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In the present circumstances of the French court.-When madame de Pompadour who had long been the favourite of Lewis the fifteenth, perceived the influence of her personal charms declining, she found it expedient to support herself by becoming a purveyor of amusement to her royal paramour, and by insinuating herself into his confidence in matters of state. In this her most sanguine expectations were gratified: but in the gratification of them the manners of the court were disgraced by profligacy, the government was involved in debt, and the state was brought into discredit by the sacrifice of every other consideration to the personal interests of herself and her adherents.-One of the first trials of her ascendancy was made by the dismission of monsieur de Maurepas from the marine department, in which he had presided many years with credit, and the appointment of monsieur de Rouillé a creature of her own, who was totally unacquainted with maritime affairs, as his successor.-Many other instances might be brought to prove that the councils of France were, at this period, influenced by a favourite who was neither capable of judging of its true interests, nor concerned to promote them; who, by her example, countenanced dissoluteness in the court; and who eventually became an agent in involving Europe again in hostilities, at a time when every French patriot was desirous of preserving peace, as the only mean of recovering the kingdom from the ruinous effects of that war from which it had been lately extricated.

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Nor was this the only injury she did the state. The vast expence of her buildings, and of that continual succession of amusements by which she made it her business to prevent the king's mind from falling into the melancholy to which it was inclined, contributed to that financial embarrassment which was severely felt even after the close of the war.-To these extravagances the aged duke de Noailles, Lewis's faithful counsellor, alluded, when he desired his sovereign to compare his expenditure with that of Lewis the fourteenth ; and entreated him to retrench the expences of his court, in compliance with the ardent prayers of his people. His salutary advice was disregarded, as not suited to the taste of so dissolute a court. And the taxes were not only continued, but were rendered more galling by the arbitrary manner in which they were imposed and the abuses practised in collecting them.-The French nation, awed by the power of Lewis the fourteenth, flattered by his triumphs, and reverencing his manly, dignified character, seem to have submitted to his tyranny without a thought of throwing off their shackles. But when the sceptre had passed into the hand of a sovereign without talents for government, without energy, without dignity of character; when that feeble hand was seen to be directed by a courtesan raised up from the dregs of the people; when the nation felt that the power thus unworthily enjoyed was employed for the purpose of enforcing immoderate taxation, and that whilst they were still burthened with taxes, imposed for carrying on the late war, the national treasures were lavished on her minions or squandered in new-fangled luxuries of her invention, they disdained the authority to which they yet paid a forced obedience, and the spirit of revolt began soon to discover itself among them.

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Her influence was equally prejudicial to the foreign affairs of the kingdom. We shall soon see her employed by the Austrian minister ás an instrument to make her sovereign the dupe of the empress queen's policy: we shall see a treaty brought about by her means which made a total change in the balance of Europe; which, by freeing Austria from that salutary restraint which the alliance of France and Prussia had laid her under, first relieved her from her embarrassments and afterwards enabled her, by her wise policy, to supersede the house of Bourbon in that weight which its greatest monarchs had given it in the European system.'

Equally judicious is Mr. M.'s account of the religious animosities which disgraced the reign of the same monarch, and of the connection of these ridiculous contentions with the disputes between the throne and the tribunals, which ultimately led to the subversion of the antient government.-His very dispassionate spirit will be collected from his statements relative to matters which excited great heat in our own country at the time of their occurrence, and which has scarcely disappeared at the present moment :

The important revolutions which were now (1790) taking place in France, where the old government was completely thrown from its base, and not a wreck of the former feudal system was suffered to remain that might remind the people of its existence, could not but be viewed with anxiety by this and other neighbouring nations: some men, actuated by the love of novelty or an aversion to legal restraint, hailed the approach of those days when mankind would be blessed with the full enjoyment of liberty: others, from interested motives, were desirous of any change that might afford them an opportunity of improving their condition or repairing their broken fortunes: others, affrighted by the progress of principles which gave to the people a power of new modelling their forms of government if not corres pondent to their wishes, were carried by their dread of anarchy into the contrary extreme; whilst the sincere well-wishers to the established constitution looked forward with extreme solicitude to the final issue of things; apprehensive lest that glorious, system of government under which the nation had so long flourished might be undermined in its principles by designing men, or might go to ruin amidst this crash of empire. Those who considered France as the rival of our commercial prosperity and political grandeur, who had observed with concern the struggles made by that kingdom to augment its naval force, even during its decline, and thought, with Mr. Burke, that the works which had been constructed at Cherburg, for the security of that fortress and the accommodation of their navy, were more vast in their design than the pyramids of Egypt, and as threatening perpetual molestation to the British coasts, felt their apprehensions for a moment calmed, when they saw that powerful rival disabled from contending with us by her domestic dissension. On the other hand, we find a numerous society in the metropolis at this time congratulating the national assembly of France on the event of "the late glorious revolution"

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revolution" in that country. The reader, from the contemplation of facts, will be best enabled to judge of the motives and the merits of the parties which divided the kingdom during this turbulent period.

The contrast of sentiment on the subject of this momentous revolution was manifested, on the meeting of parliament, in the speeches of several members of the lower house. In a debate on the army estimates, Mr. Burke contrasted the prosperity and security enjoyed in this country with the fallen and disordered state of France; and painted in glowing colours the disastrous consequences of the revolution. "In the last age," said he, "we were in danger of being entangled, by the example of France, in the net of a relentless despotism; a despotism, indeed, proudly arrayed in manners, gallantry, splendour, magnificence, and even covered over with the imposing robes of science and literature. Our present danger, from the example of a people whose character knows no medium, is, with regard to government, a danger from licentious violence; a danger of being led, from admiration, to imitate the excesses of an unbridled, plundering, ferocious, bloody, and tyrannical democracy, of a people whose government is anarchy, and whose religion is atheism."-r. Fox and Mr. Sheridan agreed with Mr. Burke in deploring the miseries of France, and execrating the acts of barbarous outrage perpetrated in that country: but these they imputed to the old despotic government, not to the efforts by which the people had violently relieved themselves from it. - Mr. Pitt and other members expressed their warm approbation of Mr. Burke's sentiments: and the estimates of the army were then voted by the house.

One of the first objects which engaged the attention of parliament was the repeal of the test act.-The dissenters, who were much disappointed by the issue of Mr. Beaufoy's motion, encouraged by the small majority against it, had been indefatigable in their labours to strengthen their party, and were still sanguine in their hopes of success. Their cause was now espoused by an abler patron: Mr. Fox, moving the repeal, recommended the measure as a mean of promoting peace. "Persecution," said he, "is a bond of union. Remove the barriers which separate the dissenters from the body of the citizens, and, in their collective capacity, they would be no longer known. Men unite to resist oppression: but, cease to oppress, and the union is dissolved."The premier opposed the motion upon the grounds of the propriety of investing the executive power with a right of judg ing of the fitness or unfitness of the persons who are to occupy public stations. He insisted on the expediency of a church establishment: that toleration, not equality, should be enjoyed by dissenters. - And he enforced his sentiments by adverting to the present conduct of the dissenters: "who, at the moment when they were reprobating a test, had discovered an intention of forming associations throughout the country, for the purpose of putting the members of that house to a test, and of resolving to judge of their fitness to fill their seats by their votes on this single question."-He was followed by Mr. Burke: who proved the justness of the premier's remarks by citations from the writings of some dissenting divines upon the subject of ecclesiastical establishments, of a tendency dangerous to the constituREV. OCT. 1806.

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tion -The result was, that the motion was rejected by a majority of 291 to IC5 votes.'

The author thus remarks on the origin of the late war, after having stated the dismission of Chauvelin, the French declaration of hostilities, &c. :

From these facts we are left to form our judgment on the merits of that most fatal contest, in which nearly all the powers in Europe were involved. In doing this we ought, however, in justice to Great Britain, carefully to distinguish between that war which originated in an invasion of France, which, by enraging the French nation, occasioned the dreadful calamities that ensued, and afforded the republicans the opportunity they desired of abolishing monarchy in that country, in regard to which the British crown observed a strict neutrality notwithstanding the ingratitude it had experienced from regenerated France, and the present war to which this state may be said virtually to have challenged France by the dismission of her minister. The die was now cast Great Britain, preferring open hostilities to a struggle against the insidous craft of a secret enemy, endeavouring to undermine her constitution by the propagation of democratic principles, became from this instant the leading member of a coalition for the maintenance of the rights of the neighbouring states, and the support of established governments, against a power which had avowed an intention to subvert them; whose convention had with unanimous voice declared their hatred to kings, and had shewn the most rancorous enmity towards the government of this kingdom.

When his majesty's message, announcing a declaration of war on the part of France, was delivered to the house of commons by Mr. secretary Dundas, and to the house of peers by the marquis of Staf ford, warm debates ensued on the merits of the measures of administration which had given occasion to it. But so prevalent was the opinion that the French government, although it had been led by policy to act the part of a pacific disposition, was resolutely hostile to us, and that war, with all the evils which it brings with it, was preferable to a peace preserved at the expence of our own safety and the general welfare, that the addresses on it were voted in both houses without a division.-How happy would it have been for this kingdom had that generous ardour which determined the parliament to vote for warlike measures, and disposed the nation to support the state with their lives and property, been confined to the defence of our own island and the preservation of our glorious constitution! Had not an ambition to become the protectors of our own independency and that of all Europe led us to confederate ourselves with powers that dishonoured our cause, exhausted our treasury, and afterwards basely deserted us; thus teaching us again by dear bought experience that a rich state will ever, in war, be the dupe of the needy; and that jealousy of its prosperity is a permanent cause of enmity which operates with equal force on its allies as well as its enemies.'*

Instances

* Never was this more remarkably exemplified than in the English Listory during the period now before us. Though it is notorious that

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Instances of verbosity and inaccuracy of language repeatedly occur in these pages: but the style is uniformly easy, and the performance on the whole is agreeable and inviting. The moderation and temper which pervade the whole work are deserving of much praise; and though the accounts of some of the foreign states are too brief, yet, on a fair examination of its merits and defects, we have no hesitation in declaring our opinion, that it will form a valuable acquisition to those who are desirous of being well acquainted with the modern transactions of the world.

For

ART. XII. Modern London; being the History and present State of the British Metropolis. Illustrated with numerous Copperplates. 4to. pp. 571. 31. 35. Boards. R. Phillips. 1805. OREIGNERS, and other persons who are but slightly acquainted with the Capital of the British Empire, must gladly receive a work which proceeds on the plan of the present volume, if it be even tolerably well executed. In an analytical view of a Metropolis, we expect to find displayed the structure of the government, and the traits of the national character; and we look for information not less profitable than amusing. Duly to execute such a performance, however, time and patience, and no ordinary attainments, are requisite. In the publication before us, most if not all of the proper heads are considered. It commences with a history of the Metropolis; and then follow a description of it, a sketch of its manners and police, accounts of its various institutions, commerce, its public buildings, places of entertainment, monuments, and exhibitions, and the state of literature and the arts.

it is by her excellent constitution, and the consequent spirit of industry, exerting itself in agriculture, manufactures and commerce, that Great Britain maintains her station among the principal states of Europe, and is enabled at this instant to preserve the balance against the overwhelming power of France, though it has been proved, that what is invidiously termed a monopoly of commerce is so far from being detrimental to other nations, when considered in their individual capacity, that it is highly benefical to them, that it facilitates the supply of many useful articles of life to them, and that, where there is so great a competition among the merchants even of the same nation, monopoly is impracticable, yet the English have been charged, by nations less free, less indus trious, and consequently less flourishing than themselves, with monopo lizing trade, with engrossing the sources of wealth, and with checking and counteracting the industry of others. These sentiments have created in them that jealousy of us which the indolent ever feel towards the active and prosperous, and which an observation of our abundant resources excites in states whose supplies are less copious or attended with greater difficulty.'.

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