that worthy magistrate, and recommended Necker as the person whom the nation wished to see again in that department. Louis expressed his disgust at the pride and domineering spirit of the Swiss banker; and, not being strongly pressed by one who, new in office, felt some timidity on the occasion, he refused to readmit him into power. M. De la Millière had declined the post; but Fourqueux did not so strenuously resist the importunities of the court. He found himself, upon trial, unequal to the task; and the public credit, under his short administration, hastened to ruin. The king then seemed inclined to recall Necker: but the baron De Breteuil convinced him that such a step would tend to the annihilation of his authority, as a proud and vain man, finding that his services were deemed necessary, and knowing himself to be supported by the general voice, would rise above all control. M. De Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse, being recommended in preference, was accepted by Louis, who did not, however, cordially approve the nomination'. The prelate who was thus favoured had displayed some share of talent in the states of Languedoc, and in assemblies of the clergy. But his ideas were not profound; he had no extraordinary share of general knowledge: he was more violent than energetic, more self-interested than patriotic. Like Calonne (says Marmontel), he had an imposing quickness and vivacity of manner; but his address was less pleasing. He pretended to entertain great views; yet he had so little originality in his politics, that his chief schemes were borrowed from that minister. Having endeavoured, without effect, to procure the assent of the notables to the stamp-duties and the land-tax, he advised a dissolution of the assembly, and resolved to govern by his own arbitrary will.

May 25.

While France felt, in various instances, the ill effects of the war, Spain was less sensible of injury from that source, and less deranged in her government. Charles, indeed, like Louis, found difficulty in raising supplies; for a small loan, which his treasurer negotiated in 1783, was scarcely more than half filled in two years; and a national bank, instituted by the advice of Cabanus, a young Frenchman, could not obtain general confidence. The king, however, prosecuted, with zeal and spirit, various improvements in commerce and political economy, and in the elegant as well as useful arts. The prejudices of the people obstructed some of these improvements: but, by the perseverance of the

1 Mémoires de Marmontel, livre xii.

court, and the concurrence of the intelligent part of the community, several beneficial schemes were carried into effect.

The weak and bigoted queen of Portugal was less intent upon reform: yet she checked the exorbitancy of papal power in her dominions, promoted industry and trade, and encouraged some laudable institutions. Being advised to repress, by seasonable and exemplary severity, the horrible practice of assassination, she declared that she would never pardon any one, of whatever rank, who should be guilty of deliberate murder: but she did not strictly adhere to this resolution; for the malignity of private revenge was still suffered, on many occasions, to shed blood with impunity.

Her eldest son Joseph, prince of Brasil, was a youth of considerable merit, and promised to be a more enlightened sovereign than his mother; but he died of the small-pox at the age of twenty-seven, two years after the death of don Pedro, the titular king. Joseph had espoused his aunt, but left no issue. His brother John, before he became heir to the crown, gave his hand to a grand-daughter of the king of Spain; and another marriage strengthened the friendship of the two courts, don Gabriel of Spain being united to a daughter of the queen of Portugal. The count De Florida-Blanca was the chief promoter of these matrimonial connexions. He had before' procured the accession of France to the last treaty between the courts of Madrid and Lisbon, so that the houses of Bourbon and Braganza were now closely connected: yet Great Britain still enjoyed sufficient influence to secure the principal share of the commerce of Portugal. The catholic king and her most faithful majesty agreed to unite their forces in an attack upon the infidels of Barbary. In one expedition, indeed (that of the year 1783), the Spaniards were unaided by the Portuguese. Don Antonio Barcelo bombarded the Algerine capital for a week, with greater fury than effect; and then returned to Carthagena. In the following year, the Spanish armament was reinforced by Portuguese, Neapolitan, and Maltese vessels; and seven attacks were made upon the place, which, however, was so well defended, that all the efforts of the Christian combatants were fruitless.

The republic of Venice did not join in the war against the Algerines, its hostile resentment being at that time more particularly directed against the state of Tunis. A contest had also arisen between the Venetians and the Dutch, in conse

1 July 15, 1783.

quence of some mercantile debts and claims which were disallowed by the senate; but the dispute did not proceed to actual hostilities.

The insults and depredations of the corsairs did not so far alarm the pacific sovereign of Tuscany, as to prompt him to send out a fleet against them. That prince continued his reforms; and he now distinguished himself by the enactment of a new code of laws. Long before the promulgation of this celebrated edict, his humanity had prompted him to abolish capital punishment, and mitigate in other respects the rigour of the penal laws. Observing the good effects of these regulations, he extended and confirmed them in an edict consisting of a hundred and nineteen articles. He allowed informations ex officio, except for slight offences; diminished the frequency and increased the solemnity of oaths; facilitated to accused persons the means of defence; prohibited the admission of presumptive proofs in any case whatever; opposed all delays of justice; exploded the practice of torture for procuring confessions: annulled the right claimed by individuals, of killing outlawed robbers and assassins: would not suffer even the perpetrators of murder to be punished with greater severity than that which was included in the sentence of hard labour for life; abolished branding, mutilation, and the strappado'; restricted the modes of punishment to flagellation (private or public), the pillory, fine, imprisonment, banishment, andlabour; limited the period of accusation for higher offences to ten years, and, for inferior acts of delinquency, to five years 2.

Leopold's brother Joseph also aimed at the high character of a legislator. His code abolished the question or torture, and nearly excluded death from the number of penal inflictions: but it ordained very severe punishments for small offences, and gave too great authority to the judges in the direction and management of trials. In these two respects it resembled the Turkish system; but it did not lead to such flagrant abuses as prevailed under that government, although the reigning sultan had redressed some grievances, and endeavoured to reform the conduct of his officers and magistrates.

Joseph's northern ally, the aspiring Catharine, was employed in the enforcement of her own code, and in providing for the execution of farther schemes of ambition. She kept her sub

1 Straining or dislocation of limbs by the cord and pulley.

2 Editto dato in Pisa, Nov. 30, 1786, per Pietro Leopoldo, Gran-Duca di Toscana. VOL. III.

SS

jects in submission, while she encroached on the rights of her Turkish neighbours. Aware of the amity between Sweden and Turkey, she courted and soothed Gustavus. She had no apprehensions of molestation from the Danes, whose court she had long overawed. That nation now enjoyed the beneficent sway of Frederic, the prince-royal, who being supported by a considerable number of the nobility, and by the generality of the people had subverted the power of the queen-dowager', and procured a decree, importing that no orders of the council of state should have effect, unless they should be signed both by the king and his son. The authority which the prince thus acquired was exercised with such moderation, equity, and judgment, that his popularity was highly augmented, and fixed on a firm basis.

LETTER VIII.

History of France, from the Dismission of the Notables, to the Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, in 1791.

THE agitation of the public mind in France, the embarrassments of the court, and the unsettled state of the administration seemed to portend a speedy and important change. The glaring inequality of taxation, and the numerous abuses which had long prevailed, could not be expected to subsist unaltered or uncorrected, as the eyes of the people were now opened. The privileged orders, however unwilling to make concessions, were sensible of the expediency of allaying that popular ferment which might otherwise lead to a resolute assertion of rights; and the court, though its tone was high and its language arbitrary, could not avoid acknowledging, in moments of cool reflection, that it was politic to lower the one and soften the other.

When the notables were dismissed, they carried into their respective provinces some new information concerning the state of affairs, and some degree of discontent mingled with the seeds of freedom. The liberty, however, which they desired, was not that of the whole nation, but only of the higher classes. Such limited patriotism was not very honourable to their cha

racters.

1 In the year 1784.

The archbishop hoped that the parliament of Paris would not refuse to register his two edicts; and he was so confident in this expectation, that he did not exert his usual arts to procure assent. The air of arrogance which he assumed disgusted the magistracy. To a demand of the financial accounts he refused to agree, although it certainly was reasonable that those who were desired to confirm new imposts should know whether they were really necessary. By ancient practice (says M. Necker) the minister was allowed to withhold this communication; but, as he had disdained the alliance and sanction of the notables, and thus committed a serious error, it would have been better for him to yield to the wish of the parliament, than to engage in a quarrel with the sovereign courts, at a time when the government had lost the support of public opinion'.

The desired assent of the parliament not being given, the king held a bed of justice, and commanded instant re- Aug. 6, gistration. The magistracy protested against this act of 1787. power, and declared that the enforced record was illegal and null. The prelate advised his majesty to disperse the refractory members; but Lamoignon alleged that they would thus be less accessible to negotiation, and proposed that, if any step should be taken in consequence of the royal displeasure, it should only be the removal of the tribunal. Louis then transferred the parliament to Troyes; and the archbishop, by promising the dismissal of Lamoignon (who, by being an advocate for the simplification of legal process, had rendered himself obnoxious to all the courts of law), procured assent to the collection of two twentieths. A dispute, however, arose respecting the mode of assessment. The parliament wished it to remain on the old basis, which favoured the privileged orders: while the minister wished for such an inquiry into the exact amount of property, as might render the tax less partial. He proposed that the provinces should compound for the impost: but this compromise was not satisfactory; and the flame of opposition was spreading over the country, when the king promised that the twentieths should be collected in the established mode 2.

Amidst this dispute, the parliament called for a meeting of the states-general, less perhaps from a sincere wish for the convocation of a national council, than from temporary irritation. The nobles and the clergy joined in the call, without expecting

1 De la Révolution Françoise, par Necker, tome i. sect. i.

2 Mémoires de Marmontel, livre xiii.