CHAP. XXXV. accorded to Newton, whose remains he saw borne in pomp to Westminster Abbey. It has been observed how Hispanified the French had become in the first half of the 17th century. With Louis the Fourteenth literature and fashion, as well as politics, became altogether national. The regards of that great monarch turned northwards. It was in that direction that his kingdom required rounding. But the great intellects of his time were purely French, carrying the language and its literature to all the sublimity and perfection of which it was capable. It carried something still higher, and that was conversation, society, and intellectual intercourse. These, indeed, escape record, except in a few gleamings. Yet what powers of observation and description do not the Memoirs of St. Simon reveal! What a charming and brilliant reflection of the conversation of the time do we not find in Sévigné ! With Louis the Fifteenth or before him disappeared the great intelligences of the age. But the genius of society did not die, retaining down to the period of the Revolution that charm and that superiority which subjugated every foreigner that came within its sphere. Such activity and cultivation of the great and refined social qualities is said to have been accompanied by increased corruption of morals. This may be doubted. The regent was a sorry rake, whose position and whose suppers are made to represent the society of Paris, of which they may have been solitary exceptions. Gallantry was certainly too much the vogue. The rich, condemned to idleness, could scarcely find any other pastime than that of making a plaything of the sex, which in turn makes fools and tools of them. Give to every class freedom, an aim, a participation in public business, and the idle pleasure of gallantry and deception is left to such as have no intellect for aught else. There is often, however, the affectation and fashion of XXXV. vice, and that evidently prevailed towards the end of CHAP, Louis the Fifteenth's reign. Yet it did not prevent that high state of intellectual and social intercourse which pervaded a large class of French, especially of Parisians, and which formed a public for such a writer as Voltaire. The weak point of Louis the Fourteenth's age was its philosophy. Malebranche could not replace Descartes. The ruling powers and the only class it would patronise thought that formal and traditional religion answered all such purposes. Controversy was a crime; and though Louis the Fourteenth employed an atheist in preference to a Jansenist, a work of Spinosa would scarcely have met with his indulgence. Bishops and court preachers were very eloquent, subduing, touching, pathetic. But it was the froth of religious zeal, not the learning or the solidity of conviction. Louis and his court thought it perfection, and with the sublimity of Bossuet, and inquisitorial tyranny of a Le Tellier, the king imagined he had for ever founded the faith. He sacrificed a million of Huguenots to his idea, with thousands of Jansenists, both of them the most devout Christians of his empire, whilst a different kind of religion was thundering at the door of his absolute monarchy. From the commencement of his persecutions the religious exiles had raised their voices in Holland. They had not much effect on the Catholic world of France, until Bayle took up another tone, and, proving the intolerance and abuse of the one dominant religion, drew conclusions as to the odiousness of all. That kind of argument told. The sect of libertins grew up in France, and with the regent denied every law that interfered with their pleasures. The regent's example was, however, more deterrent than inviting. Infidelity ran through society, and instead of, as in England at the same time, meeting men of genius and intellect to combat it, encountered no obstacle. For the church and the churchmen of the Bossuet school were ignorant, XXXV. whilst their peculiar kind of pulpit eloquence had lost its power. With religious incredulity was joined political distrust, a disbelief in the worth of absolute governments. It is an easy step from the conviction that many things are wrong, to the idea that all are so. Politics, however, had been but little studied. A kind of club, called that of the Entresol,* was formed in Paris to discuss such matters. But Fleury, jealous, if he did not put it down, so frightened its members that their labours were idle. In public and political matters the appearance of Montesquieu's work on the "Grandeur and Fall of the Romans," arrested the attention of the public, to which his Esprit des Lois," in 1728, gave inexhaustible food for enquiry and discussion. he Voltaire's writings, however, were more influential and more amusing than those of Montesquieu. The works of the latter opened sources for reflection in the closet. Voltaire's works of the day gave materials for conversation; were read, understood, and remembered by every one. A great secret of his power was that he may be said to have had no opinion, at least no peculiar one. Notwithstanding his essays on Locke and Bacon, gave himself no time to form any. Between society and the muses, Voltaire could not hope to be a philo. sopher. He had, however, one convenient and ready principle-negation. He denied everything, mocked all the old received opinions and institutions of the kingdom. Priests, magistrates, the courts of justice and administration, were exposed, though covertly; and his satires, whilst respecting the authorities, now and then ventured on allusions to that temple of dullnessVersailles. The royal abode was as sombre as the capital was * A list is given of the names by D'Argenson. gay. The king liked not Paris, and it was thought a wonderful achievement to get him to the opera. Up to this period the pleasures of the chase absorbed him. To these were soon associated those of voluptuousness, the queen having ceased to charm, or Fleury to control Louis' private conduct. Strange to say, when the intellects of France and England were blending and borrowing colours and ideas one from another, not only did the political interests and tendencies of the nations fall asunder, but passions of mutual rivalry and hate were awakened, which put an end to the long peace, and made the latter half of the century a succession of wars. Never did ministers wield greater power, though kept in different ways, than Fleury and Walpole. Never were ministers more attached to peace. But the current of events and opinions in both countries ran so counter to the policy of the two ministers that it dragged both into wars, and upset Walpole, after his having reluctantly engaged in one. The public opinion in both countries was based upon interests, real or supposed. It has been noticed with what ardour the English had flung themselves into naval enterprise and commercial adventure. In pursuit of these, they acquired and founded colonial empire. Walpole's pacific policy fostered and developed this very spirit which was to put an end to it. In the same way, as soon as Fleury gave fixity to the government, abated the extortions of the fisc, and left capital free, the flame of activity instantly lit up in the sea-ports; money went thither, as did the population. All amity between English and French became impossible when the hardy mariners and colonisers of both countries met in distant regions, founded settlements near to and threatening each other, which, in addition to the rivalry of trade, sought to make allies of the barbarous natives, and drive them into hostilities with their neighbours. СНАР. XXXV. СНАР. It was thus that, about the period we treat of, the XXXV. New Englanders began to encroach on their French neighbours of Canada, who built a fort on Lake Champlain to defend their territory. In India the flags of the rival nations floated on the east coast not far apart, at Pondicherry and Madras, as also in settlements on the Ganges. The growing rivalry of maritime power and trade thus divided the nations. But England by no means looked upon France at first as her chief naval and colonial antagonist. Spain was regarded as a more natural enemy. Possessing what was supposed to be the richest colonies in the world, she kept them sealed, and only allowed foreign interlopers under strict rules, and, as it were, by stealth. England bore this repression with impatience. And the story is well known of a Spanish captain having cut off the ears of an English officer, and handed them back with the injunction, "to show them at home," as a sample of how Spaniards would treat Englanders. The tale, true or false, upset Walpole's policy first, and his power afterwards, and plunged the English into war towards the close of 1739. It was a great source of embarrassment to Fleury, opinion in France calling upon him to support Spain, the old cardinal still clinging to peace. Moreover, he had the conviction of the inferiority of the French navy, very much, if not altogether, neglected since the commencement of the century. Certain encouragements were, however, given to Spain, especially an important convoy to its fleet. The French government, moreover, began to listen to and encourage the emissaries of the Pretender. But France and England still hesitated to strike at one another, till an event in the north completely metamorphosed the policy of Central Europe. In May and in October of the year 1740 took place. the successive deaths of the King of Prussia and the emperor. We have seen the latter during the last |