360 FRANCE. 



courtiers, but was instantly betrayed by his distracted countenance. 

 He declared it was never his intention to kill the king ; but that he 

 only meant to wound him, that God might touch his heart, and incline 

 him to restore the tranquillity of his dominions by re-establishing the 

 parliament, and banishing the archbishop of Paris, whom he regarded 

 as the source of the present commotions. In these frantic and in- 

 coherent declarations he persisted, amidst the most exquisite tor- 

 tures ; and after human ingenuity had been exhausted in devising 

 new modes of torment, his judges, tired out with his obstinacy, con- 

 signea him to a death, the inhumanity of which is increased by the 

 evident madness that stimulated him to the desperate attempt, and 

 which might fill the hearts of savages with horror ; he was conducted 

 to the common place of execution, amidst a vast concourse of the 

 populace ; stripped naked, and fastened to the scaffold by iron gyves, 

 One of his hands was then burnt in liquid flaming sulphur ; his thighs, 

 legs, and arms, were torn with red hot pincers ; boiling oil, melted 

 lead, resin, and sulphur, were poured into the wounds ; and, to com- 

 plete the horrid catastrophe, he was torn to pieces by horses. 



The Jesuits, having rendered themselves universally odious by 

 their share in the conspiracy against the late king of Portugal, fell 

 in France under the lash of the civil power, for certain fraudulent 

 mercantile transactions. They refused to discharge the debts of one 

 of their body, who had become bankrupt for a large sum, and who 

 was supposed to act for the benefit of the whole society. As a monk, 

 indeed, he must necessarily do so. The parliaments eagerly seized 

 an opportunity of humbling their spiritual enemies. The Jesuits 

 were every where cited before those high tribunals in 1761, and 

 ordered to do justice to their creditors. They seemed to acquiesce 

 in the decision, but delayed payment under various pretences. New 

 suits were commenced against them in 1762, on account of the perni- 

 cious tendency of their writings. In the course of these proceedings, 

 which the king endeavoured in vain to prevent, they were compelled 

 to produce their Institute, or the rules of their order, hitherto studi- 

 ously concealed. That mysterious volume, which was found to con- 

 tain maxims subversive of all civil govei'nment, and even of the funda- 

 mental principles of morals, completed their ruin. All their colleges 

 were seized, all their effects confiscated ; and the king, ashamed or 

 afraid to protect them, not only resigned them to their fate, but finally 

 expelled them the kingdom by a solemn edict, and utterly abolished 

 the order of Jesus in France. 



Elated with this victory over ecclesiastical tyranny, the French par- 

 liaments attempted to set bounds to the absolute power of the crown, 

 and seemed determined to confine it within the limits of the law. Not 

 satisfied with refusing, as usual, to register certain oppressive edicts, 

 or with remonstrating against them, they ordered criminal prosecu- 

 tions to be commenced against the governors of several provinces, 

 acting in the king's name, who had enforced the registration of those 

 edicts. The magnanimity of these assemblies had awakened new 

 ideas in the bosoms of the French ; they were taught by the late 

 remonstrances to consider their inherent rights ; and this flame, in 

 the succeeding reign, burst forth with accumulated force, and over- 

 whelmed the throne of despotism. 



As to the war with Great Britain, which was ended by the peace of 

 Fontainebleau in 1763, the chief events attending it, so humiliating to 



