural and civil, in mathematics and physics, and in geography and modern languages.

3. The third and lowest stage of national instruction is that of the écoles primaires, corresponding to our parochial and village schools. The law of the 28th of June 1833 has new-moddled and added greatly both to the number [7:10:204]and value of the écoles primaires. It ordains that there shall be a school in every one of the 37,187 communes or parishes into which France is divided; and this ordinance is advancing rapidly to its full accomplishment.

Still more important and commendable are the provisions contained in this memorable law, for making the course of instruction in these schools, and the methods of imparting it, such as to bestow on the great mass of the population that amount of religious, moral, and intellectual training which is best adapted to their condition in life and the duties they have to discharge. This law provides also for a somewhat fuller and more comprehensive education of the children of the middle class and wealthy burghers in considerable towns, by ordaining that in every commune which contains above 6000 souls (the number of these in France is 273) there shall be an école primaire supérieure, corresponding to and borrowed from the Burger-or Mittel-schule of Germany, in which a considerable extension is given to the list of subjects taught in the primary schools. Of these schools, intermediate between the primary schools and the colleges, forty-five had been established at the date of March 1834.

The educational system of France, as we have briefly sketched it, may be considered as now happily established, with a fairer prospect of success, and less risk of failure, than in any former attempt in that country. This result is rendered probable, above all, by two other parts of the system, which deserve particular mention, on account of their tendency to give permanence and efficiency to any system whatever of national instruction. One of these is the école normale, established at Paris by Napoleon in 1808, for the purpose of maintaining 300 pupils, and training them not only to great acquirements in literature and science, but to the art of communicating their knowledge to others in an attractive and interesting form, and thus to become able regents in the collèges royaux, and professors in the faculties. None are admitted into this institution who are under the age of seventeen complete, and who have not distinguished themselves in the previous stages of their education. The pupils are divided into two sections, that of the sciences and that of letters, and remain three years in the one or the other. The first two years are employed in confirming and extending their acquirements by a rigorous and effectual discipline under the best professors and teachers that Paris can afford. During the last year they are regarded as future teachers or professors, and trained particularly, both by theory and practice, to the art of communicating instruction.

The other security we spoke of is an extension and application of this noble conception of Napoleon, so as to embrace a preparatory course of discipline for the teachers of the primary schools. This idea, though originated and even acted upon long before the revolution of 1830, never was followed out with energy and effect till after that event, and above all since Μ. Guizot was minister. Even so late as 1828 there existed only three écoles normales primaires, as these seminaries for schoolmasters are called. According to the last account rendered to the king and the chambers by Μ. Guizot in April 1834, sixty-two of these seminaries were in full activity, providing able and accomplished teachers for the primary schools of no less than seventy-three out of the eighty-six departments of France; and there can be no doubt that in a very short time the law of 1833, which ordains that there shall be a normal school in every department, will be executed to the letter.

When this and all the other measures, either actually voted by the chambers or contemplated by the minister, for giving effect to the system of public instruction which has been described above, shall have received their full and final accomplishment, and shall have taken root universally in the habits of the people, we may congratulate France on possessing the strongest of all securities for good government, and against the recurrence of revolutionary changes.

X. ESTABLISHMENTS FOR THE PURPOSES OF WAR.

The French army first assumed a regular form under Henry IV.; but its peace establishment, including both horse and foot, did not then exceed 10,000 men, whilst the whole charge for the war department, including ordnance and half pay, was L.500,000. In 1610 Henry carried his army to a war establishment of 40,000 men. In 1640, under the able administration of Richelieu, France took an active part in the war of Germany, carrying her force at one time to 100,000 men, and her expenditure to the then unexampled sum of I..4,000,000 sterling in one year. In 1659, Louis XIV., already full of ambitious projects, kept up a peace establishment of 70,000 men; and the war of 1672 having brought Germany, Holland, and Spain, into the field against France, the force of the latter country was carried to the number of 160,000 men. From 1679 to 1688 there was peace; but Louis passed the interval in preparing for war, and the introduction of the funding system now enabled France, England, and Holland, to surpass all their former exertions. The contest begun in 1688 required on the part of France a force of between 200,000 and 300,000 men. The peace of Utrecht gave a long repose to exhausted France, and the war of 1741 did not, until conducted in its advanced stage by Marshal Saxe, call forth a military force equal to that of Louis XIV. In the war of 1756 the French army was less numerous, and far less ably commanded. During the continental peace of thirty years (from 1762 to 1792) its establishment was kept, with little fluctuation, at 100,000 men.

The war of the Revolution began with a force on the part of France^[64. Jθιuini, Traité dee G arides Operations Militaires. ] of only 140,000 men; but this was speedily augmented by the compulsory levies of February 1793, and by the still more comprehensive operation of the re-, quisition in September. The republican spirit was now at its height, and the unlimited issue of assignats led to. the maintenance of a force hitherto unexampled in the. annals of any country, ancient or modern. In 1794, the Frenchmen in actual service in the Netherlands, on the Rhine, in Piedmont, the Pyrenees, and La Vendée, appear to have amounted to between 500,000 and 600,000; a force which, though imperfectly disciplined and officered, baffled the greatest confederacy that had at that time been formed in Europe. In 1795 the assignats lost their efficacy, and France was obliged to reduce her army by a third; but its discipline was now greatly improved. During the campaigns of 1795, 1796, and 1797, as well as in those of 1799 and 1800, the force maintained by France and Holland was between 300,000 and 400,000. At the peace of Amiens, Bonaparte kept up a peace establishment of 300,000 men; and after the renewal of war it was raised to 400,000 ,∙^[65. Tableau Hietnijue dee Guerres de la Revolution. ] a force with which he triumphed in 1805 over the united arms of Austria and Russia. His annual levy of French conscripts, though apparently only 80,000, amounted (see Declaration of the Minister at War, 18th September 1809) to 100,000; a supply which, joined to the recruits of his allies in Germany and Italy, kept up his numbers, and even increased them, notwithstanding the wasteful campaigns of 1806 and 1807 in Poland, [7:10:205] followed by the no lees wasteful campaigns of Spain. In 1812 the force of France and her allies reached their maximum, Bonaparte having led against the Russian empire a mass of360,000 men, whilst there remained in Spain, Germany, and France, a number which carried the aggregate to between 500,000 and 600,000. Need we then wonder that, even after the almost total loss of his troops in Russia, there remained a force competent, with the aid of fresh levies, to withstand the efforts of the allies during two campaigns?

In 1815 Bonaparte, in returning from Elba, found under arms in France about 120,000 men, all of whom, with the exception of a few thousands, rejoined his standard. But so sick were the French of war, that the greatest efforts during the next three months added only 60,000 to this number, and the loss of one battle exposed all the hopelessness of resistance to the allies.

On the second restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, the army had fallen into a very disorganized state, the disciplined soldiers being dispersed, and the ranks slowly filled by new levies. This led to the legislative act of the 10th March 1818, which revived the conscription, but in a mitigated form, and allowing a great latitude in providing substitutes. A recurrence to this method of raising levies was held to be the only effectual method of filling the ranks with men of steady habits; for the army in France, never a receptacle for the refuse of the populace, has in general been composed of young peasantry and labourers of good character. Such was its constitution in the war of the Revolution, and its discipline was exemplary, until Bonaparte adopted the unprincipled practice of making war without magazines, and obliged the soldiers to live at free auarters on the inhabitants. The new conscription is indeed greatly modified, the numbers annually required being limited to 40,000, and the term of service to six years; still the measure is compulsory, and falls heavily on the middle and lower classes; the alternative for a youth, when drawn, being either to give up his intended profession, or to pay L.4O or L.50 for a substitute. In 1832, the French army amounted to 411,816 men, including 19,036 officers and 3794 children. The infantry, including the guards, amounts to 264,141 men, including 9505 officers; the cavalry, consisting of various denominations of chasseurs, dragoons, cuirassiers, and hussars, to 51,235 men, including 2805 officers; and the artillery to 32,594 men, including 1190 officers; besides gendarmerie, engineers, &c.; the latter being a numerous and well educated body of officers.

The gradations of rank in the French service are sous-lieutenant, lieutenant, capitaine, chef d’ escadron, colonel, maréchal-de-camp, lieutenant-général, maréchal de France. The number of the marshals of France will henceforth be limited to twelve; the number of the other ranks, even that of Ueutenant-général, is very large; for the état major, or staff of the army, after a reduction in 1818, consisted of 430 lieutenants-généraux, and 260 maréchaux de camp. There are on full pay twice as many officers as are necessary for the duty; but the number of half-pay officers exceeds all proportion; for this part of Bonaparte’s vast machine has remained, whilst most of the private soldiers have sunk tranquilly into the occupations of the lower classes.

Promotion in the French army never takes place by purchase, and not often by special order; seniority at present determines more than half the appointments, a course which, whilst it renders promotion extremely slow, will eventually give employment to almost all the half-pay officers. Of the soldiers in service, there is still a part of the army of Bonaparte, but the majority are recent levies.

Of the military seminaries of France, the one of highest repute is the Ecole Polytechnique ,∙ a school for the instruction of young men in mathematics, and drawing for the engineer and artillery corps. None but candidates of talent are admitted; and it is well entitled to the name of a nursery (pépinière) of intelligent officers.

The charge to government of a foot soldier in France does not, in time of peace, exceed L.20 a year; that of the cavalry soldier is nearly double. The pay for either officer or soldier is little more than half the rate in England, and its inadequacy is much complained of. The whole charge of the war department under Bonaparte was about L.20,000,000 sterling. In the year 1833 it amounted to L.8,564,470.

The gendarmerie are not a part of the regular army, but a corps charged with the police duty, and scattered in small divisions throughout all France; their total number, including officers, is 18,000. The gardes nationales correspond to our yeomanry and volunteers; and every town of consequence has a con>s of this description.

The chief fortifications of France, on the side of Flanders, are the well-known towns of Lisle, Valenciennes, Condé, and Douai; on the side of the Alps, Embrum, Grenoble, and Antibes; on the side of the Pyrenees, Perpignan, Bellegarde, Mont-Louis, and Bayonne. The fortified sea-ports are Brest, Toulon, Cherbourg, Rochefort, and Boulogne. France is, without question, the first military power on the Continent, being nearly equal to Russia in population, and greatly superior in pecuniary resources, as well as in the intelligence of the individuals who compose her army.

The superiority of the English navy over the French existed in ages when our pecuniary means were far inferior; and though, during the middle of the reign of Louis XIV. the French, by financial sacrifices, obtained a numerical superiority, one great battle, that of La Hogue, in 1692, was sufficient to restore our ascendency. The war of 1741, however successful on the part of France by land, was, particularly towards its close, unfortunate to her at sea. In the succeeding interval of peace, great efforts were made to reinstate the French navy; but the war of 1756 proved doubly disastrous, and at last swept it almost entirely from the ocean. A very different scene opened in the war of 1778, when France, unembarrassed by a continental struggle, was enabled to direct all her disposable resources to her marine. She was then enabled to keep in an effective state about seventy sail of the line, the crews of which, added to those of the frigates and corvettes, formed a total of 60,000 seamen. The blows given to this force by our navy, towards the end of the war, were repaired with great diligence in the peace; and to prepare young officers for the sea in preference to the land service, became a favourite object in several of the government schools. In 1791, an official report stated the effective French navy at seventy-four sail of the line, sixty-two frigates, and twenty-nine corvettes; a state of preparation which accounts for the resistance made to our navy by the revolutionary government under all the disadvantages of an unparalleled continental struggle. This proud force, however, disappeared progressively at the capture of Toulon, the victory of the 1st June 1794, and still more in the victory of Aboukir; so that Bonaparte, on his accession to power, found the French marine in a very reduced state. He laboured, however, to reinstate it; the years of continental peace, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804, were favourable to his efforts; and in 1805 he boasted of having in equipment sixty sail of the line, a force destined to an early diminution at Trafalgar and St Domingo. The Bourbons, on recovering their crown, found little more than half the force which existed previously to the Revolution. It has since been augmented, and in 1831 it amounted to thirty-five ships of the line, forty frigates, twenty-three corvettes, fifty-seven brigs, twenty-nine[7:10:206] galliots and cutters of eight and four guns, twelve steam-boats, sixteen armed store-ships, thirty-two armed transports, two yachts; total, two hundred and eighty-sour. There were at the same time building twenty ships of the line, twenty-six frigates, seven corvettes, ten brigs of seventeen guns, five steam-boats, nine store-ships; total, seventy-seven. Other three ships of the line, two frigates, three corvettes, and five steam-boats, were put on the stocks in 1832.^[66. The convicts sent to the galleys in France work under the direction of the Admiralty, and as that punishment holds in France the place of transportation, the number thus employed amounts to between ten and twelve thousand. ] l

XI. REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

In France the ancient system of taxation and finance was extremely unequal and oppressive. Her various provinces, though they were united under one head, retained nevertheless many of their own peculiar laws and privileges, which were absurd in themselves, and were, besides, opposed to the general interests of the empire. Amongst these privileges was an exemption from certain imposts, to which some were subjected, and consequently over-taxed; and others, again, contributed a certain quota of revenue to government, which they raised by taxes imposed by their own local authorities. The consequence was, that no uniform system of taxation could be established throughout the country. The taxes on many commodities were higher in one province than in another; and customhouses were accordingly established on their respective frontiers, to prevent the importation of goods until they had paid the duties. In this manner, owing to the inequality of taxation, commodities could not freely pass from one district of the country to another; and the kingdom was thus broken into separate divisions, to the great interruption of trade. The partiality shown to the privileged orders was another serious grievance in the ancient system of French taxation. The taxes by which the public revenue was raised were, first, the taille, a tax on real property, or on income derived from commerce and industry. From this tax the lands of the noblesse and clergy were exempt. Secondly, the vingtième was a tax of one twentieth on property, from which the clergy alone were exempted. Thirdly, a poll tax was levied on all classes indiscriminately. Many of the taxes were farmed by rich capitalists, who paid annually into the treasury a fixed sum, and collected the taxes from the people. Those sarmers-general held the monopoly of the manufacture and sale of tobacco and salt; and also the octroi, which was a duty on all articles entering Paris. The power delegated to these contractors was the source of grievous oppression to the people. The duties called aides were imposed on spirituous liquors and other articles of consumption; they also included duties on all articles wrought in gold or silver, on wrought iron, playing cards, leather, paper, starch, &c. These duties were levied by collectors for the behoof of government. The corvée, which consisted in so many days’ labour annually, of men, horses, oxen, carriages, &c. was nominally applicable to the maintenance of roads. The tax was payable either in money or in labour. This system of taxation, so prejudicial to internal commerce, was to a certain extent reformed by Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV., who, though his views in regard to the principles of commerce were narrow and illiberal, yet improved in many particulars the system of taxation, by rendering it more uniform, and thus breaking down the barriers which obstructed the free intercourse between the different provinces. Under his administra tion the public revenue of France amounted in 1682 to L.5,000,000.

The long and expensive wars of Louis XIV. produced a great accumulation of debt (nearly L. 100,000,000 sterling), which, after his death, was lessened by an appeal to a singular privilege, of which advantage has often been taken in France, viz. that a new sovereign is not bound to pay the debts of his predecessor in full. During the eighteenth century the revenue of France increased progressively, but more slowly than that of England; the vicious system of farming the taxes still continued. Neckar, appointed to office in 1776, sought to teach the French court the value of publicity in financial statements, and exhibited the rare example of a war conducted for several years witlκ>ut new taxes, the supplies being found by loans, the interest of which was provided for by successive retrenchments in the public expenditure. His successor, Μ. de Calonne, pursued a very different course, and was found altogether incapable of the measures necessary to remedy an annual deficiency of L.2,000,000, which now took place. The revenue of France was then about L.22,000,t)00 sterling. The sum required for payment of the interest of the public debt was nearly L.10,000,000,^[67. Report of Camus to the National Assembly in september 1700. ] leaving only L. 12,000,000 for the army, navy, civil list, and other public expenses.

Such was the state of the French finances at the era of the Revolution of 1789, which was followed by invasion on the frontier, and in the interior by all the confusion consequent on the reign of terror. In this era of confiscation and judicial murder, the national debt could hardly be respected. It was not, however, openly cancelled, but the interest was issued in assignats of no value except for purchases of national property. At last, in 1798, on an approximation to regularity in the management of public business, there was passed a law, declaring that one third of the old national debt should be sacred, and the interest on it payable in bons, or paper receivable in discharge of taxes. This third was called la tiers provisoire, but its price in the market continued very low until Bonaparte succeeded to power, and placed Gaudin, afterwards Duke of Gaeta, at the head of the treasury, when means were found to redeem the stocks from their depression, and to resume the payment of the dividends in cash. The amount of the revenue was greatly impaired by the general confusion of the Revolution. In 1799 the expenditure exceeded the receipt by L.8,000,000 sterling.^[68. Gaudin, Notice Historique du Finances de la France. ] The continental peace, a partial reduction of expenditure, and improvements in the collection of the taxes, brought, in 1803, the receipts to L.19,500,000, whilst the expenditure was L.20,000,000. In subsequent years both received a progressive augmentation, and in 1813 the revenue derived from France, exclusive of conquered territory, was about L.27,000,000. On the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, the public debt, funded and unfunded, did not exceed L. 123,000,000;^[69. Bignon, £xpoü Comparatif de la Frencβ. ] its interest L.7,000,000 France had thus a fair prospect of financial prosperity, when the return of Bonaparte, and a second invasion by the allied troops, overthrew public credit, and produced a national loss and a general derangement of trade. 11 has been estimated that the return of Napoleon from Elba which led to the second invasion of France by the allied troops, occasioned a loss to the country of 4,000,000,00( of francs. The direct loss, which included the expenser paid to the allied powers, and those incurred by the main tenance of their armies, placed in cantonments through [7:10:207]out France, may be estimated; but the indirect evila occasioned by the ravages inseparable from the invasion of a hostile army, by the confusion and derangement of all commercial relations, and the impossibility of collecting the revenue in such a time of trouble, cannot be summed up in money. At the same time there are scarcely any national difficulties which may not be overcome by the energies and industry of a free and intelligent people such as the French; and accordingly we find, that with an inconsiderable addition to her debt, France has defrayed all these heavy expenses, the contributions imposed on her by the allied powers, the expenses of the temporary maintenance of her armies, and her own warlike expenses. For this purpose, however, it became necessary in 1815 to impose additional taxes. In 1817 a loan was required of 392,989 000 francs; and in 1818, to defray the extraordinary contribution paid in that year to the allies of 575,807,197 francs, the minister had recourse to another loan of 220,510,718 francs; whilst by the taxes which had been imposed, the revenue of that year was carried to L.35,000,000. The following is the state of the receipt and expenditure for ten successive years.
[table]

In 1828 Μ. Villèle, before leaving office, estimated that the receipts would be 946,483,698, the expenditure 951,631,890, being a deficit of 5,148,192. But on making up the accounts of the year, they exhibited a surplus of 4,758,000 francs.

The following is the statement of the receipt and expenditure for 1830.

Receipt.
[table]

Expenditure.
[table]

We subjoin the following account of the expenditure for 1833.
[table]

Including extraordinary grants, the total expenditure will be found to amount to 1,120,394,804 francs, equal to L.46,681,450.

Besides the public revenue of the empire, the communes raise a revenue for their own local expenses. This revenue partly arises from octroi», which amount throughout France to forty millions of francs per annum, and from other sources, being altogether about two hundred millions of francs; which, added to the public revenue of a thousand millions, amounts to about 1,200,000,000 francs for the whole revenue of France, equal to fifty millions sterling, or L.41,666,666 if we deduct the local revenue. During the administration of Μ. Villèle, the five per cents, in France were converted into a three per cent, fund, at the rate of 133∙33 cents, for every hundred of the five per cent, stock; so that the whole five per cent stock, bearing an annual interest of 30,574,116 francs, was converted into a three per cent, fund, of which the capital was increased one third. The effect of this transaction by Μ. Villèle was in reality to reduce the interest on the five percent, stock to four per cent., by which he saved annual interest to the amount of six millions, though by a very useless complexity in his operations. It could serve no end to commence a three per cent, fund, when he was in reality paying four per cent.; the nominal reduction of interest being compensated to the stockholders by the increase of the capital stock. The interest on the public debt of France, thus reduced, may be stated as follows:

The public debt of France amounts to 4,988,738,000 francs, equal to L.207,864,000. The annual interest of the debt is about 10,812,000, whilst the sinking fund [7:10:208]amounts to 1,120,54·1,828 francs, and yields an annual interest of 44,053,005 francs, equal to about L.l,835,542, which is nearly one fourth part of the whole debt.

The ancient system of taxation in France was subverted by the National Assembly in 1791, and new taxes were substituted in lieu of those formerly in force. These consisted of direct and indirect taxes. The direct taxes are, 1. Contribution foncière or land-tax; 2. Contribution personelle et mobilière; 3. A tax on doors and windows; 4. Droits de patente, or a license duty on particular trades and professions, and a duty on mines.

The contribution foncière is raised equally on all lands and houses in proportion to their nett revenue. There are no longer any exemptions in favour of the nobility since the Revolution. The royal domains and the property of the state are alone exempted. The contribution personelle et mobilière is divided into two parts. The first is a species of poll-tax, rated at three days’ labour, and levied on all males above eighteen years of age. The contribution mobilière is a house-tax levied on all rents from 200 to 2500 francs. For the contribution personelle, the octroi, which is a customduty on all goods entering a town, is substituted in Paris and other large cities. The tax on street-doors and gateways, and windows, varies in proportion to the size of the town in which the house is situated, and also in proportion to the size and value of the house and the number of windows. The droits de patentes or license-duty is levied on every person following a profession, trade, or business; and is divided into two heads; the proportional tax, which amounts to ten per cent, on the rent of the persons dwelling; or the fixed tax, which depends on the extent and population of the town where he exercises his profession. A merchant pays from forty to 500 francs per annum, according to the population of the place where he resides, and an additional ten per cent, on the rent of his dwelling-house. Bankers in all cases pay 500 francs a year; and there is in like manner a fixed rate for other inferior trades and professions. The duty on mines is in proportion to the extent of the surface, and also to their nett produce.

The law which fixes the amount of the direct taxes also determines the quota which each department is required to pay. This is announced by the minister of finance to the prefect of the department, who communicates it to his sous-prefect and to the mayors. The sum thus assigned by the prefect to each arrondissement is subdivided by the councils of the arrondissement and by the communes; and the amount allotted to each is apportioned among the inhabitants by persons appointed for that purpose, called répartiteurs or assessors. These assessors regulate the amount of taxable property, and they fix the scale. The land-tax is however very unequally assessed, amounting in some departments to six per cent., whilst in the department of the Seine it is seventeen per cent. The equalization of the land-tax has always been accounted a capital object in the financial policy of France; and with this view a minute survey and measurement of all the landed property in France (termed the cadastre) was begun in 1803, and is still going on. Not above one third of this survey is yet completed. The inequality of the land-tax has long been a subject of loud and just complaint; and various plans have been adopted for a more accurate classification of the land. But these have generally proved inefficient and unsatisfactory. It is only by an exact survey of the land that the burden of the tax can be equalized; and the survey which is at present in progress, when it is completed, will no doubt effect this desirable object. But, in the mean time, the unequal assessment of this tax, the many overratings on the one hand, and omissions on the other, are loudly and justly complained of; and the slow progress of the cadastre affords but a tardy remedy for so great an evil.

The indirect taxes consist chiefly of the droits réunis or excise duties on articles of consumption, of stan>p duties, registration duties, duties on carriages, on canals and ferry boats, on gold and silver plate, lotteries, and gaming houses. A revenue is raised from the monopoly of tobacco and gunpowder; from the post-office; the octroi, or custom duty on all articles entering large towns, one tenth of which goes to the royal treasury, and the remainder is applied to local expenses. The customs form an important branch of the French revenues.

The droits réunis or excise duties are laid on wine, brandy, &c. which pay one and a half franc per hectolitre, of 120 English quarts, on being removed from one place to another. Wine in bottles pays ten francs on its removal. Cider, perry, and mead pay eighty cents, per hectolitre. A duty of ten per cent, on the above duty is paid on their removal from the wholesale warehouse. Prior to 1830 a duty distinct from the octroi was levied on the entry of all wine or spirituous liquors into communes the population of which amounted to 1500 and upwards. All communes whose population does not amount to 4000 are exempted from this tax; and a new tariff has been established, rising progressively from 4000 to 5000 inhabitants, in proportion to the estimated wealth of the departments, which are divided into four separate classes; a very vague, as we should ≡, and uncertain standard of taxation. There is a duty on wine and liquors sold by retail, which since 1830 has been reduced from fifteen to ten per cent. A reduction of three percent, on this duty is made to dealers, and of twenty-five per cent, if the wine be grown by the retailer himself. Strong beer pays a duty of three francs, and small beer a duty of fifteen sous, per hectolitre. Retailers of liquors must take out a distinct license, which varies, in proportion to the size of the town, from twenty to six francs. Proprietors of public carriages pay one tenth of the price of each place for passengers, a third being deducted for vacant places, and one tenth of the price received for merchandise. Private carriages are subjected to a moderate duty, according to their size, of forty francs per annum for a carriage with two wheels, and holding two persons; and of 150 francs per annum for a carriage with tour wheels, and holding nine persons. The enregistrement, or registration duties, embraces a variety of transactions, where property is conveyed or given away by marriage-settlement or otherwise. There is a duty on gifts inter vivos, which increases with the distance of the relation between the parties. It was modified by an ordonnance of the king in 1832. The duties payable on registry are either fixed or ad valorem ; the fixed or certain duties apply to common certificates, those of life or residence, account books, bills of lading, appointments of arbitrations, valuations of furniture, and the like. The ad valorem duty applies to all bonds or obligations, discharges, judgments, deposits or releases of sums of money, and for every transfer of property, contract or engagement arising from real or personal property, whether between persons living, or given by way of bequest. It is also applicable to leases, annuity deeds, deeds of gift during life, negotiable securities with the exception of bills of exchange; to policies of assurance, copies of the judgments of civil and criminal courts, &c. These duties are either fixed, varying from fifty centimes to twenty-five francs, or they are in proportion to the property conveyed, and vary from seven francs to twenty centimes per cent. The stamp duty applies to receipts, bills of exchange, newspapers, handbills, playbills, admission cards to public places. It is also payable upon all paper used for civil and judicial actes, and upon all writings which may be required in evidence in courts of justice, &c., and varies either in proportion to the size of the paper, or to the amount of the sum specified in bills, promissory notes, &c. The tax does not amount on an average to above Is. 8d. on [7:10:209]L.100. Lotteries and gaming-houses form one of the miserable resources of French finance. The latter are farmed out to a company, and paid, previous to the year 1830, five and a half millions annually; and for this sum the government of France degrades itself by thus trafficking with its subjects in iniquity.^[70. Okey⅛ Concise Digest of the Law, Usage, and Custom, affecting the civil and commercial intercourse of the subjects of Great Britain and France, p. 269. ]

The duty on doors and windows commenced in its present form on the 1st of January 1833; and it is regulated partly by the amount of the population of the town or commune in which it is situated, a circumstance which seems to afford a very uncertain standard of taxation. This tax is very trifling, averaging, where there is only one door, from thirty centimes to one franc, as the population increases from 5000 to 100,000; where there are more doors than one the duty is increased. A house with five doors (ouvertures) pays from 2 francs 50 cents. (2s. Id.) to 8 francs 50 cents, (7s. 10d.), as it is situated in a town or commune of 5000 or 100,000 souls. For houses having street-doors and gate-ways called portes cochères 1 franc 60 cents. (Is. 5d.) to 18 francs 80 cents, (15s. 8d.), in proportion to the amount of the commune or town in which it is situated.

The duties levied on this branch of the French revenues produce about L.3,000,000 sterling. In Britain the customs yield about L.18,000,000 sterling. In France these duties are laid on in many cases more with a view to restriction and monopoly than to revenue. France sacrifices a large revenue for the encouragement of the colonial monopoly; paying for the produce of the colonies an exorbitant price, and afterwards, as in the case of sugar, the staple article that is imported from the colonies, giving a great portion of the duty as a bounty on its exportation to foreign countries, to indemnify the exporter for the loss that he would incur if he were selling the sugar at its ordinary price in the markets of Europe. In 1830 the gross receipts from the sugar duty amounted to L. 1,397,340, of which one third, namely, L.420,903, were paid back in bounties on the exportation of the surplus. Thus the nett duty only amounted to L.976,437, when in 1822, though the quantity of sugar consumed was only 1,086,596 cwts. or 281,075 cwts. less than in 1830, the nett amount of the duty was L.l,234,653. It is by means of heavy customduties that the French legislators endeavour to preserve the monopoly of the home market to their own manufacturers, by which policy they compel the French community to buy at a high price the inferior articles of their own manufacture, rather than the better articles of the foreigner at a lower price. They thus lay the whole community under contribution for the benefit of a few. They exclude the produce of foreign industry because it is better and cheaper, in order to force a sale of workmanship that is inferior and dearer; and one miserable consequence of this narrow and mistaken policy is a great contraband trade in these prohibited articles, which no efforts have been able to repress. The increased numbers and superior vigilance of the custom-house officers have been still counteracted by the new expedients and persevering ingenuity of the smuggler. The frontier of France is the scene of this persecution against commerce, where all the illegal, daring, and ingenious resources of the contraband traders are called into activity. Amongst other expedients, they have trained packs of dogs to carry prohibited goods across the frontier. These dogs being conducted to the frontier, are kept without food for many hours; they are then beaten and laden with goods, and are started on their travels when it begins to grow dark, and reach the abodes of their masters as soon as they can, where they are well treated, and receive a full meal. According to the accounts of the French custom-house, 40,278 of these dogs were destroyed in the year 1830, on which account premiums were paid to the custom-house officers to the amount of 40,278 francs. The great objecte of this illicit trade are tobacco, sugar, and colonial produce generally; also British cotton manufactures, quiltings, cambrics, muslins, fine cutlery, &c. That the trade, though it may be obstructed, is not prevented, is evident from the circumstance that there are regular rates of insurance on the conveyance of contraband goods into France, varying from ten to seventy per cent. A revision, and if possible a reduction, of these heavy duties would be the true policy of France. Monopoly was never yet the source of commercial greatness in any country. These special encouragements rather tend to deaden ingenuity; while it is animated by a free competition, in which all parties are on an equal footing, and in which the prize is the sure reward only of merit and talent.

XII. NATIONAL INCOME AND CAPITAL; POPULATION.

Of the official surveys of the French territory, by far the most minute and accurate is the cadastre, a survey which became indispensable from the time it was determined to exchange the taxes on consumption for taxes on produce. A return of the rent of land, such as was made under the property-tax act in England, would not have answered, or indeed have been practicable in France, where so many thousands of petty lots are cultivated by their proprietors. At first the cadastre proceeded on the plan of an estimate par masses de culture, or continuous valuation of extensive tracts; but this proving unsatisfactory, it has been conducted since 1807 on a plan of such minute detail, as to give the value of every separate parcelle or patch of land. The progress of this minute survey of the landed property in France has been retardée by many causes; and in 1830 not above two thirds of the land had been surveyed. It was estimated in the reporι of one of the committees of the chamber in 1832, that iι would still require from that period about eight years and an expense of above L.2,000,000 sterling, to complete it. They had only surveyed thirty-one millions of hec tares, or sixty-eight millions of acres. The annual expense of the survey is L.120,000.

It is common to dwell on the advantages of France, as situated in the centre of civilized nations, as raising within herself a great variety of products, and as capable o conducting her manufactures with comparatively few imports. Those, however, who have studied the subject thoroughly, will pronounce her real advantages to consist in a temperate climate, in a territory upon the whole tertile, in a considerable extent of sea-coast, and in the possession of military strength sufficient to protect her from aggression. As yet neither the capital nor labour of the French have been skilfully directed; but the disposition to industry exists, and needs only a judicious impulse.

The taxation of France, computed by the individual, hardly exceeds L.l. Ils. (English value) per head, whilst that of Britain and Ireland is not less than L.3. 10s. per head. This, however, is a very inconclusive comparison, the question being not the relative number of the inhabitants, but the result of their productive industry. Μ. Chaptai computes (vol. i. p. 225) the value of the land and farming capital of France at fifteen hundred millions sterling, to which making an addition for the difference of money, and a further addition for the capital employed [7:10:210]in manufacture and commerce, we arrive at an amount l not unlike the very large sum which Mr Colquhoun gives '(see the article England, page 149) for the collective capital of Great Britain and Ireland. But we fix, by preference, the attention of our readers on the annual produce.
[table]

But the conclusive return, that which leads to a correct calculation of political strength, is the nett produce of the year.
[table]

The commercial calculation is taken from the propertytax return of 1810, deducting twenty-five per cent, and making an addition for Ireland. Neither the income from the public funds, nor the wages of labour, are reckoned in either country.

In France, the lower orders, from the moderate price of provisions, are placed above distress by wages which to us appear very low. Those of the country labourer in France (Chaptai, vol. i. p. 245) are only Is. or Is. Id. a day; of masons, Is. 3d. and Is. 4d.; of mechanics in towns, Is. 6d., Is. 8d∙, Is. 10d.; the whole without victuals, or any additional allowance. The wages of the women are a full third lower.^[71. ' These returns apply not to Paris, but to provincial towns of ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand inhabitants. The want of canals causes a partial difference in the price of provisions, but in no degree to the extent asserted by those who (Edinburgh Review, No. 6∙i, p. 362) adopt too readily the loose allegations so general in France. The cheapness of land carriage would speedily counteract it. ]

According to official returns for 1827, in Paris, the following is the average price of labour in different mechanical trades:

Tobacco manufacturers, from 2s. 9d. to Is. 3d. per day. Fan-makers; men, 2s. Id.; women, Is. 0⅜d.; children, tìd. Paper-stainers; men, 2s. 6d. to 3. 4d.; women, Is. 3d. to

Is. 8d.; children, 8d. to 10d.

Lapidaries, 3s. 4d.

Working jewellers, 2s. Id. to 3β. 9d.

Marble-workers and statuaries, 2s. Id. to 5s.

Glass-manufacturers, 3s. 4d.

Lithographic printers, Is. 3d. to 4s. Id.

Gas-work labourers, 2s. 3⅜d.

On an average of twelve years, the wages of labour in the following trades are represented as follows, from 1817 to 1828, from official returns:
[table]

The difference in the expense of living between France and our country is about a third, that is, L.100 in France is equivalent to L.130 or L.140 in the southern, and to L.120 or L.130 in the northern part of our island. The difference, as far as regards provisions, is somewhat greater; but it receives a counterpoise in the cheapness of our fuel. The proportion now mentioned will be found applicable to the expense of the middle, as well as of the lower ranks. It will be found equally general in the sense of locality, being applicable to France and Britain at large, provided the parallel be made between towns or districts at a similar distance from either capital, Paris being as expensive compared to the rest of France, as London is compared to the rest of England. Fortunately for us, the French have not paid much attention to the price, either of labour or fuel, in the places, such as Paris and Rouen, where they have established their rival manufactures. Another remarkable circumstance is, that various kinds of work, when performed by the piece, are nearly as dear in France as in England; so unaccustomed are our neigh-hours[7:10:211] to simplify a task by the application of method, or the division of employment.

In the end of the seventeenth century, the territory of France, when equal, or very nearly equal, to its present extent, appears, from the report of the intendants or provincial governors, to have contained about 20,000,000 of inhabitants. This number was found, by the census made by order of the National Assembly, to have increased nearly a third in the course of a century; the amount, in 1791, being 26,363,600, a numřer which, by the latest*

computation, made in 1817, had further increased to above 29,000,000. In the year 1820 the population was 30,451,187; and, according to the ordonnance of January 1832, it amounted to 32,661,078. The marriages are annually about 236,996, and the deaths about 785,268, of which 395,250 are males, and 388,018 females. The births are 967,533, of which there are 498,707 boys and 468,826 girls. The number of illegitimate children is 68,081. The average population of France is 144 inhabitants to the square mile.

Population of France in 1831, distinguished bg Provinces and Departments.
[table]

The estimates of population in France subsequently to 1791 are formed, not, like our population returns, on an actual survey, but by adding for the period which has intervened, the births, and deducting the deaths, of which an accurate record is kept in the public offices. It is thus difficult to compute the relative number engaged in different occupations; a late publication (by Count de Laborde) ∞ntains the following estimate:
[table]

Large as is this proportion of agriculturists, it does not [7:10:212]exceed, nor indeed equal, the proportion returned in the official census of 1791.
[table]

That the proportion of our population inhabiting towns is greater than in France, is at once ascertained by taking the aggregate of twenty of the largest cities in each. For France, that aggregate is about 1,700,000; for Britain and Ireland, 2,300,000.

The ratio of the increase of population in France is greatest in the lower classes; the middling and upper ranks have seldom large families. Men in such stations in France are much less habituated to steady industry than in England; the openings in trade to respectable employment and eventual competency are comparatively fewer; and, in many situations, the incomes are adequate to the support of an individual only. In that country, as with us, the population evidently increases faster since the adoption of vaccine inoculation. The climate and soil are in general not less salubrious than those of Britain, and the advantages attendant on agricultural habits are enjoyed by a much greater proportion of the population; but a considerable waste of health, and even of life, takes place from the crowded nature of the towns, and the damp position of many of the cottages. A want of comfort on the part of the lower orders tends, along with their deficient cleanliness, to the same result; but, on the other hand, the general activity, temperance, and cheerfulness of the people, are all in favour of health and longevity.

XIII. government.

The charter in virtue of which Louis XVIII. ascended the throne of his ancestors is the basis of the present government of France. The following are the leading provisions of this memorable and solemn compact, concluded between the sovereign and the people.

The king is declared the supreme head of the executive power, in whom is vested the power of declaring war and making peace; the command of the national force, whether by land or sea; and the nomination of all ministers, ambassadors, and other public functionaries, civil and military. He has the power of granting pardons and commuting punishments; and by the original charter he might issue ordonnances and regulations, such as the orders in council in England, for the benefit and security of the state; but this clause has been annulled by the chamber, as it was made the pretext for the arbitrary proceedings which produced the revolution of 1830. The person of his majesty is declared to be sacred and inviolable; and his ministers alone are held responsible for all acts of administration.

The legislative power is exercised by two chambers, the Chamber of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies, in conjunction with the king, without whose concurrence no measure can have the authority of law. He has the power of convoking, proroguing, and dissolving the Chamber of Deputies; with this provision, however, that in the latter case a new chamber must be re-assembled within three months after the dissolution. It is further declared in this charter of French freedom, that all Frenchmen, either by birth or naturalization, are to be considered as equal in the eye of the law; that the Roman Catholic and apostolic faith shall be considered as the established religion of the state; and that all persons, whatever may be their religious faith, shall be protected in its exercise, and admissible to all civil and military offices. The clause respecting the national religion was altered after the expulsion of Louis XVIII., on Napoleon’s return from Elba, it being declared, merely as a matter of fact, that the Catholic was the religion of the majority of the French, but not the religion of the state, which gave not its sanction to one particular mode of faith more than another.

The two chambers form an important part of the French« constitution. The Chamber of Peers consists of no defini-1 tive number, as the king has the unlimited power of creating peers. The number of peers in 1826 was 214, and in 1827 it was increased to 290 by the creation of seventy-six new peers. But this great and sudden addition to the peerage being considered as an unconstitutional exercise of the prerogative by Charles X., was declared null and void after his abdication; and in 1833 the number of peers, including five princes of the blood and several new creations, only amounted to 262. Louis XVIII. could by his prerogative convoke this chamber when that of the Deputies was not sitting. But this power was withheld in the new charter of 1830, excepting in the case of the chamber sitting as a court of justice; and on such occasions it is strictly confined to its judicial functions. No meeting of the chamber can take place except by an express order of the king; and it is convoked by bis majesty at the same time as the Chamber of Deputies, the session of the one commencing and finishing at the same time with that of the other. A peer of France may be admitted into the chamber at the age of twenty-five; but he is not admitted to the exercise of any prerogative until he has completed his thirtieth year. Members of the royal family and princes of the blood are peers by birth, and sit and vote in the house after the age of twenty-five. Every peer receives a summons from the king to attend the chamber, without which authority he may be refused admittance by the usher. The chamber takes cognizance of high treason, and of all crimes committed against the security and peace of the state; and on these high occasions the peers are convened by a special summons from the king. No peer can be arrested except by the authority of the chamber. Those who were members of the senate during Bonaparte’s reign were created peers after his abdication, and their pensions of L.1500 a year were confirmed. By an ordonnance of Louis XVII1. no person could be created a peer unless he possessed a certain entailed property in trust or in the funds, producing, in order to enable him merely to support the title of a duke, a clear income of 15,000 francs, or L.625 perannum; for the title of a marquis, 10,000 francs; and for viscounts and barons, 5000 francs. In order to exercise the privileges of a peer of France, double the amount of clear income is required. Several members of the present chamber who were created by Louis XV1II. receive pensions equal to the amount required. Others of the ancient regime, as well as of those lately created, possess a larger revenue than the law requires [7:10:213]for the maintenance of their rank, and of course receive no pensions. The sum annually disbursed for the support of peers, or their widows, amounts to 1,634,000 francs. The chancellor of France, formerly appointed by the king, was president of the Chamber of Peers, and received an annual salary of 100,000 francs. Since the revolution of 1830 this office has been abolished, and a speaker or president is now appointed by the chamber.

this popular branch of the French legislature consisted, according to the original provisions of the charter, of 258 members, who were elected by a committee of voters (collège électoraD, each paying direct taxes to the amount of L.40 per annum, and who were delegated to elect a deputy by a lower class of electors, whose qualification was the payment of L.12 per annum of direct taxes. One fifth of the chamber was to be renewed every year; so that every five years the whole would be re-elected anew. In 1817 a law was passed abrogating the intermediate class of electors, and giving to all the voters the right of immediately electing the deputy; and in 1821 the plan of renewing the chamber by one fifth at a time was also abrogated, and a law was passed for dissolving and re-electing the whole assembly at once. It was at the same time provided that 172 members should be added to the chamber, thus making the whole number 430; and in order to counteract the democratic influence which was supposed to predominate in the chamber, the right of electing those members was confined to the departmental college, or the fourth part of the voters, who paid the highest amount of direct taxes, and who, besides this exclusive right of voting for these 172 members, had aright to vote along with the other electors of the arrondissement for the other members of the chamber. In 1831 a new electoral law was passed, reducing the qualification of the electors to 200 francs (L.8. 6s. 8d.), and also the age from thirty to twenty-five years, and reducing the qualification of deputies from forty to thirty years of age, and the pecuniary qualification from 1000 to 500 francs. The privileges of the departmental colleges are also abolished; all who are qualified by the payment of direct taxes to the amount of two hundred francs, voting at once for the deputy. It was estimated, that by thus lowering the pecuniary qualification of electors, the number would be increased from 100,000 to 190,000.

In the colleges, the president, formerly appointed by his majesty, is now chosen by the electors. If there be more than 600 electors in an inferior college, it is divided into sections, with not less than 300 electors in each. These sectionselect a vice-president. In the few instances where the total number of electors does not exceed 600 in the whole department, they assemble in one college only. The presidents and vice-presidents have the supreme rule and authority over the regulations and internal police of their respective colleges and sections, whose sittings are restricted to ten days at most. The military are not allowed to interfere in any case.

The votes are collected with the utmost care and accuracy. Each elector must write his name, qualification, and residence, and hand it, previous to giving his vote, to the president, who deposits it in an urn along with all the other suffrages of the electors, whose names are inscribed on a register by the secretary, or by one of the scrutineers; and it is not seen by any person before it is thrown into the general urn. The names are then taken out, read, counted, and a list made, specifying the number of votes given to each candidate. The papers on which are written the names of the candidates are then committed to the flames. All possible means are thus employed to secure secrecy; and no public functionary can incur the least hazard though he were to vote against the minister under whom he is employed.

The prefect of the department decides, in the first instance, on the validity of the qualifications claimed by the electors, and makes out and publishes annually a list of all whom he considers as entitled to vote. Those who are rejected by the prefect, from whatever cause, have their appeal to the cour royale; and if any dispute arise relative to the payment of their contributions, or their civil or political residence, their case is decided by the conseil d’ état. An order from either of these courts is binding on the prefect; and if he afterwards refuse to insert the name in the list of electors, he incurs a penalty of from 300 to 500 francs, and is interdicted from exercising his functions for twenty years. No prefect, sub-prefect, or general officer commanding a military division, can be elected for the department in which he exercises his functions.

The French Chamber of Deputies, consisting of430 members, chosen for 86 departments, is equivalent in its ∣κ>wer, influence, and privileges, to the House of Commons in the legislature of Britain. They are both the representatives of the people, whose influence, when it is exerted through this legitimate organ, is and must ever be irresistible. The original charter of Louis XVIII. assigned to the monarch the exclusive right of proposing all public measures; and it was necessary, in proposing any new law, to move an address to his majesty, praying that it might be presented to the chamber for its adoption. The charter of 1830 dispenses with this form, and gives the right of initiating laws to all the branches of the legislature, with the exception of taxation bills, which must originate, as in Britain, with the representatives of the people. The proceedings of the chamber are regulated by a president, who was formerly chosen by the king out of five members, presented to him by the assembly; but is now chosen by the deputies themselves at the commencement of each session. The session is always opened by a speech in the Chamber of Deputies from the throne; but the minister of the interior prorogues the session by the command of his majesty. When the session commences, bureaux, oτ special committees, nine in number, are formed, and they are periodically renewed; and when any new law is presented to the chamber on the part of the king, it is referred in the first instance to these special committees; if the law be approved by two or more of them, it is reported by the chamber, when the principle of the measure is considered and discussed by the chamber, and the clauses are afterwards voted article by article; which proceedings correspond to the second reading and the committal of a bill in the British parliament. The decision of the bureaux i⅛ reported by the chairman or rapporteur, to the whole chamber; which, so far from being guided by this report, very frequently pronounces an opposite decision. The special clauses of a law are voted by assis et levée; those who are for the law, the ayes, rising, and those who are against the law, the noes, keeping their places. The vote on the whole measure is by secret scrutiny, the ayes being indicated by white balls, and the noes by black ones, thrown into an urn placed on the tribune of the chamber. The sittings of the chamber are public; but on the demand of any five members, all strangers are excluded, and the house forms itself into a private committee. To form a chamber, the presence of half the members is necessary. No deputy can be arrested for debt during the sitting of the chamber, nor within six weeks previous to its assembling, or six weeks subsequent to its prorogation; and if arrested at any other period, he must be liberated during the session; nor can any deputy be arrested or prosecuted for a criminal charge, except he be detected in the act, unless by permission of the chamber. The senators of Bonaparte received each a salary of 10,000 francs per annum. The deputies to the chamber receive no salary. The president, the secretaries, and the officers attached to [7:10:214]the chambers, such as questeur», huissiers, &c. are the only persons paid. The salary of the president was, under the Bourbon regime, 100,000 francs per annum, besides a furnished hotel, horses, equipage, &c. But it has been reduced by the stern economy of these reforming times to 4000 francs per month, payable only during the session.

The executive department of the government is administered by the king and his cabinet council, consisting of nine ministers, viz.

1. The minister of finance, whose business it is to receive the taxes from the receivers-general, and all the other revenues of government. He disburses the payments for the other departments of the state, for the interest of the public debt, and all pensions, &c. To this ministry are attached certain other offices, the chiefs of which are called directors; namely, directors-general of taxes, customs, registries and domains, ports, lottery, woods and forests, and the mint. The salary of the minister of finance was reduced by the Chamber of Deputies from 150,000 to 120,000 francs per annum, and the salaries of the directors vary from 40,000 to 50,000 francs per annum. The revenue is conveyed to the treasury through various subordinate offices. There is a percepteur or collector in each commune, who pays his collections to the special receiver for each arrondissement, who transmits the revenue to the general receiver of taxes for the department, by whom it is, lastly, remitted to the office of the finance minister.

2. The minister of the interior. This minister is one of the most important functionaries of the state. He is in direct correspondence with all the civil authorities of the kingdom; no local tax can be imposed, nor any disbursements made, in any of the departments, districts, or communes, without his authority. The general police of the kingdom, with all its various details, is under his superintendence, as well as all public roads and bridges, mines, public buildings, all poor-houses, charities, and hospitals, the national guard of France, the censorship of the theatre, the royal institute, the public libraries and government archives, the examination of all passports, and all reports from prefects and sub-prefects of departments. He takes cognizance also of the press. He has directors under him, who relieve him from the trouble of details. His salary is 120,000 francs.

3. Minister of justice and keeper of the seals. He is at the head of the law department, though he seldom presides in any court of justice. He corresponds with the law officers of the crown throughout France, and takes cognizance of all cases of criminals after conviction, and of all applications for royal mercy. His salary is 120,000 francs.

4. Minister of marine, who has the direction of the navy and the colonies of France. His salary is 120,000 francs.

5. Minister of foreign affairs. His duties are expressed in his designation. All passports to cross the frontiers must be nominally countersigned by him. His salary is 150,000 francs.

6. Minister of war. He superintends of course the whole service of the army and navy. He has also the sole control of the gunpowder and saltpetre manufactories, barracks, military hospitals, &c., and the government founderies and manufactories of small arms. He has also the charge of organizing and inspecting the corps of gendarmerie or garde municipale of Paris, as well as in all the departments. Salary 120,000 francs.

7. Minister of ecclesiastical affairs. His salary is 120,000 francs.

8. Minister of public instruction. His functions are strictly confined to secular education. He nominates the different functionaries in the public academies and faculties, authorizes the opening of private boarding-schools for both sexes, and regulates the works to be used in these seminaries; he grants diplomas in law and medicine, superintends the receipts of colleges, fixes the pensions of retired functionaries, grants aids and indemnities to collegiate corporations, and generally takes cognizance of all institutions ' for public instruction. He has a council of nine members, of which he is president. His salary is 100,000 francs.

9. Minister of commerce and manufactures. This is a new office, of which the business partly belonged to the minister of finance and the minister of the interior. He corresponds with the chambers of commerce; nominates exchange-brokers, with the exception of those in Paris, who are nominated by the minister of finance; examines all demands made for the establishment of assurance offices, their rules and regulations; grants patents for inventions, establishes or suppresses fairs or markets, judges of the qualifications of candidates for the office of judges in any of the commercial courts, and has an especial jurisdiction over all that may be deemed necessary for the prosperity of commerce and manufactures. His salary is 120,000 francs.

Besides these cabinet ministers, the king has a privy council, the members of which are seldom summoned; the public business being entirely managed by the cabinet council. The king formerly presided at the meetings of this council; but since the last revolution, the presence of the king has not been so frequent, and is now usually dispensed with.

Each of these ministers presents to the Chamber of Deputies his own budget of expenses, which is examined by a committee specially appointed for the purpose. It is competent for these committees to propose a reduction in the items of these ministerial budgets, which may be adopted by the chamber, as in 1828, when the salaries of ministers were reduced 30,000 francs per annum, besides other modifications that were proposed. After these various budgets have been considered and discussed, the general account of the national expenditure is considered and put to the vote.

Ministers of state. These are nominal functionaries, and the appointments are generally given to retired cabinet ministers, as a reward for past services. The pension was formerly 20,000 francs per annum, but since the revolution of '1830 it has been restricted to 12,000 francs a year.

Council of state (conseil d’état). The councillors of state are appointed by the king eitherfor ordinary or extraordinary service, or as mere honorary members of the council, at which, since the restoration, the keeper of the seals always presides. This council deliberates, in the first place, on all bills or projets de loi, which are laid before them by the ministers before they are submitted to the chambers. The ministers, as well as the directors of the several administrations, have a seat in this council, which for ordinary affairs is limited to twenty-four members, and is divided into four sections. 1. For legislation and litigation, which is by far the most important in the council of the state, as it deliberates on all law projects and regulations respecting civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical affairs, brought under its consideration by the respective ministers. It is in fact ♯ tribunal which decides all matters in dispute between individuals and officers of the state; and its decisions are final. 2. The section of the interior takes cognizance of all matters connected with internal and colonial commerce, public roads, bridges, canals, mines, departmental police, &c. 3. and 4. The section of finance, and the section of war and marine, take charge of all matters connected with their respective departments. The councillors of state on actual or ordinary service receive a salary of 12,000 francs a year, a deduction being made if they enjoy any other situation of emolument under government. Those who are employed on extraordinary service have generally other situations, and receive no salary whatever. To the council of state are attached the maitres de requites, appointed likewise for ordinary and extraordinary service, but some are merely honorary. Their business is to draw up all acts of council, for which [7:10:215]they receive a salary of 6000 francs a year. The office of maitre de reyuétes may be considered as the first step towards ' the rank of councillor of state. There are also auditeurs, who are merely present at the discussions of the council, for the purpose of initiating themselves in the routine of business, and who receive no salary.

Audit office, or cour des comptes. It is the business of this court to receive and examine all the accounts of the different ministers, and those of the receivers-general and prefects of the departments; and to certify the correctness of the general accounts published every year by the minister of finance. The ordinary business of this court is managed by three chambers, each having a president; and there is also a chief president, who sits when these chambers are united. There is also a councillor of reference in each chamber (référendaire), whose duty is the verification of the accounts; also a procureur-general, whose office corresponds to that of solicitor of some of the public offices in England, and who sees that all the necessary accounts are delivered into this office within the period fixed by law, and who, in case of neglect, proceeds against the offending parties for the penalties they have incurred. There is likewise a chief registrar, in whose custody remain all the accounts and vouchers transmitted to his office.

The revenue of the king, or the civil list, was fixed at the restoration, by the budget of 1814, at 15,510,000 francs per annum; and a further grant was made to the other branches of the royal family of four millions a year. By the budget of 1816 the income of the king was augmented to thirty millions; but at the accession of Charles X. it was fixed at twenty-five millions, whilst the allowances to the other branches of the royal family were increased to seven millions a year. The royal household, as it is designated, includes the following appointments:
[table]

There were, besides, thirteen palaces, each with a separate and expensive establishment; a large sum was annually paid in pensions; and, under the heads of music, the wardrobe, medical establishment, stables, the annual disbursements amounted to between two and three millions of francs. The support of the magnificent manufactory of ∣x>rceluin at Sevres, and the manufactory of tapestry at Gobelins in Paris, cost a large annual sum; the expenses connected with the garde meuble, where the crown jewels and royal insignia were kept, and the expense of coining medals, were considerable; the establishments for the support of the museum of painting and sculpture at Paris amounted to nearly three millions of francs a year; an annual sum of 80,000 francs was allowed for the support of the Italian opera, and a sum of 45,000 francs for the encouragement of sacred music. After the revolution of 1830, the civil list of Louis Philippe was settled in 1832; and in fixing his allowances the chamber had two matters to deal with; the royal domains, which had hitherto been appendages of the crown, and the money-grant of an annual allowance. The real property of the crown consisted of the Louvre, the Tuileries with their dependencies, the Elysée Bourbon, the chateaux, houses, buildings, manufactories, lands, meadows, farms, woods and forests, composing the domains of Versailles, Marly, Saint Cloud, Meudon, St Germain-en-Laye, Rambouillet, Compiègne, Fontainebleau, Strasburg, Bordeaux, Pau, and others. Of these, the chateau of St Gennuin-en-Laye, and those of Strasburg and Bordeaux, with several other items, amounting to L.626,000, were taken from the crown, and made applicable to the purposes of the state. The money allowance to the king was fixed at twelve millions of francs, or L.500,000 per annum; and the annual sum of one million of francs, or L.41,666, was allowed to the prince royal; and the allowances to the daughters were to be regulated by special laws.

The system of provincial government throughout France is simple and effective. The kingdom is at present divid-1 ed into eighty-six departments, with their capital towns. These departments are subdivided into 362 arrondissements or districts, 2842 cantons, and 39,381 communes. In each department the prefect is the chief magistrate, and, as well as the sub-prefect, is paid by government in proportion to the population and the extent of his jurisdiction, the salary varying from 40,000 to 10,000 francs a year, whilst that of the sub-prefect is 4000 francs. The prefect of the department of the Seine has 100,000 francs a year. To each prefecture and sub-prefecture are attached councillors (conseillers de préfecture, and conseillers d’arrondissement), who are likewise paid by government; and he has, besides, a general council, composed of the most opulent and respectable persons in the department, appointed by the king, which he convokes when necessary; and before this council he lays all public matters for its approbation. He is at the head of the police and of the national guard within his prefecture It is his business to superintend all necessary repairs of public buildings, bridges, fortresses, walls and barriers of close towns, 4c.; to fix the seat of voiries (for the reception of rubbish, of ful, ⅛c.), slaughter-houses, and manufactories considered as dangerous to health; to direct the cleaning and paving of streets and high-roads; to inspect all ports, quays, common sewers, fountains, poorhouses and hospitals, prisons, &c. He superintends public libraries, museums, primary schools; fixes the price of bread; and grants passports. He is in correspondence with all the subordinate functionaries in his department, as well as with the minister of the interior, from whom he receives instructions to settle the question of all general taxes, and to provide for the public expenses of the department. He receives the produce of the octroi, a custom-duty levied on all articles of general consumption as they enter the town; and of all the rents of government entrepôts; of stalls and shambles in public markets; of slaughter-houses; of the proceeds from the sale of manure; as well as fines of police, and other imposts. One tenth of the octroi is only paid to the government; and out of the remainder, and from other funds, he defrays all the local expenses of police, lighting and cleaning streets. AU his accounts are transmitted to the minister of the interior, who sends them to the cour des comptes. The functions of a sub-prefect are the same as those of a prefect. A juge de paix is at the head of every canton, who has also similar duties, and is, besides, employed in deciding civil suits to a certain amount. The mayors of the communes possess similar powers to those of the prefects of departments; and their receipts and expenses are provided for in a similar manner. In case of their requiring any extra funds for local expenses, they have the authority of the legislature to raise a contribution caUed centimes communaux from the inhabitants of the commune. To the office of mayor are attached municipal councillors, who have the same functions as the general council of the prefecture. The mayor may celebrate marriages, and at [7:10:216]the mairie of the commune a marriage register is kept, as well as one of births and deaths; a notice of which the relatives of the parties are obliged to deposit at the office of the mayor, under a penalty of a fine in case of neglect. There is in every town a commissary of police, who is paid according to its population. Paris is divided into twelve mairies, called municipal arrondissements, in each of which is a mayor with two assistants. It is also distinguished from all other cities by having a prefect of police, who has very extensive functions, exercising all the multifarious duties of police within its precincts, having under his immediate orders the whole corps of police officers, the forty-eight commissaries of police belonging to Paris, and the corps of firemen.

The most comprehensive, though the least ancient, order, is that of the Legion d Honneur; an order instituted by Bonaparte, and maintained on nearly the same plan by the Bourbons. The usual title to admission is the discharge of functions, either civil or military, with distinction; and, in time of war, the performance of an action of eclat. The gradations are, chevaliers, of whom the number is unlimited, and very great; officiers, who amount to no less than two thousand; commandeurs, to the number of four hundred; grand officiers, a hundred and sixty; and grand croix, to the number of eighty. A member must serve several years as a chevalier before becoming an officer, and the same progressively through the other ranks. Admissions take place once, and frequently twice a year; a specific number being allotted to each great department of the public service, the military, the judicial, and the administrative.

The other orders are, that of St Louis, which is strictly military; that of St Michel, which dates from 1469, is limited to a hundred members, and is conferred as a recompense for distinction in science, literature, or the arts. Eminent professional men and artists, and the authors of discoveries of public utility, constitute the members of this order. The order du St Esprit, created in 1578, and of the very highest rank, comprises princes of the blood, prelates, and members of the order of St Michel; the whole being limited to the number of a hundred.

XIV. LAW, AND ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

In this great department France shows nothing of the backwardness apparent in her situation in many other respects, but is entitled to the particular attention of other nations, and of none more than our own. Law does not rest on tradition, nor is it necessary to study it in a never-ending accumulation of decisions. It is reduced to a compact and definite form, the result of a code formed recently, and with all the benefit of the application of the knowledge of an enlightened age to the principles of jurisprudence. Nothing could be more irregular than the administration of justice in France before the Revolution. The first stage of a process took place before judges appointed, not by the king, but by the seigneur or lord of the district. These judges had power to impose a fine, to decree a short imprisonment or other correctional punishment, and to give, in a civil suit, a decision subject to appeal. The seneschals and baillis ranked a degree higher, and were entitled to give a verdict in cases of importance, subject, however, to an appeal to one or other of the parliaments, of which there were in all thirteen in France; and which, very different from the parliaments with which we are familiar, were composed of judges and public officers of rank. The whole of this unharmonious mass was reduced into a simple and uniform system by the National Assembly in 1791; the seignoral judges being replaced by justices of the peace, and every district of importance (arrondissement) obtaining its court, or tribunal de premiere instance. The higher courts were not added till afterwards, but the judges of every description were elected by the inhabitants of the province, a right which continued with them until the usurpation of Bonaparte.

But there remained for the National Assembly another and a much more laborious work. Each province had its peculiar code, some founded on the Roman law, others on tradition and local custom, but the whole replete with ambiguity and discrepancy. To digest a complete body of law, that might suffice for the country at large, and supersede the provincial codes, was the labour of many years, and of a number of eminent lawyers. It was not completed until the beginning of the present century, when it was promulgated under Bonaparte, and gave to the jurisprudence and judicial constitution of France nearly the form they at present bear. This body of law consists of five codes, entitled respectively, 1. Code Civil ; 2. Code de Procédure Civile ; 3. Code de Commerce ; 4. Code d’ Instruction Criminelle; 5. Code Pénal.

The Code Civil, the first and by far the most comprehensive of these divisions, defines the rights of persons in their various capacities of citizens, parents, sons, daughters, guardians, minors, married, unmarried. It next treats of property in its respective modes of acquisition and possession, as inheritances, marriage portions, sales, leases, loans, bonds, and mortgages.

The Code de Procedure Civile prescribes the manner of proceeding before the different courts of justice, beginning with the juge de paix; also the mode of carrying into effect sentences, whether for the payment of damages, the distraining of goods, or the imprisoning of the party condemned. It declares likewise the course to be followed in transactions distinct from those of the law courts; as in arbitration, taking possession of an inheritance, or a separation of property between man and wife.

The Code de Commerce begins by defining the duties of certain officers or commercial agents, such as sworn brokers and appraisers: it next treats of partnerships; of sales and purchases; of bills of exchange; of shipping, freight, and insurance; of temporary suspensions of payment, and bankruptcies.

The Code d’Instruction Criminelle, a very different but equally important division, explains the duties of all public officers connected with the judicial police, whether mayors, assistants of mayors (adjoints), procureurs du roi, juges d’instruction, &c. After prescribing the rules regarding evidence, it regulates the manner of appointing juries, and the questions which fall within their competency. Its further dispositions relate to the mode and nature of appeals, and to the very unpopular courts authorized to try state offences, termed Cours Speciales under Bonaparte, and Cours Prévotales under the Bourbons.

Lastly, the Code Pénul describes the punishments awarded for offences in all the variety of gradation, from the penalties of the police correctionnelle, to the severest sentence of the law. All offences are classed under two general heads; state offences, such as counterfeiting coin, resisting police officers, sedition, rebellion; and offences against individuals, as calumny, false evidence, manslaughter, murder.

These codes, the first attempt to reduce the laws of a great nation to the compass of a volume, consist of a number of sections and short paragraphs, each paragraph marked by a number, as a means of reference. The style is as concise as is compatible with clearness. The arrangement is minute and elaborate. The whole is sold for a few shillings, in the shape of one octavo or of two duodecimo volumes; and copies of it are in the possession not only of all judges, pleaders, and attomies, but of agents, merchants, and persons in business generally, who, without being enabled by it to dispense with the aid of lawyers[7:10:217] in a suit, find in it a variety of useful explanations relative to questions of frequent occurrence in their respective occupations.

The justices of the peace are very numerous, there being one for each canton, and consequently nearly three thousand in the kingdom. They never are, as in England, clergymen, and seldom country gentlemen, but persons acquainted with law, and in circumstances which make the salary, small as it is (from L.30 to L.40), an acceptable return for a portion of their time. They are not unfrequently provincial attomies, or pleaders retired from business. The justice of the peace, or juge de paix, is authorized to pronounce finally in petty questions (under fifty francs, or L.2); and to give, in questions of somewhat greater amount (up to a hundred francs, or L.4), a decision subject to appeal. He takes cognizance likewise of disputes about tenants’ repairs, servants’ wages, and the displacing of the landmarks of property. No action can be brought before a court of justice in France until the plaintiff has summoned his adversary before a juge de paix, with an amicable intent (cité en conciliation), and received from the juge a procès verbal, showing that the difference could not be adjusted. When the justice is prevented from acting, his place is taken by his first, and, if necessary, by his second substitute.

: Of the Primary Courts there is one for every arrondissement, making above three hundred and sixty for the whole of France. Each is composed of three or four members, of two or three suppléons or assistant members, and of a procureur du roi acting on the part of the crown. In populous districts, cours de premiere instance comprehend six, seven, eight, or more members, and are divided into two or three chambers. They are chiefly occupied with questions of civil law, and hold, in the extent of their jurisdiction, a medium between the humble limits of the juge de paix and the wide powers of the cour royales their decisions being final wherever the income from a property does not exceed forty shillings, or the principal forty pounds, but subject, in greater matters, to an appeal to the cour royale. The members of these inferior courts are named, like other judges, by the crown, and hold their places for life; the salary of each is only L.80 a year, equal to L.120 in England; their number, throughout all France, including suppléons, is not far short of 3000-

A section of the Tribunal de Première Instance is appropriated to the trial of offences, under the name of Tribunal de Police Correctionnelle s and here the English reader must be careful to distinguish between judicial and government police; the former having no reference to state offences, such as libel or treason, but comprehending a very numerous list of another kind, viz, all offences which do not amount to crimes, or subject the offender to a punishment afflictif ou infamant. These offences, when slight, are called contraventions de police, and are brought before a juge de paix, or the mayor of the commune; when of a graver stamp, and requiring a punishment exceeding five days’ imprisonment, or a fine of fifteen francs, they are brought before the court now mentioned, whose sentences, in point of imprisonment, may extend to the term of five years. The trespasses brought before a justice of the peace or mayor are such as damaging standing corn, driving incautiously in the highway, endangering a neighbour’s property by neglecting repairs. The offences referred to the Tribunal Correctionnel are such as assault and battery, swindling, privately stealing, using false weights or measures, &c.

We now come to the higher courts of justice, which equal in jurisdiction our courts in Westminster Hall and on the circuit, but with the material distinction, that in France the civil courts are always stationary. The Cours Royales, in number twenty-seven, are attached to the chief provincial towns throughout the kingdom. They are all formed on the same model, and possessed of equal power, though differing materially in extent of business and number of members. The number of the latter depends on the population of the tract of country (generally three departments), subject to the jurisdiction of the court. In a populous quarter, like Normandy, a cour royale comprehends twenty, twenty-five, or even thirty judges, and is divided into three or four chambers, of which one performs the duty of an English grand jury, in deciding on the bills of indictment (mises en accusation) ; another is for the trial of offences (police correctionnelle); and a third, with perhaps a fourth, is for civil suits. These courts are often called Cours d’Appel as all the cases which come before them must have been previously tried by an inferior court. The collective number of judges in these higher courts is not short of nine hundred; an aggregate hardly credible to an English reader, and which would prove a very serious charge on the public purse, were not their salaries very moderate, viz. from L.100 to L.300 a year, according to the population of the towns where the court is held. In the financial pressure of 1816 and 1817, a reduction of this numerous body was much called for; but no diminution was made in the number of the courts, whatever gradual decrease may be allowed to take place in the members from decease or retirement.

Paris does not, like London and Edinburgh, absorb almost all the civil business of the country. It has, it is true, a cour royale on a large scale (five chambers and fifty judges), but confined in its jurisdiction to the metropolis and the seven adjacent departments. There is a procureur du roi for every tribunal de première instance, and a procureur general for every cour d’ appel.

The Assize Courts take cognizance exclusively of criminal cases; that is, of the crimes or serious offences referred to them by the cours royales. They consist of three, four, or five judges, members of the cours royales, -but never belonging to the section that finds the indictments. The grand accompaniment of a French assize court is a jury, which, as in England, consists of twelve members, and decides on the facts of the case, leaving the application of the law to the judges. Complete unanimity was at no time necessary in a French jury. At first a majority of ten to two was required; but this was subsequently altered to a simple majority, with the qualification that, in case of condemnation by only two voices (seven to five), the verdict should be re-considered by the judges, and the party acquitted, if, on taking judges and jurymen collectively, there was a majority in his favour. The assizes are the only courts in France that are not stationary. They are, however, generally held in the chief town of a department once in three months. The costs of suit are very exactly defined by a printed tarif; and it is a rule in criminal as in civil cases, that the party condemned is liable for all.

The Special Courts were constituted out of the usual course for the trial of state offences. The Cours Spéciales were appointed by Bonaparte, the Prévotales during the period of political effervescence (fortunately short lived) which succeeded the second entry of the king, and the misfortunes brought on the nation by Bonaparte’s return from Elba. In both cases, the courts were considered as under the influence of government, and were of course obnoxious to the enlightened part of the public.

The name of Tribunal or court, is given in France to a committee of five merchants, or leading tradesmen, appointed by the mercantile body in every town of considerable business or population. Their competency extends to all disputes occurring in mercantile business, and fall-ins? within the provisions of the code de commerce. Their [7:10:218] decisions are founded on that code, and on the customs of merchants. They are final in all cases below L.40. The presence of three members is necessary to form a court. The duty is performed gratuitously; and the number of these courts in France is about a hundred and sixty.

The Court of Cassation, the highest in the kingdom, is held at Paris, and is composed of three chambers, each of sixteen members and a president, making, with the premier president, a total of fifty-two. Its province is to decide definitively in all appeals from the decrees of the cours royales; investigating not the facts of the case, but the forms of law, and ordering, wherever these have been infringed or deviated from, a new trial before another cour royale. This revision takes place in criminal as well as in civil cases. The royal court chosen for the new trial is generally, for the convenience of the parties, the nearest in situation to the other. The Cour de Cassation has farther powers, and of the highest kind. It determines all differences as to jurisdiction between one court and another, and exercises a control over every court in the kingdom. It has power to call the judges to account before the minister of justice, and even to suspend them from their, functions; acting thus as a high tribunal for the maintenance of the established order of judicature.

The minister bearing the title of Keeper of the Seals and Minister of Justice, may be compared to the chancellor of England, though his patronage is much less extensive, and his functions much more suitable to the station of minister. He rarely acts as a judge, but exercises a general superintendence over the judicial body. He is the medium between the king and the courts of justice, in the same way as the minister of the home department is in regard to the civil authorities. The expenses of the judicial body fall under his cognizance. The procureurs généraux and procureurs du roi throughout the kingdom address their correspondence to him; and it is his province to report to the king on the alleviation of punishment, on pardons, in short, on all disputed points, whether of legislation or administration.

Juries were introduced into France in 1791, and confined from the beginning to criminal trials; nor does there seem any wish to extend their jurisdiction to civil suits. During several years there were in France grand juries constituted as in England; but under Bonaparte their functions were transferred to the cours royales, on the plea that none but judges could be made to understand the difference between bringing to trial and bringing to punishment; and that the consequence frequently was a discharge, when a true bill ought to have been found. It has in fact been questioned, whether the institution of juries is advisable in a nation of which the mass is still strongly tinctured with the credulity engendered by blind submission to an absolute government. That the French can supply special jurymen of judgment and discrimination, must be admitted by all who know how eminent are many of their men of business; but by their common juries the nature of evidence is as yet little understood, and considerable experience will be necessary to form to the habit of deliberate reflection individuals so much more open to impressions of feeling than of reasoning. Adroit pleaders have been known to obtain very unexpected acquittals; and it is remarkable that all the charges against French juries turn on their bias to clemency; none on a leaning towards the prosecutor, whatever may be his wealth or rank. The very numerous party called Liberaux maintain, that practice only is wanting to qualify their countrymen to act on juries. They demand, therefore, the restoration of grand juries, and the exclusion of the executive power from interference with the election of common juries, or with the appointment of juges de paix, mayors, or other local magistrates. These encroachments on popular rights all owe their origin to Bonaparte; but they are too convenient for the executive power to be readily relinquished by his successors.

One of the chief improvements made by the French National Assembly was of the nature which now engages the deliberation of our own parliament—a general mitigation of the penal code, or rather the substitution of punishments likely to be enforced, for others of such severity as in general to put their application out of the question. Stealing privately in a dwelling-house was formerly punishable in France by the rack and death; an extreme which prevented respectable persons from bringing delinquents before a court, and tended, of course, to give frequency to the offence.

There still exists in France the singular practice of parties engaged in a law-suit visiting the judges in private; a practice originating in an age when suitors thought a personal interview the only effectual mode of explaining their case, and continued in more enlightened times from that over-complaisance which is the groundwork of several of the defects of the national character. Such interviews are little else than an exchange of compliments; nor have the judges, either before or since the Revolution, been charged with acting under the influence of such ex parte statements.

The salaries of French judges must appear insignificant to an English reader; but there are in that country a number of men of small patrimony but good education, who have no idea of trade or of active pursuits in private life, while they attach much importance to government employment; moreover, the functions of judges, and in general of public officers in France, engross much less time than in England.

The law style of the French is much more brief than ours; their deeds, such as leases, mortgages, and sales, being generally contained in a very few pages, and free from obscure or antiquated phraseology.

Prior to the year 1825 there existed in France no authentic documents respecting the administration of criminal justice in France; and in order to know the nature and the number of the crimes committed during the preceding years, it would have been necessary to look back into the records of every prefecture throughout the country; and such a work, besides its extreme difficulty, would have been too incomplete to be of any utility.^[72. See Essai sur la Statistique Morale de la France, par. A. Μ. Guerry, p. &. ] Within the last seven years, however, the statistics of crime and of criminal justice in France have been made familiar to the world by a series of official reports, in which the details of the criminal calendars throughout France are brought together and perspicuously arranged. In these reports, the crimes and offences brought under consideration are divided into three great branches; the first relating to such crimes as are tried before the courts of assize, with the assistance of a jury; the second to offences of minor importance, decided by correctional tribunals; and the third to such as are disposed of by the ordinary magistrates of police. Of 6962 persons tried in the courts of assize in the year 1830, 3910 were for crimes against property, and 1158 for crimes against the person. This latter class of offences appears to be decreasing. They amounted in 1825 to 2069, in 1826 to 1709, in 1827 to 1911, and in 1828 to 1844. The proportion between the number of persons judicially accused of offences, and the general population of the kingdom, was, in 1829, as one in 4321; and in 1830, as one in 4576. Of the 6962 brought to trial in 1830, 5608 were men, and 1354 were women.
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With respect to the ages of the accused, 114 had not completed their sixteenth year; and 1161 were from sixteen to twenty-one years of age. The whole of the accused were natives of France, with the exception of 216. With regard to education, it appears that the great majority are ignorant; 4319 could neither read nor write, 1826 could only do so imperfectly, only 688 could read and write well, and 129 had received a superior education. It is a curious and rather a consolatory fact, that in the case of the worst crimes, the proportion of the illiterate was the greatest. Thus all that were accused of parricide were grossly ignorant; and rather less than one half of those accused of murder, of theft, &c. were in the same state. We subjoin a table containing the nature of the crimes that were tried before the court of assize by a jury, the number convicted, and their punishments.
[table]
[7:10:220]

Μ. Goldsmith is of opinion, from an attentive examination of the French establishments of criminal police, and from the character of their inmates, that crimes against property are not pursued with the same boldness and systematic combination as in England. Robbery is not regularly pursued there as a profession. “The thieves in France,” he observes, “are not less than a century behind us. The skill and combination which are necessary to the perpetration of a burglary in a banking-house have hitherto been reserved among our neighbours for less objectionable objects. The ordinary incentives to crime are here the vulgar ones of hunger and want.” The public peace in France is maintained by an armed police, or gendarmerie, partly on foot and partly mounted; and in all emergencies, whether arising from seditious meetings, popular assemblies, or any other cause, when this force is found insufficient for the preservation or execution of the laws, the national guard and troops of the line may be called in to assist, being, however, subject to the orders of the police. Since the revolution of 1830 the gendarmerie of Paris have been abolished. They have been replaced by a force termed the garde municipale, the duties of which are nearly the same.

whom 32,575 were acquitted, 5860 were imprisoned for one year and upwards, 20,021 were imprisoned for less than a year, and 150,603 were amerced in a penalty of sixteen francs and upwards. The petty courts have only the power of inflicting five days' imprisonment and a fine of fifteen francs on the offending party. The total number of cases disposed of were 112,114 fined, 4933 imprisoned, and 20,006 acquitted. In France, the prisons, which constitute an important department of the criminal police, are under the special direction of the minister of the interior. His delegates are the prefects; and the jailers or governors of the prisons are called directors. In every city containing a prison there is an inspector-general, who attends to the proper distribution of the provisions, and sees that they are of good quality; he daily visits the prisons, listens to the complaints of the prisoners, and attends to their comforts. The departmental prisons are for the confinement of debtors, for persons to be brought to trial for crimes, and for those who are condemned to imprisonment for a shorter period than a year. The annual expense of these prisons makes part of the budget of the minister of the interior, and amounts to 500,000 francs a year. The other prisons (maisons centrales) are nineteen in number, and are for the confinement of prisoners whose sentence is for a longer term than a year.

Isle of France, or Mauritius. See Mauritius.