LOUIS XV 



554 



diversity of talents of his ministers, exhibits, in Us 

 most important negotiations with foreign powers, 

 almost, always the same character of lofty pretension. 

 Tin- spirit of his policy may be clearly seen in the 

 manner in which he insisted on interpreting the 

 trea iis*-s of Minister, of the Pyrenees, and of Nime- 

 fliien, anil the renunciation of queen Maria Theresa. 

 The means of imparting validity to such arbitrary 

 explanations, were, force of arms, artful diplomacy, 

 expert spies, and corruption. The king expended 

 great sums in securing the favour of sovereigns 

 diaries II., for example, in Britain their ministers 

 and mistresses. Against his enemies, he employed, 

 even in times of war, clandestine popular excitements ; 

 lie encouraged the commotions in Catalonia, Sicily, 

 Britain, Portugal, and Hungary. More than any 

 king before him, he enlarged the boundaries of the 

 kingdom, especially towards the north ; by which 

 means, he secured the capital against the accidents 

 of war. Till the battle of La Hogue, May 29, 1692, 

 in which the combined British ana Dutch fleet, under 

 admiral Russell, overcame the French admiral Tour- 

 ville, lie maintained the balance of power on the ocean, 

 and made his flag respected by the natives of Barbary 

 and by the most powerful maritime states. On the 

 continent, he held a decided predominance till the 

 peace of Nimeguen, so that he had no reason to fear 

 any coalition of the other powers. To this his con- 

 nexion with Sweden and some of the small German 

 principalities mainly contributed. He subsequently 

 fell somewhat from this high elevation, but continued 

 to be the first sovereign of Europe, even after his 

 defeats in the Spanish war of succession ; for, after 

 he had severed the league formed against him by the 

 peace with Britain, neither Austria nor the German 

 empire could long offer resistance." To this foreign 

 policy, favoured by the weakness and political errors 

 of his neighbours, was added an arbitrary internal 

 administration. The system of police, organized by 

 D'Argenson, in the last years of the reign of Louis, 

 was, in its effects, as formidable as an inquisition. 



LOUIS XV., the great grandson of Louis XIV., 

 and son of that excellent duke of Bnrgundy who was 

 educated by Fenelon, was born February 15, 1710, 

 commenced his reign in 1715, and died May 10, 

 1774. He married, in 1725, Maria, the daughter of 

 Stanislaus Leczynski (she died in 1768). The His- 

 tory of Louis XV., by Antoine Fantin Desodoards 

 (Paris, year VI., three vols.), and the Age of Louis 

 XV., by Arnoux Laffrey, published by Maton (Paris, 

 1796, two vols.), do not correspond to what might 

 be expected from French writers, after Voltaire's 

 work on the reign of this king. The memoirs of 

 Duclos, St Simon and others, the History of France 

 in the eighteenth century, by Lacretelle (Paris, 

 18 11, six vols.), and the well known work La Vie 

 Privee de Louis XV. (4 vols.), contain important 

 materials for the history of this unworthy and de- 

 graded king, who, by his licentiousness, bigotry, 

 prodigality, and despotism, rendered the evils of the 

 state incurable. The age which educated and cor- 

 rupted him, and on which he and his court reacted 

 in a not less injurious manner, explains not only the 

 origin, but also the spirit and malignity of the revo- 

 lution. A great part, however, of this fault, falls on 

 the regency, administered by Philip, duke of Or- 

 leans, and the cardinal Dubois, till 1723. See 

 Orleans, Philip of. 



The influence of the age of Louis XIV. on the 

 religious and political notions of the cultivated 

 classes, and especially the increasing power of 



5jblic opinion in France during the reign of Louis 

 V., are conspicuous. The characteristic of the 

 age of Louis XV. consists in the intellectual devel- 

 opment of the nation, in the splendour and boldness 



of new philosophic views, which had so strong an 

 influence on society. From them proceeded a fear- 

 ful separation of reason from morality, of the pas- 

 sions from rectitude, and of enlightened ideas from 

 the forms of church and state. The immoderate love 

 of pleasure, which, from the higher, descended into 

 the lower classes, and was defended or excused by 

 the philosophy of the day, was united with an avari- 

 cious selfishness, which was awakened by the rash 

 financial schemes of Law and the regent, and con 

 nected with fraud, despair, and the bankruptcy of 

 500,000 citizens. From this love of pleasure and sel- 

 fishness, proceeded most of the faults and vices of the 

 contemporaries of Louis XV. The moral infection 

 spread farther and farther, and ate deeper and deeper 

 into the roots of public spirit and every civil virtue. 

 Louis XIV. left his great grandson and successor 

 with the words, " I have, against my inclination, 

 imposed great burdens on my subjects ; but have 

 been compelled to do it by the long wars which 

 I have been obliged to maintain. Love peace, and 

 undertake no war, except when the good of the state 

 and the welfare of your people render it necessary." 

 A much deeper impression should have been made 

 on the mind of the royal child, by the conduct of the 

 people who accompanied the hearse of the king 

 with insults and the grossest expressions of joy. 

 But what an idea must the boy of six years have 

 formed from the lit de j'ustics (the strongest exertion 

 of despotism), held by the regent, to confirm his 

 regency ! How different were the views of his father, 

 the noble duke of Burgundy, who intended, in case 

 he ascended the throne, to restore to the people 

 their lost rights ! In his seventh year, Louis was 

 first placed under the care of men. But his tutor, 

 the marshal Villeroi, was no Montausier, Beauvil- 

 liers, or Fenelon. On one occasion, when Louis 

 had recovered from a violent sickness, his subjects 

 manifested their satisfaction by repeated rejoicings. 

 The court and gardens of the Tuileries were full of 

 men. Villeroi carried the king from one window to 

 another. "See them, my king! your people: all 

 this people belongs to you ; all that you see is your 

 property; you are lord and master of it." The 

 instructer of the young king, the prudent and modest 

 Fleury, won the confidence of his pupil in a noble 

 manner. A third, who had, however, less influence 

 on the young king, was his confessor, the Jesuit 

 Linieres. The cardinal Dubois had effected his ap- 

 pointment to this important office against Fleury's 

 wish and the advice of cardinal Noailles. Fleury, 

 however, acquired the entire confidence of Louis, 

 who, after the death of the regent, in 1724, by the 

 advice of his instructer, appointed the duke of Bour- 

 bon chief minister of state, who could undertake 

 nothing, however, without the knowledge and con- 

 sent of the prelate, then seventy-three years old 

 Till now, the king, who entered upon the govern- 

 ment himself in 1723, but had hitherto intrusted the 

 management of affairs to the former regent, as first 

 minister of state, had shown no will of his own. A 

 Spanish princess of six years had been destined for 

 his wife, and had been subsequently sent back to her 

 parents ; the marshal Villeroi had been banished 

 from the court, and the king had married Maria 

 Leczynski, the daughter of Stanislaus, the dethroned 

 king of Poland, indifferent and submissive in all 

 these proceedings. But when the party of the duke 

 attempted to get rid of the prelate, and the offended 

 Fleury had retired to his country seat, the king 

 insisted on his return with such firmness, that the 

 duke found himself obliged to apply to the prelate, 

 and solicit his return. Soon after, in 1726, Fleury 

 was placed at the head of the administration. He 

 declined the title of first minister, but was, in fact. 



