Monsieur de Maurepas, who, now at near four score, fancied himself wise because he had been a minister at fifteen, was drawn from a retreat in which he had been sighing after the sumptuous indulgences of the court for forty years, and was placed at the head of the government. The facility with which Louis resigned himself to the guidance of this political antiquarian and most frivolous of courtiers is to be deplored. An excess of vanity was Maurepas' predominant foible, and sometimes led him to do good as in the recal of the parliament of Paris directly from its exile, not because it had meritoriously opposed the abuses of the preceding reign, but because so popular an act would gratify his love of praise. Public opinion had likewise fixed on Turgot and Malesherbes as the only men in the nation fit to remedy the disorders of the treasury and reform the administration of government. Though no statesman in France lagged farther behind on the march of public intelligence, or was less aware of the discoveries which the pioneers had made than that vieux enfant, yet from an amiable ambition to please, he resolved to introduce these two philosophers into the ministry. Their first propositions opened a beautiful perspective to France. They proposed the abolition of all intolerance in matters of religion; of the lettres de Cachet; the censorship of the press; of the Corveè, an odious and burthensome labour; and of the duties which restrained the free transportation of articles from one part of France to another. These regulations were so consonant with reason that they would probably have excited but little opposition, if they had not been accompanied by a proposition now become indispensibly requisite for the support of public credit, the abolition of the privilege which exempted the estates of the nobles and the clergy from taxation. Had those measures prevailed, the revolution in France might have been gradual and salutary. When a political reform is necessary in a state, those are the best friends of existing institutions, who wish to adopt it before the evil becomes too inveterate for ordinary remedies. A spirit of discontent created by actual and increasing grievances, can be quieted only by their removal. To repress the clamour it produces by mere force, is like stopping the leaks of a dammed up torrent among the Alps-it only serves to accumulate waters, and if, when they break loose, the mountains are torn asunder and the vallies ruined, to what but

the folly of heaping them up, are we to attribute the devastation?

As the demands of the treasury were now much greater than its resources, there was no choice left, but to tax the privileged orders, to curtail the expenditure, or to acquire new credit. The avarice of the nobles and clergy who governed the court, prevented the experiment of the two former, and the darkness in which the fiscal operation's were involved rendered the last impossible. The king himself was somewhat inclined to favour a reformation; and had he been wise enough to perceive the extent to which it should have been carried, and bold enough to discard the dread of innovation, he might perhaps have reigned happily, and been a blessing to his people. But he was of a different nature, and before the joy of the public, at the appointment of Turgot and Malesherbes, was over, he roused its indignation by discarding them. Their plans of relief put the privileged orders in a rage, and the parliament of Paris, forgetting its old quarrels with them, concurred in their displeasure. The first outcry was raised against a trifling tax on the privileged classes for the repair of the highways, which, as internal trade had never been brisk in France, had hitherto served principally to facilitate the movements of armies, and the occasional journeys of the rich; for travelling is always rare in despotical states. Even at present a stranger is struck with the languid circulation of the public, and the few equipages on the roads in France in comparison with England, or the northern states of America. I do not believe that in our journey to Italy last year we met between Paris and Lyons, a distance of near three hundred miles, more than a dozen carriages travelling post-not one with private horses, nor perhaps one gentleman on horseback.

The removal of Turgot caused the public to perceive, that its interest was in one scale, and that of the privileged orders in the other; but the appointment of Mr. Neckar, as director general of finance, somewhat allayed their discontent. Neckar's understanding was extensive and just, but it was a little fettered by habits of business, and liable to an indecision, which his accomplished daughter has so amiably attributed to the comprehensiveness of his views. His system of finance was that of Colbert, enlarged and liberalized; as that of Turgot was an im

provement on the plans of Sully. To great caution and discretion of temper, Neckar united a scrupulous regard to the dictates of conscience, so that his whole conduct may be regarded as a compromise between the enlightened perceptions of his mind, and the dutiful restraints of his heart. He was a sort of mediator between the republican philosophers, and the friends of feudal bondage, and as such continued during five years the labours of a zealous patriot. In that time he repaired the system of finance, so that it might go on a few years without him, and he was, therefore, sacrificed in his turn, to the trifling vanity of old Maurepas. His genius infused some little vigour into the government during the American war; and this war, to which some have attributed the French revolution, probably retarded its explosion. For, whoever looks attentively into the history of France, will find, I think, that the peace of '63 had humiliated the superb vanity of this nation-that the ignominious vices of Louis XV. had at his death nearly destroyed all reverence for the crown-that the moral bonds, which hold society together, were so chafed or worn, that they were ready to give way or fall to pieces on the first occasion-and that the prodigality which had beggared the treasury, had so increased the impositions, which galled the nation, that it continued to submit more from the habit of obedience, than from any attachment to its government.

LETTER V.

Paris, Feb. 20th, 1820.

MY DEAR SIR,

I have endeavoured in my last letter to recal to your recollection that conduct of the court of France, by which, after familiarizing the nation with the image of vice, it broke down those springs of opinion which had hitherto supported the government. Yet I cannot help thinking that if Louis XVI. (as he was seemingly disposed to do in the beginning of his reign) had suffered himself to be quietly borne along on the tide of public opinion, which was then setting with a smooth and steady current to`wards civil and religious liberty, he might have avoided the wreck which became inevitable after the waters had been too long pent up by the idle and temporary obstacles which bigotry and prejudice opposed to them. The course of the revolution by being slow and gentle might have been salutary and untroubled. But it is often the misfortune of kings to be behind the rest o mankind in wisdom as well as virtue. Louis had excellent feelings but wanted talent to see farther than those who surrounded him, and the natural benevolence of his temper heightens the regret we feel in seeing him perpetually the bubble of his court when so many dangers and troubles were gathering around him. Guided at one time by his own opinions, and at another by those of his counsellors, his conduct was wavering and irresolute when every vacillation of policy jarred the foundations of his throne, and added to the pile of combustible material which perseverance in error had heaped up around it. A match was almost ready to be applied to these after the dismissal of Turgot in 1776. The repeal of the stamp act by appeasing the dissatisfaction of the public retarded for ten years the American revolution. The appointment of Mr. Neckar and the declaration of war against England in alliance with America probably arrested the break

ing out of that of France by diverting the public attention from domestic grevances, and flattering the national vanity with the prospect of recovering the glory which had been recently lost. The American revolution, however, by retarding that of France might have aggravated its disasters. By presenting too a successful example of political reform it unquestionably heightened the illusions of theoretical philosophy, and led away the imaginations of the sanguine and extravagant. It was hastily con"cluded that an old nation required no preparation for the best of governments, and that intelligence alone, without a high sense of justice in the public mind, was all that was necessary for the preservation of freedom. The aversion from arbitrary measures which was now growing apace in this country was increased by the return of the army that went to America. The soldiers brought back with them the impressions that are inspired by the action of a mild and beneficent government, which ruled without oppression and controlled without tyranny. The officers too who commanded that expedition were men at that time of life in which the imagination and the heart are most susceptible of a passion for liberty. The sublime simplicity of Washington's manners and the noble plainness of his retinue presented such a contrast to the languid pomp and frivolous splendour of the spectacle they were accustomed to behold at Versailles as weaned their fondness from pageantry. The French people also turned their regards on the events of that war, and were pleased with the novelty of fighting for liberty. With that vivacity of imagination which is so peculiarly theirs, they ran into an excessive admiration of freedom-began to contemplate their past history as humiliating to their national pride, and to find pleasure only in anticipating its future scenes, brightened and enlarged by the embellishments of vanity. A sort of affectation of independence and audacious contempt of the absurdities sanctioned by time, began to prevail at court, whilst a diminution of respect for the privileges of birth destroyed the elasticity of the main spring of monarchy. Schemes of speculative philosophy which prior to the American war were confined to literary men, began afterwards to circulate in all societies. The rage of the day was to yield with enthusiasm to sentiments of universal benevolence, and to abandon without scruple the discharge of domestic duties. The principles of