LOUIS XV. 



555 



such till his death, in 1743. His habit of dissimula- 

 tion extended itself to the king, in whose private life 

 a great change now took place, probably favoured 

 by Fleury himself. The noble germ which his appli- 

 cation and some generous expressions had manifested, 

 was stifled in sensual pleasures and the luxury of a 

 court life. The peaceful Fleury, who endeavoured 

 to restore order and economy, now gave the ener- 

 vated monarchy a seven years' tranquillity ; but he 

 was not sufficiently enlightened to compose the con- 

 troversy respecting the bull Unigenitus. He soon saw 

 himself, contrary to his will, involved in a war. 

 After the death of Augustus II., king of Poland, in 

 1733, Louis wished to see his father-in-law chosen 

 successor of Augustus, and declared that the free- 

 dom of election should be interrupted by no foreign 

 power ; but the emperor Charles VI., having con- 

 cluded an alliance with the elector of Saxony, and 

 supported his election as king of Poland, Louis's 

 plan was frustrated, and a war broke out. After two 

 campaigns, France acquired for Stanislaus, who had 

 fled from Dantzic in danger of his life, the possession 

 of the duchy of Lorraine, by the preliminaries of 

 Vienna, in 1735. After the death of Charles VI., in 

 1740, the project of marshal Belleisle, to dismember 

 the Austrian hereditary states, plunged the aged 

 cardinal into a war, the success of which was frus- 

 trated by the parsimony of the minister, then eighty- 

 years old. The French armies fought on the side of 

 the elector of Bavaria, who laid claim to the whole 

 A ustrian monarchy. Britain was on the side of Maria 

 Theresa. The conquest of Bohemia was not accom- 

 plished; scarcely could Maillebois, Belleisle, and Bro- 

 glio, effect the retreat of the wreck of the defeated 

 army from Bohemia and Bavaria over the Rhine. Still 

 greater were the losses of France by sea ; for Fleury 

 had neglected the marine. After his death, in 

 1743, the victories of count Maurice of Saxony (see 

 Maurice) gave new splendour to the French arms ; 

 and, by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, 

 France regained her lost colonies. But the state 

 was, more than ever, exhausted by an unjust and 

 impolitic war. Louis had himself taken a part in 

 several campaigns, and, when he was attacked at 

 Metz by a severe malady, received the appellation 

 of the well-beloved (le bien-aime). The affection 

 felt for him by the French exceeded his deserts ; for 

 Louis became, from this time, more and more un- 

 worthy of the public respect, sinking into the gross- 

 est indolence and sensuality, and abandoning the 

 management of state affairs to the marchioness of 

 Pompadour. (See Pompadour.) She was, in reality, 

 the ruler, the monarch being absorbed in his orgies, 

 or childish amusements and despotic fears. He 

 showed himself, without dignity, the sport of petty 

 passions, and the instrument of external influences. 

 The nation, on which so powerless a government 

 could have no effect, followed entirely its restless 

 caprices. Contests of public opinion, bold hopes, 

 and new systems, amused and engaged all classes of 

 society. Every one longed for a new and better 

 state ; obedience became more and more lax, the 

 wish of change more decided ; a few steps more 

 would lead to insurrection. The sensuality of the 

 king put him entirely in the power of the ambitious 

 Pompadour. While she made him lead the shame- 

 less life of an Eastern monarch, she sacrificed, ac- 

 cording to the caprice of the moment, the honour, 

 wealth, and the prosperity of the state, to those who 

 were able to gain access to her by their attractive 

 qualities. She accustomed the king to the acquits de 

 comptant, or warrants for payment, which exhausted 

 the treasury, and introduced confusion into the 

 accounts. The cost of the parcaux-cerfs , as it was 

 called, the most abominable instrument of the 



king's voluptuousness, was defrayed by such ac- 

 quits, which, according to Lacretelle, amounted, 

 eventually, to 100,000,000fr. Louis also loved to 

 play deep, and appropriated, for this purpose, a pri- 

 vate chest, the losses of which he supplied from the 

 public chest. Those who lost to him were indemni- 

 fied l>/ lucrative public offices. In order to increase 

 this fund, he engaged in stock-jobbing and in specu- 

 lations in grain. The rise and fall of the stocks, 

 and the price of corn, interested him in a manner 

 entirely unbecoming a king. He appropriated a 

 capital of ten million^, from his private treasury, to 

 this disgraceful traffic, and even allowed the name of 

 M. Mielavand to be introduced into the state al- 

 manack of 1774, among the officers of finances, as 

 tre sorter des grains pour le compte de S. M. To 

 relieve his ennui, he printed several books, and was 

 even pleased with the celebrated physiocratical sys- 

 tem of his physician Qiiesnay. He called him his 

 thinker (penseur), listened with satisfaction when he 

 censured the policy of his ministers, but never troubled 

 himself about the application of his ideas. Towards 

 women he conducted himself, in public, with the 

 courteousness of a French chevalier, mingled in their 

 petty quarrels, and played the part of a confidant. 

 He was inquisitive about the intrigues of all the 

 courts of Europe, and, to inform himself respect- 

 ing them, maintained secret agents, of which his 

 ministers, in many cases, knew nothing. The digni- 

 fied, manly conduct of the dauphin, the virtues of the 

 dauphiness, made no permanent impression on him. 

 He sometimes, however, seemed to feel remorse, 

 especially after the death of the queen. But he 

 soon sought and found solace in his old pleasures. 

 From the year 1769, he was governed by Du Barry 

 (see Barry), who is said to have cost the royal trea- 

 sury, in five years, 180 million livres. As Louis 

 became older, his bigotry and apathy increased, 

 while he sank deeper in sensuality. His secret 

 debaucheries dishonoured innocence, and poisoned 

 the domestic happiness of his subjects. The public 

 contempt was expressed in satires, caricatures, and 

 songs, to which the people had already become 

 accustomed under the regency. The hatred of the 

 people gave credence to the most exaggerated 

 accusations, and Louis, from fear and aversion, 

 withdrew himself from the public eye. With this 

 carelessness and apathy of the king, the French 

 levity increased continually ; every one was en- 

 gaged with trifles and selfish plans; the most 

 important affairs of state, on the contrary, were 

 neglected. France, at the same time, saw itself 

 involved, in 1754, in a maritime war with Great 

 Britain, on account of the forts on the Ohio, and, as 

 if this contest was of no importance, rashly took the 

 side of Austria against Prussia, in 1756. The shrewd 

 Kaunitz had gained the favour of the vain Pompa- 

 dour, who was offended by the sarcasms of Frederic 

 II. By her influence, the duke de Choiseul was ap- 

 pointed first minister, in the stead of the abbeBernis, 

 and, May 1, 1756, a new alliance was concluded 

 with Austria, at Versailles, which was unique in his- 

 tory. The French suffered great losses by sea and 

 land ; even their military reputation had declined 

 since the battle of Rossbach, Nov. 5, 1757 ; and, after 

 seven unhappy years, they had reason to congratulate 

 themselves, when Choiseul concluded a peace with 

 Great Britain at Fontainbleau, in 1762, and the 

 definitive treaty was settled at Paris, in 1763, although 

 France had to relinquish to Great Britain, Canada, as 

 far as the Mississippi, Cape Breton, and the islands 

 Grenada, Tobago, St Vincent, and Dominica, togeth- 

 er with Minorca. Louis remained indifferent to all 

 these events. The first time that he saw marshal 

 Richelieu after the conquest of Mahon, in 1756, he 



