which he entered into with Lord Stair, Lord Stanhope, and other enthusiastic partisans of the last English Revolution; and, finally, the different means of communication, which would necessarily bring the respective subjects of the two countries into the same habits of intercourse as subsisted between the principal persons of the two governments. Perhaps we ought, indeed, to go as far back as the first part of the Regency, in order to make some remarks upon that peremptory and abrupt manner in which the will of Louis XIV. was set aside, instead of having undergone some respectful modifications; that right of remonstrating against the laws, before registering them, which it was necessary to put again into the hands of the Parliament in the agreement made with it; that habit which this body was allowed to fall into of making void the wills of Kings, with less ceremony than those of the citizens of Paris; and, lastly, the idea it must have of its power, being permitted to use it in so unlimited a manner, and the temptations to which that idea must continually expose it. Who, after having well considered all these circumstances, will hesitate a moment to conclude that this mixture of good and evil dispositions, of important and trifling occurrences, tended, in

the end, to make considerable innovations upon the old principles of government, and the ancient manners of the French monarchy ?

Many writers have affected to trace the limit between those innovations, which justice and reason alike demanded, and those which both equally rejected. Without entering into any detail, we shall generally allow that there certainly ought to be some distinctions made. Doubtless, when the Parliament of Paris carried its insolent proceedings so far, as to strip the Regent of all his authority, in order to invest itself with it, when this assembly followed up its favourite purpose of changing its condition, as a simple court of justice, into that of an English House of Commons, keeping the Upper House in awe*; it did not then become merely the right of the Regent, but it was also his duty to put a stop to that attempt; and the Duke de St. Simon, whose words I have borrowed, had good grounds for accusing the Regent "of long

delays, and tedious forbearance." But, when this same Parliament of Paris remonstrated so strongly against the subversion of property; when it was desirous of opposing a barrier to that

* Memoirs of St. Simon.

sweeping madness of Law which was about to reduce to beggary five hundred and eleven thousand fathers of families, there certainly could not have been imagined a more legitimate use of the authority, with which this court of justice had just been re-invested; and when we behold these remonstrances punished by the disgrace of such a man as the Chancellor D'Aguesseau, and by the unheard-of arbitrary exile of all the Magistrates at once, we ought not to feel surprised that, from that period, some people were heard to call for the convocation of the States-General.

Fleury.

The wise, pure, and peaceable administration Cardinal of Cardinal Fleury; the presence of a King, the last remaining branch of the numerous offspring of Louis XIV, whose youth, so full of promise, had been preceded by an infancy of precarious growth, checked the progress of the recently received opinions; or perhaps it was the novelty of the moment which effected it; it was a Prelate who was religious, a Minister who professed a regard for public decency, a Court of economical conduct, a Queen, whose virtues were imbibed in the school of misfortune, and a Prince who, while he cultivated morality, proved that

Montes

quieu.

he was jealous of public esteem; a line of conduct which Louis XV. rigidly observed at the commencement of his reign.

In the mean while Montesquieu, whose genius procured him the appellation of the legis lator of nations, went over to England, to learn to think, and brought back that admirable chapter on the British Constitution, which formed a sect in France, and was rewarded with a gold medal struck in London. VolVoltaire. taire, born to exercise that superior influence

over the minds of the century, which was unknown before he appeared, had preceded Montesquieu two years in a visit to the same country: he brought back with him his tragedy of Brutus, his character of Orosmanes, his preface to Mr. Fawkner, his grateful sense of the favours that had been heaped upon him, and his admiration of the laws he had seen administered. Till then, there was room to think, that neither of these two celebrated men had done more than borrowed from their neighbours what increased the valuable possessions of their native country. Voltaire boasted, all his life, of having been the first person who introduced to the knowledge and study of his countrymen, those great ge

niusses, and profound philosophers, who were the glory of England.

Thanks had been due to him, had he contented himself with naturalizing Shakespeare in France, that poet who invokes in the "Eternal Mover "of the Heavens, his hope, his stay, and his guide*;" or Bacon, who declares, that "a "little philosophy withdraws the mind from re

ligious reflections, but a great store brings it "back again;" or Newton, who was the greatest genius that ever lived, and always bowed low whenever he heard the name of GoD pronounced; or even Locke, notwithstanding the peculiar nature of some of the subjects, which he discussed in a very free manner, even this man Voltaire might have been thanked for introducing to his countrymen; for, throughout his life, he was as much the friend of order as he proved himself to be that of liberty; Locke, who died no less a Christian than a philosopher, and might have well been considered as belonging to the whole human race, whose cause he pleaded. Bourdaloue, this man's co

* O thou Eternal Mover of the Heavens.

GOD shall be my hope,

My stay, my guide, and lanthorn to my feet.