glory and greatness of Lewis were now at their height. But the united forces of England and Austria, under the command of Marlborough and prince Eugene, at last prevailed, and the subsequent part of his reign exhibits a mortifying reverse of fortune. France derived no solid advantage from her successes. Her finances were exhausted; and tranquility was restored to Europe by the peace of Ryswick A. D. 1697. From the year 1702, when Lewis endeavored to establish the Pretender's title to the crown of England, to 1711, his reign was a continued series of defeats and calamities. The peace of Utrecht, the terms of which were glorious for England, took place A. D. 1713. He died Sept. 1, 1715.

The

Discord seemed to have left the earth with the restless spirit of Lewis XIV. His great grandson ascended the throne at the age of five years, under the title of Lewis XV. The general tranquility of Europe met with little interruption from the peace of Utrecht till the year 1734. At that period a flame broke out, in consequence of the death of Augustus II. king of Poland, and soon spread itself through every part of Europe. French king supported the pretensions of Stanislaus, whose daughter he had married, in opposition to the elector of Saxony, whose cause was supported by the Russians and Austrians. After a war of two years, a treaty was concluded, by which it was agreed that Stanislaus should renounce his claim to the throne of Poland, and should be put in possession of Lorraine and Bar. The death of the emperor, Charles VI. (1740) involved France in another war, from a desire of breaking the power of the House of Austria, and exalting that of Bourbon on its ruins, by dismembering the dominions of Maria Theresa, and placing on the imperial throne Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria, stipendiary of his most Christian majesty.

The cause of the archduchess, Maria Theresa, was warmly espoused by the king and people of Great Britain, who voted her liberal supplies; and 16,000 British troops were sent over to her assistance.

At the battle of Dettingen, June 27, 1743, the English were victorious. In the year 1744, Lewis concerted an invasion of England, under the young Pretender. May 11, 1745, the king and dauphin had their vanity highly gratified by their troops gaining the battle of Fontenoy. An end was put to the progress of this war by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, April 30, 1748, the basis of which was, a restitution of all the places taken on both sides.

In the year 1756, hostilities were again renewed, and the storm raged with violence over the greater part of Europe. Germany, France, Russia, and Sweden, were combined against Prussia and Great Britain. In 1757, Jan. 6, Damien, a native of Arras, attempted to kill the king. The death this poor fanatical wretch suffered is shocking to humanity; and, although the act of a people who pride themselves in civility and refinement, might fill the hearts of savages with horror. He was conducted to the common place of execution, amidst a vast concourse of the populace; stripped naked, and fastened to the scaffold by iron gyres. One of his hands was then burnt in liquid flaming sulphur. His thighs, legs, and arms, were torn with red hot pincers. Boiling oil, melted lead, rosin, and sulphur, 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 horses!

After a very active, splendid, and universal war, perhaps the most bloody between disciplined armies, peace was concluded at Paris on the 10th of February 1763, as humiliating to France as it was honourable to England.

Lewis XV. died May 10, 1774, and was succeeded by his grandson Lewis XVI. The events subsequent to this period have been productive of a revolution, which has shaken all Europe to its foundation: we will therefore reserve them for the matter of another Chapter.

CHAPTER XXV.

Assembly of the Notables.-Junction of the Citizens and Soldiers.-Destruction of the Bastile.-Death of the King and Queen.-War with England.-Death of the Dauphin.-Descent of the French upon Egypt. The English take the French fleet.—Russia joins the English and Austrians.--Various successes in Italy.

From the increase of pecuniary embarrassment, and a dissatisfaction at the system of taxation, particularly a declaration of a new stamp-duty, the parliament of Paris began seriously to remonstrate with the king in the year 1787. On the 22d of February, 1788, the notables were assembled by Lewis, who informed them of his intention to ameliorate the burden of revenue by a more equal taxation; but owing to the party spirit of the friends of M. Necker and M. de Calonne, two contending ministers, the king and the assembly did not agree in their plans of finance. From this æra may be dated the commencement of the French revolution.

In the month of July, 1791, the Parisians assembled in large bodies, and enrolled themselves as a regular militia for the protection of their private properties and the capital at large. Sixty thousand citizens were soon in motion; and they were as soon spontaneously joined by the French guards. The armourers shops were pillaged of their weapons. The guards trained the citizens to arms; and they took on themselves, when thus consolidated, the name of National Guard.'* On the 14th of the month, they entered the hospital of invalids, and seized on 30,000 muskets, and 20 pieces of cannon; and shortly after they besieged and gained possession of the prison and fortress of the Bastile.

La Garde Nationale.

During the remainder of this year, and through the whole of the next, a disposition towards republicanism increased evidently among the people. Te Deum was solemnly sung at Notre Dame in commemoration of taking the Bastile. The nobility were persecuted, together with the priests. The aristocratic members of the assembly found it expedient to quit the kindom. His majesty's title was changed from king of France to king of the French. A new division of the kingdom was made into eighty-three departments, instead of provinces, as formerly. The lands of the church were sequestered to serve the exigencies of the state. And all the titles of the nobility, together with the use of liveries and armorial bearings, were abolished by a decree of the assembly.

The mild spirit of Lewis induced him to accept a constitution, thus altered, in order to preserve peace in the nation; but it had not the desired effect. A decree of sequestration was passed on the property of the emigrants. Ecclesiastical distinctions were first done away, and afterwards the clergy were banished. And, to complete the whole, a memorial was presented from the Parisians, by Pethion, the mayor of that capital, demanding the deposition of the king.

On the 10th of August, 1792, after a dreadful massacre of the Swiss-guards, and other persons at the Thuilleries, the national assembly pronounced the deposition of the unfortunate monarch. Shortly afterwards he was confined with his family in the prison of the Temple. On the 11th day of December, he was brought up for trial to the bar of the convention; and on the 21st of January following, he was put to death by the guillotine.

The French nation was now become a republic. The queen was tried and condemned on the 15th of October; and on the 16th she was brought out from the Conciergerie, and deprived of life by the same sort of instrument that had beheaded her unfortunate husband.

Previously to this disputes had arisen between GreatBritain and France relative to the navigation of the

Scheldt; for, on the 1st day of February, 1793, war was declared by the republic against the kingdom of Great-Britain.

Impiety at this period became a prominent feature in France. On the 7th of November, Gobet; bishop of Paris, with other priests, abjured, in the convention, the Christian religion. Fanciful deities, such as Liberty, Equality, &c. were consecrated as objects of worship; and the further to promote this paganism, the old calender was destroyed, and a new one formed. In it, the year, beginning the 23d of September, was divided into twelve months, of thirty days each, and the remaining five days were devoted to national festivity. The Christian sabbath was ordered to be discontinued, and the day of rest fixed for every decadi, or tenth day.

February the 4th, 1792, the convention passed a decree, which, in the midst of all their atrocities, will be for ever remembered to their honor. Three deputies, two of them natives of St. Domingo, and the other a negro, were received at the bar, as representatives of that place. After they had given an account of the distur bances and troubles on their island, a motion was made by La Croix, and carried into a law, without one dissenting voice, that slavery should be entirely abolished within every part of the French dominions. The consular government of France, however, thought fit to attempt a privation of that liberty which the Convention granted to the negroes; and the consequence is, that the extensive and important Island, St. Domingo, is now a free state; styled the Empire of Hayti.

A treaty of peace was concluded in 1795, between the French nation and the kingdoms of Spain and Prussia. On the 9th of June, the dauphin expired in the Temple, not without suspicion of violence. He and his sister had been confined in that prison in the year 1792; but, shortly after his death, the princess was delivered up to her relations in Germany. Germany. On the 27th of October the convention ended, and a new form of legislation was established; it consisted of a 'council of