gave a death blow to all rational expectation of subjugating America, 1781.

10. In the course of this war England gained many advantages over her European enemies. In Asia she acquired an empire, much greater in wealth and population than all she had to lose in the west; and she added fresh lustre to the glory of her arms, by the brave defence of Gibraltar, under general Elliott, against the combined forces of France and Spain. The siege was begun in 1779, and entirely abandoned in 1782, with the loss of all the Spanish floating batteries, and the defeat of the combined fleets of France and Spain by lord Howe.

11. The depression of trade caused by the armed neutrality, and the non-success of the American war, gave rise to so much clamour against lord North and his tory friends, that they now resigned their appointments. Under the new administration, negotiations for a general peace commenced at Paris, and the basis of it being arranged, it was speedily ratified. England restored the island of St. Lucia, the city of Pondicherry, and the settlements on the Senegal to France; who in return, gave up her West India conquests, with the exception of Tobago. Spain retained Minorca and Florida. Holland ceded Negapatam to England, upon the condition that a mutual restitution of conquests should take place; and on the 20th of January, 1783, England formally acknowledged the thirteen united colonies of America to be free, sovereign, and independent states.

VIII.-France from the Peace of Paris, 1763, to the Death of Louis XV., 1774. *

1. Since the reign of Louis XIV. the religious disputes between the jesuits and jansenists had more or less occupied the attention of all ranks of persons. During the regency of the duke of Orleans, the flame of fanatacism nearly expired; nor did it burst out again till the year 1750, when, through the bigotry of the then archbishop of Paris, the clergy were encouraged to refuse extreme unction to all who should not produce confessional notes, signed by persons who adhered to the bull Unigenitus, the public instrument by which the pope, in 1713, had condemned the jansenists as heretics.

2. The magistrates on this occasion sided with the peo*For the external affairs of France since 1738, see sec. 3 and 5. From 1738 to 1763, the theological disputes are the only subjects in regard to the internal affairs of the country that particularly demand the attention of the historian

ple, and unscrupulously committed to prison all who reused to administer the sacrament to persons in their last moments. This enraged the jesuits, they appealed to the king, and he immediately commanded all the chambers of parliament to register letters patent, to suspend the prosecutions relative to the refusal of the sacrament; this order they peremptorily refused to obey. In 1753, they were banished, and though recalled in the following year, they again dared to disobey the king's mandate; the sovereign therefore, repaired to parliament in person, in November, 1756, and in a bed of justice finally ordered them to register the edicts in his name, which they could no longer, as the constitution then stood, refuse.

3. In 1757, Damiens, a religious fanatic, stabbed the king as he was stepping into his carriage. This act produced a powerful impression on the mind of his majesty, who shortly afterwards made peace with the parliament and banished the archbishop of Paris, the chief fomenter of the religious disturbances.

4. The disposition of the court and clergy to uphold the arbitrary powers of the sovereign, the inveterate superstition and bigotry of the times, the venality of the government, and the profligate and abandoned life of the monarch, gave a handle to the philosophers or literati of the day, to take the reform of matters into their own hands. They much hastened the dissolution of the jesuits, by their witty and often unanswerable attacks on that ancient order. On the 6th of August, 1762, the jesuits were secularized, and their possessions sold by order of the king, though many alleged that their services were now more than ever needed as a check to the deistical and atheistical principles of the new philosophy. In November, 1764, the king, influenced by his mistress, the marchioness of Pompadour, and his minister, the duke de Choiseul, issued an edict for the entire abolition of the order in France.

5. In 1765, the dauphin died, at the age of 36, his consort survived him only 15 months. The last act of the duke de Choiseul's ministry, whose policy seems to have been the fomenting of disputes between the English and the Americans, and the protection of Poland from the aggressions of Russia, was the negotiation of the marriage of the young dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI. with Marie Antoinette, the danghter of the empress Theresa, in 1770. 6. The parliaments, elated by the downfall of the jesuits,

now began to attack the arbitrary power of the king, whose recklessness and profligacy had opened the doors to abuses in almost every department of administration. In 1770 and 1771, the king held several beds of justice, but without producing the desired effect; greater extre mities were therefore resorted to; several provincial parliaments, as well as that at Paris, were suppressed, and 700 magistrates exiled or imprisoned.

7. Louis XV. one of the most odious and contemptible characters in French history, died of the small-pox, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and fifty-ninth of his reign, May 10th, 1774.

IX.-France, from the Accession of Louis XVI., 1774, to the overthrow of the Directory, 1799.

1. Louis XVI. succeeded to the crown under circumstances much resembling those which ushered in the reign of his predecessor. His natural disposition being amiable and virtuous, he took into his service two ministers of a disposition favourable to the people; M. Turgot and the count de Maurepas. The count had been exiled from court for some caustic verses against Madame de Pompedour, but was now recalled.

2. The court, alarmed at the innovations of M. Turgot, procured his dismissal. His successor M. de Clugny re-established the corvée, an odious feudal tax which had been abolished. On the death of M. de Clugny, his office was filled by Taboureau des Reaux, whose system of finance increased the deficit that existed in the coffers of the state. To remedy this evil, the king appointed M. Necker, a native of Geneva, director-general of the finances. M. Necker for a time revived public credit by means of loans, but finding the coffers still unfilled, he had recourse to reforms. These measures were opposed by the nobles and clergy, who would not consent to make a single sacrifice to put an end to the embarrassment of the exchequer.

3. In 1778, when a strong feeling in favour of political and religious freedom, had been excited by the writings of the philosophers, with Voltaire and Rousseau at their head; when the pomp and parade of royalty, the crafty acts of the clergy, the reckless profligacy of the court, the abuses of the law, and the inequality of the system of taxation, had all been inveighed against, by those popular and eloquent writers, the court of Versailles

blindly accelerated its own downfall, by forming an alliance with the revolutionary government of America.

4. In 1781, the parliament combined against M. Necker, and obliged him to retire. At this period all parties admitted the existence of flagrant abuses, but the privileged classes were opposed to all measures of reform. The court retailed philosophical maxims while pursuing its course of reckless profligacy. The parliaments deplored the distresses of the people, but opposed the equalization of the taxes, while the endeavours of those in power to put an end to the distress of the treasury were thwarted by the extravagances of the court.

5. An intrigue brought forward M. de Colonne, who, for a short time, averted the evil day, by raising loans. He, however, soon overshot the mark, when it was discovered, that a difference of 110,000,000 livres existed between the receipt and expenditure: he next endeavoured to increase the revenue by means of a general and fairly adjusted land tax, from which there should be no exemp tions. To carry this plan into execution, he advised the king to convoke the assembly of the notables, (a name given to a former meeting of distinguished persons in 1626). Louis assented to this advice in December 1786, and in February 1787, the assembly met. During the short period of its sitting, which was only till the 25th of May, 1787, it by no means answered the purposes for which it had been convoked.

6. M. de Colonne was now dismissed. His successor M. de Brienne archbishop of Thoulouse, inconsiderately involved his sovereign in another unpleasant contest with the parliament, who now demanded the convocation of the states-general (a measure that had not been called into operation since 1614), declared itself incompetent to grant imposts, affirming that to the states-general alone belonged the right of establishing them, and ordered inquiry into the prodigalities of Calonne. These and other acts of opposition irritated the prelate-minister, who instantly procured a decision in council, which annulled its decree, and exiled it to Troyes. At this period great disturbances were created by a party, headed by the duke of Orleans styled the American party, as affecting the principles of American independence.

7. M. de Brienne, being destitute of supplies, entered into negotiations with some of the members of parliament, his conditions were a loan of 440,000,000 livres, payable by

instalments in four years, at the expiration of which the states-general should be invoked. Having made sure of some members, Brienne imagined he was certain of the whole. The parliament was recalled, and a royal sitting was held by the king in person on the 20th September, 1787. It was not known whether this sitting was a bed of justice or not. A profound silence prevailed, when the duke of Orleans asked the king if this sitting was a bed of justice or a free deliberation. It is a royal sitting, replied the king. The councillors Tretean, Sabatier, and d'Expremenil declaimed after the duke of Orleans with their usual violence; the registration of the edict enacting the creation of the loan was immediately enforced, Tretean, Sabatier, and the duke of Orleans, were exiled, and the states-general postponed for five years.

8. Hostilities still continued. In January, 1784; the parliament passed a decree against lettres de cachet, and for the recall of exiled persons. The king cancelled this decree, and the parliament again confirmed it. The minister endeavoured to reduce the power of the parliament by the appointment of a cour pléniére, consisting of persons selected by the king, from the principal nobility and officers of state. The court sat long enough to enforce the ministerial decrees, but the determined opposition of the nation soon compelled the king to abandon the scheme. He dismissed his minister, and recalled M. Necker (1788.)

9. It was during the years 1777 and 1778, that the nation became desirous to pass from vain theories to practice; the struggles between the highest authorities excited the wish, and furnished the occasion to do so. The parliament finding its existence attacked by the court, apprised the nation of its rights, and exhorted the people to arm in behalf of their privileges; the clergy facilitated and protected insurrection; the nobility fomented the disobedience of the troops, and the court finding itself attacked on all sides, endeavoured to frustrate the schemes of the higher orders, by convoking the states-general, and though previously hostile to the philosophic spirit, it now courted its favours, and submitted the constitutions of the kingdom to its investigation; such was the state of affairs when Necker returned to the ministry.

10. At this period, when all parties were anxious for the meeting of the states-general, a question arose as to how the commons, or tiers ètat, were to be made powerful enough to annul the exemption of the nobility and clergy.