CHAP. IX.] WRETCHED STATE OF FRANCE. 519 after. It was in Protestant countries alone that the Jesuits found any sympathy and defence. Frederick the Great especially, who considered their system of education to be useful, forbade the bull against them to be published in his dominions. But the Jesuits were destined to revive. Clement XIV. was rewarded for his compliance by the restoration of Avignon and the Venaissin, which, however, the Revolution was soon to reunite to France. On the other hand, this measure is thought to have cost him his life. In the Holy Week of 1774 he was suddenly seized with symptoms that appeared to indicate poison; and though he survived till September 22nd, he was subject to constant torments. All Rome ascribed his death to the aqua tofana; and such also was the opinion of Cardinal Bernis, the French Ambassador at Rome, as well as of Pius VI., Clement's successor.10 The Spanish and Neapolitan ministers, on the other hand, attributed his malady to fear." But to return to the affairs of France. After the dismissal of Choiseul, the government of that country was conducted by a sort of triumvirate, composed of the Chancellor Maupeou, the Abbé Terrai, who administered the finances, and the Duke d'Aiguillon, who was appointed secretary for foreign affairs in June 1771; while over all the infamous Du Barri reigned supreme. Nothing of importance occurred in the external relations of France during the remainder of Louis XV.'s reign. The only event of European interest was the partition of Poland, which country, as we have seen, D'Aiguillon abandoned to its fate. Meanwhile domestic maladministration was producing those evils and exciting those class-hatreds, which, though kept down for a time, exploded so fearfully in the Revolution. The finances were every day growing worse and worse. Terrai, to avert a total bankruptcy, resorted to a partial one by cheating the public creditors, plundering annuitants, and arbitrarily reducing the interest on government debts. These measures, indeed, touched only the richer classes of society, but the arbitrary taxes which he imposed were felt by the people at large. The wide-spread misery and discontent were aggravated by dearth. Several bad harvests had succeeded one another; the scarcity became intolerable, although the exportation of corn had been prohibited, and frequent riots took place in the provinces. In this state of things the public hatred 10 See Bernis' Despatches, Sept. 28th and Oct. 26th 1774, and Oct. 28th 1777, ap. Martin, Hist. de France, t. xvi. p. 222 note. 11 On the fall of the Jesuits, see St. Priest, Suppression de la Société de Jésus ; Theiner, Geschichte des Pontificats Clemens XIV.; Abbé Georges, Mem. pour servir à l'Histoire des évènemens de la fin du xviiième siècle. 520 PECULATION OF LOUIS XV. [Book VL found an object in the King himself. The Parliament of Rouen openly charged Louis XV. with being a forestaller, nor could he satisfactorily refute the imputation. 12 About the year 1767 a company had been established under the control of Government called the Société Malisset, with the object apparently of keeping the price of corn at a certain level, and insuring a supply for Paris by buying up and storing grain in plentiful years in order to resell it in times of scarcity. The design, perhaps, may have been good; but a measure so easy of abuse and so liable to suspicion was in the highest degree dangerous. Profligate, expensive, and avaricious, Louis XV. scrupled not to avail himself of the advantages of his situation to fill his private treasury at the expense of his subjects. He was accustomed to speculate in all kinds of securities, and when an Edict was in preparation by the council which might depreciate the value of any of these, he withheld his signature till he had realised 13 In like manner he converted the Société Malisset into an instrument of private gain. Through the agency of Terrai, who bought up corn at low prices in Languedoc, where exportation had been prohibited, large quantities were sent to Jersey, through the ports of Brittany, which had been opened, in order to be reimported into France after prices should have been raised to their maximum by artificial methods. The King's participation in these nefarious transactions was notorious. The prices of grain throughout the kingdom lay constantly on his writing table; nay, among the officers of finance, the name of a "Treasurer of grain on account of His Majesty " was inadvertently suffered to appear in the Royal Almanack for 1774. The Court endeavoured to divert the popular odium by accusing the Parliaments of causing the scarcity; the Parliaments retorted the charge on the ministers;the people regarded them all as equally guilty, and ended by considering the upper classes as so many vampires leagued to suck their blood. The Société Malisset obtained the name of the Pacte de Famine, under which it was destined to appear at the breaking out of the Revolution. The notoriously depraved and licentious character of the King, combined with this baseness, caused him to be contemned as well as hated. Already in his lifetime the people bestowed on his heir the title of Louis le Désiré, so low had Louis, once the bien Aimé, fallen in the popular estimation. The universal wish for his death 12 The Provost de Beaumont, who had denounced the Société Malisset to the Parliament, suddenly disappeared. On the celebrated 14th of July 1790, he was discovered in a dungeon. Martin, t. xvi. p. 294. 13 Vie privée de Louis XV., t. iv. p. 152; ap. Martin, t. xvi. p. 293. CHAP. IX.] ACCESSION OF LOUIS XVI. 521 was gratified May 10th 1774. It was caused by the small-pox, caught from a scarcely marriageable girl, one of the victims of his lust; which, falling on a man of sixty-four with a constitution already contaminated by vice, proved fatal. He had reigned fiftynine years, during which he had contrived totally to destroy the prestige of monarchy, created by the brilliant reigns of Henry IV. and Louis XIV. He was succeeded by his grandson Louis XVI., whose father the Dauphin had expired in 1765. The new monarch, as we have said, had married, in May 1770, the Austrian Archduchess Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa. He was now in his twentieth year, and his character was yet undeveloped. It seemed to promise both good sense and good principles, accompanied, however, with that want of energy and resolution which ultimately proved the chief cause of his ruin, and unrecommended by grace and dignity of manner. He was fond of books, and still more of the natural sciences and mechanical arts. His first act was to send Madame du Barri to a convent; but, with his usual indecision, this severity was not sustained, and she was permitted to retire to her estate near Marli. The fall of the mistress was soon followed by that of the ministers who had supported her. Maupeou, D'Aiguillon, and Terrai were succeeded by Maurepas, Vergennes, and Turgot. The last, who had distinguished himself as a political economist, after filling the office of Minister of Marine, was placed at the head of the finances. In November 1774, Louis XVI., by the advice of Maurepas, reestablished the Parliaments-one of the greatest mistakes, perhaps, of his reign. His address to that of Paris, however, was very despotic, and he made several alterations in its constitution, especially by the suppression of the two chambers of requests. Turgot, who was inimical to the Parliaments, had opposed this measure. By the dismissal of Turgot in May 1776, through the intrigues of Maurepas and other enemies, the monarchy lost its last chance; he was perhaps the only man in France who, by means of reform, might have averted revolution. His fall is said to have been accomplished by means of a letter, in which his hand was forged, containing sarcasms upon the Queen and Maurepas, and even expressions calculated to wound the King.14 Turgot was succeeded as controller of the finances by M. de Clugni, and, after his death, by Taboureau de Réaux. The latter was an insignificant person, and the finances were really managed by Necker, a Genevese 14 See Euvres de Turgot, Notice Hist., par M. Daire, t. i. p. cxi. ̧ 522 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [BOOK VI. banker, under a new title of Director of the Royal Treasury (1776). In the following year, on the resignation of Taboureau, Necker was made Director-General of the finances, but without a seat in the Council, on the ground of his religion. Nevertheless, France and Europe called it the Necker Administration. Necker was a good practical man of business, and introduced many useful reforms; but he possessed not that broad and daring grasp of mind and those statesmanlike views which characterised Turgot. The state of the revenue compelled France at this period to play but a minor part in the general affairs of Europe, and the reign of Louis XVI. might probably have been passed in profound tranquillity, had not the quarrel of Great Britain with her NorthAmerican colonies offered an opportunity, too tempting to be resisted, to gratify the national hatred and revenge. The history of that quarrel belongs to the domestic annals of England, and is connected with European history only by its results, and the maritime war to which it gave rise. Its details must be familiar to most of our readers, and we need therefore only briefly recapitulate some of its leading events:-the Stamp Act of 1765, attempted to be thrust on the Americans by the mother-country, and resisted by them on the ground that they were not represented in the British Parliament; its withdrawal in the following year, accompanied, however, with an offensive declaration of the supreme rights of the mother-country over her colonies; the renewed attempt, in 1767, to raise duties in America on tea, paper, painters' colours, and glass; the abandonment of these by Lord North, except the duty on tea, in 1770; the permission given to the East India Company, in 1773, to export their surplus stock to America, and the destruction of some of these cargoes in Boston harbour. The quarrel was now becoming serious and complicated. In the spring of 1774, Acts were passed by the British Parliament for suppressing the port of Boston, for abolishing the charter and democratic government of Massachusetts, and for authorising the governors of colonies to send home persons guilty of rebellion, to be tried by the Court of King's Bench. General Gage was sent to Boston to enforce these measures; but the troops at his disposal were not adequate to support such vigorous proceedings. The colonists agreed to abstain from using British merchandise till Massachusetts should be restored to its privileges; while a General Congress, which met at Philadelphia in December 1774, resolved to repel force by force. They drew up addresses to the people of Great Britain, as well as to the Colonies; and a petition to the King, in which they professed, or pretended to profess, their loyalty. But, in spite of Lord CHAP. IX.] DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY. 523 Chatham's eloquent warnings, the Government persisted in its course. In February 1775, bills were brought in to restrain the commerce of the New England provinces, and to exclude them from the Newfoundland fishery. These measures were shortly followed by a collision. General Gage, who had received reinforcements, having dispersed some American militia at Lexington, April 19th 1775, the colonists assembled on all sides, and drove the English back to the suburbs of Boston. The Congress now appointed George Washington commander-in-chief; and on the 6th of July, they published a Declaration explaining their motives, but denying any intention to separate from the mother-country. Washington, with 20,000 men, now blockaded Boston. In an attempt to relieve themselves, the English, under Generals Howe and Burgoyne, fought the battle of Bunker's Hill, July 17th, when, but with considerable loss, they ultimately defeated the Americans under Putnam. The blockade of Boston, however, still continued, and in March 1776, Howe was compelled to abandon that town, and to retire to Halifax in Nova Scotia. The Americans, elated with their success, made an attempt upon Canada, but were repulsed. The English Ministry had felt the necessity for making more vigorous efforts, and early in 1776, treaties had been concluded with some German princes, the Duke of Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, his son, the Count of Hanau, and the Prince of Waldeck, by which they engaged to supply between 17,000 and 18,000 men to serve against the Americans. The country had to pay dearly for the degradation of incorporating these foreign hirelings in her armies. Much deeper, however, was the shame of the princes who engaged in this white slave trade, and sold the blood of their subjects to fill their own coffers, and support their pomp and luxury. The Duke of Brunswick alone appears to have applied the wages of blood to the benefit of his remaining subjects. These proceedings afforded the Americans a motive, or at all events a pretext, for taking the last step, and altogether renouncing their connection with the mother-country, in order that they might be able to hire foreign mercenaries themselves. Public opinion in America had been stimulated in this direction by many publications and addresses, and especially by Thomas Paine's celebrated pamphlet entitled Common Sense. On July 4th 1776, Congress, under the presidency of John Hancock, made its DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY; and in the following October, thirteen States 15 15 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, |