the borders of France, with his daughter Marie, on a pension which Dubois had supplied him with. The choice of all parties interested at last became fixed on Marie Leszczynski, whose portrait subdued the king, and whose humility pleased Fleury as much as it did Bourbon. The offer of the hand of the King of France was made to the almost deserted prince and his daughter. The exultation and delight of the former knew, as was natural, no bounds. The royal marriage was celebrated at Fontainebleau in September 1725. This rupture between the crowns, commenced by Ripperda's mission, had been already rendered complete by the sending back the infanta in March. The resentment of the Spanish court, of course, was intense, and the hasty conclusion of the treaty with Austria was no doubt the consequence. The terms upon which the old antagonists came to an agreement were much the same as those stipulated in the quadruple alliance. The emperor renounced his pretensions to Spain, Spain its claim upon the Netherlands. The emperor kept Milan, Sicily, and Naples, the son of Elizabeth Farnese being now apparently secured, by the assent of the emperor, in the inheritance of Tuscany and Parma. The imperial court obtained from Spain the support of the Pragmatic Sanction, which ruled that the entire of the Austrian dominions should pass to Maria Theresa, eldest daughter of the emperor. It was, moreover, secretly stipulated that there were to be intermarriages between the Spanish princes and the Austrian archduchesses, and that Gibraltar was to be demanded from England, and, if refused, wrested by force.* Such a warlike alliance naturally gave rise to an antagonistic and defensive one. England, France, and Prussia signed, in September, the treaty known as that of Hanover, destined to counteract the league between Spain and Austria, concluded at Vienna. And the * Coxe's History of Spain under the Bourbons. VOL. IV. CHAP. XXXIV. CHAP. XXXIV. Continent seemed thus divided and marshalled forth for war, without much stomach in the people of the countries or much spirit in any of their governments to carry it on. Scarcely one country could be said to have its interests engaged in it. Thus the government of the Duke of Bourbon, who had revived the old persecuting laws against the Huguenots, engaged in the new treaty to avenge the Protestants of Thorn whom the Polish Catholics had massacred. The sound and the prospects of war compelled those wielding the government of France to put their financial and military resources in some order. But the war, indeed, was deemed a convenient excuse for the Duke of Bourbon, whose treasury was as usual so empty that there was not wherewith to meet the interest of the Rentes. Paris Duvernay met the occasion by a bold measure, which, had the war been more national, or the country called upon to make an effort for an intelligible cause, or had it even had a representative assembly to which such necessity could be made known, might have been not only borne but been popular. But when the duke's government decreed an income-tax of the fiftieth part of the revenue of every person and every class, there arose a rumour and a resistance, parliament leading the way, quite alarming to the timid Fleury, who was the more shaken by the clergy being the loudest of the opposers of the tax. Other imposts were added, such as a forced gratuity upon the king's accession. This fiftieth was to be levied not only in money upon the rich, but in kind upon the poor. 1726 happened to be a year of famine; the populace of the provincial capitals rose in insurrection. Those of the capital were as dangerously minded. Menaced by this general discontent of all classes, Bourbon perceived that the young king and his preceptor, Fleury, especially the latter, shared in the bad opinion entertained of his talents. He sought to sup XXXIV. port himself by interesting in his favour the young CHAP. Thus terminated the successive reigns of two princes *Lemontey; Mémoires de Villars, &c. 196 СНАР. CHAPTER XXXV. FROM CARDINAL FLEURY'S ADMINISTRATION TO THE 1726-1743. It is but natural that strange freaks should be played, and sudden changes take place, in those countries of which the rule depends upon the absolute will of the sovereign. And yet these are less than one might expect in old, polished and settled kingdoms, where, although the nation may have lost all control over its rulers, still habit, prejudice, tradition, and the influence of institutions akin to absolutism-such as those of a powerful church and an hereditary aristocracy-keep the government and the head of it in the established routine, and, unless he have a commanding intellect, like Louis the Fourteenth, make of him but a formidable puppet. In new and barbarous countries, indeed, where the throne is so often reached through blood, where education is a nullity, and rude instincts are allowed their full development, great princes of startling character often spring up, not only to turn the nature of their own government and empire topsy-turvy, but to do the same by those of their neighbours. This was especially the case in the north of Europe, where, whilst the Louis and the Philips of old dynasties slumbered, new monarchs carved out new monarchies, or resuscitated old. The appearance and career of Charles the Twelfth was that of a comet, frightening the world, and leaving no trace. Peter the Great was of another metal; he founded an empire. And soon after him, Frederick the Great CHAP. conquered for himself a kingdom with his sword. The history of these illustrious initiatory monarchs lies not within our scope; and they are merely mentioned to mark the contrast they make with the young Louis the Fifteenth-as absolute as they-but so hampered by etiquette and timidity as to render his sceptre but a child's plaything. Naturally enough the young monarch, not yet alive to any pleasure save the chase, and feeling neither taste nor interest in politics, entrusted power to his reverend preceptor and religious guide. Fleury, whom Rome hastened to make a cardinal, assumed, at the age of seventy-three, the authority of prime minister without the name. He knew almost as little of politics as his disciple; but he instinctively shrank from braving public opinion, and offending both church, magistracy, and people, as Bourbon was doing. And Fleury wrested power out of the hands of the latter, simply to undo his violence, and to abolish the cinquantaine, or income-tax of one-fiftieth, exiling at the same time its proposers, and especially exempting the clergy from taxation. One of the usual manipulations of the coin was going on at the mint; Fleury instantly stopped it, and with good sense and justice, rather than science, proclaimed a fair value as that of the precious metals, and declared it should be inviolable. The mere change of government had such a favourable effect upon what might be called the money-market, that much higher prices were offered for the fermes than the duke could have obtained. Still there was a deficit. This Fleury was determined to meet for the future by a diminution of expenditure, beginning with that of the king and queen. Household pensions and places* were lopped off. By a singular mode of reasoning it was argued that, when the salaried classes had their incomes curtailed, the rentiers or fundholders should be mulcted *A list of them is in Barbier. XXXV. |