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III.

1786.

The 1 Ségur, i.

36.

under the colours of philanthropy, that none perceived CHAP. its consequences. "In truth," says Ségur, "who could have anticipated the terrible flood of passions and crimes which was about to be let loose on the world, at a time when all writings, all thoughts, all actions, seemed to have but one end-the extirpation of abuses, the propagation of virtue, the relief of the people, the establishment of freedom? It is thus that the most terrible convulsions are ushered into the world; the night is serene, the sunset fair, which precedes the fury of the tornado." passion for innovation, which had been continually increasing during the latter years of the reign of Louis XV., became irresistible in the years immediately preceding the Revolution. It seized all classes, embraced all subjects, overwhelmed all understandings. The extravagant imitation of English customs and manners, called the Anglomania, was more than a mere foolery of fashion it was the expression of a disposition disquieted and dissatisfied with itself, and arose from a secret desire to imitate the free institutions of a country whose extravagances were so much the object of admiration.

It is hardly credible, however, to what an extent this passion for every thing English overspread all classes in the nation. The philosophers constantly held up the English constitution as the model of political wisdom, English philosophy as the school of enlightened reason, the English soil as the only asylum of freedom on earth. The Duke of Orleans and the liberal nobles pushed even to excess the passion for English amusements: the dress, the manners, the air, the slang, of English jockeys, were the object of universal imitation. Horse-racing and hunting became favourite amusements: leather breeches and top-boots the most fashionable morning attire. Even the mode of riding was altered; and the astonished Parisians, instead of the stately seigneur, sitting erect, with huge jack-boots, on his ambling high-mettled palfrey, beheld tightly dressed youths arrayed like

III.

1786.

CHAP. English grooms, trotting along and rising in their stirrups. Almost alone of his subjects at Paris, Louis XVI., who was thoroughly national in his habits and inclinations, resisted the general contagion, and maintained inviolate the habits and amusements of the old school. Superficial observers will exclaim that these are trifles beneath the dignity of history; but they know little of human affairs who are not aware that nothing is unworthy of notice which marks, in a period of ferment, the inclination of the Ségur, i. 38, general mind; and in the political, not less than the physical world, it is straws which show how the wind sets, and often prognosticate the direction of the coming storm.1

1 Marm.

Mem. ii.

41. Lab. ii.

217, 229.

95. General

tendency to delusion in

mind.

Every thing at this period indicated that restless desire for change, and those sanguine anticipations of indefinite extension in human powers and felicity, which are so the public often the precursor of the most dreadful calamities. Many accidental circumstances conspired to add to the effervescence, which were eagerly seized on by a heated generation to swell the general illusion. The invention of balloons by Montgolfier in 1783, was deemed a prodigious step in the progress of improvement; and hundreds of thousands of the Parisians beheld with transport the vast ball of silk rise majestically from the earth, bearing the intrepid aëronauts, who were the first to launch the human race into the unknown regions of the air. Unbounded were the visions which filled the minds of men at this brilliant discovery. England was to be prostrated, the Channel traversed by legions of invincible aëronauts ; from the clouds the blessings of civilisation were to descend upon savage and unenlightened man. While that,"

*

66 6

* 66

Quel siècle que le nôtre !' se disaient les spectateurs: 'combien de découvertes sont le partage de cette heureuse génération! Il y a peu d'années qu'on a trouvé l'art de composer la foudre, de l'attirer, de la rompre, et de la faire ruisseler en filets insignifians. Voilà qu'on découvre l'art de s'élever en un instant plus haut que les lieux d'où la foudre gronde. Quels nouveaux secours offerts ou apportés à des opprimés ou à des captifs! Quels rapides échanges de productions, de connoissances, et de lumières! Qu'il sera beau d'apparaître du haut des nues à des peuples encore barbares, comme des dieux bienfaisans, de leur dicter des lois, venues du ciel, qui adouciront leur férocité, et des oracles qui éclaireront leur ignorance.' 'Quel vertige vous possède?

III.

1787.

says Bulwer with historic truth, " was the day for polished CHAP. scepticism and affected wisdom, it was the day also for the most egregious credulity and the most mystical superstition. It was the day in which magnetism and magic found converts among the disciples of Diderot; when prophecies were current in every mouth; when the salon of a philosophical deist was converted into a Heraclea, in which necromancy professed to conjure up the shadows of the dead; when the Crosier and the Book were ridiculed, and Mesmer and Cagliostro were believed."* The first of these, a German physician, announced that he had discovered that man was "an electrical machine;" and amused philosophers, and carried away many heated heads, with the mysteries of animal magnetism, which appears destined every half century to overspead the civilised world with its false pretensions and real delusions.+ In the midst of these sanguine anticipations of intellectual progress and scientific discovery, it was in vain that a few more sagacious observers, judging from experience, remarked that it would be well if some moral improvement were mingled with these mental acquisitions. No one seemed to think that such a change was either necessary or desirable. Selfishness, immorality, and infidelity were daily extending their influence in society; but all classes, save a mere fraction who were stigmatised as 87, 92. alarmists, were blind to their tendency; and amidst 103, 110. incessant declamations on the lights of the age, and the disent des observateurs chagrins : ces pernicieuses machines, si elles se perfectionnent, introduiront une effroyable anarchie dans la société, rompront le frein des lois, et enfin offriront un nouveau champ de bataille aux hommes, qui, maîtres des airs, commenceront par s'y combattre.' 'Taisez-vous,' répondaient les plus exaltés des jeunes gens: 'ces alarmes pourraient être justes si la navigation aërienne eût été découverte au quinzième ou au seizième siècle ; mais aux dixhuitième, que craint-on? Ne c'est-il pas fait une ligue entre tous les sages pour détourner le fléau de la guerre ?"-LACRETELLE, Histoire de France pendant le XVIII. Siècle, vi. 91, 92. This was on the eve of the reign of Napoleon, and the Moscow campaign.

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After slumbering fifty-four years, it re-appeared in 1843, and for a few seasons amazed the frivolous, and carried away the weak, especially in the higher and least occupied classes of society.

1 Lac. vi.

Soul. vi.

III.

CHAP. boundless prospects of social felicity which were opening, the only solid foundations for either-religion and morality-were fast disappearing from the realm.

1787.

96.

First measures of Brienne, which are

successful.

June 17,

1787.

It was in the midst of this universal dissolution of opinions, morals, and habits, that M. de Brienne received the helm of affairs, and undertook to moderate the universal effervescence, and rule the general insubordination, by a recurrence to the arbitrary principles of the ancient monarchy. The attempt, in the first instance, met with unlooked-for success. Three edicts, on the passing of 22, and 27, which the King had set his heart, which Calonne had adopted from Turgot, and submitted in vain to the Notables, were successively registered by the parliament. Encouraged by this unwonted instance of moderation, Brienne next sent them an edict to register which imposed an additional duty on stamps; but the moment that the word "tax" was mentioned, their old refractory disposition returned, and, imitating the tactics of the Notables, they stated that they could not register the edict, unless the national accounts were previously submitted to their examination. In the course of the discussions which ensued on this subject, the Abbé Sabatier observed: "You ask for the states of accounts? You are mistaken in your object. It is the STATES-GENERAL which you require." This witty expression, thrown in at a period of unusual excitement, produced an extraordinary impression it so completely fell in with, and so happily expressed, the public opinion. Carried away by the general enthusiasm, the parliament passed a resolution that a perpetual tax, such as that proposed, could only be imposed by the States-general. The King upon this made some slight modifications in the proposed impost, and again returned it to the parliament: but though the older councillors hesitated, even for their own sake, to merge

July 14.

* "Vous demandez des états: c'est les états-généraux qu'il vous faut." The wit can only be appreciated in French.—DE STAEL, i. 123.

III.

1787.

1 Droz, ii.

themselves in the greater assembly, a majority, composed CHAP. chiefly of the younger councillors, under the guidance of d'Espréménil and Goislard, two enthusiastic young men, again rejected the impost, exclaiming that they must have the States-general, and that they alone could give legality to the impost. "Providence," said D'Ormesson, 6, 7. De who was president, "will punish your fatal counsels by Stael, i, 123, granting your prayers." His prophecy was too faithfully vi. 177,178. accomplished. In less than six years afterwards, d'Espréménil perished by the violence of the people whom the States-general had roused to madness.1

Hoping to disarm the resistance he could not directly overcome, the King published a list of the reductions he proposed to effect in the different departments of the state; and Brienne set vigorously to work to effect a saving in the army and the civil establishments of the King. But the magnitude of the deficit, which was now a hundred and twenty-five million francs (£5,000,000) yearly, was such, that no reductions in the guards or royal household could make any sensible impression on it. The minister at war stated he could save 15,000,000 francs (£600,000) in his department; but what was that to the total amount of the deficiency? The real evil was the impossibility of getting any new taxes imposed, from the refusal of the parliaments to register them, and the oppressive weight of the loans, for the interest of which no provision had been made during the American war. The reductions which were made, and they were very considerable, did rather harm than good; for they excited an angry feeling among those who suffered by them, without giving any sensible relief to those who contributed to the public funds. They regarded their offices, and not without reason, as their private property during their life; and one of the sufferers, Baron Besenval, declared that such iniquitous spoliation was unparalleled save in Turkey. Meanwhile the parliament, not content with having thrown out the new tax, proceeded

124. Soul.

Lac. vi.

182, 184.

97.

Progress of

the dispute

with the

parliament.

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