CHAP. I. In vain the monarchs of France studiously degraded the lower orders; in vain they veiled the corruption of despotism beneath the splendour of military glory; in vain they encouraged science and rewarded art, and sought to turn the flood of genius into the narrow channels of regulated ambition: the vigour of thought outstripped the fetters of power; the energy of civilisation broke the bonds of slavery. The middle ranks, in the progress of time, awoke to a consciousness of their importance: the restrictions of feudal manners became revolting to men enlightened by the progress of knowledge-the chains of ancient servitude insupportable to those who felt the rising ambition of freedom. Not the embarrassment of the finances, not the corruption of the court, not the sufferings of the peasantry, brought about the great convulsion of the nineteenth century; for they are to be found matched in many countries disturbed by no convulsions : 1 Rivarol, but the hateful pride of the aristocracy, based on centuries 92, 93. of exclusive power, and galling to an age of ascending ambition.1 58. fects of govern VI. But the circumstance of all others which had the greatest influence in inducing that state of society in France, Great ef which ultimately brought about a contest between the Richelieu's government and the country, was the success with which system of Cardinal Richelieu succeeded in destroying the rural in- ment. fluence of the French nobility, by attracting them to Paris. This remarkable man was one of the masterspirits of mankind, who, for good or evil, communicate their impress to succeeding generations. He possessed, in the highest degree, that great quality, without which no ability can exert any lasting influence on human affairs, with which hardly any thing is impossible to genius and activity-moral courage and unflinching determination. He was thoroughly in earnest; and his grand object was to elevate the throne at the expense of the nobles-the church by the overthrow of the Huguenots. Deeply impressed with the weakness which had been communicated I. CHAP. to the monarchy on one side of France by the independence and privileges of the great feudatories, and by the divisions which had torn England on the other from the indomitable spirit of Puritan fervour, he saw, in the extinction of these great causes of discord which had divided Germany and Britain, the only certain means of elevating the throne and consolidating the monarchy in his own country. Yet was he not a courtier, nor a slavish minister. It was to raise his country that he laboured: the king was the object of his devotion, because, as Louis XIV. said, he was himself the state; he loved France better than the monarchy.* The anarchy of feudal weakness 1 Sismondi's Hist. de France, xxiv. 127. French Re Smyth's volution, i. 7. 59. His measures to effect. was the great evil which then afflicted society, and it was to remedy it that he so strenuously laboured. His prophetic mind foresaw for his country-in success the glories of Louis XIV., in failure a prostration like that of Poland.1 To effect these objects required the persevering efforts of a vast genius, firmly supported by the executive, and carry these in no small degree favoured by circumstances; but in all designs into these respects Richelieu was peculiarly fortunate. He dislodged the Huguenots from Rochelle, the great asylum of the disaffected, from which they could communicate at pleasure with the rival government and sympathising Protestants of England. He humbled Austria, at that period the most formidable rival to France on the Continent; and to accomplish that the more effectually, being indifferent to religious controversies when they interfered with political designs, he supported the Protestants in Germany, while he crushed them in France. He favoured commerce and trade, as affording the best counterpoise to the feudal nobility; and gave greater security to justice, and more impartial regularity to law, as the only means of restraining * After receiving extreme unction, on deathbed, he exclaimed: "O mon Juge! condamnez-moi si j'ai eu d'autres intentions que de servir le roi et l'état." These words were sincere, and depict his real character; but, like other statesmen of his age, he deemed all means justifiable which tended to these ends.See SOULAVIE, Règne de Louis XIV., iv. 248. I. their excesses. Though imperfectly versed in literature CHAP. himself, he had discernment enough to see its importance, especially as a means of embellishment to the capital, and an engine in the hand of the monarch; and to him France is indebted for the Academy, which concentrated its genius in one focus at Paris, where it might be brought directly under the rays of royal favour. Aware that the only practical security for independence on the part of the crown is to be found in the flourishing state of the finances, he exerted incredible diligence in augmenting the public revenue, and bequeathed a vast accumulated treasure, and an admirably arranged system of finance, to that throne which he had found the weakest and the poorest in Christendom. But the master-stroke of his policy was sweeping away all appointments for life, whether to the government of castles or the direction of provinces, and rendering all 1 Sismondi, offices under the crown of such brief tenure, that they were xxiv. Hist. effectually under the control of government, and could only 100, 124. be obtained by sedulous attendance in the antechambers of the sovereign.1 de France, effects of It may readily be supposed that changes so vast, indu- 60. cing as they did a total alteration in the powers of govern- Prodigious ment, the structure of society, and the future destinies of these the country, could not have been brought about without changes. strenuous resistance on the part of the existing repositories of authority, and the persons benefited by the existing regime. The administration of Richelieu, accordingly, is little more than a series of constant and often evenly balanced contests with the princes of the blood, the nobles, the parliament, the queen-consort, the queen-mother, and sometimes even the very king himself. But such was the ascendency of his genius, the fertility of his resources, and the daring of his courage, that he triumphed over them all. Little scrupulous in the means he employed to compass his designs, he imprisoned, ruined, exiled, or brought to the scaffold, every person of influence who, in the course of his long administration, opposed his projects; and their I. CHAP. entire success appeared in the transformation of France, in a single lifetime, from a feudal confederacy, with a nominal liege-lord at Paris, to a compact and absolute monarchy, with the real powers vested in the sovereign. Peter the Great, when he visited France, embraced his statue in Rev. i. 7. 8. admiration; he was the tamer of the Strelitzes of the monarchy of Clovis.1 1 Smyth, French 61. Real causes which about. The secret of this success, however, as of all similar changes when brought about apparently by individual brought it agency, is to be found in deeper and more general causes than Richelieu's abilities, great as they undoubtedly were. It was the coincidence of his genius with the natural tendency of the times, which was the real cause of the prodigy. The military power of the nobles was declining, from the change of manners and the introduction of standing armies, and he substituted the authority of the monarch in the room of theirs; the progress of wealth and growth of luxury had already induced in them a taste for the enjoyments of the capital, and he threw open the antechambers of the palace to their amusements, the influence and offices of France to their ambition. Hence the change, like that generally desired in France when Napoleon turned the fervour of the Revolution into the career of foreign conquest, was immediate and universal. In a few years the provincial chateaus were deserted, the rural interests forgotten; France was centred in Paris, Paris in Versailles. Before the middle of the reign of Louis XIV., the transition was complete. But this change proved fatal to the power of the nobles. Degraded in character by the frivolities of a court, drowned in debt by its expenses, retained in subservience by the prizes it held out to them, they were alike destitute of the spirit to undertake, or the resources to sustain, a contest for the public liberties. They had neither an armed force at their command, nor any constitutional mode of resisting the royal authority. They had lost all influence over the peasantry on their estates. The attachment of the feudal vassals had died away with I. 1 Smyth, i. the cessation of all intercourse between them and their CHAP. lords. Dismantled chateaus, untilled fields, squalid serfs, along the Seine and the Loire, told how entirely the rays of aristocratic favour had been averted from rural life ; while Paris, flourishing, splendid, and fascinating, proved 8. Sism." the irresistible magnet which attracted all that was great 186. and all that was fair in France to the precincts of the court.1 xxiv. 124. the reign of VII. The peculiar character and dazzling reign of the 62. succeeding sovereign contributed powerfully to strengthen Splendour of and consolidate the French monarchy. Richelieu laid Louis XIV. the foundations, and constructed the whole supports of the edifice; but it was Louis XIV. who embellished the exterior, and erected the entablatures of the Corinthian columns which fascinated the beholder on his approach. A. contemporary writer has left the following dazzling description of the reign of this celebrated monarch :— "Turenne and Luxembourg were his generals; Colbert, Louvois, Torcy, his statesmen; Vauban was his engineer ; Perault constructed his palaces; they were adorned by Poussin and Le Brun; Le Nôtre laid out his gardens; Corneille and Racine wrote his tragedies, Molière his comedies; Boileau was his poet; Bossuet, Fénélon, Bourdaloue, and Massillon, were his preachers. It is in this august assembly of men, whose fame can never die, that this monarch, whom they acknowledged as their patron and protector, presents himself to the admiration of posterity." There is enough here to arrest the attention of the most inconsiderate, and awaken reflection in the most thoughtful of observers. The annals of literary fame have no parallel constellation of intellectual greatness of which to boast; even the glories of Napoleon, and of the revolutionary armies, sink into the shade in comparison. These were less varied and less durable; they were attended with greater waste of. national strength, and wider spread of national suffering: they achieved triumphs over physical strength, they did not shine forth in the unaided majesty |