magistracy of Paris, supported by the citizens, rose against the arbi trary powers of the government, and promulgated a plan for the reformation of abuses; but when the young nobility affected to abet and adopt its principles, they perverted the cause of freedom to their own selfish interests; and the vain struggle for constitutional liberty degenerated into the most ridiculous of rebellions.

3. Though the treaty of Westphalia (1648) had terminated the Thirty years' war" among the parties originally engaged in it,a yet France and Spain still continued the contest in which they had at first only a secondary share. The civil disturbances of the Fronde occurring at this time, greatly favored the Spaniards, who recovered, principally on the borders of the Low Countries, many places which they had previously lost to the French; and by means of the great military talents of Condé, a French general who had been exiled during the late troubles, and who now fought on the side of the Spaniards, the latter hoped to bring the war to a triumphant issue. The French, however, found in marshal Turenne a general who was more than a rival for Condé : he defeated the latter in the siege of Arras,' and compelled the Spaniards to retreat, but was himself compelled to abandon Valenciennes. At this time Mazarin, by flattering the passions of Cromwell, induced England to take part in the contest six thousand English joined the French army in Flanders; and Dunkirk, taken from the Spaniards, was given to England, according to treaty, as a reward for her assistance.

4. But France, though victorious, was anxious for peace, as the finances of the kingdom were in disorder, and the death of Cromwell had rendered the alliance with England of little benefit; while

troops of urchins with their slings-fronde being the French word for "a sling." In derision the insurgents were first called frondeurs, or “slingers,”—an insinuation that their force was rifling, and their aim merely mischief.

1. Arras is a city of northern France, in the former province of Artois, thirty-three railee Bouth-east from Agincourt. Robespierre, of infamous memory, and Damiens, the assassin of Louis XV., were natives of Arras.

2. Valenciennes is a town of north-eastern France, on the Scheldt, (skelt), near the Belgian frontier. (Map No. XV.)

3. In 863 Charles the Bold established the county of Flanders, which extended from the straits of Dover nearly to the mouths of the Scheldt. At different times Flanders fell under The dominion of Bur' gundy, Spain, &c. Towards the beginning of the eighteenth century it was divided into French, Austrian, and Dutch Flanders. French Flanders comprised the French province of that name. (See Map No. XIII.) Adjoining this territory, on the east, was Austrian Flanders; and adjoining the latter, on the east, was Dutch Flanders. Dutch and Austrian Flanders are now comprised in East and West Flanders, the two north-western provinces of Belgium (sce Map No. XV.,) although the Dutch portion embraced only a small part of East Flanders.

a. See p. 314.

Spain, engaged in war with the Netherlands and Portugal, gladly acceded to the offers of reconciliation with her most powerful enemy. On the banks of the Bidassoa' the treaty, usually known as the treaty of the Pyrenees, was concluded, (Nov. 1659,) and the infanta Maria Theresa, eldest daughter of Philip of Spain, was given in marriage to the French monarch; although, to prevent the possible union of two such powerful kingdoms, Louis was compelled to re nounce all claim to the Spanish crown, either for himself or his suc cessors. By the treaty of the Pyrenees, Condé was pardoned and again received into favor; the limits of France were extended on the English Channel to Gravelines; while on the south-west the Pyrenees became its boundary, by the acquisition of Roussillon. Thus France assumed almost its present form; its subsequent acquisitions being Franche-Comté and French Flanders.

III.

LOUIS XIV

5. About a year after the conclusion of the treaty of the Pyrenees, Mazarin died, (March 1661,) and Louis, summoning his council, and ex pressing his determination to take the government wholly into his own hands, strictly commanded the chancellor, and secretaries of state, to sign no paper but at his express bidding. To the stern, economical, and orderly Colbert, he intrusted the management of the treasury; and in a brief period the purchase of Dunkirk from- England, the establishment of numerous manufactures, the building of the Louvre,' the Invalides, and the

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1. The Bidassoa, which rises in the Spanish territory, and falls into the Bay of Biscay, forms, in the latter part of its course, the boundary between France and Spain. A short distance from its mouth it forms the small Isle of the Pheasants, where the peace of the Pyrenees was concluded in 1659. The Bidassoa was the scene of important operations in the peninsular war

of 1813.

2. Gravelines is a small town twelve miles east from Calais. (Map No. XIII.)

3. Roussillon, a province of France before the French Revolution, was bounded on the south and east by the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. The counts of Roussillon governed this disrict for a long period. The last count bequeathed it to Alphonso of Aragon in 1178. In 1462 was ceded to Louis XI. of France, but in 1493 it was restored to the king of Aragon, and it 1659 was finally surrendered to France by the treaty of the Pyrenees. (Map No. XIII.)

4. Franche-Comté, called also Upper Burgundy, had Bur'gundy Proper, or Lower Bar gundy, on the south and west. Besancon was its capital. In the division of the States of the emperor Maximilian, Franche-Comté fell to Spain; but Louis XIV. conquered it in 1674, and it was ceded to France by the peace of Nimeguen, in 1678. (Map No. XIII.)

5. The palace of the Louvre, one of the finest regal structures in Europe, has not been the residence of a French monarch since the minority of Louis XV., and is now converted into a national museum and picture gallery. The pictures are deposited on the first floor of a splendid tange of rooms above a quarter of a mile in length, and facing the river.

6. The Hotel des Invalides (in'-va-leed) is a hospital intended for the support of disabled officers and soldiers who have been in active service upwards of thirty years It covers space of nearly seven acres, and is one of the grandest 1 tional institutions of Ece.

palace of Versailles,' and the commencement of the canal of Languedoc, attested the miracles that mere economy can work in finance.

6. Arousing himself from the thraldom of love intrigues, Louis now began to awake to projects of ambition. The splendor of his court dazzled the nobility: his personal qualities won him the affection of his people he breathed a new spirit into the administration; and foreign potentates, like the proud nobles of his court, seemed to quail before his power. He repudiated the stipulations of the treaty of the Pyrenees, on the ground that the dower which he wai to receive with his wife had not been paid; and on the death of his father-in-law, Philip IV. of Spain, by which event the crown devolved upon a sickly infant, by a second marriage, he laid immediate claim to the Spanish Netherlands in right of his wife,-alleging, in support of the claim, an ancient custom of the province of Brabant, by which females of a first marriage were to inherit in preference to sons of a second. The French monarch, after securing the neutrality of Austria, poured his legions over the Belgian frontier, and with great rapidity reduced most of the fortresses as far as the Scheldt. The captured towns were immediately fortified by the celebrated engineer Vauban, and garrisoned by the best troops of France. (1667-8.)

7. These successes encouraged Louis to turn his arms towards another quarter; and Franche-Comté, a part of the old Bur'gundy, but still retained by the Spaniards, was conquered before Spain was aware of the danger. (Feb. 1668.) The Hollanders, alarmed at the approach of the French, became reconciled to Spain, and a Triple Alliance was formed between Holland, Sweden, and England, three Protestant powers, for the purpose of defending Jatholic

1. Versailles is nine miles south-west from Paris. The palace of Versailles, cf prodigious size and magnificence, has not been occupied by the court since 1789. It was much out of re pair, when Louis Philippe transformed it into what may be called a national museum, intended to illustrate the history of France, and to exhibit the progress of the country in arts, arms, and civilization. (Map No. XIII.)

2. The canal of Languedoc, commencing at Cette, fourteen miles south-west of Montpr and extending to Toulouse on the Garonne, a distance of one hundred and forty-eight miles, thus connects the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. (Map No. XIII.)

3. Brabant, first erected into a duchy in the seventh century, included the Dutch province of North Brabant, and the Belgic provinces of South Brabant and Antwerp. Having passed, by marriage, into the pussession of the house of Bur' gundy, it afterwards descended to Charles V In the seventeenth century the republic of Holland took possession of the northern part, (now North Brabant,) which was thence called Dutch Brabant, while the remainder was known as Austrian Brabant. Both repeatedly fell into the hands of the French, but in 1815 were in cluded in the kingdom of the Netherlands. Since the revolution of 1830 North Brabant has been included in Holland, and the other provinces, or Austrian Brabant, in Belgium. (May No XV.)

Spain against Catholic France. Louis receded before this menacing league, and by restoring Franche-Comté, which he knew could at any time easily be regained, while he retained most of his Flemish conquests, concluded the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle,' (1668,) which merely suspended the war until the French king was better prepared to carry it on with success.

8. The great object of Louis was now revenge against Holland, the originator of the triple alliance. Knowing the profligate hakits of Charles II., he purchased with ready money the alliance of England; he also bought the neutrality of Sweden, and the neigh boring princes of Germany, while in the meantime he created a navy of a hundred vessels, built five naval arsenals, and increased his army to a hundred thousand men.

9. For the first time the bayonet, so terrible a weapon in French hands, was affixed to the end of the musket; and the hundred thou sand soldiers who composed the French army, armed as the French were, might well strike terror into the rulers of Holland, who could raise, at most, an army of only thirty thousand men.

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10. In the spring of 1672 the French armies, avoiding the Spanish Netherlands, passed through the country betwixt the Meuse and the Rhine, crossed the latter river in June, and rapidly advanced to within a few leagues of Amsterdam,' when the Dutch, by opening the dykes, let in the sea and saved the metropolis. But even Amster dam meditated submission; one project of the inhabitants being to embark, like the Athenians, on board their fleet, sail for their East India settlements, and abandon their country to the modern Xerxes who had come to destroy their liberties. While Amsterdam was secure for the present behind its rampart of waters, and the French armies were wintering triumphantly in the conquered provinces, the envoys of the Dutch roused Europe against the ambition of Louis

1. Aix-le-Chapelle (a-lah-shahpel') is an old and well-built city of the Prussian States, near *he eastern confines of Belgium, eighty miles east of Brussels. It was the favorite residence of Charlemagne, and for some time the capital of his empire. Two celebrated treaties havɔ ween concluded in this city; the first, May 2d, 1668, between France and Spain; and the Recond, Oct. 18th, 1748, between the different powers engaged in the wars of the Austrian suc cession. Here also was held the celebrated congress of the allied powers in 1818. (Map No XVII.)

2. The Meuse and the Rhine-see Map No. XV.

3. Amsterdam, a famous maritime and commercial city of Holland, is on the south bank of the Y., an inlet or arm of the Zuyder Zee. Being situated in a marsh, its buildings are all founded on piles, driven from forty to fifty feet in a soil consisting of alluvial deposits, peat, clay, and Band. The State-House, a magnificent building of freestone, is rected on a foundation of thirteen thousand six hundred and fifty-nine piles. Numerous canals divide the city inte "bout a hundred islands. (Map No. XV.)

Prince William of Orange, a general of only twenty-two years of age, being placed at the head of the Republic, soon succeeded in de taching England from the unnatural alliance which she had formed with her ancient enemy: Spain and Austria, awaking to their interests, prepared to send troops to aid the Dutch; and by 1674 nearly all Europe was leagued against the French monarch.

11. Louis was now obliged to abandon Holland; but, in the Spanish Netherlands, his great generals, Condé and Turenne, turning upon the allied armies, for a while kept all Europe at bay. In the following year, (1675,) Turenne was killed by a cannon ball as he was about to enter Germany; and although Louis created six new marshals, the whole were not equal to the one he had lost. Soon after, Condé retired, disabled by age and infirmity; and with the loss of her great generals the valor of France, on the land, for a while slumbered. But at this time there appeared a seaman of talent and heroism, named Duquesne, who, being sent to succor Messina, which had revolted against Spain, defeated the fleet of De Ruyter in a terrible naval battle within sight of Mount Etna. The Dutch admiral himself was among the slain. In the second battle, in 1677, Duquesne almost annihilated the Dutch fleet. Under a grateful monarch this man might have become high admiral of France; but Louis was growing bigoted with his years, and his faithful servant was reproached for being a Protestant. "When I fought for your majesty," replied the blunt sailor, "I never thought of what might be your religion." His son, driven into exile for adhering to the reformed faith, carried away with him the bones of his father, determined not to leave them in an ungrateful country.

12. In the meantime conferences took place at Nimeguen the allies wished peace; and France and Holland, the original parties in the war, were equally exhausted. At length, in August 1678, the treaty was signed, Louis retaining most of his conquests in the Spanish Netherlands,-all French Flauders in fact, as well as Franche-Comté. pain, from whom these possessions were obtained, assented to the treaty; for the imbecile monarch of that country knew not what towns belonged to him, nor where was the frontier line of what he still retained of the Spanish Netherlands. "Here may be seen," says Voltaire," how little do events correspond to projects. Holland, against which the war had been undertaken, and which had nearly perished, lost nothing, nay, even gained a barrier; while the