France, was put under an arrest in his palace, his papers feized and examined, and the whole confpiracy, which had been formed to dethrone George I. and deprive the duke of Orleans of the regency, difcovered. The mutual intereft and fecurity of these two princes engaged them to conclude the quadruple alliance between the emperor, England, France ́and Holland.

In 1718, the regent of France joined England in a declaration of war against Spain, and the bad fuccefs of the Spanish arms in Sicily, and elsewhere, induced at laft the king of Spain to fign the quadruple alliance.

Thus the duke of Orleans, with equal vigour and deliberation, furmounted all the obftacles he met with in maintaining the privilege of his birth, and ufed every precaution that fagacity could fuggeft for fecuring himself in the regency.

In the year 1720, John Law, a Scotchman, had erected a company in France, under the name of the Miffiffippi, which at firft promised the deluded people immenfe wealth, but too foon appeared an impotture, and left the greatest part of the nation in ruin and diftrefs.

The minifter of France, during the regency, was Cardinal Dubois, the companion of the duke of OrJeans's debaucheries, and the partner of his promifcuous amours. His nation had raised him to the purple from the loweft origin: for his convivial licentioufnefs and fecret fervices, this apothecary's fon became an ecclefiaftical prince, lived openly in fornication and adultery; impious, profane, immoral, and abandoned to the laft ftage of his diffolate life, he lived defpifed, and

left behind him no other memorial but his vices and his infamy.

He had talents, however, for public administration, but his levity and diffipation did not allow him to attend regularly the affairs of ftate; he was a votary to pleasure, and an enemy to labour and application.

Lewis XV. was the handsomest youth in France; he had a fwarthy complexion, fine features, a gracious afpect, and an interefting phyfiognomy; the fire and expreffion of his eyes were ftriking: he was ftrong and mufcular; had an elegant perfon, and a majestic and graceful deportment: he was a prince of good fenfe and found judgment, not a man of genius and lively imagination. He understood a little Latin and Italian, could read English, and was well read in modern history. What he applied himself moft to, was, to speak and write French with precifion, ele. gance, and propriety, in which he excelled moft men in his court. He was averfe to ftudy and close application to foreign politics, and interior adminiftration; naturally prone to venery, and fond of convivial pleasures in a felect company; in all manly and academical exercises he was inferior to none of his courtiers, for grace, fkill, and dexterity. The first ten years of his marriage, faithful and uxorious, always a polite husband, a tender father, a kind mafter, and wellmeaning, though beguiled fove. reign.

The king was crowned at Rheims, the 25th of October, 1722, and the year after declared of age, whilft in his fourteenth year, according to the laws of the kingdom.

The regent, on the fecond of December that year, was carried

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off

off by an apoplexy: his enemies have calumniously afperfed his memory with the atrocious defign to poifon the young king, and pave, by this regicide, the way to the throne; but this imputation was never fupported even by any circumftances that coincide with that opinion. No prince ever carried refinement and voluptuoufnefs in fenfual pleafures farther than he did; his fondnefs and partiality for the duchefs of Berry, his daughter, a princefs of great beauty and profefied gallantry, gave occafion to reports very injurious to the reputation of both. He was a man of letters, and the palais royal, his refidence, was the rendezvous of all the beaux efprits of Paris, the fafhionable debauchees of the court, and the most beautiful and moft fhameless women of the capital..

The duke of Bourbon, a prince of the blood, of moderate talents for public adminiftration, took upon himself the direction of the French councils after the regent. His mistress, Madame de Prie, an artful intriguing woman, had great influence in the civil and military departments, and filled the first offices of both with her creatures. It was the duke of Bourbon who raifed to the throne, from indigence and obfcurity, the princefs Maria Lefzinski, only daughter to Stanislaus, titular king of Poland, who cultivated letters and philofophy in his exile, at the court of the duke of Deux-ponts. The prince, to maintain his credit and importance, had refolved to make a queen who should owe to him her elevation, as the alliance of a princefs almost destitute, and void of all perfonal accomplishments, could bring no acquifition of power to the king

dom, nor tempt á young monarch upon whom the finest women in France began to play off their charms. She was humble, modeft, religious, and charitable, private virtues commonly unnoticed by fovereigns. The marriage ceremony was concluded Sept. 5, 1725, and the young infanta Mary of Spain, now queen of Portugal, was fent back to her native country with flight and contempt, after having enjoyed the title of infanta queen for everal years. The court of Spain loudly complained of this indignity, but the coolness of the two kings did not come to an open rupture. France even offered its mediation betwixt Spain and Great Britain, and fuch a reconciliation as treaties could procure, was the confequence.

Hercules de Fleury, bishop of Frejus, and fince a cardinal, had, by his meeknefs and moderation gained the efteem and confidence of his royal pupil, who fhewed him his affection and gratitude by raifing him to the high poft of prime minifter. Though his fyftem was entirely pacific, yet the fituation of affairs in Europe, upon the death of the king of Poland, embroiled him with the houfe of Auftria. The intention of the French king was to replace his father-in-law Stanislaus on the throne of Poland. In this he failed, thro' the interpofition of the Ruffians and Auftrians; but Stanislaus enjoyed the title of king, and afterwards the revenues of Lorrain, during his life. Spain, by the affiftance of the British fleet, put in poffeffion of two fovereign duchies the Infant Don Carlos, and extended the formidable power of the house of Bourbon, whose different branches

ruled

ruled over France, Spain, the Two Sicilies, and the wealthy empires of Peru and Mexico. Never minifters of two rival kingdoms agreed better than Cardinal Fleury and Sir Robert Walpole, and their mutual principles and interefts preferved a long while the peace of France and

Great Britain.

The king had been, ever fince his marriage, an example of conjugal fidelity. He had a fon, and a numerous iffue of princeffes, doomed to spend their days in retirement and celibacy. He began to be tired of the poffeffion of a princefs, who had nothing to recommend her but her complaifance and obfequiousness. The marquis de Negles, of an illuftrious houfe in France, had three daughters, diftinguished at court by the appellation of the Three Graces. Madame de Mailly, created afterwards duchess of Chateauroux, was a fine ftately woman; her perfon was made to infpire fenfual defires, and her beautiful eyes expreffed a longing wantonnefs. Madame de Le Tournelle was a pretty brunette, with all the vivaciousness and coquetry of the French ladies. Madame De Lauraguais was handfome, but fhe loved her husband, and was virtu

ous.

the king's way, who had no fcruples to break through the fences of confanguinity, and gave up his tranfient fancy for Madame de Le Tournelle, impelled by a more lasting paffion for her fifter. She was publicly declared and worshipped as the reigning miftrefs, was foon created a duchefs, had apartments in the royal palaces, and received the homage of the ladies who envied her, and of the courtiers, who paid her the ufual tribute of flattery, and fervile veneration.

In the year 1739, France may be faid to have been in the zenith of her commerce: her ports in the Channel, on the Mediterranean, and the Western Ocean, were frequented by all the trading nations of the globe. Favoured by Spain, and dreaded by all the rest of Eu rope, her fleets covered the feas, but the trufted too much to her own felf-importance. Cardinal de Fleury, who then directed her af fairs, took no care to protect her trade by proper naval armaments; fo that the greater it was, it became the more valuable prey to the English when war broke out. M. De Maurepas and M. De Chauvelin were the only men of genius employed in this adminiftration. Maurepas was fecretary of state for the naval department; he met always with difcouragement from the cardinal in the repeated efforts which he made towards re-establishing the French marine. He was a minifter of great forefight, judgment, application, and fagacity. Chauvelin was a fatefman, and a fhrewd politician. Both were difgraced for acting diametrically oppofite to the views and fyftem of the cardinal. He had maintained, as long as he could confiftently with the

The enticements of Madame de Le Tournelle prevailed on the king, who wished for a new object of amusement, to commit the first infidelity to his queen. He made his addreffes to Madame de Lauraguais, who fcorned to be the inceftuous mistress of her fovereign, and, retired from court cenfured and admired by her rivals and her enemies. Madame de Mailly condemn ed highly her fifter's Gothic prejudices and delicacy, and glad of this discovery, threw herself into

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French

French politics and interefts, a profound peace with Great Britain, and most of the European powers, and his miniftry was the period of the people's happiness and profperity; for a war, ever fo fuccessful, is always the regifter of human calamities. All the measures of Sir Robert Walpole were not directed to ferve the state, but to preferve his power in a time of public tranquility.

As foon as the court of Spain began to complain of the warlike preparations of Great-Britain, as actual hoftilities, the marquis de Fenelon, the French Ambassador at the Hague, an able and skilful negociator, declared, that the king, his mafter, was obliged, by treaties, to affifl the king of Spain; he diffuaded the Dutch from efpoufing the cause of England, who promifed him an inviolable neutrality. The infolence, cruelty, and rapine of the Spanish gurda coftas, who plundered the English merchants with impunity, forced at laft the English nation to obtain by arms that redress which the minister expected from negociation; the political fyftem of Europe underwent a new revolution. Not above twenty years before, France and England were combined against Spain; at prefent, France and Spain united against England. Those ftatefmen who look upon alliances as a lafting bafis of power, will at length find themselves fatally mistaken.

The military fpirit which prevails in France, made this reflefs nation equally eager for war. The prudence and moderation of cardinal Fleury were publicly cenfured as mean condefcenfion and pufillanimity. Instead of a frugal, fincere, modeft, and fimple minifter,

they wished for a bold, turbulent, and enterprizing man in his place. They did not confider that under the pacific cardinal, France had repaired her loffes, and enriched herfelf by commerce: he had left the ftate to its own natural methods of thriving, and faw it daily affuming its former health and vigour. Indeed the cardinal had exerted himfelf in the preceding war. France had motives of alliance and revenge with Spain and Sardinia against the Houfe of Auftria, and thefe three powers hoped to grow more pow erful by a divifion of its fpoils. A French army had over-run the empire under the conduct of the old marefchal Villars; the duke of Montemar, the Spanish general, had been equally victorious in the kingdom of Naples, and the emperor Charles VI. had received the mortification of seeing himself deprived of the greatest part of Italy, for having attempted to give a king to Poland. In this war France had made fome valuable acquifitions of dominion, particularly the duchy of Lorrain, in 1740. The death of the emperor Charles VI. gave the French another opportunity of exerting their ambition. Regardlefs of treaties, they caused the elector of Bavaria to be crowned emperor. The daughter of Charles VI. the illuftrious heiress of his hereditary dominions, faw herself ftripped of her inheritance. The young king of Pruffia, whofe conquefts and depredations will be long remembered, took Silefia, while France, Saxony, and Bavaria, attacked the rest of her dominions.

In this war France depended more upon her numerous armies than on the fkill and expérience of their commanders. Those who had

fup.

fupported the drooping standards of Lewis XIV. in his difatters and calamities, were fuperannuated, or had been flain in the field. The marefchal duke de Berwick, natural fon of James II. had met at the fiege of Philipfburgh the glorious death he wished for. The oftenfible general in Germany was the marefchal duke de Belleifle, a man of projects and genius, but very haughty, felf-conceited, and faftidious. His brother was more fit for action, but rafh, bloody, and impetuous.

The Marshall de Belleifle, by his imprudence and obftinacy, faw unconcerned the flower of his army perish in Bohemia of cold, hunger, and ficknefs, and was driven out of that kingdom with the remaining part of his invalids. The nominal emperor Charles VII. aban doned by his allies, and ftripped of all his dominions, was obliged to fly before the queen of Hungary's forces, and retire to Francfort, where he lived in indigence and obfcurity. He agreed to continue neuter during the remainder of the war, while the French, who firft began it as allies, fupported the burden.

After the battle of Dettingen, and a long feries of other loffes, the French were at length driven out of Germany, and their country eagerly invaded by the pursuing Auftrians under prince Charles of Lorrain; whofe paffage of the Rhine was one of the most remarkable events of that war. France was now preferved by the intervention of the king of Pruffia, as it had before by the weakness which prevailed in the English Councils, the evil conduct which directed their armies, and the temporifing, ill-judged, indolent flownefs of the Dutch.

The war being at length tranfferred to the Netherlands, the conduct of the French armies came into the hands of the two celebrated foldiers of fortune, and foreigners, the marshals Saxe and Lowendahl. It is far from depreciating the cha racters of thefe eminent generals to acknowledge, that much of their fuccefs and glory depended upon the mifconduct of their adverfaries. The rebellion which broke out in Scotland, turned the feale totally in favour of France.

The battle of Fontenoy was one of the bloodiest that had been fought in the prefent age. The prodigies of valour that were exhibited in this action by the English infantry, who feemed to act under no other guidance than the impulse of their native and mechanical courage, was the astonishment of mankind. Lewis XV. who, like his two laft royal progenitors, was not a warrior, faw the battle from an eminence. In the mean time, the titular emperor Charles VII. who was the cause of pretence for beginning the war, died of a broken heart; and the grand duke of Tufcany, hufband to the queen of Hungary, was declared emperor upon his decease.

The French had reduced almost the whole Netherlands to their obedience; the Dutch faw themselves ftripped of all thofe ftrong towns which defended, their dominions from invafion; Italy felt all the horrors of war, and faw foreigners contending with each other for her dominions; and the French and Spaniards loft the moft flourishing armies, notwithstanding the excellent conduct of the prince of Conti, their general.

The victories of Roucoux and La Feldt, tho' they procured the French