The 19th Century. A history

Chapter I

— THE OPENING OF THE CENTURY. Europe at the opening of the century . . 7 France before the revolution 8 Louis XV. 9 The French nobles 9 The French people 10 The exactions of the great lords 10 The administration of justice 11 The roads of France 12 The grievances of the people become intolerable 12 Liberal opinions among the French nobles 13 Literary influences 14 Influence of American independence. . . 15 Disorder of national finance 16 Thirst for political discussion 17 Meeting of the notables 17 Meeting of the states-general 18 Siege of the Bastile 20. Cruelties of the French mob 21 Overthrow of feudal privilege 22 Relations of France with her neighbours 23 Invasion by Prussia and Austria 24 The Duke of Brunswick's proclamation 25 Fall of the French monarchy 26 Massacre in the prisons 26 Defeat of the Prussians at Valmy 27 Execution of the king 27 The reign of terror 28

CHAPTER IL

— NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. Conquest of Corsica by the French 30 Birth of Napoleon 30 Obtains independent command 31 Conquest of Italy 31 Expedition to Egypt 32 Destruction of French fleet 33 Napoleon becomes first consul 34 Offers peace to England 34 Battle of Marengo 35 Battle of Copenhagen 36 The Peace of Amiens 37 Wise government of Napoleon 38 Naval and military forces of England and France 39 Renewal of the war 39 Napoleon's preparation for invading England 40 Battle of Trafalgar and death of Nelson 41 Napoleon defeats the Austrians and enters Vienna 42 Battle of Austerlitz 42 Overthrow of Prussia 43 War with Russia: battles of Eylau and Friedland 44 Napoleon supreme in Europe 45 Spain and Portugal 47 Arrival of Lord Wellington in the Peninsula 50 Expedition to Moscow 52 Political results of Napoleon's defeat . . 55 Napoleon abdicates, and is sent to Elba 57 His return to France 58 The Battle of Waterloo 59 Napoleon's death. 61 His influence, , VI CONTENTS.

Chapter III

— THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. Aims of the Congress of Vienna 68 Restoration of the old arrangements 69 The territorial arrangements of Europe before the war 64 Changes from Napoleon's conquests .... 66 'JBook JSzconlb.

Chapter I

— SOCIAL CONDITION OP GREAT BRITAIN. Labour of women and children in coalpits 86 Climbing-boys 86 Manufacturing skill 86 Fire-arms ; ships of war. 88 Employment of children in factories ... 89 How intelligence was conveyed 90 Travelling on land and by sea 91 Legislation for the working-classes 92 Hospitality 93 Coarseness of manners 94 Educational condition 95 Duelling 96 Sanitary condition 98 Wages during and after the war 71 Prices of food 73 The corn law of 1815 74 Frequent scarcity of food 74 Taxation 75 The criminal laws 77 Prison accommodation 79 Pauperism 80 Size of towns 82 Enlistment ; the press-gang 83 Military and naval discipline 83 Care of the wounded 84 Slavery 85

Chapter II

— THE REFORM BILL. Political condition of England and Scotland 100 Influence of French revolution 102 The demand for parliamentary reform 103 Resisted by government 104 The Whig chiefs lead the popular movement 106 French revolution of 1830 107 Resistance of House of Lords and popular excitement 108 The Reform Bill passes into law 109

Chapter III

— THE REDRESS OF WRONGS— I. Changed character of legislation after Reform Bill Ill Combination of workmen legalized 112 Test Act abolished 112 Catholic emancipation 113 Abolition of slavery 116 The Factory Act 116 National education 118 Municipal reform 118 The new poor-law 119 Newspaper tax 121 Postal reform 122 Women and children forbidden to work in mines 123 Reform of penal laws 123 Free trade 126 Resignation of Sir Robert Peel 131 The navigation laws 132 The sugar-duties 133 Gain of the working-classes CONTENTS. VII

Chapter IV

— THE REDRESS OF WRONGS— II. Sanitary reform 139 The wrongs of dissenters 141 Parliamentary reform 144 National education 148 The Irish Church 150 The Irish land question 152

Chapter V

— CHARTISM. The People's Charter 155 Physical force Chartism 156 I The proposed Chartist uprising 157 | Decay of Chartism 158

Chapter VI

— OUR WARS. Louis Napoleon raises the question of the sacred shrines 160 His success 161 The Emperor Nicholas threatens Turkey 161 Mediation of the other great powers . . 162 The Emperor Napoleon desirous of war; the British people not unwilling .... 164 Declaration of war 165 Battle of the Alma 166 Opening of the siege of Sebastopol 167 Battle of Balaklava 168 Battle of Inkermann 169 Suffering of the British soldiers 170 Fall of Sebastopol 173 Conclusion of the war 174 The gains of the war 174 The wars of Great Britain during the eighteenth century 175 The wars of Great Britain during the nineteenth century. 176 England and America employ arbitration 178 The costs of war 179

Chapter VII

— THE VICTORIES OF PEACE— I. Commercial supremacy of England. ... 181 Our industries chiefly of foreign origin 181 Want of roads during the eighteenth century 182 Condition of the woollen, linen, cotton, and silk trades 183 Mania for the formation of canals and highways 184 Watt's steam-engine 185 Machinery for spinning and weaving cotton 185 Mercantile legislation 185 Supply of cotton ; Eli Whitney 1S6 Progress of the great industries 1S7 Supply of the precious metals 188 The steam-ship 189 The locomotive 190 The electric telegraph 192 The newspapers ; steam-printing 194 British shipping 195 Growth of mechanical invention 195 Improved weapons 196 Condition of the working-class 197

Chapter VIII

— THE VICTORIES OF PEACE— II. Progress in the art of healing 199 Treatment of the insane 200 The lucifer-match 201 The sewing-machine 202 Photography 203 Mechanical skill 204 Agriculture 205 Note: the industrial position of Britain CONTENTS.

Chapter IX

— CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. The dignity of Christian missions 208 Opposition to missions 208 Carey and the Baptist Missionary Society 209 Origin and progress of the great societies 210 Instances of success — the Sandwich Islands; the Bechuanas ; India 211 Future success of the missionary 218

Chapter X

— THE CHARITIES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Growth of organized charitable effort.. 219 The charitable societies of Edinburgh.. 220 Increasing disposition towards charitable effort \ 223

Chapter XI

— OUR INDIAN EMPIRE. Origin of East India Company 224 Its early history and progress 226 Immense acquisition of territory 228 The directors forbid further acquisition 229 Annexation of Scinde ; the Punjab ; Oude 230 Causes of the mutiny of 1857 232 Outbreak at Meerut 235 Cawnpore 236 British re-conquest of Northern India.. 237 Lucknow 238 Delhi 240 Treatment of the mutineers 241 Education in India 243 Municipal government 244 Police and administration of justice . . 244 The land system of India 245 Foreign trade 246 Public works 246 Sanitary measures 247 Revenue 247 British rule in India 248

Chapter XII

— OUR COLONIES. Progress of emigration 249 Origin of convict-settlements 250 Canada 250 Enormous colonial possessions of Britain 251 Colonial government 252

Chapter I

— FRANCE: THE RESTORED MONAECHY. Condition of France after Waterloo. . . 253 Her rapid recovery 254 Her welcome to the restored Bourbons 255 Louis XVIII 256 Progress of France during his reign. . .. 257 Charles X 257 Compensation to persons who had been deprived of lands 258 The king is suspected of being a Jesuit 259 His unpopularity 259 Ordinanoes which invade the public liberties 260 Revolution; fall and flight of the king 262 Louis Philippe 263 Unfavourable opening of his reign 264 The new government firmly established 267 Education in France 267 Algiers 268 Railways in France 271 The body of Napoleon restored to France 272 The fortification of Paris 273 Spread of dissatisfaction 274 Desire for parliamentary reform 276 The king and the Spanish marriages . . 276 Uprising in Paris 279 Flight of the king 280 Organization of a republic CONTENTS. IX

Chapter II

— FRANCE THE SECOND EMPIRE. Louis Napoleon's return to France 284 Disasters to the French armies 302 Elected president 284 Sedan 304 The coup df4tat 286 The emperor surrenders 306 Restoration of the empire 288 Siege of Paris 307 Marriage of the emperor 289 Conclusion of peace 308 New constitution for France 290 France again a republic 309 British apprehension of invasion 291 The new constitution 310 Expeditions to Syria and Mexico 292 Education 310 Commercial treaty with England 294 The new military system 311 Germany and France 296 National expenditure and debt 311 War declared 298 Land system , 312 The plebiscite 299 Foreign commerce. 313 Defective preparation for war 300 Railways and telegraphs 314 Saarbriick. 301 The French peasant 314 The Germans invade France 301 Is the revolution closed ? 315

Chapter III

.—PRUSSIA. Prussia in 1815 319 The needle-gun 332 Anxieties of the government 321 Sadowa 334 German desire for unity and self-government 322 Prussia and France 335 The dominion of force 336 Commercial league 324 Population and government 337 Germany in 1848 326 Religion and education 337 Otto von Bismarck 328 Military system 338 Resources aud commerce 338 Austria and Prussia 330

Chapter IV

— AUSTRIA. Austria in 1815 341 Austria in 1848 343 Constitutional government proclaimed 347 Trade and resources 348 Debt 349 Military expenditure 350

Chapter V

— ITALY. Italy in the middle ages 351 Mr. Gladstone's letters on the prisons of Naples 365 War with Austria 368 Reconstruction by Napoleon 354 Unity and self-government 355 Italy in 1848 357 Annexation of papal territory 370 The pope expelled 359 Death of Count Cavour 371 National advantages of Italy 371 Restored by Louis Napoleon 359 Count Cavour 360 Educational condition 372 Alliance with England and France 361 Industrial progress 372 War with Austria 363 Government expenditure 373 Conquest of Naples by Garibaldi 365 Railways and telegraphs 373

Chapter VI

— RUSSIA. Peter the Great 375 Russia during the reign of Nicholas. . . 380 Vast territorial gains 378 Russia during the reign of Alexander.. CONTENTS. X Population and government 390 Emancipation of the serfs 382 Military system 390 The land system 384 Financial condition 391 Reform in judicial system 386 Resources and development 392 Creation of district and provincial assemblies 387 Railways 392 Ignorance of the Russian peasantry . . . 388 Character of her civilization 392

Chapter VII

[.—TURKEY. The ancient Turks 394 The balance of power 402 The Turks seize Constantinople 396 Turkey and Greece. 403 Turkish aggression arrested 397 The Turks as borrowers 405 The heritage which the Turks possessed 397 Insurrection in Bosnia 406 The Bulgarian massacre 406 Character of the Turk 398 Russia undertakes to terminate Turkish misrule 407 The government of the Turk 399 Desolation produced by the Turks. . . . 400 War between Russia and Turkey 407 Russian views regarding Constantinople 401 Terms of peace 410

Chapter VIII

— THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The theory of American government.. 412 The slave question 423 The war of 1812 413 The last campaign 425 Industrial progress 415 Close of the war 427 Slavery 416 Murder of President Lincoln 428 The election of 1860 419 Reconstruction 428 Secession 420 Industrial America 429 The first battle 421 Education and religion 431 The blockade 422 Shipping ; financial condition 432

Chapter IX

-THE PAPACY. Tendencies of the papal system 433 The papacy and Napoleon 433 Gregory XVI 436 Condition of the Roman states under Pope Gregory 437 Pius IX. and the Immaculate Conception 437 The encyclical letter 438 The Council of the Vatican 440 Papal infallibility 442 The assertion of infallibility an evidence of decay 448 Fall of the temporal sovereignty 449 Death of Pio Nono 452

Chapter X

— THE PROGRESS OF LIBERTY IN EUROPE. Influences of the French revolution. . . 453 The Congress of Vienna 454 The rising of 1820 in southern Europe 455 The revolution of 1830 455 The rising of 1848 457 Overthrow of despotism 458 Western Europe now free and self-governing 459 Progress during nineteenth century. . . 460 Notes THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. J3{irsi.

Chapter I. The Opening Of The Century

T the opening of the Nineteenth Century all Europe was occupied with war. The European people then numbered one hundred and seventy million, and of these four million were set apart, by their own choice or the decree of their governments, to the business of fighting. They were withdrawn from the occupations of peace, and maintained at enormous cost, expressly to harm their fellow men. The interests of peace withered in the storm ; the energies of all nations, the fruits of all industries were poured forth in the effort to destroy. From the utmost North to the shores of the Mediterranean, from the confines of Asia to the Atlantic, men toiled to burn each other's cities, to waste each other's fields, to destroy each other's lives. In some lands there was heard the shout of victory, in some the wail of defeat.

In all lands the ruinous waste of war had produced bitter poverty; grief and fear were in every home. This had lasted already for ten years, and was yet to last for fifteen years more. It was not to cease till millions of men had perished. Peace, it has been said, is the dream of the wise, but war is the history of man. It has been even so. It need not surprise us to find the men of Europe enduring unutterable miseries, sustained only by the hope that they would be able to inflict yet greater miseries upon their neighbours — for Europe has spent the larger portion of her time in fighting. But yet the wars which occupied the early years of the century do excite our wonder. They were gigantic beyond example. They wasted life and treasure with a profusion to which Europe, with her bloody experience of centuries, knows no parallel.

They were so prolonged that before the close men were fighting in the quarrel who had been unborn when it broke out. Whence came these monstrous wars, and what were the questions which the men of this time sought, by methods so coarse, to solve? It was in France — always the most unquiet member of the European family — that these huge and mournful disorders originated. France contained then a population of twenty-five million, and she had long been the victim of misgovernment so base and cruel that it had now become intolerable.* In course of ages liberty had become wholly extinct in France. The king held in his hands the unquestioned right to dispose, at his will, of the lives and property of the people. He was the sole legislator; his own pleasure was his only rule. He levied taxes, asking no consent of those who had to pay.

He waged war to avenge personal slights, to gain personal ends ; and thousands of his subjects laid down their lives that his frivolous antipathies might find gratification. He sent men to prison without any crime being laid to their charge, and kept them there, without trial, till they died. Within the walls of his capital stood the Bastile — a prison vast and grim — the slow * It is not, however, to be supposed that the condition of the French people was worse than that of the other Continental nations. On the contrary, De Tocquevillo shows that it was better. growth of ages of despotism. The king's order filled those gloomy towers and dungeons with prisoners, many of whom never knew wherefore this dreadful fate had befallen them. An Englishman was once found who had suffered thirty years of captivity, and it could not, by any diligence of inquiry, be dis covered what he had done, or whom he had offended.

Nor was it enough that the king avenged himself upon his own enemies. An agreeable courtier was requited with a gift of lettres de cachet already signed by the king, but with a blank left for the name of the victim. The rich man could purchase for money the power to destroy those whom he hated. During sixty years of the eighteenth century the king of France was Louis XV. — one of the meanest and basest of human creatures. It was the belief of this unworthy person that France was his, and that she and her twenty-five million of people were of no value, otherwise than as they ministered to his enjoyment. No one about him ever, in all his long life, suggested another view of the subject. The great nobles went daily to see him dressed and undressed* — regaling him the while with the obscene gossip which he loved so well to hear.

The king " had not an hour in the day for attention to important matters." He wasted the resources of France upon his filthy pleasures. His mistresses made him sign drafts on the treasury for such amounts as they desired. Even to this most debased of men it became evident that a change was near. Voltaire and the others, he said, were ruining the monarchy; but it was consolation enough to believe that it would last out his time. Under Louis XV. France ripened apace for her doom. Next to the throne stood the noble, families, numbering one hundred and fifty thousand persons. All positions of dignity were held by members of these families. The superior clergy * Several of the great nobles shared the daily honour of handing to their sovereign his shirt, or reverentially denuding him of that garment. were nobles ; the officers of the army, the judges, the ambas sadors — all were noble.

They enjoyed exemption from most of the taxation which pressed so heavily upon their inferiors. They possessed strange powers to oppress, which they mercilessly exercised. For the most part they were poor — ages of extravagance having wasted their substance; and they were known to the people only by the unsparing severity of their exactions. With revolution about to burst forth, that was not a desirable introduction. They lived in utter idleness. " They absolutely did nothing," said Edmund Burke. " Their very look wearied me. They could only die of war or of ennui." Beyond the nobles were the French people. A gulf im passable separated them from the awful splendours of the aristocracy. They might grow rich, but they could not rise out of the original degradation of their origin; they could never cease to be despised.

Three-fourths of the French people lived in the country, and earned their living by lowly peasant toil. Their lot was hard — ■ harder than we in this happier time are able fully to under stand. The laws had not been made with any thought of their interests. The laws were made and administered by men who regarded the people of France as born for the uses of the higher class. The tax-gatherer was everywhere, and among the simple peasantry he could work his cruel will without fear of detection or rebuke. The great lords preserved game for their lordly sport.* Droves of wild boars, herds of deer ranged the country, trampling the crops into ruin. The peasant who slew one of these invaders expiated his offence by imprisonment. The weeding and hoeing of crops were forbidden, as tending to dis turb the young partridges.

Limitations were imposed upon the use of manures, lest the flavour of the game should be injuriously * For thirty leagues around Paris game was strictly protected for the use of the royal family. affected. Now and then the ruined peasantry in their despair de manded, "with a great cry," the abolition of all sorts of game; but their cry was unheeded. Men were bound to grind their corn only at the seigneur's mill ; to press their grapes only in his press ; to bake their bread only in his oven. Hand-mills were forbidden ; but sometimes the great lord sold for money to the wretched peasant permission to crush his handful of wheat between two stones. Services the most intolerable were exacted, or exemp tion from them obtained by payment. When the lady of the seigneur was ill, it became the duty of the peasants to beat the marshes all night and terrify the frogs into silence, lest the great lady should be disturbed by their clamour.

This obligation was, in course of ages, commuted into an annual payment. Many seigneurs had their principal revenue from such exactions. It pleased the government of France to encourage manufactures and commerce, and to overburden agriculture. In some cases the poor cultivator paid to the tax-gatherer five-eighths of the produce of his ground. In many cases cultivation ceased — utterly crushed out by intolerable taxation. Everywhere the pressure of taxation and the oppression of the nobles kept the farmer hopelessly poor, and cultivation rude and unproductive.* Justice was vilely administered. The judges were ignorant, and dependent on the seigneurs. Men were not ashamed to sit as judges in a cause in which they were interested. Bribes were essential to the satisfactory issue of litigation.

Indeed, it grew to be an accepted truth that it was folly to appeal to a court of law without some better support than the mere justice of a cause. The roads near the great cities of France were perhaps the * Smollett speaks of the French farmers as he saw them in 1766 — " Without cattle to furnish manure, without horses to execute the plans of agriculture ; their farm-houses mean, their furniture wretched, their apparel beggarly ; themselves and their beasts the images of famine." French agriculture at the breaking out of the revolution was not beyond that of the tenth century. The plough used was that of Virgil's time. But even then the habit of economy was firmly rooted. The peasant was said to starve himself, hoard his money, and buy land. finest in Europe. The traveller remarked with grateful wonder upon their unexpected smoothness.

Alas! he knew little of the sufferings by which it had been gained. Roads were made by the forced labour of the country people ; and the labour was so mercilessly imposed that many persons sank and died under the intolerable severity. It was a savage age in which these things were inflicted and endured. Men not yet old had seen the torture to which Damiens was subjected for attempting to murder the king. The wretched man's flesh was torn from his bones by red hot pincers, and molten lead was poured into his wounds. Almost to the close of the century criminals endured the torture of the wheel. The limbs were broken by blows of a heavy iron bar, and then the mangled body was hung across the edge of an upright wheel, till the poor remains of life ebbed in agony away. With all these horrors the men and women of France were familiar from their youth.

When they rose to avenge the wrongs which made their lives bitter, it was not probable that they would use milder expedients than those in the practice of which their superiors had so amply instructed them. The time came at length when the cruel wrongs which had been patiently borne for centuries ceased to be longer tolerable. France had enjoyed an unusually lengthened repose. The exhaustion produced by the mad wars of Louis XIV. had been the defence of the country against the repetition upon any great scale of similar iniquities. France had given herself, with energy unknown before, to the pursuits of peace ; and her vast resources were being developed with a rapidity which, tried by the standard of the time, was altogether satisfactory. Her commerce was flourishing ; her manufactures prospered and extended.

She had founded colonies, and her commercial marine approached in extent to that of England herself. Her cities were becoming large ; her middle classes were becoming wealthy and intelligent. The education of her merchants was superior to that of the nobles, who yet looked with uncon cealed and offensive disdain upon the wisest and wealthiest of the classes beneath them. The silent pressure of opinion would gradually have wrested from the nobles a redress of grievances which the altered circumstances of the country rendered unendurable. But, strangely enough, the protest against the blind tyranny of ages found voice first among the nobility themselves. Among the younger nobles there sprang up a sentimental love of liberty and detestation of tyranny. Those speculations regarding equality which are so frequently the solace of the poor, were at this time in France the occupation of the privileged classes.

The heroes of ancient Greece and Rome were objects of passionate admiration to the young nobility of France. Count Segur recalled, fifty years after, the thunders of applause with which the courtiers in the theatre at Ver sailles received the lines of Voltaire : "I am the son of Brutus, and bear graven on my heart the love of liberty and horror of kings." The influence of England, too, became powerful among the higher classes of France. Montesquieu had already taught to his countrymen the superiority of English institutions. The perception of this superiority was expressed in a manner sufficiently fanciful. A rage for English fashions sprang up, and for a time possessed society. The fantastic dresses of the old court were replaced by the simpler costumes of the islanders.* French gardens were remodelled after English designs.

English horses and horse-races, English gigs, English grooms, and the English mode of riding, were indispensable to a man of fashion. The export of English goods to France rose from .£90,000 to £830,000. It was justly held that this * Count Segur was troubled by the reign of frock-coats, which, as he foretold, would be found to indicate a dangerous passion for equality. So strong was the reaction in favour of simplicity that men now buttoned their coats to conceal the stars and other decorations which they had formerly been proud to exhibit. grotesque passion expressed French admiration of the liberty and independence which the English form of government se cured to the people. The literary influences of the time were singularly powerful and vehemently hostile to the old order of things. In the later years of Louis XV. the men of letters combined to pro duce an Encyclopædia which should instruct mankind in regard to nearly every object of human thought.

It was a vast enter prise carried out with extraordinary ability. The Encyclopædia became at once a great power in France. It claimed a huge enlargement of human liberty in thought and action ; it exe crated the cruel despotisms under which the world groaned ; it advocated representation and self-government. Every educated Frenchman read the Encyclopædia, to learn there how he had been robbed of his birthright by the government whose duty it was to protect him. The writings of Voltaire exercised a prodigious influence upon French thought. His reproduction of ancient heroes who had defied tyrants stirred the French heart to its depths. Voltaire had spent three years in England, whose institutions he learned to admire. In innumerable writings he expressed his abhorrence of tyranny. He expressed, with especial energy, his abhorrence of the tyranny of priests — unhappily for France including the Christian religion itself in his condemnation.* His words reached the hearts of the upper classes in France with unexampled authority.

He became a power which it is not easy for us now to comprehend. A few weeks before his death he revisited Paris from his retirement at A. D. Ferney. He was now a man of eighty, bent, shrivelled, recalling by his antique dress the manners of an extinct genera- * The primary object of Voltaire's attack was Christianity as represented by the Roman Catholic Church of his day. His error lay in confounding two things so dis similar as the Church and the Christianity of the New Testament, and in indiscrimi nately denouncing both. Christianity, as Voltaire saw it around him, was not deserving of better treatment than it received at his hands. tion ; the deep piercing eye alone asserting his old supremacy. The learned, and the noble, and the beautiful worshipped at the shrine of the withered unbeliever, who had uttered so vividly their protest against the evils of the time.

The writings of Rousseau were still more widely read, and exercised a more powerful influence over the growth of opinion and the course of public affairs.* In 1753 Rousseau had written on the "Origin of Inequality among Men" His discussions of that and kindred topics so attracted the public mind, that fiction, and poetry, and the drama occupied now a subordinate place. Political and economical questions alone were regarded. Even assemblies of the merely fashionable were invaded by this passion, which, with the rapidity of growth customary in France, soon absorbed the attention of all classes. The new tendency fed itself by a close study of the policy of the government and its results. When Necker, in 1781, published his Report on National Finance, the demand for copies was so large that for some time it could not be sup plied.

A few years before, the proceedings of the government commanded little attention ; now, a watchfulness which, under existing circumstances, was full of peril attended every step. While the public mind was becoming conscious of the miseries which oppressed society, and yearning vaguely for deliverance, word came to Paris that the American colonies of England were in revolt. The enthusiasm which the news enkindled was intense. The attempt to reject arbitrary power and establish popular government, awakened deep sympathy among the adherents of one of the most despotic governments in Europe. The younger nobles sought eagerly to join the insurgents. Count Segur was refused permission to do so, but went in defiance of prohibition ; Lafayette was arrested in the attempt. The king was most reluctant to aid the revolted * " It was Rousseau alone who inoculated the French with the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, and its estremest consequences." — Mallet Dupan. colonists; but the popular sentiment was too strong, and he had at last to declare war against England.

The American deputies — Franklin and his companions — were received with boundless delight. It presents a striking contrast — the rustic plainness of apparel and speech, the massive good sense and simple honesty of the republicans, as they moved amid the splendours of Versailles, and the frivolous elegance of the courtiers. Out of the alliance between France and America there sprang a quickened perception of the evils of despotism and an enormous increase of the national burdens. Ages of misgovernment and profligate waste had brought French finance to a crisis. For many years there had been a constant excess of expenditure, until, on the eve of the revolu tion, the debt of France amounted to £244,000,000. The interest on this debt and the expenses of government were £26,400,000, while the revenue for the year was only £18,800,000.