was won by the English, but it was restored to France by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Among the West India islands the French too in the course of the seventeenth century founded several important plantations, the chief of which were Guadaloupe, Martinique, and Grenada. In India too, where most of the maritime nations of Europe had some settlement, France began with one at Surat, which was settled by the French East India Company in 1668, through the policy of Colbert. Presently the French gained Pondicherry, and in 1720 the island of Mauritius or the Isle of France. In short the French at this time quite outstripped the English, and even the Dutch, in India. They had settlements at several points, a considerable territory, and were able to wage war with the native princes. In Lewis XV.'s time France had two men of great ability in the east, Labourdonnais, governor of Mauritius, and Dupleix, founder of Chandernagore and governor of the settlements on the mainland. In 1746, during the war of the Austrian Succession, Labourdonnais took the English settlement of Madras, which was restored at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. But the two leaders did not agree with one another, and neither of them was appreciated at home. Labourdonnais came home only to be imprisoned and neglected. Dupleix meanwhile went on founding a great dominion in India, and the forces of the two East India companies often met in arms as allies of various native princes, even when England and France were not at war. At last in 1754 Dupleix was recalled and his property confiscated, and the hopes of France becoming the leading power in India came to an end.

31. The Seven Years' War, 1756.-These struggles in Asia and America were finally merged in the next European war in which England and France took a part, that called the Seven Years' War, which began in 1756. Here the chief powers seemed to have changed places since the war of the Austrian Succession. France and England were still opposed to one another, and Austria and Prussia were still opposed to one another, but this time France was on the side of Austria, and England on that of Prussia. Kaunitz, the minister of the EmpressQueen, saw that the growing power of Prussia was really more dangerous to the Austrian dominion than France was; so all kinds of means were taken to win over France to the Austrian side. The Empress-Queen herself stooped

On the

to treat Madame de Pompadour as a friend. other side of his dominions, the King of Prussia was threatened by Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, and by Augustus, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, whose queen was a daughter of the Emperor Joseph. He was thus hemmed in on all sides by an alliance of women, and England was his only ally. This was the time when Frederick showed his great military genius in contending against so many enemies. His great victory over the French was that of Rossbach in 1757. But between England and France the war was chiefly carried on in distant parts of the world, where, in 1759, Canada was conquered by the English and various successes won by them in other parts. In the latter part of this war the minister of Lewis, or rather of Madame de Pompadour, was the Duke of Choiseul. In 1761 he formed the Family Compact between all the branches of the House of Bourbon, those of France, Spain, the Sicilies, and Parma. This treaty was concluded with King Charles III. of Spain, the same who had reigned in the Sicilies. About the same time the ministers of the new King of England, George III., were inclined to peace, and a new Emperor of Russia, Peter III., was a special admirer of the King of Prussia, and at once made peace with him. Thus things were gradually tending to peace, and in 1763 peace was made by all the contending powers. By the Treaty of Paris between England and France, France gave up all claim to Canada, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton, but kept Louisiana, with the Mississippi for a boundary. But this she engaged by a secret treaty to give up to Spain. France kept nothing else on the North American coast, except a few small islands for the benefit of her fishermen. Thus England became the great power in North America, and room was made for the growth of the United States. In the West Indies France received again some of the islands which had been taken by the English; but England kept Grenada, St. Vincent, Domenica, and Tobago. In India France kept only her old commercial settlements, all the conquests made since 1749, when the war began between the two companies were given up. Thus in India as well as in America all hope of the chief power passed away from France. On the continent of Europe also she gained nothing. Lorraine, as we have seen, became finally joined to France in 1766, and in 1769 the island of Corsica was added to the French

dominions. This had been a possession of the commonwealth of Genoa, but the people were now in revolt against their oppressive masters. The same year Louisiana was taken possession of by the King of Spain. Choiseul also seized on the pope's city of Avignon.

32. Death of the Dauphin, 1765.-Even peace could do little good to France, for the king lavished all the sums that could be wrung from the poor on his abominable amusements. The state of the country was every day growing worse and worse; there were constant disputes with the Parliaments, while on the other hand the Parliaments themselves pronounced many unjust and cruel sentences. The good Dauphin, always neglected and despised, died in 1765, leaving five children, three sons and two daughters. His eldest son Lewis, now Dauphin, was in 1770 married to Marie Antoinette, the youngest daughter of the Empress-Queen. He would fain have become acquainted with the provinces of the kingdom to which he was to succeed; but the king showed the same jealousy of him as of his father, and as to the dangers that threatened the throne, Lewis disposed of them all by saying, "things would last his time." Meantime the writings of Voltaire were changing men's minds as to all existing institutions; those of Rousseau were building up new theories of a return to the simplicity of nature, and those of Diderot, Helvetius, and the Encyclopædists, who were engaged on a grand cyclopædia of arts and sciences, were opening new worlds of thought contrary to all the opinions that had as yet been held sacred.

33. Death of Lewis XV., 1774.-The purchase of Corsica and the marriage of the Dauphin were the last acts of the ministry_of_Choiseul. About the time of the marriage, Madame du Barri took the place which had been before held by Madame de Pompadour, and under her influence the king became jealous of Choiseul and took in his place the Duke of Aiguillon, the Count of Maurepas, and Chancellor Maupeou. Choiseul was missed when the kingdom of Poland was dismembered by Russia, Austria, and Prussia, without so much as a word being said to her ancient ally in France. So low had Lewis XV. sunk that he could not even protest. He was sixty-four years of age, and feebly aware that his life had been a miserable mistake; but it was too late, and he was too fast bound in the trammels of his own vices to change. On the 10th

M

of May, 1774, he died of small-pox, having shown to the very utmost the miserable effects of centering all power in one man, effects equally miserable both to himself and to his country.

CHAPTER IX.

THE GREAT REVOLUTION.

1. Earlier Years of Lewis XVI., 1774.-Every one felt that change must come with the new reign, for the whole country was in a state of ruin and bankruptcy, the nobles corrupt, and the people wretched. No one felt it more deeply than the new king, Lewis XVI., but he was not the man who could save his country. The vice and selfishness of the Bourbons had not descended to him, but he had none of the fire and genius, nor even of the readiness of speech and wit, which had distinguished many of the line. Though no coward, all his courage was passive. He was industrious, honest, tender-hearted, and religious, but there never lived a man less capable of taking the lead in troublous times. His wife, Marie Antoinette, had all the charms and all the fire and spirit which he needed, but her gifts did but add to the evil. The long wars between France and the House of Austria had made the marriage unpopular, and Marie Antoinette, as a lively girl, bred in a court where easy, simple manners prevailed, shocked the nobility by her mirthful scorn of the cumbersome etiquette of the court of Lewis XIV. She had too a young queen's natural love of dress and gaiety, and, in the frightful state of the court, no wish of hers could be indulged without monstrous expenditure. Peasants were living in windowless, chimneyless hovels, feeding on buck-wheat bread, clad in rags, and paying away all the produce they reared. They were told that it was for the king and queen. The old loyalty died out, and the queen was hated with ever-increasing virulence for everything she did or did not do. And reforms were the harder, since to take away offices, however useless, was absolute

starvation to many of the nobles, who, debarred from all possessions save the clerical and the military, lived on these court pensions.

2. Maurepas, 1775.-Lewis began by abolishing torture, and making the wise and excellent Turgot controllergeneral of the finances. But the old Count de Maurepas, the minister, who was only bent on patching things up to last his own time, had all the habits of office and knowledge of business which made him necessary to a new king. He set himself to prevent change, showing all the difficulties of suppressing offices which people's forefathers had bought for their families for ever. Lewis had said, "Nobody loves my people but M. Turgot and myself: but he became alarmed by Maurepas's representations, and let Turgot be dismissed, taking in his stead, in 1777, Necker, a banker from Geneva, who was thought to understand money matters better than any one else in Europe. He was an honest man, and there was so much trust in him that large loans were made to government, for which he managed to pay interest regularly, while endeavours were made to lessen the expenses, but not enough to be of any real service.

3. The American War, 1778.-The longing for change was fed by the sight of what was going on in America, where the endeavour of England to enforce taxes and duties had led to armed resistance on the part of the colonists. The Marquis Gilbert de la Fayette, an ardent young man, fled from home to fight in the ranks of the Americans, in whose valour and simplicity the French enthusiasts beheld a return to the heroism of ancient Greece and Rome. The government, after some hesitation, concluded an alliance with the Americans, and thus became engaged in a war with England, in which France was joined by Spain and the United Provinces. Off the Isle of Ushant a doubtful naval engagement was claimed as a victory by France; but at St. Lucie, in the West Indies, Count de la Grasse's fleet was broken by Lord Rodney, and in the East Indies Pondicherry, the chief French factory, was taken. But the steady resistance of the Americans made the English at length decide on acknowledging their independence, and on the 20th of January, 1783, a general peace was signed. Benjamin Franklin, the American printer, a Quaker, and a man of much science as well as plain sturdy wisdom, came to France as ambassador, and the Parisians, perfectly sick of their unnatural life of