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or taille; the capitation, or poll-tax; and the gift of the clergy, who, so late as the year 1753, purchased away their ancient tax of the twentieth penny, by obliging themselves to pay a yearly sum of twelve millions of livres, or five hundred thousand pounds sterling. The extraordinary or arbitrary revenue of the crown consisted in such other taxes as the monarch thought proper to impose, and the money arising from the sale of offices, which was a very large fund. Most of those duties we have mentioned were leased out to the farmersgeneral of the revenue, who paid a settled sum to the crown, and appointed their under-farmers and receivers.*

With respect to the ecclesiastical constitution of France, the Gallican church, though catholic, and acknowledging the pope as supreme head in matters spiritual, had greatly limited his power within the kingdom. The declaration of the assembly of the clergy of France, signed in the year 1682, bears that the sovereign power in all temporal matters is in no shape subject to the power of the pope, which extends only to matters relative to salvation; that no temporal power can be deposed by the pope, nor subjects absolved

*The history of the French finances may be best understood from the following books:-a small work published in 1590, under the administration of Sully, entitled "Recueil des Réglemens, Edicts, Ordonnances, et Observations sur le faict des Finances;" and the "Comptes Rendus des Finances du Royaume sous Henry IV., Louis XIII., et Louis XIV.," by M. Mallet, printed at London in 1789, which contains an introduction of great merit, inquiring into the origin of the several taxes, and the ancient management of the revenues.

from their allegiance to their lawful prince by his authority; that the pope himself is subject to the general councils of the church, which are to be obeyed in preference to his mandates; that the canons which are enacted by those general councils are the supreme rule of obedience in all matters ecclesiastical; and that the judgment of the pope in matters of faith is not infallible, unless it is supported by the assent of the catholic church, declared in a general council. In consequence of these regulations, neither the sovereign, his officers, nor magistrates, were subject to any church discipline, either inflicted by the bishops or by the pope himself. The pope had no other jurisdiction in France than such as the king was pleased to grant him. No appeals were competent to the see of Rome, unless in a very few ecclesiastical cases, specially defined: no subject could be summoned to Rome; no legate from the pope could act in France without the royal licence; nor could the pope levy any money from the kingdom, unless those small fees and imposts which are decreed to be payable to the see of Rome by the Concordat, a decree of a general council of the catholic church. The ecclesiastical power in France was, in fact, subordinate to the civil; for in all church matters where there was any suspicion of an abuse or an unjust sentence, it was competent to appeal from the ecclesiastical courts to the parliaments, where the matter was determined as a civil cause.

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CHAPTER XXXV.

PETER THE GREAT, CZAR OF MUSCOVY, AND CHARLES XII. OF SWEDEN:-Origin of the Russian EmpireSiberia conquered-Rapid extension in Asia-Peter the Great-Forms the first small Body of regular TroopsEquips a Fleet-Travels in search of Knowledge-Returns to Russia-His vast Innovations-Charles XII. of Sweden-Confederacy against-Defeats the Russians in the Battle of Narva-Invades Poland-Takes Warsaw and Cracow-Places Stanislaus on the Throne-Invades the Uckraine-Is defeated at Pultowa-Taken Prisoner by the Turks- Returns to his dominions - Killed at Frederickshal - Character- Peter the Great puts his Son to Death-Death of Peter-Internal Improvements of his Empire.

DURING the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV., two most illustrious characters had begun to figure in the north of Europe-Peter the Great, czar of Muscovy, and Charles XII., king of Sweden. To the vast empire of Russia we have hitherto paid no attention, because, till now, it was quite uncivilized, and had scarcely any connexion with the European kingdoms. Its early history is still very obscure. Till the middle of the fifteenth century, the Russians were an unconnected multitude of wandering tribes professing different religions, and most of them yet idolaters. A sovereign, or duke of Russia, paid a tribute to the Tartars of furs and

Ivan Vas

cattle, to restrain their depredations. sillovich, a spirited chief, rescued them from this subjection. About the middle of the fifteenth century he increased his dominions by the accession of Novogorod and of the territory of Moscow, which he took from the Lithuanians; and from that period the Russian czars or princes began to assume the splendour and dignity of sovereigns, but their dominions were barbarous and uncultivated. It was not till the year 1645, when Alexis Michaelowitz succeeded to the throne, that the first code of Russian laws was published, and some attempts were made to introduce that civilization which was afterwards so happily accomplished by his son, Peter the Great. The limits of the empire at this time, too, did not comprehend one-third of what is now subject to the dominions of the sovereigns of Russia.

Till about the end of the sixteenth century, the dominions of Russia were bounded by the river Wolga to the east; that is to say, they extended no farther than the limits of Europe. At that time a Cossack chief of the name of Jermack, who followed the profession. of a robber, and was the leader of a gang of banditti, was the means of adding to the Russian empire all that immense tract of country known by the name of Siberia. He had long infested the Russian borders by his depredations, till at last being taken prisoner with the greatest part of his followers, and condemned to suffer death, he threw himself upon the clemency of the czar, and offered, on condition of recéiving a pardon, to point out an easy conquest of an immense extent of empire unknown to the

Russians. His offer was accepted; the czar approved of the expedition, and Jermack set out as the general of a regular army for the conquest of Siberia, then in the hands of the Tartars. This expedition was attended with all the success that could be wished. The Tartars fled before the Russians; but venturing at length to make a stand, a general and decisive battle was fought near the city of Tobolsky, where the Tartars were entirely defeated, and their king, with the whole of the royal family, were sent in chains to Moscow. They were, however, very honourably treated, and the son of the last prince had an assignment of territory of a large extent given him in Russia, which is at this day, or has very lately been, enjoyed by his family, together with the title of Sibersky Czarovitz, or Prince of Siberia. The Russians continued to extend their conquests to the east with great rapidity, and in half a century found themselves confined only by the eastern limits of the Asiatic continent.

The czar Alexis Michaelowitz, who first introduced a regular system of laws among the Russians, paved the way for that civilization which his son Peter afterwards accomplished. Alexis left three sons, Phædor, Ivan, and Peter, and a daughter Sophia. Phædor succeeded his father, but died young in the year 1682, leaving the crown to his youngest brother Peter, then only two years of age, in exclusion of the elder Ivan, a man of no capacity; but the princess Sophia had that capacity which her brother wanted. She committed some dreadful excesses to obtain the government of the empire, and carried the point so

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