perfons of diftinction; yet was their joy at their good fortune extravagantly high. Their exultation, in the hour of triumph, feemed to bear a proportion to the danger they had been in of a defeat. The princes of the blood embraced one another on the field of battle, and diffolved in tears of mutual congratulations*. An end was put to the progrefs of this, war, by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle; the ba

fis of which was, a reftitution of all the places A. D. 1748. taken on both fides.

A. D. 1756.

About eight years after, hoftilities were again renewed; and the ftorm raged with violence over the greater part of Europe. Germany, France, Ruffia, and Sweden, were combined against Pruffia and Great-Britain.

On the 6th of January, 1757, Damien, a native of Arras, attempted to kill the king. The death this poor fanatical wretch fuffered, is fhocking to humanity; and, although the act of a people who pride themselves in civility and refinement, might fill the heart of favages with horror. He was conducted to the common place of execution amidst a vaft concourfe of the populace, tripped naked, and fastened to the fcaffold by iron gyves: One of his hands was then burnt in liquid flaming fulphur; his thighs, legs, and arms, were torn with red-hot pincers; boiling oil, melted lead, rofin, and fulphur, were poured into the wounds; and, to complete the awful catastrophe, tight ligatures being tied round his limbs, he was torn to pieces by young and vigorous horfes !

The unfettled fenfes of Damien had been inflamed by the difputes between the clergy and the parliament; when the latter were banifhed by the king, and new judges elected in their abfence: But the parliament was afterwards recalled; and the archbishop of Paris being fent into exile, the tumults of the people fubfided. The danger he had escaped, probably induced the king to a compromife with the parliament.

After the most active, fplendid, and univerfal

war, that ever divided the human race,-the A. D. 1763. moft bloody between difciplined armies, and the

moft general in Europe, peace was concluded at Paris on the 10th of February, 1763, as humiliating to France, as it was honourable to England.

The hatred between the clergy and the parliament revived with increased rancour. The latter at length triumphed over the former; and the order of the Jesuits, who were the caufe of these commotions, was totally abolished throughout the na

tion, and their effects confifcated. Thefe difturbances were followed by others between the king and the parliament. The latter ventured to remonftrate against edicts iffued by Lewis for the continuance of fome taxes, which were to have ended with the war; and to question his abfolute authority: The different parliaments of the provinces did the fame: The king fent orders to the governors to have the edicts regiftered by force; and the whole kingdom was a scene of commotion. These disputes between the monarch and his parliament continued, with little intermiffion, till near the clofe of his reign; when he banished the ancient parliaments, created new tribunals, and framed new laws. The princes of the blood, who had protested against the late innovations, were exiled for a time from court; and the whole nation murmured against the tyranny of the king.

Lewis, funk in voluptuoufnefs, was infenfible to the complaints of his people; and fucceffively refigned himself to the fatal counfels of the marchionefs de Pompadour, and the countefs du Barre, his favourite miftreffes; who confirmed him in his first arbitrary measures, and on whofe relations the treasures and honours of the state were lavished. The nation groaned under the moft oppreffive taxes, to support their extravagance; and the title of Well-beloved, which had once been bestowed on the monarch, was effaced, by his ra pacity, profufion, and excefs. The finall-poxput a period to his life, in the fixty-fifth year of his age, and the fifty-ninth of his reign.

A. D.

1774.

CHA P. LXXII.

Lewis XVI.-M. Neckar.-Calonne.—Assembly of the Notables.-M. de Brienne.- Mirabeau.-The, Parliament is banished, and recalled, after a Month's Exile.-The Duke of Orleans is banished. The National Affembly.-The Baf tile.-The Royal Fugitives apprehended.-Maffacres.-National Convention.-France declared to be a Republic.

May 10. 1774.

THE HE late unfortunate king, Lewis XVI, fucceeded his grandfather, Lewis XV. at the age of twenty. He had married, while dauphin, Maria Antonietta, fifter to the emperor of Ger many. Several regulations took place, foon after his fucceffion, highly favourable to the general interefts of the nation.

The

The ancient parliament was recalled, and the new one was fuppreffed; and the minifters who had rendered themselves moft obnoxious in the late reign, were removed. But, though the ancient parliament was reftored, the king cautioufly circumfcribed its power, and was anxious to preferve his own authority as abfolute as that of his predeceffor. Several of the provincial parliaments alfo, which had been fuppreffed by the late monarch, were now reftored. The conqueft of the ifland of Corfica, which had fo long nobly struggled for liberty, was now confirmed; but, after feveral years of bondage to the French, the brave Corficans finally recovered their freedom.

M. Neckar, a Proteftant, and a native of

Switzerland, was placed at the head of the A. D. 1776. French finances. Poffeffed of diftinguished and

acknowledged abilities, his appointment would have excited no furprife, had it not been contrary to the conftant policy of France, which had carefully excluded the aliens of her country and faith from the controul of the revenue. It now ftood forward as a new inftance of enlargement of mind, and liberality of fentiment; and will to pofterity mark the prominent features of the reign of Lewis XVI. Under the direction of this gentleman, a general reform took place in France, throughout every department of the revenue.

When hoftilities commenced between France A. D. 1777. and Great-Britain, in confequence of the affift

ance afforded by the former to the revolted British colonies in America, the people of France were not burthened with new taxes, for carrying on the war; but the public revenue was augmented, by the economy, improvements, and reformation, which he introduced into the management of the finances. But the measures of M. Neckar were not calculated to procure him friends at court. The vain, the interefted, and the ambitious, naturally became his enemies; and the king appears not to have poffeffed fufficient firmnefs of mind to fupport an upright and able minifter. He was therefore difplaced, and is faid to have been particularly oppofed by the queen's party.

By the difmiffion of M. Neckar from the direction of public affairs, the finances of the nation were on the point of being entirely ruined. When the edict for registering the loan, which now amounted to the fum of three milli

ons three hundred and thirty thoufand pounds, A. D. 1785. was prefented to the parliament of Paris, the

murmurs of the people, and the remonftrances of that affembly, affumed a more legal and formidable form.

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The king,

how

however, fignified his expectation to be obeyed immediately but, though the act was registered on the following day, it was accompanied by a refolution, importing, "that the pub"lic economy was the only genuine fource of abundant re"venue, the only means of providing for the neceffities of "the ftate, and reftoring that credit which borrowing had "reduced to the brink of ruin." The king immediately ordered this refolution to be erafed from the parliamentary records, difmiffed from his fervice the officers who had been moft active in the bufinefs, and expreffed his displeasure in a fpeech, which commanded abfolute obedience to his will in future.

However gratified by the fupport of his fovereign, M. de Calonne could not fail of finding himfelf deeply mortified by the oppofition of the parliament. His address to conciliate that affembly had proved ineffectual; and he experienced their inflexible averfion at the critical juncture when their acquiefcence might have proved of the most effential fervice. An anxious enquiry into the ftate of the public finances had convinced him, that the expenditure had far exceeded the revenues. In the prefent fituation, to impose new taxes, was impoffible; to continue the method of borrowing, was ruinous; and to have recourse only to economical reforms, would be found wholly inadequate: And he hesitated not to declare, that it would be impoffible to place the finances on a folid basis, but by the reformation of whatever was vicious in the conftitution of the state.

To give weight to this reform, the minifter was fenfible that fomething more was neceffary than royal authority. He therefore refolved to have recourfe to an affembly, more dignified and folemn in its character than the parliament; and which fhould confift, in a greater degree, of members from the various orders of the ftate, 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 very acceptable. But the true and legitimate affembly of the nation, the ftates-general, had not met fince the year 1614; nor could the minifter flatter himself with the hope of obtaining the royal affent to a meeting, which a defpotic fovereign could not but regard with fecret jealousy. Another affembly had occafionally been fubftituted in the room of the ftates-general. This was diftinguished by the title of the Notables, or men of note; and confifted of a number of perfons, from all parts of the kingdom, chiefly felected from the higher orders of the ftate, and nominated by the king hinfelf. This affembly had been convened by Henry

Dec. 29. 1786.

IV. and again by Lewis the XIII.; and was now once more fummoned by the authority of the prefent monarch. The writs for calling together the affembly of the notables, were addreffed to seven princes of the blood, nine dukes and peers of France, eight field-marefchals, twenty-two nobles, eight counsellors of ftate, four mafters of requefts, eleven archbishops and bifhops, thirty-feven of the heads of the law, twelve deputies of the pays d'etats, the lieutenant-civil, and twenty-five magiftrates of the different towns of the kingdom. The number of members was one hundred and four; and the month of January, 1787, was the period appointed for their opening. It was at the moment when the members of the notables had arrived at Paris, and when the attention of all claffes in the kingdom was fixed upon their meeting as an important æra in the national hiftory, that the minister found himfelf yet unprepared to fubmit his fyftem to their infpection, and poftponed the opening of the council to the month of February. This delay was injudicious in the highest degree; and to this the fubfequent revolution is faid immedi ately to have been owing. Politics had occupied the minds of men, particularly in the metropolis, to the exclusion of every other subject; and, during this interval, an opportunity was given to the members, of converfing with each other, communicating their complaints, and forming schemes for redrefs.

When M. Calonne at laft met the affembly of the nota bles, and opened his long-expected plan, he began, by stating, that the public expenditure had, for centuries paft, exceeded the revenue; that a very confiderable deficiency had of course exifted; and that, at his own acceffion to office, it was three millions three hundred and thirty thoufand pounds. To remedy this evil, the comptroller-general recommended a territorial impoft, in the nature of the English land-tax; from which no rank nor order of men were to be exempted. Be fore M. Neckar retired from the management of the finances, he had published his Compte rendu au Roi; in which France was reprefented as poffeffing a clear furplus of four hundred and twenty-five thoufand pounds fterling. This performance had been read with avidity, and had been confidered as an æra in the hiftory of France. The credit of this statement was ably vindicated by M. de Brienne, archbishop of Thouloufe, and by the count de Mirabeau, a still more formidable enemy to Calonne. His eloquence, however, might have fuccefsfully vindicated his fyftem and reputation against the calculations of Brienne, and the invectives of Mirabeau; but the genius of the comptroller-general funk

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under