country. Many foreign literati of distinction were attracted to France by honourable and lucrative posts; pensions, honorary rewards, flattering letters, were accorded to others. There were few countries in Europe without some writer who could herald the praises and the munificence of Louis XIV.

Even if it were compatible with the scope of this work, space would not allow us to enter into any critical examination of the great writers who adorned the reign of Louis. The dramas of Racine and Molière, the poems of Boileau and La Fontaine, the sermons and other writings of Bossuet and Bourdaloue, besides the works of numerous other authors, are still in the hands of all persons of taste, not only in France but throughout Europe. For a like reason we pass over the great French writers who adorned the eighteenth century, many of whom will not suffer by a comparison with their immediate predecessors. A bare list of names--and our space would allow us to give but little more—would afford neither instruction nor amusement. During this period, however, arose that school of philosophical writers whose works contributed so much to produce the Revolution. To productions of this class, having a direct political bearing, it will be necessary to advert with considerable attention in a future chapter, when we come to consider the causes of that event.

If royal patronage can give a tone to works of imagination, it can still more directly assist the researches of learning and science. The King, in person, declared himself the protector of the Académie Française, the centre and representative of the national literature, and raised it as it were to an institution of the State by permitting it to harangue him on occasions of solemnity, like the Parliament and other superior courts. In the state of society which then existed, this was no small addition to the dignity of letters. Under the care of Louis and Colbert arose two other learned institutions; the Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres, and the Académie des sciences. The origin of the former was sufficiently frivolous. It was at first destined to furnish inscriptions for the public monuments, motives and legends for medals, subjects for artists, devices for fêtes and carousals, with descriptions destined to dazzle foreign nations with the pomp and splendour of French royalty. It was also to record the great actions achieved by the King;' in short, it was to be the humble handmaid of Louis's glory. But from such a beginning it became by degrees the centre of

1 Martin, t. xiii. p. 161.

8 2

260

SOCIAL MANNERS.

[BOOK V.

historical, philological, and archæological researches. The Académie des sciences was founded in 1666 after the example of the Royal Society of London. In the cultivation of science, England had indeed taken the lead of France, and could already point to many eminent names. The French Academy of Architecture was founded in 1671, and the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, originated by Mazarine in 1648, received a fresh development at the hands of Louis and his ministers.

But it was probably the manners of the French court, the elegant society which sprang up under the auspices and example of Louis XIV., that tended quite as much as her literature to promote the influence of France in Europe; and even contributed also to spread the French tongue, by giving it that grace and polish which render it so apt an instrument of polite conversation. The court of Louis XIV. was a model of dignified etiquette, combined with graceful ease. Every one knew and acquiesced in his position, without being made to feel his inferiority. The King exacted that the higher classes should treat their inferiors with that polite consideration of which he himself gave the example. Thus the different ranks of society were brought nearer together without being confounded. The importance of the great nobility was reduced by multiplying the number of dukes and peers; while civic ministers and magistrates were loaded with titles, and brought almost to a level in point of ceremonial with persons of the highest birth. At the same time certain honorary privileges were reserved for the latter which afforded some compensation to their self-love. They alone could dine in public with the King; they alone could wear the cordon bleu and the justaucorps à brevet; a sort of costume adopted by the King, which could be worn only by royal licence, and which established a sort of equality among the wearers. All these regulations tended to produce a mutual affability between the different classes, which spread from the court through the nation, and produced a universal politeness. It was especially in the conduct he observed towards women that Louis put the seal to all these refinements, and rendered his court the model of European civilisation. He set the example of the most refined courtesy towards women of all conditions, and is said never to have passed one even of the lowest condition without raising his hat. Hence French society attained an unrivalled elegance of manner, which it retained down to the Revolution.

If we turn from the court to the cabinet of Louis, we find him here also affecting the first part. But it was in reality by the ability of his ministers, Le Tellier, Colbert, Lionne, Louvois, that *

he found the means of sustaining the glories of his reign. After the death of the last of these, who, though a detestable politician, was an excellent military administrator, the affairs of Louis went rapidly to decay. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, one of the ablest ministers that France had ever seen, was born in 1619, the son of a trader of Reims. After receiving the rudiments of a commercial education, he became successively a clerk to a merchant, a notary, and an attorney, and finally entered the service of the Government by becoming clerk to a treasurer of what were called the parties casuelles. Thus Colbert, though subsequently a warm patron of art and literature, had not received the slightest tincture of a classical education, and began at the age of fifty to study Latin, to which he applied himself while riding in his carriage. He owed his advancement to Le Tellier, who saw and appreciated his merit. In 1649 that minister caused him to be appointed a counsellor of state, and from this period his rise was rapid. He obtained the patronage of Mazarine, for whom, however, he felt but little esteem. The cardinal on his death-bed is said to have recommended Colbert to the King; and in 1661, after the fall of Fouquet, he obtained the management of the finances. The mind of Colbert, however, did not confine itself merely to his official department; but embraced the whole compass of the State. He had already conducted all the affairs of France during eight years, before he obtained, in 1669, the office of secretary of state, with the management of the admiralty, commerce, colonies, the King's household, Paris, the government of the Isle of France and Orléans, the affairs of the clergy, and other departments.

Colbert had taken Richelieu as his model, and like that statesman had formed the grandest plans for the benefit of France by promoting her agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and by developing the moral and intellectual as well as the material resources of the kingdom. He increased the revenue by making the officers of finance disgorge their unjust profits, by reforming the system of taxation, and reducing the expenses of collection. He improved the police and the administration of justice. He facilitated the internal communications of France by repairing the highways and making new ones, and by causing the canal of Languedoc to be dug, which connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic. He also formed the scheme of the canal of Burgundy. He caused Marseilles and Dunkirk to be declared free ports, and he encouraged the nobility to engage in commerce by providing that it should be no derogation to their rank. He formed the harbour of Rochefort, enlarged and improved that of Brest, and established large marine

262

POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE REFORMATION. [Book V.

arsenals at Brest, Toulon, Havre, and Dunkirk; while, by the care which he bestowed upon the fleet, France was never more for-* midable at sea than at this period. His commercial system, however, though perhaps suited to the wants and temper of France in those days, would not meet the approbation of modern political economists. He adopted the protective system, and instead of encouraging private enterprise, established monopolies by forming the East and West India Companies, as well as those of the Levant and of the North. Colbert retained office till his death in 1683. His end seems to have been hastened by the ingratitude of the King in appreciating his great services.

We will now take a brief view of some of the political consequences that attended the close of the era of the Reformation. It can scarcely be doubted that Germany, the chief scene of that event, if viewed as a Confederate State, was much enfeebled by it. Had the Empire remained united in its allegiance to Rome, or had it become, as it at one time promised, universally Protestant, France and Sweden would not have been able to play the part they did in the Thirty Years' War, and to aggrandise themselves at its expense. The bad political constitution of the Empire, which naturally contained within itself the seeds of perpetual discord, was rendered infinitely more feeble by the introduction of Protestantism. Having become permanently divided into two or three religious parties, with opposite views and interests, materials were provided for constant internal dissensions, as well as for the introduction of foreign influence and intrigues. The same was also the case in Poland. On the other hand, in those countries where the Reformation was entirely successful, as England and the Scandinavian Kingdoms, its tendency was to develope and increase the national power.

It is true, however, that the different German Princes, and especially the larger ones, grew individually stronger by the Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia. Such was the case even with the House of Habsburg, which, after the battle of Prague, in 1620, was enabled to render the crown of Bohemia hereditary. The maintenance of a standing force of mercenaries, which obtained in most of the German States after the war, contributed to the same result, by enabling the Princes to usurp the rights of their subjects. The provisions of the Capitulation extorted from the Emperor Leopold in 1658 had the same tendency, by rendering the territorial Princes less dependent on the grants of their people; and, as this Capitulation was wrung from Leopold

2 Menzel, Neuere Gesch. der Deutschen, B. iv. S. 324.

through the influence of France, it must be regarded as a direct consequence of the Thirty Years' War. The enhancement of the power of the Electors of Bavaria and Brandenburg by this means is particularly striking. In Bavaria, the States, which were seldom assembled, intrusted the administration of financial matters to a committee appointed for a long term of years; with which the Elector found the transaction of business much more easy and convenient. The power of the Prince made still greater progress in Brandenburg under Frederick William, the "Great Elector." After the year 1653 the States of the Mark were no longer assembled. Their grants were replaced by an excise and a tax on provisions, which the Elector had introduced in 1641 immediately after his accession; and, as these did away with the direct taxes levied monthly and yearly, they were popular with the householders, and there was no difficulty in making them perpetual. The conduct of Frederick William in Prussia was still more arbitrary. When the sovereignty of that duchy was finally confirmed to him by the Peace of Oliva, he put an end, though not without a hard struggle, to the authority of the Prussian States, by abrogating their right of taxation; and he signalised this act of despotic authority by the perpetual imprisonment of Rhode, Burgomaster of Königsberg, and by the execution of Colonel Von Kalkstein, another assertor of the popular rights.

But the strength of the Empire, as a Confederate body, was diminished in the exact ratio of the increase of that of its separate States, because the interests of its various territorial Princes were not only separate from, but frequently hostile to, those of the general Confederation and of the Emperor. The minor States, which could not hope to make themselves important and respected alone, attained that end by combining together. Hence, the Catholic and Protestant Leagues, formed under French influence soon after the Peace of Westphalia and under the pretext of maintaining its provisions. These leagues became still more inimical to the Imperial power, when, soon after the election of Leopold, they were united into one under the title of the Rhenish League.

It must be confessed that the personal character of the Emperor Leopold contributed not a little to produce this state of things. Leopold, who reigned during forty-seven years as the contemporary of Louis XIV., was in every respect the foil of the French Monarch. Hence much of the diversity in the political development of Germany and France. While the Imperial authority was being diluted by that of the German Electors and Princes, Louis was epitomising the State into his own person. Under Leopold,