180%.] 
beloved), which he had taken fo little 
trouble to acquire, places an hiftorian, 
who wifhes to fpeak the truth, and to 
fpeak it with fome energy, ina very par- 
ticular and critical fituation. 
The firft half of the life of that mon- 
arch exhibits a tiffue of political zmeptiz, 
or of immoral combinations, which rather 
‘eall for the cynical pen of a. Suetonius, 
than the crayons of a Tacitus. The fub- 
fequent events of that reign have paffed 
betore our eyes 3 every one has judged of 
them in his own way, according to predo- 
minant opinions, the prejudices of a fect, 
or the patrigtifm of circumftances, of 
which (fays the author) attempts have 
always been made to form a fort of reli- 
gion. ‘* Then the writer of no party, 
who fpeculates from all the height of his 
principles on the events which he has to 
defcribe, is at war with all men that are 
trop prononcés—of a charatter too de- 
cided. The banners of Marius and of 
Sylla are equally difplayed againtt him, 
becaufe he loves neither Sylla nor Marius : 
he kindles the hatred which he wifhes to 
extinguifh, and finds enemies in almoft 
all orders of his readers.” 
The new hiftorian of Louis XV., placed 
in this fingular predicament, has not been 
difcouraged by it ; the freedom of his pen- 
cil has no other Jimits than thofe of deco- 
rum ; and he refpeéts the old abufes of 
every kind which he is condemned’ to 
paint, no farther than the refpect which he 
owes to the public and to himfelf requires. 
His work, although circum{(cribed by its 
nature within a very narrow fpace, pre- 
fents new anecdotes from time to time, 
which intereft the public curiofity either 
by the fubject itfelf, or by the name of 
the perfonages treated of. 
Speaking of General Lally—‘* He had 
Jong had a prefentiment (fays Citizen De 
Sales) of all the horror of his deftiny ; he 
deferved it, perhaps, becaufe he had not 
the courage to withdraw himfelf from it. 
I repeat, from the very mouth of the il- 
luftrious Malefherbes, that a few days be- 
fore the fentence of the Parliament, this 
unfortunate man, walking with an officer 
of the guard in the garden of the Battille, 
the latter, after having fpoken with fome 
energy of the favage pleafure which men 
of the long-robe take in fhortening by the 
head a mulitaire, loaded with titles, with 
ribbons, and with wounds, conduéted his 
prifoner towards the foffes, which were 
hardly five feet deep in water, and having 
Jet him take a glimpfe of the fuperficial 
depth, Lally exclaimed, ‘ Eh ! que feroit 
wa bomme d'honneur qui S appercevroit Pm 
Proceedings of Learned Societies, 
AQ5 
Well, what fhould aman of honour do 
when he perceived? .. . The officer re- 
plied, * Uz homme d'honneur ne s° apper- 
cevroit de rien’—A man of honour would 
perceive nothing—and that inftant quitting 
the General, under fome pretext or other, 
he went to walk at the extremity oppofite 
to the garden. Lally, alone, for a mo- 
ment fteadily eyes the foffe, and the dif- 
tance of the two banks, and quietly re- 
turns to the officer of the guard, who 
{miled with difdain at fo much ignominy.” 
This picture of the reign of Louis XV. 
terminates in the following manner : 
“© Thus the abject and immoral drama 
of the reign of Louis XV. was wound 
up; forthe former part has fome claims 
to an honourable mention in hiftory. It 
is certain, that as long as the Prince could 
be himfelf, he performed as a king the 
good which he always defired as a man. 
He had a title tothe efteem of Europe. 
«© We muft not forget that the firft 
words which he pronounced when he com- 
menced his reign, were thofe memorable 
ones—a@ la Titus; which the idolatry 
of nations has fo long fanétioned. In ge- 
nerai, his difpofition was mild, and the 
effufion of blood was painful even to his 
juftice. 
“‘ Neither fhould we ever forget that 
France never enjoyed a greater mafs of 
happinefs than between the peace of Aix- 
la Chapelle, in 1748, and that of 1756, 
which united the two thrones of Vienna 
and of Verfailies. Europe, during thefe 
eight years, might be compared to a large 
family, all the parents of which feemed 
good and juft, and the children gay, opu- 
Jent, and happy. 
. © It was alfo towards this memorable 
epoch that the arts, the ufeful difcove- 
ries and improvements (not perturbatory, 
non perturbatrices, according to the ex- 
preflion of Citizen de Sales) were the mott 
encouraged. Then it was that Duhamel 
gave anew ftimulus to agriculture ; then 
the manufactures were rapidly advanced 
under the mechanic genius of Vaucanfon ; 
then were projected fcientific voyages ta 
the pole and to the equator, which cre- 
ated a new aftronomy for geographers and 
aftronomers. 
“© It refults from this piéture, that if 
we were to divide the reign of Lonis XV. 
into two parts, fo that the viceroyalty of 
the favourite Pompadour fhould make 
the intermediate line, it would be found 
that the monarch, placed in the one part, 
ought never to have been born ; and that, 
tran{ported into the other part, he fhould 
never have died.”* 
3H2 PRO 
