fometimes justly boaft its defcent from learning or from wit, it is much oftener of base extraction, the child of vanity, and nurfling of ignorance.

CURIOUS ANECDOTE

OF THE LATE UNFORTUNATE

KING OF FRANCE.

WHEN

HEN Louis XVI. afcended the throne, he was only twenty years of age; and had, at firft, no other counsel than the written advice left him by his father, the late dauphin. This precious paternal bequeft was ordered to remain fealed till his fon fhould fucceed to the throne. Immediately on his acceffion, he haftens to open it, with a pious defign to obey its every injunction. It advifes him, by all means, to engage for his mentor M. De Machault, as the most able perfon to direct his fteps, if the weight of royalty fhould defcend on him at a period so premature, that he could only be supposed to poffefs rectitude of intention for the performance of his duties. Faithful to the wifhes of a beloved father, he immediately writes the following letter to M. De Machault:

IN the juft grief which overwhelms me, << and which I participate with the whole nation, I "have great duties to fulfil: I am king, and this <name includes innumerable obligations. But I "am only twenty, and have not acquired all the "knowledge which is neceffary for my fituation. "In the mean time, I must not fee any of the mi"nifters, who have been with the king during his

contagious distemper. From the confidence "which I repofe in your probity, and the profound "knowledge which you are known to poffefs, I am induced to defire that you would affift me with your advice. Come, then, the first moment poffible, and you will afford me a great pleasure. "LOUIS."

«

The confidence of the young monarch was well merited by M. De Machault, who had long been the minister of the finances and of the law, under Louis XV. He had, however, been for fome time difmiffed from his employments, through the intrigues of the ecclefiaftical cabal, because he was defirous of obliging the clergy to pay taxes like other fubjects; and he had ever fince lived on his eftate, in the deepest retirement, univerfally efteemed, except by those who had fo fuccefsfully confpired against him.

Nothing

Nothing now was wanting to this letter, but the direction; when, either from a native timidity, or a defire to have the excellence of his choice confirmed, Louis XVI. went to his aunt, Mademoiselle Adelaide, communicated the defire of his father, and fhewed her the yet unaddreffed letter, which he had in confequence written. The princess highly approves his conduct, and even requests him inftantly to fend off a courier with the letter. The king, unfortunately, keeps it back feveral hours! Mademoiselle Adelaide, in the mean time, as moft ladies would naturally do, informs her female fuite who was to be the prime minifter. The news flies, with the rapidity of lightening, and alarm spreads among the courtiers. Every individual of this fycophantick swarm dreaded the integrity, and the auftere virtues, of him who was now to be appointed state pilot. Intrigue is put in motion; corruption, of course, follows. A hundred thousand crowns are offered to

a lady, who is well known to have great influence over the princess, if fhe can fo far fucceed, as to change the choice of a minister in favour of M. De Maurepas. This nobleman had been minister at the juvenvile age of fifteen; and, at thirty, he had been difmiffed. Though now far advanced in years, he was known to have lived a life of diffipation, and to poffefs a large fund of intrigue, gaiety, frivolity,

and

and pliability. He had written epigrams; he was a voluptuary, and a wit; in fhort, he was the perfon best adapted to the views of the diffolute courtiers of Versailles, who were defirous of prolonging the abuses of the late reign. The lady of honour, tempted by the hundred thousand crowns, now adroitly infinuated to the princefs that the choice of M. De Machault would not fail to offend the clergy; and that, in confequence, there was reafon to fear the commencement of the new reign would be ftormy. Having contrived to alarm Mademoiselle Adelaide, that princess haftens to disclose her anxiety to the king; and the unfortunate Louis XVI. naturally timid, and dreading the confequences of his first regal act, finished the business by directing the fame letter to the Count De Maurepas!

Thus, at his first step towards the throne, this unhappy monarch fell into a net; and this error was the fertile fource of innumerable others. M. De Maurepas, tottering with age and infirmity, on the brink of his tomb, thought it neceffary to procure friends, who might, by every where extolling his abilities, fix him firmly in the office of grand-vifier. To augment their number, he purchased them by all poffible methods. To fome he gave penfions, for others he created new offices; and, by these means, foon compleated the ruin of the finances, and

paved the way for the fate of Louis XVI. and all the irretrievable mifery with which France has been fubfequently overwhelmed. Never, furely, did fuch fatal confequences arife from changing the direction of a letter!

ON LAUGHTER.

L

AUGHTER, like many other difpofitions of our minds, is neceffarily pleafant to us, when it begins, in the natural manner, from fome perception in the mind of fomething ludicrous, and does not take its rife unnaturally from external motion in the body. Every one is confcious that a ftate of laughter is an eafy and agreeable state: that the recurring or fuggeftion of ludicrous images, tends to difpel fretfulness, anxiety, or forrow, and to reduce the mind to an eafy and happy ftate: as, on the other hand, an eafy and happy ftate is that in which we are most lively and acute in perceiving the ludicrous in objects: any thing that gives us pleafure, puts us alfo in a fitness for laughter, when fomething ridiculous occurs; and ridiculous objects occurring to a foured temper, will be apt to recover

it