is as follows: Nofire pere qui es au ciel, tom nom foit fanclifie; ton reg vienne, ta volunte foit fait fur le terre comme dans le ciel; donne nous l'avenir chaque jour notre pain: pardonne nous nos offences comme ma pardonnes a cieux qui nous ont offences; ne nous mets pas dans la tent tion, mais delivre nous du mal; puifque le regne, la puiffance, & la glor t'appartienne pour jamais. Amen. Religion.] The established religion is Popery, fince the Proteftan were fuppreffed in 1684; yet they never have admitted the Inquif tion: and the pope's fupremacy was rejected until the reign of Lew XV. but, according to the conftitution Unigenitus, the pope's i premacy feems now to be established, and every ecclefiaftic is oblige to fubfcribe that conftitution; though every parliament, as well as t clergy, have oppofed this measure with great warmth. At prefent, the priests refufe to adminifter the facrament to those who do not fubfcri the conftitution Unigenitus, which advances the pope's power abo that of the crown, and the king often takes part with the priest again his own prerogative; this feveral parliaments of the kingdom addr fing his majefty againft, the parliament of Paris was on that accou banifhed; and it is expected this will occafion a breach between t clergy and laiety; however, a reformation in religion is not likely be foon brought about, because the French clergy in general are ve tenacious of the papal decrees in matters of faith; and in fome par they are fuch extreme bigots, that the fecular power has been m barbarously prostituted to gratify the mere fufpicions of fome heat zealots: and the Proteftants, of which there are many in the Southe provinces, frequently experience the effects of the power of a cler moft warmly eipoufing the execution of the fevereft penalties denot eed again heretics. Archbishopricks. 1. LYONS. 2. SENS. 4. RHEIMS. 5. ROUEN. 6. TOURS. 7. BOURGES. 10. Avc Bishopricks Suffrages. Autun, Langres, Macon, Challons. Chartres, Orleans, Meaux." Soiffons, Leon, Challons, Noyons, Beauv Bayeaux, Eureux, Averanches, Seez, L Mans, Angers, Rennes, Nantz, Cornoua Clermont, Limoges, St Fleur, La Puy, T 11. THOULOUSE. {St Papoul, Lombes, Rieux. S Pamieres, Miropoiz, Montauban, Labour, 12. NARBONNE. 13. ARLES. 14 Aix. 15. VIENNE. 16. BESANÇON. 17. EMBRUN. Carcaffione, Alet, Beziers, Adge, Lodeve, nan. 5 Marfeilles, Orange, St Paul de Chateau, Thoulon. Apte, Reiz, Frejus, Gap, Sifteron. Valence, Die, Grenoble, Viviers, Mourienne. Beclay, Brafil, Laufanne in Switzerland. Digne Glandeve, Vence, Senez, Grace, Nice. The Archbishop of Lyons is Count and Primate of France. The Archbishop of Sens is Primate of France and Germany. The Archbishop of Paris is Duke and Peer of France. The Archbishop of Rheims is Duke and Peer. And the Archbishop of Rouen is Primate of Normandy. Unmerities and public Colleges.] Thefe literary inftitutions have reed an irreparable lofs by the expulfion of the Jefuits, who made languages, arts, and fciences, their particular ftudy, and taught them all over France. It is not within our plan to defcribe the difgovernments and conftitutions of every univerfity or public colin France, but they are in number twenty-fix, as follow; Aix, Angers, Arles, Avignon, Befançon, Bourdeaux, Bourges, Caen, Dol, Day, Fleche, Montauban, Montpelier, Nantz, Orange, Orleans, Pa, Perpignan, Potiers, Point Mouson, Richlieu, Rheims, SoifStrafbourg, Toulouse, and Valence. Academies.] There are eight academies in Paris, namely, three day ones; that called the French Academy, that of infcriptions, and that of the fciences; one of painting and sculpture, one of architecand three for riding the great horfe and other military exercifes. Cents.] According to computation there are about 750 great s of monks, and 200 of nuns, in France, and about 10,000 convents: there are in all upwards of 200,000 monks and nuns ; that the revenues of the clergy and religious houfes of all kinds dir millions sterling per annum. FRENCH GOLD COINS. eld Louis d'Or of France is valued at The half and quarter in proportion ew Louis d'Or, or Guinea The half and quarter in proportion FRENCH SILVER COINS. Deld Ecu of France, being fixty Sols Tournois Sz 1. s. d. 0 16.9 100 4 6 50 The The half and quarter in proportion. They have alfo pieces three 1-half and five Sols, and a Liard, the fourth part of a Sol. Accounts are kept in France by Livres, Sols, and Deniers; o Livre is twenty Sols, and one Sol twelve Deniers; but by late arre their Livres are reduced to half their value. Hiftory.] The hiftory of no country is better authenticated th that of France, and it is particularly interefting to a British read This kingdom, which was by the Romans called Tranfalpine Gat or Gaul beyond the Alps, to distinguish it from Cifalpine Gaul, that on the Italian fide of the Alps, was probably peopled from Ita to which it lyes contiguous. Like other European nations, it became a defirable object to the ambitious Romans; and after a br refiftance, was annexed to their empire by Julius Cæfar, about fer eight years before Chrift. Gaul continued in the poffetlion of the R mans till the downfal of that empire in the fifth century, when it came a prey to the Goths, the Burgundians, and the Franks, wi fubdued, but did not extirpate the ancient natives. The Franks the felves, who gave it the name of France, or Frankland, were a cou tion of feveral people inhabiting Germany, and particularly the S Jii, who lived on the banks of the river Sale, and who cultivated t principles of jurifprudence better than their neighbours. The S had a rule, which the rest of the Franks are faid to have adopted, a has been by the modern Franks applied to the fucceffion of the thre whereby all females were excluded from the inheritance of fovere ty, and is well known by the name of the Salic law. The Franks and Burgundians, after eftablishing their power, a reducing the original natives to a ftate of flavery, parcelled out t lands among their principal leaders; and fucceeding kings found neceffary to confirm their privileges, allowing them to exercise reign authority in their refpective governments, until they at ler. affumed an independency, only acknowledging the king as their he This gave rife to thofe numerous principalities that were formerly France, and now to their feveral parliaments; for every province came, in its policy and government, an epitome of the whole k dom; and no laws were made, or taxes raifed, without the conc rence of the grand council, confifting of the clergy and of the n lity. The firft Chriftian monarch of the Franks was Clovis, who be his reign anno 468, from which period we find them generally er ged in domeftic broils or in foreign wars. The firit race of their k prior to Charlemagne, found a cruel enemy in the Saracens, who t over-ran Europe, and retaliated the barbarities of the Goths and V dals upon their polerity. In the year 800, Charlemagne, kir France, became mafter of Germany, Spain, and part of Italy, and -crowned king of the Romans by the pope: he divided his empire will among his fons, which proved fatal to his family and poder Soon after this, the Normans, a fierce warlike people from Norv Denmark, and other parts of Scandinavia, ravaged the kingder France; and about the year 900, obliged the French to yield up mandy and Bretagne to Rollo, their leader, who married thei daughter, and was perfuaded to embrace Christianity. This L foun. foundation of the Norman power in France; which afterwards gave a king to England, in the perfon of William Duke of Normandy, who fubdued Harold, the last Saxon king, in the year 1055. This event proved unfortunate and ruinous to France, as it engaged that nation in almoft perpetual wars with England, for whom they were not an equal match, notwithstanding their numbers, and the affiftance they received from Scotland. The rage of crufading, which broke out at this time, was of infinite trace to the French crown in two refpects; in the first place, it carried off hundreds of thousands of its turbulent fubjects, and their leadtn, who were almost independent of the king: in the next, the king facceded to the eftates of numbers of the nobility, who died abroad without heirs. Bat pafling over the dark ages of the crufades, their expeditions to the Holy Land, and wars with England, we fhall proceed to that period when the French began to extend their influence over Europe; and this brings us to the reign of Francis I. contemporary with HenVIII. of England, This prince, though he was brave to excess in his own perfon, and had defeated the Swifs, who till then were deemdavincible, was an unfortunate warrior. He was a candidate for the empire of Germany, but loft the imperial crown, Charles V. of the house of Auftria, and king of Spain, being chofen. Francis made e dazzling expeditions against Spain; but fuffered his mother, of wham he was very fond, to abuse his power; by which he difobliged the conftable of Bourbon, the greatest of his fubjects, who joined in a Confederacy against him with the emperor and Henry VIII. of Engd. In a capital expedition he undertook into Italy, he was taken proner at the battle of Pavia, and obliged to agree to dishonourable trus, which he never meant to perform, to regain his liberty. His xa-performance of thofe conditions was afterwards the fource of matr wars between him and the emperor; he died in 1547. France, at the time of his death, notwithstanding the variety of difpable events during his reign, was in a flourishing condition. He fucceeded by his fon Henry II. who, upon the whole, was an talent and fortunate prince. He continued the war with the em of Germany to great advantage for his own dominions; and fo well ferved by the duke of Guife, that though he loft the batte of St Quintin, against the Spaniards and the English, he retook Clays from the latter, who have never fince had any footing in France. He turned his fon the Dauphin, to Mary queen of Scots, in hopes of tag that kingdom to his crown; but in this fcheme he, or rather country, was unfortunate, as may be seen in the hiftory of Scotd. He was killed in the year 1559, at an unhappy tilting-match, by the count of Montgomery. was fucceeded by his fon, Francis II. a weak, fickly, inactive , whofe power was entirely engroffed by a prince of the house Gaie, uncle to his wife, the beautiful queen of Scotland. This enFent of power encouraged the Bourbon, the Montmorenci, and great families, to form a ftrong oppofition against the governAnthony, king of Navarre, was at the head of the Bourbon y; but the queen-mother, the famous Catharine of Medicis, beged to take part with the Guifes, the confederacy, who had adopted adopted the cause of Hugonotifm, was broken in pieces, when: fudden death of Francis happened, in the year 1560. This event took place while the prince of Condé, brother to King of Navarre, was under fentence of death, for a confpiracy gainst the court, but the queen-mother faved him, to balance the terelt of the Guifes; fo that the fole direction of affairs fell into h hands, during the minority of her fecond fon, Charles IX. Her gency was a continued feries of diffimulation, treachery, and mure. The duke of Guife, who was the fcourge of the Proteftants, was trea erously murdered by one Poltrot, at the fiege of Orleans; and: murderer was thought to have been inftigated by the famous Colig admiral of France, who was then at the head of the Proteftant par Three civil wars fucceeded each other. At laft the court preten to grant the Hugonots a very advantageous peace, and a match concluded between Henry the young king of Navarre a Proteft.: and the French king's fister. The heads of the Proteftants were vited to celebrate the nuptials at Paris, with the infernal view of chering them all, if poffible, in one night. This project proved ' too fuccefsful, though it was not completely executed, on St Bart!. lomew's day, 1572. The king himself affifted in the diabolical m facre, in which, it is faid, the admiral and about 30,000 Protefta were in one night most cruelly murdered at Paris, and in other par of France: this brought on a fourth civil war. Though a fresh pea was concluded in 1573, with the Proteftants, yet a fifth civil w broke out the next year, when the bloody Charles IX. died witho heirs. His third brother, the duke of Anjou, had, some time before, be chofen king of Poland; and hearing of his brother's death, he, wi fome difficulty, efcaped to France, where he took quiet poffeffion that crown by the name of Henry III. Religion at that time fupplied to the reformed nobility of Fran the feudal powers they had loft. The heads of the Protestants cou raife armies of Hugonots. The governors of provinces behaved them as if they had been independent of the crown; and the part were fo equally balanced, that the name of the king alone turn the feale. A holy league was formed for the defence of the Cath lic religion, at the head of which was the duke of Guife. T Proteftants, under the prince of Condé, and the duke of Alenç the king's brother, called the German princes to their affiftance which occafioned a fixth civil war in 1577, in which the king of Spa took the part of the league, in revenge of the duke of Alençon d claring himself lord of the Netherlands. This civil war was finith within the year, by another flam peace. The king, ever fince 1 acceffion to the throne, had plunged hinfelf into a course of ini mous debauchery and religious extravagance. He was entirely g verned by his profligate favourites, though he poffeffed natural go fenfe. He began to fufpect that the profcriptions of the proteftan and the fetting afide from the fucceffion the king of Navarre, on a count of his religion, which was aimed at by the holy league, w with a view to place the duke of Guife, the idol of the Roman e tholics, on the throne, to which that duke had some distant prete ces. A feventh civil war broke out in the year 1579, and anoth |