512 MONTHLY RETIEW OF LITERATURE. 



This edict was confirmed under the regency in February 1723. Five centuries 

 before, in times comparatively barbarous, and when the institutions of the 

 country and the system of society were essentially feudal, Louis IX., on the 

 occasion of an accusation by a villain against a noble, allowed them to try the 

 truth of the charge by single combat, in which the nobleman should fight on 

 horseback and the villain on foot ; but he ordered at the same time that the 

 loser, whichever he might be, should be immediately suspended to the gallows. 

 "The French feudal nobility, from the oldest times of the monarchy, were 

 essentially fond of war through vanity, ignorance of the arts of peace, rest- 

 lessness, or want of money, This ruling passion caused the crusades, the 

 never-ending Italian expeditions, and the civil and religious wars in France it- 

 self. 'The French/ says Brantome, and in his time the French meant 

 the French nobility, * have always been ready to come to blows either 

 against foreigners or against each other. For which reason the Burgundians 

 and the Flemings are wont to say that when the French are asleep the devil 

 is rocking them.' Louis XIV. broke the power of his nobility, and made 

 courtiers of them ; but at the same time he imbibed their prejudices and tastes. 

 In his ' Instructions for the use of the Dauphin/ he says, that ' the sight of so 

 many gentlemen around him ready to fight in his service, urged him to find em- 

 ployment for their valour/ He adopted the principle that ' a king of France is 

 essentially military, and that from the moment he sheathes his sword he 

 ceases to reign.' In his letter to the Marquis de Villars, dated January, 1688, 

 he says, ' that the noblest and most agreeable occupation of a sovereign is to 

 aggrandize his territory/ Accordingly, he was, during the greater part of 

 his long reign, engaged in destructive war, in which he was generally the ag- 

 gressor. His father left him an army of fifty thousand men, which he raised 

 to four hundred thousand. He gave the first example, which he compelled 

 other powers to adopt, of those immense standing armies which have cost 

 Europe so dear ever since. He kept, likewise, foreign legions in which he 

 enrolled Irish, Germans, Piedmontese, Corsicans, Poles, Hungarians, and even 

 Swedes all the malcontents and the run-aways of the rest of Europe. While 

 lie smothered all liberty in France, he excited revolt in Ireland, in Hungary, 

 in Transylvania, in Sicily, and even in England against his submissive ally 

 Charles II. ' I encouraged/ he says, in his Instructions to the Dauphin, 

 ' the remnant of Cromwell's party, in order to excite through it some fresh 

 disturbances in London/ He looked upon the words of treaties as ' forms 

 of politeness which ought not to be taken to the letter.' Such was the 

 ' Great King/ and such his policy, which Napoleon adopted a century later, 

 and carried on on a much larger scale. ' I am the state/ said Louis XIV. : 

 ' I am the representative of France/ exclaimed Napoleon. The influence of 

 Louis XIV. on the politics of our own days has not been sufficiently noticed. 

 The ruling demagogues of the French revolution, the men of the convention 

 and of the directory, were disciples of that overbearing and unprincipled school 

 founded by Louis XIV. ; they followed the same principles of policy, under 

 the name of liberty and republican forms. Their boasted equality was the 

 equality of despotism the equality of Turkey." 



The sensual and the dark rebel in vain, 



Slaves by their own compulsion. In mad game 

 They burst their manacles, and wear the name 



Of freedom, graven on a heavier chain. 



COLERIDGE. 



Of the same character are " Anecdotes of Oliver Cromwell ; " " Divine 

 Right of Kings ;" " Cavaliers and Roundheads ;" " Prynne's Histrio-Mastix ;" 

 ' Diary of a Divine in the Eighteenth Century." 



We conclude this too brief notice of the Book of Table-Talk " by a few 

 anecdotes of foreign gourmanderie. 



" The Count de Broussin. Most of the later writers on this great subject 

 seem to have forgotten the Count de Broussin, who was, however, a very dis- 



