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as we recollect no other general hiftory which deduces the affairs of France to fo low a period.

His most chriftian majesty's minifters, employed in the negotiation, (for the peace of 1763) adopted principles very different from thofe of their predeceffors. They appeared to breathe nothing but peace, but no fooner was that obtained, than they applied themfelves, with the utmolt affiduity, to meafures of œconomy; and above all, to the finding resources for reftoring their marine, in which they are faid to have been fuccefsful almoft beyond belief. But even the defirable event of peace could not extinguish the differences which still prevailed between the court and the parliament; tho' they were not attended with any remarkable confequences. On the 31st of May, his moft Chriftian majefty held his bed of justice, in which he made feveral alterations with respect to the taxes; and, in order to lay taxes more equal for the future, his majefty ordered an account to be taken immediately of all the freeholds of the kingdom, not excepting thofe of the crown, or thofe of the princes of the blood, ecclefiaftics, nobles, or other privileged perfons, of what nature foever. And, by the fecond edit, his majesty ordered that all the crown debts, payable out of the revenue of the crown, fhould be redeemable, fome at twenty years purchafe, without regard to the original . capital, and others in proportion to what the prefent poffeffors paid for the fame. The declaration, which was registered the fame day, laid a duty of one per cent. on all alienations of immoveables. A few days after thofe edicts were registered, the office of the Chatelet, prevailed with the parliament of Paris to regulate the practice of inoculation, and to reftrict it to perfons living in houses feparated frome very other human habitation, and attended by perfons who fhould have no communication with any other inhabitant of the place for fix weeks from the time of the infertion of the variolous matter.

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The vigorous efforts made by his moft Christian majesty and his minifters, for repairing the waite of the late war, did not difcontinue the difputes between the court and the parliaments. The duke de Harcourt, by virtue of an arret of council, violently altered the regifters of the parliament of Rouen, and entered arbitrary edicts upon this occafion; upon which that parliament paffed an arret annulling all thofe tranfcriptions and erafures, and forbidding any edicts or declarations that did not pafs through their own body to be obeyed, under pain of peculation, and that repeated remonftrances be prefented to the king. His majefty heid a bed of juftice, in which he ordered feveral edicts and declarations to be registered. These were oppofed by all the parliaments of France; and the members of

that

that of Rouen, rather than agree to regifter them, offered to refign their places; but the king refufed to accept of their refignations, and promised to fall into fome method of putting his finances in better order. This was the more neceffary, as the province of Normandy proved inconteftibly, that of above fixty millions of livres, which they pay annually in taxes, not above seventeen millions were received yearly by the king's treafury. Thofe, and many other abuses, were undoubtedly owing to the poverty and venality of the court, who fold places in the government to perfons who made the most of them they could.

The lofs of Canada rendered it neceffary for the French court, on many accounts, to enquire into the conduct of the officers employed there, and their judges found them guilty. The fieur Bigot, the intendant of that province, was condemned to perpetual, as others were to temporary, exiles. Bigot was fentenced to reftore 4,500,000 livres; the fieur Varin, director of the marine at Montreal, 8co,000 livres; M. Bread, comptroller of the marine, 300,000 livres; M. Cadent, purveyor general of the army, 6,000,000 livres; Pennyfiant, Maurin, and Corpion, commiffaries under Cadent, 600,000 livres each; Eftabe and Martel, keepers of magazines, the former 30,000 livres, and the latter 200,000 livres ; the commandant, Laudriere, 5000 livres; Dechainaux, fecretary to the intendant Bigot, 30,000 livres; in all 12,965,000 livres.

Those examples of justice did not fatisfy the parliaments. Though they confeffed themfelves to be void of any legislative authority, which they acknowledged to be in the king, yet they made fuch a ufe of their executive powers, as in fact fet afide thofe of the fovereign. They ftept forth as champions for the interefts and liberties of the people, to whom they endeared themselves fo greatly, that the court, in difficult prefsing emergencies, found their account in winking at their high claims, till at laft they thought themselves above controul. The reftoration of peace prefented the miniftry with a fair opportunity of trying the ftrength of the prerogative with that of the parliaments. The remonftrances of the latter were bold beyond precedent; for in that of August the 5th, the parliament of Rouen told the king that, in fact, the return of peace had only added to their calamities, and they even laid before him the Norman charters, which they pretended to be in full force, and which provides that no tax can be laid upon the fubjects of that province, unless it be agreed to in the af fembly of the people of the three eftates. This was a language to which the court of France had been long a stranger, and raised the authority of the French, equal to that of a Britih, parliament. This (fays the remonttrance to the king),

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makes part of your people's rights, which you fwore to maintain before Him by whom kings reign. The chamber of aids in the parliament of Paris, the moft refpectable of any in the kingdom, closed one of their remonftrances with a request that, if his majefty doubted of the fidelity of their reprefentations, he would please to hear his people themselves, by convoking the ftates general of the kingdom. The parliaments of Bourdeaux, Tholoufe, Grenoble, and Befanfon, held the fame language.

The court, on the other hand, refolved to appear determined to carry their point, and in confequence of that resolution the duke of Harcourt acted in the manner we have fen at Rouen, and the duke of Fitz James was fent with the like commiffion to Tholoufe, That parliament ordered the magiftrates of the city to pay the duke no honours as governor of the province, until they recognized his authority and commiflion. Notwithstanding this, in quality of a peer of France, he took his feat in their parliament, and by force registered the edicts he brought down with him. The parliament paffed an arret declaring the register void, and Fitz James in his turn, erafed that arret, and placed guards at the houses of the most eminent members in the oppofition. This ferved but to exafperate the latter the more, and the parliament of Provence, which had been hitherto remarkably temperate, prefented to the king remonftrances in behalf of their brethren of Tholouse, more flaming, if poffible, than any that preceded them. No fooner did the parliament of Tholoufe affemble in December, than the members ordered, "that the faid duke of Fiz James fhall be bodily taken and seized, wherefoever he may be found in the kingdom, and brought to the prifons of the court; and, in case he cannot be apprehended, his eftates and effects shall be feized, or put under the administration of a legal commiffary, according to the ordinances." We are not, at this time, authorized what the confequences of the ferment, occafioned by thofe and many other remonftrances, may be; but in all appearance the affair is now drawing near a decision, as his moft Chriftian majefty feems difpofed to talk to his parliaments by his ftanding army.

The hiftory of France would be incomplete, without fome account of the expulfion of the jefuits out of that kingdom, an event which will for ever do honour to its annals. Their perpetual difputes with the civil power, their dangerous doctrines, their dark practices, and their expulfion out of Portugal, on account of the concern they had in that prince's affaffination, had rendered them extremely unpopular in France. They had carried on a very beneficial trade with Martinico; but meeting

with fome loffes by the English privateers, they laid hold of that pretext to refufe fatisfying their juft creditors, and defired them to accept of prayers to God instead of payment of their money. The merchants refufed the offer, and the affair was carried before the parliament of Paris, who were unanimously of opinion that the whole order of the jefuits, by their conftitutions, were liable to the debts of any part of them, and moft immenfe fums were given to the complainants by way of cofts. It is faid, with great appearance of truth, that fome of the heads of the order had officiously intermeddled between the French king and a favourite lady, who thereupon withdrew from them her powerful protection, and gave them up to the justice of the parliament, which refused to be satisfied with any thing less than their utter extermination out of France. They took cognizance of their books, which they found to be filled with doctrines fubverfive of government and civil fociety, and therefore they condemned some of them to the flames. This fentence was followed by another, which expelled them out of France, and confifcated all their eftates to the ufe of the public. They had, however, ftill fo much credit remaining, as to procure the interpofition of the king in their favour, and he published an arret fufpending all farther proceedings againft them for a twelvemonth. The parliament agreed to regifter this arret, provided it was to continue in force no longer than the first of April. The fentences of the parliament have been fince carried into execution in the ftri&teft manner. Their proceedings were difagreeable to many of the clergy, especially to the archbishop of Paris, who published a pastoral letter, containing may expreffions in favour of the jefuits. The parliament complained to the king of this letter, as being a feditious writing, and his majefty ordered the archbishop to call it in, which the prelate refufed, and continuing inflexible, his majefty banished him to his abbey of Conflans. Upon an estimate made in the year 1710, there were then in that kingdom fix hundred and twelve jefuits colleges, three hundred and forty refidaries, fifty-nine noviciates, two hundred miffionaries, and twenty-four profeffors houfes of that fociety, amounting in the whole to twenty thousand jefuits; and it was thought, that within the fifty years fince that time, their houfes were very much enlarged, and their number greatly encreased. We have nothing more to add to this hiftory of France, than that in January 1766, the dauphin died, and that his eldeft fon, the duke of Berry, who was born Auguft the twenty-third, 1754, was recognized in the fame quality by his moft Christian majefty.'

Next follows the hiftory of Spain, from the year 555 to March 1766, when his Catholic majefty was, in a manner,

driven out of his capital by a popular infurrection. The hiftory of Portugal, which fucceeds, begins in the year 1080, and contains but twenty-eight pages, because the great events relating to that monarchy have been already recounted in thofe of France and Spain. The friends of the houfe of Mecklenburgh will find fome entertainment in the hiftory of Denmark, which follows, and is brought down to the betrothment of the prefent king to the princefs Carolina Matilda. The hiftories of Sweden, Poland, and Ruflia clofe the work, which is accompanied by a copious index.

As to the merits of this work, it is almoft needlefs to inform the reader, that it is in general compofed from other publications, which, in like manner, owed their existence to others which preceded them. The authors, we may venture to fay, never pretended that it was defigned for the more learned readers. Their attention has evidently been to give that part of their countrymen who are engaged in purfuits foreign to that of reading, true ideas of general hiftory, fuch as are to be found in the best and most approved authors; and in this we think they have fucceeded. Their ftile is at least equal to that of any compofition of the fame kind. We have endeavoured more than once to explain their method; and we think, upon the whole, it contains all the hiftory of the world that can be interesting to a mere English reader.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE.

10. Cymon: A Dramatic Romance. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. 8vo. Pr. s. 6d. Becket.

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O judge of Shakespeare by Ariftotle's rules,' fays Mr. Pope, in the preface to his edition of our greatest poet, is like trying a man by the laws of one country, who acted under thofe of another.' The dramatic romance now under our confideration, however unequal to Shakespeare, equally eludes the Jaws of regular criticifm. Upon the face of it, we are ready to cry out, as Horace did on that of his miftrefs, Vultus nimium lubricus afpici. Its charms, however, are not the lefs on that account; and many who have feen this romantic lady-muse painted and dreft on the theatre, have been apt to cry her up for an uncommon beauty.

The fubject of this drama, we believe, is not built on the fingle hint of Dryden's fable of Cymon and Iphigenia, but is

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