Paris, had imitated the sagacity of his predecessor, lord Stair, by attaching himself and paying court to Fleury. Walpole was amongst the few who paid their respects at Issay during the minister's last retirement there. The friendship that sprung up betwixt Fleury and the Walpoles, ministers of congenial feeling and pacific inclinations, contributed strongly to preserve the bonds of amity unbroken betwixt the two nations: these were now drawn closer by a treaty concluded at Hanover, in opposition to that betwixt Spain and Austria. At the same time the duc de Richelieu, a brilliant young noble, was dispatched to Vienna to endeavor to accommodate differences, and to counteract Ripperda. He succeeded in outshining this adventurer, who returned to Spain to enjoy a shortlived triumph and reward as prime minister.

In the mean time the jealousies between Spain and England produced open war. The fleets of the latter scoured the West Indian seas and the Mediterranean: the Spaniards laid siege to Gibraltar. But the belligerents had scarcely more than time to put themselves in the attitude of war, when cardinal Fleury interposed as mediator and restored peace. Each country had its point to gain; and, fortunately, each could be gained by mutual sacrifices. England and Holland required the suspension of the Ostend India company: Austria granted this, on condition that the imperial crown was to descend in the female line to Maria Theresa, daughter of the emperor. England guarantied this, and Spain also, on being secured in the succession of Don Carlos to Tuscany and Parma. It was in fulfilment of this that, on the death of the reigning duke of Parma, an English fleet transported a Spanish force to Leghorn, and thus gave to the Bourbon prince his first firm footing in Italy.

The pacific policy of the French minister thus imposed tranquillity upon Europe, until the death of the king of Poland in 1733, and his disputed succession, raised a flame that no efforts of mere negotiation could smother. But it is requisite to recur to the internal affairs of the kingdom previous to that time. Jansenism was almost the only point to which discontent could rally, the only pretext for opposition. Fleury abolished the impost that had made his predecessor so unpopu lar: he diminished the taille, and made up the deficiency by new farming the fixed revenue; he brought the coinage to its just standard: and, in short, on subjects of finance the parliament had no cause of complaint. The policy of Fleury with respect to ecclesiastical affairs was not so unexceptionable. Though not extravagantly ambitious, the cardinal's hat wag still the necessary complement of his dignity and power: to

1732.

JANSENISM.

161

procure it, it was necessary to oblige the pope, which could only be done by persisting in the measure that the regent and Dubois had carried: this was, the condemnation of Jansenism, and the support of the bull Unigénitus.

The book of Quesnel, and the verbal dispute about grace, seemed little worthy of being dragged from the polemical mto the political field. But the principle of Jansenism lay deeper; its doctrines went to render the national church in many respects independent of Rome, and, moreover, to free the consciences of men from the arbitrary will of their spiritual confessors, by establishing a code of morals, founded indeed on scripture, but superior to the glosses of its teachers. The Reformation was the first great attempt to shake off the authority of Rome: although successful, it was not without its blunders, its inconveniences, nay, its crimes; and, its first fervor over, there was little hope of its gaining proselytes, at least in France, where Calvinism, connected with rebellion, and spurning a hierarchy, excited disgust in the well-born, distrust in the ignoble. Still there was a tacit protest in the French mind against Rome and its usurpations. Jansenism was the expression of this protest; but so feeble was it, so timid and involved its aim, hidden in obscurity of words, that, when greater questions arose, it was swept away, and so erased, that unless closely examined it appears to be a merc logical dispute. Such, indeed, it might have been, and might have remained, had not the Jesuits set themselves in opposition to its doctrines, and moreover brought the royal authority into the quarrel. By a decree procured from Louis XIV., the abbaye of Port Royal des Champs, the retreat of Pascal and of Arnaud and of the Jansenists, was razed to the ground,— an empty piece of vengeance, that still excited a universal cry of indignation. Although Louis XIV. levelled their dwelling, he could not compel the parliament to register the papal bull pronouncing their condemnation. The gay regent and the unprincipled Dubois succeeded in this task, having exiled the parliament, and making this the price of their return.

Fleury, in return for his cardinal's hat, promised to support the anti-Jansenist decree. A certain bishop thought proper to publish a charge that savored of these independent doctrines: a kind of provincial council was summoned, under the presidency of Tencin, a noted high churchman; and the bishop was condemned and exiled. The parliament took up his quarrel, not as religionists, but as guardians of the laws. Another pretext for interference was given them by the pope, who, with misplaced zeal, chose this epoch for canonizing the famous Hildebrand, Gregory VII., the proud asserter of papal

over royal supremacy. Fleury was obliged to have recourse to the presence of the king in a bed of justice to enforce the registry of these ecclesiastical decrees and bulls. The parliament, obeying at the instant, thought proper to protest on the morrow, drawing up resolutions which declared the temporal independent of the ecclesiastical authority, and asserted all external jurisdiction to be the exclusive province and right of the former. Irritated by the haste and distance of the king, and suspecting that the minister kept him perhaps in ignorance of what was passing, the members of the parliament proceeded to Marly to lay their remonstrances before the monarch. Never, perhaps, was court so shocked, not with the remonstrance, but with the breach of etiquette: "The parliament at Marly! the parliament at Marly!" was the astonished cry of the courtiers and of Fleury. They were too much astounded to be angry: the king, nevertheless, refused to see the judges, and they returned as they came.

In spite of their boldness, of the right on their side, seeing that they were in array for freedom of thought and of creed, the parliament felt that they stood alone, that the Parisian populace were no longer those of the Fronde, and that without some support they would succumb. An endeavor was therefore made to stir up the religious enthusiasm of the people. A certain Jansenist priest, named Paris, happening to die, the events of his exemplary life were written and printed. He was the curate of a populous parish, St. Medard. Crowds flocked to his tomb. As his biography enumerated many of his miracles whilst living, his relics could not have less power; and miracles were accordingly worked at his grave. The sick were cured too in the midst of convulsive fits, into which either fanaticism or hypocrisy cast them. This was a great triumph for the Jansenists. The sage Fleury took care not to meddle with the saint until his miracles had swelled to a number, and been degraded by abuse, so as to verge towards the ridiculous. He then attacked them with raillery, and at last ventured to shut up the cemetery. A wit wrote on the gates the well-known lines, in imitation of the royal edicts of prohibition,

"De par le roi, défense à Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu."

There was no end to epigrams and jeux d'esprit upon the poor Jansenists and their miracle-worker. This appears to have been the commencement and the signal of those epigrammatic attacks upon religion, which became so much the mode, and which proved so effectual to destroy in the nation all reverence even for Christianity. It is singular that the

1733.

WAR FOR THE POLISH CROWN.

163 Jesuit party, aided by the pious Fleury, should have been the first to let loose the impious wit of the court and its lettered dependants. The comte de Maurepas, afterwards minister, and then an underling in office, distinguished himself on this occasion by the aptness and wit of his verses. The bishop of Arles published a pastoral charge, in which was a chanson or song against the parliament. When the church made use of such profane arms, it was no marvel to see the profane adopt them against the church. Voltaire conceived and wrote his poem of the "Pucelle" at this epoch.

A country must be very weak indeed that does not contain a numerous party ever anxious for war, for the sake of its chances and its glories. France above all countries abounds in such spirits: their ardor gave the pacific Fleury much trouble. He succeeded in quieting them for a time, until an event occurred which rendered the national voice too strong to be resisted. Stanislaus, father of Louis XV.'s queen, had been elected king of Poland through the influence of the celebrated Charles XII. of Sweden, then a conqueror and the arbiter of kingdoms. His fortune fell at Pultowa, and Russia in turn took advantage of her ascendency, dethroned Stanislaus, and caused Augustus of Saxony to be elected in his stead. Augustus died in 1733, and France instantly turned her views to reinstate Stanislaus. Even Fleury dared not be indifferent to the father-in-law of his monarch. The cardinal forgot, at the call not only his indolence but his economy, and transmitted large sums to influence the Polish diet. They were scarcely needed. Stanislaus, who had penetrated into Poland and showed himself in its diet, was elected king.

Russia and Austria declared against him, in favor of the son of the late king Augustus, who was allied by marriage to the emperor. They supported the rights of their candidate by numerous armies, which overran and devastated Poland. Warsaw could make no resistance; and Stanislaus shut himself up in Dantzic. Fleury, in the mean time, dragged into a war for a quarrel, which he imagined ample bribes and negotiations would decide, began operations on a pitiful scale. He sent 1500 men by the Baltic to the relief of Dantzic, a mockery of support. In vain the Polish followers of Stanislaus displayed the utmost heroism in behalf of their sovereign. Dantzic, invested by an army, could not long hold out; nor could the generous citizens think of purchasing their own safety by the surrender of Stanislaus. The monarch resolved to rid them of this embarrassment by leaving the town, and making his escape through the army of besiegers. This he effected, after perils and sufferings that alone might arm a host of warriors in his cause.

Poland was too distant from France to receive effectual aid. Armies however were raised. One under mareschal Berwick, destined to act on the Rhine; the other, commanded by the veteran Villars, crossed the Alps, and in conjunction with the duke of Savoy, invaded Milan. These old generals of Louis XIV.'s wars, won merely the honor of dying in rins. Villars overran the duchy of Milan, the conquest of which satisfied his ally of Savoy, and the Austrians, unmoested, were enabled to rally and return to the offensive. Villars, struck with mortification as well as with years and fatigue, was confined to his couch, when tidings reached him that the duke of Berwick, having formed the siege of Philipsburg, was cut in two by a cannon-ball: "Ah!" said the dying Villars, "that man was always more fortunate than I." The capture of Philipsburg was the limit of French conquest on the Rhine. Prince Eugene was their antagonist, and, though weak in numbers, Austria having Spain and Turkey as well as France to contend with, he succeeded in checking all their attempts to advance.

The most important achievement of the war was effected with least forces and in an unexpected region. Don Carlos, that son of Philip V. by his second queen who had already succeeded to Parma, marched with a small army of Spaniards against Naples. The Austrians were little liked in this country, and a conspiracy in the capital opened the way for invasion. Visconti, the imperial viceroy, in vain endeavored to make a stand, at the head of the militia of the kingdom, which refused to second him. In a short time both Naples and Sicily passed from the power of the emperor into that of Don Carlos. In the north of Italy the struggle was more obstinate and less decisive. A battle took place near Parma, in June, 1734, betwixt the French, under the mareschals de Coigny and de Broglie, and the Austrians under Merci. The latter was slain leading his troops to the charge; his army was worsted but not routed. The prince of Wirtemberg took the command, and was able to give battle again in September at Guastalla. It was contested with equal fierceness and similar fortune. Wirtemberg was slain in the action. The French had the honor of the victory, but none of the fruits. The resistance f the vanquished paralyzed the success of the victors.

Cardinal Fleury now seized the first opportunity to treat. Austria found herself overmatched. In order to give Poland a king, she had exposed herself to the attacks of France and Spain, and had lost Naples and Milan, with little hope of recovering either. Still Russia promised effectual aid in the ensuing campaign, and England, despite of Walpole's pacific